“Enough, you’ve already done well. I didn’t expect that I’d be away for three years. Otherwise, I would have left a few more people behind to help you man the Tower of Dusk, and things wouldn’t have turned out this way.” Lin Li waved his hand and told Gavin not to hold it against himself. Actually, Lin Li had a greater responsibility for this. He believed that if he had left a few powerhouses behind to take charge of the Tower of Dusk, or perhaps even made the Retribution Knights or the Mage Legion stay behind, no one would’ve dared to bully the Tower of Dusk that brazenly.
“Felic, what’s that thing in the sky? Did you really drive the Sky Castle back here!?” Gerian and the mages of the Eternal Furnace scurried over from behind together with Gavin.
Wilkinson, the other pharmacists, and technical elites of other fields were following behind Gerian. When they first saw Lin Li, they eagerly wanted to rush forward to greet him and pour their woes out to him. However, when they heard Gerian’s question, they immediately fell silent and looked at Lin Li eagerly, waiting to hear his exact answer.
Since he had already driven the Sky Castle back, there was nothing for Lin Li to hide anymore. Hence, he nodded, and said, “Yeah, that’s the Sky Castle that we went to explore. The others are still up there. They were the ones who launched the attack.”
Upon hearing Lin Li’s exact answer, everyone jumped for joy in excitement after staying silent for a while. A mere Eternal Furnace had already made the Tower of Dusk become an invincible place. Now, they even had a real Sky Castle. No one dared to imagine what the Sky Castle would be like in the future.
“Okay, the battle here has ended. Everyone, just follow me and go up to take a look,” Lin Li said smilingly. He then chanted an incantation softly, and a large teleportation door opened in front of them.
“Is it really possible?”
“Oh my God, it’s the legendary Sky Castle!”
“I knew it, I said that the President will be fine. Look, he has even driven the Immortal King’s Sky Castle back!”
“I wonder if those who have been spreading rumors can still sleep after receiving this news.”
“Yeah, and those forces who have terminated their business relations to us. This time, even if they kneel down in front of us, we will only give in based on our mood.”
The members of the Tower of Dusk were talking with each other excitedly while lining up and entering the Teleportation Portal.
It seemed that there were a lot of scores to settle! Lin Li stood quietly by the side, and he could basically tell from their chatter what the members of the Tower of Dusk had experienced in the past three years. Lin Li had never been a kind and soft-hearted person. He would never be stingy with his own subordinates, but he wouldn’t be gracious with his enemies. Simply put, he would pay his enemies back in their own coin.
Once all of them had passed through the door of the Teleportation Portal and stepped onto the majestic Sky Castle, Lin Li was also about to follow them, but he remembered that there was a prisoner that he had left near them. It was not that Lin Li was forgetful, but rather that he was overjoyed to see that his subordinates were alright.
Lin Li made Gerian and Gavin enter the teleportation portal before turning his head to look at the prisoner. He then reached his arm out to grab something in the void. There was a mana hand at the spot where the half-dead prisoner was, and it was reaching out and grabbing him.
However, at this moment, there was a sudden fluctuation in the space, and another mana hand reached out to grab the captive on the ground.
The two mana hands collided, and it did not seem to be a powerful magic spell. The captive it affected was simply blown to the side by an impact.
“Huh?” Lin Li said with a solemn expression. Although such means were not rare, only a Sanctuary powerhouse could cast it. Without a doubt, the person who had attacked was a powerful Sanctuary powerhouse.
At this moment, an old voice sounded from afar.
“President Felic, since your Guild of Magic did not suffer any losses, I’ll take this kid away.”
After he said that, another wave of magic emerged from the void before grabbing the prisoner.
What a joke, since when does just anyone have the right to hold my people captive! Although Lin Li knew that the other party was in the Sanctuary-realm, and was not just a beginner, it did not mean that he had to show him respect. Anyway, he could tell that the other party was definitely not one of the few Sanctuary powerhouses whom he was close to.
Hence, Lin Li didn’t hesitate at all. He pointed the Helios’ Scepter, and rays of lightning crashed down onto the hand of mana that was not far away. He then split it and made it disappear.
“President Felic, I suggest that you don’t act impulsively out of anger. You’ve already killed the others, but killing this person won’t do you any good,” said the old voice, seemingly suppressing his anger.
“Sure, you can take him away, but before you do, I want to know what force you are from,” said Lin Li who wanted to keep the prisoner behind for the sake of finding out the force behind him. Otherwise, he would have long crushed him into powder.
However, after hearing Lin Li’s words, the old voice fell silent. Clearly, he did not expect that rascal to reveal such an important piece of information.
Since you don’t want to answer, I’ll go over and ask you! Throughout this period of time, Lin Li had already roughly estimated the other party’s location using the clues that he found when the latter was exhibiting the hand of mana. Hence, when he saw the other party remaining silent, Lin Li immediately summoned the debris of the stars, Nothingness, and waved it in the air, causing a crack to form. It was about to pierce through space and strike that old man.
However, before Lin Li even entered, he heard a sudden shriek coming from the spatial rift, immediately after which the clues that he was tracking vanished. It seemed that the other party’s reaction was rather fast. When he sensed that Lin Li was going to catch him, he immediately vanished.
Lin Li could but stop and turn around to pull the captive towards him. He then strode towards the door of the Teleportation Portal that led to the Sky Castle.
Everything happened within less than 20 seconds, and thus no one in the Sky Castle noticed that Lin Li had lagged for that brief duration. However, Gavin, Gerian, and the others immediately rushed over while Lin Li was carrying the person who had passed out.
“President, who’s this?” Gavin knew that Lin Li was holding one of the enemies who had attacked the Tower of Dusk, but the latter did not stand out in the battles during this period of time. Hence, they did not know why Lin Li chose to kill all the leaders and leave this one behind.
Lin Li tossed the prisoner onto the ground, and said to Gavin and the others, “Lock this one up in the dungeon of the Sky Castle. Use whatever means it takes to interrogate him and identify the force behind him.”
“You mean Canuman isn’t the culprit behind this attack against the Tower of Dusk!?” Gavin couldn’t help but be shocked when he heard the news. He frowned a little, and said, “Lately, the peace in the Breezy Plains has been disrupted, and rumor has it that many of the local forces have been attacked by unknown forces. Initially, we thought that they were just making excuses, but it turns out that there’s really such a force.”
“Okay, the rest of you can look around. Let’s go inside to chat. I’d like to hear what exactly has happened in the Tower of Dusk and Breezy Plains in the past three years.” Lin Li sent the captive away and brought Gerian, Gavin, as well as the other senior executives of the Tower of Dusk to the Central Tower of the Sky Castle.
They settled down in the hall on the first floor, and Gavin and the others began to tell Lin Li about what had happened in the past three years, as well as the various changes in the Breezy Plains and the Tower of Dusk. Actually, Lin Li knew the first and greatest change: there was a large number of mages who suddenly improved greatly in strength because of the magic tides. There were many who had also broken through the bottlenecks that they had been stuck in for a long time.
At this juncture, Gerian squinted, and his chubby face vibrated continuously due to his laughter. He said, “Kid, did you notice? I’m now a Legendary-mage too!”
In fact, with Gerian’s magical talent, he should at most reach level-15 or level-16. He only managed to reach the peak of level-19 thanks to the power of the Sky Castle’s control crystal and the Tree of Eternity. However, the peak of level-19 could already be considered the maximum of Gerian’s potential. There was almost no possibility of further advancement. When Lin Li left, he was already stuck at the bottleneck of the peak of level-19 for a long time.
However, Gerian encountered the magic tides that occurred once in a blue moon, and this time they were on a much greater scale than before. With the power of the magic tides, the old Gerian finally broke through the bottleneck in one go, thus becoming a true Legendary-mage. Similarly, Gavin, who had always been in charge of the matters at the Tower of Dusk, had also entered the Legendary-realm. Many of the mages who had been eliminated from the Mage Legion had also reached the peak of level-19.
Although Gerian knew that there was barely any hope for him to advance further in the Legendary-realm, Gerian did not care about it at all. What he cared about was his lifespan, which had increased by 180 years at once after he reached the Legendary-realm. That was the real reason for his happiness.
“Hah, back then, Old Merlin and I have been advancing together, and we’ve always been on par with each other. However, Old Merlin probably would have never expected that I’d one day step into the Legendary-realm. So, having a longer lifespan is victory.” The layers of fat in Gerian’s face were pushed together, and he couldn’t stop grinning widely.
After praising himself for a long time, Gerian continued telling Lin Li about the current situation in the Breezy Plains, as well as the Tower of Dusk’s future development in the Breezy Plains. At this moment, Gavin seemed to be guilt-ridden. After all, no matter what, the Tower of Dusk had changed drastically since Lin Li handed the Tower of Dusk to him.
“Okay, get rid of that expression of yours. It’s no big deal. Haven’t I already told you long ago that being alive is the most important thing? As for those assets that we’ve lost, just take it that we’re letting them safeguard them for two years. We’ll take it back from them with added interest in the future,” Lin Li said, waving his hand indifferently.
Lin Li believed that as long as he spread the news about the fact that he had brought the Sky Castle back, those people would give him everything he needed without him having to do anything.
In reality, just like what Lin Li thought, the news of his return with the Sky Castle immediately spread like wildfire in the Breezy Plains after the Sky Castle flew over from the Ledin Kingdom and landed at the Tower of Dusk.
The shock that that piece of news brought everyone was far greater than when Lin Li had entered the Sanctuary-realm at a young age. After all, the Sky Castle was something that only existed in legends and myths. Exploring it once was already an impressive feat, yet Lin Li even took possession of the entire Sky Castle. It was simply a legend of the era.
Besides, that news was not difficult to verify. Those who went to Doland City would be able to see the inverted mountain peak above the Tower of Dusk, which was forming a huge shadow on the ground. Other than the Sky Castle, what else in the world could float in the sky despite having such a large volume?!
After understanding the situation of the Tower of Dusk, Lin Li, Gavin, and the other senior executives discussed their following development strategy. The main reason for the decline of the Tower of Dusk in the past three years was that there was no real powerhouse to guard the Tower of Dusk. Now that Lin Li had returned with the Sky Castle, everything was naturally settled easily.
Many forces had improved greatly due to the magic tides, and there were even many Legendary powerhouses who managed to step into the Sanctuary-realm because of it. However, they knew that there was still a great difference between them and the Tower of Dusk now. Putting aside the Sanctuary powerhouses, the Sky Castle alone was enough to make most forces fear him.
After they were done making various plans for the development of the Tower of Dusk, the mages outside had already seen most of the Sky Castle. However, Lin Li did not intend to let all of them stay in the Sky Castle. After all, the foundation of the Tower of Dusk was on the ground, and the Tower of Dusk had yet to reach the level of the Supreme Council, which could rule over the entire Anril. Hence, Gavin brought them back to clean up the battlefield at the Tower of Dusk as well as the periphery of the Magic City so that the mages could stay there and learn.
Of course, for the future task of sealing the spacetime rift, Lin Li had to arrange for someone to stay in the Sky Castle and assist in the operation. Therefore, he announced his decision that he would recruit the mages who achieved excellent grades after an examination and allow them to live in the Sky Castle, where they could learn about magic and the operation of some facilities in the Sky Castle.
