The Fire Demon King growled at that Zago Lord in the void according to Lin Li’s request. What followed was the gradual dissipation of the gray clouds. The Zago Demons on the ground—the lowest-ranking Sickle Black-armored Demons, the impressive Scourged Ankylodons, and Mammoth Behemoths—were like a retreating tide. They retreated back where they came from, and vanished in the blink of an eye. What was left was the corpses that lay all over the ground. They reminded everybody that the crisis was not a dream.
Everyone felt a great sense of relief after seeing how the Zago Demons came and left like the tide. Each of them fell on the ground in extreme fatigue. Andoine and Aldwin also did not care about their image anymore. They sat on the ground and focused on recovering their mana that had been depleted. Even the Colossus Angelano controlled was sitting on the ground. Its buttocks smashed countless bodies of the Zago Demons as it sat down.
Unlike the rest, Lin Li continued to hover in the air silently. He held the crystal in his hands with his eyes closed. It was as if he was deep in thought. His demand for the Fire Demon King to establish the soul contract with him gave the Fire Demon King all of Balak’s powers. Yet, the strictest conditions had denied Fire Demon King the right to use Balak’s powers. Through the contract, Lin Li was able to gain everything Balak’s crystal contained. He not only acquired that massive mana, but also all of Balak’s memories and experience. The unlucky Fire Demon King could only act as the medium between Lin Li and Balak’s crystal.
Lin Li was not thinking of anything, but was receiving a massive influx of information. This feeling resembled the day he’d received information from the control crystal of the Sky Castle. With the experience he had from then, Lin Li was able to control the speed of the information flow. He did not feel as overwhelmed by it this time.
Lin Li read all of Tyrant Balak’s memories carefully with the Fire Demon King as the medium. He was not exactly reading, but was somehow experiencing it. It was as if he had transformed into Balak, and he was able to review Balak’s life from the day he was born till the day he died. Balak created the 99 levels of the abyss with other ancient deities, and battled the other deities as the Lord of the Abyss. He battled the ancient dragons, the Titans, the prehistoric magical beasts, and finally Osric.
Balak’s life was full of battles. He had accumulated much experience from each of his battles. That was what made him reach the peak of all the ancient deities. This rich battling experience itself was enough for Lin Li to digest for a long period of time. That was what could bridge the gap between his speedy rise in power and his lack of experience.
Lin Li opened his eyes slowly after some time. The raging emotions he felt from Balak’s memories subsided gradually. Although Lin Li seemed to be unaffected, he was extremely clear that Balak’s combat experience was enough to boost his combat prowess by a lot. As Lin Li had a vague sense of the entrance to level-24, he knew that he had taken another big step towards the Sanctuary-realm.
At this time, the men had gotten closer to the crystal coffin, especially Lin Li’s followers—they positioned themselves in an attempt to help Lin Li look out for possible danger. Xiao Hua swooped towards Lin Li when he opened his eyes. It messed Lin Li’s hair with its claws and lay on it comfortably.
“Hey, you are a dragon, not a bird!” Lin Li cried out as he retracted his finger that was bitten by Xiao Hua. He let this little fella rest on his head unfashionably while he walked towards Andoine and the rest.
Although they had only rested for a while, Andoine and Aldwin, being Legendary-mages, had recovered significantly. Unlike them, Rosen wasn’t in a good shape after the backlash of summoning the two dragons. For Macklin, although he was not really injured, he was just unable to recover from the dismay after the casualties suffered by his team of mages.
Knowing that Andoine and the other leaders were coping well, Lin Li went on to check on his men. The body of Ujfalusi’s Humerus Wyrm had been reduced to a dragon crystal. It was a blessing that Lin Li had plenty of bones. He managed to heal the wyrm very quickly. As for his own Humerus Wyrm, half of its skin and flesh had been torn, and that turned it back to its original form. Although Lin Li had potions with him, it would take the wyrm some time to regrow its flesh. Now was not the time.
Although Norfeller had lost an arm in the battle, being a Vampire gave him great ability to recover. A skinny arm had already grown from his upper body. His wounds were healing slowly as well. While the Lord of Nightmares did not have any wounds on his body, he still seemed to be rather thin and translucent. It seemed that his mana had not recovered.
Lin Li saw that his team of Shadow Assassins had been entirely wiped out. His eyes lit up when he saw that one of the remaining 12 Death Knights had entered the Legendary-realm to become a real Retribution Knight. The rest had also reached level-19, or progressed to the peak of level-19. Lin Li found out through a mental conversation with Connoris that although the flames on the ground could burn souls, the Death Knights had stolen the food from the flames. That Death Knight that had progressed to a Retribution Knight had devoured the soul fire of a Scourged Ankylodon.
Rosen became extremely wary of Lin Li who was assessing the condition of his followers. He suddenly realized that all the knowledge he tried to gather about this young mage from different sources was useless. He was still a mystery.
Rosen had not experienced such a feeling of weakness before. Lin Li always proved him wrong in the things he had great confidence in. It was as though he had zero control over things that mattered. He was impressed with Lin Li’s strength, his powerful followers, and his ability to control the Zago Demons. He was curious whether there were more secrets this young mage concealed!
Rosen even had a suspicion that Lin Li had yet to reveal all his trump cards. Despite the earlier crisis being unbelievable, it was as though nothing was impossible for Lin Li to overcome.
After assessing the injuries of everyone, Lin Li held out his palm and let Balak’s crystal hover above it. The mana absorbed by the Fire Demon King was emitted once more under Lin Li’s order. The silver crystal seemed to be wrapped in silver flames, and the vigorous waves of mana was like a shield that covered everyone.
Under the effect of the magical crystal, everybody could feel that their mana was being restored really rapidly even without the need to meditate, the Legendary powerhouses included. It would not take long before they regained their mana. What was unfortunate was their depleted mental strength, which would take them more time to recover.
While the team were recovering with Balak’s magical crystal, Lin Li lifted his head to look at the crystal coffin that was hovering in the air. “If this is the grounds Osric buried himself in, doesn’t this mean that it is the core of the mausoleum? Then where did he hide the real Eternal Furnace?” he asked Connoris curiously.
“The real Eternal Furnace? Isn’t this the real deal?” Connoris squealed in excitement[1].
When Connoris first met Lin Li, he requested that Lin Li create a body for him when he had the ability to do so. He always thought that it would take a long time, but the sight of the Eternal Furnace before him reinforced Connoris’s confidence that Lin Li would have the ability to fulfill this promise even before he stepped into the Sanctuary-realm. Having worked with Lin Li for such a long time, Connoris was confident that Lin Li would fulfill his promise. He had a good understanding of Lin Li’s personality.
“Is this the Eternal Furnace? Isn’t this Osric’s coffin? Didn’t that dude claim that he wanted to create life with the Eternal Furnace?” Lin Li asked in disbelief. Osric had used the Eternal Furnace to create Alchemical Undead, Death Knights that had the power of the divine, and spirits that were made of 100,000 souls. He had succeeded in those forbidden projects. Why would he use this Eternal Furnace to create his coffin?
“No, his real intention of building this Eternal Furnace was not to create life. At least, that was his last motive on his list. Yet, as his life was coming to an end, his decision changed. He wanted to use the furnace to create a perfect body. A body that was more perfect than a human being, a High Elf, a dragon, and a Titan!” Connoris replied excitedly because that was what he dreamt of as well. As an ancient deity, he would not want to reincarnate as a human or a High Elf.
“You have to be joking! It makes sense for him to create something more powerful than humans and High Elves. If it were something more powerful than a dragon and Titan, wouldn’t he be trying to create a divinity?” Lin Li mused. He couldn’t imagine what could satisfy Osric’s freakish ambition.
“That’s right. He wanted to create a life. Wouldn’t natural birth be an easier process? What Osric wanted was a body that could match up to the divine. He did not stop working on this seemingly crazy plan even before he passed away. When he predicted that his life would be coming to an end, he even moved the Eternal Furnace into his mausoleum. He wanted to achieve this ambition before the end of his life. I bet he has to be the only one who knew the results of this plan,” remarked Connoris reflectively. After all, this ambition was not what common man would dare to think about. Yet, Osric not only thought about it, but also executed it. Although Connoris was imprisoned by Osric for ages, he could not help but feel impressed with Osric’s intelligence.
“Could the body lying in the crystal coffin be the perfect body created by Osric? Not only did he leave a Ghost in the Sky Castle, he also left a perfect body here. If those two things were to come together, wouldn’t that let Osric be reborn? What’s more, he would have even greater power as compared to the past!” Lin Li remarked in surprise. He was shocked by Osric’s crazy plan. What mattered was the possibility for this plan to succeed.
While Lin Li was still stunned by Osric’s crazy plan, Connoris’s voice rang in his mind. “No! Not that he might resurrect. He HAD started to resurrect!!!”
Lin Li was stupefied. Something flashed in his mind. Knowing that Osric had been at the peak of the Legendary-level, it would be terrifying if he did not let his soul return to the Tree of Eternity. Despite being left with a soul, the fact that he was dangerously close to being a divine made him 100 times more powerful than a living Legendary powerhouse[2]. Controlling a body would be an insignificant effort for such a soul. He only needed a bit of soul imprint to revive the body within the Eternal Furnace.
This crystal coffin—this real Eternal Furnace—was not only an enormous treasure that could turn everyone crazy, but also a trap that could bring doom to anyone!
“I recommend that we leave this place as soon as possible!” Lin Li shouted to Andoine and the others as he gripped Balak’s magical crystal in his hands. He did not continue his conversation with Connoris.
“Leave?” Andoine asked as he looked at the coffin in the sky. Although he did not know why Lin Li suggested that, the sight of Lin Li’s anxiety ascertained him that it had to be something troublesome. He nodded his head without hesitation.
Andoine knew that Lin Li had the most trusted servant of Osric, the most loyal warrior of Osric, as well as a soul sealed in a hammer. It could be said that Lin Li had the best knowledge of the mausoleum amongst everyone. How could Andoine not trust the judgement of his student?
[1] Cool, so we have 3 of those now. The one Lin Li acquired early on and found Connoris in, the one they are in, and finally Lin Li says there’s another.
[2] Alright, so it’s unknown whether Osric had reached the Sanctuary-realm or only had some cheats that let him rival those in that realm. Or the author’s mistake.
