The major factions weren’t fools. Obviously, they wouldn’t allow talents to leave their own territories. Other than making more attractive offers, sealing off information and spreading false rumors were effective ways to retain talents.
Moreover, not everyone was like Lin Li, who didn’t have any friends or family in this world. Even if the local factions didn’t threaten a mage with his family members’ lives, he would certainly consider this possibility. After all, a mage was still a human. As long as he could get enough money and fame from his hometown, he wouldn’t try his luck at the Tower of Dusk.
But all this was different now. First, the Tower of Dusk had become the leader of almost the entire Breezy Plains, where all factions had submitted to it. Many of these factions had often spread false rumors in their own territories about the Tower of Dusk before, but none dared to do that now.
They did just the opposite. After the meeting, the first thing the factions did was to try to erase all the false rumors they had spread about the Tower of Dusk. Since the Tower of Dusk had a Sanctuary powerhouse, what good would it do them if news of these rumors spread to the Tower of Dusk?
Without the sealing off of information and spreading of rumors by other factions, coupled with the fact that the President of the Tower of Dusk was a rare Sanctuary powerhouse, mages across the entire Breezy Plains flocked to the Tower of Dusk. Any mage who had confidence in their magic talent came to try their luck. After all, the prospects of following a Sanctuary powerhouse were vastly different from following a Legendary powerhouse.
While there weren’t any restrictions for joining a Guild of Magic other than proving that one was a mage and taking a level-sorting test, these mages were only considered members of the guild. They didn’t have to do anything for the guild, and could even join other factions. Of course, that would mean they wouldn’t get much help from the guild, either.
On the other hand, not everyone could truly join the Tower of Dusk, as there was an extremely strict magic affinity test mages needed to pass before they become members. Even so, the number of mages in the Tower of Dusk doubled within a short span of 10-plus days. It wasn’t impossible that all the talented mages in the Breezy Plains would be monopolized by the Tower of Dusk in the future.
After briefly understanding the situation the Tower of Dusk was in, Lin Li flashed to the Eternal Furnace at the top of the Tower of Dusk without informing anyone. However, he found people in a fight just as he had reached the atrium of the Eternal Furnace.
While a fight wasn’t strange, what was strange was that the parties involved were Captain Alan and an odd-looking guy. That guy’s entire body was covered in thick armor, making him look like a heavily armed human foot soldier. Although the guy wore a horned helmet, he barely reached Alan’s chest in height, making him look like a heavily armed dwarf.
When Lin Li appeared, the two stopped fighting. The heavily armed dwarf loudly yelled, “Felic, you’re back! Come and see my new product!”
Judging from that sharp voice, Lin Li finally realized that it was Angelano inside this garish tin can.
“Is this why you’ve asked me for magical metal?” Seeing that Angelano had raised the visor of his helmet, Lin Li felt defeated by Angelano. He had asked Lin Li for lots of precious magical metal before. Lin Li thought that he was going to make something amazing, but it turned out to be this armor!
Angelano proudly replied, “Don’t belittle my creation! I’ve experimented many times. Even the full blow of a Legendary powerhouse won’t be able to break the armor’s defense!”
“I don’t oppose your making armor, but can you have a little standard for beauty?” Lin Li rubbed his forehead, and couldn’t bear to look at it any longer. Other armor was black, silver, or even gold, but Angelano’s was filled with all the colors of the rainbow and more…
The horned helmet was green, the horns white, the visor red, the breastplate yellow with purple, the pauldrons blue, the arm armors yellow… Heaven knew how Angelano managed to mix all these colors! If not for how perfectly the pieces fitted one another, Lin Li would have speculated if the armor was made taking bits and pieces from different suits of armor, hence varying in color.
Angelano waved his hands, confused, and remarked, “What’s wrong? This armor contains all the colors in the world. It’s the most elegant and beautiful one that ever existed!”
Now, Lin Li finally understood why the High Elves had exterminated the entire goblin population. Lin Li didn’t want to waste more time on the color of the armor, and continued, “Don’t you have an Alchemy Colossus? Why are you wearing armor?”
Lin Li wasn’t worried that Angelano would be crushed by the armor’s weight. From the fight with Alan just now, Lin Li could see that the interior of the armor made use of the same magic waves as the Alchemy Colossus. It could even be called an Alchemy Colossus armor.
“No, I need time to summon the Alchemy Colossus. It’s too dangerous being with you, lad. I can’t put my own safety in the hands of other people. Don’t belittle this armor. Even if I fight with a Sanctuary powerhouse, this armor will buy me time to enter the Alchemy Colossus.” Angelano was evidently scared by what happened in Brahere’s mausoleum.
“Can’t you change its color?” Lin Li tried to convince Angelano to forsake his perception that combining all colors was beauty.
However, Angelano shook his head firmly, and replied, “Why? Isn’t this beautiful? You have the same artistic taste as that Osric. I’m utterly disappointed!”
Evidently, Angelano had contemplated painting his Alchemy Colossus just like this armor, but that butcher Osric wasn’t as easy-going as Lin Li.
“…Okay, anything you like.” Lin Li waved his hands helplessly, but decided in his heart that he would reduce the instances he brought this lad out to a minimum. It was just too embarrassing!
Seeing that Lin Li agreed, Angelano was extremely excited. He dropped down his visor, and ran back to Alan to test the armor’s functionality. Since Lin Li was a Sanctuary powerhouse, Angelano didn’t dare to oppose him. He couldn’t believe that his little insistence had made Lin Li agree to his choice.
Seeing Angelano’s reaction, Lin Li immediately realized that the wretched goblin would’ve immediately changed the color of that disgusting armor if he had just glared at him. However, he had already agreed, and it wasn’t nice to go back on his word. He could only try to avoid seeing it now.
Upon leaving the Eternal Furnace, Lin Li summoned all the higher-ups of the Tower of Dusk, and soon understood the Tower of Dusk’s recent developments. To put it simply, their business was getting bigger and more talents were coming in.
Potions and forging were the two pillars of the Tower of Dusk’s industries. Now, their scale of production had expanded considerably. This expansion was brought about by the increase in demand after the other factions stopped obstructing them, making their business easier than before. A huge influx of cash had become the driving force for the Tower of Dusk reaching new heights.
In the aspect of talent, Lin Li had seen an increase of 200-300 elite-level mages. These mages could form a mage legion after a certain amount of training.
However, it had also brought problems. Out of these mages, there were some who were affiliated with certain factions, such as heirs of mage families and direct disciples of the leaders of other factions. Gavin couldn’t make a decision as to what arrangements to make for these people. It didn’t seem suitable to keep them out, but also not safe to accept them.
Lin Li didn’t find it a problem, though. He resolved the problem by telling them to treat everyone equally. Given the fact that Lin Li was already in the Sanctuary-realm now, did he need to worry about trickery? After all, he wasn’t boasting that anyone below the Sanctuary-realm was now like an ant to him. No one dared to offend a Sanctuary powerhouse, as that meant death. As for other Sanctuary powerhouses, they were too noble to do something like that.
Lin Li didn’t need to deal with the management of the Tower of Dusk personally now. He only needed to lay out the direction for Gavin and his team. After all, Lin Li didn’t have time to waste on doing these trivial but complex things.
The date Geresco had calculated was nearing. Although Tutankhamun had mentioned that one could seal spacetime rifts upon reaching the Sanctuary-realm, Lin Li didn’t believe that it would be as simple as chanting a curse after experiencing the Eternal Darkness Altar’s great rift.
Darkness High Priest Rogge had mentioned before that every great rift contained extremely powerful creatures. These creatures were waiting for the rift to completely open so that they could rush into Anril. How could they just sit and watch someone seal it? Moreover, Lin Li remembered that Rogge had mentioned that out of all the rifts Geresco had calculated, there was one that even Rogge feared.
Although Rogge suffered badly in the hands (paws) of Flame Dragon Lothar, he was still much stronger than Lin Li, who had just reached the Sanctuary-realm. For something that even Rogge feared, Lin Li didn’t think that he had the ability to provoke it with his current power, even with the seven pieces of the debris of the stars.
It was a necessity for Lin Li to obtain the Stars of Fury before sealing the spacetime rifts. However, Lin Li wouldn’t feel safe with just the Stars of Fury. After all, he couldn’t compare to the Immortal King. Even with the Stars of Fury and the seven pieces of the debris of the stars, it would still be impossible for him to slaughter an existence like the Dragon of Destruction.
Although Lin Li had experienced many soul-stirring moments after coming to Anril, he still feared death. Thus, Lin Li hoped to get as much assistance as possible to lower down the risk level of sealing the spacetime rifts before actually doing that.
After seeing the Sky Castle’s Sky Garden, Lin Li thought of the other Sky Castle that he possessed the control crystal of and could summon anytime. However, he didn’t forget the fact that a powerful Ghost of Highlord Osric remained in that Sky Castle.
When Lin Li had finished exploring the Sky Castle, that Ghost was at the peak of Legendary-level. After such a long time, coupled with the help of the Psychic Array, Lin Li was certain that it would have reached Sanctuary-realm by now. Moreover, that Ghost was not just any Ghost. Osric’s soul was likely to have fused into it.
That would be terrifying. As a powerhouse at the peak of Sanctuary-realm, Osric’s soul combined with a Ghost could probably reach the peak of Sanctuary-realm too. After all, it was Osric’s plan to fuse that Ghost with the perfect body in his mausoleum after it had matured. That would be the last breakthrough to becoming truly immortal. If the Ghost and the perfect body couldn’t reach the peak of Sanctuary-realm, how could they fuse in that final critical step?
Thus, Lin Li wouldn’t dare to summon the Sky Castle to Anril before dealing with that Ghost. Doing that would bring to Anril a catastrophe even worse than the Retribution Knight Rodhart.
“Looks like we need to go to the Sky Castle, after all.”
Lin Li believed that fully controlling that Sky Castle would be extremely beneficial, or even critical, to him when sealing the spacetime rifts.
After all, the Seventh Sky Castle was the strongest Sky Castle out of all the High Elves had built. The Conquering Mageweaths allowed its residents to possess terrifying power similar to the gods’ power. That was something the Ice and Fire Domain in the Eternal Furnace couldn’t compare to.
Moreover, that was something he had to do sooner or later. Once the Ghost had reached the peak of the Sanctuary-realm, it was highly likely that the Ghost would try to come to Anril even without Lin Li summoning the Sky Castle. If not, how could it fuse with the perfect body? Now that the Ghost still hadn’t left the Sky Castle, it was either because it wanted to gain control of the Sky Castle, or because it hadn’t reached its maximum potential.
