Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
“Fire element, water element, earth element…” The fox elder said as he delved into the mysteries of the Seven-colored Light. He looked shocked. He had never expected that the Seven-colored Light would contain five different Magical Energies.
On the Tailun Continent, many of the races had thought that the Beastmen were the product of Orcs and humans living together, but the Beastmen had never acknowledged that claim.
Over the millennia, they had always insisted that the history of the Beastmen was as long as the Orc’s and the human’s, or even longer, with the proof being the records left behind through the generations. Some of the stories in the records even reached back to the era where the gods battled the demons, which was even longer than some of the records of the Orcs and humans.
In the legends of the Beastmen, the ancient times were a wild world, and the Tailun Continent had been a dozen times bigger than it was now. Back then, they had a massive empire and expansive land, while the humans and Orcs were merely undeveloped races. But everything changed after the Great Battle of the Gods and Demons.
The land started to split and sink, forming countless islands. Only a small fraction of the Tailun Continent’s land remained, and the Beastmen Empire had also sunk to the bottom of the sea.
With the appearance of the Church, the humans suddenly had a few Sage level experts. They led the human army and defeated the few Beastmen elites that were lucky enough to survive. From then on, the Beastmen led vagrant lives or were forced to work as slaves.
But despite all the blows the Beastmen had suffered, many of the tribes carried with them the historical annals and lived a hidden life within the forest. Amongst those tribes was the tribe of the fox elder.
Despite only being at the level of a high level Great Spellcaster, the fox elder was rather familiar with various ancient spell formations because of the records in his tribe. After closely sensing the magical ripples from within the Seven-colored Light and stone steles, he was more confident of his hypothesis. These were definitely two ancient spell formations.
“Sir, I have already sent men to contact the nearby Beastmen tribes like the Bullmen and the Medusas. Why don’t we try to find a way to dispel these two ancient spell formations after everyone is here?”
Unable to find a way to dispel the formations, the fox elder had decided to wait a few days. Perhaps the other tribes might have better ways of breaking the formation when they arrived. Furthermore, no one knew what would happen after the spell formation was dispelled. It would be safer if they waited for the strong Bullmen and the powerful Medusas to arrive.
“That’s fine. It will be safer with more people!”
Dealing with the unknown monster in the cave would be easier with more manpower. Yang Ling did not mind waiting two more days. Furthermore, he was unable to understand the secrets of the stone steles and the Seven-colored Light in such a short span of time. He could do more in-depth research over these two days.
Despite circling the stone forest a few times, he still couldn’t detect any secrets. He could not find a similar Wizard Formation on the stele in the Wizard’s Pagoda no matter how hard he tried.
The patterns on the stone plates were complicated and mysterious. On one hand, they looked like unique Wizard Amulets, but on the other, they seemed like throbbing tadpoles. There were a total of forty-seven stone plates of varying sizes, but none of the stone plates had the same patterns.
Could he be imagining things? Was this not a Wizard Formation, but some sort of ancient spell formation?
A day later, Yang Ling still hadn’t found any secrets surrounding the stone plates. There were no anomalies in the cave, which made Yang Ling heave a sigh of relief, but he felt a little discouraged at the same time. After a full meal, he decided to lie down and rest on the stone plates like the rest of the Beastmen.
As the night got darker, stars dotted the sky, their light incandescent. Looking at the blinking stars, he could not help but think about the happy times when he brought out a bamboo chair, sat on his porch, and counted stars when he was young. Unfortunately, he was unable to find the familiar Big Dipper, despite searching for a long time. At this moment, he felt deeply how foreign this world was.
The Great Battle of the Gods and Demons, the Church, Ancient Wizards…
Touching the pagoda-shaped mark between his brows, Yang Ling started imagining things. He had a feeling that the mysterious Wizard’s Pagoda had a secret connection with the so-called Ancient Wizard of this world.
If he could understand the secrets behind the Great Battle of the Gods and Demons and the sudden appearance of the Church a few thousand years ago, and find the reason behind the sudden disappearance of the Ancient Wizard as well as the Ancient Summoners and Tree Shepherds, he might be able to find a way back to Earth!
Great Swordsman, Sword Saint, Sage level… What kind of level would one reach when they cultivated their abilities to Sage level?
In this world where the strong preyed on the weak, abilities meant everything. Even a Heaven-ranked Assassin could easily kill him; Yang Ling did not dare imagine how terrifying a Sage level assassin would be. It was rumored that they were beings that could even kill level nine Magical Beasts in an instant!
His imagination running wild, Yang Ling laid quietly on the ground. Suddenly, he noticed that the stone plate beside him was releasing a faint ray of silver light. Standing up in his curiosity, he saw that some patterns on the stone plate had turned dull, some bright, and some were even slowly moving, as if swimming tadpoles.
Turning around, he noticed that all of the stone plates were glowing. The light was weak, almost imperceptible. The patrolling Beastmen did not notice anything strange. If not for his keen senses and greatly enhanced vision, he might not have been able to discover the phenomenon either.
After close observation, Yang Ling noticed that the shimmering of the stone plate shared a frequency with the twinkling of the stars, as if they were absorbing the silver glow released by the stars.
Having toiled the entire day, the Beastmen slowly fell asleep. The ground was cold and snow-covered, but they did not mind it, each slumbering deeper than the last. They lived up to their reputation as the hardy Beastmen!
Slowly, the number of patrolling Beastmen decreased, and the time between each shift increased. No one noticed Yang Ling walking around the stone forest. No one noticed the stone plates becoming brighter, releasing streaks of silver light within the darkness.
Flowing patterns, moving tadpoles…
After some observation, Yang Ling had a thought. He felt that the patterns on the stone plate were slowly assembling themselves into mysterious Wizard Amulets. When they connected, they seemed to have formed a unique Wizard Mantra.
In his curiosity, he immediately sat down cross-legged, closely observing the transformation of the patterns on the stone steles. He emulated the moving tadpoles and formed mysterious hand gestures, his movements getting faster and faster, more and more complicated. If a Beastman woke up now, he would notice that Yang Ling was radiating a faint silver glow, as if he was absorbing the vast starlight together with the stone steles.
Feeling the boundless starlight enter his body, and the massive increase in the Wizard Power in his body, Yang Ling was elated. He had finally unintentionally discovered the secret of the stone forest. If he was right, this was a massive Wizard Formation, a complicated, mysterious, giant Spirit Gathering Spell Formation.
Forty-nine stone steles hiding forty-nine different Wizard Mantras to form a complete Spirit Gathering Spell Formation. Four hours later, Yang Ling had finally managed to memorize all forty-nine of the complicated, mysterious Wizard Mantras.
The mysterious Wizard Mantra had a total of nine hundred and eighty hand gestures from start to end, each hand gesture having eighty-one different transformations. If not for having cultivated his abilities to the later stages of Spirit Wizard, he might not have been able to completely memorize them all even if he had two days.
Absorbing the energy of the sky full of stars, endless… In the future, Yang Ling was going to call the Wizard Mantra he learned from the stone plates the Starlight Wizard Mantra!
Yang Ling gave a satisfied nod after absorbing a massive amount of energy from the starlight. He could feel his Wizard Power pulsing. At this moment, he finally confirmed that there had been a group of powerful Wizards who had lived on this foreign continent in ancient times. As long as he could discover their secrets, he could perhaps understand the reason that he had arrived in this strange world and find a way back to Earth.
The Magical Beast Essence Crystals also released a Seven-colored Light when he had set up a formation in Wissen Castle. Could there be several Essence Crystals of high level Magical Beasts buried near the cave that formed another Spirit Gathering Spell Formation when the Spirit Gathering Spell Formation at the stone forest was activated, thereby creating the persistent Seven-colored Light?
He got a shock when he saw it!
When Yang Ling explored the Seven-colored Light at the cave’s entrance by projecting his mental energy outward, Yang Ling did not find any Magical Beast Essence Crystals. Instead, he found countless crystals under the ground. There were red Dark Fire Crystals, white Chilly Ice Crystals, blue Agates… The various crystals were all piled tightly together, an innumerable amount!
Could there be a massive natural Seven-colored Mine under the ground?
After his shock, Yang Ling became incredibly excited. There was a great deal of information surrounding every aspect of cultivating Wizard Techniques on the stele, and quite a few of them were explanations of various crystal mines and crystals.
Under normal circumstances, a natural vein of crystal could not possess crystals of opposing elements at the same time. For example, if there was a vein of Dark Fire Crystals, it was impossible for there to be Chilly Ice Crystals of a counteracting element. But the Seven-colored Mine was an exception. It had a naturally occurring chaotic energy and could nurture crystals of conflicting elements.
If he had a large number of crystals, he could not only accelerate the speed of his cultivation, he could also set up Wizard Formations such as the Spirit Gathering Spell Formation or Maze Formation and strengthen the defenses of Wissen Town. After taking a few deep breaths, Yang Ling started deliberating his future plans.
There were many races of Beastmen, from Foxmen who produced many Spellcasters, Bullmen who were hailed as the most powerful infantry units in the continent, and even the “Rulers of Blades,” the Medusas. Under the combined blows of the humans and Orcs, the Beastmen scattered like the sand, unable to unite to form a massive force.
After receiving a large amount of sulfur to nurture their powerful Black Pulp Melons, it might be possible for the Beastmen to set up a giant Beastmen Empire. If they obtained a large amount of premium crystals on top of that, they would receive an even greater boost of power, which was not a good thing for Wissen Town. No matter what, Yang Ling did not wish for an uncontrollable force to appear near his territory.
According to what the fox elder had said, there would be a large number of Beastmen warriors and Spellcasters who would arrive tomorrow. The best way to cover up the Seven-colored Mine was to divert their attention. He was going to dispel the Seven-colored Light at the entrance and get them to deal with the monster within the cave.
The monster within the cave was no laughing matter. Even with they were to obtain victory, the Beastmen might have to pay a painful price. It would be even better if he could establish a firm control over the Beastmen in the Ladak Mountain Range by absorbing them into his camp after they suffered heavy casualties!
Looking at the sky, Yang Ling knew that he only had a few hours left until daybreak. Without wasting time, he made his decision, then immediately woke up the Twin-headed Ogre Braska and his men. He summoned the Withered Tree Warriors and the Unicorn, then sat cross-legged under their protection.
Without a large amount of Wizard Power as an activation, the mine under the ground would be unable to release visible Seven-colored Light when obstructed by a thick layer of soil, no matter how large the mine was. If he absorbed the Wizard Power released by the Wizard Formation in the stone forest and severed the energy being transferred into the underground mine, he might be able to indirectly block the Seven-colored Light at the entrance of the cave.