Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
In his confusion, Yang Ling closely examined the changes within the Magic Hunting Card, unwilling to miss any suspicious spots. He soon noticed a few suspicious areas.
An ordinary Magic Hunting Card had its alternative space used to seal Magical Beasts created by gathering and compressing a large amount of energy using the Imprisonment Restriction into the crystal ore, causing the energy to explode within the crystal ore. The Imprisonment Restriction remained intact within the crystal ore even after the card was created, and thus one would have to expend quite an amount of Wizard Power or Magical Energy everytime the Magic Hunting Cards were used.
However, the second iteration of Magic Hunting Cards with the gnomes’ magical spell formation were different! The magical spell formation on the crystal ore supplied the card with energy. All the user had to expend was a little mental energy everytime he used the card.
However, even though there was a great improvement to the practicality of the card, the magical spell formation sketched on the card by the gnomes had a considerable effect on the restriction within the crystal ore. The radius of the imprisonment space had more than doubled and could now hold even larger Magical Beasts, but the entire imprisonment space would release a ripple of energy of varying intensities. Compared to the original card, the stability of this space was much lower.
Could the instability of the imprisonment space within the Magic Hunting Card have caused the transformation to happen after the card came into contact with fresh blood?
Looking at the Magic Hunting Card and the traces of blood on it, sensing the ripples of energy that had varying intensities, Yang Ling patiently examined the transformation within the imprisonment space.
Soon, he noticed that there was a strange pulse of mental energy within the space, almost identical to the ripples released by the restriction. The pulse was revolving outside the restriction, but was unable to spread outward due to the attraction of the restriction. After sensing it for a moment, Yang Ling felt that the ripple was nearly identical to the ripples of mental energy coming from the brain of the hunter Kermtin.
Could it be that the stability of the imprisonment space had been affected by the gnomes’ magical spell formation and underwent a transformation after coming into contact with fresh blood, forcefully absorbing a large amount of hunter Kermtin’s mental energy. That caused the hunter Kermtin to enter a delirious state and made the others unable to use this transformed card?
Yang Ling became more confident of his deduction after carefully sending his mental energy into hunter Kermtin’s brain and closely comparing his ripples of mental energy and the ripples of energy within the Magic Hunting Card.
Yang Ling was the only one who could solve this problem!
Even the Genius Alchemist Aaron would not know where to start, given the unique structure of the Magic Hunting Card. He could not understand the reason behind Kermtin losing his mind. But Yang Ling was different. As the creator of the Magic Hunting Cards, he soon noticed an abnormality. The only problem lies in how he could safely release Kermtin’s trapped mental energy.
If he retracted the restriction inside the crystal ore, the alternative space used to seal Magical Beasts would collapse. Even though that would release Kermtin’s trapped mental energy, any misstep might inflict Kermtin with permanent harm. That would create a negative image of the Magic Hunting Cards in the hearts of the hunters, and no one might dare use them in the future even if Yang Ling were to give them out for free.
Since that is the case, Yang Ling could only try to modify the restriction within the crystal ore and release Kermtin’s mental energy bit by bit. Of course, it would be even better if he could release Kermtin’s mental energy and allow him to recover, but still keep a little of his mental energy within the card. Yang Ling could then try to fuse Kermtin’s mental energy with the restriction, making this Magic Hunting Card something only Kermtin could use.
After a moment’s deliberation, Yang Ling understood that Kermtin’s accident was both a crisis and an opportunity!
If he could sufficiently understand the reason for the transformation of the card, the problem of the Magic Hunting Card being unable to recognize its master would be naturally solved. Taking this a step further, Yang Ling might be able to use a similar method to solve the difficult problem of his lack of absolute control over the Man-eating Vines and puppets.
Out of caution, Yang Ling once again entered the space of the Wizard’s Pagoda, closely examining the explanation the second level of the Wizard’s Pagoda had on restrictions.
There was a variety of restrictions recorded on the stele. There were restrictions that could retrieve items out of thin air, restrictions that could imprison space, restrictions that absorb spiritual energy from the environment… Every restriction also had a different effect depending on how the hand gestures were made.
For example, a slight difference in the hand gesture of the Space Restriction would create the Gravity Restriction, able to cause someone to feel a huge weight on their shoulders, limiting their mobility; A further change would give rise to the Immobilizing Technique, able to instantly render someone immobile, as if they were in a vegetative state; In fact, he could even instantly extract all of the energy in an area, causing his enemy to lose his normal abilities…
Even though there were many transformations that could be done to restrictions, the explanation on the stele told him that the greater the number of transformations done, the more Wizard Power and mental energy he had to expend. If he forcefully used it without abilities that are powerful enough, it was very possible that he would instead be devoured by the restriction.
He could experiment with this slowly if this was an ordinary day. But at this moment, faced with the many anxious hunters, Yang Ling knew that there was no time for him to mull over this. He had to find a way to appropriately deal with this problem as soon as possible.
The second level of the pagoda mainly recorded the various restrictions, then what are the contents on the third level?
After a moment’s deliberation, looking at the narrow pathway leading to the third level of the pagoda, Yang Ling walked forward quickly. He had not had the time to closely examine the changes of the pagoda when he advanced to the level of Divine Wizard.
Similar to the first and second level, the third level of the Wizard’s Pagoda also had a mysterious stele, on it a mess of words and pictures.
The method for creating a Soul Tampering Tower…
Overlapping multiple restrictions…
…
Yang Ling became more and more excited as he read the contents of the stele. As it turned out, the stele did not record any new Wizard Mantras, instead, it depicted the secrets to creating the various Wizard Treasures. Other than the Soul Tampering Tower, there were also the methods used to create items like the Invisible Cloak and Ice-sealing Armor. The most-utilized technique in these methods was the overlapping of multiple restrictions.
As its name suggests, multiple restrictions referred to the casting of various restrictions using a massive amount of mental energy and Wizard Power, overlapping them one after the other. Before casting a large-scale Retrieval Restriction, he could first set up a Space Imprisonment Restriction so as to prevent anyone from disturbing him; Before setting up a Space Imprisonment Restriction, he could first set up the Spirit Gathering Restriction that was similar to the Spirit Gathering Spell Formation to rapidly replenish the Wizard Power and mental energy he expended, so on and so forth!
Oh, fuse the consciousness or mental energy of the caster by overlapping the Illusory Restriction within the imprisonment space?
Reading on, Yang Ling’s attention soon got attracted to a small technique used to create the Soul Tampering Tower.
According to the explanation on the stele, the Soul Tampering Tower is a Wizard Treasure with an immense amount of power, able to double the effects of the Soul Tampering Technique. He could imprison the soul of his enemy within the Soul Tampering Tower and could use the massive amount of energy in the surroundings to tamper with the powerful soul of his enemy through the Soul Tampering Tower.
The crux of creating a Soul Tampering Tower was to create a unique space within a jade tower, and that involved a substantial amount of restrictions. Amongst the restrictions, one technique called for the creator to fuse his consciousness or mental energy into the imprisonment space so as to establish a firm control over the Soul Tampering Tower, in case any accidents occurred if he were to face off against an enemy with a powerful mental energy.
Similar to the Soul Tampering Tower, the Magic Hunting Card was formed by creating a space within a crystal ore. The only difference lies in the size of the space and the materials used. After looking over it repeatedly, Yang Ling knew that he had unintentionally found a way to solve the problem. He quickly exited the space of the Wizard’s Pagoda after ascertaining that he had memorized all of the content.
“Sir, there’s hope for Kermtin?” Looking at the smile on Yang Ling’s face, the anxious Viola saw hope.
“No problem, he might even give you a surprise when he wakes up!”
Looking at the hunter Kermtin tied securely onto a rack, looking at the anxious hunters around him, Yang Ling let out a confident smile. He took a deep breath and started silently reciting a Wizard Mantra, slowly showing hand gesture after hand gesture. Soon, the Magic Hunting Card before him started slowly floating in the air.
“Oh, is that a wind element magic spell?”
“No, that should be a rare mental spell, I can sense a massive ripple of mental energy!”
…
Looking at the Magic Hunting Card eerily floating in the air, sensing the surge in mental Magical Elements pulsing in the air, the group took a few steps back in unison, engaging in discussion.
His mind empty, Yang Ling could not hear the discussions of the crowd. His hand gestures changed continuously, fusing a shred of his consciousness with the Imprisonment Restriction within the crystal ore, carefully overlapping another layer of an Illusory Restriction.
After the hunter Kermtin had unintentionally dropped a drop of his blood onto the Magic Hunting Card, the imprisonment space within the crystal ore had undergone a strange transformation. What Yang Ling was doing now was to set up an upper limit to how much of its master’s mental energy the Magic Hunting Card could absorb by layering an Illusory Restriction and release a large portion of Kermtin’s trapped mental energy, all while keeping the card’s ability to recognize its master.
This way, now only would he be able to save the delirious Kermtin, he would also be able to preserve the characteristics of the Magic Hunting Card being able to recognize its master. Other than Yang Ling himself, there might not be anyone in the Tailun Continent that could summon the Magical Beast from within his card.
Once, twice…
Yang Ling was cautious, changing his hand gestures as he adjusted the amount of mental energy and Wizard Power he was injecting into the card. Slowly, obscure symbols started appearing on the surface of the card. The symbols started revolving around the card, their speed getting increasingly faster as they released a ring of faint silver light. At the same time, Kermtin’s breathing slowly steadied as he no longer struggled maniacally.
Having personally witnessed the changes happening to the card and hunter Kermtin, the group was at awe at Yang Ling’s unfathomable abilities. This was especially so for Master Aaron who had no choice but to stay because of the magical contract. His heart shook, and he could not help but feel awe.
Despite having roamed the Tailun Continent for this many years, this was the first time he was witnessing such a technique. It was much more brilliant than anything he could have done. Looking at Yang Ling deep in concentration, he felt as though a mysterious door to more advanced alchemy was silently opening for him.
Ding…
Just as the crowd was looking at the scene, unblinking, a crisp ring rang out before the rapidly rotating Magic Hunting Card slowly fell onto Yang Ling’s palm. At the same time, Kermtin slowly opened his eyes and looked at the crowd around him, confused. His eyes were clear, and he no longer showed any signs of becoming berserk.
