The Entrance
After which, Leylin and the rest met several waves of miasma and hordes of poisonous insects.
Under the aid of the potions Leylin provided, the party got through these danger zones with ease.
After Leylin displayed a few methods of using the potions to dispel the poisonous insects and miasma, Jayden and the rest were convinced of Leylin’s talent.
Even Bosain from the Lilytell family would occasionally cast surprised glances at Leylin.
Obviously, he had heard of Leylin’s talent in Potioneering before, but Leylin’s talent had exceeded his expectations.
The party trekked over land and water, finally arriving at the overhanging cliff depicted on the map two days later.
“So beautiful!”
Shaya gasped. Even Leylin and the others showed signs of indulgence.
On the edge of the cliff, there were bright yellow flowers growing on the levelled ground. In the heart of the flower, it was bright red. When it bloomed it had the size of two regular humans’ fists put together.
The whole mountaintop was filled with this strange flower, and a heavy aroma permeated the area.
“Leylin, what is it?” Jayden asked.
The Zither Moon Mountain Plains was riddled with dangers, and various strange plants had appeared. More often than not, the more beautiful a plant was the more dangerous it was. Especially when it was close to their destination!
As the Potioneering acolyte, Leylin already dealt with 3 similar flowers traps.
“No problem!” Leylin picked up a stalk of the flower.
“A.I. Chip, compare to database!”
[Beep! Mission establishing, scanning outer appearance and scent. Comparison in progress...]
[Result is found in the database. Determined as a Beta Daisy!] The A.I. Chip’s voice loyally intoned.
“Beta Daisy?” Leylin’s brow’s furrowed. “This is a common plant in the south coast. Normally they are grown on plains. It represents nostalgia and respect...”
“This flower does indeed seem like the Beta Daisy. There should be someone who planted this here on purpose!” Bosain also gave a definite reply.
“Is it the magician who left behind the inheritance?” Roth who stood behind spoke, his voice gruff.
“It’s possible, but I can't confirm it!”
Jayden opened the damaged map, “From the map, the remnants should be located at the bottom of this cliff!”
Leylin nodded his head, back when he scanned the map, the name ‘Dylan Gardens’ appeared beneath the cliff. Moreover, there was mentioned a huge area of Beta Daisy located on the cliff above it, so there was an 80-90 percent chance that it was correct.
“What are we waiting for?” The excitement was seen on Shaya’s face.
To acolytes, if there were able to find remnants of an official Magus and obtain the inheritance, it was often the start of another legend.
The five of them began to pant raggedly, even Bosain was not excluded.
The cliff was extremely high, and there were granite rocks on the razor sharp steep walls. For a regular human, climbing to the bottom was an impossible task.
However, for these five level 3 acolytes, this itsy-bitsy challenge could not stop them at all.
Roth immediately transformed into the tentacle handed creature and climbed. As for Leylin and the others, they added a Floating Feather spell. This spell allowed them to lighten their weight and they floated right to the bottom.
* Bang! *
The Floating Feather spell was removed and Leylin’s feet touched the ground.
“This is… ” Leylin was rather taken aback as he sized up the surroundings. It was littered with stones in the form of double edged blades.
The countless stone swords were placed together, covering at least half of the bottom area of the cliff.
On the sharp blades, there were countless corpses. Leylin even discovered some corpses which looked like humans.
“It seems that these were living creatures which fell from the cliff!” Leylin sighed and suddenly realised that something was amiss, “How could there be regular humans here. Could it be some acolytes who had obtained leads previously?”
“Be careful, the floor is littered with blades!” Upon seeing Jayden and the others landing, Leylin hurriedly warned.
“Damn it!” Jayden’s face darkened. His arm had grazed over one of the sharp blades when leading, revealing an abrasion that was at least 12cm long.
“These pointed edges have been made razor-sharp to last for eternity. In addition, there also some magic spells imbued in them! If this were not so, it would not have been possible to breakthrough my defense and cause a scratch on my skin!”
“Indeed!” Leylin touched the grey-white blade and felt the faint energy waves pulsing from it.
“Only an official Magus could perform the spell on such a scale, adding the effect on all these rocks in this area!”
“So then, where is the remnant?”
* Sou Sou! * Countless grey-white tentacles extended to the bottom of the cliff, bringing Roth with it.
“I have used my spell to detect earlier, there are only rocks and mud below here, no traces of remnants whatsoever….” Bosain held onto a green eyeball and spoke rather dejectedly.
“Let us search the area and see if there are any clues. 6 hours later, we’ll gather at the top of the cliff again!” Impatience surfaced on Jayden’s face as he spoke.
This exploration was suggested by him, so the worst disappointment is ending with no results.
Moreover, with some clues but not being able to discover the entrance still, this impatience, together with the fear of being hunted down by an official Magus had tortured this little boy. From what Leylin saw, Jayden was on the verge of a mental breakdown.
“Freedom to seek?” After hearing Jayden’s suggestion, the other 4 quietened down and nodded their heads in agreement.
To them, after arriving at the destination, Jayden was of little use to them. Moreover, being able to find the remnant and obtain the loot before the other party members were definitely much better than discovering it together. More benefits could be obtained that way.
The five of them had confidence in their own methods. Hence, no one suggested forming a team of sorts.
The few of them chose to walk downwards and left the area where they landed on.
“A.I. Chip, scan the geographical outlay and project a map from it!” Leylin commanded the A.I. Chip after walking for a moment before stopping.
[Mission establishing, scanning the geography of the region...]
The A.I. Chip loyally carried out Leylin’s orders. Very soon, a pale blue 3-D image was projected in front of Leylin’s eyes.
On this map which could only be seen by him, it clearly depicted the terrain of the location nearby. It was so detailed that even a blade of grass was not left out.
According to the A.I. Chip’s detection, under the cliff, there were layers of granite. Here were no signs of magician activities.
Moreover, in the surroundings, there weren't any situation of experiment labs that was detected.
“There isn't any?” Leylin’s brow’s furrowed.
“Perhaps, the other party had laid out such a strong concealment that even the A.I. Chip was unable to detect!”
Leylin pondered as he looked at the surroundings again with his physical eye.
6 hours later, the sky gradually turned dark. There were a few tents pitched on the top of the cliff. In front of the tent, there was a bonfire, where a wild vegetable soup aroma rose from the boiling pot.
It was rather unfortunate, however, that the five surrounding the bonfire did not have any appetite.
“Everyone has returned, speak of your findings!” Jayden looked at the circle and spoke first.
“There isn't any! Apart from those darned inverted rock blades, there isn't anything else....” Roth then spoke, “I say, could it be that you are leading us on the wrong path?”
“What did you say?” Jayden stood up abruptly, the badge pinned on his chest emitting a green glow.
“Alright! Do we want to cause internal strife even before finding the treasure?” Bosain emitted a huge energy wave, directly between Jayden and Roth.
“I believe Jayden, if not he could have come here on his own!” Leylin added.
Why he said that was because he also held a copy of the Sage Gotham Hut party’s map. He knew that Jayden had been leading them right to the destination.
After hearing Leylin and Bosain mediating, Jayden and Roth glared at each other and sat back down.
“I have even searched the bottom level and it was all solid ground. There isn't any underground construction or anything of that sort!” Shaya smiled wryly.
“An official Magus’ remnant could not be found that easily in the first place. If not it would have long since been looted!”
Leylin added and immediately asked Jayden, “Do you have any other clues?”
After hearing Leylin’s words, the other 3 diverted their glances at Jayden.
Jayden kept his silence for a while before speaking, “The clue that I obtained was the map to come here. On the map, there were several ancient verses, it seemed to be a poem of sorts…”
“Let me see it!” Leylin and Bosain spoke together in unison.
“I’ll show it to all of you then!” Jayden smiled and opened the map in his hands.
Leylin scrutinised the map on Jayden. There was no difference with the A.I. Chip’s copy at all, even the route was the same, leading to this cliff.
However, Jayden’s copy of the map was much older. On the upper right corner, there were several blurry characters. The words were writhing like a snake.
“This is Curagerian language, I have seen it before on a manual. It seemed to speak of ‘carry...and people with respect, will be able to...garden….” Bosain eyes flashed as he tried his best to translate it.
“Only those who carry courage and respect will be able to see the Dylan Gardens!” Leylin translated the Curagerian language immediately, “There is only this one line on the map!”
Bosain was clearly startled, “Such an obscure knowledge...you actually…”
“It’s because I like to hang around in the library!” Leylin smiled.
“The remnant’s name seemed to be Dylan Gardens. However, for courage and respect, what does it mean?”
Shaya scratched her head in puzzlement.
“I always thought courage referred to the courage to trespass through the Zither Moon Mountain Plains. It doesn't seem to be the case now!” Jayden smiled wryly.
“The Zither Moon Mountain Plains is somewhat dangerous to regular humans. However to a level 2 acolyte, it doesn't pose much danger at all…” Bosain looked at Leylin impassively, before speaking.