Chapter 486: Shackled
Translator: Atlas Studios Editor: Atlas Studios
How could they have known that although Lin Li created the Frost, Light, and Darkness Magical Domain, the Rules that he really mastered comprised only the laws of ice? The usage of both the laws of light and darkness was based on the help from the two pieces of debris of the stars, Holy Light and Gloomy Dark. Otherwise, there was no way to master such unbelievable fundamental Rules.
Under the gaze of the Archmages in black robes filled with despair and horror, Lin Li pointed the magic staff in his hand forward in their direction, just like the flag of a general commanding thousands of troops. The hovering Angels of Light and Dark surrounding him moved out when they received the command. They spread open their large black and white wings, breaking through the snow-filled sky, and charged towards the enemy.
The 10 Archmages in black robes could barely make it while facing the frost magical beasts that were surging forth just now, and thus they’d had a bit of hope that they could escape in the end. But now, although these Angels of Light and Dark looked weak on the surface, being constructed by the laws of Light and Darkness, they were the strongest magical beings in the Magical Domain. Within the Magical Domain, every Angel of Light and Dark had the power of at least level-18. As long as Lin Li’s mana was not exhausted, their strength would not weaken a single bit.
Shrieks echoed, and then stopped abruptly. Under the siege of the Angels of Light and Dark, the 10 Archmages did not have a chance to hold on. They were Archmages, and level-18 Archmages in Anril were already at the peak of the mage profession, yet this time, they did not have a chance to retaliate while their bodies were within the frost, light, and darkness Magical Domain and facing the onslaught of the Angels of Light and Dark.
From afar, the Angels of Light and Dark danced around while wielding their spears just like a group of predators hunting their prey. The Archmages that’d originally been overwhelmingly arrogant occasionally showed a complexion full of fear and despair.
The mages of the Tower of Dusk and the Malfa Family felt a chill in their hearts. This was the difference between an Archmage and a Legendary-mage!
Before anyone noticed, it stopped snowing.
The dark clouds in the sky dissipated at a speed that could be seen with the naked eye. The silhouettes of the Angels of Light and Dark started to become more transparent until they totally disappeared. What was left on the ground were the 10 Archmages in black robes that had been completely frozen solid as though their bodies were encapsulated in ice coffins, and the fear on their faces could be seen clearly. The piled-up snow on the ground quickly melted, and quickly became a stream that flowed off towards the lower grounds.
“H-has it ended? J-just like that?”
Yeric swallowed his saliva with difficulty. What sort of person had he offended! The impressive enemy Archmages had actually been toppled so easily. Furthermore, it was like a pounce of a beast…
Please, those were level-18 Archmages. Although they were not as rare as Legendary-mages, in the whole Felan Kingdom and Anril, level-18 Archmages were not plenty.
“Clean up the battlefield.” Lin Li descended slowly to the ground from the air and gave a reminder to those mages that were in a daze.
The mages of the Tower of Dusk immediately cheered with excitement. In the past two months or so, even though there were no casualties under the leadership of Gerian, it was too suffocating to be constantly pressured by the enemies. However, the President was actually a Legendary-mage, and he had the Magical Domain! Great! The grudge in their hearts dissipated along with the enemy’s defeat.
“F*ck, how could you kill them? We still do not know where they are from.” At this point, only a thoughtless person like Gerian would dare to speak to Lin Li in this manner. Everyone else looked at Lin Li with a face full of respect.
Walking, Lin Li chuckled and said, “Relax, how could I forget this? There are three survivors there.”
“Three? Why did you leave so many? These fellas aren’t easy to control,” Gerian said with a frown. After all, they were level-18 Archmages. It was not easy to take (and keep) them prisoner if there were no tricks involved.
“Naturally, there was a reason behind my leaving three of them…” Lin Li did not say much, nor did he refute Gerian, because Lin Li knew that Gerian’s worries were reasonable. When dealing with Warriors, solid shackles would cause them to lose all strength to resist; breaking some limbs, to be a little more cruel, would also do the job. However, mages could still use some spells to create quite a bit of trouble even if they could not make any noise. Furthermore, it was three level-18 Archmages they were talking about here. If they were to use some tricks, an average person would not be able to take it.
The ice coffins melted quickly and revealed the enemies that were frozen solid. As expected, the seven that died could not be any more dead, and there were three that were still breathing weakly.
Lin Li walked to the front of those Archmages that were still unconscious, murmuring incantations. The magical crystal at the tip of the magic staff before his face radiated following the casting of the spell. After that, Lin Li gently knocked the magic staff on the forehead of an Archmage. The radiance of the magical crystal on the tip of the magic staff converged as though it had been knocked into the brains of the other party.
“Oh…” That Archmage slowly regained consciousness. He immediately panicked as he saw the situation in front of him, retreating backwards while still on the ground. However, he just moved two to three meters, and he felt his back hitting something. Raising his head to take a look, he noticed the mages of the Tower of Dusk were grinning at him with their teeth shown.
The two mages of the Tower of Dusk immediately kicked the prisoner down and tied him up with a rope.
“Ah, my… my mana!” The Archmage instinctively wanted to resist, but he realized at this point that there was a barrier blocking and not allowing him to feel a shred of mana no matter how he used his mental strength, just as though he had become an average person.
Actually, the method to limit a mage’s spell casting abilities had become the topic of research for many. It was indeed not a simple issue to completely suppress a mage’s powers, especially under the premise of not harming the mage.
Taking a mage prisoner and preventing him from escaping the whole day. Furthermore, they could not be humiliated or mistreated under the tacitly accepted law of Anril. They could only be treated with good food and wait for the opposition they belonged to pay the ransom. It was too aggrieving to be a victor. Hence, there was this Mana Shackle spell.
However, one had to have a deep understanding of the Rules of magic in order to seal a mage’s spell casting ability. It was only Legendary-mages that grasped the magic Rules and created the Magical Domain that had the ability to cast the Mana Shackle spell.
Upon hearing the screams of the Archmage, the onlooking mages of the Tower of Dusk and the Malfa Family did not show much surprise on their faces. Although it was harder to seal a mage’s ability to cast spells than to kill the mage, that young President was a Legendary-mage.
However, their calm expressions changed quickly. The mages in the area were so shocked that their mouths did not know how to close anymore after Lin Li sealed the mana of the other two Archmage prisoners. Even if he was still a Legendary-mage, it should be impossible to single-handedly seal the mana of three Archmages. Was he still human?
There were three essential factors when mages cast spells—mental strength, mana, and the structure of elemental sequencing—but the most fundamental one was still mental strength. Adjusting mana when casting spells and sequencing elemental structure both had to go through mental strength. Mana increased with levels, and the elemental structure sequencing was perfected through practice, but it was widely believed that everyone had a fixed amount of mental strength—there was almost no way to practice and increase it. Hence, the strength of the mental strength basically determined a mage’s potential for development.
All of the mages present knew that this spell, Mana Shackle, was said to shackle a mage’s mana, but in actual fact, it was sealing mental strength to cause a mage to be unable to adjust mana. Hence, this spell did not require much mana, but the required mental strength was extremely large. At the same time, the more mental strength the user employed, the stronger the effects of this shackle.
Under the premise of not affecting one’s own body, an established Legendary-mage could only shackle one Archmage. If two Archmages were shackled by him, his body not only would not be able to unleash powers at the Legendary-level, but he could even fall off from the Legendary-realm accidentally. After all, it was hard to recover from damage to mental strength.
Three level-18 Archmages had actually had their ability to cast spells sealed, and yet the young President looked like he had just done something trivial. There was not a single sign of mental exhaustion. Everyone was silent; they even did not dare to look squarely at Lin Li. They only dared to size him up from the side sneakily; just how strong this young Legendary-mage President was!?
How would they know that Lin Li was simply a mental strength monster? When compared to that vast mental strength, the mental strength used to shackle the three Archmages was simply like a drop of water in the sea. Yet, it was this drop of mental strength that made other Legendary-mages—or even Sanctuary Masters—unable to dispel the shackles he cast.
Lin Li shackled the mana of the three Archmages and caused them to lose the ability to cast spells. He waved his hands to get his subordinates to lock up the three of them. Once they sensed something abnormal in their bodies, the three Archmages’ faces immediately turned pale, and they lost all thoughts of trying to escape.
There was actually nothing much to clean up on the battlefield. All there was to do was to treat the injured allies and finish off the injured enemies while gathering the bodies of the fallen allies to be brought back and burning the corpses of the dead enemies. As for the spoils of war, there were still items on those few Archmages other than the four Alchemy Colossuses that Lin Li had disabled. The pockets of the rest were cleaner than their faces.
Hutton stood next to the bodies of those from the Malfa Family; he looked at them with heartache. These were all elites of the family, and each of them had a significant value. Originally, he’d thought that this was a sideshow. He had not thought that the enemies they encountered were going to be so strong. He only hoped that the Malfa Family would be on good terms with the Tower of Dusk through this incident. In that case, these deaths would not be in vain.
Seeing the bodies being collected, Hutton spoke to Yeric and walked towards Lin Li to ask what was their next move. However, he only took two steps and felt something was wrong. He turned round and saw that Yeric was still standing at the same spot with an expression of biting his tongue.
Seeing that expression of his, why would Hutton not know what he was worried about? He thought, F*ck, I already told you before that that President Felic and the Tower of Dusk should not be provoked. You just wouldn’t f*cking listen. Now what, you’re scared, right!? Hutton actually felt some elation, and said, “Yeric, why are you in daze? Follow me to look for President Felic and see what he plans next.”
“Ah! Yes, yes…” Yeric’s face was full of internal conflict. He slowly walked over to Hutton, and finally he could not help but say, “Master Hutton, although I was being rude to President Felic previously, it was all for the Malfa Family. You can’t stand by and just watch me die.”
“Yeric, what are you saying? What’s this about leaving you to your demise? Did you forget that I didn’t remind you only once? You didn’t want to heed my advice, so what else can I do?” Hutton spoke with an innocent look.
“Master Hutton, it’s my fault. Please, don’t lower yourself to my level and help me out,” Yeric pleaded with an anxious look.
No matter what, Yeric was a level-17 Archmage. Although he could not be compared to that monster Lin Li, he was still a talent. Hutton thought for a bit. He did not wish for the Malfa Family to suffer any more losses, so he said, “Ok, go apologize sincerely, and I will follow up for you. President Felic is a Legendary-mage, he shouldn’t make a fuss with you.”
Although Yeric was still ill at ease, it was better than doing nothing at all. He immediately nodded and walked over with Hutton. When he had just walked over, he rushed to the front and bent forwards at a 90-degree angle. His attitude was as sincere as it could get, he said that he was blind, that President Felic was magnanimous, and asked not to make a fuss, and so on.
Although Lin Li tended to avenge grievances big and small, he still had to give some face to Hutton. They had come to help, and quite a few of them had perished. It was also still unclear if there were any spoils to find in the Syer Bandits’ hideout. As a result, he benevolently waved his hands, and said to Hutton, “Mage Hutton, after this battle, be it the remnants of the Syer Bandits or the mysterious organization supporting them, I believe the main force is no longer here. From here on, I plan to attack the Syer Bandits’ hideout immediately. Think about it.”
Currently, it was sufficient to take down the Syer Bandits’ nest with just the strength of the Tower of Dusk. Their hideout might even be empty. However, after this battle, the loot so far was not enough. The Malfa Family had losses there, so Lin Li was rather embarrassed to just send off Hutton and the rest empty-handed. More importantly, he could not bear to give the Alchemy Colossuses to the Malfa Family, so he thought that it was impossible not to find some good items within the Syer Bandits’ hideout to send off Hutton with.
Lin Li did not specifically mention forgiving Yeric, but since he talked about cooperating for the next plan, it also meant that he would not look into it anymore. Yeric finally settled down his anxious heart and stood up straight beside Hutton, listening obediently to their conversation and turning a blind eye to the gazes of the other members of the Tower of Dusk.
Seeing that Lin Li did not make a fuss about Yeric’s rudeness previously, Hutton also let out a sigh of relief. If Lin Li wanted to look into it no matter what, he could only sacrifice Yeric for the sake of the relationship between the two factions. He also sensibly did not mention anything about it. As for Lin Li’s next plan, he said, “We will follow President Felic’s arrangements. The Syer Bandits have been threatening the Breezy Plains for a long period of time and committed countless murders and arson. Being able to eradicate them completely this time, we of the Malfa Family will not shirk responsibility in order for the Breezy Plains to gain some peace.”