Chapter 607: Micro-painting
Translator: Atlas Studios Editor: Atlas Studios
Dream Garden would be completely useless during a battle, for its only use was to create a unique space that was no different from the outside world. In the space, the seven elements of earth, water, fire, wind, light, darkness, and chaos were all readily available. There were also mountains, water, trees, and flowers. Except for the fact that life couldn’t be truly nurtured there, everything in that space was no different from the outside word. Moreover, the world in Dream Garden was definitely not comparable to the infinite and deadly dimensional space of the Ring of Endless Storm. When Lin Li had got the Dream Garden, he once entered it to take a look. It was just like a paradise on earth, and he could not bear to leave it at all.
At that time, Lin Li had initially wanted to use the ring to transport his mineral ores. Unfortunately, both the Flash Plains and Thousand Pinnacles were located on the edge of the Endless World, and were extremely dilapidated and barren. Even if Lin Li had had countless private veins, it would’ve been impossible to turn them into profit immediately. Fortunately, Lin Li had not only found a Teleportation Portal that allowed him to travel to Bright Moon City, he also found some rare dimensional equipment in the auction house.
However, the only flaw of Dream Garden was that the space was too unstable. It was as beautiful as a paradise on earth, just like its name suggested. It was like a fantasy that was exceptionally beautiful, but a slight fluctuation in energy would cause the entire world to collapse.
Because of this, treasures like Dream Garden were used by Lin Li for transporting ores. After he got the Ring of Endless Storm, he completely stopped using it. Lin Li only remembered it when he was in the Haiga Mountain Range.
As far as the environment was concerned, the Dream Garden was undoubtedly the most suitable for Xiao Hua to thrive in. Although Xiao Hua was the descendant of the Dragon of Dream, it probably had never enjoyed such a beautiful abode before. Lin Li suddenly recalled that his little Dragon Hawk could live in there too. Little Dragon Hawk was gradually growing up and absorbing the mana of the Legendary magical crystals every single day. The speed of his growth was truly shocking and amazing. When Lin Li left the Tower of Dusk, the Little Dragon Hawk had already reached level-18, which was far greater than the adult Dragon Hawk that Lin Li had almost destroyed just now. It was probably only a matter of time before it reached the Legendary-realm.
Lin Li pinched the Dream Garden with two fingers, and carefully looked at the ring that had been with him for a while under the magic light. Before he placed the Elemental Wyrm in it, he had to solve another problem: the stability of the world in the Dream Garden.
The world in Dream Garden was unstable, and Little Dragon Hawk and Xiao Hua were both powerful existences. Once they entered Dream Garden, the world would probably collapse soon.
However, that was not too much trouble for Lin Li now. If it were the Lin Li who had yet to break through to the Legendary-realm, he might still be helpless, but now, he was already a powerful level-211 mage who had a fairly in-depth knowledge of the field of magic. Although he had yet to create his own space and world, it was not that difficult to stabilize a world that already existed.
Lin Li held the Dream Garden in his hand and pondered over it for a moment. Soon, he got an idea and took out a crystal pen from the Ring of Endless Storm, followed by a bottle of star sand and ocean blue sand, as well as a Dark Crimson Lion King blood together with six level-15 magical crystals.
Lin Li first mixed the ocean blue sand and the star sand at a one-to-two ratio
A bottle of ethereal ink was soon ready, and Lin Li carefully dipped a crystal pen in the ink before drawing a mageweath on the Dream Garden. Lin Li’s actions were slow and gentle. One would only be able to tell that his crystal pen was moving if they were to look closely.
Fortunately, Lin Li was the only one in the tent. A person learned in mageweaths would probably be shocked out of their wits if they were to enter and see what he was doing. Lin Li was now performing an inscription which was glorified and known to be the most advanced micro-painting skill of the division. A Master of Inscription would be able to paint complicated mageweaths within a short period of time. He could possibly even arrange Mageweath arrays.
This micro-painting technique could almost be called a heavenly skill. Once an Inscription Master had mastered such a technique, it meant that he had reached the highest level of Inscription, and was only one step away from becoming a Divine Smith.
Even Lin Li himself had only mastered this technique not long ago despite having already become a Guru of Inscription using the Scroll of Wishes. That was a change that was almost an epiphany. As the magical accomplishments of Lin Li became increasingly greater, he gained a deeper insight into the nature of the world. When his accumulation of experience reached a certain level, there might be an opportunity for him to make a breakthrough in skill. If he were to let the opportunity slip, he might just plateau for the rest of his life1. Lin Li managed to seize the opportunity, and finally learned the technique of micro-painting, thus advancing greatly in Inscription.
In fact, this was somewhat similar to arranging a very large Alchemy Array. Expansion and reduction in size was not as simple as adjusting it according to the pictures in a textbook. If substantial changes were not made, a human who got enlarged to the size of a Titan would never really gain the power of one. On the contrary, his body might collapse in an instant.
When dealing with the Titan Spirit, Lin Li would not have been able to make an impact if he had simply used an amplified Requiem Array. In fact, the array would not even have been activated, or it might’ve collapsed at a certain juncture during activation. For example, a paper cup might be able to hold water, but a paper bucket might not.
It was the same for compressing and reducing size. During a 100-time reduction of a component, the preceding component might have to be reduced 200 times or 190 times. It was an exaggeration, and many things might not be clear even with accurate calculations. It still depended on the perception of the nomological power.
Lin Li used his micro-painting techniques to draw mageweaths with lines thinner than hair on the Dream Garden. If not observed closely, the lines would not seem to mean anything.
Creating a Master-level ethereal mageweath took up almost an entire night, and Lin Li only heaved a sigh of relief when daybreak arrived. He then placed the Dream Garden on the wooden table.
However, the process was not completed yet. After putting the Dream Garden away, Lin Li grabbed a gold rod that was made of Abyss Mithril. The gold rod formed in the air a halo that resembled colorful ripples that were cast over the six magical crystals on the wooden table.
As the light on the top of the gold rod moved, the six magical crystals were broken down into the purest form of magical essence, which flew around the gold rod like fireflies.
Next, a ray of light flew past. Lin Li pointed his gold rod at the magical crystals, after which they disintegrated into magical essence, incorporated into the ethereal mageweaths.
After the lights faded, the Dream Garden changed completely, and even an ordinary Archmage would be able to detect it easily. The world in the ring had become extremely stable, and even Legendary-level magic would not be able to make the world collapse.
When Lin Li reinforced the Dream Garden, Xiao Hua had already ransacked through all of the items in the tent. Sensing the strange magical wave all of a sudden, it immediately flew towards Lin Li and stared at the Dream Garden.
Lin Li waved the ring in his hand smilingly, and said to Xiao Hua, “From now on, this will be your home. Go in and see if you like it.”
Xiao Hua glanced at Lin Li with its guard up and retreated a little.
“Go in and take a look, you’ll definitely like it,” said Lin Li, who continued to tempt it by pointing at the ring.
Xiao Hua cocked its head to the side and stared at the ring before licking its mouth with its tongue. With joy written all over its face, it joyously leaped towards the ring.
Upon sight of Xiao Hua’s expression, Lin Li was immediately overwhelmed with an ominous feeling. When Xiao Hua went up to him, he immediately retracted his hand, causing Xiao Hua to bite on air. Tears then welled up in its eyes.
Lin Li shook his head resignedly, and whipped out a magical crystal from the Ring of Endless Storm.
Xiao Hua’s eyes lit up again at the instant that it saw the magical crystal. It then happily scurried towards the magical crystal.
You greedy little glutton. I refuse to believe that I can’t deal with you. Lin Li smirked and threw the magical crystal into the Dream Garden when Xiao Hua was about to leap at him. “The magical crystal is in there. Go inside—”
Magical crystals were all Xiao Hua cared about, and it did not bother about the other matters at all. Before Lin Li could even finish speaking, Xiao Hua had already rushed into the Dream Garden, cheering happily.
Lin Li was speechless. Although Xiao Hua had been successfully lured into the Dream Garden, Lin Li was not the one who put it in. Xiao Hua was the one who wriggled in by itself instead. How could that happen? Although the Dream Garden was used for settling Xiao Hua down, Lin Li was the rightful owner of the ring. How could Xiao Hua enter and leave without Lin Li’s permission?
Xiao Hua popped its head out of the gemstone on the ring, and called out to Lin Li happily before sticking its head back in.
Lin Li stroked his chin, and thought to himself that the matter didn’t seem that incredible. When Xiao Hua awakened, he provided it with all his mana to the extent of almost fainting. When mages turned magical elements into their own mana, they did not change the nature of the magical elements, and simply gave them their own Spiritual Brand. Simply put, magical elements with a Spiritual Brand could be considered mana.
After awakening, Xiao Hua treated Lin Li like its family member because the mana that it absorbed had Lin Li’s Spiritual Brand. In the process of soul awakening, Lin Li’s mana became the nourishment for Xiao Hua’s growth, and a spiritual imprint was left in the soul.
A magician relied on Spiritual Brand to open his storage rings and other storage spaces. Hence, it was not surprising that Xiao Hua could open the Dream Garden, as it had Lin Li’s spiritual imprint.
Lin Li cast his mental strength into the Dream Garden worn on his finger. Xiao Hua was hugging the magical crystal and playing along merrily like it in a fairy tale. It seemed to be extremely pleased with its new home.
After settling everything that he had to, he realized that they sky had gradually turned brighter, and the noise outside the tent had also become much more chaotic. The adventurer team was going to continue on their journey.
After suffering two consecutive major attacks from the magical beasts, the two forces had become more cautious, and were proceeding at an even slower speed. The guards and reconnaissance personnel spread out, while tension build up in the main team. One by one, the strong, formidable men completely swallowed their pride. Even the Legendary figures kept a sullen expression and carefully analyzed all the information given to them as if they would only have a peace of mind after checking everything.
Lin Li was the only one in the team who could still remain relaxed as if he did not care about the magical beasts at all.
Cheyenne sent away his intelligence staff, and looked at Lin Li who was standing not too far away. After hesitating a little, he walked towards Lin Li, and said, “Master Felic, according to the previous two experiences, I’m afraid it won’t be long until we encounter an attack of magical beasts again. I hope you can contribute some effort when that happens. After all, we still have a long way ahead, and we can’t afford to lose too much power now.”
It was very clear what Cheyenne meant. Out of the three parties, the Dark Blade was the strongest, and the Malfa Family and the Tower of Dusk had to work together to maintain a balance of power.
It might not be a good thing to the Tower of Dusk. However, Lin Li was not too concerned. He smiled nonchalantly, and said to Cheyenne, “Master Cheyenne, rest assured. Haven’t you heard before that the same thing won’t happen thrice?”
Cheyenne was infuriated after hearing Lin Li’s words. He thought, Damn it. This rascal is too shameless. He went missing for two nights, and yet he’s pretending to have lost his memory. Who was the one who went missing last night when the battle was at its peak?
However, seeing how determined Lin Li was, Cheyenne could not help but waver. Although this guy is shameless, he has never made any empty promise. Could it be that he has found some clues that I didn’t know of and found the reason behind the attacks?