Chapter 698: Next One
“Let’s go, the next one is the Blood Scorpion Brotherhood. If they don’t know how to act appropriately, there’s no need to spare them any mercy,” Horsin said as he put away the contract and turned around to take the mages away.
No one expected that the Tower of Dusk would retaliate so violently; it was as if an unstoppable major storm had been set off in the Breezy Plains. The forces that had once regarded the Tower of Dusk as an attractive slice of cake that they were coveting were just being complacent and proud of their own gains, yet they fell from heaven to hell all of a sudden. Facing surrender or demise, most forces, be it the mercenary corps, adventurers, or underground organizations, would not be able to show their determination to fight against death.
While the mages of the Tower of Dusk wiped out their enemy forces in the Breezy Plains, Lin Li got busy too. He answered the questions of Wilkinson and the other pharmacists, guided the mages along in learning magic, and redesigned some of the setups of the Tower of Dusk.
The exploration in the Sky Castle took more than half a year for Lin Li. Had he not rushed back in time, the Tower of Dusk would have long been destroyed by the Dark Blade. Lin Li planned to excavate Osric’s mausoleum next, but God knew how much time he would have to spend in there. Hence, Lin Li was determined to channel all of his energy into protecting the Tower of Dusk and making it a castle that no one could invade.
When the Tower of Dusk was established, Lin Li was already a Guru of Inscription, but due to the lack of understanding of nomological power, he could only consider many things in terms of Inscriptions. However, Lin Li was now a Legendary-mage who was at the peak of level-23, and had a much better understanding of nomological power than he did in the past. At this juncture, there were plenty of loopholes in the various settings of the Tower of Dusk, and there was room for improvement in many aspects.
In the Sky Castle, the majestic Central Tower and the 36 towers that served as the nodes for the Conquering Mageweath especially were great reference material for Lin Li. Of course, he did not have enough power to set up an Orderly Maze for the Tower of Dusk or exhibit a Seven-Realm Spiral. However, the various offensive and defensive mageweaths, Alchemy Arrays, and magic gears had all given him great inspiration.
Of course, the first problem to solve was the issue of the mana source of the Tower of Dusk. A single Legendary magical crystal of the Salamander would be more than enough to support the daily operation of the Tower of Dusk. However, it seemed difficult to sustain the defenses under the menacing attacks of the Dark Blade with it. Such power would not be enough for him to deal with the impending disaster predicted by Geresco.
When Lin Li was building the Tower of Dusk at the start, he planned to put the Eternal Furnace on the top of the tower before using the magical crystal in the Eternal Furnace that had reached the Sanctuary-realm as the mana source for the Tower of Dusk. However, he clearly did not have that much time; hence, he had to find another solution before using the Eternal Furnace.
Increasing the mana was not as simple as putting two Legendary magical crystals together. The difference between the magical crystals and the difference between magic attributes were all factors that had to be considered. Apart from the numerous Legendary magical crystals that Lin Li obtained in the dragon graveyard, the most valuable items he had were none other than the two Double Death Dragons’ magical crystals.
The two Dragon Crystals were like perfect replicas, be it in terms of the mana contained in it or the auras. When inspected individually, each would just seem like an ordinary Dragon Crystal that was at the peak of level-22. However, when the two were put together, they would provide effects that were far greater than the high-level Dragon Crystals even if the mana could not be compared to level-23 Dragon Crystals’.
The All-Kill Array was one of the most important defensive mechanisms of the Tower of Dusk. Its strong power naturally came with massive mana depletion. The first thing that Lin Li wanted to change was to separate the mana source of the All-Kill Array from the rest. He believed that the power of the All-Kill Array would be maximized by using the two magical crystals as the source of mana.
After a day, Lin Li reestablished the mana source of the All-Kill Array and used the Dragon Crystal of the Double Death Dragons to replace the Legendary magical crystal of the Salamander. However, the Legendary magical crystal did not stop working, and was still used as the mana source for the other defensive mageweaths of the Tower of Dusk.
The other thing Lin Li wanted to change was the magical Crystal Cannons. Before Lin Li had left, he initially got Beckley to buy 20 of them from the Dwarf Kingdom. However, the Dwarfs could not provide 20 Magical Crystal Cannons at once, unless they were willing to sell the cannons that they had in the kingdom. Hence, Beckley only returned with 10 Crystal Cannons, and they had to wait for the other 10 to arrive some time later.
If the Magical Crystal Cannon were to be activated in full force, it would consume no less mana than the All-Kill Array. A Legendary magical crystal that was above level-20 would be used up after a few uses of the cannon. Hence, Lin Li immediately classified the Magical Crystal Cannons into groups and assigned a single mana source to every group. The magical crystals used were naturally of Legendary level so as to be sufficient for the cannon to continue firing.
During this time, the mages of the Tower of Dusk were growing rapidly. The Tower of Dusk was also undergoing earth-shaking changes while remaining the talk of the town. Various forces in Doland and Roland were all extremely terrified and worried that Lin Li would suddenly look for them, regardless of whether they had offended the Tower of Dusk before.
However, it was not that there were no exceptions. At this moment, a group of bandits named Poison Fire that resided near the Dragon Mountains was declaring their decision to rebel against the Tower of Dusk. They even called on all unwilling forces to unite and fight against the tyrannical Tower of Dusk.
Although the reputation of the Poison Fire Bandits had always been notorious, they were, after all, a local force in the Breezy Plains, and ranked at the bottom of the Top 10 Bandit Groups. They were actually rather influential as plenty of forces approached them after hearing their call. They then united and formed a strong force that consisted of more than 2000 people, amongst which were 500-600 elites.
Most people pinned their hopes to stop the tyrannical expansion of the Tower of Dusk on the Poison Fire Bandits. It was undoubtedly ironic. Of course, majority hoped to return everything to the original state after a fight that destroyed both parties.
The den of the Poison Fire Bandits was not very secretive. It was located in an unnamed mountain range that extended from the Dragon Mountains. The reason they managed to survived for so many years was not because of their strength, but because they adhered to the nature of bandits—bullying the weak and fearing the strong. Actually, they wouldn’t go against the Tower of Dusk if they didn’t have to. However, blinded by the massive benefits, they’d made a wrong decision back then. Not only did they rob the shops in the Tower of Dusk, they even killed a few mages of the Tower of Dusk.
Everyone in the Breezy Plains knew how the Syer Bandits died. It was simply because they killed several ordinary villagers in Black Clouds Town, after which the people from the Tower of Dusk hunted them down and destroyed their den in the Dragon Mountains. Since the Poison Fire Bandits had killed the mages of the Tower of Dusk, they obviously wouldn’t be forgiven.
Clifford, the head of the Poison Fire Bandits, stood on the high wall of the cottage and looked ahead. The thick fog in the morning hampered his vision, making him feel extremely uneasy. As soon as he received the warning from the outpost, the mages of the Tower of Dusk had already entered the valley, and were less than 20 minutes away.
The leaders of the other forces stood beside Clifford. Actually, they felt just as anxious and uneasy as Clifford.
“Leader Clifford, that young President of the Tower of Dusk probably isn’t as formidable as they make him out to be. Legendary powerhouses may be incredible, but they’re not deities, after all. There are so many of us. We must make them retreat,” said one of the middle-aged bandits who lost his temper.
“They’re here!” someone shrieked.
Everyone turned to look in the distance, and happened to see a group of mages slowly walking out of the thick mist. The tension in the den began to increase.
“Don’t be scared, there are many of us, and we have defensive crossbows and catapults. Even if they are all mages, it would be impossible for them to deal with us without paying a price,” said someone who was consoling others, but was apparently trying to give himself some encouragement instead.
“Look at that!” someone yelled as they pointed at the sky.
Everyone looked up in the sky, only to see a black dot approaching them. The sight began to get clearer soon.
“It’s a mage. Could it be the President of the Tower of Dusk!?”
Only Legendary-mages could use their flying skills, and Lin Li, the Legendary President of the Tower of Dusk, was the only one who would appear there at this time. Clifford and the rest were not as stupid as to think that the figure was there to help them.
“Hurry, get ready—” Before Clifford could finish giving his orders, everyone realized in shock that everything in their surroundings seemed to have become black and white when they were not looking.
Next, a huge burst of mana exploded out of nowhere, and an unparalleled power overwhelmed everyone instantly. They held their breaths, and it was as if the surrounding air had solidified. Immediately afterwards, they were horrified to see that a black and white giant sword was darting towards them. They wanted to escape, but their bodies seemed to be out of control, for they could not move at all, and had no choice but to watch the sword fall down slowly.
“Boom!” A loud sound filled the air, and the mountains and rocks shattered.