Chapter 758: The True Eternal Furnace
Next, a palace squeezed out of a corner of the Eternal Furnace slowly, and a large Infernal Palace appeared in front of Lin Li.
After summoning the Eternal Furnace, Lin Li immediately changed his tone, and began to chant another magic spell. However, this time, he chanted in human language. He had long prepared a large Alchemy Array on the platform at the top of the Tower of Dusk. As his spell sounded in the air, a gentle ray of light was emitted, and it gradually became brighter. The entire Alchemy Array exploded with a ray of dazzling light, making the Tower of Dusk look like it had another large and bright pillar.
Lin Li then controlled the Infernal Palace using his Brand Of Dusk, after which he slowly approached the beam of light emitted from the Alchemy Array at the top of the tower, slowly intercepting the beam of light that hit the sky. When it suppressed the bottom of the palace, it slowly landed again. The large Infernal Palace quaked a little, and touched the top of the Tower of Dusk before finally fusing with it perfectly after some fine adjustments.
At this moment, the effects of the Shadow of the Darkness did not make Lin Li feel uncomfortable even though he used to have to use the salamander leather armor to resist the burning sensation in the past. As the light from the Brand Of Dusk flashed in the sky, the crimson door slowly opened, and a red carpet extended from the depths of the palace to Lin Li’s feet. Having experience with the Sky Castle and Osric’s mausoleum, such a scene was nothing too surprising for Lin Li now. Without even looking at the carpet beneath his feet, he immediately flew into the palace through the doors.
After entering the palace, Lin Li did not stop, and instead headed straight to the core of the Eternal Furnace, which was also where the central minaret of the Eternal Furnace in Osric’s mausoleum was located. The two Eternal Furnaces were the same, be it in terms of architectural style or various settings. The only difference was that there was no central minaret in this Eternal Furnace, but only a large Alchemy Array that was once used for placing the crystal coffin.
Upon arriving at the core, Lin Li inserted the Shadow of the Darkness in his hand into the activation node of the huge Alchemy Array. Now, a red ray of light like hot molten iron was flowing slowly along the magic circuit of the Alchemy Array, gradually filling up all the magic circuits and fusing them together, after which a massive mana wave spread outwards.
The crimson light from the Alchemy Array covered the entire ground as if it were going to turn the entire area into an ocean of waves. At this moment, Lin Li had flown towards the top of the Alchemy Array, and retrieved the crystal coffin from the Ring of Endless Storm.
The crystal coffin landed in the sea of fire where the red light condensed. It floated on the surface of the ocean like a small boat on water. Lin Li had initially already taken away the magical crystal. However, when the crystal coffin landed above the crystal coffin, the rays of red seeped into the surface of the water, and the mageweath and Alchemy Array that had already been extinguished gradually lit up again.
At this point, Lin Li finally completed the placement of the crystal coffin, and the Eternal Furnace had also regained its core which was the most important part of it. The eighth Sky Castle seemed to have also become a complete prototype[1]. However, Lin Li knew that there were still plenty of things for him to do. When the 2000 potions were completed, he would be able to obtain the Dragon Crystals of the Ice and Fire Twin Dragons, and then he would be able to get his Ice and Fire Domain. After the domain fused with the Throne of Darkness and the Eternal Furnace, there would definitely be an exponential increase in power of the Eternal Furnace. By then, it would be more than just a prototype—it would be considered a semi-finished Eighth Sky Castle.
The abnormalities caused by the installation of the Eternal Furnace had naturally attracted everyone’s attention, especially in Doland City, which was the nearest to Tower of Dusk. After seeing the fire and the pillar at the back, everyone thought that the Tower of Dusk had been attacked again. When there were news of Lin Li’s return, the entire Doland City flew into a frenzy, and the leaders of all forces rushed to the Tower of Dusk with gifts.
However, Lin Li only met Arathor of Doland City, and couldn’t be bothered to waste his time seeing the leaders of the other forces at all. After putting the Eternal Furnace and the crystal coffin in place, the next step of Lin Li’s plan was to complete the once-neglected Black Front Fortress.
The Black Front Fortress was a camp that was specially designed for Death Knights, and had the ability to turn mana into Death Aura. If a Death Knight was placed in the fortress, it would continuously become physically stronger, and its digestion of soul fire would also be accelerated, though it would not happen overnight. The speed of acceleration would be incredible if it could compress 100 years into a year, but even then, it would still require three to five years for the fortress to be completed.
The most important thing was that Lin Li wouldn’t take the Death Knights around to carry out a massacre; hence, there was no way they could get more soul fire. The legendary Retribution Knight Rodhart only managed to become a Retribution Knight because he had obtained the broken arm of the Immortal King. Later on, he even slaughtered nearly a third of the population of the Breezy Plains in order to improve his own strength and that of his Death Knights. Although Lin Li admitted that he was not a kindhearted saint, he wouldn’t go to the extent of doing something so extreme and perverted. Besides, if he were to really do it, he would probably be killed by a powerhouse of the Sanctuary-realm before he even got to nurture a Retribution Knight.
It was no big deal to kill Undead creatures, but Lin Li was too busy to conduct an Undead creature massacre together with the Death Knights. If he were to let the Death Knights go alone, he would be worried about there being an Undead Lord. After all, there were only 18 Death Knights. If there were 180 of them, they wouldn’t have to be worried about an Undead Lord.
Hence, after returning from the Scar of Death, the 18 Death Knights that Lin Li had subdued were all rather idle until they got summoned all at once by the Summoning Scroll when Lin Li encountered the Zago Demons in the Abyss.
However, in the fierce battle with the Zago demons, Lin Li managed to gain a blessing in disguise even though he had lost six Death Knights—the remaining 12 devoured a lot of the Zago Demons’ soul fire. There was a significant increase in their power, and one of the Death Knights, who had devoured the soul fire of a Scourged Ankylodon, even became an actual Retribution Knight.
According to a legend, when a Retribution Knight appeared in Anril, all Death Knights would gather around the Retribution Knight and become his most loyal warriors. Although Lin Li’s Retribution Knight had already seen Lin Li as his leader, he was also a real Retribution Knight, after all. If the legend was true, there might appear a legion of Death Knights.
Hence, at this time, Lin Li added the construction of the Black Front Fortress back into his plan again, and he also planned to place the completed Black Front Fortress in the Eternal Furnace. However, before starting to build the Black Front Fortress, Lin Li still had one more thing to do, which required Angelano’s and Connoris’ help—that was to use the crystal coffin to turn the 12 Death Knights under his control into those that could manipulate Divine Power, just like the ones they’d met in Osric’s mausoleum.
The biggest nemesis of Undead creatures was Divine Power. Although Death Knight was a different type of Undead creature, it was still one of them, after all. Hence, if Lin Li could fix that weakness, there would be a huge increase in the strength of the Death Knights. A level-19 Death Knight that could manipulate Divine Power was probably not too inferior to the traditional Retribution Knight.
Lin Li even had a fantasy about the Retribution Knight summoning a group of Death Knights, and turning them into Sanctuary Death Knights. He would then lead the 12 of them who each had their own Sanctuary Death Knight legion. That would be impressive.
After Lin Li helped Angelano get the opportunity to read Osric’s journal, the simple-minded Goblin firmly believed that Lin Li would abide by the agreement, find a way to release the Fire Demon King from Balak’s magical crystal, and hand the crystal to him. Hence, when Lin Li asked Angelano for help, he immediately agreed without hesitation. He didn’t ask for anything in return, either.
Connoris, who now had a body, wouldn’t turn down his master’s request for something that would not endanger his life, because he had signed a servant contract with Lin Li. Besides, he was rather interested in operating Osric’s works, so he temporarily paused the fusion of his soul and body, and began to study the operation method of the crystal coffin together with Angelano.
After tasking Angelano and Connoris with the creation of the Sanctuary Death Knights, Lin Li began to prepare for the construction of the Black Front Fortress. With his current abilities, the construction of the fortress wouldn’t be complicated, mainly because of the transformation and application of Death Energy. Actually, the Black Front Fortress and the Psychic Array shared many similarities. The construction materials, mageweaths, and Psychic Arrays were all elements to be considered, but those were not issues for Lin Li.
In an open space in the Eternal Furnace, dismantled Titan skeletons were classified into different categories. That was the place where Lin Li decided to build the Black Front Fortress. However, he couldn’t spend all his time building the Black Front Fortress, because there were still plenty of things for him to handle in the Tower of Dusk.
In the past few days, the news of Lin Li’s return had spread like wildfire in the Breezy Plains, and there began to appear visitors who came from places further than the ones in the vicinity of Doland City. The castellans of the various cities in the Breezy Plains, the patriarchs of the major families, the Presidents of the major business unions, and the top leaders of mercenary corps, all of whom were significant figures of status, had all arrived in the Tower Of Dusk to visit Lin Li.
The Tower of Dusk had currently monopolized the advanced pharmaceutical industry in the Breezy Plains, and as the potions distributed by the Gilded Rose and Glittergold Trade Union were imported to other areas of the Felan Kingdom, the name of the Tower of Dusk had also risen to fame as it spread to other parts of Anril. Amongst the major forces in the Breezy Plains, the Tower of Dusk had become famous, and expanded to the same level as the major business unions like the Gilded Rose and Glittergold Trade Union.
The Tower of Dusk was like a seed of a tree that Lin Li had planted deep in the soil, and had been completely ignored by people. The tree sprouted and broke out of the soil, after which everyone began to know of its existence, but they simply looked down on it. They wouldn’t step on it nor stride over it, and would merely bypass it. However, the Tower of Dusk had now become a towering tree, and even the tallest people would have to look up to it.
Hence, the simple event of Lin Li returning from a trip became an opportunity not to be missed to express their friendliness towards the Tower of Dusk in the eyes of everyone.
Lin Li was not an arrogant person, either. Since those people respected him, he wouldn’t give them a bad attitude. Hence, while Lin Li was busy constructing the Black Front Fortress, he also continued to receive his visitors, whom he spoke to about his experience in Osric’s mausoleum. Having repeated it over and over again, he began to feel nauseous at the mere thought of it.
The visitors could not verify if Lin Li’s alleged experiences in Osric’s mausoleum were true or not, but those who visited would first see the large Infernal Palace at the top of the Tower of Dusk. They might not know what the Eternal Furnace and the palace were made of, or what their uses were, but the magical waves of the immense burning flames were so massive that they all felt stunned.
Although Lin Li left the Tower of Dusk for a shorter amount of time this time, everyone who visited the Tower of Dusk knew that he had definitely improved drastically again this time.
Despite having continuously entertained his guests, Lin Li did not delay his own matters. After all, a good relationship could never be as reliable as having wonderful strength and abilities. After more than 10 days of intermittent construction, the Black Front Fortress that was on top of the Eternal Furnace was finally completed with Lin Li’s efforts.
The entire Black Front Fortress looked just like a huge octagonal skeleton square, on which there was plenty of Undead aura coming from the numerous Undead Arrays. In the center of the Black Front Fortress, there was a Titan skeleton resting his hands on his pelvis, and it was just like a shrine. In the eight corners of the square, there were eight curved pillars that were made of the eight longest ribs of the Titan’s skeleton. They looked just like blades that could slay the sky. At the same time, they were also covered with powerful Death Mageweaths.
[1] Iirc, all Sky Castles had been built by Immortal King, and only this one was built by Osric, who tried to copy them, hence prototype.