Chapter 780: Spar
After Gergila finished speaking, he looked at Lin Li, waiting for the ingenious young mage to answer. He didn’t notice the awkwardness on Sendros’ face at all. The other four high priests did notice Sendros’ expression, but they all thought that Sendros was upset with them for making things difficult for the guest he’d invited. However, they could only feel apologetic in secret because the matter concerned the life and death of the Darkness Shrine. They decided to apologize to Sendros after everything was over.
In fact, at this moment, the five high priests had become more and more certain that their approach was correct. It was because they clearly saw some confusion on Lin Li’s face. When they were discussing the magical chain, Lin Li appeared rather calm. Hence, the confusion on his face now made obvious that there was an issue.
Finally, Lin Li touched his nose embarrassedly while the five high priests looked at him with anticipation. “Sorry, excessive consumption of mana? I’ve never encountered that issue before. Does the Thunderstorm Disaster really take up a lot of mana?”
Lin Li’s answer immediately made the five high priests feel rather stunned. What kind of answer is this? Can he do it or not? The five high priests would never believe that Lin Li didn’t understand the Thunderstorm Disaster. After all, he was a level-23 Legendary-mage as well. How could he not understand a spell that was of the same level as him? What did he mean by never encountering the issue? Could it be that he had never used this Forbidden Spell before?
Everyone looked at Sendros blankly, but he was extremely awkward and embarrassed at the moment. He didn’t explain anything to the five high priests, and simply turned to Lin Li and said, “Master Felic, since you’ve come all the way from afar, why don’t we pause the conversation while I get someone to arrange a place for you to rest in?”
Lin Li also felt that the atmosphere was a little strange, and he reckoned that he might not be able to find out anything today. Hence, he nodded, and said, “I’ll have to trouble you, then, Master Sendros.” Lin Li then left the hall under the lead of a priest whom Sendros summoned, going to the room that was prepared for him.
When Lin Li left, the five high priests stood up one after another and walked towards Sendros. Lin Li’s answer was way too shocking to them, and the five high priests had yet to understand what that young mage Lin Li meant.
As the person who asked the question, Gergila adjusted the crown on his head, and asked Sendros in a hoarse voice, “Sir, we know that we were being too disrespectful to Master Felic just now, but we’re all doing it for the Darkness Shrine. Besides, we can’t stop worrying, since Master Felic refused to answer our questions just now. How can we entrust the future of the Darkness Shrine to him?”
Sendros was a little annoyed, but he also knew that they didn’t do it out of selfishness, and had the interests of the Darkness Shrine at heart. Hence, he suppressed his displeasure, and said, “Silly, didn’t Master Felic already answer your question? Don’t you understand?”
However, Sendros’ words made Gergila and the rest even more confused. Was that even considered an answer? If it is, it’s just an incompetent answer and Lin Li’s admitting that he can’t do much about the issue. However, it seems unusual now that Sendros is behaving this way, Gergila thought.
Seeing that the several high priests were puzzled, Sendros began to feel infuriated again. He stood up and looked at the crowd in displeasure before hollering, “What are you guys thinking!? Haven’t I told you before that he possesses infinite mana!?”
“Well…” The other high priests wanted to say that that was impossible, but when they saw Sendros’ expression, they dared not say anything more. Besides, they were extremely convinced by Sendros, whom they trusted greatly. Although they found it unbelievable, they didn’t think that Sendros would deceive them.
It was no wonder that Master Felic said that he had never encountered this problem before. Since he possesses almost infinite mana, what is the Thunderstorm Disaster to him? I’m afraid the infinite chain that he mentioned is not just theoretical. Since he has infinite mana, he would probably be able to break Aegno’s record easily.
The five high priests looked at each other immediately while recalling the tests that they had put him through just now, feeling like they were clowns. In particular, Gergila, who had a skeleton-like face, even began to blush. Of course he’d be embarrassed and ashamed for asking a silly question.
However, although the five high priests felt a little ashamed about everything that’d happened previously, they did not think they had done anything wrong. Besides, they still did not trust in Lin Li’s abilities as much as Sendros did. Actually, it wasn’t their fault, either, for anyone in their shoes wouldn’t pin all their hopes on a person they did not know well.
In fact, Sendros also understood the intentions and thoughts of the five high priests. After all, everyone had the best interests of the Darkness Shrine at heart, and if it weren’t for the fact that he was the chief and knew more than the others did, he probably wouldn’t believe it easily, either. However, he still had to warn them even though he understood their plight. With a sullen expression, he said to the five of them, “Master Felic is our honored guest. When you go back, tell your men to behave themselves. If I find out that any of you had the nerve to disrespect Master Felic, I won’t spare any mercy even if it’s your biological son.”
“Yes.” The five high priests could not help but shiver as they quickly bowed at Sendros. Although they were all members of the Darkness Council, it was still helmed by Sendros, the chief high priest. In the Darkness Shrine, Sendros was equivalent to Pope Rosario of the Brilliance Shrine as far as status was concerned. None of the believers of Darkness would dare to disobey him at all.
Lin Li was ushered into a room by a priest, but he didn’t actually need much rest. Although he flew directly from the Brilliance Shrine, he didn’t feel any fatigue, because he was a level-23 Legendary-mage. Besides, he had a massive amount of mana and mental strength. However, he found it to be a shame that he didn’t get to find out what the urgent matter of Sendros was. Hence, he had no idea if it was really important or not. Besides, he didn’t learn anything from the discussion with the two priests at all.
After sending away the priest, Lin Li took out the Book of Eternity, and began reading it instead of thinking about something else. He was fully engrossed in the book too. It had been about two years since he got the Book of Eternity, but the more he read, the more knowledge he acquired. However, he also felt that he was much further away from mastering all the knowledge in the book. Geresco’s masterpiece was definitely something that other magic books couldn’t compare to. Whenever Lin Li truly understood a sentence, he could clearly feel his progress.
The next two days were rather peaceful. Sendros still did not mention why he got Lin Li to go to the Darkness Shrine, but Lin Li could not be bothered to ask about it. No one would ask for more trouble, after all. Apart from learning magic and reading the Book of Eternity, Lin Li would follow a priest on a tour around the Darkness Shrine.
Everyone in the Darkness Shrine would behave very respectfully whenever they saw Lin Li, be it an ordinary believer or a priest. In fact, even without Sendros’ special warning, the believers of the Darkness Shrine, who heard that Lin Li was an honored guest, knew not to be rude to Lin Li. Back in the Brilliance Shrine, Siddarth, too, wouldn’t have dared to point a finger at Lin Li if Rosario hadn’t had to keep his poisoning a secret.
Although there was almost no obvious alternation between day and night in the Darkness Shrine, Lin Li could guess that it was early morning by judging time according to his own habits. When he heard a knock on the door from outside, Lin Li put away the Dragon Crystal of the Dragon of Destruction and got up to open the door.
There were two people standing outside the door, one of whom was a servant who specifically listened to Lin Li’s orders, while the other was a priest who had shown Lin Li around the Darkness Shrine in the past two days. Although the Darkness Shrine was not small, Lin Li had visited almost all of the attractions in the Darkness Shrine, and there was nothing much left for him to see. Besides, what Lin Li really wanted to see was the Darkness classics of the Darkness Shrine. However, he felt that it would be inappropriate to raise that request with Sendros. After all, he’d managed to read the Light Bible only because he had gotten rid of the Viper’s poison in Pope Rosario’s body. Besides, he wasn’t that close to Sendros.
However, there seemed to be a hint of excitement in Balesi’s expression today. After seeing Lin Li open the door, he first saluted him before saying, “Master Felic, today is the day of the Darkness Sacrifice. The Night Werewolves and the Vampires will be fighting each other in the arena as part of the ritual, and the high priest would like me to invite you to the event. Would you be interested?”
The Night Werewolves and the Vampires were the races with the strongest faith in the Darkness Shrine. Legend had it that they were enemies by nature, and once they fought, they would spare no mercy. However, in fact, the battle between the two groups was more of a ritual to worship the God of Darkness. Nonetheless, it wasn’t a performance, but a genuine sacrifice of blood and lives.
Lin Li could actually imagine that the battle would definitely be low-level, regardless of how intense the battle might be. To Lin Li, the battle was just like child’s play. However, Lin Li gave it some thought again, and felt that he might as well watch the battle since he had nothing to do. “Okay, alright then, I’ll go take a look.”
Lin Li followed Balesi to an arena in the Darkness Shrine, and could hear the cheers from afar. The five high priests were all present at the grandstand in front of the arena, and Lin Li greeted them one by one before taking a seat at the allocated location. However, Lin Li felt rather strange about something. A sacrificial ritual like this was actually like the prayers performed by the believers of light. Lin Li reckoned that it should be a very common thing in the Darkness Shrine. Wasn’t it a little ridiculous and senseless for all five of them to appear here?
On the arena, a young Night Werewolf was fighting a Vampire, and just like Lin Li expected, both of them had only reached level-15. Although the fight was rather intense, it was boring to Lin Li.
The common characteristic the Werewolves and the Vampires shared was that they had extremely strong recovery abilities. Unless their limbs were broken or their innards were ruptured, the injuries that would generally make others lose their mobility would be nothing to them. That resulted in the extension of the duration of their battles.
After watching four battles in a row, Lin Li wanted to yawn. It was not that he looked down on them or anything; the problem lay with the fact that he had been trying to improve his strength, and while he could gain some combat experience from watching a battle between masters, there was nothing for him to gain from a fight that seemed to be one between children.
“Master Felic, I was really envious after hearing about the adventures you had previously. Unfortunately, I can’t leave this place easily because of my duties. I usually spar with them, but we’ve all been spending time with each other for so many years, and so we already know one another inside out. When we spar, it’s almost always the same as the battle there,” said the Lich Gergila, who was getting rather emotional. Staring at the battle in the arena, he shook his head slightly.
“Hah, don’t complain to me about it anymore, High Priest Gergila. You at least have a few companions of the same level as you to spar with. I don’t get such opportunities in the Tower of Dusk,” Lin Li answered smilingly. He didn’t think much of the fact that Gergila had suddenly brought up that topic.
However, Gergila seemed to have suddenly thought of something as he turned to look at Lin Li with a slight gleam of excitement in his eyes. He said, “Master Felic, I do have a request that may seem rude, but don’t hold it against me. I wonder if I may have the honor to consult you about actual combat experience?”
“Oh?” Lin Li glanced at Gergila, but unfortunately he couldn’t see much in his expression. However, Gergila’s tone wasn’t aggressive at all, and he seemed to only want to discuss their experiences.
Although Lin Li headed to the Darkness Shrine because he had been invited by Sendros, he also intended to learn and find out more about Dark Magic. Meanwhile, Gergila happened to be a Lich who practiced Dark Magic. Even Sendros praised him for his accomplishments in Dark Magic when he mentioned him. Hence, Lin Li didn’t turn down the idea, because he felt that it would be wonderful to have a Legendary powerhouse as an opponent.