Chapter 787: Darkness Scripture
Lin Li wasn’t too interested in Prophet Willen, but Rodhart was linked to the two pieces of the debris of the stars in the underground palace, Raging Flames and Polar Snow. Lin Li couldn’t guarantee that the fierce deity who was once famous in Anril could continue to hibernate when he really acquired Polar Snow and Raging Flames. The Retribution Knight had conducted a massacre in Anril and had terrifying abilities. If Lin Li was clueless about that, his outcome would probably be unfavorable.
Although the spacetime rift seemed to be rather dangerous, Lin Li still decided to find a chance to find out about it. Otherwise, he wouldn’t feel confident about dealing with Rodhart whose powers were at least of the Sanctuary-level.
However, Lin Li did not immediately mention that idea to Sendros, and simply said calmly, “Master Sendros, speaking of which, you haven’t told me why you got me to come here.”
Actually, he could already guess what Sendros needed help with, and he reckoned that it probably had something to do with the Eternal Darkness Altar. Hence, there was no need for him to take the initiative to mention it.
Sendros naturally didn’t know what Lin Li was thinking. However, after he heard Lin Li’s question again, there were finally some changes on his face. Seemingly deep in thought, he said, “Because the time is up.”
“What? What do you mean the time is up?” Lin Li asked in puzzlement, for he had no idea what that had to do with him.
“About 600 years have passed between the time that High Priest Rogge sealed the Eternal Darkness Altar and the time of Willen’s and Rodhart’s arrival. Another 600 years have passed since their visit. Lately, I’ve been feeling a little uneasy, and after I thought about the abnormal mana waves in the Night Canyon, I sensed that the disaster seems to be on the verge of striking the Darkness Shrine again,” Sendros said with worry written all over his face.
“Wait, this time, shouldn’t it be…” Lin Li thought about it, and felt that the timing seemed to be somewhat different from what Tutankhamun mentioned. Didn’t Tutankhamun said that the Black Current would appear once every 400 years, together with the magic tides? he thought.
He decided to tell Sendros about Tutankhamun’s conjecture and the things that Stephen said.
“Actually, Tutankhamun is not wrong, but what Stephen said was just a speculation made by the Darkness Shrine a long time ago. The magic tides and the Black Current indeed happen once about every 400 years, but High Priest Rogge’s seal gave the Darkness Shrine 200 more years to struggle. Unfortunately, the Darkness Shrine did not notice the good intentions of High Priest Rogge during the previous catastrophe. Hence, we wasted the 200 years that were meant for making preparations,” said Sendros, who wasn’t shocked to hear what Lin Li said.
“So that’s what happened, but what does this have to do with me? “Lin Li asked. He didn’t think that he’d be able to get rid of a disaster that would threaten even a powerhouse of the Sanctuary-realm with his current abilities.
“I don’t know, but the prophecy says that only the Darkness Incarnation can save the Darkness Shrine,” Sendros said while staring at Lin Li with an intense gaze that was full of anticipation.
Back to that topic again! Lin Li rolled his eyes, but he couldn’t be bothered to explain, either. Anyway, he would never admit that he was the Darkness Incarnation.
Seeing that Lin Li was vehemently refusing to acknowledge his identity, Sendros could not help but shake his head, and put the matter aside for a while. He then said, “Since you refuse to admit it, we shall drop the topic, Master Felic. However, in the past few days, there have been some delay because I had to check on some things in the Eternal Darkness Altar. I hope you’ll stay in the Darkness Shrine for a few more days this time. We can talk about the cooperation, and if you’re interested in Dark Magic, I can lend the Darkness scripture to you temporarily.”
“Well…” Lin Li obviously wished for such a wonderful offer. After pretending to be restraining himself for a while, he nodded and agreed. “Alright. As long as you don’t say anything about the Darkness Incarnation again, I’ll stay and impose on you for a few more days. ”
Although Lin Li still did not acknowledge the identity of the Darkness Incarnation, Sendros was rather delighted to hear that Lin Li had agreed to stay in the Darkness Shrine as a guest. He thought, It doesn’t matter if the kid doesn’t want to admit that he is the Darkness Incarnation now. If the catastrophe really strikes the Darkness Shrine, no one can be alone, and he will then have to admit it.
Lin Li stayed behind as a guest in the Darkness Shrine, and Sendros really did not mention the Darkness Incarnation again. The five high priests were also informed about it, and did not mention the Darkness Incarnation even though they seemed to look at Lin Li with some piety.
You wanna talk about the cooperation, huh? Since you refuse to admit that you are the Darkness Incarnation, we’ll have to talk about whatever there is to talk about! Sendros thought to himself. Since he could lead the Darkness Shrine to its current developed state, Sendros was definitely far more capable than just being a good mage. When talking about the cooperation with Lin Li, Sendros exhibited the brilliance of an excellent leader. He wasn’t calculative, but was rather serious about all details. He didn’t let the Tower of Dusk take advantage of them, and he also fought for what the Darkness Shrine deserved.
Lin Li was feeling extremely helpless as well. He felt that Sendros was being too petty for his age, for Lin Li merely refused to be the Darkness Incarnation. However, that was a good thing too. Although he didn’t manage to take more advantage in the cooperation, the cooperation itself was supposed to offer mutual benefits in the first place, and Sendros wasn’t stingy with the benefits that the Tower of Dusk would be getting.
The most important point of cooperation between the Tower of Dusk and the Darkness Shrine could be considered an exchange for talent using materials. The development of the Tower of Dusk had been rather rapid and stellar, but at the end of the day, it had only been established for more than two years, and it still seemed to lack some talents.
The definition of talent was not just being good at magic. A force would require a variety of talents to develop, and it would obviously be too slow to cultivate some talents from scratch. Compared to the forces in the Breezy Plains, the problem of the lack of talent wasn’t that serious, but Lin Li was not satisfied with letting the Tower of Dusk dominate only the Breezy Plains. His goal was to let the Tower of Dusk become the strongest force in the entire Anril, just like the Brilliance Shrine and the Supreme Council.
In fact, with the development momentum of the Tower of Dusk, it wasn’t impossible to achieve that goal, but with the expansion of the Tower of Dusk’s businesses, the lack of talent had gradually become the key in restricting the development of the Tower of Dusk.
Although the Darkness Shrine had experienced a destructive disaster, they still had a heritage more than a millennium and a strong foundation, especially in terms of accumulation of talent. Hence, the Tower of Dusk was far from comparable to them.
The problem the Darkness Shrine had was as simple as poverty. However, that did not mean that they only lacked money. They also lacked various materials, magical equipment, and potions. Of course, it could also be chalked up to them being too poor to afford those things. Although the wealth possessed by the Darkness Shrine was beyond the reach of many forces, it still wasn’t enough for them to rise again and return to their heyday.
Hence, the Tower of Dusk and the Darkness Shrine clinched a deal where materials would be exchanged for talents. Of course, it didn’t mean that the Darkness Shrine would transfer all of their talents to the Tower of Dusk. Those who would be joining the Tower of Dusk were similar to mercenaries.
After all, the Tower of Dusk was the Breezy Plains’ Guild of Magic, and not only did they lack talents, their talents were also individualistic. Although they had conquered a group of small- and medium-sized forces, those people were definitely not talents, and were merely in charge of hard labor. However, it was different for the Darkness Shrine. There were believers of Darkness of various occupations such as Assassins, Warriors, Bandits, and so on, all of whom were far stronger than the small- and medium-sized forces under the Tower of Dusk.
After several days of negotiation and reaching a consensus, the first batch consisting of members of all professions above level-15 immediately set off to the Tower of Dusk with their contracts under the lead of the Legendary Priest Balesi. Lin Li selected those people not simply based on their strength and power, but also because of their talents in other aspects, such as business management, forging, potion making, etc. Once those people reached the Tower of Dusk, they would not only increase the combat power of the Tower of Dusk by a significant amount, they would also play a significant role in other aspects. After all, combat was just a small portion of a faction’s strength.
After sending away those believers of Darkness, Lin Li also began to focus on his own matters. Sendros fulfilled his promise, and lent the Darkness scripture to Lin Li. Although the scripture was considered a supreme treasure to the Darkness Shrine, Sendros had long recognized Lin Li to be the Darkness Incarnation, and he wished Lin Li would make a sudden breakthrough in Dark Magic.
Reading the Darkness scripture was necessary, and the five Legendary-level high priests had all become Lin Li’s best companions. It was a rare opportunity as the five high priests were all Legendary powerhouses who were between level-22 and level-23. Whenever they talked, Lin Li would learn something new. Lin Li would put theory into practice, and he seemed to learn something new about Dark Force and make progress in mastering it every single day. Although Lin Li did not take out the debris of the stars Gloomy Dark in order to avoid hearing Sendros mention the Darkness Incarnation again, he was still certain that he definitely had better control of it now.
After studying in the Brilliance Shrine, Lin Li gained a better understanding and control over the nomological power of Holy Light, but the power of the Light and Darkness Domain that he created did not improve much, because the other important component of Laws of the Light and Darkness Domain, the Darkness Domain, had become a shortcoming of the Magical Domain. Now that he was reading the Darkness scripture with the personal guidance of Sendros and the company of the five high priests who helped him train, Lin Li gradually made up for this shortcoming, and the power of the Light and Darkness Domain began to increase rapidly.
Of course, during this period of time, Lin Li was not the only one who had really benefited. Sendros was still feeling worried about the disaster that would strike the Darkness Shrine this time, but after confirming that Lin Li was the Darkness Incarnation, he was somewhat relieved. Sendros, who was an avid fan of pharmaceutics, obviously wouldn’t miss the opportunity to consult a real pharmaceutics Guru about pharmaceutics now that he had gotten some peace of mind at last.
Although the five high priests were not very interested in pharmaceutics, they still gained something from every sparring session with Lin Li. As for actual combat experience, Lin Li was no worse than the high priests who had lived for hundreds of years, and was in fact even better than them, even though he was only in his early twenties. Although Lin Li didn’t have much experience, he had absorbed some of the information obtained from the controlling magical crystal in the Sky Castle, and also gotten some experience accumulated over 10,000 years in Balak’s magical crystal. Hence, he only lacked the fusion of those experiences. It could be said that during each discussion and sparring session, Lin Li would digest and absorb part of those experiences and knowledge, and transform them into his own.
During each of those sessions, the five high priests would act like they had received a treasure whenever Lin Li revealed a little bit of what he had learned. The five of them had initially treated him with added respect only because of his identity as the Darkness Incarnation, but after the interactions they had during this period, they began to look up to him and feel convinced with his abilities in every aspect.
During Lin Li’s stint at the Darkness Shrine, he continuously improved his strength and abilities in terms of experience, knowledge, and understanding of power. On the other hand, the Tower of Dusk was also developing and growing rapidly. The cooperation with the Brilliance Shrine had enabled the Tower of Dusk to truly step out of the Felan Kingdom, and gain unobstructed access to everywhere in the world where there were believers of Holy Light. Their business activities and operations were almost unimpeded; even the Glittergold Trade Union did not enjoy such advantageous treatment.
At the same time, the secret cooperation between the Tower of Dusk and King Sinelli of the Ledin Kingdom also proceeded smoothly. Under the instructions that were secretly given out by King Sinelli, many of the nobles of the Ledin Kingdom who owned mines and ores signed an agreement with the Tower of Dusk, thus providing a solution to the problem of lack of ores that the Tower of Dusk had been facing for a long time.
In fact, the Tower of Dusk had been involved in the forging business for a long time, but the limited production scale had prevented their business from growing. If they were to go for the high-end market, Lin Li would have to do it himself. It would be fine for him to do so occasionally, but it wouldn’t be sustainable in the long run, for Lin Li couldn’t spend that much time on forging. Lin Li could impart his forging skills to the blacksmiths there, but most of the mineral resources in the Felan Kingdom were in the hands of the Marathon Family, and even if they had better blacksmiths, they still couldn’t produce more weapons without ore.
Although the hatred and feud between Lin Li and the Marathon Family were somewhat resolved by the intervention of the Supreme Council, they still weren’t eliminated completely. It would be fine if Matthias was just a wastrel and a letdown of the family, but throughout the hundreds of years that the Marathon Family had existed, they had only produced one ingenious mage, and that was Matthias. Wilhelm had put a lot of effort into nurturing and grooming Matthias in hopes of making him a Legendary-mage who would help their family progress further. However, everything went down the drain because of Lin Li. Hence, they definitely still bore a strong grudge against the Tower of Dusk.