Chapter 800: The High Priest
“Young man, please wait a minute. Don’t be afraid, I won’t hurt you,” said an old-sounding voice which came from the fiery red fire Elemental World. His tone was full of kindness.
Upon hearing his words, Lin Li hesitated for a while, and stopped in the end. He turned around while keeping his guard up and looked in the direction the voice came from. All he could see was a thin figure standing amidst the flames and walking out slowly as the flames parted to make way for him. Lin Li could feel a massive and terrifying aura of Darkness coming from that figure, much richer than that of the Eternal Darkness Altar. However, at the same time, there was also an incredibly hot aura that seemed to be as intense as the aura of Darkness.
“You… Are you High Priest Rogge?” Lin Li asked when he detected the terrifying aura of Darkness, which reminded him of the things that Nefa had told him previously. Hence, he tried to find out something.
At this moment, the figure completely walked out of the fire Elemental World, and was right in front of Lin Li. However, Lin Li was very surprised by the fact that his body seemed to be composed of flowing flames even though he was still in human form, making him look like a fire elemental. However, compared to the ordinary fire elementals, the figure in front of Lin Li contained power that was a countless times stronger, and the aura that it gave out alone was enough to make Lin Li feel powerless.
His power is absolutely above the Sanctuary-realm! Lin Li thought to himself while secretly comparing the aura of the figure to that of the powerhouses of the Sanctuary-realm he had met. He reckoned that only the arbitrators of the Supreme Council would be comparable to the figure in front of him. At the same time, it also confirmed Lin Li’s previous guess about the figure being High Priest Rogge, who was second only to Geresco. Nefa had also mentioned that after High Priest Rogge entered, his powers increased greatly; hence, it wouldn’t be too surprising for him to be as powerful as Megard and Apophis.
“Yes, young man, I’m Rogge, the high priest of the Darkness Shrine,” the figure admitted with a nod, thus acknowledging his identity. However, he continued in a regretful tone, “But even if I go back to Anril, I doubt anyone would recognize me now that I’m in this state.”
“I didn’t expect to see you here, you…” Lin Li scratched his head, and didn’t know what to say to Rogge. Should I ask him if he’s doing well here? Well, he’s already in such a state, obviously he isn’t doing well! Should I ask him how he ended up like this? However, that seems to be rubbing salt into his wound.
Although many mages in Anril had chosen to transform themselves into Liches in order to prolong their lives, not everyone would be willing to take on a non-human form. By the end of the Dark Age, Rogge was already a powerhouse of the Sanctuary-realm, and he was second only to Geresco. Hence, there was no need for him to worry about his lifespan at all. However, he ended up in such a state. Would he mind it or not?
If it were someone else, Lin Li wouldn’t have bothered to contemplate what to say, and would simply ask whatever he wanted without sparing a thought for their feelings. However, now that Lin Li was facing High Priest Rogge, he couldn’t help but worry about the respectable old man’s feelings. It was not because he was afraid of Rogge’s power, but because he genuinely respected Rogge after hearing about his experiences in life. Hence, he didn’t want to say anything inappropriate.
Regarding Lin Li’s awkwardness, Rogge simply chuckled, and asked, “Young man, do you mind telling me what your name is?”
Rogge’s question immediately made Lin Li feel less awkward as he hurriedly answered, “High Priest, you may call me Felic. I’m just a mage.” Still feeling a little nervous, Lin Li ended up blabbering redundant nonsense. He was dressed exactly like a mage, and had just fought the Fire Phoenix. It was obvious that he was a mage.
“Felic, I’m really surprised by how powerful you are even though you’re still so young,” Rogge said while staring at Lin Li and nodding gently. He seemed to be praising Lin Li. Afterwards, he asked, “However, can you tell me how you got here, and what you’re here for?”
Rogge’s benevolent and kind tone made Lin Li feel much more relieved; hence, he didn’t hide any information. Instead, he told Rogge truthfully in detail about how he had entered through the big crack in the Eternal Darkness Altar and then reached an agreement with Nefa to collect the branch of the Tree of Eternity below the volcano.
After listening to Lin Li’s story quietly, Rogge smilingly said, “Oh, so it was that little black dragon who put you up to this. He’s still that cunning.”
Lin Li was shocked to hear Rogge’s words. He wondered, Did I end up falling into Nefa’s trap despite having been cautious all along? However, he recalled his conversation with Nefa again, and it seemed that there was no obvious loophole. Besides, Nefa had also sworn upon his soul that he would never do anything to harm Lin Li.
Seemingly having noticed that Lin Li was confused, Rogge continued before Lin Li could even ask him anything. “Don’t worry, what he told you is true, but you seem to have overlooked something. After you fulfill his request, the two worlds will have returned to their original positions, and without the power of the fire Elemental World, how can he still open up a passage to send you back?”
“Well…” Lin Li froze for a moment, and anger overwhelmed him all of a sudden. Unable to contain it any longer, he yelled, “Damn it, that bastard Nefa actually set me up!”
More importantly, both Lin Li and Nefa had sworn upon their souls that they would not be able to retaliate or take revenge even if they were to find out that they had been duped. After all, the Soul Oath was meant to ensure that both parties would never harm each other.
“Hehe, Felic, don’t worry. I can send you back if you want to leave this place,” Rogge said smilingly after Lin Li vented his anger for a while.
Lin Li definitely trusted Rogge’s words, and he calmed down quickly. He didn’t ask about how Rogge could send him back, but took the rare opportunity to ask other questions. After all, Rogge was a high priest who belonged to the same era as Geresco. Hence, he definitely knew about the events that took place during the Dark Age in greater detail. Lin Li could tell, especially from the information in the Darkness scripture, that Rogge should have a deep understanding of the spacetime rift in Anril.
“High Priest, I have read some information about the big crack that you wrote in the Darkness scripture, but I still have some questions. Could you explain to me in detail?” asked Lin Li, who was no longer worried about how he’d make his way back. The first thing Lin Li thought of were the words that Rogge had left in the Darkness scripture which neither he nor Sendros could decipher completely. They could only manage to read some words that had unclear meanings and were of unknown significance. Since the person who had written those words was right in front of him now, he would obviously take the chance to ask about it.
“Yes, this is indeed the big crack I mentioned, but it does not only refer to this place,” said Rogge. He was not surprised that Lin Li had seen the Darkness scripture. After all, the Eternal Darkness Altar was a forbidden area of the Dark Temple, and only the ones the Darkness Shrine trusted would be permitted entry.
Rogge’s words made Lin Li freeze in shock for a moment, but he instantly understood what he meant. He asked in surprise, “You mean, there is more than one such big crack in Anril?”
Rogge nodded, and patiently continued, “Yes. Back then, Geresco had no choice but to push the Tree of Eternity and make it fall in order to completely overthrow the rule of the High Elves. However, when the Tree of Eternity collapsed, he also noticed that there was a crack in the balance of the World Laws. Hence, he traveled through Anril and personally probed the cracks in spacetime that showed up in every corner, and spent 10 years studying them. After making a lot of complicated calculations, Geresco concluded that the cracks that appeared in spacetime as the Tree of Eternity collapsed would continue to deteriorate and eventually end up becoming destructive disasters to Anril, even though some would be slowly repaired by the Laws of Anril.”
He was also tasked with another immensely difficult task—to seal the cracks in spacetime using a spell written in the Book of Eternity during the disaster. Although Lin Li didn’t like being a world savior, he couldn’t sit back and do nothing when disaster actually struck! He simply hoped that the difficulty of that task wouldn’t be too exaggerated.
“There are a total of six such cracks, five of which are already occupied by the prehistoric magical beasts. Once the cracks expand to a certain extent, the prehistoric magical beasts can barge into Anril through these cracks and carry out a massacre. Although there were no prehistoric magical beasts in the last crack, there is an even more terrifying danger lurking there. Once something goes wrong, a real catastrophe will descend upon Anril.” At this point, Rogge’s tone was full of worry.
Lin Li had always felt that there were still a few powerhouses of the Sanctuary-realm amongst humans, and that even if the prehistoric magical beasts were to invade Anril, they wouldn’t be able to really cause a devastating disaster. However, after hearing Rogge’s words, Lin Li suddenly realized that the problem wasn’t just about the prehistoric magical beasts.
However, Lin Li didn’t continue to harp on that question. After all, even a powerhouse of the Sanctuary-realm like Rogge had described it as a terrifying danger. In that case, as a mere Legendary-mage, Lin Li felt that he ought to improve his own abilities. At the thought of this, Lin Li looked past Rogge and stole a glance at the branch of the Tree of Eternity in the fire Elemental World before asking, “High Priest, what happened to Nefa? Was he really tricked by Geresco into coming here? Given Geresco’s abilities, it should be easy for him to just kill Nefa. Why did he have to go to that trouble?”