Chapter 947: Battle Spoils
After completing the fusion of the magical crystals, Lin Li retracted his mental strength and finally let out a long breath. Although he had planned well and was confident, the process was still full of hardships. Fortunately, his efforts were not wasted. Despite the fact that Xiao Hua’s growth was not enough to guarantee that they would triumph over Osric, it at least provided added assurance and manpower.
However, Lin Li was confused as to why Osric was still indifferent even though Lin Li had cast the Sanctuary-level Magical Domain for such a long time. The fusion of magical crystals for Xiao Hua just now involved a change in Laws, and thus it definitely had greater changes to the perception of a Sanctuary powerhouse than the battle with the army of Undead creatures. As a Sanctuary powerhouse who might have reached the pinnacle, Osric would have definitely detected it as long as he was still in the Sky Castle.
Lin Li did not think that Osric would be like some idiotic Demon King who first chose to send his underlings to heroes for the latter to advance in level when he clearly could have killed all the so-called heroes. Hence, it was very likely that Osric was doing something that was more important than destroying the invaders and the enemies who had stolen his body, and he was too busy to bother with them.
What would be that important to Osric now? Perhaps it would only be gaining control of the Sky Castle. Could it be that Osric is doing his best to control the Sky Castle now, and so is too busy to deal with the intruders—the expedition?
At the thought of it, Lin Li couldn’t help but get a little more anxious. If he had guessed correctly, Osric would have undoubtedly reached the most crucial juncture now. He could probably get complete control of the Sky Castle at any moment. If things were to reach that point, there would be no need for Osric to take action himself. The power of the Sky Castle alone would be enough to annihilate him and the others.
Lin Li made Xiao Hua return to Dream Garden while he stood up and returned to the place where the expedition was resting in a bid to see if Archbishop Martin and the others had gained anything from their exploration.
Originally, Lin Li thought that it might be possible that Archbishop Martin and the others had yet to return since it had only been a short period of time, but to his surprise, Archbishop Martin and the rest were present when he reached the place. They even welcomed him as soon as they saw him.
Before Lin Li could even ask anything, the archbishop said with an awkward expression, “Felic, look at those towers. Is there any way for you to enter?”
That was strange. Lin Li remembered that Archbishop Martin had the keys to the various parts of the Sky Castle. No matter how impressive the Magical Thousand-contraption Lock might be, it could be opened with the right keys. However, how could locks that could not be unlocked with keys be called locks?
Seeing the doubtful expression on Lin Li’s face, Archbishop Martin smiled wryly, and said, “Ever since the Double-Realm Psychic Towers were destroyed, the Magical Thousand-contraption Lock can indeed be opened with a key, but after opening the door, it won’t be a straight smooth path. We did not expect there to be so many magic gears and magic traps in the Magic Towers. We took such a long time, but we did not even manage to finish exploring a single tower. It would probably take us at least 20-odd days to finish exploring all 36 towers.”
When Lin Li and the others first explored the Sky Castle, the Seven-Realm Spiral was the most powerful magic trap that they encountered. Although the power of Lin Li and the rest back then could not be compared to that of Archbishop Martin and the rest, they still managed to pull through—mainly because no one manned the Seven-Realm Spiral for more than 1,000 years.
Although the magic gears and magic traps in the 36 towers could not be compared to those of the Central Tower, they were controlled by Liches of the peak Legendary-realm. Their power had long been activated to the extreme. Actually, they were probably more dangerous than the Central Tower. It was no wonder that Archbishop Martin and the rest took so much time and effort to explore just one.
Lin Li’s original intention was not to waste too much time on those Magic Towers. However, the injured members of the team had yet to recover. He also wanted to determine where Osric was, especially to see if there were any clues about the method Osric used to control the Sky Castle.
Lin Li could not imagine how Highlord Osric could control the Sky Castle without the control crystal. However, the various signs showed that Osric had a certain extent of control over the Sky Castle. In fact, he could gain complete control of it any time.
“Alright, then I’ll bring someone this time and accompany you on this trip,” Lin Li agreed with a nod.
Seeing that Lin Li nodded, the archbishop looked rather elated, while Donald of the Rotterdam Kingdom was secretly displeased. In Donald’s opinion, exploring the tower was a bit difficult, but it would at most just take a little more time. There was no need to invite Lin Li to join them at all. Although the Tower of Dusk took part in the exploration just now, it was completely different without the President. If they made any gains, the Tower of Dusk would take away 10% of it.
However, since Archbishop Martin had already invited Lin Li, there was nothing Donald could say. Even if there was no hope of getting close to the Tower of Dusk, they at least could not push the Tower of Dusk and the Brilliance Shrine together.
Lin Li instructed some people and Connoris, in particular, to follow Archbishop Martin back to the Magic Tower. Connoris’ body was the perfect body that Osric had made for himself, and although Connoris had already gained a perfect coordination with the perfect body, he could still sense the location of Osric’s soul through his body a little bit.
The team arrived in front of a Magic Tower. It was in complete mess, with all sorts of rotting skeletons scattered everywhere, as well as a large number of bloodied fragments exuding death aura. The gates of the tower were wide open. Archbishop Martin was the one who taught them how to open it. Previously, they had only reached the third floor before retreating, and what they gained was just some items that were somewhat valuable.
Archbishop Martin asked Lin Li to join them, but he did not expect Lin Li to solve all the problems at once—he just hoped that with some of his knowledge of the Sky Castle, he would be able to provide some help to them for the exploration. If they faced any problems, it was still necessary for everyone to come together to discuss and solve them. After all, the magic gears and magic traps were left behind by the Immortal King.
Donald also had the same idea. In fact, he did not think that Lin Li would be of much help in particular. The fields of different professions were different worlds. Just because he was good at combat, it did not mean that he was good at everything. Magic gears and magic traps were not magical beasts. They could only be cracked by someone with profound and professional knowledge. Just now, it took a bunch of people and a long period of time to study a magic gear just now. Donald did not think that a young man in his twenties would have such profound knowledge.
The group of people soon arrived on the third floor of the tower, and stopped in front of a magic gear. Actually, there was nothing they could see there except just a few puddles of blood on the ground which had been clearly left behind by Archbishop Martin and the others when they came previously.
After stopping here, Archbishop Martin and Donald turned their heads to look at Lin Li and the others who arrived later. They planned to give him a brief introduction of the place, and then discuss what to do next.
However, to everyone’s surprise, Lin Li and the members of the Tower of Dusk who were under his lead did not stop in their tracks at all. They simply walked over to the location of the magic gear as if they knew nothing.
“Fe…” Archbishop hurriedly yelled, but he was soon dumbfounded and paused.
On the other hand, the people from the Rotterdam Kingdom were initially waiting to see a good show, but they soon acted like they had seen a ghost.
Just before the people of the Tower of Dusk were about to walk to the magic trap, the funny dwarf in colorful armor suddenly wandered out, fiddling with something. He then…
…nothing. Nothing happened! Archbishop Martin and the rest were dumbfounded. The magic gear that had hindered them just now and could not be solved no matter what was actually cracked by the funny dwarf. They could not believe their eyes at all.
Seeing such a scene, Donald became even more enthusiastic. Why bother searching for treasures. The dwarf himself was simply a treasure. After seeing Angelano’s attainments when he was fixing the Alchemy Colossuses, Donald had the intentions of getting close to him. Now that he had seen Angelano cracking the magic gear easily, that idea popped out uncontrollably.
However, that was only the beginning. As the magic gears and magic traps were cracked one by one, the team’s advancement did not decrease in speed or get affected at all. They did not even stop in their tracks. The vexing magic gears and magic traps did not have any effect in front of the funny dwarf. The people of the two forces gradually got numb while standing in the back.
They got up to the fourth floor, the fifth floor, and finally reached the top floor of the Magic Tower. It could be said that their journey was rather smooth-sailing. Although everyone was surprised by the performance of the Tower of Dusk, they did not let go of the various valuable things they encountered along the way.
However, the wealth of the Magic Tower was actually worse than what people imagined. There were some precious magical materials and high-level magical equipment. However, they were far from being treasures. Perhaps, for the average person, the harvest could still be called huge, but what kind of level were the people from the Brilliance Shrine and Rotterdam?
Of course, it was not just a Magic Tower. Perhaps, there would be better ones in the other Magic Towers, or maybe there was none. If they could explore all 36 towers, the wealth accumulated would be shocking.
Lin Li, however, despised those items, and he could not even be bothered to discuss with them the distribution of the items. The reason he was there was to search for any hidden spaces to see if Osric was hiding somewhere, or if there were any clues about Osric’s method of controlling the Sky Castle.
Unfortunately, even when they made it all the way to the top of the tower, Connoris still did not detect any information about Osric through his body. Although there were some magic books in the tower, as well as a few notes from the High Elven Liches back then, nothing useful was mentioned in them.
“President Felic, should we distribute the items? After all, we are partners, and thanks to your people, we can explore the towers so quickly and smoothly.” After reaching the top floor of the tower, the expedition conducted a thorough search again. However, the Tower of Dusk’s decision not to take anything made Archbishop Martin feel rather guilty.
After all, in Archbishop Martin’s eyes, Lin Li was part of the Brilliance Shrine, and no matter what his identity was to others, he would always be related to the Brilliance Shrine since he was the Son of The Holy Light. Of course, his identity was still unproven, but it was mainly because Lin Li himself refused to admit it. Archbishop Martin trusted Pope Rosario’s judgment more.
Therefore, Archbishop Martin hoped that the Tower of Dusk would also participate in the distribution of the spoils. Anyway, one did not allow benefits created by one’s own work to accrue to others. If the Tower of Dusk joined in the distribution, the people of the Rotterdam Kingdom would get a smaller share.
Donald did not know about the matters regarding the so-called Son of The Holy Light; hence, when he heard Archbishop Martin’s words, his face naturally grew sullen as he secretly criticized Archbishop Martin for being silly. However, he dared not blatantly oppose him. After all, in the following exploration, he clearly still needed to rely on the people of the Tower of Dusk. Hence, he decided to give them some advice.
However, in the face of their persuasion, Lin Li did not waver. Instead, he shook his head, and said, “You can distribute them amongst yourselves. If there is nothing else, let’s move on to the next tower.”
Lin Li really didn’t care about the so-called treasures. If he could successfully get rid of Osric, then the entire Sky Castle would belong to him. Those items were nothing compared to that. However, if he couldn’t get rid of Osric, it would be nothing even if he got more treasures.
Seeing that Lin Li was so stubborn, Archbishop Martin and Donald no longer persuaded him, and the two forces split the spoils before leaving the Magic Tower without staying, They walked out of the tower, feeling secretly amazed at the fact that the Tower of Dusk had gotten such a competent dwarf who could crack all magic gears and magic traps. They only took about 10 minutes in total.
However, when he walked out of the gate of the tower, Lin Li had a sudden idea, and he waved his hand, after which a fist-sized bone pearl flew into his hand.
He barely felt any mana fluctuations in the bone pearl, which did not emit the slightest death aura, either. It looked just like an ordinary worthless ornament. Hence, when they saw what Lin Li did, Archbishop Martin did not ask anything, although they were a little puzzled. They did not find there to be anything special about the bone pearl.