Chapter 948: Bone Pearl
The reason that Lin Li picked up the bone pearl was precisely because of its ordinariness. Although Lin Li hadn’t participated in the battle to destroy the Double-Realm Psychic Towers, he could imagine how intense the battle had been just by looking at the surrounding scenes. Yet, the ordinary-looking bone pearl hadn’t been damaged at all in the battle. Thus, Lin Li reckoned that it definitely was not a coincidence.
After Lin Li got the bone pearl, he did not stop, and instead he walked towards another tower while examining the bone pearl with his mental strength. He only discovered then that although there wasn’t a trace of mana on the surface, there was actually a very large amount of life and death power in it. However, neither of the powers was exposed, because they had reached a balance.
At this moment, Lin Li suddenly remembered what he had read about a key component of the Double-Realm Psychic Tower in the notes belonging to the Lich. It was known as the Realm Pearl. Legend had it that it was refined from countless skeletons. During the extraction of the bones, the bones had to be taken away from living beings when they were alive. It could be described as cruel and ruthless. Besides, a spatial barrier could be activated in the Double-Realm Psychic Tower to allow the world of the Undead creatures to be projected into that space, which was precisely due to the power of the Realm Bead.
Originally, Lin Li had some doubts as to whether the bone pearl in his hand was the Realm Pearl of the Double-Realm Psychic Towers. However, when the team reached another tower, he picked up a second bone pearl that had rolled into a corner. Half of his doubts were cleared then.
Lin Li, who already treated the Sky Castle as his own, obviously felt the pinch because of the destruction of the Double-Realm Psychic Towers. Even if he destroyed Osric and gained full control over the Sky Castle, reconstructing the Double-Realm Psychic Towers was impossible. Even if he could find enough materials, he couldn’t find that many lives to sacrifice.
However, given the situation, if they had not destroyed the Double-Realm Psychic Towers, Lin Li would probably have had to use the control crystal to flee the Sky Castle with the team. Facing the truly infinite army of Undead creatures, even Sanctuary powerhouses would be exhausted to death. Besides, Osric was still keeping an eye on them in the dark.
Therefore, even though he was reluctant, and was certain that he would not be able to rebuild the Double-Realm Psychic Towers in the future, he had no choice but to destroy them. After all, compared to the Double-Realm Psychic Towers, destroying Highlord Osric was the most important thing to do now.
However, the discovery of the Realm Pearl of the 36 Double-Realm Psychic Towers made Lin Li feel somewhat comforted. Although there was no longer any hope in rebuilding the Double-Realm Psychic Towers, he would be able to install the 36 Realm Pearls in the Black Front Fortress if he could find all of them. He could then use their power to attract the pure death aura from the world of the Undead creatures. Although it could not compare to the Psychic Array of the Double-Realm Psychic Towers, it would allow the Death Knights and Undead creatures in the Black Front Fortress to gain great benefits.
They only took 10-odd minutes to explore the second tower before moving on to the third and fourth ones. Although they did not gain much in every tower, the spoils combined would be quite a considerable gain for the people of the Brilliance Shrine and Rotterdam Kingdom.
In the process, every time Lin Li went near a tower, he would pick up a Realm Pearl. However, they rarely appeared later. Archbishop Martin, Donald, and the rest did not notice it.
Although Lin Li placed the 36 Realm Pearls into his Ring of Endless Storm, he did not feel too elated, because he did not gain any information about Osric after exploring the 36 Magic Towers.
Could Osric have already entered the Central Tower? That made Lin Li feel a little worried. Connoris did not discover anything. That was enough to prove that Osric really was not there. All the previous experiences showed that Osric hadn’t abandoned the Sky Castle. Since he was not there, the Central Tower was the only place where Osric might be.
Previously, Lin Li had been rather eager to enter the Central Tower because he wanted to gain complete control of the Sky Castle before Osric did. Once he had complete control of the Sky Castle, it would be much easier to deal with Osric in the future.
However, there was still a deviation in the plan in the end. If Osric did not enter the Central Tower, Lin Li would be confident that he would be able to reach the top without any obstructions along the way with the control crystal. However, Osric now occupied the Central Tower, and Lin Li did not think that he would allow him and his people to create trouble for him.
Although he had the control crystal and had walked through the Central Tower once during his first exploration, Lin Li did not believe that the Central Tower built by the Immortal King was really limited to that.
In fact, Lin Li had only explored a small area of the Central Tower during his first exploration. If not for Osric, Lin Li wouldn’t have to worry about any unknown accidents, since he had the control crystal. However, the current situation was that Osric’s mastery of the Sky Castle was in fact greater than Lin Li’s mastery of the control crystal. Hence, he had to be worried.
Even though Lin Li had already walked through it once, the Central Tower was still a place that was full of unknown dangers to Lin Li. He could not predict what Osric would place in the Central Tower and what kind of traps he would lay to deal with him.
After all, the Central Tower was left behind by the Immortal King, and Osric was a proud disciple of the Immortal King who had inherited almost all of the Immortal King’s knowledge. No one understood the Immortal King better than Osric did.
However, Lin Li wasn’t willing to give up just like that. It would be fine if there was just one Osric to deal with. If he could not deal with him himself, he could still ask the three arbitrators for help. However, if Osric had complete control of the Sky Castle, the three arbitrators might not be able to do anything to him even if they were to intervene. That would truly be the end of the Tower of Dusk then.
The only thing to be thankful for was that Osric had probably reached the critical juncture of gaining control of the Sky Castle, and did not have time to bother with the expedition. That was more or less a chance. After all, Lin Li had the control crystal, and he did not need to gain control bit by bit like Osric. As long as he was able to get to the top of the Central Tower before Osric did, all of Osric’s previous efforts would only be in vain.
Of course, if it was the other way around, it was possible that Osric could take complete control of the Sky Castle any time, and that would not be good for the expedition. If that happened, the control crystal that Lin Li had would basically be useless. Other than fleeing with his people, there would be no other choice for Lin Li.
However, escaping wasn’t actually just a matter of surviving. He had taken away the control crystal and the perfect body. Since Osric had such a strong hatred for Lin Li, he definitely would not let Lin Li off easily.
The Sky Castle was the product of the High Elves during their pinnacle. This Sky Castle, which belonged to the Immortal King, was the strongest of the seven Sky Castles. Facing the Sky Castle, the Tower of Dusk and the Eternal Furnace would be too weak to even resist.
Hence, even though Lin Li knew it was risky, he had no choice but to take the risk. Taking a so-called gamble would at least allow him to have two choices. However, Lin Li only had one option now, and thus that was no longer a gamble, but a true fight where he would be putting his life at risk.
Even though he had to fight for his life, Lin Li did not reveal any expression. It was as if nothing happened at all. Otherwise, he would probably scare the people of the Brilliance Shrine and Rotterdam Kingdom off.
No matter what, at least things had not worsened to the point of being unsalvageable. That was considered giving Lin Li a chance to survive too. It all depended on whether he could grasp it or not. Once he lost that chance, there would be no way he could turn it around in the future. If he could use it well, he could also gain huge benefits that others could never imagine.
Returning to the expedition’s resting place, Archbishop Martin and Donald each arranged their teams, and then went to look for Lin Li again.
“Master Felic, the expedition still needs some time to rest and recuperate. Do you think we should take this time to discuss the next step of the exploration?” Archbishop Martin had taken his hats off to Lin Li at this point. Besides, Lin Li was the Son of The Holy Light; hence, Archbishop Martin almost sounded like he was asking Lin Li for instructions.
On the other hand, although Donald from the Rotterdam Kingdom was remaining silent, he was clearly waiting for Lin Li’s opinion. After exploring the 36 Magic Towers just now, the Tower of Dusk had already proven their importance in the exploration. Even though he did not say anything, deep down, he still had no choice but to put aside the pride he had as a resident of the Rotterdam Kingdom for the time being.
“Get ready as soon as possible. We will be exploring the Central Tower next.” Lin Li stated his opinion very simply. During the previous exploration of the 36 Magic Towers, he did not split the spoils with the two forces. One reason was that he was not impressed by the spoils, and another reason was that he wanted to leave them with no reason to oppose his opinion.
As expected, Archbishop Martin and Donald did not have any opposing opinions to his suggestion for the following exploration. The Brilliance Shrine had no major problems, but the situation was worse for the Rotterdam Kingdom. With advanced Recovery Potions, the wounded recovered quickly, but the Alchemy Colossuses took a long time to repair. After all, they were not as competent as Angelano.
Donald hesitated for a moment before finally saying to Lin Li with an awkward expression, “President Felic, our Alchemy Colossuses seem to be severely damaged. We would need a few days to repair all of them. Do you think you can get the short metallurgist to help us with the repair?”
The Rotterdam Kingdom had alchemy as its foundation, yet they had to ask an outsider to help repair their Alchemy Colossuses. Others would probably laugh their heads off at that. However, Donald had no choice. After a series of intense battles, the damage done to the Alchemy Colossuses was huge, and while the problem of the magical crystals had already been resolved during the exploration just now, they could not find any replacements for the damaged parts. Back then, they did not expect there to be so much danger in the Sky Castle. Hence, they did not prepare many spare parts for the Alchemy Colossuses.
It was no longer a matter of the time needed for the repair. If they did not have any other solutions now, the metallurgists of the Rotterdam Kingdom’s team would have to rob Peter to pay Paul by completely dismantling a few Alchemy Colossuses, and placing their parts in the other Alchemy Colossuses. If they were to do that, they would definitely reduce their strength due to the lack of Alchemy Colossuses. Secondly, they could not guarantee that the Alchemy Colossuses they repaired would return to their normal performance standards.
Actually, Donald did not really want to go to the Central Tower which had already been explored, because there was nothing worth taking the risk for. He would rather achieve his goal before deciding to explore or retreat. The reason that he made such a request was mainly because he wanted to tell Lin Li that he was not disagreeing with him, but it was just a difficult task. He did not believe that the ridiculous dwarf metallurgist would be able to repair the badly damaged Alchemy Colossuses without sufficient spare parts.
However, with his increasing hunch that Osric was difficult to deal with, how could Lin Li possibly let go of such a good group of cannon fodder? He more or less cared about his ties with the Brilliance Shrine, but he didn’t care about the people of the Rotterdam Kingdom at all.
Hence, after hearing Donald’s words, Lin Li didn’t give the other party any chance at all. He simply responded to the literal meaning of his words, and smilingly said, “You’re being too polite, Master Donald. We’re cooperative partners, and we ought to help each other. Don’t worry, I’ll get someone to repair your damaged Alchemy Colossuses. The performance will definitely be just as good as new.”
Donald didn’t really have any particular feelings about Lin Li’s reply. It was one thing to help them with the repairs, and another thing to repair the Alchemy Colossuses successfully. The Alchemy Colossuses that had been damaged in the battle this time were not simply paralyzed like before. Instead, they were severely damaged from inside out, and there was simply no solution other than to replace the parts.
Hence, Donald nodded with a grateful expression, and said, “Thank you very much. I’ll go ahead and make the arrangements so that your people can go over and repair them.”
After Donald left, Archbishop Martin didn’t stay behind for long, either. Knowing that they would be exploring the Central Tower next, he bade farewell to Lin Li, and returned to make preparations for entering the Central Tower.
After the two of them left, Lin Li turned to look at the center of the Sky Castle and squinted at the majestic tower that he had once set foot in. He stroked his chin and thought to himself that he had to go all out this time. However, if he made it through, he would truly gain control over the Sky Castle, which was a battle fortress that would never fall. Even if he had to put his life on the line, it would be worth it.