Chapter 949: 1,300 Years Ago
The Tower of Dusk was now known as the top-tier force in the Breezy Plains that no one dared to belittle. However, with the foundation of the Tower of Dusk, they seemed to have reached the highest status they could rise to, and it seemed impossible to go a step further. They could at most expand their business and earn more money, but those measures were no longer able to help raise the status of the Tower of Dusk. It was almost as good to say that they had reached a bottleneck.
In fact, the status of the Tower of Dusk now was actually the limit that the vast majority of forces in the entire world of Anril could reach. Simply put, the limit was the so-called supreme royal power, and it was impossible for most of the forces to override royalty.
Although Lin Li had reached the Sanctuary-realm, and could be said to be at the pinnacle of Anril where he could ignore the existence of royal authority, neither Lin Li nor the Tower of Dusk could truly be above the royal authority. In Anril, only the two major forces, the Supreme Council and the Brilliance Shrine, could truly override the royal authority, and even influence the entire world. The Darkness Shrine was only at the borderline.
With the heritage that they had accumulated over thousands of years and the support of countless believers of Light, the Brilliance Shrine stood at the peak of Anril. However, the Tower of Dusk could not follow in their footsteps. They did not have that much time to accumulate and form a faith, and it was impossible for Lin Li to advocate any doctrines, either.
The Supreme Council was founded by Geresco, who was known as the God of Mages. At the same time, it was also supported by three mythical figures who had participated in the rebellion at the end of the Dark Age. It had also established the Guild of Magic system in Anril. Hence, the Supreme Council’s position in Anril was naturally irreplaceable, and they could not be replicated.
It could be said that without any special development opportunities, the Tower of Dusk would never be able to override the royal authority or decide the development direction of the world like the Brilliance Shrine and the Supreme Council could.
However, an opportunity to break through the bottleneck of development had now appeared, which was the Sky Castle right before Lin Li. Although the acquisition of the Sky Castle would not cause the status of the Tower of Dusk to suddenly reach the level of the Brilliance Shrine and the Supreme Council, it was an essential foundation.
One could imagine the massive storm that would be stirred up in Anril when the Sky Castle appeared above the Tower of Dusk. With the Sky Castle, the Tower of Dusk would be able to truly break away from the royal authority in the future of its development, and then grow into a powerful force that was above the royal authority.
That was the advantage that the Sky Castle could give the Tower of Dusk, which was absolutely incomparable to any amount of wealth. To Lin Li, owning the Sky Castle would allow him to appear like a powerful force when he sealed the space-time rifts in the future. He could completely allow the mages of the Tower of Dusk to contribute as well.
Owning a powerful Conquering Mageweath in the Sky Castle would allow the occupants of the Sky Castle to increase their strength to an unimaginable level. It would be an exaggeration to call it a level that was nearing the gods, but it would at least allow every mage to exert Legendary-level power.
There were now at least hundreds of mages in the Tower of Dusk’s Mage Legion. Other than that, there were nearly 1,000 registered mages in the Tower of Dusk, which would definitely increase together with the appearance of the Sky Castle. Under the massive power of the Conquering Mageweath, having 1,000 mages would be tantamount to having 1,000 Legendary-mages. The combat power that they could exert would probably make Sanctuary powerhouses seem inferior. The mages from the Mage Legion alone would definitely be of great help to Lin Li when he was sealing the spacetime rifts.
Lin Li shook his head slightly, and put those thoughts in the back of his mind for the time being. If he couldn’t get past Osric, those thoughts would only be unrealistic delusions.
After waiting for about an hour or so, Angelano finally returned while cursing angrily. He had gone to the Rotterdam’s team to help them fix the Alchemy Colossuses. Clearly, as a Guru-level metallurgist, he was incredibly upset that Lin Li had asked him to repair the garbage-like Alchemy Colossuses that were worse than children’s toys. Needless to say, the metallurgists of the Rotterdam had to have been terribly chided by him.
The dumbfounded Donald was watching the Alchemy Colossuses that were going through various tests from the spot where the team of the Rotterdam Kingdom was. There was not a single trace of joy on his face at all. Even though he had already seen that funny dwarf’s alchemical techniques before, he was shocked again this time. The degree of damage done to the Alchemy Colossuses this time was different from before. The difference was like that between a patient and a dead person, and the alchemy techniques that Angelano used were undoubtedly already at the level where he could revive the dead.
“Damn it, how could such a freak appear among the dwarves who are only good at smelting iron!?” Even till now, Donald still did not know exactly what Angelano’s origin was. Although he had taken the opportunity to strike up a conversation with Angelano just now, he only ended up getting chided. Hence, he could only judge from Angelano’s height that he was a dwarf.
Be it Donald or the other people of the Rotterdam, no one found Angelano to be amusing and funny anymore. Instead, they felt that he was rather terrifying. The other party’s alchemical technique had exceeded their knowledge, and that was definitely something that they had to fear.
However, no matter what, the Alchemy Colossuses had already been repaired, and Donald had no excuse to voice his objection. After getting the test results of the repaired Alchemy Colossuses, Donald had no choice but to order the team to prepare for entering the Central Tower.
After everything was ready, the expedition set off again, and made their way towards the Central Tower of the Sky Castle. During their journey, they did not encounter any more obstacles, and managed to arrive in front of the main gate of the Central Tower rather smoothly.
“President Felic, how do we open the gates of the Central Tower? I remember that Archbishop Martin seems not to have the keys to the Central Tower.” Donald once again tried to get Lin Li to drop the idea of exploring the Central Tower.
Archbishop Martin was also put on the spot. He turned to look at Lin Li, and said, “Master Felic, I don’t have the key to the gate.”
However, Lin Li did not answer them. Instead, he walked up the steps in front of the gate, then reached out, and gave the opulent gates a gentle push, after which they opened slowly in front of everyone.
Seeing that the gates were opened effortlessly by Lin Li, everyone behind him beamed with joy. If they could really enter from the main gate, that would naturally mean that they would encounter fewer magic gears and traps. However, Lin Li was much more worried. Clearly, Osric had already prepared a mysterious welcoming ceremony for himself and the rest.
However, Lin Li did not hesitate, nor did he explain anything to Archbishop Martin and Donald. During desperate times, he would still have to fight and break through even if there was a huge trap ahead.
The expedition slowly passed through the gate, and stepped into the hall of the first floor of the Central Tower. The hall was extremely spacious, and it did not look crowded at all even though so many of them had entered. However, when the last person of the expedition team entered the hall, the gates that were opened easily closed automatically with a bang.
The sudden change had given the expedition a huge shock. However, before they could send someone to inspect the condition of the gate, they saw that the space around them was suddenly becoming warped, and all the surroundings gradually became blurred.
“There’s a magic trap!” Many of them shrieked involuntarily. Fortunately, they had been through long-term elite training, and thus did not panic. Instead, they immediately kept their guard up.
However, despite the change, Lin Li did not seem surprised at all. Clearly, it was Osric’s tactic, and it would only be truly strange if there was nothing of the sort instead.
Soon, the warped space gradually became clear again, but everything around them was no longer the same as before. Just now, they were in the hall on the first floor of the Central Tower, but they were now in the wilderness, with the sun shining brightly above them. They were stepping on thick weeds beneath their feet, and as far as they could see, all the land around them was barren.
“Is this an illusion?”
Indeed, it felt like a fantasy. One moment they were in the Central Tower of the Sky Castle, and the next they ended up in the wilderness.
However, Lin Li found it rather familiar. When he first arrived in the Sky Castle back then, he chose to enter through another method because he could not open the main gates. In the end, he was sent into the Seven-Realm Spiral by the Orderly Maze. That seemed to be how it felt.
However, Lin Li remembered that due to the fact that Xiao Hua had devoured a large amount of mana in the Seven-Realm Spiral, and also that he had obtained the control crystal, the Seven-Realm Spiral could no longer be restored. Hence, they probably were not in the Seven-Realm Spiral now.
“This place… is the real world. Have we been sent back to Anril?” asked Archbishop Martin, whose power was at the peak of the Legendary-level. He had a rich knowledge of the nomological power of the world, and at this moment, he was sensing the nomological power around him, only to discover that everything here was real.
Donald from the Rotterdam also had the same feeling as Archbishop Martin at this moment. He immediately had a peculiar expression on his face, and he said to Lin Li with a look of amusement, “President Felic, seems like we have been sent out of the Sky Castle. I think we can try to explore again, but it would be better to find the lost item of the Rotterdam Kingdom and the item that Archbishop Martin wants before we try exploring the Sky Castle.”
Although they had been sent out, Donald didn’t think it was a big deal. They would at most have to make another trip to the Sky Castle. However, he wanted to take the rare opportunity to voice his opinion, and let the crowd help him complete the goal of this exploration first.
The archbishop was also a bit tempted when he heard Donald’s words. The magic traps of the Central Tower were not that easy to break, so he might as well achieve his goal first. However, due to the ties he had with Lin Li, he was too embarrassed to make that request like Donald did.
However, at this moment, Connoris who was beside Lin Li sneered, and said, “You guys had better think about how to overcome this. Things are not as simple as you think, this isn’t Anril.”
“Are you kidding me? This isn’t Anril? Don’t think that everyone else is a fool, this place clearly has the nomological power of Anril. If it’s not, explain to me why that’s the case,” Prince Kanber interjected. He was already displeased with the Tower of Dusk, and he naturally wouldn’t miss the opportunity to mock them at this moment.
However, Kanber’s mocking did not have any effect, as no one from the Tower of Dusk bothered to answer him. After hearing Connoris’ words, Lin Li felt a little surprised, and he turned to ask, “Do you know where this is?”
Lin Li also knew that this was definitely not Anril, as Osric wouldn’t be so kind as to simply send them back to Anril. However, as someone in the Sanctuary-realm, he could not find the difference between the World Laws of this place and Anril. That made him feel surprised.
Connoris raised his arm, stretched his hand out and pointed in a certain direction. He said, “Look at that mountain over there, does it look a little familiar?”
Lin Li was not the only one. Archbishop Martin and Donald, as well as everyone from the expedition, all looked in the direction that Connoris was pointing in. However, there were not many people who could actually see anything, and Lin Li also took a while to observe before hesitantly saying, “It does seem a bit familiar. Could it be the Jojori Peak of Alanna? No, I seem to remember that it’s different from before. There should be a deep rift in the middle.”
“That’s right. Do you know about the legend about the rift in Jojori Peak?” Connoris asked, after which he looked around. Without waiting for their answers, he said, “At the end of the Dark Age, Geresco fought one of the High Elves’ Sanctuary powerhouses in the war to liberate the Felan Kingdom. When the other party was running away, he used a Wind Blade to slash the other party, leaving a great rift in the middle of the Jojori Peak at the same time.”
“You mean… we’re in Alanna now during the end of the Dark Age? You mean the Alanna 1,300 years ago?” Lin Li finally heard the answer in Connoris’ story. However, he found it unbelievable. Could it be that they had been sent to Anril 1,300 years ago?
If it weren’t for his knowledge of Connoris, Lin Li would have definitely thought that the latter had gone mad. Time-traveling was something that only one of the five Dragon Aspects, the Dragon of Time, could do. However, even the Dragon Aspect could only go back in time and observe. It could not actually descend to a certain dimension, let alone teleport such a large number of people back to more than 1,300 years ago.