Chapter 1020: Returning To The Library
After those matters were settled, Lin Li didn’t stay behind in the Sky Castle any longer. He activated the Sky Castle’s defense system, and brought his subordinates back to the Tower of Dusk. The two Undead servants and the Retribution Knights returned to the Black Front Fortress to digest and assimilate all of the knowledge that they had received during this period of time. On the other hand, Connoris and Angelano were researching and working on some random things in the Eternal Furnace. The other members of the Tower of Dusk also immediately began studying intensely, perhaps because they missed the opportunity the magic tides had brought.
After arranging everything, Lin Li went to the library of the Tower of Dusk by himself, and placed all the magic books that he had collected in the tower under the Sky Castle on the bookshelves. The Tower of Dusk had not been established for long, and thus it did not have a strong foundation, unlike the other forces which had a heritage of thousands of years. Hence, the library had never been full. Even though the quality of the magic books was very high, the scarcity of books still made it seem weird. However, the library finally looked decent after Lin Li placed some books in it.
Now, the library of the Tower of Dusk was probably just as rich in resources and magical knowledge as that of the Supreme Council. In fact, it was probably even more comprehensive. Most importantly, the magic books that Lin Li had obtained this time were all written by Geresco who had the characteristics of human mages in mind when he wrote them. Hence, they were magic books that truly belonged to humans.
Although the human magic civilization had developed for more than 1,300 years since the end of the Dark Age, the crystallization of magic civilization that human mages now had was only limited to the magical knowledge below the Legendary-realm. After entering the Legendary-realm, most of the books they read were the magic books of the High Elves which were at most translated and enhanced with some annotations of the predecessors.
That resulted in a huge problem—humans did not have a complete and unified magical knowledge system of their own. They had no choice but to inherit the magical knowledge system of the High Elves. However, humans were very different from High Elves. A clear difference was that the High Elves had long lifespans, while humans could only live at most up to a few hundred years, even if they were Legendary powerhouses.
Besides, the written language of the High Elves had always been known for its complexity and magnificence, which caused the translated texts to vary in interpretation. The same text might be translated in 100 different ways by 100 different translators. If it was just a literature piece, there would be no problem with that, but the Legendary-realm involved the analysis and understanding of the Elemental Laws, and the most probable consequence would be a drastic difference between the intended meaning of the original text and the translated text.
If a mage were to go on the wrong path in the Legendary-realm, then even if the possibility of it was not cut off entirely, the difficulty of him stepping into the Sanctuary-realm would be hundreds of times higher. That was also an important reason why although there had been countless magical geniuses after 1,300 years of development of human magical civilization, there were very few who could enter the Sanctuary-realm.
Only by perfectly understanding the basic laws of the world could one be familiar with the nature of the world and become an existence that was closer to gods. If there was some deviation in the understanding of the basic World Laws, how would one be able to see through the essence of the world?
For human magical civilization, the period of more than 1,300 years was just like a period of figuring things out and advancing forward. The experience of the High Elves still belonged to the High Elves, after all, and would lead human magical civilization to a more deviant path. Some people might find the path to entering the Legendary-realm, but they might not be able to find the direction to the Sanctuary-realm. Some might have found the door to the Sanctuary-realm, but they might not be able to step through it.
Previously, in the inverted tower of the Sky Castle, Lin Li passed the test of Geresco’s incarnation, which had also said that the Immortal King and Geresco had gone on the wrong paths. The Immortal King, who had single-handedly created the prosperity of the High Elves’ dynasty, and Geresco, who was called the God of Mages, had both gone the wrong way. Clearly, it was extremely difficult to find the correct path without proper guidance.
Besides, once one went wrong on the path of magic, it would basically be impossible to go back and start over. For example, Lin Li’s teacher Andoine had chosen to use the Thorn Domain as his Magical Domain, which had basically cut off the possibility of him stepping into the Sanctuary-realm in the future. It would be impossible for him to start all over again. Even Geresco and the Immortal King could not start again. Not to mention, Lin Li had yet to reach their level.
Of course, even with the existence of the batch of human magical books, it did not mean that all human mages reading them would reach the Sanctuary-realm. After all, the problem of the development of magic civilization was not something that could be resolved by a single person—not even Geresco, who was known as the God of Mages.
However, Lin Li was not in the mood for developing human magical civilization. After all, he had just stepped into the Sanctuary-realm, and what he was concerned about now was how he could increase his strength and that of the Tower of Dusk.
With a batch of human magic books, Lin Li believed that the mages of the Tower of Dusk would not face major issues in reaching the Sanctuary-realm as long as they had enough talent in magic.
This time, the outbreak of the magic tides allowed the mages who remained in the Tower of Dusk to experience a qualitative leap in their abilities, but the increase in combat power was disproportionate. If those mages were to go against the other mages whom Lin Li had brought to the Sky Castle, they would definitely lose terribly. After all, the people whom Lin Li had brought away had all experienced the tempering of countless intense battles. In terms of the use of mana and combat experience, the mages who’d stayed behind could not compare to them.
It was just like when Lin Li was in a battle with Geresco’s incarnation in the inverted tower of the Sky Castle. Geresco’s incarnation was limited to level-25, but with his rich experience, he still managed to give Lin Li a hard time. Clearly, the gap between realms could not be made up for with technique, but the gap between levels could be compensated for.
The magic tides allowed the mages who stayed behind in the Tower of Dusk to break through their bottlenecks and experience a huge increase in their power. However, with the help of the magical books, Lin Li believed that they would soon be able to turn their superficial power into actual combat power.
In general, although Lin Li had left the Tower of Dusk for three years, and the development of the Tower of Dusk had taken a sharp turn for the worse in those three years, all the problems that they faced were no longer problems now that he had returned.
While thinking about the development of the Tower of Dusk, Lin Li carefully sorted out the magic books and placed them on the bookshelves. However, when he put the last magic book on a shelf, he suddenly felt a majestic mana wave surging from behind him.
At the instant that the mana wave surged, Lin Li immediately reacted and made his Domain World engulf the space around him before turning around to look behind him where the mana wave came from.
“Geresco!” Lin Li couldn’t help but be shocked when he saw the figure not far behind him. This is the library of the Tower of Dusk, why is Geresco here?
Thinking about the magic books that he had just placed on the shelves, Lin Li finally realized that the magic books contained the condensed mental strength of Geresco’s incarnation. Since he placed the magic books there, Geresco’s incarnation was naturally brought there too.
Although Lin Li was a little surprised to see Geresco’s incarnation, he was not nervous and worried about it. Instead, a strong excitement surged in his heart because he knew that the appearance of Geresco’s incarnation would only be beneficial to him.
The battles in the inverted tower of the Sky Castle allowed Lin Li to gain a lot from Geresco, which was not a gain inferior to his ownership of the Sky Castle. Although the Sky Castle was massive, it was just a material possession, after all. Lin Li could use it as a tool, but he could not rely on it completely. The improvement of his own abilities was what was truly important.
Since Lin Li had passed a test before, the current Geresco’s incarnation had advanced by one level, and was now restricted to level-26. Just like before, Geresco’s incarnation did not say anything, and simply waved his hand, after which everything around them became distorted. By the time it returned to normal, the scenery around them was no longer that of a library.
Although it was not the first time that Geresco’s incarnation had brought him away to another place, Lin Li still couldn’t help but feel a bit shocked. Lin Li was now a powerhouse who was at the peak of the Sanctuary-realm’s level-26. Lin Li would be able to detect all the changes in this space, not to mention such an obvious transformation. However, everything seemed so natural as if it were a perfect fit. Lin Li even felt that he was already in that space in the first place.
Lin Li had originally thought that since he had passed a test and gained more experience and knowledge, the gap between him and Geresco would be reduced a little. However, it seemed to him now that Geresco was still a superior existence whom he could only look up to. Geresco’s strength was simply boundless.
The space that Geresco brought Lin Li to this time was not like an arena like before. Instead, it was a World of Void where there were countless boulders floating around, making Lin Li feel as if he had barged into an asteroid belt in space, and they were constantly shuttling around him.
Although the asteroids seemed to be flying slowly, Lin Li could feel that the kinetic energy contained in the asteroids was on par with Legendary-level magic spells. In such an environment, not only would he have to face Geresco whose level was higher and who had richer experience and greater skills, he also had to consider the asteroids around him. It seemed that it was not going to be easy for him to pass that test.
Just like before, as soon as Lin Li got a clear glimpse of the surroundings, Geresco’s incarnation launched a harsh attack on him. The strength of Geresco’s incarnation had increased to level-26, and the combat power he could now exert was far greater than before.
After exchanging blows for two rounds, a giant sun-like fireball penetrated Lin Li’s layers of defense without any hindrance. While whirring at high speed, it stopped in front of him and constantly emitted scorching waves of heat. Looking at the giant fireball that was right in front of him, Lin Li couldn’t help but be frightened to the point of breaking out in a cold sweat despite the blazing heat.
Lin Li had initially thought that since he had passed a test, mastered the knowledge, and integrated the experience he’d gained, he would at least be able to last a few rounds against Geresco even if he was far from being comparable to him. However, he had not expected his confidence to be shattered by Geresco’s incarnation as soon as he started.
The giant fireball gradually dispersed, and Geresco’s incarnation once again appeared in front of Lin Li. Holding the Helios’ Scepter tightly, Lin Li was just waiting for the right moment to immediately launch an attack on his opponent. However, Geresco’s incarnation did not give Lin Li that opportunity, and instead returned to the library together with Lin Li.
Lin Li had never enjoyed such a treatment in the inverted tower of the Sky Castle. Instead, he had been abused by Geresco thousands of times, and he had been constantly learning and improving during the process. Hence, although Lin Li had once again been defeated in two rounds, he was already ready to be abused thousands of times again.
However, Lin Li never expected that he’d be defeated in one round. How could he learn anything from the battle, then?
However, just as Lin Li was feeling puzzled, a magic book with a simple cover suddenly flew out of nowhere. The magic book flew straight to his side, hovered in front of him, and was then opened by an invisible force. Dozens of pages flipped before stopping.
After Lin Li looked at the pages of the books, he immediately understood Geresco’s intentions. Clearly, Geresco wanted to make Lin Li find out the reason for his failure in this exchange and think about the counterattacks that he could make. Actually, the reason for it was very simple, and that was that Lin Li’s problem was extremely complex.