End of the Magic Era
chapter-1322

Chapter 1322: Deeper and Darker

This is all Mafa Merlin’s fault. How can he possibly know bloodline transplantation so well? That’s impossible. The intelligence we’ve collected didn’t mention anything of that sort…

How can that guy possibly…

If he knows bloodline transplantation so well, then is Emmy already dead? Damn it. She must be dead already. Mafa Merlin has surely found her weakness and let her die completely.

How is Mafa Merlin possibly able to make such a horrifying potion? Everything is screwed…

“Sunny, I remember that the headquarters decided to give the Ring of Roses to you and Emmy because we trusted your abilities. However, you never collected remarkable intelligence in the past years. You even left a lot of traces leading to the Ring of Roses several times.

“This time, you even retaliated against Mafa Merlin for the idiots of the Shadow Tower. You think you didn’t leave any traces in your operations? Chances are that all the top forces of the Odin Kingdom know about you now.

“Also, how have you been working on intelligence? You didn’t find anything about that potion? Stupid woman. Explain to the elders after the exploration!”

Myers pointed at Sunny’s nose and roared in fury. Then, he picked a channel and left with the people of the Thorny Crown.

They walked into one of the channels. The black and gray mist on Sunny’s skin seethed and then exploded, filling up the entire cavern. The ominous power of death spread out, and corrupted everything on its way.

“Mafa Merlin, I want you to die. You’re doomed, you’re doomed. You will die after being tortured. I will return my humiliation to you in double…”

Sunny roared furiously in the cavern. A few minutes later, Sunny sneered, and didn’t follow the Thorny Crown’s team. Instead, she went into the channel that Lin Yun just entered.

Leading Xiuban and Reina, Lin Yun passed through the caverns that were connected to each other by countless channels. This place looked like an enormous maze.

The previous cavern looked like one that led to the ground, but this one had a channel that slanted downwards. Any of the channels might lead deep underground.

It was just a disguise to fool the people of the Thorny Crown into thinking that he was preparing to return to the ground. It didn’t matter whether or not they were tricked.

“Merlin, why did we split up with those people? Didn’t you say that the exploration would be easier with those people?”

Lord Shawn was holding a large magic crystal, and biting it like a snack on Xiuban’s shoulder. He then chewed its pieces and swallowed them.

Lin Yun was examining some marks on the ground. Hearing what Lord Shawn said, he chuckled.

“I went underground with them because I needed their power. Those people all have special abilities thanks to their foreign bloodlines. Their abilities ensured that we could enter deeply underground without going through any battle.

“Since we didn’t fight, we never woke up the horrifying monster that’s asleep. Right now, I’m certain that even if we have to fight for the rest of the journey, we won’t need to use extraordinary power to combat our enemy.

“That’s good enough. Besides, it won’t be good if those people are still with us as we approach the deepest part.”

Lord Shawn furrowed his brows, confused.

“Won’t it be more dangerous as we go deeper? Why is it bad to have those people as helpers?”

Lin Yun shook his head.

“You’re wrong. The conditions here are special. The closer we are to the sleeping monster, the less dangerous it will be. We’ve already covered half of the trip. If everything goes well, we will arrive at our destination in a similar amount of time as we’ve taken to travel so far.

“From here, the deeper we go and the closer we are to our destination, the safer we will be. Do you remember the giant insects we saw?

“They’re the most dangerous creatures in the underground world. The insects we saw are of the lowest level in their society, and are only responsible for searching for food. Even if they find any food, they won’t be qualified to eat it. They have to move the food back to senior members of the society.”

As they talked, Lin Yun touched a mark on the stone well and put on a smile.

“We’re quite lucky. I had a guess when I saw how weird the insects were just now, and I’ve confirmed it. The insects are in a food crisis. This happens to be a hunting season. They’ll all go to the ground, and hunt everything they see. Then, they’ll carry their prey back to their nest.

“One hunt may last one to two months. The insects we saw were just minions that were responsible for patrol and guard. Their departure, and the traces here, indicate that all the insects have left for the ground. We have plenty of time.

“Without those giant insects, if we encounter anything underground, we can deal with them with ordinary spells without using extraordinary power. Even if the guy underground is woken up afterwards, we’ll have enough time to go there.”

Lin Yun was in a good mood. The most difficult part of the trip was that from the surface to the underground world. There were simply too many monsters in the way.

If the battles had gotten too big, or if the underground monster had detected extraordinary power and woken up, it would’ve been impossible to march to the underground world.

There were a lot of restraints when fighting underground to begin with. If that monster woke up and couldn’t be taken care of, he would have to wait decades before the monster fell asleep again. Otherwise, it would be impossible to develop this plane…

With the bizarre-looking guys of the Thorny Crown’s help, the most difficult part became the easiest. The rest of the journey was a lot easier. Since they hadn’t woken up the monster yet, Lin Yun was confident of keeping it asleep as he went deeper. Then, it would be much easier to develop this plane.

He continued moving forward. He didn’t encounter any underground creatures on the rest of the way, and only found some residues when he passed through the caverns.

The residues were all left when the underground creatures were torn apart by the army insects on their march to the ground. However, no bodies could be found, as all of them had been taken away as food. Even the blood had been cleaned up. Nothing would be wasted.

The residues that Lin Yun encountered were all left by the army ants during the cleaning or the march.

The rest of the trip was a lot faster. The channels and caverns underground were extremely complicated, and the gravity here was unstable too. It was impossible to just go straight downwards as he did at the beginning.

As the army insects marched to the ground, the marks they left behind were the best road signs. Even such insects couldn’t tell directions in the underground world. They never got lost, because they could track down the marks they had left when they traveled earlier. Also, they had a huge population. It was unlikely for all of them to get lost.

The army insects had marched to the ground, so Lin Yun only needed to move in the opposite direction of the marks they left behind. The marks were the best navigation marks for at least half of the remaining trip.

The underground world was completely dark. Only the caverns had a bit of light thanks to the illumination of magic crystals. In such a place, one could easily lose track of time.

As they came closer and closer to the bottom, magic crystals were appearing in the channels that linked the caverns. There were also pure magic crystals in the caverns. Although they weren’t nearly as good as the magic crystals that were condensed in Lin Yun’s Demiplane, they sufficed for the need of magic battleships.

Those magic crystals would be qualified as the fuel in the reactors even in the most powerful magic battleships in the future.

Everybody moved onward in the darkness. All of a sudden, a ring of stone stings appeared around Xiuban, and closed to the center as the earth trembled, stabbing Xiuban’s waist.

Instantly, weird magic waves appeared. The floor under their feet turned soft. At this moment, everybody realized that the stone stings were actually sharp teeth in a monster’s mouth. There were at least hundreds of teeth on this ring.

The monster that looked like a rock had bitten Xiuban on his waist, and was exerting strength with its teeth, hoping to bite off Xiuban’s lower body. Noises of friction burst out. The monster bit Xiuban’s waist like a dog that was mauling a stone. In only one second, more than 10 of the monster’s teeth had broken…

Realizing that the prey in its mouth was quite sturdy, the monster descended, and tried to pull Xiuban away.

Xiuban screamed loudly.

“Sir Merlin, help me! Please help me! Damn it, this monster is trying to eat me…”

Xiuban cried in panic loudly, but there was not the slightest injury on his skin where the monster bit him. He was about to be dragged into the soil when he laid his arms on the stone wall. His arms then became twice as thick. While crying for help, he exerted strength through his arms, and hauled himself as well as the monster out of the hole…

As Xiuban plucked the monster from the wall, the monster was still not letting him go. The monster looked like an enormous earthworm, except that its body seemed to be made of rocks. At least, it felt exactly the same as the stones around.

It didn’t have eyes, nose, or ears, just a big mouthpart that was full of sharp teeth. Xiuban’s legs kicked quickly inside the monster’s mouth. In only a couple of seconds, he made an opening inside the monster’s mouth, and broken stones were splattering out. There was no blood at all, even though the monster had a wound on its body.

Xiuban screamed and extended his mouth, smashing the monster’s mouth that was still biting him into broken stones.

It was not until this moment that Xiuban finally stopped screaming. Touching his uninjured waist, and looking at the monster that was going to escape, he burst into fury.

“Damn it, you dare to mess with the great Xiuban? You think you can get away?”

Xiuban roared and hugged the monster’s body, unleashing a terrifying pressure. Immediately, the monster was caught by Xiuban, and pulled out of the stone like an earthworm that craned its head from the soil.

The monster’s body seemed to be made of circles of stones, and was plucked by Xiuban bit by bit. It was more than 40 meters long, and had another mouthpart that was full of sharp teeth on the other end. After it was plucked, it shivered and wriggled, attacking Lin Yun.

A tornado exploded inside the monster’s mouth. Immediately, countless broken pieces were splashing out, and the monster’s body collapsed into circles of ordinary stones.

However, such stones were a lot harder than the walls. There were also minced bodies inside the broken stones. Some of the bodies were so deformed that it was impossible what they used to be.

Those were all the undigested food inside this stone monster.

Dozens of meters away, Xiuban threw away the last stone in his hand, and rushed over angrily. He stomped every big stone under his feet, and reduced them to smithereens.

After that, Xiuban finally walked close with a bitter expression. He found his reaction a moment earlier too embarrassing.

“Sir Merlin, why didn’t you help me? What if I got eaten? Why did that freaking monster attack me only?”

Lin Yun was smiling, and Lord Shawn was rolling on the ground and laughing loudly.

“Idiot, you’re the fattest one here. Do you think the monster would pick me over you? It wouldn’t have bothered to eat me even if I had walked right past its mouth…

“That monster was an idiot too. It was just level-35. You’d have been too sturdy to digest even if it had swallowed you…”

Xiuban gloomily continued stepping on the stones, gnashing his teeth.

Lin Yun cast Mage Hand, and fetched a glimmering stone from a bunch of ordinary stones.

It was a very special material that was both a stone and a magic material. It could be very useful on some special occasions.

Such monsters were unique ones in this place. They were made of rocks, and could travel among rocks. They were exactly the same as the rocks around the explorers, and certainly couldn’t be detected.

Lin Yun wouldn’t have spotted it if it hadn’t shown up. Also, just like what Lord Shawn said, such monsters would only hunt for the biggest prey so that it could be fed up.

With Xiuban, who was almost 2.3 meters tall, being here, the rock monster wouldn’t have picked anyone else.

Also, the monster had mouths on both ends of the body. Even if its body was broken apart, it would recover very soon as long as part of it escaped. It wouldn’t be killed unless its two mouths were destroyed.

“Be careful, we’re approaching our destination.”

Lin Yun examined the environment, and warned everybody. In this place, the gravity was even more chaotic than before.

They sensed that the channel was slanting downwards, but the gravity made them feel that they were climbing. On the surface, the channel seemed to be upwards too.

After they passed through another three caverns, the gravity became more and more confusing when they passed the complicated channels. Even a Heaven Rank mage would’ve lost their way in this place.

Lin Yun kept throwing Mage Eyes to the channels between caverns, confirming his location by the reaction of the Mage Eyes. Also, he had already known the method of locating himself. He constantly calculated his location, and illustrated the structure of the maze to prevent himself from getting lost.

The deeper he went, the more difficult it was to calculate, and the more time he had to spend to ensure that he wasn’t lost.

On the other side, Myers was traveling with members of the Thorny Crown, and discovered a lot of magic crystals, even though they only mistook them for high-purity mana stones that were never seen in Noscent. However, none of them really felt happy.

The Thorny Crown’s main purpose in this new plane was not to seek wealth, but to find resources that could benefit and help them. That was what they were truly looking for.

If they didn’t find anything that could help with their bloodline transplantation, they wouldn’t feel happy even if they discovered an enormous purple gold mine. It was not unusual for people to starve with gold coins in their hands. If one couldn’t buy things they needed, gold coins were just a common metal.

They had found a potion, which was better than any resources possible, and could cure them of their bloodline weaknesses. Yet, because of the Thorny Crown’s own mistake, it was impossible for them to get the potion anymore.

Therefore, it was only natural that they felt upset. Even though Sunny had been left behind, and didn’t keep up with the team, nobody cared about it anymore. They all wished that Sunny died, preferably in Lin Yun’s hands…