900: Piercing the Skies of the Meili Ruins!
27 days later, Hui Ming Borderland, Meili Ruins.
Due to the Star Domain Sea's Demon Ascension Plan, the travel time between major Wizard Lands has been reduced from one month to 27 days.
This signifies that the distance between the major Wizard Lands is gradually closing.
The wizard airship descended from its docking point, and sections of hanging ladders dropped down, systematically forming steps to provide a foothold.
Locke stepped down from the stairs, an astral ring worn on his finger.
The golden radiance overhead made Locke's eyes feel momentarily unadjusted. He looked up, only to see that in the sky of the Hui Ming Borderland, besides the sun, there was a golden palace situated above the clouds.
It was those palaces that emitted a dazzling brilliance, casting a layer of golden light over the entire Hui Ming Borderland.
Locke's pupils constricted slightly because, for some reason, he felt that the palace in the sky—a place he had never been to—seemed familiar.
That should be one of the five great ruins of the Hui Ming Borderland—the [Golden City Ruins].
But he should never have been to that place before.
The Golden City Ruins are one of the five great ruins of the Hui Ming Borderland. Legend has it that in the past, the Golden City was the area with the highest magic concentration in the Eastern Border Region. Only Third Ring Wizards were qualified to live there, and only Sun Ring Wizards could ascend to it.
In the past, the Golden City was considered one of the most powerful regions in the magic world.
But now, the Golden City has long since fallen into ruin; only a Official Wizard is required to be eligible to step inside. The number of ordinary Second Ring Wizards within is unknown, and it seems the status of a Crystallized Wizard in the Golden City is not considered too low.
However, the Golden Cup competition is held in the Meili Ruins, not the Golden City.
For most wizards in the Hui Ming Borderland, the Golden City is more like a background hanging in the sky every day—visible but unreachable.
At this time, besides the Golden City Ruins complex, there were also architectural ruins of various sizes in the sky.
Legend has it that when the Golden City was at its largest scale, half of the buildings in the entire Hui Ming Borderland were in the sky. Now, among the five great ruins, although four are on the ground, most of them fell from the sky.
In the heyday of the Hui Ming Borderland, it was shrouded in streaks of golden radiance. Gold Magic was as ubiquitous as air; perhaps even the breath of a beast contained powerful Gold Magic.
Thus, the wind transformed by Gold Magic could easily lift cities and the earth.
The Hui Ming Borderland once had a name: the [Sky City Cluster].
Locke stepped off the wizard airship and found a small market belonging to the Golden Dynasty next to the docking point, where the flow of people was quite large.
Among the wizards coming off the same airship, there seemed to be spectators coming for the Golden Cup, wizard managers from the Shop Alliance, or contestants.
A wizard manager from the Shop Alliance seemed to be communicating with those contestants on the wizard airship. Perhaps because the other party hadn't investigated his identity, or because they hadn't expected him to personally send a clone to participate in the competition, that wizard manager didn't bother him.
However, that wizard manager, who represented an unknown small aircraft, was pestering a contestant from the [Black Iron Mountain Wilderness Wizard Land], trying to discuss business related to flying magic plants with him.
Locke saw that the wizard manager had adopted a pestering offensive against the wizard, who clearly had no intention of cooperating.
"Wait, sir, please wait. If you want more discounts, it's not like we can't talk..."
There seemed to be many wizard merchants on both sides of this small market, selling everything from Magic items to specialty Gold Magic plants, or various special magical items from the Hui Ming Borderland.
The variety was diverse, with everything one could want.
Locke stood in front of a shop filled with jars. The stall owner was an ordinary Second Ring Wizard, whose eyes lit up immediately upon seeing Locke approach.
"Are you looking for a portion of Spirit Ash, guest?"
"Do you want the Spirit Ash of a Gray Bone Deer King, or a portion of Spirit Ash from an Ancient Troll Thrower of the Troll World?"
Locke asked in confusion, "Spirit Ash? What is that? I've never heard of it."
The smile on the Second Ring Wizard stall owner's face faded visibly, but as long as someone was a Second Ring Wizard, they were a potential big customer. Thus, he still did his best to explain: "Spirit Ash is a recent research result from the Southern Wizard Capital, though we have it here in the Hui Ming Borderland as well."
"It is Spirit Ash created by using Gold Magic to strengthen and allow the soul's residual spirituality to exist within the bone ash. Spirit Ash is divided into White Spirit Ash and Black Spirit Ash. Black Spirit Ash imprisons the souls of others within the ash, while the White Spirit Ash I sell is just some spirituality left behind after those souls have departed. Black Spirit Ash has been banned by the White Wizard Association and can only be bought on the black markets of the Southern Wizard Capital."
"These Spirit Ashes are not just useful for necromancy. Look, you buy a jar of Spirit Ash from me, and then purchase a Myriad Law Sphere."
The Second Ring Wizard stall owner pulled out a bead roughly the size of a basketball.
"You shine the Myriad Law Sphere on the Spirit Ash, and you can summon the powerful departed soul of that deceased warrior to fight for you. How about it, are you interested? A Myriad Law Sphere only costs five hundred thousand magic stones, and the Spirit Ash of a Second Ring creature like the Gray Bone Deer King is also only five hundred thousand magic stones."
"Although they are all one-time-use items, for just one million magic stones and the mana of a Second Ring Wizard level, you can summon a Second Ring level formidable creature to fight for you. It's an absolute bargain."
Locke waved his hand, feeling rather speechless.
"No need."
He possessed Archaeology spells. Although he currently couldn't summon Second Ring level entities because he hadn't obtained the black and white grimoire, he truly had no use for such things.
The stall owner seemed to want to persist, so he continued to tell Locke about the benefits of Spirit Ash, even suggesting that Locke use it as flower fertilizer.
The Second Ring Wizard stall owner said, "This is also a research experiment. Think about it, no one has ever used Spirit Ash as flower fertilizer. If you buy it, even if you don't use it, wouldn't it be great to use it for this cutting-edge research..."
Locke asked, "Won't the negative energy particle field of the Spirit Ash affect the growth of the Magic Plants?"
The Second Ring Wizard stall owner was suddenly left speechless.
"This..."
He had been so focused on talking nonsense that he forgot to keep his logic airtight.
Locke gave him a slight smile, turned around, and left.
Locke established contact with Barrett through the Ganoderma Magic Plant and learned that he was transporting Magic Plants via a magic carriage caravan to the competition site located on the other side of the Meili Ruins.
They were currently crossing a vast wilderness.
There didn't seem to be many mortals in the wilds of the Hui Ming Borderland.
There were historical reasons for this; on one hand, as a former leading Wizard Land, there were indeed fewer mortals here, while the wizard population, especially the number of apprentice-level wizards, was unusually high.
On the other hand, the impact of the Hui Ming Borderland's decline has not completely disappeared even today, and many dangerous existences seem to remain in the wilds.
Barrett the wizard, sitting on a carriage crossing an unnamed wilderness, sent a message to Locke: "I am traveling with several wizards from the Spiral Basin. They told me they are also going to participate in the Golden Cup. Since it's safer to move together, I joined their team."
"Team Leader, the Hui Ming Borderland is truly completely different from our Yunze Wetland. The wilds here are far too dangerous."
"I have never seen a group of apprentice-level magical creatures in the wild dare to attack a Crystallized Wizard, but I actually encountered it here."
"The magical beasts here all seem to have a trace of Gold Magic remaining. They are hard to kill, have powerful defenses, and great vitality. Even with only one breath left, they possess very strong aggression."
As Barrett sat in the carriage, the wheels suddenly seemed to bump into something. With the sound of the axle snapping, the carriage came to an abrupt halt.
"Hmm? Team Leader, my magic carriage seems to be broken."
"I need to get out and check."
On the other side, Locke realized something was wrong.
"Barrett, tell me your coordinates."
Barrett was stunned for a moment, then sent the coordinates to Locke. He then stepped off the carriage, only to see that the First-Class Wizard Apprentice driver of his magic carriage had actually fallen to the ground, his throat covered in blood.
At the same time, a wizard from the Spiral Basin who he was traveling with seemed to have his back to him, clutching his abdomen, bleeding incessantly.
"Save me... save me..."
Barrett immediately rushed forward. "What happened? Wasn't everything fine just now?"
"Wait..."
A solemn expression immediately appeared on Barrett's face.
Because he realized one thing: Official Wizards all have an Eternal Defense Field. Even if they are attacked by magical creatures in the wild, they either die or remain unharmed.
Being wounded like this while facing away from him should be quite rare, shouldn't it?
At that moment, the wizard suddenly turned around, revealing his face—he didn't have a face at all.
Originally, it was just a tail shaped like a wizard. When it turned around, it revealed the black scales of a serpent's tail on the front.
Simultaneously, Barrett heard a scream from behind him.
He looked back, only to see that for some reason, the surroundings had suddenly turned from day to night, and in the darkness, only the magical glow emitted by those few magic carriages remained.
At this point, the apprentices on the magic carriages, as well as the Official Wizards responsible for protecting the caravan, were actually all dead.
The wizards from the Spiral Basin who had joined him were struggling to fight a serpent's tail and had barely survived. Just now, a Official Wizard from the Spiral Basin had been slapped to the ground by that serpent's tail, his lower body directly crushed.
And he himself was also slapped away by this serpent's tail.
Because he hadn't been too close and had avoided it in time, he wasn't hit completely. However, the Eternal Defense Field on his body, [Bamboo Sea Sword Array], had three sword-bamboos shattered at once. The remaining two sword-bamboos automatically sensed the crisis, transformed into sharp swords, and pierced forward, wounding that serpent's tail.
Only then was the serpent's tail forced to retreat.
Barrett stood up from the ground, feeling that his ribs might have been broken by the slap.
At this moment, the food in his stomach seemed to be churning violently.
Barrett Wizard took half a step forward and immediately sensed a terrifying magic pressure suppressing his body.
No... that's not right.
This is... at the Second Ring level!
At this moment, those two wizards from the Spiral Basin also looked back at the remaining survivor, Barrett Wizard.
They looked at Barrett Wizard in terror and said, "A Second Ring level magic creature suddenly attacked our convoy. Heavens, in the wild of the Hui Ming Borderland, we only just left the city and we actually encountered a Second Ring level magic creature attack!"
"What do we do now? We have three Crystallized Wizards now. As long as we unite and think of a way together, we can at least find a way to survive."
The wizard from the Spiral Basin who spoke first clutched the magic box to his chest and said nervously, "This is something Lady Yennefer asked me to escort. If it isn't delivered, I'm dead."
The other wizard from the Spiral Basin glanced at him; the magic box in his hand was a work by the Chief Wizard Mentor of Neher University in the Spiral Basin.
This time, three Second Ring Breeders from Neher University had entrusted their works to them for escort.
Because a joint escort was safer, they were made to travel together.
They never expected to encounter such a thing here.
Barrett Wizard spoke up, "Although I don't know why that Second Ring creature is attacking our convoy, I don't think wild magic creatures would target things that are too difficult to consume. Let's stand together, each maintaining our Eternal Defense Field, and attack this fellow's snake tail. We'll charge out toward the edge of this night."
"I think as long as we show that we are not easy to deal with, perhaps it will eat the corpses of others... whether it eats meat or Magic items, it might let us go."
The other two wizards from the Spiral Basin naturally would not object.
Under the harassing attacks of the snake tail, the three of them finally managed to gather together, though all three had sustained certain injuries by now.
If an ordinary First Ring existence encountered an attack or even a lure-and-kill by such a Second Ring level magic creature, they would likely die instantly, with no strength to resist at all.
It was only because First Ring Wizards possessed the Eternal Defense Field that they had the means for tactical maneuvering and resistance.
One of the wizards from the Spiral Basin clutched the magic box Yennefer had given him and looked at the night sky in terror, where there were even a few stars visible.
"Could it be that this Second Ring magic creature has the ability to maneuver through space, or perhaps it can manipulate time?"
"It couldn't possibly be able to manipulate the night, could it?"
The night of the Wizarding World was not something the night of other worlds could compare to.
The other wizard from the Spiral Basin said, "It's possible it's manipulating space; we might very well have been swapped to another world by it via a plane channel. In other words, even if we charge out now, we'll be in another world."
A sense of despair emerged among the three of them.
No one would have thought that just by escorting a competition entry for a High-Ring Wizard of their own wizard university and staying for a short while in the wild of the Hui Ming Borderland, they would encounter such a terrifying magic creature attacking them.
Now, the three could only bite the bullet and charge out.
But in the next moment, the three saw two snake tails that closely resembled wizards attacking them from the front and back.
The opponent was clearly coming for them.
Therefore, there was no possibility of it switching targets or finding the targets troublesome and changing its mind.
A chilling malice belonging to a Second Ring magic creature crashed against the three of them.
Barrett Wizard clutched the magic box containing the Great Mingli Dragon Sparrow in his hands and gritted his teeth, "Group leader..."
He discovered a problem: at this moment, it was actually impossible to contact the outside world through the water gourd system.
Secondly, his magic power was actually fading rapidly.
What was going on?
Barrett Wizard saw that because his magic power was declining, a gap had appeared in his Eternal Defense Field.
The Eternal Defense Fields of the other two were also starting to show damage because their magic power was disappearing rapidly.
...
At the Meili Ruins, the Golden Cup Tournament Committee invited the wizards sitting in a UFO-like craft to step down. This was a team composed of one Sun Ring Wizard, three Moon Ring Wizards, and four Star Ring Wizards; they were from Dragonfall Land, wizards of the Wind Seeker Holy Land, and they wore a silver badge with a pair of swan wings on their chests.
The staff of the Golden Cup Tournament Committee were all smiles and beaming when they saw these wizard representatives.
The Hui Ming Borderland had long been in decline, while Dragonfall Land was a Wizard Land that had recently risen and become increasingly powerful. As the face of the Hui Ming Borderland, although the Golden Cup had a great reputation and was ancient, having been held for over three hundred sessions...
...it had taken a great deal of effort for them to invite this group of wizard representatives from the Wind Seeker Holy Land.
A Sun Ring Wizard director from the Golden Cup Tournament Committee said with a beaming smile to Quinn Bruce of the Wind Seeker Holy Land, "Mr. Bruce, I am very happy to have been able to invite you here. A flight expert like you is respected everywhere; with your arrival, I'm sure the wizards participating in the competition will feel greatly honored."
"Hope you can find sufficiently excellent products in the competition."
As the person being sought after, Bruce Wizard naturally kept a cold face, looking almost depressed; he nodded slightly, which was considered acceptable for appearances.
Thus, the delegation from the Wind Seeker Holy Land was invited into the resting place prepared for them by the Golden Cup Tournament Committee working group.
Bruce Wizard said in a low voice to a secretary beside him, "Sigh, because the Star Domain Sea has been aggressive lately, snatching many of our resources, Dragonfall Land needs to unite with the Hui Ming Borderland. For the sake of some prestige, they want our Wind Seeker Academy to cooperate with the champion of the Golden Cup's flying magic plant competition."
"If it weren't for that, how could I possibly give up so much alchemy machinery that can be developed and has a bright future, and run all the way here to seek some flying magic plant?"
"Isn't this a joke? The ideas of those High-Ring Wizards above are truly whimsical; perhaps I just can't understand them as a low-ring wizard. But sometimes I feel they might just be at this level, just liking to give blind orders."
His Moon Ring secretary witch coughed and said, "Lord Bruce, actually, we just need to keep up appearances. The High-Ring Wizards have their own ideas, but we have our own ideas too."
"We don't know what they really want to do, but they might not know exactly what we are going to do either. If there are no good works in the Golden Cup flying magic plant competition, then you can just find a third-rate developer, find some shops to promote it, go through the motions, and satisfy those above."
Bruce Wizard nodded. "I feel the same way."
At this time, the Sun Ring Wizard director from the Golden Cup Tournament Committee, who was leading the way, had a complex expression; he had overheard some of it.
But at this moment, he could only pretend not to have heard.
Right now, they were the ones asking favors of others.
Just then, suddenly, a mass of fire clouds appeared in the sky above the entire Meili Ruins. That magic pressure, active like raging flames, was constantly rising, then step by step reached the Second Ring limit magic pressure of 19,999.
The terrifying magic pressure turned the horizon into gold and red, and even the Golden City Ruins in the sky seemed to be situated within leaping shadows of flame.
Bruce Wizard was stunned, and everyone else was stunned as well.
They all looked up toward the source of the magic pressure in the sky.
Which Second Ring Wizard was actually completely releasing their magic pressure above the Meili Ruins?
At this moment, in the sky, Locke summoned his own Great Mingli Dragon Sparrow. Flying there with the Magic Dragon Rose would be too slow, and he probably wouldn't make it in time, so he was using the second Great Mingli Dragon Sparrow he had cultivated.
That is, the Magic Plant he kept with him as the mother plant.
A sharp cry rang out beside him, and immediately after, the Great Mingli Dragon Sparrow behind Locke's back, like a firebird, had all its plantain leaves and roots burst into flames, propelling him rapidly toward a direction outside the Meili Ruins.
Like a streak of fire across the sky, or like an undying bird pouncing on an enemy.
The Magic Plant behind Locke's back rapidly increased its speed in a short amount of time; even every half-breath, its speed would increase further.
In just a moment, he had already approached the wilderness, and even before he arrived, his massive and scorching magic pressure had already reached it.
That magic pressure suppressed the Second Ring creature hidden beneath the wilderness.
Locke's voice came howling through the scorching Magic Wind.
"You dare!"
At this moment, the several wizard representatives from the Wind Seeker Holy Land all looked at the firebird streaking across the sky in astonishment. One wizard representative suddenly spoke up, "The magic pressure conversion flight rate of that Magic Plant seems to be above 11, quite possibly 11.1."
The Moon Ring secretary witch beside Bruce Wizard nodded and said.
"Indeed it is. Furthermore, the instantaneous explosive power of that Magic Plant is impressive. I have almost never seen a similar explosive flight device."
The Moon Ring secretary witch looked up and saw the light in Bruce Wizard's eyes.
As a flight device manufacturer, Bruce Wizard had a very precise intuition regarding any flight-related magic matters.
"What is that? I want to turn it into a large-scale flight device."
"What is that?"
"Quickly, go to that direction and talk to that wizard."
At this time, after a brief moment of surprise, someone from the Golden Holy Grail working group suddenly said in a low voice, "Lord Bruce, you don't need to go looking. That work seems to have already entered our Golden Holy Grail's flying magic plant competition. According to the entry data, if I'm not mistaken, that is likely the flying magic plant sent from the Golden Crown Mountain side: the Great Mingli Dragon Sparrow."