Chapter 31: So You're the One They Call the Shadow Mage?
"All show and no substance!"
Lin Yi gave a kick to the petrified stone statue soldier that had maintained its attacking posture.
Rubble scattered everywhere.
Behind the heavy stone door was an extremely spacious corridor.
The bluestone slabs on the ground were covered with deep pits and cracks.
On both sides of the walls, where ancient runes were originally carved, a layer of purplish-black crystals now crawled all over.
Dark golden ancient energy surged beneath the crystals, and the two forces eroded and collided with each other, producing extremely slight cracking sounds in the air.
Wong carried the Rings of Raggadorr and paved the way ahead.
His palms were covered in cold sweat.
The magical light orb used for illumination above his head had its halo tightly suppressed within a two-meter range by the surrounding purplish-black aura.
"Lin Yi, hurry over here." Wong lowered his voice and glanced left and right.
"Old Wong, at the frequency of taking one step forward and half a step back, by the time we find the place, Kaecilius will already be celebrating his grand birthday."
Lin Yi followed slowly with his hands tucked in his pockets.
The corridor extended all the way downward.
After passing two bends, the space ahead completely opened up.
This was a circular underground deep pit altar.
In the center of the altar stood a dilapidated obelisk.
On the obelisk body, the purplish-black Dark Dimensionenergy transformed into substantive chains, tightly wrapping around the obelisk circle after circle.
From the cracks in the obelisk, dazzling dark golden light occasionally seeped out, attempting to break through the blockade.
Wong just stepped onto the stairs at the edge of the altar.
An anomaly occurred.
The magic light orb on Wong's wrist went out without any warning.
The entire underground space plunged into absolute darkness.
Wong felt his scalp go numb, and his hands quickly crossed in front of his chest.
Two golden magic shields instantly formed.
In the darkness, there were no footsteps, no sound of breaking through the air.
A flat shadow quickly swam upward along the steps beneath Wong's feet, directly bypassing the defense angle of the shields and climbing up Wong's calf.
The shadow detached from the ground, transforming into a thickness-less black sharp blade, cutting diagonally upward toward Wong's throat.
Wong retreated three steps, lost his balance, and fell backward.
The sharp blade grazed past his chin, bringing up a string of blood beads.
A clump of purplish-black mist directly drilled into the flesh, frantically corroding the surrounding skin.
Wong hugged his neck, breathing heavily, urging the magicinside his body to forcibly suppress the injury.
Lin Yi stood in place without moving.
That shadow that attacked Wong did not stay; it quickly crawled close to the ground, finally stopping beneath the shadow of the obelisk.
The shadows on the surrounding walls began to distort.
A humanoid silhouette slowly peeled away from the stone wall.
The opponent had no facial features and no physical entity, whole body shrouded in a hooded robe woven from pure Shadow.
He hovered in mid-air like this, and the surrounding light was entirely absorbed by his body.
"The mages of Kamar-Taj are still as vulnerable as ever."
The voice echoed throughout the underground altar, unable to find the specific source location, shifting from left to right.
Wong struggled to stand up, staring fixedly at that Shadow silhouette.
"Shadow form. This is a forbidden art known only to high-tier the fallen."
The Shadow mage ignored Wong, turning the hood toward Lin Yi's position.
"So you are the one who destroyed the stronghold in Tokyo?"
"Marcus and Leon, those two idiots, couldn't even block a trash with no magic fluctuations at all, truly losing all face for My Lord Dormammu."
Lin Yi patted the dust on the hem of his clothes and yawned.
"You make it sound so lively. Did Kaecilius send you and offer you a base salary? Do you have social insurance and housing fund? Look at you, you don't even have a physical entity, and eating a piece of meat is a struggle; what's the point of ending up like this?" Lin Yi was full of puzzlement.
The temperature of the surrounding air plummeted.
"My Lord sent me to teach you a lesson."
The Shadow mage was not prepared to talk nonsense anymore.
His body hovering in mid-air suddenly dispersed, transforming into dozens of black arrows, shooting at Lin Yifrom all directions.
Lin Yi stamped his right foot on the ground, using the momentum to rush forward.
Facing the arrows shot from the front, Lin Yi did not dodge at all and directly smashed out with a heavy punch.
The wind of the fist compressed the air, making an explosive sound.
The few Shadow arrows in front were directly shattered by the fist wind.
But the scattered arrows did not disappear; they turned into a pool of black water, made a turn in mid-air, and directly wrapped around Lin Yi's arm.
Lin Yi reached out to grab, his five fingers directly piercing through the black water.
That was pure elemental energy, without any physical volume.
The black water quickly condensed, transforming into several thick chains, tightly binding Lin Yi's hands and torso.
Lin Yi lowered his head and took a look.
The surface layer of the chains was purplish-black dark corrosion energy, while in the core part of the chains, dark golden ancient magic suppression power flowed.
Two completely conflicting energies were kneaded together by this person using some bizarre method.
[Sustained composite energy attack, Dark-type attacks have been immunized.]
[Undergoing ancient magic rules suppression — Triggered Reversal!]
[Ancient Magic Affinity + 6!]
Lin Yi looked at the White text prompt popping up in front of him, and his brows directly knitted together.
This gives way too little.
In this composite magic, over ninety percent of the composition is power from the Dark Dimension.
Lin Yi had long acquired the [Dark Dimension Energy Manipulation] skill, absolute immunity to Dark-type magic, and could no longer gain any experience from it.
The tiny bit of ancient magic composition left converted into pitifully few attributes.
Seeing Lin Yi trapped, the Shadow mage let out a sneer.
"Thinking you can run amok relying solely on brute force?"
"In the despair intertwined with Shadow and ancient times, feel the pain properly."
The dark crystals around the obelisk began to vibrate wildly.
Countless shadows seeped out from the underground, condensing into a dozen identical humanoid silhouettes around Lin Yi.
A dozen Shadow clones raised their right hands simultaneously.
The shadows condensed into long swords, with dark golden halos beating on the edges of the blades.
Without any extra movements, a dozen long swords aimed at Lin Yi's various vital points, slashing wildly.
The blade landed on Lin Yi's body, producing a dull sound like hammering iron.
Relying on [Demigod Body] and terrifying physical defense, the long swords simply could not cut through Lin Yi's skin.
But those dark golden suppression powers attached to the long swords ignored physical defense, drilling into the body bit by bit along the pores.
Lin Yi just stood in place like this. He didn't dodge, nor did he counterattack.
[Ancient Magic Affinity + 8!]
[Ancient Magic Affinity + 5!]
[Ancient Magic Affinity + 7!]
Looking at the attribute values jumping up by a few points, Lin Yi sighed in his heart, what efficiency.
"Lin Yi! What are you doing? Attack quickly!" Wong shouted anxiously not far away.
"Old Wong, retreat further back first, don't disturb people's work."
Surrounded by a dozen long swords doing scraping, that weak ancient magic rule ran amok in his body, giving Lin Yian illusion of being massaged by electrical pulses.
The Shadow mage was completely enraged.
The opponent's nonchalant attitude was the greatest insult to an elite assassin like him.
All the Shadow clones dispersed simultaneously.
In the darkness, the hood outline of the Shadow mage emerged once again.
"You're courting death."
Chapter 32 Hand It Over
The Shadow mage raised both hands.
The purple-black crystals on the entire altar floor rhythmically pulsed with his movements.
He drained all the dark energy in the surrounding environment, and even forcibly extracted a portion of ancient magic from the obelisk.
A giant black sickle two meters long formed in mid-air.
The blade of the sickle was entirely composed of dark golden ancient runes, and the handle was a source of darkness so thick it seemed to drip.
The Shadow mage gripped the black sickle with both hands, his figure dragging an afterimage through the air as he slashed down viciously at Lin Yi's head from above.
The might of this blow even evacuated the surrounding air into a vacuum, producing a harsh sonic boom.
Lin Yi raised his head.
The black sickle heavily slashed onto Lin Yi's left shoulder.
The violent energy exploded with a roar along the contact point, directly blowing away a layer of bluestone slabs on the ground.
The entire underground altar shook violently, and a large amount of dust fell from above.
Wang used his shield to block the spreading Impact, his eyes fixed on the center of the smoke and dust.
The smoke and dust slowly dispersed.
Lin Yi maintained a standing posture, the outer clothing on his left shoulder completely torn apart, revealing solid muscles.
The blade of the sickle was stuck on the skin of his shoulder, failing to even cut out a trace of blood.
[ Subjected to composite energy strike. Dark-type attacks have been immunized. ]
[ Enduring high-level ancient magic rule suppression — Triggered Reversal! ]
[ Ancient Magic Affinity + 1000! ]
Lin Yi's eyes lit up.
This blow could finally be considered the main course.
The Shadow mage's hands holding the sickle were trembling.
"How is it possible... What kind of monster are you anyway?"
The Shadow mage tried to pull back the sickle, only to find that Lin Yi raised his right hand and steadily grabbed the weapon composed purely of energy.
Lin Yi activated [ Void Perception ].
In the three-dimensional grid in his mind, he clearly saw the construction logic of the Shadow mage.
The opponent did not simply mix darkness and ancient magic together.
He used dark energy to weave meridians and ancient formations as a skeleton, achieving a brief synchronization between the two through an extremely high-frequency magic oscillation.
As long as he found that oscillation frequency, the energy could transform its form at will.
Lin Yi stared at the Shadow mage in front of him, the corners of his mouth twitching open.
"So that's how it is."
Lin Yi's right hand grasping the sickle suddenly exerted force with its five fingers.
He forcefully crushed the ancient rune core on the sickle, and the entire giant black sickle exploded into a sky full of black fragments in Lin Yi's hand.
The Shadow mage suffered a backlash, his figure unstable, and he flew backward directly.
He used the force to directly merge into the shadows of the ground to pull away the distance, completely losing his trace.
The underground altar returned to dead silence.
Only the dust in mid-air was still slowly drifting down.
Wang leaned his back against a thick stone pillar holding his neck, the wound on his neck continuously oozing black blood.
The surrounding visibility was extremely poor, and the halo of the magic sphere was compressed within an extremely narrow range.
Lin Yi stood in the center of the gravel-filled ground.
[ Void Perception ] activated.
The energy distribution of the entire underground space turned into a three-dimensional grid unfolding in his mind.
Prior to this, the Shadow mage's stealth was flawless.
But under the Ancient Magic Affinity brushed inside Lin Yi's body, and the blessing of max-level dark affinity, things changed.
Lin Yi clearly saw the trajectory of the opponent's energy flow.
That was a high-frequency energy oscillation combined with space-folding skills.
The Shadow mage wrapped himself in dark energy, using the magnetic field interference left by the ancient formation as cover, shuttling back and forth between the physical space and the shadow cracks.
Seeing through the principle, this thing became a third-rate trick.
"Left, turn back, and circled around to the right."
Lin Yi stood in place, his eyeballs moving along the trajectory in his mind.
The black water on the ground began to boil.
Several chains mixed with ancient runes and shadows violently rose from all directions, locking down all of Lin Yi's retreats in advance.
The real fatal move followed closely behind.
The Shadow mage broke through space from the blind spot directly behind Lin Yi, a short black blade condensed to the extreme aiming straight for the back of Lin Yi's head.
Everything happened extremely fast.
Lin Yi still didn't turn around.
The shadow energy in his body operated accordingly.
The massive mental power directly skipped the stage of practice and groping, forcibly replicating the high-frequency oscillation captured in his mind.
His energy oscillation frequency was countless times faster than the Shadow mage's.
The beat before the short black blade hit.
Lin Yi's body dispersed with a roar.
Without leaving any physical entity, the whole person transformed into a pure shadow without temperature or mass, directly melting into the surrounding darkness.
The Shadow mage missed his blow, leaving him stunned in place.
His upper body, condensed into a solid form, froze.
"What are you looking for?"
The voice came from directly behind.
A heavy palm slapped solidly onto the Shadow mage's shoulder.
Lin Yi's figure smoothly peeled away from the void.
Without any sense of stagnation, the process of his appearance was as smooth as if he were inherently the master of this shadow.
The Shadow mage's proud Shadow Step required high mental concentration to tear spatial rifts.
When Lin Yi used it, it was like taking a leisurely stroll.
"Your move is not bad, I'll take it."
The Shadow mage's facial area distorted violently.
His proud life-saving ultimate technique was learned on the spot by a person with no magic fluctuation at all.
The opponent even saved the chanting and spellcasting gestures.
Violent emotional fluctuations caused a tiny flaw in his internal energy circulation.
This was the result Lin Yi wanted.
The muscle groups of his right arm tightened.
Massive power was poured into his fist entirely.
Lin Yi didn't care whether the opponent was physically immune or energy immune.
In front of absolute numerical suppression, fancy mechanics had no meaning at all.
Punching down.
The Shadow mage didn't even manage a scream, his body composed purely of energy being forcefully blown apart by this punch.
The violent power passed through his body and poured entirely onto the bluestone slabs.
The entire underground altar shook violently.
A deep pit with a diameter of over five meters concave downwards centered on Lin Yi.
Broken stones flew around along with residual shadow energy.
[ Killed High-level Shadow Fallen — Triggered Deep Plunder! ]
[ Mental Power + 1000! ]
[ Ancient Magic Affinity + 200! ]
Lin Yi looked at the white text popping up and shook his head.
Experience was getting harder and harder to digest, and the attribute gains given by opponents of the same type shrank drastically.
Wang covered his neck and poked his head out from behind the stone pillar.
"Old Wang, stop daydreaming, lead the way." Lin Yistepped out of the deep pit.
Wang sighed, following this ancestor out, the load on his heart far exceeded the sum of the past forty years.
The two crossed the dilapidated obelisk and walked toward the depths of the altar.
The passageway in the second half had completely changed.
There was no road paved with bluestone slabs here.
The surrounding rock walls presented an eerie dark red color.
The surface of the rock layer was covered with holes. There were no traces of artificial excavation, and the direction of the passage naturally extended along the vascular veins of some kind of creature.
"This place doesn't seem to have anything to do with the pyramid."
Wang reached out to touch the rock wall, and the dust stained on his fingers had a rough gravelly feel.
His neck was already wrapped up, and the dark energy lingering around the wound had been absorbed by Lin Yi.
Lin Yi leaned against the rock wall.
"How so?"
"The degree of weathering and energy residue here indicate that this place is tens of thousands of years earlier than the Khufu Pyramid on the surface. The pyramid is merely a lid built on top of this ruin."
The space ahead suddenly broadened.
The darkness was dispelled by the dark golden light emanating from the central area.
This was a giant underground cavity shaped like an inverted funnel.
In the center of the cavity stood an ancient magic altar so huge that people had to look up at it.
The entire altar was cast from a dark golden metal.
There were no complete characters on the surface, only totems composed of frantic, distorted lines.
These totems did not belong to any known human civilization.
On the left edge of the altar stood a lonely purple-black crystal tower.
That was the formation hub established by Kaecilius.
Unlike the three-story-high, imposing crystal tower at the Tokyo base, the crystal tower in front of him was only two meters tall.
Placed in front of the huge ancient altar, it was extremely pocket-sized.
A purple-black energy conduit extended from the bottom of the crystal tower, piercing into the surface layer of the dark golden altar.
The energy inside the crystal tower did not expand outward, but instead continuously absorbed a certain substance inward every moment.
"This grandson is really smart, is this drawing blood again?" Lin Yi pointed at the conduit.
Kaecilius went to great lengths to establish a main base here, not at all to utilize the defense mechanism of the ancient array.
He was borrowing the power of the Dark Dimension to bit by bit nibble away and extract the inventory beneath this altar.
Wang walked quickly to the edge of the altar.
He looked at those metal totems, sweat on his forehead flowing down his cheeks.
"The seal here is still operating."
Chapter 33: Second Stronghold Done
Lin Yi stared at the massive ancient altar made of dark golden metal, a few thoughts spinning in his mind.
According to his instinct, he should jump up right now, punch right into the center of the altar, and smash this antique that had been buried for tens of thousands of years to pieces to see what hidden rewards it could drop.
After all, the "Ancient Magic Affinity" brought by those stone statue soldiers just now wasn't enough, and the effect was quite comfortable.
But Lin Yi stopped.
He only thought about it for three seconds.
"Forget it." Lin Yi smacked his lips and shoved his hands back into his pockets.
"Leave room for others, so we can still meet amicably in the future."
Wong stayed frozen in place, maintaining a defensive posture, completely unresponsive. "What did you just say?"
"I said we won't touch this chunk of iron for now." Lin Yiraised his chin, his gaze moving past the ancient altar to lock onto the two-meter-tall purplish-black crystal towerat the edge.
"Did you actually have a change of heart?" Wong asked with a suspicious face, even taking half a step back. He knew the troublemaker in front of him all too well.
Along this entire journey, as long as something could be dismantled, Lin Yi would definitely not leave it with an intact corpse.
"What do you mean change of heart? I call this a scientific evaluation and rational case handling." Lin Yi started walking towards that miniature crystal tower.
"The old monster down below has no telling how long it has lived. Kaecilius and his gang only dare to stick a pipe on the side to steal energy."
"If I let it out now, whether Earth can be protected is one thing, but that old bald head will definitely chant scriptures in my ear for several hundred years."
"If she gets anxious and docks my travel expenses for the second half of the year, whose account is this bill charged to?"
Hearing these remarks, the veins on Wong's forehead twitched twice.
So saving the world and not disturbing the ancient Evil God was all because of fear of having travel expenses docked.
Lin Yi walked up to the crystal tower and reached out his hand.
The surface of the purplish-black crystal tower circulated an extremely dense dark energy.
The conduit plugged into the dark golden altar was pulsing rhythmically, like it was sucking blood.
This type of miniature hub had an even higher purity than the crystal tower in Tokyo.
"Come, let me taste the flavor."
Lin Yi's right palm pressed directly against the surface of the crystal tower.
The dark origin inside the crystal tower, which was enough to instantly drive an ordinary high-ranking mage crazy, found an outlet and surged wildly through Lin Yi's palm.
The system panel was quiet.
His body had long been completely immune to dark-type attacks and energy infusions.
However, Lin Yi didn't feel shortchanged.
With the continuous influx of high-purity dark energy, he could clearly feel his degree of control over this power climbing.
The oppressive purplish-black light in the air began to fade.
The height of the crystal tower was decreasing bit by bit, and the crystals on its surface lost their luster, becoming like weathered stones by the roadside.
Wong stood ten meters away, standing on guard.
He stared fixedly at the surrounding Shadow, guarding against any other possible ambushers.
Ten minutes passed.
In the underground hollow, apart from the rustling sound of energy extraction, there was no movement at all.
Twenty minutes passed.
Wong's arms were a bit sore from holding them up.
He swallowed his saliva and glanced at Lin Yi.
Lin Yi actually used his left hand to pull a few crumpled scraps of paper out of his pocket, boringly folding paper airplanes.
His right hand was just casually pressed against the tower.
"Old Wong, did you bring anything to eat?" Lin Yi asked without turning his head.
"Didn't bring any." Wong replied ungraciously, "Executing such a dangerous mission, who would bring snacks."
"How can this be called a dangerous mission." Lin Yicasually threw out the folded paper airplane.
The paper airplane drew a crooked arc in the air and landed in the corner of the ancient altar.
"Kaecilius is also stingy, sending a Shadow assassin who doesn't even have a face to guard a main stronghold. If I knew it would be resolved so quickly, I would have brought something delicious down."
Thirty minutes.
Accompanied by a slight cracking sound.
The two-meter-tall crystal tower completely shriveled, turning into a pile of grayish-white powder that slid down the edge of the metal altar to the ground.
The purplish-black conduit connected to the ancient altar also shattered inch by inch like weathered dead wood.
The oppressive feeling of the entire underground hollow vanished completely.
Having lost the entanglement of dark energy, the dark golden totem on the ancient metal altar became peaceful and slow, exuding a stable halo.
Lin Yi patted the dust on his hands and turned to walk back.
He extended his right hand, palm open.
A ball of dark energy pure to the extreme emerged in his hand, sometimes turning into a small sword, sometimes into a shield, and even turning into a dancing little matchman.
Completely unimpeded, as he wished.
Wong looked at the matchman in Lin Yi's hand, his eyes widened like copper bells.
"If the past generations of Kamar-Taj ancestors see you using Dormammu's power like this, they could probably lift off all their coffin lids." Wong sighed.
"Times have changed, Old Wong. Power has no righteousness or evil, it mainly depends on who uses it." Lin Yi closed his palm, and the little matchman directly dissipated in the air.
"Stop dazing, take out your phone."
"What for?" Wong guardedly covered his pocket.
"Take pictures." Lin Yi pointed at the massive dark golden ancient altar.
"You take pictures of all these ghost talismans and bring them back for the old bald head to see. Let her study what this thing actually is."
Wong fished out his phone and looked at the top of the screen.
"There is no signal here."
"What signal do you need to take a photo? Do you think this is posting on Moments!" Lin Yi rolled his eyes.
"Hurry up, I'm hungry. There must be plenty of barbecue stalls on the streets of Cairo outside."
Helpless, Wong could only raise his phone and frantically take pictures of the totem on the altar.
The flash kept flashing in the dim underground hollow.
Lin Yi leaned against the stone wall on the side, humming an unknown tune in his mouth.
This trip's business wasn't a loss.
Although he didn't get direct attribute points, maxed-out dark energy control meant he had an absolute dimensional-reduction strike capability when facing Kaecilius's faction.
Defeating magic with magic, devouring darkness with darkness—just thinking about this scene felt stress-relieving.
As for this ancient seal, we'll talk about it later.
A few minutes later, Wong put away his phone.
"Finished taking pictures, can we leave now."
"Let's go." Lin Yi turned and walked away without any nostalgia.
The two walked back along the dark red rock wall passage they came from.
Along the way, they didn't encounter any more obstacles.
Those stone statue soldiers whose ancient energy had been sucked dry still stiffly maintained their slashing posture, like shoddy sculptures.
Crossing the maze-like crossroads, they stepped on the bluestone steps all the way up.
The dazzling sunlight shone directly down from above the sand dunes.
Lin Yi raised his hand to block his eyes and took a deep breath of the dry, scorching air.
The temperature outside was at least forty degrees, with rolling heat waves, but it smelled hundreds of times better than that musty underground smell.
Panting heavily, Wong sat heavily on the hood of the jeep, touching the scabbed wound on his neck.
"Second stronghold, clearance complete."
Lin Yi walked to the passenger door, pulled it open, and sat inside.
"Stop resting, Old Wong. Let's find a restaurant back in the city and have a big meal first."
With a flurry of hand gestures from Wong, the broken stone door once again vanished into the desert.
Chapter 34: Eternals's Seal?
Downtown Cairo, on the edge of the Khan el-Khalili market.
It was already dark.
The air was mixed with the smells of cumin, roast lamb, and cheap perfume.
Lin Yi sat on a red plastic stool, with two mountain-like piles of grilled lamb chops stacked in an iron plate in front of him.
He grabbed the lamb chops with his left hand, held half a flatbread with his right hand, and his mouth was stuffed full.
"This flavor is amazing."
Lin Yi took a large gulp of iced beer and let out a loud hiccup.
Wang sat opposite him, with only a cup of plain water in front of him.
He was holding his mobile phone, holding his arm high, and turning it around in mid-air.
"Old Wang, are you looking for a signal or casting a spell to pray for rain?"
"Shut up. The base station construction here in Cairo is too poor."
Wang's brows knitted together, and the signal bars at the top of the screen repeatedly jumped back and forth between "No Service" and "One Bar".
"Wasn't it you who asked me to report?"
"Fine, fine, fine."
Lin Yi tore off a piece of meat.
"Ding."
A short prompt tone sounded, and a green mark of successful sending appeared at the top of the phone screen.
Wang let out a long sigh, plunked back down on the stool, picked up a skewer of roasted meat and shoved it into his mouth, chewed twice, and his chubby face turned red.
"Holy shit, so spicy?"
"I added some of my own specialty products."
Lin Yi kicked the empty Laoganma bottle by his feet.
Kamar-Taj.
Ancient One sat cross-legged on the futon in the quiet room, and the tablet screen on the table lit up.
Ancient One opened the email.
It was the photos of the ancient underground altar in Cairosent back by Wang.
Dozens of high-resolution pictures recorded all the distorted totems on the dark golden altar in three hundred and sixty degrees without dead ends.
Ancient One became more and more absorbed in watching, and a rare trace of dread flashed in those calm, waveless eyes.
She stretched out her finger and enlarged one of the photos on the screen.
The center of the photo was a weird symbol nested by countless irregular geometric figures.
She stood up, and the eye of agamotto on her chest slowly opened.
The green Time Stone exuded a faint glow.
Ancient One tried to use the Time Stone to trace the origin of the totems on the photo.
The timeline rapidly retrogressed in front of her eyes.
One hundred years, one thousand years, ten thousand years...
The surrounding scenery began to distort and peel off.
Earth's landforms reorganized and collapsed before her eyes.
She saw a barren land, and saw an era much earlier than any known human civilization.
The deepest part of the timeline.
She saw six figures so huge that they covered the sky and the sun, suspended outside Earth's atmosphere.
That was the materialization of absolute rules, without emotion, only cold will.
On the land, several humanoid creatures wearing dark golden battle armor were using some kind of technology and energy that did not belong to Earth to cast this metal altar.
Below the altar, a constantly changing lump of flesh screamed wildly, polluting everything around it.
"Boom!"
The light of the Time Stone flickered violently.
The eye of agamotto automatically closed as if disturbed at the level of some rules.
"Celestials... Eternals."
She understood why Kaecilius wanted to bypass this seal.
That was a world anchor used by the Eternals to suppress some ancient heresy or even a more terrifying existence.
Kaecilius was extracting the power escaping from the seal to strengthen himself.
If the seal was completely drained or destroyed, the thing released inside would definitely be no less than Dormammu's descent.
Lin Yi didn't touch that altar, which unexpectedly turned out to be the greatest misfortune among misfortunes.
Cairo streets.
Lin Yi was about to shove the last piece of flatbread into his mouth when the air directly above the table suddenly distorted.
A circle of golden sparks appeared out of thin air, rapidly expanding into a miniature portal with a diameter of half a meter.
Ancient One's face appeared on the other side of the sparks.
Wang was startled, hurriedly swallowed the mutton in his mouth, wiped his hands in a panic, and stood straight.
"Master."
Lin Yi bit the flatbread and greeted vaguely.
"Old... Master, have you eaten? Do you want me to pack some for you? The grilled kidneys here are amazing."
Ancient One ignored the banter and just stared at Lin Yi.
Lin Yi sensed something was wrong.
He had known this old mage for three years, and it was the first time he saw her look at him with such eyes.
"You didn't touch that altar, did you?"
"A little bit, Kaecilius and those bastards made a blood-sucking tube next to it, and I conveniently sucked the center dry."
"As for the iron lump itself, Old Wang insisted on taking pictures, so I showed mercy and left it an intact corpse."
Wang wanted to say something next to him, what do you mean I insisted on taking pictures?
"Well done."
"The thing in that seal does not belong to Earth of this era."
Lin Yi stopped his movements and raised his eyebrows.
"Have you heard of the Eternals?" Ancient One asked.
Lin Yi's heart skipped a beat, but his face remained calm: "No."
"That altar is the sealing anchor left by the Eternals. The thing suppressed inside is older than the Vishanti."
"Kaecilius is trying to steal the energy leaking from the seal."
"Once the internal balance of that altar is broken, the disaster released will be enough to wipe the entire North African continent off the map."
"Lin Yi, the enemy you are facing is not just as simple as Kaecilius and Dormammu. In pursuit of power, these Zealots are awakening the most terrifying taboos at the bottom of Earth."
Wang stood aside, feeling a chill down his back as he listened.
He didn't expect it to be so serious, dragging out ancient mythology.
Lin Yi looked at Ancient One's solemn face, but his eyes became brighter and brighter.
Eternals's seal?
Celestials' residue?
Isn't this just a large-sized EXP pack!
The bit of Ancient Magic Affinity brought by those stone statue soldiers just now had already made him eat quite comfortably. If he could absorb all the origin energy in the altar, wouldn't his panel data take off on the spot?
As long as it is a negative cost, it can be converted into one's own attributes.
The rule suppression of the Eternals, to put it bluntly, is also a kind of cost.
"Master, is this thing really dangerous?"
"Extremely dangerous."
"Even with my current body, touching it might kill me?" Ancient One warned.
"Great." Lin Yi slapped his thigh fiercely.
Ancient One was stunned, and Wang was also stunned.
"My meaning is, fortunately with Master's reminder, otherwise if I touched it rashly, I would have been done for there." Lin Yi dry-coughed twice, forcibly putting away the expression of "I want to go back" on his face.
Ancient One found that she could never see through Lin Yi's brain circuits.
However, Lin Yi didn't regret his previous decision. Now he wasn't sure if he could solve it if he let that thing out. Don't let it out and end up messing up Earth; he'd better develop slowly first.
Chapter 35: The Dark Stronghold Deep in the Jungle
In front of a barbecue stall on the streets of Cairo, heat waves rolled in.
Inside the golden sparks circle suspended in mid-air, the face of the Ancient One carried a hint of fatigue.
She glanced at Lin Yi, whose face was covered in grease.
"You have successively uprooted two important nodes in Tokyo and Cairo, shaking Kaecilius's strategic layout. He will definitely not sit idly by and wait for death," the Ancient One said in a low tone.
"Master, just get it done. He can panic all he wants, I'll just keep eating."
"At the next stronghold, he will definitely set an ambush at all costs. His Zealots have already lost their sanity."
"As long as he dares to send people over, I dare to bury them."
The Ancient One looked at him, and after a few seconds, cut off the communication.
The golden sparks dissipated in the night wind.
Wong sat opposite, staring at the remaining barbecue on the plate, swallowing a mouthful of saliva.
"Let's go, Old Wong. To the next stop." Lin Yi stood up and kicked away the empty beer bottle at his feet.
"The meal isn't finished yet!"
"There is better game in the rainforest." Lin Yi patted Wong on the shoulder.
Wong drew a portal.
The two stepped across the sparks circle.
The environment changed abruptly. The dry and hot desert night wind turned into humid and muggy water vapor.
Underfoot was a thick layer of humus.
Deep in the Amazon rainforest of Brazil.
Sunlight was firmly blocked by the interlaced branches and leaves overhead, leaving only dim green light in the forest.
The air was filled with the smell of rotting plants and fermented soil.
Wong looked around vigilantly.
Lin Yi pulled open his collar and fanned himself with his hand.
"This place is way too stuffy."
"This place is two hundred kilometers away from human active areas," Wong lowered his voice, "Intelligence shows that the magic fluctuations here are completely different from the first two times. There is no fixed formation eye emitting radiation."
The two continued to walk forward.
The fallen leaves underfoot became thicker and thicker, and the surrounding colors began to change.
The edges of the leaves of the originally emerald-green broad-leaved plants developed purplish-black lines.
The bark of the tree trunks turned outward, exuding viscous black juice.
Lin Yi stopped in his tracks.
He activated [Void Perception].
In his mind, the energy grid presented a bizarre state.
There was no concentrated column of energy light here.
Those purplish-black lines, like blood vessels, were densely distributed inside every tree, every vine, and every beetle crawling on the bark.
This was directly pouring the Dark Dimension into the ecological cycle of this primeval forest.
Wong walked in front and stepped on a section of dead wood.
The dead wood split open, and a black snake as thick as a wrist shot out from inside.
The snake scales flickered with purple light, and its snake mouth opened, revealing two rows of fine fangs.
Wong reacted extremely quickly, manifesting a shield in his left hand to meet it directly.
The snake head crashed into the magic shield, producing a muffled sound.
Venom splashed onto the surface of the golden magiccircle, making a harsh sizzling sound.
The light of the magic shield dimmed at a speed visible to the naked eye.
"Careful! The animals here have all been corroded and mutated!"
Wong shouted, flicking a magic whip with his right hand to lash the black snake into two halves.
The half of the snake body that fell to the ground was still writhing, black blood dripping onto the grass, causing the surrounding plants to wither rapidly.
Lin Yi walked forward, squatted down, and touched that pool of black venom.
"You..."
The black venom seeped in along Lin Yi's skin.
[Suffering invasion by mutated creature toxins — — Triggering Reversal!]
[Toxin Resistance + 50!]
[Cell Vitality + 30!]
Lin Yi looked at the white characters popping up in front of his vision and grinned.
He could continue to grind stats again.
"Old Wong, this place is simply paradise."
Wong looked at Lin Yi's intact fingers and directly shut his mouth. Why couldn't he help himself? Why did he remind him?
Rustling sounds came from ahead.
The surrounding bushes began to shake.
Purplish-black vines hung down from the canopy overhead, like pythons writhing back and forth in mid-air.
The fallen leaves on the ground were pushed up.
More than a dozen mutated spiders comparable in size to adult wild boars crawled out.
They had purplish-red compound eyes, and their eight legs were covered with stiff hairs like steel needles.
"You come!"
Wong very sensibly stepped back two paces.
"Little punk!"
Lin Yi glanced at Wong and walked straight toward those vines and spiders.
Two purplish-black vines with barbs lashed over, solidly whipping Lin Yi's chest.
His clothes were torn, and the poisonous thorns on the vines pierced into his skin.
[Suffering injection of mutated plant neurotoxins — — Triggering Reversal!]
[Nerve Resistance + 100!]
[Toxin Resistance + 80!]
"So comfortable, it's just a bit hard on clothes."
Lin Yi opened his arms, letting those vines wrap around him.
Seven or eight vines quickly climbed along his thighs, waist, abdomen, and arms, wrapping his entire person into a huge vine cocoon.
The sharp spikes on the vines continuously secreted corrosive venom.
The surrounding mutated spiders jumped over, baring their fangs, and frantically biting at the vine cocoon.
[Suffering erosion by high-concentration mixed venom — — Triggering Reversal!]
[Toxin Resistance + 200!]
[Constitution + 150!]
Ten meters away, Wong waved his magic whip, beating back two spiders trying to approach.
He looked at Lin Yi, who was wrapped up into a ball, indifferent; this guy was enjoying himself again.
A few minutes passed.
The frequency of the numbers jumping on the panel began to drop.
The stats provided by the same type of toxin were diminishing.
Lin Yi sighed inside the vine cocoon.
His muscles exerted force, and his terrifying strength completely erupted.
The thick purplish-black vines snapped one by one amidst creaking sounds, and Lin Yi pushed outward with both hands, tearing the vine cocoon to pieces.
Several mutated spiders crawling and biting on top were blown away by the immense force, crashing into the surrounding tree trunks and turning into blobs of black slurry.
Lin Yi patted the broken branches and dead leaves on his body, walked up to a spider that wasn't completely dead yet, and crushed its head with one kick.
"As a reward for giving me a massage!"
Wong walked to Lin Yi's side, looking at the wreckage all over the ground.
"What on earth is Kaecilius trying to do?" Wong frowned tightly, "This jungle is at least ten kilometers in radius. He has dispersed all the energy; even if we want to destroy the stronghold, we can't find the target."
Lin Yi looked deep into the forest.
A decentralized energy pool meant that he couldn't find a power bank like in Tokyo and Cairo to suck dry directly.
"Old Wong, this kind of ecological assimilation should have a source," Lin Yi said.
"Right. They need a medium to inject the origin of darkness into this groundwater or root network."
Lin Yi squatted down, pushed aside the thick humus, revealing the intricate plant root system underneath.
Purplish-black energy flowed regularly along these roots toward the same direction.
This entire forest was actually a living giant stomach.
It was digesting all living creatures entering here, and then transporting the energy to something deep inside.
"Let's go." Lin Yi stood up and stepped forward in the direction of the energy flow.
The two quickly shuttled through the purplish-black jungle.
The further inward they went, the more exaggerated the mutation became.
The trees turned completely black, and the leaves on the crowns were no longer plant features, but pieces of keratinized scales.
The soil on the ground was completely covered with purple mucus.
The toxic miasma in the air was so dense that it turned into substantive green fog.
Wong had to support a small energy shield on the surface of his body to block the intrusion of toxic gas.
Lin Yi walked in the toxic miasma, and every breath he took, a string of prompts [Toxin Resistance + 10] would pop up on the panel.
Chapter 36: Wong's Tea Party
The surrounding light grew increasingly dim.
The interlaced branches overhead completely blocked out the sunlight, and a pungent green miasma permeated the forest.
Lin Yi walked in front.
The soil all around churned, and three thigh-thick, purplish-black earth dragons burst out of the ground.
Their heads were oral apparatuses filled with sharp teeth, spewing out large swaths of foul-smelling gray mucus.
The mucus washed down over their heads, causing the clothing fabric to dissolve rapidly and emit thick green smoke.
The areas of skin in contact with the acid emitted a faint sizzling sound.
[Suffering from mutated strong acid corrosion — Triggered Reversal!]
[Acid Resistance + 150!]
[Cellular Activity + 80!]
The two earth dragons pounced to the ground, wrapping around Lin Yi's legs from left and right.
The sharp teeth in their oral apparatuses bit tightly into the muscles of his calves, but could not break his defense at all.
Lin Yi lowered his head to take a look, and his legs suddenly exerted force.
The earth dragons wrapped around his legs were forcibly torn apart, their mutilated bodies falling to the ground and bleeding black bodily fluids.
Lin Yi threw his right fist, smashing it straight into the oral apparatus of the third earth dragon ahead.
The violent power pierced through its body, directly shattering its internal organs into a puddle of mush.
The earth dragon collapsed.
Lin Yi stopped in his tracks and looked up.
The jungle ahead came alive; the purplish-black tree crowns were crawling with mutant lizards, and swarms of highly venomous centipedes crawled out from the humus on the ground.
Thick ancient trees waved black vines covered in barbs.
These creatures were completely eroded by dark energy, with only a single goal: to tear apart the intruder before them.
Lin Yi looked at the densely packed formation and let out a breath.
There were simply too many; fighting them one by one with fists would take too much time.
Lin Yi raised his right hand and spread his five fingers.
In this jungle completely permeated by dark energy, he did not need to borrow power; he was power itself.
He pressed his palm flat downward.
An extremely pure and condensed origin of darkness spread from his palm.
It transformed into a circle of black ripples, sweeping out horizontally close to the ground.
The ripples swept across.
The bodies of the charging mutated beast hordes instantly froze, their volatile dark energy feeling the descent of a higher-order will.
Lin Yi closed his five fingers.
The black vines of dozens of surrounding mutated ancient trees suddenly changed direction.
The vines acted like long whips, fiercely lashing at the beast hordes on the ground.
The mutant lizards had their heads pierced by the vines, and the highly venomous centipedes were crushed into meat paste by the churning soil around them.
This was a rebellion.
Lin Yi manipulated the origin of darkness in this jungle, making the mutated creatures slaughter each other.
He took strides, weaving through vines and severed limbs.
A mutant Black Panther that had managed to rush up to him didn't even have time to open its mouth before it was pierced through the lower jaw by a dark crystal spike pulled out from the ground by Lin Yi, pinning it dead in mid-air.
The dark energy inside the Black Panther flowed back into Lin Yi's body along the spike.
The darkness element could no longer provide attributes, but the poison on the Black Panther's paws was still taking effect.
[Poison Resistance + 100!]
Lin Yi did not stop his pace, continuing to push deeper.
He wanted to squeeze dry all the experience points in this forest.
A few meters behind.
Wong supported the Rings of Raggadorr with both hands, looking around vigilantly.
A surviving mutant poisonous spider leaped down from the side tree trunk, pouncing toward Wong's back.
Wong was about to cast a spell to counterattack when the spider was pierced in mid-air by a black tree root shooting out from the ground.
With a flick of the root, the spider's carcass smashed against a distant rock.
Wong lowered his hands and looked at the person in front.
Lin Yi was strolling in front; the branches automatically avoided him, and the monsters slaughtered each other.
Occasionally, a stray fish that slipped through the net would spray venom onto Lin Yi, and Lin Yi would even deliberately step forward to take a few more hits.
Regarding Lin Yi, Wong didn't even want to say anything more.
Those who knew would think the Amazon was here; those who didn't would think he was out strolling.
He put away the golden magic shield on his right hand, leaving only his left hand to maintain a semi-circular defensive barrier.
He reached his right hand into his bosom and pulled out a walnut-sized brass object.
Pressing the switch on the side, the object unfolded, turning into a small folding camp stool.
Wong placed the stool on the muddy ground and sat down on it.
Afterwards, Wong fished out a spell tome with a yellowed cover.
Flipping to the middle, there was a colorful modern magazine sandwiched inside. He spread open the pages, laid them flat on his lap, and began to read intently.
Lin Yi finished clearing a wave of the beast horde and turned back around.
"Old Wong, are you here on vacation?"
"Don't get distracted, there are still monsters ahead of you."
Lin Yi sneered, turned his head, and continued to clear the path.
Wong maintained the shield with his left hand. As Lin Yiadvanced five meters forward, Wong would carry his stool and move forward by five meters.
The two maintained a fixed safe distance.
Lin Yi ahead strolled amidst flying flesh and blood, while Wong behind read a book and drank tea amidst the wreckage all over the ground.
The visual contrast was extremely jarring.
The advancement process became mechanical and efficient.
Lin Yi was surrounded by a rich origin of darkness.
Wherever he passed, mutant plants gave way, and mutated beast hordes tore into each other.
Occasionally, a few monsters that broke through the defense line would spray venom, and Lin Yi would accept them all, reversing the venom into resistance enhancements.
Night fell on the first day.
There was no light in the purplish-black jungle. Lin Yisnapped his fingers, and a ball of black flame burned above his finger, illuminating the surroundings.
The surroundings were piled high with the corpses of mutated wild boars.
Lin Yi picked a wild boar that was relatively small in size and had less venom penetration, grabbed one of its legs, and dragged it to an open space.
He directly manipulated the black flames to envelop the wild boar.
The extremely high temperature instantly vaporized the venom sacs and polluted skin and flesh on the surface of the wild boar, leaving only the clean tenderloin in the core area.
The aroma of roasted meat mixed with the putrid smell of the jungle drifted into the air.
Lin Yi tore off a piece on the spot and stuffed it into his mouth to chew.
Wong walked over holding a thermos cup.
"Want some?" Lin Yi tore off a piece of meat and handed it over.
Wong took it and took a bite. The two of them sat among the wreckage of mutated plants and finished a midnight snack.
Resting for less than two hours, Lin Yi got up and continued to advance.
Wong put away his camp stool and continued to follow behind inside the magic shield.
...
The second day.
The miasma in the jungle was so thick it couldn't be dispersed, compressing visibility to within three meters.
The levels of the mutated creatures had increased, and giant pythons with bone spurs appeared, along with mutant flying insects capable of releasing mental shocks.
The flying insects swarmed in groups, emitting piercing sonic waves.
The sonic waves drilled into Lin Yi's ears, and a slight tingling sensation appeared in his mind.
[Suffering from low-tier mental lash — Triggered Reversal!]
[Mental Strength + 100!]
This kind of attribute enhancement was not worth mentioning compared to his current base.
But he enjoyed this process of accumulating little by little.
Lin Yi opened his hands, controlling the origin of darkness to transform into a large net that snared hundreds and thousands of flying insects, and forcefully closed it.
The flying insects exploded, spraying green bodily fluids all over the ground.
He continued to walk forward, his speed neither too fast nor too slow.
This pure numerical stacking was enough to eliminate all boredom.
Only a few strips of cloth remained of Lin Yi's clothes.
Yet his skin was completely intact, shimmering with a tough gloss.
Fatal venom and acidic gases fell onto his skin without leaving even a red mark.
The frequency of the numbers jumping on the status panel began to decrease.
[Poison Resistance + 10!]
[Acid Resistance + 5!]
[Mental Strength + 2!]
Lin Yi frowned; the venom of these monsters could no longer break through his resistance threshold.
The experience pool of this outer area had been completely squeezed dry by him.
In two days, Lin Yi had almost slaughtered his way through the mutated creatures along this path of the jungle.
The poisonous miasma ahead suddenly thinned out, and the purplish-black trees became sparse.
Lin Yi stopped in his tracks and looked straight ahead.
Chapter 37 Shattered With a Single Punch
The road ahead came to an end.
The view suddenly opened up, and the terrain collapsed downward significantly, forming a giant inverted funnel-shaped basin.
There was no mist in the basin, not even a breath of wind.
Wang stepped out of the jungle and casually pulled a compass from his chest.
The brass pointer on the compass did not spin wildly like the previous few times, but instead pointed rigidly at the exact center of the basin.
"There is no defensive magic array here." Wang frowned, staring at the dial of the compass, "Even the overflow of magic fluctuations has been suppressed to the minimum."
"Could Kaecilius have changed his strategy? Didn't he build a crystal tower here?"
Lin Yi did not reply, looking toward the center of the basin.
A tree stood there.
A giant tree that was unimaginably large.
Over fifty meters tall, its thick trunk required dozens of people holding hands to encircle.
The bark was an entire morbid purple-black, with no branches or leaves; instead, countless vines as thick as Water vats intertwined with each other.
The vines spread out at the top, resembling a giant opened black umbrella that blocked all the skylight above the basin.
The surface of the ground was covered with a thick layer of grayish-white powder.
That was the original vegetation of the entire basin, all of whose vitality had been drained away, turning them into residue.
"Let's go down and take a look."
Lin Yi strode forward, stepping on the slope and sliding down into the basin.
The closer the distance, the stronger the oppressive feeling brought by the giant tree.
Wang followed behind Lin Yi. He squatted down, pinched a bit of the powder on the ground, and sniffed it with the tip of his nose.
"It was forcibly extracted." Wang stood up and patted the dust off his hands.
"Something is wrong here. The origin of the Dark Dimension has always been erosion and assimilation; it does not possess the function of life transformation."
"This tree did not mutate naturally; it is more like a carrier pieced together artificially."
Lin Yi stopped in front of the giant tree.
The thick root system bulged out of the ground like thick blood vessels, rising, falling, and pulsating rhythmically.
The dark energy deep underground was continuously being transported up the trunk along these root systems.
The bark was not wood at all; it was layers of dark purple horny hard scales with upturned edges, and the gaps were filled with sticky sap.
"This is quite a ruthless move."
Lin Yi raised his head, and the purple-black sap flowed beneath the bark, making the surface appear semi-transparent.
Lin Yi stepped forward, leaving only half a meter from the trunk.
Beneath those semi-transparent hard scales, large areas of overlapping shadows revealed themselves.
With the pulsation of the root system, the shadows slowly rose and sank, emitting an extremely faint friction sound.
Lin Yi narrowed his eyes, and the shadows took on a concrete outline.
Human skulls, ribs, and distorted, deformed limbs.
Countless skeletons.
Layer upon layer, they were forcefully embedded inside the trunk.
The skeleton closest to Lin Yi had its hand bones tightly clawing at the inside of the bark.
The phalanges broke due to extreme force, bending into a bizarre angle, maintaining a posture of climbing outward.
That skull opened its jaw wide, frozen in a state of painful wailing.
The hollow eye sockets stared blankly at Lin Yi outside.
Not just this one.
Extending from the roots all the way to heights beyond the reach of sight, densely packed, all of them were such skeletons.
There were large and small ones; one could even see the undeveloped skeletons of children, and some skeletons still had coarse cloth clothing hanging on them that had not been completely corroded.
Wang walked quickly to Lin Yi's side, his sight penetrating the bark to see the scene inside clearly.
Wang covered his mouth, bent over, and his shoulders trembled uncontrollably.
The sound of heavy retching echoed in the quiet basin.
Kaecilius rounded up civilians from surrounding villages, passing hunters, and even captured low-tier mages.
Throwing them alive into this huge melting pot pieced together by ancient arrays and the origin of darkness.
Living people became fertilizer for the growth of this tree.
Their souls were torn apart under the erosion of the Dark Dimension, their flesh and blood transformed into nutrients, and their bones became the steel bars supporting the tree body.
Lin Yi stared at the broken finger bone in front of him.
Ahead in his field of vision, semi-transparent White characters suddenly popped out.
[Subjected to Mutant Creature Assimilation Coercion — — Trigger Reversal!]
[Mental Power + 100!]
[Cell Activity + 50!]
The energy contained in this fifty-meter-tall towering tree was even greater than that of the three-story-high crystal tower in Tokyo.
Lin Yi closed his eyes, and the white character prompts were still jumping.
He was a transmigrator who had swept the floors in Kamar-Taj for three years.
He was worldly, recognized money over people, ran faster than anyone else upon hearing danger, and would calculate the profits before fighting.
Now he treated this Universe full of superpower perverts as a large buffet restaurant.
But deep down, he still identified himself as a human.
No matter how strong power was, there had to be a bottom line.
Using living people as flower fertilizer to grow trees was not called gaining power; it was called courting death.
Lin Yi opened his eyes, and the casualness on his face vanished completely.
His right foot stepped back half a step, and the hard rock layer below burst open with cracks as thick as wrists.
The muscles of his waist and abdomen suddenly contracted, driving his right shoulder to pull backward.
The muscle groups of his right arm bulged layer by layer, completely ripping apart the remaining tattered cloth strips, revealing the steel-tough skin and flesh underneath.
The power was crazily compressed within his body, transmitting along the spine without reservation to his fist edge.
His fist blasted the air ahead, dragging out a naked-eye visible white airflow vacuum zone.
The dull wind howling pierced the dead silence, like a bomber skimming across the ground.
The fist edge smashed into the trunk covered with hard scales without any fancy tricks, and the violent power directly penetrated the bark, solidly slamming into the deepest part of the trunk.
The huge tree body paused abruptly.
Immediately after, starting from the landing point of the fist, spiderweb-like cracks spread wildly up and down.
The sound of wood tearing resounded through the basin, and the fifty-meter-tall towering giant tree exploded from the middle straight from the roots.
The tens of thousands of tons of trunk, along with those skeletons soaked in sap, were ruthlessly crushed into finely-divided powder under the terrifying might of this punch.
The physical Impact mixed with the dissipated dark energy swept outward in a fan shape.
A thick layer of soil on the ground was scraped away, and the withered trees at the edge of the basin were uprooted, rolling into mid-air along with the Impact.
Wang raised his hands in the violent wind, propping up two huge Rings of Raggadorr.
The golden magic array shook violently, and sparks splashed everywhere.
He gritted his teeth, his feet plowing two deep trenches in the mud, stubbornly resisting this indiscriminate aftermath of power.
The sky was filled with black wood chips and grayish-white bone powder.
The tree crown lost the support of the main trunk and smashed straight toward the ground.
The earth roared, and the raised dust soared into the sky, blocking the upper space of the basin.
Lin Yi maintained the posture of punching, standing at the edge of the deep pit.
Until the last piece fell beside his feet, he straightened his waist and withdrew his right hand.
At the bottom of the deep pit, the soil was still exuding a burnt smell baked by high temperature.
The remaining purple-black energy lost its carrier and quickly dissipated in the air.
Wang lowered his trembling hands, removed the magicshield, and looked at the devastated ruins before him.
The destruction caused by physical strength turned out to be even more crude and violent than high-tier magic.
Chapter 38: A terrifying entity named Lin Yi?
At the bottom of the deep pit, heat waves rolled.
Those thick root systems connecting to the depths of the underground were still twisting instinctively in the mud.
They were trying to re-gather the remaining Dark Dimension energy.
Lin Yi walked forward and stepped on the thickest vein, causing the ground to crack with spiderweb-like fissures.
The remaining root systems were directly snapped by this force, and purple-black sap splashed onto the trouser legs of Lin Yi.
[Sustained residual dimension energy erosion —— Triggered reversal!]
[Toxin resistance + 2!]
Lin Yi walked up along the edge of the deep pit.
Hidden around the periphery of the basin were a dozen or so concealed mutated culture dishes.
The people under Kaecilius had built crude glass tanks here, in which half-human, half-beast failures were soaked.
Lin Yi walked up to the nearest glass tank.
Inside, a mutated giant crocodile with human arms opened its yellow eyes and spat green acid from its mouth.
The acid shattered the glass and poured onto the chest of Lin Yi.
[Acid resistance + 1!]
Lin Yi raised his hand and smashed the head of the giant crocodile with a straight punch.
He walked a full circle around the basin, smashing the culture dishes one by one and clearing out all living things.
The formation node at the center of the basin was dug out by him, revealing a purple-black crystal the size of a washbasin.
Lin Yi grabbed the crystal with one hand, and in ten seconds, the energy inside the crystal was drained, turning into a pile of flying ash that slipped through his fingers.
As the last bit of dark energy disappeared, the oppressive feeling of this jungle dissipated.
The poisonous miasma retreated, and sunlight pierced through the gap in the canopy above, shining directly into the basin.
Surrounded by blackened mutated plants that lost the support of the Dark Dimension, their branches and leaves withered rapidly.
Wong stepped into the deep pit and looked around. There was no longer the sour and rotten stench in the air.
"Cleaned up."
The gaze of Lin Yi fell on Wong, who was two meters away.
"What are you looking at?" Wong felt uncomfortable being stared at by Lin Yi and tightened his collar.
"Nothing, drink more goji berries when you get back."
Lin Yi withdrew his gaze and turned to walk up the slope.
The face of Wong twitched twice.
"Old Wang, let us go."
"Where to?"
"Find a place to grab a drink."
...
Nepal, deep in the mountains.
A natural karst cave with icicles hanging upside down from the roof.
Several oil lamps hung on the stone walls, and the flames showed a purplish-red color.
Kaecilius sat cross-legged on a flat boulder in the center.
His eye sockets were deeply sunken, and purplish-red blood vessels crawled along his neck all the way to the corners of his eyes.
Rapid footsteps came from the depths of the karst cave.
Chief disciple Lucian walked up quickly, stopped three steps in front of the boulder, and knelt on one knee.
"Teacher, the magic link on Amazon side... is broken." Lucian lowered his head, his voice trembling.
Kaecilius opened his eyes, his vision occupied by purple mist.
"I know."
London, Tokyo, Cairo, Amazon.
In less than two weeks, four key nodes were uprooted one after another.
Tokyo and Amazon were even core main strongholds.
Their advent network, which they had painstakingly operated for five years, now only had the last two left.
"Has it been investigated clearly?" Kaecilius asked.
"Confirmed." Lucian took out a thin file bag from his arms and handed it over his head with both hands, "The person responsible for clearing the strongholds is the same person."
Kaecilius flicked his wrist, and the file bag flew into his hands, pulling out the paper inside.
A photo was pasted on the paper. In the photo was a young man wearing a Kamar-Taj apprentice uniform, holding a broom in his hand, smiling casually at the camera.
Name: Lin Yi.
Identity: Disciple under Sorcerer Supreme Gu Yi, lay disciple.
Time of enrollment: Three years.
The gaze of Kaecilius moved down to the strength evaluation column.
[Extremely poor magic talent, no spatial awareness. Three years since enrollment, failed to master basic portal carving.]
[Weak mental power, unable to establish an effective link with the Vishanti.]
[Comprehensive evaluation: No threat target.]
Kaecilius stared at the evaluation, the purple blood vessels at the corner of his eyes throbbing wildly.
This was information passed out by an insider from the Kamar-Taj apprentice archive.
There was even a handwritten note from Mordo the teaching master: "Recommended for expulsion".
"Is the intelligence conclusive?" Kaecilius looked up.
"Certain. The informant on Cairo side saw him walk into the mausoleum of Khufu with Wong with their own eyes."
"Amazon peripheral reconnaissance bird also captured his afterimage."
Lucian swallowed a mouthful of saliva.
"Marcus and Leon in Tokyo, as well as Shadow, all fell into the hands of this person."
"Rumor has it that Ancient One has already taken him as a personal disciple. This..."
Kaecilius crumpled the paper into a ball, and a purplish-red flame was born out of thin air, burning it to ashes.
He had stayed in Kamar-Taj for more than ten years and knew the personality of Ancient One well.
Ancient One would never open the scriptures of the Library to a good-for-nothing.
The only explanation is that this file is a smokescreen used by Ancient One to pull the wool over people's eyes.
This person named Lin Yi must be a terrifying entity hidden extremely deep.
"Teacher, what should we do next? Should we send all high-tier Zealots to encircle and suppress him?" Lucianraised his head.
"Foolish." Kaecilius stood up, "No matter how many are sent, they are just nourishment. Have you forgotten the lesson of Tokyo?"
He walked to the edge of the karst cave and looked at the mountains locked outside by heavy snow.
"Notify the Siberia stronghold to stop all expansion activities and shrink the defense magic array."
"Bet all the remaining dark energy on the last main array eye."
Kaecilius turned around, his purple double pupils emitting an awe-inspiring light in the dimness.
"As for Lin Yi, I will go wait for him personally."
Lucian raised his head in shock. "Teacher, you want to leave here personally? There is a risk. If Ancient One takes the opportunity to strike—"
"Ancient One doesn't dare to use magic on a large scale." Kaecilius sneered, "As for this Lin Yi, since he can suck dry dark energy, then I will prepare something for him that he cannot suck dry."
"Contact the people inside the Hong Kong Sanctum Sanctorum." Kaecilius walked outward, "Get that thing ready and send the coordinates to him."
Lucian lowered his head and agreed.
...
Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
A small motel facing the street.
The ceiling fan rotated overhead, making a dry creaking sound.
Outside the window on the street, vendors pushed wooden carts and peddled along the street.
Lin Yi leaned on the sofa, holding a can of iced cola in his hand.
He raised his head and chugged most of the can, crushed the soda can, and threw it into the trash can.
Wong stood in front of the wooden table, forming hand seals with both hands.
A circle of golden sparks intertwined in mid-air to form a flat communication light screen.
The face of Ancient One was projected on the wall.
On the table were printed photos sent back by Wong using his mobile phone.
That was the wreckage deep underground in the Amazonjungle.
Inside the fifty-meter-high purple-black tree trunk, it was embedded with countless human skeletons.
Ancient One stared at those photos, her breathing heavy.
"The situation is somewhat out of control." Ancient Onespoke, her voice dry, "Kaecilius has crossed the line."
Lin Yi pulled over a napkin to wipe his hands.
"He was already a traitor to begin with, crossing the line can be considered standard operation."
"It's just a different nature." Ancient One raised her head, "Previously, they only borrowed the power of the Dark Dimension to strengthen themselves or establish magicarrays to welcome Dormammu's descent. This was a controllable method."
"And these skeletons in the Amazon basin indicate that he has already begun doing biological modification experiments..."
Chapter 39: Veteran Mages Dropped In
Wong took a step forward.
"Biological modification?"
"He used the origin of the Dark Dimension to forcibly distort human bodies and souls."
"He wants to skip the descent process and directly build a Dark Dimension army on Earth."
Ancient One looked at the skeletal tree in the photograph.
"Even if Dormammu's descent fails, as long as this army takes shape, he will still have enough forces to wipe out Earth's entire defense line."
"Those civilians were stuffed into the tree, becoming vessels for hatching monsters."
Lin Yi raised an eyebrow.
He recalled the mutant wild boars and spiders he had encountered in the woods earlier.
Those were all peripheral defective products that had absorbed the residual energy.
Ancient One's fingers slid across the desktop.
Several simulated diagrams of Shadow Assassin mutants appeared on the light screen.
Those illusory bodies had grown together with metal magical artifacts.
"He is refining magical artifacts using living creatures. He has broken the baseline logic of artifacts recognizing their masters and directly forged living beings into weapons." Ancient One's tone was low.
Wong swallowed a mouthful of saliva.
Such taboo operations had been cut off for hundreds of years.
"Kaecilius has already noticed the pattern of the strongholds being destroyed. The path ahead will not have any luck. He will definitely set up a death trap for you." Ancient One pressed both hands on the desktop, causing the light screen to shake.
Lin Yi straightened his posture.
"Master, since the difficulty has been upgraded, shouldn't the travel expenses and bonuses be raised a bit?"
Ancient One automatically filtered out these words.
"I have adjusted the priority of this cleanup mission to the highest level."
"Kamar-Taj must concentrate its forces. I have dispatched two veteran mages to assist you. They have already set out and will arrive in Rio in half an hour."
"Veteran mages? How veteran?"
"Alexander, Chen Jie. They have guarded Kamar-Taj for a hundred years and participated in three large-scale campaigns against dimensional lords." Ancient One looked at Lin Yi. "Put away that flippant attitude of yours. Listen more to their instructions."
With that, the light screen dissipated.
The sparks went out.
Lin Yi turned his head to look at Wong.
Wong pulled over a chair and sat down, wiping the sweat from his forehead.
"Those two seniors are extremely famous. In the seniority ranking of Kamar-Taj, apart from the Master and a few reclusive old fossils, it is them."
"Senior Alexander is an orthodox space spell master with a stubborn temper."
"Senior Chen Jie has an even more explosive temper. Back then, she single-handedly carried a blade and hacked down a small demon lair. They cannot tolerate any sand in their eyes and take rules very seriously."
"Understood. Old feudalists." Lin Yi summarized.
Wong sighed.
"Daniel's report has been spread all over the circle of high-level mages."
"No one believes you can take down a dimensional lord bare-handed."
"Everyone thinks Daniel is senile and covering for you."
"When these two seniors come this time, they most likely harbor the intention of probing the truth."
Lin Yi leaned back against the sofa, resting his legs on the coffee table.
"Let them probe. With people to help, I'd be happy to take it easy. As long as they don't steal my kills in the end, it's fine."
Wong didn't pick up the conversation.
...
Half an hour later.
The air in the center of the room distorted, pulling out a portal two meters in diameter.
A cold wind blew in from the other side of the door, bringing the chilly breath of high altitude.
Two people walked out of the door.
The man on the left wore an exquisitely tailored dark gray mage robe, leaning on a short cane inlaid with obsidian in his hand.
His hair was gray and neatly combed.
He slightly raised his chin, his gaze sweeping across the shabby hotel, his brows knitted into a frown.
The woman on the right wore a capable black double-breasted practice suit, with ear-length short hair and sharp eyes and brows.
Two short blades were tucked at her waist.
The portal closed behind them.
Wong straightened his body, putting his hands together to perform a standard Kamar-Taj mage salute.
"Senior Alexander, Senior Chen Jie."
Alexander nodded, pacing back and forth in the room with his cane, deliberately avoiding a patch of oil on the ground.
"Wong, you've worked hard."
Chen Jie ignored Wong, her gaze locking directly onto Lin Yi who was half-lying on the sofa.
Lin Yi still had his legs propped on the coffee table, holding a box of freshly bought fried chicken in his hands.
"You are Lin Yi?" Chen Jie stepped forward, stopping in front of the coffee table.
Lin Yi swallowed the chicken in his mouth and pulled a tissue to wipe his hands.
"It's me. Have you eaten? The fried chicken here had to be lined up for, the taste is not bad, want to try some?"
Chen Jie's eyes lit up with a blue magical halo.
Her gaze swept across Lin Yi, and he looked like a thorough ordinary person.
Wong watched Chen Jie's detection movement from the side, muttering inwardly.
What the hell are you checking? He can pound you into powder with one punch, your set of magic detectors should have gone into a museum long ago.
"I have read the report submitted by Daniel." Chen Jiedispersed the magic in her eyes, her voice cold and hard, "Tearing apart a dimensional lord bare-handed, releasing an S-rank Sealing Spell without materials or side effects."
"Yep!" Lin Yi nodded.
"Absurd."
Wong spoke up from the side to smooth things over.
"Senior Chen Jie, the situation in London was urgent at that time, Lin Yi he..."
"Wong, silence." Alexander knocked on his cane, his voice steady, "magic has its bottom line."
"Any description that violates the conservation of cost is an insult to Kamar-Taj's thousands of years of heritage."
"Daniel is old, his spirit was traumatized and he hallucinated, wanting to cover up the fact of his dereliction of duty, which is why he fabricated such an absurd excuse."
Alexander looked at Lin Yi.
"As for you, being able to survive these two operations shows your luck is not bad. The upcoming battle will not tolerate you messing around blindly."
Lin Yi leaned back against the back of the sofa, looking at Alexander, then at Chen Jie.
Chen Jie bent down, supporting her hands on the edge of the coffee table, staring into Lin Yi's eyes.
"The Sorcerer Supreme asked us to come to take over the subsequent cleanup operations."
"For the upcoming strongholds, Alexander and I will take the main attack. Wong is responsible for maintaining the perimeter array. As for you."
"You stay in the safe zone. Or follow behind to carry the luggage."
"In short, don't hold the team back. If something happens, I don't have the energy to save a burden."
Wong swallowed a mouthful of saliva, his peripheral vision glancing at Lin Yi.
These two seniors have completely sealed their words. If a real fight breaks out later, the scene will definitely be very ugly.
Lin Yi stood up.
Chen Jie's eyes turned cold, her hand resting on the hilt of the blade at her waist.
"Seniors, calm your anger first. Everything you said is right."
Chen Jie froze in place.
Lin Yi walked around the coffee table and came to Alexander's side.
"You two have great seniority and strong strength. Being able to take over this mess is just what I wished for."
"Running around in the woods these past two days has made my legs hurt. The subsequent work all relies on the two of you. I promise to hide far away and never cause trouble."
Alexander looked at Lin Yi's flattering appearance, a trace of disdain appearing deep in his eyes.
He sneered and averted his gaze.
"Spineless. I don't know how the Sorcerer Supreme could take you in." Chen Jie released the hilt of her blade and turned to walk toward the wooden table.
Wong stood in place, the corners of his mouth twitching wildly. He really wanted to remind the two seniors.
This guy isn't admitting defeat at all; he simply wants to find two free coolies to clear the mines in front.
Chapter 40: Dimensional Crack Beneath the Ice Layer
Wong opened a portal in the room.
The howling of the wind and snow came from the other side of the sparks.
Large clumps of white snow particles passed through the light door and lunged into the stuffy room.
Alexander closed his eyes and low-chanted a lengthy incantation.
On the surface of his dark gray wizard robe, a three-layered overlapping hexagram array lit up, flashing with red light and flowing between the fabric textures.
This was the temperature-control spell and the rejection barrier. Having finished this set of defenses, he stepped into the wind and snow.
Chen Jie poured out a pale yellow viscous potion from her portable cloth pouch and carefully applied it to her neck and the back of her hands.
This potion, refined from the blood of a Fire Lizard, formed a transparent thin film to block the severe cold upon contacting the air.
She tidied the waistband of her front-buttoned martial arts uniform and glanced at Lin Yi, who was leaning against the sofa.
"The Arctic stronghold is different from the past. Put away your sloppiness."
Chen Jie let out a cold snort from her nose and followed him into the light door.
Lin Yi spat the leftover fried chicken bones onto a piece of paper.
He stood up and tugged at the T-shirt on his body.
His clothes were destroyed in that battle in the Amazon, and this was just casually grabbed from a street stall downstairs.
"Let's go, old Wong."
Wong changed into a hooded down jacket, wrapped a scarf around his neck, and looked a circle fatter.
He looked at Lin Yi's thin attire, shrank his neck, and followed behind Lin Yi into the portal.
Arctic Circle, above the ice sheet.
The temperature plummeted to minus sixty degrees.
The fierce wind rolled the snowflakes, strafing the surroundings like blades.
The sky was heavily suppressed by dark clouds, and a few dim auroras twitched powerlessly on the edge of the horizon, exuding an eerie dead silence.
Alexander raised his walking stick.
A red semi-circular light shield expanded from the tip.
The wind and snow crashed against the light shield, making crisp popping sounds.
He stood at the edge of the ice sheet, holding a compass to identify the direction of the ice cracks below.
The compass needle spun wildly under the polar magnetic field and dimensional interference.
Chen Jie stood at the edge of the light shield. Her breath brought out large clouds of white vapor, which turned into ice dregs in mid-air and fell down.
She tightened her front-buttoned martial arts uniform. Even with the dual defense of the potion and magic, that piercing chill still drilled inward along the gaps of her bones.
The creaking sound of stepping on snow rang out.
Lin Yi walked over, stepping through the knee-deep snow.
Snowflakes fell on his bare arms, not even condensing into a single droplet of water.
He took a deep breath of the dry and cold air, spread his arms to stretch his body, and his joints made crisp sounds.
"It's so refreshing."
Alexander turned his head.
He stared at Lin Yi's tattered T-shirt fluttering in the wind, his sparse eyebrows knitted together.
He raised his walking stick, pointing at the huge glacier crevasse ahead.
"This is a double restricted zone of extreme low temperature and Dark Dimension erosion. Even if your physical body is strong, you won't last ten minutes here before suffering from hypothermia and necrosis," Alexander said in a stiff tone, "The cold will freeze your blood and shatter your organs."
"If your hands and feet freeze off later, crawl back yourself. Don't expect us to be distracted to save you." Chen Jiedropped a sentence and walked towards the crevasse along the slope.
Wong tightened the collar of his down jacket.
He looked at the two arrogant senior mages, then looked at the nonchalant Lin Yi beside him, and sighed.
These two still regarded this living ancestor as an ordinary apprentice; later on, who knows who would save whom.
The four of them formed a single file and stepped into the passage beneath the ice layer.
The passage extended downwards slantingly, extremely steep.
The surrounding ice walls initially emitted white light, and the deeper they went, the darker the color became.
After several hundred meters, the interior of the ice layer emitted a rich purplish-black halo.
The energy of the Dark Dimension had completely merged with this ice field.
The ice surface underfoot was as bright as a mirror, and one would slip if not careful.
At the end of the passage, an underground cave supported by countless thick ice pillars appeared.
The surface of the ice pillars was covered with traces of knife and axe chopping.
Alexander stopped in his tracks, his walking stick heavily tapping on the ice surface.
The red light shield expanded outward.
He flipped his wrist, attempting to construct a warning magic array.
Just as the golden magic lines were half-drawn, the sparks twisted a few times and directly dispersed into a cluster of light particles, disappearing.
The old mage's face collapsed.
"The laws here repel external energy. Kaecilius wants to use the extremely low temperature to suppress our mental power conduction, greatly reducing casting efficiency."
Chen Jie drew her short knife, driving her magic power to forcefully burst open the ice layer.
"No wonder the stronghold was chosen here. Normal mages cannot even exert half their strength here, and even their weapons will suffer backlash."
Lin Yi walked at the very back.
He stepped on the smooth ice surface with steady paces.
The rules suppressing magic around him were completely useless to someone like him who relied purely on physical strength.
He looked around, like a tourist visiting a karst cave scenic spot.
The thick ice wall on the side made a cracking sound.
Large chunks of broken ice fell and smashed onto the ground.
A few black shadows squeezed out from the depths of the crevasse.
That was a mutated monster resembling a giant bear but with six lower limbs.
Its body surface was covered with a layer of purplish-black hard ice scales, and every single hair condensed into sharp ice thorns.
Its scarlet mouthparts exhaled pungent cold air, and its saliva directly froze into ice pillars upon dripping onto the ground.
The six ice beasts dispersed, approaching in a semi-enclosing formation.
"Engage in battle!" Alexander barked in a low voice.
He waved his walking stick and whipped out a golden magic long whip.
The long whip lashed towards the ice beast rushing at the very front.
Crack.
The long whip solidly lashed on the ice beast's neck.
The magic whip, which could usually cut through rocks, had a dim light at this moment.
The whip body only left a shallow white mark on the purplish-black ice armor.
The ice beast roared, waving its front claws to scatter the long whip, its huge body pressing towards Alexander, and its six thick legs dug deep pits on the ice surface.
The old mage retreated, his walking stick tapping consecutively to barely prop up three layers of Rings of Raggadorr.
The giant claws smashed onto the magic shield, sending sparks flying.
The first layer of shield shattered at the sound, and Alexander retreated two steps, plowing two shallow trenches on the ice surface.
Chen Jie's figure darted out, she stepped on a broken ice pillar and leaped up, her dual blades crossing to slash towards the eyes of another ice beast.
The blade cleaved through the air.
The ice beast tilted its head, and the short knife hacked onto the ice thorns on its shoulder.
The metallic friction sound was piercing, and a notch chipped out of the blade edge.
The purplish-black cold qi on the ice beast's body surface climbed rapidly along the blade edge.
Chen Jie's wrist turned cyan and purple, and the potion thin film refined from the Fire Lizard was easily pierced by the extreme cold energy.
She let out a muffled grunt and released the short knife in her left hand.
Her body twisted in mid-air, and with a kick on the ice beast's lower jaw, she borrowed strength to fly backward.
After landing, she retreated several steps consecutively, her right hand tightly grasping the remaining knife, while her left hand fingers were so stiff they couldn't bend.
The magic power in her body was eroded by the cold qi, and its circulation was extremely sluggish.
The two senior mages fell into a disadvantage as soon as they exchanged blows.
The dual weakening of the extreme environment was too fatal, and the monsters here held an absolute advantage on their home turf.
The ice beast herd did not pause.
Two of them entangled Alexander, forcing the old mage to constantly retreat.
Two of them closed in on Chen Jie.
The remaining two bypassed the defense line, locking onto Wong and Lin Yi in the rear.
The thick lower limbs kicked and shattered the ice surface.
The huge body stirred up a piercing hurricane, directly lunging at Lin Yi.
The cold qi on the ice thorns dragged out a long white mist in the air.
"Hurry and dodge!" Chen Jie caught sight of this scene out of the corner of her eye, gritting her teeth and shouting.