Chapter 41: Alexander's Teacher
She wanted to throw her short blade to help, but was forced back by the cold breath exhaled by the ice beast in front of her.
Lin Yi stood in place without moving.
When the ice beast rushed in front of him, and the extremely cold current had already ruffled the hair on his forehead.
Lin Yi reached out and pressed it against the huge head covered in ice spikes.
Boom!
The loud noise exploded in the underground cave.
The ice beast's momentum of charging forward came to an abrupt halt.
Its massive body weighing several tons was forcibly bent into a bizarre angle in mid-air, with its hind legs suspended off the ground.
Lin Yi hooked his five fingers into the hard skull, his arm muscles bulging, and exerted force to press down heavily.
The monster was slammed onto the ice surface with one hand.
The solid ice sheet collapsed on a large scale, and the cracks extended outward for more than ten meters.
The ice beast's head sank entirely into the crushed ice, and the sound of breaking bones set one's teeth on edge.
Blue-black blood splashed everywhere.
The ice beast did not die completely right away.
The rich dark ice inside its body sensed a fatal threat and frantically poured back along Lin Yi's arm.
The thick purple-black ice crystals rapidly climbed up his wrist, wrapping around his entire right arm in the blink of an eye, and covering half of his shoulder with frost as well.
[Your body is suffering from extreme cold dimension erosion — — Trigger Reversal!]
[Constitution + 300!]
[Ice Resistance + 1000!]
[Your body is suffering from extreme cold dimension erosion — — Trigger Reversal!]
[Constitution + 500!]
[Ice Resistance has reached the MAX value of the current environment!]
Rows of translucent white text frantically scrolled across the front of his retina.
He lowered his head to look at the thick frost on his arm and twitched the corner of his mouth.
He exerted force with his five fingers to close them, and the skull in the ice hole shattered completely.
Lin Yi flicked his wrist, and the thick purple-black ice crystals covering his arm, like snowflakes falling into boiling water, turned into a ball of white mist and dissipated in the air, leaving not even a scrap behind.
The ice beast next to it that was preparing for a pincer attack stopped its footsteps. The beast's instinct for self-preservation made it take half a step back, and a whimpering sound came from its throat.
Lin Yi shook off the ice slag on his hands, stepped over the corpse under his feet, and looked up at the battlefield ahead.
Chen Jie's gaze fell on Lin Yi's unharmed arm.
Half a minute ago, she had even warned this young man not to hold them back.
Now, this apprentice whom she didn't believe could tear apart a lord with his bare hands had single-handedly crushed a dimensional behemoth to death.
A strong gust of wind blew past.
Wang rubbed his hands and walked to Lin Yi's side, his fat face full of habitual calmness.
"Are you done warming up? Hurry up, I'm almost frozen numb."
Lin Yi twisted his neck and walked towards the remaining monsters.
"Hardly an appetizer."
Alexander's walking stick stopped in mid-air, the old wizard's wrinkled face turning purplish-red. Like Chen Jie, he was starting to doubt his outlook on life.
The remaining five ice beasts lowered their forebodies, making threatening low growls in their throats.
They did not charge blindly, but dispersed, circling around on the slippery ice. Animal intuition made them sense the abnormality in the human before them.
Lin Yi didn't have the patience to circle around with them, and walked straight towards the largest ice beast on the far left.
The monster opened its bloody maw, and viscous cold air spat out into solid ice cones.
Lin Yi bumped into the ice cones head-on, raised his right hand, and gripped the lower jaw of the pouncing ice beast.
The sound of bone cracking resounded through the empty cave.
Lin Yi forcibly lifted the multi-ton behemoth over his head and violently smashed it onto the ice surface under his feet.
The immense force spread outward from the impact point, causing large areas of the ice sheet to crack and collapse. The ice beast didn't even manage to let out a scream before its spine broke into several sections, killing it instantly on the spot.
Seeing this, the other four burst out with ferocity and pounced together.
The cold air intertwined into a dense net, blocking all retreats.
Lin Yi strode forward to meet them, letting the sharp ice spikes scratch his skin.
The harsh sound of metal friction was endless, and the basic immunity of the Demigod Body blocked all these attacks completely.
With a sweeping kick, he broke the two lower limbs of the monster on the left, casually pinched the neck of the monster on the right, and forcibly snapped it backwards.
With a snap, the cervical spine broke.
The entire process took less than a minute.
Five massive corpses lay scattered in the crushed ice, with blue-black blood flowing all over the ground.
The wind whipped up the ice fog on the ground.
Lin Yi patted away the ice slag on his shoulders and turned to look back.
Alexander's graying eyebrows were knitted together as he looked at the corpses on the ground, his facial expression incomparably complex.
"Two seniors, are we still fighting?"
Wang tucked his hands into the pockets of his down jacket, shrank his neck, and asked.
Alexander dry coughed twice, put away the light on his walking stick, and feigned composure,
"These are just low-level dimensional creatures on the periphery. Kaecilius's methods don't stop here. Let's go, deeper in."
The four of them crossed this ruin and walked down the inclined ice surface.
The further down they went, the deeper the color of the ice walls became.
The previous light blue receded, replaced by a depressing purple-black.
The passage under their feet was covered in cracks, from the depths of which viscous black mist continuously oozed out.
The temperature plummeted cliff-like once again, and the thin film of Fire Lizard potion Chen Jie applied to her neck began to crack and peel off in large areas.
The view ahead suddenly broadened, and a large number of black shadows blocked their path.
This time it was no longer ordinary ice beasts.
Multi-headed giant ice snakes coiled on stone pillars, and humanoid monsters whose bodies were made of extremely cold hard ice held ice blades, numbering as many as dozens.
"Form up!" Alexander said in a deep voice, pulling out several golden runes.
Chen Jie drew her blade again, enduring the numbness in her left hand, and stood on the left wing of the formation.
According to their veteran combat habits, facing a horde of beasts required division of labor and cooperation, with each guarding one side of the defense line.
Lin Yi and Wang were tacitly left by them in the relatively safe rear.
The giant snake launched an attack first.
Its thick tail brought a howling grim wind as it smashed down overhead.
Alexander propped up a magic shield, the golden light colliding with the ice scales.
The magic array only lasted for two seconds before it was covered in cracks. The old wizard was pressed by the huge force to kneel on one knee, his knee knocking out a deep pit on the ice surface.
Chen Jie rushed towards the humanoid ice monster, her blade cutting into the monster's chest.
Before she could exert force, the extremely cold Qi flowed backward along the blade.
The blade body iced over with a thick layer, and her entire right arm along with half her body completely stiffened.
The humanoid monster swung a half-meter-long ice prism, heading straight for her face.
A hand reached out from behind, steadily gripping the ice prism swung into mid-air.
Lin Yi stepped past Chen Jie and turned his wrist outward.
The hard ice prism along with the monster's arm was forcibly snapped off.
He snatched the broken ice prism, backhanded it into the monster's chest cavity, and kicked it to pieces of ice all over the ground.
"Stand back, I'm about to act cool!"
Without even looking back, Lin Yi rushed straight into the beast horde.
This was completely a one-sided brawl devoid of any aesthetic appeal or logic.
The giant snake bit down on his back, but its venomous fangs instead broke two sharp teeth.
Lin Yi backhanded and grabbed the giant snake's tail, swinging the dozen-meter-long monster like a giant windmill, smashing it fiercely onto another humanoid monster. The sound of breaking bones was endless.
Alexander stood up, preparing to cast spells to assist, only to find that he couldn't intervene at all.
Lin Yi rampaged through the beast horde, his fist wind carrying a piercing sonic boom, every strike tearing a monster to pieces.
Those dimensional cold airs that were enough to be fatal to senior wizards turned entirely into useless water vapor when they landed on him.
Chapter 42: Can You Not Kill Him?
The old mage took several deep breaths to suppress his surging magic, and exchanged a glance with Chen Jie.
The two of them silently tightened their formation and retreated to the edge of the ice cave.
As the stray fish that had been crippled by Lin Yi and were crawling on the ground with only half a breath left approached, Chen Jie decapitated them with a single blade, or Alexander whipped them away with a light whip.
The two renowned veteran mages of Kamar-Taj, holders of a century of battle achievements, had now completely reduced to handymen following behind an apprentice to deliver finishing blows.
Wong had long since hidden behind the ice pillar in the furthest corner and squatted down. Looking at the two stunned seniors, he sighed.
A few minutes later, the head of the last giant snake was stepped underfoot by Lin Yi and ground into pulp.
The vast underground ice field quieted down.
The ground was littered with purplish-black severed limbs.
The extreme cold dimension energy lingered around Lin Yi. Thick ice crystals condensed and shattered, all transforming into the foundation within his body.
Since his frost resistance was already maxed out, white text no longer jumped before his vision, but he could feel a fullness at the cellular level.
Lin Yi patted the dirt off his hands and waved to the back: "It is done, the road ahead is open."
Chen Jie shook off the ice shards on her blade, looked at Lin Yi's back, and turned to speak to Alexander.
"It seems Daniel's report was written too conservatively."
Leaning on his staff, the old mage did not refute.
From the moment he witnessed Lin Yi withstand the giant snake's bite bare-handed just now, his worldview had already shattered into a pile of ice shards.
Crossing this messy battlefield, the four of them arrived at the stronghold.
This was a huge semi-circular ice dome.
Thick ice pillars hung down from the dome, and the ground was as flat as a mirror.
Only a two-meter-tall transparent ice coffin stood suspended in mid-air. A large amount of dark purple energy turned into materialized thin threads, following the veins at the bottom of the ice coffin, piercing deep into Siberia's deep earth veins.
In front of the ice coffin stood a person.
This person was wearing a coarse linen robe in a style from a century ago, and the hem of the clothes was tattered beyond recognition.
The skin exposed to the air presented a dead grayish-blue, and purplish-red dark blood vessels crawled all over the left half of his cheek.
Lin Yi stopped in his tracks, looking this guard up and down.
The opponent did not have the frenzied murderous intent of the previous fallen mages; he was as quiet as a stone, and even when the four of them approached, he only mechanically raised his head.
There were no whites in his eye sockets, only bottomless pitch-blackness.
"Not a living person." Wong took a look, "He has no self-awareness; his brain domain has been sealed by someone using the Dark Origin."
The linen-robed guard moved.
He slightly parted his feet and assumed an extremely standard mage starting stance.
His hands shuttled rapidly in front of his chest to form seals, and dark purple dimensional energy gathered between his hands, pulling out three overlapping complex magic arrays.
This was Kamar-Taj's orthodox high-level spatial folding technique, a mutated dharma gate unleashed in conjunction with the Dark Origin.
The surrounding temperature plummeted once again, and ice crystals even formed in the air.
"Spatial cutting combined with dimensional corrosion..." Chen Jie's eyes twitched, "With this spell-casting speed and spatial node control, even if Mordo were here, he might not be able to do it so perfectly."
Clang.
The crisp sound of the staff slamming against the ice spread out.
Alexander was trembling all over, staring dead at the hemp-robed person. He extended a trembling hand and pointed at the guard who was currently constructing the magic array.
"No... impossible... this is definitely fake..."
Chen Jie turned to look at the old mage, her brows furrowed: "You know him?"
Alexander's legs went soft, and he knelt straight down onto the ice.
Looking at that face covered in dark blood vessels, tears mixed with the polar blizzard whirled in his eye sockets.
A century ago, Kamar-Taj once had a brilliantly talented high-level mage.
He went missing during a secret mission to explore a polar dimensional rift, leaving not even a skeleton behind.
That person was the guide who led Alexander into the door of magic and taught him hand-in-hand how to draw his first spatial magic array.
"Teacher..." Broken syllables rolled out from the old mage's throat, "Kaecilius, that beast..."
The berserk compound array completely formed.
The frozen mage swung his hand blade, unprovokedly tearing open a ten-meter-long black crack in the void. Carrying the power of rules that strangled everything, it went straight for Lin Yi's face.
Lin Yi raised his left hand, spreading his five fingers in front of him to block the crack.
A piercing sharp whistle sounded by the ear.
The sharp spatial cutting rules ground over the skin of his palm.
Thin black threads burst into clusters of distorted halos along the edge of his palm.
The front of his clothes turned to dust and dissipated.
Lin Yi's chest solidly bore the stray energy.
The spatial crack was like a dull knife chopping on an anvil, snapping into two pieces between his fingers.
A translucent system prompt box brushed out in front of his retina.
[Sustained high-level spatial cutting rule crushing — — Triggered Reversal!]
[Spatial Law Affinity + 100!]
[Physique + 500!]
[Sustained compound dimensional corrosion — — Triggered Reversal!]
[magic Resistance + 100!]
Lin Yi flicked his wrist, shaking off the ice shards attached to the surface of his skin.
He strode forward, stepping across the shattered ice layer.
The frozen mage was expressionless, his hollow black eye sockets locked onto Lin Yi.
The opponent's arms brought up afterimages, and his seal-casting speed rolled over exponentially.
The void vibrated violently around Lin Yi.
Twelve dark purple spatial folding doors opened simultaneously, sealing off all blind spots up, down, left, and right.
Ice spears as thick as a child's arm, Shadow chains with corrosive mucus, and high-pressure extreme cold storms intertwined and poured down from the dozen or so light doors.
The entire space degenerated into an energy meat grinder. Lin Yi braved the spell torrent and continued walking forward.
The white text on his retina was endless.
[Spatial Law Affinity + 50!]
[magic Resistance + 120!]
[Physique + 300!]
"Lin Yi!" On the ice sheet dozens of meters away, Alexander sat slumped on the ground.
He raised his head, his voice sounding like a torn bellows.
"He is my teacher."
Alexander panted heavily, shouting toward the back amidst the sky-filling magic light.
"Can you... not kill him? Spare his life. Just release the control, I beg... you."
Chen Jie grabbed Alexander's arm from the side and pulled the old mage backward.
The overflowing energy turbulence ahead brushed past the side of her face, cutting tiny cuts on her skin.
In this level of rule collision, a veteran mage would have their limbs torn off within seconds if dragged into it.
Wong squatted behind a slanted ice pillar in the back, tucking his hands into the sleeves of his down jacket.
He looked at the old mage kneeling and kowtowing, and then at Lin Yi, who was too lazy to even dodge. He rubbed his frozen cheeks and remained silent.
Lin Yi's steps did not stop, ignoring the entreaty behind him.
His sight pierced through the intertwined light and shadow straight at the frozen mage.
Dark light flickered deep within his pupils, and Void Perception activated.
The world in his eyes faded of solid colors, turning into an energy structural diagram composed of pure lines.
Inside the frozen mage's body, it was filled with sticky purplish-black mist.
These energies representing the dimensional origin were like intricate poisonous vines, tightly entwined around his internal organs and every blood vessel.
But right in the center of the poisonous vines' roots, deep within the brain domain, hid a dim golden cluster of light.
That was the unique Soul Fire of Kamar-Taj's Vishanti system.
He still wasn't completely dead yet.
Chapter 43 Want to Slap Dormammu's Head
Lin Yi turned his head to glance at Alexander, his right leg bending.
With a deafening crash, the ice sheet within a ten-meter radius violently shattered, ice chunks scattering in all directions.
Facing the torrent of energy, Lin Yi smashed through the three spatial folding doors blocking his path.
The violent wind whipped up his ragged stall-bought T-shirt as he broke through the final line of defense and stood before the Ice-Sealed Mage.
The Ice-Sealed Mage crossed his arms in front of his chest.
Purple-black solid ice rose from the flat ground, condensing into an ice shield three meters high and two meters thick.
The surface of the shield was carved with spatial defense runes.
Lin Yi clenched his right fist, muscles bulging along his forearm.
His fist smashed into the center of the ice shield, a muffled sonic boom echoing through the underground space.
A web of cracks appeared on the surface of the heavy ice shield, and without lasting even a second, it shattered completely.
The immense impact pierced the defense line, causing the Ice-Sealed Mage's body to uncontrollably tilt backward and fall.
The opponent tapped their left foot in the void, lighting up a folding magic array beneath it, attempting to use spatial nodes to create distance.
Lin Yi reached out with his left hand, grabbing the opponent's neck, while pressing his right hand onto the top of the Ice-Sealed Mage's head, violently slamming this vessel once belonging to a high-tier mage onto the ice surface.
The solid ice beneath the two of them collapsed in sheets, smashing out a crater over five meters deep.
The Ice-Sealed Mage fiercely counterattacked with all four limbs, knees bending to heavily ram against Lin Yi's abdomen.
High-density ice blades condensed in both hands, frantically cutting at Lin Yi's arms.
Sparks flew everywhere, and the noise of metal scraping pierced the eardrums.
"Your old bones sure have a lot of kick." Lin Yi snorted coldly.
The five fingers of his right hand sank deep into the Ice-Sealed Mage's scalp, his palm pressing tightly against the opponent's skull.
His Void Perception operated at full capacity inside his body, precisely locking onto the dimensional roots entwined around that cluster of golden light.
Lin Yi activated the "Dark Dimension Energy Manipulation" skill, transforming his palm into the eye of a storm.
Exerting force with his five fingers, Lin Yi pulled outward as the berserk dimensional origin surged backward along Lin Yi's arm.
The dark laws within the Ice-Sealed Mage's body fiercely resisted, the two forces crushing each other with the physical body as a battlefield.
[The host actively strips away the parasitic dimensional origin — Triggering Reversal!]
[Mental Power +3,500!]
[Soul Stress Resistance +800!]
[Suffering high-tier erosion rejection reaction — Triggering Reversal!]
[Ancient magic Affinity +15 (Trace Extraction)!]
[Cellular Vitality +200!]
Translucent white characters frantically jumped and refreshed on his retina.
The muscle grain on Lin Yi's right arm bulged inch by inch, blood vessels rising beneath his skin.
A steady stream of purple-black mist poured out from the seven orifices of the Ice-Sealed Mage, climbing along Lin Yi's arm, drilling into his pores, and turning into pure nutrients.
The extraction process was savage, brutal, and merciless.
Those purplish-red blood vessels rooted in the mage's cheeks and neck twisted violently like bugs baked by a blazing fire.
They were forcibly dragged out of the skin by an invisible colossal force, snapping inch by inch.
The cyan-gray death aura began to flake off over a large area.
Large chunks of necrotic epidermis dropped to the ground, revealing the fresh flesh and blood sealed beneath for a hundred years.
Coming into contact with the minus-sixty-degree air, the flesh and blood emitted dazzling white smoke.
Human flesh tones reoccupied dominance amidst the receding death aura.
"Ahhhhhh—"
The miserable scream drowned out the howling blizzard all around, echoing in the huge underground karst cave.
The pain of being forcibly stripped of dimensional energy was no different from having one's spine ripped out alive.
The final wisp of purple-black mist detached from the Ice-Sealed Mage's nasal cavity and drilled into Lin Yi's palm.
Lin Yi released his right hand.
The figure in mid-air lost support and crashed stiffly into the pile of broken ice.
The translucent white characters on the retina stopped jumping.
The violent wind in the underground karst cave stopped, and the ice shards flying all over the sky fell to the ground, making crisp, shattering sounds.
With the death aura fully dissipated, the body on the ground underwent an abnormal change.
Dark red frostbite receded from the bottom layer of the skin, and the necrotic muscles plumped up again.
The deep black patterns originally covering the cheeks turned into powder and fell off.
Lin Yi stepped back two steps, shaking off the ice chips on his wrist.
The mage on the ground rolled his Adam's apple, his chest rising and falling as he emitted a fit of violent coughing.
He turned his head sideways and vomited a large mouthful of dark purple coagulated blood.
The mage opened his eyes.
The abyss black filling his eye sockets receded, and his amber pupils refocused.
He looked at the huge ice cone suspended upside down overhead, turned his stiff neck, swept his gaze across the remains of the mutated beast covering the ground, and finally looked at his own hands.
Confusion occupied his face.
Dozens of meters away, Alexander knelt at the edge of the fractured ice layer, his body shaking like a sieve.
His hands clawed desperately at the solid ice on the ground, his fingernails turning outward and bleeding, yet he dared not move a single step.
The mage propped himself up and sat up from the ground.
He looked at the crowd ahead.
His gaze crossed over Wong, crossed over Chen Jie, and finally locked onto the white-haired, tear-streaked face of Alexander.
A span of one hundred years had changed Alexander's appearance, but it had not worn away the familiar outline within his soul.
The mage opened his mouth, a noise like a pulling bellows emitting from his throat.
He closed his mouth, swallowed a mouthful of bloody saliva, and tried to speak again.
His voice was hoarse, and his speech was intermittent.
"Alex…"
Alexander's body stiffened.
The next second, this veteran old mage let out a crack-voiced wail.
Scrambling and tumbling, he rushed through the pile of broken ice, stumbling as he collapsed before the mage.
The old mage lunged forward to tightly hug the other's tattered robe, burying his head into the mage's chest and crying like a child who had lost a toy.
The self-blame, fear, and obsession of a hundred years broke through the dike along with his tears at this moment.
"Teacher… Teacher…"
Alexander repeated these two words, his tears soaking the front of the mage's garments.
The Ice-Sealed Mage raised his weak arm, his palm falling upon Alexander's full head of white hair, smoothing it downward.
There was only confusion and relief in his eyes.
"You've grown old, Alex. Older than me."
Chen Jie turned her face away, raising her hand to wipe away the dampness at the corner of her eyes with the back of her hand.
She turned to look at the other side of the passage, putting her notched short blade back into the scabbard at her waist.
Wong sighed, his gaze deliberately avoiding that master and disciple pair.
Standing to the side, Lin Yi watched the weeping old man and the young-looking mage patting his back.
"So noisy."
This kind of scene gave him goosebumps all over his body.
He turned around and walked straight toward the deep corridor extending from behind the ice coffin.
"Lin Yi!" Chen Jie called out to him, "The situation ahead is unclear, wait for us."
"You guys keep crying. I'll go clear the stage first!"
Lin Yi waved his hand and quickened his pace, his figure quickly blending into the darkness ahead.
The rock walls on both sides of the passage presented a sickly purple-black color.
The further inward they went, the heavier the sense of stagnation in the air became.
Kaecilius had deployed three high-tier killing arrays in this passage, but the energy hubs of all three arrays were connected entirely to the Ice-Sealed Mage.
With the origin inside the Ice-Sealed Mage's body drained dry, the killing arrays lost their power and became mere decorations.
Stepping over several dim magic talismans, Lin Yi walked into the most core area of the stronghold.
Chapter 44: Senior Mage's Attitude Change
Passing through a heavy granite stone door, the space suddenly opened up.
This was an underground hub with an area larger than two football fields.
The dome was hollowed out, and the surrounding walls were embedded with dense diffused light crystals.
Right in the center of the space stood two ten-meter-tall crystal towers.
The two crystal towers.
The tower bodies were compressed from the pure origin of darkness.
The surface was covered with intricate magic runes.
Liquid dark purple energy churned and roared inside the tower bodies, making a loud noise like ocean tides crashing against reefs.
The energy concentration in the air was even greater than the sum of Tokyo and Cairo combined.
Kaecilius had poured two-thirds of the global dark energy reserves under the ice sheet of Siberia.
This was one of the most critical transit stations for Dormammu to descend upon Earth.
Lin Yi stood at the entrance of the stone door, staring at the two crystal towers piercing straight into the dome.
He licked his dry lips, and a light lit up in his eyes.
Lin Yi strode forward, running towards the matrix node in the middle of the twin towers.
He bypassed the outer defensive guardrail, ignored the crackling high-voltage energy arcs under his feet, and stepped into the gravity force field formed by the two towers.
A massive repulsive force slammed against his chest.
Facing the pressure, Lin Yi walked to the middle of the twin towers, opened his arms, and pressed his left and right hands respectively against the bodies of the two crystal towers.
The moment his palms touched the tower surfaces.
"Dark Dimension Energy Manipulation" skill was fully activated.
The liquid energy inside the twin towers boiled. Using Lin Yi's hands as the entry point, the origin of darkness on the tower bodies turned into two thick tornadoes, frantically pouring into his body along his arms.
The muscles on his upper body bulged inch by inch, and dense black incantations emerged on the surface of his skin.
Absorbing this kind of pure dark matter energy could no longer bring about increases in basic stats like physique, strength, and mental power.
But the container inside Lin Yi specifically designed to hold the origin of darkness was undergoing a qualitative change.
Time ticked away second by second.
Twenty minutes, thirty-five minutes, fifty minutes.
Wong came in halfway, and upon seeing Lin Yi's appearance, wisely retreated and also stopped Chen Jiewho wanted to enter.
The liquid energy inside the crystal towers visibly dried up.
The magic runes on the surface of the tower bodies lost their luster, peeled off, and turned into ordinary gray ice chunks.
An hour passed.
The last two strands of pure origin of darkness were forcibly extracted by him.
The two ten-meter-tall giant towers lost their core support and disintegrated from the inside.
Large chunks of ice rocks smashed down from high altitude, making a deafening roar when hitting the ground.
Lin Yi stood in the center of the ruins.
The black incantations on his body surface faded into his skin.
He opened his eyes, and deep within his pupils, a miniature Dark Dimension was spinning.
"Dark Dimension Energy Manipulation" skill rose to max-level perfection state.
Lin Yi raised his right hand and snapped his fingers.
The floating dust around him stagnated in mid-air.
The dark elements in the air reorganized according to his will.
A pitch-black broad-bladed giant sword condensed and formed in front of him.
The sword body exuded a pure dimensional coercion, which was the exclusive aura of Dormammu.
He flipped his wrist, and the giant sword dissipated, turning into a lifelike miniature dimensional hound.
His control was effortless and completely at will.
With his current dark foundation, if he entered the Dark Dimension, he could directly slap Dormammu across the head.
Lin Yi exhaled a breath.
Taking stock of the gains from this trip out.
Cairo's Ancient Magic Affinity opened up a new path.
Amazon maxed out all kinds of poison resistance.
The Arctic ice sheet even stuffed him full of the origin of darkness.
Coupled with the vitality, mental power, and Demigod Body accumulated earlier.
His overall stat foundation had tripled compared to before setting out for the purge.
...
When Lin Yi returned from the passage, he saw a few people at the entrance of the ice dome.
Alexander's teacher had been wrapped in the outer robe Chen Jie took off, leaning against the ice wall.
This high-ranking mage, who had been missing for a hundred years, was so physically weak that even sitting straight was a struggle.
Alexander squatted beside him, feeding his teacher hot water.
Chen Jie stood a few steps away with her arms crossed, turning around after hearing footsteps.
The gazes of the two people fell on Lin Yi at the same time, completely different from the contempt on the way here.
Alexander stood up first, walked in front of Lin Yi, and his voice was hoarse.
"Lin Yi."
"Hmm?"
He lowered his head and bowed to Lin Yi, his walking stick almost poking into the ice crack.
"I searched for my teacher for a full hundred years." Alexander's voice was extremely hoarse, "Everyone said he was dead, that not even his bones would be left..."
He raised his head, his turbid old eyes filled with bloodshot veins.
"Thank you."
"Alright, alright. Stop bowing, if you throw your back out at this age, I won't care."
"In the future, if you have any needs... anything... I, Alexander, keep my word. As long as you speak up, I will come."
"That's a deal then." Lin Yi patted the old mage's shoulder, "Helping me move houses later counts too."
Alexander was choked up for a moment, then forced out an ugly smile.
Chen Jie watched this scene from the side, shook her frozen left hand, stepped forward, and stood right in front of Lin Yi.
"Previously in Rio, I said you were a burden." She stared into Lin Yi's eyes, speaking quickly, "I'm sorry. Even though I have cultivated for a hundred years, I still can't do any of the things you did today. I apologize for my stubbornness."
Lin Yi didn't think much of it; old stubborn people were all like this.
"It's fine, I forgive you too."
Chen Jie froze for a moment, choked by Lin Yi's tone, nodded, and turned back to Alexander's side.
Wong crawled out from behind an icicle and leaned into Lin Yi's ear.
"Look, I said letting them take the lead first was the right choice. Saves trouble."
"You just wanted to watch the show."
"I didn't say anything." Wong pursed his lips towards the passage, "Is everything inside resolved? Head back to Kamar-Taj?"
Lin Yi nodded and looked at Alexander.
"Old Mage, let me ask you something."
"Go ahead."
"Do you know where the last stronghold is?"
After hearing this, Alexander exchanged a glance with Chen Jie, and then shook his head.
"I don't know. The locations of Kaecilius's remaining strongholds have always been top-secret."
"We only got the coordinates for our trip to the Arctic right before setting off."
Lin Yi nodded and didn't ask further.
Wong opened a portal, golden sparks cutting a circle on the ice surface, with the other end being the main hall of Kamar-Taj.
Alexander carried his sleeping teacher on his back and walked into the portal.
Chen Jie followed closely behind.
"Let's go." Wong rubbed his frozen red ears.
Lin Yi stepped over the broken ice and took a final glance at the empty stronghold ruins.
Only gray stubbles of the two crystal towers remained inside the passage, and the ground was cracked with cobweb-like patterns.
He stepped into the portal.
...
Kamar-Taj.
In the quiet room.
A tablet computer was placed on the tea table, with its screen lit up.
The magic link of the Siberia stronghold had disappeared from the monitoring map of the Vishanti defense network.
The fourth red dot went out.
The more than thirty secondary strongholds globally had already collapsed in a chain reaction when the Tokyo hub was destroyed, and of the four main strongholds, only the last one was still pulsing.
Chapter 45: The Sorcerer Supreme's Anxiety
Ancient One held a teacup, her fingertips pressed against the cup's wall.
She was looking at another document.
The briefing sent back by Wong ten minutes ago said, "The stronghold has been cleared, and Griffin, the high-ranking sorcerer who had been missing for a hundred years, has been rescued."
The final line of notes: Lin Yi entered the stronghold's core alone, taking about an hour to destroy two crystal towers without any assistance along the way.
Ancient One put down the tablet and leaned back in her chair.
Outside the window was the twilight of Kamar-Taj.
The glow of the sunset crawled up the stone wall, casting very long shadows of the Bodhi tree in the courtyard.
In the distance, apprentices were practicing portals, their golden sparks flashing on and off.
She closed her eyes.
From the time Lin Yi was almost expelled to this day, it had been less than a month by any count.
Ancient One had lived for hundreds of years and had seen countless genius sorcerers rise and fall in Kamar-Taj.
She had personally trained at least thirty high-ranking disciples, among whom were many like Mordo and Kaecilius, people she once held high hopes for.
Not a single person could compare to him.
She had tried many times already.
Every time she used the Time Stone to peek into Lin Yi's future, all she saw was a blurry patch of white fog.
She had always believed that Lin Yi was the reincarnation of some ancient entity, perhaps a fragmented will of the Vishanti, or perhaps an even more distant higher-dimensional existence whose name even she could not pronounce.
This guess explained everything—why his timeline was unobservable, why the rule of price failed on him, and why his understanding of the magic system far exceeded that of an apprentice.
The only thing she hadn't expected was that the speed of his "recovery" would be so fast.
If the comprehensive combat power Lin Yi had displayed recently were converted into the measurement standards of the sorcerer system.
He was already standing on the threshold of the Sorcerer Supreme.
Ancient One put down her teacup.
For the past few centuries, she had never seriously considered the question of a "successor".
The Time Stone always gave her some vague guidance—one day in the future, a Doctor named Stephen Strangewould come to Kamar-Taj and become the next Sorcerer Supreme.
But that timeline began to shatter right from the moment Lin Yi wiped out the Zealots.
Ancient One tried to observe Strange's future, but the visions became fragmented.
In some branches he still came to Kamar-Taj, in some branches he never got into a car accident, and in even more branches it was simply a complete blank.
She was no longer obsessed with that old timeline.
Once Lin Yi's power surpassed the Sorcerer Supreme, how should the relationship between Kamar-Taj and him be balanced?
Ancient One stood up and walked to the window.
The leaves of the Bodhi tree rustled in the evening breeze.
Perhaps she should let Lin Yi truly understand—what was happening on this planet, what was going to happen, and what kind of chessboard he was standing in the center of.
She decided that after Lin Yi returned, she would inform him in advance of some duties and information that belonged to the Sorcerer Supreme.
If Lin Yi truly was the reincarnation of an ancient entity, then he would eventually make his own judgment.
The sound of a portal opening came from outside the window.
Golden sparks lit up in the front courtyard of the main hall.
Four figures walked out of the aperture.
Ancient One stood up and walked out of the quiet room; she needed to talk to Lin Yi.
...
Alexander walked out carrying the sleeping Griffin on his back, with Chen Jie following behind.
Wong stepped out of the aperture, his plump body shivering slightly, with Lin Yi following closely behind.
On the right side of the courtyard, several young apprentices stopped their magic circle practice and stared over here.
Ancient One stood in the shadow of the corridor, watching the four of them approach.
Her gaze swept past Griffin and fell on Lin Yi.
"Wong, take Griffin to the infirmary first." Ancient Onewalked down the steps, her voice echoing across the courtyard. "Alexander, Chen Jie, go rest and tidy up. Lin Yi, come with me."
Wong nodded and called to the two sorcerers to walk towards the backyard.
Alexander walked two steps away, stopped, and turned his head to look at Lin Yi.
The old sorcerer bent down and respectfully gave a salute.
Chen Jie stood to the side and also bowed in salute, after which the two of them followed Wong away.
Ancient One turned and walked towards the quiet room.
Lin Yi tore off the rags on his body, threw them into a nearby trash can, fished out a robe from somewhere to put on, and followed.
Incense was burning in the quiet room, white smoke swirling in mid-air.
Ancient One pulled out a wooden chair and sat down, picked up the clay teapot on the red-mud small stove, and poured a cup of hot tea.
The tea was steaming in the white porcelain cup.
Lin Yi pulled out the chair opposite and sat down, picked up the teacup, and gulped it down his throat in one go.
He smacked his lips and put down the cup.
"The Arctic stronghold is wrapped up perfectly." Lin Yipointed at the teapot. "Another cup."
Ancient One filled it up for him again.
"I read Wong's briefing. You cleared two dark crystal towers all by yourself." She raised her eyelids, her gaze lingering on Lin Yi's chest. "The source of darkness inside them is enough to assimilate half of Kamar-Taj."
"It's alright, quite a lot indeed, took me a whole hour." Lin Yi pinched the cup. "Anyway, which one are we doing next? Finish early, get off work early."
Ancient One put down the clay teapot without answering.
The quiet room fell silent, with only the tiny sound of charcoal crackling in the stove audible.
She looked at Lin Yi.
After a long time, Ancient One raised her hand and touched her chest.
Her fingers rubbed against the edge of the amulet.
"I called you over because I want to show you something else."
Lin Yi put down the teacup and leaned forward slightly.
He recognized this thing, the eye of agamotto, inside which the Time Stone was kept.
Ancient One formed a spell gesture.
Her fingers outlined several golden lines in mid-air.
A crisp sound of metal gears meshing came from the surface of the amulet. Click, click.
The overlapping bronze leaves flipped outward, revealing the gem in the middle emitting a gloomy green glow.
Green light shot out, illuminating the walls of the quiet room.
The flow of time around them changed.
Lin Yi watched as the rising steam above the teacup froze in mid-air.
A spark splashed from the stove suspended in mid-air, no longer falling.
The sound of the wind blowing leaves outside the window disappeared, the entire world was pressed with a pause button, leaving only the gloomy green halo circulating on the walls.
"The Time Stone."
Lin Yi stared at that green stone, his eyes never moving away.
"This is one of the six Infinity Stones that condensed the underlying laws at the birth of the Universe."
"The duty of every Sorcerer Supreme of Kamar-Taj down the generations is to guard it."
Lin Yi rubbed his chin.
"Sounds like a good thing. But this gadget certainly isn't easy to use, right?"
Ancient One nodded, her fingers moving slightly.
The stagnant sparks began to flow backward, flying back into the charcoal blocks.
The steam on the teacup also retreated back into the water surface.
"All magic comes with a price. The price of manipulating time is heavier than any magic." Ancient One's voice carried a hint of hoarseness, laden with the heaviness accumulated over hundreds of years.
"Every time you tweak the timeline, there will be a backlash. Your causality will be torn apart, and your soul will be cast into the turbulent current of time."
"The more you use it, your very existence will become more nihilistic. This is a punishment by the laws of the Universethat cannot be resisted with magical power."
"Past sorcerers, in order to observe the future, inevitably ended up suffering the consequences of soul collapse."
Causality torn apart, timeline collapsed, soul exiled.
With every word Ancient One spoke, the light in Lin Yi's eyes grew a fraction brighter.
Chapter 46: Nepal's Secret Sanctuary
If the system consumes this kind of cosmic-level price, what can it exchange for? Time affinity? Causality resistance?
Or will it directly allow him to transcend mortal flesh and control the laws of dimensions?
His current panel strength was unknown to what extent it had reached, but he felt it should be okay.
However, this was a Universe with Thanos and Celestialsafter all.
If he wanted to continue skyrocketing, he had to touch the thunder of higher dimensions.
Lin Yi licked his lips and swallowed a mouthful of saliva, leaning his body forward a bit more.
"What is that..." Lin Yi stared at the Time Stone, rubbing his hands back and forth on his knees, "Is this thing complex to operate? How about... letting me try?"
Ancient One looked at Lin Yi's expression, the goosebumps on the back of her neck standing up.
She originally wanted to make Lin Yi understand the sense of awe for the rules of the Universe through displaying the terrifying price of the Time Stone, paving the way for the responsibility of the Sorcerer Supreme.
But she saw that Lin Yi's eyes did not have what she wanted.
She suddenly realized an extremely dangerous possibility.
If Lin Yi were allowed to contact the Time Stone, would he really become a Guardian?
Click.
Ancient One's fingers shrank abruptly, and the bronze leaves closed rapidly, sealing the gloomy green light into the metal shell.
The flow of time returned to normal.
Lin Yi's hand extended in mid-air stopped, and he raised his eyebrows, looking at Ancient One.
"Let's stop here for today."
Lin Yi curled his lips.
"Tch, taking a look won't make you lose a piece of meat. So stingy."
The atmosphere in the quiet room was a bit odd.
Ancient One forced down that sense of absurdity, looking at the tablet beside her.
"Now there is only the last stronghold left."
She reached out and tapped the only beating red dot on the screen, forcefully dragging the topic away from the Time Stone.
"He used to be my proudest disciple. Smarter than Mordo, and more eager to explore the truth of magic than anyone else."
"In the Library of Kamar-Taj, he had browsed through one-third of the classics."
"He learned the Vishanti system to the limit."
"He knew the nodal structure of all defensive barriers of Kamar-Taj, knew the incantation flaws of every high-tier spell, and even my combat habits, which he had studied thoroughly."
Lin Yi finished drinking the water and heavily placed the cup on the wooden table.
"Doesn't this mean all trump cards have been seen through."
"Not only that." Ancient One's tone sank, "He abandoned the Vishanti and obtained power from Dormammu."
"What Dormammu bestowed upon him was not only the dark origin, but also part of the rule control of dimensional distortion."
"He operated more than thirty secondary strongholds on Earth just to completely grind away the barrier between the Dark Dimension and the real world."
"Now the first four main array eyes have been uprooted by you, and all his power, all the trump cards he collected, are all pressed into this last stronghold."
Ancient One looked into Lin Yi's eyes.
"He is a genius. And a genius driven to a dead end."
"Since he decided to set a death trap in the last stronghold, he must have prepared something to restrain you."
"That's great." Lin Yi spoke, "I just felt that the previous strongholds weren't kicking enough."
Ancient One sighed.
"Completely wipe out this stronghold."
"As long as the channel established by Kaecilius is cut off, Dormammu won't be able to extend his tentacles toward Earth in a short time."
Lin Yi stood up, supporting his hands on the tabletop.
"The job is fine. But we need to settle the accounts first."
Ancient One was slightly stunned.
"Accounts?"
"Tokyo's, Cairo's, and Amazon's." Lin Yi raised three fingers and shook them in front of Ancient One, "You promised before that for every stronghold cleared, the treasury of Kamar-Taj would let me pick three things."
"Now counting the Arctic, a total of four strongholds, twelve items. Plus travel expense reimbursement for that bag of gold bars."
Ancient One pressed her forehead, and the tragic atmosphere just rendered vanished into thin air.
She looked at the young man in front of her, feeling somewhat helpless.
"The treasury of Kamar-Taj has always been here, it won't run away." Ancient One stood up, "You complete the last stronghold task. The treasury door is open to you all day. All defensive gear, magical artifacts, potion recipes, look at whatever you want. Including..."
She paused for a moment and pointed to the amulet on her chest.
"This stone can also be given to you to play with for three days."
Lin Yi's eyes suddenly lit up.
"Deal." Lin Yi slapped the table, "Give me the coordinates."
...
The bitter cold gale scraped across cheeks like a knife.
Four people stood in knee-deep snow, with hard rock layers under their feet.
This is a cliff in the Himalayas.
The air is thin, and the temperature is close to minus forty degrees.
Not far ahead, a dilapidated masonry building lay alone in the snowdrift.
The building retained the spire style of Tibetan Buddhism, but most of the outer walls had collapsed.
Several thick log pillars were inserted obliquely into the snow.
Wong took out the compass to calibrate the direction.
"This is it. Mordo led a team here before, and inside is a long-abandoned temple."
Alexander gripped his cane tightly.
"I cannot perceive any magic fluctuations. The barrier is concealed too perfectly, Kaecilius is indeed a monster in this regard."
Chen Jie lowered her body and stepped on the snow without making a sound.
"There is no trace left by any living creature here. It's a bit too quiet."
Lin Yi stood in the wind and snow, he didn't speak.
In his Void Perception, the entire world was another picture.
There was no so-called barrier hiding, but this space itself had been polluted.
The black mist was as sticky as asphalt, gushing out from the deep underground of the abandoned temple.
"You all step back a bit."
The three of them didn't talk nonsense, directly retreating to pull away distance.
Lin Yi walked toward the ancient temple.
Crack, the hard ice underfoot made a slight cracking sound.
The surrounding wind and snow stopped without warning.
A snowflake stopped in front of Lin Yi's nose tip, no longer falling.
Immediately afterwards, a massive dimensional pressure crushed over like overwhelming mountains and seas.
The squeezing sound in the air, the surface of the surviving walls of the abandoned ancient temple began to peel off.
The purplish-red magic circle patterns hidden inside the rocks lit up.
Hundreds of thick chains with a diameter of more than two meters drilled out from the ground, winding above the ruins like giant pythons, constructing a huge inverted pyramid-shaped cage.
The dark red light shone on the snow.
Alexander and Chen Jie's expressions changed drastically.
This level of pressure had already exceeded the scope they could understand.
Lin Yi stood on the steps, his shoulders sinking slightly.
No attributes were credited, but Lin Yi didn't care.
The max-level Dark Dimension Energy Manipulation in his body, after being stimulated by the external homologous pressure, produced a strong resonance.
He raised his head and looked at the main gate of the abandoned temple's main hall.
The two decayed wooden doors exploded toward both sides with a boom.
The wood chips turned into powder.
In the center of the dark main hall, a pair of pitch-black and hollow eyes lit up.
Around the eye sockets were covered with purplish-red protruding blood vessels.
Kaecilius was wearing a set of dark purple battle robes, sitting on a wide chair.
Under his feet was a giant bronze mirror with a diameter of ten meters.
The surface of the bronze mirror flowed with mercury-like liquid.
"Lin Yi."
Kaecilius's voice echoed across the cliff.
"You came faster than I expected."
"Ancient One used this pawn of you very well. Unfortunately, didn't she tell you that some doors once pushed open can never be turned back from."
Lin Yi stood under the steps, raising his head to look at that figure in the main hall.
"Stop talking nonsense."
"Bring out the dishes quickly."
Chapter 47 Breaking the Outer Barrier
The blizzard howled outside the massive, inverted-pyramid-shaped prison.
The wood splinters blasted from the main gate of the abandoned temple had yet to hit the ground.
Heavy footsteps echoed from the depths of the darkness.
Twelve figures stepped over the debris on the ground, walking down the steps one by one.
They wore uniform dark red mage robes.
The twelve people were not wearing hoods, and their faces were covered with crawling, deep purple, twisted blood vessels.
Their eyes were completely pitch black, without pupils.
Dark matter energy gathered at the soles of their feet into visible black puddles.
The dimensional pressure in the air climbed steadily.
Twelve high-tier Fallen.
Wong swallowed hard; back when Kaecilius betrayed Kamar-Taj, this was the core elite group he had taken with him.
Pulled out individually, any one of them was no weaker than that Shadow mage at the Cairo stronghold.
Alexander stepped forward.
The old mage's grey hair fluttered wildly in the wind as he turned his head to look at Lin Yi.
"Lin Yi, keep moving forward," Alexander said in a dry voice, his tone unyielding. "These scum, Chen Jie and I will handle them."
Chen Jie took a step forward, standing by Alexander's side.
"Stop dawdling," Chen Jie said without turning back. "Kaecilius is waiting for you inside. We'll handle the flies outside."
Lin Yi stopped and looked at the two of them.
"I say, you two seniors," Lin Yi rubbed his hands and sighed. "You guys are trying to kill-steal, huh."
Alexander turned around, his face full of obstinacy.
"We've lived for over a hundred years, we still have a few trump cards left. As long as we hold them off for five minutes, it'll be enough for you to enter the main hall."
Chen Jie deflected her blade, and scarlet spell runes lit up along the body of the blade.
As soon as the words fell, the twelve fallen mages on the steps moved.
The twelve people raised their arms in unison.
Dark purple dimensional blades formed in mid-air, intertwining into an airtight execution net that descended squarely over the four of them.
Alexander struck his staff against the ground, and golden formation patterns bloomed beneath his feet as a giant magic shield composed of triple spatial folding soared into the sky.
Chen Jie kicked apart the snow with both feet, her body pulling out a residual image as she rushed forward to meet the energy net.
Her dual blades slashed out high-temperature flame waves, forcefully hacking open a gap in the purple grid.
But the gap in strength was right there.
The triple-folded magic shield shattered successively within half a second of contacting the grid.
Alexander was pushed back several steps by the counter-shock force, coughing up blood.
Chen Jie hacked open the gap, but her ankles were entangled by two Shadow chains.
Purplish-red corrosive energy crawled up along the chains. Gritting her teeth, she swung her blade to cut the chains, but three black flame spears from the side had already sealed off her retreat.
Everything happened extremely fast.
A pair of rough hands reached out from the side.
Lin Yi stepped past Alexander, grabbed Chen Jie's back collar with his left hand, and gave it a forceful backward fling.
Chen Jie, along with her blades, crashed into a snowdrift a dozen meters away, avoiding the penetration of the three spears.
"That's enough," Lin Yi loosened his shoulders, his joints making a popping sound. "I appreciate your intentions. I'll just handle it myself."
He backhanded and grabbed the Shadow chain wrapped around Chen Jie's original position, yanking it back with force.
A fallen mage standing on the steps was pulled by the immense force, lost their balance, and tumbled clumsily into the snow.
Lin Yi stepped on the snow and walked toward the remaining eleven people.
"Old Wong, leave those two to you," Lin Yi dropped a sentence without looking back.
Wong pulled out the Rings of Raggadorr, blocking in front of Alexander and Chen Jie.
The swirling purple blades filling the sky slashed against Lin Yi's body, resulting in complete immunity.
But the joint effort of twelve high-tier mages had crossed that immunity threshold.
[Enduring High-Tier Composite Dimensional Cutting — Triggered Reversal!]
[Constitution +600!]
[Physical Defense +400!]
"Now this is a proper meal."
Lin Yi licked his lips, his sole fiercely stomping the ground as his entire body shot like a cannonball, crashing into the center of the twelve-person formation.
The two fallen mages at the very front pressed their hands together, pulling up a high-pressure ice wall condensed from dark matter.
Lin Yi pulled back his right fist, his fist-edge carrying a sonic boom as it blasted into the center of the ice wall.
The ten-meter-high ice wall shattered into pieces.
His fist passed through the ice slag and smashed into the left mage's chest.
A muffled sound of shattered ribs spread, and that mage directly exploded into a cloud of blood mist, turning into ice crystals and dissipating in the air.
The mage on the right reacted extremely quickly, condensing two short black flame swords in their hands to stab straight at Lin Yi's eyes.
Lin Yi did not dodge or parry.
The short black flame swords stabbed into his eyelids, sending sparks flying and producing a teeth-gritting friction sound.
The system prompt box refreshed frantically.
[Enduring High-Pressure Black Flame Scorching — Triggered Reversal!]
[Fire Resistance +300!]
Lin Yi reached out and grabbed that person's head, his five fingers closing in.
The dark purple origin energy tried to invade along his palm, but it was directly extracted and reversed.
He casually twisted that head, and the mage collapsed limply.
The remaining people finally changed their formation.
They scattered, surrounding Lin Yi to form a polygonal matrix.
The spatial nodes were forcibly locked down, and the snow on the ground turned into a bottomless black swamp.
Countless pairs of hands composed of pure dark energy reached out from the swamp, grabbing Lin Yi's calves.
A massive gravitational field pressed down on his shoulders, trying to crush his bones.
[Enduring Dimensional Swamp Dragging — Triggered Reversal!]
[Lower Body Stability +500!]
[Strength +800!]
Lin Yi exerted force with both legs, his leg muscles bulging like steel bars.
He pulled out his right foot, which was deeply embedded in the swamp, tearing apart a dozen black monster hands along with it.
"Flashy tricks."
A purer, more domineering dark pressure burst out from within him, just like Dormammu descending in person.
The surrounding black swamp churned violently.
The ten fallen mages discovered in horror that they had lost control over the magic formation beneath their feet.
Lin Yi opened his right hand and pressed it downward into the empty air.
Ten thick dark-black barbs burst out from the swamp, precisely piercing through the chests of five mages.
The remaining five wanted to retreat through a portal.
Lin Yi formed a spell seal with his left hand, activating the remaining Spatial Law Affinity of the Void Sealing Technique.
The half-folded portal was forcibly crushed.
He took large strides, catching up to the nearest person, and swept out with a whip kick, snapping that person's spine.
With a spinning elbow strike, he shattered another person's throat.
Muffled sounds of fists hitting flesh echoed in the blizzard.
In barely a minute.
The steps above and below were littered with dark red corpses.
Lin Yi patted away the blood stains on his clothes, turning his head to look at Alexander and Chen Jie.
"I left these three for you to vent your anger," Lin Yi pointed at the ground.
Alexander's hand holding the staff was trembling. He looked at the mess all over the ground, then looked at Lin Yi, who hadn't even caught his breath yet. His common-sense system regarding spell combat and countering moves had been rubbed against the ground countless times today.
Chen Jie sheathed her short blade and gave a crisp, decisive reply: "Thanks."
Lin Yi stepped over the corpses, walking toward the open gates of the abandoned temple's main hall.
Wong shouted at the top of his lungs from behind: "Be careful!"
Lin Yi did not stop, stepping across the high threshold.
Chapter 48: Reality Erosion
The instant his feet stepped onto the bluestone slabs inside the grand hall.
The sound of the wind and snow behind him, as well as Wong's shouts, all vanished.
Viewed from the outside, the ruined temple covered an area of only a few hundred square meters.
But the space Lin Yi was currently in was as vast as an underground plaza.
Waterfalls of dark matter continuously flowed and shifted shapes all around.
Those purplish-black viscous liquids poured down from the void, falling into the cracks in the ground and emitting irritating whispers.
The concentration of dimensional energy in the air had reached an astonishing level.
It even formed purple crystals suspended in mid-air.
Right in the center of the grand hall stood a ten-meter-tall giant bronze mirror.
Lin Yi's reflection could not be seen within the mercury-like mirror surface.
In front of the mirror was a wide magic throne pieced together from dark purple crystals.
Kaecilius was sitting on the magic throne.
Separated by a distance of thirty meters, the two of them just stared at each other like this.
The bulging blood vessels on Kaecilius's face were far fewer than those on the fallen ones, which meant that he had suppressed the source of darkness extremely perfectly.
His gaze lacked any emotional fluctuations, looking very rational.
Kaecilius sized up Lin Yi, finally lingering on Lin Yi's casual expression.
Lin Yi was also looking around.
He raised his head, looking at the purple crystals suspended in mid-air.
With every breath, those high-purity dark energies drilled into his nasal cavity, nourishing his every cell.
"A mere three years." Kaecilius spoke first.
"An apprentice who couldn't even draw a circular basic portal. Sweeping floors and wiping dust in the Libraryevery day."
"Mordo said you were good for nothing, even worse than those newly initiated children."
Kaecilius tapped his fingers on the armrest of the magicthrone.
"With a single awakening, you wiped out four of my strongholds." His body leaned forward slightly, "Just what did Ancient One hide in you? Is it some sealed ancient magical artifact? Or… did she stuff some deity from beyond the dimensions into your shell?"
Lin Yi withdrew his gaze from looking around and looked at the man on the magic throne.
"You talk way too much nonsense." Lin Yi rubbed his chin, "Never mind what she hid. The important thing is, can these items you borrowed from Dormammu be enough for me to get high for a while?"
"Get high?" Kaecilius stood up, "Over these past decades, I have seen countless mages attempting to contain Dormammu's power."
"Without exception, they all became nourishment for the dimension. Including those twelve pieces of trash outside just now."
Kaecilius stepped on the stairs and walked down step by step.
"I've seen the traces of your battles. You are not a mage at all; you merely transform the price into your own foundation."
Kaecilius stopped fifteen meters away from Lin Yi.
"This violates universal conservation. But I can understand." He raised his right hand, palm facing upward, "Because Dormammu likewise transcends your so-called rules. You are not special; you are merely a slightly larger vessel."
Lin Yi was amused.
This guy analyzed everything so methodically, yet he didn't even touch the edge of the system.
"Are you done talking?"
"If you're done, let's begin. I'm in a rush."
Kaecilius's gaze completely turned cold.
What he hated most was this boorish and ignorant reckless behavior that ignored the discussion of truth.
"You will soon discover that your vessel cannot contain anything here at all."
Within half a second of Kaecilius's voice falling, the spatial structure of the entire grand hall flipped.
The ceiling inverted down to the soles of his feet.
The laws of gravity were completely reversed at this moment.
Lin Yi's body fell upward uncontrollably, smashing toward those inverted dark matter waterfalls.
Kaecilius did not launch any offensive spells. He merely rewrote the basic physical laws of this enclosed space.
Lin Yi flipped his body in mid-air, wanting to adjust his landing spot.
Void Perception unfolded, and energy lines intertwined before his eyes.
He discovered that the surrounding space had turned into a maze composed of thousands of mirrors.
Inside every mirror, a Kaecilius was reflected.
"The Mirror Dimension, huh." Lin Yi steadied his figure in the air.
"Coupled with Dormammu's reality stripping."
A phantom of Kaecilius appeared by Lin Yi's side, less than half a meter away.
The phantom held a transparent longsword compressed from spatial fragments, stabbing straight at Lin Yi's heart.
Lin Yi threw a heavy counterpunch.
His fist struck the phantom, with no feedback of physical collision, just like punching through a mass of water vapor.
Yet a sharp pain came from his chest, and a slender bloody gash burst open on the surface of his skin.
[Endured dimensional reality cutting — Triggered Reversal!]
[Reality Resistance +200!]
[Physique +500!]
This was Kaecilius utilizing the refraction of the Mirror Space to directly imprint the "result" of the attack onto Lin Yi's body.
Lin Yi landed on a huge mirror surface, with no solid ground beneath his feet, only endless reflections.
Hundreds of thousands of Kaecilius figures all around raised their longswords simultaneously.
"Physical defense? magic resistance?" Kaecilius's overlapping voice came from all directions, "In front of distorted reality, this crude muscle of yours is completely meaningless."
"A bit interesting." Lin Yi wiped away the blood oozing from his chest.
Before he could even put his hand down, the wound had already healed as good as new.
He looked at the dense phantoms all around and grinned.
This was a solid, high-end match.
Taking a breath here must be equal to eating ten meals, right?
Thousands of phantoms swung their swords simultaneously.
The air around Lin Yi emitted a tragic sound similar to glass being repeatedly snapped.
Space at this moment turned into countless thin membranes.
Every swing of Kaecilius's sword was shredding a thin membrane.
More than a dozen blood lines instantly burst open on Lin Yi's body.
Lin Yi lowered his head.
No blood flowed from the wounds.
Muscle fibers were roughly kneaded like by an invisible giant hand, beginning to forcibly twist against physiological structures.
The positions of bones and flesh swapped places, and the surrounding blood vessels tangled into a mess.
Severe pain surged straight to his brain.
Lin Yi frowned.
The white border flashed twice, not immediately popping up the familiar prompt.
Encountering this non-traditional physical and non-traditional magic "conceptual distortion", the system experienced parsing latency.
Kaecilius's overlapping voice came from all directions.
"It's useless."
"This is the power granted to me by Dormammu to rewrite the basic laws of this space."
"No matter how strong your physical body is, you must still follow the rules of reality. Now I have stripped away the rationality of your body's existence."
The purplish-black crystals suspended in mid-air accelerated their rotation.
Kaecilius in the thousands of mirror images raised his sword once more.
Lin Yi stared at his disordered left arm, paying no heed to those impending sword shadows.
Less than a second later.
[Endured reality rule erosion — Triggered Reversal!]
[Gained: Reality Affinity +50!]
[Physical structure forcibly reorganized, muscles and bones reinforced to an ultra-stable state!]
The instant the white text flashed out, the disorder on Lin Yi's left arm came to an abrupt halt.
Chapter 49 Reality Affinity
The ulna that had protruded out of the body sank back into the muscle on its own, and the intertwined blood vessels straightened out again.
The wounds torn apart by the reality cutting healed, without leaving even a single scar.
Lin Yi moved his wrist slightly, raised his head, and looked at the dense reflections all around.
"Is that it?"
Kaecilius's laughter stopped.
Thousands of long swords compressed from spatial fragments fell simultaneously, and the spatial membrane was shredded once again.
Lin Yi crashed forward against the densest sword net.
The attacks that should have distorted reality again and dismembered his body only left shallow white marks this time.
The body that had just reorganized into a super-stable state directly bounced off this level of reality tampering.
[Enduring Reality Rule Cutting — — Trigger Reversal!]
[Reality Affinity + 300!]
[Reality Affinity + 400!]
[Physique + 1000!]
Lin Yi pushed against the sword net and walked forward.
With every step he took, the void beneath his feet emitted a muffled roar.
"How is this possible!"
Kaecilius lost his previous composure.
The mirror labyrinth shook violently.
Kaecilius formed hand seals frantically with both hands, mobilizing all the dark matter waterfalls inside the grand hall, attempting to fill the loopholes in the reality rules.
Viscous purplish-black liquid surged backward from the ground, turning into dozens of huge tentacles that entangled Lin Yi's limbs.
Lin Yi stopped in his tracks, turned his neck, and fully deployed his Void Perception.
The overlapping reflections before his eyes stripped away their disguise, turning into intertwined fine lines of energy.
Those illusions were completely unable to conceal the flow of source energy.
Lin Yi's line of sight penetrated over a hundred mirrors, locking onto a spot twelve meters away to the upper left.
There was a ball of dark origin that was rich to the extreme.
"Found you."
Lin Yi withdrew his right leg by half a step, stamped his sole heavily down, and soared into the sky with the help of the reaction force.
He ignored the entangled dark matter tentacles, letting them lash against his spine, in exchange for dozens of points added to his physique by the system.
Kaecilius's true body was hidden behind the reflections, and halfway through forming hand seals, he abruptly raised his head.
In his line of sight, Lin Yi's fist was rapidly enlarging.
The air around the fist peak was compressed to the limit, stirring up a visible circle of white sonic boom clouds.
Kaecilius pushed out with both hands, and a heavy polygonal magic shield made of dark purple crystals blocked in front of him.
This shield fused with the laws of reality, and its hardness was comparable to extraterrestrial meteorite iron.
Lin Yi's fist smashed into the exact center of the magicshield.
Boom!
Violent power vented along the point of contact, and the crystals on the surface of the magic shield lasted only half a second before shattering directly into powder filling the sky.
The fist blessed by Reality Affinity ignored the twisting laws on the shield and solidly smashed into Kaecilius's chest.
Kaecilius flew backward entirely, crashing through three layers of mirror space.
The loud noise of glass shattering was endless.
He smashed heavily onto the inverted bronze mirror, pounding a deep pit into the ten-meter-high bronze mirror.
Lin Yi landed on the ground and shook his fists.
"What other tricks do you have, hurry up and use them." Lin Yi looked at Kaecilius embedded in the bronze mirror, "Hurry up and serve some main courses."
Dense cracks split across the surface of the bronze mirror.
Kaecilius slid down from the pit and tumbled onto the bluestone slabs.
He opened his mouth and spat out a large mouthful of purplish-black blood, his sternum collapsing inward by more than half.
Those dark matter blood vessels that he had suppressed climbed back onto his cheeks, writhing crazily.
The gravity laws in the grand hall returned to normal as he was injured.
The inverted waterfall smashed toward the ground, splashing large patches of black water.
Kaecilius stared fixedly at Lin Yi.
He did not understand; the reality deprivation bestowed by Dormammu was something even the Sorcerer Supremedared not confront head-on.
The apprentice before him not only resisted it hard, but even immunized against this rule in a mere second.
"What kind of monster are you anyway..."
Kaecilius's voice was hoarse as he propped himself up from the ground and stood up.
Lin Yi did not answer, stepping on the water stains all over the ground as he walked toward Kaecilius.
Lin Yi's figure flickered, Shadow Step activated, and his body instantly melted into the shadows of the ground.
Kaecilius's pupils contracted, and bringing his hands together, he laid down a circle of spatial folding barriers around his body.
The next second, Lin Yi rose from the shadow behind Kaecilius.
With his right hand's five fingers spread open, abyss black flames surged in his palm, and he grabbed the spatial barrier in one clutch.
"Break."
Spatial Law Affinity activated.
Lin Yi's fingers directly penetrated the folded barrier, pinching the back of Kaecilius's neck in one grip.
The black flames surged along Lin Yi's palm into Kaecilius's body.
Kaecilius let out a miserable scream, swinging a dimensional blade with his backhand, slashing toward Lin Yi's wrist.
The blade chopped onto the wrist, making the crisp sound of metal colliding.
[Enduring High-Tier Dimensional Cutting — — Trigger Reversal!]
[Physique + 100!]
Lin Yi pressed down on Kaecilius's shoulder with his left hand and used his right hand to grab the back of his neck, pressing down hard.
Kaecilius's double knees smashed heavily onto the bluestone slabs, kneeling two deep pits out of the ground.
"Rise." Kaecilius roared.
The dark matter puddles on the ground burst forth, turning into countless sharp ice spikes that stabbed toward Lin Yiin all directions.
Lin Yi let go of his hand and retreated half a step backward.
He stimulated Dark Dimension Energy Manipulation.
Deep inside the pupils of his eyes, a miniature Dark Dimension rotated.
Those ice spikes that stabbed right before him instantly stagnated in mid-air.
Lin Yi snapped his fingers, and the ice spikes reversed their direction, stabbing into Kaecilius's thighs, shoulders, and abdomen at an even faster speed.
Blood splattered everywhere.
Kaecilius was nailed to the ground by his own magic.
The power of Dormammu that he was proud of turned into a lethal weapon that could defect at any time in front of the opponent.
Lin Yi stepped forward and stomped on Kaecilius's chest with one foot.
"Is this all your ability amounts to?" Lin Yi looked down at him from above, "Ancient One said you prepared something to restrain me, where is it? Take it out and let me see."
Kaecilius's breathing was rapid.
Despair.
This was the first time he experienced this emotion after betraying Kamar-Taj.
The spatial spells he was proud of were as good as useless in front of the opponent.
The dark origin he exchanged by sacrificing his soul was casually manipulated by the opponent.
The forbidden reality distortion he employed instead became the cornerstone for the opponent's strengthening.
No matter what moves he made, hitting this young man was like a clay ox entering the sea.
Not only could it cause no damage, but he could even feel the opponent getting stronger.
"Hehehe... You cannot win." Kaecilius coughed up blood, the expression on his face completely frantic.
"Even if you kill me, you cannot stop the descent of Dormammu."
Lin Yi exerted force under his foot, snapping two of his ribs.
"That is my business." Lin Yi said in a calm tone, "Now just enjoy it well."
Lin Yi's palm closed into a void grip. The dark origin inside Kaecilius's body began to overflow out of control, turning into purplish-black mist that drilled into Lin Yi's palm.
Kaecilius felt the loss of his power.
He looked at Lin Yi's face, which lacked the slightest emotional fluctuation.
This direct disciple of the Sorcerer Supreme looked even more like a greedy dimensional lord than Dormammu.
"Ancient One..." Kaecilius laughed out loud, his laughter growing louder and louder, "Ancient One, you have raised a true demon! Do you think you can control him!"
Chapter 50 Dormammu's Descent
He knew he had failed; all his trump cards were played, and he couldn't even break through the opponent's defense.
Kaecilius gave up resisting Lin Yi's extraction.
With his last ounce of strength, he bit the tip of his tongue and formed an extremely complex hand seal with both hands.
"I can't go back," Kaecilius stared at Lin Yi, "and you shouldn't think about leaving either."
The ten-meter bronze mirror deep inside the grand hall suddenly shattered.
Countless fragments hovered suspended in mid-air.
The blood in Kaecilius's body flowed backward, gushing out through his pores and turning into a rain of blood.
His physical body withered at a speed visible to the naked eye.
Lin Yi frowned and withdrew his foot.
"Sacrifice?"
A purple-black pillar of light soared into the sky from Kaecilius's broken shell, piercing directly through the dome of the ruined temple's grand hall.
The blizzard outside was torn open into a huge void by the pillar of light.
Lin Yi looked up at that pillar of light.
The gravity in the grand hall went out of control again, and the bluestone slab ground largely turned into sand, transforming into purple-black powder.
Kaecilius's voice had already disappeared.
Replaced by a heavy whisper coming from deep within the pillar of light.
Outside the ruined temple.
The inverted pyramid-shaped dimensional cage shattered inch by inch under the impact of this pillar of light.
Alexander and Chen Jie had just finished off the last three fallen sorcerers and hadn't even had time to catch their breath when they were pressed down into the snow by this terrifying pressure.
The Rings of Raggadorr propped up by Wong shattered instantly.
"Th-This... what is this..." The old sorcerer lay prone in the snow nest, trembling all over.
Chen Jie thrust her hands deeply into the accumulated snow, trying to stabilize her body, but the violent dimensional storm blew so hard that she couldn't open her eyes at all.
Inside the grand hall.
The purple-black pillar of light receded.
Kaecilius's originally withered shell began to undergo distortion.
His body expanded rapidly, his bones elongated, and his muscles burst through his dark red sorcerer's robe.
In just a few seconds, he turned into a humanoid monster over three meters tall.
His whole body was covered in deep purple crystal armor.
His face had no facial features, only a mass of burning pure black void.
Inside that void, terrifying images of stars perishing and dimensions collapsing could be faintly seen.
Dormammu's consciousness fragment, with the help of Kaecilius's sacrifice, forcibly descended upon Earth.
The spatial structure of the entire ruined temple let out an unbearable groan.
Spatial cracks spread around like a spider's web.
Dormammu turned his head, and that pure black void locked onto Lin Yi.
"You are very interesting."
The voice exploded directly in Lin Yi's mind, carrying extremely strong spiritual pollution, as if thousands of voices were tearing at his soul simultaneously.
[Enduring Dimensional Overlord-level spiritual pollution—Triggering Reversal!]
[Mental Power +10000!]
[Mental Control Immunity upgraded to Advanced!]
Lin Yi's head instantly regained clarity.
He looked at the three-meter-tall monster in front of him.
Is this Dormammu's projection? Now this is a real main course.
Dormammu raised his right hand.
All the dark matter inside the grand hall rioted instantly, turning into a huge palm fifty meters in radius, descending from the sky and fiercely slapping toward Lin Yi.
In the area covered by the palm, space shattered directly, revealing the gray-white void turbulence behind it.
Boom!
The giant palm struck down.
The entire cliff of the Himalayas trembled violently, the grand hall completely collapsed, and countless boulders were ground into powder.
Lin Yi was forcibly smashed tens of meters deep into the ground by this force.
All around were violent dark origin sources and spatial cutting forces.
The system panel completely exploded.
[Enduring Dimensional Overlord-level origin oppression—Triggering Reversal!]
[Physique +50000!]
[Strength +40000!]
[Enduring void turbulence cutting—Triggering Reversal!]
[Physical Defense +8000!]
[Spatial Law Affinity +500!]
Lin Yi lay in the deep pit at the bottom of the ground, his bones breaking and reconnecting, his flesh shattering and reassembling all over his body.
Ultimate pain accompanied ultimate pleasure.
Under this blow, his body completed yet another leap.
A low voice from Dormammu came from above.
"Fragile bug."
Dormammu turned around, preparing to tear open a larger dimensional rift to allow his true body to descend.
At the bottom of the deep pit, Lin Yi's eyes lit up.
He pressed his hands against the pit wall and exerted force with both legs.
Bang!
A huge gap exploded on the ground.
Like a black meteor, Lin Yi soared into the sky from underground.
The T-shirt on his body had completely turned to ashes, revealing a well-defined physique covered with dark red patterns.
Dormammu turned his head, and violent fluctuations flashed through the pure black void.
"Hmm? You're not dead?"
"Dead?" Lin Yi landed in front of Dormammu, "I've just finished warming up."
Lin Yi brought his hands together, materializing his mental power. He pulled out the array patterns of the Void Sealing Technique and kneaded the max-level Dark Dimension Energy Manipulation into it.
The black magical array unfolded in mid-air, directly shrouding Dormammu's massive body.
"You are trying to use my power to seal me?" Dormammu's voice exuded mockery.
"No, no, no, it's packaging." Lin Yi grinned.
He made a grasping motion with his right hand, drawing out that dark red chain of despair.
The iron chain expanded by a hundred meters in the air, wrapping around Dormammu's limbs.
Life Drain passive was fully activated, crazily extracting the energy within this shell.
Dormammu's consciousness fragment finally noticed that something was wrong.
He found that the power he had descended into this shell was continuously flowing away, pouring into the human in front of him.
"Insignificant bug, you dare to plunder my power?" Dormammu roared.
Void turbulence erupted around Dormammu, attempting to snap the chain of despair.
Lin Yi tightly grabbed the iron chain with both hands, his feet planted in place.
"Don't be in such a hurry to leave." Lin Yi stared at that pure black void, "Since you're already here, you have to leave something behind."
The dark red iron chain was pulled taut straight.
One end of the iron chain was wrapped around Dormammu's massive limbs, and the other end was tightly gripped in Lin Yi's hands.
Lin Yi's feet stepped on the rock layer of the deep pit underground, his insteps sinking into the gravel.
The mass of pure black void on Dormammu's face rolled violently.
The consciousness projection of a higher-dimensional entity had never suffered this kind of provocation on Earth.
Void turbulence spread outward with Dormammu as the center.
The remaining stone pillars of the grand hall were swept by the turbulence and directly turned into gray-white fine powder.
The surrounding spatial barriers were forcibly torn open, revealing the pitch-black dimensional fault behind them.
"Insignificant bug, you have angered me."
The voice exploded in Lin Yi's mind, carrying a heavy pressure that tore at the soul.
[Enduring Dimensional Overlord-level mental oppression—Triggering Reversal!]
[Mental Power +15000!]
Lin Yi shook his neck, his cervical vertebrae making a crisp cracking sound.
"Overlord?" Lin Yi alternated his hands, violently pulling the iron chain backward, "What kind of overlord are you on Earth?"
The iron chain tightened, and Dormammu's three-meter-tall body was pulled forward, stumbling.
Dormammu raised both arms.
The remaining dark matter on the entire cliff of the Himalayas was summoned and all rose into the sky.
Purple-black energy converged in mid-air, obscuring the sky.