End of the Magic Era

The City of Angels was on the border of the desert and snow plains of the Sten Kingdom. It had the harshest environment in the country. It was in the middle of a vast plain that had no obstacles. Dozens of storms visited the city every year.

At the very beginning, there had been no city here. It had been a battlefield of the two ethnic groups in the Sten Kingdom. When the war was over, criminals were banished here. Those criminals established the city.

At first, the city was called the City of Sinners because every resident here was an unpardonable criminal. They were exiled evil mages, mass murderers, and crazy alchemists…

As time went by, more and more people were exiled here, and many of them were geniuses. Those crazy alchemists and evil mages who didn’t have any moral boundaries were even stronger than other experts on their level.

Those people fought and killed each other every day. Then, the first master of the City of Angels appeared. He subdued those crazy guys and set up rules. That was the beginning of the City of Angels’ development.

Later, the city became the place where the outcasts gathered. The murderers, the people who had pissed off wrong targets, and the felons who had committed heinous crimes would all run to the City of Angels.

Nobody cared what they’d done in the past as long as they obeyed the city’s rules.

Anything unavailable on the market outside could be sold here. Even royal princesses might be sold as pets here.

Someone tried to eliminate the City of Angels, but it could no longer be eliminated. It was the place that gathered the filth of the Sten Kingdom, but there were a lot of stakes in the place too. Whoever wanted to take anything from here had to pay accordingly. Robbery was against the rules.

A daughter of a prince of the Odin Kingdom was sold to the city and auctioned. The prince led Heaven Rank experts to the City of Angels, and attempted to destroy it.

However, the city had existed for countless years. It seemed unremarkable, but it was surprisingly sturdy. The city was closed and vanished into the ground. It was gone for a month.

When the City of Angels went missing, the forces that were connected to the City of Angels suffered huge losses. Some international deals and clandestine negotiations could only be conducted in the City of Angels.

During the month, a lot of people showed up to suppress the prince. Even the royal family of Odin persuaded him in person. Finally, the City of Angels rose from the ground again, and the prince had to pay a fortune to buy his daughter back…

Standing on the deck of the airship, Lin Yun looked at the City of Angels down below with a smile.

The City of Angels would remain famous in the future. It had influence in all chaotic areas. 10,000 years later, the City of Angels would be relocated to a chaotic plane that everybody could go to if they knew its coordinates. They could buy anything they wanted, including materials, alchemy items, and even technologies as long as they paid the right price.

It was actually easy to get things done in such places because as long as one was strong enough, those places would be extremely safe and suitable for business.

As long as one paid tax and had a store, one could simply kill the people who dared to come for trouble. The city guards would only help clean the blood. Sometimes, they would even just finish off the troublemakers. There were no robbers in the city, as nobody wanted to get killed.

Landing in the City of Angels, Dick personally led Lin Yun to the most prosperous street in the City of Angels. There was only one unopened store on the street, which was eight meters wide.

The store had three floors. When the protection arrays of the store were activated, it was only eight meters high. It was much smaller than any of the Gilded Rose’s branches. However, it was a fairly large store in the City of Angels.

The store had already been renovated for the purpose of selling potions. One of the two upper floors was a warehouse, and the other was for residence. All necessary things were prepared.

“Sir Merlin, this is the biggest store that we can get in the best part of the city. If you’re unsatisfied, we can keep searching—”

Before Dick finished, Lin Yun had waved his hand. “That won’t be necessary. This is it. I’m very satisfied.”

Lin Yun knew how hard it was to acquire a store in the City of Angels. There might not be a seller even if he offered 10 times the price. The store owners would rather pay a huge amount of tax and leave their stores empty than sell the stores out.

It was already fortunate enough if one could rent a store. Not to mention that this was the most prosperous street in the City of Angels.

Taking out all the contracts, Dick signed a transfer contract with Lin Yun. Then, the store belonged to Lin Yun. He was free to do anything he wanted in the store.

There were many evil necromancers doing human experiments in their stores, but nobody would arrest them unless they affected others.

Completing the deal, Dick left with the 10,000 Universal Cores in a hurry. Lin Yun, on the other hand, opened his Demiplane and released Xiuban and Reina, as well as the clerks he had brought here for the store.

After the goods were put on shelves, the sign of the store was changed to “Gilded Rose Potion Store”.

The store was opened while keeping a low profile. There was not any ceremony. Lin Yun left instructions for Xiuban, and then disappeared.

“Xiuban, Reina, keep an eye on the store. Whoever comes to the store for trouble, just kill them.”

Quietly leaving the City of Angels, Lin Yun went in the direction of what he speculated to be the location of the Planar Path, which was only 50 kilometers away from the City of Angels. In this range, battles never stopped.

The people who escaped to the City of Angels were often chased to the gate of the city. They wouldn’t be safe until they entered the City of Angels. Everybody had to obey the rules of the city while they were inside the city.

Lin Yun hid himself and floated along with the wind while he investigated the vibe of the Planar Path with the detector he made.

If he didn’t know what kind of plane it was, it would be barely possible for him to find the Planar Path with a magic tool. Only if he knew the basic parameters of the plane and had a rough search range would the magic tool be useful.

However, the process wasn’t so easy. The magic tool wouldn’t react until it was very close to the Planar Path, so Lin Yun estimated that he would have to float for a dozen days.

He might easily be discovered in the process. If he wandered around the City of Angels for no good reason, he might get into unnecessary trouble.

However, even if he got spotted at this moment, he was free to do anything he wanted as a store owner in the City of Angels. He could even count the sand every day in the cold wind…

The night fell, and the heat of the day was quickly gone. The City of Angels was like a city located in a desert during the day, but a snowfall began at night, turning everything within dozens of kilometers of the City of Angels white. The city was covered in ice and snow.

At night, the temperature was so low that dropping water would freeze before it hit the ground. However, the city became even more lively and heated. The snowflakes were vaporized before they reached the city.

The night was when the City of Angels was truly alive. All establishments were open at night. The brothels, casinos, and black markets did most of their business at night.

Xiuban was enjoying a bunch of fresh food he bought on the street in front of the store. There were no customers in the store. That was often the case with every newly opened store, even though it sold potions.

However, in the City of Angels, the number of customers didn’t depend on whether or not the store was new…

Soon, a few strangers came, led by a Sword Saint. They all wore a cold mysterious smile.

“A new store. Gilded Rose? I’ve never heard about this name. Pay your tax—”

The vicious-looking Sword Saint leading a few Expert Swordsmen stepped into the Gilded Rose. Before they finished speaking, Xiuban had already stopped eating and raised his head, grinning at the guys who were at the door.

He then picked up Carnage, and then disappeared.

Next moment, the Sword Saint who just spoke was knocked away in a thunderous explosion. He exploded into a mist of blood after flying for three meters.

Xiuban grinned scarily and waved Carnage. As if he were slaughtering chickens, he turned the Sword Saint and the five Expert Swordsmen into blood…

From when they entered the Gilded Rose to the moment they exploded into mist of blood, it took no more than three seconds…

Xiuban spat on the street, and casually tossed Carnage aside. He then grabbed the roast leg of an unknown beast and chewed it.

“Idiots. We just paid this year’s tax during the day, yet you pretended to be tax collectors? Did you take me for a fool?”

Outside of the Gilded Rose, the passers-by all fell quiet. They all stared at Xiuban, who was enjoying the roast meat.

They knew exactly what the strangers were for. Nobody dared to buy things in the Gilded Rose, because new stores, especially this unknown one, couldn’t be from a powerful force.

Then, it was only natural that the mobsters in the city attempted to take advantage of the store…

It was true that nobody dared to rob, thanks to the city guards. However, those villains had many ways to prevent the store from doing business.

If the store owner was strong enough, then this was truly a great place for business, but if they weren’t strong enough, they had to pay something before they did business.

Clearly, those strangers took the Gilded Rose for a branch of an alchemy store, and one that could easily be taken advantage of…

A few seconds later, the passers-by resumed whatever they were doing. Nobody cared about the miserable deaths of those idiots. They looked at Xiuban and the Gilded Rose in a different way. Very few people were as brutal and fearless as him in the City of Angels…

Soon, a lot of customers visited the Gilded Rose. They didn’t care about the disgusting remains at the door at all.

Half a minute later, the city guards appeared. The manager of the store simply explained that the victims pretended to be city guards, and tried to collect tax. The city guards immediately left, and even cleaned the blood at the door.

Several minutes later, someone came to sell intelligence regarding the people that Xiuban killed. The manager of the store quickly paid 1,000 purple gold for the intelligence, and gave it to Reina.

When it was dawn, Lin Yun appeared on the third floor of the store from outside of the city. He learned of the incident, and wasn’t bothered.

“Kill those people the moment they leave the City of Angels. They’re just a bunch of refugees, yet they’re bold enough to extort us.”

Leaving the matter alone, Lin Yun continued searching for the Planar Path outside of the city. The Gilded Rose’s business in the City of Angels finally began. The customers were actually more reassured upon seeing how strong Xiuban was. Also, the Gilded Rose sold a lot of unique, high-quality drugs.

Three days later, the villain group that the robbers came from was wiped out while they were on an escort mission outside of the city. They were frozen into ice sculptures 100 meters away from the city. Even the scorching sun in the day didn’t melt the ice.

They seemed to have all been frozen into ice without being able to put up any resistance. Even their shocked expressions were frozen too.

After they stood for three days, the ice sculptures finally exploded into ice crystals, and disappeared…

After showing its muscles, the Gilded Rose finally stabilized its position in the City of Angels. Those who had enough strength could always do business more easily here.

Nobody caused any trouble in the Gilded Rose’s store. They all paid up front. The deals were much easier than in other places.

Lin Yun came to the store less and less frequently. He spent more of his time searching for the Planar Path.

He didn’t find any lead after a dozen days of searching. Then, after another five days of searching without any rest, when the sun was about to rise, the magic compass finally showed reaction.

A vague vibe of death appeared on the surface of the compass. Then, it spun at the edge of the compass, and pointed in one direction.

Lin Yun was quite refreshed by the discovery. He followed the direction, and soon reached the point of interest. When he arrived, the vibe of death on the compass simply revolved in the center.

Seeing that, Lin Yun realized what was wrong.

As it turned out, the Planar Path was below the ground. No wonder the Planar Path wouldn’t be found until thousands of years later, even though the City of Angels was so chaotic.

By then, the City of Angels would have already moved to an independent plane, and the Lincoln Business Alliance would claim this place, and find the Planar Path.

The sand, mixed with the snow, had been frozen. Lin Yun would have to wait until noon if he wanted to see the desert.

Lin Yun spat out a rune of law, and the frozen land underneath his feet split up, allowing Lin Yun to sink quickly as if he were caught in a swamp.

After submerging for 100 meters, he finally found the place where the Planar Path was hidden. He was surrounded by hard rocks, with only a crack that was a meter wide. In the center of the crack, there was a spatial opening that was half meter long, and it seemed to be vanishing.

There was only a vague aura of death, and some of crumbled undead skeletons, in the spatial opening. As the spatial opening dwindled, the crack seemed to be closing too.

No wonder there were no undead creatures so far. This spatial opening could hardly be called a Planar Path. It was just a pair of fixed coordinates at best.

The undead creatures that could pass through the tiny opening couldn’t be stronger than level 10. Also, the opening would only appear in the middle of the night. After that, the spatial opening would disappear, and the crack that was pushed open by the death aura would be closed by the underground pressure.

Under such pressure, any undead creatures below level 30 would’ve been killed immediately. If the terrain in this place didn’t change, this spatial opening probably wouldn’t be discovered in tens of thousands of years.

Releasing a few other spatial runes, Lin Yun supported the spatial opening that was about to close. He then expanded the crack in the rocks, creating and fixating a space. Then, he began to set up the Planar Path.

This Planar Path, which was just a tiny spatial opening, couldn’t support travel. He could only confirm the coordinates of the plane with the spatial opening, and then establish a Planar Path through alchemy arrays.

In only half an hour, a Planar Path was established. Lin Yun came into a dim world through the Planar Path.

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