End of the Magic Era

"I walk on a thorny road. The thorns are stained with my blood. I reach for the bloody thorns, and weave them into a crown. May I be coronated with this crown at the end of the thorny road.

"I hope that you'll remember the Thorny Crown's vow in the future."

Lin Yun shook his head, and didn't say anything else to Myers. It was already kindhearted enough of him to rescue them. He was not interested in letting them work for him at all.

Those people had been notorious and despised by normal mages for a long time.

The conflict and hatred between the battle mages of Caucasus and the mages of Andlusa were due to their different ideology in magic. They had fought for so many years, even though the difference was trivial.

At this moment, many of Andlusa's mages still hated the Caucasus battle mages. Luckily, there had never been a large-scale war between them.

As for the people of the Thorny Crown, they were hardly human mages anymore, and had deeper conflicts with normal mages. They had been expanding in secret and keeping a low profile, or they might have been eliminated.

This ideological difference and conflict was much greater than that with the Caucasus battle mages. Besides, the mages who had transplanted foreign bloodlines tended to have personality problems, such as Sheldon and Sunny, which left an even worse expression on the orthodoxy mages.

Lin Yun would be in a lot of trouble if the Thorny Crown worked for him, not to mention that the Thorny Crown was still in chaos…

Lin Yun ignored Myers, but Myers' single crystal eye was glittering. There was still pain on his face, but it was weakening. He looked at Lin Yun's back and the army of alchemy puppets on the ground with passion on his face.

It was nothing wrong to surrender to Sir Merlin with the Thorny Crown, which was already a mess and required cleaning. Those crazy guys would bring disaster to the Thorny Crown. All of this misfortune was because of the crazy idiot Sunny.

If the Thorny Crown was purged, it would definitely be damaged. The internal research of the Thorny Crown had stagnated for many years. They needed a leader that everybody respected and admired.

Mafa Merlin is even stronger than me. Also, he's terrifyingly talented, and he hasn't transplanted any other creature's bloodline. He will surely grow stronger. His expertise in bloodline transplantation is even greater than mine. With his guidance, everybody of the Thorny Crown will be able to carry on.

Also, his subordinates are formidable too. Nobody knows that he has such a huge iron puppet army. All the 100,000 alchemy puppets are above level 30. He's truly terrifying. I'm afraid that none of the organizations in the Odin Kingdom will be able to deal with him except the top ones…

Following such a man who is strong and knowledgeable is the best way out for us. However, he doesn't seem willing to accept us. That's a big problem…

Behind Myers, the members of the Thorny Crown gave silent agreement to Myers' proposal. They were about to say something, but Myers stopped them. Instead of approaching Lin Yun, he led everybody to swear on their soul and magic power.

It prevented them from disseminating anything that happened in this plane in any way. They even had to keep everything about Lin Yun and his subordinates a secret.

As long as they leaked any information, their souls would immediately collapse, and their magic power would disperse.

Very few people could force a Heaven Rank expert to confess in such circumstances. Even if they were forced to confess, they would be stopped before they could finish.

Myers had expressed his sincerity, but he didn't keep following Lin Yun. Obviously, he noticed that Lin Yun didn't really like them. He could only stay aside, and treat his wounds with potions…

On the other hand, Lin Yun left the people of the Thorny Crown aside, and opened his Natural Demiplane, summoning a large number of alchemy puppets. A lot of machine parts were moved out and assembled in this plane. The mining puppets went underground through the caverns, collecting the magic crystals down below.

At the same time, many more alchemy puppets were building fortresses, exploring the plane, and collecting the plants that grew on the surface of the plane…

100,000 alchemy puppets sounded a lot, but they were not enough when they spread to the entire plane. All of them had been installed with a control system. They were manufactured for construction instead of fighting. It was easier for them to work in this plane than it was for human beings.

Seeing that Lin Yun had summoned so many construction puppets, as if he was determined to initiate a great development, Lord Shawn floated towards him, scared.

"Sir Merlin, is it really appropriate to do this? If we send so many alchemy puppets to develop this plane, the guy below the ground won't go crazy, will it?"

Lin Yun looked at Lord Shawn as if he were an idiot. Quite a few seconds later, he replied, "Do you think that guy knows this?"

Immediately, Lord Shawn fell quiet. He felt that his intelligence had been insulted…

Everything in this plane, including the magic crystals, the plants and beasts on the surface, and even the special resources, didn't matter at all to the monster. It probably had never noticed any of those things…

It was unaware of the value of those things or the meaning of trade. It simply knew that Lin Yun could give it more wisdom and strength…

Knowing that, it wouldn't care whatever Lin Yun did in this plane as long as he didn't hurt it. Nothing else mattered to it at all.

Lin Yun could develop however he wanted. The monster didn't care or know what he was doing. It only knew that Lin Yun could increase its wisdom.

Lin Yun built fortresses on the surface, and looked for plantations that were suitable for plants and herbs, as if this plane belonged to himself and he could do anything he wanted.

In the future, when the mages obtained the plane, they would have to develop it when the monster was asleep. Whenever the monster woke up, they would suffer a huge loss.

In this situation, Lin Yun felt that it was a good thing that the monster woke up. It would've been terrible if the monster had kept sleeping.

If the monster were to sleep forever, although it would still be possible to develop the plane, Lin Yun would be much more restrained than he was at this moment. Currently, he could even dig the mana crystals of the highest quality in the spherical space.

Also, there was also a chance that the monster might wake up even if it was put to sleep by special potions. If it woke up after construction was completed on this plane, then the losses would be heavy.

The monster had woken up, and the situation was much better than expected. Lin Yun could develop this plane freely. As long as he didn't destroy this plane, he could turn it upside down three times every day if he wanted too.

More importantly, the potion that could violently purify the soul would gradually imprint his blood and soul marks into the monster's soul. It was even more perfect than a soul contract.

After the marks were completely melted, the monster would follow Lin Yun's every order thanks to the instincts deep inside its soul. It would be as obedient as a pet that he raised up.

Also, as the monster's soul was purified, it would become smarter too. Then, no other protection measures would be needed for this plane. It would be impossible for anyone else to invade this plane. Of course, that was only the last resort.

It would be more significant to build a city in the boundless void outside the plane. The city would be a great supply station in the boundless void.

Also, when the monster's soul was improved to a new level, it could even split up its soul and mana crystal to create a similar plane. The soul and mana crystal could also be kept inside Lin Yun's Natural Demiplane. He could already think of many things he could do with them. He was sure that he would find out even more uses in the future.

He could even transfer part of the monster to Noscent. The channel between this plane and the void was left by the monster on purpose, even though it could've destroyed it. Through this channel, the plane would be able to swallow the energy from the boundless void.

Although the monster was swallowing energy from the boundless void, 99% of the energy was applied to the plane itself, giving it more and more mana. The abundant mana in the plane was not just due to the blue sun in the sky.

If part of the monster was transferred to Noscent, and grew up there, then there would be a lot more mana in Noscent, and the time of mana ebbing would be postponed. There would be a lot of time for him to build the Shelter Towers and look for the truth…

There were so many returns for taming this monster…

Lin Yun wore a smile for days. He had harvested much more things on this trip than he'd expected.

The only thing that bothered him was that Myers came to visit him once every couple of days.

"Sir Merlin, whatever you need us to do, just give us a command, and it will be done…"

Myers followed Lin Yun as if he was already Lin Yun's subordinate. Also, he had precise control over time. He only talked to Lin Yun for a few minutes every time, and whenever Lin Yun showed any impatience, he would promptly go.

Lin Yun didn't know what to do. Those guys thought they were already his subordinates. Myers even shamelessly volunteered to work for Sir Merlin and share his worries…

Unfortunately, none of them was familiar with magic plants or herbs. They weren't even as useful as the alchemy puppets. They didn't know planning or construction, either, and would only bring trouble instead of help.

What could they do? Mining. That was the only thing they could do. They were all Heaven Rank experts, yet they worked every day like miners. They were truly shameless…

Lin Yun didn't even know how to scold them. In the end, he ran out of his patience, and had a magic battleship send the overly enthusiastic guys back to Noscent.

After sending away the people of the Thorny Crown, Lin Yun didn't want to get involved with them ever again. He even regretted saving them, and thought he should've just let them die. After all, there were still years to go before they caused any serious trouble. He only needed to pay more attention…

The plane was being developed quickly. The magic battleship returned from Noscent with a lot of passengers. They were the main force to develop this plane.

A lot of alchemists had traveled from Noscent to this world. Those who were good with potions began to experiment on the local plants, which all contained mana, and could be used as materials for potions. The alchemists were so excited that they explored the plane with puppets every day. Some of them even entered the habitats of fearsome beasts for materials…

The alchemists who were good with magic tools began to experiment on the ores. Besides the huge reserve of magic crystals, there were also special materials that were developing in the underground world. Even the hard stones could be studied too.

Those who were good with alchemy arrays began to set them up. To grow the magic plants and build fortresses, alchemy arrays were needed in the general layout.

The alchemists who were good with puppets started to design new puppets that were pertaining to this plane's conditions.

Everything was developing fast. At first, a great amount of herbs that were readily usable was found. Their reserve was so huge that they could supply three Gilded Roses. It meant that even if the Gilded Rose had three times more branches in the Odin Kingdom, there would still be enough materials.

Also, the new materials meant that they could be made into a lot of new potions that only the Gilded Rose had. The other stores wouldn't have the materials to make them even if they figured out the recipe.

The specialness of this plane meant that most of the materials here would unlikely be found in other planes.

Three months later, Lin Yun gave another bottle of potion for soul purification to the underground monster, making its soul marks clearer.

Having experienced improvement again, the monster was obviously much closer to Lin Yun. It didn't care about the things that Lin Yun did in the plane at all. It even thoughtfully asked Lin Yun if he needed any help…

Bringing a bunch of special materials that would be famous in the future, Lin Yun returned to Noscent on The Intrepid.

The three magic battleships were defending the entrance outside of the plane, where a fortress was being built. It was very significant to have a base in the boundless void. After it was completed, it would be possible to build a space gate inside the base, and shorten the time of transportation.

Unfortunately, this special plane was a life form in a way, and it didn't have stable coordinates. It was impossible to build a stable Planar Path inside the plane.

Otherwise, it would've been most convenient to just build a Planar Path in the plane instead of transporting via magic battleships.

During the travel in the void, Lin Yun entered a laboratory that was transformed from a room on The Intrepid. He experimented on the special materials he brought from the plane. Those materials had one thing in common: they boasted a great amount of mana that was pure and stable. The herbs that contained such mana were most suitable as potion materials. Most potions required such materials.

Only the most famous of such materials were recorded. The rest were not even qualified to be written down in the decaying library.

With the famous materials, Lin Yun soon created a few new potions. However, only two of them turned out to be possible to manufacture in the end.

One of them could make up for mana exhaustion, and the other could increase the mana storage. Both of them were very popular, and had a huge demand.

The new potion, which Lin Yun had named Blue Demon, was much more powerful than the potions that were meant to fill up mana on the market. Most such potions on the market filled up the mana by increasing a mage's recovery speed. When the mage's mana recovery speed was improved, they would regain their mana very quickly.

For a low-level Archmage to fully replenish his mana, it would take at least an hour with the drug. The time cost was not a big deal in battles that weren't too fierce. Slow recovery of mana had another merit, which was that it could improve one's mana capacity a bit.

However, such potions were almost useless in fierce battles. They couldn't really do anything except adding a tiny bit of mana, and helping the mage escape…