End of the Magic Era

Lin Yun frowned and looked at Myers. The illusion of a wheel appeared in his eyes and revolved slowly. A few seconds later, Lin Yun shook his head in disappointment.

"This is still too bad. The melting rate is only 5%. It was already lucky enough for you to survive after absorbing the crystal monster's bloodline, and it was even luckier for you to advance into level 5 of the Heaven Rank. There's an advanced part in the crystal monster's bloodline that matches you well.

"Under normal circumstances, you cannot possibly get any stronger. However, you're quite lucky. If you find a level-40 Earth Bear and absorb its bloodline, twice as much as you did from the crystal monster, you may gain more potential.

"It will be best if the Earth Bear has already mastered Earth Breath…"

Lin Yun's words struck Myers' soul like a lightning bolt. Immediately, he understood a lot of things.

Who said that it was only possible to transplant one creature's bloodline?

If one creature's bloodline matching rate was too low, and couldn't be changed on its own, it could be changed in other ways. To combine the bloodlines of two foreign creatures at a certain ratio might not give him as much power as either of them would've, but it would be more stable, and carry more potential.

The main problem with bloodline transplantation was never insufficient combat ability, but instability in bloodlines and the lack of potential…

Was it better to be forever stuck in level 5 of the Heaven Rank, and even be unable to fight with full strength, or to slightly lower one's combat ability for the hope of getting stronger, and even seeking a breakthrough?

Anyone whose brain wasn't damaged knew what to choose. Besides, as long as the bloodline stabilized, even if their combat ability slightly dropped, their performance in battles would be better than before.

Myers trembled with excitement. He thought for a moment, and realized that although the solution seemed simple, to find out the perfect combination of bloodlines required complicated research.

Even if the way had been pointed out for him, he couldn't possibly find the most suitable combination without hundreds of years of studies at the risk of killing himself.

Lin Yun smiled. He suddenly felt that Myers was pathetic and admirable. On the path of magic, there were always people who fell, paving roads with their blood and bodies, and pointing out the wrong directions for future generations.

There had been countless failures on Noscent mages' way forward before the one success which pointed out the right way. The people who failed countless times earlier couldn't even be remembered in history.

Getting to the bottom of it, the Thorny Crown was just some sort of pioneers. Without the lunatics who would sacrifice everything for greater power, the Thorny Crown might not have been so notorious in history.

After all, in the skyrocketing period of Noscent's civilization, there had been countless novel ideas that were tested with blood and life.

Myers was so thrilled that his soul was trembling, but in only two minutes, he held back his excitement, and bowed at Lin Yun deeply.

"Sir Merlin, I don't know how I can thank you. I cannot thank you enough even in 1,000 years—"

Lin Yun waved his hand and interrupted Myers. "Enough. No need to thank me. You've suffered a huge loss recently, yet you did the Gilded Rose so many favors. This potion is just a return of the favor.

"As for working for me, let's talk about that later."

Hearing that, Myers became anxious. That man's casual remark had pointed out a new way for the Thorny Crown, which was at a dead end. Also, it was a groundbreaking new direction, where the Thorny Crown could make great progress!

Moreover, the man's unknown potion had made his transplanted bloodline truly melt with his own a little bit. That was completely unimaginable in the past.

The foreign transplanted bloodlines were unstable, and might cause counterattacks mostly because they contained external power. They were sort of special magic tools in a way, and not the mages' own power.

However, if the bloodline was truly melted into their own, then its power would become the mages', and could be passed on to their children.

Only a mage's own talent and power could be inherited. No matter how powerful the foreign bloodline they transplanted was, their children might just be average mages who didn't have any special abilities.

They meant entirely different things! The gap was as huge as that between two planes!

He had seen so many returns, and gotten to know Lin Yun better. The Thorny Crown had made a decision too. How could he give up?

"Sir Merlin…"

Myers was so anxious that he was sweating. He thought that the matter was already settled, and didn't expect this turn of events.

Lin Yun waved his hand.

"Let's talk about that later. There's something that I need you to investigate. A god from the past was reborn in Noscent. I don't know where he is exactly, but based on the leads from the Starry Sky College, I've confirmed that he was reborn somewhere in the central part of the Odin Kingdom. The books of the Starry Sky College don't mention anything else.

"I hope that you can look into the leads. If the god has been successfully reborn, I want to know who he is, and what his race is. If he is not reborn yet, I want to know where he is.

"Here's the information I've found. There are some obvious features that you may use as leads…"

Myers accepted the folder in delight. The investigation sounded very hard, especially when a god was involved. There was even no telling when he was reborn, but only a rough period, which had a span of a millennium.

After browsing through the information, Myers had a rough idea about the difficulty of the mission. But it only made him happier, even though he was not confident of accomplishing it.

He wasn't afraid that Lin Yun gave him challenging tasks. In fact, the more challenging, the better. He was only afraid that Lin Yun didn't need them, which would be a huge problem.

Calming himself down, Myers considered the information he just read.

"Sir Merlin, it happened a very long time ago. If nobody noticed anything back then, it's going to be difficult to find anything right now. Also, if the god's soul has been reborn in the form of another race, it will be even harder to find him.

"I dare not make any promises right now. I can only reach a conclusion after we gather more leads. I'll keep you informed the moment we find anything."

Lin Yun was quite satisfied with Myers' prudence. If Myers had declared that he would surely accomplish the task, Lin Yun would've found him unreliable.

The Thorny Crown had a huge intelligence and connection network in the Odin Kingdom. The location of interest had been narrowed down to the center of the Odin Kingdom. If the Thorny Crown couldn't find anything useful with its networks, Lin Yun would have to abandon the investigation for now.

After all, he had investigated for a long time, but hadn't found anything yet. One of the reasons why he expanded the Gilded Rose in the Odin Kingdom was for the investigation.

Having entrusted the mission of investigating the rebirth of the 73rd God to Myers, Lin Yun left the matter alone. The Thorny Crown had been hiding in the dark and extending its antennae to a very large area in the Odin Kingdom. It probably had access to many leads, and its investigation would be more efficient.

However, due to the lack of leads, it was obvious that no result could be found any time soon. After giving the most time-consuming mission to the Thorny Crown, Lin Yun began to investigate other matters that were easier.

Looking for the Cave Gnomes and the Red-Skinned Spirit Suckers was a lot easier because the entrance to the underground world had been found before. Even though the entrance had been destroyed, its location wouldn't change. The hard part was to explore the underground world.

The underground world of Noscent was completely different from that in the monster plane. Here, after countless years of natural evolution, it had almost turned into a secondary plane that was attached to Noscent. A lot of underground races lived there in disarray. They were completely different from the ground races.

However, according to history, there were no Cave Gnomes or Red-Skinned Spirit Suckers in the underground world. They had migrated to the underground at some point, but when the Noscent mages entered the underground world in the future, there would be no Cave Gnomes or Red-Skinned Spirit Suckers. After all, neither of the two races was very powerful.

To open the channel again and enter the underground world, the easiest way was to make use of the blood of a dark beast, which would never embrace the sunlight once in their entire life. Also, they were gregarious beasts. The Gilded Rose could take care of the hunting. Lin Yun only needed to wait for the result.

Study the truth runes, master more laws, conduct alchemy experiments, and make key components of the Shelter Tower. There were so many things to do that Lin Yun almost wanted to cut his soul into halves.

After his level upgrade, he was able to study more truth runes. However, he truly didn't have enough time. He could postpone the making of important components of the Shelter Tower for now. He had almost finished creating the Reedpush Plate. What he needed the most was talent runes for the Heaven Rank alchemy puppets.

The talent runes for the puppets couldn't be taken care of in a day or two. The hunting had to be done slowly. If a lot of Heaven Rank alchemy puppets died very quickly, the alchemy puppet king would possibly notice. Then, hunting would be more difficult.

He had taught the important fundamental theories of alchemy puppets to his alchemist team, and told them what to work on, so he could leave the matter aside for now, and focus on grasping more laws.

The law of darkness had been born in his Natural Demiplane, but the law of light was still evolving. Although he had mastered some rules about darkness, they only laid foundations for following rules. It was hard for him to make use of the power of the law of darkness.

After the Ten Thousand Spell Wheel evolved as an Extraordinary Magic Tool, it had been kept in the Natural Demiplane to evolve with the laws inside the plane. With the abundant mana, the Ten Thousand Spell Wheel was getting more powerful by each day.

Seated at the peak of the pillar, Lin Yun quietly examined the law of darkness that evolved in the Natural Demiplane. It was only the main trunk for now, but it was already very remarkable even for a normal Heaven Rank dark mage. The branches of the law of darkness evolved too after the main trunk did.

Then, he needed to look for Cave Gnomes and Red-Skinned Spirit Suckers in the underground world. In that place, a human dark mage wouldn't be too eye-catching, and with proper disguise, he wouldn't be recognized as an outsider, which was important.

The underground races had been fighting life-and-death battles every day, but if any outsider came in, then the situation would be entirely different.

It was like no matter how the nations in Noscent fought, it was their own business, but if any foreign races—such as demons or devils—appeared, archenemies would stand together and kill the invaders first.

Lin Yun mastered the law of darkness very smoothly. At this moment, he had fully controlled the Natural Demiplane. It was almost part of him. Any law that evolved in the Natural Demiplane was displayed right in front of Lin Yun's face. He could even enter into the laws to learn them. Such a way of learning was hundreds of times more effective than that in Noscent, even compared to geniuses.

That was the greatest advantage of the Natural Demiplane. As long as the Natural Demiplane was developed well, the terrifying advantage would be kept until the peak of the Heaven Rank.

Normal Heaven Rank experts' Demiplanes were just places that accommodated their laws. They had to grasp the laws first for them to appear in their Demiplanes.

The advantage of the Natural Demiplane was that laws evolved on their own in there, even if the mage hadn't mastered them. The mage could learn them after they took shape, which would be much easier.

In history, all the experts who had acquired a Natural Demiplane had leveled up quickly since they entered the Heaven Rank. Even the weakest had risen to level 8 of the Heaven Rank in only 180 years. He didn't advance any higher only because he was unfortunately killed by a powerful beast during an adventure.

For a month, Lin Yun had been learning the law of darkness in his Natural Demiplane. As the foundations of the darkness rules were consolidated, it was possible to make use of the Origin Chapter on the Book of Death. In the future, when he cast dark spells, they would be enhanced by the Origin Chapter. They would cost less mana and be more powerful.

Earlier, he had only been able to cast the Curtain of Darkness, which was the Origin Chapter's own ability. If he were to cast the Curtain of Darkness again, it would be five times more powerful.

Learning the law of darkness could be put on hold. He continued studying the truth runes…

Outside, the Gilded Rose had made significant progress since the release of the Blue Demon Potion. It was not because it opened more branches. In fact, it only had six new branches. The real progress was that it was able to spend the purple gold it earned.

Purple gold was indeed important for mages because it meant access to most resources they needed, but not all resources could be purchased with purple gold.

At this moment, because all organizations needed the Blue Demon Potion for mana replenishment, they had to offer the resources that the Gilded Rose needed in exchange.

The Odin Kingdom had been established for a long time, but the powerful mage organizations were the same. During the past 1,000 years, very few new mage organizations had risen, and they all ranked below 10th in terms of power.

The most important reason was the lack of resources. Many of the rarest resources were monopolized by the most powerful organizations. They only bartered with each other if they needed anything, and never made deals with weaker forces. The resources available on the market might be enough for an individual mage, but not nearly enough for a mage organization.

After taking this step, the Gilded Rose was already a lot more powerful than many seemingly daunting families. None of the organizations that had more top experts than the Gilded Rose could acquire as many precious resources that were almost never sold as it did.

The Blue Demon Potions were sold, and a lot of resources were taken back. Many people became greedy.

Except for the most powerful mage organizations, nobody could get everybody else's resources. Therefore, before the barter began, many of them didn't agree with the Gilded Rose's exchange proposal at all.

Not only was the Gilded Rose a new force, but it also came from the Andlusa Kingdom. It did not belong to the Odin Kingdom, which was very important…