Chapter 206: The Tree

There seemed to only be a five level difference between a level 25 mana crystal and a level 30 mana crystal, but to Lin Yun, this gap was too large. One was an ordinary mana crystal, while the other was a spirit mana crystal. This alone was enough to make the gap between the two mana crystals more than ten times bigger!

'Forget it, a level 25 mana crystal is still something..." Lin Yun soon put this disappointment to the back of his mind. This was only an unexpected harvest, after all, he didn't have reason to be picky.

He only hoped that this level 25 mana crystal contained enough mana. In that case, it could be used to feed Shawn.

As he thought of this, Lin Yun extracted a wisp of mana from the mana crystal. But he frowned as he absorbed it, and focused on it once again...

No, it wasn't because it contained enough mana. In fact, the level 25 mana crystal only had the mana of a level 20 mana crystal at most.

But Lin Yun detected a few spell matrices from the wisp of mana.

None of them surpassed the 2nd Tier, just things like Fire Arrow, Wind Blade, and so on... But this discovery was enough to make Lin Yun forget his dissatisfaction. What if the level was too low? What if the mana was lacking? In front of these spell matrices, all that was meaningless. It could be said that solely based on these few spell matrices, the value of that mana crystal could be comparable to a spirit mana crystal.

And the existence of these spell matrices meant that this was a mana crystal with the ability to cast spells.

Lin Yun could even guess that the Watcher's ability to cast spells was likely linked to the mana crystal.

After personally fighting a Watcher, Lin Yun knew more than anyone else how frightening this ability was, bursting out with several hundred Lesser Spells in an instant. Even if the Lesser Spells didn't exceed the 2nd Tier, that kind of power wasn't something a High Mage could withstand. Let alone an ordinary High Mage, even Solomon's Runic Shield might break under the onslaught.

Even though it had looked like an easy victory for Lin Yun, using thirty Ice Walls and thirty Flame Bursts before finishing with a Flame Spear, in reality, Lin Yun had used the 8th character of the Book of Death, making him enter the unlimited state.

Otherwise, how could he cast those sixty spells? Only Heaven Mages that had grasped the Extraordinary Realm could completely ignore mana cooling and elemental exhaustion.

It could be seen from Lin Yun's current appearance...

All the mana he had stored before had been exhausted, and he could only tightly hold his Spiritual Magic Tool and continuously extract the mana from within the Elemental Amber to recover.

This was the power of a Watcher...

If that mana crystal could reproduce the power of the Watcher, then it might not need anything else to rival a peak Spiritual Magic Tool. He would have the power to do one all-out attack with the strength of an Archmage!

"Looks like your harvest was good..." Solomon had already walked over. Seeing Lin Yun's smile, he knew that the value of the mana crystal was definitely not insignificant.

'This young Great Mage's luck is shocking. We played thieves before the gathering of the Magic Hand and he managed to subdue a Flame Spirit there. From the power the Flame Spirit showed when turning the Shadow Wolf into charcoal, his strength should be equivalent to that of a peak High Mage...

'And now, here, he casually killed a Watcher and obtained that monster's mana crystal. From his smile, it's definitely valuable.'

As he thought of that, Solomon felt a bit disappointed. 'If I had known earlier, I would have rushed over to deal with it.' His eyes were fixed on the mana crystal in Lin Yun's hands for a long time before he finally managed to look away from it.

"It's only an ordinary mana crystal..." Hearing Solomon's sour tone, how could Lin Yun not know what that 9th Rank High Mage was thinking? Thus, he unceremoniously put the mana crystal into his pocket as he smiled. "Don't think too much about it, I have a damaged Magic Tool, and I need many mana crystals to restore it. I have far too few, far too few..."

"Oh right, Merlin, this is already the center of the forest. What about the force driving the beast tide? Where could it be?" Solomon was also straightforward. Seeing that Lin Yun didn't plan on talking about it, he no longer mentioned the mana crystal and went back to the important mission at hand.

"It shouldn't be too far from here." After saying that, Lin Yun roused his Magic Arrays and cast several Mage Eyes one by one, letting them fly in different directions.

"How do you know?" Solomon was a bit lost.

"Because that mana crystal is only level 25."

"Ah?" Solomon froze in bemusement. 'What does a level 25 mana crystal have to do with the beast tide?'

But Solomon soon understood. As he thought about it, he felt that it truly had a lot to do with it.

The power used by the Watcher showed that it was probably around level 30. That all-out attack at the end was truly on par with an Archmage's attack. Yet that kind of existence only had a level 25 mana crystal...

In other words, that Watcher was just like the Shadow Wolf. It had been affected by some force, making it possess a power close to level 30 despite only being level 25. That was a gap of five full levels. It could be said that it was the greatest increase in strength among all the magic beasts they had seen.

It was likely the one that had been most affected by that force...

Sure enough, as Lin Yun cast his 7th Mage Eye, a strange scene appeared in the transmission from one of his Mage Eyes.

"About two kilometers south!"

"Let's go!"

After a short moment, the group of four stood in front of an ancient tree. Its trunk was several hundred meters tall, towering over them, and its many lush branches nearly covered the entire sky above them. It was like a green giant standing in the center of the forest.

When he first saw the ancient tree, Lin Yun felt like he was back in the Bone Plane, like when he had met that powerful Giant Blood Tree. But he soon recovered and knew that it had only been his imagination. This huge, ancient tree emitted a pure aura of life. It was like black and white compared to the Giant Blood Tree's undead aura.

"What the hell is that thing?"

"Be careful, don't alarm it." Lin Yun quietly tugged on Solomon's arm and tried his best to hide everyone in the bushes. "If I'm not wrong, this ancient tree should be the power source that triggered the beast tide."

"What are we waiting for? Let's go and finish this matter once and for all..." Solomon suddenly got impatient when he heard that. "Although the life aura of that ancient tree is shocking, its mana fluctuations are only those of a level 10 magic creature. It's not a threat to us at all..."

"The problem is that it already triggered a beast tide..."

"..." Solomon suddenly paled.

Yes, it had already triggered a beast tide, who could guarantee that it wouldn't trigger a second one now? After all, the first beast tide had already put the entire exploration team in a dangerous situation. If he triggered another one, the four of them would be finished.

"Moreover, look at this place..." Lin Yun pointed his finger at the thick trunk. The tree trunk was covered in all kinds of strange and enigmatic patterns that intertwined with each other. "That is at least a True Spirit level array..."

"What should we do!" Solomon was startled. Even if Solomon wasn't good at alchemy, as one of the leaders of the Sage Tower, he knew the concept of True Spirit arrays. Facing that kind of array was like facing an Archmage...

"Let me handle the array, you deal with the rest." Lin Yun quickly explained their task before pouring mana into the Lava Dominator and activating the lava armband. At the same time, he opened the Book of Death and the final mark dimmed...

That was Sharp Mind!

In fact, it was because of this Sharp Mind that Lin Yun dared to tell Solomon to let him deal with the array!

"What do you mean by 'the rest'? Hey..."

Solomon didn't have time to finish before a flower suddenly appeared. By the time he recovered, Lin Yun had already covered a few dozen meters and was standing under the ancient tree.

Lin Yun raised his head and looked up at the huge tree trunk before quickly fishing out a quill and a bottle of Melted Snow Ink from his pocket. Melted Snow Ink was crafted by blending midnight sand and the blood of a common raven. It naturally had dissolving properties and was frequently used to destroy various arrays.

Lin Yun softly dipped the quill in the Melting Snow Ink before quickly beginning to write on the tree trunk.

One array, two arrays, three arrays...

With the support of the Ultimate Sharp Mind spell, Lin Yun was able to divide that True Spirit Array into countless fragments in his mind. These fragments formed the basic elements of that array. Each fragment only had a faint power on its own, but when these fragments were gathered together, they had frightening power.

What Lin Yun needed to do now was to shatter the fragments.

As long as he could do that, the powerful array would no longer exist.

The speed of Lin Yun's inscribing was simply frightening.

Although the arrays Lin Yun drew were simple ones, for the most part, the frightening speed was enough to make any Artisan gasp.