Chapter 243: Silver Moon Elves
Only the unconventional Master Alchemist and Great Mage Lin Yun, whose only worry was which treasure trove to dig, had no issue taking out a True Spirit Magic Tool.
Any other Great Mage wouldn't have dared to think about it.
A True Spirit Magic Tool had the power of an Archmage. Even a Magic Apprentice could at least stand up to an Archmage if they had one of these. The Upper Rank Flame Spirit was a good example, its power scaring even Suyass.
Who in Thousand Sails City had a True Spirit Magic Tool, apart from Lin Yun? The powerful Solomon, the learned Lys, the rich Cadgar, could they even possess a True Spirit Magic Tool?
Even the Cloud Tower, as one of the two strongest forces of mages in the kingdom, only had two or three True Spirit Magic Tools. Lin Yun had to crack the Fanrusen Formula to borrow the Black Death Rune. That wasn't a simple job. After being busy for a few days, he spent an all-nighter to crack the core spell matrices.
From this, it could be seen how much importance the Cloud Tower attached to the Black Death Rune.
It could be said that in Noscent's history, nobody insignificant ever managed to control a True Spirit Magic Tool. The weakest ones were at the Archmage realm and could definitely be considered powerhouses.
And as he thought of this, Lin Yun was even more curious about the identity of that corpse.
But...
As Lin Yun wanted to keep checking the corpse to find more clues, he discovered that the trail was cut off.
At first, Lin Yun wanted to use the Magic Array to analyze the remaining mana fluctuations on the corpse, but he quickly discovered that this corpse didn't have the slightest mana fluctuations.
'What is this?' That discovery immediately stunned Lin Yun. 'How could an Archmage powerhouse not leave any remnants of mana fluctuations after death? That's illogical...'
The Mage stage was about condensing the Mana Whirlpool, the Great Mage Stage was about condensing the Magic Conducting Runes, the High Mage Stage was about merging the nine Magic Conducting Runes into one and fusing with it. From that stage, it was no longer as simple as transferring mana. At that time, the power would come from the High Mage himself. In that realm, High Mages were no longer dependent on the environment and could even resist the suppression of some Laws.
As for the Archmage stage, it was something else altogether. Archmages were on another level of existence. Even after death, an archmage's mana wouldn't decay as long as their body didn't decay either.
Thus, Lin Yun felt strange...
'Why? The corpse hasn't completely decayed, so why are there no signs of the remnants of mana?'
If not for the True Spirit Magic Robe, Lin Yun wouldn't have believed that the person that died there was an Archmage, as this was simply unbelievable.
'How could it be?' Lin Yun thought about it and couldn't find a reasonable explanation. 'Did I make a mistake, was he someone like me, already possessing a True Spirit Magic Tool before reaching the Archmage realm?'
But this conjecture was suddenly invalidated.
Because Lin Yun turned the body and found another True Spirit Magic Tool under the corpse.
Two True Spirit Magic Tools!
Cold sweat trickled down Lin Yun's back.
A powerhouse that possessed two True Spirit Magic Tools... If he was comparable to Suyass when he was alive, then he would definitely have the qualifications to challenge Star Sage Jouyi!
That was power close to the Heaven realm.
How great was the Heaven realm? Even during the peak of the Magic Era, the Heaven realm represented the top of Noscent, it already represented the highest level of mages, the peak of mana control, the peak of magical power. When compared to Heaven mages, powerhouses such as the Sovereign of Death and the Sky Knight could only be said to have a more profound understanding of Laws. When it came to pure power, they weren't much stronger than Heaven Mages.
But someone that had at least been infinitely close to that realm ended up on this Planar Path.
No matter how hard Lin Yun thought, he couldn't understand what had happened, why there would be a corpse like this on a Planar Path.
Lin Yun then spent almost half an hour examining that corpse, but he didn't find anything worth his attention.
In the end, Lin Yun had no choice but to shake his head before standing up and telling the group of people waiting behind him, "Let's go..."
They then restarted their very long walk.
But because of the corpse they had found before, the mood of the whole group was quite stifling. No one talked on the way, leaving behind an eerie silence.
Until half an hour later.
The group kept pressing forward under that dazzling light, and what awaited them ahead was a vast expanse of white, as if they had sunk into an ocean of light. There seemed to be no end to it.
"Merlin, Merlin, look, quick..." Half an hour later, Badrack exclaimed in surprise.
That 9th Rank Divine Archer had innately outstanding vision. He had the best eyesight in the group when magic and special abilities were taken out of the picture. Especially in that sea of light, the only one that could still see normally was Badrack.
"Hmm?" Lin Yun was surprised by Badrack's reaction and cast True Sight. Under the protection of the spell, his sight could pierce through the dazzling light. He followed Badrack's finger and couldn't help exclaiming in surprise.
"No way..."
"Merlin, what's going on?" Solomon sounded a bit worried.
"Look there..." Lin Yun didn't answer and only pointed forward.
"Let me see." Solomon also cast True Sight, before being stunned.
A dozen bodies lay about a kilometer in front of them, thin and frail, with mysterious and gorgeous natural mana patterns. They looked beautiful as if they had been carved out of Moonstone, but seemed almost ethereal. Those... were the corpses of Silver Moon Elves!
Silver Moon Elves were one of the four pure-blooded Elven races.
Several dozen millennia before, Charles the Emperor destroyed the Throne of Life and dropped the curtain on the Silver Era. The last pure-blooded Elves and Dragons left Noscent and sailed the Jade Boat to the endless void. No pure-blooded Elf was ever seen in Noscent again since then.
Nowadays, only the Gold Elves and the Silver Elves remained in Noscent. They weren't pure-blooded Elves, though. In the distant Silver Era, the Gold Elves and the Silver Elves were only the servants of the pure-blooded Elves, and their status at the time wasn't any higher than that of the other races.
The greatest difference between them was the presence of mysterious and gorgeous natural mana patterns on their bodies.
If the power of the Dragons came from their bloodlines, then the power of the Silver Moon Elves came from their natural mana patterns. These mana patterns gave the Silver Moon Elves extraordinary power at birth. They were natural mages and would have the power of a Great Mage from the day they were born. They would normally reach the realm of High Mages at adulthood. In other words, the lowest of the lowest soldiers of the Nesser Dynasty's magic corps were High Mages at the very least.
Fortunately, these magic corps were few in number.
Even during the peak of the Nesser Dynasty, the magic corps didn't have more than five thousands soldiers.
But even so, it was terrible.
After all, given that the lowest were at the High Mage rank, the ones high up in the military ladder... Which of them wasn't an Archmage or a Heaven Mage?
Not to mention that they were allied to Dragons.
In the present day, the power of the Nesser Dynasty would be enough to sink the world in despair.
It was an irresistible power.
Many people were still curious... How did Charles the Emperor destroy the Throne of Life? How did he end such a formidable dynasty?
But unfortunately, the 3rd Dynasty was already buried in the ground. Countless valuable materials had already been buried in the sands of time. After ten thousand years, could the offspring of the 3rd Dynasty still remember how Charles, their deceased ancestor, achieved such a feat?
"How could it be like this?" A while later, Lin Yun frowned and stood up.
'It's just like before...'
No mana fluctuations could be found coming from the corpses of the dozen Silver Moon Elves. Lin Yun could only estimate from their natural mana patterns that they hadn't been low in status when they were alive. They might even have been quite high up in the military ladder. In other words, they might have been Archmages or Heaven Mages...
This discovery made Lin Yun remain silent for a very long time.
The Human mage that had two True Spirit Magic Tools had already stunned Lin Yun, but Lin Yun hadn't expected that a mere half an hour later, he would find corpses that he suspected to be Archmages and Heaven Mages.
'What terrible place is hidden behind that Planar Path?'
But before Lin Yun could recover from the shock brought about by those corpses, a huge monster in the distance made cold sweat trickle down Lin Yun's back.
"Dragon!"