Chapter 287: Mountain Temple

The two left the Merlin Manor and walked alongside the lake shore. They soon reached the bottom of the cliff. Now that they were close, they could see the canyon covered in fog. They were surrounded by mist and they simply couldn't see the end of the canyon.

"Hmm?" Lin Yun stood at the top of the canyon. He looked down with a heavy expression.

"What is it?"

"This fog isn't simple."

"Yes..." William nodded when he heard this. "It is said that this fog wasn't here originally. The Merlin Family's ancestor left the Ancestral Land and followed the first king to establish the Andlusa Kingdom. Once the kingdom was established, he refused to stay despite the first king's entreaties and returned to the Ancestral Land. He was never seen since then. From that time on, the canyon has been filled with dense fog..."

"It's not just that..."

Lin Yun shook his head before pointing with his Spiritual Magic Staff. The Elemental Amber flickered. Under the surge of mana, the fog suddenly raged.

William, who had already reached High Mage Rank, could now see a faint flicker within the fog. Countless mysterious runes were roaming within the fog. Most importantly, William could clearly feel the huge mana fluctuations within the fog created by the mana injected by his younger cousin. It was neither berserk nor fierce, it was heavy and calm, just like a mountain range extending in front of them. Even by just standing there they could feel the pressure.

"This..." As a well known member of the younger generation, William had gotten close to the Ancestral Land many times, even if he hadn't undergone the Bloodline Ceremony.

In the past, William had only thought that the Ancestral Land was extremely mysterious and filled with countless secrets.

But now, William felt that the Ancestral Land wasn't just mysterious. The secrets it held were most likely greater than he had imagined.

"Let's go take a look." Lin Yun smiled and ignored William's stupefied expression. He followed the rugged, precipitous mountain path towards the bottom of the canyon.

The path was very long, and it took them almost an hour to reach the bottom of the canyon.

There were a dozen towers at the bottom.

The world at the bottom of the canyon was impressively open, and the landscape was more beautiful than they had been expecting. There was no end to this world. From the bottom of this precipitous cliff, a dozen towers could be seen spreading far in the distance. Faint mana fluctuations were emitted, quiet and mysterious. Lin Yun looked into the distance and noticed that the smallest tower was still seven floors tall.

'It looks like the foundation of the Merlin Family is deeper than I thought...' Lin Yun couldn't help sighing after seeing that scenery.

In Noscent, there was a strict norm concerning mages living in towers.

Mages could have two floors at most, Great Mages could have four, and High Mages could have six. Although this wasn't explicitly written anywhere, it had spread among mages over the years, and the mages strictly abided by it. The decorative design on mages' cuffs would also rarely be forged.

The world of magic seemed free and mysterious, but in reality, it was far more respectful of status than the secular world.

And the smallest tower having seven floors meant that the ones living in these towers were all Archmages at the very least.

Moreover...

Lin Yun noticed that the tallest tower had nine floors!

This meant that a Heaven Rank Mage had lived there.

But...

No mana fluctuation was emitted from that tower. It was deathly silent.

An ordinary person might be mistaken about this, but Lin Yun couldn't. After reaching the High Mage realm, Lin Yun became over ten times sharper when it concerned changes in mana fluctuations. He didn't even need to use the Magic Array to determine that the tallest tower had already lost its master.

In other words, the Heaven Mage of the Merlin family had already left, or he might have fallen. In any case, he wasn't present here.

But even if that tower had lost its master, just based on those seven-floor and eight-floor towers, it could be seen how frightening the foundation of the Merlin Family was.

They were all Archmages.

"Living in these towers are the ancestors of the Merlin Family. After long lives, they grew tired of the secular world and chose to live in seclusion in the Ancestral Land, naturally becoming the guardians of the Ancestral Land. We usually wouldn't get the opportunity to enter. It's thanks to Cousin that I have the opportunity to see these Guardian Towers..."

"Oh, what about Santon Merlin..." Lin Yun didn't care much about the ancestors of the Merlin Family, but as William talked, he suddenly recalled Ofran mentioning Santon Merlin.

"Santon Merlin isn't there."

"Hmm?"

"From what is written in the Family's secret tome, Santon Merlin didn't stop at a Guardian Tower after he entered the Ancestral Land. Instead, he headed for the depths of the Ancestral Land before disappearing..."

"The depths?" After hearing that, he looked further into the Ancestral Land, a bit curious.

But his expression suddenly changed.

The depths of the Ancestral Land seemed to have countless mountains, murmuring rivers, and dense forests, all of those forming a beautiful landscape. But Lin Yun noticed that he had a strange feeling when he looked at this scenery. It was as if something was blocking his sight. No matter how hard he tried, he could only see mountains, rivers, and forests, but no further.

This was a startling discovery for him.

After all, at Lin Yun's current level, he could already see the sources of things when observing the world. Just like earlier, when he observed the Guardian Towers that had stood tall for a long time. An ordinary person might see just a tower, but Lin Yun could see the mana flowing around, as well as the mana fluctuations emitted by the tower.

When Lin Yun observed something, he would see more than what most would see.

But here, he found that he could only see the same as others...

This made Lin Yun more curious about this place. What was hiding in the Ancestral Land? Why could he not understand what he was looking at?

"This..." William seemed to lack confidence as he looked around everywhere while Lin Yun was inwardly baffled. "Cousin, we shouldn't stay there long, I heard that the area around the Guardian Towers is very unusual. We might have an accident if we are careless. A child of the Family who entered to do his Bloodline Ceremony met the ghost of an ancestor here and was scared senseless. He fled and didn't even dare to do his Bloodline Ceremony. This genius who was supposed to have great potential and someday attain many achievements went crazy and fell before he could mature. The whole Merlin Family felt that it was a pity for a very long time..."

"Okay, we will hold the Bloodline Ceremony first." Lin Yun didn't worry about the strangeness of this place. Could it be worse than the end of the world?

He didn't have free time to research the Ancestral Land before doing the Bloodline Ceremony.

"It's not far ahead."

William led the way, and it wasn't long before the two left the Guardian Towers to reach an area under the cliff. At this time, they could clearly see a rugged path exposed in the cliff, that path went into the depths of the mountain and was covered with dense fog.

The two walked down this path for a long time before it suddenly opened before them. At the end of the rugged path, the spacious core of the mountain felt like spring. At the core of the mountain stood an ancient temple. The temple had been built in a very strange style... One could say that it was poles apart from the 3rd Dynasty's style, yet it also didn't resemble the style of the past millennium. It was rough and mysterious.

'Could it be...' Lin Yun stood in front of the temple, inwardly startled because of the two statues outside and the rough and mysterious style. It made him think of the distant Nesser Dynasty, the era of Dragons and Elves.

If that was really the case...

This temple would be far too ancient...

In fact, Lin Yun could feel a simple and ancient aura, created over the years as the temple experienced the passage of time.

Lin Yun had already discovered in the Heaven Enlightening Plane that the Merlin Family's ancestor most likely had participated in the Draconic War that caused the destruction of the Nesser Dynasty. And after the Draconic War, the Merlin Family nearly disappeared overnight, up until their renewed rise in the recent millennium. Such a temple shouldn't have been left behind.

"Let's go in." Lin Yun didn't wait for William and directly pushed open the temple's door, entering the simple temple.

Sure enough...

Just as Lin Yun entered, he felt that he hadn't guessed wrong. A powerful draconic aura spread through the temple. It was the aura of a Chromatic Dragon, the aura of the Black Dragon of Destruction...

Lin Yun was surprised by this because after hearing from William that the ancestor had participated in the Draconic War, he had speculated that the ancestor was most likely the Dark Sage.