End of the Magic Era

In the end, Noscent’s mana started fading before the Puppet Plane could be conquered.

But many things had been learnt about the Puppet Plane, far more than what had been learnt in all of the previous eras combined.

There was even a detailed record of the Cybertan race’s abilities.

Heaven Puppets would inevitably awaken wisdom, but not all of the puppets would awaken a special ability.

Only a few would awaken special abilities, and most of those who awakened a special ability awakened some relatively lower level ability rune.

Some would strengthen the power of a certain element from 5% to 20%, there were also those that increased the power of certain spells.

There was also relatively low level ability runes for melee puppets which increased a part of their power, or increased the defense of some part of their bodies. Some even reinforced the speed of certain parts.

These were all regarded as low level ability runes, but the Sunder Armor Rune this four-arms puppet possessed was a relatively powerful melee ability, which was rare for the puppets of the Puppet Plane.

As for the casting puppet, its ability rune increasing the power of fire magic was considered a mid level ability rune.

Of the two Heaven Puppets he had encountered before, one had the Lightning Speed Rune, while one had the spell power increase rune.

The Lightning Speed Rune was an upper level rune that was rarely seen in the Puppet Plane. A puppet with that rune would have a very high status in the Cybertan race, it was comparable to a Demon Overlord with a Golden Bloodline in the Abyss.

All of the Heaven Puppets he had seen in the ruins had ability runes.

This was clearly abnormal. One or two could be a coincidence, but three or four was a pattern!

These puppets were man-made and this kind of ability couldn’t be compared with the Puppet Plane’s puppets.

Even though artificially made puppets had great advantages in many aspects, such as the link between systems and components being even more perfect, they had an even greater weakness. This kind of optimization and heavy modifications would make it very difficult to advance to the Heaven Rank.

Moreover, even if they advanced to the Heaven Rank, the probability of obtaining a special ability after gaining wisdom was much lower compared to the Heaven Puppets of the Puppet Plane.

The Puppet Plane’s Heaven Puppets had a very low probability of gaining an ability rune, yet, these man-made puppets all had an ability rune… This was too abnormal.

It could even be said to be impossible!

While Lin Yun was observing, a crisis appeared on the battlefield.

Laibo was dragged away by the four-arms puppet. The combination of the four-arms puppet’s Sunder Armor Rune and the four sharp blades was a huge threat to that Heaven Sword Saint.

The Secret Monastery Sword Saint style was always about using their strength to burst and attack. Their defense was all parry while their Battle Aura Armor was made of layers of weaker Battle Aura Armors.

But against that Sunder Armor Rune, that kind of Battle Aura Armor, which relied on layers to weaken attacks, wouldn’t be very effective. Every layer was like a piece of paper that would easily be torn apart by the Sunder Armor Rune. Even if there were more layers, the outcome would still be the same. In front of that ability, his defense wasn’t any better than an ordinary Sword Saint’s Battle Aura Armor.

Laibo was forcibly dragged away and the remaining six Sword Saints fell into a precarious situation. Their strength was decent, any one of them would be considered a first-rate Sword Saint when on the outside world. Their fighting techniques were somewhat stronger, and when combined with the deathless aura, the average Peak 9th Rank Sword Saint wouldn’t be their match.

Some first-rate Sword Saints might give them a good fight, but they would eventually be defeated under the deathless aura.

Their cooperation seemed to have been trained, unfortunately, no matter how coordinated they were, they were only Sword Saints, not a swordsman army. Without that kind of tacit understanding tempered on bloody battlefields, some small flaws would appear in this kind of intense battle.

And these small flaws would be magnified by the puppets coordinated by their battle system.

Over forty puppets coordinated. It could be said that there were no dead spots, attacks would fall onto the six Sword Saints at any time, from any angle. The six Sword Saints could be said to be first-rate powerhouses, but they could only passively defend at this moment. The six of them formed a circle and barely resisted the attack.

Having lost Laibo’s protection, their situation worsened. At this time, the Heaven Rank casting puppet started aiming at these youths.

Laibo urgently stomped on the ground, but he was firmly entangled in the fight with that four-arms puppet. Even if he was only several dozen meters away, he couldn’t charge over there.

The four-arms puppet swung its arms and four sharp swords kept intertwining. It was like four Heaven Sword Saints were besieging him, and due to the Sunder Armor Rune’s power, Laibo simply didn’t have any energy to spare.

“Sir Mafa please help… We can discuss everything after we get rid of these guys.” Laibo urgently shouted.

It was obvious, Lin Yun had been very dissatisfied by Constantine acting on his own initiative. If not for Constantine, they might have already left this place and wouldn’t have to encounter such danger.

Lin Yun remained silent, but Mariana loudly shouted, “Senior apprentice brother! We are strong and don’t need anyone’s help. I can kill these damned iron cans!”

As for Constantine, he remained calm. He hadn’t expected the situation to change like this. Hearing Laibo, he only disdainfully curled his lips.

‘With just that Mafa Merlin? Even if he is truly not a puppet, he is only a 9th Rank Archmage, how could he still help us in these circumstances?

‘Just look, he is terrified and is hiding his head in the sand like an ostrich. He doesn’t dare to get closer. If he dared to leak a wisp of power, those crazy puppets would tear him apart within a few seconds.

‘What a joke, what’s wrong with senior apprentice brother… He is actually asking Mafa Merlin. He is only a bit gifted in alchemy, but that’s not what we need now, we need true firepower.

‘Even if he can dismantle puppets with one hand, it depends on the situation. Those puppets are like a spiky monster, if he dared to extend his hand, he would be instantly torn apart.’

Laibo was worried and pained. As he fought, he couldn’t help showing a pleading expression as he looked at Lin Yun.

“Sir Mafa, they are only sheltered kids, they don’t understand much. Please don’t mind it too much, let’s first get rid of these puppets and I’ll give you a proper explanation!”

Laibo’s tone became even more resolute as he said that, as if he had truly hardened his heart.

Due to being distracted, one of the swords managed to slash at his arm and the Sunder Armor Rune suddenly shone, instantly tearing through Laibo’s Battle Aura Armor before slicing through his flesh and drawing blood.

At the same time, that Heaven Rank casting puppet released its Firebolts, along with the ray of light. The spells instantly hit Laibo’s Song of Sacrifice.

Huge vitality and deathless aura burst out as runes even appeared on the surface of the Song of Sacrifice. White radiance and deathless aura formed a two-meter-tall layer of defense protecting Laibo within.

Explosions echoed as Laibo was hit by three bursts of power. His body was sent flying by the explosions and the four-arms puppets followed closely behind him.

But at this time, the eight cannons on the left arm of the Heaven Rank casting puppets rapidly started revolving and thick Firebolts shot towards the six Sword Saints.

In the distance, Laibo let out a despairing roar as his vitality started steeply falling. Even more runes started appearing on the Song of Sacrifice, but he wouldn’t be able to free himself from the four-arms puppets and cross several hundred meters before the Firebolts hit Mariana and the others.

As for the six Sword Saints, they all became deathly pale. A moment ago, the Heaven Rank casting puppet’s attacks fell onto Laibo, yet they could see how powerful those Firebolts had been.

That was pure flame power which was shot out in the form of rays after being compressed to the extreme. The principle was different from a spell, it was closer to a mana crystal cannon.

The power of that kind of spell was linked to the degree of compression and the intensity of the mana. Even Laibo needed to dodge those rays, his Battle Aura Armor would fluctuate when hit by these Firebolts.

This kind of power wasn’t something they could block.

They couldn’t dodge due to the few dozen puppets surrounding them, and if one of them messed up their formation, the six of them would die. If not from the Heaven Puppet’s Firebolts, they would die from the surrounding puppets.

Mariana pursed her lips, she couldn’t say that she didn’t need help from others as she usually did, her eyes were filled with despair.

‘It’s over, it’s over… The powerful Sword Saint Mariana, a future Heaven Sword Saint, is now going to die in the hands of these damned iron cans, and it would be a very unsightly death.

‘I might be disfigured, turned into ashes, or even torn apart, I won’t leave behind a complete body…’

In the distance, Laibo’s eyes turned red, but he didn’t have time to do anything, he could only stare blankly.

“Sir Mafa!” Laibo shrieked, his voice full of despair.

Several dozen sword puppets’ blades, several dozen Firebolts, all fell on Mariana’s group alongside that Heaven Rank casting puppet’s eight thick Firebolts.

Suddenly, a bunch of law runes appeared next to these Sword Saints. Several dozen layers of elemental shields layered together to protect them.

Ancient gates of ice on which were carved various kinds of magic beasts burst out of the ground.

Loud noise echoed as seven Askrim Gates rushed out of the ground, emitting thick white mist. That Heaven Puppet’s Firebolts easily tore through three Askrim Gates, but their power decreased upon crushing the 4th Askrim Gate. And by the time they hit the 6th Askrim Gate, they thoroughly disappeared.

The Six Sword Saints were thoroughly stunned as they saw the several dozen elemental shields and the seven 6-meter-tall Askrim Gates appearing around them.

Lin Yun slowly walked over, countless law runes floating around his body and rapidly condensing into a Law Runic Shield. The Draconic Staff appeared in his right hand, while the Book of Death condensed in his left hand, its shackles shattering and the pages automatically flipping.

On his right, the Ten Thousand Spell Wheel was slowly revolving, emitting waves of elemental power, while on his left, flames covered the Book of Ten Thousand Mantras as it emitted endless flaming waves of destruction.

Taking another step forward, Lin Yun’s mana burst out and the surrounding air completely distorted. The terrifying aura attracted everyone’s sight, including the puppets.

The Heaven Rank casting puppet’s cannons immediately targeted Lin Yun, and that four-arms puppet’s head also turned in that direction, data flowing within its red crystal eyes. It seemed to be on the verge of discarding Laibo to charge towards Lin Yun.

The four dozen puppets besieging Mariana and the others instantly ignored them to target Lin Yun.

Lin Yun took one more step and his body grew to ten meters, before instantly shrinking to three meters. The surface of his body was covered with a terrifying fluctuation of the four elements. Four kinds of lights shone as his body looked like a monstrous hybrid of the four elements. But it gave people the feeling of an elemental lifeform.

After the third step, the Purple Dragon’s shadow flew out of the Draconic Staff and held the constantly revolving wheel shadow with dignity as it stood behind Lin Yun.

During this time, Lin Yun’s aura rose from the level of an ordinary person to the point of being able to pressure the 9th Rank Sword Saints with his aura alone.

In the distance, Mariana and the other five were tongue-tied as they foolishly looked at Lin Yun’s burst of power, as if he was a God. They had to use their deathless aura to resist when they were sensing his aura.

“So… So powerful… Is that guy really an Archmage? How could he be on the same level as me, yet be so much stronger…” Mariana stammered as she looked at Lin Yun.

While Mariana was a bit stunned, Constantine was terrified, ‘How could this be the power of a 9th Rank Archmage, 1st Rank Heaven powerhouses might not necessarily be able to display such powerful aura.’

“I… I seem to recall senior apprentice brother Laibo saying that Sir Mafa Merlin was slightly stronger than him…” One of the terrified young Sword Saint stammered.

Everyone suddenly remained silent.

Lin Yun’s successive burst of power seemed to have overloaded the array, it didn’t know how to judge Lin Yun’s strength and rank, it didn’t know what kind of opponent to arrange for him.

The probing runes flickered a few times before two more Heaven Rank puppets appeared on the square.

In the distance, Laibo sighed in relief, but he was still somewhat worried.

“Sir Mafa, what should we do now? How do we leave this trial ground.”

Lin Yun’s expression was cold as he looked at the three Heaven Puppets and dozens of level 39 puppets in front of him.

“Destroy these guys and then leave.”

The two new Heaven Rank casting puppets raised their arms. One of them had a Frost Rune on its arm, while the other had a bright Flame Rune.

The three Heaven Puppets simultaneously released their Firebolts and Frost Bolts, alongside their rays of light.

There was also twenty level 39 casting puppets and over twenty sword puppets attacking together.

Lin Yun frowned. These puppets could be blown up, he didn’t necessarily need their components. As for the few Heaven Puppets, he only needed to research their corpses. The most important things to research were those ability runes, there was no need to disassemble them completely into parts.

Facing so many attacks, Lin Yun sneered. His body slowly floated up and the ancient copper-colored scales appeared under his feet. Enderfa floated to the right-side tray, while Syudos floated to the left-side tray.

In an instant, a several-dozen-meter-tall flaming door appeared behind Syudos and a flood of boundless flames emerged from the slowly opening gate of flames.

And on the right side, power surged from the void and poured into the Ten Thousand Spell Wheel. A several-dozen-meter-big complicated wheel shadow appeared behind the Spell Wheel. It seemed covered in countless circles, and as these circles kept revolving, boundless elemental storms erupted from within.

Lin Yun raised the Draconic Staff and rays of light of the four elements converged together to form Four Element Bombs. The Four Element Bombs drew long arcs as they fell down on the three Heaven Puppets like a Meteor Shower.

All the melee puppets were swept by the flood of flames and elemental storms and looked like trees swept in a storm. They were sent flying back, unable to control their bodies.

The elemental storms fell upon them and the radiance covering the puppets’ bodies rapidly declined. The Corrosive Fire corroded every corner of the puppets while the pure flames of the Hellfire burnt down key components.

After a few seconds, more than a dozen melee puppets were turned into scrap metal. The casting puppets were still a bit far, but they were drawn in the flood of flames and elemental flames.

The several dozen puppets that almost tore the six Sword Saints to pieces and had suppressed them to the point where they could only be in a passive situation… Ended up losing half of their numbers with one attack from Lin Yun. Moreover, the remaining half was on the verge of being eliminated.

This was the pressure of power. This was also why the overwhelming majority of mages only focused on ranks, because as long as you had absolute strength, no matter how good the other side is, no matter how accurate their tactics, no matter their numbers, everything would be useless. Powerful pressure was all that was needed.