End of the Magic Era

As he thought about it carefully, no more than half an hour passed before the magic symbol started darkening again. If they couldn’t remain for more than half an hour, then how was Bane able to defeat the Highland Shrine?

Finding out that the stone tablet was the Sage Chapter didn’t clear up Lin Yun’s questions. Instead, it only added more difficult ones.

‘Could this Sage Chapter be defective? There is no way…’

Besides the problem of the Ultimate Spell’s power, the stone tablet completely fit the description of Bane’s Sage Chapter. If it was a defective item, wasn’t the power difference too high? But if it’s wasn’t a defective item, then why was the power of the Ultimate Spell lacking?

‘It should have had the power of a 4th Rank Spell normally, but it couldn’t even reach the 3rd Rank. The difference is too great. It’s a whole entire Rank, from Great Mage to Mage…

But Lin Yun suddenly remembered after being puzzled for a long time. ‘Hold on, Undead Essence!’

He had been able to activate the Sage Chapter because of a piece of Undead Essence.

‘Indeed, it has to do with Undead Essence.’

He hadn’t thought about it at first because he had considered it to be an ordinary Component, but from another point of view, if the Sage Chapter was considered as a Magic Tool, it would need mana to work. Every Magic Tool needed a source of mana to function. Even an Extraordinary Magic Tool like the Book of Death was no exception.

‘Wouldn’t the Sage Chapter also need power to function?’

Lin Yun had already understood most of it by this time. The Sage Chapter needed energy to function, but that energy wasn’t mana, it was Soul Fire, the Soul Fire of the Undead!

Undead Essence itself was the material remaining after Soul Fire was cooled down.

He had been able to activate the stone tablet because of the remaining Soul Fire within the Undead Essence, but the amount was too low, and because it had come from a lowly Skeleton Warrior. It wasn’t enough to transform the Flaming Hand into an Ultimate Spell.

‘There might have been other reasons that I do not understand yet, but I should be pretty close.’

After thinking about it, Lin Yun fished out a piece of Undead Essence from his bag. He wanted to use that self-made tool to pour more energy into the stone tablet.

But there was something wrong with the Undead Essence he just pulled out. The previous Undead Essence had smoothly awakened the Sage Chapter through the three miniature arrays. But this time, the Undead Essence only approached the Sage Chapter before a small Soul Fire could be seen separating from the essence and entering the Sage Chapter, followed by the Undead Essence turning into black dust, which scattered into the air.

Lin Yun didn’t do any of that intentionally. The Sage Chapter had been the one in control.

‘Could it be that the Undead Essence not only provided power to the stone tablet, but also awakened the Sage Chapter?’ Lin Yun felt that this was quite a reasonable assumption. The Sage Chapter he had gotten from the Death Garden had actually been in some sort of slumber. Although he had induced some sort of reaction with his Flaming Hand, it had only been an instinctual reaction.

The Sage Chapter only started awakening when he took out the Undead Essence and fed it to the stone tablet, revealing some of its power.

But that awakening was far from over.

Lin Yun knew that at this point the Sage Chapter was only in the process of awakening. It was still far from fully awakening. It was clear that the current Sage Chapter was unable to manifest itself. This was an Extraordinary Component, which could have power easily be above True Spirit. The fact that it couldn’t manifest itself meant that his research of the Sage Chapter was still far from being complete.

‘Maybe the Soul Fire isn’t enough.’ Lin Yun could clearly see that Soul Fires were very important to that stone tablet, or else the slumbering Sage Chapter wouldn’t have been awakened by one.

Since he came to that conclusion, Lin Yun straightforwardly took out all his Undead Essences and watched as the Soul Fires came out of them to enter the Sage Chapter, one after the other. All the Undead Essences in Lin Yun’s hands crumbled away into black powder in a short time.

Lin Yun then cast another Flaming Hand.

The magic symbol on the Sage Chapter was clearly brighter than before.

When Lin Yun triggered it with mana, the might of the spell released had reached the 3rd Rank.

‘Still not enough…’ After confirming that the might of that Flaming Hand still hadn’t reached the 4th Rank, Lin Yun shook his head. But there was no disappointment on his face this time because he knew that he was already on the correct path. The Sage Chapter could recover the power of an Extraordinary Component. It was only a matter of time.

Simply because Lin Yun had the Bone Plane!

His plan had changed.

Lin Yun had originally planned on entering the Bone Plane once he had five Magic Arrays, since that would be when his power would rival that of a High Mage. By then, even if the slumbering Bone Devil woke up, Lin Yun was confident that he wouldn’t lose.

But he couldn’t wait anymore because the Sage Chapter needed a large amount of Soul Fire. And the Sage Chapter’s importance wasn’t any less than that of his Magic Array. The sooner his Sage Chapter awakened, the sooner his Magic Array’s efficiency would increase and the sooner the might of the Ultimate Spells would increase.

The more efficient the Magic Array became, the stronger his Ultimate Spells would become. This would be the foundation that he would rely on to explore the prince’s tomb.

The prince tomb was where the Reincarnation Eye was.

Lin Yun unhesitantly made his decision. He would enter the Bone Plane once again, but this time he wouldn’t go for the Nether Iron; he would go there to hunt for more Soul Fire.

After Lin Yun came out of the alchemy laboratory, he greeted Faleau and put him in charge of the group of Alchemists before leaving the Gilded Rose in a hurry, riding a carriage home.

After arriving home, he went through the passage to the hidden chamber. Now that they had recovered for a few months, the Abyssal Magic Diamonds were already glittering. Lin Yun estimated that with the Frost Lich’s Heart, he would be able to stay in the Bone Plane for three hours this time!

Lin Yun took a deep breath, stood in front of the Frost Lich Heart, and chanted the incantation to open the Planar Path.