Chapter 320 Dissatisfaction and Underground City Struggle

Only when the membership of various organizations drops to a certain number does Shaoke's organization engage in the real battle for control, which takes place not in the Fallen Imperial Capital or outside it, but in the underground city beneath the capital.

Shaoke did not know what promises the Blue Feather Empire had made to the Wandering Mage Alliance and other organizations, but based on his speculation, these organizations were either secretly controlled by the Blue Feather Empire's military, or that the promises drove the leaders of each organization mad. After all, when faced with sufficient temptation, few can resist it, including high-order practitioners.

Since the golden horn merged into Shaoke's meditation space six years ago, he found that his meditation speed had increased again, and this improvement seemed to be a fundamental one. He estimated that, with the help of the silver light, his current meditation speed was six or seven times as ordinary mages' speed. As time passed, the characters transferred from the golden horn to the altar, when integrating into the space walls, no longer produced a large number of images, but instead produced some special fluctuations.

By comprehending these fluctuations, Shaoke clearly felt his progress in spellcasting over the past few years. The most obvious point was that he could now perform three consecutive Blinks within a kilometer. If this were the case for other seventh-tier mages, they would either lack the mana to sustain so many Blinks or have unstable meditation spaces that could not handle such continuous high-output mana and mental energy, leading to turbulence or even collapse.

This ability to Blink consecutively was not only due to his deepened understanding of magic, but also because the Blink array had been embedded into his seven-pointed star magic array.

The battle outside the city had been going on for a month, and at this moment, the eighth-order female mage suddenly sent him a message through the scepter. "Mage Xueye, lead your team to the destination immediately." Through the spell projection, the blue-robed mage added, "I don't want anyone below the sixth rank in your team; it will slow us down." After saying this, the eighth-order mage closed the communication on the scepter and ignored him.

Shaoke tightly gripped the small scepter in his hand. Influenced by the golden horn, he had become tired of following others' orders, and even more disliked having no way to fight such situations.

After pondering for a long time, Shaoke adjusted his robe, sent some messages to the Cleric and others, then hoisted his strange staff, leading over a hundred sixth-tier mages and seven or eight seventh-tier mages out of the manor, slowly made their way to the destination.

The gathering point was not in the city but on a small hill within the Blue Feather Empire, half a day's journey from the Fallen Imperial Capital. After activating support spells, the mages arrived there in less than two magic hours. Here, over a dozen eighth-order practitioners and other rulers had already gathered with their teams, including several rulers who lacked combat abilities.

The eighth-order beings were quite dissatisfied with Shaoke's late arrival. The leading elder mage glanced at him disapprovingly and asked him to explain the reason for the delay. Shaoke performed a salute and excused himself by saying he needed to meditate to recover, hence the delay.

"I hope there won't be a next time," said the sole archer, twisted the corner of his mouth, clearly dissatisfied with Shaoke's excuse.

"If there is a next time, I think you'll get to know your place. Don't comfort yourself with the Death Mage Corps; they can't protect you here." After saying this, the archer closed his eyes to rest. Shaoke nodded slightly, indicating he understood.

No one else said anything about Shaoke's behavior, as now was not the time to punish a ruler; they still needed him for the battle and other purposes.

The elder mage confirmed the mages Shaoke had brought and nodded in satisfaction. Then he slowly floated up and began chanting a spell in a language from the same era as the Ancient Magic Tongue. Shaoke and the others stood quietly, waiting for the elder mage to finish casting.

The incantation was long. Since Shaoke did not know this magic script, he could not determine the nature of the spell. However, based on the magical fluctuations in the air, he keenly sensed that it was a forced dispelling type spell, specifically designed to break wards and arrays.

After nearly half a magic hour of chanting, the elder mage paused for a moment, then continued chanting. This time, the incantations formed solid magic characters that slowly merged into the mountaintop. After the incantation ended, the mountaintop suddenly split open, revealing a pitch-black passage before Shaoke and the others.

"We go in," the elder mage waved his hand, signaling everyone to follow. The few rulers without combat abilities were left behind, protected by dozens of high-rank warriors. Shaoke and the others entered the passage in order.

The staff was slung over Shaoke's back, with a green flame burning at its tip. Occasionally, sparks of flame would break off and float around him, some landing in his hand, which he would mold into various shapes until he willed them to dissipate.

"Can't you be quiet?" It was the archer again, who looked quite youthful, appearing only slightly older than Shaoke, around thirty. "I think you should carefully observe the surroundings. I don't want your flames to fall on the walls and trigger the wards or arrays there, causing us unnecessary losses."

"Enough, Kral, can't you be quiet?" The elder mage, who had been leading the group, suddenly stopped flying and turned to scold him loudly. "You should trust a mage's control skills. If you don't, leave now. If you keep talking nonsense like this, I'll kill you." With that, the elder mage swung his staff heavily, smashing it against the wall beside him. The hard wall was dented into a fist-sized pit.

"I just don't like him playing with those flames," the archer replied calmly, but his hand unconsciously touched a small shortbow at his waist. "That habit of his is very bad."

"You have no right to criticize a mage's habits," the blue-robed female mage suddenly flew in front of the archer. Her face looked very beautiful under the light blue crown, and this time, Shaoke did not feel any adverse effects from the crown. "I hope you can be quiet for a while." After saying this, the eighth-order female mage flew back to her original position, as the elder mage had already set off again. She had to follow the group.

The argument among the eighth-order mages surprised Shaoke and the other low-order beings. But they just kept moving and dared not discuss it further, as they couldn't be sure if the archer might take offense and target them.

The passage sloped downward and grew wider. After two magic hours of rapid travel, a vast space appeared before them. To Shaoke, this space was several times larger than the Death Fortress in the Bloody Fortress. Hundreds of stone pillars, tens of meters thick, stood isolated in this space, some collapsed, others still supporting the ceiling. Strange arcane fires swirled around the pillars. The walls and floor were densely carved with magic characters and arrays, most of which were damaged and non-functional.

The ground was littered with rubble and destroyed magic materials. The intense magical turbulence in the air made the mages nervous. The leading elder mage closed his eyes to sense for a moment, then led the group further in. Perhaps because living beings had arrived, some arcane fires on the pillars burst and fell, attacking the group of about a thousand people. But these fires were easily dispersed by the high-order beings.

The other low-order beings thought these eighth-order beings were very powerful, so their tension eased. But Shaoke knew this was because the arcane fires were uncontrolled. Based on his understanding, during that era, there were hundreds of eighth-order mages in this hall.

He had learned this from the Death Fortress. There, he heard high-rank mages say that at the top of each stone pillar sat an eighth-order mage, tasked with controlling the arrays on the pillar and attacking enemies. Of course, these eighth-order mages were selected from the mage groups; they were special, but the specifics were beyond Shaoke's knowledge.

After dodging the arcane fires, Shaoke and the others chose a passage and entered it temporarily. Here, they divided the work. Groups of about two hundred people were formed, each led by two eighth-order practitioners. Shaoke and a warrior leader were assigned to the group led by the elder mage and the blue-robed female mage.

After a simple distribution of tasks, the groups separated, each entering a large passage. They had to find, as quickly as possible, the markers jointly left by the empires after the war ended. Only then would they truly control this underground city.