Chapter 420 Leaving the Ruins

The mage thought for a while, and ultimately continued flying forward. Before he found the female mage, he would absolutely not leave this place. Of course, unless encountering an irresistible accident, it was impossible for him to give up his own ideas due to others' persuasion.

Along the way, there were more and more ice sculptures, but these frozen professionals were mostly of the Ninth Rank, with no Tenth Tier professionals. This confused the mage greatly. Unable to figure out the reason, the mage could only continue moving forward.

After traveling for another magic hour, the mage arrived at a huge space where more than a dozen ice sculptures stood. Here, the mage quickly spotted the Blue-robed Female Mage. "Leave this place, Xueye," Shaoke's mental power had just wrapped around the female mage's ice sculpture when he received the message from her.

But the mage did not heed her. After observing the female mage's ice sculpture, he intended to take it away. However, the moment his hand touched the female mage, he felt a powerful mental power lock onto him, and then countless black lights emerged from the walls, twisting and writhing toward him. The mage instantly cast a few Spells to intercept these black lights, but it was all in vain; those black lights ignored his Defensive Spells entirely.

"Don't let these black lights entangle you, or you will also become an ice sculpture." The female mage's mental power quickly sent a message to Shaoke, after which the mage could no longer sense the mental fluctuations of the Blue-robed Female Mage. At this time, the other ice sculptures also showed no fluctuations, as if they had all lost their lives.

The mage prepared without hesitation to tear through space to escape, but at that moment, he realized he could not tear this space at all. So the mage had to use Blink to flee. After two consecutive Blinks, he finally escaped that huge space, held back by the strange pressure that prevented him from blinking farther.

Shaoke frowned, glancing back at the space behind him. Countless black lights, like thousands of black snakes darting through the air, quickly twisted toward him. He flew outward quickly. Along the way, he noticed that the ice sculptures he passed no longer showed any fluctuations. The mage did not know if they had died or had withdrawn their mental power due to the arrival of these black lights.

In fact, the mage did not understand that these black lights could rapidly reduce professionals' mental power and Aura, when these were emitted externally.

This reduction was permanent; after being reduced by these black lights, professionals could never recover to their original state. Of course, those frozen professionals, when releasing mental power to communicate with him, had their mental power continuously reduced by the black ice.

The mage fled faster and faster, but countless black lights behind him also accelerated. Finally, after fleeing for a magic hour, one black light wrapped around the mage. For an instant, the mage almost thought he too would be permanently frozen in this underground relic.

Just as the mage thought he was about to become an ice sculpture, the black crown on his forehead suddenly flared with black light. Then that black light which was about to wrap around the mage merged into the black crown. Subsequently, hundreds of black lights crashed toward him, but they were all absorbed by the black crown. All of this startled the mage. After those black lights merged into his crown, the black lights in the distance rapidly receded. It seemed they would no longer attack him.

After the black lights that could turn people into ice sculptures receded, the mage completely relaxed. He touched the black crown on his forehead but found no change in it. Finally, Shaoke thought for a moment and decided to return to the Blue-robed Female Mage's ice sculpture. There, he would find a way to take her away; he could not leave her here.

Although there were still so many ice sculptures along the way, they were completely silent, not releasing any mental power for Shaoke to sense. Shaoke ignored them and quickly returned to the stone chamber where the Blue-robed Female Mage was. Upon arrival, the mage quickly detected the mental fluctuations of the Blue-robed Female Mage. Although much weaker than before, upon seeing that Shaoke was still alive, she still expressed joy to him.

"What are you going to do?" Detecting that the mage was trying to move this ice sculpture, the Blue-robed Female Mage quickly stopped him. "You can't take us away from here. We've tried to take the ones outside away before, but no matter how hard we tried, we could not move even a tiny distance." The female mage quickly transmitted the message to Shaoke. "Leave this place! I only need to stay here for another eight hundred years of time and I will be free." The female mage then completely withdrew her mental power; the previous consumption had been enormous for her. Shaoke turned around in the stone chamber, finally fixing his gaze on the altar in the center. He took another step forward, and again countless black lights emerged from the walls, quickly swirling around him, but they dared not approach within a certain distance, otherwise they would be completely absorbed by the black crown.

Shaoke walked to the altar. Beside the altar there were also several ice sculptures, each holding one or two magic items. These magic items were clearly obtained from the altar, but now they were also completely wrapped in black ice, and the mage could not take them off.

Some strange characters were written on the altar, and Shaoke happened to recognize them. They were the same characters he had obtained from the golden horns and when he had advanced to the Tenth Tier.

At this time, the mage struggled to interpret. Although he did not recognize some characters, he managed to guess most of the content recorded on the altar: "A huge burning body fell from the sky, countless lights illuminated the earth. The chieftain threw these burning bodies into the outer oceans and pieced them together. Those evil outsiders will be permanently annihilated, countless continents destroyed. The condensed core was brought back by the chieftain and buried in our homeland. Prosperity, eternal prosperity."

There were more characters on the altar, but the mage could not fully identify them, so he didn't bother with those fragments. They will be mentioned one by one later.

After some research, the mage deduced that this altar was a device for recording text in that primeval age, but now it had been placed here by the owner of this relic for some unknown purpose. He did not believe that the owner of this relic was the primeval-era spellcaster who stood a thousand zhang tall.

When the mage came back to his senses, he noticed that the black lights that had been swirling around him had completely disappeared. Shaoke did not pay much attention to this. He tried to move the Blue-robed Female Mage's ice sculpture again, but to no effect. Even using Arcane Fire to burn it, the black ice showed no signs of melting, which discouraged the mage. Fortunately, after studying the altar and using the method to break the Ward he had obtained here years ago, he was able to move the altar relatively easily.

After this altar covered with characters was taken away by the mage, a black bead appeared underneath. As soon as the mage saw it, the bead levitated, emitted a deep black light, and then struck the black crown with force. Under this violent impact, the mage almost fainted. He felt that the altar in his Meditation space was almost completely shattered by this strange impact. Then, the mage found that a white bead fell off from the crown on his forehead—that was the one originally embedded in the crown—and now it was replaced by this black bead.

The mage shook his head. After taking some medicines and using the healing gems prepared for him by the Cleric, he gave one last look at the Blue-robed Female Mage's ice sculpture and flew outward. He was determined to come back here again. He believed that next time, he would find a way to take her away. Of course, this was all his own thought. Whether he would succeed or not was not something to be said now.

However, before leaving, the mage still carefully examined his black crown. The crown had changed in appearance. Originally, it had thirteen various precious gems, but now one gem was missing and had been replaced by a black bead. Moreover, the crown was darker than before, with streaks of black light flowing on it, looking very beautiful. After hastily probing the crown with his mental power, the mage found no obvious change, only vaguely sensed some information within it. But he had no time to examine it in detail here. After all, given the dangerous situation, he dared not stay too long. He had decided to thoroughly examine the crown after leaving.

Flying all the way, the ice sculptures in the passage were the same as before, no longer releasing mental power to transmit information to him. The mage flew for a distance and then arrived at the passage carved with countless magic scripts and arrays.

Here, after using Arcane Fire to incinerate the skeletons of those Tenth Tier Professionals, he continued flying outward. But just as he burned that skeleton, a beast's roar came from ahead. A strange magical beast emerged from a Six-pointed Star Magic Array and then attacked the mage.