novelAncient Wyrm
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Compared to the strong golden dragon, the silver dragon was more like an assassin. Although its body was much larger than the present wyrms', its speed was really like lightning. The fine and exquisite silver dragon scales made it almost immune to offensive spells. Although its defense was weaker than ordinary wyrms', almost no one could beat it in speed. It could tear apart spacetime with its claws, and its breath could corrode everything.
Almost all ancient wyrms would have terrifying abilities and strength of the Sanctuary-realm after they reached adulthood, and the golden dragon and silver dragon could be considered to be almost invincible. They were top-level existences amongst the five Dragon Aspects, and were just like royalty.
In fact, given the current situation, even a random Sanctuary-level ancient wyrm would be strong enough to wipe out the Death Knights that were manipulating Divine Power. The golden dragon spat out a whiff of dragon's breath that engulfed the four Death Knights, causing them to turn into ashes before they could even do anything. The silver dragon then suddenly landed before appearing in the sky again, drawing a beautiful silver arc. The two Death Knights on the ground suddenly turned into dust.
The silver-armored knights who were initially violent and menacing became fragile and weak under the siege of the two dragons which caused their silver armor and golden bones to turn into ashes immediately. Even the pure Divine Power could not provide any protection for the two of them. Instead, it simply collapsed together with them and scattered without restrain.
Staring at everything that was taking place in front of them, everyone could not help but feel horrified because of the domineering aura of the ancient wyrms. Even Lin Li was slightly distracted. Despite having seen the war between the ancient wyrms and the Titans, he still felt incredibly astonished. However, the battle between them was even more frightening than the one-sided massacre that was taking place now.
However, at this moment, Lin Li suddenly raised the Helios' Scepter high in the air as his Light and Darkness Domain was immediately exhibited, shrouding Death Knights[1]. Next, a silver dragon appeared outside of Lin Li's Light and Darkness Domain and seemed to be slightly stunned as it did not rush into the Light and Darkness Domain immediately. Instead, it turned around and merged with the golden dragon in the sky.
"Felic, what are you doing!?!" Rosen exclaimed in anger after seeing that Lin Li had snatched some Death Knights away from the silver dragon.
Seeing the sudden change in Rosen's expression, Aldwin and Macklin frowned slightly. Although the silver-armored knights were powerful, the last ones could not bring about much change alone. In fact, everyone could tell that Rosen had been picking on Lin Li ever since he arrived in the Alanna Guild of Magic.
"Nothing, just collecting my battle gains, " Lin Li answered casually. The countless black and white silk threads then appeared from the Light and Darkness Domain. If looked at closely, the magic symbols of the threads would be visible. Next, the black and white silk threads formed a huge net that shrouded the Death Knights.
"Your battle gains? What a joke, don't forget your identity. This operation is led by the Supreme Council. You are not qualified to talk about battle gains!" Rosen exclaimed. As one of the authoritative figures of the Supreme Council, he definitely commanded great respect because of his age, abilities, and identity. However, after entering this place, Lin Li actually talked back to him again and again, making him feel infuriated.
Upon hearing Rosen's words, Lin Li didn't show much of a reaction. Instead, he watched the expressions of Macklin and Aldwin changing again and again. Lin Li was the President of the Breezy Plains Guild of Magic. If he was not qualified to talk about battle gains, what about the Alanna Guild of Magic? Although the Guild of Magic was established under the auspices of the Supreme Council in the earlier days, things were different now. The Guild of Magic was only part of the Supreme Council in name. Aldwin painstakingly obtained the key to the mausoleum, but it was not purely to claim credit from the Supreme Council. He merely wanted to gain real benefits for his Guild of Magic.
"What rights do I have? Yeah, the Supreme Council found the location of the mausoleum and opened the Immortal Door, but you must know that without the other half of the key from Master Aldwin and the ring that I have, no one would have made it here. So, whoever gets their hands on the battle gains will get to keep them. Stop throwing your weight around, " Lin Li said while placing the subdued Death Knights into his Ring of Endless Storm, closed the Light and Darkness Domain, and ignored the two wyrms that were revolving above him.
Actually, Rosen began to regret it as soon as he said those words. However, he did not regret nitpicking on Lin Li, and instead regretted including Aldwin and the rest in the moment of pique. However, after hearing Lin Li's words, Rosen obviously wouldn't explain anything, even though he wanted to clarify things with Aldwin.
"Is that so? Whoever gets the gains will keep them? Felic, don't think that everything is within your control just because you have some abilities. Everything has just started and the road ahead is still long!" Rosen barked with a sullen expression. Without realizing it, he had begun talking to Lin Li like the latter was his competitor on the same level, and not his junior.
"I don't need you to remind me that. You'd better put in more effort and pay more attention to your own disciple, " Lin Li said in a hostile manner. It was not that he didn't know how to respect his elders, but rather that he was incredibly annoyed with Rosen who threw his weight around just because he was much older. Besides, Rosen was extremely biased as well.
Damn, this is the kid who taught Sendros a lesson when discussing pharmaceutics! Andoine thought to himself, gloating over Rosen's situation even though he did not say anything. He forgot that he, too, had also been taught a lesson by Lin Li when he asked the latter about pharmaceutics.
Although Aldwin and Macklin were displeased with what Rosen said, the two dragons hovering in the sky left them with no choice but to stay alert. Any one of them would be able to destroy the mages.
Seeing that Lin Li had kept the silver-armored knights, Macklin walked towards him worriedly and pointed at the sky while softly persuading, "Felic, I know you're infuriated with him, but don't cause the situation to be to tense."
"Don't worry, the two dragons are not dogs. Rosen is not qualified to order them around, " Lin Li said nonchalantly with a smile.
Indeed, the two dragons were incredibly powerful to the extent of being unparalleled. Even though Lin Li had already pulled his trump cards, he didn't have much of a chance at defeating the wyrms. However, Lin Li fell out with Rosen not because he was blinded by anger, but because he had seen through everything.
As soon as Rosen took out the strange staff, Lin Li began to pay attention to every move of his. The spell seemed to be extremely long and was more like a prayer. Actually, Lin Li's mental strength was already at the Sanctuary-level, and after being tempered by the magical crystal that controlled the Sky Castle, his sensitivity to magical waves was far greater than everyone else's in the vicinity.
As Rosen chanted the spell, Lin Li could clearly detect that Rosen did not emit mana that corresponded to the long spell. Almost all of the mana waves were from the staff. Hence, it was clear that the two dragons were not summoned by Rosen, but were instead from the special magic staff. The usual prayer was simply a prayer to the gods, and the two dragons only appeared because of Rosen's plea to the gods. Hence, it was obvious that he could not control them.
They had faced just as much danger previously, be it with the countless Magical Crystal Cannons or the Alchemical Undead. However, why did Rosen choose to wait until now to use his staff? If he could've overcome the difficulties with his own power when facing the Magical Crystal Cannons, how about when they were faced with the Alchemical Undead? He couldn't have known that Lin Li had a solution right from the start.
Hence, it was obvious that the staff that could summon the dragons of the Sanctuary-realm was not that simple to use or maneuver. Lin Li reckoned that there had to be some unknown restrictions. Everyone knew that there was no free lunch in this world. People would still have to provide their souls as offerings in order to summon demons, and these were Sanctuary-realm dragons, which definitely required a high price to summon.
At the same time, it also showed that the staff did not belong to Rosen, and was likely to be one of the assets of the Supreme Council, and was only loaned to Rosen temporarily for this operation. There had never been a case of a master begging his subordinate to work for him. Besides, Rosen's current power and abilities were not sufficient for him to continue restraining the two dragons. If he was the owner of the staff, he would probably be devoured by the two dragons instead.
Lin Li was able to allow the two dragons to hover in the sky above his head mostly because he was clearly aware that though the golden dragon and silver dragon seemed to have Sanctuary-realm powers on the surface, they were not actual wyrms.
In this era, the ancient wyrms that had once dominated the prehistoric times had long been forgotten by the people and drowned out in history, regardless of how horrifying their strength had been. However, Lin Li had once witnessed the evolution of Anril in the Sky Castle, and thus knew a lot more about the strong ancient wyrms. Although it all came from his imagination, his emotions were not compromised at all. It could be said that there wasn't a slightest difference between imagining it and witnessing it in person in real life.
When Rosen had just summoned the two dragons, Lin Li was indeed shocked, but after carefully watching the battle between the two dragons and the silver-armored knights, he also discovered a problem. The two dragons were indeed powerful, but they did not exhibit their power to the greatest extent yet. This was not because the opponents were weak, but because the overall momentum was much different from the real golden and silver dragons. If the real golden dragon and silver dragon appeared, the silver-armored knights would have collapsed because of their domineering aura before they could even put up a fight.
Moreover, with strong and pure mental strength, Lin Li could clearly feel that the two dragons lacked a little bit of vitality in their Menace of the Dragon. Not all living creatures would turn into Undead creatures after their deaths. For example, ancient wyrms with pure lineage were said to be able to condense into Dragon's Clout and return to the dragon graveyard in the chaos of time and space. Lin Li did not know what the state of the Dragon's Clout was, but he was sure that the two of them were not actual ancient wyrms.
Geresco, or perhaps the three arbitrators, had sealed and obtained the two ancient wyrms from somewhere and managed to keep them in the staff using a peculiar method in hopes of using them to tide over a crisis. After all, it was also an extremely powerful weapon. The two dragons, which were in the Sanctuary-realm, could not be matched by ordinary powerhouses of the Sanctuary-realm. Be it the dragon's soul or the puppets, the sealers would definitely have to impose some restrictions lest they fought aimlessly after being released, or perhaps because someone with ulterior motives might make use of the two wyrms to carry out a massacre.
Indeed, when Lin Li put the last Death Knight into the Ring of Endless Storm, the two dragons that were hovering in the sky gradually became thinner, and eventually disappeared from the sky. However, Lin Li noticed a detail. With the disappearance of the two dragons, Rosen suddenly turned pale while holding onto the staff as if he had suffered some agony or pain.
Summoning the two ancient wyrms indeed came with a price! The corners of Lin Li's lips curled up slightly, revealing a faint smile. Summoning demons also required sacrificing souls, and summoning two dragons of the Sanctuary-realm would definitely require a high price. Why was Rosen so concerned about the Death Knights? Apart from the fact that he was picking on Lin Li, it could also be because the Death Knights were one of the elements he had to sacrifice to summon the two wyrms. Since Lin Li took away the Death Knights, the two dragons would naturally make the summoner make up for the loss according to the summoning agreement. Although the power of a level-22 Death Knight would not affect Rosen much, it was definitely not too pleasant.
[1] Actually, the author is pretty vague, so it's hard to tell whether it's one or more of them (it's also possible he took more than one, but it's one particular knight that was the problem later), but we will stick to plural.
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