by Zhuang Bifan
For some reason, the Magma Python had left the volcano it lived in, and Bright Moon City at the foot of the mountain was turned into a sea of fire overnight as the Magma Python crazily attacked everything in its sight. Not even the gamers' organizations and the city militia could stop the Magma Python's attacks, and so the castellan announced an unprecedented mission reward of 1,000,000 gold coins to the person who killed the Magma Python in order to protect the city.
Lin Li had just emerged from the Well of the Sun then. In order to obtain the legendary weapon, the Stars of Fury, he had devoted all his assets, so when he saw the mission announced by Bright Moon City, he was tempted as the huge reward was a timely financial aid for him. He rushed overnight to reach the city engulfed in flames and faced the Magma Python alone. While everyone thought that he was going to meet his death, he had taken down the Magma Python that left everybody helpless with just a strike from the Polar Snow and the Raging Flames, making it disappear in a puff of smoke in an instant.
While others thought that it was a legendary feat, Lin Li thought that it was far from one. The Polar Snow and the Raging Flames were so incredibly powerful that that was hardly a fight at all as there was no danger in it whatever.
The Polar Snow could take on countless forms, while the Raging Flames was capable of burning down everything. Once Lin Li had both of these pieces of the debris of the stars, his power would increase tremendously, marking an otherworldly difference. After all, just one strike of the Polar Snow and the Raging Flames wiped out the Magma Python that not even its bones were left.
Even though Lin Li did not have the Stars of Fury now, and could not maximize the effect of the two pieces of the debris of the stars, he still had the light and dark pieces of the debris of the stars, and that was usually enough to make other Legendary powerhouses avoid him.
Actually, the most important thing to Lin Li now was not to use these pieces of the debris of the stars as a weapon. He was, after all, no longer the hunter from the game, but a true mage. The most important thing for him now was to understand and use the elemental Rules, and the pieces of the debris of the stars were brimming with the purest elemental Rules.
Lin Li had understood the darkness and light Rules from the Gloomy Dark and the Holy Light, and even though it was only a shallow understanding, he had been able to use the Gloomy Dark and Holy Light to create a Magical Domain of frost, light, and darkness. With that Magical Domain, he was able to take down a powerful opponent like the Lord of Darkness even though he had just entered the Legendary-realm.
A Magical Domain's power was not determined by its purity, as too extreme of one kind of power would only result in one losing the others. Hence, the most powerful Magical Domain in the eyes of mages was the world they lived in. It was thus every mage's dream to create a Magical Domain as close to the world as possible.
However, it required an incredibly large amount of effort for a mage to understand every Rule, and it required luck as well. It was hard to even understand, much less master, even one of the seven Rules that governed the world of Anril, so who could master all seven of them? Hence, creating a Magical Domain that was comparable to the real world was still something that only existed in theory.
Lin Li did not know whether humans were capable of creating the world, and he did not bother thinking that far, either. What he knew was that now that he would once again be in possession of the Polar Snow and the Raging Flames, he could use their strength to understand the water and fire elemental Rules and make his Magical Domain even more powerful.
Chapter 498 - Natural Magical Domain
In the Magical Domain of frost, light, and darkness that Lin Li had created, the frost Rule was the one that he had truly mastered, and it was also the one that he had based his Magical Domain on. The other two Rules, light and darkness, were only there because he had external aid, and he could only depend on the frost Rule to form the Magical Domain.
As the frost Rule was a secondary Rule derived from the water Rule, ts power was limited as compared to the seven basic rules. Amongst the three Rules that the frost, light, and darkness Magical Domain was constructed of, the frost Rule could be said to be a short board of the Magical Domain.
However, once he had gotten hold of the Polar Snow, he would be able to use the power it contained to perfect the frost Rule and even transform it into the primary and original form of water elemental Rule. Ultimately, he would be able to turn his Frost Domain into a Water Domain.
As a Legendary-mage, Lin Li knew very well what a Magical Domain created from a primary Rule entailed. Hence, all the Magical Domains created from secondary Rules would lose their purpose to him.
Every mage knew that the different elements had a suppressing effect on each other, but this was not an absolute. In the fight with the Crimson Dragon, for example, it should have been the water element suppressing the fire element, yet the water element had no chance of truly retaliating. If not because he had fashioned an area of inert fire element, there would have been no opportunity for him to unleash his Frost Domain.
However, a secondary Rule and a primary Rule had a relationship like that of a master and a servant, a relationship that would not change no matter how powerful either of the Rules was. A secondary Rule that was derived from a primary Rule would always have to submit to a primary Rule no matter how powerful it was.
Which was to say, when Lin Li was able to create a Water Domain, all the Legendary-mages with a Frost Domain would have to submit to him no matter how powerful they were. Besides, due to the popularity of ice element magic in this world, many mages would choose to create a Frost Domain after they reached the Legendary-realm.
As for the other piece of the debris of the stars, the Raging Flames, Lin Li could use it to create a Flame Domain, and with Gloomy Dark and the Holy Light, he would be able to create a Magical Domain that consisted of four primary Rules. Anril was only made out of seven primary Rules, and he had four now; while he could not be certain if he would be able to create a world of his own, a Magical Domain that consisted of four primary Rules was already pretty close to the real world.
Be it the suppressing effect that elements had on each other or the relationship between primary and secondary Rules, with the four primary rules he possessed, Lin Li was now capable of dealing with Legendary-mages who were level-22 or level-23 without any problems. Such was the reality of Legendary-mages—they no longer competed in terms of strength, but in their understanding of the Rules in this world.
Hence, it was of utmost importance for Lin Li to obtain these two pieces of the debris of the stars. Nobody would refuse to become stronger, just like nobody would refuse riches. Moreover, based on the information he got from Tutankhamun, he would have to save the world in another couple of years.
However, the sight before him was somewhat strange as the Polar Snow and Raging Flames were not sitting there quietly, waiting for him to collect them. Instead, they had turned into two streams of light chasing each other in the sky like children playing together. This was hard to believe as they were of opposing natures; the Polar Snow and the Raging Flames were just like the Gloomy Dark and the Holy Light. The Gloomy Dark and the Holy Light would fight each other to death if they met, and the Polar Snow and Raging Flames should not be much better. Looking at this now, however, it seemed that the Polar Snow and the Raging Flames had completely abandoned their nature.
The surroundings were even more peculiar as burning flames and chilling cold seemed to coexist perfectly in this strange world despite being of opposing natures. Lin Li could even feel that the water element and the fire element in this world were so high in terms of purity that they were well on the way to form a Magical Domain.
Natural… A naturally occurring Magical Domain! Lin Li was taken aback; even Geresco appearing before him would not make him feel so surprised. A naturally occurring Magical Domain? Perhaps nobody in Anril had witnessed something like that, much less him. Even people who had not learned magic w
ould know that water and fire opposed each other just like light and darkness. For them to coexist, there had to be a third element to serve as a mediator. Usually, it would be the earth or the wind element for water and fire, while it would usually be chaos for light and darkness.
Without the mediating element, the opposing elements would definitely not be able to coexist, and the consequences of forcing them to would be unthinkable. There was a very powerful magical trap that forced two opposing magical elements together but kept them separated using some method. When the trap was activated, one could finish off a Magic Shooter using just a very simple spell that made use of magical elements. However, due to the danger and difficulty of forcing two opposing magical elements together, anybody had yet to be able to create a magical trap capable of killing an Archmage.
If the world before him where fire and water coexisted was a magical trap, then an explosion of this trap would wipe out the whole Dragon Mountains, or even the whole Breezy Plains. Not even Lin Li, a Legendary-mage, or a Sanctuary Master would be spared from being blown into the tiniest specks of dust.
The good thing was that Lin Li could tell that even without a mediating element, both the fire and water elements were coexisting in harmony, with no trace of a conflict at all; hence, there was no need to worry.
However, it was the very fact that he did not need to worry about an impending explosion that made Lin Li even more curious as to what could be capable of leading to this phenomenon before him. How did something allow two opposing elements to form a naturally occurring Magical Domain? This was like a miracle! Or perhaps, it was a miracle! This was something that even the Dragon Aspect that mastered the primary Rules was not capable of.
Everyone knew that a Magical Domain represented the peak of magic, and thus only the powerful Legendary-mages would be able to possess one. This was because a Magical Domain was created with powerful magic by a Legendary-mage after they understood the Rules of the world.
The God of Mages Geresco had once said that what a mage asked for in their life was simply to understand the truth of the world.
The truth was that a human's power was limited, and no matter how he trained and became physically strong, he would still be unable to escape the inborn constraints. A Warrior trained his Combat Energy, while a Mage trained his magic, but this was just like how a human trained his physical strength—he would still be unable to escape his bodily constraints.
In order to do things that they were not physically capable of, humans, or perhaps intelligent life, learned to make use of tools to aid them in accomplishing their goals—just like the goblins who managed to create the Alchemy Colossus without the talent for magic nor physical strength.
The only way mages could escape the constraints of their body and achieve greater strength was to learn to use the power of Rules. No matter how powerful their magical equipment, even if it was able to raise their abilities by over 100 times, it was still limited. Hence, only by understanding the truth of the world and knowing how to use the Rules of the world could one become a true Legendary-mage.
A Legendary-mage and an Archmage differed not only in terms of strength, but also in terms of their understanding and use of the truth and the Rules of the world. While 10 Magic Shooters might defeat an Archmage, 10 Archmages were nothing in front of a bona fide Legendary-mage. This was because while an Archmage and a Magic Shooter were worlds apart in terms of strength, they both had the same superficial understanding in terms of the usage of Rules, and only wielded their strength according to prescribed rules.
A Legendary-mage was different in that they were able to use the Rules of the world according to their understanding of the truth of the world. Their opponent faced not just the strength of one human, but also the strength of the Rules and the strength of the world. This was not a gap that could be made up for using numbers—10 Archmages just would not make the cut, and not even 100 of them would.
Take Lin Li for example. After he unleashed his Magical Domain of frost, light, and darkness, he was able to create Angels of Light and Dark that were each comparable to an Archmage. 100 of these Angels of Light and Dark were equivalent to 100 Archmages; moreover, they were not at risk of being injured or dying. Such was a Legendary-mage—he was not actually a human now, but someone who had already stepped into the realm of the deities and spirits, someone who was able to command the strength of the world at his will.
Nobody apart from a Legendary-mage—no matter if it was the most powerful Sword Sage or the most powerful magical beast, even if it was one that had stepped into the Sanctuary-realm—would be able to possess a true Magical Domain. Perhaps they could use their Combat Energy or mana to replicate a Magical Domain, but the power it held would be much less than that of a true Magical Domain, and it would cost them an unimaginable amount of mana or Combat Energy every second. Hence, no Sword Sage or magical beast would be willing to do something like that unless they really had to.
The requirements to create a Magical Domain were unusually strict; hence, it was unusual for there to be naturally occurring Magical Domains, much less one that was created from two opposing elements.
The sight before Lin Li stunned him as even though he was a Master or a Guru in many aspects, he was unable to explain the phenomenon. This was something that went against everything he knew and everything that the laws of nature stood for. It was hard to explain what was going on here with the knowledge he had.
Looking at the two streams of light that continued to play tag in the sky, Lin Li could only silently associate all of this with the Polar Snow and the Raging Flames. They both represented the most primary water and fire Rules, respectively, and nobody knew how long they had coexisted in this place. While he could not find any theory to back this, it did not seem all that impossible to attribute everything he saw to the creation of the Polar Snow and the Raging Flames.
While they were both opposing elemental Rules, fire and water had a different relationship from that between light and darkness. Light and darkness opposed each other in the sense that only one of them could exist at any one point in the same place. In the presence of darkness, there could be no light; in the presence of light, darkness would cease to exist. Hence, shadows only existed in places that light could not reach, and when light did, the shadows would disappear.
However, water and fire were different. Rather than saying that they opposed each other, it would be more accurate to say that they affected each other. Water could extinguish flames, but water element could not exterminate fire element, only suppressing the explosion thereof. While fire could dry out water, it could not exterminate water element, either, as it would only be able to change the form that the water element assumed.
Hence, while these two elements appeared to oppose each other, it was, in fact, not impossible for them to coexist. Only, the fact that they could coexist did not mean that they would be able to create a Magical Domain; hence, with Lin Li's knowledge, he was still unable to come up with an explanation for the Magical Domain created from both water and fire elemental Rules.
Anyway, no matter what the truth laid out in front of him was, the most important thing was still to secure the Polar Snow and the Raging Flames. As for the more profound reasoning and theories behind this phenomenon, that was something he could ponder another day.
Lin Li closed his eyes slightly as he released a large amount of mental strength to feel this peculiar world. Even though he had a Magical Domain that consisted of three Rules, he still could not help but be moved by the strength contained in this world.
This is a Magical Domain created from primary Rules! He was in silent awe. A Magical Domain created from two primary Rules still held such strength that it made him fear it for some reason even though it was not controlled by anyone.
Even Connoris, who always maintained that there was nothing he did not know, was in shock at this miracle. Having lived for thousands of years, he still could not recall anything like this in his memory. Nowhe
re else in Anril could there be a naturally occurring Magical Domain. God created a massive and flawless Magical Domain that was Anril, and only God could create a miracle like the one before their eyes.
"Hey, what are you going to do next?" Connoris asked Lin Li somewhat sheepishly.
Was there a need to ask? Of course, Connoris knew what was the next step: it was to obtain the magical weapons—the two streams of light in the sky. Even though he did not know about the debris of the stars, but with his incredible sensitivity to strength, he could clearly tell that the two streams of light in the sky that appeared to have a life of their own were not magical beasts, but two very powerful magical weapons.
According to his predictions, while the two magical weapons had yet to reveal their true from, they were no less powerful than the Titan Dragon Spear used during the prehistoric times, a magical weapon that was hard to come by, yet there were even two of them here. He was really insanely jealous of Lin Li's luck.
Chapter 499 - Hesitation
However, the question of how to collect magical weapons that were as powerful as these two was something that haunted Connoris since the start. He was sheepish because if Lin Li were to ask him how he was going to collect these magical weapons, he would not know how to answer him. He was the all-knowing Soul Trader, yet today alone he had come across too many things that he did not know. This would be terrible for his reputation if it continued.
Connoris did not know that Lin Li did not have to ask him how to collect the Polar Snow and the Raging Flames. He'd once been the owner of the seven debris of the stars and the Stars of Fury, after all, so nobody knew the two pieces of the debris of the stars better than him in this world. It was nothing for him to collect them. He had managed to collect all these legendary weapons back when they had formed a complete world in the Well of the Sun, much less just a naturally occurring Magical Domain formed from just the Polar Snow and the Raging Flames.