Warlock Apprentice

Chapter 2229: Chapter 2230: The Hidden Passage Reappears

At the summit of the Forbidden Peak, there was also a palace. Although its scale was much smaller than that of the main peak’s palace, its style was unified.

It was still in the Central Empire style of the Revelation Continent.

Initially, Angel thought it was another human-like architecture mimicking the style of Soft Wind Uranos, but when he approached the Forbidden Peak, he realized it was different.

Unlike the main peak’s palace, which appeared as a fantastical architecture suspended in the air, the Forbidden Peak’s palace was a very complete human-like structure.

However, there still was no foundation.

Because, this was a Mana Hut.

The reason for this judgment was because as he approached, he felt the outer shell of the palace was full of traces of magic power flowing, and the bottom of the palace was almost fused with the giant rock at the top of the mountain, or it could be said the palace was shaped directly from the giant rock.

These two signs are the typical elements of a Mana Hut. The former is shaping, and the latter is perpetual; the combination of the two can form a complete mana building.

However, Mana Huts have always been a place for wizards to temporarily reside in, rarely intentionally shaped, often resembling ordinary wooden houses for the sake of energy conservation and rapid construction. A grand palace-like Mana Hut is rarely seen, because if one truly wanted to live in a palace, it would be more practical to construct it from earth and stone, allowing it to be long-lasting; on the other hand, if the mana supply of a Mana Hut is insufficient, the palace might collapse at any time.

"Perhaps, this is Feng’s personal hobby?" Angel muttered to himself.

He was almost certain that this Mana Hut was likely Feng’s handiwork, as the internal essence of a Mana Hut still required control over magic power, something that elemental sprites could hardly achieve without training.

However, Angel was curious as to how Feng managed to maintain the Mana Hut for thousands of years.

Could Feng have buried a large number of Magic Crystals as an energy source?

With doubt in mind, Angel stepped into the palace.

As soon as Fuyi entered the palace, he immediately sensed a faint, profound, and deeply meaningful aura of magic power surrounding the interior.

This magic power aura appeared calm and bland at first, but upon careful consideration, it seemed infinitely wonderful, a level of high-energy magic far beyond Angel’s knowledge.

Just this aura of magic power further convinced Angel that this could not have been created by elemental creatures; it must have been personally built by Feng.

Angel immersed himself in sensing the magic power for a long time, longing for the high-energy magic here, yet being self-aware, knowing it’s not something he could comprehend at this stage, perhaps only someone of Lord Reine’s level could perceive the hidden meanings from the magic power here.

He was not sensing the magic power itself but another thing that inexplicably felt familiar to him.

In this atmosphere full of swirling magic power, Angel vaguely sensed a mysterious aura.

Literally, it’s the aura of ’mystery.’ The aura emanating from a Mysterious Object.

However, this mysterious aura wasn’t intense at all, very faint, distinctly different from the aura of other Mysterious Objects. It rather resembled... the Samsara Overture.

Could it be that there was a crafted, failed Mysterious Object here, a Half-step Mystic?

Angel’s eyes sparkled with curiosity. Although Half-step Mystics have limitations compared to Mysterious Objects, they are still extremely precious, with certain Half-step Mystics even having quite useful functions.

If he truly discovered a Half-step Mystic work here, Angel would absolutely not let it slip by; after all, Feng’s setups had played him around several times, taking something as compensation seemed fair.

He continued sensing for a few more minutes, moving with closed eyes within the palace, seeking the area where the mysterious aura was most intense.

Finally, when he gradually moved forward to a certain spot at the front of the palace, the mysterious aura became strikingly intense.

It was then that he slowly opened his eyes, and he saw... Soft Wind Uranos.

To be precise, it was a giant painting of Soft Wind Uranos.

After looking around, Angel confirmed that this was indeed the forefront of the palace, essentially the "throne" room in similar palaces. However, here there was no throne, instead, there was a mural.

The artist of the painting was undoubtedly Feng.

Upon closely inspecting the painting, Angel noticed that the Soft Wind Uranos in the painting differed somewhat from Soft Wind now.

Currently, besides having slightly sharper ears, Soft Wind is no different from humans.

But in the painting, Soft Wind had a human-like upper body, while the lower half was composed of white clouds. Furthermore, its hair was unkempt, resembling an afro, and its eyes were calm but lacked the gentleness it now exuded.

Overall, there was a significant difference from the present neat and tidy Soft Wind.

Angel speculated that perhaps this was the form Soft Wind Uranos had when Feng first encountered it? Due to prolonged interaction with Feng, Soft Wind Uranos grew interested in human civilization, hence constructing many human buildings, and gradually altering its appearance toward a human likeness, resulting in the present Uranos?

Angel made some idle guesses, then dismissed them, as these matters weren’t particularly important.

After examining the painting for a while, Angel extended his finger to create another shape out of thin air using illusion techniques. It was the map of the Tide World that Feng left for the Shannon Royal Family.

He chose to manifest the map because Feng had depicted the rulers of each region when he originally drew the map. For instance, the Black Fire Monkey from the Region of Fire was a former Old King — Cinder Sithir.

As for the location of the White Cloud Village, there hadn’t been any alternation in rulership since the Cataclysm Era, presumably it was still Soft Wind Uranos. But why did Angel feel that he hadn’t seen this image of Soft Wind Uranos on the map?

With this in mind, he intended to make a comparison.

Feng’s map illustration skills, as he self-deprecatingly mentioned, were terrible. Even though Angel used "Black Fire Monkey" as a coordinate, it took a substantial amount of time to confirm the position of the White Cloud Village on the map.

When he saw the depiction of the White Cloud Village region, a few black lines appeared across Angel’s forehead.

Because the Soft Wind Uranos on the map was shown as the top half of a stick figure, accompanied by several wisps of dense mist seemingly billowing out of a chimney.

At first glance, one might mistake it for the form of some new kind of magical creature; who could tell that it was Soft Wind Uranos?!

No wonder Angel felt he had no impression of this wall painting; Feng had drawn it as a stick figure on the map!

Compared to the Black Fire Monkey, the depiction of Soft Wind Uranos on the map was hardly worthy of a name.

However, with the present mural as a comparison, one could somewhat recognize the form in the ’stick figure.’

It could be confirmed that the illustration of Soft Wind Uranos that Feng drew on the map corresponded to this mural within the palace.

"Despite Soft Wind being one of the three Element Lords with whom you’ve had the longest contact, you just sketched this thing?" Angel couldn’t help but sigh.

Having unraveled the doubt in his mind, Angel dismissed the map illusion, turning his attention back to the mural.

The mysterious aura he previously sensed emanated from the mural. Could it be that there was some hidden secret within it?

Excitement crept into Angel’s mood.

The initial mural of the Black Fire Monkey concealed the entry door to the Tide World. This led Angel to be very interested in murals left by Feng, although the ones he encountered later within the Wild Stone Plains and the Baya Desert were merely murals with no anomalies, much to his disappointment, once making him think only the Black Fire Monkey mural held any secrets.

Today, he had finally stumbled upon a second mural that seemed to have a peculiarity.

This made Angel’s long-calmed emotions become eagerly impatient again.

From the naked eye, this mural appeared ordinary, so Angel began to observe from the perspective of energy.

He cautiously extended his spirit tentacle, exploring the mural bit by bit.

After ten minutes, Angel finally located a special point. Whether it was Feng’s intention or his twisted sense of humor, the point was located at the nostril of the gentle wind Uranus...

As with the mural of the black fire monkey, the elemental energy brushed over the nostril without any abnormal sensation; only spiritual power and magic power detected the difference.

It seems Feng intentionally set this up so that elemental creatures would not discover it.

Upon careful investigation, Angel discovered that this special point was also a small passage.

Where it leads to is unknown due to the shielding Feng has set up for now.

But it was from this channel that the mysterious aura Angel sensed earlier emanated.

Angel looked at the nostril of the mural, slightly dazed. When he first entered the Tidal World, Feng had left a message on the gate: "Ah, favored latecomer, want to find my treasure? I have already placed it there~"

Could it be that the treasure Feng left is hidden in this passage? A half-step mystic work?

Filled with doubt, Angel constructed a shapeshifting technique within his mind space. As the shapeshifting model was activated, his body gradually shrank until it reached the size that could fit into the passage, and then he stopped.

At this moment, in Angel’s perspective, the nostril of the gentle wind Uranus, which didn’t appear large normally, suddenly became a dark square.

With a subtle psychological discomfort and a mad rant about Feng, Angel arrived at the special point.

With a light leap, he entered the passage behind the special point.

The passage was initially very small, but as Angel moved forward, it gradually became wider. Furthermore, the mysterious aura grew more intense.

Walking through the dark passage, Angel stayed vigilant while silently speculating——

What is at the end of the passage? A treasure room? Or perhaps another passage leading to the Wizards’ Realm?

What could be the work exuding the mysterious aura? Is it truly a half-step mystic work, or is it a genuine Mysterious Object with an inherently obscure mysterious aura?

The unknown ahead greatly stimulated Angel psychologically, and his eyes began to shine brighter, anticipating the "harvest" that awaited.

Minutes later, Angel, who encountered no trouble along the way, reached the end of the passage.

When he saw the truth of the end, Angel was stunned.

His previous guesses of a "two-world passage," "treasure room," "mysterious object"... were all absent.

At the end of the passage was a wall, etched with dense patterns.

Unlike the patterns within the black fire monkey’s passage, Angel recognized these; they were all magic patterns.

Moreover, despite the dense drafting of the magic patterns, their essence was not complex. Even without seeing all the magic patterns, Angel deduced the truth of these patterns from the last few corners.

It’s not a magical energy array but an isolated magic pattern.

The essence of the magic pattern is unknown for now, but what it ultimately achieves is providing energy to external structures.

In other words, the primary function of these magic patterns is to ensure the sustained energy flow to the Mana Hut outside, preventing its collapse.

This also addressed Angel’s earlier question, explaining how the Mana Hut has stood for thousands of years with its energy source.

It’s from here.

However, once Angel figured out the magic pattern’s effectiveness, he was engulfed in a new perplexity: if this place is the energy hub sustaining the Mana Hut for millennia, how do you explain the mysterious aura sensed earlier?

Angel, still puzzled, searched the vicinity for half a day, hoping to find some hidden door or special mechanism.

In the end, the outcome was disappointing; the area was barren, with no concealed spots. Feng left no items, only the magic patterns on the wall.

Ultimately, Angel could only focus on the magic patterns.

With no other sources for the mysterious aura, the only possibility left was that it originated from this magic pattern.

But how could a magic pattern emit a mysterious aura?

With this question, Angel sat down on the spot, conjuring tables, chairs, and pen and paper out of thin air using illusion techniques.

He planned to confront the magic patterns on this wall head-on.

With pen and paper in hand, Angel began analyzing the magic patterns on the wall. Being someone who could be considered a "master" in Enchantment Alchemy, Angel quickly located the starting point of the magic pattern.

He intended to start from the beginning, dissecting the entire magic pattern bit by bit, to see what secrets might be hidden within it.

Time passed slowly; the more Angel dissected this magic pattern, the stranger he found it.

It wasn’t that the magic pattern was too profound, but rather it was too simplistic.

It was so rudimentary that it seemed like it could have been drawn by an apprentice new to runeology.

The pattern corners, the lines, all formed a language of magic patterns. To express the language of magic patterns accurately, one must strategically arrange corners, lines, and energy.

For example, a levitation magic pattern requires numerous magic pattern horn combinations, including: interference exclusion, energy interface, atmosphere, force, stability... and many others numbering in the hundreds—to finally activate the magic pattern.

Magic pattern combinations are myriad. Each magic rune mage has unique grasps and understandings, forming their own configurations.

But no matter the combinations, the final count of pattern corners is substantial because only "sufficient conditions" could make the "effect more accurate."

But this particular magic pattern that Angel observed was different.

This difference lay in its sheer simplicity.

Using a levitation magic pattern as a comparison, other levitation magic patterns require dozens or even hundreds of magic pattern horn combinations. But according to the magic pattern here, only one condition was needed: wind.

With wind, you could indeed lift objects or people. But how do you control it, stabilize it, and achieve the desired outcome?

If blown skyward by the wind, without setting the wind’s strength, the direction, or the time and space limitations, one might get blown hundreds of meters high and then plummet. Would such a levitation magic pattern be deemed successful?

Thus, using a simple "wind" magic pattern horn to express the effect of levitation is overly simplistic, especially since the "wind" magic pattern horn also has numerous subcategories.

This manner of expressing magic patterns is the most common error among runeology apprentices.

At this moment, the magic patterns on the wall overflowed with similar errors, leading Angel to suspect that perhaps it was crafted by a novice magic pattern apprentice.