Chapter 152. Silver Oakleaf’s Desperate Gamble
As the array continued to strengthen, the mana across the Eastern Frontier seed to answer an invisible summons, rushing madly toward the Magic Serpent Fortress.
Before long, a massive mana vortex had ford over the entire Eastern Frontier.
Black-purple clouds churned at the center of the vortex, with arcs of lightning slithering through them, and directly beneath it stood the ruined Magic Serpent Fortress.
The Iron Skull Fortress and the Magic Serpent Fortress faced one another across the border, and Xilan was the first to sense that terrifying energy fluctuation.
He rushed up to the fortress wall. The mont he looked up and saw the strange phenonon hanging over the Eastern Frontier, his pupils contracted sharply, and he sucked in a cold breath.
A gathering of mana on that scale was far beyond anything mortals could achieve. It was obviously connected to Silver Oakleaf’s secret operation.
He imdiately took out a Communication Crystal from his Spatial Ring and reported the situation here to Fenlilan. The latter said that he understood and was already on his way.
anwhile, deep within the mine pit of the Magic Serpent Fortress, the trembling of the red crystal coffin gradually subsided.
The frenzied struggle from before grew weaker and weaker before finally falling completely silent. Even the venomous howls vanished without a trace, as if the being inside had been thoroughly subdued.
Liam stepped forward and pressed a hand against the coffin wall. Sensing the faint yet steady pulse of energy coming from within, the corners of his mouth curled into a cold, rigid arc.
“It’s done.”
Another Domain-Level Powerhouse frowned. “It’s too quiet. Could this be a trick?”
“It doesn’t matter.”
Liam withdrew his hand, his gaze dark and sinister.
“With the Ancient Formation and the Lich King’s remnant soul, as long as I can make use of it, then even if there is a trick hidden inside, it will still have to submit.”
He turned to the Archmages behind him.
“Continue maintaining the array. Keep a close watch on the activity inside the coffin. Without my order, no one is to approach it.”
Silence returned to the depths of the mine pit. Only the red light of the flashing Runes illuminated the grave faces of those present.
And above the Eastern Frontier, the mana vortex still turned slowly, like a giant eye looking down upon the earth.
A few hours later, Liam sensed a familiar aura coming from above. After giving the other two Domain-Level Powerhouses a few quiet instructions, he flashed upward and appeared in the sky above the Magic Serpent Fortress.
“Fenlilan, what brings you here?”
He looked at the old man floating opposite him, and his tone was far from friendly.
Suspended in midair, Fenlilan swept his gaze across the enormous mana vortex still rotating above them. A cold glint flickered in his eyes, and he let out a low sneer.
“Liam, stop playing dumb with . It’s only a sealing array. Was there really any need to make such a commotion?”
Liam’s expression did not change. He answered with a single stiff word.
“Yes.”
That shalessly defiant attitude caused Fenlilan’s face to darken.
He looked at the vortex again. After sensing the faint undead aura and berserk power hidden within it, he fell silent for a mont before speaking in a heavier tone.
“Liam, you are playing with fire. Once that thing completely loses control, forget confinent—even the entire eastern region will beco a living hell. When that ti cos, do you really want Silver Oakleaf to fall?”
“Shut up.”
Liam’s voice suddenly rose, and a fierce light flashed through his eyes.
“You’re the one whose kingdom will fall! Silver Oakleaf is doing just fine. As for your Kroll Kingdom, mind your own business and stop ddling in our affairs.”
The two n confronted one another across the air. The collision of their invisible pressure seed to freeze even the surrounding atmosphere.
Looking at the nearly mad stubbornness in Liam’s eyes, Fenlilan understood that saying more would be useless.
The old man had clearly been blinded by so obsession.
“Fine.”
In the end, Fenlilan let out a cold snort.
“I’d like to see what kind of trick you can pull off. But rember this: if you drag this disaster onto others, the Kroll Kingdom will not stand idly by.”
With that, he did not linger. Turning into a streak of light, he flew toward the Iron Skull Fortress.
Liam watched his departing back with a stormy expression. In the end, he clenched his fist hard and descended back into the Magic Serpent Fortress.
Deep within the mine pit, everyone stood in silent attention when they saw Liam return. No one dared say a word.
Liam waved a hand, signaling the Archmages to continue maintaining the array, while he himself walked to the edge of the Rune Array and fixed his gaze on the crystal coffin at its center, his expression unreadable.
Several days later, with the final Rune embedded into the Array Core, the entire underground chamber suddenly lit up with blinding red light.
Countless long whips ford from Runes burst out from the rock walls. As though alive, they wrapped around the crystal coffin layer after layer, until it was finally sealed within a massive sphere of Runes.
During this period, the Silver Oakleaf Kingdom had been buying huge numbers of slaves and beast corpses from surrounding nations at abnormally high prices and sending them without pause to the Magic Serpent Fortress.
Those bodies were thrown directly into the energy conduits of the Rune Array. In an instant, violent mana tore them apart and transford them into pure Life Energy, which surged into the giant sphere of Runes.
After absorbing enough flesh-and-blood energy, the enormous sphere of Runes actually began to beat rhythmically like a heart.
With every pulse, a dense stench of blood and undead aura spread outward, causing the temperature deep within the mine pit to plumt. Even the air itself seed to grow thick and icy.
One elderly Archmage could not help shivering. In a low voice, he said to the companion beside him, “This... this is too sinister. Are we really going to continue?”
His companion’s face had gone pale, but he did not dare say more. He only quickened the rhythm of his chanting.
Standing before the giant sphere, Liam felt the increasingly powerful force within it, and the corners of his mouth twisted into an almost savage curve.
For the revival of Silver Oakleaf, what did such a price matter?
The giant sphere of Runes beat faster and faster. Red light shone through layer upon layer of Rune patterns, casting warped shadows across the rock walls, as though a monstrous beast were slowly awakening within it.
And all of this remained tightly sealed beneath the ruins of the Magic Serpent Fortress. No one knew what kind of terrifying existence was being nurtured beneath this land.
At the sa ti, William had fallen into a different kind of trouble.
Ever since he returned from the Silver Oakleaf border, the foreign princesses who had co seeking a Marriage Alliance had begun circling around him day after day like sharks slling blood.
So used the excuse of asking for guidance in court etiquette to draw close to him. Others “happened” to encounter him in the garden, their skirts brushing against his arm as if by accident.
So went even further and secretly had maids add sothing dubious to his tea, only to be stopped on the spot by vigilant Palace Knights.
But William had no ti to deal with any of that.
His schedule was packed so tightly that not a mont was free.
In the mornings, he studied how to review morials and manage military affairs with his royal father. In the afternoons, he went to the Slave Market to screen slaves with high aptitude. At night, he still had to seize every mont to cultivate.
Even finding ti to see Mary and Zoe required squeezing it into the cracks of his schedule. Though both won felt wronged, they understood the burden on his shoulders and never complained.
Yet his busyness was taken by those princesses as neglect.
One after another, they used their Communication Crystals to complain to their respective nations, embellishing their words as they carried tales of William’s “busyness” and “perfunctory attitude” back ho.
Before long, Kroll II’s Communication Crystal beca busy as well.
The kings and queens of the various nations began pressuring Kroll II through their crystals one after another. What had begun as tactful reminders gradually turned into questioning laced with open threats.
Kroll II was driven to a headache by all this pressure. He could only fend them off with excuses that “William is currently occupied with affairs of state,” while secretly ordering the attendants to tighten their watch over the princesses from the various nations and keep them from disturbing William again as much as possible.
But in his heart, he knew very well that this was only a temporary asure.
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