Chapter 109 The Method of Entry #1100 Subscription The group's discussion continued deep into the night, but yielded no results.
After assigning night watches, everyone returned to their tents to rest and meditate.
Lei Lin lay on his simple bed covered with white wolf pelts, a faint trace of restlessness stirring within him.
Two things were unsettling him. First, the legacy that originally belonged to him had become common knowledge. Second, even using the Chip to scan the area had brought him no rewards whatsoever.
He had even postponed the meditation he was supposed to do every single day because of it.
"Maybe I shouldn't be pinning all my hopes on this. The South Coast is vast — every few decades, there are stories of wandering apprentices excavating ruins, acquiring resources, and advancing to become full Wizards. There are plenty of opportunities…"
Lei Lin consoled himself, then let out a wry laugh.
He had originally treated the Crimson Great
Jiamen and the others were in the same state.
"I've grown anxious, and I've overlooked the danger!" Lei Lin's expression suddenly turned calm.
"The Gothic Sage's Cottage apprentices were all wiped out by us. That will definitely draw their attention — they'll send powerful apprentices, or even full Wizards, to investigate…"
"Judging by the Gothic Sage's Cottage's location and the communication delay, I have less than ten days…"
"Ten days. In those ten days, if I still haven't found anything, I must leave this place!" A look of steel resolve flashed through Lei Lin's eyes.
When it came down to it, Lei Lin still valued his own life far more than the Crimson Great Wizard's legacy.
Having made his decision, Lei Lin suddenly felt a surge of indescribable relief. His mind seemed to undergo a purification, and he slipped directly into a meditative state…
Morning. The crisp songs of larks echoed across the campsite.
"Morning!" Lei Lin greeted Shaya with a smile.
"Morning!" Shaya sported two dark circles under his eyes, clearly having gotten no rest the night before. His eyes were threaded with bloodshot veins, and the way he looked at Lei Lin had taken on an air of disbelief.
"I just don't understand how you can be so... calm!" Shaya held back several times before finally blurting out the question.
"This is a ruin left behind by a formal Wizard—there could be the knowledge and resources needed for promotion to a formal Wizard right inside..."
"But we haven't found it yet, have we?"
Lei Lin stretched luxuriously toward the rising sun.
"Don't be too possessive toward things that don't yet belong to you. Otherwise, the only one who'll suffer is your own heart!"
"You're really a strange person!" Shaya rubbed his forehead. "But then, Wizard Apprentices are all a little strange in their own ways. You're actually one of the more normal ones!"
"Maybe." Lei Lin nodded. If these apprentices knew that this ruin was left behind by the Scarlet Great Wizard, the situation would probably be far worse.
But of course, he had no intention of telling them that.
The five of them filed out of their tents one by one, shared a breakfast of roasted bird meat, and then gathered together to discuss their plans.
"Alright! Today we'll continue searching on our own—put in the effort!" After a long discussion that yielded no results, Jiamen said helplessly.
This was the approach that best suited the current situation.
It was possible that other apprentices might reach the ruin first, but once the entrance was opened, Jiamen and the others would definitely sense the energy fluctuations. At worst, they could simply give the discoverer an extra share when it came time to divide the spoils.
"What are you doing?"
After the group scattered, Jiamen noticed Lei Lin still lingering on the clifftop, even bending down to admire Beta daisies, and walked over to ask.
"As you can see, I'm enjoying the flowers!" A faint smile tugged at the corner of Lei Lin's lips.
"At a time like this?!" Jiamen's eyes turned slightly red, as if he was about to punish Lei Lin on the spot.
"Calm down! Don't be hasty!" Lei Lin made a "stop" gesture.
"Yesterday we were all too focused on the ruin at the base of the cliff—we never noticed the secret hidden in the flower field!"
"A secret? You mean—you found something?" Jiamen's face lit up with wild joy.
"What? Lei Lin made a discovery?" Whoosh whoosh whoosh! Three black shadows materialized in front of Lei Lin and Jiamen in an instant.
They were exactly those three apprentices who hadn't gone far yet.
"Mm!" Under everyone's expectant gazes, Lei Lin slowly nodded.
"Someone who knows a levitation spell or something similar—fly up and take a look from the air!" Lei Lin spoke up.
"I'll do it!" Borsen immediately pulled out a silver metallic sphere, which was radiating strong fluctuations of a Magical Item.
As Borsen twisted a few mechanisms on the sphere, the metal ball melted into liquid, adhering to his back and transforming into a pair of beautiful, dazzling silver wings.
"An item that can freely reshape itself!" Lei Lin exclaimed in admiration.
A Magical Item of this caliber could easily qualify as a mid-tier Magical Item. Lei Lin suspected that the crafter had deliberately reduced its power so that an apprentice could use it.
Such extravagance could only be found in some of the larger Wizard families with long histories.
*Fwoosh!!!* The enormous silver semi-transparent wings beat down, blowing up a layer of surrounding soil. Using that force, Borsen flew straight up into the air.
"Well? What do you see?" Jiamen shouted from below.
"Flowers… the arrangement of Beta Daisies…"
A violent gust of wind blew past, and Borsen flew straight back down to the ground, retracting the silver wings into his body.
"These Beta Daisies were planted intentionally—they're arranged in the shape of a letter!"
Borsen explained to everyone.
"What letter?" Shaya and Ross asked simultaneously.
"It's a letter written in Old Jacobean, meaning 'jump'!" Lei Lin answered directly.
"Jump? Does that mean we're supposed to leap right off the cliff?" Jiamen was the first to guess. The Wizard Apprentices were no fools—they had simply had their judgment temporarily clouded by the enormous treasure before their eyes.
"But didn't we already jump down yesterday?"
Ross scratched his head. "I didn't find anything. There's nothing at the bottom of the cliff but those damned rocks!"
"No! You climbed down. We all used the Floating Feather Spell to float down!" Borsen suddenly spoke up.
"I've got it — the ruins are inside a secret realm, and the method to enter it is to jump straight off the cliff without using any magic!"
"Jump straight off? Have you lost your mind?" Xaya tugged at his beautiful red hair. "This cliff is enormous, and there are tons of stone swords at the bottom. Without any magical protection, even Ross would be dashed to death on nothing but his physical body!"
"So we need test subjects!"
Jiamen said, "Go find some animals — living humans would be best!"
"Sure! But don't get your hopes up!" Ross sprouted a cluster of tentacles from his back and rapidly flew away from the top of the cliff.
"We'll go search the surrounding area too. If nothing turns up, we'll head back to town!" A faint smile appeared on Jiamen's face for the first time…
"Ahhh…!"
A scream of pure terror erupted from the top of the cliff, and due to the intense wind pressure, the voice warped and distorted.
BOOM!!!
A black dot plummeted from the cliff's edge, growing larger and larger, until it resolved into the shape of a living person.
It was a townsperson dressed as a hunter, his face twisted in an expression of utmost horror, screaming at the top of his lungs as he plummeted from the cliff in pure free fall.
SPLAT!!!
The hunter slammed directly onto the tip of a stone sword. The tremendous force of the impact sliced his body clean in half.
The remaining two halves of his corpse smashed into the ground, carving out deep craters. Bone and shredded flesh mingled together in a grotesque mess, rendering the original shape completely unrecognizable.
Beside those two large craters, there was also a smaller, shallower pit.
The same bloody scene — except this one also contained the severed head of a creature resembling an elk.
"How'd it go?"
At the base of the cliff, Ross stood with his arms folded, observing from the side. Xaya was nearby as well, and before him hovered a half-sphere object flickering with green light. Jiamen's voice emanated from within it.
"Not great! Just a pile of minced meat — same as that elk from before!" Ross let out a cold smirk. "Looks like our plan failed…"
At the top of the cliff, Lelin and the other two huddled together, listening to the voice coming from the other half of the green half-sphere. Their expressions were none too pleasant.
"From animals at the start to humans at the end — it looks like there's some other condition we've been missing!"
Ross was the first to recover from his frustration.
"Think about it carefully — we don't have many test subjects left!" Poyne forced a grim smile and gestured toward the clearing to one side.
On the clearing lay several bound townspeople from Moon Lute Town, watching Ross and the others with terrified eyes. If their mouths weren't gagged, they would likely be cursing or begging for mercy already.
Ever since Jiamen had suggested finding substitutes, the five of them had split up to get to work.
Poyne was the most ruthless. It looked as though he had gone straight back to the town and grabbed quite a few living people.
To someone from one of the top Wizard families, ordinary mortals were like weeds — no matter how many you cut down, they'd stubbornly grow back before long. The honor of dying in his service should have been theirs to treasure!
Ross didn't exactly share that worldview, but he had no intention of clashing with Poyne over the lives of a handful of strangers he'd never met.
Besides, using living humans as test subjects produced smaller margins of error. It was more reliable than using an elk or anything of the sort, and it served Ross's interests just as well!
At the same time, he couldn't help but be surprised at the speed Poyne had managed.
"Jumping down only proves courage! According to the clues on the map, you also need to show 'respect'!" Ross voiced his guess.
"Then what counts as respect?" Poyne asked.
"In ancient times, when people visited their elders, they would bring along a beta daisy as a sign of respect. That custom has survived to this day — plenty of places along the South Coast still observe the tradition!"
Ross spoke with a smile.