Chapter: Chapter 483
Under normal circumstances, with Bai Ling’s trash-tier physique and defense, she would be injured after a few hits, and her sustained combat ability would naturally be insufficient.
So this guy is a theoretical war god, incredibly strong in an ideal state, but where would such an ideal state come from? Unless, as in the plan being discussed, Leticia could create such an ideal state for her.
“Okay, the operational plan is decided. We’ll rest for a day, and then we’ll start our real special training tomorrow,” Infernal clapped her hands, finalizing the plan.
“OK.”
“Good.”
…
While Leticia and Bai Ling were personally tutored by Infernal, Linglong had secretly brought the divine artifact to the northern region of the great plains.
To maintain secrecy, she hadn’t brought many of her kin this time, with only three elite members of the dragon race, including herself.
“Finally, we’ve reached the northern region, but the difference between here and the eastern and southern regions is quite significant,” Linglong murmured, gazing at the continuous mountain ranges before her.
The northern region was covered in mountains. Though referred to as a great plain, it was more like a mountainous area, making it considerably difficult for beasts other than avian beasts to survive here.
On the ground, paths were almost impossible for people to traverse, but avian beasts were unaffected by these factors because they possessed the ability to soar high in the sky.
Even avian beasts not adept at flying could tame the flying magical beasts found everywhere in the northern region and make them their mounts.
These avian beasts could be considered experts in taming flying magical beasts.
However, beasts in other regions were more skilled at taming terrestrial magical beasts than avian beasts, so each had their own strengths.
“Let’s advance on the ground. This way, we can minimize the chance of being spotted by these avian beasts,” Linglong had inquired about the habits of these sky-dwelling beasts before arriving in the northern region, knowing they disliked living on the ground.
Most of the beast tribes in the northern region were located on the mountainsides and peaks. Tribes at the foot of the mountains were generally weaker or marginalized tribes, and Linglong wasn’t particularly afraid of such tribes.
With her current strength, at worst, she could eliminate all witnesses, thus achieving a perfect infiltration.
How strong could the tribes exiled to the ground be? If there were any beastmen strong enough to rival Linglong, they wouldn’t have settled at the foot of the mountains.
The mountains in the northern region were mostly extremely steep, and their heights were far greater than the Sleeping Dragon Mountains in the southern region. Compared to the northern mountains, the Sleeping Dragon Mountains were an insult to the word “mountain.”
Perhaps due to their more northerly location, the vegetation in the northern region also differed from other parts of the great plains… Towering trees were the dominant flora here.
Looking up at the green canopy that almost entirely blocked the sky above, a hint of surprise flashed in Linglong’s eyes. She had never encountered such a forest before; this northern region was indeed vastly different from other parts of the great plains.
“I wonder if the wild beasts here are as hospitable as those in the Sleeping Dragon Mountains,” Linglong released her senses but found no beasts within her range of perception.
Oh, no, it should be said that there were no aggressive beasts present.
A few deer were drinking water by a stream, and a rabbit was nibbling on grass stems on the ground. Those within her perception were basically herbivores; she wondered where the predators had gone.
Strange, it couldn’t be that they had fled, right?
Linglong’s guess was correct; those predators had indeed fled. After all, Linglong’s aura was no different from that of an ordinary dragon, and it was even more oppressive than that of a typical dragon.
Even though they had never encountered a true dragon, the instincts buried deep within their bloodlines urged them to stay away from Linglong’s vicinity.
To these wild beasts, competing for prey with dragons was akin to seeking death. They didn’t want to die, so they chose to avoid her.
Thus, Linglong and her group continued to explore northward. Their progress was swift. Even when not flying, the speed of dragons traversing the ground was on a level that ordinary beasts could only dream of.
Leticia would guide Linglong in a direction every half day. After several changes in direction, Linglong arrived at a stone temple that appeared to have been abandoned for a long time.
By this time, it had been four days since she entered the northern region.
A dark spatial rift opened beside Linglong, and Leticia, with a few light bruises on her face, grinned as she emerged from the divine artifact’s space.
She had no aura whatsoever. If Linglong hadn’t actually seen her, she wouldn’t have even realized someone else was there.
“Leti? Why can’t I sense your aura?”
“It’s an invisibility spell. This is Huang’s stronghold; I can’t just come out with my aura, can I? It’s best not to disturb that guy,” Leticia scratched her head and offered a simple explanation.
She hadn’t really wanted to come out, but the abandoned temple now contained Huang’s aura. Although faint, it was indeed present.
Linglong’s combat power among the younger generation was decent, but facing a deity, even if it was just a deity’s residual will, she would be like a helpless little lamb.
After all, she was still just an ordinary mortal girl.
“You all stay here. I’ll go in and take a look,” Leticia casually drew a circle around Linglong and the other three, protecting these brave young dragons.
Then, she stepped towards the abandoned temple before them.
The temple was not large, and the statue enshrined within seemed to be made of stone. Under the erosion of time, it had become unrecognizable.
It resembled a bird. Leticia looked up at the statue, thinking this was probably one of Huang’s temples. After Huang’s death, this temple was abandoned and forgotten.
“However… this place is a bit too clean.” Leaning down, Leticia lightly brushed her finger across the ground and noticed something amiss seeing the thin layer of dust on her hand.
If no one had been there for a very long time, the dust on the ground would not be so little.
Someone had been here recently and had even cleaned the place, Leticia concluded.
So, who would come to this abandoned temple and clean it? It goes without saying, it must be Huang’s followers.
Most people would turn around and run from such a gloomy and terrifying place, let alone come in and clean it.
What would those followers be doing here?
They wouldn’t possibly see a temple here, come to visit, realize it was their leader’s temple, and then clean it up, would they?
Honestly, even followers wouldn’t likely search for their deity’s abandoned temple in such a secluded, deserted deep mountain forest, would they? Leticia felt these followers must have had other intentions for coming here.
For example, setting up a magic array node or something like that.
“As expected, there’s something underground,” Leticia covered the ground with her palm and closed her eyes to sense for a while. She quickly discovered a magic array node buried deep underground.
This node was buried so deeply that ordinary people wouldn’t notice anything existing so deep underground. Unfortunately, it encountered Leticia, the world’s only master of magic, and was instantly exposed.
The soil beneath her feet quickly softened and separated, and Leticia plunged into the earth, heading rapidly towards the magic array node she sensed.
About a minute later, Leticia arrived in an underground cavity that was clearly not naturally formed. The magic array node she sensed was located there.
“Oh, what a grand gesture,” Leticia exclaimed with a “tsk tsk” as she looked down at the golden-red patterns covering the entire underground cavity and a golden feather protected by the golden-red patterns in the center.
The deity’s aura she sensed was likely emanating from this feather.
Was it taken from Huang’s corpse?
Leticia remembered the illusion she saw after drinking a mouthful of divine blood—that golden, mountain-sized giant bird. Its feathers should be this large.
“It’s just a relay node; its purpose is to transmit energy further north.” Soon, Leticia figured out the specific function of this magic array. This was merely a transfer station, used only to transport energy transmitted from the eastern region further north.
This meant that Huang’s eternal resting place was further north.
With a slight swipe of her finger on her divine artifact bracelet, Leticia summoned Bai Ling from the divine artifact’s space.
After a few days of special training, Bai Ling now possessed a sharp sword aura, and her eyes glinted with a sharp light. She was like an emotionless sword. “Is it okay to come out now?”
“It’s just the two of us, don’t worry.” Leticia shrugged. She had come out alone earlier for this very reason.
Having unleashed too many powerful attacks in the past few days, Bai Ling was again having some trouble controlling her power. She was like a leaking balloon, releasing stellar energy to the outside.
To put it in more layman’s terms, Bai Ling had been leaving the faucet on all the time, and now the faucet wouldn’t turn off properly, so water was leaking uncontrollably.
Looking at the swirling stellar light effect around Bai Ling, Leticia sighed helplessly. This was the first time either she or Bai Ling had experienced this.
Who would have thought that Bai Ling would have such a problem after fighting at full strength for a period of time?
In the past, Bai Ling always settled fights quickly. If she used her full strength, it was usually a swift victory or a swift defeat; it was impossible for the fights to drag on for a long time.
Not to mention that for the past few days, she started unleashing powerful attacks as soon as she opened her eyes and continued until evening before resting. After several days like this, the problems that had gone unnoticed before began to surface one by one.
“Cut this thing for me. If I do it, Huang might find out,” Leticia said, pointing at the golden feather in the center of the underground cavity.
“A three-dimensional magic array? Are there magic arrays that look like this?”
“Indeed, there are, but they are rarely used now. Only very powerful magic arrays use this format, and the difficulty for the caster is several times that of a planar magic array,” Leticia nodded and explained, “Moreover, compared to planar magic arrays, three-dimensional magic arrays are easily affected by various external factors and are not very practical.”
The spatial imagination abilities of mages were limited. Planar magic arrays could already stump many people, let alone three-dimensional magic arrays.
The person who set up this three-dimensional magic array here must have been someone with a very high level of magical attainment… It was truly a rare thing for the beastmen race to have such a magical genius.
“However, it’s also easy to destroy. Just cut that feather with one sword. Without this thing, the magic array will naturally collapse.”
“Okay, then step aside. I can’t control the power of my current sword,” Bai Ling summoned her Star Sword and assumed an attacking posture.
The Star Sword let out a somewhat weary hum, as if it too couldn’t withstand the continuous full-power operation for days.
The familiar money-burning effect appeared in the underground cavity. Bai Ling stood in place, charging her power for about half a minute, then swung her sword.
“What the heck, why are you using full power?!” Leticia exclaimed as she watched the incredibly brilliant stream of starlight surge towards the weak, pitiable, and helpless golden feather.
Is it necessary to use full power on this little thing?!
“Eh?!” Bai Ling was also taken aback, then her face blushed slightly, and her gaze began to wander. “I accidentally used full power.”
It had become muscle memory over the past few days; as soon as she moved, she attacked with full power. This time, she hadn’t corrected it.
“It should be fine, right?”
“It shouldn’t be a big problem, just that the commotion might be a bit large…” Leticia’s mouth twitched slightly as she watched the stream of starlight pulverize the golden magic array.
The golden feather, bathed in starlight, lasted for about ten breaths before being assimilated by the starlight and disappearing without a trace.
Having dealt with the hardest bone, the stream of starlight released by Bai Ling continued forward, rampaging underground for several kilometers before its momentum weakened and slowly faded.
Fortunately, it was underground, and the large amount of soil and rocks blocked the stream of starlight’s advance. If it had been released into the sky above, it was likely that all the beastmen in the northern region would have witnessed this unique sight.
“It’s so clean… truly not a trace left behind,” Leticia’s mouth couldn’t help but twitch as she looked at the underground space swept clean by the starlight.
It was cleaned remarkably thoroughly, much more so than she had imagined. Now, only Bai Ling’s stellar sword aura remained in this place. Even if someone discovered that this place had been destroyed, they wouldn’t immediately connect it to her.
I, Leticia, am the God of Dreams moonlighting as the Dragon God. This stellar sword aura clearly has nothing to do with me!
As for who destroyed this place, who knows? Perhaps it was some kind-hearted person who couldn’t stand injustice and drew their sword, right?
