Chapter 996: Control Center
With the power of the curse that could break the World Laws, the King of Curses could still pose a great threat to the Sanctuary Masters who were at higher levels than it, even though it was of a lower level.
Lin Li was well aware of the terror of the King of Curses. If he had met the King of Curses previously, his only choice would have been to run away. However, Lin Li now wanted to find a chance to verify how much more combat power the gains that he had made in the Well of the Sun could give him.
Hence, after hearing Donald’s call for help, Lin Li did not just stand at the side and do nothing. The seven pieces of the debris of the stars flew out one after another, immediately forming a large Domain World that slammed down on the enemies.
In the blink of an eye, the Legendary-level Vengeful Spirits and the large Alchemy Colossuses were left with no means to resist against the Domain World. They were almost reduced to pieces under the pressure of the power of the world. The King of Curses also exerted its Power of Curses, and caused a large amount of cold, chilly air to seep into Lin Li’s Domain World in an attempt to disintegrate it.
However, after getting the Immortal King’s memory fragments and restoring the power of the seven pieces of the debris of the stars, Lin Li had already reached the peak of level-26. The Domain World that he had created had evolved into a world of endless vitality, and had become incredibly solid with the support of the power of the seven pieces of the debris of the stars. If Lin Li’s current Domain World were to collide with the Immortal King’s incarnation’s Domain World again, it would definitely not collapse that easily even if it could not get the upper hand.
Lin Li did not immediately kill the King of Curses, and instead carefully tried to sense the effects of the Power of Curses on his Domain World. Exploiting the Power of Curses, he found some minor flaws of the debris of the stars, and corrected them before pointing his finger and causing the seven pieces of the debris of the stars to suddenly speed up and revolve quickly, wiping out the King of Curses completely.
As the King of Curses vanished, the people of the teams of the Brilliance Shrine and the Rotterdam Kingdom finally regained their mobility. However, Archbishop Martin and the others remained still, dumbfounded and unresponsive to everything around them. All they could think about was the scene of Lin Li killing the King of Curses just now.
Although Archbishop Martin was only at the peak of the Legendary-level, he was extremely knowledgeable, and had developed great discernment after following Pope Rosario for so many years. Hence, after just taking one look, he immediately sensed that Lin Li’s power had already changed drastically against when he first entered the Central Tower.
He stepped into the Sanctuary-realm at such a young age, and advanced to another level in the blink of an eye. Is he still human!? What does that make us!?
Even the mild-mannered Archbishop Martin somehow felt angry and anguished at this moment. Did he live all his life in vain!?
On the other hand, Donald and Kanber were elated to have survived, but they also finally knew that Lin Li had not got harmed during the final battle at the Well of the Sun. Instead, he made a huge breakthrough in strength, and that made them finally give up their plans. They just wanted to leave the Sky Castle as soon as possible and get away from the psychopath.
However, Donald knew very well in his heart that before leaving this place, he still had to rely on Lin Li’s protection. Hence, he moved closer to Lin Li with grat.i.tude on his face, and said, “Master Felic, it’s all thanks to your help this time, otherwise all of us would have been buried here.”
“Alright, cut it out and go find what you’re looking for, there’s still work to be done,” Lin Li urged nonchalantly with a wave of his hand. To him, the grat.i.tude of cannon fodder was worthless, and the value of cannon fodder lay in the fact that they could be used at the most crucial and suitable juncture.
Donald and the others were not bothered by Lin Li’s urging, and instead were rather relieved because that showed that Lin Li did not seem to care much about the item that they were looking for.
Soon, the members of the Rotterdam Kingdom’s team entered the control center, and found a metal box that contained a thick journal. It was rumored to be the notes that the Immortal King had taken when studying alchemy.
Donald initially planned to tempt Angelano with the notes in a bid to get him, the Master of Alchemy, to join the Rotterdam Kingdom.
However, Angelano merely took a few glances at the notes before tossing the journal back at them. When Donald was busy picking up the notes, Angelano disdainfully said, “This is just some low-level alchemy information, and yet you people treat it like a treasure.”
It turned out that although those alchemy notes indeed belonged to the Immortal King, they were notes that he had taken down when he first started studying alchemy. It was likely that one of the ancestors of the royal family of the Rotterdam Kingdom back then had secretly taken away that journal using his authority, which the Immortal King might have forgotten about. However, it was, after all, the Immortal King’s belonging, and the ancestor didn’t dare to take it away openly. Instead, he left it in the room of the control center, but when he finally left, he did not have the chance to take it away, thus leaving behind that information for his descendants.
The real journal that recorded the highest alchemical achievements of the Immortal King was actually the one that the Ashen Warlock had given to Lin Li. It contained the information about the creation of the perfect body. If the ancestor of the Rotterdam Kingdom had stolen that journal back then, the entire Rotterdam Kingdom would have probably incurred the wrath of the Immortal King.
Hence, given Angelano’s Guru-level attainments in creating Alchemy Colossus, he naturally was not impressed by such an elementary item. However, what was elementary in Angelano’s eyes was actually considered profound to the people of the Rotterdam Kingdom. After just flipping through a few pages, Donald was already certain that the content of the journal was enough to allow the Rotterdam Kingdom, which had reached a bottleneck, to achieve a huge breakthrough in alchemy.
Finally, Donald and Kanber heaved sighs of relief because the value of the alchemical notes was enough to make up for the losses that they had suffered during the expedition. Besides, the two of them were almost certain that they would obtain a boost in status after returning to the Rotterdam Kingdom.
After achieving their expedition goals, the members of the teams from the Brilliance Shrine and the Rotterdam Kingdom all wanted to leave this h.e.l.lhole. However, it was not up to them. Although they had already found what they wanted, getting out of here alive in the end still depended on the Tower of Dusk’s opinion.
“Master Felic, I wonder what your goal of the expedition this time is. As long as you need our help, we will definitely do our best to a.s.sist you.” After Donald put away the alchemy journal, he immediately ran to Lin Li to ostensibly show his loyalty, but in reality, those were just nice words which he did not really mean.
Of course, Donald didn’t know that they had already acted as Lin Li’s cannon fodder several times throughout the journey, and they even had to continue being his cannon fodder.
Lin Li didn’t explain to them what his goal was, but after the team was reorganized, he brought them straight to the underground central area where there was a large Teleportation Portal that led to the top floor of the Central Tower. It was also the same floor where the control crystal was placed.
Actually, the real control center of the Sky Castle was the topmost floor of the Central Tower where the Sky Castle was controlled using the control crystal. The underground control crystal was just auxiliary. Under circ.u.mstances where there were no control crystals, it would allow one to obtain a basic control of the Sky Castle.
Archbishop Martin and Donald and the others were already very familiar with the structure of the Sky Castle. Hence, when they saw that Lin Li was going to the real control center, they couldn’t help but be a little surprised. At the same time, they made some unbelievable guesses too.
Could it be that his real purpose for coming here was not to find any treasure, but to gain control of the entire Sky Castle!? Archbishop Martin and the others were in disbelief at that thought.
However, they thought about how Lin Li had no intention of exploring the other areas of the Sky Castle during the initial cooperation, and instead had his sights fixed on the Central Tower. That seemed to confirm Archbishop Martin’s conjecture. Moreover, they also knew that Lin Li had already taken away the valuable things in the Central Tower when he had first explored the Sky Castle. If it wasn’t for gaining control of the Sky Castle, why would he bother making another trip to the Sky Castle?
At this moment, Donald and the others also finally reacted. They finally realized why the Tower of Dusk’s team did not want anything when they were discussing the cooperation. It made them feel as if they were there to have fun. It turned out that it was because they were not impressed by those items at all. They wanted the entire Sky Castle.
Frankly, Lin Li’s ambition scared Donald and the others, who were well aware of the power of the Sky Castle but never had the intention of taking it for themselves. It was not that they did not want it, but rather that they had the self-awareness that they could not swallow it at all with their small amount of power. Besides, even if they had what it took, it would be impossible for the Rotterdam Kingdom to encroach on the entire Sky Castle.
Besides, that point was also proven along the way. Even if the Rotterdam Kingdom had sent their large armies, they would not have been able to survive the battle against the Undead World and pa.s.s the barrier of the Well of the Sun. Donald knew very well that he and the others had made it that far because of Lin Li, the young President of the Tower of Dusk.
It was way too terrifying for them. What kind of force was the Tower of Dusk? They had a young President with a bunch of Legendary-level monsters under him. Now, he even wanted to gain control of the Sky Castle! Donald no longer dared to imagine what a terrifying existence such a mysterious and powerful force would become if it were to acquire the Sky Castle.
In the blink of an eye, the expedition had already left the underground s.p.a.ce through the Teleportation Portal, and reached the top floor of the Central Tower. The s.p.a.ce on this floor was just as s.p.a.cious as before, with no redundant decorations, except a pyramid-shaped crystal platform that wasn’t very tall on the ground in the center of the s.p.a.ce.
Looking at the control panel in front of him, Lin Li couldn’t help but feel some excitement, but at the same time, he also had some doubts about the absence of Osric, who was hiding in an unknown place.
Now, Lin Li had to place the control crystal on the control platform before activating the control system of the entire Sky Castle. As long as he did that, the Sky Castle of the Immortal King would entirely belong to Lin Li. Even if Osric appeared, he would not be able to take the control away from Lin Li.
Although they had gone through various obstacles along the way, Lin Li still felt that things seemed to be going too smoothly when he looked at the control panel in front of him. It was such smooth-sailing that it was almost unbelievable.
However, no matter what, since they had already made it that far, Lin Li had no reason to give up. He couldn’t possibly wait for Osric to appear. If Osric had been held up by something, Lin Li would have wasted plenty of time by being wishy-washy. Of course, he still had to be careful when necessary as he did not want all his efforts to go in vain.
After getting the members of the expedition team to keep their guard up, Lin Li walked towards the control panel, and took out the control crystal from the Ring of Endless Storm.
However, when he reached the panel and reached out to place the control crystal in the groove, a figure suddenly appeared next to it at the speed of lightning. Before Lin Li could react, the figure had already attacked, and s.n.a.t.c.hed the control crystal from Lin Li.
Just as the figure appeared and s.n.a.t.c.hed the control crystal, a powerful, unparalleled magical wave erupted like a volcano, sweeping in all directions. Even Lin Li, the Sanctuary powerhouse who was at the peak of level-26, was blasted away.
Although they were far away from the control panel, the members of the expedition behind Lin Li were still swept away like leaves getting blown away by a strong gust of wind. They then fell to the ground groggily. Although the few remaining Alchemy Colossuses of the Rotterdam Kingdom were large in size, they were still rolling away like gourds and crushing people, producing new wounded.
Lin Li painstakingly regained his balance in the air before looking at the control panel, only to see Highlord Osric, whom he had always been worried about.
At this moment, Osric, who was holding the control crystal that he had just obtained, was staring at Lin Li, who was trying to regain his balance, with gloomy eyes. Strictly speaking, it was Lin Li’s first time meeting Osric. When Lin Li explored the Sky Castle for the first time, he only met the awakened Ghost.