“I guess,” Einen continued, “that these kinds of stones must form in spirits far above the Lord level.”
“Above the Lord level,” Hadjar repeated, shaking his head. “I don’t even know the name of the first level above the Lord level. And I don’t really want to imagine how powerful a creature that produces this sort of stone is.”
“I doubt that little Serra gave this to you... for no reason.”
“It was a gift,” Hadjar said.
“You know what I mean, barbarian.”
When Einen used the inoffensive term ‘barbarian’, it was clear that he was very annoyed. However, his annoyance was understandable. The situation was quite stressful and frightening, after all. They’d fallen through the bottom of a lake and landed in this strange region. They didn’t know whether they’d passed through a portal or ended up in a world inside their world. Or maybe it was an incredibly huge cave. Then they’d fought against two monsters that could’ve destroyed Lidus or Balium...
And now they’d learned that Serra had given Hadjar an Energy Stone of immense power. It wasn’t surprising that the head of the Auction House of Underworld City hadn’t been able to name its price. He most likely hadn’t been able to determine how valuable a resource it was.
“Maybe she gave you the key to Mage City,” Einen suggested hopefully.
Hadjar mulled that over for a moment. How easy things would be if that were true.
“I don’t think so,” Hadjar sighed. “Given everything we’ve learned, we can be certain that she’s the Key. She’s not a human being, not a living thing at all, but a mage-created golem.”
“I wonder why they didn’t make her strong enough to handle the likes of Sankesh.”
“We can try to figure out the motives of the extinct civilization later,” Hadjar grinned.
He agreed with Sankesh on one thing: if Mage City had been obliterated, it had deserved such a fate. If they’d really been as unique and omnipotent as the legends claimed, then marauders wouldn’t have been looking for the entrance to their city right now.
“You’re right, my friend, let’s cross that bridge when we get to it.” Einen rolled up his blanket and put it under his head. Hugging his staff, he breathed calmly. “At the moment, we just know that we have an artifact that’s probably connected to Mage City somehow.”
The islander soon fell asleep. At their level of power, sleep was rarely needed, and in most cases, it could be replaced by deep meditation. However, when the need arose, a practitioner instinctively fell into a deep slumber. It probably wasn’t necessary at all after one advanced to the Heaven Soldier level, or after they reached the Spirit Knight level, surely. Hadjar had heard people say that Lords could go months without food or water and remain in seclusion for decades.
Hadjar cracked his aching neck and glanced at Karissa and Tilis. He wasn’t interested in either of them, but the fact that he hadn’t been with a woman in… By the Evening Stars, it’s been far too long!
Parodying Nero’s tone in his head, Hadjar promised himself that, as soon as he got out of the desert, he would visit a brothel right away to soothe his soul, nerves, and sate his natural sexual needs. Smiling after he made the decision, Hadjar was about to follow his friend’s example, but as he lay down on the sand, he turned and the Patriarch’s ring pressed against his chest.
Pulling out the leather strap from underneath his clothes, Hadjar looked around. No one seemed to be watching him. It was unlikely that anyone but Einen would’ve been able to identify the ring anyway. It was too valuable by the standards of this land. Even in the Imperial capital, spatial rings weren’t exactly common, let alone in the Sea of Sand. Deep in thought, he sniffed.
A few years ago, Serra’s homeland had seemed to him like a huge world filled with strong cultivators and great danger. Now he looked down on this place. Then again, he’d earned the right to do so, as Hadjar was now able to fight on equal terms with Heaven Soldiers at the lower stages of the level.
If he were to face the Patriarch of ‘The Black Gates’ sect now, he wouldn’t need the neural network to defeat the maniac. Perhaps he could even defeat him with less than ten attacks. Using the Call, he wouldn’t need more than three.
Steeling his resolve with such thoughts, he looked at the ring. The World River appeared before his eyes, and a complex pattern made up of threads of energy appeared. A year and a half ago, just a glimpse of it had given Hadjar a terrible headache, and he’d nearly lost his mind. Now, even though he had a headache, he could withstand the pressure of the pattern on his mind. After his impromptu practice using Glen, whose energy patterns had looked hundreds of times more complex than the ring’s, Hadjar decided to take a risk.
It was considered impossible to re-bind such an artifact if you weren’t a Heaven Soldier, but Hadjar had gotten used to proving that everything was possible if a person tried hard enough.
He pictured himself holding a needle, which formed much faster this time. Since he was still being affected by the drug he’d taken (it would certainly cause the most unpleasant side effects later but he didn’t care), his nodes were working like pumps.
Hadjar, biting his lip as he concentrated, began to gradually change the pattern. He easily singled out the piece responsible for binding the ring to the Patriarch. It looked like the emblem of ‘The Black Gates’ sect and, apparently, no one else could ‘open’ the ring because of it.
At first, everything progressed smoothly and Hadjar even had time to rejoice and relax, but then he suddenly felt a sharp prick near his temple. He didn’t need to open his eyes to know he’d just spat out some blood.
The accursed ring was resisting! The pattern seemed to bristle with sharp blades, which were trying to cut into Hadjar’s mind.
It was clear that trying to re-bind the ring could prove to be deadly, but Hadjar had a feeling that this artifact wouldn’t only help him get to Mage City, but would also save his life at some point.
Hadjar Darkhan won’t capitulate to a goddamned ring!
Hadjar continued to push onward.
Chapter 387
The seal resisted so desperately that it didn’t seem like just an artifact, but a cultivator fearing for their life. Hadjar was frowning as he kept spitting out blood. In the world of energies, he frantically fought against the shield that the seal had erected to turn him away.
A copy of Mountain Wind, replacing the needle in his hands, flashed with incredible speed. Hadjar kept hitting the energy shield with it. It trembled and sometimes even cracked, but the harder Hadjar attacked, the more effort he put in, the more the seal resisted. Sharp blades shot out from the shield, striking at Hadjar’s soul.
Hadjar didn’t give up. His eyes flared brighter with each new wound. An angry dragon raged within them, and it wasn’t clear what caused the shield to bend further — his insane rage or his sword.
“I defeated you in life,” Hadjar growled, battering the emblem of ‘The Black Gates’ sect, “I won’t lose to your remnant!”
Imagining the miniature black dragon waking up in his soul, Hadjar called on the black blade. He combined his two swords into one and, after adding his Call to the attack, delivered a powerful blow to the seal.