Previous page password is bold portion: 89Ch8KiweS=+A
Translator: SumTLMan
“What in the world is this?!”
After Angel read it, he couldn’t help but twitch at the corners of his mouth. That initial “Ah” was indeed familiar.
Suppressing his overwhelming urge to criticize, he extracted useful information from this sentence. Aside from the typical “charlatan” tone of the Magic Painter, the most important thing was undoubtedly the so-called “treasure.”
Was the Magic Painter indicating that he had left a treasure here for others to find? What could this treasure be?
As Angel pondered, he suddenly noticed that the line of text left by the Magic Painter began to blur, like ink spreading in water, gradually becoming indistinct. When it reached a certain limit of obscurity, the murky water began to slowly condense and darken, eventually forming a new line of text on the paper door.
“The treasure, I did leave there. However, without the key, it cannot be opened~”
Angel looked at this line of text, silent, waiting to see if there would be any more changes.
Sure enough, not half a minute later, the text disappeared and then reappeared.
“Do you want to know where the key is?”
Angel continued to wait. Since the Magic Painter had posed this question, he should soon answer it.
However, Angel had underestimated the Magic Painter’s lack of integrity. After a full ten minutes, the question “Do you want to know where the key is?” still hadn’t disappeared.
Looking at this line of text, Angel felt a surge of frustration, an impulse to burn the paper door.
Without a doubt, the Magic Painter was not planning to answer. He simply raised a question to pique curiosity and then left it unanswered, to annoy the reader.
This malice was already evident from the previous line, “However, without the key, it cannot be opened~.” In the common language of the continent, there’s a specific term for “circus audience watching a clown’s performance with a mocking attitude.” This term consists of three structural components: subjective intention, content, and emotion. And in this line of text, the structural component that expresses emotion was deliberately chosen and placed at the end of the sentence.
Clearly, the Magic Painter, through this structural component, expressed his malicious pleasure: “I am enjoying the show.”
The Magic Painter deliberately told the successor that he had hidden a treasure here, but this treasure could only be opened with a corresponding key, which he refused to reveal.
This was his way of enjoying the show.
Angel clenched his fists and took a deep breath.
The Magic Painter was consistently detestable and annoying, leaving behind his mocking words across vast spaces and long times, to express his wicked sense of humor.
“This tone is really irritating.” Angel paused, narrowing his eyes, “But as for the key you mentioned, I actually do have one. I just don’t know if it’s the one that opens your treasure.”
Angel snorted coldly, not wanting to face this mocking question any longer, and turned to leave.
While walking away, Angel left behind special illusion nodes, not for defense, but simply to record his route. This was to avoid getting lost due to spatial separation or some kind of spatial displacement… Many novice adventurers exploring ancient ruins often got trapped in such places forever because they neglected these details.
Although this wasn’t a ruin, since it involved the Magic Painter’s work, who knew if he would leave any traps out of his peculiar sense of humor. Therefore, even walking required utmost caution.
Angel carefully continued along the narrow path. Not long after, the road ahead became even narrower, too small even for a miniature human form.
With no other choice, Angel transformed into a thin, long thread, weaving through a path as small as a needle’s eye.
The narrow path is not long, and within a few breaths, Angel sees light ahead.
However, this light is not the bright light of daylight, but a kind of orange-red bright color, a bit like the light of a flame burning.
Soon, Angel climbs near the cave entrance. Near the entrance, he once again sees the handiwork of the Magic Painter Wizard.
On both sides of the cave wall, there are a large number of patterns, still the kind that have no energy fluctuations but definitely have some special effects.
When the threads touch these patterns, there is a cool sensation.
After reaching the cave entrance, Angel looks out from it and sees all orange-red. Angel tries to use his mental power to probe but finds it confined, unable to reach outside the cave, probably due to the effect of the patterns on the cave walls.
After thinking, since he can’t use mental power to probe outside, he decides to go out and see.
After all, he has already reached this point and eventually needs to go out.
With certainty in his mind, Angel quickly moves and squeezes out through the small cave entrance.
The moment the threads leave the entrance, Angel finds his mental power usable again and simultaneously senses the surrounding environment.
Around him is a vast expanse of scorched earth.
Moreover, it is the kind of scorched earth where flames are surging up from underground and are still burning.
Earlier, Angel saw the orange-red light and guessed whether it was fire, and indeed it was. The position where Angel emerged faced a fiery crack, so looking out from the cave entrance, it was all orange-red.
The temperature of these flames is extremely high, and even with his innate mental power for protection, Angel still feels the intense heat.
Angel quickly controls his ‘thread’ body to retreat a few steps and floats back onto a large rock.
After landing on the rock, Angel returns to his true form and puts on a high-temperature resistant wizard robe.
As soon as he regains his form, Angel smells a strong sulfur odor in the air, not coming from afar but enveloping the entire region.
In this pungent air, Angel instinctively raises a purification barrier.
At the moment the purification barrier expands, a large amount of flame rises around him.
Angel looks dumbfounded at the flames burning around him and initially doesn’t understand what’s happening, until he senses the surrounding energy and suddenly realizes.
The air is filled with an extreme concentration of the power of fire elements!
What is extreme? It means that just by activating the purification barrier, the friction between energies makes the fire elements unstable and bursts out a large amount of flame in an instant!
Previously, in the mushroom forest of the Doreen Flower Garden, Angel encountered a lava lake, which was the full power of Reeves.
Reeves, as a fire-element genius wizard, created the lava lake with energy enough to give birth to numerous fire-element creatures. Yet even so, comparing that lava lake with the current environment, the latter seems to be even more intense.
Here, just the fire elements contained in the air are much higher than the lava lake formed by Reeves!
“Is this the Tidal Realm?” Angel looks around and murmurs softly.
Feeling the terrifying power of the fire elements in the air, Angel seems to understand why the Old Land Continent has no elemental power… Perhaps all the elemental power has been redirected to this world.
Although he only sees the power of fire elements here, Angel clearly remembers that the map of the Tidal Realm depicts a large number of elemental creatures. It’s hard to determine the specific element type just from the patterns, but there’s certainly more than just fire elements.
The Tidal Realm surely has other places like this, possessing other elemental powers.
The mystery of the disappearance of the elements in the Old Land Continent, this lingering task among various wizard organizations, may finally have an answer.
The existence of the Tidal Realm is the answer.
……
Angel let out a long sigh, shifting his gaze from the vast land flames around him to the large rock at his feet.
This rock was enormous, resembling a small hill.
On this rock, there was a clearly painted pattern with colorful pigments. It depicted a monkey covered in black flames, crouching, with black gems hanging from its earlobes.
Angel’s focus on this image of the black fire monkey was for two reasons.
First, the hole Angel emerged from was right on the ear pendant of the black fire monkey. The hole was incredibly small and easy to overlook. Angel was able to find it immediately because he had left an illusion node in the hole.
Second, the pattern of this black fire monkey had appeared on the map of the Tidal Realm.
Angel walked over to the vicinity of the monkey’s ear pendant, crouched down, and gently touched the hole, feeling a faint, unusual aura at its mouth.
Recalling the icy coolness of the cave walls and contrasting it with the heat outside, he roughly understood the function of the wall patterns… maintaining a constant temperature and concealing abnormal auras.
After memorizing the location of the hole, Angel stood up to observe the pattern of the black fire monkey, clearly the work of the Magic Painter Wizard.
He remembered that on the top right side of the Tidal Realm map, there was an area outlined by dashed lines, and the representative elemental creature inside was this black fire monkey.
So, was he currently located on the top right side of the map?
Angel wasn’t sure if his deduction was accurate, but it was all he had to go on for now.
Even if he could determine his location on the map, where should he go now?
Should he search for the treasure left by Feng? But on the Tidal Realm map Feng left behind, it only divided various areas with dashed lines, indicating the representative elemental creatures, without marking where the treasure was.
After some thought, Angel decided to first explore the surrounding area, having confirmed the location of the hole.
Angel didn’t take out the ostentatious Gondola, but instead lightly tapped his foot, using the power of the Dark Night Flyover to hover in mid-air.
He had intended to get an overview of the surroundings, but upon flying up and looking down, he realized that everything below was covered in rolling grey-black smoke, like clouds that had fallen to the earth, obscuring any view.
Regretfully, Angel looked around, finding no useful information, but he did see a group of birds burning with fierce flames, circling in a ring at some distance in the sky.
Flame birds… Although Angel only saw them from afar, he was almost certain of their identity.
They must be elemental creatures.
If the lava lakes created by Reeves could birth numerous elemental creatures, then this place, with even denser fire elements than the lava lakes, would undoubtedly give birth to a multitude of elemental creatures.
The reason Angel chose to come to the Tidal Realm, apart from exploring the legacy of the Magic Painter wizard, was also because there might be a large number of elemental creatures here, and he might be able to capture a suitable elemental companion.
“Is there something over there?” Angel wondered curiously. Why were the flame birds circling there? Was there something below them?
Since Angel is currently unsure where to go next, a visit to this place seems harmless, and might even lead to some clues.
After all, this is a new world, and Angel cannot be certain of its absolute safety. Therefore, to be cautious, he did not fly directly there, but instead landed, concealing his presence, and approached from the ground.
Having confirmed the direction, Angel stepped over the Scorched Earth and Flames on the ground, moving towards the distance.
The scorched land was vast, riddled with fissures, and the steaming heat distorted the air everywhere.
Angel walked for a while without seeing an end. Along the way, he observed several lakes of bubbling lava and some bizarre, fiery elemental creatures.
These fire elementals were not newly born; they looked formidable and not easily provoked.
For example, to Angel’s left front, there was a six-tailed fox made of purple flames, coiled in a narrow crevice, enjoying the impact of the flames as if bathing.
This leisurely-looking six-tailed fox, however, radiated a terrifying power of fire.
In terms of the level of fire alone, the purple flame of this six-tailed fox was almost on par with the strongest alchemical fire spell Angel currently mastered.
This creature was undoubtedly a half-step wizard level elemental being.
While it appeared to be just half-step wizard level, elemental creatures differed from wizard apprentices, being nearly impervious to physical attacks from the material world and immune to most forms of energy. Even if ten peak apprentices challenged it, they would likely not surpass this single fox.
Its strength was certainly not to be underestimated.
Even Eremy, hidden in the shadows, began to stir at the sight.
Angel signaled Eremy to stay calm. Though he intended to capture elemental creatures, he wasn’t going to act recklessly. This six-tailed fox was impressive, but there might be better ones.
Moreover, his primary aim now was scouting for information, not capturing.
With this in mind, Angel continued forward, bypassing the six-tailed fox while concealing his presence.
Unbeknownst to Angel, after he left, the six-tailed fox raised its head from its coiled position, watching his retreating figure thoughtfully. A hint of contemplation sparkled in its purple fiery eyes.
Subsequently, sparks began to rise from the fox’s body, carried away into the distance by the billowing smoke.