Chapter 2229 Forbidden Peak <TOC> Chapter 2231 The Mysterious Rune Bearing Corner
Translator: SumTLMan
At the summit of Forbidden Peak, there exists a palace. Though its size is much smaller than the main peak’s palace, its style is uniform.
It still follows the style of the Central Empire on the Revelation Continent.
Initially, Angel thought it was a human construction imitated by Gentle Wind Uranos, but upon closer approach to Forbidden Peak, he discovered it was different.
Unlike the main peak palace’s apparent sky pavilion construction, the palace on Forbidden Peak is a very complete human-style building.
However, it still lacks a foundation.
Because this is a magical cottage.
This judgment is made because, as he approached, he felt traces of magic power flowing on the palace’s surface, and the bottom of the palace almost merges with the mountain’s summit boulders as one. Or rather, the palace was entirely sculpted out of the giant boulder.
These two signs are the typical elements of a magical cottage. The former is for shaping, and the latter for permanence, combining both to form a complete magical building.
However, magical cottages are usually used by wizards for temporary residence and are rarely deliberately shaped; they are generally just ordinary wooden houses. This saves on magic power and speeds up construction. Such a large palace-style magical cottage is rare because if one really wanted to live in a palace, it would be straightforward to construct it with earth and stone, allowing the palace to last for a long time; whereas, a magical cottage could collapse at any time if the magic power supply fails.
“Perhaps, this is Feng’s personal hobby?” Angel murmured to himself.
He could almost confirm that this magical cottage was likely Feng’s doing, as the essence of a magical cottage still requires manipulation of magic power, something elemental creatures cannot achieve without training.
However, Angel was curious, how did Feng manage to maintain the magical cottage for thousands of years?
Could it be that Feng buried a large number of magic crystals as an energy source?
With doubts, Angel stepped into the palace.
Upon entering, he immediately felt a faint, profound magic power pervading the interior, full of deep significance.
This magical aura seems calm and unremarkable at first glance, but upon closer examination, it reveals infinite subtlety, a higher level magical energy far beyond Angel’s understanding.
Just this aura alone made Angel more convinced that this could not have been created by elemental creatures; it must have been Feng’s own work.
Angel immersed himself in sensing the magic for a long time, aspiring to understand this higher level magical energy, but also aware that this was not something he could comprehend at his current realm. Perhaps only someone at Rhine’s level could perceive some meaning from this magic.
His immersion in sensing was not just for the magic but for another vaguely familiar aura within this magical aura.
Angel faintly sensed a mysterious aura.
Literally, the “mysterious” aura. The aura emanating from mysterious objects.
However, this mysterious aura is very faint, distinctly different from other mysterious objects’ auras. It somewhat resembles… the Prelude of Reincarnation.
Could it be that there’s a failed mysterious object here, a half-step mysterious?
Curiosity flashed in Angel’s eyes. Although a half-step mysterious object might be less functional compared to a mysterious object and come with significant restrictions, its existence is incredibly precious. Some half-step mysterious creations even have unique uses.
If indeed a half-step mysterious creation is found here, Angel would not miss the opportunity. After all, Feng’s schemes had him running in circles, taking something from him would serve as compensation.
He sensed for a few more minutes, all the while moving around inside the palace with his eyes closed, searching for the place where the mysterious aura was the strongest.
Finally, as he slowly moved forward and arrived at a certain spot in front of the palace, the aura of that mysterious aura suddenly intensified.
It was then that he slowly opened his eyes, and what he saw was… Gentle Wind Uranos.
To be precise, it was a colossal portrait of Gentle Wind Uranos.
Looking around, Angel confirmed that this was indeed the very front of the palace, which in similar palaces would be where the “throne” is located. However, instead of a throne, there was a mural here.
The artist of the portrait was undoubtedly Feng.
Upon closely observing the portrait, Angel noticed that Gentle Wind Uranos depicted in the portrait differed from the current Highness Gentle Wind.
The current Highness Gentle Wind, aside from having slightly sharper ears, is indistinguishable from humans.
However, Highness Gentle Wind in the portrait had only the upper half of a human form, with the lower half being pure white clouds. Moreover, his hair was unkempt, messy like an explosion, and his gaze was calm but lacked the gentle temperament seen today.
Overall, there was a significant difference from the clean and tidy Highness Gentle Wind of today.
Angel speculated that this might have been the appearance of Gentle Wind Uranos when Feng first encountered it? Perhaps after prolonged contact with Feng, Gentle Wind Uranos began to yearn for human civilization, thus constructing numerous human structures, and gradually changed his form to become more human-like, resulting in the current Uranos?
Angel made a casual guess and then cast it aside. Because these questions were not very important.
After observing the portrait, Angel extended his finger and conjured another image out of thin air, this time the Tidal Realm map that Feng had left for the Shannon Royal Family.
He materialized the map because when Feng drew it, he had sketched out the monarchs of each region at that time. For example, the Black Fire Monkey represented the former monarch of the Fire Domain——Flame Ruler Herodia.
And since the Great Calamity, the monarch of White Cloud Hamlet, presumably still under Gentle Wind Uranos, had not changed. Why, then, did Angel feel as if he had never seen this depiction of Gentle Wind Uranos on the map?
For this reason, he intended to compare the two.
Feng’s map-drawing skills were as lamentable as he himself had criticized, utterly terrible. Even with “Black Fire Monkey” as a reference, it took Angel a good while to pinpoint the location of White Cloud Hamlet on the map.
When he finally found the depiction of White Cloud Hamlet on the map, several lines of frustration appeared on Angel’s forehead.
Because Gentle Wind Uranos on the map was depicted as the upper half of a stick figure, with a few wisps of smoke that seemed to drift out of a chimney.
At first glance, one might think it was some new type of monster design; who could discern that this was Gentle Wind Uranos?!
No wonder Angel felt he had no recollection of this mural; Feng’s rendition on the map was nothing more than a doodle!
Compared to the Black Fire Monkey, Gentle Wind Uranos’s map depiction hardly deserved a name.
However, with the mural as a reference and then looking back at the “stick figure,” one could actually discern some semblance of the mural’s shape.
It was almost certain that the depiction of Gentle Wind Uranos drawn by Feng on the map corresponded to the mural in this palace.
“Even though Highness Gentle Wind is one of the three elemental monarchs you’ve been in contact with the longest, this is what you’ve drawn?” Angel couldn’t help but sigh.
After resolving his curiosity, Angel dismissed the map illusion and refocused his attention on the mural.
Before him, the mysterious aura he sensed emanated from the mural. Could this painting harbor some secret?
Angel’s mood suddenly surged with excitement.
Originally, the mural of the Black Fire Monkey concealed the door to the Tidal Realm. Because of this, Angel paid close attention to any murals left by Feng, yet the ones he encountered in the Wild Stone Wasteland and Toothpull Desert were just murals, devoid of any anomalies, leaving him quite disappointed. He had begun to think that only the Black Fire Monkey’s mural held any significance.
Now, a second mural that seemed to possess abnormalities had finally appeared.
This reignited Angel’s long-stagnant emotions with impatience.
To the naked eye, the mural appeared unremarkable. Therefore, Angel began to observe it through the lens of energy.
He carefully extended his mental power, feeling every inch of the mural.
After ten minutes, Angel discovered an anomaly, not knowing whether it was an unintended act by Feng or a twist of his dark humor. The anomaly was located in the… nostril of Gentle Wind Uranos.
Like the Black Fire Monkey’s mural, elemental energy passing over the nostril felt nothing unusual, only mental and magical powers could detect the difference.
This must be a special feature intentionally hidden from elemental creatures by Feng.
Upon closer examination, Angel found this anomaly to be a tiny passage.
Where it led remained unknown due to Feng’s shielding, but the mysterious aura he had sensed was indeed emanating from this passage.
Angel stared at the mural’s nostril, momentarily lost in thought. Upon entering the Tidal Realm initially, Feng had left a message on the door: “Ah, favored successors, do you seek my treasure? I’ve left it there~”
Could it be that this passage concealed Feng’s treasure? A magnum opus of near-mysterious quality?
With a mind full of questions, Angel began to construct an illusion transformation spell in his mental space. As the model of the spell activated, his body gradually shrank until it was small enough to enter the passage.
From Angel’s perspective, the nostril of Gentle Wind Uranos, which appeared small in its normal size, suddenly turned into a dark, expansive square.
With a sense of slight discomfort and a barrage of internal complaints about Feng’s madness, Angel approached the anomaly.
A gentle leap brought him into the passage behind the anomaly.
The passage was initially very narrow, but as Angel moved forward, it gradually widened. Moreover, the mysterious aura became increasingly intense.
Walking through the dark corridor, Angel remained on high alert while speculating about what lay at the end——
A room storing treasures? Or another passage to the Wizarding World?
What was the source of the mysterious aura? A true mysterious object, or something inherently obscure and mysterious?
The unknown ahead thrilled Angel, his eyes sparkling with anticipation for the “harvest” to come.
Minutes later, Angel reached the end of the passage without incident.
Upon discovering the truth at the end, Angel was stunned.
His speculations of a “2D world passage,” “treasure room,” or “mysterious object”… none were to be found.
At the end of the passage was a wall. On the wall, a dense array of lines was engraved.
Unlike the lines in the Black Fire Monkey’s passage, Angel recognized these lines, they were all runes.
Moreover, although the rune was densely drawn, its essence was not complex. Angel, even without fully examining the rune, deduced the true nature of this rune from the few at the end.
This was not a magic formation, but an individual rune.
The essence of the rune was unknown for the time being, but its final effect was to provide energy to the external structure.
In other words, the main function of this rune here was actually to maintain a continuous flow of energy in the external magical cottage, preventing it from collapsing.
This also explained Angel’s previous confusion: how has the magical cottage stood for thousands of years, and where did its energy come from?
It came from here.
However, when Angel deciphered the effect of the rune, he fell into another confusion: if this was the energy center that kept the magical cottage standing for a thousand years, what was the mysterious aura he had felt before?
With this question, Angel searched the area for a long time, hoping to find a hidden door or a special mechanism.
However, the result was disappointing. The place was empty, with no hidden spots. Freud had not left any items here. The only thing left was the rune on the wall.
Angel’s attention ultimately returned to the rune.
If there was no source of the mysterious aura elsewhere, the only possibility was that it originated from this rune.
But how could a rune emit a mysterious aura?
With this question, Angel sat down on the spot and conjured a table, chair, and paper with an illusion spell.
He was ready to confront the rune on the wall.
Holding the paper and pen, Angel began to analyze the rune on the wall. As a master in enchantment and alchemy, Angel quickly located the beginning of the rune.
He planned to start from the beginning and dissect the entire rune bit by bit to see what secrets it hid.
As time slowly passed, the more Angel analyzed the rune, the stranger he found it.
It was not that the rune was too profound, but that it was too simplistic.
It was so naive that it seemed like it was drawn by a novice rune apprentice.
The corners of the rune, the lines of the rune, are all the language of the rune. The corners, lines, and energy must be matched with each other to make the language of the rune more accurate.
For example, a levitation rune requires a multitude of rune bearing corner combinations, including: interference elimination, energy interface, atmosphere, force, stability, etc., involving hundreds of rune combinations before the rune can take effect.
There are many combinations of runes, and they vary widely. Depending on different rune wizards, their mastery and understanding of rune bearing corners lead them to arrange their own formations.
But no matter how they are combined, the number of rune bearing corners will definitely not be few, because only “the more complete the conditions,” the “more accurate the effect.”
However, what Angel saw was different.
This difference lay in its simplicity.
Compared to other levitation runes that require dozens or even hundreds of rune bearing corner combinations, if we go by this rune, only one condition is needed: wind.
With wind, of course, objects or people can be blown up. But how to control it oneself, how to stabilize it, how to achieve the desired result?
Being blown into the sky by the wind, without setting the wind’s strength, direction, or any limitations on time and space, might result in being blown hundreds of meters high and then crashing down hard. Can this levitation rune be considered a success?
Therefore, expressing the effect of levitation with just one “wind” rune bearing corner is too simplistic, especially since there are many sub-sections under the “wind” rune bearing corner.
This expression of the rune is the most common mistake among rune apprentices.
And now, the rune on the wall was full of similar mistakes, which made Angel highly suspect whether this was drawn by a beginner in rune creation?
Chapter 2229 Forbidden Peak <TOC> Chapter 2231 The Mysterious Rune Bearing Corner