Chapter 401 The Strange Ice Cavern <TOC> Chapter 403 Mysterious Soul
Translator: SumTLMan
In the Southern Wizarding World, Black Castle was once unrivaled due to the legendary figure ‘Bloody Queen’ Mary. However, ever since Mary left the Southern Region, Black Castle had been in a state of decline.
Until a thousand years ago, when Isabelle emerged.
In less than a century, she advanced to a third-level wizard and embarked on the path of true knowledge in the soul branch. Just as everyone thought Isabelle would succeed the twisted High Wizard Bazel and lead a new legendary era, she suddenly chose to leave the Southern Wizarding World, her whereabouts and life or death unknown.
Since then, no one in the Southern Region has reached legendary status for a thousand years.
No one knew where Isabelle went, and no one knew if she would return to the Southern Region. So, even though Black Castle was in decline, even though there was an unowned Wizard Garden in the Middle World, and even though Isabella, a mere second-level wizard, ruled Black Castle, no one dared to challenge her.
Black Castle had been peaceful for a thousand years.
Especially the true Black Castle located in the Inner World, which had hardly seen any turbulence for a thousand years.
Until today.
Black Castle was built on a lightning pool node in the Inner World. Here, it was almost always covered in thunderclouds, and clear skies hadn’t appeared for a very long time. The forest here was called the Black Forest; the land was known as Scorched Earth; darkness and thunder ruled this place.
But on this day, all the residents of Black Castle were going about their daily lives when the lightning pool node suddenly underwent earth-shattering changes.
At first, the air inexplicably became stagnant, but most people were in Black Castle and didn’t notice this.
Then, the ghost in the Black Forest suddenly began to shiver and tremble, no one cried, and no one dared show their face. Today, the apprentice handling the corpses made loud noises, but no ghost appeared.
Usually, when they were handling corpses, any slight noise would cause the hidden ghost to rush out like mad dogs smelling blood.
But at this moment, everything was abnormal. They looked at each other, not knowing what had happened.
As the ghost trembled and hid, another change occurred. The thunder serpents in the sky suddenly decreased and slowed down until, in the end, the thunder serpents that often showed their heads disappeared altogether. Not only that, but even the oppressive black clouds that filled the sky began to fade slowly.
Soon, those who noticed this could even vaguely see the true color of the Inner World’s sky through the black clouds.
—A bluish hue amidst the black and gray, like a blue sky veiled by a layer of haze.
The changes in the Outer World were not yet apparent to the naked eye, and many people still had not noticed these changes.
Until… the dark clouds dispersed, revealing a void in the center, from which countless souls emerged, screeching and wailing. They began to swirl around the center of the void, forming a massive cloud composed of souls.
Simultaneously, eerie dark gray smoke emerged from the black forest, graveyard, and scorched earth. These were the hidden souls that, while trembling, were drawn away by the soul cloud above.
The soul cloud in the sky expanded with the aid of countless souls on the ground. Initially spanning thousands of kilometers, it grew at a visible pace from two to three thousand kilometers, and eventually tens of thousands of kilometers, continuing to surge toward a range of over a hundred thousand kilometers without showing any signs of weakening.
As the soul cloud expanded, more dark gray smoke rose from the ground, and the wails of the souls grew louder.
The fierce wind was so intense that it rattled the windows of Black Castle.
Now, even the apprentices residing alone in their private quarters at Black Castle noticed the earth-shattering changes outside. Not to mention Felicia, ‘Lady Butterfly,’ who was mixing drinks in the grand hall on the first floor.
Felicia still wore her form-fitting black gown as she gracefully moved to the front door.
Her slender, delicate hands grasped the door handle and swung the door open with force.
The violent wind rushed in, blowing her ink-stained hair back. Her curly hair seemed to possess a life of its own, twisting and writhing, stretching and contracting in the wind. In this moment, Felicia seemed to transform into a gorgon, both terrifying and tender.
In addition to the raging, violent gale, the nearly omnipresent souls’ screams filled the entire Black Castle as the door opened.
Felicia raised her head and silently observed the ever-growing soul cloud in the sky. After a moment, she suddenly broke into a faint smile.
“An Omen Sign of alchemy. Quite the skills, I underestimated you.” Felicia took out a crystal ball, and as her magic surged, the images within the crystal ball began to change rapidly, finally settling on Black Castle’s ninth underground level—the Blood Prison.
Her gaze did not linger on Diavolo, but rather focused elsewhere.
This was the source of the Omen Sign.
However, she couldn’t see the source of the Omen Sign through the crystal ball, as it was surrounded by an extremely dense dark gray aura.
“Only mid-level or higher items can produce an Omen Sign. To craft a mid-level item in such a short time, this unpredictable apprentice is no ordinary person.” Felicia’s face showed contemplation. Initially, she thought the apprentice might be a student of Puppet Master, but it seemed that was not the case.
While Puppet Master excels at crafting puppets, his alchemy skills aren’t particularly impressive. Given this apprentice’s abilities, barring any accidents, they were likely taught by an alchemy master. Such a prodigy couldn’t be the Puppet Master’s apprentice.
So, could they be a disciple of an alchemy master from Sky Mechanical City?
As Felicia pondered, the soul cloud in the sky grew larger, and the scope of this alchemical Omen Sign had already exceeded one hundred thousand kilometers.
Angel himself didn’t expect such a significant Omen Sign to appear.
Felicia murmured, “What a pity, playing the wrong card. Choosing to craft an item to counter the ghost at the source of the ghost? Hasn’t he considered the variables of the ghost outside? These variables are enough to cause a favorable situation to collapse.”
Alchemy is like this; if any variable is not carefully considered and pondered, the current situation will arise.
Daring to craft an item to counter the ghost in a realm full of them, what was initially just a kilometer-wide cloud of souls has, under the stimulation of countless ghost, ultimately become such a widespread Omen Sign.
“With such circumstances, he still wants to pass through the Omen Sign?” Felicia shook her head, somewhat lamenting the loss of this great talent.
There’s a reason why alchemists are so particular about choosing their alchemy locations. Angel’s actions were entirely rash, mainly because he had encountered too few alchemists and understood little common knowledge. In the end, he could only grit his teeth and swallow the consequences.
Felicia put away the crystal ball. Since she couldn’t see the specifics of the Blood Prison, there was no need to pay attention to it. After all, he wouldn’t be able to get through this Omen Sign, and his eventual fate would either be death or severe injury, with death being more likely.
Felicia turned around, closed the door, and prepared to continue mixing her drinks.
However, as she gracefully walked towards the mixing station, a sudden oppressive force descended from the sky. She abruptly stood up straight, her eyes filled with surprise. She turned around, disregarding her manners, and opened the door again.
She looked up at the sky.
The vast cloud of souls, spanning tens of thousands of meters, suddenly began to shrink rapidly. By the end, it had only a hundred-meter radius.
A vast blank space remained in the sky, revealing a clear day that hadn’t been seen for decades. Although the sky’s color in the Inner World was not pleasing to the eye and still felt oppressive, it was a far cry from the rolling black clouds, and the hazy sky could almost rival the clearest blue summer sky in the Outer World.
A clear sky was a good thing for the apprentices.
But for Felicia, her attention was entirely on the hundred-meter radius cloud of souls. The concentrated cloud of souls had an overwhelming pressure that was simply beyond imagination.
Even she herself felt that if the cloud of souls was a living entity, she might not have the confidence to defeat it with her current strength.
“Good lad, even if you die today, your name will surely be remembered!” Felicia trembled as she looked at the cloud of souls in the sky. The cloud was still changing and consolidating, its pressure growing stronger and stronger.
Felicia suddenly had a very peculiar, daring, but absolutely unreliable idea.
If, under such pressure, the young apprentice successfully passed through the Omen Sign, what level would the item he crafted be? Perhaps it would surpass the intermediate level and reach the advanced level…
Even further, perhaps strategic level? Or even… reaching the mysterious realm.
Felicia took out the crystal ball again and looked at the Blood Prison. The young alchemist was still surrounded by a dark gray aura, and with her abilities, she couldn’t penetrate the Omen Sign to see the situation inside.
On the other side, Diavolo and another dark-haired woman were leaning tightly against the wall. Their faces had turned white and were even gradually turning blue.
Because they were the closest to the Omen Sign, the wind was the strongest, and the souls were the most rampant.
They couldn’t even breathe now, watching their lives slowly ebbing away.
Diavolo didn’t know that things would turn out like this. It was just crafting an item, so how could such a violent state occur? Moreover, although he couldn’t see the Omen Sign outside, had he not experienced enough Omen Signs in Sky Mechanical City? With his current condition, he could guess how Brutal and Ferocious the external Omen Sign was.
“Angel, can you hear me? Stop, stop!”
“I’m dying!”
“What about the contract? The contract! He’s going to kill me, make him stop now!”
“Damn it! This cursed Omen Sign!”
Diavolo frantically called out to Angel through the mental link, but his cries were like stones thrown into the sea, sinking to the bottom without causing any ripples.
Diavolo’s eyes were starting to turn pale, struggling to breathe, and the pressure was so great that his blood was boiling.
It seemed that he saw images of his entire life from birth.
Diavolo wanted to cry but had no tears; he felt his death was truly unjust. He wasn’t killed by Isabella, nor was he tricked to death by Felicia, and he didn’t die in any Land of Soul Hunting or Soul Domain. Instead, he died at the hands of his own teammate!
What’s more important was that he had been extremely supportive of his teammate’s crafting endeavor!
So, did he actually die by his own hand?
Chapter 401 The Strange Ice Cavern <TOC> Chapter 403 Mysterious Soul