Translator: SumTLMan
The countdown reached the last minute. The apprentices, unable to find the Purification Sea, had completely given up hope.
The earth was cracking, lava spewing, and the sky seemed to have a hole in it, pouring out massive floods.
It was these floods that made them notice the abnormalities in the sky at this moment.
But it was already too late. Under the torrential floods, there was no chance to pass through the membrane into the Purification Sea.
One by one, the apprentices were swallowed by the flood, their bones dissolved by the lava, or they fell into the earth’s crevices, becoming a part of the advancement of the Purification Garden. It wasn’t just the apprentices; flying fish were falling one by one, and the number of sky creatures was visibly decreasing.
Everything was spreading and collapsing at a visible rate until it was utterly destroyed.
As the entire world turned into chaos, the destruction came to an end.
Outside, in Mechanical Tower, Rosen had returned to the top-floor hall after dealing with the Ink Touch King and the Fluorescent Jellyfish.
There was no one in the hall. The wizards’ time was precious, and they couldn’t always be paying attention to the apprentices’ trials. Rosen was different; he was the main person in charge of the Purification Garden’s advancement and needed to observe the situation inside constantly.
Seeing the earth turn into a melting pot and all things in the world turn to dust, satisfaction appeared in Rosen’s eyes.
At that moment, a knocking sound suddenly came from the silent space.
“Come in,” Rosen said.
As the door opened, a woman with a curvaceous figure, dressed in a tight black uniform, walked in with elegant cat-like steps.
“When did you come back?” Rosen turned his chair away from the light screen behind him and looked at the visitor.
She wore glasses, her hair meticulously pinned up in a bun, her expression serious. Her face showed some traces of the years, but her beauty from her youth was still faintly visible.
“I should have come back half a month ago, but I went to Gloriosa’s capital city on the way, which delayed me until now,” the woman’s voice was as serious and rigid as her expression.
“Gloriosa’s capital city, did you visit your mother?” Rosen hesitated for a moment, then asked: “Is she… doing well?”
The woman smiled: “Not bad. Her epitaph is simple, she never complained about father, and she said meeting you was the happiest time of her life. Her tombstone is clean, with just her name on it. Beside her grave is a Cloud Silk Tree. When I went there, the tree was shedding its leaves. It was beautiful, like a cloud.”
The Cloud Silk Tree was the most common tree in Sky Mechanical City, but very rare elsewhere. When in bloom, it was soft like cotton and silk; when its leaves fell, it looked like clouds and mist.
“Oh? She’s already dead?” There was a hint of nostalgia in Rosen’s eyes. “Well, a mortal’s hundred years are but a moment to a wizard. I remember she was almost two hundred years old, wasn’t she? You’re over a hundred years old too. For her to have lived this long, it hasn’t been easy.”
“Father, did you ever truly love her?” Perhaps it was her mother’s death that made the woman reveal a rare trace of sadness. Thinking back to when she was clearing out her mother’s belongings, she felt a wave of sorrow at the sight of the lonely, simple little cabin.
She remembered her mother telling her that the small cabin was where she met Rosen. After that, her mother spent her entire life there, even though Rosen had invited her to the Sky Mechanical City. She never agreed to come.
She knew her mother was worried that she would age while Rosen would not, and that she would bring shame to him. So she stayed in the mortal realm, waiting for death alone.
“As for her, apart from gratitude, I have no other feelings.” Rosen said indifferently.
The woman lowered her head, a sarcastic smile on her face.
That’s right, with Rosen’s power and influence, it wouldn’t have been difficult to turn a mortal into an extraordinary being. But he didn’t do that, which showed his attitude. Why bother asking?
And besides, how could someone like Rosen, with his status, stoop to love?
“Melanctha, your mother’s matter is over. I hope you won’t cling to the mundane any longer. Since you’ve come back, don’t leave again. I remember you’ve always been staying in the Savage Grottoes? If you want to walk that path, the Savage Grottoes won’t help you.” Rosen looked at his daughter, even though she appeared older than him.
The woman was Melanctha, the supervisor Angel had once seen at the Sky Tower.
The Savage Grottoes won’t help me, can you? Melanctha didn’t want to talk about her own affairs. Whether she could walk the path of true knowledge, and how to walk it, she knew in her heart.
Melanctha raised her head, looking at the screen behind Rosen. The earth collapsed, all things shattered, and turned into chaos: “Has the sacrifice already begun?”
“A small accident has caused the sacrifice to start early. But it seems that this accident is not bad. The number of people prepared for the blood sacrifice in the new world is 40% less than expected.” Rosen said.
Rosen also looked at the screen, watching as everything turned into chaos and chaos transformed into a stream of pure energy before finally turning the image to the Purification Sea.
The scene in the Purification Sea was precisely Angel standing on the first level of the Frogskin Monster Fortress, observing the mural on the wall.
Due to the darkness and Angel wearing a high hat, Melanctha didn’t notice Angel’s identity for a moment. Instead, her attention was drawn to the mural.
“Huh? Has someone found the traces of the Ger tribe now? Then they must not be far from the final destination.” Melanctha said in surprise.
Angel’s actions had always been monitored by Rosen. So when Melanctha mentioned him, Rosen just laughed: “That’s not necessarily true. This kid is illiterate and can’t understand the records of the Ger tribe. It’s not so easy to find the Altar of Demise.”
“Illiterate?” Melanctha shook her head: “That’s really a pity.”
Due to personal reasons, Angel might not be able to find the Altar of Demise or find it later, so Rosen no longer pays attention to him. The screen changes again, focusing on another person.
“You’re here to see me, but it can’t be just for that, right?” Rosen looked at Melanctha.
A glint flashed in Melanctha’s eyes: “I came for the Soul Pool.”
“Soul Pool.” Rosen stared at Melanctha: “Did Baroque tell you?”
Melanctha nodded ambiguously.
“He really can’t stand being left out.”
…
Angel had been exploring for half a day. Centered around the frog-like structures at the bottom of the sea, he explored a circular area nearly a hundred miles wide, only encountering oddly shaped fish and no other traces of “artificial structures.”
At this point, Angel came to a trench. It was a trench about a hundred meters wide, with bubbles rising from below, but it was too dark to see anything.
Angel pondered whether to go down and take a look.
However, human nature fears the unknown, and this fear is amplified in the ocean. Angel had been in the world of wizards for less than two years, and when faced with a pitch-black, buzzing trench, he hesitated.
But on second thought, if there were clues to the frogskin monsters in the trench, not going meant missing out. Faced with the choice of stepping back and missing out, he feared missing out more.
Once he missed out, it was very likely that he would be left in the Purification Garden, becoming a sacrifice.
For Angel, who still had too many attachments, this was something he couldn’t forgive.
With this in mind, Angel’s eyes became more determined as he looked at the trench. Taking another look at the darkness across the trench, he plunged into it.
Not long after Angel entered the trench, a bright flame shot down from the sea surface, with flying fish trying to block it but turning into charred corpses under the fire.
The bright flame even resisted the erosion of seawater, eventually reaching the trench where Angel had descended.
The flame danced at the bottom of the sea, and standing in the flame was a girl in red dancing shoes—Cherie.
Little black cat Luna swam beside her, completely fearless of the water, waving her short, thick limbs to chase the bubbles she blew.
“Should be here, right?” Cherie’s eyebrows furrowed: “But why did he go to the bottom of the sea, and even into the trench?”
Thinking of Angel, Cherie felt a surge of anger. She initially planned to cover for Angel and take the lead in exploring to survive. But after witnessing Angel’s skirmish with the Ink Touch King, she acknowledged his strength and was willing to treat him as an equal. However, he left a message saying: “The exit is in the sky,” and walked away, leaving her unable to follow.
If it weren’t for her promise to the Mentor to protect Angel and ensure his safe return, and Angel’s assistance in alchemy for the Mentor, she wouldn’t care where Angel went.
With an unconcerned look on her face, Cherie grabbed Luna by the back of the neck and pointed to the trench: “Did Angel go down there?”
Luna’s nose twitched and a large number of bubbles rushed up. Luna seemed to choke for a moment, looking a bit uncomfortable before finally calming down.
Under Cherie’s angry glare, Luna nodded.
“He really went into the trench? Could he have found another exit, or is this trench the exit?” Cherie pondered for a moment, then dove into the trench as well.
Angel, unaware that Cherie was following him, had already dived nearly three thousand meters down. The deeper he went, the slower he moved.
This was because the temperature was getting lower and the pressure was getting greater.
Even the Purification Field’s protective shield was slowly compressing. If the shield disappeared, he could only rely on his magic or mental power to generate a barrier on his own. Otherwise, his small body would struggle to withstand the pressure of the deep sea.
However, the Purification Field’s shield, although shrinking, was still stable and within an acceptable range.
On his descent, Angel saw shellfish with tentacles and strange fish, including some ferocious ones.
Angel also encountered the first extraordinary creature with an energy response here – a seal with horns.
However, this horned seal wasn’t very strong, and Angel quickly dealt with it.
After dissecting the extraordinary part, Angel continued to dive deeper.
When the shield began to waver and it seemed like it could no longer maintain stability, Angel finally arrived at the bottom of the trench. He estimated that the depth from the top to the bottom of the trench was over five thousand meters, making it a relatively deep trench.
The seafloor was covered with soft white sand, and Angel found some shrimp.
The creatures at the bottom of the sea, perhaps because they didn’t need light in such darkness, weren’t very attractive. Even the shrimp were dark and looked like scorpions.
Angel didn’t bother with these ugly deep-sea creatures, instead using the Light spell to survey his surroundings.