Chapter 648
"Li"
Chapter 648 "Li"
However, as soon as Gao De approached the source of the strange energy fluctuations, he sensed a chilling energy.
"This is..." Gao De's pupils contracted slightly, his nerves tensed instantly, and the magic power within his body began to flow unconsciously.
Besides being strange and desolate, this energy also gave him a strange sense of familiarity.
It was a destructive aura capable of dismantling magical structures; it was far too unique.
So much so that he only needed to think for a moment to immediately realize the source of this sense of familiarity:
He had experienced this identical energy up close before, among the void creatures of the North.
However, compared to the surging energy within the void creature that time, which was enough to corrode high-level spells, the residual aura here was far too weak, so weak that it was almost imperceptible.
But this did not put Gaode at ease.
The fact that void energy appeared in the Shadow Swamp of Avalon County in the Golden Flower Dynasty, hundreds of thousands of miles away, is itself a matter worthy of deep reflection.
According to Master Yang, the convergence of the void planes was not as successful as that of the ley line planes.
It did not form a stable channel; only a very small number of low-level spatial rifts were generated in a few places in the mage plane.
According to the records of the Yang family, only two spatial rifts connecting the void planes were discovered.
One of them is in the North, and the other is not even on the continent of Nolan.
So, where does the void energy deep within the Shadow Swamp come from?
Did some void creature break through the known rift's limitations and quietly infiltrate?
Or perhaps some unknown event related to the void occurred here, leaving behind lingering energy that has not yet dissipated?
Or perhaps, this energy and that ancient, sacred aura originated from the same unknown source?
A flood of doubts surged through Gao De's mind, making him increasingly cautious.
Out of fear of the void, even though this void energy was extremely thin, Gao De was still on high alert.
He hesitated for a moment, then hovered three zhang above the depression, not daring to approach rashly.
Immediately, he mobilized his internal magical power and activated the spell model of [Divination+].
"I will now excavate this place to find the source of strange energy. Will this bring me good fortune or misfortune?" Gao De clarified his divination question in his mind.
Once a spell model is constructed, it needs to have a clear direction; otherwise, divination errors are very likely to occur.
The next instant, the energy between his brows trembled slightly, establishing a connection with some mysterious force of destiny.
Soon, feedback followed.
"flat".
Gao De frowned.
According to the theory of divination, "neutral" means that the behavior itself will not bring obvious good or bad consequences. There is neither benefit nor risk, which is better than the result of "bad".
However, it could also indicate a failed divination.
In Gaode's view, this uncertainty is actually more unsettling.
He couldn't tell whether this was truly a case of being free from misfortune or fortune, or whether the divination had failed due to some unknown factor, giving a false response.
If the result is unfavorable, he can either choose to give up the divination or prepare himself mentally.
However, "flat" means it's like there was no divination at all; we still have to open blind boxes, and everything afterward remains unknown.
Not enough. Considering that the basic success rate of divination is 70%, plus the added bonus of personal luck, this "neutral" is more likely to indicate a successful divination.
This means that the digging itself will not pose a fatal danger in the next half hour.
It possesses both ancient and sacred energy, as well as void energy, and is located deep within the Shadow Swamp. If there were no secrets hidden within, Gao De would not believe it.
After a brief moment of thought, he could no longer suppress his curiosity and urge to find out the truth, and made up his mind to investigate.
However, out of caution, Gao De did not act immediately, but instead began to cast defensive spells on himself:
[Protective Energy], [Mage Armor], [Shield], [Tree Skin].
A pale golden light enveloped his entire body, an invisible magical shield adhered to his skin, and a rough, bark-like texture appeared on his skin.
After casting seven or eight empowering spells to bless himself and ensure comprehensive protection from both physical and magical aspects, Gao De finally began to take action.
He cast [Hand of the Mage+] and slowly reached into the rotten mud at the center of the depression.
Because of the additional effect after adding points, the tactile sensation of the Mage's Hand can be fed back to Gaode's mind through spell links.
It was as if he was wearing an invisible glove, directly probing into the sticky mud, and could clearly feel the slipperiness and heaviness of the rotten mud.
The ghostly hand slowly groped through the putrid mud.
Soon, a feedback signal of touching a hard object was received:
The object had a smooth surface and a hard texture, and was definitely not a rock or dead tree that had formed naturally in the swamp.
A thought struck him, and without further hesitation, he carefully scooped the object out of the rotten mud.
As layers of decaying mud were peeled away, an object gradually came into view:
It was a palm-sized, dark silver metal fragment, not ordinary sheet metal. It was cold and heavy to the touch, with an exceptionally hard texture, and its surface was covered with a thick layer of rotten mud and dark brown residue.
The edges also show obvious signs of cracking, as if it were a broken part of an object that had suffered a severe blow.
Strangely, the edge of the fragment was inlaid with an extremely fine ring of golden magic patterns.
Even after being eroded by the swamp, a faint trace of pure magic still remains in the patterns, which is the source of that sacred aura.
Before Gao De could even have the ghostly hand deliver the fragment to him, a sudden change occurred!
Suddenly, a void energy, not particularly powerful but extremely aggressive, erupted from the fragment.
This energy originated from the same source as the residual aura he had sensed before, only its concentration had increased several times in an instant.
Like a venomous snake suddenly striking, it unleashed a powerful corrosive and disintegrating force, violently impacting the ghostly hand that controlled the fragments.
It turned out that the faint void energy and divine energy he sensed both originated from this fragment.
The primary function of [Mage's Hand+] is to manipulate objects, rather than for combat defense.
Under the impact of this void energy, the ghostly hand that was controlling the fragment instantly disintegrated like melting ice and snow, and the magical fluctuations also vanished.
Without the support of one hand, the fragment immediately fell downwards, about to plunge back into the rotten mud.
Fortunately, Gaode reacted extremely quickly; another ghostly hand was already on standby and instantly reached out to catch the falling fragment.
The void energy on the fragment seemed to have exhausted its last reserves after this sudden surge, dissipating rapidly like a receding tide, and no further fluctuations could be felt.
These are its final ripples.
Just as predicted by [Divination+], the results of the digging were indeed "mediocre".
It brought neither fatal danger nor direct benefit; it only gave him this mysterious metal fragment.
Gao De breathed a sigh of relief and carefully controlled the ghost hand, handing the metal fragment to himself.
Instead of touching it directly with his hands, he first used a [magic trick], like an invisible rag, to carefully wipe away the rotten mud and attached substances from the surface of the fragment.
Strangely, this fragment clearly had been buried in the swamp for a long time.
But after wiping away the rotten mud, the fragments were found to be brand new, without any rust, as if they had just been forged.
There is no doubt that the fragment itself is made of an extraordinary material.
As the rotten mud was wiped away, some strange patterns and characters gradually appeared.
In the lower right corner of the fragment was engraved a fragment of an unfamiliar character. It was an ancient character he had never seen before, with powerful and vigorous strokes, and although only half of it remained, it exuded an indescribable majesty.
Its outline resembles the upper part of the Chinese character "李" (Li).
However, the stroke structure is different from the common script currently used in the Mage Plane, yet traces of the same origin can be faintly seen, as if it were an ancient prototype of the common script.
In the center of the fragment, several lines of strange, intermittent characters are engraved.
These characters are crooked and swirling with magical energy, completely unrelated to common writing systems; they are clearly some kind of magical script.
Gao De had a sudden thought and immediately wanted to decipher the meaning of these words.
Written language is key to conveying information; if we can understand it, we might be able to uncover the origin of the fragments.
He first used [Reading Magic+].
This is a spell specifically designed to decipher magical text.
Any magical script known in the mage plane, whether familiar or not, can be directly converted into a language that the user can understand through the power of magic.
However, after the [Reading Spell] was cast, something strange happened:
The magical light flowed across the surface of the fragment, but it could not resonate with the ancient text.
It's like shining a light on an ordinary piece of metal; there's no feedback whatsoever.
A few breaths later, the spell's energy was exhausted, the light dissipated, and Gao De still couldn't decipher a single character.
"Failed?" Gao De frowned, somewhat surprised.
The success rate of the "Reading Magic" is extremely high, and it rarely fails.
Gao De did not give up and tried to cast another spell – [Language Proficiency].
While [Language Proficiency] is not specifically designed for magical scripts like [Reading Magic], it can decipher the vast majority of known languages and scripts, including ancient variant scripts and racial secret texts, making it more widely applicable.
But the result was still the same.
He still couldn't decipher any information.
The failure of two consecutive spells caused Gao De to fall into deep thought.
The consecutive failures of [Reading Magic] and [Language Proficiency] usually only have three possibilities: First, the level of the target text is far higher than the level of the spell;
Secondly, the text itself was subjected to a special sealing spell, which prevented it from being detected by deciphering spells;
Third, the script is not the known script of the magician plane; it may even originate from other planes or primordial forces, exceeding the scope of spell interpretation.
Considering the presence of both sacred and void energy on the fragment, as well as the unique nature of the fragment's material, Gaode leans towards the latter two possibilities.
These characters were either sealed by ancient mages or originated from other dimensions.
He then carefully examined the text on the fragment.
Due to the erosion of time and the fragmentation of the text, most of it has become blurred and incomplete.
Even if it could be successfully deciphered, it would be difficult to piece together a complete sentence from the missing strokes, let alone understand its meaning.
Then, Gaode flipped the fragment over to look at the back.
There was an incredibly complex magic circle pattern engraved there.
The texture is fine and interlocking, and even after countless years, it still carries a faint ripple.
In the very center of the magic circle, there is an irregular indentation with smooth edges, clearly indicating that a core artifact was originally embedded there, but now it is empty.
"What is this? What kind of writing is this, and what does it mean?" Gao De held the metal fragment, examining it repeatedly, his heart filled with doubt and curiosity.
"This ancient, pure magical aura, these undecipherable magical characters... could this be a relic of some ancient mage?"
No matter how curious I am, I obviously can't get the answer right now.
"It seems that only when we are strong enough to find a higher-level spell to decipher, or acquire more knowledge to decipher the magical text on it, will we be able to uncover the origin of this fragment," Gao De thought to himself, silently putting the fragment away and setting the matter aside for the time being.
Now, let's continue striving for the [Intermediate Azure Amber Body].
He stopped dwelling on the secrets of the fragments and instead focused all his attention on the progress of his self-adaptation within his body.
Although the source of the energy here has been identified, Gaode Maps, for the sake of caution, chose to stay away from this place and continue to "endure" the adaptation process.
Your immunity to toxins has increased by 148.3% - 149.7%.
Your body's organs' ability to digest, metabolize, and eliminate various toxins increases by 151.2% to 152.8%.
To Gao De's surprise, the Blood Purification Organ in his body seemed to be activated by the special energy contained in the Soul-Eating Miasma, and its operating efficiency was getting higher and higher.
He decided to loosen his defenses further.
Instantly, a massive amount of Soul-Eating Miasma surged into his body like a tidal wave, carrying a strong corrosive and decaying power that impacted his body.
A stinging sensation followed.
The combination of the poison in the Soul-Eating Miasma and the power of decay makes it far more potent than ordinary toxins, and even with the Blood Purifying Organ operating at full capacity, it is difficult to break it down instantly.
But Gaode gritted his teeth and persevered, letting it run rampant within his body.
Under this direct and violent impact, he could feel his body changing rapidly.
[Primary Amber Body] The emerald veins that were originally faintly visible have become clearer under the skin, like the patterns inside amber, slowly flowing with pale golden energy.
The blood flow rate increases and the temperature rises accordingly, as if it is burning, quickly flushing out and breaking down the toxins that have invaded the body.
The efficiency of the blood-purifying organs in breaking down toxins is getting higher and higher.
Your immunity to toxins has increased by 180.0%.
Your body's organs' ability to digest, metabolize, and eliminate various toxins has increased by 184.3%.
Pain, endurance, adaptation, strength!
After an unknown amount of time, when the [Adaptive] progress stopped at an astonishing value of 200%, Gaode suddenly felt a violent tremor within his body.
hum!
A deep hum emanated from his body, and the emerald veins on his skin suddenly lit up, like dazzling emerald gems.
These veins began to spread and intertwine, eventually covering his entire body and forming a fine, jade-colored pattern.
Just like the natural texture of amber, it is both beautiful and full of power.
An indescribable feeling of comfort swept over my entire body.
The stinging and fatigue caused by the toxins disappeared instantly.
Instead, it has a transparent and resilient texture.
A familiar light suddenly appeared before my eyes, the familiar room was filled with white light, and the familiar daylight emerged.
Even deep within the Shadow Swamp, surrounded by thick fog, this sacred light, originating from the evolution of life, could not be obscured.
Another shackle within his body was shattered, and a flood of information rushed into his consciousness:
(End of this chapter)