Chapter 264: Soul Purifying Flower, City of All Things

Chapter 264: Soul Purifying Flower, City of All Things

2024-10-30

“Ow!”

Howls echoed across the desolate wilderness.

Countless pairs of blood-red eyes stared intently at the figures in the sky, eager to attack but unable to fly, leaving them to gaze longingly from the ground.

"These black wolves look no different from ordinary creatures. I never expected them to be energy beings spontaneously formed. The lair is truly a wondrous existence."

Xie Man looked down at the dense pack of wolves with interest.

Kore, expressionless, said, "If you're interested, you can catch a few and study them later. For now, focus on finding the lair."

Xie Man smiled, not offended, as he was long accustomed to Kore's personality.

"There's no need to be so serious. The red-eyed crows have already been released. If they find anything, we'll know immediately."

Not long ago, the Star Alliance issued a mission to find the 'Twilight Valley' lair.

Considering that the Wolf Tide Plane might still have Twilight Wolves, the mission was restricted to wizards only.

Xie Man and Kore had taken on this mission and come to the Wolf Tide Plane.

To improve search efficiency, they had also brought a group of red-eyed crows.

The red-eyed crows' exceptional long-distance vision gave them a natural advantage in searching, especially the Star Alliance's modified versions, which were even more capable than their ordinary counterparts.

At each location, they would release the red-eyed crows to search a hundred-mile radius. If they found nothing, they would move on to the next area.

The method seemed crude, but there was no other way.

While the Wolf Tide Plane was smaller than the Starlight Continent, it was still an entire plane.

Most of its inhabitants were exotic beasts, unable to communicate or provide intelligence.

The entire Wolf Tide Plane was in a primitive state, consisting mostly of forests, fields, lakes, and mountains.

The only external presence was the clay golems left behind by You Xi to mine the mineral veins.

In such a situation, the only way to find the lair was to search bit by bit using the simplest and most primitive method.

"There are still a large number of black wolves in the Wolf Tide Plane. Deploying a golem army would attract attacks from the wolf packs, leading to battles. Otherwise, spreading out the golem army would make the search much easier."

Xie Man sighed lightly.

He had initially thought of following the black wolves' tracks to find the lair, but later discovered that the black wolves were highly dispersed, making this approach impractical.

Fortunately, when the Wolf Tide Plane invaded, the Star Alliance reacted quickly, dispatching a large force to intercept the invaders. Otherwise, if the wolf packs had gained a foothold and had enough time to expand the planar gate, the scale of the wolf invasion would have been several times larger.

Kore glanced at the black flood below, paused, and said, "The Star's Eye network and the teleportation network were established for this purpose."

"Teacher truly had foresight," Xie Man said admiringly, then suddenly changed the subject, "Speaking of which, Lord Starfall is collecting materials to reshape his body. Artur should be able to recover his human form soon."

Mentioning Artur, Kore's cold, hard expression softened slightly. Artur was one of his few close friends.

"Reshaping a body isn't difficult; the key is the materials. Many rare materials are hard to obtain."

"The Codex of Wisdom should have all the materials, given that they have the most comprehensive resources among all wizard factions."

"Not necessarily. The Codex of Wisdom only opens part of their resources to affiliated organizations. Many rare materials are only available to internal members, exchanged for contribution points, just like our Star Alliance."

Xie Man looked at his friend in surprise, curious, "How do you know this?"

Kore said calmly, "Tanner told me."

"You're still in contact with him?"

Xie Man was genuinely surprised; he didn't remember Kore as someone who enjoyed socializing.

"I have some interest in intelligence from other planes, so I traded some resources for information with him."

"I see."

Xie Man understood. Kore hadn't changed; he was still a pragmatist.

Just as he was about to speak, his expression suddenly changed.

At the same time, Kore's gaze also shifted.

The two exchanged a glance and simultaneously took off, flying rapidly toward the northwest.

moments ago, they had sensed the life force of a red-eyed crow disappear.

In the Wolf Tide Plane, there weren't many flying creatures capable of killing a red-eyed crow, and one of them was the Twilight Wolf.

Unlike the common black wolves, Twilight Wolves were extremely rare and rarely strayed far from their lair.

Finding a Twilight Wolf would almost certainly indicate the lair's location.

Flying at full speed, the two quickly reached the spot where the red-eyed crow's life force had disappeared. From over a thousand meters away, they saw a massive wolf with a black body, blood-red eyes, and fangs.

"It's Bloodfang!" Xie Man's face lit up. "Looks like Twilight Valley is nearby."

After searching for so many days, they had finally found something. Even Kore's eyes showed a hint of joy.

"Ow!"

Upon discovering Xie Man and Kore, Bloodfang did not flee but instead roared and charged at them.

Seeing this, Xie Man was not alarmed but delighted.

Bloodfang's behavior confirmed his suspicion: the lair was indeed nearby.

As Twilight Wolves, Bloodfang and Grayclaw were physical combatants, not as powerful as the naturalists Misthowl and Nightshadow. Xie Man and Kore were not afraid and calmly met the charge.

Within minutes, the two had teamed up to defeat Bloodfang.

They then began searching the surrounding area and quickly found their target.

The lair known as Twilight Valley was not a valley but a cave deep within a valley.

The dark cave entrance resembled a beast's maw ready to devour.

Standing outside, one could clearly feel the energy particles inside.

Xie Man and Kore waited patiently, and sure enough, a group of black wolves emerged from the cave.

The young wolves, less than half a meter long and covered in mucus, quickly grew to the size of a carriage as they emerged, the mucus drying rapidly.

The black wolves soon noticed Xie Man and Kore in the sky and bared their teeth, growling in warning.

Xie Man and Kore paid no attention, their faces breaking into faint smiles.

"It seems this is the place."

"Notify the Star Alliance."

Xie Man took out a communication crystal and contacted the rune knight guarding the planar gate, who would relay the message back to the Star Alliance.

Shortly after the message was sent, a figure suddenly appeared in the sky above the valley.

Xie Man and Kore's expressions turned solemn, and they quickly bowed in respect.

"Teacher!"

Su Nan nodded slightly to the two, then turned his attention to the cave. He immediately sensed the dense concentration of energy particles inside, far surpassing the surrounding area.

"It's definitely the lair."

He turned back to Xie Man and Kore, smiling faintly. "Well done. Let's go back and complete the mission."

"Yes, Teacher."

The two bowed and left without delay.

Soon, Su Nan was alone in the valley. He ignored the black wolves around him and used a Flash Step to enter the cave.

The interior of the lair was quite spacious. Strangely, the ground and walls were a tender pink, similar to the inside of an organ, covered in vein-like patterns. Standing inside the cave, one felt as if they had entered the innards of a beast.

Su Nan clearly sensed the lair's rejection of him.

The invisible pressure even had the power to crush a third or fourth ring Legendary Knight into a pulp! Sensing the danger, the lair began to summon the wolf pack. The black wolves outside howled and tried to rush in, but Su Nan immediately deployed an Absolute Forbidden Zone, neutralizing the invisible pressure and blocking the wolves outside.

At the same time, the pressure from the Absolute Forbidden Zone made the entire lair tremble, and the ground and walls groaned under the strain.

Soon, the invisible pressure from the lair dissipated, and the blood-red patterns on the ground and walls faded. A faint, indistinct wail seemed to echo through the air, as if the lair was begging Su Nan for mercy.

"Have you already developed instincts similar to a beast, knowing to submit to a stronger power and avoid harm?"

Su Nan raised an eyebrow and focused his gaze on the deepest part of the lair. There, embedded in the inner wall, was a deep red, human-sized flesh ball, clearly distinct from the surrounding walls.

Approaching, Su Nan placed his hand on the flesh ball and penetrated his mental energy into it.

A lair of this level, like Twilight Valley, had no resistance against a third-level wizard. This was why it instinctively submitted to Su Nan's power.

In no time, Su Nan found You Xi's soul mark and immediately erased it, replacing it with his own.

The moment the soul mark formed, Su Nan vaguely felt a mysterious connection to the lair.

When he withdrew his hand, a black crystalline wolf tooth appeared in his palm.

This was the tool to control the wolf pack.

As long as he held the wolf tooth crystal, he could control all the wolves hatched from the lair.

Moreover, the wolf tooth crystal could be split into lower-permission sub-crystals to control part of the wolf pack.

Su Nan clenched the wolf tooth crystal in his hand, and through it, he could clearly sense the presence of all the black wolves.

With a single thought, he could summon all the black wolves to him.

"With this, there's nothing in the Wolf Tide Plane that can resist the Star Alliance's advance."

Apart from the black wolves, other exotic beasts posed no threat to the Star Alliance.

As long as the black wolves did not resist, the Star Alliance could easily take over the entire Wolf Tide Plane.

Putting away the wolf tooth crystal, Su Nan looked at the black flesh ball on the inner wall.

After taking control of Twilight Valley, all the information about the lair surfaced in his mind.

With the current energy particle concentration in the Wolf Tide Plane, Twilight Valley could hatch forty-five black wolves daily and one Twilight Wolf annually.

The limit was 434,800 black wolves and 285 Twilight Wolves.

This was the maximum number Twilight Valley could control.

Exceeding this number, any additional black wolves and Twilight Wolves would rebel against the lair.

However, Su Nan was quite satisfied.

A wolf pack of over 430,000 was equivalent to three large golem armies, with an additional 285 Twilight Wolves, each with wizard-level combat strength.

This was a significant military reinforcement for the Star Alliance.

Through the lair, Su Nan also learned the current number of wolves.

Approximately 210,000 black wolves.

Due to the previous war, the number of black wolves had sharply decreased, and all the Twilight Wolves had been wiped out.

The one that had recently hatched was also killed by Xie Man and Kore.

"Black wolves can recover to their limit in over a decade, but Twilight Wolves, one per year, would take at least 285 years to reach the limit."

Leaving the lair, Su Nan returned to the Starlight Continent.

Arriving at the Starlight Wizard Tower, he immediately found Lizze and handed her the wolf tooth crystal.

"Twilight Valley is secured. We can advance now."

Lizze smiled faintly. "We've been preparing for this."

"How are the preparations for mining the mineral veins coming along?"

"The new clay golems and mining equipment are still being prepared, but we can transfer some from our existing stock, which will be sufficient for the initial phase."

Lizze clearly had a plan and spoke calmly.

"The mission to survey the ley lines in the Wolf Tide Plane has been issued to the wizard apprentices, and it should be completed soon. We can then begin the project to open secondary spirit stone mines simultaneously."

"Additionally, the environment in the Wolf Tide Plane is suitable for establishing magic plant gardens. I plan to build two hundred large magic plant gardens to increase the production of Dragon Blood Fruit."

Su Nan listened patiently to Lizze's report and nodded in satisfaction.

Handing these tasks to Lizze was indeed a wise decision.

"How are the materials for reshaping the body coming along?"

Lizze shook her head. "The other materials are fine; we've collected most of them. The only thing missing is the Soul Purifying Flower, which isn't even on the Codex of Wisdom's trading list."

Su Nan raised an eyebrow.

The Soul Purifying Flower could purify the soul, reducing its rejection of the new body and significantly increasing the success rate of reshaping the body. It was the most crucial material.

While the Soul Purifying Flower was valuable, the Codex of Wisdom definitely had it, but it was likely only available to internal members.

After a moment of thought, Su Nan said, "We can trade with Cyril. If we offer a sufficient price, he would be happy to help us acquire the Soul Purifying Flower."

"I have a better idea," Lizze said. "We might not find the Soul Purifying Flower elsewhere, but we will definitely find it in the City of All Things."

The City of All Things?

Su Nan's expression changed.

The City of All Things was a place where a large number of wizards gathered, a mix of various backgrounds. It was also the largest neutral trading platform in the multiverse, where one could find many precious resources not available elsewhere.

Indeed, the Soul Purifying Flower could be found there.

Without much hesitation, Su Nan quickly agreed with Lizze's suggestion.

After all, relying on Cyril would mean incurring a favor, and it was better to solve the problem independently.

(End of Chapter)

Chapter end