A Sorcerer’s Journey

“Um, I’m making the final preparations and am about to leave…”

Shyann muttered absent-mindedly, his face looked tired as if he had spent a long time preparing for this day and had experienced a great deal.

“Grimm, Master Shyann can now summon one hundred thousand of the power of Serpentine.”

Exclaimed Johann from the other side, gazing on with admiration.

A hundred thousand power of Serpentine meant that he had hunted a hundred thousand sea serpent’s pearls or killed and absorbed the power of Serpentine from thousands of creatures of the same grade as the one that had attacked Grimm.

Grimm’s eyes too, revealed a little respect for the master.

***

The Eye of Destruction had arrived once again.

Its existence was like the sun in the Sorcerer World. It was the short-term time telling object for this Spectral World that indicated that it had once again experienced one full day or it was said to be the internal specific law of this Spectral World.

The Phagocytic Shells all over the sky opened up, and one after another, the sea serpent’s pearls slithered about with their blood-red tails cruising around. At that very moment, all eyes were focused on Shyann and in their eyes, there were yearning and well wishes.

“Such real emotions. Are they really only an illusion?”

Grimm had doubts in his heart. He was afraid that he might not be in an illusory mirage but had literally come to a certain Spectral World.

Such uncertainties! Grimm could never leave this mirage in a suicidal manner.

Shyann looked up at the Eye of Destruction in the sky in awe, as if it was the true master who could stretch across any law in the endless world.

The creatures on Mount Serpentine had gradually gotten used to the Eye of Destruction’s breath or it could be said that once they had gotten used to this law, it had become part of the Spectral World.

“Great Master Grandalph, Glenbell, Amierol, Zhrute, Johann… Grimm.”

Shyann called out the names of each sorcerer who was present. Gazing at the Eye of Destruction which was beginning to weaken, the sea serpent’s pearls which were returning to the Phagocytic Shells, and the creatures of the endless world on Mount Serpentine which were trying to hunt for the sea serpent’s pearls, Shyann laughed.

“I’m leaving!”

Shyann laughed and soared towards the weakening Eye of Destruction which was about to shut. His power of Serpentine was like a flamed torch.

This was a dash without hesitation and with all his might.

He would survive if he succeeded and the opportunity to return to the Sorcerer World was one over thousands. Otherwise, he would die if he failed and he would be completely turned into ashes by the Eye of Destruction.

Whoosh!

Shyann’s purpose was to dash out of this Spectral World, while the Eye of Destruction was at its weakest, towards the endless world where the Eye of Destruction was located.

Clink, clank!

Relative to the Eye of Destruction, Shyann’s burning of tens of meters of the power of Serpentine was almost negligible. When everyone was uncertain whether Shyann had succeeded, a dark red dash of thunder cut across the sky.

It seemed that Shyann had provoked the Eye of Destruction.

The nearly shut Eye of Destruction became agitated once again. Not only did it reopen but it opened wider and bigger than before, wriggling vigorously in the sky as if the next moment, the maze of the sea serpent would completely crumble.

Following the agitation of the Eye of Destruction, one after another, the sea serpent’s pearls started to become agitated. Unexpectedly, a large group of sea serpent’s pearls flew in flocks and accidentally broke into Mount Serpentine. The minute they entered the area enveloped by the power of Serpentine, they lost their strength and fell to the ground.

The sea serpent’s pearls that fell on Mount Serpentine were like fish on the shore, weak and barely alive.

The Eye of Destruction was present for a much longer period of time than any other time.

After several hourglasses, the Eye of Destruction slowly shut and one after another the agitated sea serpent’s pearls in the sky returned to the Phagocytic Shells.

“Sigh… a hundred thousand power of Serpentine.”

From Grandalph’s sigh, Grimm already knew the outcome. He and the sorcerers around him started gathering the sea serpent’s pearls that had fallen on Mount Serpentine.

It was an indescribable disconsolation.

Grimm was not busy collecting the sea serpent’s pearls like the other sorcerers but after he had gathered two, he returned to Grandalph.

“Great master, can I have a look at the mouth of Spring of Serpentine altar at the deepest part of the cavern?”

What Grimm meant was obviously the place to get Spring of Serpentine after the offering of sea serpent’s pearls.

“Of course!”

***

It seemed like a naturally formed huge altar or it could be said to represent certain laws in the Spectral World. Grimm stood in front of the altar and observed carefully, hoping to discover something.

On the altar were hundreds of sea serpent’s pearls, which were collected by many of the sorcerers previously.

At that moment, the sea serpent’s pearls were fearful. They kept struggling but to no avail. Their bodies gradually blended into the altar and they disappeared.

Drip drip!

After absorbing the sea serpent’s pearls, big drops of water dripped down from the middle of the altar.

This was Spring of Serpentine and when the drops that had dripped onto the ground spurted out, they were frozen and gradually formed an ice crystal.

“Um?”

Grimm got hold of a piece of ice crystal formed by the Spring of Serpentine, feeling uncertain.

“Is it because the temperature on the outside is lower than the inside, so the liquid that flows out freezes into ice cubes? Or is it not following the endless world’s law of elemental ice but rather a brand new elemental system law?”

Grimm touched the altar with his hands, lied on his stomach on top of the altar to listen with his ears, sniffed carefully with his nose and even licked with his tongue. Even so, he did not get any deeper clue from the altar which was like an integrated part of Mount Serpentine.

This highlighted the importance of the Mask of Truth!

People were easily deceived by the surface of things causing them to be unable to explore the deeper essences of the law of things.

“Haha, did you discover anything?”

Grandalph the old sorceress laughed while collecting the Spring of Serpentine.

Grimm shook his head regretfully.

After passing the two sets of Spring of Serpentine to Grimm, the old sorceress said, “to leave this Spectral World, you have to depend on the power of Serpentine. You look indecisive. Don’t you want to use the power of Serpentine?”

The old sorceress left the secret chamber.

Grimm clenched his teeth and sighed. Just as he was about to leave, he suddenly thought of something. He then took out the Sorcerer Coin and tossed it into the sky.

Clink! The Sorcerer Coin dropped onto the altar on the reverse side.

Grimm picked up the Sorcerer Coin and tossed it again. “Clink”, this time it landed on the obverse side.

Over and over again, after Grimm had tossed the coin for one hundred times, he put the Sorcerer Coin away. His eyes were sparkling!

“Forty-eight times the obverse side and fifty-two times the reverse side. The more I toss, the probability of getting the obverse or reverse side is nearly fifty percent! So, the Balanced Law of the endless world works here, does it mean that only my senses have been deceived?!”

Grimm took a deep breath.

“That is, this place is within the boundary of the endless world and it is not any kind of Spectral World. Whatever happens is real but my perception has been deceived? Or maybe what I feel I was doing was actually not done by my real self?”

Unable to control himself, Grimm thought of the the First Acraepoid King of the Infernal Spirit World.

The First Acraepoid King summoned the power of the Eternal Dominator’s spring of eternity and killed the Darkborne Infernal God. Grimm had witnessed this kind of chaos when the Starshards community had dashed towards the Dark Destroyer King.

After that, Grimm had managed to enquire about the reason when Black Isotta requested for his presence.

Thus, through Black Isotta, Grimm also got to find out about some higher-level sorcerer knowledge pertaining to psychic mirage and perceptual deception.

It was not a psychic mirage structure or a Spectral World, but rather it was a sorcery casted to deceive the enemies’ specific perception in the real world.

After the perceptual deception of The First Acraepoid King by Black Isotta, a swap of cognition happened between Darkborne Infernal God and Black Isotta. This had caused the fall of a World Lord, a tragedy of the spiritual world.

Black Isotta told Grimm that he had acquired his ability from a gigantic thousand-eye crab.

The gigantic thousand-eye crab had two abilities.

One was to sense others’ gaze and the second was to confuse other creatures’ senses and then produce an effect of random attacks in its surroundings.

Now, Grimm could not help but suspect that he had a similar kind of ability of a higher degree.

This was the only way Grimm could explain why, under his judgement, the Spring of Serpentine had such harmful pollution and the Eye of Destruction was the only way out from this Spectral World for him.

Consciously he kept telling himself that he must not stray too far away from Mount Serpentine when the Eye of Destruction arrived or he would not be able to stay clear-headed.

All the objectives of this Spectral World were to create a trick so that all creatures would hunt for the sea serpent’s pearls with all their might to be placed on this altar.

Grimm’s pair of eyes saw the twilight beneath the Mask of Truth.

If only these inferences were real…