Warlock Apprentice

Chapter 2951: Chapter 2952: The Black Hat Reappears

As new magic patterns began to be drawn, the main topic of this alchemy session finally commenced.

A multitude of Hands of Magic moved behind Angel.

Each one served its own purpose, seemingly chaotic and disorganized, but upon closer inspection, revealed a rhythmic harmony—a kind of alternative order.

The Dream Conch was also taken out by the Hand of Magic, and as Angel activated it, the mysterious aura began to slowly dissipate.

When the mysterious aura had spread through the entire hall, Angel began using the Mad Hatter’s Coronation to engrave the last magic pattern.

It seemed like just two simultaneous operations, but in reality, it also involved controlling the magic pattern, stabilizing energy output, and applying multiple spells, among other operations.

This process wasn’t particularly difficult for Angel.

However, a small accident occurred.

The operation itself was correct and flawless, but Angel had overestimated the strength of the Geometric Lock.

If the Geometric Lock was only suppressing the aura of one mysterious object, its suppression was quite effective. Plus, the Subterranean Ruins themselves had a magical energy array to isolate the aura, generally keeping it locked within the dome, preventing it from spreading.

But this time, not only was the Dream Conch fully activated, Angel also used the Mad Hatter’s Coronation. The two mysterious objects’ auras collided continuously, challenging the defenses of the Geometric Lock.

At this point, signs of the Geometric Lock failing to hold were already apparent, and the mysterious aura began to leak slightly.

However, the leaked aura wasn’t substantial, and still within Angel’s control.

Nonetheless, when Angel finished drawing the last magic pattern, a little figure wearing a dark hat appeared in the mirror, changing everything.

A new mysterious aura began to surge from the mirror in Angel’s hand.

This mysterious aura wasn’t as strong as that from the Dream Conch and Mad Hatter’s Coronation. But it was like the final straw that breaks the camel’s back, opening a gap in the Geometric Lock.

Making the mysterious aura continue to leak out.

In the grand scheme of things, this leakage wasn’t severe, and the magical energy array of the Subterranean Ruins also suppressed the mysterious aura, limiting its spread to within a hundred meters’ radius. If it were outdoors, it likely wouldn’t cause too much of a stir.

But this was underground, surrounded by several beings of Southern Domain’s pinnacle. Even though there’s a distance from the Qingkong Poetry Room, they still sensed the leaking mysterious aura.

...

Inside the Sage Hall.

The Wise Master was cheerfully speaking, but suddenly paused and promptly stood up, looking towards the dark depths with a face of surprise and suspicion.

"This is..."

Before the Wise Master could finish speaking, Adanis in the mural spoke first, "Mysterious aura?!"

"It indeed is a mysterious aura. Why is it coming from the Qingkong Poetry Room? Could it be..." The Wise Master seemed to think of a possibility, his expression awestruck, and without a second thought, headed towards the exit leading to the Qingkong Poetry Room.

However, before the Wise Master could reach the exit, a slab blocked his way.

"I advise you not to go." It was the nose on the slab speaking, none other than the Avatar of the Black Earl.

The Wise Master frowned, wanting to say something.

The Black Earl’s voice echoed softly, "I don’t care what you’ve thought of; if you go now, you’re likely to disturb Angel’s alchemy. You should know that Angel nearly ascended to the mysterious realm once but was interrupted. That was an accident, and the Barbarian Cave didn’t pursue it. But if this time Angel has another chance to ascend to the mysterious realm and is interrupted again, can you guess how the Barbarian Cave would react? Can the shattered Naraku City withstand the Barbarian Cave?"

Whether the Wise Master heard the Black Earl’s words was beside the point. But the rest present clearly listened to the Black Earl’s voice.

"Chaowei Lord... refining a mysterious object?!" Kael stared, somewhat dazed, in the direction of Qingkong Poetry Room.

"Not sure, but it’s possible. I felt the mysterious aura too, and..." The one speaking was Red Sword Docks, answering Kael while walking towards the Black Earl, "...it’s a newborn power, sharp and unstoppable."

As Docks finished speaking, he stood beside the Black Earl, blocking the Wise Master’s path.

Through his actions, he expressed his stance.

He absolutely wouldn’t allow the Wise Master to disturb Angel’s alchemy.

Despite Docks’ earlier reluctance verbally, inwardly he had decided to follow Angel. At least, Angel’s offered conditions weren’t poor, and now, with Angel seemingly challenging the mysterious realm again, following an alchemist like him wouldn’t lead to a bad future.

Besides Docks, Vay and Kael also joined next to the Black Earl. They didn’t, nor dared to, block the Wise Master’s way, but as Angel’s first-generation fans and newly joined fans, they both hoped the Wise Master wouldn’t disturb Angel. Although they didn’t dare to block directly like the Black Earl, they wanted their attitude to be shown.

The Wise Master looked at the group surrounding him, closed his solitary eye, and lightly sighed, "I have no intention of disturbing Angel. I just... forget it, I’ll just stay here and watch from afar."

Seeing the Wise Master retreat, everyone breathed a sigh of relief.

But then the Wise Master softly spoke, "You may prevent me, but can you stop others?"

Others, isn’t it just you here... wait, there is the one in the painting!

Everyone immediately reacted, raising their heads to look at the oil painting above the fireplace. Previously, Adanis had been inside the painting.

But now, the figure in the oil painting had an empty gaze, devoid of Adanis’s presence.

Docks: "Adanis! Damn it!"

Just as Docks furrowed his brows, his expression shadowed, a voice suddenly emanated from within the oil painting.

"Are you here to stop me?"

"I’m not stopping you; I’m just hoping you’ll consider things carefully. Are you sure you want to offend Angel?"

The first voice was that of Adanis, and the second, with a cold tone, was familiar to everyone. The Wise Master directly identified the owner of that voice, "Is it... Laplace?"

At this moment, within the mirror space of the oil painting—

Adanis gazed towards the dark deep space.

There was the outskirts of the oil painting’s mirror space. Breaking through it could reach the Mirror Domain. But presently, the mirror space was locked by a powerful force.

Adanis could forcefully break through, but doing so would inevitably shatter the oil painting’s mirror space.

Fragmenting the mirror space wouldn’t just deprive Adanis of a surveillance point over the Wise Master but also result in a backlash from the mirror’s breakage. Even if the backlash wasn’t severe for her, facing Laplace outside would certainly leave her at a disadvantage.

Although 90% certain Laplace wouldn’t act against her, Adanis dared not gamble on that remaining 10% chance.

Adanis: "I’m just using the mirror to observe, it won’t interfere with him, how could it offend?"

Laplace: "Watching is a form of interference. In certain environments, it’s even strong interference. You should understand that."

"But that’s only under specific circumstances..."

Before Adanis could finish, Laplace interrupted: "Are you sure the current situation isn’t a special one? Are you 100% certain that your watching won’t affect Angel’s alchemy?"

This time, Adanis said nothing, but she still didn’t withdraw, merely confronting Laplace through a layer of dark mirror.

Laplace’s face showed no expression, but inwardly she was gradually coming to terms with it.

Previously, when Angel left Rabbit Mountain, he said he would be refining a mirror next and entrusted her to keep an eye on Adanis. At the time, Laplace didn’t quite understand Angel’s intention.

Now, feeling the waves of mysterious fluctuation emanating from the mirror in the Qingkong Poetry Room, Laplace vaguely understood. 𝘧𝓇ℯ𝑒𝓌𝑒𝑏𝓃𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘭.𝒸ℴ𝓂

Is Angel doing alchemy? And moreover, is he refining a mysterious object?

However, what Laplace couldn’t quite fathom was that Angel hadn’t really studied Sweet Dreams before; why would refining a mirror leading to Rabbit Mountain suddenly inspire him, bringing him towards the path of refining a mysterious object?

Although Laplace couldn’t quite understand this, she didn’t show any outward sign of it. After all, if Angel was truly refining a mirror, he would eventually bring it out for use, and then they would know.

For now, Laplace’s task was to stop Adanis from disturbing Angel’s alchemy.

Seeing that Adanis still wasn’t willing to retreat, Laplace thought for a moment and spoke: "Do you know why I’m here?"

Adanis frowned: "Is it related to Angel?"

Laplace nodded: "Yes, he sent me."

Adanis glared: "How dare he..."

Before she could finish, Laplace interrupted again: "I remember you know a bit about alchemy, so you should understand. When you have inspiration in alchemy, would you carefully go around visiting everyone one by one, asking them not to disturb you, then find a quiet and safe place to start your alchemy?"

"I believe the answer is no."

"Previously, Angel was with me. I don’t know why he suddenly gained inspiration, but when he had it, he wanted to act on it, which I can understand. He didn’t have time to visit you and the Sage one by one, so he entrusted me to explain on his behalf."

As Laplace spoke, through the mirror space, she faintly saw the Black Earl and others outside: "The Sage doesn’t need attention for now, so I hope you can understand."

Adanis was previously furious, feeling that Angel deliberately having Laplace block her was a provocation. But thinking carefully about Laplace’s words, they did make sense.

Angel suddenly started doing alchemy, and it’s highly likely that he’s chasing after the mysterious limits, which must be a case of "sudden inspiration."

In such cases, inspiration might disappear in a flash, so he didn’t have time to inform her, instead asking Laplace to explain, which wasn’t surprising.

With this thought, the anger in Adanis’s heart gradually dissipated.

Also, Laplace was right; "observation" and "watching" are indeed interference. In a context of breaking through the mysterious, it could be strong interference. She indeed acted impulsively earlier.

Moreover, Angel still had Olao with him... she also needed Angel to speak on her behalf in front of Olao.

When needing something from someone, to go and spy on their alchemy, Adanis knew it wasn’t right, though she certainly wouldn’t admit it.

Adanis thought for a moment, then snorted coldly: "I don’t care why he suddenly started doing alchemy, but occupying and blocking the Qingkong Poetry Room is his fault. However, this time I’ll let it slide for you, but there won’t be a next time."

After her words, Adanis slowly retreated, returning to the superficial layer, the interstice between the mirror space and reality.

Laplace quietly watched Adanis until she completely disappeared before turning around to look towards the Qingkong Poetry Room, eyes filled with confusion and... anticipation.

Inside the Hall of the Wise.

After Adanis returned, she remained silent.

Everyone present had heard the conversation between Adanis and Laplace. They also knew that speaking at this moment was like poking a tiger, so silence was better.

Although no words were spoken, the minds of those present were restless.

And the one leading their thoughts to flutter—Angel, at this moment, had already closed his eyes, his mind entering into a strange space.

And this space was the anomaly space created by this round of alchemy.

...

In the pitch-black forest, Angel opened his eyes.

Angel looked around at his surroundings: all forest, with dead branches and leaves on the ground.

He then checked his own condition... unable to perceive the Mind Space, his flesh weak like a mortal’s.

Angel knew his current situation; he was undoubtedly in an anomaly space.

Although what he refined was a basic-rank tool, the probability of an anomaly occurring was relatively low. But Angel remembered very clearly that before entering the anomaly, a black hat appeared on the mirror.

"Another black hat..." Angel sighed softly.

He didn’t know whether this was good luck or bad. Feng and his friends, when seeing hats appear with "The Mad Hatter’s Coronation," always had white hats; whereas in his hands, black hats popped out one after another as if they were costless.

Conversely, white hats were seen very rarely.

The coronation of a black hat meant something, Angel knew very well. Once the coronation was successful, the refined mirror would surely have special effects. Precisely because of this, a basic-rank tool would have an anomaly... Of course, the mirror now was still a basic-rank tool, but once Angel safely left the anomaly, that wouldn’t necessarily be the case.

Overall, although the coronation of a black hat sounded good and Feng praised it in all sorts of ways, Angel was somewhat worried.

Because the alchemy anomaly brought by the coronation of the black hat was different from any anomaly Angel had previously experienced.

Until now, he didn’t know his objective in entering this anomaly.

In the past, entering different anomalies was like entering different instances; there would always be some guidance. Even if there was no guidance, some obvious clues would be given. But now, the surroundings were a silent forest, with no abnormalities or guidance visible.

This time the anomaly was like a blind man feeling an elephant; Angel felt like he was in total darkness.

Staying in place, seeing no hope, Angel could only stand up and choose a direction where the trees seemed slightly sparse to walk towards.

Putting everything else aside, at least he would first explore this dark, tall broadleaf forest.