Chapter 1287
Infinite Permutation Seal...
Known as the most unreasonable sealing method, this one has thousands of runes. If even a single rune changes, it spawns thousands of new combinations, and right now, hundreds of runes are shifting every second. The number of possible combinations each second is astronomical.
After watching for a minute, Leon could tell the total number of rune permutations here might reach tens of thousands, even over a hundred thousand. The sheer amount of calculation required—if done brute force, step by step—would take a thousand years of nonstop computation...
And that's with the help of the Mana Harness and the Arcane Wheel. If another artificer tried to solve this, even if they never ate, drank, or slept, and kept calculating until the Northend World was destroyed, they still wouldn't find the core password...
The sealing method is simple, but the calculations are impossibly vast...
Seeing this seal, Leon immediately gave up on cracking it. Trying to break it without damaging Pabbet's memory system? Ha, forget it—might as well go to sleep...
Without hesitation, Leon reassembled Pabbet's skull and completely abandoned the idea of breaking the seal. There are only two ways left now: either find the core password for Pabbet's memory seal—if you have the password, it'll take three hours at most to unlock. Without it? It could take a thousand years...
Or wait for the memory seal to dissolve on its own. The best bet is to keep leveling up Pabbet—once his strength reaches a certain threshold, maybe he'll unlock those memories himself.
Although Pabbet has regained his intelligence, Leon's questions remain unanswered. But Leon is now certain that Pabbet's memory system holds a crucial clue. That phrase—'Is anyone still alive?'—wasn't random. It's definitely tied to the Northend Apocalypse.
Since there's no way around it, Leon can only shelve the idea for now. Pabbet has regained his intelligence, so the answer will come eventually. For now, the safest bet is to focus on leveling up Pabbet—this is the most reliable, and the most likely path forward...
After boosting Pabbet to level forty, he's regained his intelligence. His combat strength now easily surpasses most first-rank Sky mages or Sword Saints. This was just a cautious single-level upgrade, to avoid damaging Pabbet. Once he adapts, further upgrades should be no problem.
Just then, Leon frowned. He sensed a disturbance: the laws of the Natural Semi-Plane seemed to be rippling, the whole world reacting, and a torrent of mana gathering toward the center...
With a single step, Leon vanished. Now that he's mastered the foundations of spatial law in this fully controlled Natural Semi-Plane, he can teleport at will.
In an instant, Leon appeared at the foot of the Sky Pillar. He saw the blood-red cocoon enveloping Hubert split with massive, intricate cracks. All the runes and phantoms on its surface vanished. The terrifying energy around the cocoon faded, most of it devoured by Hubert within.
Above, blood-red clouds gathered. Even the mana lake in the northwest corner of the Semi-Plane was sending torrents of magic to this spot.
Within the bloody clouds, the phantom of a three-headed golden dragon appeared first, then an ancient poison dragon, a blood dragon from the abyss, and finally, a crystal dragon.
These are all the dragon bloodlines within Hubert. The first three were fused later, while the crystal dragon is undoubtedly his original bloodline.
The appearance of the crystal dragon phantom is a huge surprise.
Crystal dragons are extremely rare among the ancient dragon clans, found only in the mythic era. They shun conflict, preferring to sleep—sometimes for thousands of years underground. Wherever they slumber, a unique dragonbreath crystal vein forms over time, far superior to ordinary crystal.
Crystal dragons have been nearly extinct since the Nesser Dynasty. The main reason is their difficulty reproducing—and their sheer lack of interest in it. Extinction was inevitable...
Yet Hubert somehow has crystal dragon blood in him. Even Leon finds this absurd...
Still, it's a stroke of luck. Hubert is breaking through to Sky Rank, and his bloodline is awakening—a definite boon.
But after the four terrifying dragon phantoms appeared, a massive humanoid shadow emerged as well—its features obscured, just a giant silhouette, with the four dragon phantoms orbiting around it.
At the same time, the aura of gods and demons began to manifest.
Leon frowned, staring at the shadow. This was clearly the power contained within the god-demon blood. As Hubert grows stronger, even the soul fragments within could become formidable.
To break through to Sky Rank, Hubert must fuse all these powers. But if the god-demon shadow dominates, it could be trouble—the soul fragments might keep growing, attract others, and eventually devour Hubert's soul, reviving the god-demon within him...
That's absolutely unacceptable!
On the ground, the blood-red cocoon enveloping Hubert split open before the phantoms could merge. All the cocoon's energy poured into Hubert's body.
A blood-red glow radiated from Hubert's skin. He grew half a head taller—now standing at two meters twenty. He looked up at the sky and let out a furious roar.
In an instant, blood light swept over the phantoms of the three-headed golden dragon, ancient poison dragon, abyssal blood dragon, and crystal dragon. With the massive god-demon shadow exerting pressure, Hubert found it absurdly easy to control the four dragon phantoms—no difficulty at all.
But that pitch-black god-demon shadow showed no reaction. Suddenly, the four dragon phantoms lunged at it. With Hubert in control, their power surged, and with a steady supply of strength behind them, they launched a relentless assault on the god-demon shadow.
The god-demon shadow moved simply, its massive hands—dozens of meters wide—slapping the dragons away again and again. But in the blink of an eye, each dragon recovered, and while one was knocked aside, the others would lunge in, tearing chunks from the shadow.
Gradually, the four dragons grew larger and stronger, while the thousand-meter-tall god-demon shadow shrank and weakened.
In less than half an hour, the four blood-lit dragon phantoms tore apart and devoured the god-demon shadow.
Leon watched from a distance, surprised by the spectacle in the sky. Anderson gaped; Lord Shaun was utterly stunned...
Only after the god-demon shadow vanished did Anderson, with his three faces, finally squeeze out a comment.
"Damn it, Hubert, that guy only ever thinks about eating..."
Leon had been wondering how to advise Hubert, to prevent future problems. But Hubert came up with the most perfect, most brutish solution...
He let the four dragon phantoms devour the god-demon shadow...
After the four dragon phantoms devoured the god-demon shadow, their forms doubled in size. Then they dove toward Hubert, and in an instant, four beams of blood light merged into his body.
Suddenly, a blood-red tattoo of an ancient poison dragon appeared on Hubert's left arm, a three-headed golden dragon on his right, a crystal dragon coiled across his back, and a ferocious abyssal blood dragon on his chest.
All the powers fused together, forming a torrent that swirled around Hubert. Layers of blood light washed over his body, and when the last of the energy merged with him, the blood-red clouds overhead turned into a rain of blood.
Instantly, the creatures around Sky Pillar—bugs included—began evolving wildly when touched by the blood rain. Some burst apart, others grew more savage. A swarm of ordinary insects now gained traces of bloodline power, or at least a hint of mana.
If not for the suppression of Sky Pillar, this blood rain would have flooded the whole Semi-Plane, forcibly altering the evolutionary path of every creature. That would be disastrous—a warped growth for the entire plane. But with the effect localized, it only boosts biodiversity here, which is a definite benefit.
Hubert grinned at the tattoos on his arms and chest, looking like he was ready to conquer the world.
"Archmage Leon, the great Hubert has broken through to Sky Rank! I'm invincible now, hahaha..."
Leon ignored Hubert and looked north. Hubert had just broken through, but now a surge of mana was gathering in the north as well.
In a flash, Leon vanished from sight and reappeared on the icy tundra at the far north of the Semi-Plane. Hubert stretched his neck to glance north, his mouth splitting into another grin.