Chapter 422: Inheritance
After spending more than ten minutes clearing out the remaining elemental spirits in the room, Leon took out a few Mana Crystals to replenish his magic. Only now, freed from the endless swarm of elemental spirits that had beset him upon entry, did he finally have a chance to observe the chamber.
Suddenly, something in the corner of the room caught his eye. He walked over and found a sapphire-blue crystal ball, about the size of a human head and cold to the touch. Leon's curiosity was piqued—what exactly was this thing?
The Long-Legged Emperor had invested countless wealth and manpower into building this floating palace. Logically, nothing ordinary should have been placed here. Yet the crystal ball seemed utterly mundane, without the slightest trace of magical energy.
Could it be some kind of mechanism?
The thought flashed through Leon's mind. He immediately tried channeling his magic into the crystal ball, but to his disappointment, nothing happened.
Still, Leon refused to give up. He examined the crystal ball from every angle, then tried moving it. When his hand slid beneath its base, he discovered a groove. Frowning, he felt in his pocket for that strange Mana Crystal he'd kept separate from the others. He took it out and tried fitting it into the groove.
A beam of light flashed—the crystal ball spun violently, projecting an image onto the opposite wall. But it lasted barely a second. Leon only caught a fleeting glimpse before it vanished, leaving him frustrated. He turned to Anderson, who was also watching him.
Did Anderson notice something?
"Anderson, did you see what that projection was?" Leon asked, uncertainty flickering in his eyes.
Following the map in his memory, Leon explored the palace for most of the day, but found nothing. He did encounter plenty of magical beasts, but after killing them, he no longer bothered to collect their crystals. The Mana Crystals containing four elements were only useful for powering the crystal ball.
When he reached a certain spot, Leon frowned. It was a black wall, very different from the rest of the palace, and covered in alchemical arrays.
Leon walked up to the black wall and tapped it lightly with his hand.
A hollow sound came from inside the wall—clearly, it was hollow, and not very thick. That meant there was probably a secret room hidden within.
Leon stood in front of the wall for a long time…
Suddenly, Leon remembered the map he'd seen after spending so many Mana Crystals. He recalled clearly that the position of this wall was one of the seven glowing points on the map.
If he could get into the secret room behind the wall, maybe he’d learn what those seven glowing points meant…
But opening the wall seemed difficult. At its center was a Compound Alchemy Array—unlike a normal array, this one was made of three tightly linked alchemical arrays.
After studying it for a while, Leon identified the three arrays making up the Compound Alchemy Array. Two of them controlled opening and self-destruction.
If the alchemical array was attacked or if there was a miscalculation during unlocking, the self-destruct function would trigger. The destructive force of that instant would rival a Title Archmage’s full-strength attack, reducing the wall and the secret room behind it to ruins.
To Leon’s relief, the three alchemical arrays forming the compound array weren’t at the True Spirit level. This discovery made him breathe a little easier.
But that relief was short-lived…
Because, although it was a compound alchemical array, it was genuinely at the True Spirit level.
Most of the techniques used were at the Grandmaster level, but the calculations required were enormous. Even a top Grandmaster would need months of sleepless work to solve them, and the compound array had a self-destruct program…
Even Leon had to be extremely careful, scribbling calculations rapidly on thick sheets of paper with a quill. It took him over three hours to work out the runes needed to unlock the secret room.
Picking up the quill, he carefully entered nine runes into the compound array. Instantly, the magical circuits flashed violently, and with a soft “bang,” the black wall opened enough for a person to pass through.
Leon didn’t go in right away—he was cautious, as this palace had too many strange places. With a wave of the Doom Staff, a Wizard’s Eye darted into the secret room, revealing its small and empty interior. On the floor lay a palm-sized crystal shard.
After confirming there was no danger, Leon entered and picked up the crystal shard, examining it closely. The crystal had a memory function, often used by mages to store information. Pausing, he tried channeling magic into it, and suddenly countless sapphire runes appeared.
“The complete Elemental Tide…” Leon was stunned for a moment, then put the crystal away. Before coming to the Turan Mountains from Auckland, he’d helped Rose Merlin calculate the follow-up meditation formulas for Elemental Tide, so he remembered it well. The moment he saw the sapphire runes, he recognized them.
The appearance of Elemental Tide confirmed some of his suspicions. He’d thought the seven glowing points on the map represented something special—now it seemed he was right.
Leon Merlin had said the King of the Caucasus left behind seven magical legacies: the Elemental Tide meditation formula, the Arcane Ring of Runes, and others.
The seven glowing points on the map almost certainly represented the King of the Caucasus’s seven magical legacies, and the Six-Formula Meditation Codex was likely one of them…
Lost in thought, Leon left the secret room. To confirm his suspicions as quickly as possible, he hurried toward the next glowing point, following the route in his memory.
It took him about two days, and he encountered dozens of magical beasts. After a series of battles, his mage’s robe was stained with blood. He broke through many compound arrays, and including the first secret room with Elemental Tide, he found a total of six secret rooms, each containing either a complete meditation formula or a magical rune, including the Arcane Ring used by Leon Merlin.
But when he reached the seventh secret room, Leon was dumbfounded…
The seventh secret room was at the palace’s center—a relatively spacious chamber. After breaking the compound array, Leon rushed in, hoping to find the Six-Formula Meditation Codex. But the greater the hope, the greater the disappointment…
The first six secret rooms each contained a crystal shard, representing a magical legacy from the King of the Caucasus. But this one had nothing like that.
That didn’t make any sense.
Leon frowned. Honestly, the result was completely unexpected. He’d thought one of the seven secret rooms would hold the Six-Formula Meditation Codex, but now…
He searched every corner, even checked the ceiling and floor, but still found nothing. The seventh secret room was completely empty, save for the faint traces of magic lingering in the air.
For a moment, Leon suspected he’d missed something, or that the real inheritance was hidden in a deeper layer.
But after a thorough investigation, he could only conclude that the seventh legacy was either lost, or its clues were hidden elsewhere within the palace.
He left the secret room, feeling the weight of disappointment settle in his chest. The palace’s silence seemed to mock his efforts.
Still, six inheritances were already a miracle. Leon forced himself to focus, reviewing the meditation formulas and magical runes he had obtained.
Each rune shimmered with the King of the Caucasus’s power, and the formulas felt like echoes of ancient wisdom reverberating in his mind.
He knew these legacies would be crucial to restoring magic in the Northend World, and perhaps, to securing his family’s future.
But the missing seventh inheritance gnawed at him, a puzzle yet unsolved. Leon couldn’t help but wonder if the palace’s secrets ran even deeper than he imagined.
He turned away from the empty secret room, the echo of his footsteps fading into the labyrinth’s shadows.
Some inheritances are found in blood and battle, others in silence and loss. Leon Merlin pressed onward, determined not to let the palace’s mysteries defeat him.