Chapter 705: Hesse Magic Array

"I have always kept my word," Reslin said calmly.

One million seven hundred thousand Gold Shields wasn't a trivial sum for him, yet it wasn't enough to make him abandon his principle; it was about a middling amount for a rich man in his past life.

"Good!"

Belak was overjoyed and loudly praised, "Being friends with you is truly worth it!"

Yizite, however, was unconvinced and immediately corrected him, "Friendship can't be measured with money."

"That's right, that's right. I've never seen so much money in my life; I was too excited, so I misspoke," the Holy Spear Ranger hurriedly explained.

Everyone understood that Belak didn't mean that; seeing his incoherence, they couldn't help but laugh.

"Now divide all this gold and magical items among yourselves," Reslin said. "Also tally the remaining gems, crystals, magical alloy, and other alchemy materials; I will purchase them all at market price."

Belak readily agreed, "Ha ha, leave it to me."

Even though Yizite and Daon Sosi weren't keen on wealth, such a huge sum laid before them within easy reach, they wouldn't refuse.

"Do I get a share too?" Asina asked with a smile.

She was the one who cared least about treasure; the Titan Giant had grown up in the Storm Sanctuary, never lacking food or clothing, and had no deep concept of money. As for weapons and gear, Elder Sorim had prepared the best, including a Legend Grade shield, so few things could move her.

"Of course."

Reslin nodded, "You're our teammate, so you definitely have a share."

Belak, already tallying the gold, suddenly turned back and laughed, "Asina, you can quit if you want; after all, Lei En is so rich, you don't need anything. That way the three of us can each get an extra few tens of thousands of Gold Shields."

"I won't cheapen you, you money‑obsessed fool; not even one Gold Shield less is acceptable," Asina replied decisively.

Belak's dark face instantly fell.

The others, however, burst into laughter.

Even those least interested in wealth would be thrilled to suddenly receive over four hundred thousand Gold Shields; the warehouse echoed with joyous laughter.

"I'll go check the other rooms of the Wu Shi Ta."

Reslin said so and teleported away.

The obsidian tower, over 130 meters tall, was only half the height of a normal Wu Shi Ta, its interior shrunk to a third, yet it was still very spacious for humans. The entire tower was divided into ten floors, each with a different function from bottom to top.

The lowest floor was the tower base, the largest space, cleared and built into a massive palace.

This had originally been Kevisasen's audience hall for servants, constantly staffed by slave guards, with a side hall housing a barracks for the guards' rest. After the Eye Demon took over, it did the same; its most prized Zor Guard lived on this floor, and all were dispatched earlier, having been killed cleanly.

From the second floor upward was the domain of the tower's owner.

This was usually the dormitory for wizard apprentices and students, as well as the place where legendary wizards taught magical knowledge.

The third floor housed a basic magic laboratory and a public discussion area, able to draw a small amount of Wu Shi Ta's energy.

The fourth floor contained a mid‑level magic laboratory, an alchemy room, and a material storage, usable only with the tower owner's permission.

The fifth floor was the most important part of the Wu Shi Ta; the entire floor was filled with massive rune arrays that absorbed all kinds of energy from the surrounding space—no matter the nature, be it elemental, arcane, or shadow—converted and stored it to power the Wu Shi Ta's operation.

The storage array's capacity was limited, and its absorption and output efficiency had caps.

Reslin checked and found that the Obsidian Tower's storage array was the earliest one Kevisasen had completed, its capacity only a quarter of that in the Weizelan Wizards' Tower.

In the previous battle, thirty percent of the energy had been consumed, requiring about a week to fully replenish.

The storage array was already powerful enough.

Yet it was worlds apart from the Iola Core; even with limitless energy, the storage array could never match it. Not to mention the Iola Core's terrifyingly high energy output, which kept Fu Kong Cheng aloft.

The fifth floor, where the storage array resides, had no entrance; only the tower owner could teleport in.

Above that was the sixth floor.

Normally, floors six through the top tenth would house various functions—such as the tower owner's residence, the highest‑level magic laboratory, magical gardens, and so on—but the Obsidian Tower was different; aside from the top‑level control core, the lower six, seven, eight, and nine floors were entirely devoted to rune arrays.

It was precisely the "Hesse Magic Array" used to assist the Nine-ring Technique.

Reslin saw the array's name in the tower's log and immediately thought of the Elf Kingdom's "Hesse White Tower!"

It was the world's first Wu Shi Ta, built over seven thousand years ago and still standing, its interior housing countless elf wizards' wisdom and magical knowledge.

The Grand Mage Tekris that Lei En knew was the chief Grand Mage of the Hesse White Tower.

Judging by the name, the Hesse Magic Array was very likely originated from the Hesse White Tower.

Moreover, the reason the elf race has so many Grand Mages—far more than human Holy Soul Wizards—may well be the existence of the Hesse Magic Array, which lowers the difficulty of advancing to Grand Mage.

If that were true, the Hesse Magic Array would be the elves' supreme secret.

Kevisasen's obtaining it was truly a stroke of luck.

Now it has fulfilled him.

Reslin climbed from the sixth floor upward, taking over two hours to reach the ninth floor; after reviewing, he couldn't help but shake his head. Kevisasen had completed only about forty percent of the Hesse Magic Array, counting the lower storage arrays; if considering only the Hesse Magic Array itself, progress was under twenty percent.

Mage Kevisasen's understanding of the Hesse Magic Array was also insufficient; many parts had flaws that needed correction.

Yet he was ten thousand times better than the Eye Demon Elder!

That Eye Demon had also completed a tiny portion of the array, only a few percent, but it was riddled with flaws, merely adding chaos. All the arrays it had set up needed to be erased, wasting materials and its own time.

Reslin was speechless; the Eye Demon was better off doing nothing at all...

Returning to the tenth floor, the topmost level, the Eye Demon's corpse remained there, and a gust of wind blew in through the large hole pierced by the Thunder God's Spear.

Reslin's mind shifted, and the Obsidian Tower's spell list materialized before his eyes.

First, he reactivated the protective barrier; with a hum, energy flowed throughout the tower, a layer of transparent shield appearing then settling, only to trigger when attacked.

Then he cast a high‑level eight‑ring restoration technique aimed at the hall's opening.

Seconds later, the fallen stones and materials at the Obsidian Tower's base rose from the ground as if in Time Reversal, reassembling in mid‑air into a flawless magical wall that perfectly sealed the opening, as if it had never been broken.

He then teleported the Eye Demon's corpse out, tossing it beyond the city.

The cave was littered with corpses; if left untreated they'd soon rot and foul the sole water source.

Reslin waved his hand, and the walls surrounding the hall became transparent, revealing the town below the tower and the entire cave's view.

He began channeling energy to cast spells.

One after another, arbitrary doors opened, and twelve Mirror Images of Reslin walked in, appearing throughout the cave; with a mage's hand they lifted the scattered corpses and gathered them together. The Eye Demon was extremely stingy; aside from those legends, the slaves' weapons and gear were worth little, so it lazily left them piled into a dozen small heaps.

The tower emitted a torrent of flame, igniting the corpse piles.

The crimson firelight illuminated the cave.

A moment later, the more than two thousand slaves and the Eye Demon's corpses burned to ash.

Reslin's emotions showed no fluctuation; these subterranean creatures were evil enemies in his eyes, his hands stained with sinful blood, killing without any sense of guilt.

Moreover, to protect the secret of the Obsidian Tower, the slaves could not be allowed to leave.

The cave had four passages for entry and exit; Reslin let the Mirror Images walk each, then blocked all entrances with rock and soil, and rearranged camouflage and magical traps in the passages to prevent accidental intrusion.

Finally, he sealed the door beneath the Obsidian Tower, activated the Invisibility Field, and hid the entire tower in shadow.

Unless one approaches closely to dispel the Invisibility Field, it is hard to see the Mage Tower.

Having done all this, Reslin returned to the fourth‑level warehouse.

"Have you finished the inventory?"

"Reslin, you arrived just in time." Beilake stood beside the wall piled with gold ingots, his face full of an uncontrollable smile, "We have just completed the settlement; the total value of these alchemical materials is a little over 820,000 Gold Shields, you only need to give us 800,000 Gold Shields."

"So generous, you don't even want the extra 20,000 Gold Shields?" Reslin was a bit surprised; that wasn't like Beilake's character.

"Hehe……"

The Holy Spear Ranger felt embarrassed; if his skin weren't dark enough, one would notice his face had turned red.

Reslin probably guessed what was happening, likely having been lectured by Yizite, so he stopped teasing, triggered castling, and let Lei En come over from Glamorgan.

Lei En took the prepared Gold Shield from the Nebula Ring and said, "Here are 800,000 Gold Shields, do you want to count them again?"

Several large crates were opened, filled with Empire Gold Shields.

"No, no!"

Beilake's eyes widened, shaking his head repeatedly, "We trust you."

Each time Lei En appears before his teammates, it puts considerable pressure on them; Yizite's attention quickly shifted to Lei En, and the keen one sensed a change in Lei En's aura, secretly startled, Lei En is getting stronger!

"Lord Lei En." Dao En Sosi bowed.

Lei En nodded; castling can only be triggered again after a minute, so he said, "We will rest inside the Obsidian Tower for half a day, then set out, heading straight into the middle layer of the Dark Realm."

Beilake, who was distributing the treasure, heard this and turned back in surprise, "So soon?"

"Hmm, the plan changed." Lei En explained, "The top floor of the Obsidian Tower has a teleportation array left by Keweisason, leading to the middle layer of the Dark Realm. The tower log records that Keweisason often uses this array to return to Mosuobulai; I just checked, and the array is still functional."

"Mosuobulai…" Yizite murmured softly, his expression very complicated.

This dark elf city was his hometown, the place he grew up, filled with countless memories, most of which are painful and hard to recall, but some are happy times.

According to the original route, they would still need to travel three to four more days on the upper level to reach the middle layer.

Then advance about seven days in the middle layer, pass through another dark elf city, and walk roughly three more days to reach Mosuobulai City.

Mosuobulai is a necessary waypoint to the entrance of the lower layer of the Dark Realm.

Teleporting from the Obsidian Tower saves half a month of travel; that's definitely good.

Lei En glanced at the dark elves, then continued, "The array won't drop us directly inside Mosuobulai City; it's about half a day's travel away, in a very hidden spot, so there's no safety concern."

The teammates all nodded in agreement.

"All divided!"

Beilake, quick of hand and foot, split the gold, Gold Shields, and the twenty‑odd magical items into four equal‑valued portions.

"You take three portions first, and the remaining one is mine," the Holy Spear Ranger declared, showing his fairness.

Yizite made a beckoning gesture to Asina, "Ladies first."

The female giant also didn't hold back, casually taking the portion nearest to her and storing it in the Nebula Ring.

Then Dao En Sosi took the second portion.

Yizite also put a portion of treasure into the Dimensional Space Ring, and Beilake happily took the last portion, grinning ear to ear, "This time we really got rich! With this money I can get a better set of armor and forge two top‑grade soul spears!"

He looked at Lei En, hopeful, "Lord Count, whenever there's another adventure, be sure to call me…"

"Aren't you afraid of dying?" Lei En retorted playfully.

When one has to venture out themselves, it's usually the most terrifying enemy; although Beilake is a Legendary High-rank Holy Spear Ranger, extremely powerful, a slip can still be fatal.

"For gold, I fear nothing!"

Beilake pounded his chest with a thumping sound, his face suddenly full of an ingratiating expression, "Besides, aren't you here? With Lord Count's strength, there's no enemy that can't be dealt with!"

"That may not be so." Lei En smiled wryly.

For some reason, he suddenly recalled the time he was pursued by Augulevi Master; now it still gives him a lingering fear, and if he were to speak of it, it would probably scare the teammates half to death.

At this moment, the castling timer elapsed.

Reslin returned to the Obsidian Tower and teleported everyone to the top floor.

The top floor of the tower, besides the spacious hall, also had a few luxuriously appointed bedrooms, but the furniture and décor were long decayed, clearly the Eye Demon had never entered; its size also made bedroom rest unsuitable.

Reslin cast a cleansing spell, and the place instantly looked brand new.

The teammates rested for half a day, their spirit and stamina fully restored.

A teleportation array materialized on the floor at the center of the hall; Reslin activated it, not acting rashly but first sending a Mirror Image through to verify safety, then stepping onto the array with his teammates.

The scene before everyone shifted, instantly arriving at a pitch‑black cavern.

(End of Chapter)