A few days later, Ryan and his treasure-hunting team arrived at a common open space.
Traces of their last dig were still there, so they could spot the right place without having to determine the position. There was no need for Ryan to dig by himself, and the subordinates began to dig before Ryan even gave the order. After a while, they had dug a deep hole.
When the subordinates saw the magic array at the bottom of the deep hole, they were immensely happy.
Ryan thought it was too early to be happy and ordered them to get out of the way. Then he asked the wizard to check the magic array to see how much it had been damaged.
"It is not that seriously damaged." After examining it carefully, the wizard said firmly, "I can repair it, but it may take some time."
They had plenty of time and the goods and materials they prepared could last for a month, up until now they had used less than a quarter of their supplies.
They decided to live there, and this was exactly the same place where Gerrard, Palin and Ryan used to camp when they were hunting for treasure.
With the hope of finding the treasure and having a bright future, these exhausted people fell asleep.
They had no idea that there was a huge jellyfish floating right above their head watching them.
Gerrard and Palin were sneering in the cave.
"It seems that they are determined," Gerrard said. "They are too stupid. How could they underestimate us? How interesting."
Gerrard began to laugh at the irony of his words; he intended to kill them all.
The former "Bald Man" Nyen was a ruthless man. When he got angry, he even dared to fight with the soldiers hired by the aristocracy or kill their leaders. He had been wanted for many years, but he managed to arrive at the four towns in the northwest. He hid in the White Leaves Village and had lived a peaceful life ever since. No one knew how many battles he had gone through before he settled in the White Leaves Village.
One needed to realize that there was a big chance that he might be killed by Nyen before he managed to kill Nyen.
Palin didn't say anything. He sneered while gently touching his beloved magic book. Due to some reasons which even he could not understand, his ability to practice the spell had changed a lot. Some of his spells could not be practiced anymore; some spells' effects had been greatly weakened, and some of his spells' effects had increased a lot.
There were not many spells in his magic book. Among these spells, he found there were only two powerful spells. The first one was the Cold Ray, which was a spell of the primary level. One would practice this spell simply for the purpose of entertainment, besides, its effect was not that strong. Now, when Palin cast a cold ray spell, the effect was enormous. He even tried to practice the spell, and he found that once the Cold Ray was released, the ground would freeze at least five or six feet deep. If a human was hit by it, he would immediately die.
The other spell was the Ice Dagger. Once someone was hit by it, he would instantly be frozen, but its power was not that strong. In fact, if Palin stabbed his enemy with greater strength with a normal dagger, he could probably achieve better results. Now after the spell's effect had been intensified, Palin could summon a one-handed sword made of ice. It's side edge was very sharp and its whole blade was extremely firm. One time, he held the hilt and cut the palisades harshly. The ice sword was still intact, but a small piece was cut off the palisades. The cut surface on the palisade was very smooth and covered with a layer of frost. When he touched the frost, his whole palm froze and stuck to it. It took quite a while for the frost on his palm to melt.
Palin already knew that Gerrard could resist the effect of the magic spell. Even Gerrard would be frozen when he touched the frost, but an average person would probably die when they touched the frost.
Palin had a new ability that was beyond his expectation. Because of this, he had a deeper understanding of the greatness and magnificence of Sui Xiong.
He did not only have the amazing ability to bring someone back to life, but he could also revive a body that had lost its soul and make it move or talk like a human. Besides, he could even bestow onto me such a brilliant power. How absolutely incredible this was!
"Maybe...His Majesty should claim the priesthood of both 'life' and 'cold'?"
Sui Xiong knew that it was impossible for him to claim the priesthood of life. He never regarded the "Restoration" as an orthodox spell, but he believed that he could definitely claim the priesthood of the cold ice.
Maybe Palin's getting stronger had a lot to do with my cold energy.
"So if I want to be apotheosized, I should try to claim the priesthood of the cold ice..."
However, it was not that easy to claim the priesthood of cold ice, and among the Gods in the Northern Wasteland, there was more than one God that had claimed this priesthood. For example, the powerful God of Water.
Once one had claimed the priesthood of cold ice, he would have to deal with the Gods that had also claimed this priesthood. These Gods were born and grew up in the cold wasteland, and they were hard-hearted and ruthless by nature. If Sui Xiong could not shock them by showing his strength, he would be attacked by them all together. The Evil Gods would pounce on him like a wolf and tear him apart and devour him!
In fact, Palin had mentioned this to Sui Xiong before and asked him to be careful. Since a new-born God was not that powerful, he would be crushed and devoured by the other Gods. Then his magic power would be carved up among them. This had happened more than once, even a young wizard who did not see or know much had heard about this.
Although Sui Xiong was quite confident about his own abilities, he wouldn't do anything risky when he could find another way.
"My suggestion is that Your Majesty should join a group of Good Gods. It is true that there are many rules in a group of Good Gods, and one can not do whatever he wants. But the good Gods would look after each other. So, for a new God, joining them would do him good," Palin said.
It was a pity that Palin was still a young wizard of low rank, and he was not that experienced. Palin thought very hard, but he still failed to find a group of Good Gods that were suitable for Sui Xiong to join.
Anyway, Palin's suggestions had greatly inspired Sui Xiong and made him have a clearer understanding of the future. He had decided that when this business was done, he would head to the south to a very prosperous area in the continent and make contact with the Good God's Churches to see which God he could make friends with.
But before this, he would have to punish Ryan, a villain who betrayed him!
As for those bandits who came with Ryan, Sui Xiong had decided that he would not kill them, but he would make them suffer a bit to teach them a lesson, so they would stop carrying out misdeeds and become kind people.
For this purpose, he created a spell with which he was determined to make them remember all of their life!
A few days later, the wizard that Ryan had placed great hope on finally managed to repair the magic array and successfully open it. Now anyone could walk through it freely.
"This magic array is a bit old-fashioned, it was quite popular around five hundred years ago but not anymore." He was trying to show off his knowledge.
"Since this magic structure is outdated, it was very easy to break. I want to know who invented this magic array. Judging from the array, I can tell that they are quite powerful, or even more powerful than I am. Knowledge of the time is the most powerful weapon for a wizard who relies on their intelligence rather than their physical strength. One will really lag behind the times if their knowledge of the world has not been upgraded!"
Meanwhile, he took out a gemstone that contained a great amount of energy, and activated the magic array.
The pale green light was flowing out like water. The light covered the first group of vanguards who were chosen to enter the cave, and they were transported inside.
What awaited them was the activated hypnotic array set up by Palin.
Seeing the blue-green light dazzling, the bandits felt dizzy and fell asleep before they even saw their surroundings. Only one bandit managed to withstand the power of the hypnotic array, but he was knocked down by Palin with his wand. When he woke up, he was bound to suffer a severe headache.
The vanguards disappearance disturbed the rest of the members. So the wizard practiced a Divination spell to see if they were still alive or not.
"They are still alive," the wizard said when he practiced the spell, "and they seem very healthy… It seems that there is no danger over there, maybe there is something wrong with the trap."
Then, the second group of vanguards was transported.
They had the same fate as the first group, or worse when they entered the cave. This time Palin had intended to use his wand to knock down more people, but he was very disappointed when he found that none of them managed to withstand the power of the hypnotic array.
The disappearance of two groups of vanguards made the rest of the bandits worried. Seeing this, both Ryan and the wizard knew that they could not force these gutless bandits to take on the adventure. So the wizard practiced many protection spells and activated the transportation array to send the two of them into the cave.
With the pale green light dispersing, the two entered the cave. Though the power of the hypnotic array was around them, they had practiced some protection spells, so Palin's weak spell did not have too much of an effect on them.
Seeing both Gerrard and Palin standing there intact and ready to fight, Ryan was shocked. Then he began to smile, and secretly decided to confuse them with his words, so the wizard could have more time to practice the spell.
Palin immediately jumped and brandished his wooden wand to smash Ryan's skull, not giving him a chance to speak.
Bang! A light white magic shield appeared and withstood against this strike.
Gerrard did not initiate attack or take off his ax, he just watched Ryan and sneered.
Compared to Palin, Gerrard knew more about Sui Xiong's capability, and his sincere belief was something that the wizard Palin could never keep up with. As for how to deal with the two, in his view, it would be decided by Sui Xiong. What he needed to do was to wait patiently for His Majesty's orders and to execute them.
"When you sneak attacked us, did you ever think that you would be in this situation?" His laughing echoed in the cave. "How should I call you? Ryan? Or.. the head of the Association of Thieves of the Pyroxene Town?"