Chapter 603: Goddess of Magic

Chapter 603: The Goddess of Magic

Li Wei returned from the soul space to reality.

Before his eyes stood the Dragon King of Magic, who had remained standing in the sea even unto death.

The Dragon King of Magic opened his eyes wide, but the light within them had already faded.

His soul had dissipated.

Saint Xi and the Holy Dragon King flew over to him, seeing the motionless Dragon King of Magic.

The Holy Dragon King asked, "What happened? Why do I feel that the Dragon King of Magic is already dead?"

Li Wei nodded and said, "He is indeed dead."

Li Wei told the Holy Dragon King about how the Dragon King of Magic had chosen to project his soul to fight him to the death at the end.

The Holy Dragon King was greatly shocked and looked at Li Wei with concern.

"Are you alright?"

"Soul combat is extremely perilous. Even if you win, it may still leave behind enormous hidden dangers," the Holy Dragon King reminded him.

Li Wei shook his head and said, "I'm fine."

He did not reveal the reason.

According to what the Dragon King of Magic had said, he had taken the path of burning everything away, extreme sublimation, transforming into a deity.

This was a dead end.

It was a trap left by the gods.

The gods also did not know that he had already walked this path to completion.

Therefore, he could not expose this yet.

The only one who knew, the Dragon King of Magic, was already dead.

Li Wei did not want to be discovered by the gods, so naturally he could not speak of this matter.

Saint Xi sensed something but remained silent.

When Li Wei had originally chosen this path to break through to demi-godhood, there had been something odd about it.

If someone with his foundation could not break through, then who else could complete this path and ignite divine fire to become a god?

Only when the Dragon King of Magic mentioned it did Li Wei realize that this path itself was not problematic.

However, the gods had set traps upon it.

Those demi-gods who chose to walk this path, attempting to escape the control of the gods, would never return - only death awaited them.

The gods also used this method to control the demi-gods within the Sky World.

If one did not choose the path of burning everything away for extreme sublimation to become a god,

Then one could only choose to rely on the gods, becoming a god through the "substance of faith" given by the gods.

Never able to break free from the gods' control for life.

Li Wei opened a teleportation gate and sent the Dragon King of Magic's corpse to the sun.

Divine fire burned the Dragon King of Magic's corpse.

At the moment the corpse was completely consumed, the twelfth color of the divine fire stabilized.

The remnants of the Dragon King of Magic's divine essence were still burning.

Once the divine essence was completely burned away by the divine fire, Li Wei would also grasp the Dragon King of Magic's law of projection.

The Holy Dragon King gazed at the sky and sighed, "It's finally over."

Aside from the Dragon King of Magic's final advancement to pseudo-deity and his fierce counterattack being beyond the Holy Dragon King's expectations,

Everything else had been within his predictions.

If not for Li Wei and Saint Xi, had he come alone to challenge the Dragon King of Magic, he really couldn't be certain who would win or lose.

If Li Wei and Saint Xi had not come to find him,

The Holy Dragon King would still have possessed a fragment of the Dragon God's divine essence.

His chances of victory might have been slightly greater.

But that also meant he would have had to make the same choice as the Dragon King of Magic.

Abandoning the possibility of becoming a true god, becoming a pseudo-deity to gain greater power instead.

Even victory would have been a bitter one.

The Holy Dragon King, Saint Xi, and Li Wei flew back to Dragon Island.

In the palace of Dragon Island, Li Wei discovered an unexpected figure.

The legendary lich was nailed to the main gate of the dragon island palace.

The magical flames of the Dragon King of Magic had been tormenting his soul all along.

Because the legendary lich had divided his soul into several pieces, distributed among soul containers throughout the world,

Even the Dragon King of Magic, who had not yet mastered the law of projection, could not completely kill the legendary lich.

He could only imprison him here, burning his soul with magical flames day and night.

Wanting to cause his soul to collapse, triggering the simultaneous collapse of his other soul fragments.

Li Wei and the others arrived, defeated the Dragon King of Magic, and rescued the imprisoned legendary lich.

Li Wei extinguished the magical flames, shattered the restraints, and saved the legendary lich.

He was very curious about why the legendary lich was here.

"Why are you here? I remember you saying you went to the Dark World to seek greater power?" Li Wei asked.

The legendary lich replied weakly, "I have already found the dark power and advanced to become a demi-god lich."

"Then I came to challenge the Dragon King of Magic, but I never expected his strength to far exceed my expectations. I was completely no match for him."

"After being defeated by him, I've been trapped here for more than three years. Fortunately, you all came."

Saint Xi walked over and cast a Time Dragon Language spell to help the legendary lich recover some strength.

The legendary lich had endured torture for too long.

Saint Xi's current power was still insufficient for her to rewind time that far.

But even so, the legendary lich felt much better.

"Saint Xi, you've grown up," the legendary lich said, looking at Saint Xi with emotion.

The Holy Dragon King looked at him and remained silent for a long time before remembering.

The man before him was the human mage who had once seduced his daughter.

He never expected him to actually survive until now.

He was now Saint Xi's father. As the Holy Dragon King, he didn't want to say anything for Saint Xi's sake.

Pretend as if he had never seen this person at all.

The Sacred Dragon King harbored some dissatisfaction toward the legendary lich.

Ever since he learned that his daughter had actually fallen in love with a human, the Sacred Dragon King had been strongly opposed.

Even if one could transcend the chasm between species,

It was still nearly impossible to overcome the barrier of lifespan.

The Sacred Dragons lived for tens of thousands of years, while humans—even those who became legendary adventurers—could live no more than a few centuries.

To dragons, these short-lived beings were nothing but fleeting passersby in their long lives.

The Sacred Dragon King feared that his daughter might, because of so-called love, bind her soul to a human and share half her life with him.

Unfortunately, before that day came, he first received the terrible news of his daughter’s death.

To this day, the Sacred Dragon King still didn’t know how to face the legendary lich.

As for the legendary lich, he held no particular opinion about this father-in-law.

In truth, they had never met before.

This was, in a way, their first meeting as father and son-in-law.

Li Wei glanced at the awkward atmosphere between the Sacred Dragon King, Sacred Xi, and Torresta.

He couldn’t even be bothered to get involved.

Let them feel awkward all they wanted.

Li Wei said, “Now that the Demon Dragon King is dead, it will take you some time to restore order on Dragon Island. I’ll return to Maple City first.”

“If anything comes up, you can always come find me in Maple City.”

Li Wei handed the spatial coordinates of Maple City to the Sacred Dragon King.

At their level of power, whether or not one was a space mage, tearing open space and traveling through it was child’s play.

Traveling across worlds might still pose some difficulty,

But moving through space within the same world was as simple as drinking water or eating a meal.

Sacred Xi looked at the legendary lich and Li Wei, feeling somewhat torn.

Li Wei said, “Sacred Xi, stay on Dragon Island for now. Once you’ve fully integrated into the dragon world, you can come find me.”

“We can meet anytime we want anyway.”

Hearing this, Sacred Xi nodded.

“My power is still not fully under my control. I will remain on Dragon Island for a while longer, until I have completely mastered it.”

After the battle with the Demon Dragon King, Sacred Xi realized there were many aspects of time magic she still didn’t understand.

Right now, she could only use it in its most rudimentary form.

She also couldn’t yet fuse time magic with sacred magic.

All of this would require time and study.

Li Wei opened a spatial portal and returned to Maple City.

Suddenly, the spatial passage shattered.

Li Wei’s expression turned sharp. Was he under attack?

Soon, the broken spatial passage reformed into a new channel leading to an unknown place.

Li Wei extended his senses to the end of the passage.

There was no sense of danger emanating from beyond—it was, instead, filled with goodwill.

“An invitation?”

Li Wei hesitated for a moment, then stepped forward through the passage.

At the end of the passage, he emerged onto a grassland.

Sensing the surrounding aura, Li Wei felt both surprised and astonished.

This was actually a divine realm.

Which god had invited him here?

Li Wei already had a good idea who it might be.

He flew in the direction of the sensed divine presence.

Before long, he saw a pavilion built naturally from growing trees atop a hill.

Colorful flowers bloomed all around the pavilion.

Li Wei immediately noticed the goddess seated inside, whose hair constantly shifted in color and radiance.

“The Goddess of Magic, Mystra.”

“Welcome to my divine realm—you are the first guest to ever visit,” said Mystra with a smile.

“Please, sit.”

Mystra gestured for Li Wei to take a seat.

She poured him a cup of tea brimming with magical energy.

Li Wei glanced at the teacup and said, “Surely the Goddess of Magic didn’t invite me here just to drink tea?”

Mystra shook her head. “No need to rush. I’ve been waiting here for hundreds of years—what’s another moment?”

Seeing this, Li Wei picked up the magically-infused tea and took a sip.

A flood of information surged into his mind.

He paused briefly, then drank the rest of the tea.

Looking at Mystra, Li Wei asked, “Are you not afraid the gods will discover you summoned me here?”

Mystra replied, “Aren’t they always watching you anyway?”

Li Wei gave a short laugh. “That may be true, but being watched and being singled out as a thorn in their side are two very different things.”

“In the Heavenly Vault World, countless people live under the gaze of the gods—I don’t intend to become a target.”

Mystra smiled. “Don’t worry. The gods cannot see this place.”

“They’ve imprisoned me here, forbidding me from interfering in the affairs of the Heavenly Vault World.”

Li Wei cut straight to the point: “What do the gods truly want?”

Mystra’s expression grew serious as she answered, “The gods are deities from beyond this world. They seek realms they can refine into power.”

“Once they obtain complete dominion over a world, they consume everything within it and transform it into strength.”

“In that regard, the gods are not much different from evil gods—their actions are even more wicked.”

“Evil gods merely desire sacrifices from believers; demon lords crave the lives within a world—but the gods? They want everything.”

“The world itself, its laws, its rules, its living beings, souls, faith… every single thing that can be converted into power.”

After hearing the words of the goddess of magic, Li Wei roughly understood.

In a certain sense, what he had done was not much different from what the gods had done.

The difference lay in the fact that Li Wei burned stars to transform into divine power.

Stars bore neither life nor deities.

The gods, on the other hand, burned entire worlds to transform into divine power, maintaining their own strength.

The goddess of magic said, "The gods have gone mad. They burn the worlds in which they dwell, transforming them into divine power. Only the lives that believe in them can continue to exist within the divine realms in another form, remaining slaves to the gods and contributing strength to them."

"They have already burned one world after another. The Celestial Vault World is neither the first nor the last."

Upon hearing this, Li Wei felt that the gods were like madmen pursuing power.

He did not quite understand.

It felt strange.

If it were merely one person seeking power, doing anything for overwhelming strength,

he could still comprehend it.

But if all the gods were doing this, Li Wei found it incomprehensible.

Had all the gods lost their sanity? Gone mad?

Li Wei asked doubtfully, "Why do the gods accumulate so much power? What exactly are They trying to do?"

The goddess of magic looked at the teacup before her and said, "The gods invited me to join them, with the condition being to offer up the Celestial Vault World, handing over all authority of the Celestial Vault World to the gods, allowing them to burn it and transform it into divine power."

"They said this was to prepare for an impending calamity."

"If there isn't enough power to face the calamity, even the gods will perish in it. Therefore, They chose to begin accumulating power by every means possible to grow stronger."

"Calamity?" Li Wei showed surprise.

"What calamity?" Li Wei asked.

The goddess of magic shook her head and said, "I don't know. According to the gods, this is a calamity capable of destroying the entire astral realm and void. Even the higher-dimensional spacetime where the divine realms reside cannot escape. It is a disaster that will sweep through all of spacetime."

"After the last calamity, all gods perished. The gods found records concerning the calamity from fragments of history."

"The gods do not wish to perish again during the calamity, so they devised a plan to burn worlds for divine power."

"When encountering gods willing to join them, the gods would inform them of the plan and have them offer their worlds as fuel to be burned."

"When encountering gods unwilling to join, they would use various methods to exterminate the native deities of those worlds, then seize control of the world's authority and burn it for divine power."

Li Wei remained silent for a long time.

He asked, "What do you intend to do now?"

The goddess of magic said, "Alone, one's power is insufficient to oppose the gods."

"The gods have already obtained tremendous power from countless worlds. Even the weakest among them is not something ordinary deities can contend with."

"We must harness the power of the entire world, using the world's strength to confront the gods."

"That is why I created the Weave."

"The Weave has already covered the entire Celestial Vault World, able to gather the magical power of the whole world."

Li Wei shook his head and said, "This is not enough. Magical power alone is not enough. What truly makes the gods formidable is their mastery of laws."

The goddess of magic replied, "That is precisely why I said we need to rely on the power of the entire world."

"If the will of the world resists the gods, then the gods will no longer be able to use their law-based abilities within the Celestial Vault World, giving us hope of victory."

Li Wei showed surprise.

"The will of the Celestial Vault World?"

The goddess of magic said, "I am trapped here and cannot contact the world's will. I hope you can go in my stead to communicate with the world's will."

"The Weave has already linked with the world's will."

Li Wei asked, "What should I do?"

"First..."

(End of Chapter)