Mage Manual-Chapter 1456 - 1062: We Want to Take Back the Mage’s Handbook
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Death Mad glanced at him and said playfully, "We probably ascended at roughly the same time, right... but we only united after reaching Hell, unlike you all."
Ash was puzzled, "If you weren’t united before, then why—"
"We were all poisoned by Hell’s Secret Poison and couldn’t delay any longer," Death Mad laughed, "As for why we united... because all Hell’s Demigods are hunting us down, we had no choice but to join forces with Observer, and then Observer hooked up with Youmo, so we barely escaped the Demigods’ siege."
"Why were the Demigods of Hell hunting you?"
"Can’t you guess?"
Ash blinked his eyes, quickly grasping the crucial point: they were all inflicted with Hell’s Secret Poison and couldn’t delay, so they ascended to Demigod nearly simultaneously. Didn’t he experience this situation just a week ago?
"You all entered the Stars’ Cage and participated in the Angel Hunt!" Ash stated firmly, "You all obtained a small part of the Seventh Void Wing! So the Demigods of Hell were hunting you—who wouldn’t covet power leading to Supreme?"
"In our original plan, you were supposed to train for another half year on Ruby Mountain before entering the Stars’ Cage," Death Mad said, "But everything happened too fast; the Ghost Prophet revived early, the Angel Hunt started early, and the Sword Witch didn’t even get to enter the Stars’ Cage with you..."
"Great," Ash exhaled a long breath, "Fortunately, everything was ahead of schedule."
Death Mad gave him a look and fell silent.
At this moment, an elegant estate appeared on the horizon, occupying a vast area separated by fences, filled with flowers in full bloom, housing multiple mansions, with the central main building exuding a sense of ancient beauty, weathered cracks left by the passage of time visible.
Most peculiarly, there was a tilted tower in the center of the courtyard, with an orange cat running up and down on its top. Every step the cat took caused more cracks to appear on the tower, making ominous cracking sounds, yet regardless of how it ran, the tower never collapsed, maintaining its precarious state.
No reminder from Death Mad was needed; Ash could tell that the orange cat was a Technique Spirit, and even the entire illusory tower was a special structure constructed by Technique Spirits, like countless Miracles stacked together...
"Wonder?" Ash murmured.
"Yes, the Wonder ’Overturn Tower,’ or ’Overturn’ for short," Death Mad landed inside the mansion, "We’re here."
"But Wonders can only exist inside the Magic Temple—" Ash stopped himself mid-sentence, scanning the mansion’s structure, gazing at the vast wildflower meadows, his pupils contracting, "The whole mansion... the entire wild is the Magic Temple?"
"More precisely, it’s a ground-level temple fused from multiple Magic Temples," Death Mad passed through the courtyard, "A Magic Temple left behind during the Demigod phase can’t be absorbed by other Mages, but they make excellent material for bases, even capable of merging multiple Magic Temples to increase capacity. Like this Ten-String Mansion, it covers the area of an Upper Temple, allowing them to construct an Upper Wonder of this magnitude such as ’Overturn’."
Death Mad pushed open the main mansion door, glanced inside, and sneered, "Looks like your luck’s not so good—the people here packed up and left earlier."
Ash went inside to see the chaos, with furniture and files scattered messily. It was clear that the former master left hurriedly.
"But it’s not a total loss." Death Mad lightly waved her hand, gathering the scattered gems on the carpet into her palm, "Just what you need."
"What are these?"
"Void Wings."
Ash was taken aback.
"Uroboros devours the Mage’s soul body and Magic Temple, but only the Void Wings remain," Death Mad handed the gems to Ash, "Demigods are treasure troves; the Magic Temple can serve as base material, and Void Wings transform into Knowledge Gems, the most crucial alchemy material. Unfortunately, Knowledge Gems return to the Void Realm over time—wait too long, and there’s nothing left."
Staring at the gems in his hand, Ash asked confusedly, "How do I use these? I’m not from the Alchemy faction, neither are they."
"We know," Death Mad said, "But don’t you have a foolproof alchemy container?"
Ash blinked as he opened the Aurora’s Mage Manual, and moments later, a gold-rimmed glass bottle appeared in his hand.
"The Alchemist’s Essence Bottle!" One of the legendary items he acquired before!
"Just throw all the gems in," Death Mad instructed.
Ash did as told, watching as the gems rapidly melted into colorful smoke inside the bottle, which after a few seconds of mingling and merging, condensed into a cluster of golden light, emerging from the bottle to form a small potion in his hand—it truly is foolproof, the pharmaceutical bottle even creates itself automatically!
"Small Knowledge Condensation: Drinking it can condense a small amount of Void Wings of knowledge."
Ash murmured, "Is it so easy to eat people in hell?"
"Not at all, this is a masterpiece of the Supreme of Magic," Death Mad said leisurely. "Alchemists who can refine knowledge condensation stand at the top of hell’s contempt chain, almost every one of them supported by major organizations. Converting 30% of a Knowledge Gem into knowledge condensation is already good, 50% is rare in hell, and a conversion rate above 70% can only be achieved by Divine Lords proficient in alchemy, like the Joy Lord and the Extreme Lord."
"Guess how high the conversion rate of this refining bottle is?"
"100%," Ash said. "But didn’t the Joy Lord and the Extreme Lord not become the Supreme of Magic?"
"There’s always a timeline where they become the Supreme of Magic," Death Mad laughed. "If Uroboros hadn’t caught up, you could have stirred up a storm in hell just with this refining bottle."
Yes, even at Ash’s current level of cunning, he could sense the terrifying magical power of the refining bottle. Alchemists typically have efficiency problems when refining knowledge condensations and may even need various auxiliary materials, making mass production infeasible. Moreover, Knowledge Gems cannot be preserved, so "killing to level up" could never become the mainstream path in hell.
But the refining bottle is highly efficient, requires no other materials, and even a fool can use it. As long as Ash plays his cards right, he can entice other demigods to kill and collect Knowledge Gems for him, even if he takes a 90% commission, there will still be those willing to do it, because before this, nobody could efficiently produce knowledge condensations!
If it were Silver Lamp and Vishi operating it, they could surely wipe out everyone in hell save one, then laughingly chop off their head, cleanse the entire hell with demigod blood, and forge their sole throne with demigod bones!
"Let’s go, there’s nothing good left here," Death Mad turned to leave, "take the big toy outside."
"Big toy...?" Ash was taken aback, then turned to look at the tower wonder in the courtyard.
"Yeah," he murmured, "Why didn’t they take this wonder when they evacuated?"
"Because their temples couldn’t hold it," Death Mad said. "The Overturn is an Upper Wonder, only an Upper Temple can hold it, and even then, once it’s in, no other wonders can be placed there. Even demigods with Upper Temples find ’Overturn’ too large."
"’Overturn’ is likely their most impressive wonder, and it took a long time to construct, it can be used many times, so they couldn’t bear to destroy it, fantasizing that they might return to use it someday."
"But you’re different, your Heavenly Kingdom of Souls can easily accommodate this wonder," Death Mad glanced at him, "So, do you understand?"
Ash looked at her, "What?"
"Hell is empty, and you’re here," Death Mad spread her hands, "Never has there been such a wonderful start, you can freely plunder the demigods’ inherited legacy, wonders, and gems, all their millennia of accumulation are yours to use! You don’t even need to choose, your Heavenly Kingdom of Souls can hold the results of their millions of years!"
"Demigods painstakingly hollowed out the Void Realm, while you can easily hollow them out! You don’t need to exert any effort, it’s even moral for you to take them, because without your existence, their achievements would truly be forgotten."
"It’s peculiar, isn’t it? Clearly unearned gain, yet it feels like a mysterious mission," Death Mad laughed, "This is the feeling of burying civilization."
However, Ash looked at her puzzled, shaking his head, "No, not so peculiar."
"Haven’t mages always had the mission of inheriting to obtain predecessors’ knowledge from the Void Realm? What’s so surprising?" He shrugged, "Every mage in their growth process has to bury dozens, if not hundreds, of mages’ void shadows, don’t they?"
Death Mad glanced at him, silently took out a cigarette, puffed it, then said coldly after a while, "In the future, when I boast about my seniority, just flatter and agree obediently."
Unexpectedly, this person was the type that cared about face, starting to be unreasonable when unable to refute... But thinking about her being a possible identity of the Sword Witch, Ash was relieved.
"You specifically brought me here, made me understand I can take everything in hell," Ash asked, "So what do you want?"
Death Mad extended her hand, "Give me your hand."
Ash looked at her with a dumbfounded expression—he wasn’t a sucker, how could he be fooled a second time?
Death Mad threw the cigarette into the air and said for the second time, "Give me your hand, otherwise it’s hard to explain."
Ash hesitated for a moment but still extended his hand. Then Death Mad caught the falling cigarette and once again pressed it into his palm.
"First," she said, "I want you not to make Sonia cry... I’ve hinted so obviously, yet you still can’t do it."
"Second," Death Mad gazed into Ash’s eyes, "We want to take back the ’Aurora’s Mage Manual.’"
