439: 43rd

"Stop crying, I'm not dead yet!"

Gu Yuan felt a bit weak and glared at the two of them with annoyance.

"Ah! Boss, you're okay, that's great! You suddenly stopped moving just now, you scared the life out of us!"

Mars gave him a bear hug, nearly choking the life out of Gu Yuan.

"Cough, cough, let go! You damn fatty! Let go!"

"Haha, sorry, Boss."

"Boss, what happened to you just now? Did you discover something?" Xia Er asked curiously.

Gu Yuan nodded: "I was looking at the mural on the wall earlier and noticed the magical beast's eyes suddenly move. I feel exhausted now, like I've plowed three acres of land, but I did make a discovery!"

"Fatty, run over and squat under that lamp."

"Why do I have to squat here?"

"I told you to squat, so just squat!"

"Oh, oh, okay."

Mars ran over and squatted under the lamp. Gu Yuan stepped on him to inspect the lamp and suddenly realized it could be rotated. His heart leaped with joy—could there be some sort of mechanism?

He hurriedly turned the stone lamp. After the lamp turned, the magical beasts on the murals seemed to come alive. This time, it wasn't just his hallucination!

"Boss! Good lord, these paintings are moving! They're moving!" Mars shrieked.

Gu Yuan, who was above, lost his balance and fell down.

"I saw it!"

The paintings above all turned to look down toward the base of the stone lamp.

A door appeared out of thin air.

"There's a door!" Mars exclaimed.

Gu Yuan walked up to the door. He approached it excitedly and slowly pressed his hand against it. What was behind this door?

The door didn't open; instead, a line of text appeared, accompanied by an ancient voice.

Magic Element Affinity, Fire: Four Stars, Metal: Two Stars, Wind: Two Stars, Magic Source: Level Nine.

"Magic Element Affinity? What does that mean?" Mars scratched his head, looking confused.

Xia Er thought for a moment, and his eyes suddenly brightened: "Could this mean we have magical talent!"

Thinking of this, Xia Er excitedly pressed his hand against it too.

Magic Element Affinity, Darkness: Seven Stars, Wind: Seven Stars, Water: Six Stars, Magic Source: None.

Xia Er was a bit puzzled: "Is my talent better than the Boss's, or worse? Why are some high, and some completely missing?"

Mars anxiously shoved Xia Er aside: "Oh, why do you care so much? It's my turn, it's my turn!"

Magic Element Affinity, Nature (Variant): Eight Stars, Water: Four Stars, Earth: Four Stars, Magic Source: None.

"Eight Stars! Look, I have an eight-star! Hahaha, I'm definitely more powerful than you, kid Xia Er!"

Xia Er pursed his lips: "My three added together equal twenty, and your three only add up to sixteen. Mine is definitely more powerful."

"Nonsense, that's not how it works!"

Gu Yuan remembered his own, where the highest was only four, but the Magic Source showed Level Nine. He didn't know if his was good or bad.

"Alright, alright, the door can be opened. Let's go in and take a look."

Xia Er and Mars stopped arguing and pushed the door open to enter.

After a flash of white light, their vision returned to normal.

It was a circular hall with a corridor surrounding it. Stone pillars formed arches, and there seemed to be many more rooms behind them.

Mars's mouth hung open: "Is this where mages live? This is even bigger than where the King lives!"

Gu Yuan didn't know what the world of mages was like, but looking at this hall that was at least a kilometer in diameter, he felt this might not be an ordinary mage.

Just when they didn't know what to do, the crystal ball in the center suddenly emitted light, and then a small sprite emerged from within.

"Dear future mages, hello! Welcome to the inheritance temple of the great God of Ten Thousand Source Laws, God Yu!"

"A temple!" Gu Yuan widened his eyes, staring at the sprite in disbelief.

"That's right, this is the temple the God of Ten Thousand Source Laws left in the mortal world. My cute future little mages, state your wishes. Here, I can grant them all for you!"

The sprite winked mischievously and flew a circle around the three of them.

"Any wish at all?" Mars asked excitedly.

"Of course, the great God of Ten Thousand Source Laws is omnipotent!"

"Then I want to eat—!" Mars's mouth was suddenly covered by Gu Yuan.

Gu Yuan stared at the sprite, his expression firm: "I want to become a mage!"

Xia Er also nodded heavily: "I also want to become a mage!"

Mars finally realized, nodding hurriedly and prying the Boss's hand away: "Right, right, right, a mage! I also want to become a mage!"

"Are you sure? You only have one chance to make a wish," the sprite winked.

"Sure!" The three said in unison.

"Really? Mages are extremely dangerous. In the future, you might encounter many evil mages who will treat you like ingredients and boil you in a pot, or terrifying man-eating magical beasts!"

"I want to become a mage." Gu Yuan's expression remained unchanged.

"Me too," Xia Er said.

Mars gritted his teeth, "Me too!"

"Alright then."

A magic staff appeared in the sprite's hand.

"Then welcome to the world of mages!"

Three streams of light entered the heads of the three brats.

Endless mountains and rivers passed beneath their eyes. They saw Earth Bears as large as mountains.

Dragons that blotted out the sky.

Giant pythons coiling around mountain peaks.

Titans that could move mountains and split the earth.

And those mages who could summon magic arrays in an instant, releasing world-destroying magic!

A voice appeared in their ears.

"This is the world of mages."

"Mages and ordinary people live in the same world, but on different planes. After becoming a mage, you will enter the next plane of the world. Here, you will find the mountains and earth are exactly the same as before, only magnified ten million times, and there are magical beasts, mages, and knights as powerful as gods and demons!"

"Of course, you can also retreat to the world of ordinary people at any time, but your power will be sealed. No matter how powerful a mage you are, in the world of ordinary people, you won't be able to cast a single bit of magic or battle aura."

"Now, do you still want to become mages?"

"Yes, I want to become a mage!"

Gu Yuan's heart surged with emotion. No wonder that one-eyed bearded man said he hadn't found any traces of mages or knights in over a decade. It turned out they didn't belong to the same world as him at all!

No, it was the same world, just...

Gu Yuan saw the village he lived in. On the plane of ordinary people, the village was still the same village.

But on the plane of mages, it was a desolate jungle.

However, the town was still there!

He even saw the old man he sold chickens to! At this moment, he was also serving those mages and knights dressed in strange clothes!

Vaguely, he heard something about adventurers.

His vision pulled back infinitely, and he saw a kingdom, many kingdoms. These kingdoms had few people, but none of them were the kingdoms he imagined that relied on ordinary soldiers to conquer.

They built magic towers that towered into the clouds.

They had world-destroying mages and knights.

What kind of world was this!

"Since that's the case, as a benefit for entering the temple of the God of Ten Thousand Source Laws, I will help you directly condense a Magic Source vortex! Remember, the Magic Source vortex is also your only proof of entry into the magic world!"

Divine Realm.

Nie Yu was boredly sunbathing. As an immortal, he had survived until the very end to become a god. If he hadn't really been unable to hold back, he wouldn't have wanted to become a god at all.

As the last immortal, having lived from the Lost Era to the end of the Age of Gods, the magic he had learned was naturally incredibly vast. Therefore, after becoming a god, he not only achieved the position of the Sea God, which had been predetermined, but also attained the position of the God of Ten Thousand Source Laws.

Rivaling that God of Magic.

Of course, after becoming a god, it was very boring because there was really nothing fun in the Divine Realm.

Suddenly, he felt that someone interesting seemed to have arrived in his inheritance temple.

"Level Nine Magic Source? Tsk tsk, I didn't expect that in this era, a heaven-favored child with a natural Magic Source could still appear. Interesting."

"Then I'll give you something interesting."

Another stream of light entered Gu Yuan's mind.

Gu Yuan's consciousness was suddenly pulled into a dark space.

"Where is this?" He immediately looked around nervously.

In front of him, a huge book suddenly appeared. As the pages turned, countless illustrations of magical beasts flashed by: dragons, titans, sky birds—so many powerful magical beasts.

Finally, the book closed, and four characters appeared on its cover.

Beast Compendium.

"What is this?"

Gu Yuan's consciousness was pulled again, as if thrown into a vortex. His body swayed, and before his eyes was still that great hall.

"Congratulations, you have become mages. Here, I'm gifting you a few Level One beginner spells. However, if you want to learn more powerful magic later, you'll have to obtain them yourselves, hee hee."