Industrial Revolution of the Mage Lords

Chapter 423 Mirage
The city that Duncan saw through the meteorite crystal on the top of the beacon tower... was a completely different style that he had never seen before. The entire city was composed of countless spindle-shaped spires closely arranged. From a distance, it looked more like a huge castle floating upside down in the air.

"Just like the magic tower in the sky domain of the magic city of Alayeh..." The Eye of Illusion stared at the outline of the city floating in the distant sky and sighed to himself.

The Astrologer frowned and said, "No... The Sky Realm is just a magic tower, but this... this is an entire city."

Just by visual inspection, one can see that the city is at least hundreds of feet above the ground. To lift a city up into the sky is not something that can be achieved by mortal means. Even a legendary spellcaster would find it difficult to do so.

This is why Alayeh is called the City of Miracles - the legendary human spellcaster who inherited the legacy of the dragon, the founder of the Federation... in a sense, his identity has transcended the ordinary.

Duncan was so excited that he could hardly contain himself. His mind kept reeling from the legends and deeds passed down in his family, as well as the heritage and historical secrets he had learned from his conversation with Arsdalen before setting off.

The ancient Alfred and Hernandez families...a wizarding kingdom established deep in the wasteland!
"That must be the Country of Eternal Night! It must be... the city ruins left behind by the Country of Eternal Night!" Duncan couldn't help but patted the two students' shoulders heavily, venting his joy and excitement.

Elder Wu Li came closer, frowned, and said, "What are these Eternal Night Ruins? They're just phantoms that appear on full-moon nights, a mirage common in the wasteland!"

Duncan was stunned. "Mirage?"

Elder Wu Li chuckled smugly and said, "What? You think the people of the wasteland have never seen the sea? Further north, in the frozen land, there's a vast underground sea of ice. Beneath the tens of meters of ice lies the surging sea. Most of the shadows you see are mirages reflected in the sky by the ice on the sea surface."

The Eye of Illusion asked doubtfully, "Is this the strange phenomenon in the sky that you are supposed to observe at all times?"

Uli shook his head. "This is a common phenomenon. Besides the huge floating cities... sometimes you can even see the reflection of whales swimming in the sky..."

The astrologers also found something wrong. According to the description that the teacher had given them along the way, the City of Eternal Night in Mr. Asdalen's words was a magnificent city comparable to the magical capital of Alayeh. It was definitely not like the one before them, always looming in the dark clouds.

"Teacher...does the scene presented in the mirage really exist in reality?" The Eye of Illusion asked in a low voice.

The astrologer answered decisively before Duncan could, "Of course most of them are real! Mirages can't create strange things from other dimensions, unless they're guided by external forces..."

Before she could finish her words, the Eye of Illusion shuddered, raised its finger, and pointed tremblingly at the mirage of the city that appeared in the sky through the crystal. It said in horror, "This... in the shadow of the city, there are... signs of human activity!"

Duncan quickly moved closer to observe and discovered that a large number of tiny, shadowy shadows had suddenly appeared in the shadow of the floating city, as if they had emerged from the inverted spindle spires.

The Kingdom of Eternal Night has been destroyed for nearly three or four hundred years. Even if the city mirage in front of us comes from the projection of the Eternal Night ruins, it is impossible for the remnants of the Wizard Kingdom to still exist in the city - after all, they suffered from natural disasters and demon invasions at the same time. The entire city suffered a devastating blow, and there is no way it can be rebuilt.

"Could it be the demons or evil orcs entrenched in the ruins?" The astrologer couldn't help but speculate.

Duncan shook his head, pointing at the dark shadows circling the city and the spire in the mirage, and said in a deep voice, "It can't be the demons. I've never heard of such a large number of demon ascendants who can fly."

The barbaric and ignorant evil orcs are even more impossible.

Regardless... continuing their exploration northward was essential. With the guidance and inspiration of this strange city mirage, their hopes of finding the Eternal Night Ruins were greatly increased. "Let's set off immediately..." Duncan pondered for a moment before making a decisive decision. "The mirage also appeared due north, which suggests there must be some unknown connection."

He turned to Elder Wuli and asked, "Your Excellency, is there a guide in the settlement who is familiar with the conditions in the permafrost area?"

Elder Wuli narrowed his eyes and spoke slowly, "Several of my students have ventured to the edge of the frozen sea in the permafrost region. The whale bones they retrieved provide evidence of this, but...if you leave the snow-capped mountains and go further north, there will be no more settlements of human refugees. You must think carefully."

Duncan nodded and said sincerely, "Whether it's us... or you who have been garrisoned in the Snow Mountain Beacon Tower for so long, please believe me, our ultimate goal is the same. There are alien enemies in the north that are more terrifying than the evil orcs and demons... You should have a vague idea of what this beacon tower is used for, right?"

Elder Wuli sighed, "No need to elaborate. I already understand the seriousness of this matter... I didn't expect that people from the southern border would attach more importance to this illusory ancient legend than we, the people of the wasteland... You all should follow me down the mountain... and select a few suitable guides."

……

The airship, which had consumed most of its fuel and supplies, had a lot of cargo capacity left, enough for Duncan to carry four or five refugee warriors who had arrived in the permafrost and ice sea area. Two of them were students of Elder Uli, and could be considered low-level spellcasters who had inherited the legacy of the wasteland wizards.

The group spent only one night in the snow mountain camp before taking off again under the stunned gaze of the refugees in the settlement, accelerating straight to the north.

Looking back, the towering snow-capped mountains rolled up and down behind them, and the boundless wasteland gave the exploration team a clear understanding that the depths of the wasteland where they were now were probably rarely visited by humans in the past thousands of years.

The airship continued to fly during the day and land at night, replenishing food supplies along the way by hunting ordinary wild animals and collecting wild fruits. It took about a week of hard travel to the north.

Strange things soon began to happen...

It would be common sense to speculate that the further north you go, the colder the temperature. However, the exploration team had been away from the snow-capped mountains for so many days, and the surrounding temperature had obviously risen strangely. When they landed and set up camp at night, the Astrologer and the Eye of Illusion even found potion plants similar to those that only grow in the warm areas of the central South Territory in the dense forest near the temporary overnight camp. Although there seemed to be differences in mutations, it also proved that the abnormal temperature was not a short-term phenomenon.

"Don't worry, Master Wizard. The elders of our tribe have told us...there is underground fire in this area close to the frozen sea, which keeps the entire land unusually warm. If there weren't so many groups of magical beasts migrating here to avoid the cold, there would have been refugee settlements moving here to reproduce and thrive." The oldest refugee hunter among the guides rubbed his hands and explained to the members of the exploration team while lighting a campfire.

The Eye of Illusion chuckled, "Then this is a great place to hunt magical creatures and obtain precious spellcasting materials."

"Magical creatures that live in groups are not easy to deal with. We have an important mission to accomplish, so don't overthink it..."

Before the astrologer could finish her words, Duncan, who was sitting opposite her, suddenly glared and shouted, "Be careful!"

A black shadow came from the dense forest and shot towards the astrologer's back at lightning speed. Although the astrologer heard the teacher's warning, he had no time to turn around and dodge - this was obviously not an ordinary crossbow arrow or some attack magic, it was too fast.

Just like a bullet fired from a magic gun!
Almost at the moment when the black shadow touched the astrologer's back, a dazzling light as mottled as dense scales suddenly emerged from her back. The black shadow collided violently with the illusory armor formed by the light scales, and disappeared silently like a drop in the ocean.

The astrologer spat out a mouthful of blood, and the crystal ball in his arms rolled to the ground, breaking into several pieces.

(End of this chapter)