Wizard: Starting with Dealing with Magical Plants

Chapter 358 The Pursuers Arrive

After a moment's consideration, Rowling made a decision.

First, explore along the bottom of the canyon, in the general direction of the "eye of the storm" as you remember it.

If an exit is found, leave the canyon first.

If you encounter the so-called "passage" or relics, it depends on the situation.

It's better than being trapped here, or turning around and running into an annihilation-type enemy.

Having a clear goal actually made me feel more at ease.

He returned to the cave and tidied up the few remaining items in his dimensional bag:

Several empty potion bottles, some discarded rune materials, the crystal tube containing dark silver liquid, animal parchment, and the black short staff, the Staff of Slumber.

Pick up the Staff of Sleep and examine it carefully once more.

Injecting a wisp of star power yielded no response, as if the faint resonance and fragments of intent from before were merely an illusion.

But Rowling believed it wasn't an illusion. This short staff was definitely not simple; it might just be severely damaged, or require specific conditions to activate.

Perhaps the answer lies in the "eye of the storm".

He carefully stored the short staff and other important items close to his body, tucked the adamantite dagger back into his waistband, and checked his condition one last time.

Then, they silently slid down the rock face and stepped back onto the pebble beach at the bottom of the canyon.

The moonlight stretched his shadow long.

He chose to travel along the shadow of the cliff, avoiding exposure to open areas as much as possible.

Mental energy, like invisible tentacles, extends forward and to the sides, alert to any disturbance.

The bottom of the canyon is longer than expected, and the terrain is not static.

Sometimes it's an open pebble beach, sometimes it's an obstacle course with scattered rocks, and sometimes you'll encounter icy, underground streams flowing down from cliffs, requiring you to wade or detour.

Along the way, he saw many traces of damage caused by the energy storm:

Huge, seemingly cut-by-a-blade rocks:

A long, narrow crack in the ground, seemingly bottomless, shimmers with faint, fluorescent energy.

There were even the remains of several large, unidentified creatures that had long since weathered into skeletons, their bones exhibiting a crystalline texture, clearly indicating they had been dead for many years.

However, no more bone centipedes were encountered, nor were any traces of the extermination type found.

This only made him more wary. It was too quiet.

After walking for about two or three hours, the direction of the canyon ahead began to change, with the cliffs on both sides gradually narrowing inward to form a narrower "throat".

Meanwhile, energy disturbances in the air have also begun to intensify significantly.

The whistling wind grew sharper, and the grayish-white energy mist thickened again, severely impairing visibility.

The cobblestone ground beneath my feet began to vibrate rhythmically, as if some enormous object was slowly pulsating ahead.

Luo Lin slowed down and pushed his mental perception to its limit.

He could sense that the energy concentration and level of chaos not far ahead were rising rapidly, forming a powerful energy field.

Energy particles in the air are stirred up as if by an invisible hand, frantically converging and rotating towards a certain center point.

That place could very well be the "eye of the storm"!

He moved forward cautiously, taking each step with extreme care.

As they approached, the grayish-white mist in their field of vision began to swirl and flow, forming visible energy vortices.

The air was filled with the shrill sound of energy friction and collision, almost tearing my eardrums apart.

The ground shook even more violently, and tiny pebbles bounced on the pebble beach.

Finally, after passing through the last narrow "throat," the view suddenly opened up before us.

A huge, nearly flat, circular basin appears at the end of the canyon.

The basin is over 500 meters in diameter and is surrounded by towering ring-shaped cliffs, resembling a giant natural bowl.

And in the center of the basin lies the legendary "eye of the storm"!

It was a slowly rotating grayish-white energy vortex, about ten meters above the ground and more than thirty meters in diameter!

Tiny spatial cracks constantly appeared and disappeared at the edge of the vortex, while inside was a turbulent flow of energy, as viscous as liquid, constantly churning and occasionally emitting blinding lightning!

A terrifying suction force emanated from the center of the vortex, pulling all surrounding energy and matter inward, even distorting light!

Just standing on the edge of the basin, you can feel the overwhelming and destructive energy!

My hair and clothes were pulled backward by an invisible force, and my skin felt like it was being pricked with needles.

This is the source of the energy turbulence in Howling Canyon, or rather, the most concentrated outlet for it!

Luo Lin steadied himself, resisting the suction force, his eyes fixed on the huge energy vortex.

According to the parchment, "the passage is located below the eye of the storm."

But below the vortex, apart from the black rock surface smoothed like a mirror by the energy, there was nothing at all.

Could the record be incorrect?

Or, what conditions need to be met?

His gaze swept over the rest of the basin.

The basin was almost empty of other debris, except for the black rocky area below the central vortex and the edge near the cliff, where scattered energy crystals of different sizes and colors appeared as remnants "spit out" by the vortex or that it couldn't swallow in time.

Wait—the distribution of those energy crystals—

Luo Lin squinted and looked closely.

The energy crystals scattered along the edge of the basin appear chaotic, but upon closer inspection, they seem to subtly form discontinuous, arc-shaped lines radiating outward from the vortex.

It looks a bit like the remnants of a broken, massive magic circle.

A thought struck him, and he took out the black short staff, the Staff of Slumber, from his dimensional bag.

The short staff remained unresponsive.

After thinking for a moment, he tried to mix a wisp of spiritual energy with a weak amount of star power and slowly inject it into the short staff, following the rhythm of the energy flow he had sensed when activating it in the stone chamber.

The short staff gave a slight tremor.

It's a bit more obvious than last time.

The dark red crystal on the bird's beak hook, with extreme difficulty and extreme slowness, lit up a faint light again, like a candle flickering in the wind, as if it might be extinguished at any moment.

At the same time, the short staff conveyed a clearer, yet still incomplete, idea.

"With the staff of slumber—knock on the door of silence—"

"With the three keys gathered, the path home will appear."

"Remember—balance—do not disturb—peace of mind—"

The thought was interrupted again.

The faint light on the short staff went out completely, and no matter how hard they tried, there was no response.

"With the Staff of Slumber, knock on the door of silence—only when the three keys are gathered can the way home be revealed—" Rowling repeated in a low voice.

The Staff of Sleep is one of the keys; all three keys must be gathered to open the passage.

And the "door" to the passage is located just below the eye of the storm?

Knock — How do you knock?

Use this short staff to reach that area of ​​black rocks?

He glanced at the lifeless short staff in his hand, then at the destructive energy vortex in the distance, and the smooth, mirror-like black ground beneath it.

A crazy idea popped into my head.

Does that mean we need to take the short staff, walk into the influence of that energy vortex, or even approach that black area?

This is practically suicide.

In his current state, if he were to approach the core area of ​​the eye of the storm, he would probably be torn apart by the violent energy in an instant.

There must be other methods.

Those ancient explorers could not possibly have possessed the power to defy such natural forces.

His gaze fell once again on the energy crystals that formed the lines of the broken magic array at the edge of the basin.

Perhaps the key lies in these crystals, or rather, in this broken magic circle?

If the original purpose of this magic circle was to stabilize the passage or weaken the effect of the Eye of the Storm, then would repairing or activating it allow us to approach safely?

This idea gave him a boost.

Repairing an ancient magic array, especially in such an energy-turbulent environment, is no easy task.

But at least, it offers a glimmer of hope compared to rushing headlong into the eye of the storm to one's death.

He began to walk around the edge of the basin, carefully examining the energy crystals.

The crystals vary in size and color, ranging from milky white and light blue to dark purple. They contain pure energy of different properties and are clearly products of long-term tempering by the Eye of the Storm.

They are embedded in the rocks or half-buried in the ground, the lines connecting them are very blurred, and in many places they are broken.

Missing.

After observing for about half an hour, and combining some basic knowledge about ancient magic arrays from Master Veranica's notes, Rolin roughly judged that this seemed to be a large, complex rune array with multiple nested layers, centered on stabilizing and channeling energy.

Its function is likely to channel and transform the violent energy dissipating from the eye of the storm into relatively mild energy, or to use this energy to maintain the stability of a certain "gate" or "channel".

The magic circle is now severely damaged and ineffective, causing the energy of the Eye of the Storm to spiral out of control, and also causing the "passage" to become hidden.

They got up.

Repairing it requires replenishing the missing energy crystals, reconnecting the broken energy lines, and likely also requires a specific "key" as the activation core.

He possesses the Staff of Slumber, which may be one of the keys and part of the activation core.

But the missing crystals and connections —

Roland's gaze fell on the crystal tube containing dark silver liquid in his dimensional bag.

This thing was found among the relics of ancient explorers. Could it be some kind of restoration material?

He took out the crystal tube and shook it gently.

The dark silver liquid flowed slowly, emitting faint, strange energy fluctuations.

After hesitating for a moment, he pulled out what appeared to be a wax seal from one end of the crystal tube.

There was no expected energy burst or unusual phenomenon.

At the nozzle, the dark silver liquid rippled slightly but did not flow out, as if it had its own viscosity.

I took a closer sniff, but there was no odor.

Carefully probe the opening of the tube with your mental energy.

The moment the mental energy came into contact with the liquid, a cool, calm, yet strangely inclusive energy returned to it.

This liquid seems to have a good affinity and conductivity with mental energy, and it also contains a very stable and peaceful energy quality.

Perhaps—it really could be used to repair the energy lines of the magic circle?

The thought made his heart beat slightly faster.

However, repairing the ancient magic array is extremely risky. One wrong move could trigger an energy backlash or make the eye of the storm even more unstable.

Just as Luo Lin was weighing the pros and cons and carefully sensing the broken magic array structure and the dark silver liquid in his hand, an abnormal vibration faintly came from the direction of the "throat" of the canyon in the distance behind him.

It wasn't the rhythmic, heart-beat-like pulsation of the eye of the storm.

Instead, it was a heavier, slower sound of footsteps.

There was also a faint, harsh sound of metal scraping against rocks.

Luo Lin's body tensed instantly, and he turned around sharply to look.

At the narrow entrance to the "throat" passage, grayish-white energy mist was stirred by a brute force, revealing a massive...

A dark golden, slightly unsteady figure was stepping into the pebble beach at the edge of the basin!

It's that annihilation-type!

It's not the one that got stuck in the stone chamber!

It's a different one!

That leg energy conduit is broken!

It actually tracked it here too!

Moreover, judging from its appearance, its injuries did not seem to have improved. Its right leg was still stiff, but the head sensor was firmly locked onto Rolin in the center of the basin, below the eye of the storm!

A chilling killing intent, mixed with the raging energy field of the eye of the storm, pressed down as if it were a tangible force.

Ahead lies the might of destruction, behind are steel pursuers.

Despair once again descended upon Rolin in the most direct way.