Above the mage

Chapter 676 The Road to Survival

The fluorescence did not react at all.

There was no struggle, no pulling away, and not even a change in expression; she simply let Gao De's palm rest on her wrist.

Her fingertips even curled slightly, as if she subconsciously wanted to get closer.

Gao De, who had been secretly observing her demeanor, keenly caught this almost imperceptible little movement.

The suspicion in my heart was instantly confirmed, and a secret sense of indulgence quietly rose up.

Following this tacit consent, Gao De took advantage of the situation and slowly slid his hand down from her wrist until it was inside her palm.

Liu Ying remained unresponsive.

It was as if nothing had happened.

Liu Ying's hands perfectly matched the characteristics of a noble lady.

Delicate, smooth, white, and soft as if boneless, it resembles the finest mutton fat jade, untouched by any worldly taint.

Any "stereotypical" words used to describe aristocratic heiresses are accurate in her vocabulary.

The premise is that there is no intense burning sensation.

The burning from the divine radiance energy did not show any leniency to Gaode, unlike its master.

It launched its indiscriminate attack with domineering force.

"I feel like my face is getting hot." At this moment, Liu Ying finally spoke, her voice carrying a hint of barely perceptible confusion.

"Hot?" Gao De raised an eyebrow upon hearing this, surprised... He was "burning" so badly but he hadn't said he was hot, so how come the other person was hot first, and his face was hot too?

Moreover, the desolate and barren Soul Realm is perpetually filled with a cold and gloomy atmosphere, the sky is eternally gray, and the temperature hovers around zero degrees Celsius.

Although it wasn't extremely cold, it was still bone-chillingly cold, and shouldn't be associated with the word "hot" at all.

Gao De subconsciously turned his head, his gaze falling on Liu Ying's face.

Upon closer inspection, he suddenly realized what was going on.

Before anyone knew it, a faint blush had crept onto the girl's cheeks.

The blush spread from the tips of her ears to her temples, like the color of rouge spreading on the finest jade.

Gao De immediately understood.

The "heat" that Liu Ying refers to is not the physical sensation caused by air temperature, but rather the physiological reaction triggered by close contact between men and women.

She had been locked in her family's castle since childhood, never had such intimate physical contact with the opposite sex, and no one had ever taught her anything about male-female relationships.

She instinctively sensed that Gaode's behavior was "overstepping the bounds," but she didn't object, so she chose to acquiesce.

But the body's instincts and subconscious do not lie.

This unexpected hand-holding, this unfamiliar and unprecedented closeness, stirred up a strange and indescribable emotion within her.

She didn't understand that this emotion was called "shyness," and could only attribute it to "heat" based on her intuitive physiological feeling.

Liu Ying is a complete novice, but Gaode is not.

He naturally understood why the other person was "hot," and looking at Liu Ying, whose eyes were full of innocence and could not understand the matter, a strange sense of guilt suddenly welled up in his heart.

So, the next moment, Gao De guiltily tried to move his hand back to Liu Ying's wrist—holding her wrist could be said to be just for the sake of "adaptive" progress.

But this level of contact, like holding hands, has long exceeded the scope of simply progressing the relationship. It carries a certain degree of selfishness, and he can't fool himself.

But as soon as Gaode's hand began to withdraw, he felt a slight resistance.

The resistance was very light, so light that it was almost negligible.

Gao De subconsciously looked down, his gaze falling on the two people's clasped hands.

The girl's little finger curled up slightly and gently hooked around his little finger.

In the end, Gaode Maps relented.

Although a man cannot say no.

But he really couldn't go on.

Even though photoadaptability is improving rapidly, it only significantly extends the time that Gaode Maps can connect with users; it is still far from meeting the threshold of photoimmunity.

He needs time to recover from the burns.

"The road ahead is long and arduous..." Gao De muttered to himself.

Fortunately, he still has plenty of time.

Holding hands, letting go, the "boring" waiting, and so on in a cycle.

As the third withered wind swept past outside the stone tower, Gao De's mana finally reached a new level, enough to support him in casting a first-level spell.

Without any hesitation, Gao De immediately mobilized the much smoother mana within his body, connected with the spell models in the spell star sea, and cast a spell called [Language Proficiency+].

The moment the spell took effect, Gao De felt a blur before his eyes, as if an invisible fog had been lifted.

Looking at the stone wall again, the ancient characters that were originally as obscure and distorted as celestial script instantly became clear and easy to understand, as if reading a notebook written in a common language.

His guess was correct; these densely packed small characters were indeed the research records left by Modica back then.

These handwritings are indeed from Mordecai's records.

Gao De looked around the stone walls inside the tower, then squatted down in front of some very faint and blurry small characters.

That was Modica's earliest record.

He crouched down, his fingertips gently brushing over the engravings that were almost covered by dust, interpreting them as he explained them to Liu Ying beside him.

It was partly to relieve boredom, and partly a subconscious desire to have more people to consult with.

Even though Liu Ying is not a rune master, as the most noble young lady of the Golden Flower Dynasty, her high-level mage education since childhood has given her a wide range of knowledge, and she may be able to discover omissions from different perspectives.

"Modikai must have been in a state of despair during his first few years here."

Gao De slowly said, "I just don't know what methods Modikai used to survive for so long in the desolate Soul Realm where there is no food or water."

Gaode Maps simply sighed, without finding anything unreasonable about it.

The mage has far too many tricks up his sleeve.

He, a mere third-level mage, is now capable of doing this.

It's understandable that Mordecai, who was so powerful back then that he needed to be exiled, would possess this ability.

"Look here, the three characters 'no magic, no law, no path' are carved so deeply they almost pierce through the stone wall. This is Mordekai's anger and despair."

"However, an unexpected discovery rekindled his hope."

Gao De pointed to another line of smaller text beside him: "【Within my body, there is a light like fireflies, the essence of the soul, a superior-grade rune.】"

"He must have been attacked by the Soul Servant, just like us, and thus discovered the secret of the Soul Servant, finding that these creatures contain fragments of soul essence."

The next few dozen lines, filled with densely packed small characters, were all research records about the withered soul servants. The handwriting gradually became neat and tidy, and one could clearly feel the change in Mordecai's mindset.

Soul energy, pure soul energy...

,

"He not only discovered fragments of the soul's essence, but also realized a much deeper layer..."

Gao De pointed to the last line of this record: "Soul energy itself is a form of power; in a magic-free plane, it is the only energy that can be mobilized."

"And Mordekay's specialty happens to be soul runes, which is like running into his trap, a glimmer of hope in a desperate situation," Gao De couldn't help but sigh.

This can be considered a blessing from fate.

It was from this point on that Modica fully confirmed its direction and approach:

Using the essence of the soul to draw soul rune arrays, and using soul energy instead of magic as power, they tore through the dimensional barrier and escaped the desolate and barren soul realm.

Next, on the right-hand stone wall, is a record of Modigliani's long and tedious experimental process.

The marks varied in depth, some densely packed together, and the lines were filled with anxiety.

Some are engraved with the word "failure" all by themselves, revealing a tenacity and perseverance that never gives up despite repeated defeats.

Modica's will to survive is truly extraordinary.

He attempted to draw runes directly using soul essence: [Failed, energy cannot be stabilized.]

He tried mixing bone meal with essence: [Partially successful; the runes could briefly take shape, but quickly dissipated.]

他尝试调整骨粉与精粹的比例：【1：3失败，1：5失败，1：7失败......】

He experimented with different drawing techniques: using fingertips, bone fragments, and sharpened stones...

Finally, after a dense record of failures, a faint line of marks stood out, conveying an undisguised joy:

[Today, the rune has remained for three breaths. The path is correct; it needs to be guided by one's own soul imprint to stabilize the refined energy.]

Further to the right, there is a stone wall that can be polished smooth, covered with intricate runes and structural diagrams.

It is no longer a simple record of experiments, but a complete theoretical deduction.

Gao De's pupils contracted slightly, his fingertips slowly tracing the deduction process, and he confirmed in a soft voice: "This is—the complete theoretical framework for soul runes tearing apart the plane barrier in a magic-free plane."

He turned to Liu Ying and explained with a hint of admiration in his voice: "Modikai has found the core method for creating runes without magic. First, we must confirm that soul essence is the only energy source."

"However, although the fragments of soul essence within the withered soul servants are pure, their energy intensity is limited due to the servant's level."

"Therefore, it is definitely impossible to tear apart the dimensional barrier using only the soul energy of the soul essence fragment itself."

"Mordike knew this perfectly well."

"He didn't focus on strengthening the energy of the soul's essence, but instead took a different approach."

"His idea was to use this soul energy as a fulcrum and the rune array as a lever to pry open a more powerful natural force in the desolate and barren soul realm, and use external force to tear apart the dimensional barrier."

"This will solve the problem of insufficient soul energy and maximize the environmental advantages of a magic-free plane."

"Even more powerful?" Liu Ying asked curiously, her blue eyes filled with curiosity.

"In the desolate and barren Soul Realm, there is something whose power is incomparably strong and omnipresent."

Instead of revealing the answer directly, Gaode deliberately kept it a secret, his tone carrying a hint of guiding amusement.

Clearly, Liu Ying was very clever; from Gao De's brief hint, she instantly connected the dots and found the answer: "Withered Soul Wind?"

"Smart!" Gao De nodded with a smile, patting Liu Ying's head in a very natural way to express his praise.

This time, it was truly an unconscious, instinctive action on his part.

With too much deliberate "intimate contact," the deliberation gradually becomes muscle memory, and he doesn't even realize it.

It wasn't until he was scorched by the divine light that Gao De suddenly realized he had overstepped his bounds again.

Although Liu Ying didn't seem to care, he still withdrew his hand with a slight guilty conscience, cleared his throat to cover up his unease, and then continued, "Modikai's idea is to use soul runes to construct a special guiding array to forcibly guide, gather, and compress the scattered withered soul wind energy that sweeps by, ultimately forming an energy tornado powerful enough to impact the dimensional barrier."

"This is the core of his escape plan."

He pointed to the dense array sketches on the right side of the stone wall: "This is the process of iterating the guiding rune array that he has been refining for decades. Each optimization precisely addresses the fatal flaws of the previous version, perfecting it step by step."

"The first version of the guiding magic circle had too low a capacity; the violent energy of the withered soul wind instantly destroyed the magic circle."

'

"Although the second version could withstand the energy of the withered soul wind, its soul energy utilization rate was insufficient. The magic array only lasted for three breaths before its energy was exhausted, leaving no time to break through the dimensional barrier..."

'

"Third Edition..."

"

Fourth edition...

'

"The twenty-first version of the guiding magic circle is also Mordekay's final achievement, optimized to the extreme... [Completed, wind can be gathered, dissipation rate is 10%, soul energy is durable, and it can shatter boundaries], this is the description he left behind."

Beside this record is the complete rune design diagram of the Guiding Magic Circle 21.0.

"Once the rune array is constructed, Mordekaiser is very close to success."

However, having a theoretical framework and a magic array design is not enough; one more step is needed.

"Although the withered soul wind tornado gathered and guided into a single force by the magic array is brutal and powerful, it is not enough to easily tear apart the dimensional barrier. We must find the weakest point of the barrier to achieve twice the result with half the effort and ensure success in one day."

"That's the picture."

Gao De walked to the opposite stone wall and pointed to a huge diagram above.

This was the geographical distribution map of the Desolate Soul Domain, consistent with what he had seen earlier on the stone tablet in the second-level stone tower.

However, unlike other maps, the map is marked with concentric wavy lines of varying density.

He didn't understand its meaning before, but now, combined with the text beside it, he finally understood.

"These wavy lines represent the energy fluctuations of the withered soul wind," Gao De said to Liu Ying, pointing to the lines. "You see, the spacing between the wavy lines changes regularly. Dense spacing means weak wind and less energy dissipation; sparse spacing means strong wind and more energy dissipation. He's using graphics to record the cycle of the withered soul wind."

"Why are you recording all this?" Liu Ying replied cooperatively.

"This is another key discovery by Modica," Gao De said, his tone becoming serious.

"The dimensional barrier of the Desolate Soul Domain is not eternally stable. The essence of the Desolate Soul Wind is the flow of desolate soul energy that dissipates from the plane itself."

"When the withered soul wind is at its peak, a large amount of energy inside the plane dissipates, and the energy supply to the barrier is insufficient, which will create natural weak points."

"The duration of each node corresponds exactly to the peak of the Soul Wind, making it the best time to tear through the barrier."

At this point, the entire process and thought process behind Mordecai's escape from the Desolate Soul Domain are now clear.

This is a clear, feasible, and completely replicable escape route.

"Now we have good news and bad news."

After Gao De finished his commentary, he turned to Liu Ying and asked, "Which one do you want to hear first?"