561 Surpassing Level-21

Light and darkness were two of the seven fundamental elemental Rules. Vidas' Nature Magical Domain also involved the Rule Power of light and darkness. However, he only made use of the derived Rules of these two elements. Fundamental elemental Rules were closer to the essence of Rule Power, so they naturally suppressed the power of Vidas' Magical Domain to a certain extent.

With the difference in levels in the Legendary-realm, it was almost impossible to establish one's own Magical Domain in another party's Magical Domain forcefully. However, Lin Li had done it. Although he struggled to control the usually tame magical elements that started resisting his control now, his Light and Darkness Magical Domain still expanded in the Nature Magical Domain slowly but steadily.

Damn it! Level-22, that's two levels of difference! It's not a joke… Lin Li cursed internally, but he didn't dare to relax even a bit. He gritted his teeth, and blood vessels popped up near his temples. Even with his powerful mental strength, he still had to use all of it under such circumstances. With this continuous exhaustion of mental strength, Lin Li started to feel a little dizzy even though it was just the start of the battle.

Lin Li could feel that the pressure he encountered in his Light and Darkness Magical Domain increased as the domain expanded more. The speed of expansion also slowed down in the process until the threshold of his resistance was reached. However, just then, the pressure from outside the Light and Darkness Magical Domain suddenly increased immensely. The level-22 Legendary-mage had retaliated. Lin Li's face darkened instantly. Fresh blood flew from his eyes, nose, and ears due to the forceful exhaustion of mental strength. The Light and Darkness Magical Domain was withdrawn suddenly under the pressure.

If it had been another person, he probably would have fainted by now. However, Lin Li's consciousness suddenly became very clear with the external pressure despite the exhaustion of mental strength. The ring made from the Evil Eye Tyrant's magical crystal had not only increased Lin Li's mental strength every minute, but also made his mental strength purer and more concentrated.

Under the powerful pressure imposed by a level-22 Legendary powerhouse, Lin Li, who had exhausted his mental strength beyond means, surprisingly fell into a fascinating realm. The entire world of magical elements was presented clearly in front of his eyes. Although he endured even greater pressure than before, he was now able to control magic with more ease. The magical elements strictly followed his instructions, and executed each magical sequence with precision like trained soldiers.

Lin Li could even feel many things that he had never felt before from the waves of the external pressure. The magic of this level-22 elven Legendary-mage was no longer mysterious. It was as if he had grasped the pulse of his opponent's magic. Even a minute change couldn't escape Lin Li's eyes.

This felt like a spark of light in the darkness. Lin Li consciously wanted to grasp something, but there seemed to be a veil in between. He could see it, but couldn't touch it.

"Hmph!" Vidas snorted. He was rather surprised that a human level-20 Legendary-mage could still remain standing under his powerful aura for so long. At the same time, he felt rather ashamed. Moreover, he had the Helios' Scepter with him. Even though it didn't help to increase his level, the magical attacks from it were far beyond the capacity of a level-22 Legendary-mage.

Vidas raised his Helios' Scepter up high, and recited a string of whimsical Elven Language quickly. Powerful magic rippled through the defense shield of the square, and made the spectators experience a moment of suffocation. It was not hard to imagine how much pressure Lin Li would be experiencing inside the defense shield as Vidas' opponent. The spectators could clearly see that the pathetically small Magical Domain surrounding Lin Li's body completely disappeared under Vidas' powerful eruption of power. Was this the end? Everyone had this thought in their minds.

At that exact moment, Lin Li clearly felt the layer of veil hindering him was sliced apart by a sharp knife, and everything became clear.

Perhaps Lin Li looked no different from just now from a spectator's point of view. However, Lin Li knew very well that his accumulation of all this time had finally led to a qualitative change under the strong pressure of the level-22 Legendary-mage at that very second. He had broken through to level-21.

Though the difference of one level between level-20 and level-21 seemed insignificant, it meant two different worlds to the Legendary-realm, especially for Lin Li. The understanding of World Rules and usage of Rule Power were totally different upon reaching level-21, and he was like a frog leaping out of a well. With a different view, the perception of the world in and out of the well were completely different.

The mysterious and pressuring magic applied by the level-22 elven Legendary-mage seemed to have taken off all its camouflage and exposed its core essence. The magical elements' sequence, the waves of mana… no detail could escape Lin Li's eyes.

After deciphering every detail of his opponent's magic and domain, Lin Li could reconstruct his Light and Darkness Magical Domain under the strong pressure of his opponent's domain through his understanding of Rule Power, although he couldn't directly alter the rules of the Nature Magical Domain.

The snow-laden forest slowly lost its original green, and those leaping tree men turned gray and dull. What surprised people more was the fact that the Crimson Dragon that was fighting with the tree men lost its red color too. The entire Harvest Square slowly turned into a black-and-white world.

People were used to seeing a vibrantly colored world, so they were not ready to see this black-and-white world at all. The spectators gasped. They had never seen anything as peculiar as this. Could it be a Magical Domain? Then was it Light or Darkness? In people's understanding, light and darkness were two conflicting elements. How could they be used to form a Magical Domain together? Moreover, Lin Li's abilities made many puzzled. He didn't seem to be behaving like a Legendary-mage who had just reached the Legendary-realm recently.

Lin Li strengthened the powers of Light and Darkness continuously, and even gave up on the control of the Frost Domain. Without the support of the Frost Domain, the thick layer of snow melted quickly, revealing the charred trees beneath.

From this moment onwards, in fact, Vidas was no longer fighting with Lin Li, but rather the two pieces of the debris of the stars that Lin Li held onto—Holy Light and Gloomy Dark. Vidas was fighting with the pure and powerful Light and Darkness Rules that these pieces contained. Lin Li wasn't as unfamiliar with the usage of the two pieces of the debris of the stars as before. His understanding of the two Rules was also much better than during the several times he'd used them before.

"Knowledge is the most powerful belief of a mage." This was the true gift Lin Li had gotten from the Blackstone Mountains. The Book of Eternity was not just a tool for becoming a god, but also contained a lifetime of experiences and thoughts of the God of Mages, Geresco. The "Eternity" in the Book of Eternity wasn't referring to the leaves of Eternity, from which the book was made, but rather the deep knowledge inside the book. Only knowledge was truly eternal.

As the God of Mages, Geresco certainly had god-like magical skills. His magical skills shouldn't even be labeled as skills, as they had surpassed the levels of an art, and truly reached the divine realm. Lin Li read the Book of Eternity ever since he had come back from the Blackstone Mountains, and he gained so much from every single read. His understanding of magic itself as well as its usage now was far beyond what he had had when in the Blackstone Mountains.

With the accumulation of knowledge through constant study, Lin Li naturally became more powerful by the day. The power that Holy Light and Gloomy Dark could release under his control was far greater than when he'd been in the Blackstone Mountains. Holy Light and Gloomy Dark were not just magical weapons now, and were not even limited to constructing the Light and Darkness Domain.

Back at the Endless World, Lin Li was only a Hunter when he had gotten the Stars of Fury and the seven pieces of the debris of the stars. Hence, his usage of the debris of the stars was very simple: he'd install them on the Stars of Fury and pull the trigger. Back then, he had never thought that the debris of the stars could be used for anything other than shooting.

To a certain extent, Holy Light and Gloomy Dark had integrated with Lin Li as one. However, they also seemed to be gifted with life, and became individual presences. Even without Lin Li's control, they still followed their own Rules and unleashed their Rule Power to deal with the various changes in the Rule Domain.

Although others saw a battle between Lin Li and Vidas, the actual battle played out between Vidas and the two pieces of the debris of the stars—Holy Light and Gloomy Dark—which made use of Rule Power. Lin Li just waited in silence at the side, waiting for an opportunity to truly threaten this level-22 Legendary-mage.

After all, Vidas was still a level-22 Legendary-mage who had created a Nature Magical Domain with Small World Rule. Hence, he had immense advantage even when battling a human mage of similar level, not to mention Lin Li, who had just reached level-21[1].

The series of shocking moves that Lin Li had made, including summoning the level-21 Crimson Dragon and the two pieces of the debris of the stars, were just to cause some trouble to Vidas while ensuring his own safety. In order to truly defeat Vidas, this was far from enough.

[1] It was level-20 here, but it should've been a typo, unless author thought that the breakthrough just now didn't really matter in this context.