Chapter 496: Shifting Focus

Chapter 496: Shifting Focus

Generally speaking, someone with Green’s style wouldn’t survive past the second episode in certain places. Yet, he was actually the kind who could survive until the very end… Not counting before, that was unexpected; he didn’t think his hand was so unlucky, smacking out so many things that dug a pit for himself.

After learning his lesson, he played a big role. Especially in scouting and map-making, he greatly filled in the blank areas on the map received from the Sanctuary Church. The improved map was very accurate.

As for Beacons, they also left quite a few. Of course, some people did maliciously set up Beacons. However, since they accepted the commission from the Sanctuary Church, doing such things would be investigated. The Sanctuary Church would repeatedly check these Beacons.

Their efficiency along the way was good. But there was still a long distance to the center of the Stone Forest. During this distance, Zheng Yichen actually wanted to actively go take a look. But just him alone wasn’t very meaningful. It was best to bring Dan Marina. Yet, bringing her for no reason would obviously ruin the identity she had used for a long time.

So, it was better to take it slow.

“Huh? You guys explored so many places?” a church member said, looking at the map Oss submitted for the quest. He was surprised, but then he saw Zheng Yichen and didn’t find it strange anymore. Following a dragon, as long as they didn’t go to particularly deep areas, generally there weren’t big problems.

After copying the map, he returned it to Oss: “Alright, once the reliability of these places is confirmed, you can collect the reward yourself. There won’t be more than half a day’s delay after we have news.”

The church member handling the commission task said, pointing to a temporary camp not far away: “If you want to rest, go there. That’s a special camp outside the normal campsite; you can enter without any checks.”

That camp was an isolation camp separate from the temporary camps. Super strong isolation Barriers were set up near the camp, effective both outward and inward. The Barrier had two layers. In the center of the double layer were stationed members of the Sanctuary Church, similar to garrison troops inside city walls. These members mainly dealt with emergencies.

Once something unexpected happened inside, it was their time to act.

“Hehe, although the human form monsters in the Stone Forest are powerful, compared to some Ruins, they become boring after a long time.” After arriving at this Quarantine Camp, Green found a spot and put down his Portable House. This place had a Protection Barrier cast by Zheng Yichen, isolating it to some degree from the outside. After all, the Flesh Seed stuff had caused panic. People here now drank water and ate food all from takeout!

Some even seized this opportunity, specially promoted Magic Barrier Scrolls, and even posted an ad on the Magic Weapon Forum. It must be said, for people in the Lockdown Zone, these things were very useful. Because among Adventurers and Mercenaries, Spellcasters were rare. Even those who had spellcasting ability were mostly like Green.

They knew some Magic, but these spells were mostly for personal convenience. They could fight well without the Magic part; with the Magic part, they fought even better. They knew Magic but couldn’t become artillery; you could say they were half-baked, not orthodox Spellcasters. Generally, few could cast Barrier-type Magic.

These Magic Barrier Scrolls weren’t very powerful, just had strong physical isolation, and the Magic fluctuations weren’t hidden. The Magic used to make the scrolls was also a relatively cheap one. But it suited the situation in the Lockdown Zone. Plus, the price was affordable for many Mercenaries and Adventurers, so sales were high!

More importantly, these were Magic Scrolls, used once and gone… As long as the Lockdown Zone existed and the people inside weren’t all dead, there was no worry about sales dropping later. The sales figures even made Zheng Yichen a bit envious. In terms of other production capabilities, he wasn’t inferior to major forces. But Magic Scrolls… Tsk, after reading some of Irene’s notes, Zheng Yichen really could make something like a scroll printing machine!

Although it couldn’t print very high-level Magic, not even Mid-Rank Magic, the problem was that for many Professionals, especially Warriors, the Magic Scrolls they used were basically low-level Magic. Should he compete for this? Tsk, let’s leave it at that for now. He had already grabbed enough business opportunities.

These opportunities didn’t exist before, so grabbing and monopolizing them was understandable. Massively seizing the Magic Scroll market… Zheng Yichen had his own plans. He didn’t want to push himself into a hated position. Zheng Yichen also discussed with Dan Marina. The edge sealing of this Lockdown Zone was a ‘Divine Artifact’ belonging to the Sanctuary Church.

It wasn’t that anything useful or powerful could be called a ‘Divine Artifact’. Even Zheng Yichen’s Magic Weapon Summoning Book didn’t dare claim to be a true ‘Divine Artifact’. But that thing indeed had the potential to become one. As for the one forming the Lockdown Zone, it was the real deal, made completely imitating the Containment Barrier.

You could even say this thing was a backup of the Containment Barrier!

Once the Containment Barrier had problems or even serious damage, as long as most Element Hearts remained, this containment Divine Artifact could be used to recreate a new Containment Barrier. Even if it lacked some functions compared to the original.

But resealing and suppressing the Abyss Entrance would still be no problem.

Thus, after using this thing here, everything sealed inside couldn’t leave, even by digging through the ground, it was meaningless. Of course, just this couldn’t be called a Divine Artifact. This Containment Barrier could prevent that Derivative Witch from leaving. Strictly speaking, this place was now somewhat ‘isolated’ from the outside world, becoming independent, equivalent to… a Derivative World.

Before the map exploration reached the center of the Stone Forest, Zheng Yichen could focus his energy elsewhere. Keeping attention only here was too inefficient, a complete waste of time. Dan Marina’s suggestion made Zheng Yichen think carefully on the way back. It made sense. He should go deal with other matters first, like the Potion Masters Association. They had probably discussed enough about what he left before.

Cooperating with the Potion Masters Association was part of Zheng Yichen’s plan. Anyway, there was no loss for him. Simply put… it was outsourcing.

Ah~ people from the Otherworld weren’t idiots. Given enough foundation, the things they researched weren’t much different from what Zheng Yichen made. It was just a difference in style. So, outsourcing was necessary. Zheng Yichen’s circumstances made it hard for him to truly establish a force.

Mainly, he hadn’t done it before. Even if he did, it would just leak secrets. The Witches… they weren’t interested, alas. It seemed the self-cursing trait inherent to Witches kept them all working solo. Qin was an exception. She never exposed her identity. Before getting the Alchemical Avatar that could hide her Witch abilities, she rarely showed up. Only now did she truly reveal her ‘true face’.

And Qin’s guild wasn’t the kind with hidden, super-strong resources. Not known before appearing, but after appearing, it was comparable to the Dark Church, the Sanctuary Church’s super hidden power… Nothing like that. It was just a large guild. Simply put, not complicated at all. What her guild could do, other guilds could do too.

But Qin’s methods were more clever, more refined and calculating.

Hmm, since the Stone Forest side needed time to progress, he would go handle the Potion Masters Association matters. After all, the Potion Masters Association had enough reputation among Magic Pharmacists. When needing something special, it was easier to get through them than through Qin. Not that Qin couldn’t get it, but the conditions differed from the Purple Vine Guild. They could more easily enter the big circle of Magic Pharmacists and collect corresponding resources. Some things couldn’t be bought with money!

Moreover… that little genius among the Magic Pharmacists successfully caught Zheng Yichen’s interest. Her displayed Talent was just too good. Besides having many questions, but that was okay; just avoid much contact during leisure time later. Afterward, when she grew up a bit, these problems probably wouldn’t exist anymore?

After thinking about future plans, Zheng Yichen glanced at Oss. This kid, after getting the ‘Sharingan’ Magic Eye and experiencing the Undying Witch battle, Awakened a special hobby. Seeing Magic products or even certain spells, he would always open his Elemental Sight and observe carefully.

Now, he was observing the isolation Magic Barrier Zheng Yichen put up, his fingers lightly tracing. Zheng Yichen made these eyes; what effects they had he didn’t know? Oss was definitely seeing some weak Nodes of the Magic Barrier. By destroying these Nodes, he could easily dismantle the Magic Barrier.

Hmm… So, some special Magical Beasts, compared to Humans, really had advantages. Humans could also dismantle Magic Barriers, but that required corresponding knowledge, learning, and experience. Some special Magical Beasts said knowledge wasn’t important, experience wasn’t important; they could just rely on their innate hardwired conditions to achieve what Humans needed over ten years of learning to master!

Even though Zheng Yichen learned Magic quickly, actually becoming a Spellcaster wasn’t easy at all. It wasn’t like RPG games where you could casually form a party basically with the warrior-mage-priest triangle. Otherwise, among so many Adventurers and Mercenaries in the temporary camps, why were there so few who could cast Magic Barriers? The vast majority had to buy Magic Scrolls?

Green also had the combat power of a High-tier Professional, knew Magic, and was very strong. He could take down a series of Mid-Rank Mages without trouble, although under corresponding conditions he had to take risks…