Chapter 32: Super Magic Battle

To be honest, among the forbidden books Eliot Igor had brought back from Academy City, Xiahou Yan considered the *Ancient Ritual Atlas*—a book detailing the setup of forbidden ceremonies—to be the most useless.

In Mage traditions, a "Magic Ceremony" and a "taboo" were not entirely synonymous.

Throughout history, there had always been a group of so-called "Array Masters" who specialized in setting up ceremonies and designing Magic Arrays, thus forming a unique school of magic research.

Although the study of spells and Casting had become mainstream in the Magic Realm in recent years, and the public’s concept of a "Mage" generally referred to a "Curse Master" skilled in Chanting, the academic lineage of Array Masters had not completely withered away. In fact, it was still highly popular in places outside the empire, such as the Glory Federation in the eastern part of the continent.

The reason the *Ancient Ritual Atlas* was classified as a forbidden book by the Magic Association was not actually because it recorded the setup methods of ancient ceremonies. After all, researching Magic Ceremonies was not against the rules. Even now, the Academy City Mage Academy still offered an elective course called *Rituals and Arrays*!

The real reason the *Ancient Ritual Atlas* was banned was that its author, with a twisted sense of humor, only included certain peculiar ceremonies. The ceremonies in the book were mainly divided into two categories:

The first category of ceremonies often had extremely dangerous and unstable effects, frequently threatening to summon evil creatures from some unknown Plane.

As for the second category, they required exceptionally steep sacrifices. They either demanded the caster to sacrifice their soul and life, or required virgin boys and girls, fresh blood, and human flesh—making them textbook examples of antisocial behavior.

The reason the Lord was rather indifferent to the *Ancient Ritual Atlas* coincided with why the Array Master school had gradually declined in recent years: setting up a Magic Ceremony was simply too expensive!

As fellow Mages, mainstream Curse Masters, who used Magic Spells to control Magic Elements, could run onto the battlefield butt-naked and empty-handed, and as long as they still had a mouth to speak, they could be effective. In contrast, when an Array Master set up a Magic Ceremony, it would easily consume priceless and rare spices, Magic Crystals, and Energy Dust. This was utterly contrary to the societal trend of practicing strict economy!

For the completely broke Igor Family right now, it was even more impossible to have spare resources for Xiahou Yan to set up an Array!

Therefore, the Lord had originally planned to shelve this flashy but impractical *Ancient Ritual Atlas*. The main reason Xiahou Yan had brought it with him on this outing was that its author had thoughtfully recorded the properties, effects, and rarities of various precious Magic Materials in the appendix. This allowed the Lord to use it as a reference guide, ensuring he wouldn’t miss out on any treasures in Adrian’s laboratory.

Just a moment ago, Xiahou Yan had been preparing to follow the appendix of the *Ancient Ritual Atlas* to go Taobaoing on Adrian’s Magic Ingredient Shelf, only to stumble into the dramatic awakening of the Bronze Demonic Puppet.

Currently, the only thing he had on hand that could be used to deal with this Ancient Demonic Puppet was probably this unreliable-looking *Ancient Ritual Atlas*. Adrian’s laboratory was stuffed full of the Magic Materials he had left behind during his lifetime. Only here and now, with abundant materials available, would the chronically penniless Lord have the opportunity to luxuriously set up an Array!

While the Lord ran toward the Magic Ingredient Shelf, flipping through the book, Master Laurie turned his head, staring fixedly at the Bronze Demonic Puppet in the center of the laboratory, and couldn’t help but swallow hard.

Even though he had chosen to unconditionally trust the Lord, the demand to "hold off the Demonic Puppet for three minutes" was truly asking too much!

The Adrian Demonic Puppet, cast entirely in Magic Bronze and wielding an absurdly long sharp blade, killed at speeds that could only be measured in milliseconds!

How was a junior Mage specializing in Spirit Magic supposed to protect the flickering candle of his life in this merciless storm of metal for a full one hundred and eighty seconds?

Watching the Bronze Demonic Puppet twirl the long blade in its hand and charge over with great strides, Master Laurie made a prompt and decisive move, taking the only correct course of action!

He reached down and snatched up the cloth sack the Lord had left on the floor, grabbed the opening, and flung it down. Cylindrical Magic Scrolls of all sizes instantly spilled and rolled across the ground. Master Laurie casually grabbed the nearest scroll, ripped open its wax seal without even looking at it, and hurled it at the Bronze Demonic Puppet!

The unsealed parchment scroll unfurled into a long strip in midair, then suddenly self-ignited, transforming into a violent, crimson-red fiery cloud!

From within this burning cloud, a massive Fireball came howling and surging out, smashing ruthlessly into the Bronze Adrian’s gleaming slicked-back hair like a falling Meteor!

What was inscribed on this scroll was none other than the widely known professional-grade magic, the Fireball Technique!

The massive Fireball that exploded on the Bronze Adrian’s face neither melted its heroic and valiant features with its high temperatures, nor caused any substantial damage to the Magic Circuits within. However, the shockwave from the explosion genuinely sent it stumbling, giving Alice, whose Longsword was already broken, the chance to grab the sack of scrolls and cover Master Laurie as they retreated to evade!

Seeing the strike take effect, Master Laurie shed all his stinginess and restraint, acting like a marauding bandit looting a village. Like a spendthrift son squandering his inheritance without a care, he snatched seven or eight scrolls from the sack, ripped open their seals all at once, and threw them alongside Alice at the Bronze Golem!

In an instant, the laboratory erupted with brilliantly colorful flashes of magic!

The inventory of scrolls Adrian had painstakingly hoarded eight hundred years ago was now having a clearance sale directly onto his own statue!

The pale blue ones were the wisps of frost blasted out by the Profound Ice Technique!

The bright red ones were the raging flames ignited by the Burning Technique!

The dark green ones were the giant climbing fig vines sprouted by the Vine Technique!

The golden-yellow ones were the Magic Wasps summoned by the Swarm Technique!

The vast array of bizarre and varied Magic Scrolls erupted against the bronze statue in an absolute sensory explosion of colors, sounds, and chaos!

Although these low-level Magic couldn’t truly harm the statue, they were enough to keep it stuck in place, swinging its long blade erratically in sheer annoyance, unable to take another step forward!

On the other side of the laboratory, under the protection of Chris, who had rushed over, the Lord followed the instructions in the *Ancient Ritual Atlas*. Using a piece of Chalk left behind by Adrian, he drew an arcane and complex circular Array on the floor in front of the Magic Ingredient Shelf!

The *Ancient Ritual Atlas*’s introduction to this Array was very simple: Summoning Array.

As for what exactly would be summoned, the *Atlas* didn’t say, and Xiahou Yan couldn’t be bothered to care!

His only hesitation was how many treasures he needed to pour in this time to serve as the materials for the Summoning Ceremony!

The *Atlas*’s explanation was very clear: the strength of the Summoned Creatures from the Summoning Array was directly proportional to the amount of Magic Materials the caster placed on the Array!

For example, if tossing in a single Magic Crystal summoned a Kodama, then tossing in a whole burlap sack of Magic Crystals might summon a Goda Duck!

It served to teach the Lord that returns equated to costs—this was an eternally unbreakable magic principle!

Facing a cabinet full of Magic Materials, Xiahou Yan found himself in a dilemma: exactly how much did he need to throw in to summon an entity powerful enough to completely dismantle Adrian’s Bronze Demonic Puppet?

He turned his head and assessed the situation on the battlefield.

Lawrence was still in the tragic state of being split in two. Master Laurie and Alice had transformed into Magic Grenadiers, using Magic Scrolls one after another to bomb the Bronze Demonic Puppet until it couldn’t move, but the reserve of scrolls in the sack was nearly bottoming out. The young archer Chris gripped his bow and arrows, looking completely bewildered, having no idea what role he could play in this kind of situation.

"Screw it, I’m going all in!" the Lord cursed, steeling his resolve, and delivered a fierce kick to the Magic Ingredient Shelf.

Simon Adrian’s lifetime accumulation of Magic Materials plummeted with the force of a thunderbolt, like a mountainside blown apart by dynamite during highway construction, tumbling down and piling up into a small mountain on top of the Magic Array!