Sovereign of the Ashes

Chapter 869: Exploring A Foreign Plane

Sein and Reina continued north until they reached a region known as the “Adrift Land”, situated on the border of the Ylli Knight Alliance but not officially part of it.

The area, approximately half the size of the Divine Tower of Verdant Spring, was home to a two-thousand-year-old divine tower, surrounded by several knightly orders, including the Order of the Steel Fist.

The divine tower had a peculiar name—the Divine Tower of Wooden Rhino.

After the airship landed, Sein and Reina explored the surrounding area of this oddly named divine tower.

Through conversations with locals, he learned that the tower’s name originated from its master’s rare abilities.

Like Lorianne, the tower master was also a powerful Rank Four mage specializing in dendro elemental magic.

However, he also possessed summoning abilities and a Rank Four Aqua Rhino as a spirit familiar.

From the bustling commercial district on the outskirts of the Divine Tower of Wooden Rhino, Sein also gathered that this ancient divine tower had participated in several interplanar wars.

Its tower master’s capabilities had been displayed prominently in those conflicts, making them well-known rather than classified secrets.

Located just outside the Ylli Knight Alliance, the Divine Tower of Wooden Rhino leveraged its strategic position to build strong economic ties with the alliance and nearby divine towers and knightly orders.

Although there was also a floating harbor in the commercial area, it lacked the vibrant energy of the Divine Tower of Verdant Spring. Nevertheless, the area remained bustling and lively.

Together with Reina, Sein strolled through the market, purchasing several local specialties. @@novelbin@@

These resources were not particularly rare and were primarily useful for magic initiates.

Sein purchased them purely to indulge his penchant for collecting and studying unfamiliar magic ingredients.

This compulsive curiosity was a hallmark of many mages; any unfamiliar magic materials inevitably piqued their desire to study it.

Beyond the commercial area, Sein and Reina also explored the inner levels of the Divine Tower of Wooden Rhino.

Like many divine towers and knightly orders in the Magus World, the Divine Tower of Wooden Rhino openly facilitated access to the planes under its control.

By paying magicoins or other valuable assets of equivalent value, knights and mages like Sein could travel to these territories.

The last time Sein traveled across the Magus World, he had been in a rush to find Leena in the Western Archipelago.

At the time, he was still relatively weak, so exploring a foreign plane had not been an option.

Now, with his peak Rank Two strength, he was ready to try one of the most popular training methods among knights and mages of the Magus World—interplanar travel.

The Divine Tower of Wooden Rhino had established spatial passage with four foreign planes—two low-level planes and two microplanes.

Among these, three were exclusively under the Divine Tower of Wooden Rhino’s control, while the remaining one was jointly developed with two knightly orders.

Wood Leaf World, Layce Plane, Aqua Rhino World, and Mandala Plane...

After carefully reviewing the descriptions of these four planes, Sein chose Aqua Rhino World.

He selected this low-level plane because its environment and ecological balance were better preserved compared to others.

Having participated in multiple interplanar wars, Sein was well aware of the changes that most conquered planes underwent.

For an authentic exploration experience, foreign planes like Aqua Rhino World—similar to Verdant Wilderness World—were ideal. Both were low-level planes allied with the Magus Alliance with a Rank Four native being.

The ruler of Aqua Rhino World, in fact, was the Tower Master of Wooden Rhino’s Rank Four summoned beast.

After paying two hundred magicoins each, Sein and Reina stood before the interplanar teleportation array maintained by the Divine Tower of Wooden Rhino.

The cost of using the teleportation array varied by life level due to differing energy tiers.

For a Rank One knight or mage, the journey would have cost only fifty magicoins, or even less with discounts for the tower’s members.

However, for peak Rank Two powerhouses like Sein and Reina, their higher energy levels meant greater teleportation costs, making the two-hundred-magicoins fee reasonable.

Interestingly, teleportation to the other three planes was slightly cheaper than to Aqua Rhino World, which was governed by more complete laws.

As the teleportation array activated, its halo flickered brightly before Sein.

A sensation of weightlessness swept over him, and darkness enveloped his vision.

When the darkness cleared and his vision returned, Sein found himself standing on a warm beach.

Although the teleportation felt instantaneous, Sein knew that a significant amount of time had likely passed in reality.

Near the beach stood various buildings and magic towers, their architecture closely resembling those found in the Magus World.

In the distance, massive rhinoceros-like creatures, each over five meters long, swam leisurely in the sea.

The laws governing this world were different from anything Sein had encountered before.

This appeared to be a low-level hydro elemental plane, where dense hydro element particles saturated the air with moisture, creating an environment unique to Aqua Rhino World.

Above, two suns—one large and one small—occupied different parts of the sky.

The intense sunlight and heavy humidity caused low-ranking visitors to break into a sweat almost immediately upon arriving in this world.

Reina, sensitive to heat, wiped her round, sweaty face.

A thin layer of battle qi enveloped her, offering some insulation from the heat, yet she could not help but repeatedly dab at her face.

In contrast, Sein chose not to cast any shields on himself.

He had come to explore this low-level plane, and experiencing its environment firsthand and uncovering its uniqueness was an integral part of the journey.

Before he departed from the Divine Tower of Verdant Spring, Lorianne had given him all sorts of advice.

Taking a deep breath, Sein surveyed the magic towers and observation towers in the distance before turning to Reina.

“Let’s go. We should introduce ourselves to the mages stationed here first.”

As with all planes allied with or conquered by the Magus Civilization, Aqua Rhino World had a contingent of Magus World knights and mages stationed within it.

Though weak and low-level, this plane shared a particularly strong connection with the Magus Civilization, largely due to its Rank Four Aqua Rhino King, who served as the summoned beast of a Magus World tower master.

As a result, the military presence here was relatively modest.

Having been a member of the Magus Alliance for more than a thousand years, Aqua Rhino World’s rhinoceros-like creatures, particularly those at Rank One and above, had long accepted their integration into the alliance.

At the same time, Magus World knights and mages also enjoyed considerable privileges on allied planes like Aqua Rhino World.

Most natives either feared or revered these beings from the Magus World.

As long as the knights and mages avoided reckless ventures into perilous areas or disrespecting creatures of comparable or greater power, traveling through allied planes like this was generally safe.