Wizard: I Can Refine Everything

Chapter 151: Chapter 51: Trap

“Wizard Monster, bet you didn’t see this coming.”

A Priest Worm, dressed in white silk, emerged from behind the Divine Statue, its feelers perking up in a display of supreme delight.

“How does it feel to be outwitted by the natives you so looked down upon?” The Priest Worm moved to the side of the Puppet Wizard, operating the Starlight Net, which continually tightened.

The Puppet Wizard suddenly looked towards its puppet, only to discover its puppet was also sealed by the Starlight Seal.

“How odd is it? How did I discover this worm became your puppet?”

The Priest Worm walked over to the Golden Armored Warrior Insect, gently plucking the Black Crystal out of it with its upper limbs. With each extraction of the Black Crystal, the Warrior Worm screamed miserably, waving its feelers through the air like whips, creating gusts of wind.

But when the Black Crystal was completely removed, a ray of light suddenly burst from within its body, which the Priest Worm swiftly caught and crushed.

The Warrior Worm then became unexpectedly calm.

From its mouthpiece came a series of low hums:

“Thank you… High Priest.”

It then bowed its head.

The High Priest held the Black Crystal in his palm, kneeling and praying:

“Poor child, I shall return you to the embrace of the Mother Worm God.

Praise the Mother Worm God!”

The Black Crystal turned into a stream of light that vanished into the Void, and the High Priest stood up, approaching the Puppet Wizard.

At this moment, the Starlight Net was fiercely clashing with the Puppet Wizard’s Magic Barrier. The Magic Barrier was so constricted by the Starlight Net that it was on the brink of shattering.

A starlight beam shot from the High Priest’s brow, entering the Starlight Net, which dramatically intensified its constricting force and instantly shattered the Magic Barrier.

“Wizard Monster, accept your judgment.”

…

Inside the Mother Goddess Temple, Richard followed Ulysses through the winding corridors, pressing on without pause.

On the walls of the passage, the worms drew murals with mineral pigments, mostly celebrating the Mother Worm God’s great deeds. To a historian of native societies in the Wizard World, stumbling upon such artwork would have been a delight worth excavating the walls for.

Unfortunately, Richard had no interest in the subject, briskly passing them by.

The rescue mission was a race against minutes. If they didn’t hurry, they might not make it back with the withdrawing wizards and could end up surrounded and overwhelmed by the worms.

Ulysses took a turn, leading into a path that inclined upward. Worms being naturally winged, these ramp-like pathways were commonplace in the Mother Goddess Temple.

“Ulysses, how much further?”

Richard mentally counted the time; he and Ulysses had been inside the Temple for almost three minutes. If they didn’t find what they were seeking soon, they would have to turn back.

The rescue operation wouldn’t linger more than ten minutes.

Beyond that, the worms’ reinforcements would overpower the wizards. If they did not successfully rescue the target, they too would be ensnared.

“Ga, just ahead, almost there.”

Ulysses disappeared up the incline, and Richard quickly followed into a wide avenue.

Ulysses was now at the end of the avenue, claws holding two golden skulls, with the bodies of two beheaded Mother Worm Guards still in their last stances beside him.

Ulysses had killed the two Mother Worm Guards in an instant.

Richard caught up quickly, stowing the bodies of the Mother Worm Guards into his bag.

At the end of the path was a stone chamber, its door melted by Ulysses’ flames.

This seemed to be a quiet room, sparsely furnished save for a silken mat, and most notably, a Mother Worm Divine Statue the size of a human head, gleaming with gold.

“This is where you said there’s a lot of Power of Faith hidden?” Richard asked, puzzled.

Ulysses was also taken aback:

“Ga, this is the closet one, but it’s indeed different than what I expected.”

He looked at the Divine Statue and covered its eyes with two globs of dirty blood.

As a Divine entity, he knew the methods of his peers; Divinities could observe the world through statues, a fundamental technique even a native deity would surely employ.

“Ga, the Power of Faith should all be in this Divine Statue.”

Richard moved to pick up the statue, but with a loud clang, it dropped to the floor as Richard’s hand shook.

He stared incredulously at the Divine Statue, then at his own hand.

With his current Physique, even if the statue weighed a thousand catties, he shouldn’t have had trouble holding it.

Suddenly, Richard seemed to realize something. He touched the statue, and instantly, information appeared before his eyes.

[Ingredient: Pure Gold Divine Statue]

[Extractable Substance: Power of Faith]

[Extraction Cost: 300 Spiritual Power]

“Just as I thought!” Richard exclaimed joyfully. His Magic Power then surged, instantly activating his Bloodline, which with its enhancement, allowed him to easily lift the statue.

“The entire statue is made of Pure Gold!”

Such a massive piece of Pure Gold, if sold in the Wizard World, would be worth a fortune beyond measure!

“Ga, that furnace of yours, can it extract it?” Ulysses urgently inquired through a Spiritual Message.

“Yes, but it’s going to take some effort. If this statue is melted down, will it affect the Power of Faith inside?” Richard slipped the Divine Statue into his Magic Pocket. The spiritual energy required to extract the Power of Faith all at once from the statue was too much; he’d need to refine it in parts.

“Ga, melting will, but Cutting won’t.”

Richard nodded, “Then that’ll do.”

“Fine,” he said, and immediately left the stone chamber, ready to leave the quiet room and head to the outskirts of the Mother Goddess Temple to prepare for retreat.

But just as he was about to leave, there came a “boom” as an intense magic fluctuation pierced through the walls, shaking the thick and sturdy walls of the Mother Goddess Temple enough to crack them slightly.

“Hmm?”

Richard was startled, such violent magic fluctuations were not something ordinary wizards could produce.

He peered through the crevice to the other side of the wall and saw a familiar figure struggling within a web of starlight.

All sorts of shaping witchcraft bombarded the Starlight Net like rain, causing it to quiver incessantly.

But to anyone with clear eyesight, it was evident that although the Starlight Net was constantly shaking, it showed no signs of breaking. Instead, the energy fluctuations of the wizard who was casting the spell were rapidly diminishing.

“Puppet Wizard, what’s he doing here? Wasn’t he supposed to be rescuing wizards?”

Richard watched the wizard struggling within the Starlight Net with some confusion.

But then it dawned on him.

This must be what the Puppet Wizard truly intended to do.

Looking through the crevice to the other side, he saw four glistening stands, and on those stands were objects that made Richard’s heart pound.

“Is that… the Insect God’s Blood? All of those are relics left by the Mother Worm God!”

Seeing relics from the Mother Worm God on all four stands, Richard swallowed hard.

This Puppet Wizard was goddamn greedy!

Those four relics from the Mother Worm God, no wonder he’s now trapped!

Ulysses suddenly spoke up at that moment:

“Ga, your kin has probably been calculated. None of those four things are real; they are all fakes made from the Power of Faith.”

“Uh? They’re all fake?”

Richard was shaken by these words, a bad feeling instantly overwhelming his heart.

“Ga, those things might deceive you, but they can’t fool me,” Ulysses said with some disdain, “But that stuff is crudely made, I can’t tell if these bugs are just unskilled, or if they rushed to make these few things.”

Ulysses’ words struck like thunder, shattering Richard’s thoughts into chaos.

Combining the dire situation of the Puppet Wizard with these items probably hastily made by the insects, it seemed likely that they, the wizards, had fallen into the insects’ trap.

The insects had turned the tables on the wizards by exploiting the Puppet Wizard’s vanity!

With this thought, Richard didn’t care if his idea was correct or not. He immediately took out the Communication Crystal Ball from his Magic Pocket.

“Ali, Lawrence, this is a trap, retreat immediately!”

…

“Don’t bother struggling, Wizard Monster.”

The High Priest stood outside the Starlight Net, continually infusing it with the power of the stars.

The strength of the Wizard Monster before him was beyond his expectations; even after being outmaneuvered, it could still release such immense power.

He had tried to seal it with the Starlight Net in one fell swoop, but then witnessed the figure’s body suddenly explode with a violent Magic Wave that nearly burst through the Starlight Net.

Had it managed to burst through, it would have caused significant loss to his plan.

But ultimately, the Wizard Monster fell just short; it never did manage to break through the confines of the Starlight Net.

Now the Puppet Wizard’s struggle was nothing more than the final thrashing of a trapped beast.

Watching the Puppet Wizard’s continuous struggle, the High Priest felt a rare sense of pleasure.

Since the beginning of the war, the Black Crystal Worm Clan had never gained an advantage on the frontal battlefield, with Insect Countries falling one after another. And behind the lines, these infiltrating Wizard Monsters continuously wreaked havoc, with nearly every Insect Country suffering varying degrees of damage.

And in his own Black Mushroom Worm Country, a large incubation pool had been attacked by these Wizard Monsters.

This left him, the High Priest, restless, spending his days handling affairs and the rest holed up in the quiet room, praying and meditating before the Divine Statue.

Now he could finally breathe a sigh of relief.

Just the day before, while eating his regular meal, he suddenly sensed something wrong with his food.

The blessing from the Mother Worm God had enhanced his senses, greatly improving his vision, hearing, smelling, and even touch. This had always been a secret.

His sense of smell told him that something other than the Sacrificial Fungus had been mixed into this plate before him. Despite the substance being almost odorless, his refined senses had detected it.

After examination, he discovered that the plate of Sacrificial Fungus meant for him had been laced with deadly poison, a toxin so terrifying that even if he ingested it, it would take a long time to detoxify.

He would be severely weakened during detoxification, nearly equivalent to a Two Stars Priest.

Following the trail of the Sacrificial Fungus, he tracked down the Puppet Worm among them.

And through calculating the timing of the toxin’s effects, he astutely deduced that the Wizard Monsters would soon strike at the Mother Goddess Temple and made arrangements swiftly.

He intended to capture all the invading wizards in one fell swoop.

“Ah!”

The High Priest suddenly let out a cry, “If only you had acted a little later, if only my plans had been fully in place.”

There was a slight miscalculation in the timing of the poison’s effects. The wizards’ action came before his plans were airtight.

If the wizards realized this, many might escape.

“Hmm?”

The High Priest turned his head suddenly towards a crack in the wall of the great hall, a faint energy fluctuation had just brushed his senses.

That was not the energy used by the Black Crystal Insects!

“Who is there!”

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