Chapter 1503: Chapter 1497: Fully Prepared Defense
In the calm altar, Ronald’s brows were tightly knit.
At this moment, the disturbance caused by the recent mobilization of Magic Power had already disappeared, and the strings he had sensed were nowhere to be found.
On the deserted mountaintop, no changes could be seen.
The anomalies that had appeared before dissipated like dust.
"..."
Ronald silently walked away, found a moss-covered stone, and sat down, his gaze full of thought.
The actual situation just now was—it was quite smooth for Ronald to invade the Seven-string Seal, and he hadn’t failed.
However, just as he was about to take over control of the spell.
Something suddenly emerged from the depths of the seal, interrupting the entire process of taking over the spell. Without daring to damage the Seven-string Seal, Ronald gave up resisting, and the prepared Magic Power naturally dissipated along with it.
Before taking action, Ronald had been ready to face failure.
He could also accept the failure of this attempt calmly.
But there was one thing in the encounter just now that he really wanted to understand.
Namely, whether it was a contingency plan prepared by predecessors, a resistance belonging to the Seven-string Seal itself against invaders; or was it an intervention by a third-party force, having nothing to do with Ronald or the Seven-string Seal itself.
If the truth belonged to the latter.
Then the Nine Rings Convocation, which had entered the seal in advance, would be extremely suspect, and it would also mean that Ronald would need to pay more attention to his subsequent actions.
Thinking like this, Ronald began to continue collecting value measurement.
Currently, forcibly taking over the Seven-string Seal was no longer possible, but to explore what was obstructing him, he would still need a large amount of Magic Power to sustain his actions.
"I can only try again..."
Musing to himself, Ronald repeated his previous operation.
Despite the somewhat tortuous encounter, the peaceful mountain forest remained unmoved, the quiet scenery just like before.
Sitting quietly in such an environment, Ronald’s slightly fluctuating mood also subsided along with the tranquility of the forest.
Finally, the value measurement was completed again.
Ronald invaded once more, calm in mindset, and his control over Magic Power seemed precise and elegant.
"..."
At the initial stage of the Magic Power’s invasion, everything was exactly like the previous attempt.
But apart from this, Ronald’s more attention had shifted to paying attention to his invasion actions.
Even if only for his own safety, he needed to understand the true reason for his rudeness now.
Then, Ronald’s expression started to show confusion.
This time he did not focus entirely on cracking the spell, and at the same time was overseeing the entire situation of the Seven-string Seal. In this scenario, he faintly sensed a voice within the spell.
This sound was not obvious at first.
But as Ronald delved deeper into the Seven-string Seal, the sound became even clearer, and when Ronald’s invading Magic Power began to touch the essence of the strings, he could distinctly discern the nature of the sound.
It was a melody.
No lyrics, only a pure and pleasing melody.
A few seconds passed, and just as Ronald was about to complete the invasion of the spell, the delightful melody suddenly cut off next to his ear.
Boom—
A sound as if a string had snapped resonated.
As the melody abruptly stopped, the strings he was about to touch vanished together with it, naturally repelling the invading Magic Power.
"..."
"Whew— So, it was a prepared contingency after all."
Ronald sighed in relief; it was not that the Nine Rings Convocation had taken control of the Seven-string Seal within the seal, but rather a setup inherent in the spell.
The former Caster who had sealed the holy capital could be considered all-encompassing.
The person not only created miracles like independent small worlds but covered aspects like the concealment of the Songwood, contingencies when releasing the seal on the holy capital, and preventing others from controlling the Seven-string Seal...
All these aspects were within their considerations.
Even disregarding their terrifying spellcraft prowess, the sheer meticulousness of their planning was definitely no ordinary caliber.
Ronald couldn’t help feeling a bit curious.
The Caster who personally created the Songwood in the past, what kind of person were they?
"..."
"Forget it, thinking about it is useless, I’ll just ask Orel afterward."
Quickly, Ronald yanked his thoughts back from those musings.
He had a very clear understanding of his own capabilities; since the invasion had failed, other similar means were unlikely to be effective either.
In other words, Ronald’s plan to enter the seal himself was declared bankrupt.
Unless he used the spells of "Maze Album" to extract and encapsulate the Seven-string Seal itself, perhaps achieving a similar effect.
But considering the difficulty and feasibility of such a thing...
Familiar with the difficulty escalation rules of "Maze Album," he gave up such a foolish act of self-sealing after just thinking about it.
Rising from the altar, Ronald stood straight and flexed his slightly stiff body:
"Since it’s not working, then go after Orel instead."
"Though seven days isn’t short, there’s no other way now..."
Murmuring to himself, Ronald made the decision.
The seal of the Songwood successfully thwarted his invasion, but this wasn’t necessarily a bad thing.
Under such tight security, the holy capital within the seal was certainly not a place for random wandering. The members of the Nine Rings Convocation who entered first might not be in a much better situation!
After comforting himself with a few words, Ronald re-summoned the original text and chanted the spells to prepare to chase after Costate and the others.
"From the entire earth and sky... Hmm?"
Just two words into the spell of "Astronomy Master," Ronald’s action halted suddenly.
He stopped his motion to take flight and turned his head towards the northwest direction.
In the opposite direction of where Orel and Costate departed, a clear Magic Fluctuation appeared in Ronald’s perception.
"Is someone coming in again?"
Ronald’s gaze fixed into the distance.
The direction of the Magic Fluctuation was where the forest in the central part of the Songwood was located.
Under normal circumstances, at such a far distance, Ronald would not be able to perceive it.
But having just attempted to invade the Seven-string Seal twice, retaining a lingering sense of the connectedness with the entire sealed world, made him unusually sensitive to changes in the world at this moment.
Under such a special state, not quite an enhancement, Ronald detected the movement over there.
Thus, the questions followed.
Who was it entering the Songwood now?
The Nine Rings Convocation—their key members getting ahead shouldn’t be them.
Adventurers from the southern continent—those adventurers didn’t have significant mysterious side powers, leaving no opportunity to enter the seal.
Could it be native Casters from the southern continent?
Is the newcomer a friend or foe? And what does it mean for Ronald and the others?
...
Numerous questions swirled in his mind.
Ronald simultaneously calculated the time he would require to alter his route.
Soon, he had the result in his mind.
And so, when he took off and set off again, Ronald didn’t chase after Costate; instead, he flew toward the entrance direction of this world.
