Entering through the opening in the rock wall, she found crisscrossing underground tunnels. These empty dirt passages, unscientifically lacking any support structure, extended densely beneath the entirety of Misaki City.
However, if a Magus were to come here, they would understand that these passages are not empty at all; they are, in fact, pipelines, intertwined to form a transportation network. What these pipelines transport is leyline spiritual energy, which Maguss often refer to as Greater Source life force.
In Eastern culture, such spiritual veins are also called dragon sources. And what Rin is heading to is the origin of this dragon source.
The deeper one goes, the richer the Greater Source life force becomes, saturating the air to the point of being almost visible to the naked eye. If one were to activate spiritual sight, they would find themselves in a sea of clouds of vibrant green life. Rin didn't even need to consciously activate it; her sealed Magic Circuits opened on their own, stimulated by the life force in the air, slowly and peacefully absorbing the Greater Source life force from the atmosphere.
"What an incredible place. The so-called infinite Greater Magic Power Source is unimaginably vast. Relying on this Magic Power Source to summon a Heroic Spirit, combined with the automatic correction of my End Magic, I should be able to make the summoned Heroic Spirit display their strongest state of power."
Rin mused silently. When she advanced to a point 500 meters from the origin, the dark passage already showed a thin, glowing blue mist of spiritual energy floating in the air. At this point, it wasn't even necessary for the Magic Circuits to convert it; simply breathing in the air would automatically generate Magic Power within her body.
The closer she got, the denser the mist became. When Rin finally reached the end, even with her mental preparation, she was still shocked by the sight before her!
Inside a colossal semi-circular underground hall, over a hundred zhang high and a kilometer in diameter, a massive sphere of Magic Power, over a hundred meters in diameter and emitting a brilliant blue glow, floated silently in mid-air about 30 meters from the ground. Around it, several smaller Magic Power source spheres, trailing long tails like floating spirits, circled and moved. An ocean of Greater Source life mist overflowed from the sphere, spreading along the ground through the surrounding, widely branching leyline openings to the entire Misaki.
This is… the dragon source… the origin of the Greater Source life force in the air, the starting point of all Greater Source life force, and the source upon which all Maguss who use Greater Source Magic Power rely for their survival! The source of leyline spiritual energy, the dragon source!
The reason the underground dragon source hall and the leylines are so vast yet undiscovered by the world is that the dragon source itself is an overflow point of Root energy, a supreme mystery that forms an independent space, much like an Reality Marble, underground. The entrance to this space is the stone wall Rin entered through.
The reason the Aozaki Family became the administrators of the misaki leyline is that their ancestors discovered the leyline's entrance and exit to the human world. This is also why, when Touko gave Rin the leyline distribution map, Rin said Touko had given her the misaki leyline.
Because the dragon source leyline has never been tied to any one person; whoever finds it, it belongs to them.
Rin looked down at the spiritual energy mist that reached her waist, obscuring her vision. Even with her Magic Circuits intentionally sealed, with every breath, an endless stream of life force continuously washed over every cell of her body, making Rin feel as if she were in a summer stream, her entire being refreshed as cool water washed over every part of her body.
"If it were someone else, this wouldn't be enjoyment, but a full-blown disaster," Rin muttered to herself.
Indeed, if any other Magus besides Rin came here, they would have long since exploded from the Magic Power generated with every breath! Only someone like Rin, who had undergone Magic Power Refinement (or Mana Tempering), whose every cell could allow Magic Power to flow with zero resistance, and whose generated Magic Power could enter and exit freely, forming its own cycle, could manage this.
At the same time, Rin's End Magic could convert all components of the Greater Source life force, completely transforming the Greater Source life force entering her body without any residue. She didn't need to be affected by her own Magic Power attribute and thus remove components she couldn't convert. Therefore, even Aoko, whose body cells could also circulate Magic Power one hundred percent, couldn't come here, because Aoko's own Magic Power has a wind attribute, and impurities that couldn't be converted into wind-attribute Magic Power would accumulate in her body because the removal speed couldn't keep up, eventually causing her to explode over time.
Therefore, only Rin in the entire world could enjoy this feeling. Standing here, Rin was like a part of the spiritual energy itself. Rin directly unleashed Mana Burst; her Magic Power, imbued with the meaning of finale, diffused into the substantial life force. Not only was it not reversed and assimilated, but it also transformed this overly dense life force into Magic Power outside Rin's body!
"Standing here, I am equivalent to possessing infinite Magic Power! Even an Ancestor of the Dead Apostles or a Heroic Spirit might not be able to withstand me!"
Rin excitedly clenched her fists, but quickly deflated and released them. After all, no one would travel thousands of miles to the dragon source just to fight her. There are less than three digits of such large leyline dragon sources in the entire world; who would come to such a place to fight her?
Rin squatted down, her entire body submerged in the mist of spiritual energy. From her Magic Pouch, Rin took out a blueprint—the Magic array used to summon Heroic Spirits in the Holy Grail War.
This blueprint was not something Rin specifically took with her when she ran away from home. Rather, after leaving home, while reviewing a grimoire on Projection Magecraft, she unexpectedly found it in the gap of the hard paper cover on the back of the grimoire. Along with it were the incantations for summoning Heroic Spirits, the historical origin of the Holy Grail War, its relationship with the Tohsaka Family, and a series of other information related to the Holy Grail War.
At the time, Rin was startled, thinking that Tokiomi knew she would take the grimoire on Projection Magecraft when she left home, and had prepared all the Holy Grail War information there in advance. However, on second thought, it didn't make sense. Tokiomi wasn't a prophet; how would he know she was going to run? If he truly were a prophet, why didn't he foresee that Father Kirei Kotomine would betray him?
Rin could only attribute it to the strangeness of the world. Moreover, although the pages of these documents were magically processed and undamaged, Rin could tell they already had a considerable history. They were likely documents from two hundred years ago, when the Holy Grail War system was just established, and probably not placed there by Tokiomi.
Anyway, that wasn't the main point. It was good that Rin no longer needed to draw the array diagram solely from memory. If she made even one wrong stroke, leading to any unpredictable error, it would definitely be a disaster.
Rin squatted down, referencing the blueprint, and used Magic Power to solidify a short rod about the thickness of a chopstick to draw the Magic array on the ground. Because the overly dense Greater Source Magic Power diffused into the air, there was no longer any need for Magic Power conductors like blood, mercury, or gemstone solutions as materials for drawing the array; the air here was the most excellent drawing material.
However, just as Rin had drawn half of the array, she suddenly felt a chilling sense of crisis! Her body moved faster than her thoughts. She slammed the ground, used her legs to propel herself, and directly leaped onto the wall behind her. The very next moment after Rin sprang up, a burst of Magic Power erupted silently at Rin's previous location! Like a bomb appearing out of thin air, it directly created a vacuum in the spot where Rin had just been!
"Who?! Get out!!!"
It was unexpected that a second person could exist in such a place. No one would remain calm after being suddenly ambushed. Along with Rin's angry shout, a figure floated out from behind the dragon source! And when Rin clearly saw the figure's face, she couldn't help but exclaim:
"The previous Old Magician Aozaki?!"
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