Jack closed his eyes as vast amounts of information entered his mind. He carefully and thoroughly went over all the information and categorized it all in his head. Going through all the information took him over an hour and when he was finally done, he looked over it one last time to make sure he didn’t miss anything. After looking over everything again, he opened his eyes.

What greeted him was the same room but Raelag was not present any more. Jack looked around and his gaze fell to the Devil and the Dark Elf. Seeing Jack look at them, both of them fell on one knee and put their right fist on their heart as they said respectfully, “We pay our respect to the Emperor.” Jack gently nodded and let them stand up. Raelag had passed onto him the basic knowledge of the Mask and it’s troops as well. He knew that the two in front of him were the ones that led the Dark Elves and Demon Factions.

The Dark Elf was named Shadya and the Devil was named Veyer. These two were Raelag’s most trusted Generals and they also dealt with the mundane things of their Factions. Jack walked in front of them and said respectfully, “I thank you two for the assistance you have provided for me and for the assistance you will provide in the future.”

Although the two were bound by the Mask and would have no choice in following him, he didn’t want to be a tyrant that forced them. To him, they were his subordinates and as weird it may seem, Jack looked after his own people. That was also the reason he had obtained the approval of the Dark Elves in the first place.

The two were actually quite afraid of Jack. They had followed Raelag for countless years and even when they infused themselves into the Mask, it was voluntary because he had earned their respect himself. However, even though they gave Jack their approval, they did not know him as well. What they were most afraid of was that the feeling of power would go to Jack’s head.

That fear was the same thing Raelag had and taking this fear into consideration, he had divided the Mask into three Layers. If Jack himself did not have sufficient strength, he couldn’t summon the strongest troops. However, when Jack obtained Raelag’s Legacy, he also obtained full control over the Mask, meaning that the restrictions were no longer in place for him.

The two had seen the Crystal Core Jack had formed and were completely stupefied. The quality of that Core was extremely high and this showed that Jack’s path in the future was truly limitless. Of course they were happy to follow a strong master but they both involuntarily remembered the Abyssal Demon Emperor. He had obtained the approval of Demons and since his personal level was high enough, he had access to the strongest of the troops. It was also them that were his main fighting force and also the reason he had the balls to rampage around Cosmoses.

Jack however, did not know what the two were thinking and just said, “You can go back to rest. I will first familiarize myself with my body and then look over the knowledge left behind by Raelag.” The two looked at each other in surprise as Shadya asked, “You do not wish to see the troops first?”

Jack tilted his head to the side and asked, “Why would I want to see them first? They are not my own strength and unless it is something that I can’t accomplish myself, I don’t plan on forcing you to fight….” As he said that, the two’s fears were all dispelled. Although they could see what happened to Jack through the Mask, they did not know his thoughts. They had seen everything Jack had seen after he had picked up the Mask.

They knew very well that Jack was not someone that went picking fights but rather he was someone that fights found themselves. Seeing their expressions, Jack got a general gist of their thoughts. They would have no choice but to follow his orders but that did not mean that they had to like the orders.

Inside the information Jack received from Raelag, he also found a part that talked briefly about the Abyssal Demon Emperor. Raelag expressed great disdain towards him because he was an absolute arrogant madman and when he was finally killed, Raelag was even happy about it. However, Jack didn’t care much for it because it didn’t matter which Cosmos it was, personal strength was the most important.

It doesn’t matter how strong of an army you have, unless you yourself are strong enough, they can’t protect you forever. The Abyssal Demon Emperor was the best example of this. Even though he could access the most elite troops of the Mask that could even fight a Dao Seeking expert, he himself was in the Origin Realm. Since he did as he pleased, he soon earned the wrath of a Heaven Realm powerhouse. He was killed before he could even summon his troops, so what use was the strongest army if you couldn’t even use it? In the end, everything came down to personal strength.

After he also explained his trail of thought to the two, Veyer let out a loud laugh as he said, “I apologise for doubting you Emperor. My long seems to be wasted on me for having such a narrow mind.” Hearing that, Jack immediately answered, “You can’t be blamed for it as you don’t know enough about me. However, stop with Emperor thing, call me Jack.” Shadya’s face changed as she quickly said, “But….” Jack raised his hand to stop her from talking and said, “No buts. I do not wish to be some kind of a Lord or play King. You aren’t my slaves but my subordinates.”

After strictly saying so, the two could only look at each other in helplessness. It didn’t matter what they called him, it didn’t change the fact that they still had to follow his orders. Jack dismissed the two and slightly touched the crown that was now on his head.

Jack’s eyes flickered as he murmured, “Crown of the Desolates, huh…..” This Crown itself was a very rare Soul Artefact. The method of creating Soul Artefacts was only known to the a very select few. That however, did not change the fact that a Soul Artefact was extremely strong. All he knew was the Crown’s name and what it was but nothing detailed. All the knowledge Raelag had was stored inside the Crown, this meant that all the Spells, Magic Formations, understandings of Essence’s, Arts and such, every single thing except from his memories was stored inside the Crown. The Crown itself was like a jade slip that recorded all the information for future use.

However, storing information was not the Crown’s only function, it was also a Spacial Storage Tool. Although Jack couldn’t understand it clearly, it seemed like it worked on a different principle than a Spacial Ring. Jack decided not to mull on it for now because Raelag had also told him that he had taken vast amounts of Fire Energy from the outside.

Doing this so suddenly will without a doubt create a lot of confusion, so it would be best for him to go and clear all the suspicions and alarms as fast as possible. Jack closed his eyes and focused his attention on communicating with the Mask according to the method Raelag had left behind for him. He suddenly felt a weird feeling and when the feeling disappeared, he opened his eyes again to find an unfamiliar burned roof.

He sat up and took a glance around but could only smile awkwardly as only burned furniture and walls came to his vision. The Armour Set he had been wearing was nowhere to be seen. As his eyes scanned the room, he saw that a set of robes had been put next to him. Jack felt a little awkward being naked in an unfamiliar environment, so he quickly put the robes on. After putting the robes on, he exited the room through what seemed to have once been a door.

As he reached outside, he was greeted by a grand spectacle of the five Ancestors meditating outside the courtyard and as he looked farther away, he saw that at the edge of the Island, there were thousands of little black dots forming a perimeter. Jack’s mouth opened wide seeing this grand spectacle, however, soon a voice echoed out throughout the Island. “Dao Reserve, return!” The Defensive Formations that had been working on full strength also dimmed and were deactivated. Soon, outside the courtyard was filled with the Origin Realm experts that were previously guarding outside the Island.

All of them looked at Jack with a very perplexed face as they had no idea what to think of this. When Jack was awakening as a Mage, Zhi filled everyone of the Origin Realm in with what was going on. The Origin Realm was the Dao Reserve of the Sect, they were the true Core of Dragon Cross. If Zhi didn’t even trust them with these kinds of secrets, who could he trust.

Every single one of them had given an Oath on their Soul that they would not collude against any member of Sect or betray the Sect. When Zhi told them that Jack was now embarking on a completely new road, the all felt very interested.

They knew that their Cosmos was only one of the countless others. Out there, there were countless other cultivation paths, so they were quite interested to see how far Jack could go on this path. In their Cosmos, Jack would be the pioneer of the path of Magic. However, what made them feel helpless was that because Jack was the pioneer of that path, no one could offer him assistance.

Zhi was hovering in front of Jack and as he looked at his courtyard, he sighed, “So much of my house…. No matter, I was thinking of redecorating either way.” As he shook his head, Jack learned that the house he had burned was Zhi’s. Jack looked over all the faces present and cupped his hands and bowed slightly as he said, “I thank Seniors for protecting this Junior at this crucial time.”

It would not take a genius to see from their Formation that they had all stood guard over him when he had been accepting Raelag’s Legacy. All the Origin Realm experts nodded with a smile to Jack’s words. Seeing him standing there meant that he had succeeded on stepping on the path of Magic. They also saw that he appreciated favours and did not put on any airs in front of them. This naturally made all of them very happy.

One by one, the Origin Realm Experts congratulated Jack on surviving this ordeal and then excused themselves to return to their posts. When the Formation was first set up, only a few hundred of the Origin Realm experts had been at the Island but when the Island entered lock down, they had all been called back from their positions. Some had been standing guard over Dragon Cross’s cities or Branches while some had just been travelling or in secluded meditation somewhere isolated.

Now that the ordeal was over, it was obvious that Zhi and the Ancestors would want to have a few words with him privately, so it was time for them to return back to where they came from.

After all the Origin Realm experts had passed on their congratulations and left, Zhi waved his hand and picked Jack up from the ground. They flew to the Island Conference Hall, the place where the most important talks of Dragon Cross took place.

After they arrived at the modestly decorated Hall, all the Ancestor’s took a seat after Zhi and Zhi gestured for Jack to sit down at an open seat as he said, “No need to be so courteous, take a seat and tell us as much as you can.”