236 Hell Gate (1/2)

”Hahahaha, Mirror Image? Mafa Merlin, you are truly funny…” Fran had been sneering before, but he burst into loud laughter when he heard those words, pointing at Lin Yun and holding his belly with the other hand.

What was the Mirror Image skill?

In many cases, alchemists would need to duplicate arrays for experiment or research purposes. When that happened, they would use the Mirror Image skill because it didn't require the array to have been analyzed and didn't require much of the alchemist. It was like copying the whole array onto a blank slate.

This was a skill that every alchemist needed.

Fran himself was a peak Master Alchemist, and with the boost from the Crystal Scales, he had entered the realm of Artisans, so how could he not have heard of the Mirror Image skill?

The thing was...

'He hasn't even touched the array, so how could he use Mirror Image? It looks like he overworked his brain, or he wouldn't have said something so ridiculous…'

”Okay, Mafa Merlin, you can leave this kind of joke for later, you don't have much time left…” After saying that, Fran took one step forward and fished out a bottle of Melting Snow Ink and a quill.

Indeed, Fran felt that it was time to end this charade.

But...

Just as Fran opened the bottle of Melting Snow Ink, he felt some strange mana coming from the array below him.

”What's going on?” Fran froze. For a moment, he thought that he had inadvertently activated the array, and was about to rouse the Crystal Scales to analyze the array...

But he hadn't expected that before he could even draw out the power, the array would burst out with earth-shattering mana fluctuations...

”How… How could this be?” Fran subconsciously took two steps back, his face pale in incomprehension. 'What's happening? I was standing on the array, how could it have been triggered? ...This is simply impossible.

'The Crystal Scales' incarnation obviously said that this array had to be triggered by mana. I didn't use the slightest wisp of mana, so how could it have been triggered?'

Fran stood there in a daze, looking at the faintly visible dark red lines, an unfathomable expression on his face.

”Didn't I tell you? Mirror Image…” Lin Yun shook his head and used his quill to spread the Melting Snow Ink. In a blink, an isolation array formed from seventeen white lines had been completed, and it suppressed the mana fluctuations.

Lin Yun didn't stop after drawing the isolation array. All kinds of arrays started materializing. In a short time, Lin Yun had already drawn out a dozen arrays.

These arrays were lesser arrays, but Lin Yun drew them quickly one after the other, and they formed an extremely complicated array. The power of each array wasn't very considerable, but they were all very efficient, and when they were combined together, they formed a complex network, firmly suppressing the mana fluctuations that had been on the verge of bursting out.

At this time, Fran finally understood...

Mafa Merlin had been drawing arrays all along. There were only a few dozen meters between them, but as each array was written, a strange change appeared in the array under his feet.

It felt sort of like a puppeteer controlling a puppet with a thread.

'Mirror Image! It really is Mirror Image! Only the Mirror Image skill could be used to crack an array from dozens of meters away… But how could this have happened? Merlin never touched the array, how could he have set up a Mirror Image? What did he mirror?

'Could it be… Mafa Merlin found that array when he first entered and dealt with it then, digging a hole for me to jump in? ...No way.

'He only got in a minute before me, and furthermore, Mafa Merlin is only a Master Alchemist. Even if he had entered the Artisan realm, he wouldn't have been able to find and crack the array in such a short time. If Mafa Merlin had such power, then he would have just exerted it and taken all the materials for himself.'

As he thought of this, Fran calmed down.

'That's right, I haven't lost yet!'

”So what if you used a Mirror Image, in an array-cracking duel, the first one to start isn't necessarily the winner!” Fran was completely confident after saying that.

Because he suddenly recalled...