Despite his words, Layn didn’t reach to his pocket for yet another stone. Not because his words were empty, but because there wasn’t any need to do so.

With the magic enriched formation stone splitting into myriad parts, its very internal structure started to dissolve. And in this process, was a special kind of power, that Layn utilized back when casting gran arcana.

Sadly, instead of this strange, greenish stone that he used back then as one of the auxiliary sources of energy for the spell, he had to do with its very primitive imitation, not reaching even a hundredth of its power.

But that hundredth was fare more than enough to rip another layer of illusion with ease… Just like it was more than sufficient to tear through the bodies of the people standing in front of Layn.

“Son, this is not an illusion. This is…” Seeing how the elderly man dared to interrupt his show, Layn looked at him while painting surprise all over his own face. “An illusion with people talking in it? Irea, I have to say, this inner academy has some really monstrous masters to set such an illusion up!”

Ignoring the looks of surprise and terror that appeared on the faces of onlookers, Layn moved his eyes towards their figures before extending his hand towards the group. “Well, since this illusion is so powerful, I bet they implanted some kind of charming spell so that those talking spells would have a shot at convincing us to something.” Sending a silver of his aura to the volatile energy amassing throughout the area permeated by the stone dust, Layn smiled. “It’s better to be safe than sorry.”

Muttering to himself, Layn created a single fireball. Appearing atop his palm, it was the size of a pebble, yet it housed quite a considerable strength in it. Judging by the standards of what he already saw in this world, Layn estimated that this ball of fire would have as much energy as one needed to consume in order to move on from being a normal human to nearly half of the journey towards the awakening phase of the first stage of cultivation.

“STOP IT!” Finally acknowledging the fact that the strange visitor wasn’t joking, the elder shouted while conjuring something with his hand.

Right in time for Layn’s fireball to fly off his palm, striking into the stone dust hanging in the air where he stood.

PAC!

The sound of a powerful shockwave blasting against the old man’s frail body was truly peculiar. Leaning his head to the side, Layn opened his eyes wide, pretending to be surprised. “Wait, could it be that’s not an illusion?!” As if he only now noticed that fact, the archmage watched how the old man who flew back only to have his body smashed against the ground… Was actually standing up now.

“Listen here, you little son of a…” Just as the man attempted to return while driving his internal energy, Layn smiled again. “No, there is no way a respectable elder like that would act in this way. This is bound to be an illusion!”

Conjuring another fireball in his hand, Layn pulled out yet another formation stone. This time though, its marking were far more intricate and covered its entire surface rather than just a fragment of one of its sides as was the case with the previous item.

“Okay, that will be enough.” Suddenly coming from behind, Irea placed her hand at Layn’s shoulder in an attempt to calm him down. “I know you don’t like those people, but that’s not the reason to kill every last one of them, is it not?” Cutely hanging her head to the side, Irea managed to dispel Layn’s killing intent with just a few words and a smile of hers.

“Well, that’s actually true. The thing is, this can’t be a real world.” Shrugging his arms, Layn shook the girl’s hand from his shoulder before pointing his finger a bit above the heads of the group in front of them. “Wasn’t my shrine taken to the inner academy? If this is the inner academy, how come I can’t feel it at all?”

Putting a vicious smile on his face, Layn suddenly turned around before hiding the stone back in his pocket. “But since you claim this is reality, then let’s give it a test.” Smiling to Irea, Layn suddenly plummeted down, sitting in a cross-legged position directly on the ground. “Let’s wait here for a while. I will try to decipher whether our surroundings are an illusion or not while searching for the hints of the shrine’s presence.”

Spreading his arms to the side, Layn looked at Irea with a strange glint in his eyes. “A fair deal, don’t you think?”

In reaction to the man’s words, Irea rolled her eyes before stepping forward.

“My dearest here is a man of focus, commitment, and a sheer fucking will.” Pointing her hand at the archmage, Irea stood fast while looking at the greeting group with a look of disdain in the corner of her eye. “He once killed three men in a tavern… With a pencil.” Stepping one pace closer, Irea kept going with her fantastical story.

“WIth. A. Fucking. Pencil.” Putting an accent on each of the words, Irea squinted her eyes before putting a huge smile on her face. “Feel free to test him out like you are doing it right now. I’m giving you some time only because of my respect for the academy. But once he will be done with waiting…” Taking a short pause, Irea glanced over at the sitting archmage, allowing the look in her eyes to soften as she did that. “Well, it’s up to you whether he will get angry or not.”

With that said, Irea turned around on her heel, not caring for the people now behind in the slightest. Approaching the archmage, she calmly sat on the ground before gluing her eyes to Layn’s focused face.

At first, nothing of importance happened. Outside of some disciples in red robes holding back the elder that clearly wasn’t satisfied with the situation, one could say that nobody even moved all that much. But after just a few whiles, some kind of commotion arose deeper in the city.

“Do you think it will be enough?” Only once the square finally cleared did Irea open up her mouth. Despite appearing to be in deep thought, Layn reacted instantly, raising his own eyelids and taking a long look at the girl.

“I have no idea.” Not holding back from admitting to ignorance, Layn smiled gently. “Whether they will find out where our treasure is kept or not, doesn’t matter at all. Because even if they do, I don’t really need it back.” Shaking his shoulders, Layn lowered his head before closing his eyes once again.

In the middle of the inner academy, Layn’s cultivation was no longer something he could take pride in. Even if he could make far better use of its means than anyone else in this world, it didn’t mean everyone else in the inner academy would understand or even acknowledge it. But the same couldn’t be said about the possibility of someone figuring out what Layn was doing with his cultivation.

As such, there was only one tool that Layn could use to prepare a surprise for the people of the inner academy. And it wasn’t cultivation.

It was magic.

It was a precise methodic of using the magical energy without all those bothersome steps that cultivators had to go through. Or in other words, it was an art of using the unrefined magic to one’s own purposes, contrary to cultivation, where one had to refine the energy first in order to use it for any means or purposes.

“Layn, they are coming back…” After a few more moments has passed, Irea suddenly notified her partner. Standing up from the floor, she instantly stood in front of the archmage, as if willing to act as his shield if necessary. But soon, her determination proved to be absolutely pointless.

“Sir, Miss… We found out about the culprits. As much as it pains me to admit, it appears that some of our students… Have stolen the entire shrine that young master provided the academy within a good faith.” Still using his crane to support himself, the elder this time appeared to actually really need to rely on it in order to walk.

“Obviously…” Seeing a complete lack of reaction from Layn or Irea, who in turn just decided to follow whatever Layn’s initiative would be, the old man started speaking once again, clearly unwilling to taste the wrath of what Irea already foreshadowed, “the entire structure along with the holy relic inside will be transported back to the academy grounds post-haste!”

Only now did Layn’s eyes twitch. After releasing a small sigh, he stood up from his spot before taking a taxing look at the elder.

“That’s fine with me. Since you speak about real problems of the real world, I guess this is the reality after all.” Looking up, Layn ignored the tense look on the elder’s face, contemplating the beautiful, blue hue of the skies above. “On that matter, there is one thing I will need to trouble the elder with.”

Finally turning towards the old, fragile-looking man, Layn smiled before making a few steps forward, as if he was worried that the old man would have problems with hearing him from the initial distance that separated them.

“The group that decided to buy this shrine from me under the terms of keeping it in the academy… They have yet to pay what they are due to me.” With his smile only widening, Layn looked deeply into the elder’s eyes.. “I hope they are not going to default on this debt now.”