The last Beastman servant disappeared from sight.

The army also handed over control to the Mage Tower, leaving the altar completely under the watch of the Mages.

They set up a defensive line around the perimeter.

The line could only stop ordinary people. If an Extraordinary Being were to deliberately sneak in, the common soldiers couldn’t stop them.

Ultimately, it all came down to the Mages on guard.

Komas arranged for everyone to first deploy the Mage Tower’s Magic Puppets.

Naturally, the Mages themselves weren’t needed for patrol duty.

The first line of defense was the Magic Puppets.

Then, a large number of Surveillance Demon Eyes were released to monitor every corner of the entire altar.

This was the second line of defense.

The Mages themselves were the third line of defense.

Li Wei walked on the Rock Altar. He glanced down, feeling that the stone was somewhat special.

El saw Li Wei and walked over. "This is Holy Light Stone," he said. "The purity isn’t very high, but it’s not easy to get this much of it."

"It seems the City Lord wishes to pray for the blessing of a Light Element Divine Spirit."

Hearing this, Li Wei nodded, lost in thought.

He only knew that founding a Kingdom required a Divine Worship Ceremony.

He didn’t know the ceremony had so many intricacies.

He had thought the Divine Spirit prayed to during the ceremony was chosen at random.

He never expected you could actually choose.

"Does building an altar with Holy Light Stone guarantee that a Light Element Divine Spirit will appear?"

Li Wei asked, a little curious.

El shook his head. "Of course not. How could a Divine Spirit be summoned so easily?"

"Even using Holy Light Stone only increases the probability a little. In the end, which Divine Spirit appears still comes down to luck."

"It’s like how some people like Gemstones. To a Light Element Divine Spirit, an altar built of Holy Light Stone is just a particularly pretty Gemstone."

Li Wei understood.

He looked around and felt that sending so many people to guard one altar was a bit of an overkill.

The kilometer-wide altar was large, but a dozen or so people would have been more than enough.

Li Wei said, "Isn’t this going to great lengths? Are so many people necessary?"

El smiled. "The real reason we were called here isn’t to guard the altar, but to help activate the Magic Arrays."

Li Wei looked surprised. Martin hadn’t told them about this.

El looked out over the entire altar. "If they relied solely on the Array Masters to inscribe Magic Arrays of this massive scale, who knows how long it would take."

"We can’t afford the delay, and the Lord City Lord can afford it even less."

"He’s not getting the Mage Tower’s help for free. Every day is just burning money."

"So, after the Array Masters inscribe a Magic Array, they don’t activate it."

"They save the time it would take to activate them and move on to inscribing new ones. We, on the other hand, are responsible for activating them one by one."

"To put it bluntly, we’re here to charge the Magic Arrays."

Li Wei was a bit confused. "Why not use Magic Stones or Magic Crystals?" he asked.

"The cost is too high!"

El explained, "Besides, with so many Mages sitting idle in the Mage Tower, they might as well come out and be useful."

"It saves some money."

Li Wei was a little speechless.

’The reason is so... pragmatic.’

El said, "You don’t need to worry too much. All the Magic Arrays will be finished in three days at most."

"I see. Thank you for the explanation, Mage El." Li Wei bowed in thanks.

El laughed. "Li Wei, you’re too polite."

"Alright, go have a look around for now. I need to go assign tasks to the others."

El was the team leader, responsible for assigning tasks to his group members.

A short while later, everyone got to work.

A Mage who was charging a Magic Array saw Li Wei strolling idly by and showed a look of indignation.

’It feels a bit unfair.’

"Why doesn’t he have to work?"

"You don’t know who he is?"

"What? Am I supposed to know him? Who is he?"

"The Tower Master’s disciple! His only disciple, so far."

"He’s also the number one genius of Maple City. He became an Official Mage at only sixteen."

"Holy crap! He’s that amazing?"

...

In a corner, several Mages gathered together, quietly glancing at the wandering Li Wei.

"Li Wei, the genius Mage of Maple City. We absolutely cannot let him mature. Otherwise, he’ll become a massive threat to the Macher Kingdom in the future."

"We never had a chance to deal with him before. He never set foot outside the Mage Tower, so we couldn’t find any openings. Today is a good opportunity."

"But there are too many people here. If we make a move, we won’t be able to escape either."

"Heh, and you call yourselves Mages. Can’t you use your brains? All you know is brute force."

"If you’re so smart, you do it."

"Fine by me."

El glanced around. There was no one else nearby.

He found Li Wei. "There’s a Magic Array over there that needs to be activated. Go take care of it. It’s very simple."

El showed Li Wei how to do it.

In fact, Li Wei had already learned how just by watching the others while he was walking around.

"Okay, I get it."

He walked toward the location of the Magic Array.

Standing on a node of the Magic Array, he began to channel Mana into the array beneath his feet.

For Li Wei, who possessed Mana Control, this was incredibly easy.

He could even multitask.

"Hello, are you Mage Li Wei?"

A man walked over, asking with a foolish-looking grin on his face.

Li Wei looked up at him. "Yes. What is it?"

"I’ve heard so much about you! Seeing is believing. Mage Li Wei, you’re my idol!"

Li Wei was a bit speechless.

"Um, if it’s not important, we can talk later. I’m still working."

The man quickly said, "Mage Li Wei, you just do your thing. I’ll just stand here and watch. I want to observe your technique and learn a thing or two."

"If you don’t mind, Mage Li Wei, could you share some of your Cultivation experience?"

"How did you become an Official Mage so quickly?"

"Talent," Li Wei said. 𝙛𝓻𝒆𝓮𝒘𝙚𝙗𝒏𝙤𝙫𝓮𝒍.𝓬𝒐𝙢

The man froze, not knowing how to respond.

He gave an awkward laugh. "Mage Li Wei’s talent is truly astonishing."

"Since you’re busy, Mage Li Wei, I won’t disturb you any longer."

After speaking, the man turned and left.

Li Wei watched his back, his eyes calm.

’There’s definitely something wrong with that guy.’

’Otherwise, why would he suddenly strike up a conversation with me using such a clumsy excuse?’

Once the Mana infusion was complete, Li Wei activated the Magic Array.

’Not good.’

Halfway through activation, the Magic Array let out a puff of black smoke.

BOOM!

The Magic Array exploded, and the Holy Light Stone it was inscribed on shattered.

Li Wei’s expression turned ugly.

The sound of the Magic Array’s explosion quickly drew the others.

El looked at the exploded Magic Array in surprise. "How could it have exploded?"

Li Wei said, "There was a problem with the Magic Array. As I was activating it, the Mana suddenly went haywire and exploded."

"Bullshit! There’s no way there was a problem with the Magic Array I inscribed. It was clearly your own fault."

Hearing Li Wei’s words, the Array Master immediately retorted loudly.

He pointed to the other already-activated Magic Arrays and said, "Why were all of their Magic Arrays activated normally, while only yours had a problem?"

"It’s obviously your own fault, but you’re trying to shift the blame to me."