Chapter 1: Unlucky Assassin
Translator: Nyoi_Bo_Studio Editor: Tennesh
"Isn't it Manager Cai? My god, it has been a while, hasn't it? How are you?" Anfey asked, smiling warmly and holding out his hand in front of him.
Cai Guangyao started moving his hands away from his belt. In fact, he found himself disliking this man who greeted him in the bathroom. For someone experienced with the way of the business world, the first thing one needed to do was stay calm, keeping their emotions a secret to the world. The man was wearing a friendly smile, and his clothes were finely made. It was in Cai Guangyao's best interest not to offend anyone, especially someone whose background was unclear. Cai Guangyao, realizing this, put on a smile and took the man's hand, "Evening! Pardon me, I was a little bit drunk, you know, but you are…?"
"Powerful men never remember us little guys," the man said, blinking. "I heard Manager Cai's real estate business is going through the roof; of course you would forget someone like me."
"Nonsense," Cai Guangyao said awkwardly. Before he could finish, something pricked his palm. Instinctively, he yanked his hand back. "What was that?" he demanded, holding his stinging hand.
"Me? I didn't do anything," Anfey widened his eyes.
"Nothing?" Cai Guangyao said angrily, looking down at his hand. There was no wound.
"Oh, I got it," Anfey said, throwing his hands into the air in a moment of sudden realization. He pointed to a ring on his finger. "It must have been my ring," he said. "You see, it is uncomfortable to wear, but it is a family heirloom, what with my father's recent passing…"
"Alright, alright," Cai Guangyao said impatiently. "If you don't have anything else to say, would you please leave? I have other people to attend to." At first, he didn't want to offend anyone, but as soon as the pain shot up his hand, Cai Guangyao felt a sudden irritation he hadn't felt before. He didn't know where it came from, since pricking his hand was usually the least of his problems.
"I am very sorry," Anfey said, defeated. "I am very sorry. I will stop bothering you, Manager Cai." He bowed and left the bathroom with a troubled look on his face.
"Weird," Cai Guangyao said, as he turned around and unbuckled his belt.
As soon as he was out of the door, Anfey exchanged his upset look for one of nonchalance. The jade-colored floor glowed softly beneath his feet, weaving together with the golden light of the wall lamps. All around Anfey, the sound of men's coarse laughter and women's soft flirts flooded into the long hallway. All the doors were crafted from exquisite eaglewood, filling the hall with a gentle fragrance. However, none of these could distract Anfey now. To an onlooker, he was walking rather slowly. In reality, his speed was almost two times faster than a normal man's, and he did not slow down until he had reached the staircase.
Just as he rounded the corner, he saw the elevator door close. He sighed in a moment of defeat. Nothing seemed to go well today. He had rented a Chevrolet to get to the Jingdu Hotel, but somehow the brake had broken halfway, and it took him way longer than he found comfortable to get rid of the police officers nearby. After that he found a Toyota, but had only had it for a few minutes before ramming it into another car. The young man that drove the other car refused to leave him alone unless Anfey agreed to drive the young man to the hospital; it cost Anfey three thousand dollars to get rid of him. Anfey was a fairly skilled driver and had never been in an accident. What happened today could only be described as strange.
When he arrived at the Jingdu hotel, he was prepared to do his job, but the elevator broke only ten minutes later. He remained calm and didn't appear too agitated, gesturing to the video camera to hurry the hotel security team.
He was rescued after ten long minutes. Anfey had always been a strict follower of time, and he thought that it was all but certain that he would fail his mission tonight. Luckily, he found a chance to finish what he intended to do at the last minute. Of course, luck was an unreliable thing. Anfey smiled bitterly as he glanced at the number blinking above his head.
The elevator next to him was broken, and the other two were approximately a hundred meters away. Should he walk? He quickly estimated how much time he had left. Three minutes should be enough. The number twenty flashed above him. Anfey pulled out a stick of gum and began walking towards the other end of the hall.
Thirty seconds later, Anfey found himself standing in front of an elevator. After another thirty-five, the door slid open. Anfey disguised his anxiety as he stepped into the elevator. There were only two young women in there. They shot a glance at him and returned to their whispers.
Fifty seconds later, he was in the eighth floor bathroom. He glanced around, making sure there were no approaching footsteps. Then he jumped upwards, his left hand grabbing the pipe, and his right hand sticking his gum onto the surveillance camera. Having cameras in bathrooms tended to cause unrest in customers, but the hotel management did so anyways. Of course, to avoid problems, they were kept hidden, and only in the men's bathroom, but it was still an amateur move. It only took him a few seconds to find them the first time he came to the hotel.
He let out a sigh of relief. Thank god he was alone in here. If there was anyone else in the bathroom he would've been in big trouble. The hotel's surveillance room was on the thirtieth floor, and the security teams were on the first, seventh, and twenty-first. If the surveillance team was doing their job well, then they would have already found the malfunctioning camera on the eighth floor. Still, the nearest security team was on the seventh, and it would take them a minute to arrive. A minute was more than enough time.
Anfey grabbed onto one of the bathroom doors and jumped up, landing in the stall. He had already prepared his getaway clothes and hid them in that bathroom. He had glued the door shut to prevent anyone from messing up his plan, since any normal person would simply move on to the next stall. They wouldn't contact security if a bathroom door refused to give way.
Nowadays, though, weird people were on the rise, and would cause Anfey great trouble should he ever cross paths with one. There was no such thing as being one hundred percent safe, so Anfey had prepared for all the scenarios he could imagine. With extensive preparation, he could outwit anyone.
Anfey walked out of the bathroom looking like another man. His hair was shorter, the black suit became a t-shirt and jeans, and his dress shoes were changed into sneakers. At the same time, Cai Guangyao, who was flirting with an escort, slumped over the couch and clutched at his heart.
Anfey looked very relaxed as he stepped out of the hotel. He didn't bother hailing a cab, instead walking south along the road.
Anfey was an assassin. He was an odd one, but one nonetheless, because he would never admit that he was a killer. He believed that killers were mechanical, emotionless, and numb—obeying their masters' every command, or forsaking their lives, to achieve their goals. He, however, was noble, free and elegant, and would never place himself in danger. Before he exposed his intentions, he would be a respectable guest, and no one would realize his purpose. Afterwards, there would not be anyone able to reveal his identity. Some jobs he would take, some he would never take, some he would regret taking, all without a care for his reputation. He thought that the world was dark enough, and he didn't want to harm those people with talent and sparks. Although he was exceptionally skilled and could often mask his work as anatural death, he lacked a steady stream of customers.
A kebob peddler poked his head out from an alley, made eye contact with Anfey, and nodded. These people didn't have an easy life. In a city this size, they lived in the poorest houses, leaving before the sun rose and returning long after the sun had set. They could only earn enough to feed themselves. A few decades ago, even a street peddler could earn more than a nuclear physicist. Now, after years of government interference, these peddler's lives sank below the average. Of course, they could fight to raise their living standards, but there were a lot of people who didn't want them to do that. As soon as the police cars appeared, the peddlers scattered in fear of confiscations and beatings. It wasn't anything new that city police beat people to death.
Under the teachings of a few skilled men, the general masses had mastered the skills of guerilla warfare. Running when the enemy appeared and coming back when they left, a man was able to earn a living.
Anfey was an easy-going man. He smiled at the kebob peddler. "Busy?" he asked. "I want ten dollars of lamb."
The man glanced around, making sure the coast was clear, and then he smiled. "Of course, sir," he said. "Right away."
Anfey glanced towards the hotel, waiting. Not long after, an ambulance howled past, stopping sharply in front of the hotel. A few emergency workers rushed out, carrying stretchers and emergency kits.
Anfey sighed. He had the habit of lingering near the scene whenever he finished a job, so that should anything be amiss he could formulate a plan to deal with the problem. For now, the death attracted no suspicion. Cai Guangyao had an extramarital relationship, and the two women, each with his child, had always been at each other's throats. Now that he was dead, the two women would redirect all their attention to his inheritance. No one would care whether he had a natural or an unnatural death. He would barely be cold underground. Pity!
The police should pose no problem either. The officers with more unclosed cases were more likely to be fired. No one wanted to be in charge of a cold case, and no one wanted to be investigating a case like this. If the two women were just focusing on his inheritance, of course the case would be dropped.
"Hey, want any spices?" the kebob peddler asked.
"Not too many," Anfey said, rubbing his hands together, causing a lump of white putty to come off into his hands. His fingertips were covered with a specially made grease that concealed his fingerprints. It dried off when applied; even if he shook hands with someone, it would leave no residue. The only loophole was his clothes, but he had sprayed them with chemicals. The police canines would suffer a hard blow should they inhale too much. Plus, unless the death was suspected to be foul play, his clothes would never become evidence. If the police didn't interfere, his clothes would simply be left at the hotel's lost and found, waiting for an owner who would never return.
"There you go," the peddler said, handing him his kabob.
Anfey took it, thanked the man, and stood there, eating it in small bites. He needed to wait a bit to see what the doctor's verdict would be. If it was suspicious, the police would be here in no time. If Cai Guangyao was determined to have died from cardiac arrest, his family would be contacted to take care of the aftermath. For now, the truth about the man's death was in unknown, but Anfey was careful and hoped to get some confirmation.
At that moment, a Santana and a small truck drove towards where Anfey was standing. Instinctively, Anfey took a few steps back, trying to figure out the situation within the alley.
"That's him! Get him!" a fat man called out, sticking his bandage-wrapped head out of the car.
Anfey recognized the symbol on the car. It was a car from the city police, and it had nothing to do with him.
The peddler looked like a spooked animal. He grabbed his cart and dashed into the valley, right into Anfey. In a moment of panic, the peddler pushed Anfey aside, "Get out of my way!" he called.
Anfey was well trained. If the man was coming at him with a knife, he would have known exactly how to deal with it. He didn't want to hurt him though, and only took a step back.
The peddler slipped, and his hand pushed against Anfey's, triggering a series of reaction that would otherwise only happen in movies.
Perhaps it was because the peddler wanted to save money, but the peddler didn't use disposable skewers; he used a sharpened bicycle spoke, to more conveniently pierce the meat chunks. Anfey was eating while the peddler dashed towards him, and since the peddler had no intention of attacking, Anfey wasn't alarmed. In a moment of confusion, the spoke was pushed into his throat. Anfey grunted in pain, and tears welled in his eyes. Not out of pain, but out of natural reflex; wounds to the mouth and throat always triggered tears.
The peddler froze and cried out in panic. After seeing someone hurt, he was terrified out of his mind. He ditched his cart and dashed into the alley.
Unfortunately, the police car stopped, but the truck did not. It crashed into the cart, which was sent flying into Anfey's face. He was holding onto the spoke, trying to remove it from his throat. His eyes were blurry with tears, and then it went completely dark.
When the cart flipped over on the ground, Anfey was slumping as well. The spoke was pushed in so deep it came out under his hairline on the back of his head. To a normal man, such a wound would be fatal.
The next day, a headline made it to a newspaper that city police had killed someone, again… Why did they use "again" again…?
Chapter 2: Not a Nice Person
Translator: Nyoi_Bo_Studio Editor: Tennesh
Light-grey clouds moved quickly while the winds blew through them. The ocean lost its beautiful blue hue, and darkness prevailed as the clouds thickened. An isolated island was quietly taking the angry waves slamming onto its shore. The gloomy look lingered around the ocean for miles.
There was a decent sized house at the very center of the island. Yagor, one of the top ten archmages in the Pan Continent, stood in the basement working on his self-invented magic array.
A long incantation was chanted to start the ritual. Various runes suddenly appeared in the air around him and swirled rapidly along the magic array. A pale-looking young man was trembling and shaking inside of the array. He stared at the runes approaching him as if seeing an approaching demon, his eyes filled with desperation and sadness.
Soon, Yagor finished chanting and tapped the ground with his wand. A cloud of deep darkness materialized, seemingly able to swallow anything close to it, and engulfed the young man.
Yagor took a deep breath, then gathered his power and yelled out the incantation one more time. The light-grey clouds had already turned dark. Silver lightning bolts were lashing out with vicious, destructive attacks. Waves rushed towards the shore. However, the waves seemed to get scared of something, backing out even before reaching the sands in front of the house.
After a while, the anger from the sky and ocean seemed to fade away, the cloud of darkness gradually disappearing into the array. The young man started to emerge, as if the darkness finally let him go.
Yagor gripped the wand tighter with his right hand, took out a scroll-like amulet, and stared at the young man, unblinking. He would throw out the scroll instantly if anything went wrong.
Yagor, one of the top ten archmages, didn't hesitate to give up his fame and power to live on this isolated island. He practiced his skills, hoping to break through the bottleneck of his career. Yagor was over fifty years old, but he was still unwilling to give up the power, wealth and beautiful women. He could only set them aside temporarily because he believed he was nobody without his achievements in magic. He would be the leader in the mages' world of the Pan Continent if he could break through this bottleneck. His power would double, and his fame triple.
No pain, no gain. Not just the joy he would obtain in the future, even his name would be worshipped well after his death. With this hope, everything—including wealth and fame—could be temporarily set aside. Yagor hoped to be able to understand the myth of death, achieving immortality. The array he set up was a path to the Evil Abyss.
When Yagor saw that the young man wasn't moving, he whispered, "Ajia…" Ajia definitely wasn't the first one to be used for these kinds of experiments. There were hundreds of young men buried in the backyard, the products of failed experiments. Yagor's fame could undoubtedly attract some young men with dreams of wanting to learn magic from him. Even if he couldn't get enough young men to come voluntarily, he could still purchase slaves to do the job.
For the past seven years, hundreds of experiments were conducted, but they all failed. However, Yagor was a man with great willpower, and he understood that there were no true geniuses in the world. The achievements he had now were because of his persistence and hard work. He endured unbearable pain and worked extra hard to gain his fame.
Yagor was initially a fire archmage. He started to learn dark magic only a few years ago, and he also had some understandings of space magic. He learned that there was a limit to the space he lived in. When another alien power came entered his space, it would be constrained. But when the alien power was strong enough to break through the space, it would cause the entire space to crash. Therefore, no matter how determined he was to do something, Yagor could not utilize all of his power, as the scroll in his hand would limit his power in the affected area. Unfortunately, there were only three scrolls left. One scroll had been used by Master Richard to capture the orc leader, Ahdibaijan. The battle of the God of Law and the Sword Master against Demon Harold had become a legend. Scrolls couldn't be made by anyone anymore. If nothing sudden occurred and his life was not threatened, Yagor would never ever use this scroll.
"Ajia…" Yagor called again. The young man named Ajia slowly opened his eyes, clearly confused. He turned to Yagor and said with great sadness, "Master…"
"Are you all right?" Yagor asked. He was upset with another failure, but he was intrigued as well. Ajia was the very first one that could talk after an experiment. All the other human subjects from his previous failures could not talk at all. They all lost consciousness during the experiments. His array first extracted the human subject's spirit, to allow an evil spirit to enter their bodies. Was there anything wrong with the array? Yagor checked the array with his power. Everything seemed fine, which made Yagor even more curious.
"I am fine." Ajia touched his own body. "Master, what happened? Anything abnormal?"
"No, as long as you are okay." Yagor smiled affably. "What did you see? Did you feel anything?" He focused on Ajia and scanned him all over, finding that Ajia was a lot weaker. Yagor eliminated the possibility that the evil spirit had entered Ajia's body. Even though evil spirits were powerful, they were merely stupid, furious creatures, only knowing how to angrily rage at their surroundings. They were not capable of using strategy. Moreover, due to the experiment, the human subject's body would get many times stronger. In the last experiment, the human subject couldn't take much of the evil spirit's power and collapsed. With how weak Ajia was right now, there was clearly no trace of the evil spirit in his body.
"I felt I was flying in a dark tunnel, flying, flying… I couldn't see any light. Then I heard you calling me, and then I was awake," Ajia murmured.
It seemed something was wrong with the array, Yagor thought.
"Master, what time is it now? It should be time to make your dinner," Ajia said, but he could barely stand up.
"Don't worry about it, it's still early. Go and take a rest." Yagor was somewhat touched. Among the young men he had used his tricks on to bring to the island, Ajia was the most caring. The leaders in Tumen Commercial Union had been alerted because so many young men went missing, and it would take Yagor a long time to retrieve test subjects from the Maho Empire. Otherwise, Yagor wouldn't have had Ajia go through these experiments.
"No, Master, you should go and have a rest," Ajia said firmly. "In order to make me become a mage, you are using your power to build this array to rebuild my body, I… In my mind… How can I be your student if I cannot even take care of you, Master?"
"Rebuild the body" was an excuse Yagor used to make those young men voluntarily undergo experiments. When Yagor heard what Ajia said, he was not touched, but rather satisfied. He nodded and smiled. "Ok, I do feel tired, however… Ajia, you should rest a little bit first and prepare dinner later. Don't forget to take the wine out of the cellar. You can have some wine to relax."
"Yes, Master." Aja bowed respectfully.
Yagor smiled at Ajia, then he turned around and walked out of the basement. He did not notice the coldness and hatred in Ajia's eyes.
Yagor believed that the evil spirits were just furious creatures without brains. In fact, Yagor was one of them. This was a common phenomenon among living creatures, when the powerful ruled the world. They liked to simply use their power to battle. There was a tremendous power difference between Yagor and the young men undergoing the experiments. Even if all the young men united, Yagor could easily kill them. Because there was no need for Yagor to set up any traps, his excuses and attitudes had many flaws.
Whether or not the other human subjects could see through Yagor was unknown, but Ajia could. Otherwise, he would not have been so sad and desperate after seeing the array start.
For the past few months, Ajia was trying to escape the island. He wanted to tell the world the truth. He wanted to take revenge on Yagor for those young men who died in the experiments.
But Ajia was a smart kid. He knew that flying over miles of ocean would be nothing to Yagor, who could easily use his medium-level power to do it. However, it would be very, very difficult for Ajia.
Ajia had been waiting for an opportunity to escape, but that opportunity did not come; instead, the time for the experiment arrived. Ajia understood well that reality did not permit him to fight back, so he bet everything on an evil spirit helping him take revenge on Yagor. He was willing to pay for the deal with the evil spirit with everything he owned. Of course, what Ajia did not know was that, after the array started, his spirit would be extracted to make room for the agent of the Evil Abyss. His hope was doomed from the start.
Ajia dragged himself back to the room and fell into the bed with great exhaustion. In fact, Yagor's experiment was already a success, and a huge success at that.
To be more accurate, Ajia should not be called "Ajia" anymore, instead he should be called "Anfey"!
Anfey used to blame God for treating him unfairly. He never ever did anything to hurt anyone. All the people he killed deserved death sentences for the sins they had committed. How come he got killed by a spike and fell into the Evil Abyss? However, the Evil Abyss had turned into a promised land for him, after a while. There were several rulers in the Evil Abyss, and Anfey learned to kiss their asses. He used strategies to make them feel as if he was only loyal to them, despite being a spy to another. Unforeseeably, after he'd grown accustomed to the Evil Abyss, a strange suction pulled him out and returned him to the earthly world.
Was there really a God? Maybe he was afraid of Anfey breaking the messy-but-organized balance of the Evil Abyss? Anfey pondered these questions with his eyes closed. The rules of survival in the Evil Abyss were really simple. The first was self-protection. The second was to become stronger and stronger! Anfey had made it his goal to become stronger than any of the rulers in the Evil Abyss. It was not impossible to think he could control the whole Evil Abyss one day, since it was a place where everything would fall into the hands of the most powerful.
Never mind… There was no point thinking about matters of the past. For now, he'd better think about himself. Anfey opened his eyes. The coldness and hatred appeared again. He had absorbed a fraction of Ajia's spirit and, through it, learned of this world and Yagor.
Anfey had a strong learning ability. In the Evil Abyss he was like a sponge, absorbing all the knowledge he'd never had a chance to learn, and thus receiving all kinds of information about different aspects of the world.
As the saying goes: "take things as they come." First, he had to kill Yagor, who definitely had some evil plans. Otherwise, it was unknown whether Anfey's spirit would survive sitting in the array again. Yagor thought Anfey's spirit could be used as an agent to another world with strong power, but this might allow countless evil spirits to come down to earth. For the people on the earth, he had to kill Yagor. Anfey had always been putting himself on a higher moral ground to convince himself that a person deserved to be killed. This was Anfey's thought process before he planned to kill anyone.
What was bothering him now was his weak body. He had to be daydreaming if he thought he could kill Yagor with this weak body; it was much more likely that he would be killed instead.
Another matter bothering him was that he was very likely to give the game away, since he had only absorbed fractions of Ajia's spirit, and thus only understood some of Ajia and Yagor's habits. He had to kill Yagor fast; it was best done within three days.
There was a crystal formed at the time he accumulated his power in the Evil Abyss. It was just like the crystals in the warriors. The difference was that the warriors knew how to use these crystals, but Anfey didn't. The reason he couldn't use it was unclear, but he had no time to ponder this. He needed to kill Yagor in a very simple fashion.
Finding the simplest approach to killing a master archmage with his weak body, and it needed to be done fast… "F*ck!" he blurted out.
To be a master archmage, it meant that one could use his low-level power within one to two seconds, and medium-level power within two to ten seconds. High-level power was not even something Anfey could comprehend. Even though Yagor was merely a stupid pig, he wouldn't waste his time chanting for several seconds to use high-level power when someone was going to kill him. Everyone knew that it would not be a quick battle.
As a successful assassin, Anfey liked to systematically plan his time in detail. No matter how well he could plan, the odds he could kill Yagor were slim. Anfey continued to search the fractions of Ajia's spirit for any possible weaknesses Yagor might have.
Chapter 3: A Fatal Recall
Translator: Nyoi_Bo_Studio Editor: Tennesh
Early in the morning, Yagor awoke from meditation. He stretched his body, put on his magic robe, and walked to the window. He muttered a few incantations and the numerous flashing, star-like spots that were floating about the room immediately disappeared. An archmage would be quite vulnerable when entering a meditative state, and any ordinary man had the capacity to kill him. Yagor had always been a lone wolf; even though he was one of the ten greatest archmages, he rarely interacted with his counterparts and had no family or friends. In order to better protect himself, he carefully set up a few tricks and traps on this small island, even though it was unlikely for others to hurt a person with as much magic power as Yagor. What was more worthy of his attention than his own life?
Yagor opened the window and immediately felt the sun's warmth; his cold heart started warming up. "What a nice day today," he muttered to himself.
This warm feeling vanished when yesterday's failed experiment came to mind. He decided to give it another try, since he still had enough magic power.
Through the darkness along the hallway, Yagor stepped down the stairs and rushed into the basement. All of a sudden, he was alerted by a slight noise from the storage room, where only essential everyday items were stored; his precious things were already hidden in his spatial ring. Mice? Thieves? Yagor shook his head, frowning, and thought, "The traps and tricks are everywhere both inside and outside this house. Forget about mice and thieves, only a powerful archmage like me could get in."
Yagor used his levitation magic to fly to the front door of the storage room and peek through a crack in the door. To his relief, it was Ajia. Yagor pushed open the door and asked, "Ajia, what are you doing here?"
To his surprise, Ajia turned around and said to him, "Master, you got up early today."
"You are…" Before he finished his sentence, Yagor had already figured it out. This room was once full of dust as no one had entered it for almost half a year, but now it was clean and organized. Holding a cleaning rag with dirty, dark water by his feet, Yagor knew that Ajia was cleaning for him.
"Master, your breakfast was ready. I had nothing else to do after cooking breakfast, so I came here trying to make things a little more organized." Ajia said.
"Ah, diligent boy," Yagor said to Ajia, and was moved by him once more. Maybe… He should keep Ajia around and go to Maho Empire to look for substitutes, so Ajia could help more here.
"Ha ha. Thank you, Master. It's my responsibility to take good care of you." Ajia blushed and scratched his head.
"I'm going to eat my meal, then. You can eat some after you finish here. You are still growing, so don't be too harsh on yourself. And…" Yagor paused a little bit and continued, "You can start learning magic from now on." Yagor thought it would be a good idea to have an apprentice like Ajia. Someone who not only looked after him, but could also possibly be his helpful assistant, after he was taught some tricks. Not every trick, of course. This way, if Ajia misbehaved in the future, it would not be too hard to destroy him.
"Master, really?" Ajia went wild with joy, "I really can start learning magic from now on?"
Yagor nodded. Killing could bring fulfillment, as could breaking through one's limits, but helping weaker people could sometimes do so too.
"Thank you, Master!" Ajia bowed to his mentor. Right at that moment, Ajia's back touched a portrait in a crystal frame, which promptly fell to the ground. With a crash, the portrait broke into pieces.
"You idiot!" Yagor didn't want to scold Ajia until he saw what was broken on the ground.
"Bastard!" Yagor shouted at him, and whips made of lightning fell heavily on Ajia's hands, arms, and entire body. The lightning whips, consisting of numerous electrical sparks, fell onto Ajia's body like raindrops. He crawled, twisted, and frothed due to the unbearable pain. It almost made him faint.
Yagor stood up and lifted his arm holding the long whip. Again the lightning whips hit Ajia, but this time he passed out.
Yagor breathed heavily. He'd still shown mercy to Ajia, otherwise Ajia could have easily been killed by a small fireball from Yagor.
Yagor gradually pulled himself back together. Anger faded away and sadness crept onto his face. His stooped shoulders looked even lonelier in his shadow.
Yagor squatted down and very carefully picked up the portrait from the crystal pieces. He stared at the woman with long red hair in the portrait. She wore a light-green leather vest and held a shining longsword. With tightly closed lips, and big eyes full of energy and determination, she looked very cute; one might even say beautiful. Yagor's heart sunk and hurt whenever he thought of her and the life spent with her.
He slowly approached the door holding the portrait, tears dropping to the ground.
"Yagor, you can, I believe in you! You will be the greatest archmage ever!"
"Yagor, buy it, only 3 coins! Not a big deal! You can't fully release your potential without a good wand."
"Yagor, how stupid you were! I was lying to you. I really don't like the leather vest. It won't look good on me. We should buy the magic wand instead. It suits you."
"Yagor, can't you stay with me? The only thing I want is to be with you! Though we will be paid well for completing the task of finding the Flash Leopard Crystal, it will be too dangerous. Let's give it up, ok? Please!"
"Go. Go! I'm a warrior. I will be more likely to survive than you! Hurry up!"
BAM! Yagor's head hit a pillar. It finally brought him back to reality from those beautiful memories. He covered his face with his hands, but he couldn't stop his tears from pouring out. Although he was a master archmage, he couldn't stop sobbing like a woman.
The cherished and precious time spent with this woman always meant a lot to him. One was a genius archmage and the other was a strong warrior. One was always ready to sacrifice for the other. A perfect couple! The man wanted to buy a magic vest for the woman. On the other hand, the woman wanted to buy a magic wand for the man. In the end, the man chose the wand because the special wand could improve both of their powers and unleash more of their potential. But he knew, from the bottom of his heart, that she was really obsessed with the leather vest. This was the exact reason that he undertook the dangerous task: in order to earn the money to buy her the vest, so that he could bring back her beautiful smile.
The damn leopards! They planned to kill just one, but they ended up fighting against seven. At the most dangerous moment, she stood up, protecting him from the group of leopards and buying him some time to escape. She, however, ended up dying. Her gorgeous body was torn to pieces by the merciless wild leopards.
When Yagor finally led the troops to rescue her, it was too late. At that time, everything—including their happiness, their dreams, and their future—was ruined. His heart was shattered. Losing happiness was easy. It was hard to obtain happiness, and it would be even harder to get it back once it was lost.
Since then, he shut himself away, rarely making any friends. He stopped loving any women. No matter how beautiful they were, they were just tools to him. Instead, he concentrated on improving his magic power, which finally made him the youngest master archmage on this continent. But at the same time, he became a stranger and a loner that no one wanted to be with.
Yagor had earned the nickname "Flash Leopard Killer." Before he became a master archmage, he liked to go to different places to hunt and kill flash leopards for revenge, but he left the other beasts alone. Other warrior groups learned of his story and his actions. They followed him and collected the crystals after he killed the flash leopards.
This continued until recently, when Yagor got lucky and found a diary from a dark archmage. He finally got back on his feet again. He wanted to learn as much as he could from the dark magic and explore the mystery of death. He was eager to create a new Lisa, his lady, just like God creating the whole world.
By watching the portrait drop to the ground and the crystal frame break into pieces, Yagor was once more brought back to those old memories that made him deeply sad and broken-hearted. His feeling of hatred was so overwhelming, he decided to reset his magic array and use Ajia to test it again. He was glad that he didn't kill Ajia just now. He still needed to use him for the experiment. He had confidence that, sooner or later, he would bring back his Lisa.
Yagor held the portrait and walked like a zombie. Suddenly, he smelled an aroma coming from the cellar: the aroma of wine. He paused and then turned around, walking towards the wine cellar. He wanted to get a glass of wine, hoping the wine would help him with his anger, sadness, and despair.
He opened the door and noticed that the cellar was clean and organized. Apparently, Ajia did the cleaning the other day. Unfortunately, right now none of Ajia's kind acts could touch Yagor's heart.
Yagor walked up to the wine cabinet, where the bottles were lined up neatly. Strong liquors were lined up in the front, while mild wines were in the back. Without caring too much, he grabbed two bottles from the front and started pouring the liquor into his mouth, all the while still staring at the portrait in his hand.
Yagor always regretted allowing Lisa to keep fighting while he tried to escape. It was a normal procedure when a crisis arose; the warriors always needed to try their best to help the mage escape by continuing to fight. But Yagor would never forgive himself for what he had done, for the bad things he had let happen to her. With more and more empty bottles thrown on the ground, Yagor became more and more drunk. He seemed to feel better under the influence of alcohol, but he subconsciously knew that he had to stand up and keep doing what he needed to do, otherwise he would lose his last hope for reviving his Lisa. He slowly tried to get up.
"Get up! Get up, or you will lose this chance!" Anfey tried to command himself, using all his strength to get his body to stand up in the storage room while Yagor was drinking in the wine cellar. He noticed that this body was not strong enough and lacked proper training and exercise. He barely withstood the first round of whips, and the second round of whips made him almost pee in his pants. Anfey thought to himself, "I really need to undergo some tough training if I want to survive. Otherwise, I will not be able to survive in this world." There was always the saying "survival of the fittest." It was like Iraq invading Kuwait because Kuwait was weak. Some blamed Iraq, but others applauded Iraq. Other examples include America's invasion of Iraq, the Uprising of the Five Barbarians, and the Eight-Year Anti-Japanese Invasion. It was always the case that the strong attacked the weak!
Compared with the modern world, the world of evil spirits was much simpler. It was simple enough that everyone, even as a beginner, knew that the only way to survive was to make oneself stronger than others. Otherwise, he would have a hard life, always worrying about his safety. Anfey didn't want to be the weaker one!
Anfey slowly crept towards the door, cold sweat dripping down his head nonstop. He tried to figure out the proper timing.
Anfey didn't sleep at all last night. From the fraction of Ajia's spirit, he learned of the tricks and traps set up by Yagor in this mansion. He was cautious enough not to walk everywhere in the mansion. He only went to rooms that were safe, and the storage room was one of them. In the beginning, he didn't discover any valuable stuff in the room, but he didn't want to give up and start all over again. Finally, he found Yagor's diary in one of the secret boxes.
This was the diary Yagor started writing after losing Lisa. In the spare time between practicing his magic, in order to help him grieve, he pricked his fingers and used his blood as ink to write Lisa's name over and over again. This diary wasn't that important, so Yagor kept it in the stockroom. On the other hand, he always kept the Archmage's Diary with him wherever he went.
Anfey was smart enough to catch this opportunity. He was confident that the woman in the portrait hanging in the storage room was Lisa, the cause of Yagor's suffering. So Anfey made a plan based on all the information he gathered. He would "accidentally" break the crystal frame of the portrait. Beforehand, he rearranged the wine bottles so that the hard liquor bottles were in front. He believed that Yagor would not think to avoid drinking hard liquor, as he would be lost in sadness and despair. In order to seduce Yagor, Anfey purposefully poured a bottle of wine in front of the wine cellar, so that Yagor could easily smell it. Anfey believed the hint of the wine's aroma would be very enticing for someone who was so deeply sad.
At this point, Anfey didn't have enough time or energy to think about whether or not the plan was perfect, he had to give it his all. Even if it cost him his own life, he would happily go back to the Evil Abyss and start over again.
Anfey tried hard to listen to any sounds from the wine cellar. When Yagor walked into the cellar with a very low mood, he forgot to close the door behind him. It gave Anfey a great opportunity.
Yagor was making louder and louder noises. At the beginning, he tried to put the bottles cautiously on the table, hoping not to scare his Lisa. The more he drank, the louder the noises he was making. Then Anfey heard the noise of broken glasses and knew it was time for action.
Taking a deep breath, Anfey stepped down and walked into the wine cellar. He slowly approached Yagor and said, "Master, you drank too much. Let me help you get to bed."
Yagor looked at Anfey with a grimace and ignored him, then drank another big mouthful of wine. An ant was never worthy of a lion's attention. In Yagor's mind, Anfey was just like an ant. His fate was entirely within Yagor's control.
Anfey approached Yagor slowly and cautiously, trying not to make him suspicious. "Master, let me help you get some rest," Anfey said while adjusting Yagor's wrinkled clothes.
"Go away!" Yagor shouted. He was concerned that he would lose his temper and end up killing Anfey. In that case, he would not be able to continue tonight's experiment.
Just at this exact moment, Anfey hit Yagor's throat with his left elbow. The throat was not considered the most vulnerable place in the human's body, but once it was hit, the trachea and esophagus would suffer a short spasm and the cartilage of the throat would lose control. Even being hit with low strength, it could still make people non-responsive for one or two seconds.
Anfey knew how powerful a master archmage was, so his first attack was aimed to hit Yagor's throat, depriving him of the ability to use his magic.
Yagor's head looked up, and his eyes were full of pain. Regardless of the level of his magic, he couldn't change the structure of his body! While Yagor was painfully holding his throat, Anfey did a semi-spin, using his right hand like a knife to forcefully cut straight through the side of Yagor's neck.
Anfey practiced this many times. Usually, such an attack would take 0.4 to 0.6 seconds. But since his body was weak after Yagor's punishment, it might take even longer than one second. In order to win one second of time, Anfey had first tried to attack Yagor's throat with his left elbow.
When the side of Yagor's neck was attacked, his body immediately leaned towards the other side. The result of this attack was more serious than the one he originally took to the throat. One reason was that Anfey used all of his strength, and the other reason was that the attack on the carotid artery would directly decrease the flow of blood to the brain. If the attack was by a professional, it would either cause a coma or up to seven or eight seconds of unresponsiveness. Although Anfey was not strong enough for that, it would still make Yagor turn into an idiot for a few seconds.
Wasting no time, Anfey grabbed a bottle of wine and smashed it down onto Yagor's temple. The bottle shattered, and glass and wine splashed everywhere. Yagor was bleeding heavily from the temple and was knocked out without any struggle.
Anfey suddenly jumped up and forcefully stomped down. He felt something akin to a rubber ball breaking. Yagor immediately passed out without uttering a sound. An archmage's body was relatively weak. If a warrior closed the distance, it would have disastrous consequences. Anfey's evil attacks one after another, even warriors would be unable to handle it. The poor master archmage completely lost the battle without even getting a chance to use his magic.
But to play it safe, Anfey rushed to the door, grabbing a knife hidden underneath the rug, and turned back to Yagor. He didn't dare to bring the knife with him, as Yagor had the ability to scan one's body. If Yagor had found out that he had knife with him, he would've lost this opportunity.
He lifted Yagor, with his half-white and half-black hair, in his left hand. Anfey stabbed through his throat one time, two times, three times. The blood splattered everywhere. It reminded Anfey of killing a chicken. Finally, Anfey walked towards the door, extremely exhausted. He fell down and passed out once more.
Chapter 4: The Aftermath
Translator: Nyoi_Bo_Studio Editor: Tennesh
Anfey regained consciousness after a while, but he stayed still. Any experienced assassin knew that one couldn't move even the tiniest amount before making sure the surroundings were safe. No one would pay attention to a dead person until he moved.
After a few minutes passed noiselessly, Anfey opened his eyes and looked around, but found nothing suspicious. He slowly got up. Yagor was lying in a pool of blood which had already turned dark red. Anfey stared at him for a while, a slight grin crawling up his face. People who deserved hatred also deserved mercy, but Anfey himself was not the kind of person who could give mercy to others. He himself had to become stronger, otherwise he would be the meat on another's plate. He knew very well that he would have been killed if he hadn't grabbed the chance to kill Yagor. Was it morally justified to kill in order to survive? Right or wrong? Let the philosophers handle those questions!
First, he had to rebuild his strength, so he needed food. Lead by the information he obtained from the fraction of Ajia's spirit, Anfey slowly walked into the kitchen. Yagor didn't care what food he ate, instead putting all of his effort towards improving his power and skills. There were some sausages and pieces of bread in a freezing array, which was the perfect place to store them. Ajia knew how to do it, so Anfey knew as well. Like Yagor, Anfey didn't care what food he ate either. In order to restore his energy, he couldn't afford to be picky, so Anfey ate whatever he could put into his mouth.
Once he felt he was almost full, he stopped eating and put the leftovers back in the array. He knew that this was the ideal state to help his body recover quickly.
After resting for a while, Anfey returned to the cellar and searched Yagor's corpse, grabbing everything he could find on the archmage's body. Right now, he didn't care whether he knew their functions or not, as he planned to spend time researching them later. An archmage would not carry anything worthless. Anfey tried to exam Yagor's body carefully, to see if he had left any marks or wounds on Yagor, lest he had to change how he buried the body. Anfey happily found dozens of accessories. By instinct, he immediately knew that these were not just simple accessories, but instead all sorts of magic tools. There were some red fire-like crystals, which must have been Yagor's high-quality fire crystals. The most valuable things Anfey found were two magic books and four diaries. Anfey flipped over a few pages of the books. One was the Fire Series and the other was the Dark Series, with all of Yagor's practice notes. They were so valuable! As an old saying went, books were the spiritual food of mankind. To Anfey, books were also the doors to a new world!
With great effort, Anfey finally moved Yagor's body into a small garden in the backyard. He dug a pit and threw the body into it. It took Anfey some time to cover it with sand and soil. In a short period of time, it would quickly turn into ashes, and the evidence would be permanently erased.
After all of this, Anfey was so exhausted that he couldn't move at all. He didn't sleep the previous night, but had instead used his endurance and persistence to complete a suite of tough tasks. An ordinary person could not have done that.
He laid down in Ajia's bed, quickly falling into a deep sleep by way of a special breathing technique.
After a night of sleep, Anfey was greeted by bright sunshine through the window. It had been fifteen hours since he'd fallen asleep, and all of the pain and tiredness were gone. He took a deep breath and jumped off the bed; lots of tasks were waiting for him.
Anfey stood in the basement, picking up the smallest low-grade fire crystals and throwing them into the array he so despised. In the array, there was a key spot that started it. It could transfer or transport the energy. As Ajia recalled, Yagor always placed the dark crystal in the same spot, which made the array start automatically. Then he would mutter some spells to complete the whole matrix. If the properties of the array and the crystal didn't match, an explosion was inevitable. The explosion made from the water and fire elements were the most dangerous, so Anfey placed the fire crystals into the array on purpose, which would definitely lead to a big explosion. By doing so, Anfey crafted a perfect explanation for Yagor's death.
In order to survive in this world, one needed both personal power and a proper, and legitimate, identity. The identity of Archmage Yagor's apprentice was a good one, but Anfey didn't want to draw too much attention to Yagor's death. When the runes in the array started flashing, Anfey, without any hesitation, rushed upstairs and hurried out of the mansion.
A while passed with nothing happening, but Anfey still sat patiently on the lawn, practicing his breathing. Bang! A loud sound came to his ears as the big explosion finally went off. Anfey stayed outside the house until it was dark, making sure there were no further explosions.
The explosion didn't have enough power to damage the house, but it did destroy all the windows and bottles of wine. Anfey liked to drink once in a while; he regretted forgetting to move the bottles of wine when he moved the accessories. What a waste of so much delicious wine! It seemed like he wouldn't be able to drink for a while.
Half the entrance to the basement had collapsed. It took Anfey a while to knock down the leftover wobbly rocks with a stick. He crawled down the entrance with half of his body, but all he could see was heavy smoke.
It was finally over. Anfey got up and fell deep into thought. The reason for Yagor's death appeared obvious. He decided to build a nice grave for Yagor later, and then this chapter would be over. No one would suspect him.
What he needed to do next was wait for someone to come to the island to visit Yagor, so that they could serve as a witness. If he went out now claiming his identity as Yagor's apprentice, nobody would believe him.
Anfey didn't want to waste any time. While waiting for guests, he decided to spend his days practicing. After another day of rest, he adopted a regular schedule in order to gain more strength. In the morning, he ran around the island ten times, then did push-ups, sit-ups, jump ropes and pull-ups. After breakfast, he sat down and studied Yagor's books. To be honest, Anfey was more interested in fighting techniques than in magic powers. Unfortunately, nobody here would teach him how to fight. In order to gain more power, he had to learn some magic spells. After lunch, he practiced the boxing techniques he inherited from his previous life's family. At the end, he would meditate. He would also spare a few hours to go fishing, as the food in the freezing array would not last long. He also used the opportunity to practice fencing and breathing technique.
Anfey's family used to practice fencing with longswords, but nowadays fewer and fewer people were interested in practicing. For Anfey, though, fencing was the best way to train his eyes and unleash his potential. Holding his breath was another skill he valued a lot. Scientifically, the respiratory system didn't just refer to the mouth and nose. Humans used the skin to breath, too. If some golden powder was applied to the skin, one could be choked to death even though one could breathe through their mouth and nose. So, in a sense, holding one's breath was a survival skill. Embryonic breathing was the highest level of breathing practice. Anfey could hold his breath for ten minutes in the other world, but only one minute in this world. He had to start from scratch.
After dinner, Anfey started walking around the island and searching for herbal medicine. Martial arts could strengthen the body, but they couldn't fill the body. Anfey's ancestors practiced traditional Chinese medicine, or TCM, for generations. But in his generation, TCM was practiced less and less. He couldn't live a good life working as a TCM practitioner, so he decided to become an assassin instead.
Anfey never thought he would find Chinese medicine on this island. Surprisingly, he found some peonies. He didn't think they were peonies at the beginning, because they mostly grew inland, rather than by the ocean. Anfey was pleased to find such herbs on this island, as it meant that he might find other types of Chinese medicine. If necessary for survival, he could start practicing traditional Chinese medicine again.
Day after day, Anfey lived his life without knowing what awaited him.
Chapter 5: Uninvited guest
Translator: Nyoi_Bo_Studio Editor: Tennesh
Anfey drew more than seven hundred lines on the walls of the mansion. His physical capability finally reached its best condition yet. Every line represented one day. There wasn't a clock on the island, so he could only use this most primitive way to record the passing of time. More than two years had passed, and Anfey had lost patience several times, trying to cross the strait to find someone to talk to and ease his loneliness. But each time, after swimming about ten miles, he gave up and returned to the island. The one who was not able to endure loneliness could not win big! Rather than going out now, it was better to continue waiting, because the outside world was unpredictable!
Anfey's training method was systematic. Since the original owner of his body was too weak and cowardly, the progress was slow. The first step of combat training was improving his eyes and movement. More accurately, it was to control the instinct to blink. When an object flew towards a person's head, ordinary people would involuntarily blink to avoid their eyes being damaged. This was the main difference between ordinary people and people who had undergone training. When boxing, no matter how heavy the blow was, and no matter what part of the body was hit, the boxers would not blink. Those who didn't train for it couldn't do it.
It seemed like eye blinking was irrelevant, but it was actually the most important step! For example, if someone standing three meters in front of you was ready to hit you with a brick, it wouldn't take more than 0.5 seconds to reach your body. Blinking would normally take 0.2 to 0.5 seconds. For ordinary people, it could take even longer than a second to blink, such as if they were afraid. If the eyes weren't fully opened after blinking, they would already be hit without any time to react. The boxer would observe the attacker from beginning to end, and 0.5 seconds was enough time for his brain and nerves to respond.
Anfey vividly remembered when he first began his training on controlling his blinking. He was hit hard during a snowball fight with his peers. The next day he spent half of the night completing the entire training regimen, followed by more practice to reinforce the results. Three days later, he had another snowball fight with his peers, but this time he could easily deal with more than a dozen peers. He won the game by using only his natural human reactions to avoid being hit by the snowballs, instead of using his superior physical strength. That day, he was crowned as the Snowball Prince. The fun experience made Anfey more and more interested in combat training. Since that time, he had trained for more than ten years.
In the Evil Abyss, it took Anfey only a few days to complete the eye training. However, due to the weakness of his current body, it took him half a month to finish it here. The other trainings were progressing slowly as well. It took Anfey two full years to complete all of his training goals.
Although Anfey had Yagor's diary, the mage's training was also very difficult. The diary could be very valuable to top archmages, as it held a lot of Yagor's thoughts and experiences, but Anfey felt it was temporarily useless when it came to learning spells. Anfey needed to heavily rely on himself to explore magic.
But Anfey was pretty talented. After practicing by himself for two years, he could finally release a small fireball, although he didn't know how to do any other spells yet. Normally, it would be shameful for an apprentice to take two years to only learn how to release a small fireball, but Anfey was satisfied because it was very handy. No need for a flashlight when exploring in the dark, no need to prepare firewood in winter, and no need for a stove to bake sweet potatoes… How great it was!
The majority of magic apprentices thought that releasing small fireballs was an offensive skill, but Anfey transformed it to handle his daily needs. Sometimes he ran holding a small fireball during his morning exercise, looking like an Olympic torch relay.
Although the transformation was pretty good, Anfey's magic power was never enough. Anfey had to extend his mediation time in order to gain more power. Fortunately, he had enough endurance, as he regularly practiced holding his breath as a child.
One day, Anfey was practicing his breathing while sitting on a rock alongside the ocean. He felt that he had made rapid progress in his breathing, perhaps because of his hours and hours of training. Within two years, he had already transformed this weak body into one that was much stronger than what he'd had in the Evil Abyss.
In October, the sea breeze had brought a little chill, but a person who was good at breathing techniques could easily handle winter chill and summer heat. Anfey enjoyed sitting barechested in the sea breeze.
Suddenly, he felt something approaching him. He took a deep breath, counting up to twelve and then slowly down to one. Opening his eyes, he saw two small black spots appeared on the ocean.
Someone was coming! Anfey was not just surprised, but also delighted. This was a fantasy world with mysterious tricks, magical vindictiveness, various branches of magic, and even dragons. He didn't know how well he could survive in such a world, but either way, since the opportunity had emerged, he couldn't find any excuses to escape from it!
Anfey jumped off the rock, rushing to the mansion. As an assassin, his thoughts were much more complicated than those of an ordinary person. For an ordinary person, he would most likely stay in one place waiting for the vessel, but Anfey thought totally differently. Visitors could be divided into two types. One type of person came to visit Yagor or the island. The other type was coming to take revenge on Yagor, or perhaps they were evil pirates. Anfey didn't want to test his luck, so he was well prepared!
Rushing into the mansion, Anfey grabbed a bag and rapidly ran to the woods in the back of the mansion, where he had dug a deep pit a year and a half ago. Without thinking too much, Anfey immediately threw the bag into the pit and pushed a rock from the edge into the pit. He then used his feet to sweep all the sand and soil on the side into the pit, after which he spent a few more minutes doing some final touches. He didn't want anyone to find anything unusual here.
The bag was filled with Yagor's diary, magic books, and a lot of magic tools which Anfey couldn't understand. Anfey had already hidden some larger tools in other places. Even if someone was Yagor's old friend, when they found out that Yagor had died, leaving behind his most valuable diaries and magic books, they might try to steal them.
Of course, Anfey was smart enough to leave behind some props in the mansion. As Yagor was a top archmage, if nothing was left, it would make people suspicious.
Anfey did not touch the gold and silver artifacts in the mansion, which were prepared for any bad guys. The money was insignificant compared to his life. If the visitor was a robber, he could give out money in order to protect himself. Anfey was willing to surrender all the visible treasures, plus some hidden gold coins. Hopefully the robber was kind enough to let him go. However, if he was unfortunate enough to meet some really cruel guys utterly lacking in humanity, then he would fight without any hesitation!
Back at the mansion, Anfey put on his self-made mage robe. He had made some alterations to Yagor's robe. No matter what level a mage was at, their robes would all follow similar styles, just like a soldier's armor followed a particular style, unless they were made of special materials. The only difference was that the top archmage's robe was inlaid with golden lining, the middle level's was inlaid with silver lining, and the beginner level's was inlaid with silk lining. An apprentice was not even qualified to wear any mage robes. It was rare that someone would fake wearing the wrong level robe. If someone did that in order to draw attention, he could lose his reputation or even be killed by the Mage Union, if discovered.
Anfey removed the golden lining without putting silk lining in the robe, so that others couldn't guess his level. Another purpose for him to deliberately wear the robe was to hide his power to confuse others! When speaking of magic spells, Anfey was only able to release a small fireball, but he had confidence in fighting with his physical strength. If others saw him in the mage's robe and tried to use a mage's way of fighting against him, he would definitely take advantage by using his own strength!
Anfey readjusted his robe. He slowly walked out of the mansion and towards the beach. There was a warm and sincere smile on his face. The pace of his walking was unhurried, firm and confident. Sometimes, dealing with humans was like dealing with dogs. If one approached the dog with confidence, the dog would not dare to act recklessly. On the other hand, if one showed fear, or wanted to escape, the dog would bark, or even bite one's feet.
The ship getting closer and closer, Anfey was able to see the appearance of the sailors on board. Two figures from the ship flew up. The difference was, one flow above Anfey like a ray of smoke and landed slowly, while the other one drew a nice parabola in the air and landed on the beach, splashing some sand and gravel.
Anfey felt shocked that one was a mage, using middle-level levitation magic. The magic could make people fly in the air, moving up and down, or even turning around, but they couldn't fly freely. This mage could fly freely like a bird. He had reached at least the middle level, based on Anfey's evaluation! The warrior did not use all his power, instead depending solely on the force of his leap to achieve the same effect as the levitation magic, without splashing too much sand and gravel when landing. That completely violated the rules of gravity as Anfey knew them. It seemed that the warrior's level was not low either!
Despite being shocked, Anfey still had a warm smile on his face. "My honored masters, how are you?" While talking, Anfey observed the two's appearances carefully. The mage was in his fifties with two slightly-drooping longevity eyebrows and light-blue eyes as deep as the ocean. His high-bridged nose and light-blond hair made him a little bit charming. The warrior was more than forty years old, looking very ordinary. He was very tall, eyes brown and filled with calmness, as if he didn't care about anything.
"My little boy, how are you?" the mage smiled and asked. "Does Archmage Yagor live here? "
"You are...?" Anfey neither confirmed nor denied the question.
"My little boy, please tell Archmage Yagor, just say... His old friend came to visit him," the warrior continued.
"My name is Saul, and his name is Ernest. Just tell Archmage Yagor our names, he will know who has come." The mage laughed.
Anfey looked Saul up and down, feeling a little bit confused. To his knowledge, a mage's robe should have some signs representing his level. Anfey's robe was made specifically to confuse others. He couldn't believe that the mage in front of him was wearing a nice, clean robe without lining, just like him. Anfey couldn't figure out the mage's identity and level of power.
It was normal that Anfey couldn't figure it out, because he hadn't reached that level of understanding yet. A newly rich person always liked to show off by dressing up in a lot of jewelry, while a truly wealthy man never needed to prove himself with those things. The same theory applied to the world of mages. A lower level mage might like to use the robe with linings to win the respects from others, but the top ones didn't even bother to have any linings on their robes, since they had real high-level power and strength.
It was Anfey's mistake to judge others based on Yagor's habits and behaviors. Because Yagor was a unique individual, he put all of his time and energy into studying magic. He had such a casual life, not even caring about what he wore. All the clothes were given to him by the Mage's Union. The golden lining of the robe was so shiny…
"Please follow me, dearest guests," Anfey turned aside and said with a smile.
"Don't you need to notify Archmage Yagor first? As I know, he doesn't like being bothered by people. He will blame you if we do that," Saul said to Anfey with wonder.
"Oh…" Anfey sighed with the right volume. He knew that sighing too loud would be too fake, but sighing too weakly would be hard to hear. "Archmage Yagor will not blame me."
"OK." Saul smiled and walked behind with Anfey. Ernest then hurried and caught up with them. He seemed very calm, but was still cautiously observing the surroundings.
Chapter 6: Loyalty
Translator: Nyoi_Bo_Studio Editor: Tennesh
Standing in front of Yagor's tombstone, Saul and Ernest looked a little dazed. Anfey was taking advantage of this rare opportunity to carefully examine their expressions, secretly guessing at their thoughts.
Ernest's face had little expression. He just sighed and seemed to relax. Compared to Ernest, Saul had initially looked surprised, followed by a look of sadness, and finally a look of doubt. Saul slowly stretched out his hand, hovering in the air for a long, silent moment. Finally, he said, "I can feel the fire element radiating from here… It really is Yagor that is sleeping here."
"Archmage Saul, did you think I was lying?" Anfey looked surprised. In his words hid a trap. If Saul acknowledged his title of archmage, it would prove he was of high status, equal to Yagor. But if Saul looked unnatural or did not take the name, he would not quite yet be on the same level as Yagor.
"I'm sorry, little friend. This situation is very critical, so every step must be taken cautiously," said Saul. After a moment, he said, "I have not asked for your name yet, little friend."
"My name is Anfey." His heart shook a little. Was this man named Saul also an archmage? Hiding his excitement, Anfey calmly asked, "Excuse me, may I ask where you are from, Archmage Saul?"
"I am from the Maho Empire, where I am a court archmage. Ernest is my old friend." Saul replied. "Anfey, tell me, how exactly did Archmage Yagor die?"
"Archmage Yagor was conducting a magic experiment when he suffered an accident. The injury was very severe. After two days, he passed away." Anfey started liking Saul as a person. Saul, as a high ranking archmage, calmly spoke to him without a trace of arrogance or impatience. He was surely a well-educated, reserved man.
"Could a great archmage like him suffer an accident like that?" Saul asked himself incredulously. He turned to Anfey with another question. "Are you Archmage Yagor's apprentice?"
"Yes, Archmage Saul," Anfey replied. "Since Archmage Yagor started living in seclusion, he no longer studied fire magic. Instead, he tried to find a breakthrough in other areas. Who knew that an accident would occur?"
"What magic was Yagor studying?" Saul stared at Anfey. From the corner of his eyes, Anfey could see that Ernest and Saul's faces had become even more solemn. Anfey knew that this subject was of great importance to the two. He deliberately hesitated for a moment.
"Um…"
"You do not need to tell us if you do not wish to." Saul smiled and said, "This is Yagor's secret, and if you want to keep this secret, I will not force you."
"Thank you for your understanding, Archmage Saul." Anfey gave a secret sigh of relief.
"But... I have one thing I want to ask; hopefully it doesn't hurt your feelings." Saul looked up at the sky but kept an eye on Anfey.
"You can ask me anything, Archmage Saul." replied Anfey.
"You are Yagor's apprentice, but... I couldn't find a trace of sadness on your face while we were talking about this sad topic, which I don't understand," Saul said cautiously.
"Archmage Saul, you aren't aware, but Archmage Yagor died in peace. He said that this accident had let him find a piece of himself he had lost. I am not sad, but rather happy for him." After Anfey had answered Saul's question, he gave another sigh of relief. In fact, Anfey had thought about how to explain the death of Yagor for a long time. If he acted too sad and grief-stricken, people would start to suspect him. He had to evaluate how to act, and how much others would believe him.
From another point of view, people with ulterior motives, in order to not raise suspicion in others, would deliberately act in a grief-stricken way. Instead, Anfey had acted in the opposite way, leading others to a wrong conclusion.
After listening to Saul's question, Anfey knew that Saul was not a suspicious man. If he had been in Saul's place, Anfey would have waited to take fatal action after acquiring enough evidence, instead of asking a question as soon as it rose up. Of course, there was the possibility of another factor, which was the power difference between the two parties. Saul clearly did not want to antagonize such a small figure as Anfey.
"Oh, even facing death, Yagor was still peaceful?" Saul's attention was readily attracted to another facet of this matter, just as Anfey had intended.
"Yes, Archmage Yagor passed away with a smile on his face."
"I am getting more and more curious. Can tell me why?"
"This..." Anfey slightly sighed. "I'm sorry, I cannot tell you why."
"In the past few years, Yagor has been practicing dark magic!" Ernest suddenly inserted a sentence. His blade-like eyes were staring at Anfey's face, making Anfey feel uncomfortable.
"What's that?" Anfey asked, frightened. "No, no, no... You make no sense!"
"In these graves, there are young men buried because of Yagor's failed experiments, right!" Ernest stretched out his hand, pointing forward. Not far from the tombstone of Yagor, there were many graves. Anfei intentionally dug out the bones of those juveniles and re-buried them. He was concerned that some careless people would not notice this, so he purposefully built these graves less than 100 meters apart from each other.
"..." Anfei kept silent, cold sweat dripping down his head. In this scenario, others would think he was scared.
"Despicable Yagor, what a lost soul! If—"
"Shut up!" Anfey interrupted Ernest. He began to remember the pieces from Yagor's Diary. Yagor recorded his concerns and anxiety from lacking experimental subjects, and the responses from Tumen Commercial Union and Maho Empire. Yagor also emphasized that the court archmage of the Maho Empire took a lot of apprentices out travelling without returning shortly after. Anfei could feel Yagor's anger and hatred for the court archmage. Yagor always thought about leaving the island and looking for another place to hide. If he was right, then Saul should be the court archmage Yagor mentioned in his diary. He finally came back to find Yagor with an assistant!
"Whom do you want to shut up?" Ernest gave Anfey an extremely cold, serious look. Although he didn't move his body at all, his powerful charisma, like a lion ready to pounce, made others frightened.
"Yes! Archmage Yagor did some bad things in order to break through the bottleneck in his magic, but… but he finally came to realize the truth! Who has never been confused? Who has never done wrong? Archmage Yagor is gone, and gone forever. How could you still blame the deceased?!" Anfey's eyes brimmed with tears. "Please leave now. You are not welcome here!!" Ernest's threat confirmed Anfey's judgement. If there were two sides to this matter, Saul and Ernest were undoubtedly the ones on the side of justice. Such a person would not kill anyone for no reason, not to mention that the body Anfey was in now was that of a teenager!
Ernest walked towards Anfey without any facial expression. "I want to dig out the body of Yagor and hang it on the gallows. I want him to be treated with contempt by the public!"
"No!" Anfey opened his arms, trying to block Ernest.
"Oh, go away!" Ernest roared, hitting Anfey with a backhand swing of his sword.
Anfey proudly blocked Yagor's tombstone, looking at the soon approaching sword, motionless. His eyes showed stubbornness, but also despair. In fact, Ernest's actions were not fast, and Anfey could have easily escaped. However, now was the time to gamble, so he had to stick with it.
"Don't freak out the kid..." Saul started talking.
Ernest recovered his sword quickly, as if nothing had happened, with his eyes full of curiosity. His frightening power also disappeared.
Anfey staggered a few steps, slightly out of breath, which proved that he used all of his strength to block the sword.
"Are you really Yagor's apprentice?" asked Saul in a milder tone.
"Yes!"
"Why did you not discourage Yagor when he practiced dark magic?"
"I..." Anfey paused, his eyes looking at the cemetery in the distance and a bitter smile on his face. A knowledgeable archmage would not easily believe in what others said to them, but preferred to find their own answers. Anfey used the right body language to lure him into finding the answer. This conclusion would be the most convincing, because people could doubt others, but would not doubt themselves!
"Were you kidnapped by Yagor too?" Saul laughed.
"You... How did you know?" Anfey looked at Saul with shock.
"Hehe... When did you become his apprentice?"
"Right before Archmage Yagor died." Anfey lowered his head.
"Was it after the accident?"
"Yes."
"At that time how many people were left on the island?"
"Only Ajia and I... Ajia went with Archmage Yagor to do the experiment that day."
"Ajia? If that day Archmage Yagor took you to do the experiment, it would be Ajia talking to me now, right?" Saul laughed.
"Yes."
"You are a poor but lucky child." Saul sighed.
"Yagor is dead, so who taught you magic? I could feel the fire in your body fluctuating. Have you been self-studying? Did Yagor leave anything to you?" In the end, he was the court archmage. He couldn't say three sentences without talking about magic.
"Archmage Yagor gave me a book, and I have been studying it."
"Can I take a look at the book?"
"Sure." Anfey took the fire magic book out of his chest naturally, handing it to Saul. But he took it back when Saul reached out to him. "Archmage Saul, you... Archmage Yagor has died. I hope you can forgive him for what he has done, to preserve his reputation and integrity?
"No worries, we will not go after the deceased. What has passed is in the past," Saul said with a smile.
"Ah!" Anfey nodded his head and sincerely handed over the fire magic book. Although a magic book written by an archmage was priceless, Anfey thought Saul was not into the magic book, but feeling out his temptation.
Saul took the magic book, glancing over it for a moment, and gave it back to Anfey. "Keep it safe. It's the estate that Yagor left for you. Don't lose it."
"I know." Anfey put the fire magic book carefully back into his chest area.
Saul looked at Yagor's tombstone for a long time and sighed. He turned and walked back. Ernest slowly followed Saul by walking at his side, leaving Anfey blankly staring at their backs.
"Do you want to stay on the deserted island forever?" Ernest suddenly turned and said.
"You... You want to take me?" Anfey asked with surprise and delight.
"If you want to stay, we will not force you." Saul laughed.
Anfey cheered, dancing up and down. "Wait a minute, wait a minute, I will go and pick up my stuff!
Saul and Ernest looked straight into each other's eyes, spontaneously giving a smile. Who could be more loyal than one that protected the deceased at the expense of his own life? Anfey's stubbornness had successfully won the trust of Saul and Ernest.
Chapter 7: A Pathetic Master Swordsman
Translator: Nyoi_Bo_Studio Editor: Tennesh
"Is this what you've packed?" Saul asked with a dull look in his eyes.
"Yes." Anfey gave a coy smile. He packed very simply: two pieces of worn out clothes, a few packages of fish jerky, and a stick which looked like a wand but could not perform any magic. There was even a crab freely blowing bubbles on Anfey's shoulder.
"Yagor was an archmage, his possessions should not be… so few, right?" Saul asked, not sure whether he should laugh or cry.
"Those are my master's possessions, not mine," Anfey responded.
"But… Yagor is dead, and you are his only apprentice. I believe you have the right to keep his possessions."
"No, not exactly!" Anfey answered. There was stubbornness in his voice. "Archmage Yagor's grave is here, and he will be lonely on this deserted island. Let his collection stay with him. If I am determined and work hard, I believe my future achievements would not be less than Archmage Yagor's."
Unbelievable! Unbelievable! What a decent young man! Saul was touched from the bottom of his heart. He did not know how talented this young man was, but he was for sure one of the best—no, he was the best in terms of morality. Saul was jealous that Yagor had the luck to have a such wonderful young man as his apprentice before he passed away.
"Since Yagor has died, the magic array has stopped working. If others discover these items, do you think they will do the same as you, leaving all the items with Yagor?" Ernest asked drily.
"Ah…" Anfey hesitated, then showed a look of annoyance. "Then… what should we do? What should we do?"
"Don't worry. I do not have magic crystals with me right now, but I will bring the crystals back next time I return. No one can disturb Yagor's peace once the magic array is setup with crystals," Saul said with a smile.
"Thank you, Archmage Saul." Anfey said with sincerity.
"You're welcome, kiddo." Saul saw the crab on Anfey's shoulder. "Is that your magic… pet?"
Saul thought the crab was Anfey's magic pet. He ran his eyes over the crab and realized the crab did not give off any sense of magic. It was just a regular crab.
"Yeah, his name is Liuliu. He has been my company on this island for a couple of years. I can't leave him on the island." Anfey laughed.
"Yagor has… How long have you been on this island by yourself?" Saul initially wanted to ask how many years since Yagor died, but he changed the way he asked because he didn't want Anfey to feel sad again.
"Ah…" Anfey fell into thoughts. "Almost three years."
"Three years…" Saul felt that three years could be the most precious time for any young man, regardless of whether he wanted to learn magic, the sword, or even a trade. Three years could be enough time to build a good foundation for a bright future. Obviously, Anfey had wasted those precious three years.
"All right, Anfey, go and get some rest. Your room is downstairs on the second floor. A person will show you the way once you go downstairs," Ernest said.
"Yes, Archmage." Anfey smiled. "Archmage Saul, Uncle Ernest, good night!" Anfey said with a smile, then he walked down the deck.
Ernest watched Anfey disappear down the deck and abruptly said, "What a pity!"
"What's a pity?"
"If I met him a few years earlier, I definitely would have taken him as my student." Ernest shook his head. "But right now… his future achievements would still be limited even if he started to practice the sword immediately."
"Don't forget, he was an archmage's apprentice—Yagor's apprentice!" In fact, Saul was also thinking of taking Anfey as his apprentice. However, he was concerned by the fact that Anfey was Yagor's student and was still very loyal to him. He was afraid Anfey would reject his offer and cause him to lose face, even though there were so many young men on the Pan Continent eager to be his apprentices. Saul made himself stop thinking about it. It was quite unpleasant to hear Ernest's comments.
"So, you want to take him as your apprentice too?" Ernest smiled.
"He is a great kid." Saul hesitated. "The problem is the tie between him and Yagor…"
"He was just a human subject in Yagor's experiments. There was no master-apprentice relationship. Anfey is still young and does not understand that life is full of danger. When he grows older, he might realize that he almost became a victim of Yagor's experiments. At that time, he would not view Yagor the same way he does now\," Ernest said. "Let's put it in another way. You are looking for an apprentice, not a wife. It's unnecessary to think too much. If you think he's good, then take him as your student. If you think he's not good enough, just let him go. Don't bother too much!"
Saul forced a bitter smile. "You should not say it like that…"
"How should I say it, then?" Ernest's lips twitched. "I can help you ask him if you don't feel comfortable doing so."
"Are you sure?" Saul hesitated and asked, "We have only known Anfey for just a day. Do you think he would trust us?" What Ernest offered was exactly what Saul wanted. Sending Ernest to ask Anfey was a great idea. It would be great if Anfey agreed. If not, Saul would not lose face either.
"All right, I won't ask if you don't like the idea. It would help save my energy too."
"You…" Saul couldn't help but laugh.
"Ok, let's get to the point. Honestly, do you want Anfey to be your apprentice or not?"
"Yes," Saul answered honestly. He knew Ernest very well after being friends for so many years. Ernest looked like a strong man with desires for a simple life. In fact, there was a very naughty side to him, which made his old friends not know whether they should cry or laugh sometimes. In order to admit a good apprentice, it would be ok to give in to Ernest once in a while.
"Isn't it great to tell the truth?" Ernest smiled with satisfaction. "Saul, I noticed that you've been thinking way too much as you grow older. You've also grown a lot more timid. I was forced to come all the way here with you just to fight Yagor. Are you scared of Yagor that much?"
"I was not scared of Yagor and Yagor was not scared of me either. We both did not want to see anything go terribly wrong in the fight." Saul sighed. "There are many unexpected occurrences in a battle between archmages. A slight change can cause the balance to shift irreversibly. You are single, but I am not, I…" Saul stopped when he realized he might have touched one of Ernest's sore points.
"Then why do you need me to be your assistant?" Ernest gave a slight smile. "Do you think what you have already done was just?"
"I am not a knight, and never wanted to be one." He looked on with a cold smile. "Ernest, you said Anfey doesn't know about life's dangers and deceits. How about you? You still believe in justice? Did you forget your experiences? Yagor was a lone wolf. He preferred to work alone. No one liked to help him, otherwise he would definitely have assistants to fight me."
Ernest became silent. The miserable memories started coming back to him. After he had just became a master swordsman, Ernest constantly challenged other swordsmen to look for breakthroughs in his skills. One time, he fell into a trap and was surrounded by a number of people. Two of them were swordsmen he had defeated before. Although he was not killed in that battle, it took him two years to recover, and five of his students died at the battle on Mount Torrez Hill. What upset him more were the rumors of being blamed for putting poison on his sword. Opponents claimed that Ernest should not be named as a master swordsman anymore since he wounded Jerrofick with a poisoned sword, even though they had planned everything before the battle. They also lied and said that the swordsmen who came to watch the battle ending up saving Jerrofick's life through a group effort. And Jerrofick was the one of the swordsmen Ernest tried to challenge.
Of course, Jerrofick was wounded by a sword, and poisoned as well. Both sides tried to argue that they were the ones telling the truth. The voices of the swordsmen combined were definitely louder than Ernest's. Ernest lost the argument badly and became a loser everyone could mock.
Since then, Ernest was not a master swordsman anymore, but a thinking man who developed many philosophies of life.
To the people at the peak of their lives, fame sometimes was more important than life itself. Therefore, Jerrofick would rather wound himself with a poisoned sword than have a fair fight. Undoubtedly, he also paid for his demeanor, because it was very difficult for him to have any breakthrough in his sword skills with this unspeakable mindset.
Seeing the sadness on Ernest's face, Saul knew he touched Ernest's sore point. He changed the topic "Ernest, I found… You are quite keen on helping Anfey too, why?"
"I see the old me in him. I want him to find someone who is strong and reliable to back him up." Ernest said flatly.
"You also can have him as your apprentice. We can have a fair competition to see who can win his heart first." Saul joked.
"I can't. I have too many enemies. But you are not only the court archmage, but also a director at the Mage Academy. You are his best choice because you have both power and social status. "
"You… Is that sarcasm?" Saul forced out a bitter smile again.
"No, I am just stating a fact. That's all."
At the same time, "the good kid" Anfey was sitting on his bed. He was bored, playing with a fireball in his hands.
It was both great and sad if someone could wear various facial masks to hide who they really were, in order to survive in this forever changing world. But changing the facial masks too frequently could cause the person to forget who he really was, and which mask he wore. Anfey was one of those people. He already forgot who he was. He was able to switch to any role he needed to play since he became an assassin. He could play a dumb young man one day, and mature successor another day, then a cliché new rich. He could not remember how to be himself anymore!
Luckily, Anfey never crossed the bottom line. No matter how tempting it was, how much money he could earn, he would never kill anyone who did not deserve to die. This rule was the lighthouse in his purposeless life. Because of it, Anfey could still have a sliver of kindness left even though he had killed so many people that his hands were full of blood.
Anfey was lying to Saul and Ernest, but it was a white lie. He only wanted to protect himself. It did not take him long to figure out that Saul and Ernest were nice people. They were not greedy at all when they were talking about Yagor's possessions. There was sincere concern for him in their eyes as well, unless they were playing their roles better than him. From another point of view, he was simply a poor young man; there was no purpose in taking advantage of him. There was no point for them to play with him, so Anfey trusted his judgement that Saul and Ernest were nice people.
Should he continue to play his part to gain more of their affection and have them back him up, or should he explore the world by himself? Anfey wasn't sure what to do. He already felt like he owed Saul and Ernest based on the current situation. He wasn't used to owing people. He always returned favors back to the people he owed. The problem was… with this innocent kid's facial mask, what could he do to help them? With the rhythm of breathing, the burning fireball was contracting and swirling, like a blooming lotus flower. There would be no other magic apprentices spending years on practicing fireballs.There were many powerful, fancy skills to learn in fire magic, earth magic, water magic, electricity magic, space magic, dark magic, and spirit magic. There was no one but Anfey who spent so much time and effort on this lowest-level magic.
In fact, Anfey didn't take learning magic seriously. He never wanted to put too much effort into magic. Rather, he believed that breathing exercises could empower the body. Playing with the fire element was just a game to him; Anfey believed the skills that could save his life were not magic skills.