Chapter 2179 - 156 - 165

Chapter 156: Felipe's Tyranny

Translator: Kris_Liu Editor: Vermillion

When Lucien was under Felipe's gaze, all of a sudden, he thought of something.

Since both the viscount and Felipe thought that the reason why Professor was here was to disturb the gathering, if Lucien decided to just wait there and watch until the end of the feast, that would be very suspicious of him.

Lucien felt that he had to bring some trouble to the feast in order to make his presence reasonable. However, he needed to be very careful about keeping the balance and the degree to which he would piss Felipe off. Ideally, the problem caused by Professor should be troublesome but still within Felipe's capability to be solved.

Lucien had to carefully think about how to do it.

While Lucien was occupied by his own thoughts, on the stage, Cessy, the most powerful necromancer on the territory once belonging to Wilfred, asked, "Mr. Felipe, since the rules of the organization you represent are very strict, I don't think that the four of us can make the decision for everyone present. It is really an individual thing."

As he was speaking, Tess, Sidney and Quentin were also nodding. Seeing that there was a cold smile on Felipe's face, Cessy hurriedly added, "Of course, I personally would like to follow you to the congress and join the Hand of Paleness, but before that, what I want to ask is whether I can collect bodies in the nations controlled by the congress without needing to hide all the time?"

Felipe smiled to Cessy, who was the first one willing to join the organization, "Mr. Cessy, according to the agreement reached by the congress and the several kingdoms, you can't destroy cemeteries or kill ordinary people to get the bodies you want, you need to have an agreement with a person who's willing to let you dispose of his or her body after the person's death. But, of course, if you kill your enemy, any magic creature or beasts, they're all yours."

"Well… I'm afraid it won't be enough," Cessy frowned, "unless your organization can provide us with enough bodies for our research."

The rest of the necromancers and apprentices felt the same way. For these sorcerers who were the inheritors of the ancient magic system, without bodies, they could not see any possible progress in their magic researches.

Seeing that all the necromancers and apprentices present were hesitating, and Professor still remained mysterious and calm, Felipe became irritated, and he started to rise his tone, "You guys can never imagine the great progress made by arcana and magic within the past hundreds of years, just as you can never imagine, without your filthy bodies, how you can grow stronger and more powerful!"

The people present in the hall got a bit confused with Felipe's emotional thing all of a sudden.

However, Felipe continued furiously and regardlessly, "What's more, through the collision of the two theories —'Waves of Spiritual Power' and 'Particles of Spiritual Power', a series of highly efficient, high-level meditation have been broadly applied with lower requirements. Most of the meditating methods on your books are out of date!"

Lucien was listening to Felipe's speech carefully, while other people were now shocked.

Felipe was almost yelling now, "Can you believe that the meditation which was only available for senior-rank mages is now accessible to any sorcerer?

"Can you believe that there are new spells coming out every month?

"Can you imagine a middle-rank mage who's only twenty years old?

"Can you imagine a senior-rank mage who's only thirty years old?

"Can you imagine an archmage who's fifty years old, or a legendary archmage who's eighty?

"Only in the headquarter of the Congress of Magic you can know how advanced arcana and magic are right now!"

Lucien did not know what other people were thinking right now, but he was certain that he would go to the congress one day. Although he was very profound with his spirit library, the biggest challenge facing him was the channel to turn his knowledge into real power. In this new era of magic, Lucien knew that he needed to make progress all the time in order to be strong!

Then, after taking a glance at Lucien in contempt, Felipe said to them, "There's no worry that you might be discriminated by other sorcerers in the congress, my necromancers. The School of Necromancy is right now one of the most popular fields following Force and Electromagnetics, since it specializes in studying the secret of life and prolonging people's life-span. And as for the School of Element, it is not even close to us. Although a human body is composed of all different kinds of elements, without the power of life, the elements cannot turn themselves into any part of a human body, neither blood, or muscle, or organs… anything! The attempts trying to prolong people's life-span based on the theories of the School of Element all failed!

"The secret of the origin of life and the key of prolonging life-span can only be revealed and showed by the School of Necromancy. No other schools can compete with us!" declared Felipe.

All the necromancers and apprentices were nodding out of pride and yearning feelings for the congress.

Meanwhile, Felipe's words reminded Lucien that, in this world, it seemed that the School of Element was still not advanced enough to synthesize organic materials.

Because of the School of Necromancy, the theory of Life Force was more dominant than the other theories in Element. Based on Lucien's current knowledge, human body, soul and life force were not the same thing, but these three were integrated together in a way that Lucien could not figure it out right now. Despite all of that, Lucien believed that it was still possible to synthesize different parts of a human body.

"Maybe I can start from here…" Lucien thought to himself.

When Lucien's brain was working fast, Felipe raised his hands up and said loudly, "In the new era of magic, joining the Hand of Paleness can bring you the great fortune of knowledge that you can't even imagine, and the Hand of Paleness can thrive because of all of you joining! So, I propose here: sign the magic contract with me, all of you."

Felipe took a step forward and started to act crazily, "That's my proposal. Who agrees? Who opposes?"

After a while of silence, Quentin, the young necromancer, said to Felipe politely, "Mr. Felipe, thank you. But I think I still prefer my free life, instead of being constrained by an organization."

After all, there was still another gentleman from the congress, there might be other ways with lower cost to get to the congress.

Felipe turned around and stared at Quentin with his cold eyes, "You sure, Mr. Quentin?"

"…Yes," answered Quentin with some kind of alertness.

"All right." Felipe nodded. Then, the pale fire appeared in his eyes and he pointed at Quentin with his right hand. Immediately, the black smoke surrounding Quentin, which should protect him from the great danger, was driven away, and Quentin's body was totally drained, as if all the water in his body had evaporated.

Felipe killed him within a second. Felipe killed a third circle sorcerer within a second!

Countless faces of revenants appeared surrounding Felipe and built up a transparent wall around him. Then, he asked again, "My proposal. Who agrees? Who opposes?"

The protection Felipe was wearing was a standard fifth circle spell, Revenant Wall. And the spell he had just used to kill Quentin looked like the single target, lower-level version of the eighth circle spell, Wilting, which should be something new that was developed by the congress.

People were afraid of him. They were afraid of that crazy man, and they would rather die later, instead of right now.

"One more time. I will ask again. My proposal. Who agrees? Who opposes?"

No one dared look at Felipe's eyes.

"I oppose," said a calm voice from among the crowd.

This was not a surprise to Felipe. Professor walked onto the stage in his black hood.

Chapter 157: Theory of Life Force

Translator: Kris_Liu Editor: Vermillion

"Professor?!" exclaimed some of the apprentices.

Step by step, Lucien walked to the stage, under the gaze of several hundreds of people.

The necromancers and apprentices who did not want to join the Hand of Paleness were encouraged, but soon they started to feel concerned, since they did not know if Professor was powerful enough to face this crazy man, even though his name was on the Cleansing List.

"Is Mr. Professor gonna be okay?" Fatty asked one of his companions carefully in a low voice, with his teeth clattering.

"Of course…" answered the stout apprentice, Bread. He was trying to comfort Fatty and also himself, "You think anyone can be on the church's list?"

"How do you know Mr. Felipe is not on the list as well?" interjected Wine. Both Wine and Garrupa were still feeling very unsure.

Interesting enough, when Lucien was walking toward the stage, his mind was divided in two opposite thoughts: part of him felt extremely nervous and afraid, however, the other part of him somehow felt the whole thing a bit funny, out of the great pressure.

Felipe's eyes were freezing cold, "Mr. Professor, what do you want to say? I already did what I didn't want to do, and it's impossible for me to back away. If you can't give me a reasonable explanation, I think either you or me will die on this stage."

The corner of Lucien's lips twitched a bit. He really wanted to suggest Felipe to sit down and have a cup of tea first to calm down a little bit before their conversation.

Despite all these thoughts, Lucien answered calmly, "I'm from the Will of Elements, and I don't really mind the fact that the Hand of Paleness is trying to grow by recruiting more people." The last thing Lucien wanted to do was piss off Felipe right away.

Felipe was confused, "What do you mean? Why are you here, then?"

The rest of the necromancers and apprentices were surprised to know that Professor also belonged to an organization from the congress.

"I'm here because I don't like your way of recruiting people." Then Lucien changed his tone, "No one should be forced to join anything, and correspondingly, no one should blame anyone else for the following consequence."

"Very good." Felipe applauded, "But, what if forcing people is exactly my style?"

Felipe was pushing Professor to his limit, and he was ready for a bitter fight.

At this time, Lucien switched the topic without directly answering Felipe's question, "Also, I don't agree with you on what you just commented on the School of Element. I'd like to further discuss it with you."

"What comment?" Felipe felt even more confused now.

What did Professor want to do?

"According to what you just said, you think that the foundation of the human body is life force, and without the integration of life force, only the elements can't be synthesized to build any part of the human body, such as blood, muscle, or all kinds of impurities, right?" asked Lucien with patience.

Felipe did not expect that Professor actually wanted to argue with him about this topic right now on the stage, and he laughed, "That's the case. And the secret of human body is not what you, a bunch of people who play with elements all the time, can understand."

"What your statement is based on?" asked Lucien.

"Mr. Professor, from all the researches conducted back in the time of the ancient magic empire until today's mainstream belief in the congress, I can't find anything that made me doubt the theory of Life Force. Even the church admits that life force is the essence of human body. When there is no life force, a lost limb can't grow back. The only difference between the Church and us in understanding life force is that while they believe that life force is given by God, we're still seeking for the answer from the origin of the world." Felipe confidently elaborated his belief, "A couple of decades ago, several senior-rank mages attempted to synthesize human muscle only with elements but failed, and at that time, even you Element sorcerers admitted that this was not going to work. Now you want to totally overthrow the research foundation built by all the previous arcanists and sorcerers? Are you kidding me?"

For sure, Felipe's words were both aggressive and persuasive. In his world, since the theory of Life Force was the foundation of the School of Necromancy, it could not be shaken and would not be shaken for eternity.

The rest of the necromancers and apprentices felt the same way as Felipe. Since they never experienced the time in which arcana knowledge exploded, they still respected and highly praise the Book of Necromancy just like pious followers worshipped Canons. Although they knew that Professor was helping them, the necromancers and apprentices still felt that what Professor was trying to say was ridiculous.

Even the viscount, who was only watching everything going on the stage with his glass of wine, started to get a bit more excited, since basically Professor was trying to challenge the foundation of arcana.

That was exactly what Lucien wanted to do to distract Felipe.

Lucien looked around the hall and noticed that Sidney was the only one who still looked serious.

"It looks like only Mr. Sidney is on my side?" asked Professor, "Mr. Sidney's the only one who is not laughing at me right now."

"I'm sorry, Mr. Professor. My face, because of the transformation ritual, cannot make any facial expression," answered Sidney with the same face.

A bunch of people chuckled.

"What if I say, Mr. Felipe," Lucien turned around regardlessly and said to him calmly, "that I can synthesize parts of human body only with elements or non-life force materials, do you believe that?"

On Earth, the field studying organic matter had also been dominated by the theory of Life Force for a long time in history. However, in the 19th century, when acetic acid, carbamide and other organic matters were artificially synthesized successively, this secret of the theory was completely revealed.

Everyone quieted down in the hall.

"It's impossible. Who do you think you are… a Holm Crown prize winner?" Felipe laughed, "Stop saying nonsense! Speak your true intention!"

"I think Mr. Professor's just trying… trying to play a joke," mediated Cessy.

"Only a real experiment can speak for me." Professor continued, "If you don't believe my words, do you want to make a bet with me?"

"What the hell do you want?" Felipe asked furiously.

"If I can synthesize something contained in the human body without using anything that carries life force, you will tell everyone here who is the liaison from the Congress of Magic in Sturk, and let them decide on their own whether they should join the Hand of Paleness or not. If I fail, I will apologize to you, and then leave the feast immediately. What do you think?" asked Lucien.

Chapter 158: Synthesizing

Translator: Kris_Liu Editor: Vermillion

Felipe put his hands back into the pockets of his black coat. Although he still looked calm, there were countless thoughts in his heart. Either Professor was a real madman, or he must be very confident that his experiment would be successful.

Felipe started to feel hesitant. He was not sure whether he should make the bet with Professor, or just fight with him. After all, the Church commented Professor as "extremely cunning and dangerous".

In the end, Felipe could not resist his curiosity and, at the same time, his confidence in the theory of Life Force pushed him to make the decision. He had to admit that he also wanted to see if the fundamental theory of Necromancy would be overthrown just like the previous ancient theories.

Felipe was also an arcanist, and Lucien was exactly betting on his desire toward more advanced knowledge and also his curiosity.

"Except for apologizing… if you lost the bet, you would lose nothing, Professor." Felipe responded slowly.

The rest of the necromancers and apprentices were very surprised. It seemed that Felipe was really going to make the bet with Professor.

Although Lucien was very excited in his mind, he answered shortly and calmly, "My mission would fail, at least."

Felipe took out his left hand and clenched it into a fist. His tone became firm, "All right, Mr. Professor. I'll make this bet with you. Let's make the devil pact."

According to Astrology and Elements, magic pact is something seeking notarization from different great powers in this world. According to the levels of the covenanters, the notarization powers varied: from common magic power to the devil or even to the original power of the world. For middle-ranked mages, the devil pact was the most suitable. If a covenanter did not keep his or her promise, the person would be punished by the power of the pact.

"I trust Mr. Felipe, and I also trust myself. We don't need a pact," answered Lucien calmly. In fact, he was not capable of summoning the devil, and even if the devil was summoned by Felipe, his true level of power would be recognized by the devil immediately, "If I was not reliable, I don't think the viscount would even invite me to the gathering." Lucien looked at Viscount Carendia.

The viscount was a bit surprised that, all of a sudden, his name was mentioned. His guess was that Professor did not want to leave his real name on the pact, so he nodded and said, "I can be the witness, and all the people here are the witnesses as well."

Felipe nodded, "I agree. Then, start your experiment, Mr. Professor."

Lucien waved his hands, "In order to be fair. I tell you what to do, and Mr. Felipe, you conduct the experiment."

"Fair enough." Felipe nodded, "Give me a second to build the lab."

The reason that Lucien asked Felipe to do the experiment was because he was not capable of doing it himself.

Felipe took out a fist-sized golden cabin from his pocket and took out a bunch of mini-sized alchemy equipment.

As soon as this pieces of equipment left the cabin, under Felipe's control, they grew back to their original size. Soon, a small but fully equipped lab was built.

Lucien hoped that he would have something like this as well in the future, but he had no idea how to get it.

When Felipe was building the lab, the necromancers and apprentices facing the stage started to whisper to each other again.

"Do you think Professor can really synthesize any ingredient for life?" asked Fatty with a mixed feeling.

"No way." Wine shook his head immediately, "The theory of Life Force is the eternal truth, which is built by many legendary archmages in the past."

"Yes. It is the eternal truth for us." A necromancer looked back at them and nodded seriously, "Or how could we successfully synthesize human body parts in the past?"

"But if Professor failed…" Fatty said in a low voice, "If he failed, we must join the Hand of Paleness. Honestly, I'd rather find the Church and be a night watcher if that's the case."

"Maybe Mr. Professor is planning to attack Felipe when he's conducting the experiment… to strike him when Felipe is unprepared." Bread also lowered his voice. He hated Felipe a lot.

"Contemptible…" Garrupa took a glance at Bread, "but I like it!"

"Naive…" The necromancer put on a cold smile, "You think Felipe would be that stupid? You think the viscount would be just an onlooker?"

On the stage, Sidney also whispered, "What does Mr. Professor want to do?" He was confused since he never thought the experiment would be successful.

"No idea. I'd rather put more thoughts into how to survive in the Hand of Paleness," Tess answered.

Cessy also shook his head, "I've made up my mind. I'm going to join the Hand of Paleness, no matter if his experiment works or not."

Sidney remained silent for a while and then nodded, "You guys are right. Joining the Hand of Paleness seems to be the best choice for us right now."

"Mr. Professor, let's start." Felipe's eyes looked a bit crazy.

Lucien quickly browsed through the journal Arcana that he once read and copied in his spirit library to make sure that the chemical elements he remembered were right, and then he said to Felipe, "Gather nitrogen and hydrogen and store them separately."

Lucien was trying to use the industrial way to synthesize carbamide, which was the first artificial synthesis of organic matter on Earth. The reason why Lucien did not go for the laboratory method was that some of the chemical symbols involved in this process were not familiar to him, and he did not want to give Felipe any reason to doubt his true power.

Also, at the same time, the industrial way was simple, and the several experimental substances were very common. Their chemical symbols were familiar to Lucien because he once read about them in the journal. As for the required environment of high temperature and pressure, in this magic world, it was not something hard to achieve.

Gas Separation was just a common magic for sorcerers. Felipe thought that the beginning of the experiment would be different.

"A piece of magnet…" Lucien made Felipe put the catalyst into the reactor, "Mix the gas according to the proper percentage, and then heat it to about five hundred degrees, and the pressure is…"

Following Lucien's instruction, Felipe tried his best to turn on all the alchemy magic circles and meet the requirement of temperature and pressure.

After the reaction finished, Felipe sensed the container, "Nothing, Mr. Professor."

"Not yet," Lucien answered with patience. "Separate nitrogen and hydrogen, and keep the remaining gas."

"Ah… ammonia gas." Felipe shrugged, "You could've told me earlier. I have some previously made ammonia gas in my lab."

Lucien, in fact, did not know how to say ammonia in this world. He did not respond, but continued his instruction, "Cool it down and let it liquefy. Then, separate it to get carbon dioxide."

Felipe could already tell what Professor wanted to do here. He did not believe that this simple experiment could produce carbamide.

Following Lucien's requirement, Felipe put the liquid ammonia and carbon dioxide into reactor again.

Again, high temperature and high pressure. But this time, the temperature was only about two hundred or so, and the pressure was lower than the last time.

"Keep the temperature and pressure, and let's wait for a while." Lucien nodded.

Felipe, the viscount, the necromancers and apprentices were all waiting. They believed that this was still one step of the experiment. The theory of Life Force would not be overthrown by a simple experiment.

They were waiting.

Chapter 159: The Product from the Experiment

Translator: Kris_Liu Editor: Vermillion

The whole hall was silent. No one spoke a word, since they were all waiting for the outcome of the experiment.

A while later, when people started to whisper to each other again, Lucien said, "Mr. Felipe, you can open the reactor now."

Strictly following the procedures of doing a magic experiment, Felipe turned on a series of magic circles for safety protection one by one.

When the reactor was opened, and when the temperature was back to normal, Felipe collected the small amount of white particles lying at the bottom of the container and then turned to Lucien, "What's the next step, Professor?"

"You don't want to check these particles, Mr. Felipe?" Lucien answered with a mysterious smile underneath his hood.

"What do you mean… These particles are…?" Felipe was confused for a second, and so were the rest of the people.

"Yes, Mr. Felipe." Lucien nodded calmly, "This is the end of the experiment. These particles are things contained within a human body."

"What?!" The crowd was shocked, "These white particles are… an ingredient for life?!"

A great stir started to gather its momentum in the hall. The necromancers and apprentices could not believe what they saw.

Felipe stared at Professor with his great, mixed feelings. He could not accept the fact that an experiment synthesizing an ingredient for life would be this simple.

"You'd better not be kidding me, Professor." After quite a while, Felipe finally responded.

Lucien was also nervous. He knew that Felipe might lose his temper at anytime. However, he still answered in a calm tone, "You can check it yourself, Mr. Felipe. Those particles is carbamide… the organic matter you were talking about."

As soon as Lucien uttered the word, people in the hall stopped whispering and talking and went back to silence.

"Mr… Mr. Felipe, please check the particles," asked the necromancers on the stage. They were afraid, excited and thrilled. They were staring at the particles with great concern, as if it was not something ordinary that could be simply produced by human body, but something so powerful like a taboo that could destroy their world.

Felipe looked rather gloomy and serious. Slowly, he walked back to the reactor again and opened it. Then, he used the first circle magic, Identification, to check the particles.

As the white light flashed past, Felipe stood there, staring at these particles without saying anything, like a statue.

After more than a minute, Cessy could not wait anymore. Carefully, he asked, "Mr. Felipe, is it… carbamide?"

The rest of the necromancers and apprentices were also looking at Felipe, waiting for his confirmation.

As if Felipe was in a different world, he did not answer Cessy's question. After another minute again, finally, he slowly answered, "Yes, it is carbamide."

No one made a sound after Felipe responded. All of a sudden, they felt that all the experiments that they had done and all the theories that they had learned were just like a dream. The experiment showed that their effort was worth nothing.

Felipe suddenly turned around and said to Lucien in a higher pitch, "Mr. Professor, Identification is not accurate from time to time. I need to use other experiments to make sure what is these particles."

Felipe was not finding excuses. Indeed, Identification was a spell built on the caster's own knowledge level. So if the caster did not have a profound knowledge in the corresponding field, the magic would go wrong sometimes.

Hearing Felipe's words, Cessy and the other necromancers and apprentices regained their hope again. They could not admit that their belief was wrong, and no one would easily admit that something he or she had been pursuing for the whole life was fundamentally not correct.

People often tended to make all kinds of excuses to deceive themselves.

"Go ahead." Lucien did not care how many times Felipe needed to verify the outcome of the experiment.

The bottles, glass tubes and weights were making low sounds on the stage when Felipe was doing the verification experiment with his trembling hands.

One experiment after another, Felipe looked more and more frustrated.

"Bang!" A metal container was thrown into the sink. Felipe lowered his head, with his back toward Lucien, and said with depression, "Yes, it is carbamide."

"It's not possible!"

Some necromancers burst out bitter cries.

Their world collapsed.

Sidney slowly raised up his hands, which were covered with stitches and scars. He could not believe what he just witnessed: if the theory of Life Force was not correct, how came he could use this body?

Comparatively speaking, the apprentices felt the outcome less shocking, and some of them were right now blaming the origin of necromancy for making them fail at becoming a real sorcerer, instead of their own lack of intelligence.

When Lucien was about to lead the topic into another direction, in case Felipe would completely lose his temper on him, Felipe turned around. "Mr. Professor, this is not your victory," said Felipe stubbornly. "I don't think carbamide is an ingredient for life, instead, carbamide is just some filthy excreta from the human body. It exists between life ingredients and non-life ingredients. In fact, your experiment cannot explain anything."

Like a beast guarding its territory, Felipe sought for any possible reason to dispute. If it were not for the fact that he had no idea how powerful Professor was, he might have already resolved this academic dispute with violence.

"Yes, carbamide is not an ingredient for life!" A couple of necromancers started to follow Felipe's viewpoint.

Although Lucien was quite happy to see what was going on here right now, he still pretended that he was angry, "Mr. Felipe, you're not playing fair!"

There was a reason why Lucien chose carbamide to be the organic compound produced by this experiment. Although Lucien wanted to win, he needed to make sure that, after the experiment, Felipe would have some space to do his sophistry. Because, again, Lucien could not destroy Felipe's belief completely, otherwise, he would probably go completely mad.

There was a cunning smile on Felipe's face, and he said to the viscount, "We don't regard carbamide as an ingredient for life, but something existing in human body. I believe that the viscount and the rest of the necromancers and apprentices would definitely agree with me."

Viscount Carendia nodded, "Mr. Professor, your experiment is so simple that it is out of the expectation of all of us. And I admit that no one ever did this—producing carbamide by using non-life ingredients only. Your experiment is surely a milestone, and I believe that the experiment is meaningful enough to put your name on the candidate list for Holm Crown prize and to win you lots of arcana points. However, I also agree with Mr. Felipe that carbamide can't be regarded as a life ingredient. After all, it's very hard to imagine that something filthy like human body excreta could contain any life ingredient. If you want to win, you gotta show us more."

"Yes, a life ingredient from urine? That's a humiliation to life!" someone in the crowd cried.

And more and more people joined the voice of opposition, with their joy from the fact that the theory of Life Force had not been completely overthrown.

"Exactly, Mr. Professor." Felipe shrugged his shoulders with a smile, "Most of us don't see carbamide as a life ingredient. You gotta show us more if you want to persuade us…"

"I said an ingredient contained in the human body," answered Lucien in a sounded angry voice, "And I'm still working on other further experiments. They're not ready yet."

"I remember what you said…" Felipe was about to say something aggressive, but he stopped himself.

Felipe also did not want to piss off Professor completely. The way he viewed Professor was exactly the same as the way Lucien viewed him.

"Your sophistry made you lose your manner, and their ignorance made them miss the greatest chance to witness the revolution in both the school of element and necromancy." Lucien still pretended that he was angry, "I don't have anything more solid than this to prove that you people are wrong right now, but I will in the future."

"Then how do you want to end our bet, Mr. Professor?" asked Felipe.

"It's a draw. I'm leaving right now. I'll not interfere you with what you're doing here. And I'll not affect the choices made by the necromancers and apprentices." Lucien turned to Felipe, "And you, Mr. Felipe, you need to tell them who's the liaison from the congress in Sturk. At least you should give some hope to the apprentices who cannot go to the congress right now, before they can really become sorcerers."

Chapter 160: Get Rid of the Danger

Translator: Kris_Liu Editor: Vermillion

In Felipe's eyes, Professor was still struggling to save his last dignity. After all, his request could not really do harm to him. Felipe could just add one article in the pact that the necromancers and apprentices present were not allowed to inform their students or friend of the liaison's identity in Sturk.

As Felipe had already obtained his victory, he would rather keep the current balance between Professor and him, instead of initiating an unnecessary fight.

"All right." Felipe nodded, "Upon your request, Professor."

Then, he turned around and said to all the necromancers and apprentices present, "In sturk, known as the Bright Pearl of the Sea, there is a bank called ShinyGold. Its owner, Mr. Granneuve, is one of the responsible for maintaining the secret order of the city, and also the liaison of the Congress of Magic. He's the person responsible for sending sorcerers and some of the lucky apprentices to Allyn through the Church's blockade line."

After that, Felipe looked at Professor and shrugged, "I kept my words. It's your turn now, Mr. Professor."

Lucien was still pretending that he was pissed off by the necromancers and apprentices in the hall, "You all will eventually taste the bitterness of your own ignorance. Your misery comes from your own incapability of telling who is your enemy and who is your friend. Your misery will last forever."

Those people who were feeling excited about the fact that Professor's experiment did not overthrow the theory of Life Force suddenly got discouraged. They realized that it was seemingly impossible from them to get rid of the Hand of Paleness right now.

Although many of the necromancers and apprentices started to feel extremely concerned about what they were going to face later, ecstasy seized Lucien's mind for he would be soon out of this dangerous place and then he could stay far away from this crazy necromancer, Felipe.

With his fake anger, Lucien strode to come down from the stage without giving the necromancers and apprentices any extra look when he was walking through the crowd.

"Mr. Viscount Carendia, please allow me to make an early leave." Lucien slightly bowed to the owner of the place.

Carendia slightly raised his glass, "Thank you, Mr. Professor, for showing me the cutting-edge research outcome in the School of Element. I'm sure that, with your talent, you'll become one of the greatest arcanists sooner of later."

Lucien nodded in his hood but did not say anything.

"Nied, please show Mr. Professor the way," said the viscount.

When Lucien was about to leave, the viscount called him again.

"Mr. Professor, I have a question for you," said the viscount.

Lucien's heart missed a beat — did the viscount sense anything wrong there?

"Yes?" answered Lucien as calm as possible.

"I noticed that there's a faint but familiar smell on you, Mr. Professor," asked Carendia in a hopeful tone, "I wonder if you know a man whose surname is also Carendia?"

"Carendia is not a rare surname," answered Lucien in confusion. "I know about a duke in Gusta whose surname is Carendia, but I never met him. Talking about a Mr. Carendia that I personally know… Yes, there is one. His name is Rhine Carendia."

Since Carendia was a very common surname, Lucien never thought about connecting the viscount to the musician he knew.

"Silver hair and silver eyes?" asked Nied, who usually remained quite silent.

Lucien nodded, "You know Mr. Rhine?" He wondered if Rhine was not a human being and was a relative to the viscount.

"Yes, of course." The viscount sighed with his hand touching his forehand, "He's… if using human beings way to say… He's my grandfather. As you can see… he's pretty irresponsible, isn't he?"

"…" Lucien's guess was right. Suddenly, he felt that the viscount standing in front of him was like his grandson. After all, Lucien and Rhine were friends.

Seeing that Professor knew the viscount's grandfather, Felipe was even more certain about Professor's high power and arcana level. According to the power level of the viscount, his grandfather, Mr. Rhine, should be at least a high grade vampire. Thus, to be a high grade vampire's friend, one should be basically of the same level.

"Can you tell me where my grandfather is right now?" asked the viscount.

"Last time I saw him, he was in Aalto." Lucien paused a bit, "And right now… no idea."

"Many thanks, Mr. Professor. As you know my grandfather, it'd be my great honour having you as my guest to stay in the castle for a couple of days more," invited the viscount enthusiastically.

For sure the last thing that Lucien wanted to do was to stay here. After knowing who was the liaison in Sturk, Lucien really could not ask for more.

"Thank you, Mr. Carendia, but I don't really feel like staying. Also, I have other matters to attend to."

"All right, then." Carendia smiled, "I hope we can see each other again. May the silver moon be with you, Mr. Professor."

Lucien nodded, and then followed the steward out of the hall. All the muscles in his back were super intense from his great nervousness. Lucien felt extremely exhausted, and he could not handle any more than this.

Watching Professor leaving, Fatty sighed, "If we had pretended to support Mr. Professor's experiment, we probably would not have to be forced to join the Hand of Paleness now…"

"I think this's the best result." The necromancer in front of him said, "If Mr. Professor had insisted, what we would be facing now might be a bitter magic fight, and this gathering would be a true Feast of Death."

The necromancers on the stage quickly exchanged looks and nodded. They were planning to negotiate with Felipe about some of the articles in the magic pact to better protect their own interest while Felipe was still in his good mood from beating Professor.

With a winning smile on his face, Felipe watched Professor leaving the castle.

However, when Professor completely disappeared in the darkness of the castle, Felipe's facial expression became extremely gloomy and bitter. Both of his hands in the pockets of his jacket clenched into fists.

Although he, as well as all the necromancers and apprentices present, were not willing to admit that carbamide was a life ingredient, Professor's research was undoubtedly cutting-edge. It was not hard to imagine the reputation Professor would gain soon from his experiments, and even a trend of synthesizing life matter or life ingredient with pure elements would be initiated very soon.

Felipe felt that a great storm was going to strike the theory of Life Force.

And in this great competition, compared to Professor who was also a young sorcerer, he was now falling behind.

He must keep up with Professor, and then crash him.

…

After leaving the castle, Lucien found himself in a totally strange mountain. He could see no silver moon or lake, but only big and tall trees around.

"The castle is alive and its name's Amores, Mr. Professor," explained Nied with respect because Lucien knew the count he served before. "Amores' life came from alchemy."

"I see." Lucien nodded, "When I was using Oscillating Hand, I definitely bothered Amores."

An alchemy life was made from some specific souls, revenants and other materials, and it was introduced in Book of Necromancy. Although Lucien had the concept, it was still pretty surprising to him that the whole castle was actually alive.

"No worries, Mr. Professor," said a muffled voice from the castle. "A bit itchy. That's all."

Lucien did not know how to properly respond to Amores' words, but just twisted the corner of his lips to make an awkward smile under his hood.

And then he nodded to the steward and walked into the woods in calm big steps.

When Lucien felt that he was far enough away from the castle, and after he used a couple of spells from Astrology and Magic Elements to check the surroundings, Lucien turned himself into a streak of moonlight and started to run as fast as he could.

He kept running and running. He had no idea how far he had ran and how many turns he had taken.

Until the sun was going to rise, Lucien finally came back to the place where he hid his other belongings before attending the gathering.

Putting on his suit and burning down his robe, Lucien suddenly became limp and fell over under the tree. His hands and feet felt weak and his heart was still racing. He knew that he just survived from one of the most dangerous situations he had ever experienced.

Lucien was grateful to his own calmness and knowledge, also he blamed himself for being too careless and impertinent.

After getting Sun's Corona from the magic lock and becoming a real sorcerer, after getting lucky with destroying Habearo's plot, Lucien knew that he became more and more like an impetuous adventure, which was very dangerous in this world.

He really learned his lesson this time.

However, he also had his more important gain: now he knew who was the liaison in Sturk.

After getting a short rest, Lucien stood up and headed eastward.

This time his destination was Sturk, the Bright Pearl of the Sea!

Chapter 161: The Bright Pearl of the Sea

Translator: Kris_Liu Editor: Vermillion

Natasha was sitting in the complete darkness of an underground room in an abbey in Aalto, reading a long letter from her friend with her Dark Vision.

It seemed that she was already used to the dark environment, and the blue veins on her hands and face were already hard to see.

From time to time, she gently hummed the melody written in the letter with joy.

When she came to the last page of the letter, Natasha grinned, "Lucien, you're exactly copying what I did. I'm looking forward to the next issue of Music Criticism to see how you will wish me a happy birthday."

Then she sighed a bit and talked to herself, "It 's really nice to have a friend, or I would definitely go crazy at this place."

…

The ocean-smelling breeze blew away the sultry feeling in October. The waves were, from time to time, flapping the embankment and splashed the white foam everywhere. The ocean was boundless and the sky was clear. The birds were flying free in the sky and shifting to different formations all the time, and below there were boats moving through under arched bridges.

Sturk, the bright pearl of the sea, was similar to the city, Venice, that Lucien knew from a movie that he watched in his original world. Sturk consisted of more than 100 small islands which were connected to each other by numerous canals just like a complicated spider web, around which there was a long embankment protecting the city.

Sitting in an unique, point-headed boat, Lucien saw the buildings along both sides of the canal slowly moving back. He felt very peaceful, just like a real traveler.

"In Sturk, every canal is just like a street in other cities," introduced the boatman enthusiastically. "This is St. Mayo Church… That building… That building belongs to Monastery of the Holy Spirit, and that one… We call the bell tower Truth Tower, and that one Pray Spire…"

"I see…" Lucien listened to the boatman's introduction with interest, "So this area is Sturk's Religion District, I take it?"

No matter if it was a city, a town, or a village, there was always a church. The area where the religious buildings gathered together was called Religion District, for example, the eastern area in Aalto close to Golden Cathedral.

"Yes, that's why this area is not crowded." The boatman grinned while paddling. "When we get into the Commerce District, you'll see the real Sturk."

Lucien's boat went across several bridges and then entered Sturk's Commerce District. All of a sudden, the surrounding environment became very busy. Lucien saw many pointy-headed boats tied to the wood stakes along the canal, and many were moving through the bottom of the buildings through the bridge openings.

Lots of different accents speaking common tongue could be heard in the air. Words like "Fell", "Nar", "Bank", "Mortgage", "ten grams", "Sturgeon", "Sea Bream", "Orange", "Iron", "Wood", "Slaves", "Trade" and others immediately brought Lucien from the world of necromancy to a world full of common people's daily life.

The whole Commerce District here was even busier than that of Aalto.

The whole city was full of vitality. And even the ocean wind smelled like money for trading.

"The market is even more prosperous than I thought…" Lucien praised what he saw sincerely. He really enjoyed the atmosphere here in Sturk.

"For sure," said the boatman in pride. "Sturk is located right beside Storm Strait and owns a natural deepwater port. The city connects the south and north, the east and west, and here's the best transit place for seaborne trade. Because of this, we people from Sturk are born with the talent of doing business. The first Goldsmiths' Association and the first bank were all founded here."

"Connecting the east and the west?" murmured Lucien. When someone talked about the country to the east of Sturk, obviously, it was Holm and the rest of the countries across the strait that the person was referring to. However, Lucien did not know that Sturk could connect directly to the eastern countries.

"Yes, of course. That's why you can see lots of precious goods being traded here in Sturk." answered the boatman with fervour, "The fine fabric named Black Nightingale from Holm, the porcelain from Colette, the spices from Calais, the best tobacco from Brianne…"

"Only nobles can have access to them," agreed Lucien.

The boatman got even more excited, "These four countries are right across the strait. However, due to the great profit, the Church owns the monopoly in those trades. Only the noble businessmen from the nine big families here can send their boats there for trading. Umm… Can't believe how wealthy the nine families are…"

"Which nine families?" asked Lucien with curiosity. He guessed that maybe Granneuve was one of them.

"The family of Viscount Wright, Baron Kap, Baron Moncache…" listed the boatman. However, Lucien did not hear the name that he was seeking for.

"What about switching our topic to the buildings again?" said Lucien as his interest in listening to the names of the families faded.

"Sure." The boatman nodded, pointing at the several buildings on the right side, "Over there… That's the bank owned by Viscount Wright, and that's Moncache Hawthorne Bank…"

"I see. What about that one… the shining building?" asked Lucien.

"Oh, that's Epic Gallery. Next to it is Michelle Sculpture Gallery… And that one, the ShinyGold Bank," explained the boatman.

Although Lucien was already this close to his destination, ShinyGold Bank, he did not ask anything more about this place.

After all, since he already knew who was the liaison in Sturk, there was no need for him to take the risk of asking about Granneuve's information around. Lucien decided to trace Granneuve's daily route and what was going on right now in his bank first to make sure that Granneuve was still serving the Congress of Magic, not the Church.

Betrayers were not rare to see nowadays.

In addition, Lucien's power further progressed within the past three months. With the help of sorcerer meditation, Lucien felt that his soul and the spiritual power had been obviously strengthened. Inside his soul, Lucien built a series of new spells: Cause Fear, Silent Image, Burning Hands, Mage Armor, Iron Organ, Element Endurance and Chaos Circle. And right now he was working on structuring the spell for escaping called Expeditious Retreat. Therefore, Lucien was pretty confident in himself, and there was nothing to hurry.

However, during his practicing, Lucien found that, even with his advantage in the talent of his spiritual power, he needed at least a whole year to move forward to the 2nd circle, even if he could already analyze a 2nd circle spell. And if that was the case, it would cost him at least ten years to become a middle-rank mage, which made the Congress of Magic even more desirable to Lucien.

The boat was still paddling forward, and it slowly left Commerce District.

…

Half month later. In a very famous seafood restaurant in Sturk named "Shark".

Under the guidance of a waiter, Lucien sat down beside a table covered with white tablecloth. While Lucien was ordering, he peeked at the fat man who was protected by a few safeguards and was slowly walking up the stairs to the second floor, reserved for the restaurant's important guests.

This fat man was exactly Lucien's target, Granneuve.

After this half-month secret observation, Lucien was basically certain that his identity was not founded by the Church, and Granneuve was still serving the congress. And right now the only question was how to get into contact with him.

There were always safeguards surrounding Granneuve, and Lucien guessed that some of them might even be dark knights. Lucien was almost certain that Granneuve himself was also not just kind of random guy, instead, he must be very powerful himself as well. Obviously, important as Granneuve was, he must be very careful with those possible night watchers from the Church who tried to approach and test him pretending that they were sorcerers who needed help. And for sure, Lucien was full of secret, and he could not use his identity of being Professor here anymore. That was too risky.

When Lucien knew by accident that Granneuve was about to meet his guest in Shark tonight, he sensed something a bit suspicious. In most cases, people who were as important as Granneuve would not often show up in person in a public restaurant. If they wanted the food there to treat their guests, they would just ask the chefs to go to their places to cook for them right there.

Listening to the cracking noise made by the ceiling above from Granneuve's weight, Lucien saw the same waiter coming back to him again.

"My guest, this is today's Sturk News and the recent several issues of Music Criticism. And tonight, our pianist will play Moonlight Sonata and Canon in D major from the famous musician Lucien Evans. Wish you a great dinner tonight," said the waiter with respect.

Lucien nodded with a polite smile. After all, Shark was one of the best restaurants in Sturk, the service here was definitely great, and even the newspapers they provided here was relatively hard to buy.

In the beautiful melody, Lucien started to read Music Criticism. He missed the days when he was a music student studying after Mr. Victor in Aalto.

As expected, he found a couple of familiar names in the newspaper. Victor was having his world tour concert right now in Holy Heilz Empire, and Felicia also produced her first piano bagatelle.

However, Lucien did not see Natasha's name again since she commented on Moonlight at the beginning of August, which made him feel a bit concerned.

"Her sequelae from taking the vampire blood should be gone already now…" Lucien thought to himself. He needed to send Natasha a letter to see if she was doing all right as soon as he arrived in Allyn.

After reading all the Music Criticism, the dinner was still not ready, and Granneuve's guests had not arrived yet either.

So, Lucien started to read Sturk News casually. Most of what he found there was just some local news, anecdotes, and random news like "Wood from Djibouti for sale."

At this time, Lucien saw his own name again, and this piece of news caught his attention immediately.

The title of the news was: "Our new music star, Ms. Grace, the student of Lucien Evans, is having a concert in Sturk's Crystal Hall with her friends!"

"My student?" Lucien was confused. And then he realized that they were promoting this concert using his name. To some degree, Lucien did discuss with them about his understanding in music and gave them some suggestions for one of their fantasy music works.

Lucien could imagine how quickly they gained their popularity among the nobles and business tycoons when they came back from Aalto to Sturk with their music work directed by him.

Although Lucien felt a bit amused by the fact that the band members took advantage of his name, he was not planning to expose what they were doing.

However, at this time, Lucien saw a voluptuous young lady in a fine black dress coming into the restaurant.

"Grace… What a small world…" murmured Lucien. Immediately, he held up the newspaper to hide his face.

As Grace walked upstairs, Lucien realized that she might just be the Granneuve's guest.

Chapter 162: Grace's Nightmare

Translator: Kris_Liu Editor: Vermillion

On the second floor of Shark.

On both ends of a long dining table, there was a fancy candelabrum, of which the swaying candlelight made the whole place feel romantic in an ambiguous way, together with the gentle melody played by a small band.

Elegantly scooping a small amount of stew, Grace wished that the man sitting across the table tonight was not Granneuve, who, in Grace's eyes, was ugly and rude. She raised her head and took a glance at Granneuve, and his swollen face and bald head made her feel gross.

Pinching the fine goblet, Granneuve, in contrast, was quite confident in his own charm, "Grace, I have to say that your artistic temperament is even more impressive than your beauty, especially when you're playing piano… It's really gorgeous."

Although Grace did not like him very much, she had to admitted that she enjoyed the feeling of being flattered. In his forties, Granneuve was among the top twenty super-rich people in Sturk, and he was very close to the most important nobles in the city such as Viscount Wright. Despite the fact that she did not like Granneuve at all, being pursued by a man like him was definitely something to feel proud of.

Ever since Grace started to promote herself as Mr. Evans' student and thus started to be respected as a musician, lots of man who had had no interest in her at all were now pursuing her. In her eyes, all men liked conquering.

"Thank you, Mr. Granneuve," responded Grace with a polite smile.

Then, she picked the white napkin and gently tapped her mouth, "Excuse me, I need to use the washroom."

When she stood up, one of Granneuve's guards took a step forward and said, "I'm sorry, Miss Grace, the washroom on the second floor is not in use right now. You might want to go to the one on the first floor."

"What the heck are they doing in this restaurant?!" asked Granneuve with a big anger. In fact, he owned this restaurant.

"It's all right, Mr. Granneuve. It's just an accident," said Grace in an artist manner. "I can just go downstairs."

Granneuve nodded with satisfaction, "I' think you're even more charming now, Grace."

Grace forced a smile on her face and nodded. Following the guidance of the waiter, she walked into the lavatory on the first floor.

Outside of the ladies and men washroom, there was a big mirror, in front of which there were two nice and clean basins.

Getting out of the ladies washroom, Grace checker her make up in front of the mirror. Staring at her beautiful face, she could not help humming a piece of cheerful melody.

The melody was just like her cheerful mood right now. After the long, bitter traveling from Sturk to Aalto, her life was totally changed. Money, reputation, and praise were, all of a sudden, coming to her like a dream.

"Last year you were still an ordinary, poor girl, who needed to rely on your parents' and your elder brother's saving to get to Aalto to fulfill your dream." Looking at the mirror, Grace murmured to herself, "Now look at you… You're the Tulip of Sturk. You're one of the most famous musicians in Sturk. You bought a three-storey house for your family. You're being pursued by so many nobles and wealthy businessmen. You're living in a luxury life that you even dare not dream before.

"You have to remember, Grace." She continued, "All of these is because you're the only pianist in your band, not Piola, not Sharon, not Green and Leslie. You gotta remember how you came all the way through the hardship to where you are right now. Never forget your music and your piano.

"And also…" Grace's voice was even lower, almost impossible to hear, "Don't forget the fact that your reputation comes from that talented musician in Aalto." Although she did not really think that Lucien Evans would come from Aalto all the way to Sturk for visiting, she often felt very concerned. She felt very insecure, as if her dream-like life was going to crash at any time.

She took a deep breath and was ready to leave the washroom. However, when she looked up, Grace saw a black-haired and black-eyed young man walking in.

Although the young man was pretty good-looking, Grace looked very scared, and her purse dropped on the ground.

"Mr… Mr. Evans…" Grace's voice trembled.

Lucien politely picked her purse up from the floor and handed it to her. He smiled, "Hi Grace, nice to see you again. When you just walked into the restaurant, I almost could not recognize you. You look great."

"Mr. Evans… why… why are you here in Sturk?" Grace put on a nervous smile, "I mean… If you were coming, the newspaper should…"

"Should tell everyone in Sturk?" Lucien looked at her, "Speaking of newspaper… I just read the latest issue of Sturk News, your band is going to hold the…."

Grace was praying to God that Lucien Evans did not know anything about what they were doing right now. As soon as she heard that Lucien was talking about her band, she felt a sudden dizziness and almost fell onto the ground.

A strong hand held her arm and helped her stand still.

Looking up, Grace started at Lucien Evans and burst out crying, "Mr. Evans, I'm sorry. I'm so sorry that I'm stealing your name and reputation and claiming that I'm your student. Please forgive me… I will tell everyone the truth tomorrow."

After saying this, Grace felt that she was too weak to barely stand, as her hand was supporting her body on the basin. Grace knew that, as soon as she issued this apology on Sturk News, all of her money, reputation and her status would be totally gone, or even worse. She would suffer the great contempt from people. She would be called a liar.

However, she also understood that only sincere apology could help her avoid even more bitter consequence, such as being thrown into the city prison for the crime of fraud.

Lucien listened to her words, and then smiled, "Grace, you have been claiming yourself as my piano student and so far no one ever doubted you, which means you're a pretty talented pianist. I just wonder why you don't rely on yourself but want to lie to people? You know lies never last long."

Hearing Lucien's gentle words, Grace burst into tears again, "I come from an ordinary family. In order to support me to learn music, in order to send me to Aalto, my family ran out of all our savings.

"When we came back from Aalto, our original plan was to use the piece of fantasy directed by you to promote us. However, ever since we had our first great success, we got greedy. At that time, my family's small business got into trouble, and I needed money, or my parents would be thrown into the jail. In the end, I pretended to be your student, Mr. Evans, since I'm the only pianist in the band. And even since then, I sink deeper and deeper." Grace continued sobbing.

"I see…" Lucien's attitude remained unclear.

"Mr. Evans…" Grace paused a bit and said with great determination, "I'm willing to do whatever you want as long as you forgive me! Even… even…"

Grace did not want her dream life to turn into bubbles just like this. She did not want to go back again!

Seeing that his plan was going well, Lucien felt his effort of damaging the sink of the washroom on the second floor was worthwhile. He nodded, "I understand the hardship you suffered, but telling lies is never a good thing."

When Grace felt desperate, Lucien switched the topic, "Grace, you know Mr. Granneuve?"

"Yes, it is Mr. Granneuve who is inviting me for dinner tonight," answered Grace with confusion. However, she wanted to be as cooperative as possible right now to make the very effort to win Mr. Evans' pardon, so she explained, "Mr. Granneuve is pursuing me."

"I have a friend who wants me to send a message to Mr. Granneuve, Grace." Lucien smiled, "It's written on this small piece of paper. Can you do me the favor?"

"Sure." Grace hurriedly nodded.

"But you cannot tell Mr. Granneuve that it is me who gave you the paper. Just tell him you encountered someone in the washroom that you don't know," added Lucien.

Although Grace wanted to ask why, she decided to just take whatever Mr. Evans asked.

"Don't open it. Don't read it." Lucien handed her a tightly folded piece of paper, "If the result turns out to be good, I may consider sharing some of my piano playing skills with you."

"Really?!" Grace was very surprised. She hurriedly nodded her head in a serious manner.

When Grace left the washroom after she calmed down, Lucien payed his bill and left the restaurant in a good mood.

Chapter 163: The Requirement of Ferryman

Translator: Kris_Liu Editor: Vermillion

In the separate dining room on the second floor, Granneuve was smoking a thick, black cigar, and he commented in a rude way, "A lady musician is surely way better than those chicks who wanted to directly jump on my lap after receiving a couple of gifts from me."

"But… my lord, I don't think Miss Grace really likes you very much." His closest safeguard whispered to him.

Granneuve was not pissed off, instead, he laughed, "What do you know? This is all about a sense of achievement! You see… conquering a reserved-mannered lady with my own charm, haha!"

"Charm…" The safeguard was speechless. However, as Granneuve's closest safeguard, he knew that all of Granneuve's rude behaviors were just his disguise. If he was really good at nothing, how came he became one of the maintainers of the secret order in Sturk.

At that time, Grace came in.

Granneuve hurriedly stubbed his cigarette in the ashtray and asked, "Grace, why do your eyes look a bit red? What happened?"

"Nothing serious. Just feel quite dry in my eyes." Grace easily found a random excuse.

"I'll let my family doctor send you some potions tonight, then, for your eyes." Granneuve looked quite concerned.

"Thank you, Mr. Granneuve." Grace nodded. Then, she handed him the tightly-folded small piece of paper and at the same time she picked up a glass of wine with her left hand.

Granneuve thought that his effort paid off. As this beauty was just too shy to express her affection toward him directly, he thought that what Grace just gave him was a short love message.

Grace took a sip of the wine, and when Granneuve was opening the folded paper, she slowly explained, "Mr. Granneuve, this is a message to you from a gentleman that I met downstairs."

"Humm…" Granneuve was a bit surprised. And when he actually saw what was written on the small piece of paper, his brows frowned a bit but soon his facial expression returned back to normal, "Ha… one of my previous acquaintances… always thinking about things in the past." Granneuve casually waved his hand and burned down the piece of paper with a match, then he asked with a smile, "Grace, what does that gentleman look like?"

"Black hair… black eyes, decent looks. Sorry, I didn't know that the message would bother you, Mr. Granneuve. I thought I was just doing that man a favor, since he looked quite polite," apologized Grace.

Her description about Lucien was very blurry. Black hair, black eyes, decent looking… That was all Granneuve could get from her words.

"No worries, no worries, Miss Grace! Nothing really important." Granneuve waved his hand again, "Don't let him disturb our romantic dinner."

Grace nodded. Inside of her mind, she was a bit relieved, since she fulfilled the task given by Mr. Evans, and maybe she could still maintain her dream life hopefully.

…

In a dark corner beside Shark, Lucien, who had changed part of his look by using the first circle spell, Disguise, was watching as Granneuve sent Grace back home with a fancy pointy-headed boat.

"Get out, my friend. I know you're there," said Lucien to the darkness all of a sudden.

A black figure showed up in the wall and walked out, "It was you who was tracing all the time."

The person who said this was a middle-aged man. His face was thin, and he had light brown hair hanging down to his shoulders. His brown eyes were sharp and clod. And Lucien knew that he was not one of Granneuve's safeguards.

"Are you a sorcerer?" asked the middle-aged man, staring at this black-haired and black-eyed young man.

"Of course. If I was not a sorcerer, why would I bother trying to get into contact with Mr. Granneuve to get to Allyn?"

At the same time, when he was speaking, Lucien did not disguise his power waves preparing for casting spells.

"I see, but…" The middle-aged man smiled, "but you might get something wrong here, my friend. Granneuve's not the liaison from the congress, but I am. Please call me Ferryman."

Because of the magic, Lucien's facial expression looked a bit stiff. Although he was a bit surprised, there was not much showing on his face.

"You're not the only one who got the wrong information. Actually, lots of people thought Granneuve was the liaison." Ferryman added, "That makes sense since he is very influential in maintaining the secret underground order of Sturk. So we also keep tracing and monitoring him all the time as well, in order to find you folks."

Lucien was not really nervous toward the fact that he might have sent the message to the wrong person, since the message he left on the paper was of nothing special but just a common sorcerer seeking for help from the liaison of the Congress of Magic. Lucien directly called Granneuve the liaison of the Congress of Magic in the letter, instead of using his name, and left the place and time for their meeting.

However, Lucien never really expected that Granneuve would actually send someone to meet him according to the message left by him, after all, it was obviously too risky for him. His real purpose was that he wanted to inform Granneuve that someone was tracing him, so he would secretly send his people to find out who was this person.

And then Lucien would let them find himself on purpose to get into contact with Granneuve's people in a less risky way.

Facing this middle-aged man, Lucien did not really believe his words. After all, Lucien did not really think that Felipe would lie to the apprentices and necromancers right in front of Professor, who also came from the Congress of Magic.

"How do you prove your words?" asked Lucien calmly.

"Well… I don't need to prove myself." Ferryman grinned, "If you don't trust me, I can leave right now. But think about it, if I was really a night watcher, when you're already exposed, why I'd bother talking to you, a first circle sorcerer? I would just show up with other pastors and cardinals in Sturk and kill you in a second."

From Lucien's power waves, he could roughly tell Lucien's strength.

"All right… That's true." Lucien shrugged.

"But shall I trust you?" Ferryman shook his head, "There are a few night watchers who were sorcerers themselves before, but they betrayed us. Also, two months ago, when Mr. Felipe was leading the other twenty-two sorcerers to cross the blockage of the Church, they got exposed. However, he broke the blockage by force and made the leaders of the Church more than furious. The Church did a throughout check and we suffered a great loss because of the betrayers, and they also ranked Felipe no. 359 on the Cleansing list."

Lucien first thought when he heard Ferryman's words was that his ranking now fell to no. 360, after Felipe, which for sure did not make him feel good.

"Then how do you want me to prove myself?" asked Lucien. He still did not trust the man who just showed up tonight in front of him.

"Our traditional practice… you find someone from the congress to prove your identity, for example, the person who told you where the congress is and who is the liaison in Sturk."

"He left already. I don't even know his name." Of course Lucien would not say that it was Felipe.

"Well… that's common, too." Ferryman nodded, "Then you have to do something to prove yourself."

"Like what?" wondered Lucien.

"Last month, a man betrayed us. Although his Blessing was awakened by the potion given by the congress, this man deserted to the Church and offered them lots of our secret information. Many of our people died, including more than thirty very promising apprentices. They died in Storm Strait," said Ferryman. The muscles in his face looked more conspicuous as he was speaking.

Lucien did not respond but waited for Ferryman's further explanation.

"Now this traitor is living a wonderful life and was rewarded a Knight's Cross by the city council. If you can kill him, you can definitely prove that you have nothing to do with the Church."

Chapter 164: Testing

Translator: Kris_Liu Editor: Vermillion

Lucien never thought that Sturk had been in such a chaos for the past two months. Obviously, there was another unexpected obstacle sitting right in front of him, preventing him from moving forward and heading for his dream world. However, Lucien had never been one to give up easily. Now, he was only a strait away from the congress, and nothing could stop him.

"How did you know that he was the one who betrayed you people?" asked Lucien calmly, "What's his name?"

If he had no choice but to be used as a tool by the liaison, he needed to get everything clear first.

"Harrison Brown. That's his name," said the Ferryman very seriously. "He has already awakened his Blessing as I said, and he's a knight. Two weeks ago, he was rewarded with a Knight Cross for the reason that 'he defended the glory of God in darkness by cleansing close to fifty lambs astray'… That was how the newspaper commented. You can find the report on Sturk News if you don't trust me."

Then, the Ferryman paused a bit, as if what he was going to say was very hard for him, "In his speech on the ceremony, he felt no guilt. Those apprentices who died because of him… they were still kids… Most of them were just twelve or thirteen, and they were just exposed to the wonderful world of arcana. They died together with their hope and faith in magic."

Seeing Ferryman's facial expression, Lucien nodded, "Surely I'll check whether you just said is true, but I still have one more question."

"Go ahead." Ferryman stared at Lucien's slightly stiff face.

"According to my experience, in order to protect the traitors, the Church would only reward them secretly, or directly let them join Night Watch. I never heard that a traitor would be rewarded on an open ceremony by the city council… Maybe… this is a trap?" guessed Lucien.

"Very good." Ferryman slightly clapped, "But did I ever tell you this was not a trap?"

"…" Lucien was speechless.

"We need to kill him, and we have to kill him." Ferryman's tone became bitter, "For deterrence. If you weren't here, we'd still try to kill him anyway," continued Ferryman. "It is better to have someone who's not from our organization to get this job done."

"So, if i failed, you guys would not be affected." Lucien pointed it out directly.

"That's true, or however you want to take it." Ferryman shrugged, "You can turn down the task, for sure. If that's the case, you leave me a way to contact you, and when anyone who can prove that you're clean comes to Sturk, you just tell me. But if you want to go to Allyn as soon as possible, I'd say that accepting the task is your best choice."

"What support can I get from you?" asked Lucien, "You know how dangerous the task is."

"When it's necessary, we have our own way to distract the night watchers to let you focus on killing Harrison Brown," responded Ferryman, and then he added, "As long as you can kill him, we'll welcome you, our new friend, to join us with our greatest enthusiasm."

"What is Harrison's Blessing? Does he have any extraordinary weapon or magic item? What's his daily routine?" asked Lucien, "I'm sure you have a lot of information on him already."

Commonly speaking, a sorcerer should be able to kill a knight who was of the same level without much difficulty, so Lucien was pretty confident that he could handle the task. In this case, an enemy's equipment such as weapon and any extra item would be the biggest uncontrollable factor in a fight.

"Very good," commented Ferryman, as he liked talking to a smart sorcerer. "Regeneration, that's the power of Brown's Blessing, originating from power existing in the blood of trolls. Strong, fast… and as long as he is not beheaded, his body can keep regenerating until his body energy is exhausted. Weakness should be acid and fire. They can prevent his organs from growing back."

Lucien nodded as he was listening very carefully.

"In terms of his weapon, yes, he has a level one short spear of extraordinary quality called Wither, with collateral poison damage, given by the city council. Then he was rewarded by the Church with a level two, extraordinary quality shield called Demon Hunter, which improves his power of defence to match that of a level two knight. The shield can also absorb a certain amount of element damage. As for other magic or divine item, we have no idea. And his daily routine is…" elaborated Ferryman.

From his words, Lucien analyzed all the information he got and tried to identify his possible chances of killing this guy: Brown rarely let anyone visit him unless the visitor was from the Church or was an important noble; he rarely went out; he liked arts like painting and wax statue; he was going to move to Lance, the Holy City, five months later…

When Ferryman told him all the information, Lucien asked, "So let me confirm here… Brown is going to attend the opening ceremony of Saugus Wax Museum the day after tomorrow, right?"

"Yes, in the morning. He's going because his own statue will be displayed there as well." Ferryman nodded, "If you need us to distract the night watchers when you take action, please inform us in advance."

"I will," said Lucien with his stiff facial expression.

After agreeing on how they would secretly get into contact with each other, Lucien got on a boat and used both the methods of sorcerer and knight to get rid of any possible tracers.

…

On the second day, at midnight, Lucien, who showed up beside a stone arched bridge wearing a long black robe. That bridge was one of the two bridges that needed to be crossed to go from Brown's place to the Saugus Wax Museum. Comparatively speaking, that one was way better than the other one, because the path that used the other one was way longer.

In addition, according to Lucien's information, the wax museum opening tomorrow was very popular in Sturk, so lots of nobles and wealthy businessmen were attending the ceremony as well. At that time, all the nearby waters would be occupied by their boats. Therefore, even if Brown also decided to come there by boat, he needed to get off the boat close to the bridge and cross it to get to the museum.

The sky was starry. The glistening light reflecting on the waves looked like a dream.

Lucien pressed his hands against the bridge, then opened his mouth and screamed silently.

Waves were produced from Lucien's hands toward the stone bridge, and then the waves came back to him. According to the vibration frequency, Lucien adjusted the pace of the waves bit by bit, and soon, the stone bridge started to shake fiercely.

The Professor's Oscillation Hand.

When the bridge was almost about to crash, Lucien suddenly stopped. After the bridge gradually calmed down, it looked exactly the same as what it looked like before.

In fact, the inner structure of this stone bridge was already severely damaged. Although it was not going to crash right now, when there was a certain amount of weight on it, Lucien expected that something different would definitely happen.

…

Harrison Brown's black pointy-headed boat slowed down and was tied to the stake on the street along the canal, and then, Harrison Brown stepped out of the boat while being protected by his bodyguards. Taking a peek at another luxury boat docked on the other side of the street, he could not help feeling jealous. He wished that he could have the same social status as the owner of that boat.

Then, he started to head for the stone bridge around a hundred meters away from him.

Everything was normal as usual.

However, Brown was still extremely alert. Although he knew that there were a few night watchers secretly protecting him in this area, he was still very sensitive and cautious.

He hated the fact that the Church required him to show up in public from time to time, but he had no other choice but to obey. He only wished that he could make it for the following several months, and then he would be moving to Lance and enjoying his life there.

As Brown was thinking, he and his guards stepped onto the bridge.

Near the bridge, Lucien, dressing in a black suit, nodded to the man sitting on a coach, "Please send these irons to the trading house, and this is your pay."

The young coachman's smile was simple and honest, "No problem, sir."

As the coach slowly moved, Lucien quickly entered a boat beside him.

When the coachman drove the heavy, iron-loaded coach through the stone bridge, Brow was still halfway from the other end of the bridge.

Harrison was thinking about his trip to Lance five months later. He was worrying that the people from the congress might try to kill him at that time.

Suddenly, the stone below them started to shake fiercely.

"Ambush!" That was Brown's first thought.

White light burst out of his body as Brown instantly covered himself with many white feathers.

Angel Feather, a level three divine spell.

At the same time, a green short spear appeared in his right hand, and in his left hand there was a solid shield.

All of this was done within a couple of seconds. Obviously, Harrison Brown was very experienced with fighting.

However, the quake of the stone bridge gradually disappeared, and nothing happened.

"Is the bridge too old?" Brown thought to himself.

As he looked around, the stone bridge still looked normal as usual, as if the shake never occurred. Under the bridge, there were several boats rowing past through the archway.

Among these boats, there was a good-looking young man standing on one of them who was looking at him.

Harrison was a bit embarrassed. Only he knew that how much he actually suffered from the fear and worry since he betrayed the Congress of Magic. Right now, he felt that he must look like an idiot in the young guy's eyes.

…

Lucien's boat rowed through the bridge.

Staring at the water, Lucien thought to himself with his calm and cool mind, "When the bridge started to shake, there were close to ten people who reacted totally different from ordinary people. Excluding some of the knights who were protecting their lords, there should be… five night watchers around to protect Brown: The adventurer walking beside him on the bridge, the businessman on the street, the couple, and the boatman who was right behind me."

Lucien never planned to completely destroy the bridge. He needed more information about Brown and the night watchers secretly protecting him before seriously taking action.

"Brow has the short spear, the shield… and a level three divine item." Lucien slightly rubbed his chin.

All of that was just a test.

Chapter 165: Support for Lucien

Translator: Kris_Liu Editor: Vermillion

When Harrison Brown calmed down, he felt amused by his own sensitivity, as if he was an extremely frightened bird.

The night watcher who pretended to be an adventurer approached Harrison a little and said to him in a low voice, "Just an accident. Keep going to the museum."

"All right. Someone has to fix this bridge." Brown nodded, walking with the adventurer in the same pace but keeping a short distance from him.

On the other end of the bridge, there was the city's Art District. Brown could already see a couple of fancy buildings over the other side.

"I'll report to the Church, in case someone damaged the bridge on purpose." The night watcher's eyes looked to the right, but said to Brown on his left side, "We can never be too careful."

Although the night watcher did not detect any magic wave, he was still very cautious.

In fact, the power of the Professor's Oscillation Hand came from a consistent frequency of vibration, so nothing related to magic could be found even if the night watcher sent someone to check the bridge.

The only way the Church might find something suspicious here was referring to the annual check record of the bridge to possibly notice that this damage was caused overnight. However, in fact, this city did not have any regular annual checks.

"You're certainly very cautious." Brown nodded out of satisfaction, "I feel safe with you guys."

After getting off the bridge and walking for about seven or eight minute, Brown and his guards came in front of the museum. The museum was a two-storey black building designed in ancient style, looking rather grand.

"Nice to see you, Viscount Wright. Nice to see you, Baron Cape…" Hurriedly, Brown bowed to the important nobles and greeted. Although he was going to move to Lance soon, Brown still wished to have a good relationship with them, since they controlled the economy of the west and the east coast, as well as the south and north continent.

Viscount Wright was a middle-aged man. His hair was dark green, which was quite rare to see. He nodded with a slight sense of self-pride, "Welcome, our heroic knight."

Brown hurriedly bowed again and responded, "I'm not even close to you, my lord."

There was always a gap between someone who relied on a magic potion to awaken their Blessing and a well-trained knight who gained the power on their own. Viscount Wright was a real level four grand knight.

The viscount did not say anything else, but turned away to talk to Granneuve, who was also present and was one of the viscount's business partners. Brown also started to talk to his acquaintances around.

At ten o'clock in the morning, the owner of the museum, Saugus, who was standing with the nobles and the important businessmen, announced the opening of the wax museum to all the guests present.

The band started to play a cheerful melody.

However, at this time, there was a stir in the crowd, seeming like something strange happened a distance away from the museum. The night watchers in the crowd quickly exchanged a glance, looking serious. Then, several of them left to check what was going on there, on the other side.

Lucien, who already changed his outfit, was now wearing a tall black hat and a piece of monocle on his left eye while standing among the people. He did not use the spell, Disguise, since his magic would be revealed easily by the grand knights present, and he only needed to make sure that Brown would not be able to immediately recognize him as the young man on the boat. He saw the night watchers pretending to be a couple and the one that looked like a businessman leaving the crowd, and only the adventurer and the boatman were still around.

It was the support from Ferryman. They were distracting the night watchers.

"It seems Ferryman and his people also know well about these night watchers to some degree…" Lucien thought to himself.

Last night, Lucien carefully analyzed whether Ferryman was worthy of his trust, and he realized the secret relationship between Ferryman and Granneuve. Based on the fact that it was almost impossible that Felipe was lying right in front of Professor, there was only one reasonable explanation, according to Lucien's understanding.

Lucien believed that Granneuve was indeed the liaison of the congress in Sturk, and so was Ferryman. However, while Granneuve's identity was known by most sorcerers as the liaison in Sturk, there was another liaison working with Granneuve, Ferryman. Every time when a sorcerer or an apprentice asked for Granneuve's help, Ferryman would go and check the person's reliability. In this case, even the person seeking for help was actually a sneaky night watcher, Ferryman could relatively escape easily, and there would be no direct evidence against Granneuve as well.

As long as Lucien could make sure that Ferryman was also from the congress, he was willing to complete the task for the organization to get to Allyn as soon as possible.

Lucien could definitely tell that Ferryman and his people were quite well-trained from the fact that half of the night watchers were drawn away now.

"Everything all right?" asked Brown nervously. The adventurer-looking night watcher just secretly moved close to him and looked like his guard.

"No worries. Some of us just left to check," answered the night watcher calmly. "We got around three or four grand knights here, and more than ten other knights here." As the night watcher said, even though some of Brown's guards were gone, the security was still reliable.

Brown took a glance at Viscount Wright and the other knights, feeling a bit relieved.

However, at this time, an arrow covered with blue light flew directly toward Brown fiercely.

Without doubt, the power of the arrow was at least from a knight-level archer!

Within a blink, the arrow was already right in front of Brown.

Viscount Wright waved his left hand and summoned a strong gust of wind. Although the wind slowed down the arrow a bit, it did not really deter the momentum.

The archer was at least of a grand knight level, or maybe the bow this archer used was a level three weapon!

However, with the viscount's help, Brown got enough time to activate his divine item again. The white feathers covered him again, and at the same time, the night watcher quickly grabbed Brown's shield and swiftly held it right in front of Brown.

The arrow with great power instantly pierced through the shield and stabbed the feather cover.

As the feathers fell and turned into dust, there were more growing back quickly. Finally, the arrow dropped to the ground. Brown escaped this elaborately planned attack!

The person shooting the arrow from the tower already retreated immediately, followed by the night watcher who was in the disguise of a boatman, who was good at tracking.

Viscount Wright looked quite pissed off. Slightly raising his right hand, Wright sent a couple of his knights to assist the night watchers.

Casually, Lucien lifted his monocle a bit in the crowd. There went another night watcher and quite a few knights.

Lucien was confident that, after this attack, Brown would be less on the alert to a certain degree. After all, in Brown's mind, the attack was already over.

When Lucien got closer to Brown, he could see the amulet hanging on his neck now looked quite dim. Brown supposedly only had one more chance to activate it.

The tactic was put forward by Lucien. No matter what method the people from the congress would use, Lucien asked for two rounds of diversions.

"The shield is damaged, and the Angel Feather can only be activated one more time. Shall we leave right now?" asked Brown nervously.

"Calm down, Mr. Brown," responded the night watcher. "Their attack did not get you, and our people are everywhere right now. No one would dare come at you. Besides, if there was only me protecting you to go back home, it would be even more dangerous. Perhaps that cunning sorcerers are just waiting for you to go back home. Stay here, and you're with a lot of knights present. It's safer."

Brown took a glance at Viscount Wright. If it were not because of his help, he might be dead already. So, he nodded, "All right."

Although many of the nobles were frightened by the arrow, the fact that many knights and even grand knights were around today soon set them at ease. Besides, they also did not want to offend Saugus, the owner of the museum.

Although many wax art enthusiasts were also gathering in front of the museum, most of the common people here could not afford the entry fee—twenty Nars.

Carrying a black leather suitcase, Lucien walked toward the gate in a decent manner.

Seeing Lucien's elegant bearing and his fine suit, the two guards standing there said to him politely, "Twenty Nars, please, sir. And we needed to check your suitcase."

"Sure," answered Lucien in a Djibouti accent, "I've just arrived here to attend the opening ceremony. And this is my luggage."

As he opened his suitcase, a couple dozens of shining Thales mixed with some decent clothes immediately caught the guards' eyes.

After receiving fifty Nars from Lucien, the two guards bowed to him and let him in very politely.

Together with his black suitcase, Lucien walked into the museum.

It was a special suitcase. At the bottom of it, there was a very secret layer underneath.