Translator: Atlas Studios Editor: Atlas Studios
In the beginning, Cantory didn’t quite understand it, but he soon came up with an explanation. He thought Harquess probably wanted to record the mageweath, and then use it as evidence against Lin Li in the future.
However, no one expected that the memory crystal in the mageweath above would emit a cracking sound all of a sudden as it immediately cracked before exploding entirely. The information contained in the mageweath had already exceeded the storage limit of the Memory Crystal. That just showed that the level of the mageweath was probably far greater than Harquess expected.
The Memory Crystal did not save the image of the mageweath, and instead exploded in an unbelievable manner. Of course, Cantory didn’t think that it was caused by the mageweath, but rather he felt that it might have been caused by Harquess’ operational error in a moment of anger.
However, Cantory could not state it explicitly, and merely persuaded, “Harquess, there’s actually no need to record that information, we just need to get a few people to bear witness, and it’ll completely count as evidence.”
Hearing Cantory’s words, Harquess’ eyes lit up, but he did not leave the mageweath there for others to keep an eye on it. Instead, he cast his Eight Arms magic spell, and the eight magic arms began to revolve around the mageweath and blast towards the surroundings. Soon, a deep pit was formed in the ground below the mageweath. Immediately afterwards, the eight magic arms landed on the edge, and with a massive sound, they actually lifted up the entire ground that that mageweath was on.
“Cantory, excuse me, I have to go back to handle something urgent. I’ll get going now!” After saying that, Harquess did not wait for Cantory to reply to him as he simply propped himself up against the ground using those eight arms. He propelled into the sky and flew swiftly in a certain direction.
Watching Harquess leave, Cantory finally smiled. In his opinion, the Octopus Clan would definitely form a feud with the Tower of Dusk!
On the other hand, Harquess flew all the way to a large lake near Hopra City while holding the large stone slab in hand. There was a large and luxurious palace in the center of the lake, where there was a mass of large shadows in the water. Clearly, the building under the surface of the water was even more majestic. The palace was the Tide Palace of the Octopus Clan, and could also be considered the Octopus Clan’ embassy in the Gilded Kingdom.
Although the Sea Clan could move on land, the environment in the water was obviously more comfortable for them. That was the reason that the Sea Clan preferred to stay in their palace built in the lake, unlike the emissaries of other forces or nations who chose to live in the embassies provided by the Gilded Kingdom.
Hence, the Octopus Clan was not the only one that had a palace like the Tide Palace. There were a few other powerful Sea Clans that also had similar palaces. Anyway, even if there wasn’t a natural lake available, they had the strength and ability to dig up a large lake. Hence, the capital of the Gilded Kingdom, Hopra City, was surrounded by dozens of lakes of various sizes, which seemed to form a unique landscape.
Harquess landed on the platform of the Tide Palace like a meteor, and two Octopus Clan guards immediately greeted him. When they saw the stone slab that Harquess was holding up, the two guards couldn’t help but be astonished, but they quickly suppressed it, and went forward to salute him with great respect. “Greetings, Lord!”
Harquess acknowledged them with a nod. After flying, his mood had gradually calmed down a little. Immediately afterwards, he asked, “Have the Great Monarch and the elders returned yet? What are they doing now?”
“Lord, the Great Monarch and the elders have just returned from the Red Sea Palace, they shouldn’t have gone to rest yet,” an Octopus Clan guard answered respectfully.
Like the Tide Palace of the Octopus Clan, the Red Sea Palace was the palace of the Giant Shark Clan, which was another large clan of the Sea Clan in the Gilded Kingdom. The Octopus Clan was famous for their knowledge and expertise in inscriptions, while the Giant Shark Clan dominated with their strong combat power, especially the elite Giant Shark Clan knights whose combat prowess was simply invincible in the Endless Ocean.
When Harquess went to look for Cantory, his father, the Great Monarch Hegel, and a few elders had gone to visit the Red Sea Palace of the Giant Shark Clan. As soon as Harquess returned, he asked if his father and the elders had returned. He was so anxious that he didn’t want to wait any longer.
After hearing the guards say that father and others had returned, Harquess immediately held up the large stone slab, and darted towards the Tide Palace without any delay. Although the Tide Palace was large, Harquess was eager and desperate as he flew almost without stopping towards the palace that his father resided in while holding up the stone slab. If not for the fact that the guards in the palace knew who Harquess was, they would have probably thought that someone was there to wreck the palace because there was no reason to hold up such a large slab of stone.
Arriving at the door of his father’s palace, Harquess said to the guards at the door, “Go in and tell them that I have an urgent matter to see the Great Monarch for.”
Although Harquess would at most only be chided a few times by his father if he went in directly without notice because of his father’s love towards him, his father Hegel, the Great Monarch of the Octopus Clan, was not the only one present this time. There was also an existence that he was very afraid of. Even his father Hegel had to be respectful to the other party.
After going in to inform them of Harquess’ arrival, the guard soon came out, and said to Harquess, “The Great Monarch has asked you to enter—”
However, before he could finish his words, he felt a gust of wind blowing in front of him as Harquess vanished without a trace.
By the time Harquess arrived at the palace, he saw the Great Monarch of the Octopus Clan, Hegel, sitting at a table and flipping through the inscription notes of his ancestor. Hearing the sound of Harquess entering, and without even turning around to look at him, Hegel indifferently said, “Didn’t you go on a tour with Cantory? What is the urgent matter that you’re here to see me for?”
“Father, there is an urgent matter. I’ve brought something here, please have a look at it!” Harquess said while placing the stone slab heavily on the ground in the middle of the palace. Although the stone slab was not very heavy, he had used the eight magic arms to carry it all the way over to the palace. Hence, it had been quite a considerable burden for him. Besides, he had previously already depleted a great amount of his mental strength, making it quite a taxing task for him to hold up until now.
Hearing the sound of the slab hitting the ground, Great Monarch Hegel then shifted his attention away from the notes, and turned to look at his son. Seeing the slab on the ground, he couldn’t help but frown slightly, and said, “What is this? It looks pretty new too. You didn’t get duped by the scheming human merchants again, did you?”
Hegel did not see the mageweath on the stone slab. It was not that he had bad eyesight, but rather that Harquess placed it in the wrong direction. Hegel naturally didn’t expect his son to have dislodged the stone slab of a store on the street. The slab was decades old, so he thought that a sly human merchant had sold it to his son as a fake relic.
“No, Father, this is…” Harquess finally caught his breath, and realized that he had placed the slab with the wrong side up. With a bitter smile, he then said, “Father, please look at the other side, I don’t have the strength to turn it over now, so…”
“Huh?” Hegel finally realized that his son was exhausted, and the fluctuations of his mental strength had also weakened. It was as if he had just experienced an intense life and death battle. He quickly asked, “Whom did you fight with, was it the punk of the Thunder Eel clan?”
The Thunder Eel Clan was another dominant Sea Clan. Unlike the Giant Shark Clan, the Thunder Eel Clan was considered the mages of the Sea Clan as they had the magic talent to manipulate lightning. There was also the most contact between the Thunder Eel Clan and the Octopus Clan due to the fact that they were connected by sea.
The Octopus Clan had produced a genius, Harquess, but the Thunder Eel Clan was not inferior. There was a genius named Manson who was similar to Harquess, but he had already reached the Sanctuary-realm. Geniuses tended to compete with each other. Despite the good relationship between the Octopus Clan and the Thunder Eel Clan, Harquess and Manson, the respective geniuses of the two clans, would fight almost as soon as they saw each other.
Hearing his father’s words, Harquess smiled bitterly, and said, “Father, it’s not Manson. Please look at the other side of that stone slab.”
Seeing that his son had insisted that he look at the stone slab, Harquess didn’t say anything else, and simply waved his hand with a look of suspicion to turn the stone slab over. Initially, Hegel also thought that nothing remarkable would come out of such an ordinary stone slab, but when he really saw the mageweath on the stone slab, he immediately became as shocked as Harquess was at first as he got immersed in it.
Seeing that his father had begun to study that mageweath, Harquess was full of expectations. As the Great Monarch of the Octopus Clan, Hegel’s attainments in inscription were naturally not what Harquess could compare to, and the former’s mental strength was also greater. Therefore, in Harquess’ opinion, although this mageweath had stumped him, his father would definitely be able to figure it out.
However, as the time passed, Hegel still hadn’t come out of that state, decreasing Harquess’ expectations by the minute. At the same time, panic also arose within Harquess’ heart. If his father couldn’t figure it out, either, how terrifying must the inscription attainments of the human, Felic, be?!
10 minutes passed very quickly, and Hegel finally humphed coldly before stumbling backwards with a pale face. Harquess came to a sudden realization, and hurriedly went forth to hold his father. “Father, this mageweath…”
Hegel slowed down a little, regained his balance, and then said to Harquess, “Harquess, where did you get this mageweath from? I can tell that you drew this mageweath, but why has it gone beyond your realm?”
Hegel naturally saw the traces of his son’s drawing on the mageweath on the stone slab a long time ago. Hence, at the beginning, he thought that Harquess had gotten a breakthrough, and thus brought the mageweath over to let Hegel evaluate it. However, after he started his scrutiny, he discovered that the level of the mageweath was far from what his son could draw.
Not daring to hide the truth, Harquess told his father everything about how he and Cantory met Lin Li at the market, and then asked to compete with Lin Li in inscription. Of course, he didn’t say that he had taken the initiative to provoke Lin Li, and instead said that he just wanted to spar with Lin Li because he could tell that Lin Li was good at inscription.
After speaking, Harquess could not help but further ask, “Father, please look at this mageweath. What level is it at? Why did Felic cause such a huge change in my mageweath after just sprinkling some ink on it?”
However, after hearing his son’s question, Hegel had no choice but to shake his head with a bitter smile, and said, “I think we should consult Elder Gido and Elder Kazar about this mageweath. Maybe they can tell some of the mystery within it.”
Harquess was dumbfounded. The main thing was that his father said that maybe the elders might be able to tell what the mageweath was. In that case, what level is the mageweath at, and how did Felic create such a terrifying mageweath just by splashing some ink onto it?!
While Harquess was spacing out, Hegel did not delay, and immediately asked someone to invite the two elders Quito and Kazar to come over. By the time Harquess came back to his senses, the two elders were already in front of the stone slab. However, just like Hegel, the two elders got engrossed in studying the mageweath for 10 minutes, but they snapped out of it at the same time, both looking extremely exhausted.
“Great Monarch, I think we’d better ask Elder Hayes to come over. This mageweath is simply not something we can figure out,” Elder Quito said with a bitter expression. He had already heard about the origin of this stone slab, and the thought of the fact that he had been stumped by a human inscriber even though the Octopus Clan was famous for inscriptions made him have an ominous feeling.
Elder Kazar, who was at the side, sighed. “However, I reckon that even Elder Hayes might not be able to figure this out. According to my experience, I’m afraid the level of this mageweath is at the peak of the Guru-level.”
“What? Peak of the Guru-level?!” Harquess was in disbelief. That human mage is so young, how can he be a Guru of Inscription?!
The Octopus Clan had long lifespans, with the average being 1,000 years. Being more than 300 years old, Harquess was considered a young man, and he had also studied inscriptions for more than 200 years. With Harquess’s talent, reaching the level of a Master of Inscription in 200 years was a rare feat. He was considered a genius. Yet, the human inscriber actually managed to reach the Guru-level in his early twenties, which was terrifying. Even if he had started learning inscriptions as a fetus, he would have only studied it for 20-odd years. How terrifying must his talent be?!
The four people who had been stumped by the mageweath dared not look at it again, because their gazes would be attracted to it as soon as they looked at it. With their current mental strength, they could no longer withstand the terrifying depletion. If it was just ordinary people, they might not be able to read it, but the Octopus Clan was good at inscription by nature. Hence, the attraction of such a profound mageweath seemed to penetrate to the depths of their souls, and make them suffer greater damage.
