Translator: Shiraishi Editor: TheAlliance
But if they were powerful enough to capture the Horn of Fertility themselves, would they send someone to contact the Merlin Family to suggest a collaboration?
That would obviously be illogical…
After all, the relationship between the Merlin Family and the Watson Family was clear to all. From the 3rd Dynasty till now, it has been millennia of enmity.
Countless years ago, Lorr Merlin came out of the Ancestral Land and followed the old king to establish the Andlusa Kingdom. Only then did the declining Merlin Family take a turn for the better and slowly begin to grow. But during this time, the Watson Family didn’t stop trying to suppress the Merlin Family. Only the two Ancestral Lands knew how many conflicts happened, both in the open and under the table.
This kind of rancor simply couldn’t be defused.
If they had any other choice, how could the Watson Family give their rival a chance to get stronger?
To be more precise, the Watson Family’s power in the Raging Flame Plane was still a bit lacking when compared to the remaining third of the army guarding the Horn of Fertility.
If they used all their power and paid a high price, they might barely pull off a victory, but defending the fort afterwards would be unrealistic.
The Watson Family needed an ally.
An ally that could share the risks.
Thus, they thought of the Merlin Family and dispatched Mark to the Flame Demon Fort to propose that they join forces.
However, they didn’t want the Merlin Family to get too many benefits from this collaboration.
Mark clearly remembered that before leaving, Patriarch Karl repeated a few times that when meeting the commander of the Merlin Family, he would have to stand firm and keep the benefits of the Merlin Family to a minimum.
On the way, Mark had been restless. Although he had become an Archmage in his thirties and not many youths in the entire Andlusa Kingdom could compare to him, his counterpart would be a commander of the Merlin Family, in control of all their forces in the Raging Flame Plane. He should be at least a high-ranked Sword Saint or Archmage. When facing such a commander, he would have a hard time maintaining an unyielding attitude.
But when he actually reached the Flame Demon Fort and personally met the commander, he saw that he had been very wrong. Not only was the Merlin Family’s commander not a high-ranked Archmage, he wasn’t even an Archmage at all! He was merely a 6th Rank High Mage.
Mark couldn’t help taking a deep look at Lin Yun. But at this time, rushed footsteps could be heard outside the reception, soon followed by an aged voice. “High Mage Merlin, I’m very sorry for making you wait.”
The new arrival was Weiss from the Black Tower. This Representative was smiling widely, to the point that even his eyes were squinting. He even lowered his posture as he said those words.
After all, he had no choice but to be cautious when faced with this young mage…
In their recent collaboration, the Black Tower had deliberately concealed the existence of the totem. This was wrong in itself. Naturally, they did want to compensate for it afterwards to avoid any ill will. As part of this, the Peak True Spirit Totem fell into the hands of the Black Tower, but it only stayed there for a dozen or so hours before being delivered to the Flame Demon Fort.
And today was the day that they had agreed that it would be returned.
“Haha, it’s nothing…” Lin Yun clearly understood what Weiss was thinking of, but he didn’t mind too much. Although the Totem was a Peak True Spirit Magic Tool, it had no worth to humans, so he had no interest in keeping it. He only borrowed it because he needed it to break through the defensive power of the Raising Dragon Array.
“Err… May I ask if you need more time with it?” Weiss stood there looking a bit awkward, not sure what he should or shouldn’t say.
If Weiss said anything that could be received as a provocation, although the young mage would remain expressionless, he was bound to be dissatisfied. So Weiss had to be careful with his words.
He just hoped the young mage would return it as agreed, because otherwise, he wouldn’t be able to give a proper explanation to Harren.
“Haha, what are you saying? How could I be shameless enough to keep it…” Lin Yun scratched his cheek and chuckled bitterly. He knew for sure that the Black Tower wouldn’t find anything abnormal regarding the totem. He had read in the decaying library that after the Black Tower obtained the totem, all the Representatives were gathered and started studying the totem intensively. Only after over two months did they conclude that no human could use the totem.
But right now, the Black Tower just saw it as a Peak True Spirit Magic Tool, comparable in power to a Peak Archmage on its own.
It was very generous of Harren to let him have the totem for half a month.
“Al… Alright…” Weiss had been on edge this whole time. He was only able to relax after hearing the young mage’s tone. But at this time, with his sharp insight as a 6th Rank Archmage, Weiss suddenly felt an unfriendly stare lock onto him.
‘What’s going on?’ he thought to himself as he looked at the only other person there.
“Do you know how severe the consequences of disturbing our negotiation are?” Mark pointed at Weiss sinisterly, looking extremely malevolent.
He was extremely angry…
They had reached a crucial point in the negotiations. He was only waiting for the young commander to nod his head so that they could draft the contract. Then, the majority of the land in the Horn of Fertility would belong to the Watson Family.
But an old geezer suddenly rushed in and kept blabbering nonstop, apparently coming to pick something up.
What he couldn’t tolerate was that he interrupted their negotiation for such a trivial matter.
This was truly annoying!
“Ah?”
Weiss was a bit stunned… He felt as if his mind couldn’t catch up because he didn’t get what was going on.
It wasn’t too surprising that he was confused…
The Black Tower was one of the two major mage forces of the Andlusa Kingdom. As for Weiss himself, he had joined the Council of Seven and was standing at the peak of the 6th Rank of the Archmage realm while also being a Great Master of the Wind Element. He could match a 7th Rank Archmage in battle, and few people in the upper circle of Okland dared to not respect him.
After thinking for a moment, he looked at Lin Yun and then looked at the angry young mage in a white robe pointing at him. Clearly, the aggressive words had been directed at Weiss himself.
Weiss’ expression suddenly turned unpleasant…
Normally, this Representative of the Black Tower would have already burst into anger when a newly advanced Archmage provoked him like this, but Weiss had to suppress his anger because he was thinking, ‘What if that white-robed young man is Mafa Merlin’s friend?’
Thinking of this, Weiss relaxed his expression somewhat. “May I ask who you are?”
But the young genius of the Watson Family didn’t notice all this. He looked at Weiss very sinisterly as he said in an ice-cold voice, “Old man, don’t you know that you have already disturbed our negotiations? If you still haven’t disappeared within a minute, even Mafa Merlin won’t be able to save you, as you will have to face the wrath of an Archmage…”
Mark felt that these words were clear enough. But after recalling something, he sneered, “You might not be qualified to know who I am, but it does feel necessary. You should know of the famous Watson Family, right? I am the youngest Archmage of the entire Watson Family, Mark Watson!”
“I only know of someone called Karl in the Watson Family…” Weiss no longer seemed to be able to restrain himself. His icy voice was bone-chilling. He had originally been worried that this person was a friend of Mafa Merlin.
But it now seemed like this was out of question…
Although he had been spending most of his time in the Dark Azure Plane and rarely visited Okland, he knew that the Merlin Family and the Watson Family didn’t have a very harmonious relationship with each other. They kept clashing, both in the open and in the dark. The enmity between them was hard to dissolve.
After learning of Mark’s identity, Weiss no longer had any misgivings.
In an instant, the anger he had kept suppressing suddenly burst out. Although he didn’t make any movements, the pressure of a high ranked Archmage instantly spread, filling the reception room with an indescribable pressure.
Boundless wind elements appeared, forming a hurricane that tore through the air itself.
“The youths of the Watson Family are becoming more and more outrageous…” Weiss shook his head.
He looked like an ordinary old man with his thin body and his gray hair, but his words just now had a kind of indescribable power. Just this sentence made everyone feel his boundless might.
“You… You are challenging the Watson Family!”
This sudden change, and especially that horrifying pressure, scared Mark Watson. He was dripping cold sweat and he clearly felt intimidated when faced with the power the old man was emitting, but he couldn’t show weakness at this point.
He truly hadn’t expected that this seemingly ordinary old man, who had been speaking humbly to Mafa Merlin, would be so terrifying.
He could tell that the owner of such power definitely couldn’t be an ordinary Archmage. He had to be a genuine high-ranked Archmage.
What did that mean?
Even the Watson Family, which had a foundation of a few millennia, didn’t have many such powerhouses, and every one of them had important positions within the Family.
But he couldn’t understand why this high-ranked Archmage was so respectful towards Mafa Merlin, a mere High Mage.
No, he hadn’t just shown respect… He was also very cautious with his choice of words and was clearly afraid of dissatisfying the young mage.
