‘No, I can’t haggle with him. That guy might have no plan to hand John’s body to me and gave me such a huge price to deter me. If we don’t accept, he’ll use that perfectly legitimate reason to hang John’s corpse at the entrance of Neverwinter City.
‘He will let the reputation of the Gilded Rose deter those bandits and other forces.
‘That must be it, he definitely doesn’t want to give us the corpse… But we can’t let him take it away.’
With these thoughts rapidly surging in his head, Pass made a decision.
With an embarrassed expression, he said, “Sir Mafa Merlin, this is a huge quantity and I don’t have the right to make a decision nor can I take them out of storage. After all, these are high-quality materials.
“Please wait a bit, I’ll report to the family to hear their decision, it won’t take too long.”
Pass sent the list of materials back to the Rodney Family and obtained an answer in less than five minutes. It was a message from the Elder Council with one word:
[Deal]
Seeing that word, Pass sighed in relief. His main goal was to get John’s corpse back, the rest wasn’t too important.
“Sir Mafa Merlin, the family has already agreed to your conditions, but there are too many materials and we need time. Please wait an hour.”
Lin Yun nodded and calmly waited.
An hour passed when a Spatial Door was slowly opened. A 2nd Rank Heaven powerhouse walked out from within and handed five Spatial Rings to Pass.
Pass took the Spatial Rings and handed them to Lin Yun.
“Sir Mafa Merlin, you can check the materials. Once you are done, the transaction can be completed.”
Lin Yun unceremoniously opened the Spatial Rings and checked the materials before inwardly sneering without saying anything.
Having received the materials, Lin Yun handed over John’s body to Pass.
“Sir Pass, please inform me if there is another Death Sickle-like bandit group, I’ll always be happy to help your Rodney Family take care of it.”
After saying those words, Lin Yun flew away and disappeared in the sky.
Lin Yun didn’t fly far before entering his Demiplane. He flew over the mana lake and crushed the five Spatial Rings over the mana lake.
The Spatial Rings exploded and the materials contained within rained down over the mana lake.
Then, Lin Yun condensed the mana lake’s Mana Water into a huge water dragon which wrapped around the materials. The extremely pure mana washed over the materials, and not only did it improve the texture of the materials, it had an even more important effect, it washed away all imprints left inside.
As long as the imprints were within the scope of normal Laws, they would be completely cleansed.
Lin Yun didn’t believe that these materials had imprints left by powerhouses who ignited their Godfire. Would the Rodney Family still negotiate with the Gilded Rose if they had that kind of powerhouse? A finger snap would have been enough to kill Lin Yun from several thousand kilometers and no one would have felt that abnormal.
The Rodney Family clearly didn’t have good intentions when they straightforwardly agreed to pay the materials. They might have planned to dispatch people to ambush Lin Yun afterward.
Lin Yun was the true owner of the Gilded Rose, if he died, the Gilded Rose would be unable to withstand the Rodney Family. It wouldn’t be difficult to annex it.
Unfortunately for them, Lin Yun had already expected the Rodney Family’s trick and had a plan against it.
The first thing to do was to cleanse the items. Unless the imprints were left by a powerhouse that could alter Laws like Agalon, no imprint could resist the cleansing of the mana lake.
After cleansing them, Lin Yun sorted all the materials once and a smile could be seen on his face.
The previous losses of materials and items still couldn’t compare to the value of these materials, these materials were twice as valuable.
Once these materials were turned into alchemy items, the benefits would be several dozen times higher.
Not to mention, he had used a corpse to rip off the Rodney Family, and the price he demanded was just at the limit of what the Rodney Family could accept. They would definitely accept after considering it, even if they weren’t pleased.
In any case, the conflict with the Rodney Family would definitely not stop there. The Rodney Family would have been humiliated if that corpse was hung at the entrance of Neverwinter City, and they would have continued to set themselves against the Gilded Rose.
They were anxious to bring the corpse back and they would still set themselves against the Gilded Rose. Since the outcome wouldn’t change, he might as well extort the Rodney Family to recoup for the losses of the Gilded Rose.
After thoroughly cleansing the materials, he stored them into a new Spatial Ring and left the Demiplane. Once he left the Demiplane, Lin Yun opened a Spatial Door leading outside of Neverwinter City.
Several Elders of the Rodney Family became enraged. Lin Yun left Pass’ line of sight for less than a minute, but just as they started the tracking array, they discovered that it was ineffective and that the imprints had thoroughly disappeared.
There was no reaction from imprints on the Spatial Rings and on the materials, as if those imprints had been erased in an instant.
Lin Yun’s Natural Demiplane was reinforced with several dozen kilograms of Eternal Dark Gold, which merged with the Natural Demiplane as it evolved. The Demiplane’s defensive abilities were unimaginably powerful, it was a kind of isolation defense.
Even if the Natural Demiplane truly became a world in the future, it was absolutely impossible for anyone to discover and go through the Natural Demiplane’s Planar Path.
Those imprints were nothing more than a joke…
If not because he wanted to use the materials in Noscent, Lin Yun wouldn’t have used Mana Water to cleanse the imprints.
“Damn, how did he discover the imprints? There was at least over a million kilograms of materials, how did he discover the three imprints hidden there?!
“B*stard, crafty b*stard, we actually let him take away all the precious materials. Our family’s stock of material is going to affect our family stores!” An Elder angrily roared inside the Rodney Family’s conference room.
Another seemingly sinister Elder frowned and thought for a bit before saying, “I think that Mafa Merlin must have discovered that John was a Rodney. Why else would he suddenly kill John when he was about to cast a steel spell.
“He definitely wanted to capture John alive to negotiate with our Rodney family and ruthlessly blackmail us.
“Even with John’s death, he used his corpse to extort us.”
These words silenced everyone. After a few seconds, an Elder ground his teeth, “This can’t continue, we can’t let Mafa Merlin and his Gilded Rose continue to run rampant.
“Since the Death Sickle was crippled, we have to think of another method, we can’t let this continue. Since Mafa Merlin could rapidly discover these imprints and erase them, it means that his alchemy mastery has already reached a terrifying level.
“It was said that since its founding, the Gilded Rose has been relying on Mafa Merlin’s techniques. Even now, the Gilded Rose’s first-rate goods are all made personally by Mafa Merlin.
“Those potions for Heaven Rank powerhouses all came from Mafa Merlin.
“We have to think of a way to get rid of Mafa Merlin. If we can’t kill Mafa Merlin, we will have to keep suppressing the Gilded Rose, and if this continues, our family businesses would take a loss. We might lose a huge share of the alchemy items’ market in the northern part of the Odin Kingdom.
“We can’t do anything else regarding this matter, we must report to our ancestor. This already relates to our Family’s status.”
A few Elders looked at each other, and then, under the leadership of the Great Elder, they entered the depths of the Rodney Family’s territory. There was nothing alive within dozens of kilometers.
There was no vegetation inside, only countless pieces of steel. It looked like a Puppet Plane, but there were no lifeforms within. There was a dense concentration of ice elements, wind elements, and fire elements, but the density of earth elements could only be described as terrifying. The gravity was also terrifying.
After reaching that place, the group of Heaven Rank Elders had to raise their shields to keep moving forward.
After walking for a few hours, they arrived at a flat outdoor mine with a large number of steel pillars in front of it. All the pillars had a large number of runes and alchemy patterns. As they went deeper and deeper, the gravity grew stronger and stronger.
After walking for ten more minutes, the group of elders stopped in front of a steel house.
“Ancestor, we have something important to report…”
After the Great Elder finished reporting everything, the door of the steel house slowly opened and an old mage with steel-like beard and hair walked out. He was followed by a youth seemingly in his twenties.
The old mage looked at these elders and coldly snorted.
“Useless.”
No one dared to say anything when faced with the anger of the ancestor of the Rodney Family.
After a few minutes, the ancestor spoke again, “I’m on the verge of a breakthrough, and at the most crucial part. I won’t handle it myself.”
Hearing these words from the ancestor of the Rodney Family pleasantly surprised the few elders. They then kept congratulating him.
The ancestor of the Rodney Family waved his hand and interrupted them.
“This matter will be handled by Wilder. You all know how talented Wilder is. I’ve had him follow after me since he was a child. I personally instructed him and let him learn the steel spells of our family before he reached the Heaven Rank and he even reached the Heaven Rank before 35.
“It is time to let him leave this place. You guys go back first. I’ll let Wilder complete his final training during these few days before letting him take control over the Rodney Family. When the time comes, I’ll let Wilder take care of that Mafa Merlin.”
After the few elders left, the ancestor led Wilder to a huge array.
“Wilder, you are far more talented than I ever was. It is time to perform the ritual to let you truly master the Rodney Family’s powerful steel spells.
“Although this ritual has the side-effect of overdrafting one’s potential, it will let you fight longer and make you stronger. Other mages of the same rank won’t be your match.
“When the time comes, you’ll go out and deal with Mafa Merlin and the Gilded Rose. This is the most crucial step for you to truly take charge of the Rodney Family. If you do well, you’ll easily convince the inner circle of our Rodney Family.
“But don’t do anything for the time being. I discovered that the Great Astrologian seems to be paying attention to him, we might get on his bad side if we make a move now. Let me observe for now.”
Wilder proudly sneered, “Those useless relatives actually let an Andlusa country bumpkin sh*t all over them, they have truly soiled the reputation of our Rodney Family.
“Rest assured, ancestor. Once I’m back, that Mafa Merlin will be repenting at the entrance of our Rodney Family. As for the Gilded Rose, if they refuse to serve me, destruction is all that awaits them.”
The ancestor nodded.
“Indeed, the members of our Rodney Family should be like this. This is just a small test, when you complete the ritual, that Mafa Merlin will be no different than an ant you can casually crush.
“Alright, enter the center of the array.”
The ancestor started the ritual once Wilder reached the center of this kilometer-wide array.
The array was rapidly activated after the ritual started. Wilder’s blood seeped into the array and the vitality of the earth and steel aura started pouring into Wilder’s body. Painful howls echoed outward as Wilder’s aura frantically increased.
After three days, Wilder’s aura had already reached the 4th Rank of the Heaven Realm. His clothes were already shattered and the right side of his body had turned silver-white like steel. His right cheek seemed to be assimilated by steel and his eye turned pure black with his pupil becoming blood red, he truly looked like a puppet. Even his hair became like the ancestor’s, it was just like steel needles.
At this time, the array’s light thoroughly dissipated and Wilder squeezed his right first. Suddenly, the air in front of it exploded as if it had been forcibly compressed.
Wilder’s voice was shaking, “I’m so powerful! Ancestor! 4th Rank Heaven Mage!”
The ancestor had a satisfied smile on his face, “Not bad! I knew that you would definitely reach the 4th Rank with your talent. Ever since the foundation of our Family, you are the only one that reached the 4th Rank of the Heaven realm after the ritual. This shows that your potential is very deep. You’ll definitely surpass me in the future. Wilder, you really didn’t disappoint me.
“Once you get used to your power, your skin won’t look like a puppet’s.”
Three days later, Wilder visited the Rodney Family. With his strength as a 4th Rank Heaven Mage, he awed all the elders, especially when he showed his half steel body. None of the elders of the Rodney Family refused to acknowledge him. Even Toursse, the extremely arrogant Necromancer, lowered his head.
Almost all of the direct descendants of the Rodney Family were earth mages. They had natural affinity towards earth magic, and researching earth magic was very easy for them. Many members of the Rodney Family would comprehend the Earth Law and they had many rock mages.
But everyone knew that the Rodney Family’s strongest mages weren’t earth mages or rock mages, but steel mages.
The most intuitive way to judge a steel mage was to check how much of their body could be transformed into steel after completing the ritual. The greater the ratio, the more powerful the steel spells they could cast.
Someone like Wilder who could transform half of his body, and even half of his head, was a first in the Rodney Family. And with Wilder’s strength as a 4th Rank Heaven Mage, no one dared to go against him.
Looking at the elders lowering their heads, Wilder proudly smiled.
‘If it was up to me, I would just go get rid of Mafa Merlin, there is nothing easier. A fool that recently advanced to the 3rd Rank of the Heaven realm can’t compare to a 4th Rank Heaven Mage, I’m on another level.
‘Everyone knows that the gap between a 3rd Rank Heaven Mage and a 4th Rank Heaven Mage is a lot bigger than the gap between a 1st Rank and a 2nd Rank. With my current strength, getting rid of Mafa Merlin is just too easy.
‘The Great Astrologian paying attention to Mafa Merlin? This must be a joke. The Great Astrologian is an existence whose power can’t be estimated even by my ancestor. How could he pay attention to Mafa Merlin?
‘Even if that’s truly the case, it must have been caused by Mafa Merlin’s alchemy abilities. Moreover, even if he really got the Great Astrologian’s interest, he would completely forget about Mafa Merlin after some time.
‘Since those were the instructions of the ancestor, I shall listen to them. It would be bad if we got on the Great Astrologian’s bad side.
‘Let’s deal with the Gilded Rose first…’
“I made a decision. We will first suppress the Gilded Rose on the alchemy market so that it can no longer survive. Let’s see what you have done. You just dispatched people to steal the Gilded Rose’s materials? What’s the point? Although the Gilded Rose’s supply decreased, they still have some, right?
“What we need to do is to thoroughly sever their supply of materials. So what if they have the technology, they can’t make items without materials!”
An elder frowned.
“Unless we completely cut off the golden trade path, it would be impossible to completely cut off the Gilded Rose’s supply of materials.
“The Gilded Rose only needs to use the crests of other families on their convoys and we can’t attack them. After all, the golden trade path is the most important trade route between the Andlusa Kingdom and the Odin Kingdom.
“We only attacked the convoys of the Gilded Rose. If we attack convoys of other families, or directly cut off the golden trade path, we wouldn’t just be offending one or two families…”
