Translator: Dragon Boat Translation Editor: Dragon Boat Translation
The magic crystals Sunier had delivered was a godsend for Han Jin. Without any explanation, he entered into a deep meditative state which lasted several days and nights. Aside from occasionally replenishing his vital energy with the magic crystals, he did not move at all. Luckily, Moxinke, Sunier, and the rest were all independent-minded people; they were used to listening to Han Jin’s opinion when he was present, but even if he wasn’t, they could continue with whatever they needed to do without any issues.
The busiest among them was Sunier, who spent her days running around and occasionally checking on Han Jin through his window. Clearly, she had something to say, but since Han Jin would never leave his bed, she knew he was cultivating, and could only walk away disappointed.
One day, near midnight, Sunier ran into Yalina near the front gate. The moment Sunier saw her, she started to complain, “Yalina, what were you doing this whole time? I was trying to find you for the entire morning!”
“Winston led me through the majority of Isolated Cliff City, but I still couldn’t find a satisfactory magic lab. Sunier, you don’t understand how much precision the enchanting process requires. Destroying the precious materials is only a secondary concern; sometimes, any small mistake can cause an elemental explosion! Sigh… if only we were in the City of Elements,” Yalina said with a long face. She suddenly realized that Sunier looked the same as her – with a face filled with worry. Yalina curiously asked, “Sunier, what’s the matter?”
“There’s a lot!” Sunier smiled helplessly.
“Didn’t we finish everything we were supposed to do? What else do we need?”
“The elves from Wild Willow City are here, and they are holding the auction tomorrow. I have to get my hands on some invitations; how else can Chipango’s friend get in?”
“How does he usually get in?” Yalina paused, then smiled. “Besides… aren’t you from Wild Willow City as well? You must know them. Shouldn’t that make this really easy?”
“He usually sneaks in, but now that he needs to properly walk in, what can he do without an invitation?” Sunier’s helpless smile did not go away. “I thought everything would be easy, but I only just realized how many more minor details I have to take care of! How annoying… And all of the elves are from the Chamber of Elders. I don’t know any of them, but now I have to deal with them.”
Yaliana smiled but didn’t reply. In her eyes, as the descendant of the God of War, Abraham, and the Elven Messenger, Doreen, Sunier must wield supreme power among the Elves, and can solve trivial things like this with a mere sentence.
As the saying goes, you don’t know the price of rice if you don’t buy rice. Yalina wouldn’t know about the difficulties Sunier had faced, let alone the reason she had left Wild Willow City. Now, the situation dictated that Sunier must again deal with the elves of the Chamber of Elders. Although she wasn’t personally willing, there were no other ways.
“You know how long it took me to convince them to give me several invitations, and to work with Chipango’s friends?” Sunier said bitterly. “The whole afternoon! Up until a couple minutes ago!”
“Did you not reach a deal?”
“I did, but…”
Judging by Sunnier’s expression, Yalina could tell it was not an enjoyable experience. She promptly tried to comfort her, “But you did reach a deal, so no need to think about it anymore. We should have a meeting later and talk about what exactly we should do tomorrow. Where’s Raphael? Still inside?”
“Mhm.” Sunier nodded. “That’s also troublesome. We will need to try to communicate with Eva tomorrow, but he’s still cultivating. There’s no one to make decisions!”
“It’s unheard of to continuously meditate for several days and nights… It must be related to his strange magic.” Yalina looked thoughtful. “And he sits in such a strange position! I tried to imitate it, but my legs become numb after only a short while – I couldn’t even walk afterward!”
Hearing that, Sunier’s face lit up. Yalina instantly understood and asked, “You tried it too?”
“Mhm, and I didn’t do much better than you. It took me a long time to recover.”
The two of them smiled at each other. Just then, a faint pop came from inside Han Jin’s room. The noise wasn’t loud, but it made both Sunier and Yalina feel uncomfortable, as though someone had knocked on their heart with a hammer, and it made their blood boil.
Sunier and Yalina blanked, then charged into the courtyard. Han Jin’s room was brightly lit, and through the window, they could clearly see that Han Jin had left his bed and was standing in the center of his room. A gleaming long sword was floating in midair and being swung around. Following Han Jin’s gesture, one after another, rays of strange light shot out and slammed into the sword. Following each impact, a piercing bang would ring out.
“What’s happening?!” Sunier’s face was pale, and she felt like a huge hand was squeezing her heart.
“That sound is harmful!” Yalina quickly incanted a spell, and a giant magic barrier immediately appeared, covering Han Jin’s room.
Sunier finally relaxed a little and was just about to speak when Yalina elbowed her. “Look!”
A ball of burning white fire flew up from Han Jin’s palm and lightly bumped into the sword. Instantly, there was an explosion of blinding light. Yalina’s magic barrier blocked the sound, but it couldn’t block the vibration nor the light. The windows immediately shattered and fell, as pillars of light shot out into the sky, lighting up half of the night sky.
Even though the Reaper Mercenary Team’s base wasn’t small, the rooms and courtyards were all next to each other. The anomaly quickly alerted everyone nearby, and even the mercenaries that were patrolling the edge of the city could see the brilliant pillar of light.
As shapes started to approach, Sunier hastily said, “Don’t let anyone see him, hurry!”
Yalina blanked, then casted another magic barrier. The whole room started to blur, and eventually turned into a swarm of mist.
“What happened?!” Reg, who was the closest, arrived first. Next, Gibran and Julia arrived, as well as Winston’s team.
“Raphael was trying to craft a magic sword, but… there’s was an accident,” Sunier explained with difficulty.
“And Raphael? Is he ok?” Reg hurriedly asked.
Sunier’s heart jumped once she heard Reg. She couldn’t see Han Jin, but at this point, she had to keep up the story. Han Jin had many secrets, and before she got his permission, she had a responsibility to keep his secret.
“He’s fine. Don’t worry.” Sunier smiled.
But Sunier was wrong; Han Jin was not in a good situation. The previous two flying swords he had crafted were, at most, unrefined charm swords, which severely limited their power. The only reason Han Jin was able to defeat powerful foes with them was because of the stacking charm swords technique which he had learned from his master. He would have died long ago if all he used was one charm sword.
This time, after absorbing the energy of multiple fire element magic crystals and concentrating them into Three True Flames, he suddenly thought to refine those swords with the Three True Flames. He desperately wanted a true, proper flying sword! Unfortunately, this was his first experience with weapon crafting, and his lack of control over the Three True Flames caused too much trouble.
Winston, Reg, and the rest couldn’t see inside and thought it was a magic barrier Han Jin had told Yalina to cast. They scattered again after some chatter.
Once everyone had finally left, Sunier hurriedly charged into the barrier with Yalina following behind. Han Jin’s room had returned to darkness. With the faint moonlight, Sunier could see through the window that Han Jin had returned to his usual position on the bed, while the floating sword had disappeared.
Seeing that Han Jin was ok, Sunier sighed in relief. Yalina whispered, “Let’s go. I have a feeling that he’s at a crucial moment; we shouldn’t distract him. I’ll seal off this whole area with a magic matrix later.”Read more chapter on vipnovel
“Alright.” Sunier nodded.
* * *
Hallister walked into the shop, saw the the Ancient Elvish on the sign, and finally sighed in relief. His future might be forever changed once he stepped into the gate in front of him. The Moonlight Perfume auction was today, and after much probing in private, Hallister firmly believed that Han Jin was, in fact, a Dragon Slayer. He knew full well that this might be his one chance of reaching a superior-grade, and that he might not get another for the rest of his life. Because of his excitement, Hallister squeezed his fist so hard that his knuckles turned white.
“Young Master, it’s time to go in,” Gail elegantly bowed. He was the butler for the Grand Count of the City of Elements and naturally, had a deep understanding of various etiquettes.
Glancing at Gail, Hallister relaxed a bit. What did he have to worry about? What couldn’t he do with a dragon slayer supporting him? Besides, he wasn’t going into a battlefield either – he just had to deal with a woman. Thinking of that, his usual lazy smile reappeared on his face. When it came to women, he never lacked any confidence.
Straightening his chest, Hallister finally took a step and entered the gate.
Although the store’s exterior looked ancient and not at all grandiose, a surprisingly spacious hall brightened the eyes of everyone who stepped into the store, and gave them a spontaneous feeling of freedom.
A chandelier made from hundreds of magic lanterns hung from the ceiling, and each lantern had complicated hollow patterns that obviously came from the hands of master craftsmen. As the light shone through these patterns, countless obscure Ancient Elvish symbols were projected onto the walls, and even more mysteriously, these symbols slowly rotated in all sorts of directions. It turned out that the giant chandelier was spinning, and although the mechanism didn’t appear to be very complicated, anyone who could read Ancient Elvish would notice that, to their astonishment, every time the symbols on the walls rotated, new sentences would be formed. This was not a matter of intricate artwork anymore, but more like the craftsmanship of the gods!
Aside from the chandelier, the hall surprisingly lacked any other decorations, which only served to highlight the grand nature of the masterpiece. It must be said that when it came to art, humans wouldn’t be able to reach the level of the elves, even if they had several thousand more years.
Even though he had seen this wonder of a chandelier many times before, Hallister couldn’t help but admire it for a moment. Gail, who was following behind him, was even more astonished. Even though he didn’t know Ancient Elvish, his past experience told him that the constantly spinning symbols on the walls were not mere decorations.
Dozens of people were already standing in the hall, the majority of them women, all dressed dazzlingly. Even the few men that could be seen were accompanied by one or many alluring noble women.
Hence why when the four men, Hallister, Gail, Nildac, and Myran, walked in, they attracted almost everyone’s gaze. For Hallister, a women’s gazes didn’t bother him at all and was, in fact, as necessary as fine wine. He kept on casually walking and returned their looks with a faint smile as if his deep blue eyes could talk; all the women had the impression that this young, blonde, and indescribably handsome man was smiling at them.
Though Gail had the experience of going to many other grand venues, he still felt uncomfortable being stared at by all these beautiful woman and felt as if there were a spike poking at his spine. Looking at the smiling Hallister walking in front of him, Gail suddenly had an absurd thought. What if he were this charming when he was young?
Just then, a young elven girl greeted them. Of course, she only appeared young. Everyone on the continent knew that even a thousand year old female elf would appear, at most, thirty.
The elven girl had delicate brows that came straight out of a painting, and not a single trance of make up could be found on her smooth face which looked like the perfect jade. She wore a simple dress that looked plain, but if one were to carefully look, they would notice that there was, somehow, no signs of stitching.
“Forgive my intrusion.” The young elven girl smiled. “In accordance with our rules, could the esteemed gentlemen show their invitations?”
This elvish store had always been an exclusive spot. Although they allowed ordinary people in on a normal day, today was their monthly Moonlight Perfume auction; of course they wouldn’t simply let anyone walk in as they wished. An invitation was required, but of course, exceptions would be made for guests of high enough esteem.
Hallister took out his invitation and showed it to her. As soon as she saw it, she smiled apologetically. “Sorry for disturbing you, My Lord.”
