Translator: Atlas Studios Editor: Atlas Studios
Cheyenne didn’t show any signs of surprise when Lin Li saw through his identity. If Lin Li couldn’t even do that, then he should probably doubt the authenticity of the hearsay. Cheyenne didn’t explain much, and just replied, “Master Felic, you’re too courteous. It’s my lack of manners to visit you without telling you beforehand.”
Though Cheyenne and Lin Li had an age gap of almost 100 years, and Cheyenne might be even older than Lin Li’s great, great-grandfather, the age gap was unimportant given that both were Legendary-mages. The reality of Anril was just like that. Ability was everything. Be it status or age, everything was nothing compared to power.
Moreover, Lin Li had a greater chance of reaching Sanctuary-realm. Therefore, Cheyenne couldn’t pull rank in front of Lin Li even though he had reached the Legendary-realm earlier.
“Let’s skip the pleasantries. Have a seat.” Lin Li smiled and led the two of them back to their seats before sitting down himself. He asked, “Master Cheyenne, you’re not just here to visit me, right?”
“Haha, Hutton will tell you more. I haven’t been settling family affairs for a long time,” replied Cheyenne while sizing up this young Legendary-mage. He couldn’t help but sigh in his heart. Was this the difference in talent? Cheyenne had experienced so much hardship, and reached the Legendary-realm with so much difficulty at every step he took. In contrast, this young Master Felic had successfully reached the Legendary-realm in the Blackstone Mountains, and just defeated the Legendary-mage of the Elven Kingdom. He was probably already level-22.
Lin Li could feel Cheyenne’s prying eyes, but he didn’t care about it. He turned his eyes to Hutton, waiting for him to reveal the intention behind this visit. Lin Li was curious what matter would have brought Master Cheyenne here. After all, Cheyenne had never left the territory of the Malfa Family before.
It was not a small matter for Master Cheyenne to leave the territory of the Malfa Family, since the Malfa Family and Dark Blade were always on opposite sides. The survival of the Malfa Family till now depended on Master Cheyenne. If not for him, the entire Malfa Family would have been destroyed by the Dark Blade. The Malfa Family was put in a dangerous situation after Cheyenne left its territory. If the Dark Blade were to know of this news, the Malfa Family would probably be wiped out.
Hutton knew that Master Felic was a Legendary-mage comparable to his teacher. Hence, he lowered his attitude very much, and chose his words carefully before saying, “Master Felic, I have to express my gratitude for sharing the treasure map that you’ve got at the Scar of Death with us. From then, our family concentrated all our resources on uncovering the mysteries hidden in the map, and finally saw some results not long ago. As the Malfa Family and the Tower of Dusk are allies, and we have also benefited because of your generosity, we should share our findings with you on our part, no matter what they are.”
“Oh?” Lin Li raised his eyebrows. This news was indeed quite a surprise. Lin Li had known from the start that the treasure map was a blueprint of a Sky Castle. It was the strongest Sky Castle out of the Seven Sky Castles of the High Elves—the Seventh Sky Castle which possessed Conquering Mageweaths. Legends said that the Immortal King’s treasures were hidden on top of this Seventh Sky Castle.
Lin Li had obtained three items left behind by the God of Mages Geresco after visiting the Abyss of Tharlen—the Book of Eternity, a magical crystal of the Evil Eye Tyrant, and a key to the Seventh Sky Castle. From his inference, the reason why the Seventh Sky Castle didn’t participate in the war at the end of the dark age was most likely because Geresco had stolen and hidden it in a crack between time and space.
On the treasure map, there was not only the blueprint of the Sky Castle, but also thousands of words in High Elves Print. This writing was extremely difficult for humans to understand. Even those mages who specialized in researching High Elves’ magic only investigated magical-spell-related words, and few would investigate unrelated narratives.
Lin Li had been reading the Book of Eternity for a while. Other than learning about profound magic, he had also gained a much better understanding of the language of the High Elves. Hence, he had been examining the High Elves Print on that treasure map as well. Though he couldn’t understand every word, he got the gist of the passage by inferring and guessing some words. From the passage, Lin Li could approximately infer the position of the crack between time and space as well as some other things, although the picture on the treasure map was the blueprint of the Sky Castle.
“Do you mean the Immortal King’s treasure?” asked Lin Li without a change in expression.
Speaking of the research findings, Hutton couldn’t help being pleased with himself, and nodded. “Yes. After putting in great effort in examining the High Elves’ language, we’ve finally come to a rather credible conclusion. The Immortal King’s treasure is likely to be hidden in—”
Just as Hutton was about to reveal the location they had discovered through their research, Lin Li suddenly cut in and said something incomprehensible in a peculiar tone as if reciting a spell.
Hutton was slightly confused, and had no idea what Lin Li was talking about. He only felt that his tone sounded like he was reciting a magical spell. However, why did he even need to use magic when they were just chatting here so peacefully?
Unlike the baffled Hutton, Cheyenne, who was observing Lin Li quietly, looked rather shocked after hearing the strange words that Lin Li had muttered. He replied, “Indeed, the location that we’ve found is the Haiga Mountain Range…”
A Legendary-mage would certainly have some knowledge of the High Elves’ language. However, most Legendary-mages only researched parts of the language related to magical spells. Cheyenne had flipped through countless documents, and inferred the location written on the treasure map after much analysis. He then found the corresponding name of the location in High Elves’ language.
As long as he knew the location, whether he knew what it was called in the High Elves’ language or not wouldn’t matter. However, the fact that Lin Li could spontaneously give the location’s name in the High Elves’ language showed that this 20-year-old mage had much higher expertise in the High Elves’ language than typical Legendary-mages.
Upon hearing his teacher’s words, Hutton finally realized what Lin Li meant when he said those strange words. He felt a sense of despair at the same time. He had originally thought that he could get the upper hand in the negotiation by knowing the location in the map. After all, the Malfa Family had invested so much effort into analyzing this treasure map. However, judging from the current situation, Lin Li had already known the location in the map even without Hutton’s help.
Also, Hutton saw this as Lin Li probing if the Malfa Family had the capability to collaborate with him. Why hadn’t Lin Li just told them that the location was the Haiga Mountain Range? If the Malfa Family wasn’t able to find the real location of the treasure, they naturally would have no right to do business with Lin Li anymore.
Hutton felt quite dejected. After looking towards his teacher, he turned to Lin Li, and said, “Yes, Master Felic. Judging from our analysis and research, the Immortal King’s treasure is in the Haiga Mountain Range.”
The Haiga Mountain Range lay on the border between the Breezy Plains and the Emerald Forest. It spread across thousands of miles throughout the Breezy Plains, forming a natural border between the humans and the elves.
The Haiga Mountain Range was also a unique existence. In the recent centuries, Felan Kingdom, Ledin Kingdom, and the Elven Kingdom all claimed that they were the true owner of the Haiga Mountain Range. However, none of the three kingdoms also sent any soldiers to the Haiga Mountain Range.
The most eligible and suitable candidate should be the Felan Kingdom. After all, the Haiga Mountain Range bordered the Felan Kingdom. However, the Felan Kingdom was powerless over this issue even if they wanted to get involved in it. It was already quite difficult for the royal family to control the Breezy Plains in the recent several hundreds years, let alone the distant Haiga Mountain Range at the border of the Breezy Plains. This wasn’t Jarrosus or Alanna; the sovereignty of royal family couldn’t reach this land. The Felan royal family couldn’t even control the appointment of castellans for Aminya, which was the Malfa Family’s territory, not to mention sending the military over to the Haiga Mountain Range.
Compared to the Felan Kingdom, the Ledin Kingdom just wanted to mess up the situation. These two human kingdoms were foes since more than 1000 years ago. They would even fight for a pack of tissues, not to mention a vast piece of land like the Haiga Mountain Range.
Of course, the Ledin Kingdom faced the same problem as the Felan Kingdom. They couldn’t do anything about it even if they wanted to occupy the Haiga Mountain Range. For starters, how could its army even enter the Breezy Plains? How could they get away from all the different factions? How could they climb up the Haiga Mountain Range? The Ledin Kingdom also had to figure out what to do if the Felan Kingdom suddenly attacked when all the defensive armies on the borders were gone…
In conclusion, the two human kingdoms were like two sulking kids over the last centuries.
“You dare to attack me?”
“Why should I attack you? Do you even dare to attack me?”
“I’m going to attack you today! You wait for me! I’m going to call more people!”
The Elven Kingdom on the other side of the Haiga Mountain Range, however, not only had the intention of controlling the Haiga Mountain Range, but had actually taken action. It’d attempted to assert control over the Haiga Mountain Range thrice in the last centuries. Unfortunately, they also had problems they couldn’t solve. No matter how well they planned, their efforts in controlling the area had all gone to waste.
