Translator: Legge
This night was really full of twists and turns for Melgor.
When he could not fall asleep in the middle of the night, Ren Xiaosu had pulled him aside and asked him questions regarding sorcery. He even imparted some knowledge of the magus order to Ren Xiaosu and the servants.
Now that he was finally able to fall asleep, he was awoken by two exclamations of “fuck” as soon as he dozed off. How annoying!
As such, Melgor hurriedly got out of his tent to see what was going on. He even had his Eye of True Sight ready in hand to brace himself for a battle with an enemy!
But when he came out of his tent, he was surprised to see a large pit in the ground where the two sheeple had set up their tent. The two sheeple had fallen inside together with the tent.
The cavity was about four meters in diameter and three meters deep. When Melgor walked up to the edge, he saw the two sheeple looking up at him with their heads covered in dirt.
“What’s going on?” Melgor asked in surprise, “Were you two attacked?”
The two sheeple were dumbfounded. “We didn’t see anyone. We were sleeping when we suddenly fell in here!”
As soon as they finished speaking, he saw Ren Xiaosu rushing over with a wooden stick he had found from somewhere. “What’s the matter? What’s going on here? Is it an enemy? Where are they?”
This series of questions stunned Li Chengguo, Melgor, and Liu Ting. They heard Ren Xiaosu add, “Don’t worry, I’m here!”
The two sheeple were moved. Although the young man from the Central Plains was usually very arrogant, he still came to help them at such a critical moment!
“Thanks, we’re alright.” Li Chengguo said, “But we’re not sure what happened either.”
“Gratitude received from Li Chengguo, +1!”
Ren Xiaosu warmly reached out and pulled the two sheeple out of the hole. Meanwhile, Melgor walked around the pit twice and said, “This circular pit’s shape is very uniform. It looks like it was caused by a spell someone cast. Don’t tell me it was a sorcerer that attacked you two?”
Ren Xiaosu dismissed it. “How can there be a sorcerer out here in the wilderness? Surely it can’t be another ostracized fringe sorcerer sent to the border like you, right?”
Melgor snapped, “You’re my steward after all’s said and done, so can’t you speak with a little more respect to me? But what you said makes sense. There can’t be other sorcerers out here. Besides, I’ve never come across such a spell before.”
“What kind of earth spells are there?” Ren Xiaosu asked curiously.
“Liquefy Ground, Sudden Stalagmite, Wall of Earth, etc.” Melgor explained, “Although this pit might resemble something caused by the Liquefy Ground spell, that spell actually uses quicksand to trap people. This isn’t how it looks at all.”
Ren Xiaosu concluded, “The tent might’ve been set up on hollow ground. Although the surface looks flat, there’s actually a void underneath. It could have suddenly collapsed because it could not bear both their weight. Moreover, if a sorcerer were trying to sneak up and attack them, the sheeple would probably be dead.”
“That explanation makes more sense than using sorcery,” Melgor said, sounding vexed. “Alright, hurry up and go back to sleep….”
“Mhm, to prevent anyone from ambushing us, I’ll keep watch tonight.” Ren Xiaosu said.
Melgor’s heart warmed. “Much appreciated!”
Ren Xiaosu suddenly asked, “By the way, how do you recite the incantation for Lesser Fireball?”
Melgor repeated it clearly, “‘Fire,’ why?”
“Hahaha, it’s nothing.” Then Ren Xiaosu urged Melgor to go and sleep. He thought to himself, ‘I really recited the incantation wrong. I shouldn’t have said it as “haiya.”‘
But Ren Xiaosu thought to himself that the pit in the ground must have something to do with the spell he had cast earlier. But the problem was that he had not recited the incantation correctly, so how did he succeed in casting the spell!?
What fucking logic was that?
Furthermore, didn’t Melgor say a sorcerer needed to practice a spell a 1,000 times before it could be fully cast and affect the physical world? How did he accidentally end up succeeding on his first try then?!
But other sorcerers cast a Lesser or Greater Fireball by reciting their corresponding incantations, so how did he end up creating a pit in the ground by saying “haiya”?!
Could he have accidentally opened up a new world again?
Ren Xiaosu thought about it carefully. Logically speaking, a sorcerer used the Eye of True Sight as a tool for concentrating their willpower.
In that case, there was no reason why a sorcerer could muster a spell when speaking in the language of the Magi but he couldn’t if he spoke in Chinese.
The world was fair, and it was not like the Magi had something more than the Northwestern people!
Therefore, since willpower wasn’t exclusive to any nationality, who was to say that the Central Plains people were inferior to the Magi. Moreover, with superhumans like Li Shentan and Zhou Yingxue who were capable of destroying cities and strongholds in the Central Plains, they would be considered once-in-a-lifetime geniuses if they were put in the magus order.
The key was that the Eye of True Sight could be used to cast spells as long as he held it in his hand.
Sorcerers used the language of the Magi to cast spells because their countless predecessors had gradually discovered some pattern in its usage. Actually, they could also use Chinese to cast spells, but it was just that no one had made a summary of which words were used for what spells.
Ren Xiaosu suddenly felt a sense of lofty contribution. As the future commander of the Northwest, shouldn’t he bring back some Eyes of True Sight from the Kingdom of Sorcerers to the Northwest as souvenirs? Then couldn’t he kickstart a grand era of sorcery in the Northwest and help many normal people attain superpowers?
This was one of the core elements of the Prosperous Northwest 3.0 plan. No matter how many detours he had to take, helping the Northwest prosper was the end goal.
But before that, maybe he should first help to compile which Chinese words corresponded with which spells.
Of course, he would have to keep his distance from the sheeple the next time he tested out the incantations. Although those two guys were always throwing sarcasm at him, it would not be good if he accidentally killed them with a spell.
When Melgor, Li Chengguo, and Liu Ting were all asleep, Ren Xiaosu pretended to go out and relieve himself. Then he took the opportunity to run several hundred meters away before carefully taking out his Eye of True Sight again.
What words in Chinese should he use to test out the incantations? The only clue he had was “haiya,” but that was not enough for him to figure out any patterns, right?
Ren Xiaosu remained silent for a long time. Then he carefully tested, “Meteor Shower?”
No response.
“Summon the Divine Dragon!”
No response.
“Diamond Dust!”
No response.
“Repeated side shuffle!”
No response.
“Tempest in a teapot!”
No response.
“Send in the Trojan Horse!”
There was still no response.
Ren Xiaosu’s expression darkened. He was thinking of teaching the Northwest’s population to recite incantations in Chinese just a moment ago, but he could not even recite a proper incantation now.
“How am I supposed to cast a spell if all these powerful-sounding phrases won’t even trigger a response? Should I say ‘may you be prosperous’ instead?” Ren Xiaosu muttered.
But just as his words trailed off, Ren Xiaosu heard exclamations coming from the direction of the campfire.
Liu Ting shouted, “Fuck!”
Li Chengguo shouted, “Fuck!”
Melgor shouted, “Fuck!!!”
Ren Xiaosu was stunned. “May you be prosperous?”
As a result, exclamations rang out once more a short distance away.
Ren Xiaosu was completely shocked. Could Chinese incantations be that treacherous? Openly wishing others well but actually expressing malice in secret?
Wait a minute, was it an issue with the incantation, or could the problem lie with him?!
