Chapter Eighty: The Expedition to Mousse City

The shrill, piercing distress signal fired into the sky caught the attention of the Fire Magic Academy students hiding in the mountains. The sight of over ten thousand students surging out of the forest all at once was truly a magnificent spectacle.

Leading the city guard to welcome them were Hideki Nishijou and Xueyan Nangong. The group naturally received an enthusiastic reception from the throng of students, except for a few like Sakchi and Xie Zhan from the Hortonklin family, who sought out the leading officers to inquire about the whereabouts of He Chen and Xu Wen.

“You mean Young Master Xu and Young Master He?”

The officer at the head was Sukcha, who greeted the group amicably, inviting them to mount up. Glancing at the still visibly anxious young students, he burst out laughing:

“Ha! Don’t worry! They’re fine. In fact, after assisting our commander in defeating a seven-star necromancer, they’ve already set out with the commander and the army to ‘Musi City’ to quell the rebellion there.”

“Suppressing a rebellion? What help could those two possibly be?” someone asked skeptically.

“Sure, I can understand Senior He Chen being useful, but what about that Xu Wen? What could he possibly do?” Sakchi’s comment immediately drew the ire of Xie Zhan’s group, and even Sukcha’s face showed a hint of displeasure. If not for Xu Wen’s careful planning along the way, the town would likely have already fallen to the necromancer. Now, within the eyes of every city guard, Xu Wen’s importance was undeniable.

Still, there was little point in losing his temper with a few impetuous youths. After issuing his orders, the group set off slowly toward the town, and along the way, Sukcha recounted the full story of what Xu Wen’s group had done there.

Previously, Sakchi and a handful of senior Fire Magic students had been skeptical, but now they fell silent, quietly seeking out Hideki Nishijou and Xueyan Nangong for more details—only to be stunned by what they heard.

Xu Wen was a four-star mage!

And he had mastered a three-star Xuantian-level spell from Dean Harman himself.

Because of Xu Wen’s strength and his knowledge of necromancy, Commander Helian of the town had valued his input and invited him to join the army on its march to ‘Musi City.’

Moreover, from the subtle hints in their tone, it almost seemed that in this rescue operation, He Chen had acted as nothing more than a supporting character in Xu Wen’s grand design.

Sakchi still found it hard to believe that a fifteen-year-old could surpass the only person he’d ever respected, He Chen, but for the members of the Hortonklin family, this news was nothing short of exhilarating.

Many students who had previously looked down on the Hortonklin family now began to show a surprising warmth toward them.

A fifteen-year-old fire magic prodigy!

The only living direct disciple of Dean Harman!

Having made such a remarkable showing in this operation, his future prospects were surely extraordinary. The Hortonklin family would likely begin to gain new attention and respect.

After all, in a noble family, it might take decades to produce a nine-star archmage; barring any mishaps, Xu Wen was poised to become a dazzling new star of the Qingyun Empire!

Establishing ties with the Hortonklin family now could very well open promising paths in the future.

...

As the Fire Magic Academy students and the city guards returned to the city, putting it on the highest alert and wartime footing, Xu Wen and He Chen followed Commander Helian, along with the thirty or so surviving six- and seven-star powerhouses, and led a force of two thousand city guards at full speed toward Musi City.

Along the way...

Only now did Xu Wen finally have the chance to examine the few storage rings he had collected from the town.

Sensing the occasional curious glances from those around him, Xu Wen refrained from taking out the two rings he’d taken from various adventurers, instead slipping on the necromancer’s ring and occasionally producing items from it—such as a skull, a bottle of murky dark green liquid, or a black cloak—things that, to others, appeared to be nothing but a jumble of oddities.

Xu Wen’s movements were deft and deliberate.

As a seasoned necromancer, he could identify at a glance the name, true purpose, and value of each item in his hand.

Take that peculiar skull, for example.

Coated in a layer of silvery powder and etched with a micro-magic array, it was clearly meant as a replacement for a previous wand’s core. Crafted from the skull of a seven-star dark-attributed magical beast, it could be set into a staff to unleash a mind-bending dark magic, greatly amplifying the mental attack spells of necromancy.

The bottle contained a cloudy, dark green liquid—precisely as he suspected, the deadly venomous blood of a millennia-old corpse king, preserved by the necromancer for some special purpose.

Xu Wen’s eyes flashed as he recalled how the necromancer had slain two six-star warriors in an instant with nothing but the corpse king’s toxic fumes. If this blood were to be administered directly to a living person, the effects would be even more terrifying.

“If it were to be infused into a summoned undead, its combat power would increase severalfold,” Xu Wen mused, slipping the bottle into his own ring.

After all, everyone present—including Helian Quan—trusted him implicitly, which was why they had entrusted him with the necromancer’s storage ring to search for anything that might be useful to the group.

“Find anything interesting?” He Chen asked, standing at Xu Wen’s side. Ever since witnessing the necromancer’s power, he had become deeply interested in everything related to that profession, scrutinizing each item that passed through Xu Wen’s hands.

“That bottle needs to be analyzed somewhere more suitable,” Xu Wen replied calmly, pulling a magic scroll from the ring.

A glance at the pattern drawn on its surface caused him to lose interest at once.

“Could I take a look at that?” He Chen asked, gesturing at the scroll with obvious curiosity.

No wonder; magic scrolls required rare materials and were seldom seen on the open market, let alone a seven-star necromancer’s scroll.

Xu Wen tossed it over casually.

A four-star magic scroll: Arrow of Yin Gui, a filthy necromantic spell, a weak area-of-effect attack. He had picked it out specifically to divert He Chen’s attention from the bottle.

The ring contained a vast and complex array of items, but Xu Wen had already used his mental power to single out the more precious ones, gathering them in a pile, ready to move them to his own storage ring at the right opportunity.

Among them, the most valuable was the necromancer’s notebook.

This was a mark of any seasoned high-level mage, and necromancers were no exception.

There were two other items that took Xu Wen by surprise.

One was a small bag of silvery-grey metal pellets—no bigger than a fist but unbelievably heavy, weighing at least several dozen kilograms.

The other was much more intriguing...

When Xu Wen set eyes upon it, his expression froze for an instant, and a chill ran silently through his heart. His face showed a look of deep contemplation tinged with strangeness.