Chapter 328-329 Trying a Longer Chapter

The two mages behind the first one then intended to attack Shaoke, but at that moment, the Eighth Tier Warrior instantly appeared in front of Shaoke, slamming his flail down at them. Fortunately, these individuals were all Eighth-tier beings, so they instantly Blinked away from their original positions, causing no casualties.

As if to establish his authority, the Eighth Tier Warrior slammed his flail heavily onto the floor. The huge tremor shook the entire mage tower several times, but the floor, which wasn't very thick, remained undamaged, though some of the magic script on it was damaged.

The tension in the room instantly spiked. Not only were seven or eight Rulers shocked, but the four mages also suddenly had Defensive Spells enveloping them. However, the mage who had been restrained by Shaoke was still standing there dumbfounded, completely unable to escape Shaoke's Death Gaze. At this moment, Shaoke also picked up a flaming javelin in his hand. If the Blue-robed Female Mage hadn't stopped him, he would have launched an attack.

"A Seventh Rank Death Gaze?" The mage who had been sitting on the chair suddenly exclaimed in surprise.

"Do you have a problem with that?" Shaoke stared at the mage with red eyes, as if ready to attack if the other party showed any impropriety. Now, under the roar of the unknown Giant Beast in the Meditation space, he was letting his true nature run wild.

"I didn't expect anyone could still learn the Seventh Rank Death Gaze." The mage's face twitched a few times, and he didn't care about Shaoke's tone at all. "Relax a bit, I mean you no harm. If necessary, I can even give you some rewards!"

"Can you find me the original ancient magic script? Or the original Primordial Magic Script? Without these, there's no need for you to talk to me about rewards." Shaoke idly played with the flaming javelin in his hand, which he'd now split into two.

Shaoke's words left the mage momentarily speechless. He just stared intently at Shaoke. "I hope you remember today's words. I will seek out the things you mentioned, and then I will use them as your reward. But at that time, you must help me with some matters, otherwise you will never get those things." With that, the mage closed his eyes and said no more, and Shaoke also fell silent.

At this moment, the mage tower suddenly emitted a large amount of Spell fluctuations. The magic script and some magic arrays on the walls began to operate rapidly under the influence of elemental water. This rapid activation was clearly being run by the Cleric.

"If you have another conflict here, I will kill you." The Cleric's voice came through the giant stone pillar. She was pissed at the mages going after Shaoke. This dissatisfaction caused several Seventh-level Spells that had been condensed within the mage tower to lock onto those Eighth Tier Mages.

"Young lady, dispel these spells." A young man who had been sitting silently on the chair lightly waved his hand. Some weird magic script flew out of his hand and quickly landed among the condensed spells. Under the effect of these scripts, the spells rapidly dissipated.

"You should have a good talk." After doing these things, the mage who looked like an eighteen-year-old youth gestured for everyone to sit down and stopped the Middle-aged Mage, who had just regained his mobility, from continuing the possibility of a physical conflict with Shaoke.

"There's nothing to talk about." The Blue-robed Mage waved her one remaining arm. "The promises we made will not change in any form. I believe that even those top-level beings have no reason to make us abandon our original promises." Then the Blue-robed Mage signaled Shaoke to disperse the flames. But he refused, because he didn't want to do that now. He wanted to be ready to strike again if danger appeared, to see if that mage could dispel his spell.

"This is an order from the military department. If you don't want to comply, you can tell the military department directly. They are only conveying this order." The Eighth Tier Mage who looked very young calmly added, "I think we can discuss this issue slowly later. Hmm! The main problem now is how to allocate the fallen imperial capital area. I think you know more about the situation in the imperial capital than we do, so I hope you can share your opinions." With that, the young Eighth Tier Mage closed his eyes and said no more.

"There's nothing to talk about." The Eighth Tier Warrior put away his flail and returned directly to his original position. Then he gave a fierce glare at the four mages who had activated their defensive spells. "The area that just opened up will be run by the groups that are still around. After all, over the years, they have become accustomed to the situation here. Moreover, this is what they deserve."

"If that's truly how you see it, I'm sorry. Soon, some organizations and factions from the imperial capital will come here to station themselves." The middle-aged Eighth Tier Mage, who had regained his mobility, cast a meaningful glance at Shaoke before continuing, "I'm pretty disappointed about coming here. I'll simply remind you: the Mage Guild and several major noble families and mage lineages will be sending a large number of people this time to vie for control over the Fallen Capital. I hope you prepare yourselves in advance." With that, the Eighth Tier Mage placed the scroll in his hand on the table beside him; he was merely a messenger.

After finishing, the middle-aged Eighth Tier Mage left the mage tower along with the other four mages, and no one cared about their destination. Only after they had departed did Shaoke slowly dispel the flames in his hands, and the red glow in his eyes gradually faded.

"As they said," the Blue-robed Mage suddenly let out a low sigh, glancing at Shaoke and the other authorities. "This time, a large number of families and organizations from the imperial capital are coming to seize control of these areas. But before that, I will still allocate sufficient control zones to you as per our original agreement. Whether you can hold onto them in the future is beyond my jurisdiction." Having said this, the Blue-robed Female Mage wasted no time and produced a map of the Fallen Capital, beginning to divide the regions for Shaoke and the others. This time, each person's control area expanded more than tenfold.

"As for the military's issues, you don't need to get involved; we'll handle it ourselves." The Eighth Tier Warrior, after the Blue-robed Female Mage finished the allocation, spoke to comfort Shaoke and the others. "You should leave now; we have more matters to discuss. I hope you prepare yourselves soon." With that, the warrior produced a handful of rings—seven or eight of them—and casually tossed them to Shaoke and the others as a reward for their earlier promises.

After taking the ring, Shaoke was the first to leave, but he didn't exit the mage tower; instead, he went to find Mage Roman and the others, as he had some tasks to instruct them on.

"Xueye, what just happened?" Mage Roman looked at Shaoke with concern and asked, as the conflict had left them with little detail. It was only when the Eighth Tier Warrior's heavy strike shook the mage tower that they sensed something was wrong, but by then, it was already too late.

After comforting Mage Roman and the White-robed Cleric, Shaoke detailed what had just occurred, reiterating that the military was trying to seize their original spellbooks.

"That's impossible. Those precious books were obtained with countless lives; they have no right to demand that we hand them over," Mage Roman said, then added, "Besides, we're no longer under the military's command, so they have no reason to force us to hand over those items."

"But precisely because we're no longer under their command, they have every reason to eliminate us and take them by force. I think the organizations and factions from the imperial capital this time will definitely clash with us, especially since our control area is far too large." With that, the White-robed Cleric took out the map, made a few quick marks, and outlined the region they now controlled based on Shaoke's account.

This area was vast, covering nearly a seventh of the entire Fallen Capital, and the Fallen Academy also fell within Shaoke's territory.

"Some rulers have died. I think we need to acquire the mage towers they left behind," Shaoke said quietly. He looked at Mage Roman, hoping for her advice. He really wasn't used to dealing with such situations; for him, it was an extremely complex matter.

"If the other rulers cooperate with us, we can gift those mage towers to them. But if they abandon their control zones under pressure or attack from outsiders, we shouldn't give them any towers. Instead, we should seize all the mage towers here," Mage Roman said, frowning as she voiced another concern she had.

"Will the instructors at the academy start leaving during this time? We should prepare for that." With that, Mage Roman turned her gaze to the White-robed Cleric, who knew the most about the Fallen Academy's situation.

"Even if some leave, it won't be many," the White-robed Cleric replied casually. "Most instructors are low-rank mages and warriors. The destruction of their organizations won't affect them much, and the academy has been providing them with potions and gold, which is enough to keep them here." After taking a sip of water, the Cleric continued, "As for the technicians, they're even less likely to leave. Their lives outside are terrible, and their families already live within the academy. If they try to leave now, we can simply kill them all." As she spoke, the Cleric exuded a ruthless aura born of countless battles.

After listening to their explanations and plans, Shaoke agreed with their ideas, as he had no better ones. After discussing more matters with the two female spellcasters, he returned alone to his original manor. There, he would talk with some members of his organization about claiming territory and other issues. Of course, sending a certain number of mages to the Fallen Academy to comfort those instructors who had lost their organizations was also necessary.

We won't describe all the tedious details here; suffice it to say that Shaoke was busy with these trivial matters for three to five days.

Perhaps due to the destruction of six or seven organizations and the withdrawal of other imperial forces from this area, a large number of wandering mages joined Shaoke's organization. With the help of the high-ranking mages within the organization, things improved considerably—at least over a thousand mages of the Fourth Rank and above had recently joined. When this number was reported to Shaoke, he was utterly stunned. His first thought wasn't joy, but how to keep the organization running.

The basic operation of Shaoke's organization relied first and foremost on a large supply of potions. Relying only on the potions Shaoke got from the Death Mage Corps to reward members was unsustainable in the long run. To this end, Shaoke had to scramble to recruit a large number of apothecaries to work alongside Mage Roman in concocting potions needed for various ranks.

He also planted large amounts of medicinal herbs in other ownerless mage towers. These herbs, irrigated with elemental water, grew about ten times as fast. Even so, in the short term, his potion supply could not fully meet the needs of the low-rank mages. Fortunately, many Sixth and Seventh Rank mages who had been in Shaoke's organization for a long time were no longer satisfied with simple potions; they had accumulated large quantities of magic materials and traded them to Shaoke for spell knowledge. This indirectly alleviated Shaoke's pressure on potion supplies.

One day, while Shaoke was resting in the manor, a mage hurriedly approached him, gave a respectful bow, and handed him a scroll. "Honorable Mage, a large number of unidentified groups have arrived in the Fallen Capital and are now resting in a tavern," said the mage, a low-rank leader in charge of intelligence, who had been closely monitoring the newcomers.

"Do they bear any family crests or other insignia?" Shaoke asked as he casually opened the scroll, skimmed through it, and then asked the Fourth Tier mage before him, wanting more detailed information.

The messenger mage replied without hesitation, "No insignia, but one of our spies reported that during their conversation, they frequently mentioned the Naxi Family." Having said that, the mage stood silently, awaiting his leader's orders.

After hearing the Fourth Tier mage's explanation, Shaoke waved his hand to dismiss him. He then continued leaning back in a chair in the pavilion, silently reading a book. Behind him, a young maidservant gently massaged his temples. This had been going on for several magic hours.

The book Shaoke held was one he had obtained from the underground space. Most of these books he was unable to read; only after painstakingly deciphering them could he understand the content. But Shaoke wasn't reading the content; instead, he was using his mental energy and magical power to sense the traces left by the ancient spellcasters who had written these books, thereby gaining a deeper understanding of the spellcasters of that era.

Among the books Shaoke had obtained, the most precious were those concerning spatial magic. Unfortunately, he currently had no ability to decipher the script on them, and he knew that the script used in spatial books was often obscure and difficult to learn. He estimated that even after he could decipher such books, he would still need to spend a great deal of time learning those magic scripts.

After once again savoring the behavior of the earlier spellcaster, Shaoke closed the book, leaned back in his chair, and closed his eyes to rest. Behind him, the maidservant continued the special massage as ordered by the mage, which helped the mage recover from exhaustion faster.

Ever since Shaoke had clashed with the Eighth Tier mage, his meditation space had undergone changes. The most noticeable was the appearance of a giant beast's imprint on the altar. Although the imprint was blurry, under the influence of arcane fire and spiritual power, it slowly became clearer. After this giant beast imprint appeared, the mage's meditation space often echoed with roars, and after each roar, he could glean insights into spellcasting and the unique rhythms of that barren world.

These insights greatly aided Shaoke's progress in spellcasting and brought significant changes to his mental state and attitude. The most obvious change was that Shaoke became even more reticent. As Mage Roman put it, the Mage Xueye now seemed indifferent to everything; if he stood silent, he looked like a sculpture—an old artist's carving of a mage who had experienced countless hardships.

After an unknown amount of time, Shaoke withdrew from the insights in his meditation space. By then, it was night, and the maidservant behind him had already been replaced twice.

When he woke, the young maidservant quickly called her companions to prepare some food for the mage to eat, while she continued the meticulous massage until Shaoke indicated she could leave.

After hurriedly eating some food, Shaoke planned to leave and return to his low mage tower. But at that moment, a guest who seemed familiar yet unrecognizable sought him out and brought him some news.

"Everything you're doing now is quite satisfactory to the high-level rulers," said a black-robed mage who was led by a Fourth Tier mage to Shaoke. After the guide left, the black-robed mage spoke. Shaoke had recognized him as soon as he appeared—the staff at his back was a staff burning with green flame.

"What brings you here?" Shaoke found the mage's voice familiar but couldn't place it at the moment. Still, it didn't hinder his conversation with this Death Mage.

"Some members of the Death Mage Corps have arrived here. The Corps currently lacks mid-rank mages to oversee things here, so they hope you and the mages under you can join the Death Mage Corps." At this, Shaoke finally remembered the voice—it was the Sixth Tier mage he had met in the capital years ago. He hadn't expected to meet again here after so many years.

"Those mages lack combat awareness," Shaoke hesitated but decided to speak out. "In my organization, there are fourteen Seventh Tier mages, but they…"

"The Death Mage Corps doesn't need them for difficult tasks—just to help maintain order here," the mage interjected, and then explained in detail the purpose of the Corps wanting these mages. After a long hesitation, Shaoke agreed.

He felt exhausted from managing the organization and had grown tired of all the trivial matters. As for the materials for building a future mage tower, under the guidance of the Seventh Tier Death Mage, he found a quick way to collect them. Of course, that method also involved plunder, but not ordinary plunder. We'll get to that later. For now, let's return to the Death Mage matter.

"After you join the Death Mage Corps, you must return to the underground base here, and you won't be able to leave until you advance to the Eighth Tier," the Seventh Tier mage answered Shaoke's question as per his request. He didn't want to deceive him on this matter, especially since Shaoke, though not formally a member yet, was still helping the Corps.

"Then let it stay as it is," Shaoke declined to return to the underground city, as he still had many things to do here and no time for long-term stable cultivation.

After further discussion on other topics, the Death Mage gained Shaoke's consent to build a permanent outpost—a mage tower for the Death Mage Corps on the manor grounds—to handle routine matters.

In return for some compensation and promises, Shaoke led the low-rank mages of his organization to reside in a mage tower within the Fallen Academy. There, he could spend more time with Mage Roman and the others, and it was relatively safe.

One day, shortly after Shaoke received news that yet another wave of organizations had arrived in the Fallen Capital and clashed with the local groups, the Death Mage contacted him via the crystal ball he had given him long ago. It turned out that the Death Mage Corps had arrived in the Fallen Capital through a fixed teleportation array. They planned to build a large mage tower on Shaoke's original manor, constructed according to the energy supply method of a giant laboratory. They invited Shaoke to participate in the construction, so he could learn more spell knowledge and lay a foundation for future building.