Chapter 272: Night in the Fallen Capital

After the maids left, Shaoke undressed, covered his discarded clothes with his cloak, and then lay down to rest in the pool. "Just a massage, that's all," he said, closing his eyes, knowing that untrained girls could never bring themselves to undress in front of someone else the first time.

Small, soft hands nervously pressed against Shaoke's body, then began a clumsy massage. But Shaoke kept his eyes closed; he didn't want to make the maid nervous by anything he did, which would ruin his enjoyment.

After the massage ended, Shaoke let the maid leave, but he paid her a common gold coin, in exchange for which she was to give him a daily massage for the next month. The maid, calming down a little, tightly gripped the gold coin and hurried out of the room, not even having time to tidy her disheveled clothes. Of course, she couldn't avoid some teasing from her companions.

After staying in the manor for a few more days, Shaoke casually brought a maid along when he went out, hoping to buy some magic materials. But the outcome of his shopping trip disappointed him greatly. He realized that if he used money to buy those precious magic items, even spending all the gold coins he had accumulated over decades, he could barely afford even one-tenth of the materials needed to build a laboratory. Faced with this situation, Shaoke felt helpless. Finally, he walked around a bit more and then returned to his small manor.

"Master, you should buy more servants. They can take care of the grapevines and other fruit trees, and we should do something; otherwise, if this continues, you'll spend a lot of money on ordinary supplies," suggested an older maid after lunch, gathering her courage to advise the master. She then added how much money Shaoke had spent on food and medicine during this period, since he had always entrusted her with the purchases.

Faced with the maid's well-meaning reminder, Shaoke just shook his head. He was not a merchant who needed to haggle over everything. He was a mage, and maintaining silence was most important in his residence. He couldn't have more people making the place noisy.

"If you finish your chores, you can embroider small items and sell them to merchants. I think they'd be happy to accept your goods," Shaoke said, seeing the maid about to speak again, quickly cutting her off. "You can get some money from me now to buy ordinary items, but you'll need to pay it back eventually." He pulled out a money pouch from his pocket and handed it to the maid to distribute among the other girls.

Faced with Shaoke's attitude, the maid nodded helplessly, but that afternoon she led the idle maids to clean the vineyard again and purchased many young grapevines to plant in the yard, so that in two years' time, the manor could earn money by selling grapes. Shaoke said nothing about this behavior, tacitly acknowledging the maids' actions.

Seeing this, the maids became even more enthusiastic about remodeling the manor's environment. A large patch of lawn was removed, and they planted grain crops according to the season. With Shaoke's permission, they also eradicated all the flowers in the garden and planted commonly used medicinal herbs there. Watching the busy maids, Shaoke marveled at their diligence—perhaps it was the natural diligence of common women everywhere.

The appointed day with the two mages arrived quickly, and Shaoke began preparing early the night before.

The magic bag containing various medicines, the ordinary cloaks—everything was packed by Shaoke. Then, with the maid's help, he began to relax and unwind.

The unique softness of the woman made Shaoke feel very comfortable, especially the occasional friction from two stiff nubs on her soft, firm breasts. Having been without a woman for a long time, Shaoke found it difficult to endure, yet he did nothing to the maid, even when she inadvertently teased him.

After sending the maid away, Shaoke returned to his room, took out paper and pen, and wrote letters to Mage Roman and Mage Yisier, mentioning that he had purchased a residence here. He then asked about the recent situation of the female mages, described his own circumstances in detail, and inquired about the baby girl from years ago before putting down his pen and finishing the letters.

Late that night, Shaoke left the manor alone, walking silently through the streets. After more than a month, he had discovered that the Fallen Imperial Capital was extremely chaotic. Every night, he could sense many mental or aura fluctuations in the city, along with spell clashes. Once, some warriors even fought near the entrance of his manor. All this shattered his initial daytime impression of the city. No wonder the maids dared not leave at night. Fortunately, such fights rarely affected residential buildings, or else Shaoke couldn't be sure how many intact houses would remain in the Fallen Imperial Capital.

Just as he turned a corner, a big man stood there holding a longsword. Seeing Shaoke, he laughed happily, "Hey kid, hand over all your cash, or I'll chop you up!" He waved his two-handed sword threateningly and flared his aura to show his status.

Shaoke instantly released a crimson Lava Ray that pierced through the man's aura and head, perfectly ending his life. The familiar smell of blood made Shaoke take a deep breath; he felt it was like fine wine, very pleasant to smell. Of course, he found the blood of mages even more pleasant.

The big man's only valuable item was the two-handed sword. After killing him with a spell, Shaoke felt several mental and magical forces lock onto him. He didn't care, allowing the mages to probe him, but he glared fiercely in the direction of the nearest one, who stood protected by several warriors at the other end of the street.

Arcane Fire burned the man's body away, and Shaoke continued his journey. When he was not far from the mage guarded by warriors, the mage suddenly spoke, "Fellow mage, leave this place. Go back where you belong. Ahead, there will be more dangerous people wandering the streets, hunting lone pedestrians." He withdrew his mental probe, unable to sense any fluctuations from Shaoke or identify the spell he had just used, which made him more cautious.

Shaoke nodded in thanks for the advice and warned, "Don't casually probe a mage. If I encounter you again under these circumstances, I think you'll never enjoy fine wine again." He pulled his cloak tighter, ignoring the warriors glaring at him, as the highest among them was only a Fourth Tier Warrior, not worth his caution.

Along the way, Shaoke killed over a dozen warriors, burning their bodies with Arcane Fire, before finally reaching the city gate. Fortunately, the gate was permanently open, allowing easy passage.

The two mages had not yet arrived, but Shaoke was not impatient. He stood silently until dawn. Time passed, and with one magic hour left before he had to leave, the sound of a carriage came from afar, catching his attention.

With unrestrained mental power, Shaoke locked onto the carriage and quickly identified some of its occupants: two familiar spiritual waves comforted him, but there were also two unfamiliar magical waves. From these fluctuations, he quickly judged them to be a Fifth Tier Mage and a Fourth Tier Mage.

His mental lock soon alerted the mages inside. The first two mages, recognizing Shaoke's spiritual fluctuation, quickly stopped the other two from probing and explained the situation.

A few kilometers away on a good road, the carriage arrived soon but stopped hundreds of meters away at the mages' request. The four mages then walked over to Shaoke, offering respectful greetings. Shaoke examined them.

The first two mages looked tired but unable to hide their joy. The other two, after a brief look, appeared to be Wandering Mages, so Shaoke lost interest. He also stopped the two mages from introducing the newcomers.

"Show me the items you intend to trade," he said calmly, looking at the two mages who had initially joined his group. As for the emotions of those who came with them, Shaoke wasn't concerned; he had neither the energy nor the desire to engage in further conversation with them.