Chapter 300 Disputes and Street Clearing

All I know is that you killed my men here." Shaoke gently held his staff, and the green flame at its tip began to burn slowly. "The guard of yours that I killed, do you think his death doesn't deserve your pity?" As he spoke, the green flame that had been burning at the tip of the staff gradually split into one tendril under Shaoke's mental control, coiling around his other hand.

Faced with Shaoke's superb control over the flame, the young mage frowned and said, "I don't think we need to argue over a few dead people." After that, he took a step closer and said, "We are envoys of the Yisage Empire. We didn't come here to have a conflict with your Blue Feather Empire." As the young mage stepped forward, the few young men behind him and their guards also moved a step closer. This situation disgusted Shaoke, but he forcibly suppressed his anger. After all, the Yisage Empire was rich in various high-grade crystals and gems, and was a close partner of the Blue Feather Empire. This was not only because the other party was a medium-sized empire, but also because the other party had claimed to be an envoy, which put him in a difficult position.

While Shaoke was arguing with this mercenary-dressed team, the other actual mercenaries who had been involved in the conflict slipped away. Of course, their departure was noticed by Shaoke and the other mages, but no one said anything. According to those who maintained order, these mercenaries had done nothing wrong here; even the earlier conflict had been caused by those with guards.

"I need to check your identity." Shaoke frowned and glanced at the Infiltrator who had been hiding beside the mage. Now he focused most of his mental strength and instantly locked onto him. The mage's powerful mental lock soon caused tension among both sides. "I am just following the rules to verify your identity." With that, Shaoke stopped speaking and instead quickly rotated his staff and the floating flame in his hand.

"You have no qualifications." The young mage scoffed, "A low-ranked patrol mage, how can you have the right to verify our identities?" He then cast a sideways glance at Shaoke and his companions. "Get out of the way, or else..." The young mage tossed a few gold coins on the ground. He simply didn't believe these mages would dare fight him, as he had more than a dozen Sixth Rank Warriors behind him! At such a close distance, few could withstand the charge of these warriors.

"Mage Xueye." A clear voice suddenly halted Shaoke's action. It was the Eighth Rank Blue Robe Female Mage floating nearby. "Go somewhere else. Don't interfere with matters here."

The Eighth Rank Blue Robe Female Mage had somehow come to stand beside Shaoke. She quickly stopped him from forming his flame attack. Faced with the Eighth Rank Blue Robe Female Mage's gesture, Shaoke had no choice but to abandon the idea of killing. He respectfully bowed to the Female Mage and then led his team of mages away.

"Maybe we should have killed them." After turning the street corner, a Sixth Rank Mage suggested to Shaoke. The so-called envoy from the Yisage Empire had greatly humiliated them, which inevitably made these proud mages angry.

"Are you sure you can bear all the consequences of defying an Eighth Rank Mage?" Shaoke reluctantly dismissed the flame in his hand. He realized that as his rank increased and he met more people, he became more in awe of these high-tier beings, especially these inhuman Eighth-order beings. After advancing to the Seventh Rank, through practicing some spells, he felt the terror of the seventh rank, and he also learned from the books of the Death Mage Corps about the monstrous strength of Eighth Rank mages. He felt he had no ability to kill an Eighth Rank mage by crossing ranks unless the opponent was severely wounded.

Shaoke's words silenced all the Sixth Rank mages. After all, they had practiced spells together with Seventh Rank mages, so they knew how powerful these seventh-rank mages were. From that, they could infer the strength of those Eighth Rank mages.

Afterwards, when Shaoke and his team encountered some fighting mercenary groups or other foreign organizations on the streets, the eleven mages would first attack them with low-level spells and then disperse them. Shaoke even personally killed two Low-rank Warriors to intimidate these unruly outsiders. Of course, this method was not very effective, since mages couldn't always patrol the streets.

As night fell, the mages patrolling the streets returned one by one. Shaoke asked each of them about their patrol situation, but the answers he got made him very angry.

It turned out that many teams simply ignored the rules set by Shaoke and his people. Some powerful teams even clashed with these mages. In the close-quarters environment of the streets, these Low-rank Mages were no match for the warriors' sudden attacks. During this mission, one mage had his arm cut off by a warrior from a team, and two other mages were killed by Infiltrators and an Archer.

"Did I forget to give you magical signal flares?" Shaoke looked at these mages with dissatisfaction. He didn't understand why they hadn't used their signals to summon their companions. Thinking about this, he felt another wave of inexplicable irritability. He still didn't know why these organizations were so rampant.

"Mage Xueye." Just as everyone was silent, young Lan Wei'er entered with a scroll. She quickly bowed to Shaoke and the other mages, then handed the scroll to Shaoke, saying, "This records the purpose of these outsiders coming here." After that, Lan Wei'er stood quietly, silently watching the man her mother asked her to call father.

The handwriting on the scroll was Lan Wei'er's own. It briefly mentioned that these teams had come because they wanted to seize a legendary ancient magic book.

It was said that the book was in the possession of a young Wandering Mage, who had been staying in the Fallen Imperial Capital for a long time. But no one had seen him. However, according to some High-rank Mages skilled in detection, he was still wandering here.

Shaoke could not fully accept the information Lan Wei'er brought. He didn't think that people from dozens of empires would send large teams here to seize an ancient magic book. He believed they had other purposes, but he couldn't obtain more detailed information now.

After a moment's silence, Shaoke dismissed Lan Wei'er and had the young maids bring up large amounts of food for the mages. They planned to patrol the streets again after eating. But this time, Shaoke made a change: he refused to let the mages separate. Instead, he gathered all hundred or so mages together and personally led them to carry out the task.

The situation at night was terrible. Just two days ago, the streets were full of merchants conducting various trades, but tonight, because of the large number of mercenary groups and other teams fighting and plundering on the streets, the merchants had all returned early to their estates. Along the way, Shaoke witnessed no fewer than five conflicts. He did not ask for their names or reasons; he simply had the mages behind him hunt them all down. However, the fighting and killing on the streets did not stop; instead, it became more serious.

"Leave the streets immediately and return to your own rooms. After half a magic hour, anyone remaining on the streets will be killed." After putting out a fire caused by the fighting, Shaoke could no longer suppress his anger, because those people had set fire to a dozen ordinary residents' houses and some estates, which infuriated him. At this moment, he forgot that he had done the same thing here years ago.

After half a magic hour, sounds of fighting could still be heard from all streets. At this point, Shaoke unhesitatingly gave the order to clear the streets. A piercing whistle sounded as Shaoke released a magical signal; the shrill sound, Shaoke estimated, could be heard across nearly half the Fallen Imperial Capital.

After the signal, Shaoke and the others activated Feather Fall, a low-level Support Spell, to increase their traveling speed. As the mage commanded, all living creatures on the streets were completely annihilated by the mages. It had been many years since Shaoke had killed so crazily, which excited him greatly. The other mages calmly cast spells, rested briefly, and then continued casting, repeating the process mechanically. They had been doing this regularly for over ten years, but mostly during robberies.

The team of over a hundred mages consisted of at least Fifth Rank Mages, followed by more than twenty Sixth Rank Mages, and Shaoke himself as a Seventh Rank Mage. A gorgeously dressed team was walking quickly on the street, but they encountered Shaoke. Without anyone giving an order, the mages began a coordinated attack as usual, and Shaoke locked onto the leading Seventh Rank Warrior for his attack.

A dark beam, after Shaoke's brief preparation, shot quickly toward the Seventh Rank Warrior. It was a Seventh Rank spell: Rending Ray. Facing the attack from Shaoke and the others, the team had already prepared for battle, but earlier, a warrior loudly shouted that they belonged to an empire and hoped Shaoke would not attack. However, no one listened, because even as he shouted, the team also began to attack. It was a frenzied charge by more than twenty High-rank Warriors.