Chapter 402 Hegel’s News

These death mages naturally received compensation for their exchanges; not only were there unique spells for death mages to copy, but also secret magical books for him to read. This situation lasted for a full month before the mage left the death fortress and returned to the imperial capital.

In the imperial capital, the young Moyu'er had grown tired of life here. After a few more days of sightseeing, the group set off back to the Barbarian Empire. They did not use the Blue Feather Empire's teleportation array but traveled in the form of a journey back to their stronghold. Along the way, everyone behaved like ordinary people, sometimes taking carriages, sometimes traveling on foot. However, after traversing only a tenth of the distance, because Moyu'er used an Arcane Secret that led to an impending advancement, they quickly returned to their stronghold.

After returning to their stronghold, Moyu'er prepared briefly and began seclusion, while the others also became busy.

However, Shaoke and the Blue-robed Female Mage went to their original stronghold to check on some matters. Of course, the main reason was that Mage Meigan and the woman who used a horn as a weapon were about to get married, so they needed to attend the grand feast.

Ninth-rank Spellcasters rarely married at that time; even if two people had feelings, they would simply live together. Such an event as inviting friends to a wedding was very rare.

After returning to their previous stronghold, the Blue-robed Mage returned to her family, where she would make some efforts for her family. Meanwhile, Shaoke sought out Lan Wei'er, who had been managing his family all along.

Lan Wei'er, whom he hadn't seen for decades, had become much more mature. After respectfully greeting Shaoke, she took his arm. "Father, I thought you had forgotten about me." As she spoke, her eyes reddened as if she were about to cry. Shaoke just patted her head, indicating that neither he nor her mother would forget her.

"Tell me about your achievements over the years." Shaoke sat down in a chair, while Lan Wei'er stood beside him and began to report. After listening, Shaoke felt that his daughter had a talent for being a Ruler. Well, at least much better than when he himself had been a ruler.

Lan Wei'er walked behind Shaoke, took out a comb, and began to attend to his hair. "The family has now trained about fifty Spellcasters, but only one has advanced to the Sixth-rank; the rest are still low-level spellcasters." She paused, sensing no dissatisfaction from her father, and then continued in detail. "I also discovered a few children with talent for becoming Archers. Although they are only Third-rank archers now, I believe if we fully cultivate them, they have the potential to become Seventh-rank existences."

The mage nodded and let Lan Wei'er fuss with his hair. It took her a full two magical hours to finish reporting on the situation here. Everything satisfied the mage. Of course, later, Lan Wei'er just quietly held onto Shaoke's neck, letting his head rest against her high chest. She enjoyed this feeling very much.

After waiting for a long time, Shaoke said to Lan Wei'er, "Is Hegel here?" As he spoke, he stood up and walked quietly to the living room. "Why hasn't he come to see me?"

Lan Wei'er hesitated for a moment, then took Shaoke's arm. "Hegel is not here, Father." She quickly added, "But I have news of him. He is currently forming an adventuring group with some people in the empire and traveling." When she saw no reaction from Shaoke, she carefully added, "He's in a bit of trouble now, entangled with some mage families. If you need, I can bring him back." As she spoke, she unconsciously tightened her grip on Shaoke's arm, worried that her strict father would punish her for these matters.

The mage shook his head. "Don't bother with him. Let him come back when he wants to." He frowned and said to Lan Wei'er, "Your strength hasn't progressed much recently. Are you having difficulties in your magical studies?" With that, he led his daughter toward the forest outside the stronghold, where the environment was nice and there were no young maids to disturb them.

Lan Wei'er blushed. "No. I've just been too focused on building the family, which delayed my magical studies." She quickly changed the subject, asking about her mother. She didn't want her father to scold her about this.

When mentioning his wives, Shaoke's expression improved. He told her in detail about Mage Roman and the White-robed Cleric. Then he suddenly changed the subject. "Do you want to independently govern a family of your own?" The mage leaned against a tree, looking up as if gazing at the blue sky.

Through his powerful mental strength, Shaoke could clearly sense Lan Wei'er's mental energy becoming chaotic, though it quickly calmed down. He knew his words had affected her. "If you have your own family, your mothers and I will fully support you in building it." He frowned and added, "If you like governing the current family, I will also agree."

As soon as the mage finished speaking, Lan Wei'er suddenly hugged him tightly, placing her head against his neck. Her breath made Shaoke uncomfortable. "Father, I don't want to govern a family. I just want to do my best to complete the tasks you give me. I don't want to disappoint you."

"You've been an Eighth-rank Spellcaster for many years. I think you should have your own family." Shaoke patted his daughter's shoulder and comforted her softly. "I will only allow Hegel to govern or establish a family after he becomes an Eighth-rank. If possible, I hope you can govern this family forever."

Lan Wei'er ignored what Shaoke said, just burying her head in his shoulder. After a long time, she suddenly lifted her head and said to the mage, who still had his eyes closed, "I like you, Father. I have always liked you. How I wish I could still call you Mage Xueye, not Father." After speaking, Lan Wei'er began to cry and then kissed Shaoke's cheek before leaving. Shaoke stood under the tree with the expression he had shown earlier, waiting until dark before returning to the living room.

Back in the living room, Lan Wei'er's mood had returned to normal. She apologized to Shaoke and then had the maids serve a delicious dinner. After that, she poured wine and water for them. According to custom, after dinner, the father and daughter sat in the dining room resting. Lan Wei'er added some firewood to the fireplace, then sat across from Shaoke, holding a glass of wine, staring blankly at the mage.

Finally, the female mage broke the silence. "Father, Hegel has fallen in love with a mage and is now with her." Lan Wei'er licked her lips and continued, "That mage is only a low-level Third-tier Mage and not from any mage family."

"As long as Hegel likes that mage, let them be together. Your mother and I will not stop him from making this choice." Shaoke took out some Snow Bee Queen honey and added a little to Lan Wei'er's wine glass, then handed the small jar of honey to his daughter, indicating she should keep it.

Lan Wei'er carefully put away the jar and added some more to her father's glass. "But because of that mage, he has become entangled with several mage families. If he can't handle it, I believe he will be attacked by those families." She added, "They are now in the imperial capital. Hegel has become a tutor at the academy there."

Shaoke nodded indifferently, indicating he knew about it, and then began to teach Lan Wei'er some magical knowledge. It was not until late at night that Lan Wei'er curled up on a recliner and fell asleep. Shaoke finally prepared some bedding for her and sat there meditating to take care of her.

The next morning at breakfast, Lan Wei'er brought new news about Hegel. "Father, a few days ago, Hegel had a conflict with some mages from a family. He killed two Sixth-rank spellcasters." She added worriedly, "This family is from the Yisage Empire. I think they will take bad actions against Hegel." The female mage handed a scroll with the recorded information to Shaoke, hoping he would look at it, but he refused. It had no effect on him.

He wasn't worried about his son being attacked in the imperial capital because, according to the rules, Eighth-rank Practitioners were not allowed to act there. The population density was too high, and a battle would not only cause many civilian casualties but also leave a bad impression on foreign merchants, reducing their numbers. That was something no one would allow.

Nevertheless, Shaoke wrote letters to the alliance members on guard duty in the imperial capital, hoping they would secretly help his child to prevent his death. Of course, this was just a preventive measure. If his child couldn't survive there, he would not be qualified to govern the newly established family. This was also the mage's indirect punishment of Hegel for not following his orders.

Shaoke stayed here for a long time, mostly instructing Lan Wei'er in magical research, and the rest of the time observing the family's training methods, looking for shortcomings to correct. Of course, the world's accumulated wisdom spanned tens of millions of years, so the family's training methods were already very perfect. There was nothing for Shaoke to correct.

One day, while the mage was watching the young children with magical talent learning, Lan Wei'er came to him, looking excited. "Father, today is the selection of the Death Warriors. Let's go watch together!" The female mage took his arm and pulled him toward the mountain peak where Mage Roman resided.

"What are these ordinary people doing here?" Shaoke's mental strength quickly detected countless ordinary people walking on the Blue-robed Female Mage's mountain peak. Some Eighth-rank existences in the sky were protecting their safety. Of course, the mage soon sensed the presence of the Blue-robed Female Mage and flew toward her.

"Every two years, when we select death warriors, we invite these wealthy merchants to come and watch. They love this bloody spectacle, so I took advantage of it." Lan Wei'er explained quickly. Soon they arrived in front of the Blue-robed Female Mage.

The Blue-robed Female Mage glanced at them and shook her head. "Let's go inside. I didn't expect that what was once just an experimental site has now become an important means of earning money."

The mage nodded indifferently, then tore through space and brought the two female spellcasters inside the mountain. The Blue-robed Female Mage looked at him with some surprise, not expecting Shaoke to be able to tear through space and enter her stronghold, which had taken her a long time to build and was protected by many defensive and restraining spells. Thinking this, the Blue-robed Female Mage looked at Shaoke again and then flew to the high platform to watch the bloody slaughter below.

All the warriors who had reached the ninth level were killing each other. At that moment, a large number of merchants arrived. After paying a certain amount of money, they began the most primitive gambling. This behavior was supported by the entire alliance, so no one worried about fraud. Of course, some had tried it before, but they were torn to pieces by the mad warriors.

The cultivated warriors fought each other. Here, there was only victory and death, no other choices. When one opponent was torn to pieces, it triggered a burst of furious shouting. This gladiatorial combat lasted for a whole month, and finally, only ten warriors survived. But they faced the fate of having their consciousness erased and becoming puppet guards. No one cared about the fate of those people, after all, the world had no shortage of intelligent beings like humans.

The mage didn't stay long and left. The Blue-robed Female Mage remained there until after the wedding of Mage Meigan and the female warrior before leaving.

When the two Ninth-rank beings got married, all the Ninth-rank Professionals in the alliance came to the ceremony, offering sufficient blessings and gifts. Because the female warrior was already pregnant with Meigan and her child. The mages also planned to carve a permanent magic array on the child after birth. This method had become a popular tradition in the alliance. Of course, only the children of High-order Practitioners received such treatment.

After finishing these matters, Shaoke intended to bid farewell to Lan Wei'er and leave when a not-so-good message was delivered by a member of the alliance. Looking at the scroll in his hand, the mage rubbed his forehead with annoyance. He didn't expect his son to cause him such a big trouble.

It turned out that Hegel had become entangled with the current Empress's daughter in the imperial capital, arousing jealousy among some young scions of families. They even disobeyed the rules and started fighting in the imperial capital. Now Hegel and those young men had been arrested by the Eighth-rank Practitioners guarding the imperial capital, and a time for their punishment would be chosen.

"Father, will Hegel be harmed?" Lan Wei'er worriedly looked at Shaoke. She knew that the Ninth-rank beings had set down the rules and would not allow anyone to break them. If this happened, the punishment would be severe. "Those families were the ones who attacked Hegel first," Lan Wei'er added softly, hoping her father would help Hegel after receiving this information.

Shaoke's hand suddenly burst into flames, burning the scroll. Then he took out a piece of parchment and began to write. Before long, he finished several letters. "Send these to the Ninth-rank beings in the imperial capital, and these letters to those families. I want to invite them to choose a suitable place for battle. The loser dies." With that, he tore through space and arrived in the imperial capital. How Lan Wei'er would handle it was not his concern. He was now furious.

More than a hundred years had passed since he last visited the imperial capital, which was now even more prosperous than the Blue Feather Empire. Over time, a large number of Wandering Practitioners and some weak families had come here. After establishing their families, they struggled here to obtain more resources to build their families. But they couldn't get too many resources because precious items were taken by the thousands of imperial wanderers' alliances.

After observing the imperial capital for a while, the mage tore through space again and arrived at the meeting place of the Ninth-rank beings. Here, he would summon all the Ninth-rank Professionals on duty in the imperial capital for discussion.

A special magical signal was released by the Eighth-rank Practitioners on duty. Before long, thousands of Ninth-rank Professionals arrived. Shaoke floated silently in the air, waiting.

"This mage, is there something?" A warrior approached Shaoke, not understanding why he had released the signal. These Ninth-rank Professionals usually gathered habitually once every ten years and spent the rest of the time in their mage towers in seclusion. They didn't expect someone to actively release this magical signal to gather them.

After seeing everyone had arrived, Shaoke spoke softly. "Recently, Eighth-rank Practitioners fought here. I want to know why no one stopped them. Didn't you detect this?" After speaking, the mage fell silent. He didn't know which Ninth-rank Professional's guard area the battle had occurred in. However, after he finished, a Ninth-rank Knight flew out.

"That battle took place in my area of control. I noticed it too late." The knight saluted the crowd and apologized for his mistake. "But I have already detained those people. They are now in the dungeon undergoing special treatment."

Shaoke nodded. Just as he was about to say something, a warrior spoke loudly. "Is this all? I don't think this matter requires gathering us here."

"Why is it not necessary? The passage of time has made those young families and later practitioners forget our existence and the rules we established. I just want to tell everyone that such matters must be dealt with seriously. If the Eighth-rank Practitioners are at fault, I will personally annihilate their families." Shaoke said this. He didn't like being interrupted, especially by strangers.

"That Hegel is your child, right, Mage Xueye?" A mage looked at Shaoke. "This matter was handled by me and some others. We have reconstructed the battle scene. Your child also made mistakes in that battle. He must face ten years' imprisonment." With that, the mage took out a special crystal that could store image data. Anyone with casting ability could use it.

Everyone viewed the images stored in the crystal and then dispersed, leaving only that mage and the knight guarding that area. "Those Eighth-rank Practitioners have all been executed. Their clansmen will also be imprisoned for decades. This is our fair judgment." The mage looked at Shaoke, who still had his eyes closed, and continued, "I believe this judgment is impartial. What do you think?"

The mage nodded, then sent a magical message to Lan Wei'er to retrieve the letters. Finally, he left. After he left, the knight said to the mage, dissatisfied, "This Mage Xueye has a strange temper. He will easily get into trouble like this."

"Get into trouble?" The mage looked at the knight with a surprised expression. "In this world, professionals above the Tenth-rank cannot act here. And among those below the Tenth-rank, I doubt anyone could kill him in battle." The mage shook his head and continued, "I heard that in the past, they teamed up to hunt and kill two or three Tenth-rank professionals, and even an Eleventh-rank mage fell during their siege. And at that time, this Mage Xueye was only an Eighth-rank existence." With that, that mage also tore through space and left, leaving the knight floating silently in the air for a long time.