Chapter 281: Gains After the Slaughter

According to Shaoke's previous spellcasting experiments, after more than twenty years of cultivation, he could, at his peak, cast three consecutive spells under the effect of the Decree spell. But this time, due to the initial spellcasting struggle, he paid a heavy price for forcing the spell.

It was all over—at least that's how Shaoke felt for now. Her treatment soon ended, and then Shaoke said to the four mages: "Gather the stuff outside, and I'll trade you some medicine for it." After speaking, he glanced calmly at the four mages. He noticed that the Fourth Tier Mage's face was pale, apparently having taken some damage in the recent battle. But Shaoke didn't mention it. "I need to rest. If you want to leave here, do so as soon as possible; otherwise, it might get too late to leave safely." With that, he ignored the mages and led the White-robed Cleric to the house where the maids were hiding.

Fortunately, the battle hadn't damaged the houses here, so apart from being frightened, the maids suffered no other harm. But even so, the young maids looked at Shaoke and the White-robed Cleric with panic. The violent clash of spells had terrified them.

After a quick word of comfort to the maids, Shaoke took the cleric with him and quickly returned to his room. As soon as he entered, he took out more scrolls and handed them to the Cleric. Then he sat on the bed and began to meditate, for the turbulence in his meditation space was worsening. With the help of the golden light still swirling in his meditation space, Shaoke with some difficulty drew out a restorative meditation array. At this moment, the Cleric beside him cast spells again to help him recover. Wisps of golden light quickly flew from her body and spellbook, merging into Shaoke's body.

The recovery of massive amounts of mental energy and mana calmed the turbulence a bit, and the somewhat unstable altar gradually stabilized. But Shaoke noticed that the mental energy and magic power stored in the altar had greatly diminished. This loss was permanent and could not be restored through meditation. Only with the passage of time would the energy gradually accumulate in the altar again.

Over time, with sufficient mental energy and mana, some magic scripts on the altar flew out uncontrollably and quickly merged into the constantly turbulent space walls, working together with the silver light and the Cleric's golden light to calm the turmoil.

It took a full magic hour for Shaoke to recover. Afterward, he found that the area of his meditation space had not shrunk due to overdrawing, but the altar had shrunk, which was a huge relief to Shaoke. After all, the shrinking of the altar could be expanded again, but the shrinking of the meditation space would be very difficult to restore. Of course, the silver light might also support some expansion of the meditation space, but that would take a lot of time and energy. Although the meditation space hadn't shrunk, Shaoke still felt it wasn't as solid as before. Fortunately, he could gradually repair it later by replenishing mental energy and mana.

"What about those mages?" Shaoke, after recovering, didn't extend his mental energy to check outside. Instead, he suppressed his mental fluctuations and asked the White-robed Cleric, who was watching him nervously. "Have any other practitioners come here?" After saying this, he noticed the Cleric's expression was a bit strange, but he didn't pay much attention.

"Those few mages are still here and haven't left," the White-robed Cleric said, moving closer to Shaoke. "No one came, but some high-order practitioners came to inspect the estate you attacked. But they left afterward." She sighed inwardly. She hadn't expected that after nearly thirty years without seeing each other, Shaoke had reached such a level of power. She felt that even seventh-order practitioners couldn't kill so many practitioners so quickly, except for large-scale area-effect spells.

But those area-effect spells required a long preparation time, giving practitioners plenty of time to escape or launch harassing attacks.

After hearing the Cleric's words, Shaoke said nothing more and closed his eyes to rest. But after a moment, he said to the Cleric, "Tell the maids to prepare some food and make some medicinal bath water." Then he closed his eyes again and sat cross-legged on the bed, as if thinking about something.

The White-robed Cleric looked at Shaoke with a strange expression, then twitched the corner of her mouth and said, "Have them serve you a bath?" As she said this, her face flushed red, recalling what Shaoke used to do after every battle on the battlefield back then. A blush, unique to women, spread across her face.

"Make a portion for them too. You also need to rest," Shaoke said and then fell silent. The Cleric thought for a moment, hugged her golden book, and went out to instruct the maids. She also needed to arrange for the mages to keep watch, because Shaoke wouldn't be leaving his room for the short term, so she had to take command.

Shaoke didn't probe the outside with his mental energy at all. Instead, he kept his eyes closed, leaning against the bed, and rested using the military's unique method of recuperating mental energy. He had learned this method only after reaching the Sixth Rank. He found that while this method didn't restore mental energy quickly, it could partially replace sleep in recovering it, unlike meditation, which still required sleep afterward.

Shaoke didn't eat the food the maids prepared. Instead, he went to the bathhouse with one maid, who had already prepared the medicinal bath. Meanwhile, the White-robed Cleric went to another room for her own medicinal bath. As for the other four mages, Shaoke didn't bother with them.

Perhaps out of fear or familiarity, the maid who had been serving Shaoke during his bath pressed her soft body against him while giving him a massage. Eventually, she even rubbed against him gently with her body, though this was after the normal massage had ended. Faced with this, the mage didn't take any real action, he only squeezed a few of her soft, sensitive spots, causing the maid to tremble violently and stifle a moan.

After cuddling the blushing maid in the bath for a while, Shaoke patted her hip to signal she could go. The maid gently dried him, then left with a red face after a bow.

The estate had been damaged in many places by the battle, but since there were many houses, it didn't affect the mages' rest. However, the courtyard wall had collapsed due to Shaoke's slicing attack, exposing the interior to the street. But Shaoke paid no attention to this, since practitioners' probing could hardly be blocked by such walls.

The bodies in the street and courtyard had all disappeared, but there were still large bloodstains, one reason the young maids avoided going out. Another reason was the missing wall, which made the powerless maids feel uneasy.

"I had them burn the bodies," the White-robed Cleric explained softly, pointing to the mages standing nearby. "They've decided to stay here for a while, so you'll need to have the maids prepare more food." She blushed as she glanced at Shaoke and said no more.

"Shall we exchange now?" Shaoke didn't ask why these mages were staying, but went straight to the point. "For the battle just now, each of you can get one sixth-tier potion. Hmm, you get three fifth-tier potions." Following their needs, Shaoke handed out the potions.

Though Shaoke's directness surprised the mages, given his terrifying casting earlier, these low-rank mages said nothing and quickly took out the spoils from the mage carrying the magic bag, carefully placing them on the ground.

Among the items were scrolls and books with military marks, and a small amount of potions. Of course, most were magic materials, but not very valuable. As for the gold coins, the mages didn't care, since most were Blue Feather gold coins and couldn't be used to buy what mages needed.

After flipping through the books and materials, Shaoke only took some materials and paid the mages with potions according to his own judgment, leaving the rest untouched. He didn't care how the mages divided them, nor did he wonder if they had hidden anything. As he saw it, this trade was voluntary.

Obtaining a large number of items cheered the mages up a bit. None of them brought up the battle just now, as it had deepened their understanding of Shaoke's eccentric temper, violent manner, and combat style.

"Great Mage, if there's nothing else, we'd like to rest for a while," the Fourth Tier Mage hesitated briefly, then nervously voiced the common thought of the group. Shaoke didn't refuse, but reminded them to rest quickly, as there was still work to do at night.