[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"origin-above-the-mage":3,"chapter-above-the-mage-above-the-mage-chapter-49":6},{"origin":4,"title":5},"chinese","Above the Mage!",{"chapter":7,"nextChapterSlug":19,"prevChapterSlug":20,"totalChapters":21,"novelImage":22},{"id":8,"novel_id":9,"title":10,"slug":11,"index":12,"content":13,"wordcount":14,"created_at":15,"updated_at":15,"volume":16,"translator":17,"content_hash":18},2257053,4404,"Chapter 49: Return","above-the-mage-chapter-49",49,"\u003Cp>Half a month means half a month.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>After the last day of Spring Bud Month, Green Leaf Month began, and the city grew lush with greenery.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Gao De delivered five sets of Chujizhuduyaoji  to Phil’s Apothecary and purchased another half-month’s supply of green spider sacs from the same shop.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>After finishing this, he stopped by Pierre’s Grocery and was startled to find the shop door, closed for half a month, now open.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The familiar old man lay lazily on his rocking chair, basking in the warm morning sun, utterly at ease.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Gao De’s face lit up with joy as he approached.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“You brat, you haven’t been standing outside my door every day, have you? I just got back yesterday, opened the shop half an hour ago, and not a single customer has come in—yet here you are.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Pierre noticed Gao De’s arrival, shifted his body slightly, then reluctantly rose to greet him.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Pure coincidence.” Gao De’s mind was full of spell scrolls and the anxious hope of imminent wealth.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Alright, I know what you’re thinking,” Pierre, a shrewd old fox, wouldn’t drag this out, “Wait a moment.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He moved his rocking chair aside, stepped into the shop’s storage room, and returned moments later.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Seeing Pierre emerge from the storage room, Gao De’s eyes brightened instantly.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>In the old man’s hand was a scroll! “I told you you’re lucky—Strike Spell has low usage. Last year, the Emerald Alliance’s scroll scribes made only three Strike Spell scrolls total.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Of those three, one was sold publicly, one was used internally by the organization’s mages, and this one was left—so I got my hands on it.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Pierre boasted as he handed the scroll to Gao De. “Check it out.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Gao De received the spell scroll as if it were a priceless treasure and examined it closely.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The scroll felt extremely tough and tightly woven, with fine fibrous textures giving it a natural, classical beauty—likely made from finely processed animal hide.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The parchment had probably been specially treated to preserve its magical energy long-term.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Along the edges were runes and magical symbols drawn in dark ink.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>These patterns weren’t mere decoration—they held the key to unlocking the spell’s power.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The scroll itself was tightly rolled, bound at both ends with rope in a slipknot—pull gently, and it would open.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“You can untie it without triggering the spell—don’t worry,” Pierre noticed Gao De’s restless hesitation and added.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>At this, Gao De immediately untied the slipknot and unrolled the scroll.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Before his eyes appeared incantations written in an exotic script.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The characters seemed alive, occasionally flickering with faint light, revealing the magic contained within.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Gao De didn’t recognize the script—it was magical writing.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Only if he mastered [Read Magic] or was fluent in this script could he understand it.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But that didn’t prevent him from using the scroll.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>To use a spell scroll, one simply unrolls it, focuses the mind on the incantation, and silently intends the desired effect—then the sealed spell is released.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Of course, before use, the user must first identify the spell and its level.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The user must also possess sufficient mental strength; otherwise, they cannot control the spell’s activation.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Spell scrolls require mental strength one spell tier below the spell’s level—minimum Apprentice Mage.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>That is, an Apprentice Mage can use a 1st-tier scroll, a 1st-tier Mage can use a 2nd-tier scroll, and so on. After studying it for a while, Gao De retied the scroll and smiled.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“You’ve really helped me out.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Just business,” Pierre shrugged casually. “The scroll costs seven gold. The meal I treated you to? That’s on me.” He extended his right hand, palm up, toward Gao De.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Gao De quickly rummaged in his pocket and counted out seven Sein gold coins, placing them in Pierre’s palm.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Money exchanged, goods delivered.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>After months of hard work selling potions, his savings had reached twenty-one gold—he’d just begun feeling flush, and now he was back to square one.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“My account’s down to fourteen gold again.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“And in a few days, I’ll need to buy seedlings of wormwood and snake-tooth grass to plant in the herb garden.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Otherwise, at the current consumption rate, by year’s end, the output of these two herbs won’t keep up.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“If that happens, I’ll have to buy all three main ingredients from apothecaries—cost per potion will rise from twenty to twenty-five silver back to thirty silver, cutting my profit per set by ten silver. That’s too thin.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“I must buy these seedlings—and I can’t delay.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Buying seedlings is one expense, but I’ll also need to buy fertilizer to nurture them—that’s another expense.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Doing the math, Gao De uttered a sigh universal across all worlds.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>It’s hard to live anywhere.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“I can only hope Seda the Mage’s inheritance isn’t a letdown.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Though Gao De felt fairly certain he’d score a “big jackpot,” what if? What if Seda was a sneaky old bastard who pulled some reverse trick?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>What if the heavily guarded box was empty, and the real treasure sat plainly in plain sight? It wasn’t impossible.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>If that happened, all he could do was curse a few “old bastard”s.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He couldn’t dig up the corpse and whip it in rage.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“The recent anomalies outside the city might not be as simple as they seem.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>As Gao De tucked the scroll away and prepared to leave, Pierre hesitated, then called out to him with a warning: “Stock up on food when you can. If something bad happens, you’ll be unprepared.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Huh?” Gao De’s heart jolted. He asked earnestly, “What do you mean by ‘something bad’?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Knowing Pierre, Gao De didn’t believe the old man would speak without cause or exaggerate.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>If he was warning him, he’d seen something.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“I can’t be certain yet, but the increase in geoflora creatures is no accident. I originally thought it might be a high-tier magical plant maturing, drawing them together.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“But this has lasted too long,” Pierre’s expression grew heavier, “By now, that plant should’ve matured. I still don’t know what’s happening—I need to watch further.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“But my gut tells me something bad is likely occurring—I just don’t know if it’ll affect us.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Pierre sighed, revealing more: “I went to Bremen City to arrange an escape route. If things turn bad, I’ll flee there.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“I hope it doesn’t come to that—after all, I can run, but my shop can’t.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>At his age, if he abandoned the shop, he’d find no new livelihood in Bremen—only live off his savings.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>That’s a last-resort option.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“So, if you can, prepare too,” Pierre said, ending the conversation.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“I understand. Thank you for the warning,” Gao De nodded seriously, his mood sinking.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>(End of Chapter)\u003C\u002Fp>",1107,"2026-06-19T14:28:48.629Z",1,"Qwen3-Next 80B","277c278e92d74ceb29c39b83fcf35b9f43b0fc2f7b4f6dfee780b73f0c82e5fd","above-the-mage-chapter-50","above-the-mage-chapter-48",529,"https:\u002F\u002Fnovelzhen.com\u002Fimages\u002Fcovers\u002Fabove-the-mage-cover.jpg"]