Chapter 157: The terror of the magic potion, Hagek Kesi's fighting spirit

Twilight City, Red Fox Castle.

It was a sunny day; the sky was as blue as a whole piece of polished cobalt glass, and the sunlight was as gentle as thin gauze.

"Master Sage, I have prepared the new magic potion!"

Xia Mingyu was enjoying the flowers in the castle garden with Miss Anliya when he saw Youde, whose dark circles were becoming increasingly heavy, running over excitedly, holding a bottle of deep blue potion.

Noticing the stunningly beautiful girl beside His Highness, the alchemist shrank his neck timidly.

It seemed that for people with low self-esteem regarding their appearance, seeing someone too beautiful could also be a form of injury.

After Xia Mingyu whispered a few words to Miss Anliya, the young girl gave Youde a bright, friendly smile, then left the garden silently, leaving the space for the two of them.

"Your Highness, your girl is truly beautiful; I have never seen anyone so good-looking," Youde exclaimed in admiration.

Xia Mingyu smiled and did not answer, only taking the magic potion from Youde's hand to observe it.

This was the potion he had asked Youde to re-prepare after giving him the Ice Crystal Flower brought from the Northern Region; compared to before, the color of the potion had deepened significantly.

"Your Highness, the Ice Crystal Flower you brought back—its medicinal properties are nearly complete. Heavens, it's just like it was just picked from the snowfields of the Northern Region!"

"Please hurry and try the potion; I am confident its effect is twice that of the previous one!"

Youde's expression could not hide his excitement; for an alchemist, being able to prepare medicine with such perfect herbs was undoubtedly a very fulfilling thing.

Thus, Xia Mingyu pulled out the stopper and drank the bottle of deep blue magic potion in an instant.

Gulp, gulp, gulp.

The moment the potion entered his throat, Xia Mingyu felt as if his temples were being massaged, and a wave of coolness and comfort spread from his brain.

At the same time, faint black flame clouds erupted from his body.

That was an overflow phenomenon caused by the rapid recovery of magic in an extremely short time.

"Youde, the effect of this magic potion is not twice that of the previous one," Xia Mingyu said, frowning.

Hearing this, the alchemist's expression suddenly became incomparably nervous; he was afraid that he had disappointed the great Master Sage, in which case his entire life would have no meaning at all.

"It's three times that of the previous one!" Xia Mingyu smiled slightly.

Yes, the bottle of magic potion he had just drunk had forced his magic to recover by about one-fifth directly.

One must know that his magic capacity, even among the Morning Star Rank, belonged to the elite; if it were an ordinary Morning Star, one bottle of magic potion would probably be enough to recover one-third of their magic capacity on the spot.

Anyone with even a little combat experience would realize just how terrifying the impact of this magic potion would be in battle!

And such a potion actually came from an eighteen-year-old monkey-faced alchemist.

Yes, although he looked old on the outside, Youde was actually just eighteen years old this year, only a little older than Boge Chu.

"Such an amazing potion was actually made by me..."

Upon hearing Xia Mingyu's answer, Youde was so excited that he danced with joy.

"Your Highness, thank you for bestowing such precious herbs upon me to prepare potions for you."

After calming down, Youde thanked him sincerely.

"The better the herbs, the more they need an excellent alchemist to grind them to bloom with radiance."

"Youde, God may have closed a door for you, but He also opened a window for you that ordinary people do not have. I believe you will definitely become a great alchemist in the future."

Xia Mingyu patted the alchemist's shoulder to encourage him, while not forgetting to take a few Silver Sol from his pocket and put them into the other party's pocket.

He was a qualified boss; not only could he paint a big picture, but he would also give bonuses.

After being encouraged, Youde's face turned red from the rush of blood; as expected of Master Sage, even his words of comfort were so philosophical.

At this moment, the fire of loyalty in his heart was burning fiercely; he felt he could stay up for another whole year for His Highness—anyway, at worst, he would just drink a few more bottles of energy potion!

As an alchemist, he was penniless and had nothing except His Highness's rewards, but he had plenty of potions.

"Your Highness, I have a premonition that it won't be long before I can be promoted to a Master Alchemist!" Youde said confidently.

After achieving the great feat of neutralizing the Twilight Tea poison and saving Twilight City, he could feel that the shackles of the Morning Star were already tottering and could be broken at a touch.

Master Alchemist—upon hearing this term, a trace of surprise could not help but flash across Xia Mingyu's face.

Because he remembered that the book "Compendium of Protection" stated very clearly that if an alchemist wanted to be promoted to a Master Alchemist, they needed to accurately remember the various medicinal properties of tens of thousands of herbs and be able to process them skillfully.

Therefore, although the difficulty of promotion was not the highest among all professions, it was the most time-consuming, requiring years of accumulated knowledge.

Often, when an alchemist was promoted to a Master Alchemist, they had already become an old man with white hair and beard.

However, after promotion, they would obtain the core ability of the alchemist profession—Medicinal Resonance—which allowed them to intuitively see the degree of resonance between the different medicinal properties of two herbs, thus being able to develop various wonderful potions as if assisted by gods.

Among the Transcendent ones, there was even a joke that if you tied a dog to be a Master Alchemist, it might be able to develop potions that would become popular across the entire continent.

Because the ability of Medicinal Resonance was simply too "cheating"; as long as you saw a high degree of resonance, you would use it to prepare medicine, and after trying a few more times, you would always be able to develop new potions.

Precisely because of this, every Master Alchemist could easily earn fame, status, wealth, and even power.

If Youde could be promoted to a Master Alchemist before the end of this year, then an eighteen-year-old Master Alchemist would be even more shocking than a twenty-year-old Bard.

After all, just like art students versus science and engineering students on Blue Star, the former still had many examples of becoming masters at a young age, while the latter were few and far between even if you flipped through the entire history textbook.

"Youde, I am looking forward to it," the Sage said softly, while the alchemist clenched his fist tightly, secretly swearing in his heart that he would never let his benefactor's expectations fall through.

Eastern Region, Slave Capital.

Located in the center of the city was a gorgeous manor with an extremely vast area.

It was built entirely of pure white marble, with countless star patterns, murals, and various complex shapes rich in aesthetic value carefully carved into the building.

Under the gentle light of the morning sun, it appeared dazzling, sacred, and pure white; just one look was enough to shock the human spirit.

And in the center of the manor, a huge flag was erected, depicting the starry night sky, rustling with the whistling wind.

This was the Starry Manor; everyone in the world knew it was the best manor in the entire Sossia.

Because it was rumored that the owner of the Slave Capital, Impaler Lord Saimen Kelai, had spent the equivalent of half a year's tax revenue of the entire Sossia starting ten years ago to hire craftsmen and painters and purchase stone materials, and had even worked countless slaves to death, before it was finally built at the beginning of this year.

On the day the manor was built, countless nobles from all over the world gathered in the Slave Capital just to catch a glimpse of its elegance.

The magnificent and ingenious architecture inside the manor left even the nobles, who had always been high and mighty, stunned, as if they had become bumpkins.

They secretly swore in their hearts that they must build a more gorgeous building in the future, but after glancing at their shriveled wallets, they could only give up in pain, turning instead to join other nobles in praising its elegant design and rich cultural atmosphere, completely ignoring how many slaves' flesh and wails were buried under those smooth marble slabs.

Manor hall.

On the dome dozens of meters high, a huge crystal chandelier hung down with icicle-shaped decorations, the floor was covered with dark red velvet carpets, and the walls were covered with paintings whose names could be read from the long river of history.

In one word: opulent!

Raphael, Latise, and Lorn—three vampires who had luckily escaped from Twilight City—were currently kneeling on the dark red carpet, bowing their heads deeply.

And on the main seat of the hall, a handsome man with silver hair and red eyes was resting his head on his hand, quietly staring at the people below; he was the famous Impaler Lord of Sossia.

"Respected Lord Saimen, we are very sorry for failing to complete the mission you assigned, and we also feel deeply guilty for the death of Lord Erkus. Please grant us punishment," Raphael said respectfully, never daring to raise his head.

Upon hearing his words, a trace of anger flashed across Saimen's face.

Rosa was not dead, and Erkus, a younger clansman he favored, had also died; these two bastards had returned unscathed—at least one of them should have sacrificed themselves to be considered responsible!

Thinking of this, a blood-red torrent of magic erupted from Saimen's body, spreading in all directions like ribbons.

Hum, hum, hum.

The crystal chandelier hanging on the dome began to sway, and even the murals on the walls were tottering.

Seeing this, Raphael hurriedly pulled the corner of his sister's clothes beside him.

The young girl understood, raised her head, revealing a pair of teary, deer-like eyes, and looked at Saimen on the main seat with a face full of pleading.

The blood-red magic that filled the entire hall finally dissipated gradually.

Looking at the pitiful appearance of the foster daughter he had raised since childhood, Saimen finally softened his heart.

"Raphael, tell me what you encountered after following Erkus to the Southern Region. If you dare to lie to me... hmph!"

He snorted coldly, and several blood-red spears suddenly rose from the ground, their tips pointing firmly at the golden-haired young man's head.

"Yes, after we arrived at Twilight City, Lord Erkus went to Red Fox Castle to find Rosa to open a chamber of commerce... In the end, Lord Erkus was hit by the Sage's core magic, and we tried our best to rescue him but were powerless."

Raphael did not dare to hide anything, telling the experience exactly as it was, only making a small modification at the very end.

After listening to all his accounts, Saimen could not help but fall into deep thought.

He realized that Erkus's failure was entirely due to one person—the Southern Region Sage, Xia Mingyu.

A mere Morning Star Rank daring to call himself a Sage was simply too arrogant.

However, being able to discover the secret of Erkus's Bewitching Tea of Grace could be considered to have some wisdom.

Where did this guy pop out from, and he also possessed pitch-black magic—could he also be a believer of my God?

"Lord Saimen, we are willing to make up for our mistakes and return to the Southern Region to kill the Sage for you to avenge Lord Erkus!"

Seeing the silver-haired man on the main seat with an uncertain expression, Raphael gritted his teeth and said.

No matter what, get through this hurdle first; at worst... just come back sneakily.

"No need, that so-called Sage won't live much longer. He didn't just destroy my plan; he also caught the eye of a certain Lord," Saimen said faintly.

Erkus's plan for the Bewitching Disaster to destroy Twilight City was not entirely his decision; it also had the tacit approval of that Lord and the escort provided by the organization under that Lord.

Now that the plan had been broken, that dangerous and crazy organization would definitely not let the culprit, the Sage, go.

Calculating the time, they might have already arrived in the Southern Region by now.

"You three, regardless of the reason, failing the mission is a great crime; I must give you severe punishment!" Saimen slowly stood up from his seat and said sternly.

"We are willing to be punished," the three vampires said in unison.

"Lorn, get back to the arena, and come back in a month."

"Yes, Lord Saimen," the bald, burly man said in a deep voice, secretly praying in his heart not to be arranged next to the butcher again.

"Raphael, in the wilderness outside the Slave Capital, a group of Transcendent bandits has appeared recently; kill them all. I will not give you any troops."

"Yes, Lord Saimen," Raphael was somewhat relieved; although facing a whole group of Transcendent bandits alone might be relatively dangerous, it was still within an acceptable range.

"Latise, the flowers in the Starry Manor have been a bit withered recently; give them more water." Saimen thought for a long time before thinking of a punishment that was "severe" enough.

"Yes, thank you, Lord Saimen~" The young girl smiled sweetly, then stood up and skipped out of the hall.

Raphael, Lorn: "???"

The two men raised their heads in unison, looking at Saimen in disbelief.

Boom!

The next moment, a blood-red air wave struck, and the two were immediately blasted out of the door.

"Two idiots, there are so many flowers in the Starry Manor; watering them is a very hard task."

Looking at the empty hall, Saimen muttered to himself.

Swish!

The Commodity Warehouse ability was activated.

A blood-red round hole appeared, and he reached in and fumbled for a while, taking out a carefully packaged box of tea leaves with a small bat drawn on it.

That was a box of premium Twilight Tea that Latise had specially bought for him from Twilight City.

Judging by the salary he gave the young girl, it would take several months of saving to afford it.

Tsk, watering flowers is indeed too hard; let her go help at the Blood Tooth Arena instead.

Blood Tooth Arena.

"Hagek Kesi!"

"Hagek Kesi!"

The huge, circular arena, built of countless heavy boulders, was already filled with countless spectators, who looked at the man on the field, as perfect and tall as a hero of the Age of Gods, and shouted hoarsely.

Since leaving the Starry Manor, Latise had rushed here without stopping; at this moment, she was shouting Hagek Kesi's name excitedly along with other spectators, staring at Hagek Kesi with eyes that seemed like they wanted to eat him up.

If Raphael saw his sister's infatuated look, he would probably be heartbroken.

On the field.

Hagek Kesi stared tightly at the dark passage behind the iron fence on the opposite side, a trace of excitement flashing in his bright golden eyes.

I wonder what powerful magic beast Saimen found for him this time?

No matter how powerful the magic beast was, he would kill it with his bare hands to achieve a great feat, because he wanted to become stronger and stronger, and then snatch the identity of the number one general under Lord Tamerlane!

Howl!

Accompanied by a shrill wolf howl, a giant wolf with a shoulder height of more than three meters, covered in thick, silver-white fur like armor, and with fine frost crystals condensed between its fur, crashed through the iron fence and rushed out!

And above its head, there was a line of deep blue text—Fingers.

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 158 =====