Chapter 163: The gift

Morning, Morning Wind Street.

The monkey-like alchemist and the handsome man dressed as a magician looked at each other.

"Is there anything else you need?"

Feeling the overly eager gaze of the magician in front of him, Lord Youde shrank his shoulders somewhat fearfully.

He suspected that the man was the kind of pervert who liked to play with deformed people; in his past life, it wasn't that he hadn't met such people.

The magician was silent for a moment, a brilliant smile suddenly appeared on his handsome face, and then he said slowly:

"Carrying this deformed body, you must have suffered a lot."

"Swearing to God, I can give you a brand new life, so that you will no longer be discriminated against, hated, insulted, deceived, or hurt by anyone..." the magician said.

Because I will make anyone who dares to do so unable to be a person, he added silently in his heart.

"Are you interested in coming with me?"

The magician took off his right white glove, bent down, and handed his palm to Lord Youde.

His expression was solemn, and his posture was very low.

This sudden scene caused Lord Youde's brain to crash on the spot, and it took a long time for him to come to his senses.

"Sir, thank you for your invitation, but I am already very satisfied with my current life, and I have someone I want to serve for a lifetime; I no longer need a brand new life," Lord Youde said with a face full of sincerity. 【16

Lord Youde said with a face full of sincerity; he could feel the honesty and goodwill of the magician before him, but just as he had said a moment ago, he was very content now.

If he hadn't met the Sage before, he might have followed the other party without a second thought to pursue that brand-new life, but...

Being able to meet the Sage now was the salvation the world had granted him, illuminating his gray and dreary life.

Hearing this, the magician stared intently at Lord Youde's face, attempting to discern traces of a lie within those amber-colored pupils.

But to his frustration, what was reflected in those pupils was nothing but unfeigned light and tranquility.

He was telling the truth.

The magician, having reached this conclusion, wore a stunned expression.

Among the invitations he had extended over these years, it wasn't as if he hadn't been rejected, but there had never been a reason like this—I am already very satisfied and do not need a new life.

"That is truly a pity. If possible, I would really like to meet the person who gave you this change," the magician remarked with emotion.

Lord Youde did not answer; he did not want to leak information regarding the Sage. After bowing to the other party, he hurried off in the direction of Red Fox Castle.

The magician watched his departing figure in silence, then suddenly vanished, leaving behind only a puff of white smoke and a few flower petals slowly drifting from the air to the ground.

This magical scene caused a few passersby who caught a glimpse of it to rub their eyes in disbelief, suspecting that they were having such hallucinations because they hadn't slept well.

Red Fox Castle, dining room.

Xia Mingyu was having his napkin tied by the blonde girl and was preparing to set his knife and fork upon the golden fried eggs and thick-cut smoked pork ribs on his plate when he received the news that Lord Youde requested an audience.

"Let him in."

A moment later, Lord Youde, with dark circles under his eyes and panting for breath, appeared in the dining room clutching a box.

"Your Highness, I managed to concoct a full six bottles of perfect-level mana potion in just one night!"

As soon as they met, Lord Youde jumped in front of Xia Mingyu, his face full of excitement, and spoke in a proud tone.

"You've worked hard. Sit down and have some breakfast first."

Stopping the alchemist's attempt to open the box, Xia Mingyu firmly pressed him into the seat at the dining table.

This guy's dark circles were almost catching up to a giant panda's... If he didn't rest and eat something, he might just drop dead on the spot.

"Miss Anliya, please bring him a breakfast, the same as mine."

"Yes, Your Highness."

Before long, the blonde girl brought a serving of fried eggs and pork ribs to Lord Youde with a smile, and the alchemist, who had never been treated this way by such a beautiful girl, thanked her repeatedly in a reserved manner.

He used fingers yellowed from long-term contact with potions to carefully pick up his knife and fork, placing a piece of smoked pork rib into his mouth.

The moment he bit into the meat, the crispy skin made a faint cracking sound between his teeth, and like crushing a thin sheet of ice, the rich smoked aroma immediately exploded in his mouth, carrying the lingering notes of burning oak and bay leaves.

Hiss!

Reluctantly swallowing the piece of meat, Lord Youde gasped.

This... this... how could it be so delicious?

It was even better than Twilight Tea!

Not only that, after swallowing the meat, he clearly felt waves of warmth flowing through his body, as comfortable as soaking in a hot spring.

His body, which had been weak and heavy from staying up all night for several days to make potions, also became light.

"Your Highness, this is truly the most delicious food I have ever eaten, and it nourishes the body just like a magic potion," Lord Youde praised from the bottom of his heart.

Xia Mingyu smiled without a word; the food Anliya made was indeed delicious, but saying it was like a magic potion was a bit of an exaggeration.

The black-haired youth thought to himself while gently slicing the fried egg with a silver fork; the golden yolk flowed out like a melting sun, spilling into an alluring lake on the pristine white porcelain plate.

The moment he put the yolk into his mouth, the thick egg liquid spread across his tongue with the aroma of butter, and waves of warmth surged continuously through his body like a fountain.

His brain, which had felt hungover from days of over-exhausting his mana, also became refreshed, making his entire listless demeanor perk up.

This... seemed to have already transcended the category of food.

Xia Mingyu looked suspiciously at the blonde girl in the white dress beside him.

Seeing him look over, the corners of Anliya's lips curled up slightly, and a beautiful smile with a hint of cunning appeared on her porcelain-white face.

"Your Highness, while I was studying recipes in the kitchen last night, I was favored by you and managed to achieve a promotion," she said softly. Her sweet voice brushed across his heart like a clear mountain spring, bringing healing.

The next moment, next to the white commoner text above her head, a line of emerald green text appeared—"King's Cook."

Xia Mingyu: "???"

In his memory, the girl had only just obtained the Chef Apprentice blessing a few months ago, and now she had promoted to Transcendent, and a variant profession at that!

One must know that the promotion of lifestyle professions often takes more time than combat professions, so Anliya was undoubtedly a super genius on the path of Transcendent promotion, no less than Boge.

"The ability this blessing brings me is 'Benevolent Mother's Stove.' As long as the food is made with my heart, it can randomly carry effects like healing, strengthening, sleep-inducing, and so on."

"The breakfast I made this time carries a healing effect," Anliya explained patiently.

She actually turned ordinary ingredients into magic potions?!

Heavens, alchemists all over the world who toil away brewing potions would be green with envy, such as Lord Youde, whose eyes were bulging out of his head to the side.

Xia Mingyu was silent, only feeling that this ability was a bit too exaggerated.

It was just that the name didn't sound very good; "Benevolent Mother's Stove"—someone who didn't know might think Anliya wasn't his girlfriend, but his mother.

"Your Highness, I can finally help you from now on."

The girl placed her hand gently on the back of Xia Mingyu's hand, her beautiful sky-blue eyes filled with tenderness and admiration for her beloved.

All these days, she had seen how the Prince had been overdrawing his body to produce food for the starving people.

Every time she saw the Prince resting his head on her lap, his eyes tightly shut but his brows still furrowed in pain, Anliya felt as if a knife were cutting back and forth in her heart.

She wanted to help the Prince; she would be willing even if she had to sacrifice everything.

For this reason, every time she lulled the Prince to sleep, she would quietly go to the kitchen, studying the pairings of recipes and food alone in the dead of night, striving to create better food to alleviate the Prince's exhaustion.

Now, after promoting and obtaining the ability "Benevolent Mother's Stove," she could finally stop being a burden to the Prince.

"Lord Youde, you've been busy all night, get a good sleep in the castle."

Feeling the softness on the back of his hand and the girl's affectionate gaze, Xia Mingyu was silent for a moment before speaking after Lord Youde finished his meal.

After Lord Youde was led away by the servants, only he and the blonde girl remained in the large dining room.

Xia Mingyu stood up silently and, under Anliya's expectant gaze, pressed her wrists against the wall and kissed her petal-like, beautiful lips firmly.

Mwah, mwah, mwah~

This was a suffocating kiss.

Red Fox Castle, library.

Afternoon.

Under the ornate crystal chandelier, the bookshelves, layered and interwoven with oak and bronze, towered so high they almost touched the dome.

The air was filled with a faint scent of books and raw wood, as quiet as that afternoon after the college entrance exam.

Rustle, rustle, rustle.

Accompanied by the sound of the breeze blowing through the tree branches and leaves outside the window, sunlight shone through the stained-glass window onto the heavy magic book in Xia Mingyu's hand. He gently opened it, revealing an extremely obscure and complicated pattern composed of hundreds of lines.

That was a magic diagram pattern that required precious Firefly-grade magic crystals ground into powder, and needed to be painstakingly drawn by a mage who had awakened this core magic over a long period of time to perfectly record the flow of mana in every line.

Precisely because of this, every magic book appeared incomparably precious.

Sometimes, a magic book recording powerful magic was even more expensive than an entire manor, belonging to the kind of existence that, if luckily obtained, would be hidden away as a family heirloom and passed down from generation to generation.

"This is too hard to learn!"

Staring at the magic diagram pattern for a long time, until his eyes were almost dry, Xia Mingyu closed the book and let out a long sigh.

To learn the magic recorded on the magic diagram, one not only had to perfectly memorize the pattern, but the most critical part was to remember the mana flow of every single one of the hundreds of lines and be able to draw them fluently.

Besides that, one also had to imagine the scene of releasing the magic in one's mind and understand the root of the magic.

One word: difficult. Three words: difficult to the heavens!

In the past, when he read books and they mentioned that a mage usually needed a whole year, or even two or three years, to learn a magic other than their core magic, Xia Mingyu couldn't help but mock those mages in his heart for being such weaklings.

Spending several years learning one magic was a level that would make people laugh to death in any fantasy novel.

But now that it was his turn to learn magic from a magic book, Xia Mingyu suddenly felt that one year was considered fast, two years wasn't much, and three years was just right.

"Sigh, let's see who the author of this magic book is."

Xia Mingyu sighed while flipping to the last page of the magic book.

Because magic books were extremely difficult to produce and required occupying a large amount of the mage's meditation time, basically every mage who created a magic book would record their name on the last page of the book.

That was an honor distinct from knights, belonging solely to mages.

It symbolized that they had made a unique contribution to the inheritance and development of the study of magic. Even if nearly a thousand years passed and the world changed, as long as the magic book was not destroyed and the magic they drew was still being used by others, their name could still circulate among later generations and be looked up to.

"Bayes."

Xia Mingyu slowly read the name recorded on the last page of the book.

"... Bayes?"

He didn't react the first time, and it wasn't until he recited it a second time that Xia Mingyu came to his senses.

The next moment, his pupils contracted sharply, his entire expression was covered in shock, and the heavy magic book in his hand was so unstable it almost fell to the ground.

The author of this magic book was actually the first Great Mage Bayes, who left an irreplaceable and heavy mark on the entire history of the human race and was the world-recognized founder and patriarch of the path of magic.

Before this, although the Elf race, favored by mana, could also use magic, they relied more on innate talent. It wasn't until Bayes appeared that magic had a system and clear levels, truly being born as a complete Transcendent path.

"A magic book personally drawn by the founder of magic, and it is highly likely to be the core magic he awakened himself..."

The fingers Xia Mingyu used to hold the book pages were trembling slightly; he realized the value of this magic book.

Even for any noble family or royal family on the continent, this book was a treasure worth passing down forever.

If it appeared at an auction, even the great nobles would likely fight over it, bidding an astronomical figure enough to buy a family castle.

It could even be said that such a rare treasure, which could completely serve as a cultural antique, was difficult to judge in value simply by money.

"I really owe Tamerlane a huge favor!" Xia Mingyu couldn't help but exclaim.

To obtain this magic book, even if Tamerlane was the grandson of the Pope, he must have put in a lot of effort.

After sighing with emotion, Xia Mingyu turned to the page after the magic diagram, which recorded the introduction to this magic, full of anticipation.

"Later generations, I am Bayes. When you obtain this magic book and begin to learn the magic on it, even I have to envy your luck."

"This is the core magic I awakened when I promoted to Morning Star Mage. Its name is 'Extreme Cold Purgatory.' I am certain that no matter how far magic develops in the future, it will absolutely be an ice-attribute magic located at the very top layer!"

(End of chapter)