Chapter 949 Core Advantage <TOC> Chapter 951 Black Secret Seal Canon
Translator: SumTLMan
The land here is hailed as the Fertile Kingdom, a name more a hopeful aspiration of the royal house than a reflection of reality. For the kingdom’s geography is harsh, with over three-quarters of its area dominated by the desolation of the desert, where the sun’s merciless intensity scorches everything beneath it. To forge a land of plenty from such barrenness is an ambition far from easy to fulfill.
One day, on the northeastern frontier of the Fertile Kingdom.
A cruel sun blazed down upon an oasis town, its heat so fierce that even those born and raised here dared not brave the midday rays. Everyone, that is, except the refugees.
To the northeast of the Fertile Kingdom lay the Eternal Night Kingdom.
Unforeseen calamity had befallen the Eternal Night Kingdom, leading to the collapse of several megacities, each home to over a million souls, thus birthing a flood of displaced people. The fall of the state was swift and brutal, leaving countless refugees homeless and desperate.
The most pitiable among them were those trapped in the heart of the kingdom, without transport, doomed perhaps to spend their entire lives unable to escape the Eternal Night.
The plight of the refugees near the border was marginally better. They had a chance to cross into a neighboring country, seeking a thread of hope in foreign lands.
Arthur and Merlin were two such refugees, friends who had escaped from the Eternal Night Kingdom to seek sanctuary in the Fertile Kingdom. They had known each other since childhood and shared a bond deeper than kinship, as close as brothers without sharing a drop of blood.
They had spent a month in the small oasis town, but a couple of hours ago, they were fired by the owner of a local tavern. The reason? Merlin, who was blind, had accidentally knocked over a barrel of liquor.
Before, they had labored in the tavern for mere sustenance, working tirelessly to fill their stomachs and secure a shelter against the scorching noon sun and the chilling night. As such, they had no coin to compensate for the lost liquor.
In a fit of anger, the tavern owner turned Merlin out. Seeing his friend humiliated, Arthur couldn’t hold his tongue and ended up joining Merlin on the wrong side of the tavern door.
Now they huddled in the scant shade of a withered tree, seeking refuge from the relentless sun. But their efforts were largely in vain.
Here, the nights were brutally cold, the midday sun viciously hot. The cold could kill, and the heat could desiccate a person alive. In the face of such brutal extremes, they found themselves teetering on the edge of despair.
“It’s my fault. I’ve brought this upon you.” Merlin murmured soundlessly, his countenance painted with desolation and self-reproach.
When they were chased out of the tavern, a momentary regret flickered in Arthur’s heart. But more than regret, it was the trampled dignity of his dear friend that consumed his thoughts.
“You’ve done no wrong. Our only error is being born in such an era.” Arthur, his hand gaunt and weary, patted Merlin’s shoulder, voicing his thoughts in parched whispers.
“Perhaps we should’ve never left home.” Regret gnawed at Merlin. Although a cataclysmic change had befallen their homeland, their town now cloaked beneath an enormous dome which continued to expand. No one knew what lied under the dome’s expanse. There might be no malice beneath it, insanity could perhaps be another form of liberation.
Arthur echoed, “I too harbor some regrets. Dying on native soil, at least, I’d be closer to our parents. If we die here, I fear we’ll end up in its belly…”
Perched on the barren tree against which they leaned was a scavenger vulture, silently observing them, waiting for the time to feast on their demise.
The sun grew more ruthless, leaving Arthur and Merlin parched and dizzy, their vision growing dim.
Just beyond their reach was the lake of the oasis town.
However, they couldn’t dare approach the lake. Even if one dismissed the spiked fences along the shoreline, the lake’s guardian patrol on the path alone could be their swift undoing.
Their strength ebbed away, their vision slowly whitening, hallucinations beginning to swirl.
Arthur breathed out softly, “At least in death, I won’t be alone…”
Merlin wished to respond but found no words, managing only a feeble nod.
As they began to succumb to the brink of death, a cooling breeze wafted over from afar. Simultaneously, sparse droplets of water began to descend from the sky.
The droplets moistened their parched lips, while the refreshing wind dissipated the scorching heat engulfing them.
Merlin murmured, “It’s suddenly not hot anymore, so refreshing… and this water, so cool. Am I already dead? Is this the world after death? But why can’t I see anything?”
The murmurings of Merlin gave Arthur an injection of vigor. He lifted his gaze to the heavens, declaring, “You’re not gone, ominous clouds are gathering, it appears to be….”
Arthur’s voice trailed off before he could utter the word “rain”, stunned into silence.
The sky held no dark clouds, nor any hint of precipitation. Instead, a grand silhouette, glistening with a luminous sparkle, dashed across the vast expanse above.
“What is that?” Arthur questioned under his breath.
Merlin inquired, “Arthur… what are you talking about?”
Dumbfounded, Arthur stammered, “It’s not a cloud, nor rain. There’s this massive… could that be an iceberg? But why does it have wings? Am I hallucinating?”
Wings of an icy hue, extending a breathtaking hundred meters in length.
Every beat of those massive wings sprinkled shimmering ice crystals down. The perceived rainfall was nothing more than droplets of water resulting from the thawing of these ice particles.
“What in the world is that creature?” Arthur furrowed his brows, continuing his upward gaze. Suddenly, his eyes widened in shock, “There are people atop it! A multitude of them…”
“Who?” asked a curious Merlin.
“I can’t discern the specifics, but it appears they’re all garbed in white cloaks, marked with a pattern resembling a crescent moon. I can’t see clearly…”
As Arthur expressed his astonishment, the carrion crow perched on the barren tree behind them, too, grew curious about the iceberg in the sky. Flapping its wings, it took flight towards the frosty apparition.
However, as the crow drew near, it was swatted away by the enormous icy wings. Before it could regain its bearings, the bird was frozen mid-air, tumbling from the sky as an ice sculpture.
The iceberg swiftly glided past, vanishing towards the northeast. By conventional wisdom, even if an iceberg melted in the small town of Oasis, it wouldn’t bring much relief from the heat, let alone this fleeting encounter.
Yet, strangely, following the passage of the iceberg, the ambient temperature plunged.
And it didn’t rise again for quite some time.
Witnessing this miraculous spectacle, Arthur turned to Merlin, perplexed, “Why were these individuals riding an iceberg, and how did the iceberg take flight?”
A hint of curiosity crept onto Merlin’s face. After a pause, he announced: “Those folks might very well be the wizards of legend.”
“Wizards?” Arthur looked perplexed as he turned to Merlin.
“Wizards,” Merlin began, “are a vile breed. They possess power to counter any force. They can manipulate the fabric of nature, moving mountains and stirring oceans…”
As Merlin elaborated on wizards, he remained oblivious to the growing spark in Arthur’s eyes.
“Wizards sound incredibly powerful! If I become one, will we be invincible?” Arthur’s voice tinged with awe, his eyes glistening with dreams of grandeur. “Do you know how I can become one?”
Merlin’s face clouded over. He shook his head, “I don’t know. We ought to focus on surviving first…”
But Arthur grinned, mischief gleaming in his eyes: “We might have been on the brink of death earlier, but now, the tables might be turning.”
From a nearby sand dune, Arthur dragged over a vulture that had been frozen into a statue. Excitement radiated from him as he declared, “We can sell this vulture! Its crown, according to a camel-bell merchant I met, is worth a gold coin! Our lives are bound to change for the better then…”
Although Merlin was unable to see the frozen vulture, he could sense the chilling aura it exuded.
His laughter rang through the air: “That sounds wonderful. Life, after all, is the greatest treasure.”
Arthur also laughed, light-heartedly. He was convinced that their lives were spared miraculously… and he had learned about the existence of wizards. If he could become one someday, how wonderful that would be!
Arthur grinned at the thought, his eyes squinting into crescents.
Suddenly, a question struck him. “Wait a moment, I forgot to ask you earlier: how did you come to know about wizards?”
Merlin’s brow furrowed as he fell into silence.
After a considerable pause, he replied softly, “I have met a wizard before.”
“You’ve met a wizard?” Arthur’s face lit up as he leaned closer to Merlin. “Could you tell me what they looked like? Where are they from? Could we possibly find them?”
Merlin hesitated before responding, “He was a hunchbacked old man, with numerous eyes all over his body.”
“A many-eyed old man? Sounds somewhat eerie,” articulated Arthur, only to belatedly wonder, “Wait, how did you know he has numerous eyes? Weren’t your eyes…”
Merlin wore a wry smile, extending a trembling hand to gently touch his own eye socket, “Didn’t you ask me what happened five years ago, why I suddenly lost my vision?”
As Arthur listened to Merlin’s words, he seemed to speculate something. Five years ago, Merlin had vanished for nearly half a month and returned sightless. No matter who inquired, Merlin never revealed why, which was a lingering question for Arthur.
“Could it be…”
Merlin responded, “Indeed, that old man gouged out my eyes… I remember vividly. First, he plucked out my left eye, setting it in his own brow. Then he removed my right eye. I don’t know where he placed it, but he told me it was somewhere in his chest.”
Noticing Merlin was about to continue, Arthur interrupted him abruptly.
“Enough, it’s all in the past now,” Arthur chastised himself for asking such a question, utterly oblivious to the emotional toll it could take.
Merlin stated, “It doesn’t matter anymore, just as you said, it’s all behind us now.”
Arthur clenched his fists, resentment seeping into his words, “Had I not accompanied my father to the outskirts that day five years ago, had I been with you, perhaps this wouldn’t have happened.”
Merlin simply replied, “It’s an immutable destiny.”
Arthur was about to argue when a bewitching feminine voice interjected into their conversation, “Indeed, the young one is right, it’s destiny, immutable.”
Whirling around in surprise, Arthur saw a woman garbed in a heavy leather coat appearing behind them.
Her figure was alluring and her features breathtakingly beautiful. However, what was peculiar was that she was donning a heavy coat despite the sweltering heat.
Next to the woman stood a teenager around sixteen or seventeen, sporting a brown and black checkered hat, conspicuous dark circles under his eyes, and lips so pale they were almost white.
“Who are you?” Arthur asked, his voice laced with wariness.
The lady casually brushed her auburn tresses, radiating a tantalizing charm as she nonchalantly said, “Consider me just a random passerby accompanying my master for a stroll. No need to pay heed to me.”
After saying that, she directed a flirtatious glance at the young man standing next to her.
The young man’s forehead furrowed, his veins pulsing with frustration. “Revert to your original form.”
“No. Don’t you fancy this form?” She seemed somewhat reluctant.
“No, I don’t. You’re just making things up. I don’t like it!” the boy retorted vehemently.
She let out a soft chuckle, waving her hand gently, and a long smoking pipe materialized out of thin air. She mimicked the action of smoking and once more cast a flirtatious look at him. “This pipe matches the one she has.”
The boy, visibly aggravated, blurted out, “Maintain this attitude, and I’ll burn you up!”
Seeing his master genuinely furious, the lady transformed into a sophisticated man clad in a heavy leather coat.
Meanwhile, as the young man was engrossed in his conversation with his peculiar companion, Arthur was left speechless by the surreal events unfolding before him: the conjuration of the pipe, the woman turning into a man… all these insinuated the unique identities of the duo in front of him.
“Are you… wizards?” Arthur asked with an inkling of suspicion.
The transformed individual shook his head. “My master is a wizard apprentice, and I’m nothing more than a soul.”
Arthur’s throat was dry, his words stuck in his mouth.
“You…” Arthur paused, “Earlier, you said that it was Merlin’s destiny to lose his eyes? Why?”
The sophisticated man gave a faint smile. “Quite simple, really. Because he was a natural-born talent, and his eyes were the source of his vision. It was inevitable that he would attract the attention of other transcendent beings. After all, the rejection rate is much lower when transplanting a human’s eyes compared to other species.”
Chapter 949 Core Advantage <TOC> Chapter 951 Black Secret Seal Canon