Chapter 579: The Whole Story
Translator: Atlas Studios Editor: Atlas Studios
From Borg’s perspective, Lin Li was still too young, and couldn’t look at things rationally even though he was already a Legendary powerhouse. Although he was confident that Cheyenne would agree to collaborate with him despite the fact that the Dark Blade and the Malfa Family had been in conflict for so many years, he was worried that the young Master Felic would still have ill feelings because of what had happened earlier.
All the Legendary masters here, including Cheyenne, knew about the conflict between Lin Li and Stephen back in the Blackstone Mountains. Hence, they guessed what Borg wanted to do when he called Stephen in. Lin Li also knew what Borg’s intentions were. Such things had happened to him so many times since coming to Anril.
“Master Felic, my son was too arrogant because of his tiny bit of talent. It’s due to my incapability as a father to discipline him that he had offended you. Since everyone is preparing to collaborate, I hope that this passing matter won’t be a hindrance to our collaboration,” said Borg with a smile.
Borg had been a famous Legendary powerhouse for many years, and was also one of the leaders of the Dark Blade. It was already hard for him to say such words. However, Borg was obviously thinking too much. Although Lin Li wasn’t a forgiving person, he knew what was important. How could Stephen match up to the piece of debris of the stars, Thunderbolt?
Unbothered, Lin Li smiled, and calmly replied, “Master Borg, you’re thinking too much. What happened then was just normal competition. There’s no right or wrong, and all depended on our own abilities.” He also concluded in his heart that Stephen didn’t ask Borg about going out.
Soon, Stephen’s voice sounded from outside the tent. He sounded rather excited, maybe because he thought that his father and the two elders had already gotten what they wanted. After all, the Book of Eternity provided a straight path to becoming a god for a mage. Its temptation was something no mage could resist.
Upon hearing his father’s call, Stephen raised the curtain of the tent, and began to walk in excitedly. However, his entire body froze before he could even take a step. The few people in the tent didn’t seem to have fought. That bastard Felic was also shamelessly sitting there. It was still acceptable for Master Cheyenne from the Malfa Family to sit down there since even the Dark Blade couldn’t underestimate the Malfa Family’s abilities. However, what was the Tower of Dusk? It was just a faction established less than a year ago. Even if that Felic was lucky to become a Legendary-mage, what right did he have to sit next to the three Legendary-mages from the Dark Blade?
“Get in here now!” Borg yelled unpleasantly.
Stephen felt cold shivers running down his spine, and unwillingly shifted into the tent. He stood in front of his father, and said, “Father, may I know why you’re calling me?”
“Disappointing lad!” Borg glared at Stephen angrily, and said in a stern voice, “Master Felic will be collaborating with us for this trip to the Haiga Mountain Range. Master Felic has forgiven you for your offense earlier, but you need to apologize for your mistake.”
“But, Father… I…” Stephen got anxious at hearing this. He was the heir of the Dark Blade! Out of all those factions in the Breezy Plains, none of them was worthy of him apologizing.
“Have you heard what I said? Did I ask for your opinion? Go apologize. Now!” Borg snapped at Stephen, leaving no room for negotiation.
Stephen was stunned for a moment. Although he was very unhappy internally, he didn’t dare to disobey his father, and turned towards Lin Li. Staring resentfully at Lin Li, who was sitting at ease, Stephen suppressed his discontentment, and said, “S-sorry…”
“Louder! Be responsible for what you’ve done! Don’t apologize like a girl! Don’t you find yourself not embarrassing enough?” yelled Borg angrily.
Stephen was angry too. He thought, Why? Why do I have to apologize? If I had not been lucky, I would have died in the Abyss of Tharlen because of this lad. Why am I the one to apologize? If not for Felic’s cunning schemes, Geresco’s treasures would have been mine, and I would’ve been a Legendary-mage now! I should be the youngest Legendary-mage, rare genius, and successor of Geresco, not that Felic!
Stephen clenched his fists under his magic robe. His body trembled uncontrollably because of his anger. However, he couldn’t, and didn’t, dare to disobey his father. Hence, he took a deep breath, and barely suppressed his resentment. He loudly said, “Sorry, Master Felic, please forgive me for being rude to you before.”
Actually, Lin Li wasn’t bothered about this at all. He didn’t stop Borg, because he had the same thought in mind as the latter. His receiving the apology would make the Dark Blade more at ease. After all, Lin Li also didn’t want to carry old grudges over into this collaboration. As for Stephen’s discontentment, how would Lin Li not notice that? He waved his hand and smiled, unbothered. “Good. Let’s forget about what happened before since we will be collaborating soon.”
Stephen was flaming with anger. He thought that he would let Lin Li off this time. Once they found the Immortal King’s treasure, he would settle everything with Lin Li. No matter how genius Lin Li was, he still had to give the Book of Eternity to Stephen obediently at that time.
“Get out now, don’t embarrass me further!” Borg also knew his own son’s personality. After all, this apology was just to show his sincerity for the collaboration.
Stephen felt a great sense of relief, and greeted the few masters seated in the tent. Without daring to look at Lin Li, he turned and left. After he came out, he finally dared to heave a long sigh of relief. He turned to look at the tent behind him, and thought, I will get back at you someday! It won’t be as easy as apologizing to me by then!
After Stephen had left, Cheyenne and Lin Li both expressed that they had no objections to collaborating, so the five Legendary masters started to discuss the cooperation officially. Everyone didn’t mention the share of benefits due to tacit understanding. Though the Dark Blade seemed to invest the most, everyone wanted to get more for themselves. Thus, it was better to discuss this last rather than cause some trouble now because of this. After all, no one knew what exactly was included in the Immortal King’s treasure.
“Since we’ve already come to consensus about the collaboration, we will share with you some information we’ve obtained regarding the Immortal King’s treasure to show our sincerity.”
After the Dark Blade had gotten the treasure map from the Malfa Family, they had not only gone to many places to do research, but also analyzed a large amount of relevant data. After all, even Legendary powerhouses didn’t dare to enter into the Haiga Mountain Range, and only dared to explore the outskirts to confirm which direction the Immortal King’s treasure was in. For more detailed information, they could only refer to the information from the Dark Age, compare different sources, and roughly extrapolate the location of the treasure.
During this process, the Dark Blade had gotten some interesting information that Cheyenne and Lin Li certainly didn’t know. After all, the Darkness Shrine, which was as ancient as the Brilliance Shrine, stood behind the Dark Blade. In addition, the Darkness Shrine and Brilliance Shrine both originated from the even more ancient Eternal Shrine.
Of course, even the Dark Blade didn’t know the Darkness Shrine and Brilliance Shrine used to be one. Only the High Priest of the Darkness Shrine had the right to know that. However, many of the old texts and resources in the Darkness Shrine were passed down from the Eternal Shrine.
Necromancer Tedya, who had participated in the Time Consignment Store’s auction, was the one tasked to borrow and study the relevant information from the Darkness Shrine. Obviously, Tedya’s status was too low to know about the matter of the Immortal King’s treasure. He was merely tasked to read about the Haiga Mountain Range.
“However, for us to save more time by avoiding repetition, can Master Cheyenne please tell us what you already know?” Borg wasn’t anxious to reveal the information he had. He asked what Cheyenne knew first, and came up with a very reasonable excuse for that. If he said what they knew, but the rest had already known that, wouldn’t it be a waste of time? It was better for Cheyenne to say what he knew first. Then, Borg would tell them what they didn’t know.
This was a reasonable request, but Cheyenne was rather annoyed to hear it. Wasn’t it implying that the Malfa Family knew less than the Dark Blade? However, Cheyenne wasn’t so petty. If they wanted to hear from him, he would tell them something they didn’t know. The treasure map was copied from Lin Li, and was unfortunately spilled to their nemesis, the Dark Blade. If Cheyenne couldn’t come up with something valuable, he would be too embarrassed to talk about collaboration.
After all, the Dark Blade was just a group of bandits. No matter how strong they were, they weren’t popular in the Breezy Plains. On the other hand, the Malfa Family was different. Hence, even though the Malfa Family didn’t have a strong support like the age-old Darkness Shrine, it wasn’t too difficult for the Malfa Family to get hold of some old texts given its influence and connections in the Breezy Plains.
“This treasure map isn’t a secret now. I think everyone knows what information we can get from it. However, I have indeed found something beyond the treasure map during my research. Since we are collaborating, I will share it with you for your consideration. If it happens to overlap with what you know, that just shows that the information is correct.” Cheyenne was talking about overlapping information, but looked very proud and confident in the information he had.
Upon seeing Cheyenne’s confidence, everyone leaned forward to listen to him attentively, be it Lin Li or Cheyenne’s old rivals, the three Legendary leaders from the Dark Blade. After all, they had all agreed to collaborate, and had the same goal: to find the Immortal King’s treasure.
“Everyone here should be familiar with Highlord Osric. Although we weren’t born in that era, and hadn’t witnessed Butcher Osric’s brutality, Osric’s name wasn’t forgotten even after the Dark Age. Even now, we are still researching and discovering the marls Osric had left on the Anril Continent.” Cheyenne was very pleased that the others didn’t know about what he knew judging from their expressions.
“Osric?”
The people here naturally weren’t unfamiliar with Butcher Osric. Even Lin Li, who had space-time-traveled to Anril a year ago, had heard this name so many times. Back in the Dragon Mountains, Lin Li had explored an underground palace built by Osric. In it lay two pieces of the debris of the stars—Raging Flames and Polar Snow—as well as a naturally occurring Magical Domain waiting for his claim.
The problem was, why would Cheyenne mention Osric when they were discussing the Immortal King’s treasure? Not to mention Lin Li, even Borg who thought that only he had obtained information others didn’t know was surprised. They were stunned for a while after hearing Cheyenne’s words. Evidently, they had never thought about it.
However, it wasn’t impossible for the two to be somehow connected if they thought about it carefully. After all, Osric had gotten so powerful because he had inherited some of the Immortal King’s abilities. If the treasure held the secret to this inheritance, was it even necessary to find the treasure now? With Osric’s personality, he wouldn’t leave anything for others. If they wanted to find something, they would need to go to Osric’s tomb.
“Seems like you’ve thought about something. However, let me tell you that it isn’t what you think. You all know that Osric had become the Highlord, who only royals could become, when he was just a common High Elf. But how much do you know about what he was like before he became the Highlord?” Although Legendary powerhouses could control their emotions well, Cheyenne still couldn’t help being pleased with himself, since his old nemeses were sitting opposite.
Cheyenne’s question had stunned Borg and his companions. Osric was remembered by people till now because of his powerful abilities and the massacres he had conducted after becoming the Highlord, which made him infamous. However, what had happened before Osric became the Highlord wasn’t clearly recorded in history, including how he had inherited the Immortal King’s abilities. That remained a mystery to many people.
Cheyenne paused and sipped his tea. He then continued, “I’ve specially collected large amounts of old texts in order to decipher the High Elves Print written on this treasure map. I’ve focused on finding texts with two languages side by side.”