Chapter Ninety-Five: Reinforcements and Rescue

On either side stood the Holy City Guard in silver armor. Lin Ao-hun strode at the head with a great hammer on his shoulder, while the procession behind him held aloft the flag of the Mage Alliance, emblazoned with the Five-Color Continent.

Cheers and shouts burst from the crowd. Banners flew into the sky, and the deafening acclaim rose and fell in waves, everyone chanting, “Welcome back, Lord City Master!”

Everyone present could truly feel how beloved the Crimson Flame City Master was in the hearts of the people of the Holy City. This old man, who spent his days doing nothing but fishing, had won their deepest respect.

Once the magical beasts around the forest had been completely wiped out, the Holy City Guard lifted the blockade, and Black Feather and the others were again able to venture outside for cultivation without hindrance.

Before anyone noticed, time slipped quietly away, and soon the term drew to a close.

Winter was the Magic Academy’s holiday season. Since the Holy City lay south of the central continent, even in winter the weather was not especially cold.

By then, the first-year students had generally reached the mid-stage realm, and before the winter break everyone was eagerly making plans for their cultivation.

Yi Xin had already decided that during the holiday he would go to the Great Wall to serve as a volunteer guard.

Though the place was harsh and barren, with difficult conditions and the ever-present danger of demonic invasion, it was also the best ground for honing combat skills and tempering one’s will.

After applying to Dean Yun Lan for leave, he packed his bags and set out. As he walked out of the school gates, he happened to run into his father, Yi Sheng.

Dressed in ordinary clothes, he stood with his hands behind his back, gazing up at the Archangel Statue and saying with booming conviction:

“Ah, the Archangel Statue. Every time I see it, I feel how majestic, how sacred, how soul-shaking it is!”

“Dad? What are you doing here?”

“What, I’m not allowed to take a stroll? Besides, I came to see you. What, now that my son is grown, he doesn’t want to spend a little more time with his old man?”

“Ah... all right.”

Yi Xin thought of how, whenever they parted when he was little, his father would gather him into his arms and rub the hard bristles of his beard against his face, and a wave of dread washed through him. Fortunately, after he grew up, his father never did that again.

“I was just about to come say goodbye to you. I’m heading to the frontier Great Wall to cultivate.”

“Good boy. As expected of my son, you’ve got guts!”

Yi Xin looked back at the Magic Academy and the Archangel Statue.

“Dad, was the Magic Academy—and the whole Holy City—built around this Archangel Statue?”

“Yes. That statue is the faith of us mages, and even more, the lifeblood of this city.”

He spoke slowly.

“Five thousand years ago, our Crimson Flame family migrated here and built this city near the former battlefield. All for the sake of protecting this statue, protecting that battlefield, and protecting the border wall... This has been the tradition of our family for generations, and it is our duty. Yi Xin, as a member of the Crimson Flame family, you must remember that.”

“I will, Dad.”

In the dean’s office on the top floor of the academy, Dean Yun Lan sat at his desk, leafing through the students’ files.

At that moment, there came a knock at the door, and a female teacher entered. It was Xia Li. After bowing respectfully, she said, “Dean Yun Lan, the Mage Alliance has sent an urgent summons. They request that the academy dispatch healers to assist the Dragon Clan in rescuing and purifying those infected by demonic corruption.”

Yun Lan thought for a moment.

“Treatment of the infected is not that the Divine Pantheon’s responsibility? And the demonic invasion has gone on for so long—why have the Dragon Clan’s wounded still not been treated?”

“It’s like this...” Teacher Xia Li explained. “The Dragon Clan and the Empire have always had a tense relationship. After the demonic invasion, they refused to let the Empire’s healers enter, especially in the area around the Forbidden Forest. So to this day, the infected among the Dragon Clan still have not received proper aid, and the situation is extremely grave. They had no choice but to ask the Mage Alliance and the Holy City Magic Academy for assistance.”

“So that’s how it is...” Yun Lan said, understanding at last. He interlaced his fingers and rested them beneath his chin in thought.

“For the healers, send Ling Meng and Bai Shengye. I trust both of their abilities. It will be a good training assignment for this holiday.”

“All right, I’ll inform them.”

At that moment, Bai Shengye was at his workbench preparing medicines. His room was filled with shelves and pharmaceutical equipment. Herbs of every kind, along with test tubes of all sizes, stood in neat rows along the shelves. Colored bottles gleamed in the sunlight, scattering prismatic hues in all directions.

In the flask on the table, a solution bubbled over the alcohol lamp, going “glug glug” as it boiled.

With meticulous focus, he ground each medicine into powder and mixed them together in exact proportions, his expression concentrated and flawless.

Black Feather and Ling Xiao Lei sat in chairs nearby, watching. Black Feather yawned as he observed the tedious sequence of operations.

“So you’re saying Dean Yun Lan has always been in poor health because a lot of toxins have accumulated in his body?” Ling Xiao Lei asked.

“That’s my guess. I won’t be at school during the break, so I need to prepare enough medicine for Dean Yun Lan today.”

As he worked, he said, “The only problem is, Dean Yun Lan refuses to reveal why he was poisoned. If we could figure out exactly what poison he was exposed to before, making the antidote would be much easier.”

He then dripped two different dissolved antidotal solutions separately into the test tubes containing the toxin and held them up to his eyes, watching the changes within.

“Knock, knock, knock.”

A knock came at the door.

“Come in.”

Teacher Xia Li walked in. She was widely recognized as the academy’s beauty, and the three people in the room were startled, rising at once with serious expressions.

“Hello, Teacher Xia Li!”

“Bai Shengye,” she said, “during the holiday the academy has a task for you. If you complete it, you’ll receive a substantial reward. Are you willing to accept?”

“What task?”

“To treat those infected by demonic attacks in the Dragon Clan’s territory, from Red Harbor to the southern forest.”

Bai Shengye had little interest in the reward. As an apothecary, he did not lack money. But the moment he heard “treat the infected,” he immediately felt it was a duty he could not refuse.

“All right, I accept. When do we leave?”

“Set out early tomorrow morning. By then, a member of the Mage Alliance will come to meet you, and accompanying you will be the B-class student Ling Meng.”

“Ling Meng!” Black Feather cried the instant he heard it, jumping three feet high. “Can I go too?”

Ling Xiao Lei’s face darkened. “You’re not an apothecary. What would you even go for?”

Bai Shengye added, “My two-person journey with Goddess Ling Meng—why should I bring you along?”

“With all the goddesses you keep talking about, which one is the real one?” Ling Xiao Lei seized the opening at once.

“Nonsense! Of course they’re all real!...”

At this point, Black Feather could not afford to be outdone, so he had no choice but to unleash his trump card.

“You don’t really think the little boy in the center of the village was the one you saved, do you?”