Gerian was truly furious this time. At dawn the next day, he went out with all the Magic Shooters from the guild.
Such a terrifying force emerging from the Emerald Tower had shaken up Jarrosus City in an instant. The leaders of the various forces were trying desperately to get information about the situation, afraid that they would draw Gerian’s fury to themselves. The Castellan Mansion was in a state of panic, thinking that Gerian had come because of what had happened at the banquet and was leading a troop of men looking for revenge. Isaac asked for protection from Old Grimm while loading Bathrilor onto the carriage, sending him back to Alanna on the same day.
… Until, around noon, all the forces suddenly realized that it was a false alarm.
It was as if Gerian was out for a stroll. After turning a round in Jarrosus City, he quietly brought the men back again. He was simply toying with them. The leaders of the dozens of forces broke out in curses: that old bastard Gerian had nothing to do, bringing so many people with him out for a stroll… could he be any more ostentatious?
Of course, no one dared to say it in front of Gerian. Every one of them was scrambling to hide from the fat pestilence when they saw him come out; who still had the guts to provoke him in his face?
Hence, no one had noticed that there was an unfamiliar face among the group of Magic Shooters he led…
“Now you can speak, who made you do it?” In the basement of the Guild of Magic, Gerian’s chubby face was livid.
He was interrogating a middle-aged man who appeared to be in his forties. His eyes were swollen, but the mages present who had good memory mostly recognized this middle-aged man.
When Lin Li had first arrived at the Guild of Magic, Gerian had caused a lot of dissatisfaction within the guild in order to open up the highest privileges for him. Among them, the most vehement opposition came from several Magic Shooters, who even threatened to withdraw from the guild in order to pressure Gerian.
Who knew they would go for wool and come back shorn. Gerian’s obstinacy acted up and he drove them out of the guild instead.
And the middle-aged man turned out to be one of the few Magic Shooters who were driven out by him. His name was something like Luke.
“I don’t know what you are talking about…”
“You don’t know?” Gerian’s face was gloomy and his eyes looked as if they were about to be ablaze. “Then I guess you’d surely not know of the Shadow’s Nest, or even the positions of those 125 Warlock’s Eyes? As for the route that bypasses the sentry posts, it was surely not you who’d sold it to the Shadow’s Nest?”
“Gerian, I don’t belong to the Guild of Magic anymore. What right do you have to keep me in captivity?”
“Who the f*ck cares whether you belong to the Guild of Magic?” Gerian’s expression was ferocious, and his angry roar echoed in the basement for a long while. “I am seeking revenge now. Seeking revenge, you understand? Go out and scream that the Guild of Magic has kept you captive, see whether anyone dares to speak up for you. Still talking about what damn rights… do I need them?
“Let me tell you, don’t think that you can muddle through this by playing dead. You’re still waiting for the people of the Shadow’s Nest to save you, right? Dream the hell on. You’re merely a tool, a tool that can only be used once! After they’ve used it once, they’ll never be able to use it again. Do you think they will come and save something that is worthless?”
“You can’t malign me… Gerian… You have no proof…”
“You want proof?” Gerian pondered for a while, and admitted, “Alright. I really don’t have any proof. But it’s okay. I am seeking revenge, and seeking revenge does not need any proof…”
“…” Lin Li was sweating cold sweat while listening at a side. “Is an extortion of confession like how you do it…?”
“I can’t help it. He won’t talk,” Gerian answered boldly. “It’s alright if he won’t talk. Anyway, this could only be done by the few of them. Other than them, who else in the guild would do that?”
Gerian’s words might sound crude, but his reasoning was sound.
Right now, the Guild of Magic dominated Jarrosus City, and even the Castellan had to offer his friendship. Wherever the guild’s mages went, they’d receive the most generous treatment; even in the Gilded Rose, the equipment they bought would be given at least a 30 percent discount.
Since the auction, the benefits had never ceased.
First, there were the 100 sets of magical equipment gifted by the Mannes Family. They were excellent equipment worth 20,000 to 30,000 gold coins each. With a wave of his hands, Gerian sent it all to the mages in the guild. As long as they’d reached the level of a Magic Shooter, they’d be qualified to apply for a set.
And not long after, it was another 100 bottles of Sobriety Potion.
On the day the news was announced, a group of elderly mages was thrilled to tears on the spot. They could not remember how many years it had been since they had had a whiff of the Sobriety Potion. When they returned with a bottle of Sobriety Potion in their hands, they felt as if they were living in heaven.
It was no exaggeration to say that as long as Lin Li was in the Guild of Magic, no mage would be willing to leave.
What could the Shadow’s Nest give them? It was nothing but money and equipment. The Guild of Magic had no lack of these. Every year, millions of gold coins were collected from the Demon Fall Valley; and now, 100 sets of equipment were provided at once, and various kinds of potions were distributed continuously. Bathed in such great happiness, who’d be willing to leave?
Perhaps only the few Magic Shooters kicked out of the guild would be that down-and-out to the point of betraying the secrets of the Guild of Magic.
Granted, strictly speaking, this would indeed not be considered a betrayal. After being kicked out by Gerian, they had no more connections with the Guild of Magic. Selling the secrets to the Shadow’s Nest would only count as revenge on the Guild of Magic at most.
However, Gerian would not care about these. Whether it was betrayal or revenge, it had dealt damage to the interests of the Guild of Magic. Damaging the interests of the Guild of Magic would be equivalent to damaging his own interests, and the one who damaged his interests had to be destroyed—such was Gerian’s logic…
“Forget it, let me handle this matter.” Lin Li knew Gerian’s character too well. He was afraid this unlucky Magic Shooter wouldn’t say things right, getting Gerian all riled up to the point of blasting a fireball at him, and then they’d have nothing left at all.
Gerian was surprised. “You know how to extort a confession?”
“I don’t know.” Lin Li shook his head. He fumbled about in his pockets and pulled out a glass bottle. “But it knows.”
“…”
“I’ll make a trip to the potion lab for a while, don’t touch him for now,” Lin Li reminded Gerian before he left the basement.
“Mm, I’ll listen to you this time.” Gerian watched Lin Li leave, and threatened the unlucky Magic Shooter in a gloating manner, “Retard, you were given a chance just now but didn’t know how to grasp it. Now, you’ve roused that kid. He may look gentle, but his strikes are more savage than mine. You’ve forced him to take action in person; who knows what kind of sick potion he’ll concoct this time. Maybe it’s the kind that itches and festers all over and takes a year of pain before dying…”
“…” The middle-aged man felt chill in his body as he listened to Gerian’s horrifying description. But he was still holding out.
Because there was one thing that even Gerian would not have guessed. He did not sell the defense arrangement of the Demon Fall Valley to Shadow’s Nest; instead, he sold it to someone else, and that someone else had promised he could worry not about the guild’s revenge, because the Guild of Magic would be uprooted by him soon.
“Still won’t talk? Forget it; even if you want to speak now, I won’t listen to it. Anyway, that kid would be concocting the potion in a moment. You’d even come clean about the age you had your first wet dreams.”
Lin Li, who was busy in the potion lab, had no idea how Gerian was intimidating the unlucky Magic Shooter.
He was meticulously calculating the dose of the potion now. This was the first time he’d actually concocted the Fear Potion since he had gotten hold of the formula, so he was naturally more prudent in the process.
Any person would have some negative emotions hidden in his heart. The effect of the Fear Potion was to trigger these negative emotions and magnify them indefinitely. Among the three ingredients, the nightmare seed and devil’s tears possessed a similar effect. After mixing them, the effect would be greatly enhanced. In order to avoid excessive fear leading to a mental breakdown, a certain amount of peacebloom was added to calm the mind.
The succus from the nightmare seed was boiling in the beaker. Lin Li held a peacebloom in his hand, gingerly plucking the petals one by one. This was a very crucial process. Excessive amounts of peacebloom would seriously reduce the effect of the Fear Potion; if there were too little peacebloom, it would not achieve the purpose of calming the mind. So, every time Lin Li tore a petal off, he would gently shake the beaker and wait for the petal to dissolve fully in the potion before judging whether the dose was enough according to the color.
After all, this was his first concoction of this kind—unlike the Arcane Magic Potion, where the result could be judged by experience alone.
When the seventh peacebloom petal was added, the nightmare seed succus in the beaker began to turn turbid. Lin Li knew that it was a sufficient dosage of the peacebloom, so he picked up a devil’s tears from his pocket.
The devil’s tears was a kind of black fruit about the size of the pinky. It tasted bitter and astringent, and if consumed directly, it would create all sorts of horrifying illusions. Unless a tranquilizing drug was taken, one would never be able to get out of this illusion, and would continue to be tormented until he finally broke down.
Lin Li pulled out the silver knife from the Ring of Endless Storm and gently cut off the skin of the devil’s tears. When he saw a drop of succus about to spill, he quickly dropped it into the beaker.
A plume of mist rose up instantly. The potion fused with the succus of the devil’s tears immediately filled the potion lab with an intoxicating fragrance. It was a rather unique aroma, like one of a vintage wine that was too thick to diffuse and full of deadly allure.
Bearing the temptation of the fragrance, Lin Li poured the contents of less than half of the beaker into the glass bottle he had prepared and then secured the bottle opening tightly.
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