Chapter 21: The Only Scum of the Magic Realm

"You owe me your life this time!"

Master Laurie’s sudden and baffling declaration almost made everyone around them think that this octogenarian fifth-tier Mage had finally failed to weather the relentless currents of time and succumbed to senile dementia.

When the Master pulled a glittering gold bracelet from his sleeve, the onlookers were left even more perplexed.

"Your secret stash of savings?" Xiahou Yan pointed cautiously at the gold bracelet.

The bracelet appeared to be crafted from pure gold and was embedded with a red agate the size of a pigeon egg, radiating the undeniable luster of wealth and money. The Lord truly hadn’t expected that Master Laurie—with his impoverished appearance and crumpled, worn-out Magic Robe—could actually produce such a valuable item.

"This is a treasure!" Master Laurie proudly hoisted the bracelet high like a seasoned auctioneer, ensuring everyone around could see its dazzling brilliance. "Its name is the Illusory Bracelet!"

Xiahou Yan thought that this name sounded exactly like the trash-tier loot dropped by low-level mobs in a video game, whose only purpose was to clutter a player’s inventory space.

Seeing the crowd remain completely indifferent to the Illusory Bracelet, the overly theatrical Master Laurie awkwardly lowered his arm and shoved it into the Lord’s hands.

"What’s this for?" Xiahou Yan took the bracelet and weighed it lightly in his hand.

The heavy sensation told the Lord that this thing might actually be pure gold.

"My Illusory Bracelet is the magical artifact that can save us from the infected zone!" Master Laurie declared proudly.

"Huh," Xiahou Yan smacked his lips.

"The origin of this bracelet is a long story! Lord, I believe you are aware that before serving as your family’s Chief Mage, I was once an endowed professor at the Mage Academy in Academy City." Master Laurie cleared his throat. "Although I later resigned from my teaching position and came to Eagle’s Rest Castle..."

"Wait a minute!" Xiahou Yan felt a bit confused and hurriedly interrupted the Master’s nostalgic reminiscence. "Why do I remember someone telling me not too long ago that you didn’t resign voluntarily, but were actually expelled by the Mage Academy?"

Master Laurie’s old face instantly flushed bright red, while Captain Alice, standing not too far away, guiltily averted her gaze.

"In short, there was a slight mix-up with the Mage Academy’s personnel arrangements back then..." the Master said stiffly.

Xiahou Yan immediately understood. He hadn’t expected that even in the Otherworld, he would encounter such an emotionally intelligent euphemism for getting fired.

"Back at the Mage Academy, driven by my personal interests," Master Laurie weighed his words carefully, "I researched a rather... unconventional school of Magic."

Xiahou Yan automatically substituted the Master’s phrase "unconventional school of Magic" with "Forbidden Magic" in his mind.

"What kind of Forbidden... uh... ’unconventional school of Magic’ were you researching at the time?" the Lord asked curiously.

The history of magical research on the continent was exceedingly long, and various Magic Systems had been gradually established by brilliant Mages. However, during the course of magical development, certain specific types of Magic were deemed too hazardous and were subsequently classified by the Magic Association as strictly prohibited "Forbidden Magic."

Necromancy, which utilized Netherworld Magic Power for things like the Resurrection Technique, was the most infamous branch of Forbidden Magic on the continent. Beyond that, practices like Curse Magic, the Demon Summoning Skill, Blood Magic, or any exceptionally heinous Magic, were all uniformly banned by the Association.

Xiahou Yan was incredibly curious about exactly what kind of Forbidden Magic Master Laurie had studied to get himself unceremoniously kicked out of the Mage Academy.

Master Laurie cleared his throat and said, "Well, what I researched back then was... Spirit Magic."

The confusion in Xiahou Yan’s heart only deepened.

Although Eliot Igor hadn’t been a model student at the Mage Academy, he had still taken formal courses in Spirit Magic while in Academy City. As far as he knew, Spirit Magic—which specifically influenced a person’s psychological state through spells like the Calm Technique, Joy Technique, and Fear Technique—was not only far from forbidden, but was actually a widely applied and highly praised branch of magic in practice.

Rumor had it that ever since the Imperial Capital Guard began equipping Calm Technique Magic Scrolls, vicious street brawls in the Imperial Capital had dropped by over thirty percent.

This was exactly what the Lord couldn’t understand. If Master Laurie had only been researching Spirit Magic, how did he end up getting involved with atrocious "Forbidden Magic"?

"Master, what kind of Spirit Magic were you actually researching back then?" He scrutinized Master Laurie suspiciously and managed to catch an obvious flicker of embarrassment crossing the old man’s face.

"Well... it was..." the Master stammered in reply. "...Spirit Magic that... researched the affection and attraction... between men and women..."

Xiahou Yan fell silent.

To be completely honest, he wasn’t the least bit surprised.

Given Victor Laurie’s consistent character, it would be a miracle if this ultimate scum of the Magic Realm hadn’t chosen to research the Charm Technique.

Xiahou Yan recalled reading relevant records stating that for a period of time, a massive influx of Charm Scrolls had suddenly appeared on the black markets of the Imperial Capital. This magical aphrodisiac, capable of infatuating people and plunging them into false love, had undoubtedly aided countless wealthy playboys in the Imperial Capital in ruining the virtues of innocent girls, turning numerous inns into literal battlefields of passion...

Ultimately, the intervening Imperial Government only managed to discover that this endless stream of toxic Charm Scrolls originated from Academy City in the north. After that, the entire investigation simply fizzled out.

The Lord only now vaguely realized that this absurdly messed-up scandal from back then was likely inextricably linked to this old scoundrel, Master Laurie!

In that light, the fact that the Mage Academy had merely expelled Master Laurie, instead of outright tossing the bastard into the Morning Star River bordering Academy City to drown in a cage, was truly magnanimous of them.

"In short, I was quite an expert in Spirit Magic back in the day!" Master Laurie ignored the Lord’s disdainful glare and thumped his chest, boasting to the others. "And the core mechanism of Spirit Magic is to utilize the fluctuations of Magic Rhythm to influence human thought and mental states!"

Xiahou Yan snorted. The Charm Technique the old man had researched back then was indeed about using magic fluctuations to trick those poor girls into bed...

"However, since everyone’s soul is vastly different, how to use Spirit Magic to trigger soul resonance across diverse groups of people and grant the Magic the broadest possible versatility has always been a major challenge plaguing Spiritual Mages!" Master Laurie shamelessly raised his old face and then pointed at the gold bracelet in the Lord’s hand. "As you can all see, this Illusory Bracelet is the crystallization of my life’s work in Spirit Magic!"

Xiahou Yan weighed the Illusory Bracelet in his hand once more.

He felt that the Master’s life was rather pathetic if a single piece of gold jewelry was the result of a lifetime of research. Back on Earth, wouldn’t getting a Cartier bracelet be vastly superior to this piece of junk?

"Everyone!" Master Laurie, oblivious to the Lord’s internal musings, announced loudly to the onlookers. "The function of this Illusory Bracelet is to adjust the wearer’s Spiritual Magic Power to match the target’s exact Magic Rhythm! This achieves a temporary synchronization between the two, maximizing the effects of Spirit Magic! And just now, I had a sudden flash of inspiration and realized that with a series of exquisite adjustments and improvements, this bracelet won’t just work on Spiritual Magic Power, but can also work on..."

"...Netherworld Magic Power?!" Xiahou Yan exclaimed, losing his voice in shock.

He truly hadn’t expected that the unassuming Master Laurie had actually created such an incredible item!

"Lord, I was, after all, one of the Phoenix Three Heroes in Academy City back in the day. Expanding this bracelet’s range of application to include Netherworld Magic Power is merely a trivial trick for me, Victor Laurie!" Master Laurie finally showed his true colors, revealing a smug and profoundly arrogant expression as he winked at the Lord. "The prerequisite for the Corpse Control Technique to control a zombie is that the Caster must synchronize with the Netherworld Magic Power inside the zombie’s body! And now, with this Illusory Bracelet capable of modifying Magic Rhythm, would you like to try using your Corpse Control Technique on Mr. Dave one more time?"