Chapter 29: Lining One’s Own Pockets

The Igor Family expedition team didn’t dwell on Simon Adrian’s narcissistic personality for too long. No matter how much of a fuss this "Iron Handsome Guy" made, he had already been a pile of dry bones in a tomb for eight hundred years. In the eyes of the Lord and his subordinates, the real priority was to hurry up and find the Magic Rhythm left behind by Adrian and figure out a way to escort the convoy out of the infected zone.

As long as they could leave the infected zone, let alone "Iron Handsome Guy," Xiahou Yan wouldn’t even mind calling Adrian "Liang Chaowei."

Master Laurie stood at the foot of Adrian’s bronze statue. Glancing around, he realized the scale of this Magic Laboratory was much grander than he had imagined: twelve floor-to-ceiling ebony bookshelves stuffed with books; six curved experimental desks piled high with Magic Supplies; and dozens of wooden crates haphazardly stacked in the corner of the room, their contents unknown.

Finding a specific item in this laboratory would be no easier than finding a decent gentleman who had never fooled around with his own maids in the promiscuous noble circles of the Empire!

"We’ll split into two groups!" the Master said decisively. "The Lord and I will search clockwise along the walls, while you guards search counterclockwise. Remember, we are looking for the Magic Rhythm left by Adrian, so pay special attention to any Magic Storage Crystals that might still contain the Mana from when he was alive!"

The Master’s suggestion was flawless, so the five members of the expedition team dispersed and began their search separately.

Xiahou Yan first targeted the dozens of wooden crates stacked in front of him. It wasn’t that these wooden crates were particularly eye-catching; it was purely because the Lord held a crowbar in his hand, which made him perfectly equipped for the job.

Perhaps because Adrian had set up some sort of protective barrier in this Magic Laboratory, these wooden crates showed no signs of rotting despite the passage of eight hundred years. The surface of their milky-white wooden slats even lingered with the fresh scent unique to newly sawn lumber.

However, when the Lord used his crowbar to pry the lids off these wooden crates one by one and saw the contents inside, he couldn’t help but feel greatly disappointed. The interior of every wooden crate was largely the same: neatly stacked with hundreds of hardcover books!

These books all looked exactly identical and were likely printed in the same batch. With dozens of crates here, the total number of books easily amounted to several thousands!

Xiahou Yan casually pulled out one of them. On the dark red velvet cover adorned with a golden rose pattern, several elegant, bright gold-stamped cursive words were printed: "My Magical Career: The Autobiography of Simon Adrian."

The Lord deeply suspected that Adrian had probably printed a massive batch of his autobiographies back in the day, failed to sell them, and thus piled them all up here. He felt that even eight hundred years ago, when entertainment was scarce, no one would have been bored enough to spend money on Adrian’s autobiography...

The publishing industry was truly a massive pitfall! While lamenting the state of the Empire’s tertiary sector development, Xiahou Yan unhesitatingly tossed "My Magical Career" back into the crate, turned his head, and began inspecting the nearby curved experimental desk.

Only when looking at these experimental desks could the Lord remember that the Simon Adrian of the past was not just a narcissist, but also an Eighth-Tier Grand Mage with exquisite Magic.

On the experimental desk, the first things to catch his eye were various bottles and jars reflecting the brilliant glow of the Lighting Crystal. These corked conical glass bottles contained Magic Potions of various colors and properties. However, since none of the bottles had labels, probably only Simon Adrian from eight hundred years ago knew what these potions actually did.

The Lord deliberately reached out a finger, pressed it against the cold glass of a potion bottle, and carefully sensed the Magic Fluctuation of the potion. To his disappointment, he discovered that after eight hundred years, the Magic Power within these potions had basically dissipated entirely, rendering them useless.

Back then, eight hundred years ago, the King of Alchemy Kruschwitz had not yet extracted magical preservatives from Elf wood. Therefore, most Magic Potions of that era were fresh products meant to be brewed and consumed on the same day while still warm! These purely natural, preservative-free ancient Magic Potions would expire and lose their efficacy in about a week, let alone eight hundred years. This left the Lord, who had been wholeheartedly hoping to score some free ancient elixirs to take back, exceptionally dismayed.

However, aside from a pile of expired Magic Potions, the Lord glanced over and remembered the mountains of parchment Magic Scrolls piled on the desk. The crafting process for such things hadn’t changed much from ancient times to the present, and their method of use had been passed down in the exact same way—as long as you tore the Scroll Seal, you could unleash the Magic recorded on the scroll in a single use!

Because they were convenient to use and suitable for all ages, Magic Scrolls had always been highly popular in society. Their level of popularity among the common folk could be perfectly illustrated by the batch of "Charm Technique" scrolls Master Laurie had created back in the day.

Most importantly, Magic Scrolls had no such thing as an expiration date! A Magic Scroll from eight hundred years ago could be used just the same if its seal was torn today!

Judging from how Adrian had haphazardly piled up this batch of scrolls, the Magic recorded on them probably wasn’t very high-level. Still, the Lord gleefully accepted them all. He asked Lawrence for a large sack, stretched out his arm, and bent over to sweep all the scrolls on the desk straight into the bag, transforming into a desktop cleanup master and bagging everything up.

Even the poorest quality Magic Scroll could sell for over a dozen Silver Coins on the black market! Having once earned pocket money by scalping scrolls back in the Mage Academy, the Lord knew the market like the back of his hand and naturally wouldn’t let this unexpected windfall slip through his fingers!

However, although the Lord had harvested a batch of scrolls, up until now, the group still hadn’t found anything that stored Adrian’s Magic Power... It had to be known that finding Adrian’s Magic Rhythm was the main quest of this trip! If they couldn’t imitate Adrian’s Magic Fluctuation and couldn’t control the wild zombies on a large scale, wouldn’t walking out of the infected zone become nothing but an idiot’s pipe dream?

Thinking of this, Xiahou Yan smacked his lips in vexation. Lifting his sack of scrolls, he straightened up and was about to continue inspecting the Magic Materials on the shelf behind the experimental desk when he heard Master Laurie lower his voice nearby.

"Lord, there is something I want to ask you."

"Go ahead," Xiahou Yan replied as he walked toward the Magic Ingredient Shelf.

"The entity you summoned outside the door just now didn’t seem to be the Death God, did it?" Master Laurie’s tone was serious.

Xiahou Yan halted his steps. "If I said," the Lord turned his head and looked at his Chief Mage with a wry smile, "that was a distant relative of the Death God, would you believe me?"

Master Laurie’s slightly displeased face had "Do you think I’m a dumbass" written all over it.

"Lord!" Seeing Xiahou Yan’s eyes darting around as if trying to avoid the topic, Master Laurie leaned in anxiously. "May I ask if you know what fate awaits a Mage who is discovered using Forbidden Magic like Necromancy?"

"Uh..." Xiahou Yan thought this question was truly inauspicious. "...Tied to a stake in the Imperial Capital’s square and burned to death?"

"Then do you know," Master Laurie narrowed his eyes, "what fate awaits a Mage if they are discovered worshiping a Pagan Divine Spirit and using the power of a Divine Spirit outside the Pantheon?"

"Uh..." Xiahou Yan smacked his lips. "...Tied to a stake in the Imperial Capital’s square and burned to death?"

"No," Master Laurie gritted his teeth. "You would be thrown into the sea to feed the fishes!"

Xiahou Yan felt that this way of dying actually sounded a bit more comfortable than being burned to death.

"So do you know why Mages who worship a Pagan Divine Spirit have to be buried at sea, rather than burned to death like those who merely use Forbidden Magic?" Master Laurie snorted.

"Why?" Xiahou Yan blinked blankly.

"Because they believe the souls of Mages who worship a Pagan Divine Spirit are far too filthy—even more nauseating than those who simply use Forbidden Magic!" the Master sneered. "Traditional views hold that if these heretics were tied to stakes in the Imperial Capital’s square and burned, the scattered ashes would inevitably pollute the air of the Imperial Capital!"

Xiahou Yan was speechless.

"Lord, I, Victor Laurie, don’t claim to be a righteous gentleman either, so I can keep your summoning of a Pagan Divine Spirit a secret!" Master Laurie tightly gripped the Lord’s shoulders and said sternly. "I don’t recognize that old man in the black robe you summoned, nor do I have any interest in knowing which race or cult that evil Divine Spirit belongs to! However, I beg you, please never pull a stunt like this in front of others again! If this attracts the people from the Religious Inquisition, no one will be able to protect you!"

"Set your mind at absolute ease! Even my use of Necromancy this time was an emergency measure and a last resort, wasn’t it?" Xiahou Yan wanted to argue that Lord Yama was by no means an evil Divine Spirit, but in the end, he just rolled his eyes helplessly. "Once we are out of the infected zone and the dust settles, this Lord swears he will absolutely never touch any Forbidden Magic again! I’m not mentally deficient; isn’t being a proper Lord nice enough? Why would I be so out of my mind as to openly challenge the authority of the Magic Association?"

Master Laurie glanced at him. After confirming that the Lord realized the severity of the situation, he lowered his voice again.

"Also, you had best make sure everyone else in the convoy keeps their mouths shut tight. Over the course of this trip, I wasn’t the only one who saw you resurrect zombies and tame Dave! Those tenant farmers are honest and simple, so a quick warning should suffice, but the Guard Team... I’m not so confident about them!"

Xiahou Yan sneered, "Stop worrying over nothing. Our Igor Family’s Guard Team has always been fiercely loyal and dependable. How could they possibly cause any trouble..."

Not far away, a sharp metallic whine interrupted the Lord’s sonorous and confident speech.