Chapter 255: Wizard Territory (Part 1)

Chapter 255: Wizard Territory (Part 1)

A wedding gathered figures from various places, making Northland City briefly prosperous and lively, but its surroundings remained desolate. Once out of the city, heading east along the lower reaches of the Eternal River, after passing through several farmsteads, everything returned to its most primitive appearance.

The farmsteads at the edge had built walls of varying heights on their own to reduce beast attacks. Knights from Northland City also came here regularly to patrol and hunt, clearing the various beasts in the area. Although these farmsteads were often harassed, there were some benefits. One only needed to set traps to make occasional gains.

Wizard Territory was still far from here. Although it carried the hopes of many wizards, that place still belonged to the beasts. The White-robed Ones chose that place because they lacked confidence.

Without any achievements, making a request for a land grant seemed too presumptuous. Even though they were a group of wizards with considerable combat power, they still had to consider who they were facing. So, they chose a truly remote wilderness.

After spending a lot of time with Bran, the White-robed Ones had roughly learned his way of doing things. As long as they didn’t push their luck too much, he was quite tolerant. Bran was indeed tolerant, but after his tolerance, some things became troubles they brought upon themselves.

Wizard Territory was now a big trouble, a big trouble the White-robed Ones brought upon themselves. Even a little girl like Xirui could see the difficulty of building Wizard Territory.

Seeing Fourth Brother Bran again after a few days, she noticed many changes in her brother’s attitude towards her. He was no longer as indulgent as before and occasionally spoke to her with a serious face. He even punished her when she made mistakes. But she was happy, feeling that her brother now treated her like an adult.

Life in Northland City was a mix of fun and boredom. For a long time, her abilities were suppressed within her body. At first, this was just Huahua’s punishment for her. But after Fourth Brother returned, this punishment did not end immediately. She had complained about it, but Fourth Brother said it wasn’t punishment but a kind of training.

Fourth Brother thought she could figure it out, but she disappointed him. The abilities were only suppressed within the body, but they were always influencing this vessel. Under the protection of life force, the abilities could actually run even more wild; the body was the best medium for them to display their power.

Fourth Brother showed her a secret. He stretched out his hand, and the edge of his palm gradually became sharp…

She understood then. Even though her abilities were suppressed within her body, their nature had not changed. She was still a powerful wizard; she could still make this body a terrifying weapon.

From the moment she became a wizard, she had broken some kind of limitation, and everything had already changed. Like now, white mist coiled around her, and ice particles occasionally fell from it. Although her skin was already freezing cold, no frost formed on it. But if she wished, the moisture clinging to her surroundings could instantly turn her into an ice statue.

Extreme cold itself was the greatest weapon. Even if her abilities only worked upon her own body, the extreme low temperature was enough to have a deadly effect on the surroundings.

She breathed out. Under the influence of her ability, the breath swirled from her mouth and shot onto the ground before her, leaving a frost mark.

Fourth Brother quietly told her that a wizard’s power first changed oneself, making the body constantly harmonize with the ability, allowing them to truly merge into one, letting life force eventually become the core of the ability.

When she heard these words from Fourth Brother, her scalp tingled. Could it be that the image Fourth Brother usually showed in front of people was merely a creation of his ability? Had Fourth Brother already become a complete monster? Was that wisp of gray smoke his true form?

Following this path, what would she herself become? These thoughts flashed through her mind, but in the end, she chose to believe Fourth Brother. Since childhood, Fourth Brother had kept her away from danger. Being by his side was the safest place back then, so she believed in Fourth Brother; she believed he would not lead her astray.

She was not little anymore; she had learned to think and observe. Fourth Brother sending her to Wizard Territory surely had other plans; she just couldn’t understand them yet.

Clearing dangerous creatures along the way… such a task didn’t seem to require her and Zoya to take action. Wouldn’t it be better to let those knights handle such minor matters? What was the point in slaughtering these weak prey?

Fortunately, Zoya was by her side. Observing the amnesiac Zoya along the journey was very interesting. She believed that in a few more years, if one ignored those facial markings, Zoya would be another Danny.

Brother said this was mimicry, not transformation. But was there any difference? And what use did this ability have?

…

Xirui was observing Zoya, and Zoya was also scrutinizing Xirui. She didn’t have much of an impression of Xirui; back then, Xirui followed behind Lily and was quite unnoticeable.

In the blink of an eye, such a big change had occurred.

Xirui was very diligent; she hadn’t stopped training throughout the journey. The low temperature caused by her training didn’t affect Zoya much. Not long after becoming a wizard, Zoya discovered she could quickly adapt to various environments, integrating herself into the surroundings, becoming a part of them.

This wasn’t a change in form, but a coordination and unity between her own mana fluctuation and the environment, making her presence feel extremely low.

Bran had recently explained many wizard secrets to her. She didn’t care much about these; most of her wish had already been fulfilled. She was already together with Bran and those clansmen.

Zoya didn’t crave overly powerful strength because she noticed Bran took more care of the clansmen with weaker power. Back when she was training in the city’s Arena, Bran paid a lot of attention to her. As her power grew, this worry and attention gradually diminished.

Bran hoped she would seek answers from mana and find herself through power, but after trying a little, she lost interest. It wasn’t that the effect was poor, but that it was too good.

When her perception began to improve and power filled her body, she noticed Bran obviously relaxed, and a trace of worry disappeared.

This was not what she wanted!

If things continued like this, as her power grew, Bran would only drift further away from her. But she also didn’t want to see Bran disappointed, so she could only stagger forward in this contradiction.

She had tried pretending not to understand Bran’s explanations, but Bran patted her head and teased, “You’ve lost your memory, not become stupid.”

This left her speechless.