Chapter 68: The Old Steward’s Background

“Ah, then thank you so much, Your Majesty!” Queen Caroline immediately said with relief. However, although her face was smiling happily, her heart was extremely uncomfortable. She was not a brainless idiot. As a talent carefully cultivated by a large family, she naturally knew that the best time to solve such a robbery case was in the first few days. The longer the time dragged on, the easier it was for the Rogue to hide and dispose of the stolen goods. Now, almost a week had passed; the Rogue was probably already settled in. The Royal Capital alone had a population of seven or eight hundred thousand, not counting the garrison and town residents outside. Finding a person deliberately hiding among them was easier said than done!

…

At this time, Old Xie had no idea that tens of thousands of people outside were looking for him with eager eyes, and he was still leisurely living his little life. Because the Old Mage didn’t have the face to tell Old Xie that he was afraid of Rui Li and couldn’t get the bet back, he simply didn’t mention it. He took out a Lightning Element Magic Ring and gave it to Old Xie. As a Lightning Element Magic Saint, he had made quite a few of these little things back in the day. Although they were works made for practice, their power and Magic Power storage were much stronger than ordinary goods.

For example, this one of his was a fine ring with a plus-one effect. The so-called plus-one meant adding one level. Ordinary rings, when releasing a Spell of a certain level, had power equivalent to a Mage of that level. For instance, Rui Li’s Lightning Ring released a Lightning Arrow equivalent to a Level 1 Mage. However, some rings, during the manufacturing process, due to certain reasons, such as the Magic Array being too precise, would have greatly increased power. For example, this ring of the Old Mage, although also a Level 1 Lightning Arrow, its power was the same as that cast by a Level 2 Mage. Therefore, it was called a ring with power plus one level, abbreviated as plus one.

You know, a Level 2 Mage is much stronger than a Level 1 Mage. The power of the same Level 1 Spell is almost twice as strong. If the Lightning Arrow cast by a Level 1 Mage is like a small handgun, then the one cast by a Level 2 Mage is definitely a rifle bullet. Of course, when Old Xie beat the Little Princess, he reduced the power as much as possible; otherwise, that little girl would have been electrocuted into charcoal long ago.

If the power of this low-level Lightning Ring could reach plus six, it would be equivalent to a Level 1 Lightning Arrow cast by a Magic Saint like the Old Mage. That power would probably be comparable to a rocket launcher. Anyway, an ordinary Level 3 Warrior, even with full Battle Qi, would definitely be killed in one hit.

Of course, plus-six rings did not exist; only legendary Divine Artifacts had such terrifying power. Even a plus-one ring only appeared in one out of a thousand. Of course, this also had to do with the skill of the maker. If the Old Mage did it himself, perhaps one out of a few dozen could be a plus one. As for plus-two rings, even the Old Mage, who had made countless rings in his life, had only produced a very few. As for plus-three rings, there were only a few on the entire Continent. The Old Mage’s ancestors had only made one. You know, their family had been passed down for seven generations up to him! And all seven generations were Magic Saints, yet they only produced one plus-three ring. It can be seen how precious this thing was.

Generally speaking, a plus-one ring was three to five times more expensive than an ordinary ring. The Old Mage was actually reluctant to part with it, but he had no choice. He had thrown away the low-level rings long ago, and only kept this plus-one one because it looked precious. Where could he get an ordinary ring on such short notice? Helplessly, he could only let Old Xie have it cheap. So Old Xie also made a huge profit this time.

Old Xie, who received the ring, naturally knew what was different about a plus one. He was too lazy to ask about the rest and happily returned to Stephen Castle. The so-called Stephen Castle was the castle on the outer perimeter of the Old Mage’s Mage Tower, which was the family’s private property.

Old Xie was nominally grounded now. There was no way around it; he had caused a big disaster at the Academy. Beating up the son of the Duke and the Personal Guard was one thing, but beating the Little Princess to such a state was a bit too much. Even though the Old Mage doted on him, he had to let everyone save face. So he issued a grounding order, forbidding Old Xie from going out. Actually, Old Xie didn’t care. If he couldn’t go to the Academy, he could still go to his newly built Castle. Anyway, with a group of Underlings accompanying him, he wasn’t lonely.

However, after eating at the Grand Hotel a few times, Old Xie wasn’t very interested in the food here. He wanted to go out to eat at a restaurant but felt the road was too far, so he simply called the Old Steward and asked him to help order food from the Grand Hotel. Anyway, Old Xie was a rich man now and didn’t care about this little expense.

When the Old Steward walked in carrying the food box personally, Old Xie was playing with the pitch-black Blink Dagger. He was very interested in this space-type treasure and was extremely eager to figure out its principle. If he could use it, it would undoubtedly be equivalent to having an extra life.

When the Old Steward walked into the dining room, he happened to see the dagger in Old Xie’s hand. Suddenly, his always calm face changed immediately, as if he had been stimulated by something. An unusual light burst from his eyes. However, very quickly, Krishchen’s eyes returned to their usual calm, as if nothing had happened.

Following the usual procedure, he skillfully placed the exquisite food delivered by the hotel on the table and helped Old Xie arrange the tableware. However, his slightly trembling hands still gave away his inner unrest.

Old Xie had been a leader in the underworld for at least 400 years, so he could naturally see the abnormalities of his subordinates at a glance. Otherwise, he would have been plotted against by those wolf-like subordinates many times. Therefore, not a single bit of the Old Steward’s change escaped his eyes.

Old Xie did not erupt immediately but sighed lightly and said, “Sigh, Krishchen, I am no longer a fool. Do you think you can hide things from me with such a poor cover-up? Please, that kind of childish idea is just mocking our IQs, right?”

“Cough, cough!” The Old Steward heard this, and his face immediately turned red with embarrassment. He quickly coughed twice to cover up, then smiled bitterly, “Young Master, you have indeed grown up!”

“Hehe, people always have to grow up, right?” Old Xie smiled slightly, then said seriously, “Let’s put it this way. Actually, I saw through your extraordinariness early on. From your standard and fluent movements, there are faint traces of many years of training, but your strength is simply not what a Warrior should have; it’s too weak. For this reason, I once quietly checked your pulse and found that the meridians in your body are disordered, with traces of severe injuries that haven’t healed even now. That is why you have become an ordinary old man. But if I guess correctly, you were definitely an Expert before! And an Expert of Dual Cultivation of Magic and Martial Arts.”