Chapter 75 – Bowstring and Magic Array

The first thing the two of them did upon returning to their room was to take out the crystal coffin they had retrieved from the depths of the Siren Sea. The gold element was temporarily suppressed within the coffin, making it undetectable from the outside.

Lin Wei didn’t move—not because he didn’t want to, but because this radiant weapon carried a certain oppressive force, as if it were imbued with an untouchable power.

However, Duan Yu seemed completely unaffected. He picked up the section containing the spearhead and attempted to channel magic into it.

“It’s not a magic conduit,” he concluded.

Lin Wei let out a soft “Huh?” The “magic conduit” attribute was a must for all materials used in crafting magical weapons. If it wasn’t a magic conduit, it meant it would be useless to mages—unless it was directly swung at someone’s head.

They carefully examined it from top to bottom but found no runes or engravings that could indicate its identity—unlike Gungnir, it didn’t appear sharp at all, its form simple yet dignified.

Lin Wei had Duan Yu piece the three sections together, studied it for a while, then took a few steps back and hesitantly said, “I’m going to Haitie’s room.”

When he pushed the door open, Lin Wei was holding a thick book, followed by two people—apparently, he hadn’t just gone next door but also to the room beyond that, bringing along Talin and Nigel.

It was a book about knights, titled The Age of Glorious Knights. Below the cover was a small emblem of a spear.

As soon as Lin Wei entered, he declared, “This is a knight’s lance. Only a knight’s lance doesn’t need to be sharp—it’s used for charging against shield knights. The part near the handle is the guard, which Gungnir doesn’t have… Breaking easily is also a characteristic of knight’s lances. After the charge, knights would simply discard it and fight with longswords!”

“So, I’ve brought our two knights here. They can help confirm if there’s any ‘power of faith’ on it.”

He turned around, only to find the two knights frozen in place, much like the immobile statues from the shipwreck.

“You?” Lin Wei waved his hand in front of Talin.

“I…” The petite silver-haired knight snapped out of her daze and quickly walked over to the crystal coffin—only to be immediately pressed down by an immense force, forcing her to kneel on one knee!

Talin’s eyes closed in pain, her waterfall-like silver hair trembling slightly with her shoulders.

“It’s the power of faith. It’s speaking to me. It’s too strong. My head feels like it’s being torn apart…”

The female knight’s voice was fragmented.

“What is it saying?”

“It says, ‘Judgment—humility, integrity…'” Talin’s expression twisted in pain, but she continued to repeat the words. “You’ve remembered these, though you’re still weak, but…”

“But what?” Lin Wei stared at Talin without blinking.

“I have no power left to bestow upon you, knight. I’ve done all I can… everything. The rest…”

Talin trailed off, collapsing to the ground as if drained of strength, her eyes tightly shut.

“Her mental energy isn’t strong enough. She’ll be unconscious for a while,” Duan Yu said, picking up Talin and placing her on the bed.

Nigel took a few steps forward. “I’ll take her place.”

The same scene unfolded with Nigel. Beads of cold sweat formed on his forehead as he continued, “The rest, I leave to those who broke me. I’ve entrusted half of myself to them.”

“They know who can wield me, kill, kill…”

“The master of Kalaway City…”

Nigel’s face grew increasingly pale. He was doing his utmost to repeat the final syllables, his voice suddenly rising: “Master!”

After saying this, he too fell unconscious like his sister.

The light within the crystal coffin suddenly dimmed. It now looked like an ordinary golden weapon.

“I thought it was just a knight’s lance from the Dark Age,” Lin Wei examined it. “Maybe it has a grander origin?”

“Mm,” Duan Yu slid the smooth coffin lid shut. “Leave it out?”

“Perhaps the two knights can gain power from it,” Lin Wei touched his chin and clicked his tongue. “This is a knight’s lance, after all.”

His tone sounded impressed, but upon closer listening, it was actually quite indifferent—indeed, after pondering the whole matter again, the Young Duke sighed and said, “Boring.”

It might enhance the knights’ power—but the possibility was slim, as it had already declared that it had nothing left to bestow.

It was a renowned knight’s relic, but the two in front of it had no ambition to become knights and even found the object rather unremarkable and undeserving of its reputation—the power it once bestowed upon countless knights in the pre-Dark Age, numbering in the hundreds of thousands, in the imagination of modern mages, should at least pierce the heavens. Without a size comparable to a small hill, how could it be worthy of being surrounded by layers of knightly relics and revered as the “Holy Spear Longinus”?

“Let’s leave it for now,” the two of them settled the knight siblings back in their rooms. Lin Wei then chattered away to the mage about the words that had been repeated, ultimately concluding with, “—Does it have a grudge against the Magic Association?”

Wasn’t the nominal master of the Floating Sky Capital the president of the Association?

They didn’t come to any conclusion, and since the current president had no faults beyond being overly stingy, the topic was temporarily set aside—its importance was severely underestimated, and Lin Wei would soon realize this.

“It,” Lin Wei pointed at the magical beast egg he had tricked from the gray-cloaked old man, now nestled among various crystals in the corner, and said without changing his expression, “It says the floor is too hard and wants to sleep on the bed.”

After saying this, he subtly avoided the mage’s slightly suspicious gaze, picked up the egg, and placed it on his own bed—even tucking it in with a blanket.

“Strange,” Lin Wei suddenly said, “I feel like it’s gotten lighter.”

Before, when he had carried it on the Floating Sky Capital, it had been somewhat heavy, but now it felt much lighter, even though his strength hadn’t changed much during this time.

He probed the creature’s soul, which was undulating peacefully, even more solid than before—it didn’t seem like anything was wrong. Perhaps it was just a normal part of the incubation process. He’d have to ask Teacher Ansel about it another day.

He naturally found an excuse not to sleep in his own bed, though in reality, there was plenty of space on the bed even with the egg in the center. Unfortunately, while the mage was often expressionless and sparing with words, that didn’t mean he could be fooled by such a ploy—the scheming Young Duke didn’t get to revel in his success for long before it was exposed.

The mage looked at Lin Wei, who was clearly satisfied after wrapping himself in the blanket, and asked bluntly, causing the other to momentarily freeze: “Do you like sleeping with me?”

Lin Wei: “…”

He quickly recovered from the blank expression and leaned closer, admitting softly, “Yes.”

“I came here alone, with no family or power in the magical world, only countless things I don’t understand and customs I’m not used to. And I’m well aware of how most mages view people from the mainland—just like Tiki’s attitude towards Lucas.” He lowered his eyes slightly. “Only when I’m close to you do I feel like I have some sort of anchor.”

He then raised his eyes again, a smile tugging at the corners of his lips as he looked at Duan Yu, his expression carrying a hint of smug pride. “I don’t dislike this feeling—I don’t dislike it, so it’s worth trying. I’m trying… and our friendship is already strong enough for us to share a bed without suspicion, isn’t it?”

Duan Yu quietly watched him.

The person before him had, moments ago, seemed like a docile and innocent little creature, but in the blink of an eye, he had transformed into a proud, head-held-high… little creature.

The truthfulness of this confession was hard to discern, but when the words “some sort of anchor” softly fell, he felt a certain part of his heart pressed by a soft, furry paw—gentle yet sharp, mixed with an inexplicable joy and a touch of sourness, spreading like ripples on water, filling his entire chest.

This unfamiliar feeling had appeared in his world for the first time, leaving the mage momentarily at a loss.

Due to Lin Wei’s earlier movements, they were now very close. The mage’s attention was entirely drawn to those deep violet eyes—ever-changing and lively…

Unconsciously, he reached out and gently touched the corner of Lin Wei’s eye, causing the other to flinch back slightly, chuckling as he caught his hand. “That tickles.”

The following days were surprisingly calm. Though the rainstorm continued unabated and the thunder grew even fiercer, life in the academy remained orderly and peaceful.

The only notable event was that during their magic array lessons with Haitie, Lin Wei, and Duan Yu, they were joined by Ah Lan—it seemed as though she lacked something in her mind necessary for understanding magic arrays, as her previous year’s exam results were still far from passing.

The teacher for magic arrays, Master Mortier, was stern and strict, and he particularly couldn’t stand students who were distracted.

One day, as he was explaining, “The key to attack arrays lies in their activation. To precisely control the activation conditions, we need to add auxiliary arrays, such as…” He suddenly stopped, his deep eyes filled with anger as he looked at Lin Wei. “Boy—what are you doing?”

Lin Wei’s eyes shifted guiltily. “Drawing a magic array.”

“This is your magic array—hm?” Mortier picked up a piece of paper from Lin Wei’s desk, on which was drawn a tangled square with a few black dots.

Lin Wei stubbornly nodded, and was promptly punished to draw thirty-five basic magic arrays forty times each.

When the class ended, Mortier was the first to leave, followed by the others. When only the two of them remained, Lin Wei took the “magic array” and beckoned Duan Yu over. “Come here.”

The mage walked over and frowned at the haphazard lines, struggling to make sense of them. After a while, he said, “A map?”

“Exactly!” Lin Wei, finally understood, was overjoyed. To defend his drawing skills, he quickly explained, “I got a bit excited when I thought of this and was afraid I’d forget it, so I drew it too quickly…”

Duan Yu looked at the dots and guessed more quickly this time. “The Valley of Elements?”

Besides the five dots within the square, there was a black dot between the square and a small hollow circle far outside it. Duan Yu’s finger traced over it. “This is Siren Island, and the black dot is in the Mermaid Sea… where the shipwreck is?”

Lin Wei nodded vigorously. “Teacher Mortier was talking today about one of the key founders of the magic array system, Tobiah. He was a picky genius who pursued beauty and symbolism, so the basic arrays he created were often oddly shaped and corresponded to real objects.”

“So I thought of this,” Lin Wei picked up the pen and connected the five elements of the Valley of Elements—forming a graceful arc, slightly flat in the middle, spanning the entire continent. “At first, I thought of the moon, but then I noticed the bow Ah Lan always carries.”

As he spoke, he added two more lines, connecting the ends of the arc to the location of the shipwreck. “Like this, it’s a drawn bow!”

After saying this, he propped his chin on his left hand, dejected. “The people on the ship died from burning. Could it be because of this massive magic array? I was just thinking about this when Teacher Mortier interrupted me. Those arrays are more annoying than the most complicated spells—forty times!”

Anyone else would have been amused by this bizarre train of thought, but the two of them had grown extremely close and in sync recently. Duan Yu listened intently and, far from laughing, picked up where Lin Wei had left off, taking the pen from him and adding a line to the drawn bowstring.

Lin Wei instantly understood, his pupils contracting as a chill ran down his spine.

He took the pen back and, following the direction of the line, drew a small, unremarkable hollow circle in the upper left of the square.

On the ground, it was the Imperial Capital.

In the sky, it was the Floating Sky Capital—Kalaway City.

Based solely on this drawing, the conclusion was absurd, but once they recalled what had happened in front of the crystal coffin—

“Kill the master of Kalaway City…”

The room was so quiet that one could almost hear the sound of blood flowing.

After a long while, Lin Wei finally rubbed his nose and said, “The Association President doesn’t seem worthy of this magic array.”

However, the matter didn’t end there—during their next magic array class, Teacher Mortier slammed two stacks of paper onto Lin Wei’s desk. “You, explain this.”

Lin Wei glanced guiltily at the papers. One stack was filled with tangled, chaotic arrays, sharing a subtle resemblance to the “map,” while the other was smooth and beautiful, exuding an aura of precision, with nothing to criticize.

The consequence was another round of punishment, this time doubled.

If only Teacher Mortier knew what the two of them discussed back in their room, he would have made it ten times worse.

“I was so careful with the mix, but he went through them one by one—I’m just a summoner who doesn’t understand the principles of elemental flow—I have no idea what those patterns are doing!” Lin Wei poked at the paper with his pen. “I should’ve just had you draw them all. You wouldn’t have been caught, but now…”

“Come here,” Duan Yu said without looking up from his desk, his tone calm.

“Huh?” Lin Wei was puzzled, but his body moved on its own, dragging the chair over.

Blank sheets of paper were spread out on the desk, and the mage completed the first perfectly fluid line. “Sit down. I’ll teach you how to draw.”