Chapter Seventy-Six: Experiment and Precipitation In the blink of an eye, deep autumn had arrived once more.
The fields were heavy with golden wheat ears, the windmill not far away kept turning, and everywhere across the land, an air of bountiful harvest rippled through the air.
Clang! Clang! Clang!!!
A convoy of carriages traveled down the center of the road. Knights clad in iron armor were impressively robust, and at the shoulder of their breastplates was branded a crescent moon—the sigil of
Farmers along the road hastily moved to the roadside upon seeing the convoy, removing their hats and bowing in greeting.
Escorted by knights and guards at the center were several carriages draped in black cloth, the sound of iron chains clanking accompanying their advance, emanating an aura of foreboding.
"Look at the direction! It seems to be heading for the manor! That's already the third batch this month!" a farmer with a brown beard muttered to himself.
"Old John! What are you looking at?" another farmer asked.
"Those carriages! Something always feels off about them. Last time the wind blew, I caught a glimpse of the figures inside..." Old John furrowed his brow.
"So what? Maybe our lord just took a fancy and bought some slave girls! You know how it is—our kind and lazy lord is still just a young man!!!"
The farmer beside him draped an arm over Old John's shoulder, mumbling indistinctly: "It's none of our business what the big shots do. Come on! The Rose Tavern just got a new batch of rum..."
The figures of the two farmers gradually vanished at the edge of the horizon.
Meanwhile, on the other side, the convoy came to a stop at the back gate of
"By order of the lord! The 'goods' have arrived!" The lead knight lifted his visor, revealing an ugly face covered in scars.
"Open the prison wagons!!!" Upon the leader's command, the guards below proceeded to open several prison wagons, revealing the shackled prisoners within.
The prisoners wore only coarse hemp garments, riddled with holes and filth. They varied in height and build, but the one thing they all shared was the killing intent concealed beneath their vacant eyes!!!
This kind of killing intent! As knights, Gelin and Fuleisa were highly sensitive to it—only in criminals who had truly taken lives did such an aura exist.
"Five in total! All irredeemable convicts. Every single case on them is enough to send them to the gallows a dozen times over... Of course, the lord signed their death warrants this morning. In the eyes of the law, they are already a group of 'dead men'..."
The knight leader's lips curled into a sudden smile, making his scarred face look even more grotesque. "Even for the sake of those innocents — don't let them off easy…"
"Their fate rests in the young master's hands!" Gelin said after receiving the prisoners. "But I can guarantee you — not a single one of them will walk out of the estate."
Satisfied with the answer, the knight leader departed with his guards and the other empty prison carts.
Gelin then escorted the five prisoners down to the estate's basement.
The dim torchlight, the locked iron door, the dry and stifling underground passage — all of it filled the prisoners with a sense of dread, but before two knights like Gelin and Fuleisa, they stood absolutely no chance of resistance.
Gelin, thoroughly familiar with the layout, herded each of the five prisoners into separate cells, then moved over to wait beside the newly excavated underground laboratory on the other side.
Though separated by thick walls, and despite the bright, searing flames burning all around him, Gelin still felt every hair on his body stand on end, cold sweat streaming down his back.
As a knight-slave who knew a part of Lei Lin's true identity, he understood all too well the darkness and horror that lay beyond those walls!!!
"That place is straight-up hell!!!" Those were the words Fuleisa had blurted out after Lei Lin once called him inside. At the time, the fearless, hulking knight had spent the entire night vomiting.
Half an hour passed, but for Gelin it felt as though half a year had crawled by — especially with the faint screams occasionally piercing through the thick walls, giving him the impulse to gouge out his own ears!
Heaven have mercy! Though Gelin was no saint himself, with plenty of blood on his own hands, the groans and shrieks emanating from behind the stone walls no longer sounded like something a single human being could produce.
Creaaak!!! The heavy iron door swung open, and Lei Lin emerged, a few specks of blood still clinging to his body.
"What a waste! The test subjects weren't sturdy enough to withstand the effects of sorcery. Hopefully the next batch will be more resilient…"
To study the soul, Lei Lin had no readily available materials on hand — he could only resort to the crudest method, accumulating data through relentless experimentation and observation.
"Young master!" Gelin hurried to bow. "The city lord's manor sent over five more people today. All of them have been locked away in the cells…"
"Good!" Lei Lin nodded.
Though he was a third-class apprentice, before his promotion to a full
Only Gelin and Fuleisa had handled the handover. Apart from the two of them and
They had their vague suspicions, of course, but Lei Lin had destroyed the useless "materials" afterward using powdered agents, leaving no evidence behind — so even if others grew suspicious, there was nothing they could do about him.
"This is a limitation of strength! The official Wizards at the academy openly purchase slaves for experiments, even luring and deceiving apprentices, and no one can touch them. But I'm just a lowly apprentice, out here on my own — I still need to be a bit mindful of appearances…"
Lei Lin rubbed his chin.
"Chip, how did today's experimental data recording go?"
Lei Lin asked inwardly.
"Subject's spiritual data has been recorded. Twenty-three segments of abnormal spiritual fluctuations detected, along with forty-five concealed locations within the brain…"
The Chip reported back.
"Using these prisoners as living subjects for experiments and obtaining data on spiritual research — it seems feasible!"
Lei Lin nodded. "It's just that the numbers are still a bit low…"
He turned to look at the perpetually uneasy Gelin. "You've done well. You're dismissed!"
"At your command!" Gelin bowed, a wave of relief washing over him inside, and he hurried out of the room.
As a normal person, he naturally felt a degree of repulsion toward all of this. But setting aside the constraints of slave conditioning, Lei Lin's power was far beyond Gelin's own — so while he felt a faint pang of guilt, he didn't dare openly show any opposition.
As his master, Lei Lin naturally noticed this.
"He's an ordinary person after all — such feelings are perfectly normal. As long as he remains obedient, nothing else matters…" Lei Lin gave Gelin's expression a brief glance before turning his attention away entirely. His black robe swished, and he vanished from the underground chamber.
……
"Lei Lin! My friend, we meet again!"
Lang Erfu, whose green hair trailed all the way to the ground, spotted Lei Lin and a genuine smile spread across his face.
After their previous encounter, Lei Lin and Lang Erfu had actually gone on to conduct several more transactions, developing a personal friendship and becoming rather good friends.
The reason was that Lei Lin had discovered Lang Erfu was actually quite a decent person when he wasn't going crazy, and moreover, his stock of goods was fairly comprehensive — with prices cheaper than those of the other Wizards in the Bre Canyon.
In the eyes of Wizards, only profit was eternal. Everything else could mostly be cast aside.
"Lang Erfu! I need this batch of goods urgently! Take a look!"
Lei Lin nodded and handed Lang Erfu a piece of yellow parchment covered in writing.
"You're not usually like this! Let me see!" Lang Erfu took the parchment, then immediately hissed through his teeth.
"
Thud!!! A small black bag was tossed directly onto Lang Erfu's table.
The drawstring on the bag loosened, revealing the glittering Magic Stones inside.
"Don't worry about the Magic Stones—these are just a deposit. I can make up the difference later with potions!" Lei Lin said with a show of wealth.
"True enough! With your abilities, Magic Stones are a minor matter!"
Lang Erfu's eyes lit up as he tucked the bag of Magic Stones into his robes. "The Death Herald is nearly extinct—I've only heard that some were spotted deep within the Black Death Mountains. As for Star Alloy, I do happen to have a small piece here..."
Lang Erfu rummaged through the shelves behind him, then opened a small black box.
Nestled in the center of red silk lay a silver stone, its surface dotted with tiny raised blue specks.
"The materials you need—Star Gold, Tear Stone, Figless Leaf—I have all of those in stock. As for the rest, you might want to look deeper in the canyon..."
Lang Erfu quickly finished packing the goods and calculated the final price: "Seven hundred and eighty-five Magic Stones!"
"Fine!" Lei Lin rubbed his chin with some resignation. "I'll go browse the market myself. Also, keep an eye out for me—buy up whatever you can!"
"
"Go... go quickly!" Lang Erfu's facial muscles twitched, one eye already shot through with blood.
Lei Lin turned and left immediately. Only once he had put considerable distance between himself and the stone cave did a roar echo in his ears.
"This kind of intermittent mental illness is truly terrifying..." Lei Lin didn't slow his pace, heading straight deeper into the canyon.
"Look! Lang Erfu is having another episode..."
"Should we notify the Guardian?"
"Probably won't do any good, heh heh. Before long, Lang Erfu will be kicked out of here!"
Meanwhile, from the stone chambers lining both sides of the canyon, numerous Wizard Apprentices wearing pointed hats leaned out, gazing in the direction of Lang Erfu's roaring, their faces showing expressions of worry, indifference, or schadenfreude.
After a flurry of activity, Raylin emerged from Bulei Canyon, a bulging black backpack now slung over his shoulders, packed full with various materials.
Raylin cast one final glance back at Bulei Canyon before mounting his black horse and riding away.