Chapter 48 The Market "Really? Then why is your hand still gripping the sword hilt?"
Leilin slowly rose to his feet.
"The Lord's secret cannot be heard by anyone!" The leader slowly drew his long sword. "Besides, you're wounded — that's why you can't fight!"
"Cough, cough..." Leilin coughed weakly. "A very accurate analysis! So you're determined to kill me today? I swear I won't breathe a word of what happened here!"
"Only the dead keep secrets!" The leader roared and slashed a gleaming arc of sword light at Leilin.
Leilin dodged clumsily.
Joy surfaced on the leader's face. His muscles bulged as he was about to charge forward — then his expression changed abruptly, and he stumbled back several steps.
Behind him, the militia and the girl had all crumpled to the ground, only their eyes still moving.
"You poisoned us?!" the leader bellowed in fury and alarm.
"As expected of a Knight — you still have the strength to stand!" Leilin nodded. Although with his current strength he could have cut them all down by force, since there was a more convenient method, why not use it?
The leader flung his long sword aside and ran backward. His speed was actually still comparable to that of an ordinary person.
"To still move this fast while poisoned — that's impressive!" Leilin remarked calmly.
He raised his crossbow. "Chip! Calculate wind speed and humidity! Adjust trajectory!"
A sharp hiss — a black line of an arrow punched through the Knight's chest. The Knight stared at the arrow that had pierced through his back and out his front, still trailing blood, and toppled to the ground with a look of disbelief.
Leilin walked up to the girl and looked down at her, then tossed a packet of powder into her mouth. A moment later, the girl stood up and moved her limbs.
"Are you... a
"No! Just an apothecary. Help me move them all over here and deal with them!" Leilin gestured at the militia lying on the ground.
"Why don't you do it yourself?" The girl pouted, but she still dragged all the paralysed militia members over and moved the bodies of the Knight leader and the big man to the side as well.
Immediately, a cold look flashed through the girl's eyes. She drew a dagger from inside her clothes and stabbed each of the immobilized militia members to death, one by one.
Throughout the entire process, Leilin watched with cold detachment, observing as the girl killed her pursuers one after another.
"You must be a Wizard!" the girl said in a tone of absolute certainty.
"If you help me get my revenge, I can hand over my entire family's treasury to you — there's a treasure left behind by a Wizard in there!"
The girl spoke slowly and deliberately.
"Does your family really have a Wizard's treasure?" Leilin's expression was somewhat amused.
"I swear on my family's name!" The girl's expression was resolute.
"Analyzing! Target's blood flow rate increasing, brainwaves showing characteristic fluctuations. Conclusion: probability of deception — 93.3%."
Reading the Chip's conclusion, Leilin shook his head.
"Go away."
"What?" The girl was visibly taken aback. "You're not interested? My family has enormous wealth — you can have anything you want..."
"Haven't you been reading too many Knight novels?" Leilin cut off the girl's words.
"In a dense jungle, a adventurer encounters a princess on the run and helps her get her revenge. After a series of harrowing adventures, they defeat the enemy. The adventurer wins both treasure and the princess's love, and the two of them live happily ever after!"
Leilin hummed in the tone of a wandering bard.
"All you have is a pile of empty promises — and at most, yourself — and you want me to help you take revenge against a powerful force that controls an entire barony? Do I look like a fool to you?"
"But..." The girl clearly wanted to press further.
"Get lost!" Leilin roared.
The girl rose helplessly, a flash of venomous hatred passing through her eyes before she turned to leave.
"Wait!" After the girl had turned and taken several steps away, Leilin's voice rang out.
A spark of joy lit up in the girl's heart, and she turned her head back.
Thwip!!! A crossbow bolt tore through the girl's beautiful face and pinned her to the tree behind her.
"I could have let you go, but I saw the venom in your eyes!" Leilin sighed slowly. "You were ready to leave without even collecting the bodies of people who protected you and followed you — just see how ice-cold your heart truly is!"
"Besides, to get revenge on your former enemies, and to get back at me too, you'd definitely spread word of today's events everywhere. I don't fear trouble, but I do hate it…"
"Tell me — with so many reasons, how could I possibly let you go?"
Leilin pulled out the bolt and piled the girl's lifeless body, eyes still open, together with the rest.
He took a tube of yellow potion from his pack and poured it over a corpse's wound. Ssssss!! The body quickly decomposed, melting into a puddle of yellow pus.
Leilin repeated the process, disposing of every remaining corpse the same way.
After a short while, only puddles of yellow water remained around the campsite. The burly man, the girl, and the pursuers had all vanished without a trace.
This corpse-dissolving potion, just like the paralytic powder from before, was something Leilin had developed out of boredom. Though it was useless against Wizards or even apprentices, it never failed when used against ordinary people.
"Right now, my top priority is trading for enough herbs to treat my injuries. Everything else is just trouble!"
Leilin sighed. "What a shame — this campsite I just set up."
He then packed up the camp, erased all traces of his presence, and disappeared into the dense forest.
……
Night. Outside a thick forest.
A figure shrouded in a black robe, face hidden beneath a wide-brimmed bamboo hat, arrived here.
"The Lost Forest — this is the place!" Leilin surveyed his surroundings, compared them to the map, and strode into the darkness without looking back.
His leather boots crunched on dry branches with a creaking sound, eerie in the darkness of night.
"Chip, scan the surroundings!"
"Ping! Mild Illusion Field detected. Effect: ordinary people who wander in will be confused and led in circles, eventually exiting unconsciously."
"As expected. No wonder there are legends about spirits and monsters here, and travelers regularly go missing." Though it was only an illusion effect now, if any hapless ordinary people stumbled in, no Wizard would mind gaining an extra experimental subject.
"Hello! Wizard Apprentice! Welcome to the Wizard Market!!"
A nimble black shadow leaped down from a tree, landing on a weathered tombstone, its eyes glowing with an emerald light.
Lei Lin approached and saw it was a black cat.
"A Wizard's companion? Or a modified creature? Or perhaps a magical effect?" Lei Lin mused inwardly, then gave a slight bow.
"I am a traveling Wizard Apprentice. I heard that the market here is open to any Wizard, is that correct?"
"Correct! This market is hosted by the great Walker Family, and they guarantee safety and sanctuary to every Wizard who enters—of course, only within the market grounds!" The black cat licked its paw, letting out a sound suspiciously like human laughter.
"Then, I wish to enter!"
"Entry fee for an apprentice is one Magic Stone! Full Wizards enter for free!"
"Here you go!" Lei Lin nodded and tossed over a low-grade Magic Stone.
The black cat caught the Magic Stone in its mouth, turned and jumped off the tombstone, making a "follow me" gesture.
Lei Lin shrugged and followed.
The further in they went, the thicker the white mist became, but a small path had appeared underfoot, as if specifically maintained.
"We're here!" At the black cat's voice, the mist ahead suddenly vanished. The lively sounds of trade reached Lei Lin's ears, making him feel as though he'd returned to the academy's trading district.
But most of those trading here were wrapped tightly in gray robes and cloaks, not revealing a single patch of skin.
Occasionally, those who were uncovered gave Lei Lin quite an eye-opening sight.
There were sea races with scales, and half-beasts with downy fur around their necks. They weren't the same as Beastkin—a more peace-loving race that could also produce Wizards. Lei Lin even spotted a Wizard with an owl's head.
And though the auras on most of the Wizards here were apprentice-level, Lei Lin sensed a very bloody atmosphere about them.
"Outside Wizard Apprentices may not have as solid a foundation as ours, but those who can advance in such scarce resource environments must be incredibly experienced and far more adept at fighting!" Lei Lin's heart sank.
He had used up most of his combat potions. Right now, he was barely a fairly capable Second-rank Apprentice with some measure of self-defense. But if word got out about the potions he carried, the Wizards who came for him would tear him apart like sharks.
He looked down, but the black cat had already vanished without a trace.
"Sir! Do you need a guide? I'll only charge one Magic Stone!" A somewhat scrawny little boy came running over.
He carried the energy fluctuation of a First-rank Wizard as well. His face was thin, but his eyes were bright and spirited.
"Just take me around wherever!"
"Okay!" A look of pleasant surprise appeared in the boy's eyes, and he hurried to the front to lead the way.
"This is a market protected by the Walker Family. It's very popular with wandering practitioners and traveling Wizards. You see, those wooden huts in the center — those are the Walker Family's own shops."
The little boy made a earnest effort to fulfill his role as a guide.
"Then those stalls on the side belong to outsiders?" Lei Lin pointed at the Wizards who had set up stalls along both sides of the road. Their wares were considerably better than what could be found inside the Academy, though there were naturally more counterfeits as well.
"That's right! As long as you register at the central hall and pay the fee, you can get a stall!" The little boy nodded. "Does the sir have anything he'd like to sell? The Walker Family also offers consignment services!"
"No rush! Take me around the central area first!" Lei Lin said.
Inside this Wizard market, he had already spotted several official Wizards carrying visible protective Fields. They were beings completely beyond his ability to resist in his current state, so he couldn't help but exercise extra caution.
"That's the Fire Hammer Workshop! They specialize in selling weapons! The one next to it with the test tube painted on the sign is an apothecary, and the leftmost one is an auction house — fine pieces occasionally surface there!" The little boy was clearly very familiar with the area.
"An auction house? Would there be any news of Magical Items there?" Lei Lin showed some interest, making it look as though he were simply asking in passing.