Warlock Apprentice

Chapter 3069: Chapter 3070: Appraising the Mirror

"So, you’re saying that the attack by Stop and his group was actually influenced by the will of the Wild God’s realm?" Dox whispered, "If this involves the Outer Gods attacking the Wizards’ Realm, is this matter ultimately going to be handed over to the Extreme Sect?"

The Black Earl said indifferently, "The people of the Birlos Family currently cannot confirm whether Stop and his group are really from the Wild Realm... But as for handing it over to the Extreme Sect, the people of the Birlos Family will definitely do it, and might have already done it."

"So fast?"

The Black Earl let out a cold laugh, "The Birlos Family has offended the major Witcher Organizations this time. Now, they only have two moves: admit defeat obediently; or attract forces that even the Witcher Organizations don’t want to mess with, to set a wolf upon the tiger."

Angel: "Is the Extreme Sect the ’wolf’ they’ve attracted?"

The Black Earl: "Exactly."

"Bringing in the Extreme Sect..." Dox hesitated for a moment, "Isn’t this a foolish move? If the Extreme Sect comes, won’t the situation with the Underground Aqueduct also be exposed?"

At that time, more Wizards might see the potential benefits in the Underground Aqueduct, which would make the Birlos Family even more passive.

The Black Earl: "Bringing the people from the Extreme Sect here is not necessarily a foolish move. Because even if they don’t proactively invite them, the Extreme Sect would have come sniffing around anyway."

"Sniffing around? What do you mean?" Dox: "Did the Extreme Sect also suffer a loss in this attack?"

"No, the Extreme Sect doesn’t care about ’losses’. What they’re sniffing after is, one, the reason of the Shallow Sea Strongman; and two, because of Aex... If a Time Series Wizard appears here, they will surely come."

Upon hearing this, Dox showed a puzzled look. It’s possible that such a powerful Shallow Sea Strongman would attract the Extreme Sect’s attention. But why would the Time Series also attract the Extreme Sect’s attention?

Besides, how did the Extreme Sect even know a Time Series Wizard would be here? If they came for a Time Series Wizard, at the very least, they would need to be certain there’s a Time Series Wizard here.

The Black Earl: "To be precise, they’re not coming because of the presence of a Time Series Wizard. Although Time Series apprentices are rare, they can’t attract their attention if they don’t grow. But an Official Wizard of the Time Series is different. If such a person makes any arrangements, they might even deceive the World Will."

"A long time ago, the Southern Domain’s World Will was stirred by a Time Series Wizard. After this happened, the Extreme Sect took advantage of the situation and made a deal with the World Will to list Time Series Wizards as key observation targets. Once a Time Series Wizard appears in the Southern Domain and disturbs time and space, the World Will will relay this information to the Extreme Sect..."

"Of course, in our view it’s a transaction, but the World Will itself has no subjective thoughts. The Extreme Sect likely just convinced the World Will of their point of view through some algorithm."

"However, Aex doesn’t actually use Time Series abilities frequently enough to disturb time and space or disrupt the World Will. Normally, the World Will wouldn’t relay Aex’s information to the Extreme Sect."

"But the attack on Bilun Tree Court will naturally draw major attention in the Wizards’ Realm. As long as the Extreme Sect looks this way, they’ll definitely notice something amiss."

In short, it’s essentially some authority granted by the World Will that allows the Extreme Sect to detect what’s unusual about this attack.

Then, even if the Birlos Family doesn’t speak up, the Extreme Sect might still come around.

Now, with the Birlos Family speaking up, it actually gives the Extreme Sect a better reason for stationing people.

The Black Earl: "As for whether the matter of the Underground Aqueduct will be affected, there’s no need to worry. The Birlos Family isn’t foolish enough to expose the situation of the Underground Aqueduct. In all these years, it’s not like the Extreme Sect hasn’t visited Bilun Tree Court before, and they didn’t discover anything then, so why would they suddenly discover it now?"

"Moreover, even if the Extreme Sect does find out, it won’t be a big problem."

No matter what, those in the Underground Aqueduct, whether asleep or awakened, are all native beings.

No matter how much the Extreme Sect likes to exercise long-arm jurisdiction, they can’t extend it to people within the Wizards’ Realm. When it comes to dealing with native beings, the Extreme Sect can’t get any additional support from the World Will. If they provoke the Wise Sovereign enough to abandon the "Keep Naraku City Secure" psychological burden, the Extreme Sect might not even be able to defeat him.

In fact... even the Black Earl wouldn’t dare to provoke the Wise Sovereign, who doesn’t abide by the rules of Naraku City, or the possibly slumbering other Transcendent beings.

They dare negotiate with the Wise Sovereign now only because they’ve seen his deep-seated attachment to his hometown.

"However, after the attack incident, the Birlos Family probably wouldn’t dare to make significant moves in the Underground Aqueduct for a while. This makes it a bit troublesome for us to exchange intelligence with the Birlos Family." The Black Earl sighed at this point: "It seems that we’ll have to arrange for family members to be stationed here."

Clearly, the "we" the Black Earl mentioned at this moment did not refer to those present, but to the Noah Family.

And when it came to arranging family members to be stationed nearby, Vay lowered his head entirely, as if hoping not to be seen.

It seemed Vay was worried that the Black Earl would ask him to guard the Garden Labyrinth ruins.

Seeing Vay’s timid demeanor, the Black Earl snorted coldly, "Even if you wanted to come, you’re not qualified."

Those family members stationed here must at least be Official Wizards, otherwise many matters would be difficult to handle.

Upon hearing that he wouldn’t be stationed there, Vay let out a long sigh of relief... As for the Black Earl’s sarcastic remarks, Vay was already used to them.

The conversation then turned to continue discussing this attack incident, and some speculations about Stop’s trio.

The Black Earl learned about their experiences from Angel, while Angel and Dox focused on information related to the Wild Realm, such as... the God of Yalu.

These deity-related pieces of knowledge were rarely accessible to them in normal circumstances, so gaining such information from the Black Earl supplemented their missing knowledge.

Even though they were involved, or even partook in, the attack on Bilun Tree Court, it didn’t greatly concern them in the end, so after a while, the conversation ceased.

At this point, the Black Earl brought up the Mysterious Heart Mirror crafted by Angel.

The Black Earl hadn’t mentioned it casually. One of the main reasons he came to see Angel, apart from exchanging intelligence, was his keen interest in this Mysterious Heart Mirror.

Faced with the Black Earl’s request to "have a look", Angel pondered for a moment and said, "Please wait a moment, I need to set up the Geometric Lock."

The Geometric Lock is an alchemy tool to lock away any leakage of aura, and the Black Earl had seen it before, thus he had no objections to it.

However, Dox muttered under his breath, "When I wanted to see it earlier, you said it needed to settle. How come it’s okay to take it out now? Doesn’t it need settling anymore?"

Angel completely ignored him, busying himself with setting up the Geometric Lock.

However, while setting up the Geometric Lock, Angel actually did two more things... The first was sending a message through the Ability Tree to Laplace, who was still diligently fishing in the Wilderness of Dreams.

The second task was to take down the additional mirror on the Indestructible Heart Mirror that connected to Rabbit Mountain.

The mysterious concrete object could be said to have been born during the refining of the Indestructible Heart Mirror, but that extra mirror was hard to explain. So, Angel simply took down the second mirror, knowing it could be reconnected later.

After finishing all this, Angel leisurely set up the Geometric Lock, took the cleaned mirror, and placed it inside the Geometric Lock.

Following this, without the need for Angel to say anything, both the Black Earl and Dox focused their gaze on this half-length mirror emitting a faint and splendid glow.

The mysterious radiance flowed continuously within the Geometric Lock.

Both the Black Earl and Dox, as well as Vay, were deeply attracted by the flowing mysterious aura on the Indestructible Heart Mirror.

Their eyes were filled with fascination as they appreciated this unique mirror.

Even though this mirror wasn’t truly a mysterious object yet, to them, it was no less impressive... because this mirror held another significance: it was a mysterious object refined right before their eyes.

No one else in the Southern Domain could achieve this!

Angel stood alone and, in a short time, it was uncertain if Angel could refine a second mysterious tool.—In their view, refining a half-step mysterious object was also a depletion of one’s foundation. So, before replenishing the foundation or gaining new inspiration, Angel was unlikely to attempt a second mysterious object.

Time passed slowly in their appreciation.

After an unknown period, both the Black Earl and Dox slowly regained their senses under the mysterious light.

Upon returning to themselves, Dox remained silent, withdrawing quietly to the side, lost in thought, a look of insight on his face.

The Black Earl, however, turned to Angel: "The engraving on this..."

"I didn’t originally intend for any engravings; it was meant to be a simple mirror frame. As for these engravings, they appeared after the refining was complete," Angel replied.

From the literal meaning, Angel was telling the truth.

Because the Beast Engraving on the frame indeed wasn’t in Angel’s original refining plan. These Beast Engravings were actually a mysterious concretization added by Angel later...

And the Black Earl naturally didn’t know about the existence of the mysterious concretization. In his understanding, Angel’s words meant: these richly mysterious engravings naturally emerged after the refining process.

In the Black Earl’s view, this was a type of "mysterious manifestation" of the mirror.

"When I first saw these Beast Engravings, I thought you had already activated the mirror, and these were external phenomena. But now, it seems this is the mirror’s own ability... I must say, it really fits your style, carrying an air of illusion."

The reason the Black Earl inquired about the Beast Engravings was that he noticed they seemed not to be material but rather a kind of "illusory representation" floating outside the mirror.

But to call it an illusion technique wouldn’t be correct either. For it clearly exuded a mysterious aura, consistent with the mysterious mirror’s aura, indicating that it was an inherent feature of the mysterious mirror.

Angel, as the refiner and an Illusionist Wizard, matched his works to himself, which could be understood.

"This mirror’s..." the Black Earl began but then paused suddenly. He initially wanted to ask about the mysterious mirror’s effects, but since it was Angel’s refined alchemy tool, essentially a private object, directly inquiring about the tool’s effects would be impolite.

Thus, he shifted his tone: "Is this mirror used for assistance?"

Angel pondered for a moment and nodded: "You could say that."

Angel’s response was somewhat ambiguous, and from this detail, the Black Earl understood that perhaps Angel wasn’t keen on revealing the mirror’s effects.

Maybe, if pressed further, Angel would disclose the effects, but this would clearly create a rift in Angel’s mind.

The Black Earl had no intention of offending a wizard capable of refining mysterious objects.

Thinking of this, the Black Earl restrained his curiosity, opting not to continue asking about the mirror’s effects, and instead spoke with a sense of both admiration and envy: "Sanders, that brat, sure is lucky."

He had heard that Angel was snatched away by Sanders directly.

One wonders what sort of luck Sanders had, to have such an apprentice who reached such heights in just a few years... Although this pinnacle wasn’t in terms of strength, as long as Angel revealed his refined mirror, his status wouldn’t be any lesser than his own.

After his musings, the Black Earl asked Angel: "You are aware of Dong La’s declaration, right?"

Dong La, the grafting fanatic? Hearing this name, Angel’s brow furrowed slightly: "You mean...?"

The Black Earl: "She doesn’t agree with you becoming a member of the Research and Development Institute and even declared that you’re unqualified."

"I know about this." Angel indeed heard discussions about it, but Dong La’s remarks caused only a stir in the Alchemy Circle; in other circles, people barely cared about her words. The main reason being... Dong La was largely disliked.

If Angel only mingled in the Alchemy Circle, he might be affected, but he wasn’t even much involved in the Barbarian Cave’s wizard circle, let alone other circles.

"The exhibition of the Research and Development Institute is approaching, and you haven’t released any new items yet, right? If you were to present this mirror at that time, Dong La’s declaration would become a joke."

The Black Earl was suggesting that Angel should reveal the mirror at the exhibition, enhancing both his status and striking a blow to Dong La.

Angel didn’t respond to the Black Earl’s suggestion.

He would definitely attend the exhibition, but whether he’d showcase this mirror or other alchemy tools was uncertain.

The Black Earl didn’t press further, stopping at the mention.

"I’ve seen the mirror, and it’s excellent. Since Dox suggested that you’re going to ponder further, I won’t disturb you...," the Black Earl said as he indicated for Vay to leave with him.

"By the way, what’s the name of this mirror?" the Black Earl asked as he was halfway out.

"Indestructible Heart Mirror."