“A massive number of undead have appeared in the north.”
Undead??
Everyone in the room was momentarily stunned. Among them, Spark reacted most violently, whipping his head around to look at Laurent, his brow furrowing deeply as he spoke in a low voice.
“Where exactly did the undead appear? How many are there? What is their strength?”
Li De was somewhat puzzled by Spark’s grave expression. They were only undead creatures, was that really enough to make this Level 19 Grand Mage, whose power was unfathomable, so apprehensive?
Laurent was startled by Spark’s extreme reaction and quickly began to explain.
“In Solins City, at the border between the Southern Province and the Thornflower Province, the undead came down from the border with the Radiant Empire!”
The Nolan Empire had a total of ten provinces. In the south, three provinces were delineated.
Green City, where they were now, lay in the Southern Province. To the east, it bordered the Beastmen Empire. To the northwest was the Thornflower Province, which shared a border with the Radiant Empire. To the southwest was the Blue Sea Province, adjacent to the ocean.
The Southern Province was essentially surrounded by the Thornflower Province and the Blue Sea Province. The Far Mountain Range was situated to the north of the Southern Province.
However, this mountain range happened to vanish as it passed into the Thornflower Province, which meant that the Radiant Empire and the Nolan Empire officially shared a direct border. This long frontier stretched all the way up to the Northern Highlands, the Nolan Empire’s northernmost region.
The border between the Radiant Empire and the Nolan Empire spanned three provinces, binding the two nations in close proximity. That was also why the two countries would join forces to campaign against the Northern Highlands.
“Their numbers are at least five to six hundred thousand!” Laurent’s expression was somewhat tense. “According to the message sent back by the branch, it seems that war has broken out in the Radiant Empire, and their enemy is the undead.
These undead are flooding out from the Radiant Empire’s borders. Whether there are high-level undead among them remains uncertain.”
Spark nodded, pressing down the astonishment in his heart. He seemed to notice the confusion in Li De’s eyes and began to explain.
“Undead are different from abyssal demons. Abyssal demons may be ferocious, but they can only emerge from the Abyss itself. As long as you control the Abyssal Gates, you can stop them.
Undead are different. As long as there are corpses, necromancers can endlessly create undead warriors.
In the past, the Glory Main Plane was swept by undead invasions several times. Hundreds of millions of lives across the entire continent were transformed into undead.
If the deities hadn’t intervened at critical moments, the Glory Main Plane would likely have long since become an undead domain.”
Spark’s expression did not relax. “I may not have personally experienced the Death Scourge ten thousand years ago, the closest such calamity in our history, but I have seen magical images of the battles against the undead preserved at the Mage Guild in the Nolan Royal Capital.
Ghost dragons, bone dragons, skeletal knights, dread knights, necromancers, and armies of skeleton warriors so numerous they blotted out the sky and swallowed entire mountain ranges, no one could withstand that endless sea of bones.”
After he spoke, he took a deep breath and turned his head to look at Laurent.
“How did you come by this information??”
As the Vice President of the Green City Mage Guild, he himself had not received such vital intelligence. How could this merchant know??
Laurent’s expression held a trace of pride. “Lord Li De once said that the allure of Gold Pucks is unmatched.
I issued a standing order: if any of our Golden Wheat Merchant Guild branches discovered information that could affect the Guild’s fate or be of great help to the Crimson Mage Tower, they were authorized to use Message Scrolls to transmit the information back to headquarters.”
Message Scrolls??
Spark was struck by realization. This Tier 2 magic scroll always came in pairs. As long as you wrote something on one, the text would instantly appear on the other.
However, this type of magic scroll was extremely rare and notorious for being difficult to craft. Very few mages even knew how. On the open market, you simply could not find them. Only military forces maintained a tiny reserve.
Ordinary merchants would never prepare such things because once a Message Scroll was unsealed, it could only synchronize text for less than one minute, very little information could be conveyed. By comparison, many other methods were more practical than this magic scroll.
Something so rare and marginal in usefulness that most people probably hadn’t even heard of it.
Li De was quite appreciative of Laurent’s approach and also very curious about the Message Scroll. “Where can I buy these Message Scrolls? Prepare one hundred for me.”
Utterly extravagant.
Cough, cough, cough. Laurent nearly choked on his own saliva.
He wiped the sweat from his forehead, looking a little awkward. “Lord Li De, those magic scrolls are made by an old mage in Green City who’s blind in one eye. He can only produce one or two each month.
The quantity you want, he probably couldn’t make that many in ten years.”
“A one-eyed old mage?? Who can make Message Scrolls??”
Spark looked as if he had heard something of critical importance. His expression shifted into excitement, he was more agitated now than when he’d heard about the undead.
“Grandmaster Murray is still alive?? Quick, tell me where Grandmaster Murray is!!”
His voice actually carried a faint tremor.
Li De found Spark’s expression odd. Who was this Grandmaster Murray, that he could excite his teacher even more than the threat of an undead horde?
“Lord Spark, I don’t actually know what that mage’s name is…” Laurent hadn’t finished speaking when he saw Spark glaring at him and dared not continue with any nonsense. “That mage currently lives in the slums in the Western District.”
“Do you still have any Message Scrolls on you?”
Laurent retrieved an unopened scroll from his person and handed it to Spark.
Spark accepted it, his expression tinged with excitement. He unrolled the grey scroll, two palms wide and thirty centimeters long. When he saw the patterns and techniques etched upon it, his lips trembled.
He extended those wrinkled old hands and gently caressed the surface of the scroll.
“That’s right, this is Grandmaster Murray’s style. Absolutely, this is Grandmaster Murray!!
I can’t believe it. I’ve searched for Grandmaster Murray for twenty years, and now I’ve encountered him again here.
Goddess of Magic above, this must be Your guidance!”
After saying this, Spark no longer cared about anything else and pressed Laurent with more questions.
“Quickly tell me Grandmaster Murray’s exact address. I must visit him at once!”
Laurent was also startled by Spark’s demeanor. What was going on with this terrifyingly powerful mage today??
“That mage lives in the Western District, Seventeenth Block, near the side of the Western District Black Market, Building Thirteen. If you ask around there, you’ll find him.”
As soon as the words left his mouth, Spark ignored everyone else in the room. Wearing an expression of excitement, he immediately turned and left in haste, not even bothering to say goodbye to Isha, whom he usually regarded as his own granddaughter.