The First Order

"When the attacker cast that Flame Pillar spell just now, I immediately knew that his strength was far above mine." Melgor said, "So it's actually a good thing that you didn't manage to catch up to him. Don't be so reckless next time, or you could lose your life."

Curious, Ren Xiaosu asked, "You were even able to determine that sorcerer was stronger than you when he just appeared out of nowhere and cast a single spell? Is it because there aren't many sorcerers who are weaker than you?"

Melgor was speechless.

He immediately felt uncomfortable. But when he thought about it carefully, that really seemed to be the case.

However, in order to save his reputation as a sorcerer, Melgor still emphasized, "You might not have seen the most basic Flame Pillar spell before, but I have. Its temperature is much lower than the one he cast. If that sorcerer had not had many years of training, he couldn't show that kind of power at all. By the way, did you see how he was dressed?"

"Yes." Ren Xiaosu nodded. "He was wearing brown leather armor and had a concealed arrow within his sleeve. It felt like he was very experienced in combat, so he didn't seem like a sorcerer at all."

"Then that's it." Melgor nodded and said, "That's a bounty hunter and not a true sorcerer. The identities of such bounty hunters are actually very sensitive. They usually work for the archmages' secular families and specialize in doing the dirty and laborious work for them. If their identities get exposed, they'll just say they stole their Eyes of True Sight from someone else. In any case, they'll deny any and all ties with the magus order. Of course, there's also bounty hunters who truly operate on the fringe of society, and those are fugitives who're constantly targeted by the magus order."

Melgor continued, "These bounty hunters are different from true sorcerers. True magi pursue the mastery of sorcery while bounty hunters seek death and destruction. On one hand, it's because they specialize in assassination. On the other hand, it's very difficult for them to reach a higher level of sorcery through normal means. That bounty hunter was a very typical example. The meditation visualization for the Flame Pillar spell is considered pretty common and can often be found in the black market. Furthermore, they tend to use more effective killing methods. A Fireball has a trajectory to follow, but the Flame Pillar can deal more explosive damage in an instant. It's considered the go-to spell of bounty hunters."

"You might not be strong, but you sure know quite a bit." Ren Xiaosu chuckled.

Melgor said resentfully, "Must you provoke me every day? Will it make you stronger if my feelings get hurt by you or something?"

"Ahem, no, not at all." Ren Xiaosu comforted, "Aren't I just trying to motivate you to improve? Otherwise, how're you going to steal your lover back? Are you just gonna depend on me alone… Although that would work too."

"Will you die if you don't brag?" Melgor said helplessly, "You can't even catch up to a bounty hunter, so what makes you think you can help me? Where does your confidence come from?!"

Nearby, Liu Ting and Li Chengguo curled their lips. Although they had become closer, they were still a little unused to Ren Xiaosu's inexplicable narcissism and confidence.

However, Ren Xiaosu could not possibly tell the truth to these three. If he just bluntly said, "I've already killed that bounty hunter!"

Then what? Melgor would immediately think, 'Since you're capable of killing that bounty hunter, how did you get bound by my Earth Bind spell back then?'

Immediately after, they would all start asking about that bounty hunter's Eye of True Sight. Then should Ren Xiaosu keep it for himself or hand it over?

Who could guarantee that Li Chengguo and Liu Ting really considered Ren Xiaosu a friend? Until now, Ren Xiaosu had not seen any gratitude tokens earned from Liu Ting. But even if Liu Ting had thanked him sincerely before, people could still change.

There was no need for Ren Xiaosu to bet his life on these people.

At this moment, no one knew the most polite sorcerer in the history of the Magi had been born, and the person who witnessed the birth was dead.

Melgor did not continue resting. Instead, he quickly led Ren Xiaosu and the others on their way. Now that bounty hunters had arrived, he had to get back to York County before they were attacked again.

The opponent had probably chosen to make a move here because they did not want to take action in the Kingdom of Sorcerers. After all, if a sorcerer were assassinated in the Magi's territory, it would mean someone was trying to go against the entire order.

Since the magus order saw themselves as gods and declared the fringe sorcerers as "Children of Heaven," they would have to uphold this authority.

Would a god that could be killed by someone still be a god?

Therefore, there were also unwritten rules among sorcerers. If some things had to be taken care of, they could not let the secular world know about it.

Not long after they left, a middle-aged man quietly came to the place where Ren Xiaosu and company had reorganized. He first checked on the battle situation and found there were still traces of the Flame Pillar spell released by the bounty hunter there.

Right afterwards, he followed the tracks in the Gobi Desert southwards. The more he saw, the more shocked he became.

This was because he realized that the bounty hunter had chosen to use the Flame Pillar while he was retreating. This meant the bounty hunter had encountered a troublesome enemy and wanted to use the spell to delay the opponent's pursuit.

The middle-aged man frowned. This did not match the intel he had been given. To be honest, he did not expect the plan to fail this time.

Thinking of this, he continued walking forward. Immediately, he saw a dazzling scene of spells that had been cast. There was Liquefy Ground, Wind Bind, and even some other indiscernible spells.

Immediately after, he saw a pool of blood on the ground that had almost been covered by the sand blowing in the Gobi.

He carefully brushed away the yellow sand that was covering the bloodstains and looked at a certain spot on the ground where the Liquefy Ground spell was cast. He could tell that someone had fallen inside but used Sudden Stalagmite to break free from the trap.

From the look of things, this was where the bounty hunter met his demise.

The middle-aged man slowly stood up. He took out his Eye of True Sight from his waist belt and recited an incantation. A moment later, a falcon flew from his Eye of True Sight and headed northwest.

But before the falcon could fly far, the ground suddenly erupted. The middle-aged man hurriedly tried to retreat and cast a spell in response, but it was already too late.

Amid the flying sand and dust, a black saber broke through it all at lightning speed and pierced the sorcerer's heart.

The white-masked "Old Xu" moved in the direction of the stab and came within close proximity of the middle-aged sorcerer. It was nearly hugging him. Old Xu twisted the black saber in its hand and completely wrung the life force out of the middle-aged sorcerer. Then it slowly laid him flat on the ground.

Old Xu took the Eye of True Sight from the middle-aged man's hand. The other party's fingers were clenched very tightly around the stone, as though he still had a great longing and reluctance to part with it even after his death.

Ren Xiaosu made Old Xu hold the Eye of True Sight in its hand and examined it. It seemed like it didn't take much effort to get his hands on these Eyes of True Sight. All he needed to do was to wait for the enemy to bring one to him.

He made Old Xu put the Eye of True Sight into its pocket before starting work on destroying all shreds of evidence here.

Ren Xiaosu had kept the crime scene intact to see if he could bait something out of this.