"I did find the coordinates." The death mage was unbelievably stubborn, but Saleen spotted the sly look in his eyes.
The Binding spell disappeared and Saleen picked him up. Sika sat down as he patted the death mage on the back and said, "I’m a mage who can control elements. Your coordinates are of no use to me whatsoever. You have offended my friend slightly, but I have no intention of killing you. Why are you this nervous? Unless you’ve got some important secrets that you’re afraid I’ll discover?"
Seeing the death mage go pale, Saleen was shocked. Could he have guessed it so casually?
The death mage’s expression was unusually vivid. There was anger, sadness, pain, disappointment…
Saleen laughed. He held no grudge against this fellow and did not need to interrogate him like a suspect. Saleen took out some black bread, butter, and smoked meat. Setting out an oil cloth, he placed it all in front of the death mage.
The death mage looked at the food in front of him. Suddenly, his shoulders slumped and he began to cry.
Saleen stared at him in shock before regaining his composure. A long time ago, had he not cried because of bread as well? However, this death mage was nearly grade-3. Could he not even hunt?
"Eat first. We will talk after you eat." Saleen pushed the food forward. Lex was not very particular about food when they were travelling. These were army standard. The death mage grabbed a piece of bread and stuffed it entirely into his mouth, choking on it. Saleen found it funny at first, until he realized that the death mage could not breathe and his face was turning purple.
Saleen quickly grabbed onto him and pounded on his back with all his might.
Ka…
The death mage spat out a large piece of bread.
Nailisi took out a large bowl and Saleen quickly created a portion of restorative water for him. He did not dare stuff his face again. If Saleen had not helped him earlier, he would have caused an unusual event: He would have been the first mage ever to have choked to death.
"What’s your name?" Seeing that he was almost done, Saleen questioned him again.
"Daniel Kang."
"Are you wealthy?" Seeing Daniel return to normal, Saleen questioned him. Daniel no longer looked poor. A simple piece of bread could change a person this much.
Daniel’s face turned red as he replied, "I am a mage. A grade-3 death mage."
"You must be from Tanggulasi."
Daniel was not willing to nod. He was a wealthy person from Tanggulasi. However, there were numerous differences between things in the Tanggulasi Empire and the Qin Empire. In the thousands of years during the empire’s establishment, the wealthy had been too numerous to be counted. He was only a third-class baron and his family owned but a few miles of land. They had only been able to survive because of their business with the Sikeqinya people.
"Why did you come to the Qin Empire?" Saleen asked even though he knew the answer. The Holy See had announced that death mages were heretics, and even if Daniel had been a duke, he would have needed to escape the Tanggulasi Empire.
However, Saleen did not expect Daniel’s answer to be far more interesting than he had originally thought. How this unlucky death mage had been able to reach the Qin Empire alive was essentially a miracle in itself.
Daniel’s family had been to the southwest of Tanggulasi. It was not a very good location, as it was constantly threatened by the Cloudflow Navy. However, he was unbelievably smart and ended up doing business with the Cloudflow people instead. Within a few years, he had assembled three boats and had been able to go south to Cloudflow or north to Sikeqinya.
This was an extremely embarrassing thing for the wealthy of Tanggulasi who would rather die of starvation than do business with others. Of course, the very wealthy were still the best at getting what they wanted through brute force. Without the sacred Holy See, the Tanggulasi Empire would have been destroyed a long time ago. The more corrupt the empire was, the more prosperous the Holy See became.
If a person lacked even food and had no ability to resist, it would be very easy for them to embrace a religion.
The Holy See owned numerous plots of land by themselves, and by doing business, they only needed to pay a little to their disciples in order to cause a chain effect, causing more farmers who had lost their land to join the Holy See.
Daniel had once been a magic disciple. Mages had no status in Tanggulasi, and a disciple would attract even less attention. He, like Saleen, had been unable to form magic chords and was about to give up on the idea. However, his father, Daniel Senior, once saved a death mage while out at sea, and hence, Daniel switched to learning death magic.
In addition to gemstones, learning death magic required death flames in order to establish coordinates with the death dimension. Usually, the coordinates given by the death flames were unclear and Daniel had not had much hope. Murky coordinates meant that a death mage’s death flames would grow much slower.
However, with the death of his father, he had not wanted to carry on the business and needed to figure out a way to buy the death flames. That had cost him three boats.
Daniel had not expected the death flames that he had purchased to be top-tier ones, and within the short span of three years, he had risen from a disciple to a grade-3 mage. Under normal circumstances, death magic was always easier at the start but more difficult towards the end. However, at the rate with which he was advancing, so long as he continued working on it, he could become a sorcerer before he died.
Death sorcerer could extend their lives as well, and Daniel began to work hard. Just as he had begun to grow complacent, the Holy See announced his death sentence: all death mages were heretics.
He immediately donated a large part of his fortune and bribed a local grade-2 high priest. Under the protection of the high priest, Daniel escaped his hometown, but the high priest later betrayed him and the people from the tribunal began chasing after him.
Daniel escaped and took a ship to the Cloudflow Empire. Using the contacts he had gained while running the business, he managed to raise some money and decided to start anew in Cloudflow. However, he accidentally found out that the Holy See already had a large number of people that had infiltrated the Cloudflow Empire who had given his location to the tribunal.
If these people had risked exposing their identity to catch him, Daniel would have been dead long ago. Death mages were extremely rare, and the Holy See would gladly have him be the first death mage to be burned to death on the Glorious Square.
This time, Daniel ran even faster and did not dare to keep in contact with anyone he knew. He joined some mercenaries and set off on a ship that went on missions.
There were countless islands in the vast ocean south of Cloudflow, and the powers of the Holy See had not extended to those regions. However, Daniel seemed to have been cursed. The mercenaries he had joined discovered a large island with many rare magic beasts on it. The expanse of land had been incredibly vast.
Just a map of the area alone would have fetched an astronomical price. It was a pity that there were people on the island. This mainland-like island had been occupied by the Gauss family, who were operating secretly. The family had two barons and four relatives in the royal family. They were certainly extremely powerful and wealthy. However, the length of the island was over one thousand miles, and if it was discovered, it would belong to the royal family. The Gauss family definitely did not want anyone to spread the news that they were secretly hoarding the place for themselves.
Poor Daniel had no choice but to run for his life again. The mercenaries he had been together with were completely exterminated, and the only undead soldier he had left with him was this winged skeleton. During battle, the wings of this skeleton had been broken, leaving Daniel penniless. He could not afford any magic nuclei, and with his death flames, he had no idea when he would be able to fix this skeleton, much less train.
After returning to Cloudflow, he was afraid of being found by the Gauss family and did not dare move around near the sea. He decided to make his way to Titan Duchy, but midway through his journey, he encountered people from the tribunal, causing him to turn in the opposite direction and escape to the Qin Empire.
Saleen did not know if Daniel was lucky or unlucky. He could not be considered unlucky, given that he was still alive despite having been pursued for so long. He could not be considered lucky either, seeing how he had been targeted by both the Holy See and the Gauss family.
"Daniel, don’t worry. In the Qin Empire, mages are safe," Saleen comforted him.
"Safe? The people from the tribunal have followed me here. Do you think I want to hide in the mountains? The winged skeleton doesn’t have its wings anymore and it moves very slowly. The prey killed using death magic cannot be eaten and I have been filling my stomach with ants that I have caught these past few days…"
Ants!
Saleen now understood why a death mage like Daniel had been living in an abandoned village. There were wooden houses everywhere and there were probably a large number of termites.
Daniel’s circumstances could no longer be described as unlucky.
"You said the people from the tribunal have entered the Qin Empire?" Lex suddenly opened her eyes and looked at Daniel from afar.
"Yes, those lunatics…" Daniel thought about the people from the tribunal he had encountered while being chased, and a cold chill went down his spine. A normal person would have been terrified of a death mage. However, Daniel felt that the disciples of the tribunal were the scariest people in the world.
"Are they the black deacons or the dark oracles?" Lex asked coldly. She did not have anything against Daniel, but she was angry. With her father’s passing, the people from the Holy See had gotten out of hand. Her brother had ascended the throne, but in reality, Safilos was the one controlling the capital. Safilos was not willing to dispatch any new troops, showing the cracks that had begun to appear within the Qin’s wealthy.
"It was the black deacon. If the dark oracles had come after me, I would have died long ago."
"Then you’re pretty good yourself. Black deacon…" Saleen began to think. If it were only the black deacon, he would not be afraid. They were equivalent to grade-5 mages. However, the fighting abilities of the deacons who had come from the tribunal were much better and would require Lex to deal with. To chase after a death mage, the tribunal must have reassigned quite a few people. They were still hiding from the people who had wanted to kill the dragon, and with everything coming together, their true problems were just beginning.
Saleen took out a pen and paper and drew a simple map from his memory before saying to Daniel, "Which direction are they in?"
Daniel pointed at three points and said, "Here and here… there are probably less than thirty people split between three teams. I intend to go to Red Copper Fort tomorrow to find a group of merchants and go north towards Pompeii City. The people from the tribunal will not dare cause trouble there."
"Looks like you won’t need to go to Pompeii. In that direction are a large number of Cloudflow people in ambush. They seem to be looking for someone," Saleen said.
"Ah?" Daniel was stunned. Had the people in the Gauss family gone crazy as well? They had actually sent so many people to the Qin Empire over a small grade-3 mage. Were they not afraid of angering the Qin Empire?
Saleen, of course, would not tell Daniel that these people were searching for the giant dragon. He looked pitifully at Daniel and said, "We are all mages. I sympathize with your situation, and if you wouldn’t mind, I can help you take out the people from the tribunal."
Daniel was still in a daze. It took him a while before he said, "Then, Master, what price would I need to pay?"