This time upon his return, he no longer concealed the fact that he had advanced to fourth-rank. Therefore, on his way back, countless jaws dropped in shock.

Murphy appeared directly on the Sighing Wall. Seeing Gorsa emanating the oppressive aura unique to fourth-rank wizards, he showed little surprise.

“It seems you were the more skillful one after all.”

Gorsa walked up the steps of the Sighing Wall, his eyes curved in a smile, as relaxed as if he had just returned from a leisurely outing. “It’s just a matter of who’s more willing to go all out.”

“Norton made his move?”

“Mm.”

“Is he still alive?”

“His path has been severed. Right now it’s hard to say if he’s dead or alive—he’s just holding on for the sake of his family.”

Murphy’s aged face seemed to gain a few more wrinkles. He looked around at the towering Sighing Wall, watching the wizards coming and going on the wall.

“Who isn’t doing the same?”

Murphy didn’t ask about Frim’s fate. When Frim had asked him to lure Gorsa out, he had agreed. But he also hadn’t informed Frim about Gorsa’s suspected advancement to fourth-rank.

The choice had been made back then.

There was no helping it—old men like him probably just preferred energetic young people like Gorsa.

Although counting Gorsa’s age, he wasn’t exactly young anymore. But as long as he still had fighting spirit in his heart, still had hope, still had a path ahead of him, then he was a young person.

Gorsa returned to his wizard tower outside the Sighing Wall, with several wizards following him up—probably wanting to pledge allegiance.

Murphy didn’t go. He simply leaned on his staff, nodding and greeting the wizards who passed by, then walked to the highest point of the Sighing Wall, sat on the battlements, and gazed toward the distant ocean.

Gorsa had advanced to fourth-rank, but he wouldn’t recruit others or build new forces, because the first thing he wanted to do after advancing was to explore the Abyssal Eye.

Murphy had tried to dissuade him before, but couldn’t change his mind, so he stopped trying.

He sat on the battlements, feeling the salty sea breeze and the rough wall beneath him, and let out a heavy sigh.

“If Norton can risk his family’s future to indulge Gorsa’s willfulness, why can’t I?”

Murphy looked down. Below his feet were the churning seas, the black pollution sources, the busy wizards, and the toiling ordinary people.

It was this Sighing Wall that had stood in the far north for over a hundred years.

…

Three years passed in the blink of an eye.

Saul stood at the top floor of the Purity Wizard Tower, gazing toward Rhine City in the distance.

Under the wizards’ super-efficient construction, Rhine City had transformed from a small town that originally depended on the Purity Wizard Tower into a massive city with four satellite towns, two layers of magnificent city walls, and a moat.

Previously, probably no one could have imagined that such a huge city could appear within the Borderland.

Even now, some people believed that Rhine City would soon become the Rhine Kingdom.

It just depended on whether Saul wanted to claim the throne.

He was a third-rank wizard, and the strongest below fourth-rank—what worldly power couldn’t he have if he wanted it?

The battle at the Tribunal had gradually spread to all three continents. Saul’s reputation had risen again, and he was now recognized by the world as a top-tier powerhouse.

However, Saul had no intention of building his own faction.

The wizard world was ultimately a world that emphasized individual strength. No matter how prosperous a faction was, once it lost its top-tier combat power, it would immediately be devoured by others.

Just like Kenas, which had once been hostile to the Kema Duchy. After losing all its second-rank wizards, it had now disintegrated—part was annexed by Kema, part scattered into numerous small factions, and part of the wasteland was occupied by barbarians.

Saul also learned that the Glare Family seemed to be experiencing some turmoil. Probably the news that Norton’s time was running short had been leaked. Now the remaining third-rank wizards in the family were also beginning to stir.

They shouldn’t compete for the patriarch position, since although Gorsa was still at the Sighing Wall, everyone knew he would be the next patriarch. So currently these third-rank wizards were only fighting for power and benefits after the patriarch changed.

But Saul knew that Gorsa would enter the Abyssal Eye along with the receding black tide when the next black tide came.

At that time, the Glare Family probably wouldn’t be so peaceful.

No matter when, as long as there were people, there would be conflict—in prosperous times and in apocalyptic times alike.

“Knock knock knock.”

The sound of knocking interrupted Saul’s thoughts.

“Come in.”

Steward Hope pushed open the door.

“Tower Master, Lord Byron has packed his luggage and is ready to depart.”

Saul nodded. “I’ll go see him off.”

Byron had stayed at the Purity Wizard Tower for many years, researching the Inertization Formula and Reverse Inertization Formula together with Saul. Tʜe sourcᴇ of thɪs content ɪs novelꞁire.net

Now they had successfully used these two formulas to resolve a real Storm Eye eruption.

The Inertization spell directly sealed the Storm Eye, without even needing to use the resources provided by the Tribunal and Stargate Council.

Of course, those resources were later kept by Saul for magical research.

Although the Inertization Formula still couldn’t handle large-scale black tide attacks, it could be used as an emergency measure for small-scale pollution crises.

This Storm Eye was resolved in a very short time, allowing several wizard factions to see the value of the Inertization Formula, and they all sought to purchase it.

Saul had no intention of monopolizing the Inertization Formula and sold it to the Tribunal and the Sighing Wall. After they experimented and achieved pleasing results, even the long-silent Stargate Council sought to purchase a copy from Saul.

When selling the Inertization Formula before, both factions had sent people for material exchanges, but the Stargate Council asked Saul to send someone over.

This request was somewhat strange.

However, after thinking about it, Saul still agreed. But when he wanted to send a first-rank wizard from the tower to complete the transaction, Byron volunteered to go help Saul complete the deal.

Strangely, upon hearing this news, Agu also stepped forward, wanting to go with Byron.

Saul readily agreed.

Now, except for Beth who was still confined by him, the other consciousness bodies in the diary could do whatever they wanted, even leaving the diary was fine.

Especially Agu—when he was first subdued, Saul had promised to give him freedom after a hundred years.

Now Saul’s advancement speed had exceeded his own expectations, and the diary had officially recognized him as master. Naturally, he didn’t need to wait a hundred years and could free Agu now.

However, considering the current world situation, going elsewhere wasn’t as good as staying at the Purity Wizard Tower, so they all hadn’t left.

Since Agu rarely had a place he wanted to go, Saul naturally let him go.

Of course, before agreeing, Saul had used the diary to predict for both of them and found no death warnings. Otherwise, Saul wouldn’t have been so at ease.

Today happened to be the day Byron was leaving with Agu. After receiving the steward’s message, Saul immediately went downstairs to see them off.

When Saul reached the bottom of the tower, Keli also rushed down in a flurry.

“I’m here, I’m here! Give this to you—I just finished making it.”

Keli threw Byron a sealed crystal ring containing a drop of golden liquid with fine sparkles that kept flowing inside.

“What is this?” Saul was seeing this for the first time too. The rightful source is ⓝovelFire.net

“The liquid form of Alpha Plus.” Keli said proudly. Despite being a young woman in her twenties, she still acted like the little tsundere from before. “Something I developed over these two years. Senior can take it with him—if you encounter danger, just throw it out and run. I guarantee even third-rank enemies won’t have time to chase you.”

“Thank you.” Byron still showed no expression as he accepted the crystal ring, but stored it very solemnly.

This solemnity came partly from gratitude for Keli’s concern, and partly because… he was quite afraid of Alpha Plus radiation.

(End of Chapter)

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