Chapter 72: The Whole Story

The black-robed Mage’s eyes flickered, he stayed quiet for a while, then suddenly let out a sigh. “Young man, I have to admit, you are very clever. You managed to guess some truth from just a few tiny clues. But, heh, it is useless. Even if the Sande Empire does not know where the prince is right now, once they realize something is wrong, no one can escape the empire’s iron curtain. If just one horse goes missing, the empire’s spies can find out, let alone His Highness the Prince and his three thousand Black Armored Army. When the truth comes out, your Shampoo City and the Zenit Empire will still face disaster. Everyone must die!”

“Drop dead yourself!” Sun Fei slapped the black-robed Mage twice, making him almost pass out from pain and sending teeth flying. Sun Fei threatened, “Old man, you better honestly tell me why you came to Shampoo City.”

The black-robed Mage sneered, his eyes flashing with hatred, and stayed silent.

“Oh, you want to act tough with me?” Sun Fei found it amusing. “Alright, old guy, you have guts. See if you can hold out.”

Sun Fei sneered as he gripped the black-robed Mage’s partly healed bones and crushed them again with a cracking sound. The Mage gasped sharply and passed out from the pain. Sun Fei took out the Health Potion and dropped a few drops. Soon, the old man slowly woke up, looked down at his leg bones, and was stunned. “My bones are healed again? This is…”

“Old man, look at this…” Sun Fei shook the half bottle of Health Potion in his hand, showing a tempting smile like he had grown devil horns. “This thing can bring the dead back to life and heal broken bones. Even the worst injuries can be fixed with just a little of this potion. If you don’t talk, heh, I will break your bones, heal them, break them again, heal them again… As long as you have the patience to play with me, I can break every bone in your body hundreds or thousands of times. That kind of pain, heh, tsk tsk tsk…”

The black-robed Mage broke down instantly and sobbed, “Demon, you are a demon…”

Sun Fei laughed out loud. “If you tell me, I can use this potion to save your life too. All your broken bones and limbs can be healed like new. If possible, we might even cooperate in the future, heh!”

The black-robed Mage’s eyes shifted, and he struggled internally. His limbs had been smashed to a pulp earlier, and he had lost all hope, relying only on his strong magic to stay alive. He had become fearless and stubborn. But after seeing a chance to live, the Mage finally wavered. Sometimes, despair can turn a person into a hero, but hope can turn a hero into a coward. The red potion in the hands of this demon-like guy was his lifeline. No one wants to die, and there was also a huge opportunity in front of him. If he grasped it, he could soar to great heights… So he finally gave in and nodded. “Alright, I can tell you everything. But you must swear first that you will heal me after I speak. If you break your promise, you will be…”

“By the God of War, in the name of Alexander, King of Shampoo City, if I break my word, may Alexander’s soul be shattered and forever fall into the depths of Hell to suffer!” Sun Fei raised his finger and made a solemn oath to the sky.

The black-robed Mage believed him.

“My name is Evans, I am a low-level Four-Star Mage of Wood Element Magic, from the distant Ninth-Level Empire, the Manchester Empire. Following my mentor Ferdinand’s request, I traveled across the continent. Three months ago, when passing through the northern forest of the Sande Empire, I accidentally saw two mercenary groups fighting to the death over a mysterious black map. Heh, at first, out of curiosity, I killed over a hundred mercenaries on a whim and took the map. At first, I did not pay much attention to it, but later I found that the material of the map was something even I, a Four-Star Mage, had never seen before. After translating and studying it, I was amazed to find that I had unintentionally stumbled upon a huge treasure—this map was actually an ancient relic from the Divine-Demon War over a thousand years ago. The map had many locations marked with red circles, which should be sites of battles between Gods and Demons from back then. Besides these sites, many other places were also marked, though I do not know what they represent… After discovering this shocking fact, I immediately wanted to explore these Divine-Demon Ruins. I spent over two months carefully studying the map and finally managed to translate and identify one of the ruins…”

“Is that ruin Shampoo City?” Sun Fei’s heart stirred, and he asked.

“Yes, exactly, it is Shampoo City. Over a month ago, I came to Shampoo City several times and searched the city carefully many times. I only found some rough clues, but the real entrance to the ruins remained undiscovered. Later, I realized that finding the ruins would be a very time-consuming and labor-intensive task. Relying on just myself would not work. Besides, there were so many people in Shampoo City. So, after thinking it over, I decided I needed to find a helper…”

“So you went to find that so-called Prince of the Sande Empire?”

“I knew this prince named Korbak before. He had tried to recruit me earlier because he saw I was quite strong, to help him and his two older brothers compete for the throne of the Sande Empire… I found him and told him I had discovered a thousand-year-old Divine-Demon Ruin. I pretended to invite him to help excavate it, saying that if he controlled this ruin, he could easily defeat his two brothers and take the Sande Empire throne. Korbak was ecstatic and agreed immediately. To avoid his two competing brothers finding out, he pretended to go on a trip, taking his elite soldiers with him. When they reached the border of the Zenit Empire, they immediately changed their appearance, removed their banners, and avoided the Zenit Empire’s checkpoints. They crossed valleys and forests, secretly surrounding Shampoo City without anyone knowing. The original plan was to quickly attack and capture the city, kill all the residents, occupy the castle, and create the illusion that nothing happened. Then we could slowly search. After all, a small border country like Shampoo City would not attract much attention. By the time the Zenit Empire noticed, we would have already secured the ruins, heh…”

“That is strange. Looking at your sinister appearance, you do not seem like someone who would kindly help that foolish prince win the throne, right? Not to mention sharing the Divine-Demon Ruins with him? I do not think you had good intentions either?” Sun Fei stared at the black-robed Mage and sneered.

“Ahem…” The black-robed Mage coughed up blood and spoke weakly. “Of course. The Divine-Demon Ruins are extremely precious. Why would I share them with him? As soon as we found the entrance and excavated the ruins, I planned to kill him and then take control of his three thousand soldiers to continue digging for me. Heh…” When he got to the satisfying part, the black-robed Mage could not help but laugh.

“Aren’t you afraid of the Sande Empire’s revenge?”

“To avoid being detected and having others fight over it, we erased all traces on our way here. No one knows that Korbak and this army came here… Haha, this is a vanished army. Prince Korbak dug his own grave. Everything was going according to my plan.”

“So, what you said earlier about the Sande Empire eventually finding out, was that just to scare me?” Sun Fei sneered. “They would not actually discover that the prince died here?”

“Not necessarily. Do not underestimate the strength of the Sande Empire. They will find out sooner or later. But so what? I come from the mighty Ninth-Level Manchester Empire. My mentor Ferdinand is an important official of the empire. By the time they find out, I will have already secured the entire Divine-Demon Ruins. If I report this ruin to the Manchester Empire, I will definitely gain the empire’s attention and my status will rise greatly. Heh, by then, what can a mere fourth-level Sande Empire do to me?” The black-robed Mage showed a fierce expression, his eyes shining.

“Not a bad plan. What a pity, what a pity. Your character is not great, and you happened to run into me. Didn’t I still beat you like a dead dog and make you a lowly prisoner?” Sun Fei mercilessly sneered and mocked. “Actually, I should thank you. If not for your carefully laid plans, Shampoo City might have really been destroyed under the iron heel of the Sande Empire because of this.”

The black-robed Mage glared angrily at Sun Fei, wanting to retort, but after hesitating, he could only lower his head and sigh sadly. “What can I do? I failed at the last moment. Man proposes, God disposes. I never expected that in a tiny place like Shampoo City, there would be an extraordinary person like you. But, no discord, no concord. As you said earlier, maybe we can have a chance to cooperate next.”

Sun Fei did not comment on this suggestion.

His heart was already in turmoil. The black-robed Mage’s words had more or less confirmed some of his earlier guesses. Shampoo City indeed had a great origin. And now, the huge underground grotto labyrinth prison they were in was probably part of the so-called Divine-Demon Ruins.

Sun Fei kept a straight face and continued asking. “Tell me about the Divine-Demon Ruins.”

“You actually don’t know about the Divine-Demon Ruins?” The black-robed Mage sneered, but after seeing the fierce light in Sun Fei’s eyes, he immediately wilted like a frosted eggplant and obediently explained. “Legend has it that a thousand years ago, the Azeroth Continent was shared by Gods and Demons, with constant warfare. The Divine and Demon Races were incredibly powerful, capable of moving mountains and moons, tearing the void, shattering the earth, flying through the skies, and diving into the ground—they could do anything. But for some reason, they could not coexist and were locked in a fight to the death. From the time they came into being, they fought an intermittent war that lasted ten thousand years, leaving battle ruins all over the Azeroth Continent. These ruins were gradually buried in the dust of history… Later, the powerful Divine and Demon Races mysteriously vanished from the Azeroth Continent for unknown reasons. After a long time, the Human Race slowly rose to prominence… Of course, these are just legends told by Bards. However, people did later discover many magical ruins on the continent, from which they obtained incredible things. Even the current popular ways of cultivating Magic and Battle Qi on the continent were discovered from these ruins. There were also countless powerful pieces of Magical Equipment, treasures, Aura Manuals, Magic insights… If one could possess a Divine-Demon Ruin, one could have everything. This is a well-known rule on the Azerooth Continent. It is said that the current top Ninth-Level Empire, the Barcelona Empire, and several others like the Chelsea Empire, Milan Empire, Anfield Empire, etc., all grew strong by discovering large-scale Divine-Demon Ruins. Even our Manchester Empire is no exception. Back then, the empire’s supreme founder, the Revered One Matt Busby, discovered a powerful Divine-Demon Ruin, inherited its power, and then established the Manchester Empire.”

When he reached this point, the black-robed Mage’s face showed a rare look of pride. That person named Busby must have been very formidable.