127: Chapter 127 The Sealing Magic Circle About to Close

After delivering the new letters to Leon and Klaisi, Zhang Mu walked back to his hotel room.

"I'll leave them hanging for a few days. Once they get the world, if they still don't know how to pass the exam, I'll give them a few more hints."

Stretching as he muttered to himself, Zhang Mu booked a flight back to Jiu Jin Mountain and went to bed.

The night passed in silence.

In the morning, he got up and checked out of his room.

He originally intended to head straight to the airport, but after thinking it over, he turned and walked toward the CIA.

The CIA's address wasn't hard to find; it was located in the suburbs, far from the various embassies in London.

Using his Shadow Technique to pass through walls, Zhang Mu wandered around the building for a while and quickly found Toby sitting at his workstation.

Ms. Rowling was quite well-informed, or rather, Toby's department was indeed an overlooked, insignificant unit.

There was only one thirty-square-meter office with no individual cubicles; in the middle of the room sat a symmetrical eight-person desk.

Toby was sitting in the first seat on the right.

At the moment, he was slumped in his rolling chair with his legs crossed, twirling a feather in his hand, seemingly unafraid of making himself dizzy.

"Toby, it's been tested many times; that's just an ordinary Owl feather," someone next to him said.

"No, Brian, I witnessed the magician cast magic with my own eyes. The feather was left behind by his pet.

Ms. Rowling can testify for me."

"But Toby, I went to Ms. Rowling's villa, and she told me you were a madman who knocked on her door in the middle of the night.

She also stated she had never seen a magician and that such things only exist in novels.

Furthermore, I rushed to the two kids' apartment the next day, and there was no Owl there either."

Zhang Mu chuckled as he listened to their chatter and then turned to head for the airport.

The feathers I scattered that day were collected from Blue Star; it would be a miracle if they could detect anything abnormal.

Speaking of which, why was Ms. Rowling... worried that the Ying Country authorities would harm her 'grandfather'?

That was indeed...

The reason Zhang Mu had claimed a relationship with her that night was to make her a powerful witness to the existence of magicians, but he hadn't expected it to backfire like this.

Let it be for now; the most urgent matter is the world.

An hour later, Zhang Mu boarded his flight and returned to his factory late at night.

Without resting, he summoned a portal and stepped inside.

...

In the Other World, at the Silent Forest Magic Array.

As the first ray of morning sun dispelled the darkness, Mihe pulled back his thin quilt and pushed open the door. He planned to check the fields to see how the wheat treated with the Song of the Forest was growing.

"Zhang Mu?" As the door opened, he saw Zhang Mu sitting at the stone table in the middle of the courtyard. "Are you back to see Leah, or...?"

"Things have been mostly resolved."

Zhang Mu had entered the Magic Array last night. Finding Leah fast asleep when he returned to his room, he didn't disturb her and instead climbed to the hilltop to sit in Mihe's courtyard all night.

Now, his body felt inevitably stiff. He stood up to stretch. "The Sealing Magic Array will close in two months, right?"

"Yes." Closing the door behind him, Mihe came to the stone table and sat on a wooden stool. "News of a treasure in the Silent Forest has basically spread throughout the Lake Kingdom.

Recently, scattered Adventurer Groups have been entering the forest to investigate.

However, as I said, the Adventurer Groups coming at this time are mostly weak. The lucky ones escape the forest with half their members dead.

The unlucky ones all end up as food for magic beasts."

Zhang Mu rubbed his shoulders. No one has set foot near the Sealing Magic Array for now; I can take this opportunity to set traps nearby.

After a few silent thoughts, he chatted briefly with Mihe and then headed down the mountain to his room.

As his figure disappeared at the top of the stone stairs, Mihe withdrew his gaze and looked toward the depths of the forest, where a faint blue pillar of light pierced the clouds.

"Slaughter never ceases."

...

Fifty days later, on a cloudless morning.

In the woods outside the capital of the Lake Kingdom.

The ground in the sparse woods was covered with a thick layer of fallen leaves due to the cooling weather. Beside a relatively thick tree, a new grave had been mounded from soil.

There was a tombstone, but no inscription.

Wearing her ice-blue robe, Avril stood before the tombstone. Her gentle gaze fell upon the wordless stone, as if she could see someone on its smooth surface.

The calm air behind her suddenly became turbulent. The softness in her eyes was buried deep, replaced by coldness.

Turning around, her emotionless ice-blue pupils stared at her Eldest Prince Brother. "At a time like this, you shouldn't be here."

"Neither should you." Andre, dressed in commoner's clothes, looked at the wordless tombstone behind Avril. "He was blown into a pile of shredded meat. Does this grave have any meaning?"

She took a step to the left to block his view. "It has nothing to do with you."

"Is that so?" He nodded, then said, "When you were little, you loved playing hide-and-seek in these woods. Every time you were punished by Father for a mistake, you would hide here and cry."

"Heh." Andre looked down at a fallen leaf just in front of Avril's heel, which had a slight moisture on it. "It's been a long time since I've seen you shed tears."

Turning sideways, he gazed at the pillar of light on the horizon, so distant and faded it was almost transparent. "Are you sure you're not going? That might be the treasure of the Ayer Magic Family."

"I don't need it."

"Worried you won't be able to rush back to the capital in time to commemorate your junior on All Souls' Day?"

I must learn to be calm. Avril's chest heaved rapidly twice. "And you? Why are you here?"

Andre smiled and didn't answer, instead asking, "Which day will Teacher Potter return?"

"That depends on the teacher's own wishes."

"Avril." With his back to her, Andre changed the subject. "On the Saul Continent, there are many things I am powerless to change, but there are very few things I cannot understand."

"For example?"

"Zhang Mu. Why did he insist on dealing with his enemies immediately?"

After investigating the details of Zhang Mu's death, even Andre, who considered himself as calm as still water, couldn't help but feel a sense of bewilderment and confusion in his heart.

Initially, he thought Zhang Mu's confrontation in the city was a desperate act of necessity.

It turned out the enemy had already been scared back to Bala City by his magic items, yet he chased them into the city to perish together with them.

Was he insane?

He thought that Avril, who had spent some time with Zhang Mu day and night, might be able to provide an answer.

Avril did not disappoint him.

A charming curve lifted the corners of her mouth as she said, "Since returning to the capital, I often have the same dream.

I dream that in front of the gate of the Mage Tower inherited by the royal family, I am defeated by you. You brandish your spear and thrust it toward my heart.

Then, like a hero saving the world, my junior falls from the sky and stands between us."

Andre turned to look at her. "And then, he defeats me?"

"Why not?"

"What does this have to do with my question?"

"Brother." Avril laughed softly. "Every time my junior lands, the dream ends and I wake up.

So I have been thinking, what would my junior say to me?

I think he would say, 'Senior, long time no see.'

Why am I so convinced?

Because he is that kind of Zhang Mu. He is the junior who would say 'long time no see' to me."

Turning his head back, Andre gazed at the sky, recalling his first and only meeting with Zhang Mu.

He indeed seemed like the type of fellow who would do inexplicable things.

But... does this have anything to do with my question?

Andre felt that this conversation with his sister hadn't provided an answer, but the doubt no longer troubled him.

The reason was that, looking at the wordless tombstone, Andre had realized something else.

He stepped forward, walking out of the woods.

"Zhang Mu is already dead."