End of the Magic Era

‘Heavens! How did Cousin Mafa do this?’

After all, these mages had extremely poor aptitudes, they were considered trash that would never be able to reach the Great Mage realm and didn’t have much use to the Merlin Family, thus, the Merlin Family had accepted that condition.

But in less than a year, their cousin had actually turned these unpolished rocks into jewels, making all of these Mages advance to Great Mages.

Anyone who knew about the trade would be shocked, because this was too outrageous. It would be understandable if Mafa Merlin could make a Mage advance to Great Mage, after all, with the Gilded Rose’s financial resources, spending some wealth to make a Mage advance was no issue. But it wasn’t just one Mage, there were fifty Mages.

“What did you say…”

Ross had originally been absent-minded and unwilling to chat with Leon. But he ws utterly shocked when he heard those words. Although he didn’t really put Great Mages in his eyes, but making fifty Mages with poor talent advance in a year…

‘What about High Mages…’

Although this idea was ridiculous, Ross couldn’t help thinking about it. In his eyes, since his mysterious Cousin Mafa made that group of Mages advance in a year, there might be a way to repeat the feat. Even though it would be very scary if he did.

In fact, only William and a few others knew that these fifty Mages only took a few months to advance…

Although Ross had an important position in the Merlin Family, as both an Elder and a candidate for the seat of next Patriarch, he would spend most of his time roaming around the major planes and would rarely stay in the Merlin Family. His relationship with the Merlin Family, excepted Lin Yun, was at its worst. He had faintly heard the matter of these Mages being sent to Thousand Sails City, but he never saw them. Thus, he didn’t think too much when he saw these fifty Great Mages, he had thought that they had been hired by his cousin.

At this time, another carriage with the Merlin Family’s crest stopped outside the manor and a middle-aged man came down from it, emitting a fierce sword aura while increasing the temperature in his surroundings.

This was a tall middle-aged man with an extremely stern aura. He couldn’t help squinting when he caught sight of Lin Yun, hardly concealed the killing intent bursting from his eyes. A cold smile appeared on his face as he slowly walked over.

“Looks like you still know to return, Mafa Merlin…” Thorne Merlin’s fierce gaze quickly swept through the people in the surroundings before finally stopping on Lin Yun’s body, his pupils shrinking as he resisted the urge to attack. With a sneer, he said, “You disappeared for close to three months. Many people thought that you didn’t dare to go to the Raging Flame Plane, after coming back you should obediently wait in the manor, don’t run all over the place and go to the Raging Flame Plane in five days.”

In the Merlin Family, Thorne was naturally the one who hated Lin Yun the most. When he saw Lin Yun after getting down the carriage, Thorne immediately had the thought of killing him. But after thinking of the decision made by the ancestors in the Guardian Tower, he had no choice but to give up. But he couldn’t let Mafa Merlin off.

Even if he couldn’t kill Mafa Merlin, he had to cripple him!

The hatred between him and Lin Yun had reached a stage where reconciliation was completely off the table. Aube was his only son and he had spent a few decades nurturing him, turning him into a 5th Rank High Mage and a Master Alchemist. Aube had become one of the three geniuses of the Merlin Family and his future was boundless, he even had the opportunity to become the Patriarch.

Thorne felt proud whenever someone spoke of how outstanding Aube was, because he was his son!

If not because he spent his resources on nurturing Aube, Thorne wouldn’t have been a mere 5th Rank Sword Saint…

But…

In one day, the decades of nurturing had turned to ashes. That Mafa Merlin ended up piercing Aube’s Mana Whirlpool, thoroughly severing Aube’s magic path and crippling him.

Thorne had been wanting to kill Mafa Merlin three months ago, but Sir Ryan had appeared to stop that fight. The most hateful part was that Mafa Merlin was not only not blamed for crippling Aube, he also received the authority to lead half of the Planar Legion.

This was something he couldn’t tolerate.

“Great Mages?” After checking those mages and the carriages, Thorne quickly discovered that these unfamiliar mages seemed to have come from Thousand Sails City’s Gilded Rose, then, Thorne’s expression suddenly became strange, ‘There isn’t even a High Mage.’

‘This… Isn’t this too shabby?’

But after thinking about it carefully, Thorne felt relieved. From the information he had received, the young mage had suddenly emerged after Locke Merlin’s shipwreck. It had barely been more than a year. Although the True Spirit Magic Tools he had relied on during their last battle weren’t weak and hadn’t been mentioned in the information he had gotten, how could a small place like Thousand Sails City compare to Okland? Being able to recruit a few Great Mages was quite good already.

But Great Mages were no different from cannon fodder when it came to Planar Wars…

“Mafa Merlin, I hope you aren’t thinking of taking them to the Raging Flame Plane, right?” Thorne’s expression was very strange, contempt could be seen in his eyes as he looked at Lin Yun. After saying this, he sneered and shook his head, “You shouldn’t have gone to the Raging Flame Plane yet, so you don’t know how dangerous that plane is. That place isn’t like Thousand Sails City, most of the major forces of Okland are gathered there, fighting over it. If you want to take your own people in, you should bring stronger ones, because these guys don’t even have the qualifications to be cannon fodders…”

‘That naive guy still thinks of taking a batch of Great Mages to the Raging Flame Plane…’

Some people started looking at Thorne strangely after the latter was done talking. Those fifty Great Mages remained calm, seemingly not hearing Thorne’s words. In fact, they didn’t really care about being cursed as cannon fodder. After all, they had inferior aptitudes in the Merlin Family and had heard their fair share of unpleasantness. So what if they were considered cannon fodder?

“Err, Sir Thorne, you might have misunderstood…” Leon suddenly paled. He looked at Thorne and coughed twice. He was terrified and his heart was beating crazily, ‘Damn, that’s unlucky, to actually meet Thorne outside the manor…’

He wasn’t terrified because of Thorne Merlin, but rather, because he had just seen his cousin frown….

‘F*ck!’

‘This isn’t a good sign.’

‘Cousin Mafa isn’t an easy target, he is someone who even dared to kill Elders. Thorne, you do have the status and power to contend against him, but… Cousin Mafa isn’t the same as three months ago, he is a frightening existence that can even scare away Greater Devils!’

‘You might be very powerful as a 5th Rank Sword Saint, but do you dare to challenge a Greater Devil?’

Leon intervened this time only for the sake of the Merlin Family, no matter how loathsome Thorne Merlin was, he was still one of the three Sword Saints of the Merlin Family and was quite famous in Okland. If Thorne Merlin completely infuriated Cousin Mafa and was dealt with, it would be a huge loss to the Merlin Family.

In Leon’s eyes, Thorne’s actions were truly courting death.

He clearly understood that Thorne loathed Mafa because of Aube.

‘It’s just that… Your son could have provoked anyone, but he chose to provoke Cousin Mafa and stated that he would buy 40% of the Gilded Rose’s shares with a mere three million golds, and that if he couldn’t make the deal, the Elder Council would forcibly snatch the Gilded Rose. Who can blame Cousin Mafa for crippling him?’

‘Look what happened to Aube, you’ll only be stepping in Aube’s footsteps if you keep provoking Cousin Mafa!’

‘This damned father and son duo, they are normally very shrewd, they have been profiting a lot from the Raging Flame Plane… So how come their insight is so bad right now…’

Leon had a pretty good understanding of Lin Yun’s strength after following him for three months. Even level 36 and 37 magic beasts couldn’t resist..

Thorne’s power as a 5th Rank Sword Saint was far from enough.

‘You said Cousin Mafa planned on taking that group of Great Mages with him to the Raging Flame Plane? What a joke, does a powerhouse like Cousin Mafa even need to take people with him?’

‘Moreover, those Great Mages are clearly not that simple.’

‘Cousin Mafa wouldn’t transfer the Gilded Rose’s mercenary group to Okland for no reason…’ Leon had a faint feeling that this group of Great Mages would soon become High Mages. If someone else had told him, he wouldn’t have believed them, but that was Mafa Merlin… He only used a year to make those Mages advance to Great Mages, what if he had a way to make them advance again?

“Leon Merlin! Don’t you see I’m talking with Mafa Merlin? The younger generation is becoming more and more unruly…” Thorne said as he looked at Leon. To be honest, Thorne didn’t have a favorable opinion of Leon.

Before, Leon had been one of the geniuses of the Merlin Family alongside Aube and the two had been competing over the seat of next Patriarch.

When he saw Leon now, he couldn’t help recalling his outstanding son. After finishing, he started walking towards the manor. Although he wanted to kill Mafa Merlin, he clearly knew that today was no good, the ancestors should have already noticed what happened here, ‘It looks like I can only wait until we are in the Raging Flame Plane…’

“Phew…”

Seeing Thorne’s back, Leon finally let out a relieved sigh. His own back was already drenched in cold sweat, ‘Thank god that Thorne left quickly, or else he would have turned into a corpse…’