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Chapter 69: Revenant Dust

Translator: Kris_Liu Editor: Vermillion

It was already eleven in the late night when Lucien left the Psalm Hall. Only few lights were still twinkling along the dark and empty street.

Although the daytime in the Month of Harvest was hot, the rain-swept night was very cool and pleasant. Lucien's mind was refreshed by the cool air. He gradually woke up from the ecstasy and started to plan his next step. If everything went well, Lucien would be leaving Aderon very soon, thus he had to clean the underground lab up as soon as possible in case some random tramps would inadvertently enter the shack when there was no one there. Before that, Lucien decided to collect some Revenant Dust tonight when the lab was still fully equipped, and then he could turn his attention to the search of Moonlight Rose tomorrow.

Moonlight Rose was always in high demand and very expensive, since it was the main ingredient of the magic potion which could help a knight squire awaken Blessing, and thus become a real knight. As most squires couldn't afford the Moonlight Rose, some knights would occasionally select their best squires and award them with the dust of the rose.

In addition to that, the market of Moonlight Rose was controlled by the church, the Violet family and a few other big families, which was also one of the strategies how the big families consolidated their status in the Duchy of Orvarit.

Lucien was hoping that probably Felicia could help him, since she was a member of the Hayne family. Felicia was qualified enough to buy some Moonlight Roses within her family.

What Lucien did not know was that, actually, Felicia had already bought the roses three times before, hoping that she could awaken her Blessing. However, her hope finally failed, and since then she started to pay her full attention to learning music.

Lucien currently had no idea how to ask Felicia to do him a favor without being suspected, which sort of bothered him. If Felicia was not willing to help, then Lucien would have no other choice but to find the black market in Aalto or join another secret sorcerer meeting again, which was the last thing Lucien wanted to do for now.

Two simple wagons were waiting in front of the Psalm Hall in the corner. Uncle Joel and his family as well as Elena were waiting for Lucien beside the wagons.

Seeing Lucien coming in their direction, Joel waved to him with both of his hands. He came toward Lucien and gave Lucien a big warm hug.

"Tonight's like a dream." Joel patted Lucien's back with great joy, "You invited me to the concert and fulfilled my dream. We… and your dad… we are all so proud of you, Lucien."

Following Joel, John also hugged Lucien. His arms were shaking a bit, and his voice was trembling, "I knew it! I knew you're something! But your growth is still way beyond my expectation, after all, I thought at least I would become a knight first, haha. Now I gotta work even harder or I'll fall behind."

Lucien was inspired—maybe he could use John as an excuse for buying Moonlight Rose. After all, Lucien could now afford to buy Moonlight Rose for his close friend John, who was a knight squire, which definitely made sense.

And it was part of Lucien's original plan as well. Some of his roses would be a gift for John. Lucien already regarded Joel's family as his own family and John as his most important friend. The support Joel's family offered Lucien meant a lot to him.

Now the only problem was how Lucien could persuade Felicia to do him the favor.

"My career in music has just started. There's still a long way to go." Lucien smiled, "I'm sure soon you will awake your Blessing and become a real knight."

"Well… I'm not sure about that yet, Lucien." John shook his head and released his arms, "The first try to awake the Blessing is the most likely to succeed. I have to be more prepared for that."

"Congratulations, Mr. Evans!" Elena hugged Lucien. Her big eyes were blinking with joy.

"I'm really flattered, Elena." Lucien grinned, "We are friends. Please, don't call me a mister."

...

After sending Elena and Joel's family home, Lucien went back to his shack and lay in bed.

About one o'clock in the early morning, suddenly Lucien got up. Making sure that it was safe around, Lucien quietly entered his magic lab.

It took Lucien an hour to set up some magic traps just in case. Then Lucien took out a tube of blood from a box. At the same time, the magic notebook was open in his spirit library, ready for taking notes at any time. Lucien was hoping that during the process of collecting the revenant dust, he could also gain a better understanding toward the undead creatures.

As soon as Lucien opened the tube inscribed with runes, a strong smell of sulphur came into his nose. As if it was alive, the dark blood kept bubbling like lava.

Murmuring the awkward-sounding and obscure spell, Lucien connected his spirit with another space dimension. Suddenly, he grabbed the tube and spilled the blood forward.

Weirdly, instead of dropping on the ground, the blood suspended in the air and divided into many small drops.

The drops of blood moved quickly, and a magic circle took shape in front of Lucien. The whole space of the lab was instantly filled with the stinky smell of blood.

Blood fog diffused around the lab. Suddenly, a transparent human figure appeared in the air, of which its face and limbs remained very blurry, but its resentment was so strong that it almost became visible.

Although Lucien still did not understand how different space dimensions were connected by spiritual power, the structure of this apprentice summoning spell itself was not complicated.

A hole, probably its mouth, appeared on the figure's face, and the vicious revenant started screaming and suddenly leaped at Lucien's throat.

Lucien stayed very calm and activated the magic traps around him. The air flows restricted the revenant like ropes and shackled it in the air.

Wraith Shackle, an apprentice level spell.

At the same time, transparent walls appeared in the air and surrounded the revenant inside. The surface of the walls was rippling like water as the sound waves of the scream kept hitting the walls.

Silence Wall, also an apprentice spell.

Although the scream of the revenant was blocked, Lucien still felt a sudden surge of nausea and he heard someone was screaming in his brain.

Quickly Lucien took down the notes in his spirit library.

"The scream of revenant transmits in the form of infrasonic waves. High penetrating power. Causes illusion."

Lucien hoped that he could know the rough vibration frequency of the waves, but with limited lab equipment, Lucien's note couldn't be more detailed and accurate.

Being trapped, the revenant's scream became even crazier, but the scream couldn't bother Lucien anymore. Calmly, Lucien activated the magic circle drawn on the table, from which many golden rays of light immediately scattered.

"Weight, 21.26g. Heavier than expected. Power… remain unknown." The information was stored.

Then Lucien started to cast different spells on the revenant to see the effects.

"Immune to Mage Hand."

"Immune to Acid Splash."

"Immune to Freezing Rays."

"Small damage caused by Homan's Oscillation. Might be because of the intervention of waves, or magnetic interference."

"Minor damaged caused by Marius' Small Flame. Reason unknown."

...

As the experiment went on, the revenant in the air became weaker and weaker, and even more transparent. As if it was afraid of Lucien, the revenant huddled in the corner of the surrounding magic walls.

"Some instinct remained." Lucien kept recording.

Then Lucien cast the spell Illumination. In the light, the revenant became irritated again, but had nowhere to escape. Its resentment gradually disappeared in the light, but rather slowly.

"Afraid of strong light." Another line of words appeared on the notebook.

......

The experiment finally came to the end. Looking at the very weak revenant huddling in the corner, Lucien shook his head.

The summoned revenant was now badly damaged and soon it disappeared completely. Shiny fine dust slowly fell into the magic circle.

"21.25g. The reason of the weight difference remains unknown. Maybe the consciousness of the revenant also has weight."

Lucien collected the dust of the revenant in a glass tube, and then slowly tidied up the lab, since it should also be the last time he used it before Lucien moved out.

......

In the morning, Lucien got up early and headed for the Association for two reasons. Firstly, Lucien had become Princess Natasha's personal music consultant, so he should quit the librarian job and leave it to someone who really needed it. Secondly, Lucien was too excited to wait another day to get his lovely and shiny Thales.

Chapter 70: The Newspapers

Translator: Kris_Liu Editor: Vermillion

When Lucien arrived at the Musicians' Association, only two guards were standing in front of the five-storey building, since most of the believers following the God of Truth usually spent their Sunday morning in the church.

"Good morning, Mr. Evans." The two guards smiled and greeted Lucien.

"Morning." Lucien nodded, feeling a bit surprised. Since the concert finished late last night, it was quite surprising that the guards were already showing respect to him in this following Sunday morning. Lucien wondered if maybe it was Elena who told the guards, because she was the only one among all the concert audience who needed to work on Sunday.

Before Lucien entered the building, he heard they were whispering, "Three months ago, Mr. Evans was still carrying garbage for our association. He asked me to do him a favor looking after his trolley. Now look at him, a musician!"

"I know… The last time I saw him he was still a music student. Never expected he was such a genius!"

......

Elena and Cathy were tidying up the documents behind the counter when Lucien came into the lobby. Both of them greeted Lucien with respect, "Good morning, Mr. Evans."

Elena winked at Lucien with a sweet smile on her face, and Cathy seemed to be a bit nervous.

"Good morning, Elena. Morning, Cathy." Lucien asked with curiosity, "What keeps you girls this busy this morning?"

"I'm glad you asked." Elena answered in excitement, "Lucien, you know what? Your name is on both the latest Music Criticism and Symphony News."

"What? I thought the next issue for both of them would be released at the end of the month…" Now Lucien was really surprised.

"That's because your music work is so amazing!" Elena was very proud of Lucien, "Many musicians were deeply touched by your Symphony of Fate, and they worked overnight on their reviews! The association thus decided to issue both of the newspapers in advance this month. Now we have the first copies!"

"Mr. Evans, do you want one?" asked Cathy with respect and curiosity.

"Well… I think I should." Lucien smiled and poured out twenty Fells from his moneybag. From hard saving, Lucien's small moneybag finally bulged a bit.

"What did they say, Lucien?" Elena still couldn't read very well, "Cathy and I are really curious."

Picking up the latest Music Criticism, Lucien saw a painting of the Psalm Hall and two lines of black bold words,

"Ladies and gentlemen, hats off to the real genius!

— Othello"

Lucien read Mr. Othello's comment to Elena and Cathy, and the girls' eyes were filled with reverence.

Turning the page, the first review article titled Music with Soul—Salute to Symphony of Fate:

"As a gift from God, music encourages us to continuously progress toward a better future. However, in the past three hundred years, the main role that the solemn and sacred religious music was playing was never challenged on the stage of music, since other music themes were always hiding behind the scenes and paled in comparison with it.

...

"Until we met Symphony of Fate, a great piece of music composed by Lucien Evans and first played on Mr. Victor's concert held in the Psalm Hall last night, I finally realized what is the most indispensable quality of a masterpiece!

"Music is emotion. Music is feelings. Without emotion and feelings, without soul, music can never be deeply moving to people. And the young musician Lucien Evans knows clearly about this: The four movements of Symphony of Fate are connected by a consistent faith all along—hope and persistence can conquer any difficulty. It is the most exciting, encouraging and touching symphony I have ever appreciated.

...

"Lucien Evans, without any doubt, is a genius. His music talent shocked Aalto, and I believe he will shock the whole continent in the future.

...

"As soul is to life, so is emotion to music!"

The review article was pretty long, which was more about expressing feelings instead of professional analyzing. The reason this article ranked the first was that it was written by the grand duke, Orvarit.

"Wow… The grand duke really likes your symphony!" exclaimed Elena in surprise and joy.

"I heard Princess Natasha also contributed," said Cathy politely, "Mr. Evans, can you please read her article to us? I know the princess's very good at reviewing music works."

"Sure," answered Lucien, feeling a bit nervous to read the princess's comment.

Natasha's article ranked second place in Music Criticism following her father's work, which titled A Future Trend—The Music Revolution Led by Symphony of Fate:

"A great piece of symphony with magnificent theme and touching emotion running through.

"The talented musician, Lucien Evans, creatively used the four stress accents to form the first bar as the beginning of Symphony of Fate. Each of the four movements of the symphony was relatively independent but yet connected to each other, highlighting the shared theme: Light would conquer darkness and courage would overcome difficulty. The flexible and skilled utilization of assorted music instruments enriched the symphony's emotion world and grabbed every audience's heart last night.

...

"Call it heroism. Call it persistence. Call it knight spirit. I was deeply touched by the great work. The short bar which is composed of the four stress accents is still striking my heart, as if it synchronizes with my heart beat.

"This young, unfettered music genius, Mr. Evans, revealed a brand new music world in front of us, where new music skills should be explored, and new music themes should be developed.

"Great innovator! Great pioneer!"

......

Lucien's face blushed when he was reading the article. Flipping through this Music Criticism, Lucien found that twenty-nine out of the forty articles here were music reviews about Symphony of Fate. Some of them analyzed its theme and some of them skills. The other several articles were about Victor's piano concerto and the concert in general.

Urged by Elena and Cathy, Lucien briefly glanced through the latest Symphony News and found the same situation—all of the articles were about either Victor or himself.

"Wait…I know this name." Elena pointed her finger at a name under the first review article on Symphony News, "Christopher… Gionis."

Christopher Gionis was the president of the Musicians' Association, and also the most well-known musician in Aalto who composed more than a hundred great music works. Gionis was respected as a "living music legend".

Here was Gionis's comment:

"If you haven't heard Symphony of Fate, you heard no music in your life."

"Wow…" Except exclaiming, Elena and Cathy had no idea how to express their admiration to Lucien.

A while later, Elena said to Lucien, "I'm sure few months later, you'll become one of the most renowned young musicians throughout the continent."

Without saying anything, Lucien smiled and slightly shook his head. Then he left for Mr. Hank's office on the third floor.

"Congratulations, Evans." Hank rose from his seat behind the desk, walked toward Lucien and gave him a hug.

"Thank you, Mr. Hank." Lucien smiled, "I'm here to quit my librarian's job."

"Of course, I expected so." Hank agreed without hesitation, and then he took out a money bag, "According to Mr. Victor, this is yours."

The money bag was not big but quite heavy, in which thirty-three gold coins were fascinatingly shining.

Chapter 71: The White Letter

Translator: Kris_Liu Editor: Vermillion

Weighing the moneybag, although most of the time Lucien was able to stay quite calm, now he was a bit thrilled.

"Well… I can be quite a moneygrubber sometimes." Lucien mocked himself a bit in mind. Lucien was aware that there was supposed to be thirty-four gold coins in the bag, but he did not say anything about it, and of course Hank would not mention anything as well. It was an unspoken rule, Lucien knew that.

After leaving Hank's office, Lucien decided to visit Pierre in the library. After all, they worked together for more than two months. Lucien should a least say goodbye to him as friends.

…

Staring blankly, Pierre was sitting behind the counter, which was blanketed by two outspread newspapers.

"Good morning, Pierre." Lucien greeted.

As if he was suddenly awakened from a dream, Pierre gazed at the person standing in front of him for a moment in puzzlement, then he slowly answered, "Lucien…" As soon as he called the name, his face darkened, "My fault… I shall call you Mr. Evans now."

Pierre's attitude surprised Lucien quite a bit. Lucien thought he knew Pierre's personality relatively well from working together with him in the past two months. In his mind, Pierre was never a silly or an arrogant jerk.

"Pierre… Why…?" Lucien was confused.

"You guys ruined harpsichord! You guys know nothing about harpsichord!" Pierre's dark brown eyes were filled with anger.

Lowering his head, Lucien saw the newspapers on the counter, of which the two articles on the current pages were both about Victor's piano concerto.

Lucien remembered the details of the two articles, since the content was already stored in his spirit library just now when he was flipping through the newspapers.

One of the article praised the improvement that Victor made with traditional harpsichord and applauded for the impressive features of the new music instrument―the piano, while the other criticized the playing skills Victor used during his playing, accusing Victor's new fingering with piano a betrayal of classical fingerings and the great tradition of music.

"You may hold different opinions, and I understand, Pierre." Lucien tried to mediate, "But we don't have to argue over this. Just leave the discussion to the musicians and critics."

"Answer me. Do you think you really understand harpsichord?" Pierre directly ignored Lucien's words and questioned him again.

Lucien came up with the book that Pierre once recommended him to read, which was titled The Art of Harpsichord Performance. Locating it in his spirit library, Lucien noticed the name of the author was Antonio Sandor.

"Your father is… Antonio Sandor, the author of The Art of Harpsichord Performance?" asked Lucien.

Pierre paused a moment. Then he squared his shoulders and answered proudly, "Yes, I am the son of Antonio Sandor, a great harpsichord musician."

"That's why you're so angry?" Lucien stared up at Pierre and asked calmly.

"The great achievement made by my father can never been ruined by you guys!" answered Pierre with excitement.

"What is talking to me now is your prejudice, Pierre, not you." Lucien did not want to argue with him, "Anyway, I just wanted to say goodbye to you. From today on I won't be working in this library anymore."

"I was wrong about you, Lucien," said Pierre with strong dislike, "I thought you honored music a lot, but in fact you're too arrogant to show your respect. You'll definitely regret in the future if you don't stick to traditional fingerings. Watch out, you genius!"

Lucien opened his mouth and tried to say something, but finally gave up. He directly turned around and left the library.

He thought Pierre and he would become friends. Lucien sighed in his mind. After all, a friend was easier lost than found.

…

Since the concert was a great success, everyone was taking a weekend off for the first time in a long while. Lucien did not find Felicia in their practicing room on the fourth floor.

"Maybe Felicia will be at home in the afternoon," wondered Lucien. He still had no idea how to persuade Felicia to help him.

Thinking about this, Lucien went back to the lobby and asked Elena if she knew about any house for rent in Gesu area. Since most of the musicians and players in Aalto lived in Gesu, the Musicians' Association was also responsible for providing house information and helping its musicians to find ideal places to live close to each other.

Among the many choices, Lucien liked the two-storey house located at no. 116 in Gesu the most. The house was owned by a not very famous musician, who was now far away in the Kingdom of Syracuse serving a viscount as his music consultant. The location of the house was a bit remote in the area, but the rent was also cheaper—one Thale per year.

It was almost ten in the morning. Lucien planned to take a look at the house this afternoon, after visiting Felicia. He wanted to move out as soon as possible. Now Lucien had to go back home and clean some of his stuff.

"Take care, Mr. Evans." Elena smiled to Lucien, and Cathy slightly bowed to him respectfully.

…

When Lucien came back to Aderon, he saw many of the neighbors were standing in front of auntie Alisa's place like the last time when John became a knight squire.

Every week, these poor people in Aderon could luckily take a short break on Sunday, since they also went to the church in the morning.

With the improvement of his spiritual power, Lucien's hearing was also now better than that of common people. He captured some of the words from the neighbors' conversation and an ominous feeling came over him.

"Hi, Roy. Why there're so many people gathering here?" asked Lucien.

"Hey, Lucien! It's been a while since the last time I saw you!" With too much labor work, Roy, in his early thirties, looked much older than his age, and he did not know that Lucien had become the princess's music consultant yet, "You know what? Every dog has its day! And Joel's lucky day finally comes! A noble lord invited Joel to be his family musician this morning."

"What? Where is uncle Joel now?" Lucien was surprised.

"Joel left in a hurry, and he took Alisa and his son together as well. I bet the pay must be very good." Roy grinned.

"Lucien, you did not know about it?" asked a middle-aged woman named Lizz with curiosity, "People say you're a famous musician now and it is because of your reputation that Joel has been invited. Is it true, Lucien? Are you famous now?"

"Something's wrong…" Lucien murmured, and he hurriedly asked them, "Who invited Joel?"

Uncle Joel would never leave in such a hurry without even telling him first. Besides, even if there was a noble who admired Lucien's music and thus wanted uncle Joel to be his musician, Lucien should be informed first.

"How dare we ask a lord's name!" Lizz and some other neighbors shook their heads, "We saw the lord dressed very decently. And he had many squires and servants."

It was not right… Lucien's heart was torn with anxiety, but Lucien knew that he must stay calm.

"Auntie Lizz, do you remember what the lord looked like?" Lucien frowned his brows, "Did uncle Joel leave me any message?"

"How dare we look at a lord's face!" answered Roy, "I only remember the lord was a very decent gentleman. His hair was all white. Black suit… and a walking stick. The squires were so strong… all in their early twenties…"

Although Roy tried his best to recall it, the information he provided was not really helpful.

"Joel did leave a message to you," said Lizz, "but nothing really special… He asked me to tell you that do not worry about him, and he will ask someone to send you a message when he reaches there."

"That's it?" asked Lucien, putting up with the great anxiety in his mind.

"That's it." The neighbors knew nothing else.

"Anything wrong, Lucien?" some of the neighbors asked.

Taking a deep breath, Lucien calmed himself a bit.

"Not really," Lucien answered. He decided to look for clues first and then inform John. There must be a purpose that they took uncle Joel's family.

Lucien had a spare key for the door. As soon as he entered the place, Lucien's spiritual power and his soul told him something was indeed not right. Lucien sensed a smell of a stranger in the room, and fortunately, this person did not erase the invisible smell and trail he or she left.

And there was a white letter on the table.

Chapter 72: Conversation Over the Letter

Translator: Kris_Liu Editor: Vermillion

In order to stay calm, Lucien firstly closed the door. Then he reached his left hand into the pocket and grabbed Ice Revenger. Carefully, he controlled the aura of the ring surrounding his own body, since Lucien speculated that the person leaving the letter should not know that he was a sorcerer, instead of a common young man.

The ice coldness from the ring cooled Lucien down. With great caution, Lucien opened the letter using his right hand.

This piece of paper was of no special material. It looked like the letter was printed instead of written, since every single letter on the paper was almost too neat.

"Dear Mr. Evans,

It is our great honor to have Mr. Joel and his family with us. As long as you are willing to do us a little favor, we will take good care of them here. When we get what we want, Mr. Joel and his family will be back safe and sound, and with a decent amount of money. It is a fair trade."

"Kidnap, I knew it!" Lucien lowered his voice and said to himself, "But what do they want from me?"

Soon after Lucien asked this question, the lines on the paper quickly faded and new black words appeared.

"Mr. Evans, as a music genius, your calmness is also impressive. Please let me repeat what I said just now—it is a fair deal, not a kidnap. Of course, when we talk about being fair, that means if you betray our agreement, you will never be able to see Joel and his family again."

"It is a supernatural power…" Lucien's brain was working very fast. In order to have a bigger chance to save uncle Joel and his family, Lucien couldn't let these people know the fact that he was a sorcerer as well. This was definitely not a trade, and kidnappers' promises were never trustworthy. Therefore, Lucien made an immediate decision: instead of passively following the kidnappers' orders, he should have a careful plan and save uncle Joel and his family himself.

At the same time, buying time for planning was also very important. Taking a deep breath, Lucien talked to the piece of paper in a low voice, "What do you want me to do? How can I know they're still alive?"

Several new lines appeared on the paper again:

"What we are asking is very simple, Mr. Evans. Use your talent and write more great music works to become Princess Natasha's long-term music consultant. And we believe that this is also your goal, Mr. Evans. Aren't we being really considerate? As for Joel and his family, as long as you are willing to work with us, we have no reason to kill them."

Many thoughts quickly passed through Lucien's mind:

"Were they targeting Princess Natasha, or other secrets in Ratacia Palace? I was just invited to be the princess' temporary music consultant last night, and today these people kidnapped uncle Joel and his family, which was almost impossible, unless… unless one of them, or even all of them, were among the audience in the concert last night!"

"If I cannot make sure uncle Joel and his family are safe, I will not work with you. You can kill me," said Lucien decisively.

"Mr. Evans, I just want to clarify one thing. You are one of our plans, but not the only one. Unfortunately, you are not as important as you think."

Lucien sneered, "Then kill them, and kill me."

It looked like Lucien's reaction surprised the kidnappers. After the last message disappeared from the paper, nothing new appeared for quite a while.

Lucien was extremely nervous. He was not sure if his answer would put uncle Joel and his family to death, but he had no other choice. Lucien must make sure they were still alive. Now it was time to be patient.

Finally, several lines emerged on the paper again:

"Every once in a while, we will send you a picture of Joel and his family. Starting from tomorrow. However, since you pissed us off, we decided to send you one of Joel's fingers tomorrow as well, to relieve your concern, Mr. Evans."

"Bastards!" Grinding his teeth with hatred, Lucien said to the kidnappers, "Every time, the picture you send must contain completely date and time information, or I won't be able to know if these are fake pictures that you make with your evil power." Lucien was hoping that he might be able to find some clues from the pictures.

"It won't be a problem. Deal?" replied the kidnappers.

"Not until I see the picture tomorrow. " Lucien was pretending that he knew nothing about magic power, "But when I see uncle Joel and his family, I'll keep my word. I swear."

"Your word means nothing." The lines showed up again, "We can see. And if you dare report to the princess, we will send Joel and his family to hell in a second."

Lucien had no idea how the kidnappers could observe him secretly in the palace. He wanted to know more, since purpose often revealed motive, and motive was the key clue to find the enemies hiding behind this.

"What specifically do you want me to do? It can't be just staying close to the princess," asked Lucien.

The writing became a bit hasty, "We're more than happy to know the schedule of the princess and the grand duke, as well as other interesting things going on in Ratacia Palace. You just need to write what you know down on this piece of paper with a quill."

The kidnappers were very crafty, and their real motives remained blurry.

"I see," answered Lucien slowly.

"If you have any need, you're welcome to ask us for help, Mr. Lucien. Hope we have a nice cooperation." The new lines were more illegible compared with the previous ones.

All the lines disappeared, and the letter returned to a piece of white paper.

Lucien removed his left hand from Ice Revenger and instantly felt the supernatural power disappear. Staring at the closed window with an expressionless face, Lucien slowly folded the piece of paper back and put it into the envelope. His heart was full of anger and hatred, and he already figured out who did this.

They were the heretics of Argent Horn.

With the help of Ice Revenger, when Lucien was opening the envelope, he sensed a tiny amount of supernatural power remained on the paper. When he was communicating with the kidnappers, Lucien was also doing his analysis of the power by comparing it with the different kinds of power he met before. Every time the letters appeared and disappeared, Lucien got one step closer to his conclusion: Firstly, the power was not magic; Secondly, the supernatural power was very similar to the power that Lucien felt from Cardinal Sard and pastor Benjamin. Although Lucien could not tell the specific differences between the magic power he followed and the powers empowered by either God or demons, he was quite sure that what he was facing now was the latter.

If Lucien's observation and speculation were correct, Argent Horn was the most likely, or say, the only possible answer for now.

"It looks like there's a bond between me and these bastards…" Lucien needed to control himself hard from tearing the paper to shreds with anger.

"The piece of white paper should be a magic item of apprentice level. Someone's eavesdropping on me right now and the person needs to stay relatively close to me… probably, within a radius of a hundred meters… Still hard to find, though." Lucien thought to himself, "According to the time it took the kidnapper to reply, the person should be a bit above senior apprentice level."

Lucien was a bit encouraged, carrying the hope that he could save Joel and his family. He did not really trust the church, the princess, and the grand duke, since they would only focus on exterminating the heresy, instead of making sure the hostages were safe first. At the same time, Lucien never even considered for a second obeying the heretics' order. He would never surrender to those untrustworthy bastards.

He knew what he was doing here.

Walking out of the door, Lucien headed for the noble district.

Chapter 73: Unexpected Information

Translator: Kris_Liu Editor: Vermillion

Footsteps hasty, eyebrows frowning, Lucien was acting like an ordinary person who encountered kidnapping for the first time. Meanwhile, he was also much calmer than most of the ordinary people. He knew where to go and what to do right now.

Lucien tried to stay focused when he was walking on the street, separating his spiritual power from his body and making the power float in the air, as if his soul was overlooking his body. Lucien wanted to test if there was anyone among the crowd who was following him.

However, since Sunday noon was often the busiest time in Aderon, and the kidnapper was currently more powerful than Lucien, he did not find anything special.

The gate between Aderon district and the noble district was open, however, this area was not busy at all. Only a few poor people from Aderon who were doing the most menial work in the nobles' places were going through the gate after going to the church.

Two guards were standing there, lazily leaning against the wall and looking at the poor people walking in hurry with some feeling of superiority. The guards were hopeless for becoming real knights, and since they joined the city guard and got spoiled by the prosperity of Aalto, they soon forgot the many fighting skills that they learned from their previous training.

All of a sudden, the guards noticed a young good-looking man in decent white shirt and black suite coming toward the gate, which was quite unusual. They stopped Lucien instantly and asked,

"Sir, what is your purpose entering the noble district?"

Lucien's heart was being burned by the great anxiety, thus his attitude was not very nice.

"Are you questioning me here? Since when do I have to be questioned first to pass through the gate?"

Rander, one of the guards, immediately regretted as soon as he stopped the young man in front of him. Without knowing a visitor's background, stopping the person randomly may put them in trouble since they never knew whether the person was actually a noble or someone important.

Lucien's tough attitude made him even more nervous. He hurriedly apologized, "Sorry, sir. We're having a hard time searching for the demon followers and tend to overreact sometimes. I'm sorry, sir."

Lucien slightly nodded and was about to pass through the gate when he changed his mind. He turned to the guard and asked in a low voice, "May I ask where does the chief clerk of the town hall, Mr. Urbain Hayne, live? I'm his daughter Felicia Hayne's classmate."

Happening to know where the chief clerk lived, Rander answered, "Mr. Hayne lives at no.158 Noble Street, one of the Hayne family's houses."

"Thanks." Lucien replied shortly and walked through the gate.

In the noble district, where many knights and even grand knights lived, Lucien expected that the kidnapper from Argent Horn would not be able to follow too close. Therefore, by asking the guard, Lucien purposefully let the kidnapper know where he was going. If the kidnapper still could not follow up, that meant he or she was not at all capable of tailing Lucien for a long time, and then Lucien could find a proper chance to get rid of the kidnapper and conduct his own plan.

Staring at Lucien from behind, Rander complained to the other guard, "Although the guy dressed like a gentleman, he even didn't know where the chief clerk lives. Probably there's something between this effeminate guy and lady Hayne… who knows…"

......

It was the second time Lucien came to the noble district. Compared with the stormy night when Baron Laurent died, the noble district looked much more appealing today. Green trees lined up on both sides and flowers flourished. Among the trees stood the big and luxury houses. Many of them were of different architectural styles—some were similar to baroque style, others of religious style, while some were emulating the gloomy and extravagant architectural design of the ancient magic empire. And often there was only one house on each fork of the road.

Lucien appeared to be rather weird on the street since he dressed decent but was walking on foot. A few noble ladies and gentlemen passing by in their coaches threw Lucien a surprised glance, certain that Lucien was by no chance a noble.

All of a sudden, a coach stopped beside Lucien. The window on the coach opened and inside of the coach sat an elegant young lady of full figure and fine presence, with a black crape bonnet veiling half of her face. She laughed and asked, "Is this Mr. Evans? The concert last night was awesome."

Despite being anxious, Lucien maintained his gentleman manner, "Thank you, my lady. Can I have the honor of knowing your name?"

"I'm Yvette Hill, Felicia's friend." Yvette glanced at Lucien with great interest, "Are you looking for Felicia, Mr. Evans?"

Excluding the family of Violet, the Hill family, together with the Hayne and the Rafati family, were the three most influential noble families in the Duchy of Orvarit. Each of the three families had a whole shire as their domain.

Lucien just recognized the coat of arms on the coach consisting of spears and grizzly. He answered with respect, "Yes, my lady."

"Well… then you might have to wait a bit, Mr. Evans." Yvette's smile was very charming, "Since the concert was a great success, Felicia is still praying in Golden Cathedral to thank the blessing of God. And, by the way, just call me Yvette. I'm a fan of your music, Mr. Evans."

"Then miss Yvette, you just call me Lucien." Lucien worked at a smile, "I can just wait for Felicia to come back outside of her house."

"If you don't mind, Lucien, I can give you a lift." Yvette took off her crape bonnet and her beautiful face was completely revealed, "You're two years younger than me. What a genius you are."

Her maid opened the coach door and invited Lucien to come in. It seemed like Yvette did not worry at all that this might damage her reputation as a noble lady.

Lucien did not refuse. As a member of the Hill family, Yvette was also able to get Moonlight Rose. If Felicia rejected Lucien's request, becoming a friend with lady Yvette would be Lucien's second possible chance.

Entering the carriage, a sweet, alluring scent snuck into Lucien's nose.

"Very nice… A genius is indeed different," said Yvette with satisfaction, "Most of the men that I invited before were just hypocritical. They wanted to come in, but they didn't dare."

Leaning forward, her plump and fair chest was half revealed in front of Lucien.

However, Lucien was really not in the mood. Slightly turning his eyes away, Lucien forced a smile, "Stick to your own path, and let the irrelevant people say whatever they want to say. It doesn't matter."

"Interesting. I like it." Yvette's eyes lit up for a moment, "You're more interesting than I thought, Lucien."

The coach went slowly. Inside of the coach, Yvette was casually talking to Lucien about music, and purposefully made tiny physical contact with Lucien. Unfortunately Lucien's mind was completely occupied by the kidnapping, and he completely ignored this noble lady's elaborate seducing. Yvette was quite disappointed.

Half an hour later, Yvette's coach finally stopped in front of a luxurious three-storey house. At the same time, Felicia's carriage arrived as well.

"Lucien? Why you're with Yvette?" Felicia looked at her classmate quizzically.

Getting off the coach, Lucien answered, "I was looking for you when I met lady Yvette. She kindly offered me a ride."

"What did you do, Yvette?" Felicia looked a bit angry.

"What can I do?" Yvette grinned in her coach, "No worries, Felicia. I prefer mysterious sorcerers compared with musicians."

"What do you mean? Since when you changed your preference?" asked Felicia with surprise.

"Since last night," replied Yvette full of yearning, "Last night during the concert, I heard Cardinal Sard and the grand duke were talking about a mysterious sorcerer called 'Professor'. I'm very curious… after all I haven't tried any sorcerer yet. I wonder… these gloomy guys who always hide their faces in their hoods… what do they look like when they are naked in bed, and how they react when they see a beautiful woman…"

As the youngest daughter of Earl Hill, she was qualified to sit in the same balcony with the grand duke.

"Yvette…" Felicia was speechless. Although Yvette and Felicia were pretty good friends, Felicia never understood Yvette's openness with men. As a very maverick noble lady in Aalto, Yvette was even much more open than the noble madams and ladies in the palace of Tria.

Lucien was very surprised, not because of Yvette's openness, but the fact that the church and the grand duke had already found out his pseudonym, "Professor".

Was anyone caught that night? Or were there moles among the sorcerers… Lucien wondered, with his back being covered by a thin layer of cold sweat. Lucien was just about to buy some magic potions that increased his power from the other sorcerers to save Joel and his family. Luckily, he heard the conversation between the noble ladies. What a valuable piece of information!

"I have to go now. Bye." Yvette was happy to see the surprised look on both Felicia and Lucien's faces. Turning around, Yvette's coach left.

Noticing that Lucien was still staring at the coach in a trance, Felicia sneered at him,

"You want to be part of Yvette's collection, don't you?"

And then she paused a bit and asked, "Why you came to me today, Lucien?"

Chapter 74: Felicia's Request

Translator: Kris_Liu Editor: Vermillion

Looking around, Lucien made sure there was no one near them. Then Felicia and Lucien walked through the garden in front of the house.

"Can I ask you to do me a favor, Felicia?" Lucien looked serious.

"A favor?" Felicia slightly frowned her beautiful eyebrows, "My father's just a chief clerk, and my uncle never liked us. I'm not sure if I can help."

If Lucien asked before the concert, Felicia would directly reject him. However, now that Felicia had seen Lucien's talent, she knew that having a good relationship with Lucien would definitely benefit her a lot. What the noble life taught Felicia in the past years was not only how to enjoy the luxury lifestyle, but also how to weigh the advantages and disadvantages.

Lucien spoke to Felicia with a bit hesitation, "I have a good friend, John. He's currently Lord Venn's high level knight squire. John's family offered me lots of help when I was sick and poor. Since last night the concert was a great success, I believe it's time for me to pay them back. And the best way is to help John become a real knight."

"I think I know what you want now." Felicia guessed, "You want to buy Moonlight Rose from me to help your friend awaken his Blessing?"

"Yes, I believe it's the best I can do." Lucien was sort of relieved that Felicia did not doubt his motive.

"You're a good person, Lucien." Felicia appreciated his character, "It's pleasant to have a friend like you. But Lucien, Moonlight Rose is expensive, and it's never a guarantee for awakening Blessing. Many nobles tried and failed…"

Felicia's heart slightly sank when she was speaking, since she was one of the nobles she just mentioned.

"I did some research about it." Lucien was trying to make his request as reasonable as possible, "John's a promising young man. Lord Venn might soon award John with some of the dust of the rose, but it probably won't be enough. The more dust of Moonlight Rose John has, the better the chance he would have to successfully awaken his Blessing. I want to help John with it."

A beautiful smile appeared on Felicia's face. She slightly nodded, "Well… you're really something, Lucien. How much do you want, then?"

"Fifty grams." Lucien needed to make sure that he would have enough of the ingredients to make the potion named Crying Soul, including the possible failures during the process.

"What? That's too much!" Felicia was very surprised, "Based on my status in the family, I can only buy up to ten grams."

Although Felicia's father and the current Earl Hayne were brothers, they had a poor relationship with each other due to the many years of contending for power. Thanks to the generous legacy left by the previous Earl, Felicia's grandfather, Felicia's family could still maintain a decent noble lifestyle.

"Felicia, can you figure out a way to get more? As much as possible…" Lucien came up with another reason, "I heard people say that the dust of Moonlight Rose can also improve one's coordination. I might need some as well to improve my piano playing skill. I'll never forget your help, Felicia."

Crossing her hands together, many thoughts flashed through Felicia's mind. As friends, she could help Lucien with ten grams of the rose. However, now Lucien was asking way more than that, then Felicia needed to see how she could benefit from it.

Lucien did not urge Felicia, leaving her some time to consider. A while later Felicia said to Lucien seriously, "Ten grams from my father. Yvette and Melissa, ten grams each. Lucien, forty grams is my limit, and I won't do this for free."

Although Felicia did not have any title, and her family status was not very superordinate, as a noble, Felicia's social circle was still of great value.

"Forty grams… Well, let's do forty grams. Thank you so much, Felicia, and what you want me to do?" asked Lucien.

"My request is simple and easy." Felicia smiled, "Firstly, you gotta pay me in advance. Secondly, my birthday party will be held next month, and I want you to be there on my birthday and play several songs in front of the guests. And thirdly, I want you to teach me how to play piano, how to compose, and offer me your help as much as possible in music field, such as introducing my future music work to the princess."

Felicia heard that Princess Natasha appreciated piano very much. Among her three requests, without doubt, the most important one was the last. Every time a new piece of musical instrument was invented, many musicians were thus inspired and became famous with their new music works. Felicia did not want to miss this precious chance.

Since she held little hope in becoming Mr. Victor's honor student, learning from her talented classmate who was now the personal music consultant of the princess was not bad.

"You have my word, Felicia." Lucien agreed, and he said silently in his mind, "…as long as I'm still in Aalto at that time. Even if I were to leave, I'd do something else to compensate for it."

Felicia trusted Lucien's good character. She nodded and said, "Forty Thales. Give me two days."

"Two days is fine. But Felicia…" said Lucien with embarrassment, "I only have thirty Thales for now. The rest of it, ten Thales… Can I pay you back in five months? You know I'm currently working for the princess. The salary should not be a problem."

"Well… all right," agreed Felicia. "Pay me back as soon as possible. The ten Thales will come from my savings. Don't let me go broke, Lucien."

"Thank you so much, Felicia!" Lucien was excited, although his bellying moneybag instantly shriveled.

After all, buying Moonlight Rose was Lucien's top priority for now. Lucien was very grateful that he had the chance to enter the music circle in Aalto and thus got to know the nobles like Felicia, or he would have no choice but to go to the black market or join another sorcerer group to find the rose, which would be way more risky.

Leaving Felicia's place, Lucien bought some good-quality bread and beef on his way home.

......

By cooking and eating, Lucien calmed himself down. Closing the door and the windows, he took out the envelope from the crate and opened the letter again.

Within his expectations, there were a few lines on the paper, "Why did you go to the noble district and met your classmate? You stayed in the garden with her for more than twenty minutes, and we saw it. Don't act like an idiot, Mr. Evans."

Lucien sneered in his mind. It looked like the bastards used other ways to trail Lucien instead of marking him with their fiend power, in case Lucien would be detected by the many divine power circles placed in Ratacia Palace.

Since Lucien also understood about supernatural power, he was quite sure about it.

Lucien answered honestly, "I went to buy Moonlight Rose from Felicia to help John. You kidnapped Joel and his families, and I'm not sure if they can come back safe and sound. John is the only one in the family I can take care of for now."

A few sentences appeared, "Taking care of John? We know what you want to do. Please stop daydreaming, Mr. Evans. It's not easy at all to awaken the Blessing, or there would be way more knights in the world. Since your stupidness and recklessness is very impressive, we decided to give you a bonus—a finger from Alisa."

"God damn it!" Lucien swore in his mind, which was filled with hatred.

At the same time, Lucien took out a quill and started transcribing the sentences on the back of a piece of used paper. The great hatred was burning Lucien's guts like fire, while his brain was as cool as a piece of ice. The strange mixture of fire and ice shaped Lucien's character.

Lucien was transcribing the sentences to figure out if the kidnappers could see what he was doing now!

He would not start making Crying Soul until he knew more about these bastards.

Chapter 75: The Mosquito

Translator: Kris_Liu Editor: Vermillion

When Lucien was transcribing the sentences, a scarlet line of words suddenly emerged on the white paper, as if blood was leaking out.

"Stop what you're doing now! Or you'll receive a body!"

The quill dropped on the ground. Lucien pretended that he was scared, "I was just… just trying to make some notes… in case I might forget some of your requests…"

"We don't see any necessity to take this ridiculous notes. This is your last chance, Mr. Evans. Keep taking similar actions if you're looking forward to a dead body. Let me remind you… Thanks to what you did, one more finger for you tomorrow." replied the kidnappers.

Of course, the fact that uncle Joel and auntie Alisa were hurt was very painful to Lucien, however, he couldn't let the feeling of guiltiness and pain affect his judgement too much. From the moment Lucien decided not to cooperate with the kidnappers, he knew that there must be a cost. What he could do was minimise the cost as much as possible.

"I'll behave." Lucien tore the used paper up.

"The kidnappers can see me. That's for sure." Lucien silently thought in his mind, "But how? Are they observing me through the letter, or with something else? I shall figure this out next, but not in a hurry, in case they will find out what I'm trying to do."

Putting the letter back in the crate, Lucien lay in his bed, pretending he was totally out, while trying to cover the whole shack with his spiritual power to sense if there was any supernatural power around. At this time, using spells to help with the detection might put him in big trouble, since Lucien knew that his current biggest advantage was that the heretics did not know he was actually a sorcerer.

Except for the letter in the crate, nothing supernatural was detected in the shack.

......

In the afternoon, Lucien came to Gesu district and found the house at no. 116, that Elena introduced to him.

The location was even better than Lucien thought. Located beside the city wall, the house was far away from the gate, and thus the place was very quiet and isolated. Only a few two-storey small houses were sitting a distance away from no. 116, almost fully shaded by the many tall trees named Rava.

Earlier, Lucien had made an appointment with the agent. Knocking at the gate, he waited in front of the iron fence.

Soon a middle-aged man walked out from no. 116 and opened the gate. His beard was well-trimmed and his brown suit was neatly ironed. The agent looked pretty shrewd.

"You must be Mr. Evans," The man greeted Lucien, "I'm Brian. It's very nice to meet you. Everyone in the Association is talking about you."

Lucien nodded and extended his right hand to shook hands with Brian. Brian took a step forward and held Lucien's right hand with his both hands, to show his respect. Facing such a promising young musician whose talent was already recognized by the grand duke and the princess, Brian, of course, would show his greatest esteem for Lucien.

"Please let me lead you into the house and take a look around, Mr. Evans." Brian slightly bowed.

Under Brian's guidance, Lucien walked throughout the house and found that although the size of the garden and the lawn were not big, inside the house the decoration style was very elegant and unique. Compared with the present luxurious "Tria Palace" trend in decoration, this house looked neat in a very tasteful way.

The only disadvantage of the house was that the tall trees and the city wall shaded most of the sunlight, and thus the place looked a bit gloomy especially with the vines covering the outside of the house.

"It's a very, very quiet place, with no bright sunlight disturbing your music creation work." Brian tried to persuade Lucien to see this as an advantage instead of something not ideal, although poor lighting was the only reason that they were having a hard time renting the house out.

Lucien did not mind the poor lighting at all, since this could provide him with a safer environment to conduct his magic experiments. So he nodded, "Do you have the lease agreement with you?"

Brian was very happy, trying hard to prevent his crafty smile from showing on his face. He took out a pile of papers and handed them to Lucien.

Taking a rough look at the lease agreement, Lucien signed his name on it and took out a Thale from his moneybag. Luckily, as a rather promising musician, Lucien did not have to pay any security deposit.

Brian quickly wrote the receipt and took care of the agreement, and then handed a copy back to Lucien.

"This is a house with a decent size, Mr. Evans. You'll need at least… a steward, four servants, a cook, a gardener, a coach and a coachman. I can find these people for you from other associations," offered Brian fawningly.

"I'm pretty busy recently, and I won't be moving in very soon. You can bring them here next Monday and let me have a look." Lucien agreed but postponed it for a week, since he did not want anything to disturb him from saving Joel and his family. This week would be the key time for him to save the hostages.

Brian handed the keys to Lucien and left briskly. Lucien was by himself standing in the living room, staring at the stairs to the second floor.

There were four bedrooms, a study, a music practicing room and a decent-sized patio on the second floor. On the ground floor, there was a living room, a dining room, four servant rooms, a storage room, and there was also a basement. The kitchen was isolated, connected with the house by a door on the left. And the sewers were well-built, linked to the whole sewer system of Aalto.

If the kidnapping had not happened, Lucien would feel very excited and proud that he finally moved into such a nice place. However, now the only thing Lucien felt was anger and anxiety.

After a while, Lucien went back to his shack. He brought some clothes with him and took them back to the new house.

He left his clothes in the master bedroom and walked into the practicing room, which was built with a special kind of stone to prevent the sound from disturbing other people, and at the same time, to create a nice reverberation effect.

He closed the door and the curtain. The whole room was very quiet. Except for his own footsteps, Lucien could hear nothing else.

Sitting in the rocking chair, Lucien rocked himself back and forth in the darkness. Spreading his spiritual power within the room, he was carefully sensing the surroundings.

He wondered how the heretics would observe him without the letter.

For quite a while, Lucien found nothing. His awareness gradually reached out to every corner of the room.

At that moment, Lucien finally sensed what he was looking for—a tiny disturbance wave caused by a supernatural power, and he heard something buzzing lightly.

He didn't open his eyes and pretended to be asleep while thinking to himself, "Aalto Tigorid Mosquito? Did they mark the mosquito with their fiend power or was it directly Transfiguration?"

Lucien's purpose was already achieved. Now he was sure that the heretics were using the letter for both communicating and monitoring. However, when Lucien was away from the letter, they needed to use other ways to trail him.

......

The letter did not mention anything special in the evening, but only reminded Lucien to bring the letter with him if he was moving out.

Staring at the the shades of the night, Lucien kept repeating the process of making Crying Soul in his mind, to get familiar with it. However, it was not the proper time to make the potion yet. Lucien still had to take care of several things first.

......

In the morning of the second day, when Lucien was about to go outside, he noticed that there was a ball of paper beneath the door.

His heart suddenly sank. Lucien knew what was in it.

Slowly opening the paper ball, Lucien saw three fingers—two were long but with heavy callus, and one was stubby. The fractured white bones were slightly reflecting the sunlight.

Lucien closed his eyes to hold back his tears and to hide the anger and hatred. When he opened his eyes again, he also noticed a small black ball wrapped in the paper, with a scarlet line of words beside.

"That's what you wanted, Mr. Evans."

Chapter 76: Revelation

Translator: Kris_Liu Editor: Vermillion

Leaving the paper ball on the table, Lucien took out the letter from the crate. Within his expectations, a few lines of words just emerged.

"It seems like you received our gift already. The three fingers are just a warning for you. Don't do stupid things, or we'll have no choice but to kill Joel and his family. We can see you, and we're way more powerful than you think. The ball is called Scene. Crumble the ball, and you'll see what you want."

Lucien already sensed the magnetism of the small ball, which should be able to function like a camera. Thus, without hesitation, Lucien destroyed the ball with his hand.

Dark smoke came out from the ball, and the smoke gradually took the shape of a black and white screen, showing Lucien a short moving scene.

In the video, Joel, Alisa and Iven were sitting around a wooden table. Iven's eyes were half closed, looking rather sleepy, while Joel and Alisa looked very worried, with their hands swathed in bandages. From the window of the log cabin, Lucien could tell it was late at night. Few dim stars were hanging in the sky, and the silver moon was shaded by the clouds.

The moving scene lasted for a minute.

On the letter, new sentences emerged, "Mr. Evans, now you see they are still alive. We'll send you more scenes when the weather changes. We believe that the weather, the stars and the silver moon can provide you with enough information to tell the different dates. You see, we always value our words."

"That is a good relief to me," wrote Lucien, "What shall I say if John comes back?"

While Lucien was asking, he was picturing in his mind the sky that he just saw from the ball. What he was trying to do was to tell what stars they were based on the stellar map drawn by the witch in her notes. Combining the season, the arrangement and the brightness of the stars, as well as the angle that Lucien was observing the sky through the window, Lucien was confident he could find some valuable information from this one-minute moving scene. After all, Astrology was his speciality. From the several apprentice meetings that he attended before, Lucien already had a solid understanding in apprentice level Astrology, and as a college student crossing over, his knowledge in Astrology was relatively more advanced compared with the ancient system.

The letter replied, "Just tell him honestly. We don't care about a knight squire, and we bet he wouldn't dare to risk his family's lives. And you, Mr. Evans, be careful when you go to Ratacia Palace tomorrow."

Every Tuesday and Thursday, Lucien was scheduled to go to Ratacia Palace to meet the princess and discuss music with her. If the princess had extra need, she would summon Lucien at any time, and there would also be an extra pay for him.

The words on the letter gradually disappeared one by one. Finally, the paper returned to normal blank. Folding the letter and wrapping up the three fingers, Lucien put them back into the crate.

…

On his way to the Musicians' Association, Lucien's mind was fully occupied with the stars.

"I made my request yesterday, then the ball and the fingers arrived today. So first of all, uncle Joel and his family should still be somewhere close to Aalto. A village, small town, or even a forest… all possible."

Lucien's brain was working hard. By comparing the stellar maps in his spiritual library and through lots of calculations of the coordinates of the stars, Lucien identified the few stars that he saw from the scene. Looking up the star list in the spiritual library, Lucien targeted one of the stars and found out its detailed record.

"The log cabin should be… about 20 kilometers west of Aalto. That is to say…" Lucien was looking up a simple map of Aalto and its surroundings stored in his own library, "the cabin is deep within Melzer Black Forest!"

Drawing a circle on the map, Lucien was very excited. Although he still couldn't accurately locate where uncle Joel and his family were, and he was also not sure about how powerful the heretics were, knowing that Joel, Alisa and Iven were not far away from him provided him with a bit comfort.

Lucien hoped that the next time he saw the scene the log cabin would still be there. Then he would be able to narrow down the range further.

Trying to calm himself down, Lucien sighed silently, "Every step is so tough." He knew that, currently, he was still not prepared to save Joel and his family.

…

The two ladies who were on duty today in the association's lobby weren't familiar to Lucien. One of them stood up and bowed slightly, "Good morning, Mr. Evans. Your personal office has been assigned by Mr. Hank. Please go to Mr. Hank's office when you have time."

Lucien was about to find a quiet practicing room. Now it was a surprise for him to have his own office, which was great for his plan.

A while later, being led by Mr. Hank, Lucien entered his own office on the third floor.

"Evans, this is your office now. Unless you join other countries' music associations, until the last day of your life, the office will still be yours."

The building of the Musician's Association was magnificent. A courtyard was surrounded by seventy to eighty different rooms on the third floor, but almost half of them were currently vacant, since many of the famous musicians in Aalto had been invited to other countries.

The office was decorated with a brown carpet, fine statues, paintings and lights. The dark blue couch looked very comfy, beside which stood a decent red wood desk. A milk-white piano was in the corner of the office. And there was also a den in the office, where the musician could rest a bit in the bed without being disturbed.

"It's a great room." Lucien smiled politely, "Thank you, Mr. Hank."

"You're more than welcome, Evans. And just call me Hank." Hank nodded.

After Hank left, Lucien closed the office door and walked back and forth in his office with great anger and anxiety.

He was holding back his emotion when he saw the fingers. Now he was by himself, Lucien could not take it anymore.

All of a sudden Lucien sat in front of the piano and pressed the keys with both of his hands. It was Symphony of Fate that Lucien was playing.

When the sound of the piano became louder and louder, Lucien started swearing in a low voice:

"Bastards! Jerks! You f**king evil kidnappers!"

…

The swearing was not only for venting, Lucien was testing to what extent the kidnappers could monitor him.

When he Finished playing, Lucien stood up and gave out a long sigh. Even if the heretics did hear his swearing just now, he could still explain to them that he was doing this was to prepare himself for the meeting with the princess tomorrow.

However, when Lucien came back to his home in Aderon, he only found a simple sentence on the letter.

"Music is an ideal way to release emotions, Mr. Evans."

Although the kidnappers just wanted to remind Lucien that he was under their surveillance all the time, the message offered Lucien another piece of valuable information—the method the kidnappers were using couldn't let them hear Lucien very well!

…

At two o'clock in the afternoon, Lucien arrived at Victor's place on time.

Although without saying anything, the way Athy looked at Lucien was filled with gratefulness. Athy had been accompanying Victor for many years, and he was sincerely glad that the concert was a great success.

Renee, Colin and David were also there. They stood up and greeted, "Good afternoon, Mr. Evans."

Although Lucien's success was not yet well-known among the common residents in Aalto, Renee, Colin and David had heard about it from Felicia and Annie's conversation. All of a sudden they felt Lucien became strange in their eyes, and they subconsciously treated Lucien the same way they greeted their teacher Mr. Victor.

"I still feel it's sort of unreal until now." Lott stood up from the couch and gave Lucien a hug, smiling.

Felicia also walked close to Lucien, and whispered in his ear, "Tomorrow afternoon, I shall be able to give you the roses."

"Thank you. Thanks a lot, Felicia," said Lucien sincerely.

Standing beside them, Lott almost could not believe his eyes.

"Since when they became this close to each other?" Lott wondered.

Chapter 77: Ratacia Palace

Translator: Kris_Liu Editor: Vermillion

Turning around, Felicia noticed that Annie, Colin and some other students were all standing around and trying to talk to Lucien. She slightly smiled and took a step forward.

"Ladies and gentlemen, in order to celebrate the great success of the concert and the achievement Lucien made with his Symphony of Fate, I want to invite everyone to the ball on Friday evening in my family's house. Mr. Victor agreed, and now I want to see how many of us want to attend the ball."

Although Felicia was not willing to let other of her classmates have a close relationship with Lucien like she already did, she understood that purposefully excluding the other classmates was not a good way to leave a favorable impression on Lucien.

"Really? I'd love to!" Renee put a big smile on her face, "It's my great pleasure!"

All of the other students promised to go as well.

"What about you, Lucien?" Felicia smiled.

An idea suddenly flashed through Lucien's mind. He nodded and answered, "Of course, Felicia."

The other students looked even more excited hearing that Lucien would attend the ball as well.

"Ladies and gentlemen, let's save the excitement for the Friday." Mr. Victor walked downstairs with books under his arm, looking rather energized, "Now we have to start studying."

Lucien was about to find a seat to sit down when Lott stopped him. Lott whispered in Lucien's ear, "I heard that Mekanzi doesn't like you at all. Be careful when you're in the palace."

"Thank you, Lott. I will," replied Lucien politely. However, his mind was fully focused on how to save Joel and his family. Lucien knew clearly that the longer he waited, the less chances he would have to save them. He was really not in the mood to consider how to deal with Mekanzi.

Meanwhile, Lucien was also aware of the fact that he also had to be very patient. Unwisely rushing would put Joel and his family in great danger.

At that moment, Lucien felt like he was tightrope walking over a cliff. He had to find his balance between being patient and being ready to seize the chance. Leaning too much toward either side would instantly throw him off the wire.

With the outstanding memory and proper ways of studying, now Lucien could read most of the materials with ease. Immersing himself in the world of music, for a moment Lucien was distracted from his anxiety.

And a bold plan was gradually taking shape in his mind.

Finishing today's study, Lucien went back to his shack, wrapped some stuff up and brought them to his rented house.

Everything seemed to be quite normal. Thus, when Lucien took out the letter at night, there were only a few simple sentences on it:

"Be careful tomorrow. Don't do stupid things. We're watching."

...

Lucien had a sound sleep last night, and he felt rather revitalized when he woke up.

"Today is very important. I can't make any mistake." Lucien thought to himself.

Nothing new was on the letter. After having breakfast, Lucien came to the association and found a practicing room. He started playing the piano to reduce his anxiety.

Lucien was still not skilled enough to perfectly play Symphony of Fate. After reviewing the basic fingering, Lucien started to play Beethoven's Piano Sonata No. 8 in C minor, commonly known as Sonata Pathétique.

He did not know why he found special affection in Beethoven's music works. Maybe it was because he could understand the sufferings and the pain Beethoven went through, and he appreciated the music master's perseverance and heroic spirit.

Since Lucien never practiced Sonata Pathétique before, his playing was pretty horrible. However, playing this piece of music over and over again became a good way for Lucien to exhaust himself and thus to release the pressure.

Later Lucien took a break in his office.

Someone knocked at the door of Lucien's office at ten thirty. It was Elena.

"Lucien. The princess's coach is waiting for you in the front."

"I'll be right there. Thanks, Elena," replied Lucien.

He slowly stood up from the couch and walked toward the mirror. Staring at himself in the mirror for thirty seconds, Lucien took a deep breath and walked out of his office.

...

Sitting straight inside of the dark purple coach decorated with the coat of arms of the Violet family, Lucien felt the movement of the coach was rather smooth. The dark yellow carpet made in Tria was thick and comfy, and the wine on the small table had a nice deep ruby red color. However, Lucien did not feel like having a drink at all, since he had to make sure he would stay sober and calm in the palace.

A bit more than ten minutes later, the coach arrived at Ratacia Palace on time. The magnificent front gate of the palace was made of stone and was engraved with relief sculptures of many famous heroes in history. A dozen of guards led by a mighty and muscular knight were standing in front of the gate.

After a security check of Lucien's personal belongings, the knight waved his hand and let the coach pass.

As soon as Lucien entered the huge gate, he sensed the solemn and mighty divine power enveloping the whole palace.

This light golden-colored palace was the most spectacular and magnificent structure in Aalto. Besides its great momentum, the details of Ratacia Palace were also created with exquisite handcraft. The symmetrical architecture showed the majesty of the grand duke house. The two castle-like palaces in both western and eastern wings were connected by a grand palace complex in the center.

In front of the main palace there was a large square with fine spray fountains, covered with rare and beautiful trees and flowers.

A broad artificial river ran through the square, in which a few boats were floating by the river bank.

The coach which Lucien was sitting in followed the avenue going through the garden and crossed the long bridge over the artificial river, and it finally stopped right in front of the main palace. Two beautiful maids were already waiting there.

"Mr. Evans, please follow us to the princess' music practicing room." The two blond-haired girls looked like twins. They greeted Lucien with respect.

"Thank you." Lucien nodded politely.

Following the two maids, he saw more details of the palace on his way to the practicing room. The designers and the architects used the finest colorful stone as the main building material of the palaces, and all the different kinds of stones were shining brightly in the sunlight. Inside of the palaces, the stairs and the handrails were carefully gilded, and according to the different themes of the palaces, dazzling decorations such as huge crystals, fine white laces and gorgeous dome paintings could be seen everywhere.

Being very familiar with the path, neither of the maids talked to Lucien on the way but just walked in front of him. They were trained to be respectful and remain silent. Soon Lucien came to a very charming corridor.

Facing the direction of the garden, there were twenty-four arched windows on one side of the corridor, while on the other side, twenty-four mirrors were reflecting the beauty of the sight in the garden, as if the corridor was also fully planted with the fine trees and flowers, which added radiance and beauty to the magnificent huge dome painting above.

This was the best-known part of Ratacia Palace—the Paradise Corridor. Lucien had read about it before, when he was working in the Association's library.

Passing Paradise Corridor, which featured the great style of divinity, Lucien finally arrived at the palace where princess Natasha lived. The palace had a unique name—War Gallery. Here Lucien saw many fine oil paintings showing the theme of war on the walls.

"This is the princess's practicing room, Mr. Evans." The two maids led Lucien to a quiet room in the corner, and asked him to wait for a moment outside, since they had to report to lady Camil first.

A moment later, Lucien was invited to enter the room.

...

The practicing room was way bigger than any one in the association. The warm and sweet orange color of the room was peaceful and soothing. The carpet was very fancy, on which different kinds of musical instruments were carefully placed, and in the center of the room stood a light golden piano.

Natasha was sitting in front of the piano, playing a piece of music called March of War. Her playing was very skilled, even better than many professional instrumentalists. However, it seemed like she was mimicking Victor's fingering intentionally, and thus her playing sounded a bit rigid.

In her black dress, Camil was sitting in the couch at the far end of the room.

Natasha stopped playing when Lucien came into the room. She turned around and smiled to him, "I'm having a hard time here following Victor's new fingering. Can you help me, Lucien?"

She talked to Lucien in a nice way, as if he was her old friend.

"Of course. It's my great pleasure." Lucien sat on the other bench and started to explain.

Lucien knew that the princess was very interested in piano and thus he was relatively well-prepared for the possible questions the princess might have. Although he could not make a perfect explanation, Lucien was very honest and sincere, which made Natasha feel that when Lucien was providing her with the proper guidance she needed, at the same time they were also learning and exploring piano together.

Time passed quickly. When Lucien was still introducing the new fingering, all of a sudden Natasha looked at him and asked, "Lucien, is your mind being bothered by something? I can feel your anxiety."

As a level five grand knight, Natasha's intuition told her that something was wrong with Lucien. With the outspokenness in her personality, the princess asked directly.

Chapter 78: Taking the Risk

Translator: Kris_Liu Editor: Vermillion

Lucien forced himself to put a smile on his face, "Maybe I'm too nervous, in the palace, in front of the princess. Please forgive me, Your Grace."

At the same time, Lucien had a good relief in his mind, "Finally… the princess asked."

The anxiety, the restlessness and the nervousness that Natasha noticed were all conveyed by Lucien purposefully.

Lifting her beautiful eyebrows, Natasha said to Lucien, "Don't be afraid of me because I'm a princess or a knight, Lucien. A man can respect or even worship someone else, but not be intimidated. That's the spirit of men, the spirit of knights."

"I'll work on it. Although I have a rather poor background, I'll get better." Lucien was a bit surprised by Natasha's comment, but he still answered properly.

A gorgeous smile appeared on Natasha's face, "You know what? You're already much braver than most people. Many of them couldn't even speak properly the first time they saw me, while you're brave enough to stare at Silvia's legs the first time you saw her. Impressive."

Natasha was talking about it pretty casually, as if it was just a joke.

"I… I'm terribly sorry. It was the first time I saw silk stocking… I sort of forgot myself…" explained Lucien awkwardly, "I'm not a pervert…"

The left corner of Natasha's lips curled up, "I totally understand, Lucien. Both ladies and gentlemen like the interesting byproduct of alchemy, and you're not excluded, of course. Silk stockings is precious since the magic empire was destroyed and the ancient alchemy was lost many years ago."

"I appreciate your understanding, Your Grace." Lucien nodded.

"But you looked at Silvia for a pretty long time, which was not common. Are you really not a pervert?" Natasha asked Lucien with great interest. She was making fun of him.

"I'm not. In fact, I haven't touched a girl's hand yet, in my whole life," admitted Lucien to justify his innocence.

"Oh… I… see…" Natasha drawled purposefully, "Too bad for a seventeen-year-old boy. But now it won't be a problem anymore, after the concert. There will be lots of girls having interest in you. Do you want me to introduce you to some ladies? Although all of them will end up marrying nobles, it's not bad to have some sweet memories before getting married."

"Your… Your Grace, thank you for your good will but I want to devote myself to music in the next few years. You don't have to introduce me to any lady," refused Lucien, seriously.

"I don't have to?" The princess did not have enough fun yet, "So you want to pursue them on your own? I can teach you some secrets to win the heart of a young lady. I'm good at it. Silvia, that little wild cat, she likes me…"

Camil all of a sudden started coughing and cut off Natasha.

"Your Grace, I feel this topic's a bit weird." said Lucien. He felt the princess was very approachable, but the conversations they had always tended to go somewhere else.

Natasha glanced at Camil sitting on the other side and asked with surprise, "What's wrong with it? It's no more than a common conversation between guys."

Finally, Lucien realized the problem, "Yes, between guys, but you're a noble lady, Your Grace."

"It doesn't matter, Lucien." Natasha shrugged, "Actually I can teach you more about how to pursue a girl than many guys."

Lucien did not know what to say.

"All right, all right…" She waved her hand and smiled, "Look at your nervous face, Lucien. Let's switch back to music."

She was glad that Lucien was not like the many other nobles. Most of them directly refused to talk about this and viewed it as an improper topic for chatting.

"As for the playing skills we just mentioned…" Lucien was a bit relieved.

"I got a question." Natasha was behaving like a good student.

"Yes, please?" Lucien was waiting for the question.

"You sure you don't need any of my suggestion about pursuing girls?" Natasha laughed loudly.

"…" Lucien was speechless.

An hour flew by. Natasha was inspired and kept working on her composing. Camil stood up and walked Lucien out.

In front of the gate, Camil said to Lucien in a low voice, "About the princess… don't be a gossiper."

Lucien nodded seriously.

…

After having lunch, Lucien came to Victor's place and waited for Felicia patiently.

"Mr. Athy, please sprinkle some sulphur in the living room. In the Month of Harvest, there are many mosquitos around."

"I will." Athy nodded.

Felicia arrived half an hour earlier that day, knowing that Lucien must be waiting for the roses. In the corner of the living room, she took out a unique black bag with embroidered flame patterns on it and handed it to Lucien.

"Forty grams of dried Moonlight Rose. The roses were ground into dust already. This special bag can make the dust of Moonlight Rose last much longer. You can return the bag to me when you finish using it."

"Thanks a lot, Felicia." With great excitement, Lucien opened the small black bag, in which the fine white powder was shining like a beautiful dream.

After roughly weighing the bag, Lucien put it in his pocket, "I'll pay the money back to you as soon as possible, Felicia."

"I hope so. That was my personal savings." Felicia smiled, and then she sniffed a bit, "Why I smell sulphur here?"

"To drive the mosquitos and bugs away," answered Lucien casually.

…

Lucien made more mistakes than usual this afternoon, although he was trying hard to stay focused. Luckily, Mr. Victor did not say anything about it, thinking Lucien might need some more time to adjust to the big changes that the great success of the concert brought into his life.

Finally, the class ended at six in the evening. Lucien came back to his shack in Aderon, wrapped up some of his stuff in a small box and cooked himself dinner. After all that, he opened the letter again.

"Mr. Evans, you did a good job in front of the princess today. We hope you can be calmer, since your nervousness made you a bit suspicious. Talented as you are, we believe that it is not too hard."

The heretics did not ask anything about the conversations Lucien had with the princess and what he saw in the palace. Lucien could tell they were trying to make him believe they had everything under their control.

Putting on a worried look, Lucien folded the letter and put it into the small box. Then he carried the box with him and left for his rented house in Gesu district.

In the house, Lucien put down the box in the master bedroom and took out a music book. It seemed like he would stay there for the night.

When it was getting late, Lucien lay down in the bed and soon stood up again, looking a bit irritated, "The sheet is so soggy! Brian should find someone to dry the sheet first before asking me to move in!"

Then he stepped out of his bedroom and left the house, leaving the small box in his new place.

…

After closing the window and locking the door, now Lucien was lying in his small bed in his shabby shack.

Ten minutes later, Lucien jumped out of the bed again and swore, "These bloody mosquitos!"

In the crate Lucien found some sulphur and he sprinkled the sulphur in the every corner of his place. He wanted all the annoying mosquitos and bugs to leave right now.

Then he went back to bed and closed his eyes with satisfaction.

In the night, Lucien faintly sensed the existence of a supernatural power in his shack, like a pair of eyes staring at him in the air.

Without the help of Aalto Tigorid Mosquito, the heretics finally started to monitor him directly using their fiend power.

Pretending to be sleeping, Lucien waited patiently. An hour later, the magic eyes disappeared, but soon came back again.

"The duration is about an hour." Lucien thought to himself.

Within his expectation, an hour later, the eyes disappeared again. Maybe the kidnappers believed that Lucien was just sleeping, or maybe they were changing shifts. Ten minutes later, Lucien sensed the eyes again.

Thirty minutes later, the eyes, all of a sudden, disappeared for the third time.

And Lucien knew that now it was time for him to take action!

He jumped out of the bed swiftly and messed up his blanket and sheet to give the kidnappers a false impression that someone was still sleeping in the bed.

Recently in Aderon, there were night watchers patrolling at night, and they could easily target the existence of the fiend power. Lucien knew that the heretics would not take the risk of being found by the church.

Seizing the chance, Lucien sneaked into his underground magic lab.

Lucien was aware that his whole plan was very risky, however, in the current situation, he did not have a second choice.

Chapter 79: Crying Soul

Translator: Kris_Liu Editor: Vermillion

Everything in the lab remained the same after the last time Lucien left. There was no scent of any strangers, but only the slight smell of sulphur coming from the secret air vent.

In the first half an hour, Lucien was doing meditation to stay focused, and more importantly, to wait until the night watchers left and the heretics started to monitor his room again.

After making sure nothing on the ground went wrong, Lucien started to activate the magic circles engraved on the table with his spiritual power. Then he took out a tube of Revenant dust, three Corpse Mushrooms, some brain tissue of the aquatic zombie and some other reagents.

Wearing the gloves, Lucien picked up a Corpse Mushroom with a silver dagger and moved it into a magic circle for weighing.

"6.72 grams." In his spirit library, Lucien recorded the weight of the mushroom, as well as the amount of usage of other materials and reagents. He put the mushroom into a glass container with magic runes on it, and then weighed a dry glass beaker.

Lucien watched carefully when he was putting Revenant dust into the dry breaker and stopped when there were 3 grams of the dust in it. Using the same method, Lucien weighed out 10 grams of Moonlight Rose dust.

Then he turned to the brain tissue. Lucien grabbed the dagger and carefully cut it.

As if the aquatic zombie's brain tissue was still alive, the moment Lucien's dagger touched it, the brain tissue suddenly shrank, as if many worms were living inside of it.

Cold and sticky as the brain was, Lucien almost threw up when he was cutting it. All of a sudden the phantom of countless ferocious aquatic zombies and revenants appeared in front of Lucien's eyes. Their skin and flesh were rotten, teeth were bleeding, and the smell of corpses was more than disgusting.

Lucien frowned his eyebrows to stay focused. Following the structure of the cortex, he took out the inner part of the brain.

And the phantom instantly disappeared. The rest of the brain tissue gradually calmed down.

After weighing the brain tissue, Lucien put a black thick pot on the magic flame circle and adjusted the flame bit by bit until the color of the flame became a mix of gold and white.

Lucien threw the Corpse Mushroom into the pot and added a small amount of water. Then he carefully stirred the mixture inside the container.

The mushroom slowly melted in the pot in a weird way. The stink was constrained within the magic circle.

When the black thick liquid in the pot started to bubble, Lucien calmly added the Revenant dust and the dust of the rose.

As soon as the three materials met each other, a thick black and silver smoke came out. There seemed to be lots of revenants fighting with each other. A sharp scream came into Lucien's ears and the sharpness made him feel a bit nauseous.

Lucien knew that he could not slack at the crucial moment. Being controlled by his spiritual power, the flame turned white.

The black and silver smoke began to merge with each other and became pale, like the skin of a dead body.

As time passed by, the smoke turned into water drops and stayed within the pot. Seizing the moment, Lucien added the brain tissue into the liquid.

The water drops in the container quickly soaked the black brain tissue, and within one second, the brain disappeared.

The whole magic lab suddenly became cold and dark. Even the flame in the magic circle looked a bit green.

Suddenly being attacked by the infrasonic waves, Lucien retreated several steps and almost passed out. His guts were stirring inside of his body and his head was buzzing.

Lucien never expected this. Nothing like this was mentioned in the witch's notes.

He started to cast the spell Silence Wall. Transparent walls showed up around Lucien to protect him from the attack of the sound waves.

Several seconds later, Lucien cast Illumination.

A bright light ball appeared in the air. In the light, Lucien saw lots of pale human faces in the container!

These transparent faces were rather blurry, but their viciousness and perniciousness was overwhelming. They were struggling in the magic circle, trying to get into Lucien's body.

In the strong light, the faces gradually disappeared. When everything returned to normal, Lucien saw a small amount of black liquid remaining in the pot with a strong burnt smell.

"The recipe should be correct. But the witch might have left out some annotations that she did not translate. Possibly it was because the brain tissue was from a mutant aquatic zombie. That almost killed me." Taking off the gloves, Lucien wiped the sweat on his forehead, "I gotta find a chance to learn the language of the ancient magic empire."

Crying Soul was one of the greatest achievements of the ancient Sylvanas Magic Empire. According to the witch's notes, only a few sorcerers had the recipe, and the making of the potion required an accurate amount of different materials and reagents. Even a tiny mistake would lead to failure.

Luckily, this mutant aquatic zombie's brain had only a little more soul power than common ones. This time Lucien decided to use the best Corpse Mushroom he had. Following the same procedures, Lucien came to the last step smoothly.

When Lucien threw another piece of aquatic zombie's brain into the pot, the sharp and bitter scream came out again. However, this time the noise was totally blocked by the transparent walls. Then he calmly added a small amount of other reagents.

The white flame suddenly soared and fully covered the whole pot. Then, the now big flame quickly disappeared in the next second.

Some black, bubbling liquid remained in the pot. Inside each of the bubbles, there was a horrifying and vicious face, crying and screaming.

That was why the potion was called Crying Soul.

Using Mage Hand, Lucien poured the black liquid into a glass tube.

Observing carefully, Lucien was sure that the potion was made correctly. Lucien bit his lips for a moment and directly drank all the dark liquid in one draught.

He did not have enough time to test the features of the potion. He needed to take the risk.

The taste of the potion was actually not that horrible, but the texture was pretty weird.

Soon Lucien felt a great pain in his body, as if the potion was tearing up his body into pieces.

Lucien heard lots of crying, but he did not know if they were real.

He crouched in great pain and then lay down, rolling back and forth on the ground. Lucien grabbed a piece of cloth and stuffed it into his mouth, in case he felt the need to scream.

Although Lucien thought he was stronger than common people because of his exercising routine, now, when facing the pain, he became very uncertain whether he could really awaken the potential in his body.

His blood was burning and his veins were swelling. Lucien felt his body was about to explode. His skin was covered by thick blue and green veins, which looked very horrible.

Blood came out of Lucien's body like red vapor, and then it went back into his body. In his blurry awareness, Lucien felt a cold and dark power was gradually taking over him. At that time, a bright light suddenly burst out of the projection of Lucien's Host Star in his soul, and quickly linked to the real Host Star in the starry sky, which unrolled in front of Lucien's eyes. The star power started to infuse into Lucien's veins, fighting against the pain and trying hard to drive away the power of darkness.

Lucien was hoping that the power of star could win inside his body. He did not want to be dominated by a more vicious power, which might also bring him trouble and danger in the future.

Unfortunately, the power of death from the crying souls was still stronger. When Lucien was almost dead from the conflict of the two powers, his blood flow started to slow down.

After all, Lucien's Blessing was awakened by the mysterious potion, not on his own.