"Get up." The man slowly approached, speaking a language he knew. The old man trembled as he tried to rise, but his exhausted, aged body was clearly incapable of it. He could feel the life slowly draining from his body. There was no other choice.
He grabbed the man's hand, struggling to make his words clear as his vision darkened. "Please, sir, take good care of her, and you'll receive a generous reward. A long life."
The old man laboriously exhaled. "You can even live as long as I have, as long as... as long as you take good care of her. Please..."
His head tilted to one side, just enough for him to look at the sleeping girl. Then, just like that, the life left him.
He Shenyan fell silent for a while. Black magic power rose from beneath his feet, and soil flew up out of thin air, forming a neat grave pit beneath the tree. He buried the old man within it. The earth covered him once more.
There was no tombstone, so let the great tree serve as his marker. He Shenyan left a magic imprint on the trunk, ensuring that scavengers and monsters would not dig up and eat the poor old man's corpse.
He walked over to the girl and examined her carefully.
She wore silk clothes, washed spotlessly clean. The old man, meanwhile, had worn nothing more than a single linen garment. Her silver-white hair spilled behind her, forming a strange harmony with the grass.
To be fair, she was very beautiful. She had the makings of a true beauty, lovely even by the most exacting standards.
But that was not why He Shenyan observed her so closely. Thin yet remarkably high-quality magic power formed a fragile barrier around her—fragile by He Shenyan's standards, at least.
Still, it was enough to protect her from blades and even shield her from low-level magic. He Shenyan pondered for a moment. Rather than use his hands, he used magic power to lift a strand of the girl's hair, exposing her pointed ear.
"A longevity-granting magic barrier... some kind of high elf in its juvenile stage? Interesting. Very interesting. What kind of race chooses to grow this way? Where are your parents, little one?"
He lifted the girl with magic power and cast a protection spell on her. Carrying her into the jungle, he vanished gradually into the darkness. The forest returned to silence.
The next morning, the girl still showed no signs of Lucidity. She seemed utterly unaware of the changes in her surroundings, but a thread of the magic power around her body separated and tried to enter He Shenyan's body. Its polite interruption had awakened him from meditation. At first, he thought someone was trying to invade his mind, only to arrive at a conclusion that left him torn between laughter and tears.
It seemed to be some sort of instinct. She would give a portion of her magic power to those who cared for her, granting them long life and freedom from illness.
"You even have an intelligent parasitic shell. What kind of strange race are you?" He Shenyan stared at the girl with a complicated expression, but he had no intention of studying her. Without her permission, he would not attempt to study an intelligent being.
"Hmm... do you eat?" He Shenyan pondered for a moment, then used the Bread-Making Spell to create a fragrant white loaf. With magic power, he brought it to the lips of the girl sleeping soundly in the tent. She opened her mouth and began chewing mechanically.
"..." He Shenyan had started worrying whether he would have to change her diapers too, but that rude concern was clearly unnecessary. The food she swallowed quickly transformed back into magic power, reinforcing the thin magical barrier around her body.
"Interesting, so interesting. Sigh, I really hope you wake up soon." He Shenyan turned away and stopped paying attention to the peculiar Elf. He had more important things to do.
Ten minutes later, a freshly made pot was set over the campfire.
He Shenyan eagerly took a tender, fresh vegetable from his Magic Backpack, along with some noodles, eggs, fresh meat, and seasonings. He even took out a ceramic bowl and a matching pair of chopsticks. He skillfully cooked the noodles, then held the bowl he had made himself and began eating. Once he had finished every last bite, he tossed everything back into the Magic Backpack, rubbed his stomach, and sighed. "My skills haven't slipped! Excellent."
Yes, his important business was making himself a bowl of noodles—an odd pursuit Strange had mocked countless times in the past. He would say things like, "As a powerful Mage, how can you cook for yourself?" "What will outsiders think of us if they see this?" "You can't barbecue in the library of the Sanctum Sanctorum!" His horse-like face would grow even longer at times like those. He Shenyan had never told him that trying to look stern only made him more ridiculous.
As though he had never asked for another bowl every time.
He Shenyan smiled. Behind him, the campsite gradually vanished amid ripples of magic power. The girl floated behind him, supported by his magic power and concealed beneath an invisibility spell. He slowly walked out of the jungle.
He floated across the ground at a speed beyond ordinary comprehension, leaving the jungle behind. Quite a few farmers working in the fields caught sight of that fleeting black shadow. Their frightened, vividly embellished accounts won them several drinks in the tavern, and some even earned flirtatious looks from the waitresses. Yet this rural legend was no longer mentioned after a few weeks. Farmers saw strange things every year. Some were real, and some were false. But what did it matter? They did not care.
It was merely something to talk about after meals.
He Shenyan crossed mountains, passed through wildernesses and several cities, and arrived at a small town by the sea. Most of its residents worked as fishermen, living off the land when they lived near mountains and off the sea when they lived near the coast. It seemed that saying applied in every world. He walked through the crowd, and no one noticed the handsome man. He stepped over the filthy mud ground. Ahead was a hay cart, its wheels leaving long tracks in the earth. Noisy voices echoed endlessly through the town, while sea wind blew in from the harbor. He Shenyan could smell the stench of tar and cow urine. A woman selling vegetables stood by the roadside, calling out her wares.
What a vivid picture of medieval town life.
If one ignored the obvious fluctuations of magic power within the town.
His gaze turned toward a tall tower nearby, built from neatly cut granite blocks and crowned with crenellations. It rose among scattered fields and crooked thatched cottages, standing alone beyond the town center.
"Hmm, crude, but imaginative." He nodded, then turned to look at a man riding a horse with two swords strapped to his back. At his side was a donkey carrying a black cloth sack, marked with dried black bloodstains.
He Shenyan noticed the man's distinctive pupils and smiled with interest.
Second update. That's all for today. Shamelessly asking for votes. Five updates tomorrow~
Before you continue