Chapter 255: Chapter 42: World Origin Made into Secret Medicine

The shadow under the Wizard’s hood shifted slightly. "So, Your Excellency the Governor, what is it that you want? Besides the truths you already know, besides the anchor and the path...what else do you hope to get from me?"

Murphy met his gaze. "Potions. Something like the Heart of the Fierce Sun—a Secret Medicine that can significantly boost Life Energy and awaken potential. Do you have any?"

The Wizard was visibly stunned for a moment. The shadow beneath his hood seemed to freeze.

After a brief silence, he let out a soft, incredulous chuckle. "Heh... You want *that*? Do you have any idea what the true origin is of those Knight’s Secret Medicines like the Heart of the Fierce Sun you mentioned?"

"I’m only asking if you have it," Murphy interrupted.

"I do not," the Wizard answered crisply, his tone tinged with a strange sort of regret. "I have nothing of the sort here."

Murphy’s brow furrowed almost imperceptibly. "You’re an Official Wizard who made a special trip here to plot and scheme, yet you don’t even have a stock of common Knight’s Secret Medicines used to buy over Great Knights?"

"’Common?’" The Wizard’s tone suddenly grew sharp, as if he’d heard something absurd. "Governor of Melfield, it seems you truly don’t understand... what the essence of those ’common’ Knight’s Secret Medicines you speak of really is."

He sneered, the edges of his dark green cloak stirring without a breeze. "Those are not potions at all! That is Origin! It is the Origin power of the Wizard World, forcibly extracted, distorted, and diluted! It is a precious resource that only those with an aptitude for Spiritual Power, those who walk the Path of a Wizard, can hope to gradually accumulate and purify over vast spans of time!"

His voice was filled with unconcealed pain and fury, and even a faint trace of disbelief. "Do you know how insane that is? For a being like the great Enchanting Witch to use her own Source Blood to reconstruct the foundation of a mortal like you is extravagant, but at least the Source Blood is condensed from the essence of her own long life and power. It is *her own* thing!"

"But the Church Court? They dare to steal and extract the very Origin foundation of a world!" The Wizard’s voice trembled with agitation. "Just as the Witch uses her own Source Blood, they dare... to draw the ’blood’ of the Wizard World! That is the cornerstone upon which an entire system of Extraordinary Power is built! It is the womb that births Wizards and nourishes all things!"

"Those sanctimonious thieves! To maintain their so-called holy veil, to allow more mortals without an aptitude for Spiritual Power to possess the strength to fight Low-tier Wizard Apprentices, they established the Holy Hall Pharmacy! They use crude rituals and Holy Power as a ’binding agent’ to cut, dilute, and mix this Origin with mundane materials, creating the Knight’s Secret Medicines you all treasure!" 𝓯𝓻𝓮𝙚𝙬𝓮𝙗𝒏𝙤𝒗𝙚𝙡.𝒄𝒐𝓶

"A waste! A colossal waste!" the Wizard practically snarled. "An amount of Origin essence sufficient to allow a Third-Class Apprentice to ascend and become an Official Wizard is split by them into a dozen, or even dozens, of so-called Secret Medicines and fed to you... you mortal Knights who can’t possibly comprehend its true value and can only crudely burn through its power! This is why the Church Court can mass-produce Great Knights, and why Great Knights are eternally so weak!"

Murphy’s heart jolted.

’So that’s how it is!’

’No wonder the Spiritual Qi contained in potions like the Dust of Dawn and the Heart of the Fierce Sun was so beneficial to his Qi Refining.’

’He had thought the Church Court had mastered some unique refining technique or discovered special resources... He never imagined this was the root cause!’

’This so-called "World Origin" was probably just high-quality Spiritual Qi.’

’The Church Court was transfusing blood into the Knight system at the expense of the entire Wizard World!’

’No wonder the "Spiritual Qi" in the Knight’s Secret Medicine could be absorbed even by those without a Spirit Root.’

’It was because it was the most fundamental power essence of a world, forcibly "diluted"!’

Seeing the flash of understanding in Murphy’s eyes, the Wizard seemed to calm down slightly, but his voice remained cold. "So, do you think that I, a Wizard who seeks the essence of knowledge and power, would carry such a terribly wasted, one might even say contaminated, ’defective product’? What I need are pure Origin Crystals, undisturbed Original Runes, and the ancient knowledge hidden deep within this world—not some ’Arousal Enhancer’ for mortal Knights."

He paused, and what sounded like a faint sigh came from under his hood before he pulled the topic back. "Now, back to the matter at hand. Besides these ’truths,’ what else can I give you? Resources? Materials? Knowledge? Perhaps, but none of it can be delivered right now. As for power..."

The Wizard’s voice suddenly became somewhat ethereal. He slowly raised his right hand, fingers slightly spread, as if sensing something in the void. "You don’t really think I’ve just been standing here making small talk with you, do you?"

Murphy’s gaze sharpened abruptly, and the aura around him instinctively tensed.

"From the moment you appeared," the Wizard continued in that same level tone, "I have been continuously casting a minor Prophetic Series magic—Peeping at the Ripples of Destiny. It can’t directly see through your trump cards, but by observing the subtle disturbances in the Energy and threads of fate around you, it can indirectly assess your hidden ’potential’ and ’threat level.’"

He tilted his head slightly, the shadow under his hood seemingly staring at Murphy. "It’s a pity, Your Excellency the Governor. The feedback shows... you don’t have the kind of unfathomable ’foundational’ fluctuations I expected from an ’important chess piece of the Enchanting Witch.’ While your Life Energy is pure and condensed, its total amount and potential for qualitative change... seems to have already neared the upper limit of your current Path."

The Wizard’s tone was laced with a hint of disappointment. "It seems I guessed wrong. Perhaps you are merely a smokescreen she set up with a more clever method? An expendable pawn with excellent talent, worthy of investment, but not irreplaceable? After all, for beings with such long lifespans, a few decades of effort and a little Source Blood probably don’t count as a major waste. On the contrary... I underestimated their methods and resolve."

He lowered his right hand, and the aura around him began to change subtly. The cold pressure of an Official Wizard, which he had deliberately restrained before, began to spread out slowly like an awakening viper.

Though still contained within a small area, it made the very air in this hollow seem to solidify.

"In that case," the Wizard’s voice lost its last shred of warmth, becoming as cold as arctic ice, "perhaps we should switch to a more direct method of communication. I still need the Erosion Core. And right now, you don’t seem to have enough bargaining chips to refuse my request."

He turned slightly to the side, clearing a line of sight to the deeper part of the hollow, where the entrance to an even narrower, shadow-shrouded fissure was faintly visible.

"Deep within that fissure is the entrance to the ruined hall. I can now tell you part of the method to break the seal, as well as the potential dangers inside the hall, as payment for you to go voluntarily. But you must act immediately."

"Do not try my patience, and don’t expect your power, at the Peak of Mortality, to create any miracles here. The Laws of the Deep Red Wilderness favor me, and my time... is equally precious."

Just then, Murphy, who had been silent all this time, also let out an extremely soft sigh.

The sigh was so light it was almost inaudible, yet it echoed with abnormal clarity in the silent hollow, which was shrouded in spiritual pressure.

"Time..." Murphy began slowly, his voice deep and steady, as if completely unaffected by the other’s oppressive aura. "You’re right. Time is equally precious to me. I cannot afford to waste a single minute, a single second."

He looked up, his deep, pool-like eyes staring directly into the shadow under the Wizard’s hood. They held not a hint of the panic or anger of someone being coerced, only a near-apathetic calm. "Your theory about players and pawns... I agree with it. The vast majority of people in this world, throughout their entire lives, are perhaps merely playing the role of pieces to be manipulated and sacrificed on chessboards of varying sizes. The Ironspine Duke was one, Saint Cyril Bishop was one, and even... His Holiness the Pope’s Throne, in a grander game, may not escape the fate of a pawn."

The Wizard seemed a little surprised by Murphy’s current composure but did not let his guard down, instead pushing his Peeping at the Ripples of Destiny to its full power.

Murphy paused for a moment, then said, word by word, his voice not loud but carrying a piercing quality:

"But have you ever considered..."

"Whether it’s a pawn that knows it’s being manipulated but is powerless to resist..."

"Or the pawn that thinks itself clever, trying to sneak a few moves for itself outside the player’s line of sight, even dreaming of capturing one or two ’more valuable’ pieces..."

"...they all die in the end."

"The only difference, perhaps, is whether it’s sooner or later. Whether they die with full awareness, or die... in self-righteous ignorance."

"Only when a pawn..."

"...is no longer content to be manipulated, no longer satisfied with sneaking a few moves, no longer fantasizes about stealing scraps from the table..."

"...but possesses enough..."

"...power and will to leap off the board..."

"...does it truly begin to escape the fate of a pawn."

The moment his voice fell—

The shadow under the Wizard’s hood trembled violently!

It wasn’t his own doing, nor was it the wind.

It was because, in that instant, his Magic, Peeping at the Ripples of Destiny, had sent back feedback of an extremely abrupt ’disturbance’!

It was as if, beneath the surface of a calm lake, a primordial beast had suddenly opened its eyes!

’No! Impossible! My Magic clearly showed...’

Just as alarm bells screamed in the Wizard’s mind, his Spiritual Power instinctively locked onto Murphy, and he instantly began constructing a Defense Magic Model—

HUMMM!

A low hum, yet one that vibrated straight to the soul, suddenly rang out!

Its source was the scabbard of the Longsword that had been hanging quietly at Murphy’s waist!

The next instant!

SHIIING!

The clear cry of the blade, like a dragon’s roar, suddenly soared!

A streak of Dark Gold light shot out from the scabbard without any warning!

The moment the streak of light appeared, it had already surpassed the limits of what the eye could follow!

Too fast!

Too close!

Too decisive!

The Wizard didn’t even have time to form a complete expression of shock; his passive Defense Magic barrier, driven by his consciousness, had only just stacked a second layer...

...when the searing tip of the sword touched his chest.