Chapter 63 Backstage

  When he returned to the basement, he heard Grian intimidating that unlucky demon mage.

  "Don't blame me for not warning you, your time is running out. Once that kid comes out of the pharmacy, I'm afraid you won't even have time to cry..."

  "What's wrong?" Lin Ligang had just entered the door when he heard Ge Rui'an scolding himself.

  "Hey... nothing much, how's the medicine preparation going? If it's not done well, you might as well go study some more. Forcing someone to confess is the same for me either way..."

  "Are you back?" Lin Li was startled: "If he's scared by you again, this guy will be frightened to death..."

  "This is also for his own good!" The old man still wanted to shamelessly boast a few more sentences, but Lin Li had already walked up to the magician with the glass bottle.

  "Are you going to drink it yourself or should I feed it to you?"

  "...” was intimidated by Gullan, and the middle-aged man had already had a shadow on the medicine. At this time, when he saw Lin Li holding a glass bottle, he was suddenly frightened out of his wits, shaking his head desperately while subconsciously backing away, but just after retreating a few steps, his back was already stuck to the cold wall.

  A middle-aged man's heart was like the wall behind him, cold and desolate. He had the strength of a magic user, but his powers were sealed by Grerian. Now he was even weaker than an ordinary person, unable to do anything but watch as Lin Li opened the bottle stopper, releasing a intoxicating aroma that filled the underground room...

  "You really want me to feed you?" Lin Li frowned, one hand already pinching the middle-aged man's chin: "Then don't blame me for being too rough..."

  "I... I..." The middle-aged man was so angry that he couldn't cry, thinking of his proud identity as a mage, respected wherever he went. But now, he was being pinched on the chin by a young magician under twenty years old, who even threatened to force-feed him medicine: "I... I'll drink it myself!"

  "Are you really going to drink it yourself?" Lin Li looked at him suspiciously and kindly reminded: "Don't have any bad ideas, I've prepared over a dozen bottles of this medicine. If you break this bottle, don't blame me for pouring the rest down your throat one by one. If something goes wrong later on, I won't be responsible."

  The unlucky devilish mage took the glass bottle and was about to smash it, but suddenly heard Lin Li say this sentence. One hand froze there, weighing the pros and cons, and the middle-aged man finally trembled and brought the glass bottle to his mouth. In the end, he closed his eyes, resigned himself to his fate, and downed the entire bottle of medicine...

  "Drink slowly, it's not good to choke..." Lin Li reminded with a kind heart, then turned around and said to Ge Rui'an: "You take your time to interrogate, I'll go out for some fresh air, and come back to inform you when there's news."

  Lin stood in the hall for less than half an hour when he saw the door to the basement open, and Grian walked out with a somewhat lingering fear on his face. The few magicians who followed him couldn't help but reveal a hint of dread in their expressions as they looked at Lin.

  "What kind of medicine did you give him, how can it be so effective? I casually asked him a few questions and he spilled everything, while begging me to spare his life... damn, I didn't even do anything to him..." Gideon sat down on a chair, still looking a bit pale as he turned to Lin Li.

  "Fear toxin is like that, infinitely amplifying all kinds of negative emotions. Anything can make him full of fear. Maybe in his illusion, you are torturing him with various cruel punishments..." Lin Li casually mentioned the effect of the fear toxin and curiously asked: "What did he say exactly?"

  "Simply put, it was those three bastards. They were dissatisfied with me kicking them out of the guild and someone offered a high price to lure them, so they very readily sold out the defensive layout of the Slaughter Mountain Valley." Grian said this much, then let out a somewhat remorseful sigh: "If we really get down to it, I'm also to blame for this. After kicking those three out of the guild, I should have immediately changed the defensive layout of the Slaughter Mountain Valley. Those 125 Wizard's Eyes, all three of them had taken turns replenishing their magic... and those 20 sentry towers were also set up under my supervision by the three of them... But once the auction started getting busy, I forgot about this matter. Plus, at the time, I still had a bit of wishful thinking in my heart, thinking that the Shadow's Nest wouldn't dare to make a move against the Mage Association... and look what happened..."

  "This is indeed your negligence..." Lin Li nodded.

  "Besides him, the other two guys are also accomplices. Whether they're lucky or not, I went out this morning and couldn't dig them up. According to this guy, it seems like they've defected to some force within Gallos City, don't know if it's true or false. Looks like we'll have to hold another auction next time and definitely get those two guys out..."

  "Stop bothering me!" Lin Li knew what the old man was thinking as soon as he heard it. He didn't want to spend all day cooped up in the pharmacy, having just arrived in a completely unfamiliar world with many places he hadn't been and things he hadn't tried yet. How could he be content staying in the pharmacy?

  "Never mind, let's not mention that, let's talk business..." Grian curled his lip and lowered his voice to say: "You definitely wouldn't guess who bought the Demon-slaying Mountain Valley defense setup from him..."

  "Who is it?"

  "Evan - that annoying little brother of Matthew's!"

  "My god, he's got guts!" Lin Li was shocked for a moment, but quickly calmed down: "Is Evan Merlyn so stupid? Such a shady thing, can't just send someone to do it, why is he so stupid to take the risk himself and get his identity exposed?"

  "Evan didn't go himself, he just sent a low-level magician to contact him, but this guy wasn't reassured after the contact and secretly followed Evan's person. Think about it, as a magic guide, following a low-level magician is nothing, so by following him, he dug out the person behind his back..."

  "This guy has indeed saved us a lot of trouble..." Lin Li thought carefully, the Mei Lin family was really somewhat abnormal. Since the battle with Ge Rui An, Matthew had disappeared without a word, and even Kelvin had not appeared in public. The only thing related to them was the transaction of over 800,000 gold coins at the auction.

  "Isn't that just great?" Grian grumbled, "The Merlin family must be in cahoots with the Shadow's Nest. Goddamn it, just thinking about it gives me a headache. One Shadow's Nest was already enough trouble, now we've got the Merlin family too..."

  "The enemies hiding in the dark are the ones to be feared. Now that we know who's trying to stir up trouble, this matter has become much simpler. How... could you be afraid of Old Mei Lin?"

  "Am I afraid of him?" Grian's eyes widened, about to say a few harsh words, but then remembered the battle outside the Emerald Tower and instead smiled wryly: "But he's probably not afraid of me either. Last time, if it wasn't for your awakening potion, who knows what would have happened to me..."

  "What's the big deal about one bottle? This time I'll prepare a whole pack for you. You can drink one and throw one away, and it will exhaust him to death!" Lin Li said gritting his teeth, then asked Ge Rui'an: "By the way, how much longer until my duel with Cromwell?"

  "Not many days left, but that kid is a waste of space, no need to worry."

  "This is not good to say... Old Mei Lin is not a fool, since he dared to make this request, he must have his own plan. I need to seize the time and quickly improve my magic level, it's best to reach the level of a magic guide before the duel, so that I can deal with Kerenwell with confidence. Do you have any way to quickly improve my magic level?"

  "Stop dreaming!" Grian glared at Lin Li with a bad attitude: "If there's a way to quickly upgrade magic levels, your dozens of bottles of OF potions would still be worth over 1 million gold coins?"

  "No, I remember now, there really is a way!" Just as he said that, Grian suddenly remembered something: "I once saw it in a magic book before, the higher elves have a method to forcibly upgrade their magic level, and it's said that the highest can reach level 5. However, after forcing the upgrade, this person's lifelong potential will be completely exhausted, and they'll never be able to make any progress again..."

  "You'd better keep this method for yourself, I'll just drink a few more bottles of medicine to be on the safe side..."

  "Why have you suddenly become so serious about this duel?"

  "I don't want to worry about the Meilin family making a move behind my back when I'm dealing with the Shadow Nest later..."

  Gillian's plump face revealed a few points of surprise: "You want to deal with the Merlin family?"

  "It's not me..." Lin Li shook his head, smiling with an innocent face: "The one who will deal with the Meilin family is the Great Mage Greian. Starting tomorrow, Greian will launch a full-scale attack on the Meilin family. By the time of the duel, Old Meilin will probably be driven mad, and he'll definitely vent his anger on me. I think I'd better bring some extra potions to protect myself..."

  “……”

  Two scoundrels were discussing how to strike at the Merlin family, but they heard a guild magician come up and announce, "Gryffin-Burnsided, the magician has arrived."

  "Greenburn Sneed!" Grian sat in his chair, stunned, for a good half hour before stuttering out the order: "Q-quickly... p-please... s-summon Greenburn Sneed, the magician!"