Elite Mages' Academy

With the inclusion of Ibeiya, their journey was not too boring. Lilith was actually not a great companion for conversation; any conversation with her would inevitably shift to fighting after two or three sentences, and now Lilith’s interest in Xiao Lin seemed to be growing exponentially.

Of course, Xiao Lin did not dare think that interest was anything other than wanting to fight him.

Thanks to Ibeiya, their conversations were more centered on Planet Norma’s culture and traditions. Xiao Lin’s understanding of the New World was obviously pitifully low, and while Lilith might have been there for more than a year, it was impossible to expect the woman to be interested in anything other than combat.

Ibeiya understood a lot of things, which caused Xiao Lin to give more credence to the fact that she was a bastard child of a royal family. On Planet Norma, other than noble women with high standings, it was rare for commoners to receive any form of higher education.

Ibeiya was very well-spoken; coupled with her cute and friendly appearance, conversations with her were very engaging. However, Xiao Lin would occasionally be on alert; the girl would suddenly skillfully and subtly twist the conversations to gain information on them.

Ibeiya seemed to be extremely curious, but Xiao Lin and Lilith were not stupid. Any questions that touched on their important secrets, which were the things to do with Eath, would be waved away by them with a laugh. Ibeiya would only pout for a bit and call them cunning before continuing with the conversation.

Two days passed by very quickly, and they headed south along the foot of the hill after leaving the ravine. Under Ibeiya’s instructions, they went through a narrow winding road, using the shortest distance to traverse the mountain range. After another half a day of walking, they went past a small forest before arriving at Silverlight Lake.

It was an extremely large lake. The vast blue and calm surface was very relaxing. There was a wide grassland next to the lake, and something nearby looked like a village. In it were a number of houses of varying sizes. Being evening, lights could be seen, which signified that it was populated.

Ibeiya said, “Silverlight Lake used to be desolate and uninhabited, but an unceasing war about a hundred years ago caused a number of people to escape here before settling down. Red Beard came from this place. I heard that he was unhappy being stuck in poverty when he was young, and started to attack merchant groups. That slowly led to their current power.”

“How will we get in?” Lilith was concerned about their plans for once. She thought for a moment before pointing at the three hostages. “They’re in the way.”

“@#*%...!”

The hostages seemed to have sensed Lilith’s unkind gaze before quickly saying a few words. Ibeiya smiled as she translated, “Lilith, your expression really scared them. They said that they were willing to lead us into the village and will be very accommodating.”

Xiao Lin and Lilith discussed for a bit before deciding to keep them temporarily. Finding the treasure in Silverlight Lake was not going to be something that could be done in a day or two, and they would probably need the help of someone familiar with Red Beard. Even if Lilith did not completely believe the three of them, with the current situation, keeping them around was better than killing them.

Walking around the lake, they did not encounter any difficulties walking into the village. However, they still drew a lot of curious and alerted gazes. They could see quite a few kids playing around in the narrow streets. It was just as they heard; there were only kids and old people left here.

“It seems like Red Beard doesn’t treat his own people well,” Xiao Lin said.

“Red Beard is a cruel person. I heard that those who came looking for Red Beard’s treasure would always torture the villagers here, so anyone who was not an old person or a child had already left. It’s only after people started giving up on finding the treasure in recent years that the village started to do better.”

“It sounds quite pitiful.” Xiao Lin looked around. As a village that was a hundred years old, it was way too small.

“Ah, pitiful people all have their dark secrets. A lot of people here went out with Red Beard to plunder and pillage all those years ago, so there are not many natives here that can say they are completely innocent.”

Xiao Lin and Lilith were conversing in Mandarin, with the occasional English thrown in. No matter their accent or their words, they attracted a lot of attention. An old, white-haird man quickly walked over with the support of a few children, trembling as he uttered a few words.

He spoke in Normese, but there was not much influence of a dialect so Xiao Lin could more or less understand. They did not need Ibeiya to translate this time as Lilith answered him right away.

The old man was the oldest person in the village, and was in charge of it as well. However, looking at the state of the village, there was not much meaning to being the village leader.

The old man was undoubtedly shocked at the appearance of Xiao Lin and Lilith, asking them if they were here for the treasure. Almost anyone who came here had that goal in mind.

Xiao Lin was about to say something when Lilith responded, “We came from that side, and just passed by to look at the scenery in Silverlight Lake. Nothing will happen if you don’t disturb us.”

“Outsiders? Dawn Academy!”

Xiao Lin heard the words Dawn Academy in the old man’s words. Everything then became very simple after that. The old man’s expression became very humble and even more respectful. He immediately arranged a place for them to stay.

“Outside, especially in our territories, our statuses are quite special. As long as they are natives who aren’t publicly against us, they will often be quite subservient,” Lilith said expressionlessly.

Xiao Lin sighed. He now understood that they were called outsiders when out of their own territories. The academies had long since turned into an overbearing existence to them, but Xiao Lin had a very complicated feeling when he had to take up that role.

The three released hostages also had a room arranged for them. They were initially afraid that the hostages would run, but it seemed like the three of them had a drastic change of attitudes after realizing they would not be killed, trying various ways to curry favor.

Xiao Lin had seen through their intentions. “They want a piece of the pie!”

“We can still use them for now. We’ll talk after we find the treasure.” Lilith did not care. Killing the three of them would not be difficult.

After settling down, they started to research the treasure. The first thing was to determine if the treasure really did exist in Silverlight Lake. The myths and rumors in the outside world had always been without substance, and more and more people started to believe it was not true in recent years.

However, Xiao Lin had faith in Yu Mei’s report.