“Um, do you actually know where Zhi Zi is?”
“Zhi Zi? Is that her name?”
“Uh, you’re her mentor and you don’t even know her name?”
Luo Ya asked Lian Shan with a puzzled expression.
But Luo Ya quickly realized on her own.
“Oh! Right! She came up with the name Zhi Zi right in front of me. It’s probably a fake name.”
Lian Shan Xianzhe smiled without saying a word.
“What an interesting little girl.”
“You flatter me. You showing up out of nowhere really startled me.”
Luo Ya chuckled.
But strangely enough, Luo Ya’s eyes seemed somewhat unfocused, as if they had no focal point.
While Xia An had gone to report his duties, Luo Ya had been controlled by Lian Shan using mental magic.
Lian Shan felt no guilt whatsoever about directly abducting her.
Now that she was in his hands, he doubted that Xia An fellow would dare to barge into his territory.
If he actually dared, then that would be perfect.
Under the protection of the Deep Blue Laws, he wouldn’t be held responsible for killing him.
At worst, it would just look bad.
It wouldn’t bother him at all.
Future Sage or not?
He was merely a future Sage.
How many geniuses spring up like bamboo shoots after rain every year?
And how many of them, lacking sufficient resources, wither away early and fade into obscurity?
After decades of research finally nearing its conclusion, Lian Shan couldn’t help but feel a sense of relief, as if unburdened.
“Lord Sage, what are all these instruments for?”
Lian Shan heard Luo Ya’s voice.
Since the experiment was about to yield progress, Lian Shan found himself viewing Luo Ya quite favorably at the moment.
So, for once, he patiently explained to her.
“These are the Creation Apparatuses I once used to create the [Deep Blue Battle Mages].”
It was as if a floodgate had opened, and Lian Shan began speaking endlessly.
He didn’t bother considering whether Luo Ya could understand.
Rather than explaining to her, it seemed more like he was talking to himself.
“Child, do you know the history of Deep Blue?”
“The history of Deep Blue?”
“Yes, the history of Deep Blue.”
Lian Shan’s tone grew low, and his thoughts began to drift into the distance.
“The history of Deep Blue…”
I, Lian Shan Xianzhe, can proudly say that in the history of Deep Blue, I am a figure who has been present throughout, whose influence has been profound.
I am nearly 1,100 years old now, and 1,000 of those years have been spent in Deep Blue.
I don’t know why, but the longer I live, the more often I find myself recalling the days when I was still a mage apprentice.
Back then, I was so weak it makes my current self laugh.
Naive, foolish, blindly optimistic about everything.
Yet somehow, I constantly think back to those days.
Back then, I came from an ordinary family.
At the age of 13, I was chosen by some mage lord to become his errand boy.
Formal instruction was out of the question.
For two or three years straight, I only did miscellaneous alchemy tasks.
Purifying metals, cleaning instruments, serving my mentor in my spare time, and praying that he was in a good mood and wouldn’t beat or scold me.
I always believed that if I worked hard enough to please my mentor, he would eventually teach me real skills.
But as the years passed, I went from full of anticipation, to disappointment, to confusion, and finally to despair.
The golden years for meditation are only a few, and those years, so precious to me, were all wasted doing repetitive, meaningless manual labor by my mentor’s side.
At night, I would hide alone under my blankets and cry.
In a dormitory of over 20 people, I didn’t dare cry too loudly, so I could only wipe away my tears under the covers.
What?
Shocked to hear I had such a past?
The foundation of every deity is built upon the spine of mortals.
The beginning of every legend and myth is often just an ordinary story.
No matter how glorious you may appear on the outside, there is always a long, solitary journey of hardship before that.
I was no exception, child.
I wanted to accomplish something great.
I wanted to become an incredibly powerful mage.
I refused to accept mediocrity.
I refused to let my life slip away meaninglessly.
With no teacher to guide me, I studied those Magic Runes and the Mana Conversion Principle on my own.
After a long, exhausting day, even when my mind and body were weary, I forced myself to open those obscure, difficult-to-understand Grimoires.
Finally, at the age of 16, I released the first spell of my life.
I cannot describe in words how happy I was at that moment.
I rolled around on my bed like I was having a seizure, convulsing until dawn.
It was nothing more than the simplest Illumination Technique, utterly without merit.
But I still remember it vividly.
While everyone else was fast asleep, that single glimmer of light was so brilliant in the dark dormitory.
I felt as though my entire life had been illuminated by that light.
I bit down hard on my blanket, stifling the laughter and sobs that wanted to escape my throat.
I was truly happy then.
Truly happy…
I realized I didn’t need any damn mentor.
I could still teach myself and succeed.
Even though I had to hide the fact that I could use magic back then, because if my mentor found out, he would definitely be on guard.
Only if we knew nothing would we be submissive to him.
But I still felt there was hope for my future.
Please forgive my digression, child.
When memories come flooding back like this, it’s hard not to ramble a bit.
I just wanted you to understand how important that happiness was to me…
…In the thousand-odd years of my life that followed, I was never that happy again.
Where was I?
Oh, right.
The history of Deep Blue.
You must think Deep Blue is a fine place, don’t you?
I think so too.
But Deep Blue is just one of the countless Magic Towers scattered across this land.
A perfectly ordinary one.
And of the original Twenty-Four Sages who founded Deep Blue, only I remain.
In a thousand years, my colleagues have been replaced batch after batch, yet I am still here.
Because Deep Blue holds a special meaning for me.
You must have heard the story of how the Twenty-Four Sages jointly cast a spell, uprooted the surrounding mountains, and forged the foundation of Deep Blue.
I admit, my title of Lian Shan was earned back then.
But do you know why our group wandered to this place in the first place?
Let me tell you quietly.
Don’t be too shocked.
The twenty-four of us had all fled in indignation after our magical research was stolen, seeking to establish our own Magic Towers.
Sounds incredible, doesn’t it?
Even as Sages, our magical research could still be stolen.
It’s simply because Deep Blue has no mages above the rank of Sage.
In the Magic Tower I originally came from, a Sage was nothing special.
That’s precisely why, when Deep Blue was first founded, the laws the twenty-four of us established heavily emphasized that a mage’s personal research belonged only to them, and was sacred and inviolable.
You could say that this is the foundation upon which Deep Blue was built.
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