Warlock Apprentice

Chapter 3174: Chapter 3175: Changhuo Clan

”Why have you aged?”

The new member of the Crystal Eye Clan said this to Kasata.

On the surface, he seemed to be ”expressing surprise” or ”questioning” why Kasata had suddenly aged.

However, the deeper meaning is interesting.

First of all, he must know Kasata. In other words, the ”old friend” Kasata muttered about initially should be him.

An old friend implies an acquaintance or a former companion. Generally, it refers to friends who have known each other for many years. Kasata became a member of the Elder Council six hundred years ago, and the natural lifespan of the Crystal Eye Clan usually ranges from seven hundred to a thousand years. Kasata has clearly reached the latter part of his lifespan, so his old friend is likely also several hundred years old?

Yet this Crystal Eye Clan member with a single earring looks more like a young man than an old one. This is the first point of doubt.

Furthermore, since Kasata has reached the end of his lifespan, his ”aging appearance” is a natural law if there is no external intervention.

This means that at his current age, Kasata should naturally appear elderly.

Considering this, the words of the Crystal Eye Clan member with the single earring become intriguing.

Combining previous speculations, it seems he doesn’t understand why his ”old friend” Kasata has suddenly become so aged and decrepit?

As if he has been asleep for too long or isolated from the world for too long, residing in a utopia where time is frozen, completely unaware of the passage of time outside.

This aspect offers a lot of room for wild speculation.

Where was he before this? Why was he unaware of the passage of time? Why did his old friend age, while he remained young?

And why did his appearance require a ceremony? Furthermore, why was this ceremony held at the Ring Fort, which should be bustling with people?

The further speculation is: was the ceremony held at the Ring Fort because of its significance, or was the Ring Fort built by the Crystal Eye Clan specifically for the ceremony? If it’s the latter, it’s quite terrifying to consider.

As you know, the structure inside Crystal City is connected by numerous Ring Forts.

While Angel was deep in thought, Luigi received a new piece of information: ”Glaipnir replicated the appearance of that Crystal Eye Clan member using a mirrored reflection technique.”

The so-called mirrored reflection involves presenting an image in a mirrored manner.

”Glaipnir originally intended to use Farada’s recognition to confirm the identity of this Crystal Eye Clan member. But unfortunately, Farada does not recognize this person; she has never even seen him.”

”In Farada’s own words—”

”He has a very distinctive appearance, especially his pair of elf-like long ears, which are extremely rare in the Crystal Eye Clan. But strangely, I haven’t seen him in Crystal City.”

Farada’s words essentially mean: his appearance is very recognizable, and possessing such rare long ears, he should be a subject of great interest among the Crystal Eye Clan. Or, he could become a prominent figure in gossip circles.

Yet, for such a unique existence, Farada has never seen him in Crystal City, which leaves her very puzzled.

Farada is puzzled, but her words confirm Angel’s speculation.

This Crystal Eye Clan member, manifested through an unknown ceremony, might indeed have been ”isolated from the world” for so long that he questions Kasata’s aging when he sees him, and so long that Farada, who has been in Crystal City for nearly four hundred years, has never seen him.

Angel voiced his conjectures.

Laplace raised an eyebrow, but said nothing; while Luigi remained silent, not because he had come to some realization, but simply because he was communicating with Glaipnir through a mental link.

Half a minute later, Luigi spoke: ”Your hypothesis appears correct. However, there is a clear time anomaly with him, manifesting as stopped time flow, or slowed time flow. Isolation from the world doesn’t result in time anomalies, so there must be a deeper secret here.”

”Glaipnir has a hypothesis, and this hypothesis might be the core piece of the ’puzzle’ she’s seeking.”

Luigi paused: ”Wait a moment, the answer should emerge soon.”

In Hiluda’s study, there’s likely the remaining part of the puzzle. When all the pieces come together, the secret will be revealed.

Though Glaipnir already has a hypothesis, she still needs to find the remaining pieces, to find the crucial evidence to support her hypothesis.

...

While waiting for Glaipnir to find the puzzle pieces, Angel and the others resumed their journey to the gathering at the fortified city.

The passage they walked before was mostly dim, with the only advantage being that it was a single path. There were no forks, and if they kept moving forward, they would eventually reach the end.

Now, this passage is just like before in the first half, but as they advance, not only does it become wider, and the light brighter, but fork roads also begin to appear.

Although there are forks, each junction has a signpost ensuring they won’t get lost because of them.

The reason for this sudden change, according to Luigi’s explanation, is that they are getting closer to the main station of the fortified city’s gathering, and all paths will converge. After all, if they didn’t merge, the main station of the fortified city’s gathering would be overloaded with paths, resembling a sieve more than ever.

Ultimately, hundreds of paths merge into ten main paths.

They should now be on one of these ten main paths.

So shortly, they might encounter others emerging from different paths? Angel thought as he looked at the constantly appearing forks.

No sooner had this thought crossed his mind than he heard a ”thud, thud, thud” sound.

The source came from a fork ahead.

”Is someone coming?” Angel whispered.

Luigi nodded, ”It’s hard to say if it’s a ’person.’ Although there are many humanoid species in the Daylight Mirror Domain, the dominant ones are still non-human races.”

For instance, Mirror Dragon isn’t a humanoid race.

However, this distinct ”thud, thud, thud” sound is clearly not made by a Mirror Dragon.

This sound, unlike any footsteps Angel had heard, sounded rather like... a blind cane.

When a blind person taps their cane on the ground, the sound produced is exactly this sharp.

However, now it’s just the sound of the blind cane tapping; there are no footsteps accompanying it. Thus, it might not be a blind cane.

While Angel silently speculated, the sound drew nearer, until ”he” emerged from the crystal-like fork.

When ’he’ appeared, Angel was clearly stunned for a second, because the appearance of the other party was too much like the Wood Spirit.

To be precise, it was the transmutated ”matchman” version of the Wood Spirit.

However, this one was even more robust and taller than the ”matchman” and could be referred to as an enlarged version of the matchman or simply as a ”stickman.”

Literally, a ”stick.”

His body was just a jet black rod, resembling a fire poker, or perhaps a black iron pole. His hands were slender rods, jointed segment by segment, and his legs... er, there were no definite legs; the rod ran straight from head to foot.

Consequently, what he called ”walking” was actually hopping, landing directly with the stick, making a sound akin to a walking cane.

Although his torso was a black rod and he had no definite feet, he did have facial features.

When he emerged from the passageway, he clearly noticed Angel and the others behind him; he turned around to look back, allowing Angel to see his face.

Similarly, he had no defined head; his face was located on the straight rod. There was no visible nose, a split mouth revealing a row of sparkling tusks, and his eyes were crescent-shaped with an internal red hue, giving a sense of sinister malevolence.

After seeing Angel and the others, the crescent-shaped red eyes of the stickman flickered, seemingly wanting to come closer.

However, before he could make a move, he saw Laplace’s pair of indifferent unusual eyes.

Laplace didn’t say anything, merely gazed at him coldly.

That gaze... consistent with regarding others as insignificant.

Being stared at with such eyes, he should have been angry according to his nature, but this time, there wasn’t a trace of anger. His emotions were frozen by a mysterious chill.

Though he didn’t understand why, he realized that this group of people was not to be messed with.

He paused for a moment, flashed what he considered a friendly smile at Angel and the others, and then vanished in an instant.

He didn’t disappear without a trace; Angel could feel his power resembling that of Wizard Kanter. His so-called disappearance was actually blending into the darkness, fleeing rapidly through it.

However, compared to Wizard Kanter’s ability, his fluctuation was much more apparent, at least when Kanter merged into darkness, Angel couldn’t sense Kanter’s presence at all. Whereas this one, even with a barrier, could be detected.

But admittedly, although his fluctuation was large, his speed was quite fast.

He left Angel’s range of perception almost instantly, and now it was unknown where he had fled to.

”Ha, to have encountered the Changhuo Clan, what bad luck!”

While Angel was still observing the empty distance, he heard Luigi’s cold sneer beside him.

”The Changhuo Clan, you mean that oversized matchman just now?” Angel asked curiously.

Luigi nodded, his face showing a look of clear disgust: ”That’s right, this race’s reputation in the Daylight Mirror Domain, although a bit better than Pirush, in my view, they’re actually more disgusting than Pirush.”

”At least, when I go to find Baba Ragon, if I’m in the mood, I’m willing to play the piano in front of Pirush. But the Changhuo Clan, haha, even if Crystalline spends a fortune to invite me, I wouldn’t go! No dog would perform there!”

”No dog would go... you wouldn’t go... so you are...” Angel muttered to himself.

Luigi glared: ”Don’t nitpick my words, I’m expressing my disgust for the Changhuo Clan! I don’t understand why the major clans dislike Pirush more; at least Pirush has a brilliant mind, but the Changhuo Clan has nothing, only instigating things every day. They’re the mosquitoes of the Daylight Mirror Domain, besides sucking blood, completely unhelpful.”

It’s the first time Angel heard Luigi express such discontent towards a race, making him curious about how the Changhuo Clan offended Luigi?

”They never offended me, I just dislike some of their actions!” Luigi insisted, still grumbling, his words carrying more emotion than substance.

Angel could only turn his gaze towards Laplace.

Laplace understood Angel’s intention and began to introduce this ”Changhuo Clan.”

The Changhuo Clan, living in a mirrored space called: Split Valley. They seem to be innately close to darkness, able to manipulate Dark Power and Ghostly Shadows.

Though their name includes ”Huo” (惑), it doesn’t mean charm but rather delusion.

They are born delusion-instigators, love sowing discord, enjoy instigating opposition, fragmenting tribes. But they don’t limit their instigations to outsiders; internally, they also attack each other and cause division.

Originally, the place they lived in was called ”Shadow Valley,” but later, several mastermind strategists arose within the Changhuo Clan, inciting external disputes and internal opposition between ”Darkness” and ”Ghostly Shadows,” splitting Shadow Valley into Dark Valley and Ghost Valley, leading to their complete internal division, hence known as Split Valley.

The reason Luigi dislikes the Changhuo Clan is also due to their delusion antics.

Though the Changhuo Clan never performed delusion tactics against Luigi, they incited many disputes in the Everstanding King City, one of which particularly angered Luigi.

This dispute boils down to one sentence: the Changhuo Clan manufactured a manipulation performance titled ”The Art of Elegance.”

It sounds complex but was essentially bringing the definition of ”elegant music” and ”vulgar music” from the human world into the Everstanding King City.

Certain instruments are elegant music, some are vulgar. Certain music is as noble as snow, some as vulgar as mud.

The Changhuo Clan’s tactics were not sophisticated, but they excelled at grasping human nature.

Ultimately, they successfully incited this dispute.

To Luigi, this was irrational, a stain. Hence, he extremely disliked the Changhuo Clan.

Of course, the Changhuo Clan didn’t just instigate for instigation’s sake; they gained significant benefits from the disputes. Each dispute allows them substantial profit.

Their current reputation surpasses Pirush partially due to buying people’s favor.

As for why they ”buy people’s favor,” it’s not genuinely for reputation; it’s a delusion tactic: instigating a portion of people, appeasing another, bribing some, and suppressing others.

Thus, the cycle of delusion is formed.

”However, the Changhuo Clan isn’t as completely useless as Luigi says; they have virtues too.” Laplace: ”They are very discerning of opportunities.”

When your power far exceeds the Changhuo Clan’s, even capable of crushing them, their threat diminishes, potentially becoming a sharp tool in your hand.

Laplace possesses overwhelming power over the Changhuo Clan, making her comment about their judiciousness defensible.

Angel recalled the Changhuo Clan who fled promptly upon sensing danger, silently nodding.

Indeed, very discerning of opportunities.