Chapter 767: Caravan Gets Obstructed
Moreover, although Lin Li had yet to finish reading the entire Light Bible, he had already gained plenty of knowledge from it. Even though Lin Li did not have any experience with it in real combat, he could also feel that there was great improvement from before.
That was precisely the reason Lin Li could not help but recall the Book of Darkness from the Darkness Shrine. Hence, Lin Li could not give up Sendros’s invitation no matter what. He believed that if he really had an opportunity to read the Book of Darkness and perfect his understanding of Gloomy Dark’s power, he would definitely see an increase in the power of his Light and Darkness Domain, and he might just reach level-24.
After Lin Li revealed his intention to leave, the higher-ups of the Brilliance Shrine who were also pharmaceutical enthusiasts immediately panicked, and began to bombard him with plenty of questions about pharmaceutics. They were trying to seize every second left. Higher-ups like them definitely wouldn’t leave the Holy Mountain easily. Hence, it would be troublesome for them to go to the Tower of Dusk to ask Lin Li for advice again.
Tolon City was located on the border of the Ledin Kingdom. Originally a military base, it had become rather prosperous with the high influx of caravans during the times of peace. It had already become a medium-sized city.
Bright early in the morning, the city gate of Tolon City opened. The city guards armed with spears were standing on each side of the city gate, waiting to inspect the pa.s.sing caravans. Perhaps because there had been peace for too long, the people of the Dwarf Kingdom had never had much ambition, and there was barely any friction, either. The guards were all sluggish, and most of them were dozing off while holding onto spears.
There was a large caravan that was approaching the Dwarf Kingdom slowly on the avenue rather far away. The ten-odd carriages were full, but they were covered by a cloth; hence, it was unknown what goods they were carrying. Actually, such caravans were common in Tolon City.
The most eye-catching part of this one was the members of the caravan. Apart from the 200 mercenaries of various professions, there were also more than 20 mages.
In fact, it was not a big deal for there to be more than 20 mages in the caravan. However, if someone were to take a closer look, they would find out that the mages were all at least Archmages, and even if they were to encounter any thieves or bandits, they would definitely be able to defeat them.
“Captain, whom does this caravan belong to? The Glittergold Trade Union wouldn’t be so arrogant. It’d better not be a hoax to intimidate us,” said one of the city guards who noticed that the caravan was approaching.
“Those are not for intimidating others. I heard that that caravan belongs to a force from the Breezy Plains called the Tower of Dusk,” said one of the city guards.
“Breezy Plains? That seems to be very far away from us. Where is the Tower of Dusk? I heard that the most arrogant ones from that place are the bandits called Dark Blade. I’ve never heard of the Tower of Dusk,” the city guard said while carefully observing the caravan in front of him. As a citizen of the Ledin Kingdom, he didn’t have much respect for mages. In fact, it was just like how people of the Felan Kingdom didn’t respect clergymen.
“Who cares? As long as the caravan is not from the Brilliance Shrine, we’ll call the shots here. Check them,” said the city guard, who then walked towards the mage who was clearly the leader of the caravan.
Watching as their captain walked over, the other city guards pursed their lips in envy, and walked towards the carriage behind the caravan, preparing to inspect the cargo inside the carriage. However, before they could even do so, they received orders to let the caravan pa.s.s.
Still, no one found it strange at all, because those things happened every single day, and after the caravan entered the city, they would be able to obtain the benefits they deserved from the captain.
“Hah, gold coins? This Tower of Dusk is really interesting.” Everyone didn’t know how much the captain had got, but they received five gold coins each, which was enough to make them feel satisfied. After all, their monthly salary was only 10 gold coins.
The Tower of Dusk’s caravan entered Tolon City, and stopped in front of the largest hotel. In cities along borders, there would be countless caravans pa.s.sing by. Hence, there were plenty of hotels in the city, and most of them often contained extremely s.p.a.cious yards for the guests to park their carriages.
The caravan of the Tower of Dusk was led by Archmage Gavin. Due to the fact that his strength had already reached the peak of level-19, he had an understanding of the Legendary-realm. At this stage, there was no point in learning anymore, so he handed the matters over to the Tower of Dusk and took the trip as training.
However, at present, Gavin’s goal of training and gaining experience seemed to be difficult to achieve. With the current power of the escort, no one would be willing to waste their efforts on a caravan like that. There were more than 200 mercenaries, but they were all just like coolies who were sent by the forces that surrendered to the Tower of Dusk. However, the 20 Archmages were all well-equipped, and even an ordinary powerhouse of the Legendary-realm would never dare to provoke them.
After arranging everything for the caravan, Gavin turned down his companions’ invitation, and instead sat alone in his room to read some books about magic. He carefully tried to experience the enlightenment of the Legendary-realm. In the past, he’d even had the idea to give up on studying magic, thinking that being an Archmage was his limit. Instead, he turned his attention to pursuing authority. However, he now realized that the Legendary-realm wasn’t completely out of his reach, and that his desire for power in the past was way too ridiculous.
The Legendary-realm was something that he dared not think about prior to this, and yet the young mage Lin Li had actually managed to discover the mystery of the Legendary-realm within just two years! At the thought of everything he’d experienced in the past two years, Gavin felt rather emotional.
The darkness gradually shrouded the city of Tolon, which had fallen silent. There were no noises at all, except at the hotels that were still open for business. There would occasionally be some sounds of laughter and angry cussing. In the largest hotel in Tolon City, the oil lamps that lit up the windows went out one after another, and the people who had been getting busy for an entire day began to rest.
However, at this moment, there were neat footsteps shuffling on both sides of the wide street outside the hotel, followed by the appearance of rows of soldiers, who soon surrounded the hotel under the command of an officer. A few of them stepped forth and knocked on the door, and the sounds of their knocking became extremely ear-piercing in the quiet night.
Gavin closed the book of magic and dimmed the magic lamp on the table. Just as he was about to begin meditating, he heard a loud noise from outside, followed by the sounds of footsteps shuffling.
“Sir, have you gotten enough rest? Hurry and come here. There are soldiers in the yard who want to check and seal our cargo,” said an anxious Halsanki, who was in charge of guarding the goods at night.
Gavin couldn’t help but frown. This time, they were transporting 15 magical Crystal Cannons that Lin Li had requested. Such powerful long-range a.s.sault weapons were generally banned in all nations, but no one raised any objections now that it was a time of peace. Besides, the Tower of Dusk had already sent Crystal Cannons using this route more than once, yet the city guard of Tolon City actually only came to seize their goods now all of a sudden, which was rather confusing.
Of course, regardless of the reason, Gavin wouldn’t really allow the soldiers to take the magical Crystal Cannons away. After all, each Crystal Cannon cost hundreds of thousands of gold coins, and 15 of them would cost nearly 10,000,000 gold coins. The Tower of Dusk was not going to waste their money even if they were wealthy. It’s time those guys got to work, Gavin thought.
Gavin picked up his staff, and went to the backyard of the hotel with Halsanki who led the way. At this moment, the yard was already brightly lit. The city guard and the mercenaries guarding the goods were facing each other, seemingly about to get into a fight anytime soon. Given the power of the Tower of Dusk, they definitely wouldn’t be intimidated by the insignificant city guards. Even if there were only those 200 mercenaries and no mages, they would definitely be able to break through the guards who were surrounding them.
However, everyone knew that they couldn’t get physical, because their goods would definitely be confiscated, and they would probably never be able to take that route again. After all, the guards were representing the Ledin Kingdom. Besides, they all knew that the real owner of Ledin Kingdom was not a royal family, but the Brilliance Shrine.
“I received a report that there are prohibited goods in your caravan’s cargo. Please lay down your weapons for inspection,” one of the officers of the City Guards said haughtily.
At this moment, Gavin also walked towards them, and he pulled out a certificate before saying to the officer, “Sir, this is a pa.s.s that has been personally signed by Count Andre. It’s a permit for our caravan to skip the checks in the Ledin Kingdom. Would you like to take a look?”
Although Ledin Kingdom was a religious country, everyone had desires, what more clergymen who were officials and n.o.bles. They all wanted to be become bishops, not solely because they wanted to preach the religion. Since a long time ago, the Tower of Dusk had already spent plenty of gold coins to bribe the security personnel who were in charge of the inspections to clear the route. Tolon City was ruled by Count Andre of the Ledin Kingdom; hence, the most effective pa.s.s would be one signed by him.