Chapter 211: Instigation

Fran had thought that even if Nolan didn't come, the one he would send would be Karon.

Fran would be at ease if one of those two came. Nolan was always gentle with his disciples, and even if they made a mistake, he would only say a few words and let it go. Karon wouldn't even say anything. As the most successful disciple, Karon would take good care of all of them. When Nolan couldn't make a personal appearance, he would usually send Karon.

Fran was certain that recounting the bitter experience he had experienced on the road would be enough to convince Nolan or Karon to stick up for him.

But Suyass had appeared...

Among Nolan's numerous disciples, Suyass was the latest disciple, but he was shockingly talented. Not only was he one of the peak Master Alchemists of Okland, he had also become an Archmage a few years ago. The name Magic Flame Suyass had been spreading through Okland for the past few years. He was considered by many as the 3rd most prominent person of the Mercury Tower.

In contrast, Fran's achievements were too embarrassing to display...

Fran had become a disciple of Nolan at least ten years before Suyass, but after many years, the ones he had once looked down upon had surpassed him. Fran made no progress all that during that time. Whether it was in alchemy or magic, there was no clear improvement.

Moreover, the relationship between both of them kept worsening.

In the past two years, Suyass would usually not speak to Fran unless it was to shout at and scold him. Fran couldn't raise his head in front of Suyass and could only turn and walk away when seeing him, avoiding him completely. Fran feared this young disciple.

Of the many members of the Mercury Tower, Fran wasn't afraid of Nolan or Karon.... But he was afraid of Suyass.

Seeing Suyass appearing at such a time, Fran couldn't help complaining inwardly.

"Follow me." Suyass glanced at Fran and entered the tent after saying those two words with an icy tone.

Fran couldn't help feeling nervous when he saw Suyass' expression. He glanced around reflexively but remembered that this wasn't the Mercury Tower, so there was no one that could help him here. Thus, Fran had no choice to but brace himself and walk inside the tent, with an expression similar to that of a prisoner on death row facing the scaffold.

"Teacher already saw your letter," Suyass said with a very peaceful voice as he casually sat down in the tent.

But for some reason, Fran was afraid, afraid to the point that his voice shook when he asked, "What... What did Teacher say?"

"Teacher was afraid that you can't handle it by yourself, so he sent me to help you. If you really found that set of Spiritual Magic Tools, then I'll have to discuss with the other forces. The Mercury Tower is willing to use other assets to trade for it." After saying this, Suyass looked at Fran with dissatisfaction. "But I think that the set of Spiritual Magic Tools you mentioned doesn't exist..."

Fran was startled... What he feared had happened.

"Fran, do you think Teacher didn't notice your trick? Unless you ran into some huge trouble, would you be willing to write to Teacher? Do you think that mentioning Vaughn's alchemy laboratory and that set of Spiritual Magic Tools would make Teacher personally visit the Four Seasons Canyon? Are you asking Teacher to settle your problems?"

Suyass looked at Fran with a sneer as he scolded, "I already told you quite a few times to spend more time studying alchemy. If you spent half as much time on alchemy as you do on scheming against the Merlin Family, you would have already reached the peak of the Master Alchemist realm. Would you still need Teacher to help with these minor problems then?"

"I didn't want for it to come to this..." Fran was unable to raise his head.

"Forget it, Fran, it's the path you chose. I can help you this time, but I hope that you won't write a letter to Teacher next time. Teacher is already a few hundred years old, do you think he has the time to worry about you all day long? Do you feel no shame?"

"I... I didn't think it would be like that..."

"Okay, tell me, what kind of trouble did you meet? My time is very valuable, after solving your problems, I have to go to the Golden Forest plane to take over Karon's task."

"It's like this..." Hearing that Suyass was willing to help, the scared and anxious Fran suddenly regained his drive. After straightening out his thoughts, he said, "After arriving at Thousand Sails City, I spent my time researching Vaughn's treasury. After flipping through many books and materials, I found out that the arrays of the Vaughn Treasury exceeded my abilities. I originally wanted to give up, but Lys kept asking, so... so..."

"So you made up a story and wrote a letter to Teacher to ask for help." Suyass sneered before bluntly nodding. "This is fine, I've been studying the Hexagram Star of Vaughn, so I have some understanding of that last Artisan of the 3rd Dynasty. When you guys send an exploration team, save me a spot."

Hearing this, Fran knew that things were going well, so he acted as if he wanted to say something but was hesitating. "It's just that..."

"Hmm?" Sure enough, Suyass prodded him to continue. "It's just that what?"

"Well, I don't know who Lys listened to, but he unexpectedly found someone else to break the arrays."

"Isn't that good?"

"The problem is that I'm not too sure about the abilities of the person Lys found. He is called Mafa Merlin and is a Great Mage. At the same time, he is also a Master Alchemist and is about to turn twenty this year. It could be said that his talent is good, but how could I feel reassured by his age?"

"That young?" Hearing that, Suyass couldn't help being impressed. Becoming a Great Mage and a Master Alchemist before turning twenty... He was a rare talent. Even Suyass himself had only reached that level at the age of 25.

But, was it really a problem to be that young?

He might be a genius in the field of magic. Suyass also had great achievements in magic at a young age. But in the field of alchemy, no shortcuts could be taken. The more profound the alchemy, the more experience was needed. Every achievement in the field of alchemy was obtained through pushing on while piling up failures.

Using a Master Alchemist that isn't even twenty to crack complex arrays...

What was Lys thinking?

This was like gambling with the lives of the hundreds of people of the exploration team...

"I already advised Lys many times. Although this Mafa Merlin is a genius in the field of alchemy, he is too lacking in experience at this age. The arrays within the Vaughn Treasury are too much for him to handle. But Lys didn't listen. Moreover, that Mafa Merlin is extremely arrogant and insisted that he could break the arrays. He even said that the reason I wasn't confident was the alchemy level of the Mercury Tower being too low!"

Fran stopped there and slightly lowered his head while paying attention to Suyass' expression.

"Eh?" Suyass frowned. "The Mercury Tower's alchemy level is too low?"

"Yes, that Mafa Merlin said so. If not because of that, I wouldn't have written a letter to Teacher. I truly didn't want to see the hundreds of people of the exploration team being driven to ruin because of the arrogance of a kid..." After saying that, Fran sighed helplessly.

"Haha, it looks like the Mercury Tower had been too low key in the past few years... Low key to the point that a young kid could actually question the Mercury Tower's level of skill in alchemy..." Suyass' frown deepened before he showed a rare smile.

"Haha, maybe it's because Thousand Sails City is too remote?" Fran smiled, knowing that he had reached his goal.

They were fellow disciples. Although their relationship wasn't good, how could Fran not know that whenever Suyass exposed that smile, it meant that he was truly infuriated?

Him being infuriated was perfect.

'It's time for Mafa Merlin to taste the kind of fear I have been feeling in the Mercury Tower...'

"Let's go. Take me to see this Mafa Merlin. I want to see how skilled he is to dare to question the skills of the Mercury Tower." After saying that, Suyass slowly got up. He still had the smile on his face, but in Fran's eyes, that smile signaled Mafa Merlin's death sentence.

Although Fran was secretly happy, he still added a few more words. "Oh right, Suyass, there is a 9th Rank High Mage outside named Solomon, he is the disciple of Star Sage Jouyi and is very protective of that Mafa Merlin. You should be careful, you can't be too hard on Solomon so we can avoid Teacher having to explain himself in front of Jouyi..."

Fran's words were very treacherous. It sounded as if he was trying to stop Suyass from acting too excessively, but in reality, he was saying that Solomon was relying on his relationship with Star Sage Jouyi to protect that young Master Alchemist who questioned the Mercury Tower.

Most people would be careful of Star Sage Jouyi's reaction when listening to this.

But who was Suyass? He was the only genius under Nolan who could chase behind Karon. In all of Okland, only Nolan and Karon were worthy of his respect. What Jouyi, what Harren? Suyass never paid attention to them. Hearing these words, his expression became even more frightening. "Solomon? I see..."