Published: March 11, 2025
CHAPTER 70: Mysterious Forces
When Galen asked this question, Zhao Hai was taken aback. They had already exchanged several sentences, yet Galen still wondered if these eight individuals could speak. This was too strange, wasn't it? Could Galen and the others not hear him?
Zhao Hai turned to Galen and said, “Grandpa Galen, we've already spoken several times. Didn’t you hear us?”
Galen and the others shook their heads. It was only then that Zhao Hai confirmed that Galen and the others really couldn't hear his conversation with the undead mercenary group.
As Zhao Hai was puzzled, Merlin spoke up, “Alright, enough of the questions. They are undead beings, after all. How could they speak? However, they are high-level undead beings and can communicate directly with the young master through mental power. To the young master, it feels as if they are speaking in his ear, but in reality, they are not making any sound.”
After Merlin explained, Zhao Hai and the others finally understood. Zhao Hai nodded and glanced at the undead dark mages, saying, “Since you all have called me master, you can stop using your old names. Let me give you some new names. Who’s the leader among you?”
The skeleton who had just spoken to Zhao Hai took a step forward and said, “Master, I am.”
Zhao Hai nodded and said, “Good, from today on, you will be called Zhao Zui. The second will be Zhao Chui, the third Zhao Shan, the fourth Zhao Feng, the fifth Zhao Chong, the sixth Zhao Lu, the seventh Zhao Qi, and the eighth Zhao Lian.”
The eight individuals responded in unison. Although their intelligence had not been significantly affected, they had already accepted Zhao Hai as their master due to the mental link, so they certainly wouldn’t argue against him.
Seeing that they agreed, Zhao Hai continued, “Now, answer my previous question. Who told you that Laura had the Necromancer's Orb?”
Zhao Zui quickly replied, “Master, we heard the news from a not-so-important member of the Magedel family. At first, we didn’t believe it, but what he said seemed too genuine. We all wanted to increase our strength, so we took action.”
Zhao Hai nodded. He had an idea of what was going on—this was just another play in the internal struggles of a family, nothing extraordinary.
Zhao Hai turned to Zhao Zui and said, “From now on, call me young master. You all have robbed quite a few good things over the years. Where are those items now?”
Zhao Zui immediately replied, “Young master, although we’ve been robbing outside for all these years, we rarely kept the things we obtained. We handed everything over to our previous master.”
Zhao Hai was taken aback and then his expression changed, “Previous master? You all recognized someone else as your master before? When did that happen?”
Zhao Zui hurriedly said, “Master, you misunderstood. It's not that we recognized someone else as our master; it’s just that we were taken in by our previous master since childhood. He taught us our magic, and when we had learned enough, he sent us out to form the undead mercenary group to help him gather wealth, and that continued until now.”
Hearing Zhao Zui's words, Zhao Hai not only didn’t feel relieved, but his mood became even heavier. He quickly asked, “What was your previous master's identity?”
Zhao Zui shook his head and replied, “We don’t know. We rarely saw him; a servant took care of us. Even when we did see him, he was always wearing a dark magic robe, concealing himself completely, so we couldn’t see him.”
Zhao Hai’s mood grew even heavier. He realized that the force behind Zhao Zui and the others was definitely not simple. A force that could cultivate them from a young age to become seventh-level mages required immense manpower and resources. What was even scarier was the fact that people with magical talent were few and far between on the continent, and dark magic was relatively obscure and difficult to practice. Selecting individuals suitable for practicing dark magic was even harder.