Chapter Ninety: A Clichéd Performance

Not long after Blaze returned, a knock sounded at the courtyard gate.

Interrupted once again in the middle of his experiment, Blaze felt an urge to throw this fellow out the same way he had Casillias. But the man had come by the proper channel, carrying a pass and following the rules, so Blaze could only open the gate with a dark expression.

“What do you want? Who are you?” Blaze asked Moray coldly, his whole body radiating one emotion only: irritation.

Moray was a little afraid at the sight of him, but among the few mages who had never seen Blaze’s strength firsthand, he was not yet frightened beyond reason.

“Hello, Master Blaze. I’m Moray from the New York Sanctuary. I’d like to ask when Master Gu Yi will return,” Moray said with great politeness.

“Master Gu Yi? She’s your leader, why ask me? Isn’t everything being handled by Wang now? Go ask him.” Blaze was already about to shut the gate.

Moray quickly pressed a hand against it. “It’s like this. Wang sent me to ask you. Master Gu Yi has gone to discuss matters with Master Kieran, and I wanted to ask how long a meeting like yours usually lasts.”

“How long?” Blaze looked blank for a moment. He was hardly one of the highest-ranking people in the Clock Tower.

Besides, when he had been in the Clock Tower before, Blaze had always been the sort who avoided meetings whenever possible, unless it was a genuine research conference of real scientific value. So asking him that was absurd.

Just as he was about to refuse, Blaze suddenly thought that giving no answer might leave him being pestered for a long time, wasting his time. Lately, he had felt an unexplained unease, as though something major was about to happen. Perhaps after this, there would be very few chances for quiet study and organization like this, so he had to make use of every moment.

After a brief hesitation, Blaze said, “Two or three days. Wait another two or three days, and he should be back. If he isn’t, come ask me again.”

With that, he slammed the door shut.

Staring at the closed gate, Moray pondered the words in confusion. Two or three days... was that two days or three? And when did those two or three days begin? Did today count as one of them? And which time zone was he supposed to use?

Just as these questions were exploding wildly in Moray’s mind, the gate suddenly opened again. Blaze looked at him and asked, “Was the one who came earlier, the guy named Casillias, here to ask the same thing?”

“Huh?” Moray froze. Casillias—he had heard of him. He was one of the foremost mages here, but only by reputation. They had never met, so Moray could only nod uncertainly. “Yes.”

“Then tell him this: if he wants to ask something in the future, come through the front gate and bring a pass. Don’t make it look like he’s here to steal something. The way he behaves, where I’m from, people usually assume he’s come to pilfer research成果—” Blaze cut himself off, then shut the door again.

After the gate closed, Blaze let out a long sigh. Never mind. It didn’t look like a good time for research lately. He might as well give himself a break and spend a few days organizing his materials.

Outside, Moray scratched his head and turned away. He was going to find Casillias. As one of Master Gu Yi’s important disciples, he ought to know more.

That was the plan, but after searching the entire monastery, Moray still could not find Casillias anywhere. Asking the other mages, he learned that Casillias had stormed out with a grim face earlier and no one knew where he had gone. In the end, Moray could only return to his room in confusion.

At the peak of a branch range of the Himalayas, Casillias sat cross-legged on a platform at the summit, brilliant streams of magical energy weaving in his hands into one circle after another.

“So this is all you plan to practice? Practicing for a lifetime still won’t make you the next Sorcerer Supreme.”

A small statue beside Casillias suddenly spoke, its tone laced with mockery. From the sound of it, it clearly looked down on the signature craft of the mages of Kamar-Taj.

“No need to seduce me. Once Master Gu Yi returns, I’ll hand you over to her. Then you’ll have a hard time of it,” Casillias said, pretending to be calm.

“No way, no way. You don’t actually think that if you hand me over, she’ll let you learn more advanced magic, do you?” the statue went on in a sly, mocking tone. “For five hundred years, no one else has been given the qualification to study. Do you really think you can get it? Besides, if you send me back, I can come again next year. Does that even count as merit?”

Casillias said nothing, but Mephisto’s voice echoed in his heart.

“She herself uses the power of the Dark Dimension, yet forbids the rest of you from using it. Isn’t that the very definition of hypocrisy? We should oppose hypocrisy, expose her. Don’t you want to be a hero?” Mephisto continued to tempt him.

“Shut up!” Casillias roared.

Mephisto chuckled, staring at the sky through the tiny statue, as though Gu Yi were standing there.

See that? Your disciple has already become like me. Angry, aren’t you? Furious, aren’t you? You saw the future, yet you were too late to change it. Angry, aren’t you? Furious, aren’t you?

High above, Yang Qiu stood with his hands behind his back and turned to look at the expressionless Gu Yi beside him. “He saw us?”

Gu Yi shook her head and gave a faint sigh. This was the outcome she least wanted to see, yet among all the futures she could observe, it was also the one most likely to occur.

Her plan required, besides Mephisto, one villain and one hero. She had left that choice to the people selected by the plan. Unfortunately, it seemed Casillias had made up his mind to be the villain. As for the role of the hero, Gu Yi was still uncertain whether to let Moray take it.

If she wanted to dissolve the Mage Council of Kamar-Taj without causing the dismissed mages to hate the Clock Tower and the soon-to-emerge mystic forces, then that hatred had to be redirected toward another target.

As for the hero figure, that was a fallback Gu Yi had left behind. After all, once the Mage Council of Kamar-Taj was dissolved, if there were no leader to guide them, things could descend into chaos for a while, which would also be unfavorable to the integration of Kamar-Taj’s mages into the Clock Tower.

Seeing that Gu Yi had fallen silent, Yang Qiu said nothing more either. In Kamar-Taj, he was an outsider and it was not his place to interfere too much. In any case, Gu Yi would not act recklessly or foolishly, so he might as well leave it to her.

“Help me spread a message,” Gu Yi said suddenly.

“Sure, no problem. Tell me what it is,” Yang Qiu replied.

“This message must be guaranteed to reach here,” Gu Yi added.

“Easy. A trivial matter.” Yang Qiu waved a hand. He still had a large number of captured mages from the Kamar-Taj Sanctuaries under him; if he wanted to let a message slip through them to this place, that would be effortless.