Chapter 1745: Chapter 489: Zheng Qing’s Choice

Crack!

The lightning and thunder outside the window grew fiercer.

Inside the warm cottage, a family of three was experiencing their last moments of warmth.

Outside the cottage, the rolling gray giant dragon among the clouds had vanished, and as night descended, it seemed like a dark beast opened its mouth wide, swallowing the cottage whole.

On the battlefield, beside the ruins of the collapsed prison cell.

After a long silence, the Mi-go opened the bat-like wings behind it, lifted its head, and the colors on the vortex-shaped tumor on its forehead quickly changed and then gradually settled into the simple sketch of a smiling face.

The little witch held in its jointed appendages had a vacant look in her eyes, still with a blissful smile on her face.

Standing not far from the two, the Big Mouse took a deep breath. As its tail moved, it dragged the silent skeleton that had been following closely at its side a bit closer.

“What a stunning masterpiece.”

The Rat Immortal raised his arm and his fingertips slid inch by inch across the bone as smooth as jade, sighing deeply, “Such a… pity.”

The skeleton obediently lowered its head, allowing the Rat Immortal’s withered claws to rest on its shoulder, moving up along its spine piece by piece, finally resting on the red gem at the end of its skull.

The empty eye sockets of the skeleton flickered with an uneasy glimmer, an instinctive risk warning from its Soul Fire.

“I will compensate you.”

The Rat Immortal looked earnestly into those hollow eye sockets and gave his promise. However, Giant Zero Three was not a fully intelligent creature; it was merely a puppet created by a Wizard, possessing immense power, so it could not respond to the Rat Immortal’s promise.

Boom!!

In the distance, came the violent explosions of spells clashing, one after another.

The family of three beside the ruins of the collapsed prison cell might still have some moments of warmth left; in the shallow pit, the young wizards might still be debating whether to stay or leave.

But on the battlefield, those Big Wizards deeply entangled in it had no such leisure.

Especially after they witnessed the death of Druid Grand Priest Seberk with their own eyes—this loss of an equally high-caliber life shocked the Big Wizards far more than the countless lives lost before on the battlefield—making them more cautious and vigilant while increasing their desire to transcend the Big Wizard realm.

Currently, within this battlefield, a helper that could assist them in swiftly reaching the Legendary Realm existed.

That was the Xuanhuang Fruit.

So, after a brief silence, the entire Black Prison Battlefield erupted into a battle more fierce and cruel than before.

From the two suns in the sky, to the battle between the Big sea monsters and the school’s dean in front of the inner fort; from the Demon Alliance Army taking advantage of the wizards’ retreat to enter the main fort and slaughter, to the Big Wizards standing in front of the Witch Demon mentors and Behemoth and other Great Demons—centered around the Black Prison Castle, intense magical fluctuations erupted one after another, powerful spells fell like raindrops, shouts and roars became the only language, and death was no longer silent but clamorous.

The Wandering Wizard no longer maintained his initial calmness.

Losing a Dark Council Member had already exceeded the council’s initial estimate; he needed to do something to recover the council’s loss and save his standing within the council.

Then, like the Great Druid, the Wandering Wizard’s gaze landed on the shallow pit within reach, on the young student of Jiuyou Academy—he was holding a Xuanhuang Fruit.

The Wandering Wizard clearly remembered every investment he made.

This young wizard named Zheng Qing was one of his most successful investments in the past year.

When he added him as a golden card client at the Wandering Bar, although he guessed that this young man had great talent and might bring him many surprises, he never anticipated that this young wizard could win the freshman hunting competition at the school hunt, win the title of the Great Arcana ‘World’ within less than a year, and certainly didn’t suspect that this young man would lead to a Big Wizard’s demise.

This was no longer a surprise, entirely a shock.

Now, it was time to reclaim this investment—the Wandering Wizard doubted that if he continued to wait, this young man might scare him to death.

He laid his hand flat, aiming it at the young wizard.

Gazes have weight; this was the sentence Zheng Qing felt most deeply today on the Black Prison Battlefield. Particularly the gaze of Big Wizards, which fell on you tangibly, making it almost impossible to breathe.

So, when the Wandering Wizard’s gaze first fell on him, the boy immediately sensed the danger.

The Xuanhuang Fruit in his hands felt exceptionally hot, as if it were a giant bomb, neither throwable nor stuffable into the Grey Cloth Bag. While other Absolution Hunters debated about staying or leaving, Zheng Qing was hesitating whether to toss the fruit to Old Yao.

The distance between the Three-headed and Eight-armed Giant Ape and the shallow pit was only a few hundred meters, Zheng Qing’s only concern was that the fruit was too small, not even matching the Giant Ape’s pores in size; if the Giant Ape failed to catch it, would it be snatched up by some other demon? Especially as Professor Yao was still being attacked by three other Dark Council Members, the chance of the fruit ending up in his hands was far less than those of his attackers.

This hesitation disappeared when the Wandering Wizard looked over.

Zheng Qing knew he had no chance to do anything under the eyes of a Big Wizard.

So, without hesitation, he raised his hand to shove the fruit into his mouth—initially, he had not eaten it, partly knowing the fruit was precious and feeling it would be wasteful to consume it, partly fearing that consuming it would make him a target, especially on the Black Prison Battlefield, where some deranged Black Wizard might capture him for making potions.

At the same time, the Wandering Wizard, with his hand flat against Zheng Qing, murmured:

“Be trustworthy in word and action.”

Zheng Qing opened his mouth and bit down hard on the fruit in his hand.

Crack!

The feeling of teeth clashing with a hard object almost brought tears to the boy’s eyes. The first thought that flashed in his mind was, so the Xuanhuang Fruit is this hard! The teeth of those Big Wizards must be exceptional!

Then, he felt something strange in his hand.

Lowering his head, he found that what he held was no longer the fruit, but rather a golden card roughly an inch in size. On the card, the word ‘Wandering Bar’ stood out dazzlingly, more prominent than anything else, save for the clear row of tooth marks around the card’s edges.

In Zheng Qing’s astonished gaze, the characters ‘Wandering Bar’ on the card gradually faded away, and the golden color on the card quickly dimmed, leaving only the tooth marks to tell the boy that what he had seen was not an illusion.

Looking up, the Wandering Wizard was holding the fruit, nodding slightly at the boy, as if thanking him for the transaction.

Secured in hand.

This was the only thought of the Wandering Wizard after recovering this investment, yet before he could fully savor this sense of a fruitful harvest, another voice completely scattered it.

“Give me the fruit.”

The cold voice of the Rat Immortal sounded from behind the Wandering Wizard: “Then I’ll give it to you.”

The Wandering Wizard turned and saw the Rat Immortal’s claw resting on the red gemstone on Giant Zero Three’s forehead, causing him to squint his eyes slightly.