nyslfriends Chapter 71 Recognition and Persuasion
Chapter 71 Recognition and Persuasion
Deep within Evans Estate, in an elegant courtyard.
The head of the Evans family was lounging comfortably in a wicker chaise lounge, his fingers leisurely flipping through an ancient sorcery manual, as if the visit of the disheveled apprentices during the day was nothing more than a trivial incident.
However, this period of leisure did not last long.
Silently, thick shadows spread from the corner of the courtyard like living things, quickly intertwining and rising to form a perfect, shadowy prison that isolated the inside from the outside!
Light was swallowed up, sound was blocked, and the courtyard was completely separated from the outside—from the outside, everything seemed normal.
Inside, the air suddenly became thick and cold.
"Who?!"
The old man sprang to his feet instantly, and a dangerous energy gleam was already visible between his withered palms!
He scanned the courtyard, which was completely shrouded in shadow, with a sharp glint in his cloudy old eyes.
If he hadn't sensed that this shadowy power wasn't intended to kill, but merely to shield him from detection, he would have already struck with lightning speed!
"Who are you, visiting in this way, making fun of an old man like me?"
The aged voice, carrying a solemn authority, echoed in the deathly silent, shadowy courtyard, spreading an invisible pressure.
The Shadow Raven knew that if it didn't intervene, the wrath of this veteran, formal wizard would become uncontrollable.
"It's been years, but your love of reading hasn't changed at all... Grandpa!"
A cold, strangely textured young voice suddenly rang out from the shadows.
The old man's body suddenly stiffened!
That sound...
A raven with feathers flowing with liquid shadows slowly materialized from the deepest darkness and hovered in front of the old man.
"Grandpa...?"
The wrinkles on the old man's face froze instantly, his eyes filled with disbelief and astonishment: "Grandpa...Grandpa? You are...?"
The name of someone he hadn't seen for years almost slipped out, but he suppressed it tightly.
Immediately, he seemed to realize some terrible possibility, his face turned ashen, and his withered fingers trembled with rage:
"Hick?! It's Hick?! What... what did those damned dark wizards do to you?! I knew it! I knew those rats in the gutter couldn't be trusted! They actually turned you... turned you into this monster?!"
The Shadow Raven (Hick) seemed speechless at his grandfather's intense reaction, a rare hint of helplessness creeping into his cold voice:
"Grandpa, it's not what you think. This is my magical pet. I... can't come here myself."
Upon hearing this, the agitated old man suppressed his surging anger and unleashed his immense spiritual power, sweeping over the raven before him and scrutinizing it closely.
After a moment, he finally let out a long sigh, his tense body relaxing slightly.
"It's a magical pet... It scared this old man to death! I thought..."
His voice stopped abruptly, his cloudy eyes fixed on the raven's dark eyes that seemed to devour souls, and an even more astonishing thought struck his mind like lightning!
"Wait!!!" The old man's voice suddenly rose, filled with indescribable horror, "You... what level are you at now?!"
Hick remained silent for a moment.
He didn't want to reveal his strength too early, but facing this relative, and with his plans for the future...
"A formal wizard." The raven clearly uttered the four words.
"..."
The courtyard fell into a deathly silence.
The old man's expression froze instantly, as if he had been struck by the most advanced petrification magic.
A mixture of bewilderment, extreme ecstasy, and a deeper, almost overwhelming sense of confusion and bewilderment swirled across his deeply lined face.
"A formal wizard at... sixteen years old?"
He murmured to himself as if in a dream, his voice dry and hoarse, repeatedly processing this fact that was enough to overturn the common sense of the wizarding world, "A sixteen-year-old...formal wizard?!"
Seeing his grandfather's dazed expression, Hick's voice returned to its icy tone:
"Grandpa, it's best not to let anyone know about this."
The old man suddenly came to his senses, and his eyes flashed with an unprecedented sharpness and solemnity!
He knew better than anyone what a sixteen-year-old formal wizard meant!
That is an unparalleled talent that could drive any force mad, and it will inevitably attract overwhelming covetousness and the most deadly malice!
"Don't worry, Hick!"
The old man's voice was resolute, carrying the heavy promise of an ancient family.
"I swear by the honor and bloodline of the Evans family ancestors! This matter will remain a closely guarded secret, never to be leaked!"
He took a deep breath, suppressing the overwhelming shock and elation churning within him, and gazed at the shadowy raven before him with a complex mix of emotions, his voice filled with indescribable感慨:
"Hick...you...truly deserve to be called the most talented person in the history of the Evans family for a hundred years...no, for all time! It seems that not forcing you to stay by my side back then was...the right thing to do. You will surely lead the family to unprecedented glory!"
Hick did not respond to the praise. Raven looked at the old man and said, "Grandpa, I have come here because I need your help."
The old man seemed to have anticipated that Hick's visit was not simple, and without any surprise, he calmly said, "Speak. As long as Grandpa can do it."
A chilling, undisguised murderous intent suddenly erupted in the shadow raven's eyes:
"Kill Leo Reys!"
"What?!"
The old man's pupils contracted sharply, as if he had suffered the most intense mental shock! He didn't care about the lives of the apprentices, but Leo's identity...
The personal disciple of the Tower Master of the Eternal Tower—the third-level Grand Wizard who wields power over the continent!
The sole direct heir of the Rael's family, which boasts three second-level wizards!
With such a background, if he were to die in this manor...
"Hick! Are you crazy?!"
The old man let out a low growl, his voice trembling with extreme terror.
"Do you know who he is?! Do you know what killing him means?! It will unleash the wrath of the Tower of Eternity! The Rells family's relentless pursuit! You will die! Hick!"
Hick's voice was flat, cold, and resolute:
"I know. But I have reasons why I must kill him. And..."
The raven's gaze pierced through the shadows, as if looking directly into the depths of the old man's soul:
"I am absolutely confident that I, and you, will extricate ourselves from this storm unscathed!"
The old man's face turned deathly pale instantly, and his withered body swayed slightly, as if he had aged ten years in an instant.
He stood there, his cloudy eyes flashing intensely, countless thoughts colliding and weighing in the blink of an eye.
The rise and fall of a family, the future of a grandson, and the terrible consequences...
In the end, all the struggles turned into trust in this monstrous grandson before him.
He didn't ask for a reason, nor did he try to dissuade him further.
Facing Hick, who had entered the realm of a formal wizard at the age of sixteen and carried the family's millennium-long fortune, he took a deep breath, as if using all his strength, and asked, word by word:
"What...is the plan?"