Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
The sandstorm continued to blow through, but when it reached the stone castle, only the sound of the wind blowing through the stone wall could be heard. However, it was clearly getting more severe, as it showed no signs of stopping.
Inside the huge stone castle, torches and a bonfire were lit. Unlike the fears that had filled it in the past, the stone castle was now filled with cheers. Everyone was relieved that they barely escaped with their lives. Laughter could be heard everywhere.
Slowly, more people started looking at Lu Zhiyu and Eva with great curiosity, as well as shock, fear, and even respect in their eyes. Nobody expected that Lu Zhiyu would have such power!
Merchants who had been in contact with with Lu Zhiyu before were now too scared to come and greet him. They only looked at Lu Zhiyu from a distance, avoiding eye contact.
They did not even have the courage to discuss Lu Zhiyu’s power and identity. It was almost as if they were afraid that he would hear them with his superpowers.
Grumman, the owner of the Rose Merchants, stood behind the campfire near Lu Zhiyu and Eva, yet dared not approach the pair. However, when he met Lu Zhiyu’s gaze, he plucked up enough courage to sit distance across from Lu Zhiyu.
Lu Zhiyu smiled at Grumman, who was bold and a bit aggressive. He looked nervous.
“Who are you, anyway?” Grumman finally opened his mouth for the first time to ask the simple question.
He found this so-called scholar, who had paid a lot of money to follow him to Batko, was quite mysterious. Grumman did not know his true identity, but he did know that he was absolutely not a nobleman!
After all Grumman was not an ordinary villager! He had some knowledge of the world, as he had traveled to the south and north, which were journeys that revealed many secrets of the world to him.
“Are you wizards?” When Grumman asked this, he was trembling.
The existence of wizards, for ordinary people, was a major terror. Just hearing the words was enough to make people shiver.
Lu Zhiyu couldn’t help but laugh. “Is this important?”
Lu Zhiyu bowed his head and played with the fire embers. “I pay, and you take me to the Batko Empire. We have a contractual relationship. That’s all, isn’t it?”
Grumman listened to him with relief. “I understand. Thank you for your help in explaining. Both I and the Rosa Bianca merchants will always remember your kindness!”
At this time, the Batko merchants, who had suffered through the sandstorm together, took out some dried meat and shared it with the others. Then, everyone ate the food and laughed together.
As they were eating, a teenager in a ragged shirt was holding a silver plate that was filled with meat. He kneeled in front of Lu Zhiyu, offering him food and goat’s milk.
Lu Zhiyu hesitated, while he looked at the leader of the Batko merchants in the distance. At that moment, Grumman was looking at him piously, then bent his head down to salute him. After seeing this, Lu Zhiyu nodded and accepted the food that the teenager had just offered him.
Lu Zhiyu looked at the teenager, who was a typical Batko citizen with dark skin, dark brown hair, yellowish pupils, an extremely thin body, and a mark of slavery on his clavicle. The teenager, with fearful and longing eyes, looked carefully back at Lu Zhiyu.
What had just happened before had led all of the Batko people to believe that Lu Zhiyu was the messenger of the god of the desert. This was because, in their minds, only the messenger of such a god could have such power.
This was also because the people in Batko had never seen church priests, and even wizards hardly came around. So, when they see magical beasts that have extraordinary powers, they believe that they were sent as punishment, living disasters that were brought by the gods.
Lu Zhiyu asked the boy, “What’s your name?”
The teenager heard Lu Zhiyu, then pointed anxiously to his ears and mouth. Only then did Lu Zhiyu discover that the teenager was deaf and mute.
“Don’t move. Just relax!” Lu Zhiyu looked at the teenager and put his hand over his ears. The teenager’s back muscles tightened up immediately, as he was too nervous to move.
Lu Zhiyu was using the Body Modification Technique, which was the first witchcraft that he had created, as well as the first witchcraft of the Blood Wizards. The whole structure of the teenager’s brain immediately appeared in Lu Zhiyu’s awareness, while the teenager closed his eyes.
At this time, everyone around Lu Zhiyu was watching him with this deaf and mute person. They did not understand what Lu Zhiyu was doing.
When Lu Zhiyu released his hand, the teenager immediately felt that something shocking. It was something that he had never felt since his birth, and it was pouring into his head constantly! It was sound, wonderful sound!
People’s voices, the sounds of the flames cracking, and even the sound of the wind rushed into his consciousness. All of these sounds were so beautiful, he could not help but tremble.
The teenager opened his eyes and looked around him. All of the voices kept coming into his ears. He stood up in the middle of the castle. It seemed as if the whole world was spinning around him, its myriad sounds constantly in his ears.
“Ah! I, I hear…!” The teenager constantly adjusted his voice until he could finally say a complete sentence.
Everyone began talking at once, as they were amazed at what they had just witnessed. For the ordinary people of this era, being deaf and mute was considered as a punishment from the gods that could not be cured. Watching Lu Zhiyu cure the teenaged slave was like watching someone break god’s curse on them!
The Rosa Bianca merchants and the Batko merchants immediately knelt on the ground and saluted Lu Zhiyu. The young man just looked at Lu Zhiyu in amazement, not knowing what to say.
He was not very tall, so he only reached Lu Zhiyu’s shoulders. At the moment, his eyes were filled with tears. In his view, Lu Zhiyu was the incarnation of the gods, the one who had come and rescued him from hell!
After wiping away the tears on his face, the young man knelt on the ground to kiss Lu Zhiyu’s boots. He then stuck his head to the ground respectfully. This was the most pious courtesy that could be shown.
“My name is Cetisius,” the teenager said.