Chapter 915: Equivalent Exchange (Part 1)

“So, what do you want?” The Elder felt that he would not be able to convince Saleen of his own perspective, so he had no choice but to ask Saleen directly.

Saleen began to think about what the Elder had said. His goal was simple, which was not to have to worry about his meals or about being bullied by others. Even though he had become a mage for a long time, his goal remained the same.

Many images appeared in Saleen’s head. They were images of Sika, Lex, and his two children. As his memories surfaced more and more quickly, he thought of Canghong, Fycro, Lex’s teacher, and even her senior, Faerun.

All of them had their own dreams, including Lex’s father, Grand Emperor Chanake.

Saleen even thought about Prince Safilos. Back then, he was someone he could only look up to and was responsible for exploding at the men that guarded Grand Emperor Chanake’s room.

In the end, Saleen thought about the magic net and Bitter Water Prefecture. He spoke slowly, “Sir, what I want is… for everyone to be able to choose their own fates.”

“That’s impossible.” The Elder looked at Saleen with a gentle gaze. What Saleen had said was similar to the ancient mages, who had since vanished. The astrologers only became the dominant force in the dimension after that.

“Impossible? Haha,” Saleen only laughed but did not protest.

“Mages cannot even see the traces of fate; how can they then control it?”

“The astrologers could see their own fates, but more than 10 years ago, the last astrologer on the Mainland died while mages are still doing fine.”

Saleen saw the Elder frowning at what he said and quickly added, “Even if you want to kill me, there are still tens of thousands of mages on the Mainland.”

“I know. I don’t even consider myself an astrologer and even if I am, I’m the only one left. Junior mage, I will not kill you. At most, I will not allow you to leave.”

“Why are you all the same?” Saleen looked around before finding a chair and sitting down on it.

“All the same?” The Elder did not understand.

“All of you said that you won’t allow me to leave, but in the end, all of you can’t wait for me to leave,” Saleen said casually. There was no way the Elder would force him to stay. If he did, what hope was there?

“I’m different…” The Elder gathered this thoughts before speaking, “I have the ability to make you feel like you have spent an eternity here in just a day. I can be very patient.”

“All mages are very patient. Unless you no longer want me to think, otherwise I would not be bothered even if I was to sit here for 10,000 years. Sir, if there is something you want me to do for you, just say it directly. Mages don’t beat around the bush.”

That was when the Elder finally looked at Saleen seriously. As he began to sit down, a chair naturally appeared behind him. Saleen had made it very clear. If he was made to think, he would treat it as training, but if not, there was no point keeping him here.

“I still have to try.” With that, a powerful and colorful beam of star light burst out of the wall and covered Saleen entirely. Instantaneously, Saleen felt as if he had been put in another dimension but had no trouble moving. He was surrounded by silver constellation light. Within the light, he could still move around but he would not be able to move beyond the boundaries of the constellation light.

Saleen could see the Elder’s face beyond the star light. It was as if the Elder had fossilized and was not moving at all. Saleen knew that that was the power of astrology. By sitting there for one day, the Elder would feel as if an eternity had passed.

That was astrology. There was no change in the speed of time, only one’s perception. Saleen was a grade-8 sorcerer with a lifespan of at least 600 years. By keeping him there for a day, Saleen would feel as if 600 years had passed. If he was unable to distinguish between what was reality and what was just a dream, he could very well die of old age.

The Elder wanted Saleen to be able to see his face so that he could use it as a reference. He wanted Saleen to submit and not to kill him. If he wanted to kill Saleen, he had thousands of ways to do it.

Saleen wanted to take out the magic notebook from his Devil Ring but realized that he could not use his spatial equipment anymore. To be more accurate, since the passing of time there was the same as outside, the link between his senses and his body had been broken. In order to take out an object, his movement had become millions of times slower.

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“There is no way to study magic in this environment?” Saleen understood after thinking about it for a while. If it was possible, then the collaboration between a mage and an astrologer would have been invincible. If mages could still train and study in such an environment, it would be equivalent to gaining millions of times more time than others.

Surely something as illogical as that could not be possible.

Saleen sighed helplessly and decided to close his eyes and meditate. It was not possible. When he tried to meditate, he realized that he was unable to do so. Even if he managed to enter a state of meditation by chance, he would snap out of it very quickly and he would find himself staring at the Elder’s face.

Saleen thought carefully and realized that he was in a disastrous situation, where he was unable to train at all. Even his mental strength was being restricted. Staying there for 600 years would make him go crazy.

Saleen decided to think of a way out. Suddenly, he realized that he was still wearing the Goddess’ necklace, which was something that his mental strength could enter. The necklace was very strange because ever since he used it to rear his lightning dragons, its godly power had been completely removed.

In other words, it was an equipment for humans and not necessarily refined by Gods.

There were 24 lightning dragons in the necklace, so there was not a lot of space left. Saleen carefully directed his mental strength into the necklace and realized that there was no problem doing so.

From the outside, the Elder looked at Saleen and realized that the latter had closed his eyes. The Elder could not help but snicker. If it was possible to use meditation to pass time, the Elder’s Starlight Imprisonment would not have been considered as a grade-8 astrology spell.

When the Elder lost his physical body and was only left with his soul and figure, using that technique would depend on the power of the star sky on the astrologer tower. A mage of a very low grade would never be able to go against the power of the star sky, not even the Grandmaster could do it.

Saleen’s mental strength entered the necklace and he could clearly sense the complicated magic array hidden within it. The spaces within the necklace were extremely strange. Saleen injected large amounts of water into each space, including the restorative water that he had been creating every day. The lightning dragons were in deep sleep there. When Saleen’s mental strength entered one of the spaces, the lightning dragon in the space only turned its body but continued to sleep.

Saleen realized that this lightning dragon had shed its skin nine times, each time it got twice as big as before. The lightning dragon had grown up to 40 yards long, and while it was massive in size, it was actually very weak. Saleen was not feeding them with sufficient food, yet the lightning dragons had to complete their evolution, so they could only rely on sleep to reduce the wastage of energy of their bodies.

In the necklace, Saleen finally regained control of his own mental strength. Although he still could not control the rest of his equipment, Saleen was satisfied. Time passed much faster in the necklace compared to the Imperial City of the Abyss. A day in the latter was equivalent to 20 days in the former.

Saleen had wanted to use that time to learn about the magic notebook that was given to him by the Grandmaster as it would teach him how to create magic furnaces. Now that that was not possible, Saleen decided to observe the lightning dragons.

The skins shed by the lightning dragons were soaked in water and were almost transparent. Coincidentally, Saleen was able to observe the lightning magic patterns on them. Although Saleen might have created the rule of lightning, it was still in a very preliminary stage. On the other hand, the magic patterns on the lightning dragons might be of a low grade, but they were well-developed.

Saleen decided to focus on studying the skins of the lightning dragons.

The Elder was beginning to panic. He could see that Saleen was very young and as a grade-8 sorcerer, his lifespan was at least 600 years. He refused to believe that a young sorcerer would be able to bear with 600 years of loneliness when he could not study magic and could only recall what he had already learned.

In the end, Saleen surprised him by closing his eyes and seemingly dozing off. Just like that, an entire day passed. When the starlight dissipated, Saleen suddenly opened his eyes and said to him with a smile, “Sir, are we going to carry on?”

“Yes, we will.” Once again, the Elder unleashed the starlight from the wall, enclosing Saleen within it. He was determined to observe Saleen carefully so that he could spot any loopholes. Saleen merely closed his eyes and stopped doing anything else, except waiting patiently for the Elder’s astrology spell to vanish.

The young mage was too determined. The Elder could not believe his eyes. When the Starlight Imprisonment ended, and the second day has passed, Saleen opened his eyes and asked with a smile again, “Sir, are we carrying on?”

Saleen genuinely hoped that they could continue the game because that was the first time that he had realized that his mental strength would become more resilient when he was within the star light. It did not require much energy to separate from the physical body and he would be able to study it in the necklace. After studying it for 40 days, his understanding of lightning magic patterns had deepened. If he could continue doing so, he would be able to overcome the weakness of his Eye of Lightning, which was the over-exertion of energy.

Eye of Lightning required the use of mental strength and not magic chords. No matter how powerful Saleen’s mental strength became, he was still unable to overcome the issue of over-exertion by his Eye of Lightning. When he used Eye of Lightning, the amount of mental strength that was being used was dependent on the total mental strength that he possessed and was not within his control. Saleen could only control the proportion of mental strength being used, and it was usually at least one-sixth.

Lightning dragons could afford to ignore such exertions when unleashing lightning because they had better control over their mental strength, which enabled them to better convert lightning energy, and not necessarily because the lightning dragons possessed mental strength that was more powerful than Saleen.

The Elder could not take it lying down and decided to cast Starlight Imprisonment once again. After the third day had passed and Saleen had opened his eyes once again, the Elder said, “Junior mage, I have decided not to continue. We can have a proper talk now.”

Based on the Elder’s estimation, Saleen had already spent 1,800 years in the Starlight Imprisonment. With such determination, it would be meaningless to try and imprison him for 10,000 years. Besides, Starlight Imprisonment required a lot of energy. The constellations on the astrologer’s tower had already dimmed just from the three days of usage. If they were to continue, perhaps the astrologer tower would collapse before Saleen would submit.