Elite Mages’ Academy (Web Novel)

Chapter 528: Battle In The Garden

The residence of the ex-commander was not far away from the palace. It was an incredibly beautiful manor. Xiao Lin brought his men and rushed right in, but did not notice anyone there. There were not even any traces of any guards or servants. Xiao Lin got his men to look around the building, but no reliable clues were found. All that was found were ashes on the floor. The minister had probably burned everything.

The soldiers who were investigating were also unhappy because there did not seem to be anything valuable in the house. After that, Xiao Lin brought the soldiers over to the garden the king mentioned. Besides the run-down manor, there were various vibrant flowers in the garden that looked extremely valuable. The flowers looked like they were very expensive as well. The Rosa Kingdom was named after the rose; the flowers from the kingdom were also quite famous around Planet Norma, and were all worth quite a bit.

The soldiers looked at each other, all showing signs of greed. They had not managed to find anything valuable when they were investigating and were quite unhappy, hence picking up a few of the flowers seemed like the most obvious thing to do at that time.

Xiao Lin did not bother stopping them; he had been looking for the underground passage. After a few minutes, the garden that had been thoroughly ransacked started to emit a multi-colored mist. Xiao Lin was suddenly on alert, and was about to give an order when he noticed that the soldiers had all collapsed in the garden, clutching their throats. Their faces had reddened, as if they could not breathe.

Xiao Lin took out his Holy Sword, and unleashed his flame sword aura, opening a path in front of him before he fled the garden. The soldiers standing outside were not affected due to the distance, but when Xiao Lin escaped, almost half of the soldiers were already lying down on the garden floor.

“What flowers are those!” Xiao Lin asked the soldiers that remained.

They trembled, not having recovered from the horror. They only responded after Xiao Lin shouted a few more times, but they all collectively said that the flowers were all the usual notable ones that circulated in upper society, which meant it was impossible for them to be poisonous.

That was all information that could be easily verified, so Xiao Lin was not worried that they were lying. Since the flowers themselves were harmless, then it was obvious that someone had added the poison. That minister had definitely expected someone would find the place, and had tried using the poisons to stall for time.

Xiao Lin waved his Holy Sword, unleashing his flame sword aura as he burned away all the flowers and plants in the garden. It helped get rid of the poison, but the pollen in the air had served to help worsen the fire, and the suddenly massive flames caused Xiao Lin and everyone else to take a step back before Xiao Lin asked them to look for a source of water to put out the flames.

It took an hour before the fire was thoroughly extinguished, and the pollen in the air was gone as well. Xiao Lin then carefully re-entered the garden. The underground passage had been uncovered after the large fire, so he found the entrance that was hidden in a corner very quickly.

The passage looked very old, and was probably something that was built a long time before. Xiao Lin quickly heard some strange movements not long after he entered. He was immediately on high alert, and got someone to get a magical light to illuminate the passage. In the dim light, Xiao Lin could make out a silhouette.

“I see you! Come out!” Xiao Lin shouted before repeating himself in Normese.

“I understand you!” someone quickly responded in Mandarin.

The silhouette slowly walked over, and Xiao Lin chose to wait there. The narrow passage was not somewhere appropriate for battle. It was a middle-aged man in casual clothes. He was not holding weapons. He had a grey head of hair. Xiao Lin remembered seeing him the first time he entered the palace, and quickly found out from the soldiers that he was the military minister–the traitor.

“Where are the energy stones?” Xiao Lin immediately said.

The man coldly pointed to the passage behind him.

An unsurprising answer, Xiao Lin said, “If I want you to leave this place, you’ll definitely not agree, right?”

The man smiled mockingly. “My family was killed by your people. What do you think?”

Xiao Lin did not bother explaining the difference between Judge Academy and Dawn Academy to the man. Xiao Lin raised his Holy Sword and said, “The king told me about it. I emphasize with what happened to you, but everyone in the city has families. If you aren’t going to give way, then I’ll have to send you to your family.”

“So it was the king?” The man sighed. “I thought I could stall for even more time, but his heart has gone soft! No matter. Since I’m here, none of you will be able to leave!”

Xiao Lin was a little confused. Even though he knew the man wanted to stall for time, that also meant he was guaranteed to die. The power of hatred was really shocking.

As empathetic as he was, Xiao Lin would still not show mercy.

Miracle!

Ruin!

A grey light flashed in his eyes, and Xiao Lin’s entire body was brought to the highest state of combat. He suddenly appeared in front of the man in a flash, thrusting out his Holy Sword. With the angle and speed, the opponent could only widen his mouth in shock, and looked on as the wound on his body started to bleed.

Xiao Lin sighed as he sheathed his blade, and was about to get the soldiers to drag the injured man out. He did not kill the man because Xiao Lin wanted him alive to get more information on the rebels and Asabanor. To the soldiers that were defending the city, that information was worth about as much as the energy stones.

As he was turning his head, Xiao Lin saw the man struggle as he took out a vial of deep green liquid. The man used his teeth to open the bottle and poured the liquid into his mouth.

Xiao Lin immediately felt like something was wrong and shot forward. He grabbed the man’s collar and pressed a blade to his throat tightly. However, he was a step too late, and a relieved smile appeared on the man’s face. He spat out blood as he said with much difficulty, “You-you can’t-can’t stop me!”

“Die!”

At that point, Xiao Lin forgot about rebel information, raising his Holy Sword as he slashed it at the man’s throat, but the man’s body was already undergoing dramatic changes.

Clank!

The sword only produced sparks when it hit the throat. A green, scale-like layer had already covered the man’s skin up, and was quickly spreading to the man’s whole body.