Water Mage in the Flame Realm-Chapter 431 - 411: Free Enlightenment

Southern Retreat Land.

The most mysterious force in the Flame Realm.

If memory serves, when he was heading to Warm Fire City and passed by the Shield of Flowing Fire to help treat the many injured at the Warm Fire Temple with Water Magic, he was once mistaken by the assistant leader, Linda, of the medical team, as a humanoid alien from the Southern Retreat Land, Andrew thought.

Now that he had visited the Water God Realm beyond the Domain and heard from Liang about the ancient history from Liang’s mouth in the endless ages before: back then, impacted by the sudden emergence of Lidzmat, the Dragon of Greed, it wasn’t just the ancient Human Race that suffered; before humans, there were the Dragon Race and the Titan Race, and after, many non-human alien races from ancient times also suffered impacts of varying degrees.

Some were directly exterminated.

The surviving races, severely weakened, mostly vanished into the long river of history.

Only a very few alien races survived tenaciously, but their bloodlines were mixed with a large amount of other races’ blood, especially the Human Race blood.

This is today’s Southern Retreat Land.

This force is not only mysterious and low-key but also somehow maintains a neutral stance between the two major forces: the Magic Guild and the Warm Fire Commerce Association.

The Earth Fire Professionals of the Magic Guild were naturally greedy and evil, which the Southern Retreat Land disliked.

The Warm Fire Commerce Association, established and passed down by the branch of Warm Fire Professionals from the ancient Human Race, had also never been able to gain closeness or trust from the Southern Retreat Land.

President Beiru... or rather, the successive presidents of the Warm Fire Commerce Association, all tried very hard to win over and establish good relations with the Southern Retreat Land, but never succeeded.

Let alone President Beiru, even Andrew himself once made plans: after negotiations with the Royal Court, after solving the problem at Hunting Wasteland City in the Wildfire Territory, Andrew also planned to try contacting and reaching out to the Retreat Land.

Unexpectedly, An Ya had already done it in advance.

And made it happen!

Although it’s said to be annexation, it’s more of a cooperation.

It was destiny, too, that day An Ya was pained by Andrew’s disappearance and the high probability of misfortune, and after working herself to exhaustion and fainting, she woke up at night and received the news: the special envoy from the Southern Retreat Land visited Widfire Territory, already outside the moat.

An Ya stayed dumbfounded for a moment, then nodded and softly said, "Let them in... no, I’ll personally go to welcome them."

She worked tirelessly for three days and nights to prevent herself from thinking about Andrew’s disappearance, and even after fainting and waking up again, she was still very haggard.

However, perhaps because An Ya had always been stationed at Wildfire Territory, deeply managing it, she actually knew the territory better than Andrew, the lord, and this fainting seemed to have become a sort of opportunity — during the fainting, An Ya actually sensed that underground space beneath the territory!

Ivan, as Andrew’s Soul Guard, had been to the Underground Ocean Lake with Andrew and only knew of the place, but couldn’t sense it.

Now, An Ya could vividly sense the existence of the Lake of the Ocean!

"So this is the true origin of our Wildfire Territory’s freshwater resources?" An Ya thought she should have been shocked, but in the past few days of being overwhelmed with sorrow, she found it hard to feel shocked.

She was not a Water Mage but a Warm Fire Mage, a disciple of Falk, and like Falk, the owner of one of the Eight Strange Fires, the "Pure White Flame."

She had no reason to understand Water Magic, but at the moment of sensing the Lake of the Ocean, An Ya surprisingly... understood "Enlightenment."

"Enlightenment, Enlightenment..."

An Ya murmured, her eyes unconsciously reddening again, "Is this how you helped us back then, sir? You enlightened us, gave us the opportunity to build the Wildfire Territory together, to contribute to it, so why don’t you come back and see the results of our efforts?"

An Ya was full of faith in Andrew.

However, no matter how confident, she still felt that it’s incredibly difficult to survive after being kidnapped and going missing with a great demon of the Magic Guide Realm.

Especially since a Soul Contract was established between Andrew and Ivan; as long as Andrew hadn’t left this world for other planets, Ivan should always retain at least a trace of soul connection with Andrew.

But An Ya asked Ivan if he could still sense Andrew’s presence, and the answer was a prolonged silence!

An Ya is the type of person who, the more hurt and saddened, the more she needs to numb herself with busy work.

After sensing the Lake of the Ocean and understanding the Enlightenment Magic, her internal pain didn’t diminish but increased.

But after hearing about the visit from the Southern Retreat Land, she quickly freshened up to make herself look less haggard and went to meet and greet the special envoy.

The envoy was also a mature and intellectual woman, seemingly older than An Ya.

After meeting, the envoy quickly expressed her intentions without much small talk: "It’s like this, regarding such a power that suddenly emerged in the Inner Sea Desert, we from the Retreat Land adjacent to the Inner Sea Desert are naturally very curious and concerned."

"Hmm, I understand."

"We actually secretly sent someone to investigate once before." The envoy looked a bit embarrassed at this point and apologized, "We are truly sorry for not notifying in advance..."

An Ya did not respond this time and continued to listen.

The person on the other side said, "The first time we sent people over, after some reconnaissance, their evaluation of your side was very high. So afterwards we sent several more batches..."

No matter how good An Ya’s temperament was, upon hearing this, she couldn’t help but furrow her brows.

The other party seemed to realize they were being excessive but couldn’t help but say, "Every time we sent people over, after returning, they seemed to be transformed and would almost immediately have new breakthroughs in their realm and strength. Initially, we thought it was an individual case, but later we found that it seemed that Wildfire Territory has some special power, letting our clansmen who have been there unconsciously gain huge benefits in their cultivation."

At this point, the envoy stared at An Ya and asked, "I know this is very presumptuous, but it is really important for our land of retirement—does Wildfire Territory have some special power that can help accelerate cultivation, elevate realm, or even promote professional awakening?"

It was evident that the envoy was genuinely making an effort to maintain politeness, but towards the end, there was an undeniable eagerness in their expression and tone.

The humanoid non-human races of the Southern Retreat Land don’t count as the Human Race but look almost identical to humans in appearance.

In terms of cultivation, most of them, like Human Race mages, cultivate a kind of "Superpower Magic" unique to the land of retirement.

Compared to Warm Fire Magic, Earth Fire Magic, and Water Magic, Superpower Magic is significantly weaker in direct combat ability, but its various peculiar uses, compared to Human Race Magic, are even more effective.

However, the awakening rate of Superpower Mages is extremely, extremely, extremely low.

This has always been a major problem troubling the humanoid non-human races of the land of retirement.

Simply put, the awakening and cultivation difficulty for Superpower Mages is much harder compared to Human Race mages. Even if they awaken as professionals, the difficulty of continuing cultivation is also very high.

Strangely, almost all the non-human mages who have been to Wildfire Territory quickly broke through the cultivation bottlenecks that had troubled them for so long after returning to the land of retirement.

Even the non-professionals of the retreat land who are just ordinary humanoid non-human races but are close to these mages who have been to Wildfire Territory, without having been there themselves, showed signs of professional awakening just by associating with those who had been there! This made the elders of the elder council of the land of retirement unable to bear it any longer, and they directly sent a special envoy to inquire.

If it were a day earlier, An Ya would have been unable to answer the envoy’s question no matter what.

The current An Ya, however, immediately knew the answer: Enlightenment.

The Eight Gates of Enlightenment stand on the eight main roads of Wildfire Territory.

Those humanoid non-human races who secretly came to check out Wildfire Territory undoubtedly passed through at least one of the Eight Gates of Enlightenment.

At once, she said, "This is my lord’s magical means."

The envoy’s eyes lit up, their voice trembling with excitement, "You mean, it truly is a unique magic of Wildfire Territory that has helped our clansmen? What magical method, it is truly so miraculous?!"

The latter half was not really a question; no matter how abrupt, one cannot casually ask such obvious confidential information.

The envoy was more out of uncontrollable excitement and amazement.

She tried hard to control her emotions, her face solemn, asking seriously, "Can this miraculous magical means be opened to our clansmen in the land of retirement regularly? This is really important to us!"

An Ya nodded and said, "Yes. When needed, you bring your clansmen to our territory and walk through the archway that says ’Welcome to Wildfire Territory.’ But in the future, if you want to send people, you need to inform us in advance, you can’t sneak over again."

"Yes, yes, naturally, naturally!" The envoy rubbed her hands, astonished that An Ya agreed so straightforwardly, her voice trembling, "The price? How is the price calculated?"

An Ya did not answer directly but repeated the phrase on the Gate of Enlightenment that Andrew himself had settled: "Welcome to Wildfire Territory."

The envoy was stunned for a moment, not reacting immediately, stared blankly for a while before slowly realizing something, incredulously widening her eyes: "You... you mean—"

"The price is the sentence on the gate," An Ya said, "My lord, back when he helped us with that magic, did so for free, never charging any money."

As she spoke, An Ya showed a faint smile, seemingly recalling the days when Andrew helped the Living People Cemetery battle against lung burns and helped Wildfire Town’s people resist old mage Humboldt.

This was her first smile in three days, yet as she smiled, she couldn’t help but shed tears.

As the de facto manager of Wildfire Territory, An Ya must consider the interests of Wildfire Territory in everything, so normally she wouldn’t be so generous.

But Andrew "died," which made An Ya’s mindset and perspective change.

At this moment, at least this moment, she just wished to follow the path Andrew had previously laid out.

It seemed that in this way, Andrew’s presence in this world could continue to be extended!

Conversely, if a fee were charged to open the "Gate of Enlightenment" to the non-human races of the land of retirement, in An Ya’s mind, it would rather like erasing the imprint of Andrew’s existence in this world!

From An Ya’s standpoint and perspective, it was such a simple thought.

Her current condition is actually very bad, unable to conduct complex thinking and weighing.

However, the simple response, in the envoy’s view from the land of retirement, represented a completely different significance.