Chapter Fifty-Two: The Strange and Miraculous Upheaval in the Arcane Realm

Seeing Zigu’s childlike curiosity, Mute at first kept his lips tightly sealed, but in the end, unable to withstand Zigu’s pestering, he had no choice but to whisper the truth to him.

“What! You guys actually chase after these lowly pleasures?” Zigu roared, instantly drawing everyone’s attention. Mute panicked, wishing he could cover Zigu’s mouth, and hissed, “Come on, don’t act like you’ve never watched it before.”

Realizing he’d spoken too loudly, Zigu lowered his voice and said, “Seriously, man, your world’s technology is so backward, what good stuff could you possibly have? Take a look at this from my world!” With that, he produced a pair of sunglasses and handed them to Mute. Mute examined them, then looked at Zigu in disbelief. “You really are something…” These sunglasses, it turned out, were like a miniature display device. The moment they were put on, a rather explicit adult film started playing inside—with such high clarity that even the finest bead of sweat was visible, a level of quality Earthly products could never hope to match.

Zigu grinned wickedly. “And that’s not all. In my world, these products have another advantage: you can freely adjust the viewing angle—zoom in, zoom out, look from the side, from above—however you want. It’s so immersive, you’ll think you’re really there. Jealous yet?”

Suddenly, both of them felt an odd gaze on them. Glancing over, they saw Mu Siyu watching them, her cheeks burning red with embarrassment. Zigu hurriedly walked away—these secrets between men really weren’t meant to be discussed in front of women.

After Zigu had gone, Mu Siyu whispered, “Why are you all talking about such filthy things? Besides, both Qiao’er and I have already given ourselves to you—why do you still watch that sort of thing? Are we not enough compared to those films?”

Mute chuckled. “It’s just for fun, just for fun.” He quickly chased after Zigu.

No one among them was familiar with this realm. Once Gu Feng left, they were completely lost and could only wait in the hall under the guidance of Neon and Nica. Even after the tea had been changed five times, there was still no sign of Gu Feng. Lu Daoxuan, however, sat quietly, not the least bit anxious, but Zigu grew restless and called a servant over. “Hey, you, go ask your master when he’s coming back. Making us wait this long is boring me to death.”

Neon hurriedly interjected, “Brother Zigu, please forgive us. His Majesty the Emperor must have had an important matter to summon my master. My master holds a highly respected position in the empire, but His Majesty knows his character and would not summon him lightly. Since he’s been gone so long, it must be something significant.”

Just as she finished speaking, a faint ripple appeared in the hall, and Gu Feng stepped out from within it. He had used spatial teleportation magic to return from the palace, fearing the others would grow impatient.

But his face was grave, as if something was amiss.

Sure enough, Gu Feng said, “Brother Lu, I’ll need your wisdom. Baldy, Mute, Zigu—you three come with me to the palace. Something strange has happened.” Then to Neon, he instructed, “Tell the butler to prepare a carriage. We must go to the palace immediately.”

Zigu asked curiously, “Gu, are you alright? You know spatial magic—why not just teleport us there instead of taking a carriage?”

Gu Feng shot him a glare. “Use your head, will you? If the palace allowed people to teleport in and out at will, I could easily take out the emperors of the other empires. There are special wards in place, or else any mage could come and go as they pleased.”

Thinking on it, everyone agreed. The palace surely had its own prohibitions; otherwise, assassins could hide in trees and the emperor’s life would be at risk. Mute recalled visiting the Forbidden City, noticing how, apart from the imperial gardens, there were no trees anywhere—by design, to prevent assassins from lurking overhead.

The residence of the Imperial Mage was close to the palace, and as they rode there, Gu Feng explained the situation:

“His Majesty told me that recently, palace guards have been flying into uncontrollable rages and attacking people for no reason. At first, no one thought much of it, but then it was discovered that these berserk guards’ bodies had begun to change in strange ways. They seemed to lose all reason, and it often took several guards to subdue one of them. Even then, they were so strong that ropes and iron chains couldn’t restrain them—they had to be killed with crossbows.”

Zigu snorted, “Isn’t this a bit trivial for the Imperial Mage to handle?”

Gu Feng replied seriously, “That’s what I thought, too—it could have just been something the guards picked up outside. But after seeing the mutated guards myself, I realized the problem might be graver than His Majesty suspects. And I don’t think such mutations should exist in our magical realm.”

Mutations that shouldn’t exist in a magical world? The others were taken aback. Gu Feng said mildly, “You’ll understand once you see it.” With that, he fell silent, deep in thought.

The status of the Imperial Mage was formidable—even in the palace, they went unimpeded. Mute noticed the palace was enormous: after entering, their carriage traveled for half an hour before stopping. Then came the uneven chorus: “Teacher has arrived!”

Stepping down, they were greeted by several white-robed, gold-trimmed mages, all with snow-white hair and bearing ornate staves. They bowed to Gu Feng. “Master, why have you come yourself? The corpses inside are rather gruesome—let us examine them and report to you.”

Though new to this world, Mute and the others had heard Gu Feng mention that these gold-trimmed white robes signified a magus of the sixth rank or higher—respected figures everywhere else, but before Gu Feng, they were as obedient as children. Watching these aged men bow to the youthful Gu Feng was almost comical; they looked more like his teachers.

“I’ve already seen them,” Gu Feng said calmly. “I’ve weathered many storms—what’s a few corpses to me?” He led them into the small room where the bodies were kept, with the white-robed mages following close behind.

Some of the corpses were the mutated guards; others were their victims. To prevent decay, mages had cast frost spells to freeze the bodies, but even so, some had turned black with time.

Mute and Baldy frowned. Some of the corpses had twisted, beast-like limbs, or grotesquely enlarged bodies whose clothing could no longer contain them—clearly the result of mutation.

“What do you think?” Gu Feng asked the white-robed mages. One stepped forward, his robe trimmed with three gold stripes, hair pure white, and likely near a hundred years old—an eighth-rank Magus, just below Gu Feng himself. He said respectfully, “Master, I joined forces with several mages of different disciplines to examine the corpses. We found no traces of black magic, witchcraft, or curses, and had alchemists dissect some bodies for traces of special potions, but found nothing. We can’t determine the cause—please forgive us.”

Gu Feng nodded. “Xiao Gan, I trust your thoroughness. If you couldn’t find anything, neither could I.”

To see such a young man call a near-centenarian “Xiao Gan” made the others want to laugh, but they managed to hold it in, lest they provoke a barrage of “Fireballs” and “Frost Arrows” from the mages.

“What about you?” Gu Feng turned to Mute and his companions. From the moment he saw the bodies, Mute had a strong sense of familiarity—these mutated guards looked just like…

“Genetic mutants!” Baldy said gravely. “How could genetic mutations occur here?”

In a biochemical world, genetic mutants would be no surprise—sometimes the injection of viral serums led to uncontrolled mutations. But this was a magical world; apart from Gu Feng, there should be no such thing. Gu Feng himself was baffled, for he’d heard much from Baldy about such creatures, and the bodies did look just like what Baldy had described.

At that moment, a palace herald entered. Seeing Gu Feng, he hurried forward to bow. “Imperial Mage, His Majesty requests your presence!”

Gu Feng nodded and called to the three-striped mage. “Xiao Gan, come with me.” Turning to the others, he added, “Let’s all go see the Emperor together.”

The herald looked troubled. “My lord, so many people at once—is that really…?” He glanced doubtfully at Mute and his friends, clearly uneasy about unfamiliar faces being brought before the Emperor.

Gu Feng understood and said coolly, “These are my guests. If there are any problems, I’ll take full responsibility.”

With that assurance, the herald led them toward the imperial audience chamber. The palace was a labyrinth of gates and corridors; after half an hour, they reached a splendid hall, guarded so tightly that even the air seemed tense with danger—as if the Emperor himself might have already suffered an attack from these mutants.

Just as the herald was about to announce them, a tall handmaiden emerged. Seeing Gu Feng, she bowed. “My lord, His Majesty is waiting for you. Please, come in.”