Hello, is this a letter addressed to Demon Fortress?

Hearing this, Lin Gui smiled slightly.

He turned around, pointed to his eyes, and asked the old man.

"So now, what can you tell from my eyes?"

The old man squinted at it for a while, then shook his head.

"Just an ordinary person."

Lin Gui smiled in surprise, then said no more.

He turned and went up the stairs, his footsteps creaking on the old wooden planks.

He went up to the fourth floor and found room 409 at the end of the corridor.

The spot beneath his feet was directly above the house where he used to live.

He stood in front of the door and raised his hand to knock on the peeling wooden door.

A series of clanging sounds came from inside, accompanied by indistinct curses.

The door was suddenly pulled open, and a strong smell of ale hit the door.

The man standing inside the door had messy, straw-like hair and stubble covering half of his face.

His robe, which should have been dark blue, was now covered in stains and wrinkles, with the collar hanging loosely open.

He clutched a half-empty wine bottle in his hand, his drunken eyes struggling to focus as he looked Lin Gui up and down.

His gaze swept over Lin Gui's faded, patched old robe, and undisguised disgust immediately surfaced on his face.

He spoke with dissatisfaction, his tone carrying a deliberately maintained arrogance.

"Didn't I tell you? This great one from the Heart of Elements is currently researching magical theories and creating a spell that could overturn the entire magical world."

"So don't bother me with your lousy whiteboards at this time, you dirty wandering mage."

His gaze was haughty, as if he were looking at a maggot crawling out of a gutter.

Lin Gui was mistaken for a wandering mage commonly found in the gray area.

He wasn't angry; he just smiled.

Then, unhurriedly, he took out a gold coin from his waist and flipped it between his fingers.

A golden glint flashed in the dimly lit corridor.

"What about the gold plate?"

White's gaze was immediately drawn to the gold coin.

He glanced down, and the drunkenness in his eyes lessened somewhat.

He then snatched the gold coin, his movements so fast that he didn't seem like a drunkard at all.

He turned and walked into the house, leaving behind a single sentence.

"Come in."

Lin Gui followed him into the room.

The scene inside was worse than he had imagined.

The curtains were drawn tightly shut, with only a few rays of light squeezing through the gaps in the fabric, barely illuminating the outline of the room.

Empty wine bottles lay scattered all over the floor, some broken into sharp shards, carelessly swept into a corner.

Dirty clothes and crumpled papers piled up on the chairs and bedside, making it almost impossible to find a clean place to step.

The air was thick with the sour smell of ale and the smell of sweat, mixed with a damp, musty odor, as if the windows hadn't been opened for ventilation in a long time.

White sat down at a table piled with clutter and crossed his legs.

He tilted his head back and gulped down a large mouthful of beer, the liquid dripping down his chin, but he didn't bother to wipe it away.

He burped and glanced sideways at Lin Gui.

"Tell me, what kind of orthodox magic do you want to learn?"

He put down the bottle and began to boast incessantly.

"Back when I was at the Royal Magic Academy, every orthodox spell I mastered required a tremendous amount of effort."

"For example, the Sandstorm spell can summon a bunch of sand to smear someone's face, which is most useful in fights."

"There's also the Wind Binding Technique, which can firmly trap the opponent, making them unable to move."

"These are things that those castrated, shoddy magic spells from outside can't compare to."

"You can learn this for just one gold coin, it's a huge bargain!"

He boasted about how hard-won his mastery of those powerful spells was, his words brimming with pride.

Lin Gui didn't expose his obvious boasting, but silently found a place in the corner where he could barely stand.

The other party mistakenly thought that he had come to learn from him.

Clearly, after being driven away from various places, this magic apprentice from the magic district became the teacher of wandering mages.

And indeed, they could become their teachers.

Lin Gui knew all too well the mages' thirst for magic when they came on pilgrimage.

He looked at White and began to speak.

"I want to learn a legitimate form of magic from you."

White took another swig of wine and lazily raised his chin.

"Which one?"

"Intermediate-level light magic, Scatter Light Spell."

puff--

White suddenly spat out the mouthful of wine he had just put in his mouth.

Lin Gui dodged to the side, and the mouthful of wine grazed his shoulder and splashed onto the wall behind him.

White coughed a few times, his eyes widening in disbelief.

"What did you say?!"

"What do you want to learn?!"

His excitement surprised Lin Gui.

Along the way, too many people have expressed their disdain for astigmatism correction.

It was like throwing that magic on the ground and crushing it repeatedly.

This was the first time I'd ever seen this person react like this.

White seemed to realize his blunder; he put down the bottle, coughed, and tried to cover up his embarrassment.

"Um, well, this magic is absolutely terrible."

"Do you know?"

"Even in the prestigious Royal Magic Academy, very few mages would learn the Astigmatism spell."

"Because it's so rubbish."

"It's a mid-level spell, but it can only provide illumination, and its illumination effect is not even as good as the 'Dim Light' spell."

"So you should choose another one."

"I recommend you learn the Sandstorm spell. It summons a bunch of sand to smear your face—it's incredibly useful in fights!"

Lin Gui sighed.

He didn't understand why White was still desperately trying to persuade him to get a different one when he clearly had the magic scroll.

He decided to stop going in circles.

"You borrowed the orthodox magic scroll of Astigmatism from the Royal Magic Academy Library."

"That thing should be with you, right?"

Give it to me.

As soon as he finished speaking, Lin Gui stopped concealing his aura.

High-level magic surged from his body like an invisible wave, pressing heavily on the stunned White.

The air in the room seemed to freeze instantly.

The drunkenness and arrogance on White's face vanished instantly, replaced by shock and fear.

He sensed an oppressive force several times greater than his own, and his voice trembled.

"You! You! A high-ranking official?!"

"You're not one of those wandering monks! Who are you?!"

Lin Gui didn't have time to waste arguing with him.

He pulled a thick brick from the storage space and weighed it in his palm.

He then walked up to White with a menacing look on his face and threatened him with a smile.

"Don't worry about who I am."

"All you need to do is give me that thing, and I'll disappear from your sight immediately."

White was completely panicked.

He jerked back, the chair legs scraping loudly on the floor.

His lips trembled as he mumbled incoherently.

"You must have been sent by Eli!"

"Why won't you let me go!"

"I've already knelt down and begged for mercy! My family is ruined! Everything is destroyed!"

"Even after all this, why won't you let me go..."

His voice grew softer and softer, carrying a sense of sorrow and helplessness that came from being repeatedly crushed.

He was only nineteen years old, a few years younger than Lin Gui.

But the face before me was filled with dejection and listlessness, showing no trace of youthful vigor.

Looking at his appearance, Lin Gui's anger suddenly subsided.

He withdrew his outward magic and put down the brick in his hand.

"I am not someone Eli sent to torment you."

His tone softened somewhat.

"I just want that magic."

"Give it to me, and I'll give you a small sum of money, enough to make your life a little easier."

"Not here."

He looked around.

Broken wine bottles, filthy clothes, and a crumpled quilt.

Depravity.

rot.

Seemingly sensing the genuine goodwill in Lin Gui's tone, White slowly recovered a little from his extreme fear.

His voice trembled as he managed to squeeze out a sentence.

"That, that, that scroll..."

"I burned it long ago."

"At the Academy of the Heart of Elements".

Lin Gui paused for a moment, then asked with a smile.

"What did you just say?"

That kind smile, for some reason, sent a chill down White's spine.

He swallowed hard and said in a trembling voice.

"That...that...that scroll was...burned long ago."

"When I was expelled from school."

Lin Gui smiled as he looked at White.

Then he suddenly grabbed White's dirty collar and lifted him off the chair.

"What the hell!"

"Do you know how much effort I put into finding this?!"

"From the Royal Magic Academy library to the underground archives, from the Heart of Elements, I circled the entire commercial district before finally finding you!"

"And you're telling me you burned it?!"

"You bastard who hasn't paid me back in two years!"

The sympathy that arose for the other person's plight vanished at this moment.

Lin Gui gritted his teeth and looked at White, his voice low and blatantly threatening.

"You'd better reproduce the magic incantation, the circuit, the structure, and everything else for me."

"Otherwise, I might just throw you out of here."

White shrank back in fear and shouted incoherently.

"I, I, I, I can't!"

"I've never learned that magic!"

Lin Gui's voice rose.

"Then! You! Are! Going! To! Borrow! It?!"

"And they even borrowed it and never paid it back?!"

If it weren't for White's intervention, he would have already gotten his hands on the item from the library.

It shouldn't have taken this long to flip through.

Elvia's post office flyers have been handed out right up to the college gate!

White was grabbed by the collar, tears welling up in his eyes, as he explained through sobs.

"I borrowed that magic to win over my crush!"

"Before I even had a chance to learn it, Eli's son found out."

"They know I'm pursuing my goddess."

"He and his men cornered me in the toilet, stripped me naked, and threw me into the church."

"He even falsely accused me of beating him."

"I really..."

Before White could finish speaking, Lin Gui sneered and mercilessly exposed the other party's lie.

"Use some crappy mid-level spell to please a woman?"

"Do you know what that female mage with short, shoulder-length hair in the Royal Academy Library said about that magic?"

"Useless! Garbage!"

"Anyone who wants to learn this is an idiot!"

White's legs buckled, and he knelt down on the ground.

He braced himself on the ground with both hands, his shoulders shaking violently.

"My goddess is that idiot who learned this magic!"

Lin Gui's anger faltered for a moment.

His hand, which was gripping White's collar, froze in mid-air as he stared in astonishment at the man kneeling before him, weeping bitterly.

"What did you say?"

White sobbed, wiping away tears as he dragged a worn-out wooden box from under the bed.

He flipped through the pages haphazardly for a while, then pulled out a book with curled edges and handed it to Lin Gui.

Lin Gui took it with a bewildered look on his face.

The book's cover is a hardcover with gold foil stamping, and the edges are worn white.

A line of large, cursive characters is printed in the very center.

[The City of a Thousand Pagodas: Mage Charm Ranking - Annual Collector's Edition]

"Um???"

Lin Gui was completely dumbfounded.

He then subconsciously flipped open the cover.

The first page features a fine color portrait of a young woman.

She closed her eyes, as if deep in thought, or perhaps sensing the flow of light.

Her long, pale golden hair, like autumn ginkgo leaves, fell to her shoulders.

The portrait gleams with a soft, warm glow in the light.

Her appearance was so exquisite that she seemed otherworldly; her skin was so fair it was almost translucent, and she exuded an aura of tranquility and holiness.

With her eyes closed, she exudes a sense of detached yet pure beauty.

Below the portrait is a line of descriptive text.

[The City of a Thousand Pagodas, the Most Beautiful]

Eve Isaiah

[Occupation: Holy Maiden of the Church of Light]

Age: 19

[Family: ? ? ? (Rumored to be related to an ancient light magic family, but this has not been confirmed)]

Lin Gui's eyelids twitched wildly.

My gaze swept over the lines of text.

Then continue scrolling down.

The next page contains Eve Isaiah's detailed biography.

[Heart of Elements, Saint Choir's Academy - Top Graduate]

[Major Magic: Light Magic]

[Honors and Honors During School:]

[Ranked first in the St. John's Academy examinations for three consecutive years]

[Sets a new record for the fastest casting of healing magic at the Holy Chant Academy (completion of a high-level healing spell in 3 seconds)]

[The Holy Light Barrier spell holds the school record for the widest coverage area, a record that remains unbroken to this day.]

During the school's operation, a total of 1,427 patients with serious injuries were treated and cured, and countless others with minor injuries were also treated.

[Personally chosen by the Pope of the Church of Light, and exceptionally promoted to the rank of Saintess]

[If not for the Pope's personal selection, she would be the first in line to succeed the Tower Master of Light]

[Personality Trait: An angel walking among humans.]

[Magic Characteristics: Primarily uses light-based healing and buffing magic; possesses extremely strong shielding abilities; once single-handedly withstood an attack by a high-ranking demon, protecting the entire priest team.]

[Difficulty Level: Demigod (No one is worthy of the goddess Isaiah).]

[This difficulty level was unanimously approved by the entire Charm Ranking editorial team.]

[Strategy suggestion: Give up, bro.]

[The moment the goddess Isaiah was chosen as a saint, she left us forever, sob sob.]

[Leave a note from the Charm Ranking Editorial Department.]

[Note: Although the goddess Isaiah has left us, all the places she visited will become points of pilgrimage and remembrance for us.]

[(If any fellow enthusiasts are interested, you are welcome to join our Isaiah support group. We will provide all new members with a complete Isaiah Memory Route Map.)]

We look forward to your joining us!

Lin Gui was at a loss for words; the sight of this page had a tremendous impact on his mind.

I never imagined that after being separated from Miss Saint for almost half a year, I would see her again here, in this way.