The royal capital, the port area

The originally bright living room was covered by heavy curtains, and only a few rays of sunlight that had narrowly broken through the barrier in the gaps left golden traces in the room. The heat and smoke from the spout of the teapot mingled slightly higher up, indistinguishable from each other. Roland, sitting silently at the table smoking his pipe, had a pot of tea and two cups in front of him. One of the cups was his own, of course, but the other one, for whom? You know, he was the only living man in this house, and Sparrow had been sent to the Crimson Pupil early to be guarded by One-Eye, who else would visit a wandering old magician at this point in time when people were terrified by the Nezumi Hunting Act?

"Knock" knock on the door, sounded. Roland didn't have the slightest surprise, he seemed to have known that at this time of the day, someone would knock on that door. Therefore, he did not get up to open the door or ask about the identity of the visitor, but only took a faint puff of tobacco.

"Tobacco is good. There were no footsteps or shadows, and the sound of speech accompanied its owner across the old man's table. Roland smiled, and glanced up at the gray-robed figure, on the man's chest, countless blooming redbud flowers could be seen, but the flowers only bloomed for a moment, and when they stretched their petals to their heart's content, those flowers twisted into a chaotic vortex. Of all the people in the world who wear gray robes, only one of them has such a change in clothing.

"The best tobacco leaves of the season are the base. Three hundred years old golden fruit tree branches for firewood. A blend of three Dwarven spirits and an Elven Age, two of which have been made by a lost method. Plus the sap of dragon's blood grapes and desert poplars. I spent nearly eighty years making this box of tobacco. Roland said, taking out an extremely delicate silver box from his cuff, but although this box is a work of art, its size is destined to contain no more than a few dozen grams of tobacco.

"But guess what? The box I made was no different from the one sold on the street. The magician smiled wryly and played with the box of tobacco with his fingers.

The gray-robed man tilted his head and lowered his hood. "Tobacco is tobacco, and if you want it to have something else to taste like, why not just try something else?"

"That's probably the difference between us, Clark. You always see things so clearly that you can't tolerate any ambiguity. Your disciples are exactly like you in this regard. Roland said with a smoke ring at his old friend.

"And you're just being so casual to get to where you are. Where's your pipe, why not?" the Lord of the Grey Tower smiled as well, and he asked, pointing to the pipe in Roland's hand.

"Pipe?" the magician looked at the contents of his mouth with some confusion, "Am I not using it, or are you wizards redefining pipes when I don't know it?"

Clark tapped briskly on the table, "You know that's not what I'm talking about. Isn't that the one He gave you the best pipe in the world, the best in the world, and why use such mortal things?"

"Oh," Roland said with a look of enlightenment, and his next words shocked the Lord of the Grey Tower, "You said that one, I used it for a while. I thought it would be boring to put anything in it, so I threw it away. ”

"You threw it! That's what we're all doing... Forget it, it's your style. It's like asking me to learn magic on a whim. The grey robe raised an eyebrow, and a wriggling flower-scaled python coiled around his left arm.

The magician tugged at the corners of his mouth and nodded, "Speaking of which, I remember you wanted a perfect successor at the time, did you find it?"

Clark's expression darkened, and he was silent for a few seconds, only to reply with a short sentence, "I found it once." ”

Roland realized that he seemed to have asked a topic that he shouldn't ask, so he stopped talking and silently poured tea for the two of them. The scent of grass permeated the air, masking all other smells. He pushed the teacup in front of Clarke, sat down and took a sip. "Try my new recipe, there aren't many opportunities to get input from the world's greatest wizards. ”

The grey robe lifted the teacup, sniffed the grass tea, and then put it back on the table. "If it had been a few years earlier, I would have been happy to help with this, but now I can't drink it. ”

"Do you know how many people in this world want to take a sip of this tea?" the old man looked at the man across the table, believing that the other person understood the meaning of this cup of tea.

The Lord of the Grey Tower just smiled and shook his head, and he put his fingers into the tea, stirring the fluid in it at will. "What did you name this tea?"

"Ageless tea. Roland replied in a deep voice.

"Immortal tea, I thought you would come up with something else that is more of your style, such as the elixir of youth. But are you sure your tea is really ageless? I don't think so. Clark looked at the old man in front of him, although the Lord of the Gray Tower himself was no longer young, he still looked energetic compared to Roland. In contrast, the magician feels more like an old man with a relatively strong body, and has little to do with youth.

"Any idea why I have a beard? When I first created this recipe, I drank ageless tea too often, and my body was too much of a younger person, which forced me to move as soon as possible. Later I started using a beard and this big hat to hide my appearance and prevent my neighbors from discovering the secret. As for now, I have been able to properly control the frequency of tea drinking and the effect of the formula, and it only takes half a year for me to turn myself into a teenager or back to what I am now. Roland shrugged his shoulders and took another sip of tea, "So drink it Clark, I assure you in my name that it doesn't have any negative effects." ”

Unexpectedly, the gray robe still didn't mean to touch the tea, and suddenly said something that seemed unrelated, "My apprentice, the one who is most satisfied." He's the best person I've ever seen for the way of magic, and in just over a decade, he's been on par with me in most fields. It was the happiest day of my life, and no one ever pointed out where I was thinking short, and he did. Most of the works in my library are from that era. However, I overlooked something, I expected too much from him and did not hide it, and the child was desperately trying to shorten the distance between him and me every day. But after all, he is only in his twenties, and knowledge needs to be precipitated, and theories must be verified before they can be understood. ”

"He was too radical and came into contact with taboos too early to prove himself. I didn't have time to stop him, it was too late. I could only watch as my most proud disciple, the original disciple, buried himself with his own hands. There was a rare violent mood swing in Clark's tone when he said this, these words he had never said to anyone, and only Roland, his only remaining friend in the world, could listen to him dig up the stories buried deep in his heart, "Fortunately, the knowledge I have pursued all my life has finally come in handy." I brought some of him back from Chaos, but only a small part. ”

"You mean ......" At this point in the story, Roland already understood who the original gray robe had brought back.

Clark nodded, agreeing with his old friend's guess, "The earliest knowledge comes from the accumulation of experience. This time, I won't make the same mistake again. If the little tree grows, those tall old things have to give up their places, and my existence has long been not a help for the disciples, but a kind of constraint. Without me, they can become the new forest. ”

"Is it worth it? Isn't your ideal to embrace the truth, and if you just let yourself die, who will tell you what the truth is?" Roland understood, but he didn't think it was a reasonable reason for the Lord of the Grey Tower to kill him.

"Truth. Clark repeated the word, "I was so convinced of its existence and devoted all my energy to it, but did it really exist?" After realizing so much, I began to doubt it. But there is one thing that I know very well, dear Roland, and that is that if there is anything in this world that I have not understood or experienced, it is death. Only it, which comes out of everyone's mouth differently, makes me think of the truth, maybe in death. ”

Roland put his pipe on the table, "Are you old and confused? Or maybe you've lost your mind by studying those damn spells every day! Listen to what you're talking about! Clarke, take back what you just said stupidly, and drink the tea in front of you!"

"That's not going to work. This is my last research, and I have to go and finish it. I just came to say goodbye to you, and I thought it would take some effort to find you, but you happened to be here. Fate, what a wonderful thing, if it ever exists. The gray robe said and raised his hand slightly, and the invisible force pressed the magician who wanted to get up to the chair, unable to move.

"By the way, the devil who occupied the body of the king of this country, I easily got rid of it. But the mortal he traded with is dead, and someone should find out soon. Be careful yourself, it's been a mess here, hehe, but it's almost over. Also, it's funny that you have a beard, and they'll laugh to death when they see it. If I could meet them, I'd tell them about it. ”

"It's a pity that I didn't see what that kid from Cheese looked like, I can probably guess it, but please help me witness it, save him from complaining later. Ah, there's a lot more to tell you, but I don't have much time right now. Sorry, old man. ”

Roland, stood up. But he was the only one left in the room. The gray-robed figure sitting opposite just now seemed to have never appeared.

Please remember that the first domain name of this book is:. Nine Heavenly God Emperor mobile version reading website: