The explosion made Xia feel a little familiar, and she looked behind Baron Jello.

"I'm sorry, my guests here can be a bit rowdy sometimes."

Baron Jello smiled bitterly and walked into the house, followed by Lu Ban and others.

This brick and stone house was not big, just an ordinary house for people to live in. Lu Ban saw that thick smoke was overflowing from a room on one side.

The smoke had a foul smell, like some heated and boiled feces, which was disgusting.

Xia raised her hand, the wind suddenly surged, and the smoke was immediately swept away.

She was able to see what was going on in the house.

A mottled wooden table is located in the middle of the room. The table is covered with marks of burning, corrosion, and cutting. It feels like a miracle that it can still stand here on four intact legs.

There are countless bottles and jars on the table. Compared with the table, those bottles and jars are much more exquisite and obviously made by professional craftsmen.

The translucent bottles are filled with solutions and powders of various colors, some of which are even constantly changing colors, emitting an alluring glow.

On one side of the table, a bottle of black solution that was being heated on a burning candle seemed to be the source of the stench. It was now rolling quietly on the fire, reflecting the appearance of the person in the room.

He has short dark black hair and is about the same age as Baron Jello, but due to the explosion, his hair stands up, turning into a classic Afro look. His face is covered with dirt and looks dirty.

"Let me introduce you. This is Jost, my good friend. When we met, we were still playing with urine and mud."

Baron Jello coughed twice, introduced himself, and added one more sentence at the end.

"He is the court mage."

After hearing Baron Jello's words, Shia looked at the man.

“Not really.”

Soon, the wizard girl shook her head.

Since a court wizard appeared here, Xia naturally thought of the founder of the Gray Tower.

But Jost still looks a little immature. It seems that it will take a long time for him to become an independent wizard.

Xia herself is more inclined to believe that the founder of the Grey Tower was a group of people rather than one person.

Because neither the Grey Tower nor the Magic Net can be created by a genius wizard. Only with the hard work of countless mages can such a huge miracle be created from scratch.

She is a mage who uses reason to deconstruct the world. She understands that the laws of nature cannot be changed at will by the will of one or two people.

Jost didn't know what Xiaya was thinking. He just stared at Xiaya with his eyes wide open. Then, he rushed towards Xiaya and spoke in an unbelievable tone.

"No spells, instant response, no rituals, how did you do it just now?"

Obviously, he was surprised that Xia just raised her hand and blew away the thick smoke.

"A little trick."

Xia did not answer Jost directly.

She wasn't quite sure how the wizards cast spells before the magic network was established. According to what her teacher vaguely mentioned, it probably required complicated rituals, specific spells, and a will that was strong enough to withstand contamination.

At this time, Xia noticed that Jost's two eyes were different colors.

One was still normal black, but the left eye had turned crimson, like blood.

"This is no small trick. You know, according to Master Alhurst's theory, spells are the manifestation of knowledge, and rituals are the solidification of knowledge. Solidified knowledge is awakened and manifested through spells. This is the mechanism of magic. It is impossible to use it without spells and rituals!"

Jost seemed quite determined to understand how Xia's spell worked.

Xia was thinking whether to explain concepts like magic web to help Jost understand modern magic faster, but he suddenly widened his eyes.

"Don't... don't say that anymore... please..."

Jost immediately covered his ears, as if a devil began to whisper in his ears. His pupils were full of bloodshot and he fell to his knees in pain, shaking all over.

"Joster."

Baron Jello immediately supported the young wizard, and saw red tears flowing from Jost's eyes, that was blood.

A thin sound of struggle came from his throat, and his whole body was tense as if being grabbed by something, twitching and trembling.

"let me."

Xia held Jost's head, her fingers reaching into his black hair. With some barely perceptible throbbing in the air, Jost's muscles relaxed, he closed his eyes, and soon fell into a deep sleep.

Lu Ban's right hand also materialized a silver pen [Last Words] and opened Jost's head.

Countless pieces of information popped up.

“It’s pollution.”

Lu Ban quickly came to a conclusion.

"He has a considerable amount of pollution, which will continue to erode his will and body. In fact, even if there are no other accidents, he should quickly decay and die within three years."

"Is this the original mage..."

Xia felt a little sad.

The wizards of the Kingdom of Night in the past were like curious children, throwing all the extraordinary powers they saw into their brains, taking in as much as they could.

However, all this knowledge is pollution, which will lead to a decrease in rationality and erosion and alienation of the body, so many mages have strange appearances and even lose their human form.

Later, some mages tried to alleviate this situation. Some tried to balance the pollution in the body by balancing pollution from different sources, and even summed up a system that would not lead to loss of control. Some people studied brain closure, placing most of the knowledge and pollution in the deep brain, and then relying on specific methods to awaken it when needed.

The former is called a bloodline mage, and the latter is the prototype of a court mage.

In more ancient times, it was said that these two types of wizards had once had a dispute over orthodoxy, but before the dispute could become intense, it was brought to an end due to the invasion of the demonic tide.

However, once polluted, the pollution will continue to worsen. Even if these two types of mages put in a lot of effort, they can only delay death and madness to a certain extent.

Moreover, the more powerful the wizards are, the more pollution they will endure. When they die from pollution, the greater the harm they will cause. Therefore, if they can still retain their sanity, these wizards will most likely choose to go to the depths of the Black Forest, where monsters are rampant.

Legend has it that powerful wizards can leave a curse on the world when they die, and that is how horrific natural disasters beyond mortal understanding are created.

"Can such a person really build the Gray Tower?"

Xia thought to herself as she looked at Jost who had fallen asleep.