Elite Mages’ Academy (Web Novel)

Chapter 262: The Shaman’s Death

The only thing Xiao Lin had been doing all this time had been to try to find out the source of his strange feeling. No matter how much he thought about it, the only clue he had was Lightning.

At that moment, the orc army was fast approaching. Xiao Lin hurried to the cells. The fortress’s cells were underground and very narrow. There were only about ten rooms, but they obviously were not using any of the other cells other than the one for Lightning. It was very damp, and the light was dim. Coupled with the stench in the air, it was not a pleasant environment.

Gu Xiaoyue was in charge of keeping guard during the day. Xiao Lin had been reluctant to let that woman take up such a painful task, but Gu Xiaoyue did not mind, even though Xiao Lin had hinted to her that she could reject it. However, Gu Xiaoyue said that she was the only one who could take up the task.

It was true that Gu Xiaoyue was the best candidate. She had high intelligence and affinity for the elements, which meant she was very sensitive to the elements in the air, allowing her to be able to detect any strange movements from the shaman before anyone else. After all, no matter what the shaman wanted to do, he would first need to use the elements.

“How is it, has Lightning done anything?” Xiao Lin asked in the underground cells.

“Nothing has changed.”

Gu Xiaoyue had some fatigue in her eyes. Xiao Lin squinted, finally noticing the exhaustion on her face through the dim light. He could not help but say with concern, “Let me get someone else to take your place today. You should avoid overtaxing yourself.”

Gu Xiaoyue was about to say something when Xiao Lin immediately interrupted her, thinking she would reject it, “Don’t even try, we will need you for the upcoming battle. This directly relates to our defense of the fortress.”

Gu Xiaoyue pushed up her glasses. “No, I was just about to say that I’ve been feeling very uncomfortable for some reason these few days.”

“Are you unwell? Why didn’t you say so earlier.”

“I’m not referring to my body!” Gu Xiaoyue furrowed her eyebrows, mulling over what to say before continuing. “It’s just something I can’t describe that well. It’s like I’m being pressured, and it’s hard to breathe sometimes. It feels like danger is fast approaching.”

Xiao Lin gaped in surprise. Gu Xiaoyue thought he did not believe her, sighing as she said, “I know it’s nothing concrete, but the feeling is way too intense, as if danger is right beside me.”

“You feel that way too!”

“Too?”

It was now Gu Xiaoyue’s turn to be surprised. The two of them immediately fell into silence. If it were just one of them, they could brush it off as a coincidental feeling, but two of them feeling the same way was far too strange.

“Let’s go see Lightning!”

After that moment of silence, Xiao Lin could not figure anything out, neither could he confirm that Gu Xiaoyue and himself were the only ones who had that feeling. Why would it be just the two of them? Were there others with the same feeling?

When they reached Lightning’s cells, there was a rusted pillar in between them. Lightning was tied up in a damp, dark corner. There was only a palm-sized window on the wall, which was the only place air could flow through. Lightning’s eyes were shut as he sat down, a posture he maintained most of the time.

“Lightning, I just received a report that your army is marching toward us. Do you have anything to say?” Xiao Lin’s voice echoed throughout the cell.

Lightning did not reply, and Xiao Lin repeated his question. He furrowed an eyebrow and suddenly had a foreboding feeling. He turned to Gu Xiaoyue and ordered, “Quick! Get the other monitors over, and remember to bring the keys!”

The keys to the cell were guarded by the monitors on a rotational basis. Gu Xiaoyue seemed to have realized something as well as she hurried away. After a few minutes, the monitors rushed inside.

Looking at the unmoving Lightning, the few of them were deep in discussion. About half of the monitors were all there, so their combat ability was assured, which meant they did not need to worry about any tricks from the shaman. After opening up the cell, Xiao Lin shot inside before Cheng Ming could even warn him to be careful. He reached out and touched Lightning, and the latter immediately fell over.

“He’s dead.” Xiao Lin said after checking his pulse and breath.

“Impossible! How could an orc be so weak? We did not even torture him, and even gave him three meals a day!” Cheng Ming refused to believe it.

“Let’s bring him out to investigate. Maybe we can find the cause of death?” Han Manman suggested.

Chen Dao immediately had a look of contempt, “What do you mean by cause of death? Lightning has been guarded by Gu Xiaoyue and I every day. I can assure you, nothing wrong happened while I was watching!”

“I can guarantee it as well.” Gu Xiaoyue added.

Han Manman replied coldly, “Then what are you afraid of?”

“Alright stop! Don’t fight. It’s just an orc. So what if he’s dead? Don’t let it affect our teamwork.” Sheng Guo once again tried to play the mediator.

“Let’s bring him out to investigate. This is way too strange.” Xiao Lin looked up after his own investigation, sighing.

Lightning’s corpse was quickly brought to the training field. The first thing they had to determine was time of death, which was easy enough to determine. Lightning still had some response when he was given dinner last night, so he had to have died during the night or earlier that day.

The next was the cause of death. There did not seem to be visible wounds, and the strange thing was Lightning had a strange smile on his hardened face, one filled with mockery.

Who was he mocking before he died? The most likely answer was the humans, which then brought the question of why. Why would he mock them as a prisoner?

“Oi, Xiao Lin, what are you doing?” Chen Dao had been arguing with Han Manman when he noticed Xiao Lin had his sleeve up, preparing to lift up Lightning’s clothes.

Xiao Lin was not in the mood to entertain him, “I’m obviously investigating! We need to know if he died of natural causes!”

Chen Dao was beside himself. “You are suspicious too!”

Xiao Lin was beginning to get annoyed. “Fine, let’s just call it something else. We’re just performing an autopsy. Happy now?”

Some of them felt like Xiao Lin was making too big a deal out of it. Even though having the shaman as a hostage was great, it was not a big deal if he died. Trying to investigate was unnecessary, especially to the degree of doing something as disgusting as stripping that old and ugly orc naked.

Xiao Lin did not know how to perform an autopsy, even if he had seen it on TV before. It was regretful that he did not know how to do a professional job, but he could at least check for any injuries.

The other monitors probably felt too disgusted to do it and left the job to Xiao Lin. After checking the entire body a few times, the others started to get impatient when Xiao Lin suddenly exclaimed.