Industrial Revolution of the Mage Lords

Chapter 99: Forum members united
Harvey, who was busy with various affairs in the pioneer territory all day, missed two or three spellcaster forum exchanges.

I finally found some free time on Friday night and logged into the Magic Network Forum before the exchange meeting started.

Although the contents of each exchange meeting would be recorded word for word by Unit 00 for Harvey to review at any time, as a forum administrator he still needed to attend the meetings frequently and occasionally speak up to maintain his high profile.

[Hand of Elements: Praise Mr. Turing! Good evening everyone!]

The familiar opening line again...

Before anyone else could join in the greetings, a message suddenly flashed and quickly appeared in the chat room.

Stormrunner: Everyone! I apologize for interrupting your opening greetings...

Harvey pulled the list of forum members and found that this was a new member who was invited by an initial member. The inviter was "Ghost Captain". Although he rarely spoke in the exchange meetings, he did participate in online auctions and was quite active in the information exchange section. He often shared some insightful academic knowledge with other members for free.

Stormrunner: I'd like to ask the respected Mr. Turing if this forum of magic network spellcasters has a purpose and philosophy of unity and mutual assistance among members?

Harvey felt a little confused when he was suddenly called, but others stopped speaking out of respect and politeness at this time, so he had to think for a moment before sending a reply.

[Admin Turing: You can expand on the four principles of freedom, openness, tolerance, and anonymity to understand that when necessary, forum members should choose to unite and help each other to overcome difficulties...]

Stormrunner: Thank you, Mr. Turing.

Stormrunner: Everyone, I want to share with you a bloody tragedy that occurred in the capital of the Principality of Barclay, Wutong County...

A genocide? Harvey couldn't help but narrow his eyes, staring at the flashing text on the screen in confusion. Why would such a thing be brought up at a forum? Did this spellcaster mistake this place for a Union Tribunal?

[Magic Shield: @Mr. Stormrunner, if you're referring to the bloody unsolved case of the mage family involving the church's witch hunters, I've also heard about it recently...]

It's the witch hunters again. These shady rats in the church, hiding in the shadows and waiting for an opportunity, are really haunting...

Harvey smacked his lips, waiting with interest for their subsequent communication.

Stormrunner: That's right. A high-ranking Bloodline Knight, a member of the Church's Inquisitor Army in the Barclay Capital, attacked and killed a spellcaster from the Sebastian family without provocation. The Union and the Church are investigating and believe the conflict was caused by a personal conflict. They have directly ruled that the Inquisitor killed the victim by mistake...

Stormrunner: This is a blatant exchange of interests and cover-up! The Sebastian family has always had a strained relationship with the conservative, pro-Church faction within the Union. As a result, in this incident, Barclay's Union branch has directly sided with the Church, attempting to gloss over the matter...

It seems that whether it is the church or the federation, the internal factional struggles are so fierce that they are even willing to do obviously unfair things for their own interests.

When Harvey saw this, he could basically guess the cause and outcome of the matter, and couldn't help but sigh softly.

Stormrunner: This wasn't the worst of it! Shortly thereafter, the Sebastian family's ancestral home in Wutong County, where their academy, dedicated to training their young descendants, was suddenly attacked by a group of powerful, unidentified enemies. The entire estate consisted of eighteen mage apprentices, two low-level spellcasting teachers, servants, and assistants—thirty-nine people in total. Not a single one survived...

[Son of Flame: It must have been those damned witch hunters! Damn human scum!]

[Magic Shield: The member of the Union investigating the case revealed that there were no signs of magical combat at the scene. All the victims were killed by direct attacks from weapons such as blades. They suspect the target was indeed the Church's Inquisition Army. After all, only they could train so many Bloodline Knights...]

[Stormwalker: That being said, there's no direct evidence to back up the case, so the case has been shelved... The Sebastian family has also sent representatives to Alayeh several times to file complaints, but to no avail.]

Fran McCaughlin, the "Shield of Magic," watched Stormwalker's fiery accusations unfold on the crystal screen and couldn't help but sigh. This case was certainly going nowhere. The Federation was planning to use this as leverage to pressure the Vatican into giving up a portion of their share of the Demonic Moon Mountain Range's magic stone mines.

Compared to the huge profits brought by the high-level magic stone veins, the death of a dozen or so wizard apprentices from a small spellcasting family affiliated with the Federation is nothing.

He thought about it and couldn't help but type a reply.

[Fanashield: The Federation suspects that among the participants in this incident is a high-ranking knight with the "Forbidden Magic Realm" bloodline talent. This is all I can reveal...]

[Captain Ghost: I agree with Mr. Fadun. The bloodline talent of the "Forbidden Magic Realm"... hmph. Aside from the direct descendants of the Church, it seems no other knight family has ever had such a talent.]

It was the first time that Harvey heard of this strange bloodline talent. Just from its name, it was not difficult to know that a bloodline knight with this talent was probably the natural enemy of all spellcasters - he could be called a natural witch hunter.

[Hand of Elements: It's obvious. Isn't the Glorious Judge of the Alayeh Church a legendary bloodline knight with this kind of talent?]

Stormwalker: Everyone, one of the victims was one of my students. He was a member of the Sebastian family's branch and had studied with me for nearly ten years. He was a very dedicated, enthusiastic, and kind young man. He... He was about to be promoted to a mid-level spellcaster, but because of his family's call, he temporarily returned to the academy to serve as a spell instructor. Unexpectedly...

Stormwalker: I'm currently on the Demonic battlefield, tasked with combat with the Mage Alliance. I can't get away anytime soon. Therefore, I'd like to ask for your help. I'd like to ask for your help in giving these church scum the punishment they deserve. I'm willing to pay a price for this, whether it's forum points or something of equal value.

I didn't expect that Mr. Storm Walker was a competent teacher who cared about his students and was a man of great temperament...

But he was unable to get away and take action to avenge his students personally. It was probably not an overt combat mission at all, but rather that the Federation had reached a tacit understanding with the church to exchange some kind of interests, so they gave him certain warnings or alerts, preventing him from having subsequent fierce revenge ideas.

A politician who can do magic is still a politician, and he has every bit of evil in his heart.

[Son of Flame: No need to mention a price! If you can provide the exact location of the witch hunters, as long as it's within the teleportation range of the continent, I can assist you once for free... but I need intelligence assistance.]

[Earth-loving One: I share the same view. I am willing to provide recent intelligence on spellcasters and the church within the Principality of Barkley... I hope this will be of some help.]

[Astrologer: I have a good friend currently in the Principality of Barclay. He should be very interested in the revenge operation against the church witch hunters. I will be responsible for conveying the message and contacting him.]

[Mithril Unicorn: I am also willing to provide some assistance. Please contact me privately, Mr. Stormwalker.]

It seems that the spellcasters have very consistent views on this kind of conflict with the church. Even though they usually form various factions in private and engage in verbal battles and open and covert struggles in the spellcaster forum, when it comes to external threats, their attitudes are surprisingly consistent.

[Fallen: @Mr. Scorching Lord, what are your thoughts on this matter?]

Harvey's heart skipped a beat. He had actually been waiting to hear the stance of this legendary spellcaster, who was the most prestigious and influential person in the forum besides himself. After all, the other party was most likely a high-ranking member of the Federation.

[Scorching Lord: I believe that blood debt should indeed be repaid with blood.]

[Scorching Lord: I wonder if Mr. Turing agrees?]

The corners of Harvey's mouth curled up slightly, knowing that the other party had been waiting for him to express his attitude.

[Administrator Turing: I fully respect your ideas. After all, this is the Magic Network "Spellcaster" forum.]

(End of this chapter)