Author: 冬瓜茶仙人 / Winter Melon Tea Immortal

Translator: Kinky || https://kinkytranslations.com/

---

Chapter 184

Prima’s face was paler than the bleeding Khalif. She looked at Khalif, lips trembling, unable to speak.

Khalif, however, didn’t look into her eyes. His attention was fixed on Charlie’s hand gripping her neck. Magic required complete, undamaged life force. He had just barely managed to use an injured assassin to activate the magic circle, but that was a reluctant compromise.

“Don’t listen to her nonsense, Prima,” Khalif said in a deep voice. “The enemy’s words are all divisive tricks, not worth hearing.”

He raised his left hand, four of his five fingers adorned with different rings. Some were ancient in design, others extremely ornate, all set with gemstones that still sparkled in the dim underground light.

Charlie was also watching him.

The thumb represented power, the index finger wealth, the middle finger justice, and the ring finger forgiveness. This was a tradition every Wolf knew—however, unlike other family heads of various sizes, the rings on Khalif’s hand symbolized not his personal wealth, but the accumulated history of the entire Wolf Family.

Khalif slid the gold ring off his index finger and flicked it with his right hand. The small gold circle arched up and landed in front of Charlie. He reached to catch it, loosening his grip on Prima. Urch, who had been watching closely, lunged forward, grabbed Prima, and pulled her away from Charlie.

Charlie’s fingers almost immediately changed direction, but Urch’s strength was immense, and Prima was nearly lifted away. The blade at Charlie’s fingertips cut Prima’s collar.

Prima, like a puppet, was handed over to Khalif by Urch. She sluggishly blinked, seemingly just realizing what had happened.

“Prima.” Khalif took a deep breath, trying to use a gentle tone as he took her hand—as if he needed to touch her personally to be reassured.

Sven and Xanye didn’t interfere with Urch, and surprisingly, neither did Vasilia. She stood where she was, coldly watching the father and daughter, seemingly interested in what they would do next.

Charlie didn’t move either.

He examined the gold ring carefully but didn’t immediately put it on. Urch, seeing his focused expression, narrowed his eyes.

“You can leave now,” Khalif said to Charlie in a deep voice.

Charlie shrugged, walked backward to the stairs, and then stopped. Leaning against the wall with his arms crossed, he stood next to a door that neither emitted light nor whispers. It simply existed in the wall, unremarkable, with a pendulum clock above it stopped at a quarter past three in the afternoon.

“Isn’t it enough that the young lady is safe?” He tilted his head mischievously. “Honestly, this magic is impressive. It must have taken a lot of manpower, right?”

He emphasized the word “manpower”.

“Father, is that true?” Prima asked softly. “What is that door? There are so many strange doors outside, and then…”

She turned to look at the girl by Vasilia’s feet. Even after all this time, the girl hadn’t moved, her body showing no signs of life, making Prima unable to ask, “Is she dead?”

“They are uninvited intruders,” Khalif said. “The four families have always been in a delicate and false balance. Haven’t I taught you that?”

“They’ve always eyed the Wolf Family covetously because our auction house is a golden goose. Tonight, the balance is broken, Prima. The other three families have united against us, trying to destroy the Wolf Family, they—”

Vasilia let out a loud, cold laugh.

Prima’s expression was dazed, and Khalif stroked her hair. “I am the head of the Wolf Family. I am the Wolf Family. If I am killed, the entire family will be destroyed. You are also a Wolf. You wouldn’t want to see that happen.”

Prima nodded almost imperceptibly.

Khalif breathed a sigh of relief inwardly, ignoring Vasilia, and continued, “Protecting me means protecting everything. The family needs a strong leader to fight them. I need power. You are a good child. Will you help your father?”

Everyone held their breath, waiting for Prima’s reaction, especially Sven and Xanye. They knew Khalif was using despicable means to deceive his daughter—the Wolf Family rarely had mages, and Prima had no magical talent or theoretical knowledge. She probably had no idea what Khalif was doing.

Just as one shouldn’t easily reveal one’s name to an evil entity to avoid being drawn into a contract, the same applied to promises. Words themselves had power, and their binding force was equal for both mages and non-mages.

This was something Xanye had previously told Khalif. Khalif believed that the Monkey family relied too much on magic and would become weak without magical power. Xanye, to refute this, had demonstrated how, in the right environment, even without using magic, one could achieve wishes through the power of words.

A relatively enclosed space, overflowing magical molecules, blood, and inquiry—Prima was indeed standing on the edge of Khalif’s trap without realizing it.

Everyone tensed up involuntarily, except Prima, who blinked and almost without thinking, said, “Yes, Father.”

As soon as she spoke, Khalif’s face lit up with joy, which scared her into stepping back. Vasilia couldn’t hide her disappointment. She didn’t know what she was expecting. Miss Prima Wolf was famously gentle, and Khalif had been generous to her for many years. It was only natural for her to instinctively agree with her parent when unsure of the situation.

But—

She looked down at Maria on the ground. This time, those who could come to White Bridge in the name of the Lion Family were among the most promising young members. They had different personalities, some cold as ice, some fiery as flames, but their abilities and potentials were comparable. In a few years, senior officials like her would be able to choose their successors from them, passing on their experience and will. But Maria no longer had this future. She had arrived too late. By the time she found out that several young members had recklessly made a deal with the Wolves, she had rushed over as quickly as possible but only managed to pull the dying Maria out of the magic circle and watch her take her last breath during the ensuing fight.

This wasn’t the girls’ fault, but the adults’. The young ones were too eager to explore the world, and before leaving, they had strongly insisted on traveling alone, ensuring in various ways that they wouldn’t cause trouble and that everyone would return home safely.

Vasilia had experienced such a youth, knowing how annoying it was to have adults hovering around during the age of longing for freedom. So the family head, along with several high-ranking members, including herself, decided to let them “travel alone” while Vasilia secretly watched over them.

It was a grave mistake. Two fists couldn’t fight four hands. Vasilia alone couldn’t quickly fend off Khalif’s minions and Sven’s men to rescue Maria. In the end, all she could do was prevent Maria from becoming part of that disgusting magic circle.

But someone was about to repeat this mistake.

Charlie glanced quickly at Vasilia without saying a word.

He somewhat expected Vasilia to stop Prima, not because this Lioness was particularly kind, but because Prima’s sacrifice would likely empower Khalif. If Khalif got what he wanted, the crazed old Wolf would surely find a way to kill everyone who witnessed his secret tonight.

Conversely, Vasilia definitely didn’t want Khalif to continue living. Even without the severe setbacks to the younger generation, an enemy who never aged (in a sense) posed a significant threat to the Lion Family.

This might also include the Monkey. Whether it was because they lost two people or not, the Monkey and Xanye were unusually low-key. If it weren’t for the two genuine corpses, they would really seem like mere bystanders.

“My dear daughter.” Khalif didn’t care what the others thought. He raised the hand still holding Prima’s and pulled her to the seemingly ordinary wooden door, its magic circle still glowing.

Prima instinctively began to struggle. “Father, how can I help you?”

But a young girl was no match for Khalif. His aging was relative. He might no longer be able to defeat a young man like Louis in a duel, but he had no trouble controlling Prima. Her pitiful resistance was nothing. Khalif, like Urch earlier, practically dragged her to the door.

“Touch it, Prima.” Khalif could hardly control his voice, his heavy breathing on Prima’s neck causing goosebumps to rise on her cut skin.

Prima felt like she was in a forest, with a bloodthirsty bear gripping her shoulder. Every cell in her body screamed to run, but—

She had already decided not to flee. The tug of war between reason and instinct made her tremble again, heightening the tension for Khalif and those closely watching, including Sven. They weren’t worried that Prima would back out. She had just made a promise to Khalif. Despite her instincts, she couldn’t escape.

“Magic is both simple and complex,” Charlie’s words echoed in Prima’s mind. “You can think of it as a precision instrument or a complex handcrafted item—creating and assembling it requires significant effort, but destroying it is simple.”

The odd rabbit-headed man had told her. “Rules aren’t always fair. The intricate creations of great geniuses or craftsmen with decades of experience can be shattered by any illiterate brute with a hammer. The more complex and delicate something is, the more fragile it becomes.”

“Time magic is one of the greatest taboos, not only because it might disregard the rules of life and death but also because meddling with history and the future can affect the real world. Therefore, from conception to experimentation, this magic must undergo extensive work. If the Monkey Family members excel at magic and have perfected it through past experiments, then what gives your father such confidence must be a complex and brilliant creation. The more complex, the more fragile.”

“I’m giving you this.”

He handed Prima a small, cold metal object.

“What is this?” Prima asked.

“This is a key,” Charlie said. “It contains my magic—mages are proud and exclusive, and their magic is the same. When you get close to Khalif’s magical core, it will heat up intensely due to the repulsion between the two types of magic.”

Every door had a corresponding key, the last trace left by the one who gave everything to the door. If the person Khalif brought in before you didn’t die, the key wouldn’t appear, and the magic wouldn’t start. Khalif would desperately need a replacement.

Remember, you must insert the key into the lock on the door before the magic circle starts absorbing your life force.

---

<<< || Table of Contents || >>>