#572 - Actively solicit (ask for monthly ticket recommendation ticket)

The longsword [Annihilation] pierced the phoenix's chest, pinning her firmly to the stone wall. Fresh blood seeped continuously from her wound and mouth, flowing down her smooth skin, rushing, dripping from her bare feet, staining the wall and floor behind her a crimson red.

Even then, the phoenix struggled, reaching out to grasp the longsword that impaled her, desperately trying to pull it out.

But Anduin's force in launching the longsword was considerable, and [Annihilation] was still constantly inflicting stinging electric shocks upon her, coupled with the [Permanent Energy Drain Curse] attached to the sword, which was continuously drawing magic from the phoenix's body.

This caused her actions to appear so weak, until finally, she was on the verge of losing even the strength to lift her hands.

The gradual loss of life filled the phoenix's heart with hatred. She was so resentful. She clearly could have lived much longer, still had so many wonderful experiences to enjoy, and so many interesting spells she hadn't had time to study. Was she really going to end here so inexplicably?

It was all their fault! The phoenix glared at Anduin with bloodshot eyes, wanting to use her last strength to utter the most vicious curse she knew.

As a witch who had spent years studying forbidden dark magic, she knew at least ten curses that could be cast at the cost of life or soul.

But this bastard in front of her wouldn't even let her utter her dying words!

What made her even more desperate was that as her magic was drained and her life force ebbed away, her youthful skin began to age rapidly, with wrinkles and age spots constantly appearing.

Perhaps this was another side effect of the forbidden drug, the Elixir of Life.

Before long, she had turned into a gaunt old woman with withered white hair and wrinkles all over, a stark contrast to her previous appearance as a twenty-year-old girl.

"No! No..." Looking at her aged hands that had almost turned into withered bones, the phoenix desperately let out her last groan. She couldn't accept that she would die in this ugly and unbearable form.

But the consciousness of regret gradually left the phoenix's body, leaving only her hideous face with unclosed eyes.

At this moment, Andre and the others around her slowly approached, watching the phoenix turn from a young girl into an old woman, and then breathe her last.

"Cough, cough!" Andre gasped weakly, coughing a few times, embarrassingly. "I guess I'm really getting old. Just a little exercise and I'm this tired."

With that, he shook his head unhappily. "But this old hag, Phoenix, is really powerful, both in the spells she used and in how bizarre she herself is."

Anduin knew that Andre was referring to the strange way she rapidly aged. It wasn't surprising that he would think that way without knowing about the Elixir of Life.

Seeing that Andre was a little exhausted, Anduin took out a bottle of tonic from his pocket and handed it over. "You also saw how troublesome the spells she used were. It's not strange for someone who studies dark magic to come up with some strange magic to maintain their appearance."

Andre took the potion, took a big gulp, and then nodded. "Yes, if I hadn't seen it with my own eyes, I really wouldn't have believed that the beautiful young woman before was Phoenix, one of the club's founders. Otherwise, we might have been deceived by her. By the way, when she appeared from that puddle of mud, was she planning to curse us? Luckily, you acted decisively enough."

"Yes, we can't relax even a bit when dealing with such dangerous people." With that, Anduin looked around and sighed helplessly. "It's a pity that we couldn't leave her alive, and we almost failed. This is the result of acting in haste. Fortunately, we managed to keep her in the end."

"Thanks to your quick reaction in holding her back in advance. Otherwise, this guy would have probably run far away by the time we got here." Andre jokingly praised Anduin, and then looked at the mess in front of him with a speechless expression. "A good house, but now we've torn holes everywhere. This place is almost a swamp now."

After complaining, Andre struggled to pull his shoes out of the several inches deep of rotten flesh and mud, and then wiped them on the nearby wall with a look of disgust.

Anduin shook his head speechlessly at the sight. The Aurors responsible for cleaning up the mess would have a hard time.

With that thought, he turned his gaze back to Phoenix. These old monsters who had lived for hundreds of years probably had a lot of good things on them, such as the prop that helped her escape at a critical moment.

At the same time, she had to fight in a hurry, so the other things should still be in the bedroom on the third floor. It was time to take stock of the gains.

With that thought, Anduin walked towards Phoenix's corpse, but to prevent her from playing any tricks before her death, he didn't put the corpse down immediately. Instead, he cast a few 'Detect Malice' and 'Detection Spells' without a wand from the air. After confirming that everything was fine, he pulled Annihilation out of her chest.

After re-gripping the hilt of Annihilation, he could clearly feel a sense of swelling. Obviously, after absorbing Phoenix's life and magic, Annihilation had grown a lot.

Thinking of this, Anduin couldn't help but secretly think that it was dangerous. Because the others were relatively far away just now, and they were attracted by the sudden change in Phoenix's body, they didn't notice the abnormality of Annihilation.

Otherwise, facing such a bloodthirsty weapon, it would probably attract all sorts of suspicion from Andre and the others.

After taking off Annihilation, Anduin took down Phoenix's body again. After inspection, he found that she had almost no items on her except for her wand and the necklace around her neck, not including the nightgown that was as tattered as a rag.

As for the pendant that saved Phoenix's life at a critical moment, only the chain and buckle were left at this time. The black gem inlaid on the buckle had been shattered and disappeared because the spell was activated. He didn't know if he could analyze the spell on it using the remaining wreckage.

After simply tidying up Phoenix's corpse and belongings, Anduin put away Annihilation and turned around. At this time, the Schmidt brothers, who had been hiding in the back, also came up, but they both had pale faces.

Anduin felt a little inexplicable when he saw this. These two guys seemed to have been just watching the show before, so why did they look so bad? But he still thoughtfully said, "Thank you for your hard work tonight. Although the process was a bit tortuous, we managed to solve Phoenix anyway. Let's leave the rest to the Aurors who are responsible for the aftermath."

With that, he tilted his head to look at Andre. "Please trouble Mr. Andre to inform the Aurors on guard outside. I have to go to the third floor to tidy up Phoenix's belongings and see if I can find any clues about the club."

Andre knew that Anduin wanted to scavenge some benefits from Phoenix. He didn't have any thoughts on this. Anyway, his purpose tonight was to solve Phoenix, and Anduin initiated the action against Phoenix itself. He contributed the most, and he should have cleaned up the battlefield.

Edmund and Allen naturally had no objections. They even felt that Anduin's sentence 'Thank you for your hard work' was very ironic.

You must know that the two of them basically could only watch from the sidelines from beginning to end. They couldn't even get involved in the battle with a wizard of Phoenix's level. The whole process relied on Anduin and Andre to solve her. The only thing they could do was not to hold back.

Thinking of this, Edmund couldn't help but re-examine Anduin and Andre. They had also opened their eyes today.

These two guys showed them what true power was. Anduin's impressive lightning and sword magic, and Andre's devastating blade storm. Imagine if the opponent was them, Edmund felt that he probably wouldn't last ten seconds.

Edmund also said very sincerely, "Mr. Wilson, you are too polite. We didn't help at all on this trip. On the contrary, we relied on the two of you to kill the murderer who harmed my child, Phoenix. I am grateful to you, so how dare I talk about hard work."

"In order to repay the kindness of the two of you, we will carefully consider the family's position. From now on, the two of you will be friends of our Schmidt family. We will treat our friends with the greatest support. Mr. Wilson, Director Andre, please feel free to ask for any help you need in the future!"

Edmund's words were quite straightforward, without the previous roundabout feeling. Even Andre could hear that the Schmidt family was preparing to fully support him in the follow-up actions.

Edmund's decision on behalf of the Schmidt family was naturally not because he was frightened by the two men's force, but a decision made after careful consideration.

First of all, the strength shown by the two is indeed the most attractive point. It is definitely not a loss to spend resources to make friends with strong people for the family, not to mention wizards like Andre and Anduin who are very powerful in both strength and status.

At the same time, he was also impressed by Anduin's performance. The other party showed a mind beyond his peers, firm and efficient action, and strong intelligence and command capabilities, which Edmund had never seen before.

Edmund could imagine with his butt that Anduin's future achievements would be limitless. Now he may still be able to make friends with the other party on a relatively equal footing. If he waits until later, I am afraid that their Schmidt family will not be willing to pay attention to you even if they come to the door.

Therefore, Edmund will naturally not give up such an opportunity to hook up with a strong man like Anduin for the family. For this reason, he even put his identity very low and behaved quite modestly.

When Anduin and Andre saw this, they were naturally very happy. After all, with the full support of the Schmidt family, it would be equivalent to holding nearly half of the power in the German Wizengamot Council in their hands. In this way, Peter would really become a loner.