Chapter 007: The Basement

It was already the third day since Du Fan returned home.
Over these three days, he had found a secluded courtyard in Duke Green’s residence and ordered the servants there to renovate and tidy it up.
Upon learning that it was the Duchess’s wish, the servants, who usually tended to slouch in their work, worked several times faster, and in just a few days, the entire courtyard was transformed.
Du Fan looked at the courtyard built exactly according to his plans and nodded in satisfaction.
Now, the small courtyard was filled with a mysterious atmosphere. There were neatly arranged flower beds, but no plants grew in them. In the center of the flower beds stood a fairly decent-looking house, along with a tower about ten meters tall.
Old Mark stood behind Du Fan and whispered, “Third young master, why go to such lengths? What exactly do you intend to do?”
“Can’t you tell, Grandpa Mark?” Du Fan smiled. “I built this tower so that I can practice magic. You should know that if I start practicing combat energy at my age, my achievements will likely be limited. It’s better to focus on mastering magic instead. But don’t tell anyone about this, or it will be laughable if I fail to make any progress.”
Old Mark nodded. “Alright, young master. Since you trust me, I won’t mention it. Also, why did you specifically ask me to come today, third young master?”
Du Fan awkwardly touched his pocket and after a while pulled out a piece of paper, handing it to Old Mark. “Grandpa Mark, could you go buy these things for me? They’re basic supplies for becoming a magician. As for money, my mother shouldn’t be restricting me anymore, right?”
Old Mark nodded, glanced at the paper, and said, “Sure, third young master. I’ll go right away.”
With that, he bowed and quickly left.
Du Fan smiled slightly and strode toward the house in the center of the courtyard. The servants who were still helping him tidy up stopped what they were doing upon seeing him and bowed, saying, “Third young master.”
These servants were well aware of the events that had taken place with the family’s third young master these past few days. But knowing their place, they didn’t dare ask too many questions. Instead, they watched him curiously, their eyes filled with questions.

Du Fan could easily tell what they meant. He clapped his hands, took out a handful of gold coins from his sleeve, and threw them to one of the servants, saying, “Alright, I can handle the rest by myself. You all may go back now. But leave one person at the door to keep watch. If anything happens, I’ll call for you again.”

The servants exchanged glances and realized that the third young master probably had something to do. They bowed quickly and left. Du Fan nodded in satisfaction. Only after they were all out of sight did he whisper, “Alright, Chenchen, it’s time for you to come out too. Have you finished modifying the basement I asked you to work on?”

The little white cat, who had been hiding somewhere, suddenly rushed out. It made a gesture to Du Fan, signaling for him to follow, then led the way ahead. Du Fan’s house wasn’t large—aside from the living room and study, there was only one bedroom.

When they entered the bedroom, Chenchen jumped onto the bed and touched something somewhere. A blue light flashed, and a dark hole appeared in what had been a smooth floor. Du Fan stood at the hole and examined it satisfactorily, saying, “Not bad, not bad. If I had to do this myself, it might take me a year to dig up a place like this.”

Chenchen stood on its hind legs and spread its paws, saying, “What’s so hard about it? As long as you have enough mental energy, I can teach you a few earth magic spells, and you’ll be able to do it. This is the most basic thing in magic.”

Du Fan smiled, grabbed Chenchen by the neck, and threw it into his arms. While rubbing its delicate skin, he said, “Anyway, I have to thank you. To show my gratitude, I decide that tonight, when you go to take a bath, I definitely won’t study art. Is that okay?”

Chenchen was speechless, not knowing whether to be angry or amused. Although Chenchen had turned into a cat, girls naturally have a sense of cleanliness. So these past few days, every midnight, she would turn back into her human form and secretly take a bath—after all, her existence couldn’t be known by others.

But for some reason, Du Fan always seemed to “wake up just in time” when she went to bathe. With a seemingly pious expression, he would grab a paintbrush he somehow found, stick his eyes through the crack in the bathroom door, and start what he called his “artistic creation.”

But how could Miss Chenchen be such an easy opponent? She immediately understood his intentions and cast a few spells, leaving Du Fan dizzy and disoriented. Yet this bastard charlatan was unbearably stubborn, determined not to give up until he saw what he wanted, so the events that took place over those nights could easily be written as a tutorial on spying and counter-spying. This outcome naturally enraged Miss Chenchen greatly. If it weren’t because Du Fan was her master, she would have torn him to pieces and destroyed his body. From what Chenchen knew about Du Fan, he surely understood that unless there was some purpose behind it, this guy would never keep his word. All the nice rumors about him in the capital were just disguises to help him survive better. But in front of her, he stripped off all his disguises, acting in such a despicable, shameless, vile, and evil manner that it was simply outrageous. So when she heard Du Fan say that, Chenchen naturally didn’t dare to respond, otherwise, who knew what tricks this mentally unstable guy would come up with next. Seeing that Chenchen didn’t answer, Du Fan wasn’t bothered. He hummed a tune learned from some unknown country and trudged down the stairs. As per Du Fan’s instructions, the basement was divided into three levels: upper, middle, and lower. The first level contained ordinary magical supplies and food, looking like a typical mage’s laboratory. But Chenchen knew well that aside from numerous traps and magic arrays, there was nothing else on that level. The second level was a training ground. Though she didn’t know what Du Fan intended to use it for, she still built it as he requested. As for the third level, it was the most crucial part of the entire basement. Besides a huge alchemy laboratory, there were also several warehouses and study rooms—this was where Du Fan truly needed it. From the third level, there was also a secret passage leading to the outer mage tower. But aside from Du Fan, probably no one else could guess where that secret passage was. In short, besides being hidden, the basement was filled with all kinds of traps. Every despicable and shameless tactic was fully displayed here. Methods like nets, falling rocks, poisonous sand, and water immersion were just ordinary; the traps designed by Du Fan himself made even Chenchen’s scalp tingle whenever she set them up.

In Chenchen’s words, this wasn’t exactly a large basement, but its defenses were even more stringent than those of a palace. It was likely that aside from those at the Saint level or above, no one else could even think of infiltrating it unscathed. Carefully stepping over various traps, Du Fan and the others finally reached the third floor of the basement. At its center lay Du Fan’s research room, which was currently empty. The few warehouses nearby were also empty. Du Fan took out Chenchen and placed her on the table, then smiled and said, “Alright, little girl. Now we can see just how wealthy we really are.” Chenchen scoffed at the word “we.” She knew full well that this bastard had already regarded her as his property from their first meeting. Otherwise, given his personality, he would have said “I,” not “we.” Du Fan smiled as he kept digging through the space ring in his hand, and in no time, he pulled out a pile of items. Besides the armor and weapons from the Temple Knights, there were also many trinkets, scrolls, and other miscellaneous items. There were even tens of thousands of gold coins alone—not a huge amount, but enough to make Du Fan quite wealthy. Then he took out the ring he had stolen from Emily last time. After examining it for a while, he looked frustrated. Emily’s space ring contained only a few hundred gold coins and nothing else of value. But since the space ring itself was quite valuable, Du Fan didn’t regret his actions at all. After digging around a bit more, he took out the glove that was the culprit, along with a few scrolls. He glanced at them casually and couldn’t help but laugh—a few ordinary magic spellbooks, not even as good as the one given by Archbishop Anthony. Du Fan naturally didn’t pay them any attention, but he still carefully placed them on the table, thinking they might be useful someday. After carefully sorting through all the items, Du Fan was exhausted. If it weren’t for the fact that such tasks couldn’t be done by others, he would have called over a bunch of servants. Du Fan picked up the last item on the ground—a small leather bag that seemed utterly ordinary. But when he opened it casually, he was stunned.