Marvel's master of cosmic magic

Chapter 513

"You’re already this powerful," Evan Ward said calmly, pushing the thin book back across the table. "Why would you even want my technique? It’s not a good thing. And honestly, I’m not interested in the Heavenly Talisman either."

Rowan Mercer paused.

With his psychic senses, he could tell Evan wasn’t lying.

Evan genuinely believed his own technique was flawed.

And he truly didn’t care about one of the Eight Miracles.

That surprised Rowan.

Most mystics would have killed for a chance to touch the Heavenly Talisman.

So what was it?

Did Evan think Wind-Rearranging Divination was dangerous?

Or did he just not want Rowan dragged into the same storm of trouble?

The second explanation didn’t hold up. Rowan already possessed the Heavenly Talisman. Danger came with or without Evan’s technique.

So it had to be the first.

Rowan withdrew the book and leaned back.

"The whole point of training," he said evenly, "is to explore what’s unknown and keep moving forward. I plan to go farther than anyone else. To do that, I need to study every serious system I can find and take what’s useful from each one."

He looked Evan straight in the eye.

"If your technique has problems, I’ll keep the good parts and discard the rest."

The three Greene youths exchanged stunned looks.

"That’s insane," one of them muttered. "Collecting every school’s art?"

Even Calvin Greene narrowed his eyes, his expression unreadable.

He understood exactly what Rowan was implying.

If Rowan truly intended to absorb the core methods of every major lineage, then conflict was inevitable.

No family or sect handed over its secrets willingly.

And judging by how Rowan had erased the Hale family, he wasn’t the type to accept refusal gracefully.

From the perspective of the mystic world as a whole, that path meant blood.

A lot of it.

Evan exhaled slowly.

"I get what you’re saying," he said. "But no. I won’t trade it."

Rowan tilted his head.

"You’re being watched. Your family’s being watched. You’re already in trouble. I can make that disappear. Permanently. All I want in return is your technique."

With what he’d done to the Hale family, Rowan didn’t even need to lift a finger.

All he had to do was openly back Evan.

That alone would make every stalker vanish overnight.

Unless they wanted to share the Hale family’s fate.

Evan shook his head.

"I’ll handle my own mess. And I really can’t give you that art. I’m sorry."

It wasn’t stubbornness.

It was guilt.

Everyone who studied Wind-Rearranging Divination eventually went mad.

Evan didn’t want that on Rowan’s conscience.

And beyond that, the technique had been passed down from his sect’s ancestors. Even without a formal prohibition, he didn’t feel he had the right to hand it to anyone else.

Rowan studied him for a moment.

Then he nodded.

"Fair. If you change your mind, call me."

He scribbled his number on a napkin and slid it over.

Then he turned to Calvin Greene and casually set the Heavenly Talisman in front of him.

"Calvin. How about this instead? The Heavenly Talisman for your family’s War Strategist Matrix. Deal or no deal?"

Calvin froze.

"...You’re serious?"

Rowan nodded.

Wind-Rearranging Divination could wait.

The Greene family’s technique was still one of the top-tier spatial-formation systems in the modern mystic world.

It was said to have been created by a legendary strategist whose mind had nearly crossed into the divine.

And from the memories Rowan had extracted from Hale family attackers, the Greene lineage also possessed an art called True Ember.

A flame that didn’t just burn flesh.

It burned intent. Memory. Meaning.

A masterpiece touched by it became dull and empty.

A cursed relic lost its malice.

A soul hit by it didn’t reincarnate cleanly.

Heavenly Talisman for that?

It was a bargain.

Calvin swallowed.

"I... I can’t answer that right now. This isn’t my call."

Rowan smiled.

"Then ask your father."

Calvin reluctantly handed the book back.

Rowan waved it away.

"Keep it for now. I’m confident he’ll agree."

Calvin’s hand trembled.

For a split second, he almost kept it.

But reason won.

He placed it gently back on the table.

"Let’s wait for my father’s answer."

Rowan nodded, unfazed.

That reaction alone told him everything.