Chapter 76: Flowing Fire
Chapter 76: Flowing Fire
Covered in bloodstains and ice shards, Li Yi descended from mid-air like a mighty God of War. Flowing winds and dim light tangled at his feet, his figure like a swift gale and cold lightning, weaving between reality and illusion as he charged forward.
“Huff, huff…” His breathing was slightly hurried.
In that lightning-fast moment just now, Li Yi had used every trick up his sleeve!
Two Air Servants served as meat shields, Aura Armor covered his entire body, and he had even layered two casts of Air Shield spell around himself!
Even so, that Dagger of Frost had still given him quite a beating. Fortunately, he was tough-skinned and thick-boned; though he had many external wounds, none damaged his tendons or bones.
Actually, the simplest method would have been to collide a spell with it, detonating the Dagger of Frost early.
However, Li Yi only had one Water Bullet Spell, which happened to be naturally countered by the frost-attribute Dagger of Frost.
“Yan Zhao once said, ‘For warriors, essence is prized; for mages, breadth is prized.’ How true! Warriors have powerful bodies and can use one strength to break ten techniques, one skill to break ten thousand methods! But mages have frail bodies and must pay more attention to skill, attribute counters, flexibility, and adaptability to handle all sorts of complex situations!”
With this thought in mind, Li Yi clenched his fist and threw a fierce punch!
“What an idiot!” The boar-faced Mage sneered. The spiritual light around him swirled and coiled, emitting a strange glow. “Your ‘Stone Fist Strike’ may look like a martial technique, but it’s also a spell! Your spells simply cannot break my Aura Armor!”
“Who said I was going to use Stone Fist Strike?” Li Yi’s cold laugh sounded from behind his mask.
Thud!
A straightforward, heavy punch pierced through the Aura Armor and smashed squarely into the boar-faced Mage’s face. It held no Mana, no Battle Aura—only simple, brutal brute force!
“Ugh!” The boar-faced Mage cried out in pain, blood streaming from his nose.
Li Yi grabbed his head, pressed down with his palm, and delivered a knee strike, aiming again at his face.
This time, three teeth flew out.
“Who said I can’t beat you to death without using Stone Fist Strike? Without a spearhead, you can’t stab someone to death?”
While saying this, he threw one punch, then another, pounding them hard into the Mage’s head, making him mentally chaotic and unable to cast spells.
“Damn you, enough!” With a roar, an invisible pushing force erupted—neither wind nor air, but a strange field that spread out from around the boar-faced Mage!
Li Yi crossed his arms to block, planting his feet firmly. The tops of his Wind-Walking Boots scraped two long trails across the ground.
Level 1 spell — Force Wave.
“You certainly have quite a few tricks! But most are average, and their effects are all quite limited.” Li Yi stared at his opponent, sneering inwardly. “Once I advance to Spell Apprentice, all these spells will need adjustments and improvements!”
“You knocked out three of my teeth. You’re dead!” Blood flowed down the boar-faced Mage’s face, making his originally ugly boar-like visage even more hideous.
Just then, the snake-faced Mage also arrived timely, forming a pincer formation.
“Knocked out three teeth? Why don’t you mention that I left something else for you?” Li Yi narrowed his eyes, casually raising a finger and softly uttering a word. “Burst!”
The sound lingered as azure light exploded!
A furious hurricane transformed into countless wind blades, its violent might sweeping out, completely swallowing the boar-faced Mage’s figure!
2nd-grade Talisman — Hurricane Spear.
Generally, this talisman was thrown as a spell projectile. But Li Yi had placed it directly on the boar-faced Mage’s body, making its power particularly potent!
“Now there’s just you left…”
“Wait, I surrender!” The snake-faced Mage seemed shaken; without hesitation, he raised both hands to show he meant no harm. “Pang Yi is dead. Alone, I’m certainly no match for you. The job is important, but my life is more precious…”
“I’m not some moral crusader upholding justice either. If you don’t cause trouble for me, I won’t go looking for trouble.” Li Yi straightened his chest, hands clasped behind his back. “He was called Pang Yi? I just want to know, who hired you?”
“The You Clan.” The snake-faced Mage was quite forthright, holding nothing back.
“Black Rope You Clan?” Li Yi confirmed.
“Yes,” the snake-faced Mage nodded, then shook his head with a bitter smile. “Had I known you were this strong, I would never have taken this job…”
“In your line of work, isn’t reputation everything?” Li Yi thought for a moment, seemingly curious, and asked, “If you fail this mission, won’t your reputation be ruined?”
“Haha,” the snake-faced Mage laughed loudly. “Snakes have their paths, mice have their ways. Of course we have our own methods.”
“Oh?”
“This method, you mustn’t spread it…” He lowered his voice as if sharing a secret, leaning closer. “For example—Maple-Shadow Flowing Fire!”
His eyes revealed a treacherous ferocity. The snake-faced Mage shaped his hand like a palm, and a violent stream of fire, evolving into a chaotic torrent of flames, gushed out from between his fingers!
The boiling flames transformed into a flowing pillar of fire, with maple leaf shadows swirling and drifting around it, hinting at an autumn-like Conceptual Realm. It seemed less brutal and more artistic; the furious flames even developed a sense of layers, not achieved all at once but like morning tides, one wave following another.
However, this layered power disintegrated entirely before one pitch-black water bullet!
Steaming mist filled the air, the flowing fire dimmed, but the water bullet’s momentum didn’t stop. The roar of a mythical beast sounded endlessly, its aura overwhelming as it struck the snake-faced Mage squarely in the chest.
Earlier, while his hands were clasped behind his back, Li Yi had held a water bullet in his palm. During their conversation, under the effect of Bearing the Stele, he had compressed it layer by layer, building up its power.
“Water counters fire, don’t you know?” Amid the hazy mist, Li Yi’s expression was calm as he stepped out slowly.
“How could you…” The snake-faced Mage stared blankly, his gaze filled with disbelief.
“You ask, how could I believe the words of someone with a snake face?” Li Yi’s eyes held contempt as he scoffed. “Besides, the Mana flow between your fingers was perfectly clear under my Dawnlight Eyes.”
However, the other could no longer hear him.
“Playing along and feigning compliance… I’m not really good at that sort of thing…” Li Yi rubbed his head. “I’ll need more practice in the future.”
He collected the spoils.
This area was a man-eating place; Li Yi needed to act quickly.
He pulled open the boar-faced Mage’s chest and, as expected, found a gilded Runic Armament!
“So it was…”
Li Yi had long suspected. The boar-faced Mage’s “Frost-Condensed Snowball” and “Dagger of Frost” were simply too powerful. Generally, even with standard Magic Gestures as support, having two or three such spells was already impressive. Yet that boar-faced Mage had four or five at once!
Upon closer inspection, this crude Runic Armament drew a small amount of soul power to amplify ice and snow spells, achieving such might. It was truly quenching thirst with poison. The boar-faced Mage was most likely deceived.
“Better memorize this; it might be useful…”
With the owner dead, the Runic Armament began to disintegrate. Li Yi hurriedly memorized it silently.
Searching further, he found two rings on the right hand’s fingers: one Sumeru Ring, and one ring that increased casting speed—”Acuity.”
Li Yi’s eyes lit up.
As everyone knew, among magical equipment of the same level, attribute-enhancing equipment was the most expensive, while equipment with fixed spells was the cheapest.
Especially when the fixed spells were quite useless.
For mages of the same level, one spell rarely created a significant gap, but a single attribute could potentially overwhelm an opponent.
The Werewolf Mask, Wind-Walking Boots, Spiritual Armor Pendant, and Stone Fist Gauntlets—these were the main reasons Li Yi had been able to trade for these items.
Li Yi was soon disappointed. Both the Sumeru Ring and the “Acuity” ring had shattered under the Hurricane Spear’s terrifying wind pressure, losing all effect.
He shook his head and walked to the other corpse.
Fortunately, the Sumeru Ring was undamaged.
Upon establishing a mental connection, Li Yi frowned again. Inside, there were only a little over a thousand White Crystals and no other equipment—a pitifully small fortune.
“Perhaps a cunning rabbit has three burrows. Could he have other spatial equipment on him?”
He searched thoroughly but found nothing.
Only at the waist did he find one magic bamboo slip containing the incantation for “Maple-Shadow Flowing Fire.”
“Wise-grade lower tier, among the lowest-grade secret arts… Still, fire spells have the most majestic power and are the most practical. It suits me perfectly.”
Li Yi carefully pulled out the Iron-Leaf Corpse-Eating Grass bit by bit. He wasn’t a Spell Apprentice yet and couldn’t cast “Animate Rope,” but that would come sooner or later.
“Heading back, you two paupers!”
Li Yi turned away in disgust, not looking back at the corpses sinking into the earth.
He didn’t know that with this turn, he missed many things.
The boar-faced and snake-faced Mages’ real fortunes were actually hidden in the soles of their shoes, to prevent stronger individuals from robbing them.
Now, as the corpses sank and the shoes broke apart, some glimmering lights became visible.
Of course, Li Yi remained completely unaware.
…
He continued his arduous training into the second day.
Li Yi’s body suddenly jolted. His eyes suspicious, he revealed a bitter smile. “This guy… was a miser…”