Chapter 25: A Bloody Silent Night (Part Two)

Only when Abulite stepped onto the platform did Xiu Yi see him clearly for the first time. Despite claims that Abulite was already over seventy, he appeared merely middle-aged. He was an exceptionally tall man, with a mane of lion-like curls, and walked with heavy, imposing steps. Anyone unaware of his true identity might have mistaken him for a warrior rather than a mage.

Striding to the center of the platform’s plaza, Abulite, robed in deep purple, shot Xiu Yi a glare, swept his gaze over the corpses scattered on the ground, and finally fixed his eyes on Claude Browny.

“Claude, is this the outcome of your insatiable greed? Look at your men—they’re all dead before I even lifted a finger.”

Claude was terrified, his courage crumbling. “Master Abulite, I never intended to oppose you!”

“But you can’t deny that before you brought Xiu Yi Glei’er here, you already knew his identity, can you? When I came here, still harboring a sliver of hope to persuade you, I was greeted instead by your family’s warriors barring my way! How absurd. Did you really think that a mere defensive barrier could stop me? Have you forgotten that spatial magic is most adept at setting up and breaking through barriers?” Abulite roared.

Claude stammered, “That… that was the patriarch’s order. I was just following commands. And this barrier…”

Abulite sneered, “Enough! Bernard’s idea, was it? Oh, in the face of greed, even truth must yield, and even Death itself must retreat! I never imagined Bernard would dare plunder the empire’s treasures! And this brat stole my belongings and even left insults for me—he is someone I must claim, and yet you dared to compete with me for him. Since Bernard is so foolish, I don’t mind wiping out him and his entire family! In fact, I have already done so.”

A vicious glint flashed in Abulite’s eyes. “From this day forth, the Browny family no longer has any place in this world.”

He stretched out his left hand toward Claude, intoning a spell. Instantly, a dozen spatial rifts tore open around Claude.

“Level Five Spatial Spell—Rend of the Void,” Xiu Yi murmured as he watched.

This was one of the most powerful offensive spells of spatial magic—a rending blade that created rifts at targeted locations to slice apart the foe.

The next moment, Claude’s despairing scream echoed as the spatial rifts, like razor-sharp blades, sliced through him, dismembering his body into a dozen bloody pieces in an instant.

He didn’t even have the chance to resist.

All the nobles present recoiled in horror; several noble ladies screamed uncontrollably. Abulite, however, merely withdrew his left hand and grinned fiendishly at Xiu Yi.

“Xiu Yi Glei’er, you have some nerve, sneaking into my domain to steal. I suppose you didn’t bother to find out who I am before this, did you?”

Xiu Yi chuckled lightly. “On the contrary, Master Mage. To learn more about you, I spent over a month in the tavern outside your manor. From your warriors, I learned you are a brutal, ruthless, bloodthirsty, and utterly inhuman lord. While you are a mage and your domain appears respectable, power and character rarely align. After learning all this, I felt not a trace of guilt in stealing from you.”

As he spoke, he slowly raised his greatsword, pointing it at Abulite from a distance.

In that moment, his boldness and heroic spirit startled even Abulite.

Then he looked up at Abulite and said, “The great Lord of the Rose once said, ‘I would rather face a cruel and powerful enemy than a weak opponent, for at least with the former, my conscience bears no burden.’ That is how I feel now. Come, let me see what strength a level-six mage truly wields.”

Abulite nodded in reluctant admiration. “I must admit, no wonder you could slay Haines. At least in courage, you are unmatched. But it’s a pity—I am not Haines. In the face of absolute power, all your cunning is for naught. Hand over the map and the Soul-Devouring Ring, and I might spare your life.”

Abulite’s left hand pointed once more, spatial magic crackling at his fingertips, ready to unleash the Rend of the Void and tear Xiu Yi to pieces.

“I believe that even if I refuse, you wouldn’t dare kill me. Your sovereign surely wants me alive, does he not? That means this battle can only be me attacking you, not the other way around,” Xiu Yi replied, smiling as if oblivious to the threat.

This remark completely infuriated Abulite. “Xiu Yi Glei’er, you’re not the only alchemist in the world! Lost techniques can always be rediscovered. If I kill you, His Majesty might not do anything to me! Since you think I won’t dare, then die now!”

With a flourish of incantations, the light at his fingertips blazed fiercely, spatial energy rending the air and forming gashes in space.

But at that very instant, a radiant glow appeared beneath Xiu Yi’s feet, blocking the transmission of spatial energy.

A new magical shield materialized around Xiu Yi.

At his feet, a strange magical array shimmered with peculiar light.

Abulite hesitated, and Xiu Yi laughed, “No need to be surprised, right? Since I could block your teleportation, it means I can also shield myself from spatial energy. If I can create one array, I can make two.”

While he had been striking down the warriors, seemingly dancing madly in blood, he had quietly laid a second array.

A cruel gleam flashed in Abulite’s eyes. “Worthy student of Haines—I never expected you to wield arrays so skillfully. But you seem to forget, alchemy might be powerful, but it was never meant for quick adaptation!”

Abulite threw back his head and bellowed, “Come, ice spirits of the void, gather your strength in my hands! Freeze the earth, turn the mountains to ice, let all the world be shrouded in white... Land of Frost!”

A torrent of snowy light burst from his hands, surging skyward like a frozen river, then crashed toward Xiu Yi.

Level Four Water Spell—Land of Frost.

Abulite was right—while alchemical arrays are powerful, they must be prepared in advance and lack flexibility. The arrays Xiu Yi had prepared for Abulite were designed to counter his spatial abilities, but he had overlooked that Abulite was also a level-four water mage.

The chill of the Land of Frost turned the entire platform into a frozen wasteland; blood flowing on the ground solidified into crimson ice, creeping rapidly toward Xiu Yi’s feet. If the frost overtook the platform, the arrays would be destroyed.

Yet Xiu Yi’s eyes showed not the slightest panic. Instead, he smiled gently.

Suddenly, two joyous cries echoed from the sky.

Abulite looked up, astonished, to see two massive flaming birds appear above. They raised their heads and unleashed twin torrents of fire at Abulite.

A flood of fire elements, as torrential as molten lava, surged forth. Even Abulite, powerful as he was, had to dodge frantically. The Firebirds were level-nine elemental beasts; though two together only counted as level nine, their fire magic far surpassed Abulite’s level-four water spell. With a single breath, they shattered the Land of Frost, and even burned several holes in Abulite’s purple mage’s robe.

Watching the red and green birds circling triumphantly, Abulite took a deep, furious breath, his old face flushing scarlet. “Firebirds? You even brought them here?”

Xiu Yi smiled at him. “Lord Abulite, it took Lord Lancelot quite some effort to capture them alive—since it’s far more difficult than killing them outright. They are not to be underestimated. Now, do you still believe I am powerless against you? If you want to kill me, you’ll need to show your true skills.”

“Hmph! Arrogant brat. Do you think you can defeat me with just those two beasts?” Abulite sneered.

With the Firebirds assisting Xiu Yi, Abulite could no longer take his opponent lightly.

He finally raised his right hand.

With his left hand, he traced strange sigils on his right, intoning softly, “Let my body be the source of power, conjure the vortex of space. Go, elemental spirits—unleash the tide of annihilation, devour all foreign forces that dare obstruct your sacred freedom... Barrier Break! Energy Storm!”

Barrier Break and Energy Storm—Abulite cast two spells simultaneously. This dual casting was a special feat that only advanced mages could master, and only within the same magical discipline. Stung by Xiu Yi’s taunts, Abulite unleashed his full fury.

Now, everyone present witnessed Abulite’s true might—two top-tier spatial spells cast at once. The bright lights all around quickly dimmed, all magical lamps extinguished themselves, and only the radiance from Abulite’s body illuminated the void.

A black tide, as if seeping through time and space, drifted toward Xiu Yi like smoke. The next moment, it felt as if he stood in a boundless, solitary expanse, oppressed body and soul by an unprecedented, terrifying force.

Intense light flared in Xiu Yi’s eyes. This was his first duel with such a powerful mage. Though he had made all possible preparations, Abulite’s strength still shocked him—and excited him even more.

It was certain: Abulite was the most formidable mage he had ever encountered. Even Klos, from before, would have been no match for him.

Under the overwhelming pressure of spatial energy, the red and green birds screamed and soared into the sky, unable to bear the strain. The array Xiu Yi had used to sever Abulite’s spatial energy was instantly undone by the Barrier Break. Silver waves of light rippled constantly at Xiu Yi’s feet.

The next instant, a massive Energy Storm, guided by Abulite, erupted around Xiu Yi, surging waves of fiery energy roaring like erupting magma.

Abulite threw back his head and laughed, “Xiu Yi Glei’er, to die beneath an Energy Storm—you should consider it an honor!”

At that moment, Xiu Yi suddenly looked up at Abulite. “Is that so? Then you should know—I’ve been waiting for you to use this for a long time.”

Abulite froze, watching Xiu Yi suddenly invert his greatsword and stride into the storm. The sword’s hilt, originally inscribed with a wind spirit array, now blazed with new, unfamiliar light and color—a strange new array emerged.

The array flared with intense light, enveloping Xiu Yi’s figure. A blurred shadow streaked through the crimson waves—Xiu Yi plunged his entire body into the storm.

Like a fish navigating turbulent currents, or a storm petrel braving the hurricane, he darted through the storm, utterly unharmed.

The Energy Storm—capable of annihilating all within its reach—gradually weakened as he passed through it.

“How is this possible?” Abulite screamed, unable to believe his eyes.

No one had ever survived an Energy Storm.

“Nothing is impossible!” Xiu Yi’s voice rang out from within the storm. “Master Abulite, perhaps I should tell you: On Purgatory Island, I became an expert in the principles of spatial magic. I may lack overwhelming mana and innate talent, but no one understands spatial magic better than I. Don’t forget, I’m truly an alchemist! I made the teleportation arrays myself! Your Energy Storm is powerful, but can it defy the laws of spatial energy? Is it stronger than the storms within the Gate of Space?”

Gate of Space? Abulite was stunned; he had no idea what Xiu Yi meant.

Could Xiu Yi Glei’er even withstand the energy storms inside the Gate of Space?

In the next instant, the Energy Storm Abulite had unleashed vanished completely. Xiu Yi, ceasing his movement, raised his greatsword once more.

That sword was inscribed with the very array Electra had created to absorb the energy storms within the Gate of Space.

Electra’s array was specifically designed to absorb the power of energy storms.

Xiu Yi Glei’er had chosen this greatsword precisely because its broad blade was perfect for inscribing the complex array.

Now Xiu Yi sneered, “Don’t you understand yet? If I were facing any other kind of mage, I’d have been doomed. But spatial magic... for me, it’s a source of power! That’s why I targeted you!”

As he roared, his greatsword blazed with a pillar of fire, as though a dragon lunged at him. Xiu Yi’s body glowed intensely, as if a fireball had erupted, filling the space with energy.

He threw back his head and roared, immense spatial energy surging through his body—agonizing, yet transformative. Amidst the blazing pain, Xiu Yi suddenly flung his arms skyward, the storm of magic shattering the leaping pillars of flame, and waves of red light boiled and surged around him.

“You—you’re... Oh, heavens, this cannot be!” Abulite shrieked in terror as he realized Xiu Yi was absorbing his power.

Indeed, this was the plan Xiu Yi had devised after much thought to break through his bottleneck in spatial magic. By goading Abulite into using the Energy Storm at all costs, then using Electra’s energy-absorbing array to siphon off the spatial force and channel it into himself, he could enhance his own magic. The energy transfer rune made it possible.

The transfer rune couldn’t absorb damage, but the absorption array could. He absorbed the energy storm via the array, then transferred its power to himself, maximizing the rune’s effect.

In that moment, immense power flooded his body—Xiu Yi finally broke through his limitations in spatial magic.

He was leveling up, and it seemed he would gain more than a single rank.

Whatever strength Abulite expended on the Energy Storm, Xiu Yi gained in return.

The Firebirds danced joyously in the air, and even the little dragon in his arms managed a faint whimper.

Three arrays, the cost of casting Void Slash, and the energy absorbed now had nearly drained the little creature’s spatial magic reserves.

“No!” Abulite’s furious roar echoed.

He had never dreamed that all of Xiu Yi’s careful planning was for this one purpose—to break through in spatial magic.

“I’ll kill you!” Abulite screamed, raising his hands. “Rend of the Void!”

A surge of spatial energy flew toward Xiu Yi.

The array blocking spatial energy had been destroyed, and Abulite sought to tear Xiu Yi apart with his spell.

Xiu Yi looked at him coldly, a sneer twisting his lips. With a sly smile, he traced an elegant arc with his finger, and a spatial rift opened before him, swallowing the energy Abulite sent his way.

To counter spatial magic with spatial magic—no one understood its workings better. As he declared, with enough preparation, he would never fear any spatial mage.

Abulite’s attack hadn’t even taken full form before Xiu Yi nullified it.

Abulite stared in disbelief. “This... how can this be?”

“Nothing is impossible, is it, Lord Abulite? You know as well as I—no magic is truly unbreakable, nothing truly invincible. It’s a matter of knowing how.”

Stepping through the carnage, his gaze heavy as blood, Xiu Yi’s silent figure seemed to stride through the vastness of time.

Abulite’s spells, cast at enormous cost, had been absorbed; Xiu Yi now wielded the strength of a level-four spatial mage.

Abulite, his brow beaded with sweat, glared at Xiu Yi, fury and dread in his bloodshot eyes.

Spatial magic had always been powerful, but it was also draining. Abulite had cast three Rends of the Void, an Energy Storm, and Barrier Break—yet failed to kill his foe, and nearly exhausted his own reserves.

Meanwhile, his opponent was growing ever stronger.

It was only then that Abulite realized—he had come because of a report from the dance troupe, yet Xiu Yi Glei’er seemed to know he was coming, preparing everything in advance. Those arrays had clearly been laid for him.

Damn it—it was a trap! Abulite finally understood.

The open-air platform was utterly silent.

Xiu Yi’s performance had exceeded everyone’s expectations.

No one could have foreseen that a mere alchemist would dare challenge the empire’s most formidable spatial mage—and even appear to have the upper hand.

But none knew the risks Xiu Yi had taken, or the price he’d paid.

He’d revealed the Firebirds, spent a fortune in materials on his arrays, and nearly died absorbing the energy storm. If not for Xu, who’d helped bear part of the power, he might have been unable to withstand the force.

His time as a mage was still short, his foundation shallow.

Yet, somehow, he had succeeded.

Now, gazing at Abulite, Xiu Yi raised his greatsword once more.

He shouted, “Lord Abulite, thank you for your generous gift. Now, let us fight in earnest one last time—my final show of respect for a worthy adversary!”

Boom!

A surge of crimson energy erupted behind Xiu Yi, waves raging furiously. The blast swept him forward, charging toward Abulite.

Warrior Skills—Thrust, Heavy Slash, Charge.

Battle energy whirled through his body, the three skills activated at once. At the climax of battle, Xiu Yi preferred to fell his foe as a true warrior.

Abulite cried out.

His voluminous mage’s robe billowed as blasts of ice and snow swirled around him.

With his magic nearly spent, Abulite could only rely on his water spells.

“Ice Armor! Ice Barrier! Ice Spear!”

A suit of hardened ice encased Abulite, a frigid breath swirling around him, a snow-colored spear in his right hand.

The Firebirds did not join in—their faith in Xiu Yi was absolute.

The ice spear thrust forth, but Xiu Yi’s agile form spun aside. In battle skill, this mage was inferior even to a beginner warrior.

Dodging the spear, Xiu Yi’s greatsword pierced the ice barrier. In a flash, torrents of ice swept toward him, enveloping him in frost. In an instant, the golden-haired youth became a white-haired boy, even his eyebrows silvered, though a fierce fire of excitement still burned in his eyes.

Bang!

His sword struck the ice armor with a resounding crash.

“Break!” Xiu Yi roared.

Battle energy exploded from his body, his heavy sword displaying the full might of a warrior’s strength.

Cracks splintered across the armor, like fissures in parched earth.

“This can’t be!” Abulite gasped in terror.

The Ice Armor should withstand even a level-four warrior’s best efforts—how could a mere level-two warrior break it?

“Don’t you understand? In the way of combat, nothing is impossible!” Xiu Yi growled.

Martial arts had been his first discipline, and his grasp of battle energy exceeded even that of magic. While others saw him as merely an alchemist, he had become a formidable mage. When they realized he was a mage, he was already advancing as a warrior.

Even without extreme training, over three years of standard battle energy cultivation had reached a critical point. At this moment, releasing all his pent-up strength, he finally broke through the bottleneck.

Combined with the power of his magical greatsword, it was unsurprising that Xiu Yi shattered Abulite’s armor.

The surprising thing was that Abulite still saw his foe as nothing more than a scheming, underhanded youth.

A roar—like mountains collapsing—shook every onlooker to the core. It was Abulite’s shriek as his armor shattered and his arm was struck.

Xiu Yi’s eyes blazed like lightning, his body wreathed in surging winds, like a mythic warrior howling in the storm. He was harnessing the power of wind to strengthen himself further.

Now, he increasingly understood the wonders of combining magic and martial arts.

His eyes burned with excitement, the battle-call echoing in his very bones. In a low, cold voice, Xiu Yi declared, “When the heavens require me to fight with strength and will, I possess the courage to die without regret!”

“Void Slash!”

In horror, Abulite found Xiu Yi had vanished.

He tried to teleport away, but the outer magical shield blocked him.

The next moment, Xiu Yi appeared behind him, greatsword raised high, bringing a razor-sharp wave crashing down on Abulite’s head.

A fountain of blood erupted skyward. Abulite’s severed head spun through the air, eyes wide with disbelief that he could die in an honest duel with a novice mage.

—The music played on, but the singer’s voice trembled.

On the open-air platform, that solitary, slender figure became, in everyone’s mind, an object of terror.

Dragging his greatsword through the bloody mire, Xiu Yi carved a harsh, scraping sound into the floor that struck fear into all.

The final battle had left its mark—the last ice barrier had wounded him, yet with a single potion, Xiu Yi was fully restored.

He walked once around the platform, sword tracing a circle in the dirt, and with his own unique flair, Xiu Yi wrote in bold letters upon the platform:

“This is only the beginning!”

Then he stepped onto the crystal wall, gazing at Daisy and Lance on the stage.

Onstage, the two girls had frozen, their expressions utterly stunned.

With a long sigh, Xiu Yi swung his greatsword, shattering the crystal wall in a shower of shards that bounced harmlessly off his blood-soaked body.

He leapt down from the platform, and the magical shield faded behind him.

Screams erupted from the audience as the crowd stampeded toward the exits.

Xiu Yi, however, simply melted into the panicked throng and disappeared, leaving only the nobles stunned on the platform.

Among them, the beautiful widow Christine was as dumbfounded as the rest.

Tonight, these nobles had witnessed a massacre.

One man had single-handedly wiped out the entire Browny family of warriors, and slain the empire’s most powerful spatial mage, Lord of Fragrant Leaf City, Abulite.

Clearly, beneath the boy’s gentle and refined exterior lay a madness and ferocity, just as he had promised—he would never stoop to boring duels, but would use any method to destroy his enemies.

Viscount Morel, previously humiliated by Xiu Yi, might once have burned with anger and hatred, even fantasizing about gathering warriors to take revenge after the gathering.

But now, he was utterly dumbstruck.

He could only be grateful that he hadn’t acted rashly when threatened earlier; otherwise, he would by now be a corpse on the ground.

He no longer doubted that, should the mood strike him, the youth would kill without hesitation or mercy.

Christine’s alluring gaze swept over Viscount Morel and the crowd of would-be suitors, and she sighed softly.

She said, “Tonight was truly an exhilarating night. I remember someone once promised to bring me Xiu Yi Glei’er’s head to win my favor. Well, I shall wait to see if anyone can fulfill that promise. If someone truly does, I might consider marrying him.”

With that, Lady Christine swept away in all her elegance.