Chapter 42 (1/2)
Translator: Radiant Editor: Radiant
The gigantic octagonal inner castle covered an area of up to two miles. Such a big area could only mean that there were countless traps laid within.
“Lu Huai Ru is hiding inside. Thus, the only thing we can do is to kill while we make our way in,” Si Bai Rong said. However, as he looked forward into the dark and creepy hallway leading into the depths of the castle, he became hesitant. “I think that there should be an untold amount of Arrays within. We will need someone strong to lead us in.”
Xue Ying smiled at that.
‘This Si Bai Rong! On the one hand, he wants prestige … on the other hand, he is afraid. I have no idea how his power managed to reach the stage of Silver Moon ranker…’
Tang Xiong and Liang Yong, on the contrary, were both extremely calm and composed. They turned towards Jing Qiu, hoping that she could make a decision.
“If we rush in blindly, we are just courting death.” Jing Qiu’s ever-cold voice calmed the rest of the experts down. “Even though Lu Huai Ru is just a Meteor-ranked Mage, he is still good at refining. It is certain that he has placed countless trap arrays in order to counter us. Even if a Silver Moon ranked Knight dares to rush in blindly, his life will still be endangered. Fellow experts, please give me some time. I will use my magic to try to discover any possible arrays ahead of us.”
Jing Qiu began chanting the incantation for the spell, staff in hand.
Actually, the reason behind why mages chanted out spell incantations was to induce self-hypnosis. After all, some of the most powerful spells in the world demanded too much from a mage and were extremely difficult to cast. These were impossible to make without self-hypnosis through spell incantations.
As for the lower-leveled spells, a mage could just cast those without having to chant out the spell incantations. Just as with Jing Qiu’s Frost Domain, there was totally no pressure on the mage in casting it.
Hua hua hua ~~~ Right in front of their eyes, an unbelievable amount of ice started coagulating together, forming the shape of what looked like an over 20 meter long gigantic ice-snake. The body of the snake was crystal clear, and its head filled with killing intent, causing Si Bai Rong, Tang Xiong and the rest of the experts to feel some sense of wariness towards it.
“Level 5 spell: Frost Snake.” Xue Ying nodded his head imperceptibly. “The spell-born Frost Snake does not have any weaknesses. Never mind ordinary SIlver Moon Knights; in terms of strength, it would not lose too badly even against the formidable Legend Knights! However, Jing Qiu’s current technique of forming the snake was not quite up to standard. If it would’ve had ten heads… even Legend-rankers would be threatened by it. However, if we were to compare the Frost Snake with a Legend-ranker who had already reached the state of being ‘One with the World’ and who had the ability to fully utilise the laws of nature, the first wouldn’t have the slightest hope of displaying its strength in front of the latter.”
Currently, Jing Qiu was still chanting the incantation for the spell.
As time passed by, another identical gigantic Frost Snake appeared beside the first one.
“My magic power is limited. I will have to conserve the rest for any unforeseen circumstances we might face later,” Jing Qiu said. “With these two Frost Snakes leading the way, we should be safe.”
“Haha! Just as I’ve said before, it is really our fortune to have a Silver Moon Mage accompany us!” Tang Xiong bellowed happily. “This Frost Snake does not have any weaknesses, and will easily advance. If it had been us leading the path instead, I’m afraid we would have had to put our lives at risk.”
“Jing Qiu is truly formidable,” Si Bai Rong began flattering. “Alright. We are leaving now. Jing Qiu, please stay between the four of us. We will protect you. Old Liang and me take will the front while Xue Ying and Tang Xiong take the rear.”
Just a moment ago, he had been afraid of leading the way.
However, he had suddenly regained his confidence with two gigantic snakes leading the group.
…
The two gigantic Frost Snakes started slithering their way across the spacious hallway. Each time they finished crossing a section, the snakes would whip their tails across the surrounding walls. Rumble~~~ Vibrations could be heard reverberating throughout the hallway. The force was so strong that the walls of the hallway could be seen crumbling away. Along the path, the several arrays they discovered were immediately destroyed. As for the arrays which escaped their notice, they would only inflict damage on the body of the Frost Snakes. Even though some parts of the snakes’ ice bodies were knocked off by the inflicted damage, the cold energy supplied by the magic power within their bodies reformed those parts instantaneously. However, one could notice that after each cycle of reformation the snakes would gradually shrink in size.
Every time they attacked or got hurt, the Frost Snakes would lose their frost energy, up until the very moment when they would be fully annihilated because of their fading energy.
Ignoring that, these two Frost Snakes did not have any weaknesses. They could just charge forward blindly, without fearing that any dangers would befall their bodies.
‘This is frightening.’ While defending the rear, Xue Ying wondered, ‘If we were to give any mage enough time to cast their spells, the threat that they pose would be a thousand times bigger than the threat of a knight. Some of the higher-leveled spells cast by a mage could even create disasters.’
A mage could likened to a scholar, since they generally studied the laws of nature. If given enough time to devour through the laws of nature, then a mage could even be said to become peerless. Any knight coming their way would only be serving his life on a platter. The longer a mage lived, the more powerful his spells and arrays would become, and the bigger a threat he would be to any opposing parties.
As for knights? They were actually much fiercer than mages.
Knights had an extremely explosive power. The moment they decided to kill, they would charge forward at such speed, that before a person could even finish blinking once, they would be forever lost to the world. With power came speed. With speed came power. For example, Xue Ying could easily cover a distance of a hundred meters in the blink of an eye, and an ordinary warrior would not even be able to see the tiniest bit of his shadow. Such a frightening speed… if he were to decide he wanted to kill a mage, the mage wouldn’t have the slightest chance to react. Thus, it could be said that both mages and knights had their own strengths and weaknesses.
Rumble rumble rumble~~~
The Frost Snakes had strength comparable to that of Legend rankers, despite the fact that if they were to engage in close combat, they would not be as fearsome as a Knight. However, the task of breaking down the hall was a simple feat for the two Frost Snakes. Many walls had already crumbled apart with the accompaniment of rumbling sounds. The arrays had no time at all to display their fearsome power as they were already erased by the two snakes’ slithering advance before even getting the chance to activate.
Even though all the hallway walls were broken into pieces, the castle was still stable, showing how good its foundation really was. After all, the main supports of the castle were still holding up.