Chapter 99: The Sacred and Inviolable Light Saint (2)
With the decline of the Temple, the title of “Saint” was not enough to make the young priests treat him with enthusiasm.
“Lord Saint, I’ve brewed some rose tea for you.” Unlike the slightly cold attitude of the other temple priests, Kevin had been very diligent ever since Huo Xian helped him out. It wasn’t intentional flattery, but rather respect from the bottom of his heart.
Huo Xian gazed at the rose tea, which looked like a piece of art, and fell silent. That expectant look reminded him of Huo Yuan. Huo Yuan liked food and also loved making it. Every time he finished a dish, he would look at him with those bright, expectant eyes.
Not having his wife at the start was painful.
After a brief adjustment, everyone except for a few guards staying behind walked toward the forest. According to the plot, they would find traces of the Gale Thundercloud Leopard today and then launch a sneak attack tomorrow while it was hunting.
“Nigel…” Christ walked beside Huo Xian for a while. Seeing that Huo Xian had no intention of talking to him, he was a bit confused and puzzled. He worried if Huo Xian was angry because Katrina had invited him for breakfast. Just as he was about to explain, he was stopped by Huo Xian’s raised hand.
Huo Xian looked at him and said flatly, “Call me Nigel.” Every time he heard “Chris” or “Nigel” from Christ’s mouth, he wanted to gag.
“Nigel…” Christ obediently changed the address, then looked around and whispered in a low voice: “Are you angry with me? I swear to you, I’ll walk the other way whenever I see Princess Katrina, okay?”
The final “okay” carried a hint of coquettishness. Combined with Christ’s handsome face and the sincerity that almost overflowed from his azure eyes, it was quite convincing.
Flawless acting, Huo Xian thought to himself.
Currently, the original host and Christ hadn’t confirmed a romantic relationship, but the “double-pointed arrows” were extremely thick. Christ had already expressed his feelings, but the original host hadn’t agreed for a long time. This was because although the Temple had declined, the Saint followed its teachings, and his body and mind belonged only to the God of Light. Even if he wanted to, the Pope wouldn’t allow it—at least in the original host’s memory, he and Christ only truly got together years after the Pope’s death.
It had to be said that Christ’s patience was truly good.
“Nigel?” Christ didn’t receive a response. He was confused but still maintained his previous sincerity.
“I’m not angry.” Huo Xian’s tone was calm. To prevent him from speaking further, he said before Christ could open his mouth: “Let’s complete the mission first.”
Christ opened his mouth, then closed it again, replying with a slightly helpless expression: “Alright.”
Everything followed the original plot. They found traces of the Gale Thundercloud Leopard’s activity near a lake deep in the forest. It was a mother leopard with a cub. A mother leopard was not on the list of magic beasts to be captured because an eight-level Gale Thundercloud Leopard had the strength equivalent to a Saint Archmage. Furthermore, it possessed wind and thunder magic, was fast, dealt high damage, and was very difficult to capture.
Even if captured, it would be difficult to form a contract.
The target was the cub following the mother leopard. Unfortunately, after Katrina successfully formed a contract, she still wanted to take the mother leopard for herself. She ordered the cub to attack its mother. However, there isn’t much deep affection among magic beasts; not only was the cub swatted to death by the mother, but the mother also went on a rampage due to the provocation, injuring several people.
The next morning.
The group arrived at the lakeside early and scattered to find traces of the Gale Thundercloud Leopard.
Before long, a signal came from the south.
Sean still remembered how Huo Xian had snubbed him the day before. He intentionally fell behind a few steps and said sarcastically, “The Lord Saint’s magic shouldn’t be used just for rubbing light balls for illumination, right?”
Huo Xian didn’t even give him a glance.
Thurman, who was protecting Katrina and the Fourth Prince ahead, looked back at Huo Xian, his eyes narrowing as if he were planning something.
Huo Xian practiced magic in his mind. Hmm… if someone throws a brick, the ‘casting bar’ will definitely be interrupted, right?
Furthermore, the more powerful the magic, the longer the incantation and the more magic power it consumed. It seemed that only basic magic like healing didn’t require an incantation. He would have to find time to study if there were any ways to improve that.
“Found it…” A guard’s lowered voice came from ahead.
Huo Xian also felt the magic fluctuations from a distance. An eight-level magic beast was already rare among beasts. The highest level humans had assigned to magic beasts was ten, and a ten-level beast was already at the level of a Beast God, existing only in legends.
Huo Xian couldn’t help but frown. The strength of an eight-level beast was equivalent to that of a Saint Archmage, and its intelligence was very high. It was not easy to deal with. He was currently a Great Mage, three major levels away from a Saint Archmage. He could feel the aura and pressure from the Gale Thundercloud Leopard; it was a terrifying power, even if it had been diminished by injury.
Similarly, while humans could detect a magic beast’s aura, the beast could also detect the human aura. However, the Gale Thundercloud Leopard did not give up on the prey it had caught. It was injured and in desperate need of energy, and in its eyes, humans were also food delivered to its door.
Strength and confidence.
Thurman and the Archmage in the team, Bart, had used concealment magic to hide their auras, so the Gale Thundercloud Leopard had not discovered them.
Therefore, if a fight broke out, Huo Xian and the other two Great Mages in the team would become the targets of the Gale Thundercloud Leopard. No, only Huo Xian, because magic beasts loathed light magic.
The Gale Thundercloud Leopard’s prey was a six-level magic beast. It was a beast that looked like a porcupine, covered in spines and having four pairs of tusks, but its size was three times larger than the Gale Thundercloud Leopard. It possessed earth magic. The earth-attribute defense, along with the beast’s own thick hide and spines, gave it hope for survival. It was only hope; when arm-thick blue-purple lightning struck the earth shield densely and rapidly, even the strongest defense was useless.
The defense shattered, and the Gale Thundercloud Leopard moved at a speed the naked eye couldn’t catch,掠过 (swiping) past the magic beast and ruthlessly clawing out its eyes. The magic beast let out a belated scream and began to rampage blindly.
Unluckily, a six-level magic beast’s detection range was also very wide. Magic beasts were sensitive to light auras, so the injured beast charged straight toward Huo Xian and his group.
“Priests, leave the group!” Archmage Bart shouted sternly.
The moment he spoke, the eight temple priests besides Huo Xian all looked lost and pale. The highest magic level among them was only one Senior Mage and six Intermediate Mages; the lowest was Kevin, a Junior Mage. Regardless of Kevin, even a Senior Mage would only be “food” if they faced a six-level magic beast.
Wouldn’t ordering them to leave the group be the same as pushing them out to die?
“Why aren’t you leaving yet?!” Seeing the six-level beast getting closer and closer, Bart raised his voice again.
At the same time, the mages in the group seemed to receive some kind of signal. A wind-attribute mage’s “Wind Blink” spell landed among the temple priests, blowing them in all directions.
Kevin was horrified. He knew he should cast a “Shield of Light” on himself, but in his panic, his mind went blank and his magic wand fell from his hand. He closed his eyes in terror, waiting for the impending pain.
However, before he hit the ground, his body paused, and then he landed gently on the floor. He was dazed for a moment, then looked up and around, only to see that his companions were the same as him. Before landing, they seemed to have been held by a pair of warm palms and then placed on the ground, unharmed.
It was the “Guardian Holy Spirit”!
A magic spell that a Great Mage could use!
And in the group of light-element mages, the highest level was Saint Nigel. But the Saint was a Senior Mage. Now that he had used “Guardian Holy Spirit”… the eyes of the temple priests all lit up. Their Saint must have broken through to become a Great Mage!
Not only were the temple priests surprised, but everyone else in the team was as well. Christ was even more pleasantly surprised: “Nigel, have you already broken through? Congratulations! You must be the youngest Great Mage on the entire continent!”
The words “youngest Great Mage on the continent” stung Katrina’s ears. She was a favored daughter of heaven, having been found to have ice-attribute magic and outstanding magic talent since childhood. She was also a genius mage in everyone’s eyes. She was fifteen this year and was already an Intermediate Mage, but she still had a long, unseen road ahead before reaching Senior Mage. It had taken her five years to progress from Junior to Intermediate Mage; from now on, it would only take longer. Even if she could progress in the next five years, she would only be a Senior Mage at twenty.
Fourth Prince Alix said with a face full of envy, “Nigel is truly amazing. He deserves to be the Saint.”
Katrina’s fingernails dug into her palms. She glared at her brother fiercely, then looked at Thurman. Thurman noticed her gaze, and she gave him a look, signaling toward Huo Xian.
Thurman knew how heavy this princess’s jealousy was. He was also jealous and wary of Nigel. But he couldn’t act. The Temple’s power was no longer what it once was, but Nigel was the Saint chosen and personally groomed by the Pope. The Pope couldn’t possibly let Nigel out without any preparations while knowing there was danger. He was certain that the old man, the Pope, had given Nigel many life-saving scrolls and potions. Furthermore, the Foggy Forest was not particularly far from Monster City. It wasn’t impossible for the Pope—one of the only two Saint Archmages on the continent—to rush over to save him.
Although there was only a one-level difference between a Grand Archmage and a Saint Archmage, the gap in strength was like a heaven-and-earth chasm. Thurman had spent a hundred and twenty years without even touching the threshold of a Saint Archmage, and he didn’t want to personally experience a Saint Archmage’s revenge.
However, just because he couldn’t act himself didn’t mean the Saint wouldn’t find death on his own. Furthermore, he also had doubts about the Pope’s strength because no living person on the continent had seen the Pope take action.
Six-level beasts, eight-level beasts—the thing they loathed most was light aura.
The current Huo Xian was quite sensitive to malice. He saw Thurman take action. Thurman used vines to wrap around the six-level magic beast, and he immediately understood his intention.
“Chris, Ice Crystal Veil, in front of me!” he shouted to Christ without hesitation.
Christ was only stunned for a moment before reciting the incantation and casting the spell. A net woven from ice quickly formed in front of him. The moment the ice net was formed, the six-level beast thrown by Thurman crashed precisely into it. The ice net made a “cracking” sound as it was struck, and spiderweb-like cracks covered the entire net. Luckily, it was a magical ice net; with the input of magic power, it could quickly repair itself. If it were an ordinary ice net, it would have been shattered in minutes by the crash of the massive six-level beast.
“Nigel…” Christ consumed a large amount of magic power at once to maintain the ice net, and sweat also broke out on his forehead.
Huo Xian did not look away. He held his scepter. That’s right; compared to the small magic wands that were as long as an arm, he used a scepter-style wand that was almost as tall as he was. An eight-level light-attribute magic crystal was embedded in the top of the white-gold scepter. When Christ couldn’t hold on anymore and the ice net shattered, and the six-level beast charged at him, a magic circle with a diameter of over two meters appeared. A giant and piercingly bright light sword flew out, passing through the six-level magic beast’s body and cutting it in two.
—The “Sword of Holy Light.”
The entire place was silent, and a pin drop could be heard.
A six-level magic beast with the strength of a Mage-level was just… cut down? Did they have a misunderstanding of six-level beasts, or did they have a misunderstanding of a light-element mage’s strength? Even if light-element mages had a damage bonus against magic beasts, it shouldn’t be this high!
Huo Xian didn’t show much emotion on his face, but he was inwardly suffering: this strike had consumed nearly half of his magic power. He couldn’t even cast it a second time. Thurman had thrown a six-level beast once; there was no guarantee he wouldn’t do it a second time. He had miscalculated!
“Lord Saint, be careful—!” While everyone was stunned, Kevin was the first to notice a black shadow flying out from the bushes behind Huo Xian, lunging straight for him.
Huo Xian’s heart tightened instantly. Before he could detect the danger, he felt a weight on his chest as he turned around, almost spitting out blood. Then came a familiar voice:
[Huo Xian~~~~~]
Translator’s Note:
The “Sword of Holy Light” (圣光之剑 – Shèngguāng zhī jiàn) is a powerful spell often seen in light-magic-focused stories. And finally, Huo Yuan has made his entrance! It seems he’s quite the energetic “magic beast” this time. What kind of creature do you think he is? (excited~)
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