Translator: Atlas Studios Editor: Atlas Studios
Under the crowd’s anger, someone finally couldn’t hold back and pulled out a medicine bag and paper to the Fei family’s disciples.
That was the preparation for the casting of a spell.
Xia Fan had also used spells before, or, more precisely, because he had practiced it, it completely rebuilt his perception. But it was the first time he watched people fight with magic.
In this world, a complete spell was usually divided into three levels. Namely, what was thought, what was formed, and what was done, and the full power of the spell could be brought into play when the three were united. In layman’s terms, it was the process of first conceiving the spell you wanted to use in your mind, then using the herbs associated with it as a guide, and finally signaling its change.
This was the most incredible part of his new perception — not only would the Qi respond to the will of the spell caster, but it would also change along with some of the external Qi, as if a stone thrown into a lake was making ripples on the surface of the water, eventually turning the spell into reality.
The master said that people generated Qi and it was only normal to respond to the call of the people. This was how the so-called heaven and human unity worked. However, Xia Fan couldn’t be satisfied with this explanation.
What was Qi? Why could thoughts be mapped into reality? To what extent could this mapping reach? There were too many doubts to be answered. Perhaps seeking a precise answer in such a world would be incredibly difficult, if ever, but he couldn’t convince himself to give up further exploration, anyway.
A man in a green shirt pinched out a small ball of black stuff from the medicine bag and held it in his fingertips while drawing a piece of paper filled with incantations in his hand — Xia Fan squinted and stared for a moment before realizing that what the other man had taken out was a cicada shell.
“Xun Technique of Dawn Return, Aural Stimulation!”
With a soft puff, a shrill head-piercing whisper sounded suddenly, causing the bodies of the unprepared people to tremble. They clenched their teeth, grimaced, and had expressions of pain.
The effect of this spell was to use the cicada shell as a guide to create a short but loud whistling sound!
The man in green fought with the very purpose of using the sound to shock his opponents and then taking the opportunity to rush through the Fei family’s defenses.
Unfortunately, this wasn’t a rare spell, and he didn’t cover up in the slightest when taking herbs. Even Xia Fan could notice that it was a cicada shell, not to mention the disciples of the Fei family on the opposite side.
But compared to Xia Fan’s way of responding by covering his ears, the man in white reacted with more panache, merely flinging a talisman to completely ward off the whistling sound.
The effect of a spell not only lied in personal strength but also depended on the environment in which it was performed. In an open field, the power of the noise was inherently limited.
And the green-shirted man who wanted to rush over couldn’t stop in time before he was struck by the other side’s sword on the shoulder and immediately fainted.
“Brother Yan!”
“What are you waiting for? Attack!”
With the roar, a few more people rushed out of the crowd. But this time the result was even worse. They didn’t even have time to release their spells and were still touching their medicine bags and paper when they were knocked to the ground one after another by wooden swords.
Watching a mystic battle for the first time, Xia Fan’s mouth kept twitching. When ten over people were strewn on the ground, only one thought remained in his mind.
Is that it??
It must be said that the experience of this group of people in actual combat wasn’t even as good as street hooligans.
Although the spell needed the support of the three segments to unleash its full power, it was still able to work even if one or two of the segments weren’t there. But they were in pursuit of maximum effect and basically did the full set of processes. This undoubtedly gave the Fei family sufficient room for countermeasures.
Not only that, there was no one to disguise or confuse their opponents when performing the spell. Some unlucky people couldn’t pull out the right herbs they wanted for a long time and simply dumped all the contents of their medicine bags on the ground. They were all uninitiated newcomers, so they knew only a few spells. Seeing the herbs was basically the same as knowing the other party’s intentions, even if there were one or two who released the spell successfully, it was difficult for them to pose much threat to the Fei family disciples.
On the contrary, the candidates who stood the longest on the field were those who had given up casting spells. With their strong bodies brought about by years of inducing Qi, they were able to fight with the Fei family members for a few rounds with only their wooden swords and fists. Of course, one side was the family disciples who were used to collective action, on the other side was a group of scattered individuals. No matter how they fought, they couldn’t affect the final result.
Especially after Fei Nian, the leader of the Fei family, gave the word to throw the loser of the provocation across the suspension bridge.
Crossing the suspension bridge was the same as going out of the territory of Qing Shan Town, which was also equivalent to failing the exam.
In other words, one could still look for other opportunities if they endured for a bit. If they were knocked out here, that would spell the end of their mystic examination.
After a quarter of an hour, there wasn’t a single person in the crowd who dared to take a step forward.
“If they had fought before I got here, things might have turned around. But now it seems that Fei Nian wasn’t wrong.”
Xia Fan’s ears suddenly rang with Luo Qingqing’s words.
I see, he thought to himself. This is probably the reason why the genius of the Luo family turned around and left. The group of people in front of him wasn’t worth her going up against the Fei family. If they could really come together, not only would the Fei family not be able to stop them, but those who were knocked down wouldn’t be disqualified either. But they didn’t do so simply because this group of people wanted to muddy the waters from the beginning.
Xia Fan thought of this and took a step forward.
“Do you want to come and try it too?” Fei Nian frowned slightly and rested his hand on the hilt of his sword. “As I said, once you fall, your mystic examination will end early.”
A commotion started among the crowd.
“Don’t be afraid, he’s just trying to scare you!”
“With us guarding here, he won’t dare to touch you at all!”
“As long as you can defeat Fei Nian, we will rush over together!”
Xia Fan smiled, spreading his hands while walking to Fei Nian, indicating that his palms were empty. Fei Nian also didn’t move and just waited for him to step forward.
The atmosphere was frozen for a moment. Everyone’s eyes were focused on the two. Such a close confrontation made a new round of fighting seem as if it was about to happen.
Fei Nian’s expression also became more and more serious. The reason why he did not strike first was purely out of the need to maintain his own image. As the leader of the new generation in the presence of the Fei family, he should be calm and poised at all times.
He was vaguely aware that this man was different from the others.
Neither did he pull out his medicine bag in a grand manner, carving his attack intentions on his face, nor did he show the deliberation and nervousness that came with a face-off. He seemed to be full of weaknesses, in turn, making it difficult to grasp the timing of his counterattack. This was the first time that Fei Nian had seen such a stance on a person of his age.
What will he do next?
Will he draw his sword, or will he kick and punch directly?
Perhaps waiting for him to strike first was the wrong choice all along.
Fei Nian had already unknowingly tightened his grip on the sword hilt.
At this point, Xia Fan moved. His body turned, stepping towards the other side of the fork as if he didn’t even notice the atmosphere around him.
Fei Nian, who had already raised his aura to the peak, almost choked. This feeling was like using all your might to swing your weapon at your target but failing. He covered his mouth and coughed a few times before suppressing the blood surging in his heart.
What the hell is this guy… up to?
At the same time, the onlookers behind him went crazy.
“Hey, where are you going? Come back quickly!”
“Do you still want the spirit fire or not?”
“Tsk, I knew he was a coward. How could he have the guts to arm wrestle with the Fei family?”
“How dare you do that when we’re still holding the line for you?”
The candidates shouted in righteous indignation, all treating Xia Fan as a betrayer.
“If you want the spirit fire, go get it yourself!” Xia Fan yelled back. “What’s the point of just shouting there? I didn’t say I was going over there, can’t I just look around and see the scenery?”
“Look, look at the scenery?”
Probably because they had never seen such a “brazen” answer, everyone was stunned for a moment.
Even Fei Nian wasn’t an exception. He looked at Xia Fan who had justifiably gone away and couldn’t even say a word of rebuttal or sarcasm.
After all, there was nothing in the examination regulations against looking at the scenery!
While everyone was still in a daze, Xia Fan had already gone around the bottom of the cliff and entered the dense forest.
The originally clear road suddenly became narrow and hidden. Probably because no one had walked on it for so long, the weeds and shrubs had connected at his feet, and he needed to use his wooden sword to open the way to identify the direction of the mountain road.
According to the waiter, this fork in the road would follow this green hill all the way up, and not many people in town had ever seen the end of it.
One hour later, Xia Fan stopped while panting.
Walking in a real forest was never an easy task, not to mention the annoying vines underfoot. Just the dew that couldn’t be dispersed in the low grass was enough to make people uncomfortable. After walking for a while, his pants and shoes were soaked through. It was as if he was stepping in the mud with every step.
Also, the mosquitoes. The mosquitoes in the mountains weren’t the kind that hid in the day and came out at night, but the kind that came out in broad daylight and buzzed around. If Qi didn’t have a certain repulsion effect on small insects and bugs, he didn’t think he’d have lasted this long.
Exploration proved that there was no cemetery or tombs around this mountain road, and there was little hope of finding another way to get the spirit fire.
At the same time, he also confirmed that this road wasn’t built by the town hunters by any means. Although it had been covered by weeds, its actual width and flatness were even comparable to the Qing Shan Town’s boulevards. Compared to the road to halfway up the mountain, this one was like the real main road.
Why would someone want to build such a spacious road on the mountain? Even with the help of the mystics, it would be a huge undertaking. What was even stranger was, why did they give up on the mountain road that took a lot of effort to build up now?
Unfortunately, with his personal ability, it was impossible to find out.
Just when Xia Fan was ready to go back, the wooden sword used to pluck away the weeds suddenly touched something and made a muffled clang. It was neither a vine nor a stubborn stone protruding from the road.
Softly gasping, he knelt down to pluck away the grass.
He saw a badly rotten wooden square half-buried in the mud. It was about four fingers wide, but the length was difficult to estimate at the moment. What surprised him was that the wood, which had obvious grind marks, did not look like it had been carelessly lost here, and almost every half meter, a wooden pin could be seen inserted into the wooden cube, holding it firmly in place on the ground.
And on top of the wooden square, there were countless long indentations. Although a long time had passed and some parts had been damaged by insects, one still could see that it had carried many heavy objects before.
This was actually a track.