Above the mage

Chapter 443 Origins

As Sunafa drew her bow, silver and white scales shone through the fine holes in her clothes.

At first glance, it looks as if Sunefa is a fluorite, glowing all over.

She doesn't shine.

The glowing thing was the [Breath of the Wild] she wore close to her skin beneath her clothes.

The Winter's Hammer was nothing to Sunefa; she could come and go as she pleased.

However, since the Breath of the Wild was designed to be worn close to the skin without hindering movement, Sunefa took it with her when she set off, just to be on the safe side.

Her caution came into play at this moment.

Even Sunafar, when facing a mage of a higher level, must rely on the dual power of [Blizzard] and [Breath of the Wild] to have any chance of fighting a mage of a higher level.

As Sunefa drew her bow, a brilliant blue light flashed across the bowstring.

Tiny ice crystals condensed from the bowstring, like countless tiny stardust fragments, rapidly spinning and solidifying.

Instantly, two arrows of pure ice formed on the Blizzard.

Whoosh!Whoosh!

With a bang, two arrows of pure ice shot out simultaneously, streaking across the sky and making a whistling sound.

The ice arrow spun forward, its chill condensing the already thin moisture in its path into ice, which then fell down in a flurry.

Halfway through their flight, the arrows suddenly separated, one above the other.

One weapon was aimed at the Sheep Master, while the other was targeting Yarna.

Upon seeing this, Master Yang's expression stiffened slightly.

There were no conflicts or frictions between him and Sunafa, so there was naturally not much negative emotion involved.

He took action because he still needed Yarna's help.

As the saying goes, "He who eats another's food is bound to do his bidding," and "He who takes another's money is bound to do his bidding." Having already received so much help from others, it would be unreasonable not to step forward in this situation.

Many senior monks may not be concerned with these "unreasonable" matters and prioritize their own interests.

But Master Yang had been isolated from the world for a long time, focusing on blacksmithing and forging, which cultivated his simple and honest nature, making it impossible for him to lose face and ignore everything.

Simple as he may be, Master Yang is no fool.

It was absolutely impossible for Yarna to use someone else to do her dirty work.

What he was thinking was that if you help me with things during this time, I'll also protect you during this time—it's perfectly fair.

Therefore, he ignored Yarna's "provocative" remarks and calmly persuaded Sunefa to leave.

But Sunefa ignored his politeness and took the initiative to attack, even diverting her strength to deal with Yarna.

Sunefa's behavior, besides reflecting her self-confidence, also reveals a degree of underestimation of him.

Being simple and honest is one thing, but it doesn't mean he doesn't care about saving face.

Master Yang didn't say anything harsh; he simply reached out and took out the giant hammer hanging from his waist.

With the giant hammer in hand, Master Yang swung it, and the veins and blood vessels on his arms bulged out with force, like earthworms crawling all over his arms.

What's truly astonishing is that, within the bulging veins and blood vessels, a blazing red light, like magma, is visibly flowing.

That is the unique bloodline power of the Yang family.

With a loud bang.

A blinding red light burst forth from the honeycomb-like holes at the hammerhead, and flames suddenly shot out, condensing into a fire snake around the hammerhead and meandering forward.

With this action, Master Yang let out a muffled groan from his nose, and thick smoke billowed from his nostrils.

There were two arrows, but only one fire serpent.

Therefore, some choices must be made.

Without hesitation, the fiery serpent licked at the arrow aimed at Yarna.

At the moment the fire serpent and the ice arrow collided, even the ultimate ice, Zhenbing, crackled and popped as it was burned, but it did not melt immediately.

This is the power of Zhenbing.

Faced with this situation, Master Yang showed a slight change in expression, but remained calm.

The next moment, the fire serpent seemed to come alive, twisting and coiling around the ice arrow, dragging it downwards in pursuit.

Having escaped a false alarm, Yarna no longer dared to stand idly by and flew away as fast as she could, escaping the center of the battlefield.

At this moment, another arrow of pure ice, unhindered by the fire serpent, was already heading towards Master Yang.

Master Yang certainly didn't have time to swing his hammer again, but he remained as steady as Mount Tai and smiled slightly.

At this moment, a large amount of fire rose from his chainmail, forming a heat wave that abruptly repelled the approaching ice arrows.

Sunafa's silver eyes narrowed sharply upon seeing this.

She has [Blizzard], her opponent has that giant hammer; she has [Breath of the Wild], her opponent is also wearing extraordinary protective gear.

The power of both [Blizzard] and [Breath of the Wild] is probably greater than that of Master Sheep's equipment.

However, Master Sheep's mage level is also higher than Sunefa's.

After their recent exchange, Sunefa had a general understanding of Master Sheep's strength.

It is indeed only in the Fifth Ring Road, but not in a weak Fifth Ring Road like Ruian. It must be a senior player in the mid- to late-stage Fifth Ring Road.

Despite the stark difference in strength, she seemed oblivious to fear, and no one knew what she was thinking.

The bowstring vibrates again.

Three icy arrows condensed in the void, each carrying a chilling aura capable of freezing everything. They formed a formation in the air and pressed down with the force of thunder.

This time, all three arrows were aimed at Master Yang.

Upon seeing this, Master Yang let out a roar and his body plummeted downwards, heading towards the ground.

The arrows relentlessly pursued them.

Master Sheep descended at an extremely fast speed, and given the limited altitude, he landed in an instant.

Before landing, he had already raised the giant hammer high in his hand, and the hammerhead slammed heavily into the ground the instant he landed.

The snow-covered ground instantly cracked open with spiderweb-like patterns, and the snow turned into rising white mist.

Lava flowed from the head of the giant hammer, gushing out along the cracks in the ground. With a sizzling sound, a stone pillar shot into the sky in an instant.

The stone pillar was enveloped in raging flames, bursting forth with dazzling light as it hurtled towards the three icy arrows.

With a deafening roar, the fire and the ice collided violently, shattering the stone pillar into countless fragments.

At that moment, Sunefa also landed on the ground.

Master Sheep seems to need to be on the ground to unleash the true power of his giant hammer, but Sunefa also needs to be on the ground to maximize the effects of Breath of the Wild.

Since that's the case, let's have a head-on confrontation.

The battle intensified.

Sunafir's [Breath of the Wild] shone brightly, causing the temperature across the entire battlefield to plummet, and the snow on the ground to freeze into solid ice.

Master Yang remained calm and unhurried, smashing his hammer into the ice surface. Scalding lava gushed from the hammerhead, merging with the ice, and the rising white steam instantly enveloped the area.

Sunafa moved with incredible agility, leaping and flipping with near-flash speed to create distance behind her, and during this high-speed maneuver, a glint of silver light appeared on the tip of her right finger.

She pressed the silver light onto the bowstring.

At that moment, the bow of the Blizzard all lit up with the same silver light, as if it had received some kind of mysterious blessing.

Sunefa fired another ice arrow. This time, there was only one True Ice Arrow, but the surface of the arrow had an inexplicable silver light.

Wherever the arrow passed, the air froze into crystalline icicles that fell in a soft rustling sound.

The white steam was further engulfed and formed an ice crystal tornado, following behind the ice arrow.

Sunefa was not satisfied with this.

She gritted her teeth, her fingertips tracing the bowstring, and icy blue magic flickered in the void.

Fourth Ring spell, [Ice Storm].

This is a fairly common fourth-circle spell, but Sunafar cast the True Ice version, which makes it both common and uncommon.

In an instant, a biting wind swept across the battlefield.

Countless sharp ice crystals swirled like blades within the ice crystal tornado, creating a series of piercing shrieks as they were blown through the air.

The Ice Storm merged with the ice crystal tornado brought up by the True Ice Arrow, unleashing a devastating aura.

That display of power terrified Yarna, who had already retreated several kilometers. She then realized that in the battle in Phoenix last year, Sunefa had only slightly exerted himself; he probably hadn't even used five-tenths of his strength, let alone his full power.

Is the difference between purebloods and non-purebloods really that big?

Yarna thought to herself.

As a fellow fourth-ring Iceborn mage who also practiced the "True Ice Secret Technique," she simply couldn't understand why Sunafa was so powerful.

Here, Master Yang faced the terrifying offensive head-on without flinching or dodging.

He simply slammed the giant hammer heavily into the ground.

With a loud boom, the flames on the giant hammer surged wildly, and the blazing light shot into the sky, forming a huge phantom of a goat's head above Master Yang's figure.

The goat-headed phantom broke free and charged forward, trailing a long torrent of flames behind it.

Time seemed to slow down at that moment.

Looking down from the sky, two "torrents," one blue and one red, surged forward, neck and neck, before colliding violently in the middle.

Amidst the earth-shattering collision, the ice and fire energies raged wildly.

The shockwave spread outwards from the point of impact, causing the ground to tremble continuously.

Sunefa's [Breath of the Wild] flashed wildly, resisting the onslaught of splashing energy waves and heat.

Ripples spread across Master Sheep's chainmail, shoulder armor, and helmet, quickly forming a semi-enclosed, semi-transparent red light shield that guided all the turbulent currents behind him.

He himself, however, still had the strength to wield the giant hammer high.

Flames climbed up the hammer handle, outlining a giant fire serpent in the air once more, licking towards Sunefa.

A cold glint flashed in Sunef's eyes. He pressed his right hand down, and several huge ice walls rose from the ground, standing in the path of the fire serpent, attempting to block its oppressive force.

However, the magic contained within the fire serpent was too powerful; the ice wall melted instantly upon contact.

The fire serpent broke through the ice wall's defenses and charged forward, aiming directly at the "tiny" Sunefa.

The blazing flames completely engulfed Sunefa.

However, Master Yang did not show any joy of victory, because he had noticed that at the critical moment, a cold light flashed like lightning and escaped the fire snake's attack.

He knew it was Sunefa.

The same is true.

In an open space a hundred meters away from the Fire Serpent's power center, the cold light dissipated, and Sunefa's tall figure emerged, though her face was slightly pale.

Clearly, she was not at ease after this intense confrontation.

Meanwhile, Master Yang remained as relaxed and carefree as ever, unmoved as a mountain.

He didn't press his advantage, a strange look appearing in his eyes.

"The Pure Ice Bloodline," Master Yang murmured to himself, then looked up at Sunaifa and said, "Our clan has some connection with you, but now the Ice Bloodline has weakened so much that the Pure Ice Bloodline only has this much power left."

"Firstly, I have no grudge against you, and secondly, in this era, there are very few people left who possess the Zhenbing bloodline, so I have no desire to harm those with the Zhenbing bloodline."

"You can leave now."

Master Yang once again advised against it.

However, the effect of discouraging people from showing their muscles is obviously different before and after they have been shown.

Sunafa remained silent for a moment.

Deep down, she didn't want to give up.

It's not a matter of face. As a fourth-ring Iceborn mage, to have fought head-on against a fully armed veteran fifth-ring mage and then be persuaded to retreat is hardly a shameful thing.

She couldn't accept that she hadn't been able to get an explanation from Gaode.

Not only herself, but Yarna also did not want Sunefa to leave.

Because retreat means they can make a comeback at any time.

After Master Sheep left, Sunefa came to visit again. How could she possibly deal with such a powerful Sunefa?

But what power does she have to change Master Yang's will?

In her anxiety, for some reason, a crazy idea suddenly flashed through Yarna's mind.

Once this thought arose, it grew wildly like weeds, making her unable to control herself any longer.

"Master Sheep, you can't let her go! The thing you're looking for is actually in the Zhenbing tribe!" The next moment, Yarna shouted directly at Master Sheep.

"It's just that the Zhenbing tribe is too powerful, and our people dare not approach it. We have been unable to determine its exact location, which is why we haven't reported it to you."

As soon as these two sentences were uttered, Master Yang's expression froze.

He turned and glanced at Yarna.

To be honest, in this situation, he was somewhat unsure whether what Yarna said was true.

But this was the purpose of his trip, so he was unwilling to miss any information.

"In that case, I'm sorry, you can't just leave now," Master Yang turned to look at Sunefa, "I need to go and take a look at your Zhenbing tribe, I'll have to trouble you to lead the way."

His attitude was fairly polite.

"What are you looking for?" Sunefa frowned slightly, already vaguely understanding the relationship between Master Sheep and Winter's Hammer.

"I don't know exactly what it is, but it's something powerful that can change the power of the North."

"You don't know anything, yet you want to come and take a look at our Zhenbing tribe?" Sunafa retorted.

It's like a stranger grabbing you on the street, saying he's looking for something, maybe it's in your house, and he wants to go to your house to check it out, but when you ask him what it is, he can't say.

No normal person would agree to such a request.

"I know it's a bit presumptuous, but it's true," Master Yang said with an awkward smile. "However, as soon as I see that thing, I will recognize it immediately. If it is not in your tribe, I can forge an extraordinary piece of equipment for you as an apology."

He showed his utmost sincerity.

To possess such immense power and still maintain this attitude is already quite respectable.

But Sunefa remained silent.

After a long pause, she finally spoke again, asking, "What other characteristics does the item you're looking for have?"

Master Yang thought for a moment, and finally revealed some secrets: "About thirteen months ago, this thing first appeared in your western northern territory. The fluctuations it emitted were sensed by the master craftsmen that my clan follows."

Nine months ago, this thing emitted a fluctuation for the second time, which was detected by the master craftsman.

It appeared for the third time five months ago.

"It appeared three times, and the fluctuations it emitted became stronger each time. This rate of improvement was too terrifying, which made the master craftsman feel a little uneasy."

That's why the master craftsman had my people send someone—that is, me—to the western part of the North to find it, to figure out what it is, and whether it will bring disaster to the North.”

(End of this chapter)