Versatile Mage

“Does she really think she’s a god, just because she orchestrated the Calamity of the Ancient Capital? She didn’t even destroy the Ancient Capital!” the Cold Prince cursed furiously. “I’m the strongest Red Cardinal! The whole world will soon understand I’m the one in charge of their lives!”

The Cold Prince was going crazy. He stared at the Great Wall that was stopping the plague of undeath from spreading. If the Wall wasn’t there, the North Valley would be littered with corpses and crawling with vengeful spirits by now. It would prove his dominance, as he believed he would do a better job than Salan. Not a single person would be left alive in the North Valley!

If Salan could massacre millions of people, he would massacre ten million of them!

“You are all going to die with her!” The Cold Prince’s robe was covered in human faces, which began to react abnormally.

The faces were clearly just decorations, yet they had suddenly come alive, bearing expressions of pain, hatred, anger, sorrow, and despair…

Each face was the reaction of someone that had undergone great torture.

When a person lost their calm, they could turn into an irrational beast at any second.

These faces on the Cold Prince’s robe were the same. They were displaying utter disgust toward the world, and a great passion to destroy everything!

“Die!” The Cold Prince’s robe began to drift in the wind.

The twisted faces on it turned into phantoms and surged in the direction of Northguard Fortress, like a wall of smog.

Piercing screeches and ghastly cries echoed in the dark sky. These phantoms of pain were not under the restrictions of the Realm of the Heavens, as they were weightless.

They flew to Northguard Fortress, and every time they entered the body of a Battlemage, their targets would immediately contort in pain, as if their wills and determination were being crushed by someone else’s hatred, leading to the utter destruction of their Spiritual World!

Even though the painful memories did not belong to them, they felt extremely real, as if they had gone through them personally. Cries of agony rose across Northguard Fortress. Countless Battlemages were corrupted by the pain. Some that lost their will even jumped down from the Great Wall.

The undead that were stacking up under the wall immediately lunged at those that had jumped down. Not a single piece of their remains was left!

“No, don’t kill my tribesmen, spare their lives, please let them go, my daughter Qiqige…” a Battlemage screamed, as if he was troubled by a nightmare.

He kept moving backward until he reached the edge of the wall. Zhao Manyan quickly ran over to drag him back when he was about to fall into the abyss of undead.

“Let me die, let me die, please don’t hurt them, don’t hurt them!” The Battlemage had completely lost his mind. He kept murmuring words similar to the old herdsman.

Zhao Manyan and Lingling stared at the Battlemage in disbelief. It took them a moment to recover from the shock.

They had seen the old herdsman’s wild behavior. They would even assume the Battlemage was actually the old herdsman if he did not have a young face.

“What’s going on here? Is he possessed by the old herdsman’s spirit? But the old herdsman isn’t even dead!” Zhao Manyan said.

The pain was spreading among the defenders of Northguard Fortress like a wild plague. They seemed to have inherited painful memories that someone would never forget for the rest of their lives. They were experiencing the despair that the person had suffered from the memories.

“Does this mean the evil faith is real?” Lingling wondered.

“What evil faith?” Zhao Manyan asked with a confused look.

“There were rumors that some ancient deities would obtain their power through the respect and worship of certain tribes. The higher the number of worshipers and the more sincere they were, the greater the power the deities would obtain. As a matter of fact, the ancient Totem Beasts were the same in some ways. On the other hand, when hatred, anger, and fear reach a certain level, it will produce an evil power that strengthens the evil gods. The stronger the emotions, the greater the power that the evil gods receive!” Lingling explained.

“Does it have anything to do with a curse?” Zhao Manyan said.

“Sort of, positive faith is similar to blessings, while evil faith is like curses. It’s just hard to imagine that someone could really accumulate this vague evil faith and turn it into power!” Lingling said.

“There’s no way to kill or resist these tormenting spirits. What are we even supposed to do?” Ye Hong was utterly confused too.

Those with stronger cultivation among them could still resist the tormenting spirits, but the other Mages were clearly in danger. A huge group of their allies had lost their minds in a short amount of time. They were already jumping off the wall to kill themselves, instead of being killed by the people of the Black Vatican.

“We have to find the host of the evil faith… I believe that person is most likely the Cold Prince,” Lingling deduced.

“How can we find him? The Red Cardinal will never show himself. Does that mean we are done for?” Commander Ye Hong said.

General Bin Wei was also at the Magic Fire Beacon. Her face was extremely pale. She was completely worn out from trying to hold the wall together.

The Great Wall did not stand a chance against the Sphinx’s attacks. The defenders were struggling to hold back the Black Vatican, too. It was only a matter of time until the line of defense collapsed. It just came down to how much time they had managed to buy for the people being evacuated from the cities.

An extra minute might end up saving the people of a whole village. It was the only reason why General Bin Wei did not want to admit defeat!

“We don’t know where the Cold Prince is. He’s scarier than we all expected. Evil faith…” the Prophet did not know what to do.

“We’ve tried our best. Without us, not many people would make it to Feihuang City. At least half of the people should have reached Feihuang City by now,” General Bin Wei’s aide-de-camp sighed.

“Damn it, if only we could only find the person with the contract. We’d be able to hold on for a lot longer!” Zhao Manyan snarled in frustration.

They knew the army of undead was unstoppable. Even the best plan would collapse at the first blow when it was up against absolute power. All they could do was to buy some time so the people in the North Valley could retreat to Feihuang City.

The Great Wall was going to fall either way, but a lot quicker than they had expected…

As everyone was being overwhelmed by despair, the tormented spirits in the vicinity of the Magic Fire Beacon suddenly shrieked. They left the people they were possessing and retreated to the ocean of undead, as if they were being Summoned away.

The Battlemages quickly recovered. Apart from the blank looks in their eyes, they were mostly unharmed.

“What’s going on?” Commander Ye Hong exclaimed.

“The tormenting spirits have flown away! They seem to be heading to an Underworld Monarch Frog around ten kilometers away!” a Mage on the watchtower called out.

“Does that mean the Cold Prince is there?” Zhao Manyan yelled in surprise. However, the joy on his face disappeared quickly. Would knowing the Cold Prince’s location make any difference? Did he even have a way to traverse ten kilometers that were covered by undead?

“Look, a blood-red light!” Lingling pointed into the distance.

“Blood red?”

“Isn’t that a magic light? Which Element does that color belong to?” Commander Ye Hong asked, obviously confused.

“It’s so clear from ten kilometers, how bright would it have to be!?”

It was clearly a light produced by magic, yet they could not recognize what Element it was. The eerie light was so brilliant and overbearing, even when it was shining across millions of undead over a distance of ten kilometers!

—

The Prophet’s eyes widened as he stared into the distance.

He had witnessed the same thing before. When the Mountain Zombie jumped onto the barrier of the Ancient Capital, a figure in a blood-red aura managed to knock the Mountain Zombie away to buy some time for the Ancient Capital!

“It’s Mo Fan, it’s Mo Fan!” the Prophet blurted out in excitement.

It had a strong presence of dark magic, yet it was oddly soothing. There was no good and evil for this power, what mattered was the user’s intent. Was the person’s heart corrupted or twisted, or was it burning passionately, like Mo Fan’s!?

——

Fierce flames surged wildly ten kilometers away from the fortress. The dim sky was soon filled up with scorching flames. The color of the flames was a mix of sunset and reddish-brown that Zhao Manyan and Lingling were extremely familiar with. Despite the distance, they could still tell that the flames were a lot stronger than usual!

The heat wave hit the humans in the face. The undead army could not withstand the scorching heat. Even the fire pillars of the Magic Fire Beacons were burning brighter and stronger!

The Sphinx turned from its attack on the Great Wall and roared, as if he had sensed a dangerous presence behind him.

Scorpion Lord Medusa, her hair of serpents writhing, was around seven kilometers to the northwest of the Fortress. She stopped advancing, too. She slowly turned in the direction of the demon flames. The wary serpents on her head hissed as they faced the demon flames.

The rest of the undead rulers within thirty kilometers stopped advancing, too. They ceased attacking the Great Wall after discovering the surprising existence, a threat they could not afford to ignore right among their army…