Outwitting the Church (Part II)
Mo Fan climbed back to his feet and glanced at the long gash running from his left shoulder all the way down to his right side. The burning was so fierce that even breathing a little too deeply felt like being torn open.
*Damn it all — to keep Yu'ang and that Blue-Robed Deacon from leaving, I practically threw my life away.*
Still, the self-injury gambit had paid off, at least in part. The moment Yu'ang caught the powerful aura of the Earth Sacred Spring radiating from the Loach Pendant, reason had visibly deserted him.
Was the Earth Sacred Spring really that important to them?
Rare and wondrous treasures filled the world, and items rivaling the Earth Sacred Spring in effect could hardly be scarce. There was no logical reason for the Black Church to plot so obsessively over this one thing — unless the Earth Sacred Spring held some other, entirely different significance...
The thought brought back what Xinxia had told him: Bo City was a guardian city, its purpose to protect the Earth Sacred Spring. If that was so, then buried within it was surely an ancient secret nearly two thousand years old.
**"Grrrr—!"**
The low, guttural snarl of the cursed beast-fiend cut off his thoughts entirely.
"You foul creature," Mo Fan snapped, indignant. "I was distracted by a phone call just now — did you actually think you could hurt me?"
Before this, Mo Fan had been deliberately holding back his Shadow Element abilities to avoid revealing his full hand to Yu'ang. But now that he was certain Yu'ang had no way to escape, there was no reason left to keep anything in reserve.
The cursed beast-fiend understood human speech well enough. Its growl carried a distinct edge of contempt.
*Pathetic little human. Still talking big, even now?*
**Whoosh!**
In an instant, the cursed beast-fiend had vanished from where it stood. Its silhouette flickered and shifted without end, effortlessly dodging every Lightning Seal and Fire Burst Mo Fan hurled at it.
Another claw — slashing down from above, sharp enough to split Mo Fan clean in two from the crown of his skull downward.
From his vantage point high on the stairs, Yu'ang watched through the swirling mist as Mo Fan's silhouette slowly came apart. The smile on his face grew even brighter.
He had originally intended to savor Mo Fan's suffering at leisure, but with the Blue-Robed Deacon having rushed off in urgency, Yu'ang could not afford to linger. Seize the Earth Sacred Spring and retreat — that was the plan.
But before Yu'ang could finish congratulating himself, Mo Fan's figure abruptly reappeared somewhere else entirely. Between the rolling mist and the sheer speed of whatever Mo Fan had done, Yu'ang couldn't make out how he had survived that killing blow at all. The fury coiling inside him only pulled tighter.
"My lord Priest, the Night Sovereign's Dominion Array appears to be dissolving," Fu Tianming reported, rushing to Yu'ang's side.
Yu'ang looked outward. The pitch-black shroud that had consumed the sky was slowly peeling away — through it he could now make out the heavy storm clouds and the glow of building lights reflecting against them. Scanning the surrounding area, the black mist had already vanished entirely, leaving the enormous Beast-Taming Cage fully exposed to the world. Its sheer scale was staggering.
And the dark labyrinth that had surrounded the spring pool had also somehow dispersed. From where Yu'ang stood, he could now see clear through to the fountain and the plaza beyond.
*This is bad.* Once the Night Sovereign's Dominion Array vanished completely, concealing their identities would become nearly impossible. The students didn't worry him — it was the academy's teachers he feared. Their strength put the students to shame.
"You two — get in there and kill him," Yu'ang barked at Fu Tianming and Jia Wenqing. "Whatever it takes, get that item before the Night Sovereign's Dominion Array disappears completely!"
"My lord, if we go in, won't we completely expose—"
Jia Wenqing had barely gotten the words out before Yu'ang silenced them both with a single withering look.
Neither dared refuse. While Mo Fan was still occupied fending off the cursed beast-fiend, the two of them slipped in through a small gate at one corner of the massive cage.
They had long since familiarized themselves with the Beast-Taming Cage. Whether it was the side gates or the Barriers layered across the structure, they knew exactly how each one worked. Getting in and out was trivially easy.
"Hand over the Earth Sacred Spring and we'll let you live," Fu Tianming snarled, jabbing a finger at Mo Fan, who clung to life like a cockroach. "Don't waste our time."
Mo Fan spared a glance at the two who had just walked into the cage of their own accord. His eyes were cold as iron.
*Perfectly good Pearl Academy students, throwing it all away to serve the Black Church. Perfectly good human beings, choosing to act like animals.*
The reason Mo Fan had been concealing a portion of his strength was to lure Yu'ang inside. The Barrier within the Beast-Taming Cage blocked Shadow Fade from carrying him out — if he wanted to kill Yu'ang, he had to wait for Yu'ang to come to him.
*Who knew Yu'ang would be such a coward. Even now, he refuses to risk himself.*
Well, there was nothing left to hide. Time to deal with these two first.
He activated Shadow Fade, putting distance between himself and the cursed beast-fiend, and planted himself at the very center of the cage. A thick, churning darkness surged up around his entire body.
Even as the Night Sovereign's Dominion Array continued to fade, Mo Fan could still sense the dense Shadow Element saturating the air on all sides.
A strange, mysterious Star Chart took shape beneath his feet, slowly tracing itself into existence.
Blood from the gash on his chest seeped steadily down along his clothes and dripped into the darkly shimmering Star Chart below — each crimson drop making the entire design look more savage, more sinister.
"Giant Shadow Nail!"
The wound splitting Mo Fan's chest was a raw, blood-soaked sight to behold. And before that expanse of red, an enormous Shadow Nail materialized in an instant — but this one looked nothing like the ones he had used before. It resembled less a nail and more an impossibly long, slender blade of shadow, ringed by coil upon coil of dark energy churning around it.
Under the Night Sovereign's Dominion, every other elemental ability was hobbled — but Shadow Element abilities were magnified enormously. Even the cursed beast-fiend's strength had grown under its influence. As for a Shadow Element Mage channeling actual magic in this environment, the amplification was something else entirely.
"Go!"
With a single sweep of his arm, the Shadow Nail tore through space and vanished without a trace.
Jia Wenqing and Fu Tianming stared, mouths hanging open.
A Shadow Element Mage?
*How could Mo Fan possibly be a Shadow Element Mage?!*
Up on the elevated platform, Yu'ang trembled from head to toe — not from fear, but from pure, incandescent rage.
Shadow Element!
This bastard Mo Fan actually had Shadow Element abilities!
No wonder his strength had gone completely untouched by the Night Sovereign's Dominion Array!
Fire Element. Lightning Element. Summoning Element. Shadow Element.
This wasn't Dual Elements from birth — every time he awakened, he apparently gained two new elements.
Yu'ang's resentment toward Mo Fan had never been only about the scorched half of his face. He had also been seething with envy over what he'd believed was Mo Fan's unparalleled Dual Elements talent. And now it turned out the man possessed something even more outrageous than Dual Elements.
Two elements at the basic tier. Four at the intermediate. By the advanced tier, would he have six?
This Mo Fan had to die. Had to.
"**Kill. Him. NOW!**" The words tore out of Yu'ang as a shriek, something wild blazing and churning in his chest.
Fu Tianming and Jia Wenqing snapped back to themselves.
For both of them, Dual Elements had always been enough to shake the world. But a four-element Mage...
It felt like the very foundations of everything they understood about the world were crumbling.