Chapter 11.2 – Ice-Snow Storm Variation
Long Ling’er slightly smiled and said, “I wouldn’t dare give you guidance. You don’t need to call me Great Mage either since I have yet to take the advancement test. My father ordered me not to. When we’re alone together, he always tells me that he won’t allow me to take the test, so that he won’t lose face, as I haven’t yet reached the Great Mage realm. My father is very difficult to deal with. If you pa.s.s the test, I can take you to meet my father. Later, you may just call me by my name. My name is Long Ling’er, everyone calls me Ling’er. By the way, both you and I are Ice mages. Don’t you have a mage’s gown? If you don’t wear a mage’s gown, how can you expect people to recognize you as a mage?
Nian Bing a.s.sumed a pained expression and said, “Since my childhood, I have constantly aspired to be a mage. Unfortunately, my family was very poor. I could only hope for a chance to learn magic. One day, I met a mage by chance. He told me I have an ice attribute physique and he taught me a meditation technique. I started cultivating according to his method. Later, I came to possess magic power. That mage only taught me meditation, he didn’t teach me any magic spells. Therefore, it’s highly possible that I’m still the lowest level ice mage.”
At this moment, they had already pa.s.sed through the doors and arrived into a big lounge. Due to the pointed architecture, this lounge appeared to be extremely tall. From left to right, the size of the area measured two hundred square meters. All kinds of murals were painted on the walls. Most of the paintings depicted masters wearing mage’s gowns and a few magic items. In the center of the big lounge, there was a circle on the floor reaching five meters in diameter. Within the circle, there was a six pointed star, each corner having a different color: white, blue, red, green, yellow and gold. These colors symbolized the six mainstream types of magic.
When Long Ling’er heard the way Nian Bing spoke, her eyes immediately displayed her sympathy. She comforted him, “It doesn’t matter. The achievements of a mage rely on his magic power as his foundation. The ability to cultivate magic power with meditation is the most important. As long as your magic power is sufficiently large, by combining it with magic spells, you will naturally be able to utilize higher rank magic. As for the mage’s gown, you don’t need to worry about it. We can simply give you one after you’ve pa.s.sed the test. Anyway, you need to be an intermediate mage or higher in order to join our a.s.sociation. If not, you can only keep cultivating.”
Nian Bing nodded and thought, ‘By now, I should have at least reached the rank of advanced mage. Dealing with this test shouldn’t be a big problem. Later, even if I can’t have advanced ice magic spells, I can still get one or two rank four spells.’ “Miss Ling’er, I truly have to thank you. If I hadn’t run into you and senior, I still wouldn’t know how to enter the Mage a.s.sociation.”
Long Ling’er smiled. “There is nothing to thank me for. Even if you hadn’t meet us, you could have later entered the a.s.sociation after your ident.i.ty as a mage was determined and someone would have received you. Oh! In a moment, you’ll have to put in lots of effort, since no one can help you during the test. Everything relies on your own strength.”
Nian Bing firmly nodded and said, “I will definitely pa.s.s this test.”
Right at that moment, Nian Bing and Long Ling’er turned around at the sound of footsteps. They only saw Shi Jiu walking in with an old man who was wearing a blue mage’s gown. The old man’s hair was completely white and he looked as if he was in his sixties or seventies. On the left side of his chest was an embroidered symbol that Nian Bing knew too well; it was the same symbol his father had as a Magic Scholar. It was clear that the old man was a Water Magic Scholar and not an Ice Magic Scholar.
Shi Jiu took the initiative to walk toward Nian Bing and said, “Your luck is pretty good. Today, Teacher Li De has yet to enter meditation. He’s a Water Magic Scholar. Why haven’t you greeted him yet?” In the mage’s profession, status was extremely important. If there was a difference in rank, it was necessary to bow according to etiquette. Nian Bing had already heard his father mention this. He absolutely respected those who were strong. So he hurriedly bowed to the old man and greeted him. “Good evening, honorable Magic Scholar.”
The old man didn’t seem to be fond of talking. He merely let out an ‘En! in response.
Shi Jiu respectfully said to the old Magic Scholar, “Teacher Li De, is it possible for you to begin right now?”
The old man looked at Nian Bing up and down, sizing him. He then extended his hand toward Nian Bing and spoke, “Quickly circulate your magic power and send me your strongest attack. First, I need to know what level your magic power has reached.”
Nian Bing made an approving sound in response. He extended his right hand and grasped the old Magic Scholar’s withered hand. He very carefully controlled the ice magic power and separated it out from the Ice and Fire whirlpool within his body. Ice magic appeared and attacked the old mage. At the same time when he sent out an attack with his ice magic power, he also curbed down his fire magic power as much as possible, in order to avoid the other party from sensing it. He didn’t wish for others to know about him possessing two kinds of magic.
With the aid of his spirit force, the ice-cold magic power was pushed down and transmitted through his arm, charging right into Magic Scholar Li De. From the moment Nian Bing’s magic power moved into his arm, the magical elements in the atmosphere caused a strong suction force because of the permanent rotation of his magic power. Involuntarily, the attraction of some ice elements in the atmosphere attacked Li De.
A blue light radiated from Nian Bing’s body and fully encompa.s.sed him. With this layer of magic light, he had already proved that he had the strength of an intermediate mage.
Suddenly, Li De opened his half-closed eyes. The look he gave Nian Bing contained some astonishment. He perceived within his arm the unceasing magic power charging into him. His eyes displayed more and more astonishment. He clearly discovered that this young man wasn’t much older than Long Ling’er. Unexpectedly, the essence of the magic power that was being transmitted was exceptionally pure, without any trace of impurities, which was even more praiseworthy. Nian Bing’s magic power was extremely solid. After diffusing it from within his body, his ice magic power was very difficult to use, so the solidified ice-cold air dissolved. Moreover, by the time he had finished transmitted his ice magic power, it was slightly rolling forward just like the endless large river Chang Jiang. Even with a Magic Scholar’s strength, it was somewhat strenuous to withstand this kind of peculiar ice magic power.
“Good!” Li De suddenly started talking. Nian Bing’s right hand slightly trembled. He only felt a gentle stream of air similar to that of great waves clashing against his hand from Li De’s hand. Li De’s brows slightly crease when he watched Nian Bing. “Tell me, who is your teacher?”
Nian Bing lowered his head and said, “Esteemed Magic Scholar, I don’t have a teacher. I once met a mage whose ident.i.ty remained unknown and only managed to learn meditation from him. Afterwards, by myself, I kept fumbling around finding my own path for my cultivation. Do you think I’ve pa.s.sed the test?”
Li De’s eyes lighted up in astonishment. He spoke, “Pa.s.sing or not the test will depend on your performance later. Right now, you can be very proud of your magic. Furthermore, the magic you used was the highest level of magic that I had yet received. You have to remember that magic control is an extremely important part of magic. If you can merely release your magic, but can’t effectively control it, I have to say that you can’t become a qualified mage.”
Apart from his father, this was the first time Nian Bing had received the guidance of another mage. He quickly nodded lightly. He didn’t dare to use his Ice and Snow G.o.ddess’s stone. He just lifted up his hand and loudly chanted, “Oh Great Ice and Snow G.o.ddess! Please lend me your wrath, deliver us to the lost, holy sh.o.r.e!”
Hearing his magic spell, Li De showed a “this is nothing” expression while Long Ling’er and Shi Jiu displayed a look of surprise. Long Ling’er exchanged with Shi Jiu. “Ah! Senior, this must be the Snowstorm spell! Snowstorm is cla.s.sified as a rank four spell, with a large area of ice magic c.u.mulation. I can control it, but not for a long time. If he can also use this magic, his magic power should not be below mine. It looks like we did the correct thing by letting him come in to take the test.”
Shi Jiu’s face was somewhat ugly as he groaned, “We can’t say for sure. It also depends on if he has the ability to be able to perfectly put that kind of magic into use. He barely recited the incantation, as if he wanted to stake it down. Every apprentice had something to use as a medium, but what does he have?”
As the spell was activated, suddenly, the temperature of the air rapidly dropped. Blue dots of light could clearly be seen condensing around Nian Bing’s body. Although he couldn’t use the Ice and Snow G.o.ddess’s Sigh as a staff, after so many years of cultivation together with the Ice and G.o.ddess’s stone, a connection had formed between them since a long time ago. This allowed him to indirectly use the precious stone with only a small difference in power.
The dots of blue light hovered around Nian Bing’s body and rays of light flickered in succession as they revolved and rotated around him at high velocity. Snowstorm was the rank four ice magic Nian Bing was most confident in. As the Snowstorm whirled, inwardly, the source of his ice and fire magic power had taken a different route in order to achieve the same results as average magicians. Meanwhile, the opposing magic power made it possible for him to save a bit of magic power.