Chapter 12.2 – Magic Reaper
“You’re going to beat me to death? Ha, the first one to die will be you!” As the black clothed man raised his right hand, a fiery light radiated and a fireball appeared on the palm of his hand. The fireball grew several times bigger in a blink of an eye, reaching the size of a human head. The blazing light shined in the dark night, illuminating the skull mask of the black clothed man and causing it to appear even more mysterious and strange.
Third Manager Liao was so startled that he nearly retreated several steps, but he held his ground. He spoke in a fierce and unyielding manner, but concealed deep within him was the terror he truly felt. “You are a mage! Has the Pure Wind House hired you to deal with me?”
The black clothed man coldly said, “No. This is the will of the Heavens. You don’t need to know my ident.i.ty. You can ask again in h.e.l.l!” Suddenly, the fiery light shined brighter as the fireball was released at a great speed, hammering through the air towards Third Manager Liao. Third Manager Liao did not waste more words on someone who was he could easily kill. His whole body emitted a yellow radiance as he waved his hand in front of him and used his fan to block the fireball. Although mages were revered, as long as a warrior wasn’t facing a high level mage, one would not be at a disadvantage in this kind of situation. Therefore, Third Manager Liao didn’t fear anything. He believed that he could use his dou qi to destroy this simple fireball without even thinking about it. After that, he would just defeat this mage.
The fireball whistled through the air until it was about to come in contact with the fan, and then, Bang! It suddenly changed direction and rose into the air, drawing a beautiful arc. The fan, which contained all of the Third Manager’s dou qi, suddenly missed, and the strong strike was delivered to the wall beside him. The strike contained all of his anger. His dou qi’s might was great indeed . As dust and smoke dispersed, a huge hole could suddenly be seen where he had hit the wall.The interval between his dou qi pouring out and the wall exploding was the moment when his body’s dou qi defense was at its weakest.
Right at that moment, a thin ray of serene blue light that lay camouflaged by the dark blue color of the night shot out and perforated Third Manager Liao’s head right between his eyebrows, before fading away. He didn’t even have the time to pull back his fan to defend. It was as if some kind of envoy from h.e.l.l sent to capture souls. His body stood still for moment, then, suddenly, it started to spasm violently. He was bombarded by the fireball from behind soon after. The flames consumed him layer upon layer until he became a charred corpse. His life had already been ended by the blue ray of light, therefore he hadn’t even had the time to let out a blood-curling scream. His tall and robust body dropped loudly on the ground as the dark alley was illuminated by the flames. The black clothed man wearing a skull mask said in a somewhat hoa.r.s.e voice, “For those who treat me kindly, I’ll repay them tenfold. For those who have earned my enmity, I’ll destroy them!” That man was Nian Bing. Since morning, he clearly remembered having been humiliated. With the exception of the Ice G.o.d PaG.o.da, which he had already vowed not to cross until he possessed formidable strength, there was no way he would accept getting insulted by anyone. Today was the first time he had killed a person. However, there was not even a trace of dread in his mind. For him, the death of Third Manager Liao was similar to that of an ant. It was hardly relevant.
For many years, his heart was filled with pent-up frustrations. By killing Liao, he was able to alleviate his frustrations. It couldn’t be said that Nian Bing’s heart was carefree, as deep inside, a part of his heart was br.i.m.m.i.n.g with darkness, so much that his body was emitting a trace of sinister aura.
Suddenly, he sensed a gloomy and cold aura coming from behind. The aura was sharp, and although it didn’t reach his body, he could still perceive a faint pain in his back. Without hesitation, he took the Morning Dew knife out from his bosom in a flash. A blue-green brilliance spread out and sliced the light that shot toward his back. At that very moment, there was only one thing in his mind: everything is like firewood.
A ringing sound lightly echoed, following that, Nian Bing m.u.f.fled a groan and coughed out a mouthful of blood which flowed down the edge of his mask while he retreated more than ten steps back. He forced himself to stand firmly. Right now, the Grand Pavilion’s Second Manager was standing on the spot where he had been standing just a moment before. The manager was still holding the handle of a broken long sword and could clearly sense an ice-cold chilliness rushing from the edges of his broken blade. It made him break into cold sweat. Earlier, the Second Manager had arrived behind Nian Bing just when the fireball had reached Third Manager Liao’s head. At that moment, it was already too late for him to save his brother. Since this was the case, he didn’t make a sound, so as to not alarm Nian Bing. Right after the fireball had exploded, he silently started emitting dou qi, pulling out the flexible sword coiled around his waist, and thrusting it towards the vital points on Nian Bing’s back. However, he didn’t antic.i.p.ate at all that his opponent, who was clearly a mage, would unexpectedly turn around at that moment and cleanly break his sword in half. Although that wisp of green-blue light was hidden, he could still perfectly perceive that, without a doubt, his opponent had an exceptional precious blade.
He slowly let his raised hand down and started emitting a yellow-colored dou qi similar to Liao, but unlike Liao’s dou qi, his was much thicker. Step by step, he ran towards Nian Bing. Then, he slowed into a walk as his eyes kept staring intently at the skull mask on Nian Bing’s face. He coldly asked, “Who are you? Why did you ambush Third Little Brother? Talk! Did the Pure Wind House dispatch you?”
“Pure Wind House? Do you truly think they have the ability to prompt me to move?” Although they were at a standstill, Nian Bing stood firmly, staring at the Second Manager through the holes in his mask without a trace of confusion or disorder.
“It’s not the Pure Wind House? Then, who are you? Why did you murder my Third Little Brother? If you don’t answer, I will make it so that you feel as if you’re dying, yet you cannot!” The Second Manager’s voice became ice-cold.
Undisturbed, Nian Bing replied, “I am a killer. You can call me the Magic Reaper. I’ve already killed today, and I don’t feel like killing any more. However, I’m sure we’ll meet again some day.” Without any warnings, red flames suddenly rose high into the air and exploded on an immense surface, pushing towards the Second Manager. The Second Manager didn’t dare to be careless in the slightest, as he knew very well that between his dou qi cultivation and his Third Brother Liao’s there wasn’t a significant difference. Yet, his brother had been easily killed by the mysterious man who called himself the Magic Reaper. He hurriedly threw away his broken sword, and gathered all the dou qi in his body before he violently exploded it out in order to confront the firewall that was suddenly right in front of him.
Without any sound, the flaming star scattered in all directions as his dou qi continued to reverberate in the small and narrow alley. He was surprised to discover that the firewall didn’t have the slightest amount of power. However, when the flames faded away, the place where the Magic Reaper had stood, which was not too far away from him, was empty. Only Third Manager Liao’s charred body was left, burning as it was before. Suddenly, a trace of fear appeared in his heart. The enigmatic Magic Reaper had given him an enormous mental pressure! He was a bit terrified. He feared that the person was still hiding in a nearby dark place, and would used his strange magic to attack.
Nian Bing staggered while running towards the main street. He suddenly came to a stop at a corner, gasping for breath several times. He cast a common healing spell on himself and felt a little better after that. If it wasn’t for his Morning Dew knife breaking the sword in half in the nick of time, he feared that the sword dou qi congealed by the Second Manager would have already pierced through his heart. Even if he had been able to narrowly escape death, the aftershock of breaking the sword had caused some of the dou qi to be sent into his body and injure his internal organs. After all, he wasn’t a warrior, but a mage, and mages were known to have the weakest physical resistance. The Firewall spell was a rank 5 magic spell. To be able to use that spell, Nian Bing would have needed to chant the incantation for a certain period of time. What he had used a moment ago to escape wasn’t a genuine Firewall spell. Since he could compress a snowstorm, he had used the same principle with the support of his strong spirit force, and successfully inflated a common fireball to the size of a Firewall spell. What Nian Bing didn’t know was that his body’s vessels were constantly being toughened up by the magic force coming from the source of his fire and ice magic. Compared to the body of a normal mage, his body was many times more resilient; that’s why he could withstand the sword dou qi. If he had been an average mage, even if he hadn’t died on the spot, he would have been unable to escape simply because of the strength of the impact.
Taking a breather for a moment, he felt the pain caused by the internal injuries of his organs’ bleeding alleviate a little bit. The healing spell slowly started displaying its effect. The Magic Reaper was a name he had come up with on the spot, but it was a name that had deeply engraved itself into his mind. He inwardly vowed that one day, the Magic Reaper would surpa.s.s the Ice G.o.d PaG.o.da, and bestow death upon those who had once harmed his parents. While deep in thought, he quickly took off his black clothes and used his mask to wrap them into a bundle before walking back to Pure Wind House.
By the time Nian Bing had returned to Pure Wind House, it was already late into the night. He carefully pushed open the backdoor and quietly walked towards the firewood house. From the back door to the firewood house, he needed to pa.s.s by the back garden. Uncle Li had once warned him that the back garden was the Pure Wind House Owner’s exclusive area, and without prior instructions, absolutely no servants were allowed to enter. The back garden’s walls were two meters tall with plum blossom openworks on top of each and every wall. The blue-green walls seemed to fuse together with the surroundings. Nian Bing’s height was just right for him to be able to look inside the back garden through the plum blossom openworks. He followed a trail and walked straight ahead. From the corner of his eye, he unintentionally discovered, through the openwork, that something red flashed by. It made him curious, so he subconsciously moved closer to the back garden.