Magic Chef of Ice and Fire - Chapter 30.2

Chapter 30.2: A Skillful Fight against a Magister

“Ah–” Nian Bing shouted. Red and blue lights surging out from the Flame God’s Stone and the Icicle Rod poured into the two magic spells.

The Fire God’s Left Hand clenched its fist, and the two balls of ice were blocking Nian Bing’s front. Instead of the size of the spells increasing as magic continuously was poured into them, they actually got smaller.

Nian Bing’s face paled as the magic power he was throwing into his spells had already begun to overdraft his reserves.

The green light suddenly receded. Without the continual support of magic power, the nine Wind Wall spells finally disappeared. The two blank scrolls that Nian Bing had sent out before, finally fell to the ground.

Long Zhi’s skin appeared to be covered in a faint layer of green air. It seemed like his entire body had turned green. The oppressive strength that previously disappeared had returned with a vengeance. His profound gaze made the two spells in front of Nian Bing tremble.

Seeing the red and blue balls of light before him, Long Zhi’s eyes were alight. “Good. As I thought, I had not seen wrongly. It really is an Ice and Fire Source. However, do you really think this will have any effect on me?” He swung the Green Underworld staff in his hands, and a beam of green light immediately hit the opposite wall. The once still wall seemed to be have impassioned by the green light. Red, yellow, blue, green, white, and gold light simultaneously flashed, constantly interchanging. With his knowledge of magic arrays, Nian Bing easily recognized what this was. This was a large-scale control array. Besides attacks with power so great enough to exceed the range of this magic array, the wall behind the spell could not be harmed. It would seem that Long Zhi was planning on using big spells.

Nian Bing did not say a word ase focused his spirit to condense his two magic spells. The Fire God’s Left Arm and the Twin Balls of Ice had already shrunk to half their original size.

Long Zhi calmly looked at Nian Bing. “Not bad. Since you already understand the true meaning of magic, I want to see how far you can compress those two magics. The magic I just used is a rank 9 wind element spell that affects my own body. You probably have heard of it; this is the wind mage’s barrier known as —The Wind God’s Protection. It consumes a lot of magic power. Even with my ability as a magister, I can only hold this spell for an hour. Ordinarily, I would never use this kind of but spell, but it is most suitable to deal with you.

Nian Bing’s facial expression changed slightly. Of course he knew of the Wind God’s Protection. The power of this rank 9 magic was not its attacking ability. Under the effects of this spell, any wind element spell below the seventh rank could be instantaneously casted with the power consumption reduced by two-thirds. Normally, it would only be used by a wind mage preparing for a siege, or when facing a powerful enemy.

“Soar.” The third rank magic Soaring Spell lifted up Long Zhi into the air. Wherever his foot stepped, a hexagram approximately one meter in diameter would actually appear because of the Wind God’s Protection.

“Aaah——” Nian Bing bellowed again. Under the influence of all of his spirit power, the Fire God’s Left Hand and the Twin Balls of Ice were compressed again by a third. Red and blue balls of light arced through the air from Nian Bing’s two hands to where Long Zhi was flying.

Long Zhi’s eyes were filled with surprise. He had discovered that he had been still underestimating Nian Bing’s magic control.

Pointing the Green Underworld staff in front of him, a swirling green wind immediately appeared. The whirling wind immediately became bigger, completely trapping Nian Bing’s two magics. This was the rank 7 Dragon Twister. Of course, Long Zhi did not believe that a rank 7 spell would completely extinguish Nian Bing’s two compressed spells. He was just feeling him out. Nian Bing’s spells had actually become this powerful.

Nian Bing forced his body, which was on the verge of collapse, to stay standing. The red and blue balls of light that had been flying forward halted as he clapped his hands together violently. His eyes glinted with a strange lustre. With both hands clasped together before him, he yelled out “Ice! Fire! Magic! Source!” The red and blue compressed magic that had stopped, suddenly flew towards the enemy again.

Long Zhi’s facial expression changed. Mentally he cried, Not good. At this moment, his Dragon Twister that had already been sent out to trap the two balls of light collided with the magic.

“Shabang!” All of the magic element in the hall went wild in an instant. Red and blue light mixed into a huge explosive force that actually caused the rigid Dragon Twister to shatter to pieces. The red and blue rays of light then coalesced into a huge pillar of light that headed straight for Long Zhi and exploded. The expanded light pillar covered almost half of the great hall.

Long Zhi’s brows creased. Because this was the first time he had faced the strange magic of the Ice and Fire Source, he didn’t know how to respond. He waved the Green Underworld staff in his hand. As a giant quantity of magic burst out with a kablam, Dragon Twisters appeared one after the other.

Nian Bing’s whole body weakly fell to the ground as he spat out a mouthful of blood.  Overusing his magic reserves had been taxing on his body. After all, whether it was magic power or spirit power, sustaining the Ice and Fire Source magic was a high-consumption activity. He had practiced with this magic before in the Peach Blossom Forest. However, he hadn’t tried out condensing his magic back then. He had used a fifth rank spell and a sixth rank spell in order to keep the balance of power between ice and fire. Under the amplification effect of the Fire God’s Stone, the strength of the Fire God’s Left Hand could rival a six rank spell. Thus, only the rank six Twin Balls of Ice could match with it. If you wanted to display the might of the Ice and Fire Source, the most important requirement was to balance the powers of the ice and fire magic. This way, one magic would not overwhelm the other, but instead give birth to an even greater power.

The whole great hall, along with the surrounding defensive magic array, vibrated very quickly and intensely. It seemed to be unable to withstand the crushing force of the giant amount of magic. As the Ice and Fire Magic Source released all of its giant magic reserve, Nian Bing was only able to faintly sense that there were red and blue colored lights in front of him. He had to rely on the Icicle Rod to support his body so it wouldn’t fall back.

Finally, everything came to an end. The magic array in the hall had not been destroyed, but its light had dimmed considerably. A green figure slowly emerged from the leftover energy of the light explosion. Long Zhi’s magic gown was heavily wrinkled, his face had gone pale, and the green light on his skin had disappeared from sight.

“Nice. No doubt this is the Ice and Fire Magic Source. I did not think that you could actually could use such strong magic. If I were a magic scholar who hadn’t been well prepared, perhaps I would have been injured by your move. Based on the fact that the explosive power of the Ice and Fire Magic Source could actually crack my rank 9 Wind God’s Protection, its attacking power should be close to rank 9 in strength. It’s such a shame that to use this magic, you need time to draw out all of your magic power. Moreover, the execution period is too long. There was enough time for me to chant two or three rank 9 spells. If I were someone else, would I give you such an opportunity?”

Nian Bing forced himself to sit up straight. While watching Long Zhi’s warm smile, he said, “President, the Ice and Fire Source is just the state of my magic; it isn’t actually a true magic spell. The magic I just used is actually called the Three Stages of Ice and Fire. The first layer is the initial compression. The second is the mixing in the air…….”

Long Zhi was dumbstruck for a moment. In his heart, he suddenly felt a trace of dread. “Triple-Stage ice and Fire?” Without warning, a ball of fire and a ball of ice appeared right behind Long Zhi. They were the rank 5 spell Fire Bomb and the rank 5 spell Single Ball of Ice. They had not been compressed or amplified by a magic item, but they had appeared so suddenly.

With a giant kablang sound, the two magics crashed into each other, and the gigantic pillar of red and blue light appeared again. It did not have the strength of the previous one, but  Long Zhi also did not have time to prepare at all.

In the end, mages were not warriors. Even if their minds were able to respond, there was not enough time to cast any magic. Although this final wave of attack was not strong as before, it at least was close to a rank 7 spell.

Green wind swept out like a dragon, accompanied an angry roar. It was a Dragon Twister like before. With a rumbling sound, the defensive magic array that was on the verge of collapse could not endure the assault of the magic. The six-colored light disappeared, and the gigantic attack soared into the sky. The roof of the building exploded. Bits of tiles and dust sent upwards as the magic crashed into the roof. Long Zhi stumbled forward for a few steps till he was in front of Nian Bing. He waved Green Underworld in his hand and a green Wind Wall appeared above the two people, blocking the bits of tile that fell from the sky. However, the dust could come in from the sides, making Nian Bing and Long Zhi filthy with grime.

When the dust clouds disappeared,  Nian Bing and Long Zhi gave each other a look. The two had become dirt people, one standing and one sitting. Suddenly, they laughed heartily at the same time, as if they had agreed on it. His voice full of mirth, Nian Bing said humorously, “It looks like we have the potential to become earth element mages!”

After their laughter abated, Long Zhi glared viciously at Nian Bing. “Stinky brat, compensate me for my losses. Do you know how much that rank 7 magic scroll cost?” At the critical juncture, Long Zhi had no alternative but to use the rank 7 Dragon Twister magic scroll to prevent himself being wounded from behind. It was able to successfully block the final attack of the Three Stages of Ice and Fire. For Nian Bing to have pushed a magnificent mage like Long Zhi into that position could not have been easy.

Nian Bing said with a laugh. “Then how about I pay you two rank 6 magic scrolls? That should be good. Venerable President, how strong are my newly developed delay magic scrolls? It’s such a shame that it’s so difficult to make these things. If not, if they had been two rank 6 scrolls, perhaps you would have needed a rank 8 magic scroll to block them.”

Long Zhi said sourly, “They’re good. I didn’t think that I would not have seen an attack like that coming. If those two scrolls didn’t have the special Ice and Fire Source magic element woven together, they wouldn’t have been able to merge to attack me.”

Nian Bing laughed while looking at Long Zhi. “To be honest, President, I really admire you. In order to display all of my ability against you, I racked my brains in search of answer. But I discovered that a difference in strength is a difference in strength. If you had wanted to hurt me, I might not have been able to complete even my first spell. The strength of a magister is truly great.”

Flattered by Nian Bing, Long Zhi’s face turned pleasant. “It looks like you knew that I wanted to cooperate with you from the beginning?”

Nian Bing shrugged his shoulders and said, “I didn’t know for sure, but I was eighty percent certain that that was the case. I have been at the Association for some time, and you’re always trying to rope me in here. Even if that didn’t happen, could I not have guessed it from the way you wanted to talk to me? Today, when I was making food, I didn’t deliberately leave clues for you to discover. I just did what I wanted, because not long from now I must leave here. But before I leave, I had hoped that I could obtain the support of a strong mage like you.”

Long Zhi sighed and helped Nian Bing up from the ground. “There is no reason why I wouldn’t cooperate with you. Shutting down the Ice God’s Pagoda can be said to be my heart’s greatest desire. Although I am not considered to be too old, it may be impossible for me to contend with the Ice and Snow Goddess’ Worshipper in this lifetime. You cannot even begin to imagine the difference between a magister and a descended god……”

When he talked about this subject, he started to mumble. The pair headed for the entrance, only to see a magic scholar leading a group of people that included Long Ling, Shi Jiu and tens of other mages, heading straight for them.

Long Zhi’s expression deepened. “Why are you making such a fuss? Where are your bearings of a mage?”

Li De, who was in the group of mages, saw Long Zhi and let out a sigh of relief. He stepped forward and asked, “President, what happened? Why did the roof of the Testing Hall suddenly explode? Could it be that there was a problem with the magic array here?” Seeing Long Zhi and Nian Bing’s wretched appearances, the crowd of mages wanted to laugh but didn’t dare to do so.

Long Zhi looked out on the crowd, especially at the few magic scholars. Calmly, he said, “It’s good that you have come. I have something to announce.  Although Nian Bing is only a Great Mage, I am now formally announcing that he is an elder of the Association. Although this is a little earlier than I had intended, he has been always advancing his studies in the library. Let everybody know today that all must pay him the respect of an elder from now on. As for the magic array, I was just swapping pointers with Nian Bing before we got careless and broke the building. Okay, go back to what you were doing before. Ling’er, Shi Jiu, you two help Nian Bing and send him to his rooms.”

Having said this, Long Zhi picked up the box of the Proud Sky Knife from the ground and gave it to Long Ling. Then he wrapped himself in a green wind and flew off. Being covered in grime was a bit too far below his station.

After this, the group of mages looked at each other in dismay; no one knew what exactly had happened. Li De was muttering to himself, “The Testing Hall magic array is rank 10, how could it be so easily destroyed? Could it be since it’s been around for so long, the magic power had weakened?”

Long Ling and Shi Jiu supported Nian Bing from either side. When Long Ling saw the bloodstain at the corner of Nian Bing’s mouth, her eyes could not help but show an expression of hurt. Nian Bing had managed to support himself while he was talking to Long Zhi, but after it was over, he immediately fell into a state of half-consciousness.