Chapter 36
Walking out of the Mana Furnace’s main gate, I ran right into Qifeng. She was standing in the street, backed by the night.
“Silly girl, what are you doing here?” I asked, surprised.
“Lian Qi went out to find you and was gone for too long, so I tried to find… using my magic…” Her face was a little pale, but even so, she smiled when she saw me.
“Don’t tell me you created some new magic?”
“It’s not that… I turned my longing for you into a wish to find you, and the chains’ function… seems to have evolved,” Qifeng said, cupping her face, embarrassed.
Qifeng evolved a tracking… no, a tracing magic? Something feels off.
“…You’ve put your skill points in the wrong tree, haven’t you,” Lian Qi said.
“Wrong tree…?” I asked.
“…My magic has always been more support-oriented,” Qifeng retorted.
“And it’s all closely related to you, Fei’er,” Lian Qi said.
Being told that by Lian Qi, I felt a little embarrassed.
It’s true… magic created because one is thinking of someone… it exists. After all, magic is the miracle derived from hope.
Wait—now is not the time for this. I said to Qifeng: “Go to the Church in my name and gather men to surround the White Tower. Find Mistrecui and all the other members of the Druid organization. Arrest all of them.”
“Eh? We’re finally making our move?”
Qifeng nodded at me in understanding and turned to go, but suddenly remembered something and looked back. “Fei’er, what about you?”
“I’m going to Nature’s Home.”
“I’m worried about you… I’m going too.”
“Be good. Do as I said, and then rendezvous with me later.”
It seems my command is absolute in Qifeng’s eyes. She said hesitantly, “Alright then… Fei’er, you have to be careful.”
“Don’t worry.”
Qifeng looked back at me reluctantly, then hurried off into the night.
…
The night deepened. The pale moon draped the earth, and the forest in the suburbs of the Royal Capital seemed to be veiled in jade.
I’m not here for an excursion to see the night view. Lian Qi and I are on our way to Nature’s Home. The name feels so ironic now. They’re clearly operating under the guise of protecting the environment, but secretly, they’re creating environmental problems to slander magic!
Let me quickly flip through my “notebook” and see what these environmentalists have done:
Spreading the conspiracy theory that abusing magic causes the permafrost to melt.
Causing the Mana Furnace to leak.
Dumping toxic substances into the river.
Injecting poison into magic potatoes.
Faking the smog.
And finally, trying to detonate the Mana Furnace to raze the Royal Capital.
Who knows what else they’re capable of?
“Fei’er, it’s just you and me,” Lian Qi said to me as we crossed the forest.
“It’s fine,” I said, walking. “This time, you’re with me. I won’t be knocked out by someone’s dirty trick.”
Besides, my body has a resistance to toxins. That poison probably doesn’t work on me anymore.
“Careful.” Lian Qi suddenly grabbed my arm.
“Someone’s here,” she warned me.
Just as we were about to reach Nature’s Home, a figure met us on the narrow path!
I stared at it warily. After observing it, I realized it wasn’t human. Look at that underbite and those protruding fangs… it looks like an orc. Its sturdy body, under the pale moon, seemed to be cloaked in a layer of jade.
But… looking at its green body, the texture doesn’t look like skin. It doesn’t seem like a creature of flesh and blood, but more like… some kind of construct.
I whispered to Lian Qi: “Looks like a golem or something.”
“I think it’s a Treant, made of wood,” Lian Qi said.
In any case, this thing, holding a shield and a broadaxe, blocked our path.
“Just the two of you think you can barge into Nature’s Home?” the Treant spoke.
Lian Qi snorted. “When we visited before, you did your best to disguise yourselves as a harmless green-peace organization. Now that the mask is off, you have this kind of vicious thing guarding the door. It wouldn’t be surprising to see some kind of brutal superweapon next.”
“Looks like we’ll have to fight our way in this time,” I said under my breath.
“Since you’re made of wood, you should be afraid of fire, right?” The moment Lian Qi spoke, her whole body was wreathed in blue magic. Then, she threw a punch at the Treant from a distance!
The air instantly shattered from the punch, like a broken mirror, the cracks extending right to the Treant’s face. A high-energy reaction was about to burst from the cracks, and then—BOOM! It exploded!
If it were really made of wood, being engulfed in that explosion would have certainly turned it to ash—at least, that’s what I thought. However, the Treant’s figure strode out from the sea of fire.
Lian Qi and I were both surprised, because the Treant was wreathed in… purple magic!?
“A Treant has Tier 5 magic? Impossible, right?”
No wonder it took Lian Qi’s explosion magic without much damage. It was blocked by Tier 5 magic.
I saw the Treant raise its axe and chop at us. Lian Qi quickly grabbed my hand and ran. BOOM! I looked back—the spot where we were just standing had been split in two by its axe!
In the blink of an eye, Lian Qi left my side and charged the Treant.
“How about this, up close?” Lian Qi clenched her fist, blue magic concentrating on it, and threw a punch at the Treant’s face!
Unexpectedly, the Treant was extremely agile and immediately raised its shield to defend.
Lian Qi’s punch slammed into the shield.
She “tsked,” annoyed. At the same time, the space between her fist and the shield showed the effect of a shattering mirror. Cracks spread out in all directions, and with the ensuing high-energy reaction, the explosion swallowed the Treant!
Lian Qi retreated from the firelight back to my side.
“Tsk, so tough. This Treant’s magic is Tier 5, which means the person controlling it is at least a Tier 5 mage. But it’s not the mage’s main body. Just relying on the magic shared by its master… it shouldn’t be so tough that even I, an Enchantment-type, can’t budge it.”
Lian Qi fell into analysis mode…
“Is the master Manipulation-type? No… could they also be Enchantment-type? Transmutation/Illusion isn’t impossible either.”
“Let me try?” I suggested. I then transmuted the Holy Light into a hammer, hiding it behind my back, and watched as the Treant’s figure walked out of the sea of fire.
I walked forward without a word and swung the hammer at it!
It raised its shield to defend!
BANG—!
My hammer came down, smashing its shield and its body to pieces!
Watching the wood chips fly everywhere… Lian Qi was right, it really was made of wood.
“Wasn’t so tough.”
I said, twirling my hammer.
However, the instant the Treant was smashed, a dark shadow slipped out of its body like a cicada shedding its skin, landing on the empty ground ten meters away from me.
“Not bad. You actually broke through my defense?” the green-haired young man said, squinting at me.
“And who are you?”
“Little monster-girl, nice to meet you. I am Professor Einstein’s personal guard—one of the “Holy Twelve,” “Sea of Trees” Adonis. I’m responsible for holding you up.”
Another one of that person’s subordinates?
I spun the hammer in my hand.
“Then bring it on.”