Translator: Exodus Tales Editor: Exodus Tales
Translated by XephiZ
Edited by Aelryinth
Mo Fan was a grass-roots Magician and had not joined any faction so far. As a result, when he learned from Dean Xiao that he had a spot in the World College Tournament, he did not show any reaction.
Later, as the selection for the World College Tournament began, he finally realized how incredible it was to be selected as a provisional candidate. The opportunity was priceless!
Mo Fan, who was still climbing his way up the ranking, suddenly found himself being flattered, yet he was feeling more worry than joy.
However, he was someone who took things as they came. Despite the noise around him, he continued to focus on his cultivation.
After defeating the tenth-ranked Ding Yumian, he now had the chance to cultivate for seven days in the Three Step Tower every month. His Summoning Element was still at the first level, so the energy available to feed the kid was nowhere enough. He had to improve it to the next level so the energy was sufficient to feed his little Flame Belle.
Once his little Flame Belle grew up, would Mo Fan still need to care about the envy and mockery of others?
He would simply let the little Flame Belle bite whoever doubted him. Those idiots, not focusing on their cultivation, but defaming him instead, were just jealous because he was making a living off his face!
Mo Fan did not care too much about the nonsense. He stayed well-behaved at school and focused on improving his cultivation.
There were many students in the school who had half their foot into the Advanced Level. Meanwhile, the threshold of the Advanced Level was still not within his reach. How long would it take for him to become an Advanced Magician, gaining him access to the stronger Advanced Spells?
———
As autumn arrived, the winds in the middle region of China began to chill. The area within a hundred kilometers of the Ancient Capital was covered in withered grass, the whole place looked dull over its vast area, with not a hint of color.
{TL Note: The Ancient Capital might be referring to Xi’an, once known as Chang’an}
The Ancient Capital was covered in a mix of grey, brown, and copper tones. Some of the brighter structures were glossed over.
The city had paths leading straight to the center, each widening as it approached the center of the place, radiating symmetrically from the clock tower.
The Magic Association of the Ancient Capital was established in the clock tower. The location of the Magic Association was always a landmark for each city, or more precisely, the landmarks were always occupied by the Magic Association. As a result, the Ancient Capital still had a huge population crowding its streets.
The Hunter Union was located at the drum tower, only a thousand meters away from the Magic Association. The two towers stood by one another across the distance, like two giant statues guarding the city…
The military’s camp was outside of the city. There were many threats in the vicinity of the Ancient Capital. The world famous Undead Burial Mount and the demon beasts in Qinling Mountains had kept the entire city on its toes for generations.
It was said that whether in the city or outside it, one would surely find corpses after digging a hundred meters into the ground.
Corpses were not a problem, since they were only the remains of warriors who had died in battles in ancient times. The problem were those clinging to the past despite having turned into skeletons.
The undead had no memory of their past, nor did they have consciences. They merely had savagery similar to beasts and a natural instinct to kill. They would lunge crazily at anything alive within a certain distance.
As such, the Hunter Union, Magic Association and army were entrusted with an eternal mission: to help the undead with their ‘transgressions’.
——
Zhang Xiaohou left Shanghai in a hurry. As soon as he arrived at the headquarters in Lintong, he was immediately sent out on an annihilation mission.
It had been a while since Zhang Xiaohou was sent to the middle region for training. He was responsible for surveillance, learning from the experienced soldiers and focusing on improving his cultivation. Even though the army did send him on a few missions, none of them were particularly difficult.
Zhang Xiaohou received orders as soon as he landed. It was a rescue operation, to retrieve a scouting squad stranded in Xianchi.
The squad had departed around half a month ago, to investigate some restless recent activity in Xianchi. In addition to checking out the rate of growth of the undead, they were also ordered to evacuate the remaining villages around the area.
The people living in this region shared the same land as the undead. Even though they were not Magicians, they had their own traditional ways of avoiding contact with the undead. Some of the fearless tribes even relied on the Land of the Undead to keep their villages going.
It was not rare to find these tribes in the current era, some of which had existed for almost a thousand years. The undead was just like ordinary beasts to these tribes. With the right methods, even if the undead were extremely savage and killing anything in sight, the people were able to guarantee their own safety.
Lately, the odd behavior of the Drifting Sand River had somehow triggered a weird trend. The creatures sleeping under the ground had been quite active during the past month.
Being more active resulted in more killing. The weird behavior of the Drifting Sand River somehow made the Land of the Undead lose its usual calm. Many of the villages that had relied on their traditional methods to live among the undead had faced utter destruction. Four of them had been wiped off the map during this period.
The Magic Association and Hunter Union were treating the matter with extreme care. They immediately sent out people to investigate. Once they analyzed the situation and determined it to be dangerous, they would immediately evacuate the villages nearby!
However, the scouting squad had discovered a weird wind sweeping the area around Xianchi. Despite being sent to investigate the place and evacuate the villages, they suddenly went missing in action.
Even though Zhang Xiaohou was being sent on a rescue operation, the squad had already been missing for almost two months. Basically, the rescue team’s job was to verify the cause of death of the squad, and retrieve their corpses, then report back to the Magic Association and Hunter Union.
——
“What are our superiors thinking, sending us off on an operation like this? We’re asked to look for a scouting squad that’s been missing over two months…what were they doing earlier?!” cursed the team’s scout, Wang Tong.
Zhang Xiaohou’s team consisted of nine people. Unlike the usual structure of a team led by a commander, it was more like a spec ops team. The team was formed by outstanding soldiers entrusted to carry out difficult missions, like special forces.
Everyone in the team was capable of being a commander. The team had two scouts responsible for scouting the path ahead, luring the demon beasts away and disrupting their enemy’s groups. Zhang Xiaohou was one of the scouts, and Wang Tong was the other.
Wang Tong and Zhang Xiaohou were ahead of the rest of the team. Wang Tong was full of complaints. He had been swearing non-stop to Zhang Xiaohou since the team departed.
“Qin Hu is definitely enjoying himself on the Heavenly Eagle. He doesn’t even need to talk,” said Wang Tong, raising his head and glancing at the snowy-white Heavenly Eagle soaring above them.
Qin Hu was the team’s captain and commander, who was also a Heavenly Eagle Battlemage. The others had no choice but to walk, while he was able to ride the Heavenly Eagle.
“Stop talking, or you can tell the superior that you want to quit and are willing to bear the punishment. Otherwise, you should just focus on completing the mission, instead of talking non-stop,” Zhang Xiaohou was slightly more positive.
“I just like to grumble! If I don’t grumble for a day, I’ll feel extremely uncomfortable!” protested Wang Tong.