The sword stroke, like a rainbow piercing the sun, failed to take the head. There was only a crack of shattering. One ring on the boy's hand split apart, and a translucent sheen flickered over his skin and blocked Li Fei's strike.
Li Fei wasn't surprised in the slightest. The battle-qi vortex in her body roared, and she hacked out a second and a third slash without hesitation, crimson streams of battle qi surging like a flooded river.
"Impossible!"
The boy was furious and terrified. He threw himself backward, twisting and writhing, trying to open some distance.
This time Li Fei had no intention of trading banter with her opponent. The situation wasn't yet under her control, and she wasn't confident enough to claim first place, so she wanted a quick, clean finish.
Blazing battle qi sealed off every direction. The short-haired boy roared in rage, but he couldn't find a single opening.
Cornered, he went mad and squandered his mana like water, hoping for one last desperate gamble.
But what chance did a low-Sequence mage have of a death-or-glory trade after she'd closed in with ease and stolen the initiative?
Within ten breaths, the short-haired boy collapsed twitching into a pool of blood, both legs and half an arm lopped off. He was a pitiful sight.
What a pity that on this island, plundering fellow students was forbidden…
Li Fei sighed and urged him on.
"Hurry up and give in."
"Cough, cough… How did you find me…"
The boy coughed blood, his eyes full of bitter resentment.
But Li Fei wasn't in the mood to show off her [True Sight Gem]. She slapped a [Sensitivity Aura] on him and stabbed him several more times.
Blood gushed from the holes with a hiss. Under the stimulation of the Sensitivity Aura, the boy's face went deathly pale and he thrashed and twitched, biting down so hard that he didn't let out a single wail.
"I hear that in the Eastern Continent, there's a kind of man whose whole job is serving the emperor. They call them 'eunuchs.'"
Li Fei held her sword, her tone offhand. "I'll count to three. If you're not out by then, I'll let you experience what it's like to be one. Three, two…"
The boy let out a howl of grief and rage and crushed his purple badge. His figure vanished from right under Li Fei's nose.
"Silver-grade geniuses? The prodigies of the Magic Academy? Not that impressive. I'll try a few more next time."
Li Fei glanced thoughtfully at the blood on the ground, then set off again without a pause to keep hunting her rivals.
…
"It's Li Fei! The one from Loxibrook!"
"Take her out first!"
Several mages had been in the middle of a brawl, but at one of their shouts, they all turned their guns on her as one.
Ice spears, lightning, roaring flames… a dazzling flood of spells in every color, every one of them lethal, howled toward Li Fei.
And the delicate, slender Spell Encyclopedia Lady had even shed her [Guardian Mage Robe]. Her shoulders were bare, her waist slim, her arms like willow branches. She looked frail enough to be swallowed by the roaring tide of mana at the first touch.
"Eek."
She seemed to be frightened. With a soft cry, her long legs moved, her high heels tracing out succubus dance steps, and her light, bewitching form dodged two of the spells outright.
Three still struck her. In the thunderous blast of a fireball, blazing firelight swallowed her whole.
Before the mages could even rejoice, a figure wrapped in a gale leapt out of the flames.
"Am I beautiful?"
Li Fei's red lips parted, and the spell-like ability [Bliss] quietly activated. The Charm Marks on her abdomen formed the [Pheromone] pattern. Her eyes flashed with a soul-stirring allure, and the mage girl nearest to her fell into a brief daze.
In that split second, her rustling skirt swept up in front of the girl, and a sword gleam slashed down fiercely, but no blood flew.
"Eek!"
The mage girl, a silver brooch pinned at her collar, snapped out of it at the last possible instant. She shrieked with a blush and activated a spell-like ability of her own, turning her body into a translucent, ghost-like state.
The blade, burning with crimson demonic flame, cut across her waist, but she only showed a flash of pain. Her aura barely weakened, and she even had the strength left to manipulate her mana and prepare a counterattack.
This was exactly when diligently previewing the textbooks paid off.
"Ghost form?"
The corner of Li Fei's lips curled. A short staff had appeared in her left hand at some point.
A spell-like ability like Ghost Form was very practical and greatly boosted physical resistance. The side effect was that while in Ghost Form, the user became far more vulnerable to spell attacks.
More than two thousand Charm Marks all formed into [Fireball Enhancement], and dazzling firelight danced on the tip of the Quietsong staff.
Li Fei lowered her head a little until the tip of her nose touched the girl's. The sheer force of that peerless beauty startled the deer in the girl's heart into a stampede, and the scent of tea flooding her nostrils left her dizzy and dazzled.
The Spell Encyclopedia Lady savored the shy, unpolished blush that flickered over the face of the chance-met genius mage girl as she fell under her charm. Then she gently pressed her staff against the girl's chest and murmured in a breathy, suggestive voice:
"Seeya~"
A blazing fireball burst over the girl's heart. Her ghostly body convulsed violently, then turned into a human body charred black below the neck, bones jutting out, organs deformed, drenched in blood. She slumped on the ground, twitching, not far from death.
A red high heel came down, unhurried, and the sharp heel crushed the purple badge that had fallen to one side. The girl's figure vanished, collected by the Main Academy for treatment.
"Why is her resistance so high?"
"This woman…"
The remaining four genius mages stared at one another. A chill shot from their tailbones to the tops of their skulls, and sweat soaked their robes in an instant.
They had watched with their own eyes as the Spell Encyclopedia Lady took three damaging spells head-on, with no shield up, and came away with only light injuries! Even if they were low-tier, instant-cast probing attacks, that made no sense.
Click-clack, click-clack…
Her high heels kissed the ground in a dense, graceful rhythm, but it made the mages' hearts clench, as if they were hearing the horn of death.
Fortunately, for ambitious young people, fear always brings courage.
In that moment, the strangers displayed remarkable coordination and tactical discipline. All four scattered at once to stretch out the distance and began chanting [Wasp Swarm], [Slow], [Aging], [Paralytic Venom] and other spells.
There was an old saying at the Magic Academy: no matter how strong your battle qi, you still fear being turned into a sheep. When a group of mages ran into a powerful melee Transcendent, the best answer was to chain control spells together precisely and strip them of the ability to fight back.
Of course, low-Sequence mages couldn't yet cast [Sheep Polymorph], the spell that warriors dreaded and despised. But stacking a pile of Curse spells on her and kiting the Spell Encyclopedia Lady to death was an excellent alternative too. Since ancient times, countless invulnerable, superhumanly strong warriors had met their end to this classic tactic.
But Li Fei didn't seem to sense any danger. The faint smile never left her face as she dashed straight for another mage.
"Get bogged down in mud!"
The unlucky target knew he was doomed to fall here. He turned vicious and, instead of giving ground before the blood-stained blade, chanted his incantation in rapid, high-pitched syllables.
Ting, ting, clang, crack!
The first three strokes landed on the mage's shield. The fourth came down with a harsh sound like a cleaver chopping ribs, and blood spilled out in a gush.
The mage had been cut in half at the waist. Blood and organs spattered down, but his lips were still moving. Coughing blood, he spat out the final syllable.
Several beams of rotting, bone-clinging magic enveloped Li Fei. She clearly felt her body grow heavier, her muscles slacken, her joints ache dully, and the buzzing of a wasp swarm drone in her ears.
But with one surge of battle qi, the sensations were forcibly suppressed by that scorching force.
"That's all?"
Li Fei giggled. Raging demonic flames boiled around her skin and her black hair whipped wildly. She looked like a young flame demon about to spread calamity and destruction, searing heat radiating outward with her gaze.
"You're next."
In that sickly-sweet declaration, a crimson shadow flickered and slammed into the third victim like a meteor. The mages still standing couldn't help but show terror.
"How is this possible? She took four Curse spells. Why does she still have this much burst?"
"We can't hold back anymore!"
The mage she had locked onto roared, his face contorted.
He gritted his teeth and poured mana into the pendant on his chest.
[Fel Necklace]
Equipment Rating: Dawn
…
Enchantment: Fel Cleanse
Fel Cleanse: Washes the target with powerful fel energy, removing buff effects of Tier 5 and below, and inflicting damage and slowing the target. Recharge time: 15 natural days.
By the rules, using mana crystals, sacrificial gems and the like to recharge equipment was not allowed inside Folded Space B-01. That meant [Fel Cleanse] was his biggest trump card for this trip, and he could use it only once.
But with his life hanging by a thread, this was no time to hesitate.
A purple-black stream of fel energy crashed into Li Fei and swallowed her up like sludge.
"Mm… ngh."
Her graceful, bewitching female form, cast in purple-black sludge, struggled and trembled, letting out a soft, heart-stopping cry of anguish.
"Now!"
The three mages roared in unison and chanted their spells, pure mana surging, intent on finally finishing off that uncanny, sinister woman.
But then a hazy golden light flared inside the sludge.
[Gold-Grade Magic Apprentice Brooch]
…
Enchantment: Void (Lv1)
Void Lv1: Turns the target into a void form, removing most negative states of Tier 5 and below and granting immunity to physical damage of Tier 5 and below for 1.5 seconds. Recharge time: 6h.
The golden light tore through the sludge and Li Fei broke free. Her snowy skin had been scoured red by the corrupting, corrosive fel energy, and her chest rose and fell deeply.
But she was laughing so hard she trembled like a flower in the wind, her eyes rippling like water.
Li Fei licked her lips, as if she hadn't had enough.
"Too gentle."
With a breath like orchids, Li Fei appeared like a ghost in front of the third victim. Both slender, porcelain-white arms rose high, and she swung the light, elegant [Blade of Joy], with its classical Elven artistry, like an executioner's sword. The whole blade blazed with scarlet blood-light and came down with a shrill shriek through the air.
This woman was going for the kill!
The victim happened to meet Li Fei's eyes. At a glance they were alluring and coquettish, but deep in those black pupils lay an indescribable, savage madness, as if they opened onto the abyss. His blood froze in an instant.
Without a moment's hesitation, he cut off the spell he was about to finish, activated the mana shield built into his equipment, crushed the purple badge issued by the Main Academy, and cried out:
"I forfeit!"
The blade still landed on the mana shield and split several cracks into it.
The mage vanished in a flicker, wearing a look of immense relief.
The two remaining opponents did finish their spells. A lightning serpent crashed into Li Fei, and an air cannonball, mana compressed to its limit, slammed into her head with ferocious kinetic force.
She grunted, and her soft body flew backward more than ten meters like a ragdoll hit by an air gun, scattering crimson blood along the way.
The sight made even these two, who had killed plenty in their time, feel a pang of reluctance, as though they'd torn apart the loveliest flower in the world with their own hands.
Thump…
Li Fei hit the ground hard and tumbled several times.
"Finally done."
"And we're all Sequence 7. Five of us against one, and she still killed three of us…"
The last two mages let out a breath and spoke with lingering fear.
After the grueling fight, fighting side by side and beating a strong enemy together seemed to have given them a kind of kinship. They started chatting back and forth, bright smiles on their faces.
"Quick, go finish her off."
"No need. She's a mage in the end, not a warrior with high-level battle qi and high-level magic resistance. Take an air cannon to the face and she can still stand up? As a mage, you need an accurate sense of your own killing power."
"True enough, ha ha…"
Splurch!
The laughter cut off abruptly. A tail had pierced through a chest, its bloody tip wagging cheerfully twice.
The ambushed young mage was lifted clean off the ground. She looked down in a daze at the hole in her chest.
She tried to speak, but only spat out dark blood mixed with bits of organs.
In the end, she gave a bitter smile and crushed her purple badge.
Li Fei staggered up from the ground.
Her head and face were covered in blood, and the little skin not soaked in red was a flawless cold white, like a small white flower watered with poison and blood, with a sickly, eerie beauty.
She grinned at the last opponent and laughed without a sound.
"I'm warmed up. How about you?"
The opponent's mind broke.
He plopped down on the ground and said limply:
"You've got to be kidding me. You're a low-Sequence mage, and you can take more of a beating than a mid-Sequence warrior… Isn't this just bullying?"
"We're all geniuses here. One against five is way too much."
"A monster like you shouldn't be in the outer ring at all. You should be in the inner ring."
Amid his resentful muttering, the young mage, knowing he couldn't escape Li Fei's grasp, crushed his purple badge.
Everything fell quiet again.
After the brief, fierce clash, only Li Fei remained on the ruined battlefield.
"Ow…"
Li Fei rubbed her temples. Everything in her vision was veiled in red and blurry; her retinas were probably out of place. Something in her head buzzed, and a swelling pain throbbed. That last hit clearly hadn't been light, and there was a risk of concussion.
"Good thing I have high-level resistance."
She sighed and glugged down a bottle of Lady Zhihua's lovingly made healing potion, which made her feel a bit better.
In this fight, Li Fei had held something back. She had mostly relied on high-level Furnace Battle-Qi and high-level magic resistance to tank it all, beating skill with brute savagery.
In fact, according to the Magic Academy's statistics, when warriors and mages of the same Sequence level fought fairly, the win rate was roughly fifty-fifty. The claim that "most mages can't beat a warrior of the same level one-on-one" seemed to be refuted.
But look closer and you'd find this:
In the sample of mage victories, 99% of the warriors either hadn't mastered [Magic Resistance] or had it at too low a level.
The trick behind the numbers was obvious.
Clearly, in a fight between warriors, [Magic Resistance] meant little.
Whoever had the harder fists and the sturdier body would be the last one standing.
But in a clash of swords and magic, a warrior who had mastered [Magic Resistance] and one who hadn't were two entirely different species.
After all, if your resistance wasn't up to standard, no matter how peerless your martial skill or how mountain-shouldering your strength, a single [Sheep Polymorph] would teach you humility.
And a warrior whose resistance was high enough, who took a round of spell bombardment with a mere scrape and wasn't affected by control spells, would be every mage's nightmare.
Besides, Li Fei had heeded Mama Nicole's warning and hadn't actually killed anyone. Whether they'd been burned black, cut in half or run through the heart, as long as they hadn't died on the spot, or even if they breathed their last within a few minutes, the Main Academy of the Magic Academy could restore them to full health in a short time.
"Without unleashing Dragon's Strength first, even five of them can hurt me…"
Li Fei drank another potion and grumbled her displeasure.
Against an ordinary Sequence 7, she was confident she could finish the fight in an instant with her spell-like ability controls. But on Black Magic Death Island, where talent gathered in droves, equipment with instant-cast mana shields was practically standard issue for everyone. And most of these geniuses had rock-solid composure, so her control effects wouldn't last long. Unless she was already in close range, she wouldn't have time for an instant kill.
Then there were their combat instincts, casting speed, spell damage and more, none of which an ordinary Transcendent could match.
Li Fei estimated that if she ran into ten genius mages, she'd probably have to ambush them and strike first to win. Otherwise, she risked being kited to death. If Sequence 7 was already this much trouble, then once she reached the inner ring, even a one-on-one fight could go wrong.
If this were the Demon-Sealing Continent, she could take on ten Heaven Realm monsters and demons of the same Sequence 7 as if it were a game. She'd cut down more than one Innate master, too.
Of course, the biggest threat was still the gear these rivals carried.
Big spenders were lords wherever you went. The enchantments on Dawn-grade equipment could completely turn the tide at low and mid Sequences, and they had little to do with the Transcendent's own strength. Just now, for example, if not for [Fel Cleanse], Li Fei would have wiped out her opponents steadily with nothing worse than a light wound.
"It'd be great if Dawn-grade equipment could be banned."
Li Fei sighed and took a short rest.
She wiped the blood off her body and changed into a fresh dress before going back to roaming and ganking.
This time, having gauged the gap in strength and absorbed the lesson from the pain, Li Fei took on three at most at a time. She swept through them with overwhelming force and personally eliminated a full twenty-three opponents.
…
"Waaah…"
A little mage girl sat splayed on the ground, wiping away tears. Her pure white stockings were stained with mud, and she looked utterly pitiful.
Li Fei glanced at the sky, then grabbed her by the hair with zero sympathy and hauled her up. One punch landed hard, her fist sinking deep into the soft belly.
Amid even louder sobbing, another victim left the stage.
"It's dark…"
The boys and girls who had made it to the first night all raised their heads in unison and gazed up at the sky, which had gone from dusk to deep night in the space of a few blinks.
Night had fallen over the island.
____
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