Versatile Mage

Translated by XephiZ

Edited by Aelryinth

“There!” Mo Fan immediately unleashed lightning from his hand after he recovered from the spell. The lightning arcs surged across the road and drove the darkness away, revealing a tall figure hiding there.

Mo Fan saw the figure smiling as the lightning flickered, but it suddenly disappeared from Mo Fan’s sight as the lightning was about to reach it. A twisted laugh echoed in the air. The great disdain the assassin displayed was truly infuriating!

“Time is running out!” Bei Jiang said. There was no trace of him whatsoever.

Mo Fan searched for the assassin calmly. He thought of every possibility of where the man might be hiding, but as he was preoccupied, he failed to notice that the road below him was gradually being devoured by a dark swamp. It slowly expanded from a black pool into a huge swamp!

——

There were not many cars on the road. The highway had been replaced by another tunnel nearby. It led to the Pearl River on the outskirts of the city. Occasionally, a few street racers would have some fun here, but the road had surprisingly disappeared tonight, as if it had been consumed by the darkness. A few luxurious cars had stopped at the entrance. Several well-dressed fuerdais were staring at the darkness in fear. None of them dared to drive into it.

“Why are we all so scared? It’s more thrilling the darker it is. Imagine you are driving at one-eighty when you can only see two hundred meters away. You will constantly be on your toes, as you never know when the next corner is coming up. I bet none of you have tried anything like it before!” a handsome man with braids challenged the others recklessly.

He slammed on the gas. The car soon reached a hundred kph!

The car continued to speed up. The man grinned when he heard the girls cheering for him. It was likely that he would be having some fun with at least two of them tonight. Girls always found dangerous men attractive, as if the thrill was able to help them reach the climax easier!

The whole place was covered in pitch-black darkness. To the man’s disbelief, he noticed some lightning flickering in the darkness!

The lightning arcs were surprisingly thick. The lightning forks they produced scattered in the air above like a giant web of lightning within a hand’s reach of his car…

“F**k me, what the hell is this place!?” the man screamed at the top of his lungs.

It felt like there was no end to the road. The terrified man sped up to two hundred kph, yet it felt like he was still in the same spot.

A figure suddenly appeared in front of the car. The man screamed, but it was too late to slam on the brakes. His car went right through it!

There was no collision, nor did he hear any noise. The figure dissipated like a cloud of black smoke when the car drew past it and dissipated with the wind behind the car.

The man turned around and almost peed himself. The black smoke came together again behind the car, reassuming the appearance of a human. The momentum of the car at such an insane speed could easily smash every bone inside a Mage, yet the figure was perfectly fine. It even turned around and grinned at the man, who immediately felt his skin crawl…

—

“Five minutes have passed. You’re doing better than I expected,” Bei Jiang said.

Mo Fan stood on the road that had been completely turned into a black swamp with a straight face.

Lots of figures had appeared around him. They did not look terrifying and scary, like deadly assassins, nor did they resemble Bei Jiang. They were all shadows of Mo Fan!

Each shadow had the same physique and height as Mo Fan. They even had a blurry face that looked like his. Mo Fan suddenly felt like he was surrounded by magic mirrors; his reflections in them had their own expressions, the same grin and glare!

“Lightning Whip!” Mo Fan gathered his lightning and swung it at the shadows like a whip.

A piercing burst of laughter broke out. The figures remained unmoving, mocking Mo Fan’s meaningless attack. The lightning whip shattered the shadows into black mist, but they regained the same appearance within seconds!

As soon as Mo Fan was done with his attacks, the shadows moved closer. Some were holding daggers, some were clutching their hands like claws, some were holding their bare fists. Mo Fan’s attacks were completely useless against them, yet their powerful attacks had left many bruises and wounds on him.

The wounds kept bleeding as the dark energy penetrated his body, slowing his blood flow and corrupting his cells and flesh. His organs were slowly wilting, too. The more wounds, the deeper the dark energy was penetrating into his body, and the faster his organs were wilting!

Mo Fan’s destructive spells were utterly useless. He initially thought only a Super Mage would be able to pose a threat to him. He never thought a man who had mastered the Shadow Element would leave him in such a pinch…

Time continued to pass, yet Mo Fan had not beaten a single one of the shadows…

A dagger stabbed at his throat. Mo Fan dodged aside and accumulated flames in his right fist. He threw the burning fist at the shadow whose dagger was still hanging in the air.

Fiery dragons sprang forward and shattered the shadow into black mist…

However, before Mo Fan could withdraw his hand, the eerie black mist gathered above Mo Fan. A shadow that looked exactly like him poked out of it and stabbed at his head with a dagger!

“Piss off!” Mo Fan reacted swiftly. A silver light burst out of his body, followed by a repelling force. The shadow holding a dagger realized that its attack was in vain again. It took the initiative to turn into a cloud of black smoke and drifted into the distance to dodge Mo Fan’s Space Magic.

Mo Fan took a deep breath. He did not have any time to catch his breath. A shadow with sharp claws rose from the swamp below and stabbed at his legs!

“AH!” Its claws tore the flesh on Mo Fan’s legs. The pain struck deep into Mo Fan’s soul.

Flame Belle quickly returned to Mo Fan’s side after seeing him injured. She recklessly unleashed her flames at the black swamp.

The swamp absorbed the energy like a bottomless hole. No matter how powerful Flame Belle’s flames were, they could not destroy the swamp, nor could they inflict any damage on the shadows.

The shadow with sharp claws did not dissipate into a cloud of smoke. It had the ability to move freely in the swamp, like a fierce demon fish waiting to ambush its target at the perfect timing after its prey had lowered its guard!

Blood poured out from the wounds. Mo Fan could even see his bones from the wounds. He forced himself to stand straight despite the incredible pain.

If he swayed even a little, it would give his opponent more opportunities to strike. At that time, it was not just the flesh of his legs, he would even lose his heart!

“Actually, you can just lie on the ground and cry in agony. No one will think you’re disgracing yourself. If they know you’ve died to I, Bei Jiang, they are only going to say, ‘That made sense,’” Bei Jiang’s voice echoed from nowhere.

Mo Fan still had no clue where the assassin was. If he could only find the assassin, he could beat the man into a crippled dog with a single punch!

“I’ve fought against people that are stronger than you. If you can’t kill me in the first five minutes, you’ll never be able to kill me. Keep trying your best to dodge my attacks. I once lived in poverty. There were always some rats hiding in the storage, the wooden racks, and in the pipes in my house. They would come and eat my biscuits, and bite my chairs whenever I was asleep. They thought they were good, being able to play me like a fiddle even though we are a lot bigger than them. They would squeak to provoke us… do you know what happened to them in the end?”

Mo Fan remained standing. His legs were trembling as his blood dripped onto the ground. He had imagined all kinds of horrible deaths he might die the moment he had decided to take on the Black Vatican. He was prepared to be covered in bruises and wounds, but as long as he was still able to get back on his feet, he would send every single one of these scum to Hell!

“You’re pretty optimistic; don’t you feel like a rat whose legs have been cut off, trapped inside a cage?” Bei Jiang’s voice was moving closer to Mo Fan.

Bei Jiang slowly approached Mo Fan with a smile; he was now less than twenty meters away from him. His steps were not making any noise, yet it felt like a huge mountain was crumbling onto him.

Mo Fan took a deep breath and calmed his thoughts. He could not understand why Bei Jiang was able to manipulate his Shadow Magic so perfectly. He was clueless about why Bei Jiang was able to disappear without a trace. Wouldn’t Super Mages struggle against him too?…

Was it because of the Source of Darkness?

What exactly was the Source of Darkness?

Or perhaps it was his…

Innate Talent!

Mo Fan immediately thought of something. He had completely forgotten about the possibility that the man’s capabilities might be part of his Innate Talent!

He was not the only person with an outstanding Innate Talent in the world. There were others with extraordinary talents who were almost unbeatable against opponents of the same level, too!

It was likely that Bei Jiang had some kind of Innate Talent related to the Shadow Element, and together with the Source of Darkness, it had made him a perfect Dominator of Darkness!