Versatile Mage

 Mo Fan believed things were not as simple as they seemed. He quickly told Dean Xiao what they had found.

 Dean Xiao soon contacted another mentor and asked him to investigate the matter together with Mo Fan.

 It was night-time before the mentor came. Mo Fan believed they should wait until the next morning since it was difficult to see at night, but to his surprise, the mentor was not in a great mood.

 “What’s there to be scared of? I, Zhou Jiantian can easily handle any demon creature that might show up. Let’s go, this is just wasting my time,” Zhou Jiantian said.

 Zhou Jiantian had brought around six students along. It was obvious that the students were not too willing to come. After all, it was not part of the work that was assigned to them. If it wasn’t because the waterway that had stopped flowing was hindering the progress of their work, they would not even have bothered to come here.

 The journey to Qinyi Lake was surprisingly smooth. They did not encounter any demon creatures along the way.

 Mo Fan took a closer look at the surface of the lake when they arrived at Qinyi Lake…

 For some reason, the lake no longer felt the same to him.

 The surface of the lake was still. There was no wind and no gleaming reflection on the surface. However, when Mo Fan went a little closer, he could see the reflections of the stars in the night sky from the lake. It was like the surface of the lake was embroidered with mysterious gems, resulting in a stunning view.

 The stars were glowing across the surface of the lake. The wind blew, bringing along the fragrance of nature. The comfortable feeling was a huge contrast to the spooky feeling in the day.

 “Are you kidding me now? So much for no reflection! There’s nothing on the surface of the lake. The water is perfectly normal too,” Zhou Jiantian snapped furiously.

 “Yeah, it’s just a normal lake. What a waste of our time.”

 “Why the hell are we even here for!?”

 Zhou Jiantian glared at Mo Fan and blurted out, “You useless prick, you can’t even handle such a simple task! The whole project was put on hold just because of this. If you are so scared of the mere reflections of a lake, I suggest you quit as soon as possible. I’ll ask Dean Xiao to find someone else for the job!”

 Mo Fan was left speechless. The whole thing did not make any sense. Why was the lake normal at night when there was clearly something wrong about it in the day?

 Zhou Jiantian left angrily with his students, leaving Mo Fan and his students looking at one another in dismay behind.

 “Sir, they are so unreasonable. Did they seriously think we are lying to them? We all knew there was something weird about the lake in the morning,” Cao Qinqin said angrily.

 “Forget it, I’ll look into the matter again. Let’s go back and rest. We’ll come again tomorrow,” Mo Fan said.

 “Sure.”

 —

 Mo Fan was even more bothered by the lake when they reached the town in Tongxiang.

 He considered himself to be experienced and knowledgeable, yet he was utterly clueless about what had happened today.

 First of all, Mo Fan believed there was something on the surface of the lake in the morning, something that made the lake look perfectly still from the distance, and was only visible when he was close enough.

 Unfortunately, Mo Fan did not take a close look in the morning. Otherwise, he would know what that thing was!

 Mo Fan was unable to arrive at a conclusion. He stopped wasting his time and started meditating by the window.

 —

 In the wee hours, Mo Fan was still cultivating his Lightning Element. He was hoping to level up his Advanced Lightning Spell to the second-tier to further improve his strength.

 Knock knock knock!

 Someone was knocking hard on his door. Mo Fan stopped cultivating instantly.

 “Sir, sir, Bai Hongfei is missing,” Cao Qinqin said in a panicking voice.

 “Missing? Did he seriously go out to look for hookers in the middle of the night?” Mo Fan frowned and asked.

 “He took his equipment with him,” Cao Qinqin said.

 “That idiot, is he trying to find the truth on his own? That’s too reckless even if he’s trying to graduate With Excellence. He should have taken ut one step at a time…damn it, why am I talking so much like a typical old-fashioned teacher? Come, let’s go look for him. Hopefully, he’s not in some kind of trouble,” Mo Fan cursed.

 He had to be constantly on his toes as a mentor, since the arrogant students kept thinking they could do something impressive on their own. Even Mo Fan felt a great chill running down his spine at Qinyi Lake that morning. Whatever the thing on the lake was, it was extremely dangerous. Bai Hongfei would find himself in great trouble trying to take the matters into his own hands. He had only reached the Advanced Level a short time ago!

 —

 —

 The night was extremely quiet. Not a single cry of an insect was heard. The light emitted by the stars in the pitch-black sky was the only source of light. The whole place felt dead.

 “I have to find the reason behind it. I must graduate With Excellence. I don’t want to be a disappointment to my family!” Bai Hongfei murmured angrily.

 He pushed the tall grass aside and slowly made his way toward Qinyi Lake.

 Qinyi Lake was as calm and beautiful as usual. The lake that was surrounded by the mountains felt like a giant piece of onyx. Bai Hongfei suddenly had a strange feeling as he set his eyes on the lake.

 However, he did not back away. He gathered his courage and walked closer to the lake.

 Bai Hongfei stuck his head out and looked into the water when he reached the edge…

 He immediately realized something. He looked further away for a little longer and was shocked when he did not see a single reflection of the stars on the surface of the lake!

 The water was perfectly calm, yet it was not reflecting the glowing stars in the night sky. The beautiful lake was giving Bai Hongfei the chills!

 Something soft was beating on the surface of the lake. A pleasant fragrance lingered in the air.

 Bai Hongfei heard denser sounds coming from the lake. He soon saw countless thin wings beating across the surface of the lake. When the wings were beating simultaneously, they looked like ripples along the surface of the lake. They were glimmering a little under the light of the stars too…

 Before Bai Hongfei could recover from the shock. a huge bunch of the wings flew into the air and covered the sky like a cloudy blue veil. The same blue veil was initially covering the surface of the lake!

 Bai Hongfei was absolutely dumbfounded. He stared at the countless wings, the tiny, fragile life forms that were combining into a huge veil that was glimmering magically in the sky!

 “What are you doing here?” a gentle voice said all of a sudden behind Bai Hongfei.

 The voice took Bai Hongfei by surprise. He quickly turned around and saw a woman dressed in old-fashioned clothes standing behind him. The woman leaned slightly forward. Her fringes were dangling beside her face and in front of her huge bust.

 The woman was wearing a faint smile. Her glittering eyes were looking at Bai Hongfei curiously, with a flippant face.

 “You…you scared the shit out of me. Miss, why are you here in the middle of the night? It’s extremely dangerous here,” Bai Hongfei let out a relieved sigh when he saw it was a woman.

 “You haven’t answered my question,” the woman said.

 “I’m a student from the Pearl Institute. I’m here for my graduate mission,” Bai Hongfei said honestly.

 “Why are you alone then?” the woman continued to ask.

 “I…I wanted to make some worthy contributions,” Bai Hongfei said awkwardly.

 “Did you discover anything?” The woman walked to the side with the same faint smile on her face.

 “Did you see the things that flew into the sky? They looked like butterflies, but it’s my first time seeing so many butterflies. They were so many of them that they had covered up the entire surface of the lake. By the way, you don’t look like a Mage to me. It’s too dangerous to come out of the safe zone if you’re not a Mage. Are you lost?” Bai Hongfei asked.

 “Mm, I think I’m lost. I was picking some herbs… am I really outside the safe zone?” the woman replied after a brief pause.

 “Yeah, you’re lucky that you bumped into me, or the demon creatures would have dragged you into their caves and eaten you. Come, I’ll escort you back, where do you live?” Bai Hongfei said.

 “So you are a strong Mage?” The woman did not seem to be afraid at all.

 “Me? To be honest with you, I am an Advanced Mage,” Bai Hongfei said.

 “Oh, that’s very impressive. As a matter of fact, you don’t have to worry about me. I grew up in this area, so I’m very familiar with the mountains, the woods, and the lakes here. I know how to avoid the demon creatures too,” the woman said.

 “There’s no way I’m going to leave you here. I’ll bring you back home. Where do you live?” Bai Hongfei said.

 “How about your mission?” the woman asked with a smile.

 “I’ll feel bad if something bad happens to you. Besides, I’ve already seen those things. I’ll go back and tell my mentor about it, and he’ll ask the government to send soldiers over to take care of them. By the way, did you see those things too? Do you think they are butterflies?” Bai Hongfei said.

 The smile on the woman’s face gradually vanished. She looked at Bai Hongfei and said in a different tone, “Have you ever seen butterflies showing up at night?”

 “Ah? You’re right…wait, what about the things that look like butterflies and would appear at night? What are they called?” Bai Hongfei said.

 “Moths,” the woman said.

 “Yeah, right, they must be moths. If I didn’t see it with my own eyes, I’ll never believe there are so many moths here. I wonder what kind of disasters they might cause,” Bai Hongfei said.

 Bai Hongfei’s mind was preoccupied with the moths.

 It was said that moths were similar to locusts, the kind of disastrous creatures that could leave a place barren. It also happened to be the season for the moths to mass reproduce. He did hear about the disastrous demon locusts in the west of his country. He was in the east, thus there were not many locusts around. However, there were lots of moths here!

Bai Hongfei suddenly heard the sound of wings beating, followed by a strong gust of wind that took him by surprise.

 “Miss, watch out, the wind is getting stronger!” Bai Hongfei subconsciously tried to protect the woman beside him.

 However, when he was about to step in front of the woman, he saw her standing still with her legs crossed and her eyes cold. She also had a pair of giant soft wings on her back…

 The wings were clearly not some Wing Magical Equipment. They seemed to have grown out of her back, and the strong gust of wind was produced by the beating of the giant wings!

 Bai Hongfei was dumbfounded when he saw the moths diving down from the sky like a tornado and circling the woman with the wings of a moth!