Versatile Mage

 “Didn’t you want to kill me? Come out, I dare you to come out!” Shi Qianshou stood outside the Sandstorm Demon Locusts and yelled like an enraged beast.

 Mo Fan did not go out recklessly.

 “Aren’t you trying to be a hero? I’m telling you, if you don’t kill me today, I’ll turn the people of a town, a city into sacrifices for the Earth Pistil! Great hero, come out and kill me! Aren’t you a saint, isn’t sacrificing your life for the others something you’re meant to do!?” Shi Qianshou continued to yell at Mo Fan while laughing wildly.

 “You must have misunderstood. I never thought of myself as a hero or a saint. It’s just that I despise the actions of a scumbag like you!” Mo Fan stood there at the edge of the noise’s coverage.

 He would not go out. Going out was suicidal! Even if Shi Qianshou was threatening him with the lives of the others, Mo Fan believed it was unwise to just go out impulsively.

 He would die within a minute out there. Shi Qianshou’s Earth Element was obviously at the Super Level. Instead of living for a righteous cause for just another minute, he preferred to stay alive and call Han Ji or Zhu Meng over to take Shi Qianshou out before he could do any harm. If worse came to worse, he would not mind calling Pang Lai here, too. The man could destroy Shi Qianshou in less than a minute!

 Shi Qianshou felt an urge to vomit blood when he saw Mo Fan standing at the edge with no intention of coming out and fighting him!

 If Mo Fan insisted on staying inside with the Sandstorm Demon Locusts; wouldn’t that mean he was beaten up inside there for no reason?

 He had also killed all his poisonous insects. His Poison Element was basically non-existent!

 “You and I are the same kind, we are both selfish!” Shi Qianshou pointed at Mo Fan and claimed furiously.

 “There’s still some difference between us. I might be selfish, but I don’t do harm to other people. I do save people’s lives at times, and trample some noisy self-righteous moralists. Don’t worry, even if you yell until your throat is gone, I still won’t go out… I’m a god inside the Sandstorm Demon Locusts. If you want to kill me, you can come in here instead. I’ll go easy on you by not using five of my Elements!” Mo Fan shot back.

 Shi Qianshou clenched his teeth. He had an urge to go inside and slay Mo Fan!

 How could there be such a shameless young man? Were his righteousness and his devotion to promoting justice eaten by a dog? Any Mage with the slightest conscience would come out and fight him instead! Shi Qianshou strongly believed if it was Zhang Xiaohou in Mo Fan’s place, he would surely come out from the Sandstorm Demon Locusts!

 Shi Qianshou stared at Mo Fan. He suddenly burst out laughing as he recalled something.

 “HAHAHAHA, you won’t dare to let me go. If you do, the people that are trapped in the bunker will all die. The Barrier Core, you need the Barrier Core to save the people! HAHAHA, I’ve changed my mind. If you dare to come out here, I will give the energy of the Barrier Core back. I will kill you at all costs today!” Shi Qianshou laughed. He felt like he finally had some information that he could use against Mo Fan.

 Mo Fan just looked at Shi Qianshou. He said after some time, “Were you born in the Year of the Pig?”

 “What did you say!?” Shi Qianshou’s smile froze.

 “Advisor Shao, I’ll leave the rest to you! I feel extremely disgusted saying even an extra sentence to this pile of manure!” Mo Fan called out loudly.

 Shi Qianshou was stunned for a second. He quickly looked around.

 Lightning halberds slammed down from the sky. The twelve lightning halberds stuck into the ground in twelve different spots!

 Advisor Shao was wearing a military jacket. She landed imperiously with the lightning, right beside Shi Qianshou. The twelve lightning halberds instantly produced a powerful sealing force, cutting off the area!

 Shi Qianshou’s wild expression vanished when he saw the enormous lightning halberds…

 A Super Lightning Spell! Furthermore, it was the second-tier Twelve Lightning Condemnation! The powerful terrifying lightning danced wildly around Shi Qianshou. He could feel himself trembling!

 Shi Qianshou turned around and saw a woman standing with her hands behind her. It was none other than Advisor Shao, who was controlling the Lightning Punishment Formation. The remaining pride on Shi Qianshou’s face dissipated instantly, as he had just seen someone scarier than he was!

 “Cap…captain!” Shi Qianshou’s legs trembled. He did not even dare to lift his gaze and look at Advisor Shao’s face.

 “My greatest regret was going easy on a person like you!” Advisor Shao turned around and looked down at Shi Qianshou coldly.

 “All…all I did was for the sake of the fortress. Those Councilmen only know to ride roughshod over us. They never knew the hardship we went through and how dangerous this place is. We are risking our lives to expand their territories out of loyalty, earning back our pride and our land from the demon creatures, and yet they ended up sending us further away, asking us to die again for their sake! My men and I didn’t want to die…” Shi Qianshou said timidly.

 When Mo Fan walked out of the Sandstorm Demon Locusts, he was surprised to see Shi Qianshou kneeling in front of Advisor Shao inside the Lightning Punishment Formation.

 To think that even someone as vicious as Shi Qianshou would be so afraid of someone that he could no longer speak properly, this Advisor Shao was surely someone very impressive!

 “Hand it over, if you still think that you are a soldier!” Advisor Shao snapped coldly.

 “Captain, listen to me, it’s only a matter of time until those Councilmen treat us like cannon fodder and we die in a battle against a horde or a kingdom of demon creatures. We’ve built and managed everything here, why can’t we claim this place as ours!?” Shi Qianshou added.

 “Why?” Advisor Shao let out a hollow laugh. “We are humans, not cold-blooded demon creatures with a strong lust for blood. The number of demon creatures is a hundred or even a thousand times ours. Our country has some of the fiercest and the most ambitious demon creatures in the world, but we are still standing today instead of becoming their cattle! Do you know why?

 “It’s our destiny to die battling against the demon creatures. If you didn’t know that the moment you put on your uniform, you should have just stayed in the cities. No one was forcing you to come out here and die. No one would condemn you for being a coward. You could just live in peace. If the demon creatures came, they would have to step over the corpses of soldiers like us, who clearly understood our obligations!

 “However, if you chose to be a soldier, but what you do is worse than a demon creature, I swear I will destroy both your flesh and soul, and you will die in the most gruesome way that you could ever imagine!”

 Advisor Shao’s thunderous voice kept striking down on the selfish ideas in Shi Qianshou’s mind. It was also echoing in the ears of the other soldiers nearby.

 Shi Qianshou wanted every soldier to behave like demon creatures. He even wanted to tell the world that his path was the only way the people in the West could survive… but could a city that was built on death and hatred really stop the invasion of the demon creatures?

 Mo Fan had witnessed how the Sandstorm Demon Locusts dove into the fire on the Burning Mountains. They were not trying to get themselves killed, but seeking a path of survival for their race. They were sacrificing themselves to select those that had a strong resistance to fire to reproduce again, just to prevent their race from being wiped out by fire!

 Even demon creatures like the Sandstorm Demon Locusts knew to sacrifice themselves for the sake of their race, but someone was still thinking of harming their own kind just so they could live comfortably after stacking up the bones of hundreds or thousands of people under the walls of his city, while humans were constantly under the threat of demon creatures…

 Luckily, people like him were only the minority. Mo Fan believed there were more people like Advisor Shao out there, who was not willing to give up on the life of a single person. They were not afraid to face the demon creatures, and they were not driven by their own greed. They were trying their best to contribute to the survival of mankind; to protect the cities, the lands, and their people. It was true that as soldiers, there might be a day where they had to dive into the flames, but they were doing it in exchange for new lives that were no longer afraid of fire and their nemesis; it was to ensure that humans could become stronger, and their enemy would be stricken with terror by then!

 “Mo Fan, I’ll leave the rest to you.” Advisor Shao gave the Earth Pistil to Mo Fan.

 The Earth Pistil contained a huge amount of energy. Not only was it able to support the fire barrier of the Anjiao Town, it was enough to protect the entire Tarim Basin Fortress!

 However, Advisor Shao did not have the slightest hint of joy on her face.

 They would have to give up on everything they had built here for more than ten years. The people would be evacuated to ‘safer’ places. Looking at the dense Sandstorm Demon Locusts, she could not help but admit that the Sandstorm Demon Locusts had indeed won the battle. They had claimed ownership over the land, driving the humans out.

 “Sister…” Li Man walked up to Advisor Shao and comforted her.

 Li Man was well aware of how much effort her sister had put in, but all her efforts for the last ten years were now in vain.

 “I’m fine, as long as the people in Anjiao Town are safe. It’s all thanks to your two friends,” Advisor Shao did not shed a single tear. She fixed her eyes on Anjiao Town.

 ——

 Mo Fan had set out for Anjiao Town with the Earth Pistil some time ago. Suddenly, a fiery ripple rose in the center of the Anjiao Town and loomed over the boundaries of the town like a half-sphere. The spectacular flames of the Ardent Sunset dyed the clouds as if the sun was setting, driving the cloudy dust of the Sandstorm Demon Locusts and the darkness away.

 The light of the flames shone upon the faces of the soldiers at the front line, including the pale face of Advisor Shao. The warmth was oddly soothing to their uneasy hearts…

 As long as the people were safe, the efforts for the past ten years might have been in vain, but they always had another ten years to spare!

 “I almost forgot; what plan did you all use to force Shi Qianshou out from the Sandstorm Demon Locusts?” Advisor Shao asked Liu Zhuo after a thought crossed her mind.

 “Plan? I believe that young man drove him out using brute force,” Liu Zhuo replied.

 “Brute force? Mo Fan, all by himself? Isn’t Shi Qianshou a Super Poison Mage?” Li Man asked in disbelief.

 Advisor Shao was astounded too.

 They didn’t lure Shi Qianshou out with a plan? Did that mean Shi Qianshou was defeated by Mo Fan?

 Advisor Shao turned around and looked at Shi Qianshou, who was kneeling in low spirits.

 Shi Qianshou did not dare to exchange glances with Advisor Shao. Perhaps the man was not breaking down because of Advisor Shao’s speech, but the fact that he, a general, had lost to an Advanced Mage!

 Even Advisor Shao couldn’t possibly do anything to him when he was hiding in the Sandstorm Demon Locusts!

 “So he’s Mo Fan, the strongest participant in the World College Tournament? No wonder the chief has such high hopes for him!” Advisor Shao quickly realized who Mo Fan was. She did not realize they were the same person, since the name Mo Fan was just too common.

 “Chief? Which chief?” Li Man was startled.

 “Who else would it be?” Advisor Shao answered.