Versatile Mage

translated by xephiz

edited by aelryinth

mo fan let out a relieved sigh when he saw the barrier around lingling. it seemed like old bao had given lingling some precious magic equipment, too. otherwise, she would have burned into ashes after jumping into the hole, since she was not a mage. the special glow did not provide mo fan with any protection; it was most likely bound to lingling’s soul. it could only protect her.

the fifty-meter-deep brown lava was an extremely long journey for the team. it felt like they had just gone through the torturous process of reincarnation!

the team eventually fell into a thick and cloudy mist. the mist was extremely strange; its resistance was surprisingly greater than the lava. luckily, it did not bring any harm to the team. as soon as they moved into the mist, it immediately cut off the effect of the brown lava!

the brown lava’s heat did not permeate into the mist; it seemed that the mist and the lava were incompatible. it was like they had fallen into a transparent cottony swamp. they had to put in quite an effort to continue descending…

“thank the heavens!” mui guangqing was in a miserable state, but he was so touched that he had an urge to fall to his knees and pray in sincere gratitude.

they had forced their way through the brown lava. they had used everything they had to stay alive!

“mui zhuocheng, take out the scroll of space, let’s leave this place at once. i don’t want to stay here any longer!” dongfang xifeng blurted out.

“can anyone treat my injuries? my hand is fully burned.”

“mui qing is still unconscious. who is going to treat your injuries? uncle guangqing, i believe it’s unnecessary to keep going. we are all worn out. it’s a miracle that we are still alive…”

mui guangqing shook his head with a sigh.

“how can we possibly accomplish our mission with our current condition?” dongfang xifeng grunted.

“didn’t i already tell you? the dimensional magic isn’t going to work here. we aren’t able to use the scroll of space unless we destroy the wall of sarkinite rock!” mui guangqing stated.

the team only remembered that after he repeated it. everyone immediately lost their spirits.

-that’s right, the dimensional magic is restricted here. we finally found a safe environment where we can take our time and establish the magic formation to escape from here, yet it turns out to be a cage imprisoning us instead!-

“let’s head down. the environment at the bottom is much stabler. we’ll discuss our next step there,” mui guangqing said.

“it’s not like there’s a better option…”

“damn it, how did it even come to this!?”

the team made their way through the thick mist. at the bottom was a cave made of jagged rocks with extremely high melting points, as mui guangqing had mentioned before. the rocks had obviously been refined by the flames over a very long time, almost turning into crystals. it made the cave look like an underground world made of irregular glossy black-brown rock faces and protrusions…

the mist was still around. it did not interfere with their breathing, but it felt like they were in an underground cave drowned in seawater. they felt like they were swimming around!

“the mist is stopping the lava from pouring into the cave,” mui guangqing noticed.

“but it also makes it difficult to move around. i believe the mist severely impacts our magic too, right?” mo fan was swimming at the front. he would slowly drift to the top of the cave if he remained still. the rock crystals spread across the ceiling were quite sharp. the mist was buoyant enough for the rock crystals to stab right through them if they did not resist it!

“mmm, our magic’s efficiency is significantly reduced, but it’s going to be a lot better once we make it through here. the place we are heading to is perfectly normal,” mui guangqing said.

“i’m never going to forget this…” dongfang linlin said.

“shouldn’t you be saying that when you’re lying comfortably in a bathtub at home filled with hot water? we don’t even know if we’re going to make it out alive!” zhao manyan corrected her.

“it’s going to be fine, let’s be more optimistic. even though the situation is a little more complicated, we still made it down here, didn’t we?” mui guangqing tried comforting the others.

“you call this a little more complicated? my soul almost lefy my body a few times!” dongfang xifeng grumbled.

“leader, i think dongfang linlin is suffering from some burns,” mui zhuocheng told mo fan.

mo fan went up to dongfang linlin and saw the armor on her back was severely scorched. the tender skin on her back was crossed with blistered red wounds. a few dark red lines were spreading across her back like spiderwebs…

“she’s suffering from the fiery poison, it’s deadly!” mui guangqing recognized the fiery poison right away. his optimism had only lasted for a few seconds.

“is it curable?” mo fan blurted out.

if the fiery poison was not dealt with right away, it was similar to opening up a hole in her health bar. her health would be drained constantly.

dongfang linlin’s injuries were very serious. she had no chance of recovering on her own, nor would the medicine they brought be of any help.

“is mui qing still unconscious?” qi shan asked.

“yeah, she won’t be waking up anytime soon,” mo fan shook his head.

mui qing was the team’s healer. a healer was usually more vulnerable. even though mo fan had done all he could to protect her, her breathing was too weak after the damage the flames had dealt to her lungs. on top of that, the oxygen level in the underground cave was very low, too. it was difficult to tell when she was going to wake up.

mui qing would be able to cure dongfang linlin’s injuries, but she was currently in a pinch herself!

“may i ask, is dongfang linlin the only one that knows the directions?” zhao manyan asked. he was staring right at mui guangqing.

mui guangqing immediately felt awkward. he said, “well, i wasn’t planning to come down here at the beginning, so i didn’t bother to memorize the map, but don’t you worry, i still have a faint memory of it. i should be able to recall the details when i see the similarities later.”

“brother mui zhuocheng, are you sure you still have the scroll of space too? did it fall out of your pocket when you were jumping into the cave?” zhao manyan asked deliberately. he seemed to have lost all faith in mui guangqing.

“do you think i’m an idiot!?” mui zhuocheng spat.

“oh, that’s good to know. i was asking just in case,” zhao manyan said.

“i…i can hold on for a little longer. let’s stop wasting our time. we should hurry up and find the sarkinite while i’m still awake,” dongfang linlin insisted.

“don’t worry, everything is going to be fine. don’t lose hope yet, we’ll make it out alive!” mui guangqing continued to comfort the others as the eldest among them.

unfortunately, the others were not influenced by his fake optimism. they followed behind dongfang linlin like they had nothing left to live for.

their chance of survival solely depended on how long she could live!