Countless blood-red threads shot out from Blood Bone's palm.
The threads were as thin as hair, moving so fast that their trajectories were completely invisible.
Wherever the threads passed, they tore through the air, producing sharp whistling sounds.
Meltbone fled in front while the blood threads pursued from behind.
Without even turning his head, he threw a white-hot fireball back over his shoulder.
The fireball collided with the blood threads, exploding into a blinding white light.
Several blood threads were burned through, turning into grayish-white powder in midair.
Even more blood threads bypassed the fireball and continued their chase.
“Is this really necessary?!” Meltbone's voice drifted back from ahead, pitched incredibly high. “I was just asking! Is asking not allowed?!”
Blood Bone took a step forward, his entire body turning into a streak of bloody light.
The bloody light drew a straight, blood-colored trajectory in the sky, moving so fast that Ethan could not make it out at all.
He only saw the streak of bloody light shoot out from beside the spring pool, catching up to Meltbone's dark red stream of light in the blink of an eye.
The two lights collided high above the Azure-Dyed Forest.
Boom!
Bloody light and fire exploded, and the shockwave pressed down from the sky, tilting the tree canopy below to one side.
Countless leaves were swept away by the air current, spinning as they drifted down.
Meltbone was ejected from the light of the explosion, his dark red robe blasted with several holes.
He flipped in midair to stabilize himself, then yelled at the top of his lungs, “Blood Bone! You motherfucker, you're actually serious!”
Blood Bone stepped out from the bloody light.
He opened the five fingers of his right hand, and another clump of squirming flesh appeared in his palm.
This clump of flesh was a full size larger than the previous one, its surface constantly bulging with small bubbles as if something was trying to crawl out from within.
“If I don't act now, you'll have abducted my student already.”
“Bullshit!” Meltbone cursed as he floated backward. “Your student has such great talent, keeping him with you is a complete waste! I'm just appreciating talent! Do you understand what appreciating talent means?!”
Blood Bone waved his right hand, and the clump of flesh exploded.
This time, it wasn't threads that flew out.
It was three summoned beasts covered in blood-colored scales.
Each one was the size of a calf, with thick limbs and a mouth split into four flaps, filled with dark green fangs. The three summoned beasts roared simultaneously in midair and pounced toward Meltbone.
Meltbone cursed something.
Flames surged from his entire body, forming a fireball over a dozen meters in diameter around him.
With him at the center, the fireball expanded outward, swallowing all three summoned beasts.
The summoned beasts struggled frantically in the flames, their blood-colored scales exploding under the high temperature, and their dark green fangs turned red-hot.
Three breaths later, all three summoned beasts exploded, turning into grayish-white powder that drifted away from the flames.
Meltbone rushed out of the flames and continued to flee without looking back.
“Blood Bone! Just you wait! Once we're back at the fortress, I'm definitely going to complain to Lord Jade Shadow about you!”
Blood Bone pursued closely behind, his voice as cold as if squeezed through his teeth. “Complain about what?”
“Complain about... you...” Meltbone choked.
He thought for a long time, only to realize there was indeed nothing he could complain about.
Blood Bone stopped speaking and waved his right hand. Another five summoned beasts crawled out from the flesh in his palm.
These summoned beasts were even larger, each the size of a rhinoceros, and their bodies were covered in dark red bone armor.
Meltbone glanced back, uttered a curse, and the ring of fire beneath his feet exploded again as he charged further away.
The two lights chased each other across the sky above the Azure-Dyed Forest.
The red light was in front, the bloody light behind, with bursts of flames and flesh exploding between them from time to time.
Each explosion blasted a large hole in the canopy below, causing leaves and broken branches to rustle down from the openings.
Ethan stood beneath the World Tree, looking up at the two streaks of light fading into the distance.
A gust of wind blew by, kicking up the fallen leaves on the ground.
He heard another explosion in the sky, followed by Meltbone yelling at the top of his lungs, and then Blood Bone's cold sneer.
And after that, nothing more could be heard.
The two streaks of light had vanished past the horizon, leaving only a few lingering patches of white mist in the sky and several burning tree canopies.
Ethan withdrew his gaze. “Tsk, quite lively indeed.”
The Amons Priests were still kneeling on the ground, their heads bowed low.
Ethan turned around and walked in the direction of the city outskirts.
Two Tier 3 Wizards fighting—why would he, a Third-Tier Apprentice, get involved?
Two and a half months later.
Ethan stood in a scorched wheat field. At his feet lay the corpse of a four-and-a-half-meter-tall Amons strongman.
The war tattoos on the strongman's chest had faded, his amber eyes staring blankly at the sky, his pupils long dilated.
【Life Energy +74,772, Current Life Energy: 16,782,331.】
It was enough.
“Unlock passive.”
【Do you wish to consume 16,777,216 points of Life Energy to unlock the 25th passive?】
“Confirm.”
【Energy deducted: 16,777,216 points. Current Energy: 5,115 points.】
【Generating passive...】
【Generation complete. Acquired passive: Destiny's Drift.】
【Destiny's Drift: Blurs your own trajectory of destiny, making you immune to divination, prophecy, causal lock-on, and fate curses. It also provides a simulated identity for casters to target.】
Ethan stared at the text on the panel, the corners of his mouth slowly curving up before he burst into laughter.
His laughter echoed across the empty, scorched field, startling a few crows that were pecking at corpses in the distance.
Divination.
Prophecy.
Causal lock-on.
Fate curses.
Complete immunity.
What did complete immunity mean?
It meant those high-and-mighty prophecy Wizards, those big shots who could see through a mortal's destiny at a single glance, and those terrifying existences who could lock onto an ant's life or death across several worlds—
Starting today, in their eyes, Ethan Leo was nothing but a shroud of mist.
They wanted to look into his destiny?
Fat chance.
They wanted to use a fate curse to kill him?
They would be cursing thin air.
They wanted to bind his future with causal chains?
They could go bind the wind instead.
Ethan took a deep breath, suppressing his laughter back into his chest.
In certain situations, the value of this passive was greater than all his previous passives combined.
He had previously read records about prophecy Wizards in the library of Blood Bone Tower.
Those fellows might not have the direct combat strength of same-level elemental Wizards, but they were ten or a hundred times more troublesome to deal with.
Can't beat you?
No problem.
They could curse you from half a world away, making you choke on water, suffocate on food, or suffer a cultivation backlash.
Can't afford to provoke you?
No problem.
They would calculate exactly which day you would pass through which teleportation array, lay a trap in advance, and make sure you died without ever knowing how.
You killed them?
That was even more troublesome.
Before dying, they would slap a causal mark on you, allowing anyone related to them to track you down via that mark in the future.
Their mentors, friends, and students would all come seeking revenge.
There would be nowhere to run.
But now, everything was fine.
He no longer had to worry about any of this.
Anyone attempting to divine his destiny would only see a blurry, undecipherable shadow.
Anyone trying to lock onto him with causal chains would find them passing right through the shadow, unable to bind anything.
Anyone attempting to kill him with a fate curse would have the curse fall upon that shadow, completely unrelated to his actual body.
Moreover, the simulated identity feature was an absolute godsend for playing dirty.
If someone divined him, they wouldn't find him, but rather a fake identity similar to his. That fake identity would bear all the causal marks, fate locks, and destiny tracking in his stead.
What did this mean?
It meant that if he provoked someone in the future and they wanted to use prophetic means to retaliate, all their retaliation would hit that fake identity.
Who was this fake identity?
Who knew?
Either way, what did it have to do with him, Ethan Leo?
Ethan closed the panel and cracked his neck.
His joints popped softly.
Exhilarating.
So damn exhilarating.
The harvest from this World War had already far exceeded his expectations.
Now, it was time to head back.
It was time to advance to an Official Wizard.
Rate on N.U.
