At the center of White Stone Town, the magic tower built entirely from polished, jet-black crystal loomed, like a silent and arrogant giant gazing down upon the low houses at its feet.
Faint magical auras shimmered along the tower’s surface, radiating a chill that kept all at bay, wordlessly declaring the noble status and power of its master.
The heavy obsidian door at the tower’s base was tightly shut, engraved with intricate defensive runes that pulsed with a hidden energy.
Haierjia, pulling Yuno along, did not pause for a moment as she strode straight to the door.
She didn’t ring the bell, nor did she have any intention of announcing herself. She simply raised a hand, palm forward, and pressed it lightly against the cold obsidian.
No incantation, no elaborate gestures.
Her will dove deep into her soul, linking with that vast ocean of magical power that Eileen had helped her organize—now boundless as the abyss.
A torrent of pure, overwhelming magic surged from her palm like an invisible flood!
Buzz—!
The defensive runes on the door flared with blinding light, attempting to resist this sudden intrusion.
Yet the seemingly formidable runes, under the assault of Haierjia’s pure and terrifying magic, melted away like snow in a furnace, not even stirring a ripple before they dimmed and shattered into silence!
The obsidian forming the door groaned under the strain, fine cracks spiderwebbing across its surface in an instant!
“Bang—crash!”
A deafening crash! The entire, costly obsidian door, reinforced with multiple layers of protection, shattered into countless fragments as if struck by an invisible battering ram, blasting inward with a violent gust! Dust billowed everywhere.
The scene inside the tower’s first-floor hall was laid bare.
Several young apprentices in robes stared in shock at the entrance, their faces drained of color by this sudden, terrifying attack, frozen in place.
At the back of the hall, a middle-aged man in a luxurious deep purple velvet robe, with a seven-pointed star badge signifying his status as an Archmage pinned to his chest, shot up from a thickly cushioned redwood chair. His face was ashen, his eyes burning with a mixture of shock and fury.
The well-maintained features twisted in anger—it was Selvis.
“Who are you?! How dare you trespass in my magic tower and destroy my door?!”
Selvis’s roar thundered through the hall. Magic surged around him, his deep purple robe billowing without wind as an oppressive mental force crashed toward the entrance, trying to cow this audacious intruder.
But when he saw, through the settling dust, the plainly dressed, cloaked girl with purple hair holding Yuno Vein’s hand, the shock and anger in his eyes were instantly replaced by scorn and a hint of barely concealed malice.
“Yuno Vein?” Selvis’s voice rose, dripping with venomous mockery. “So it’s you, you useless wretch! What now? Brought some help to make trouble? Just this country bumpkin girl from who-knows-where? You—”
His roar cut off abruptly.
Because as the dust settled, Haierjia lifted her head.
Those pale violet eyes pierced through the haze, landing calmly on Selvis.
No ripple of emotion, no anger, no provocation—only a profound, icy calm, as if staring into a sea of frozen depths untouched for eons.
It was this utter stillness that froze all the venom in Selvis’s throat.
A chill, primal and soul-deep, shot up his spine! As if he’d been targeted by some incomprehensible, supremely ranked being.
Haierjia, still holding Yuno, stepped over the shattered obsidian, walking slowly into the hall.
Her footsteps echoed sharply in the dead silence.
She ignored the trembling apprentices, her gaze fixed only on Selvis.
“Professor Selvis,” her voice was not loud, yet it rang clear in every ear, carrying a metallic, cold hardness. “The money Yuno Vein owes you—I’ll pay it for her. Here are twenty kingdom gold coins.”
She flicked her hand, sending a heavy purse in a graceful arc. With a solid “thud,” it landed precisely at Selvis’s feet, the dull clink of metal ringing through the air.
Selvis tore his eyes from the purse and glared at Haierjia, suspicion and shock warring within him.
This girl was far too strange! The terrifying power that shattered the door, those unnervingly calm eyes… He forced down his unease, his face twisting back into a sneering mask. “Heh? Twenty gold coins? You think that’s enough? Yuno Vein, tell her what our contract entails!”
Yuno trembled faintly at Haierjia’s side, summoning her courage though her voice still shook: “Still… still owe twenty gold coins… and… and ten magic research reports…”
“You heard her?” Selvis smugly lifted his chin. “The coins are just part of the debt. The heart of the contract is those ten research reports—enough to advance the entire field of magical studies! This is a sacred magic contract! Until the reports are finished, Yuno Vein, your freedom belongs to me! This is protected by the Magic Association’s decree!”
He deliberately stressed “sacred” and “decree protection,” hoping to suppress his opponent with rules.
“Research reports?” Haierjia’s lips curled into a cold, humorless arc.
She slowly raised her hand, pointing at the massive redwood desk behind Selvis.
On the desk lay several elegantly bound parchment scrolls, stamped with the emblem of “Arcane Frontiers” and the words “Authored by Selvis.”
“You mean… these?” Haierjia’s voice suddenly sharpened, like a blade of ice drawn from its sheath. “These research results, painstakingly completed by Yuno Vein, shamelessly plagiarized by you, claimed as your own, and used to gain fame in the Magic Association?!”
A deathly silence filled the hall. The apprentices stared wide-eyed, unable to believe what they’d just heard, glancing between their mentor and the ragged, low-ranked mage Yuno.
Plagiarism? The accusation was unthinkable!
Selvis’s face turned a ghastly array of colors—ashen, then red, then purple, as if a paint shop had spilled across his features.
To have his dirtiest secret exposed in front of his apprentices—never before had he felt such humiliation and terror.
He slammed the desk, roaring, “Silence! Slander! You lowborn wretch, how dare you defame a noble Archmage! Seize her!”
The last command was shouted at the two burly warriors in mithril chainmail behind him.
They reacted instantly, like enraged bulls, swinging heavy spiked maces that whistled through the air as they charged Haierjia from both sides!
“Watch out!” Yuno cried in alarm, instinctively wanting to shield Haierjia. She knew too well the terrifying power of these warrior guards!
But Haierjia didn’t even blink. Just as the two maces, heavy as thunder, were about to strike her—
Buzz!
A nearly invisible shield, glowing with faint blue ripples like water, materialized around her without warning.
No incantation, no gesture—it was as if the shield had always been there.
Boom! Boom!
Two shuddering crashes! The maces, infused with brute force, slammed into the seemingly delicate shield. The expected shattering, the breaking of bones—none of it happened.
The blue glow merely rippled, like a lake stirred by a breeze.
But the two burly guards, as if smashing into a mountain of purest adamant, felt the recoil surge through their weapons and into their bodies!
“Ugh—!”
“Gah—!”
Both let out pained grunts, their hands splitting open, blood spraying! The backlash not only shattered their weapons, but slammed into their chests like a battering ram!
The two men flew back, faster than they’d charged, slamming into the far wall with a heavy thud before sliding limply to the floor, blood trickling from their mouths and noses, their fate uncertain.
The hall fell silent once more.
Only the ragged, painful groans of the guards remained.
Selvis’s pupils shrank to pinpricks! His heart felt gripped by an icy giant’s hand!
Instant cast! To conjure a shield of such power without a word, and to control the backlash so precisely… This was beyond any ordinary mage!
After the shock came a surge of rage and murderous intent at being so utterly humiliated in his own magic tower.
He, a dignified professor of magic, shamed by some unknown girl in his own domain!
Unforgivable!
“You court death!” Selvis finally tore away his scholarly mask, his face twisted in hatred.
Violent lightning elements were wrenched from the air, instantly forming three fist-sized [Thunderstorm Orbs] that burned with destructive white light!
The blinding arcs lit his face like a demon’s.
This was his signature killing spell—triple instant-cast, enough to turn an armored earth-drake to ash!
“Die, you arrogant wretch!” Selvis’s eyes gleamed with cruel delight as he thrust his hands forward! The three orbs, crackling with terrifying power, shot forth in a triangle, tearing through space toward Haierjia and Yuno with annihilating force!
Dazzling lightning bathed the hall in ghastly white.
“Haierjia!” Yuno squeezed her eyes shut in despair.
She knew all too well the power of [Thunderstorm Orb]! Selvis’s pride and joy, so fast it couldn’t be dodged, so mighty it could level half the hall!
At that critical moment, Haierjia moved.
She didn’t retreat, didn’t defend, didn’t even glance at the deadly bolts.
Her calm gaze rested on Selvis’s lips and fingers, moving rapidly as he cast his spell.
The gestures, the fluctuations of magical energy, the flow of spiritual guidance… all as clear as lines on her palm, as slow as a snail’s crawl.
‘Compared to the Shadow King, this guy isn’t even a grunt.’
She raised her right hand, her pale index finger tracing a few tiny, rapid motions in the air.
The movements were so subtle as to be nearly invisible, like brushing away a speck of dust.
At the same time, her lips moved in a frequency so faint it was almost imperceptible.
No earth-shattering magic, no dazzling light.
Only three threads, thinner than hair and nearly invisible, pulsing with a strange magical rhythm, shot silently from her fingertips, precisely intercepting the three incoming [Thunderstorm Orbs]!
The next instant, a scene Selvis would never forget—a scene that would shatter his understanding of magic—unfolded!
The three orbs, each containing enough destructive power to shatter mountains, at the moment they touched those threads, simply… vanished! Like soap bubbles pricked, or flames dropped into absolute zero. No explosion, no noise, not even a ripple of energy!
They disappeared silently, utterly, as if they’d never existed!
“Impossible!!” Selvis’s twisted glee froze, replaced by a terror and disbelief as if he’d seen a ghost!
How could this be?! His strongest spell—just… gone?!
“Reverse Chanting…” Yuno’s eyes snapped open, just in time to see this unprecedented scene. She murmured, dazed, her voice trembling with shock and the wild joy of a theory proven true, “It’s really reverse chanting… synchronized resonance, magical counter-annihilation… ignoring level gaps… my theory… it really works…”
Though Yuno had proposed it, and Selvis had published it under his own name in the Association’s journal, all mages knew and acknowledged the theory.
But it was only a theory—almost no one could actually perform it.
Reverse chanting was just too hard in practice!
“Impossible! Absolutely impossible!” Selvis muttered, dazed. “How did you do that? You must have used some unspeakable trick!”
“I don’t believe it! Die!!”
He lost all reason, like a gambler gone mad, flinging his hands wildly!
Flames, freezing rays, magical flashes, solar flares… a barrage of mid- and low-tier spells poured forth like a storm!
A riot of magical light filled the hall, wild mana tearing at the air with a shriek! He would drown her in sheer numbers, convinced she couldn’t counter every spell at once!
But in Haierjia’s eyes, which seemed to see the essence of all magic, this wild storm was riddled with flaws.
She didn’t move a step.
Her right hand played the air like a silent symphony, fingers flicking with speed too fast to follow.
Each flick sent out a thread of magic, fine to the utmost, vibrating at a specific frequency.
Pop! Pop! Pop! Pop! Pop! Pop!
A string of delicate, popping sounds filled the hall.
Every spell Selvis unleashed, upon touching those threads, vanished without exception, dissolving into nothingness! No explosions, no shockwaves, not a trace left behind!
Like sunlight melting insignificant snowflakes!
Around Haierjia, the space became a zone of absolute safety. No matter how the magical storm raged outside, neither she nor the Yuno behind her had so much as their robes ruffled.
This was absolute suppression by strength.
His proudest spells, in the face of her godlike countermeasures, were laughable and powerless!
The calm blue-haired girl before him seemed to morph into a bottomless black hole, devouring all magic!
“Monster… you’re a monster…” Selvis’s mind collapsed. He stopped his futile attacks, stumbling backward until he crashed into the desk, knocking it askew and sending scrolls and magical items tumbling to the floor.
He stared in terror at Haierjia as she approached, as if watching a demon crawl from the abyss.
Haierjia stopped three steps away.
Her gaze swept over the “Authored by Selvis” issues of Arcane Frontiers on the floor, before returning to Selvis’s fear-twisted face.
“Stealing others’ work, setting up usurious traps, forcing scholars into slave contracts…” Haierjia’s voice was icy, every word a spike driven into Selvis’s heart. “You disgrace the title of ‘mage.’”
She spared him no further glance, turning instead to a corner where a safe, inlaid with mithril runes and radiating strong contract magic, sat.
She raised her hand and grasped at it from a distance.
Click! Rip—!
The sturdy mithril rune lock shattered like rotten wood! The heavy metal door was torn off by an invisible force, twisted and deformed!
A parchment scroll, shining with dark golden magical light, flew into Haierjia’s hand.
It was the debt contract that had bound Yuno, reinforced with powerful magic!
“No! That’s a contract protected by the Magic Association! You can’t—” Selvis shrieked in despair, making a last, futile attempt.
Haierjia didn’t even look at him. She gripped the scroll at both ends, and with a faint movement of her boundless magic—
Rip—!
A crisp tearing sound echoed through the silent hall! The contract, supposedly protected by layers of magic and able to resist even a dragon’s claws, was torn in two as easily as fragile paper!
The shackles that had bound Yuno Vein for years were, in that moment, utterly destroyed!
“You…”
Haierjia tossed the torn contract fragments to the ground as if discarding trash. She looked down at the collapsed Selvis, her voice quiet but carrying the weight of judgment:
“Open your eyes and look closely, Professor Selvis.”
“The one standing before you now is not some ‘wretch’ you can trample at will.”
“My name is Haierjia. S-rank Adventurer of the Kingdom. And the Tenth Seat of the Magic Association’s Council of Sages.”
Each title struck Selvis like a hammer, and the weight landed on the soul of every survivor present! S-rank Adventurer! One of the Ten Sages! Each title stood at the very peak of the kingdom—no, of the magical world!
Yuno stared blankly at her student’s back, her mind blank with shock.
S-rank? Sage? The girl who once struggled even to sense magic?
In these eight years apart… what on earth had she experienced?
Miss Eileen… could it be that the one who transformed this child was the very ‘Miss Eileen’ she spoke of? Yuno’s curiosity toward this Miss Eileen soared!
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