The two swordsmen killed were not particularly skilled, contributing only a combined seventy-odd points to Ye Chui. The real threats were McKenzie, the Black Sword Guard, and the Fourth Prince, who might be a formidable mage himself. Cass had mentioned that the Fourth Prince likely carried a powerful trump card.
With only five remaining in the Fourth Prince’s group, and since Ye Chui’s team had already caused a commotion, they decided to march openly toward the centre of Shengguang Forest. Ye Chui deliberately played a background music track, a war anthem devoid of honour or humanity, to boost the team’s morale. He noticed that such group-enhancing music had a stronger effect on teamed-up members.
Accompanied by the stirring “deng deng deng, deng deng deng deng…” of the music, Ye Chui’s group arrived before the Fourth Prince and his men. At the centre of Shengguang Forest, they saw villagers collapsed under the Black Water Magic, their faces lighting up with excitement upon spotting Guni among Ye Chui’s group.
“It’s you,” the Fourth Prince exclaimed, veins bulging on his forehead, particularly at the sight of Cass and Winsa together. “You wretched pair, you’re dead today.”
“Oh my,” Debbie blurted out, noticing something. “Little chubby, why’s your hair all green?”
The girl still stubbornly believed the Fourth Prince was the chubby Fourth Prince she knew from childhood.
Of course, in this world, “forgiving green” wasn’t a concept. Debbie wasn’t mocking him intentionally, merely stating facts. Earlier, when the Fourth Prince’s group encountered a pack of mountain cats, the villagers used lemon grass juice to save them, accidentally splashing it on his head, dyeing his hair green.
To Ye Chui, this was quite fitting. Tsk tsk, green hair was practically the will of the universe.
“I don’t even know you, you Anduin family wretch,” the Fourth Prince shouted through gritted teeth at Debbie’s words.
Debbie sighed, shaking her head, thinking she must have bullied him too harshly as a child, leaving deep psychological scars.
Ye Chui’s gaze shifted to the stone sword embedded in the rock. It bore a faint resemblance to Guni’s stone sword, likely the model for hers. Originally forged from gold, it was now encrusted with a stone shell, perhaps due to the passage of time.
The Fourth Prince’s group had been trying to break this shell, with cracks now visible, faint golden light seeping through.
“You dare show yourselves before me? This time, you won’t escape,” the Fourth Prince said icily, his hatred for Ye Chui’s group palpable. He roared, “Kill them.”
Last time, Ye Chui had escaped their assault unscathed. Now, with over a hundred villagers held hostage, they wouldn’t flee. The only outcome of staying to fight was death.
The Black Sword Guard, injured by Gilga days ago, seemed eager to reclaim his pride. Holding his cursed black sword, he glared at Debbie. “Where’s that golden female swordsman? Summon her. This time, I won’t let her win.”
“Gilga’s itching for another good fight with you,” Debbie replied, pulling out her summoning key to open a portal and call forth the Krypton Gold Swordsman.
Cass, gripping his greatsword, stepped forward and said to Ye Chui, “Leave the Fourth Prince to me.”
Ye Chui glanced at the Fourth Prince, noting his hate-filled stare at Cass, clearly seeing him as a rival. “Be careful,” Ye Chui said.
“You think I’m just a powerless royal prince?” the Fourth Prince sneered, summoning his magic book.
It was the first time he’d summoned his magic book in this relic world.
It had a green cover, larger and thicker than others’. Its appearance was hard to discern in detail, but it exuded an aged aura, not tattered but worn from frequent use, its cover and pages weathered by constant flipping.
“This magic book…” Ye Chui paused, sensing something odd.
Green exclaimed, “It’s a Legacy Magic Book.”
Typically, a mage’s magic book vanishes upon their death. Some dark believers could extract them from deceased mages, creating black-covered books. However, the Magic Guild had a method to safely extract a magic book while preserving all its properties, known as a Legacy Magic Book.
Legacy Magic Books were classified as second-generation, third-generation, and so on.
Since these books already had awakened spells, mages inheriting them progressed rapidly and grew significantly stronger.
It was said that truly powerful mages used Legacy Magic Books.
Many suspected Ye Chui’s rapid rise, despite awakening his magic book only months ago, was due to inheriting a Legacy Magic Book.
Seeing the Fourth Prince summon a Legacy Magic Book, Cass paused briefly but charged forward undeterred.
Guni, hefting her massive stone sword, approached the sinister mage nearby. Her beast-like intuition identified him as the Black Water Mage Cass mentioned, largely because black liquid still dripped from his hands.
The villagers lay poisoned. Killing him would save them.
Gilga charged at the Black Sword Guard.
Ye Chui turned to Winsa and Reisa, urging caution, then approached McKenzie.
Undoubtedly, McKenzie, wielding ice magic, was among the strongest in the Fourth Prince’s group, far surpassing the two swordsmen Ye Chui and Guni had easily killed. Before his iPad’s upgrade, Ye Chui might not have been his match, but now he was confident he could take him down.
McKenzie, seeing Ye Chui approach, sneered with disdain on his aged face.
Previously, Ye Chui’s summoned dragon had caught him off guard, scorching his hair and fueling his resentment. Now, summoning his magic book and flipping its pages, he unleashed a powerful ice spell.
Advanced Ice Spell: [Ice Queen’s Castle]
An ice castle instantly formed around Ye Chui, a confinement spell. McKenzie had used it before to trap Ye Chui’s group, only for the dragon to break it. This time, he planned to force Ye Chui to summon the dragon again, prepared to counter it.
But Ye Chui no longer needed Dragon Treasure to break this spell.
Intermediate Destruction Spell: [Full Throttle]
With a “da da da da da” sound, cracks spiderwebbed across the ice castle, shattering it into a pile of fragments. Ye Chui emerged, each arm conjuring a six-barreled Gatling gun, spraying ice shards while firing bursts at McKenzie.
McKenzie hastily summoned an ice wall, his face aghast. What was this bizarre spell?
As the ice wall crumbled, Ye Chui vanished, entering [Shadow Stealth] to lurk near McKenzie.
The Fourth Prince’s group had five members: the Fourth Prince, Black Sword Guard, Black Water Mage, McKenzie, and a fifth, a seductive female mage cloaked in a black robe. As the others fought, she swayed toward Debbie, Reisa, Winsa, and Green.
Seeing her approach, Green stepped forward heroically, knowing the three girls had little combat ability. He summoned his brick. “Stay back. I’m quite formidable.”
“Are you?” the female mage purred, slowly shedding her robe.
As it fell, Green froze, not from allure but from the bizarre sight of her body, covered in amplifying tattoos. She summoned a white-covered magic book, her voice enchanting. “Am I beautiful? Can you bear to strike me?”
Mind Magic: [Charm]
This female mage was a Mind Mage, limited by her low-grade white magic book. To compensate, she adorned her body with enhancing tattoos, boosting her spells, making her one of Fengyan City’s most feared Mind Mages.
Her mind magic was potent against men, women, and even beasts.
Green’s body petrified. Bloody hell, what a powerful opponent.
Seeing Green freeze, Debbie cried out, “Green, can you handle it?”
Green turned stiffly, giving a thumbs-up. “Don’t worry, I won’t succumb to her charm.”
As he spoke, two streams of nosebleed gushed out.
Debbie, Reisa, Winsa: “…”
Bloody hell, Green’s already down before the fight began.
“Bang.”
An ice flower bloomed on the ground.
With it, Ye Chui’s hidden form was forced out, retreating several metres. In [Shadow Stealth], he’d approached McKenzie for an attack but felt a chill rise from the ground, forcing him back.
“Shadow magic is useless against me,” McKenzie sneered. The ice flower was his spell, [Ice Flower Defence], attacking anything within a certain range, preventing close combat.
But Ye Chui grinned. “It’s enough.”
“Enough?” McKenzie faltered.
Ye Chui glanced at his iPad magic book, now displaying the [WeChat] interface. In [Shadow Stealth], he hadn’t expected to kill McKenzie with a sneak attack but to get close enough for [QR Code Face Scan] to add him as a [WeChat] friend, which had a distance limit.
McKenzie was now his [WeChat] friend.
“What are you playing at?” McKenzie shouted, preparing an attack spell.
But…
McKenzie froze, his mind flooded with shameful memories: bedwetting at five, mocked; caught peeping at thirteen; humiliated at seventeen for being too weak to join a magic guild.
These long-forgotten embarrassments surged back, his face flushing like a maiden’s.
[Curse Emoji Magic: Shame].
“What, what did you do?” The feeling lasted mere seconds, but McKenzie was stunned.
“It’s my magic,” Ye Chui smiled faintly.
“Magic?” What kind of bizarre magic was this?
McKenzie roared, charging at Ye Chui.
But a crushing, life-weary feeling overwhelmed him, his body stiffening. He thought, Life’s exhausting. I’d rather be a tree, or maybe a mushroom…
[Curse Emoji Magic: Despair].
“Argh,” McKenzie bellowed, determined to unleash a powerful attack spell.
Yet another inexplicable feeling hit, this time profound melancholy, with philosophical questions flooding his mind: Who am I? Where am I from? Where am I going?
[Curse Emoji Magic: Melancholy].
McKenzie’s combat focus wavered. He struggled to shake off the gloom, but a sudden alarm surged within him. Too late, his left shoulder exploded in a spray of blood and flesh, his arm flying off.
[Starfire Blast].
Ye Chui, striking a cool pose with his finger extended, smiled at him.
The WeChat curse emojis were indeed quite handy.
