Chapter 551: Hell’s Descent (I)
“Boss, these are my fellow brothers.” Lin Xin pointed to five hundred mages all clad in fiery red gowns as he spoke.
After going through two days’ rest, Lin Xin’s body was close to normal. After releasing his mental burden and letting out his pent up feelings, his mental force seemed to have a consequent rise.
As the Captain of the number one mage squad, he obviously couldn’t rest for too long. After recovering his spirit, he immediately returned to his post.
Aside from Li Zhengzhi’s summons from that day, Long Haochen didn’t receive any order or request from the Mage Temple. In other words, he was in a state of total freedom.
At least for now, Lin Xin was still the captain of the number one mage squad. With his invitation full of great kindness, Long Haochen’s group of three accompanied by Li Xin arrived on the fortress. With Lin Xin’s status in the Tombal Mountain Pass, making a proof of identity for them couldn’t be easier.
The ones guarding the front of the fortress were all tall, robust warriors clad in heavy armor. These warriors were almost all backup sent by the Warrior Temple, and at their rear were mages.
The number of mages on the fortress was sufficient to astonish anyone. For as far as the eye could see, Long Haochen saw over two thousand mages on the city walls. And furthermore, mages of different elements were all assigned to different mage squads and were clad in gowns of different colors, showing proof of their assignations.
When looking into the distance, eight demon god pillars could be seen standing straight among the demon barracks. Seven of them formed a ring around the central one, which was particularly immense. Dense purplish black radiance was unceasingly rising up above this demon god pillar, and one could faintly see a fierce face appearing in the midst of the purplish black light.
The Hell Demon Marbas was ranked fifth amongst demon gods. Like the Demon God of Death Saminaga was overseeing the Dragon Resisting Mountain Pass, the Hell Demon God Marbas was standing around here, from this one could see how much the demon side valued this Tombal Mountain Pass.
After the Holy War went on for so long, the Tombal Mountain Pass was the side with the fewest casualties. This wasn’t only about human casualties, but also demon casualties. That’s because in the absolute majority of times, both sides’ mages were opposed, and no one was able to easily break through the enemy’s defensive formations. In terms of magical force, the Tombal Mountain Pass wasn’t inferior to the enemy in the slightest, and had the advantage of terrain, making use of their magical array. Marbas even personally intervened sometimes, but never managed to turn the tides, returning in low spirits due to failure every time.
Mages! The fire mages forming the team were all looking at Long Haochen’s group curiously. Fully clad in his uniform of golden armor, Long Haochen was undoubtedly the greatest focus of attention. However, as they were firmly disciplined, no one muttered any comments.
Lin Xin lowered his voice to a great extent, asking Long Haochen, “Boss, when are we going? Let’s go look for Yuanyuan in the southeastern fort.” South of the Tombal Mountain Pass was the side of the Warrior Temple. After reuniting with Long Haochen, Lin Xin became even more eager to reunite with the others.
Long Haochen let out a faint smile, “No hurry. Since we have arrived inside the Tombal Mountain Pass, we should do our best to help and then after a few battles’ time we’ll see again whether we can really find some contributions to bring our help to the Tombal Mountain Pass.” Of course, he had another thought as he came to the decision of remaining here for a bit longer. Long Tianying and Li Zhengzhi’s words made him realize deeply the importance of uniting the Six Great Temples for real, and they placed this hope onto Long Haochen’s shoulders. To join hands together against the demon threat, it was first necessary to understand the Six Great Temples. The battlefield was obviously the best place for that.
“Our Tombal Mountain Pass is invulnerable to attack, there’s no need for an outsider such as you to do anything.” A cold voice sounded out from nearby. Long Haochen’s group turned round, only to see a man and a woman escorted by dozens of mages. It was Xuanyuan Yan and Tan Wan.
Tan Wan was walking in the front and Xuanyuan Yan a few steps behind. Both of them were fully clad in mage attire, faintly letting out some strong magic fluctuations.
Seeing them, Lin Xin was stupefied, but immediately became enraged at her, letting out a cold shout, “What did you just say”
Seeing Lin Xin, Xuanyuan Yan had a distinct look of jealousy. Tan Yan’s expression was still odd, as she rapidly swept a glance at Lin Xin standing beside Li Xin, coldly declaring, “The Tombal Mountain Pass doesn’t need outsiders. Lin Xin, as the captain of the number one mage squad, you still brought outsiders onto the fortress without explicit approval. This matter will be reported to the Temple.”
Lin Xin wrinkled his brows, looking at Tan Wan with a clearly complex gaze, “Miss Wanzi, why would there be any need for that?”
[TN: Wanzi is a pun between Pill and something like, Little Wan]
As this appellation of ‘Miss Tan’ came out, Tan Wan’s body shook visibly, but she rapidly suppressed her own emotions, “Captain Lin, please conduct yourself with dignity. I am the captain of the Raging Wind Legion, not some miss. I am ordering you to immediately bring these people out, or else don’t blame me for becoming ruthless.”
The Raging Wind Squad didn’t belong to the ten main mage squads, but was a mage squad directly subordinate to the Mage Temple’s head Li Zhengzhi. After Tan Wan’s cultivation broke through the seventh step, Li Zhengzhi put this squad formed of wind elemental mages under her command. In terms of status, the Raging Wind Legion was visibly above the ten main squads, which was to say that Tan Wan was without mistake Lin Xin’s superior officer.
Lin Xin’s face had a burst of red before having a burst of white, but in front of Tan Wan, he seemed unwilling to flare up like he seemed about to.
Long Haochen pat his shoulder, smiling to him, “Let it be, Lin Xin. Since the Tombal Mountain Pass doesn’t need our assistance, we will go down for now.” Saying that, he turned toward Cai’er and Han, and turned round, heading down from the fortress.
“Wait a moment!” Tan Wan said suddenly.
Long Haochen turned round, “Is Captain Tan Wan calling for me?”
Tan Wan nodded, her look becoming very sharp, “Before Provisional Saint Knight Head returns to the Tombal Mountain Pass, would it be possible to ask for your guidance, to compare notes with me?”
“I will be comparing notes with you.” Without waiting for Long Haochen to start to talk, Cai’er became unable to bear it. A tyrannical burst of killing intent swept out from her. Long Haochen could keep enduring, but she couldn’t. If someone remained so overbearing, Cai’er had to break out in rage sooner or later.
In front of the killing intent discharged by Cai’er, the expression on the faces of the crowd of mages immediately changed. Outside of Tan Wan and Xuanyuan Yan, all of them dropped to the ground and only barely managed to resist the onslaught of her killing intent by hurriedly stimulating their spiritual energy.
Tan Wan and Xuanyuan Yan also looked perturbed. Xuanyuan Yan had seen before how Cai’er cut the seal open, and was better off, but Tan Wan was in great shock.
The killing intent from Cai’er congealed, tyrannical beyond compare. Before she put it to use, not the slightest bit of it was allowed to leak out. That required a considerable level of training and cultivation!
Long Haochen pressed on Cai’er’s shoulder, “Forget about it. The Six Great Temples are the same family. Our strength should be focused on the enemy and not for inner battles. Let’s go.” Saying that, he pulled Cai’er to turn around and go down from the fortress.
Li Xin gave Tan Wan a profound glance, and followed Long Haochen’s crew out.
Lin Xin couldn’t help but clench his fist, looking at Tan Wan with ferocity.
Aside, Xuanyuan Yan sneered, “Lin Xin, don’t let such matters happen again. Otherwise, we will accuse you of misconduct.”
“Get out of here, is this some place for you to butt in?” Lin Xin’s suppressed rage was almost instantly set to flames. He was unable to find a way out against Tan Wan, but Xuanyuan Yan didn’t make him afraid in the slightest.
“You...” Xuanyuan Yan didn’t have a good temperament either, and became angry at Lin Xin. Pointing with the white staff in his hand he formed an arrow of light and shot it at Lin Xin.
Lin Xin had a look of disdain. His eyes twinkled with blue light, and his body immediately undulated with watery ripples. At two meters distance, that light arrow was directly decomposed, and immediately, a sharp phoenix cry ascended above Lin Xin. A vigorous blue fire burst forth from his body, rising into the surrounding air. Above Lin Xin condensed a phoenix’s shape, facing Xuanyuan Yan. His eyes were also bursting out with surly killing intent, already full of murderous spirit.
“Enough, stop.” Tan Wan shouted in anger, standing in the middle of the two before turning towards Xuanyuan Yan, “We are going.” Saying that, she turned around and left.
Neither Xuanyuan Yan nor Lin Xin could respond to Tan Wan. As Tan Wan looked deeply at the flames rising around Lin Xin, his eyes twinkled with anger. After snorting, he turned around and left.
The blue flames slowly vanished, as Lin Xin hatefully slapped at the air, as the flames scattered in all direction.
On the other side, Li Xin was following them away, “Haochen.”
“I’m alright sis.” Long Haochen naturally understood that Li Xin wanted to console him.
Li Xin sigh then said, “Speaking of which, things have been made quite difficult for Lin Xin. His contradiction with Tan Wan and Xuanyuan Yan is greatly related to me.”
“Hm?” Long Haochen had a quite curious look, “I found Lin Xin quite respectful towards Tan Wan, but she still insisted on criticizing him.”
Just two days ago, Long Haochen had met with the head Li Zhengzhi as the Provisional Saint Knight Head from the Knight Temple. Even with Tan Wan’s identity in the Mage Temple, there’s no way she should be so impolite towards him. Long Haochen took notice before that when Tan Wan was speaking to them, her gaze was focused on Lin Xin from beginning to end. That rage seemed clearly related to Lin Xin. They only seemed to have been targets on whom her anger was to be taken out.
Li Xin replied, “This matter was born from a misunderstanding. When he was young,, Lin Xin used to live in the Tombal Mountain Pass, and Tan Wan was a few years older. He used to always call her Miss Wanzi, and since she was young, she’s always taken good care of him and treated him well. Lin Xin having lost his parents very young, he became very fondly attached to Tan Wan. But these two had a gap in age and Lin Xin had vowed not to use magic for attacks. Though Tan Wan repeatedly tried to convince him, he still remained unwavering in his oath.”