An Arrow Staked on Life!
*The perfect test subject? Could it have something to do with his innate Dual Elements?*
More questions flooded Mo Fan's mind. From what Lu Nian had said, they had already gone through countless test subjects — virtually all of whom had died during the experiments on the new element, subjected to methods so inhumane that the entire enterprise had to be carried out in secret.
So why would his innate Dual Elements make him the ideal candidate? And what connection could this new element possibly have to a dual affinity?
Mo Fan had always been careful to keep his innate Dual Elements hidden, partly out of vague unease. But some things couldn't stay wrapped up forever — they would come out eventually. What he hadn't expected was that the moment his dual affinity became public knowledge, he'd already have people watching him. And not just anyone. A pack of completely unhinged Military Mages.
"What exactly does my innate Dual Elements have to do with this new element?" Mo Fan pressed.
"Release him first." Lu Nian was no fool.
"You tell us what we want to know, and we'll let him go," Mo Fan said.
"Do you think I'm three years old? Either way, you're all going to die. Release him and I'll make it quick. If the new element is ever completed, we might even carve your names into the record of its pioneers." Lu Nian said.
Mo Fan could tell Lu Nian's patience was wearing thin. He glanced back at Mu Ningxue.
Mu Ningxue gave a slight nod.
The flames wreathing Mo Fan slowly died away, and the grip around Lu Zhenghe's throat loosened.
Lu Nian broke into a grin and began speaking at a leisurely pace. "Test subjects only retain function for a brief period after the procedure. And since their tolerance isn't strong enough, they lose their minds. That alone would be one thing — but ordinarily, the moment the effects wear off, they die almost immediately, as if every last bit of life is spent all at once. Almost no one who has been through the experiment is still alive."
Lu Zhenghe crept toward his older brother on shaking legs. He was terrified — at this distance, Mo Fan could still reduce him to ash in an instant, and even Lu Nian couldn't save him in time.
"Black-ops experiments! This is nothing but contempt for human life!" Mu Nujiao snapped, her voice blazing with fury.
"Think what you like," Lu Nian continued, unbothered. "The inspiration for this new-element experiment first came from a mutated parasitic organism..." By this point he had no interest in whether any of it was humane. Even though every Magic Association had strictly outlawed this line of research, they weren't going to stop. They were getting closer and closer to success. Once they revealed it to the world, Mages would no longer hold absolute dominion over it.
*A parasitic organism — he's actually infecting living people??* A chill shot through Mo Fan. It brought the Scale-Skin Mother Demon to mind at once.
The Scale-Skin Mother Demon's parasitism turned living people into monsters — and those transformed individuals were almost always terrifyingly powerful in combat, far beyond what ordinary people could handle.
*And that perfectly matches the loss of reason.*
"You don't need to know the specifics of how it's done. Don't resent us for it. Many people die in comfortable idleness, utterly without purpose. Many more are slaughtered mercilessly by Demon-Beasts — a fate that is simply pitiful. But you will die for the sake of a new element. There's no more fitting end than that..." Lu Nian left the rest unsaid.
Lu Zhenghe had reached the zone his brother could protect. There was no reason for Lu Nian to keep talking — better to silence them all now, then drag the innate Dual Elements user away for the new-element experiment.
"Next time I see you — if there even is a next time — I'll have my boot on your throat when I say this: you are a goddamn inbred lunatic. Take your grand delusions straight to hell!" Mo Fan snarled.
Lu Nian laughed it off with a great roar of amusement. "Only if you survive the experiment first... Kill them all!"
He swept one hand in a wide arc — the order given to his subordinates.
At that very same moment, a wave of bone-deep cold surged from behind Mo Fan.
Snow-white hair cascaded in a breathtaking swirl. A face of flawless beauty radiated quiet authority without the faintest trace of anger. A graceful, willowy figure hovered lightly amid an aura of ice crystals that had condensed without warning from thin air.
"Ice Crystal Slay Bow!"
Mu Ningxue transformed in an instant into a queen of ice and snow. Between her outstretched arms, a magical bow had taken shape — one powerful enough to blanket the entire world in white.
Snow swirled and ice spread outward. The earth froze over in a frenzy. Even the low-hanging clouds became drifting sheets of glacial mist.
Her pale eyes shimmered with barely contained fury, her chest heaving. Mu Ningxue had never imagined she would use the Ice Crystal Slay Bow twice in under twenty-four hours. She could feel every last trace of Magical Energy draining from her body. She could feel even her life force being consumed by the bow.
But she had no choice. She had to stake everything on this one shot.
Mo Fan had been buying her time from the very beginning — from the moment he seized Lu Zhenghe as a hostage. She had understood immediately that this sudden, unprovoked slaughter could wipe them out to the last person.
She had given Mo Fan only a single glance, and he had understood. Against a squad of Military Mages this powerful — and a high-ranking Military Commander on top of that — the Ice Crystal Slay Bow was their only hope.
At the cost of her very life, this one arrow could unleash power that surpassed even high-tier magic.
"A Domain... a Soul Grade Ice Seed — that's impossible. That's *impossible*!!" Lu Nian's eyes went wide, and he screamed with hysterical fury.
A Soul Grade Ice Seed combined with the Ice Crystal Slay Bow at its full release — power on par with the highest tiers of magic — meant this arrow would deal catastrophic damage to Lu Nian and every person around him.
The Soul Grade Ice Seed's Domain settled over the group of Military Mages like a shroud. Every Mage, Lu Nian included, felt the cold gnawing deep into their bodies. The Star Trails of their intermediate-level spells slowed to a crawl. Even Lu Nian's high-tier magic was thrown into disarray.
The arrow was still taking form — but already the shaft had fully materialized.
The ice crystal arrow Mu Ningxue was drawing together this time was far more imposing than the last. Even before it was loosed, it had already whipped up a staggering ice crystal storm around her.
At the very eye of that storm, Mu Ningxue drew the bowstring to its absolute limit.
Her fingertips released — and from her lips came a sharp, fierce cry, clear and resonant as a string plucked in the dead of winter.
**Whoooooooooosh——**
Slaughter without cause. A laughable delusion of greatness. No different from the Black Church at their core. Mu Ningxue's fury had reached its absolute peak.
If her life was going to end with this arrow, then she would drag these executioners — hiding behind their Military Mage uniforms — down with her. They didn't deserve to wear those sacred robes.
The arrow flew without the faintest arc, perfectly parallel to the earth. Everything in its path — soil, trees, stone, even the air itself — froze solid in an instant.
Lu Nian's reflexes were razor-sharp. He threw himself sideways the moment the arrow left the bow.
The screaming ice arrow swept past him and drove straight into the chest of the officer who had earlier Released Lightning Element magic.
It didn't pierce through — the moment it made contact with his chest, the entire arrow erupted outward.
Brilliant ice blossoms burst open in their thousands, a spectacle that struck the eye like a thunderclap of light. Everything within that zone — every last thing — was flash-frozen into ice crystal in an instant.
The pale light of dawn should have heralded a world coming back to life: birdsong, the stirring of awakening creatures. But after this arrow detonated its cascade of frozen jewels through the air, absolute silence fell. It was as though time itself had been encased in ice, and not a single trace of life remained.