Level-Four Fire Burst!
"A rose-colored flame — could this be Rose Flame?!" Dongfang Ming's sharp eyes recognized it at once.
The Earth Fiend flames surged forward with tremendous force, carrying a wall of scorching heat straight toward the pale azure fire. In sheer dominance, in sheer temperature, Rose Flame stood at the pinnacle of all flame types.
The vivid crimson Rose Flame crashed into the pale azure inferno. The azure flames were snuffed out in an instant — like a pack of wolves scattering before a tiger, they fled in every direction, not daring to meet the Rose Flame head-on.
Mo Fan poured in more Magical Energy, swelling the Earth Fiend flames even larger. A magnificent flower of fire bloomed across the grassland, blindingly resplendent.
The pale azure flames were swiftly extinguished, and Rose Flame claimed the entire area.
Unfortunately, Rose Flame didn't sustain as long as Azure Flame. Different flames had different temperaments: if Rose Flame was defined by explosive power and ferocious destructive force, then Azure Flame was the kind defined by relentless endurance — tenacious, seemingly inexhaustible.
Sure enough, even after Mo Fan drove the Azure Flame beyond his range, those pale azure fires hadn't fully died out. They lingered nearby, catching hold of the dry grass and reigniting — biding their time, coiled to surge back the moment an opening appeared.
"So you recognize this flame too?" Mo Fan glanced at the scattered azure fires and smiled.
"Hmph. The deaths of my brothers — I have no doubt you're responsible." Fury blazed in Dongfang Ming's eyes. "Today, no matter what, I'm dragging you back to the Tribunal for questioning!!"
Some time ago, guided by an old hunter, Dongfang Ming had learned of an extraordinarily hot flame that had appeared in a village on the outskirts of Hangzhou — a village suffering from severe drought. He had originally intended to claim that Spirit Fire for himself, but a Tribunal examination had kept him occupied, so he passed the opportunity along to several of his capable older brothers. Those brothers then vanished off the face of the earth. Every scrap of intelligence he had painstakingly gathered on Rose Flame disappeared along with them.
He had resigned himself to never learning the truth. And yet here, of all places, he had come face to face with the person who had killed them.
"Dongfang Ming, don't act rashly." Liu Zhongming's voice was urgent. "Our objective is to stop them from entering Bai Mountain and wait for the Palace Guards' reinforcements."
"I don't need you telling me what to do." Dongfang Ming was past reasoning. The pale azure outer flames wreathing his body blazed even fiercer.
What Mo Fan feared most was that his opponent would refuse a direct confrontation and dance circles around him. Now that this Wing Enchanted Gear-wielding rich kid had let his anger take the wheel, things were about to get a great deal simpler.
He stood there calmly — but the magic he reached for was not intermediate-level.
He flipped his palm, and rose-colored flames ignited in an instant — like a magician elegantly conjuring a red rose from thin air. Practiced. Effortless.
"Fire Burst!"
Mo Fan flung the flame from his palm. The Fire Burst arced through the night with perfect precision and landed exactly where Dongfang Ming stood.
He had to admit — Dongfang Ming's talent was obscene. The man's casting speed was absurd: in the time it took Mo Fan to complete one basic-level spell, Dongfang Ming could apparently trace out an entire intermediate-level Star Chart. If he ever had the Magical Energy to back that up... *Back when I was spam-firing Fire Bursts, I was basically a flamethrower. But this guy rapid-fires Blazing Fists like some kind of high-frequency rocket launcher.*
Mo Fan had learned from that earlier mistake — he wasn't going head-to-head with intermediate magic.
"You think a puny basic-level spell can hurt me? How naive." Dongfang Ming didn't even flinch at the incoming Fire Burst, continuing to trace his Star Chart beneath his feet without pause.
With the flame power he carried, a direct hit from a basic-level Fire Burst probably wouldn't even shake him.
"We'll see who's naive." Mo Fan smiled.
He clenched his fist. The Fire Burst, guided by his Mental Intent, detonated in an instant — a fireball nearly two meters across erupted, and the shockwave sent the self-assured Dongfang Ming hurtling back several meters.
The fireball was enormous, a terrifying sight. The explosion sent a deafening tremor through the surrounding air; scattered flames and embers flew in every direction, trailing sparks like falling stars...
Rose Flame's power alone was enough to make a Fire Burst: Detonation far more savage. Most staggering of all — the destructive force Mo Fan had achieved was now comparable to a Blazing Fist fueled by Ordinary Fire.
The power of that detonation had far exceeded Dongfang Ming's expectations. Lucky for him that he was Fire Element himself — otherwise that blast would have left him half-crippled on the spot.
"Your Fire Burst..." Dongfang Ming staggered to his feet, his face scorched black. Beyond the fury in his eyes was something rawer — pure disbelief.
*How can a Fire Burst detonation hit this hard? This is practically intermediate-level magic!*
"You're probably the first person to experience my level-four Fire Burst." Mo Fan smiled faintly. Another Fire Burst ignited in his palm in an instant — as practiced and effortless as ever.
"Level-four basic-level magic..." Dongfang Ming went still.
By any measure, Dongfang Ming counted as a spectacularly wealthy Mage — he even owned Wing Enchanted Gear, equipment no one at his tier should possess. He had always assumed he was the undisputed standout in the intermediate Domain, with no peers who could match him. The last thing he had ever imagined was that someone could be even more extravagant than himself — someone who had pushed a basic-level spell all the way to level four.
Enhancing a basic-level spell required Spirit Essence — and each Spirit Essence ran anywhere from three to five million. To guarantee a Star Mote's absorption hit a full hundred percent, you typically had to spring for the five-million-quality kind.
One spell had seven Star Motes, which meant seven Spirit Essences — thirty-five million yuan, for crying out loud!
That was enough to buy a top-quality Spirit Seed!
"What a waste of resources on something so worthless. What an idiot," Dongfang Ming muttered sourly, clearly stinging from the blow to his pride.
"Whether it's worthless or not depends on what Spirit Fire I'm running," Mo Fan replied.
Rose Flame was a high-temperature fire — the most straightforwardly brutal type of flame in existence — capable of boosting the power of Fire Element skills by nearly 2.5 times.
The level-four Fire Burst had no special tricks to speak of; it simply amplified the destructive output of the level-three Fire Burst: Detonation, nearly doubling it.
With both multipliers stacked, Mo Fan's Fire Burst: Detonation hit a full five times harder than an ordinary mage's.
Fire Burst: Detonation was already the most destructive spell in the basic-level arsenal. At five times the power, it was reaching into half-way intermediate territory.
Mo Fan had drilled Fire Burst to near-instant casting. Even at half the power of an intermediate-level spell, it was more than enough to pound Dongfang Ming into the ground without leaving him a shred of argument.