Fire Leaves Become a Sea

"What are you all doing — do you want to burn alive?!" Shi Gui roared at the eight Ice Element Mages the moment the Flame Enchantress broke through into the estate grounds.

The eight Ice Element Mages had never anticipated the Flame Enchantress being this overwhelming. One Crystalline Ice Wall after another was shattering — barriers that not even high-tier magic could destroy.

They exchanged glances. All of them knew full well how terrifying the Flame Enchantress was, and none dared slack off another instant. Every drop of Magical Energy from the ocean of their minds poured into the formation's nodes, and they even broke out Ice Element Magic Stones they had been hoarding for years — anything to wring a little more power from the Ice-Snow Demon Sealing Formation.

The Ice-Snow Demon Sealing Formation was different from other containment arrays. It was not a prison magic that locked a Demon-Beast down in one place — it was a sustained, large-scale Ice Element formation.

The formation first branded a target with a mark. Using that mark as its center, it continuously condensed Crystalline Ice Walls in every direction around it.

If the target failed to shatter the walls quickly enough, they would grow thicker and thicker — and once they reached a certain density, the target would be completely entombed within the eight-sided ice chamber.

So even though the Flame Enchantress had broken through into the estate, the Ice-Snow Demon Sealing Formation had not failed. Ice continued to solidify around it in a steady stream, crystallizing into walls wherever it moved. The Crystalline Walls tracked it relentlessly, closing in on all sides until the entire eight-sided chamber would seal shut.

The Flame Enchantress had clearly noticed the formation's unusual nature. It had intended to strike Zhao Yulin and his wife in the manor tower above, but seeing the eight walls closing in around it, the creature was forced to redirect — blasting the rapidly-solidifying ice apart with torrents of flame.

Shards rained down from the sky without pause. Even with the Ice-Snow Demon Sealing Formation constantly congealing around it, that did nothing to diminish the Flame Enchantress's capacity for destruction.

It split its focus in two: the left hand swept through sweeping arcs, painting a blazing cloud that blanketed the sky above the estate and unleashed a relentless rain of flame upon everything below, while the right fist swung out in blow after blow, each punch shattering the Crystalline Walls condensing around it.

"This old man will face you himself!"

Shi Gui launched himself into the air with startling lightness, vaulting a full twenty meters into the sky.

At the apex of his leap, he flung both arms wide. Below him, a dozen thick frost-laced chains erupted upward, coiling and intertwining until they formed a tall pillar — and Shi Gui landed squarely atop it.

His command of Ice Element techniques had reached the level of pure instinct, his will made manifest. He possessed neither Wing Enchanted Gear nor Wings of Wind, yet through the lightness of his Footwear Enchanted Gear and his own natural agility, he danced through the air atop those ever-shifting frost chains, each one morphing to his whim.

Ice Lock could be rigid or yielding, offensive or defensive. Shi Gui wove them into an aerial Ice Lock Domain where he moved freely, meeting the Flame Enchantress head-on.

With the Flame Enchantress dividing its attention between smashing the constantly-regenerating Crystalline Ice Walls and weathering Shi Gui's high-tier magical assaults, it had no opportunity to continue demolishing the estate.

**Riiiing—!**

But the Flame Enchantress clearly commanded more than fire. Fury blazed in its eyes as brilliant light flared within them, and its Mental Intent surged into a crushing grip — a vast spatial hand that seized every last one of Shi Gui's aggravating Ice Locks at once.

The power of space was invisible and colorless. Only when the Ice Locks snapped and crumbled as if of their own accord could one begin to guess at the enormous phantom hand behind it — grinding them to ice dust with terrifying force.

Shi Gui's aerial combat depended entirely on those freely-controlled Ice Locks. With them gone, he dropped back to the ground.

He had barely begun to reform the chains when an invisible weight came crashing down on him from above.

"Armor, now!"

His face drained of color as he frantically summoned his Armor Enchanted Gear.

The Armor Enchanted Gear had barely finished covering him when the invisible weight struck. The ground beneath his feet collapsed with a thunderous roar.

It was as though a giant had stomped down from above. Ten meters away, where a garage had stood, there was almost nothing left — the car inside had been crushed flat into a sheet of crumpled metal and swallowed by the crater.

Shi Gui had been caught dead center. He was driven deep into the pit, his body buried in earth and rock, his Armor Enchanted Gear now webbed with cracks.

He clawed his way out, and for the first time, genuine alarm crept through his chest.

The Flame Enchantress commanded Space Element power as well — and that Abyssal Tread had struck without warning. If Shi Gui hadn't been a veteran of countless battles, hadn't felt the space itself compressing just in time... one second later and he would have been reduced to a smear.

*What kind of trouble has Zhao Yulin gotten himself into? How did he manage to draw something like this down on us?*

Every inch of Shi Gui ached. He wanted a moment to catch his breath — but the enraged Flame Enchantress had no intention of giving him one.

The Flame Enchantress raised a hand to its lips and breathed out softly.

Under that single breath, the flames transformed into vivid scarlet maple leaves that drifted down toward where Shi Gui stood. The moment those deceptively delicate fire-leaves touched the earth, they burst open as if they had found the perfect kindling — each one blooming instantly into a violent ball of flame.

Ball after ball merged together, and in moments a breathtaking sea of fire had ignited, surging outward in every direction like wild beasts running amok — raging, frenzied, unstoppable.

The fire-leaves ignited the instant they touched the ground, and buildings were consumed even faster. The estate's flower gardens, ornamental ponds, manicured lawns, and manor halls — all of it was reduced to nothing.

The so-called guardian Mages were utterly helpless against flames of this caliber. They had hoped to overwhelm the Flame Enchantress through sheer numbers, coordinating a magical bombardment — but before they could even organize themselves, they were scrambling through the inferno in a panicked rout.

Their bombardment accomplished nothing. The Flame Enchantress's destructive power and the guardian squad's combined magic were not remotely in the same league. Those drifting little fire-leaves alone were already more than the Mages could handle.

At the very heart of the inferno, Shi Gui himself was burning, his flesh splitting and blistering. His Armor Enchanted Gear had cracked enough for flames to seep inside. Even he — a Mage whose life's work had been the Ice Element — was in agony, scorched beyond endurance.