Versatile Mage

Translated by XephiZ

Edited by Aelryinth

Shorty gulped.

He had spent lots of years in the Land of the Undead, yet every time when night arrived, his heart would start pounding heavily. Even when he was away from the Ancient Capital, he would still experience fear and uneasiness at night.

“Eat the Ash Garlic now!” Shorty reminded the group.

The woman in black silk and her two companions did not hesitate. They immediately ate the Ash Garlic.

Liu Ru had also eaten one, only Mo Fan was still struggling to make a decision.

The sound of something grumbling with their mouth filled up could be heard coming from the ground. Mo Fan turned around and saw a head full of worms poking out from the ground. Its eyes were dangling out, same with its jaw…

It looked like the thing was stuck in the ground, only its head coming out of the ground, with its body still trapped beneath. Its reaction when it saw Mo Fan was like a starving human who had seen a golden chicken wing. It desperately tried to wriggle its way toward Mo Fan!

“How dare you try to harm your Grandpa Mo!” Mo Fan kicked the head of the undead without mercy.

The head was likely not attached to the neck. The kick immediately sent the head off as a projectile. The skull ended up slamming into a rock and splattered everywhere.

The sound of many deep moans surrounded him

Suddenly, a huge section of the ground broke apart, revealing a huge tomb less than ten meters away from Mo Fan.

The tombs seemed fairly aged, even the cement had begun to rot. The half-corpse, half-skeletal creatures inside the tombs rose with bloodshot eyes after being summoned by the head that Mo Fan had kicked!

The bones of the creatures were fairly black, implying that they had been poisoned to death long ago. Meanwhile, the tools scattering across the place implied that they were buried together with some general in ancient times. Mo Fan initially thought there were over twenty of them, yet there was a burial cave beneath the tombs the skeletons were appearing from endlessly, each covered in blood and with a savage look!

Mo Fan’s fist instantly erupted in flames as he swung it in the air…

Since the skeletons were all coming out from the cave, he could simply blast the cave with his Fiery Fist!

“Mo Fan, look around you!” Liu Ru immediately shouted.

Mo Fan turned around and saw seven or eight tombs just like the one in front of him less than a few hundred meters away…

The skeletons were gathering like soldiers. Their eyes were staring at the only person that was still exhaling living breath, like stars in the sky. The sight was so stunning that Mo Fan instantly stiffened in place.

“Actually, the thing doesn’t taste as bad as I thought!” Mo Fan threw the Ash Garlic into his mouth with the worst expression he had ever made.

Shorty grinned disdainfully. He glanced at the skeletons surrounding them and said, “We should probably leave this place as soon as possible. It must be the grave of some minister during the Qing Dynasty, judging from the number of people and workers that were buried with him. It’s almost at the scale of an emperor’s tomb… we can easily deal with these skeletons, but those ministers were strong Magicians when they were alive. If they actually turned into Undead Generals, we’re pretty much dead.”

“Can you please stand further away from me when you speak?” added Mo Fan.

The effects of Ash Garlic were almost instantaneous. The foul breath was so extreme that even the undead would accuse them of not brushing their teeth. Any undead who were obsessed with cleanliness would simply avoid coming close to them.

The woman in black silk spoke for the first time as the group was weaving through the packs of undead. Her voice was so pleasant that it felt like a melody descending from the sky. The only thing lacking was emotion, or perhaps her otherworldliness was the reason why it was so alluring.

“Is it always like this here?” she asked.

Shorty was surprised by the question, and quickly answered. “Not quite, but since the Drifting Sand River became restless, the presence of death here has grown stronger, too. Some say that the new era of the undead has arrived. It’s possible, since if the undead has a new ruler, it’s reasonable for this to happen.”

“A new ruler?” asked the black silk woman.

“No one has seen him before, but everyone knows he exists… they call him the Undead Emperor. Rumors say he was the emperor of the Tang Dynasty,” Shorty replied quickly, showing off how knowledgeable he was.

“How many years has it been since your Tang Dynasty?” asked the black silk woman.

“Our?” Shorty was startled.

Mo Fan’s eyes flickered too. He finally noticed something from the woman’s speech. First, she was not a local; no wonder her Chinese sounded unnatural.

“Over a thousand years,” Shorty did not specify the actual year.

“A thousand year emperor…” the woman mumbled to herself, without asking any further questions.

The woman did not ask further, but Shorty was trying to show off. He added, “Exactly, the undead’s strength is dependent on the years they have lasted. The longer they exist, the stronger they are. It is impossible to tell what kind of monster will be born after being nurtured by the presence of death for a thousand years.”

The history of this world was the same as the world he came from. The knowledgeable Mo Fan immediately recalled that the Tang Dynasty’s capital was here at Xi’an, too. If this whole place had turned into the Land of Undead, it was possible for the emperors during the ancient times to turn into undead too…

“These goddamned emperors in ancient times. They have been dead for so many years, yet they still want to conquer the underworld and our world at night!” cursed Mo Fan.

“It’s common to build an emperor’s tomb at places deemed favorable through feng shui, so it’s not a surprise that they would turn into undead after absorbing the energy of the Heaven and Earth. Everyone is saying that the undead has a new ruler, which I find very amusing. It sounds like they knew who the ruler was before. I bet even the undead don’t know, let alone us humans,” replied Shorty.

“Is there really no one that has seen this ruler of the undead before?” asked Liu Ru.

Shorty shook his head and said honestly, “Even the strongest Magician has never met him before. Speaking of which, a few foreigners who claimed to be from the Holy Judgment Court, each of them a strong Magician, did not come back alive. I heard that they all ended up turning into undead… those foreigners only know how to add to our misery!”

Shorty suddenly realized that the black silk woman was not a local, too. He corrected himself with a hollow laugh, “I’m not referring to you.”

“It’s fine, I’m happy to hear jokes about the Holy Judgment Court.” The black silk woman’s eyes flickered with a hint of gloating.

Holy Judgment Court?

Mo Fan felt like he had heard the name before; a Magic Organization in Europe, an existence similar to the Enforcement Union in China.

The Enforcement Union was responsible for arresting and executing evil Magicians. However, the Holy Judgment Court’s purpose sounded like Ultraman: to protect the world’s peace.

“I will probably meet some of the people from other countries’ organizations during the World College Tournament,” Mo Fan mumbled to himself.