*Boom!*
A massive explosion was followed by a wall of fire rising abruptly around Wei Bai, trapping him in the center.
The formation had taken effect.
The scorching Fire Wall roasted the air, incinerating everything in the vicinity.
Through the faintly shimmering gaps in the distorted heat, Wei Bai could see the two assassins laughing triumphantly.
“Oh dear, this is going to be quite a problem,” one of the mages said, wiping sweat from his forehead.
His tone was laced with mockery.
“Kid, if you want to blame someone, blame yourself for being blind and offending the wrong people,” the other mage added, sneering at Wei Bai.
“Heh.”
A cold smirk appeared on Wei Bai’s face.
He placed his hand on the pendant at his chest and raised his longsword.
[Temporary Enchantment: Frost Blade!]
Temporary Enchantment was a type of magic that temporarily attached mana to a weapon.
It was not as convenient as permanent enchantment and not as powerful as direct spells, so it was often looked down upon by most mages.
After all, mages were not accustomed to using melee weapons.
Attaching magic to a weapon was generally less efficient than simply casting a spell, so this category of magic naturally received little attention.
But Wei Bai was different.
He could not learn those complex and profound spells, but because his melee combat skills were exceptional, this type of enchantment magic provided him with a significant boost.
As the mana enveloped and condensed, the blade of the longsword emitted a series of hums.
Layers of ice crystals then began to appear on the surface.
In an instant, the longsword transformed into an ice blade frozen with frost.
Wei Bai raised the longsword and slashed at the Fire Wall.
A crescent of ice crystals struck the flames, carving a small opening.
Seeing this, the two mages outside burst into laughter.
They manipulated the Fire Wall to shrink inward, and the previous gap was immediately repaired as the flames converged.
As the Fire Wall compressed further, Wei Bai’s situation grew increasingly dire.
“Kid, trying to use tricks? You’ve got a flexible mind,” the assassin judged heartlessly, completely indifferent to whether Wei Bai lived or died.
“However, the more you try to destroy the Fire Wall, the smaller your survival space becomes. In the end, we won’t even need to lift a finger; this fire will burn you to nothing but ash.”
“Hmph, what a nuisance.”
Facing the Fire Wall, Wei Bai’s expression was grim, yet he remained calm.
He had been in far more treacherous situations and had never backed down.
He certainly would not retreat before two mere assassins.
Closing his eyes, Wei Bai began to recall his past.
He searched his memories for how he and his teammates had handled similar predicaments.
Seeing his actions, the two assassins could not help but laugh out loud.
“Hahaha! This stupid kid. Has he accepted his fate? He’s actually closing his eyes to wait for death.”
“I don’t think so. The kid is probably just stunned with fear. Closing his eyes is just a way to fantasize that all of this is fake.”
The assassins mocked him wantonly, but Wei Bai remained unmoved.
Opposing a massive formation with his limited mana was like a mantis trying to stop a carriage.
He had to find a more effective method.
‘In the past… in the past… in the past…’
‘I once faced a wall like this that seemed insurmountable. How did I break through?’
‘Right! Back then, I destroyed the weakest Mana Hub in the formation, which allowed me to escape.’
But now, he was inside the Fire Wall, and the formation was not entirely contained within it.
Most of it was located where the assassins stood outside.
With the Fire Wall obstructing his vision, how could he find the hub through the obscuring flames?
‘There has to be a way…’
A thought exploded in Wei Bai’s mind.
He opened his eyes, gripped his pendant, and looked around.
Lines of Appraisal Text surfaced in his vision.
After filtering out most of the useless information, Wei Bai searched for the Mana Hub.
The assassins were visibly startled when Wei Bai suddenly looked up.
One of them burst into laughter upon seeing him glancing around.
“Hahaha! This kid… I don’t even understand why the Count wanted us to take action. Hahaha!”
“The heat must have scrambled his brains. What is he looking at, twisting and turning like that?”
The other assassin reacted, believing Wei Bai was already a dead man and deciding to toy with him.
“Well then, kid, I’m going to slowly close the Fire Wall now. Don’t let it touch you. If it does, you’ll be burned to ashes.”
The assassin grinned wickedly, controlling the Fire Wall to slowly shrink.
Wei Bai acted as if he had not heard the assassin’s words, continuing to search through the piles of complex information.
Layers upon layers of annotations from the magic formation covered his field of vision, like looking for a needle in a haystack.
“Mana Conduction Channel, Mana Relay Channel, Mana Frequency Conversion Channel…”
‘No, none of them are right.’
Muttering to himself, Wei Bai felt nothing of the approaching heat.
He continuously released mana from the pendant to maintain the Temporary Enchantment, and a thick layer of ice formed on the Silver Sword.
“Kid, your butt’s about to get toasted! Hahahaha!”
The assassin laughed as he watched Wei Bai inside the fire formation, his disdain growing stronger.
“Hmph, is this all the strength this kid has? I thought he’d be more capable.”
Seeing that Wei Bai was not fighting back, they no longer hid their dissatisfaction with the Count, disdainfully judging their employer.
“Tsk, noble lords are such a hassle. To make us move for a target of this level… Truly, the older they get, the worse their eyes become.”
“Once this job is done, let’s find a chance to slip away. We are noble mages. Not only are we subservient to these aristocrats, but they always have us cleaning up this trash.”
The resentment between the two was evident.
As mages, when had they ever been ordered around by a noble who understood nothing? This time was even more excessive — being sent to deal with a child who posed no threat at all.
It was as if they were being treated like servants!
The mage controlling the fire formation grew angrier the more he thought about it, and killing intent surfaced in his eyes.
He wanted to kill the boy as quickly as possible, take the money, and leave.
He did not want to work for this blind noble for a second longer.
It was too humiliating!
With that thought, the mage lost interest in playing.
His control over the formation intensified, and the fire formation began to shrink rapidly.
“Die, kid!”
Feeling the Fire Wall approaching at high speed, Wei Bai’s eyes suddenly lit up.
‘Found it!’
The moment the tongues of flame flickered against the corner of his clothes, Wei Bai threw the frozen Silver Sword.
The silver longsword spun through the air, leaving a trail of vapor from the evaporating ice crystals as it flew out from behind the Fire Wall.
The powerful airflow, mixed with a few sparks, streaked toward a specific part of the formation.
The mage, who had intended to burn Wei Bai to death and collect the gold, was clearly caught off guard when a Silver Sword flew out of the Fire Wall.
When he realized what the sword’s target was, his face instantly turned pale.
“Not good!”
The other mage cried out in alarm, attempting to cast a spell to interrupt the sword’s flight.
However, a mage’s chanting speed could not keep up with the velocity of the flying Silver Sword.
Just as he was about to finish his incantation, the Silver Sword slammed into the ground, its tip piercing exactly into the center where the mana of the entire formation converged.
Instantly, the mana attached to the frozen Silver Sword surged out, rushing into the formation and disrupting its original mana flow.
The sudden turn of events caught both mages completely off guard.
They obviously had not expected Wei Bai to have a way to break the situation.
*Sizzle — *
The sound of flames being extinguished echoed out.
The mage instantly felt that he could no longer control the formation.
At the same time, surges of energy within the formation began to run wild, destroying the structure of the magic circle one by one.
“How can this be?!”
The mage was beyond shocked.
He could not fathom how Wei Bai had found the hidden Mana Hub, nor could he believe that Wei Bai was bold enough to throw away his weapon in a life-or-death gamble.
The Fire Wall burned fiercely, but now it flickered unsteadily as if its energy supply was extremely unstable.
Then, Wei Bai felt a powerful burst of energy surge through.
The Fire Wall shot up three meters high before abruptly vanishing.
Cough —
The mage who suffered a backlash from the formation’s mana coughed up a mouthful of blood, swaying as he tried to support himself.
The other mage was affected by the energy of the collapsing formation; his face was covered in soot, looking nothing like a dignified mage.
“Whew…”
After the Fire Wall shattered, Wei Bai, who was at the center, had clearly suffered the most.
Several holes had been burned into his clothes, and his hair was singed.
However, as Wei Bai stepped out from the magic formation, he acted as if he did not notice his injuries.
He smiled slightly at the two mages.
“The tables have turned, gentlemen.”
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