Echoes of the Past

Chapter 14 is speechless; it's typical magician thinking.

The endless wasteland suddenly came to an end in sight.

It felt as if we had reached the edge of the game world, with a clear, almost deliberate boundary line stretching across the way, starkly separating the dim, wasteland from the scenery on the other side.

In the distance, vast fields come into view.

Large tracts of land, meticulously cultivated, are divided into neat sections by crisscrossing earthen ridges.

Despite being shrouded in dark fog and dim sunlight, the low outlines of the crops between the ridges could still be vaguely discerned.

Further away, the shadowy silhouettes of some simple, dilapidated buildings could be vaguely seen, which appeared to be farmhouses or barns.

"Fields?" Suiyue stood on tiptoe, straining to see. "Yes, there are quite a few villages near the Kamami River Gorge. It seems they were swallowed up along with their people and land."

He asked, "What happens to those who are swallowed by the black mist?"

"Becoming a Spirit Erosion." Suiyue explained, "A Living Erosion can be roughly understood as someone who doesn't want to be human and actively merges with the fragments of the Divine Nightmare. A Spirit Erosion is an unconscious individual that has been eroded by the black mist for a long time... Well, even if you die, you will still be eroded."

She paused for a moment, then inevitably became talkative again.

"Forget it, don't bury me after I die. Just burn me. I just want to be clean and pure, both in life and in death. I don't want to become some inhuman or ghostly thing that harms people."

Aside from being too weak and too talkative, Nan'an felt that Suiyue was not too bad.

"Approximately how long does the corrosion process take?"

"After 12 days, we'll be in the danger zone." Suiyue's tone was unusually serious, with a hint of respect. "This number was obtained by scholars from the first year of the Black Mist, who personally entered the Black Mist to conduct tests... The sample size isn't large, but it's very reliable."

Having witnessed the anomalies of the black mist, Nan'an now possessed resistance and stepped across the dividing line without hesitation.

Just one step, and the visual senses change drastically.

Nan'an had assumed that everything inside the black fog would be shrouded in mist, and that any object would be obscured by a layer of fog.

At this moment, the surrounding cold and oppressive atmosphere and the hazy gray tones disappeared completely, and highly saturated, sharp and bright colors flooded into their eyes like a tide.

It's like a photographer who's used to taking pictures with cheap water pipes suddenly switching to a super-powerful optical lens; once you've used it, you can never go back.

As visibility improved, the two realized with alarm that the village, which was barely visible, was burning fiercely.

The flames surged skyward, and thick, black smoke billowed and twisted as it rose.

Amidst the flickering light of the fire and the ruins, the figures of people fleeing in panic could be vaguely seen.

"Let's go take a look." Nan'an's voice lowered.

The closer they got, the clearer the crackling of the fire, the muffled thuds of collapsing buildings, and the incoherent wailing became.

"Someone, please save me!"

The piercing screams made the two of them instinctively quicken their pace.

In a relatively open area in the center of the village, the flames had not yet fully spread.

Several villagers who had fled here suddenly collapsed to the ground, their backs to the slender figure behind them, futilely trying to move backward on their knees, their faces filled with extreme fear.

"Shh—" the woman chuckled softly, but her voice held no warmth. "You won't escape this black fog. Rather than slowly becoming those pathetic 'spiritual erosions' they speak of, why not... peacefully welcome your liberation sooner rather than later?"

Without any hint of consultation, she stood aloof, like a judge.

Her gaze casually fell on one of the middle-aged farmers who had nowhere to escape and was desperately crawling backward with his hands on the ground.

Within seconds, the farmer's exposed skin lost its luster at a visible speed, drying and wrinkling rapidly like tree bark without moisture. His once robust body was instantly drained of all its energy, collapsing and leaving only a series of gasping breaths from his throat.

The woman sensed something, raised her head suspiciously, and looked in the direction from which the hurried footsteps were coming, the bloodshot light in her eyes dimming slightly.

Upon arriving at the scene, Nan'an stared solemnly at the farmer who was barely breathing, then glanced at the villagers lying dead around him, still crawling in their final moments, seeking a glimmer of hope. His gaze gradually turned cold.

The woman had the pointed ears and slender figure that were typical of the elves, but her skin was a bloodless, sickly pale white. She wore a black and gold high-necked long dress that hugged her body tightly. The skirt was intricately layered and wide, and dry, black vines were adorned on it, making a rustling sound with her slightest movements.

Her fashion sense was clearly poor. Despite her young appearance, she wore the styles and colors favored by those rigid noblewomen like Nora—he had seen similar attire in Nan'an 500 years ago, and he never expected to see such a familiar outfit after "getting up."

Suiyue looked around and lowered her voice, "Are these vampires?"

Nan'an admired Suiyue for making mistakes even during an open-book exam; she possessed a natural, unadorned beauty.

"A vampire?" The woman was amused. "How am I, Almahern, like a vampire?"

Suiyue remained unfazed, head held high and chest puffed out: "Just drain people dry."

"That's not necessarily true," Nan said. "It could also be a succubus."

"What race is that?" Suiyue asked in astonishment. "Is it an antique from 500 years ago?"

"I guess so, anyway, they can drain a person dry."

Mysterious, Nan'an suspected that Suiyue had some kind of chatter field of her own, and after spending a long time with her, he found it hard not to chatter along with her.

The conversation between the two locked Almahern in a daze for a few seconds, as she listened blankly to the inexplicable words "succubus" and "500 years ago."

"Enough." Almar Hern's fake smile vanished, her voice turning cold. "Don't lump me in with those lowly vampires. I disdain drinking their filthy blood; they merely met their end prematurely. As for you..."

Before she finished speaking, her blood-red eyes shone brightly, and the intense red light seemed to converge as if it were a tangible substance.

Nan An moved swiftly, blocking Sui Yue's gaze that should have been directed at the "minotaur."

Almahern's expression, one of ease, languidness, and disdain, froze on her face.

His blood-red pupils contracted slightly, clearly reflecting Nan'an's unharmed figure.

Blood-red mist surged in his eyes, and his life-giving gaze swept over every corner of Nan An's body... He remained unharmed.

"Why are you staring at me like that? Are you going to fight or not?" Nan An said in a deep voice. "If you don't make a move, then I..."

His speed was so fast that both Suiyue and Elmahern were astonished.

A faint afterimage remained where he stood, but his true form appeared before Elmarhern as if by teleportation, his clenched fist striking her face with a sharp, whistling sound!

Almahern had no time to make any effective response or defense.

"Bang!"

A dull thud rang out.

Its slender body was struck head-on by a battering ram, turning into a blurry black shadow as it flew backward, crashing heavily into the wall of a wooden house that had been brittle by the flames. It smashed through the burning wall, then crashed through several other burning houses, finally falling heavily onto the scorched earth in the distance amidst a cloud of flying ashes and sparks.

"Hmm!"

The expected cries of agony from the enemy did not come. Instead, Suiyue behind Nan'an let out a muffled groan, her body swayed, and her face turned noticeably paler.

"Not bad," Nan An commented without turning his head, his tone encouraging. "The stress test was very effective. It seems you weren't drained instantly. Hang in there, be strong."

"You don't even need to tell me..." Suiyue gritted her teeth, forcing out the words, "Beat her up!"

Almahern coughed up blood and turned pale.

"Demon Eye, age him!"

The same trick was used again, and Nan'an, which was being watched, remained completely unharmed.

"Thump!"

Compared to last time, before being knocked away by the abdomen attack this time, Elmarhern noticed a detail.

Nan'an was enveloped in a faint layer of firelight, his elemental energy exceptionally abundant.

Combined with his ridiculously explosive bursts of speed and movement...

"High-level magic, elemental drive."

Almahern was shocked.

The two people in front of me were dressed in simple and plain clothes, and did not look like noble scholars who had mastered high-level magic at all.

and……

Would anyone in either empire actually bother to dig out and learn this ancient magical martial art of elemental manipulation?

Even among the elves, only a few fragments should contain records of this.

Nan'an stepped into the raging fire, strolling leisurely.

"You're amazing. You stood so steadily in the fire without any signs of using magic."

"Magic?" Almarhern was stunned. "What nonsense are you talking about? Why would I use magic? Can't you see what I'm doing?"

"What?" Nan An was also stunned.

In his view, Almahern was trying to cast some kind of spell with her eyes, but he interrupted her every time.

Interrupting spellcasting is an essential skill for magic users.

Almahern trembled all over: "You bastard, who are you deliberately trying to humiliate!"

She raised her head and shouted, "I possess the Eye of Aging! I am the Mist Singer, I am the Adaptor!"

Nan'an hesitated, then asked, "Uh... is it that powerful? How does it compare to a high-level mage?"

Almahern was utterly speechless. She realized that the person in front of her only had a typical mage's mindset and knew nothing about things outside of that framework.

How can there be such a person who lacks common sense? What kind of ancient relic crawled out of a coffin?