At Du Xin's thunderous shout, the air suddenly filled with a multitude of red specks of light. The flames lit by the mercenaries on the ground were drawn upward, soaring toward the sky; ribbons of red fire stretched hundreds of meters into the air, and a pure, crimson magic circle materialized before everyone's eyes. Even after the circle appeared, a ceaseless stream of fire elements continued to converge upon the spot. These gathered elements began to solidify atop the magic circle, shimmering like a host of stars. These elemental stars continued to absorb the free-floating fire elements in the air, growing larger and larger until, finally, what lay revealed before the onlookers was a celestial field composed entirely of solidified fire. The burning flames radiated intense heat outward, and the scorching temperatures caused the surrounding vegetation to wither significantly.
Even as Du Xin was casting his spell, the demonic vine had already surged right up to the group; its flailing tendrils resembled the limbs of a man-eating demon, striking terror deep into the hearts of all who beheld them.
At that very moment, Du Xin's magic finally reached its completion. A shower of meteors began to plummet from the heavens, tracing beautiful—yet deadly—arcs across the sky.
The earth-shattering roars, the raging inferno, the thrashing, struggling demonic vine, and the look of relief on the mercenaries' faces—the relief of those who had narrowly escaped death—all combined to form this twisted, chaotic world engulfed in flames.
"Phew... Thank goodness!"
Du Xin let out a sigh of relief. Rather than unleashing the full, world-shaping power he inherently commanded, he had instead relied on his deep insight into the forces of the world to manipulate the elements—and, in doing so, had ultimately saved the entire group.
"Hiss... Roar..."
The demonic vine continued to shriek in agony. Driven by the primal, animalistic instincts it had acquired through mutation—despite its nature as a plant—it bolted madly toward Mirror Lake. Submerging itself in the water, however, brought the vine no relief from its torment; the water churned up by its thrashing tendrils turned to steam before it could even fall back to the surface. A vast cloud of mist enveloped the entirety of Mirror Lake, yet it could not obscure the blinding glare produced by the raging, all-consuming fire.
The immense vital essence the demonic vine had previously devoured—combined with the abundant wood-elemental energy contained within its own being—served as the perfect fuel for the blaze. As long as life persisted within it, the flames would never be extinguished! "You..."
Xianyue stared at Du Xin in shock. In the world as she knew it, no one possessed magical abilities spanning more than two elements. Just as the gods would not permit a mortal to worship two deities simultaneously, the haughty elemental spirits disdained to submit to a single individual.
"I know many kinds of magic—not just ice."
Du Xin faced Xianyue with a calm expression, though inwardly he was frantically racking his brains for an excuse to fob her off.
"Why? The gods forbid mortals from worshipping two different deities! How is it that *you* can?"
Xianyue was a whirlwind of confusion, shock, and bewilderment. What Du Xin had presented to her was far more than a mere sensation; it was a complete shattering and reshaping of her worldview.
"The gods? Yes! All of you derive your power from worshipping the Elemental Gods; that is why you are limited to wielding a single element. But I am different from you. My faith lies with the *only* deity who existed at the dawn of creation—the God of Creation!"
Xianyue had inadvertently handed Du Xin the perfect excuse on a silver platter. If something couldn't be explained, he could simply pin it on the gods; after all, in their eyes, the gods were omnipotent.
"But... we used to worship the God of Creation, too! Why, then?"
Xianyue pressed on. As far as she knew, people in the distant past had all worshipped the God of Creation. It was only after the establishment of the Mages' Guild that sorcerers began to venerate the elements and the Elemental Gods—yet even those people of old had been capable of mastering only a single magical force.
"Because I am not like them. I am the Son of God."
In a desperate bid to bring this line of questioning to a swift end, Du Xin felt compelled to fabricate a truly impressive identity for himself. Claiming to be his own son shouldn't cause any major theological issues... right?
"The Son of God?! Does that mean you are the Hero—the one destined to lead humanity in defeating the evil Demonic Dragon?"
"No, the Hero is someone else entirely. I've merely come down here to... well, to complete a mission. The God of Creation is building His Divine Realm, and He requires me to attend to a few matters here in the mortal world."
To prevent Xianyue from dragging him around day after day to preach about defeating the evil dragon, Du Xin quickly assigned himself a different objective. By invoking the divine will of the God of Creation, he successfully deflected the barrage of questions Xianyue was poised to unleash—and only then did she finally fall silent. "If they ask us later, just tell them that I possess a Tier 4 magic scroll, and that the spell cast just now originated from that scroll."
"Why not just say you cast it yourself? Also, since you are the Son of God, why do you possess only the power level of a *Magus*?"
A rapid-fire series of questions poured from Xianyue's lips, leaving Du Xin with no choice but to deflect them by invoking the divine.
"It is the will of the Gods—I am forbidden to speak of it. Furthermore, as recently as half a month ago, I was a complete novice who knew nothing of magic; that is also part of the reason why I lack basic knowledge regarding the magical arts."
Finally, Xianyue accepted Du Xin's explanation; in her view, only a deity could possibly orchestrate such a feat.
The demonic vine continued to burn in the water for well over an hour before finally being extinguished. At one point, it even attempted to clamber ashore to attack the mercenary company, only to be knocked back into the depths by a massive wall of ice conjured by Du Xin.
The intensity of the conflagration caused the water level of the vast lake to drop by nearly half a meter. A thick shroud of mist enveloped the region surrounding Mirror Lake for dozens of kilometers in every direction—obscuring even the sky for several kilometers overhead—and it was not until a full month later that the dense fog finally began to dissipate.
Of course, none of this was of any concern to Du Xin and his companions; by the very next day, they had already traveled beyond the confines of the mist. Just ahead lay the ultimate objective of their expedition: the domain of the *Patterned Wood Beast*.
Towering trees soared hundreds of meters into the heavens. Within the immense primeval forest stretching out before them, trees with trunks nearly ten meters in diameter stood everywhere, forming a breathtaking and awe-inspiring landscape of arboreal peaks.
The forest floor remained steeped in perpetual gloom; the dense canopy, blotting out the very sky, allowed not a single ray of sunlight to penetrate. It was as if this place were the very dominion of darkness itself.
"This is the Forest of the Dark Night, my Lord. How shall we proceed from here? We are ill-suited for combat in such darkness; yet, if we were to light torches or carry lamps powered by magic stones, we would inevitably draw the attention of every magical beast in the vicinity!"
Zhong Shan addressed his inquiry to Du Xin. Previously—thanks to the utility of the *Ice Falcon*—everyone had habitually sought Du Xin's counsel. Now, deep within this primeval forest, the *Ice Falcon* was rendered utterly useless—a fact Du Xin had acknowledged by instructing the bird to wait for them outside the forest's edge. Nevertheless, in the wake of their recent battle, the entire group had come to regard Du Xin as the undisputed core of their team, and thus, they continued to defer to him for every decision. "We're going to retrieve the Patterned Wood Beast; you folks head back now. Follow the path we took to get here—I doubt any magical beasts will fully occupy those areas again anytime soon. Once you're past the territory of the Magic-Patterned Tigers, you'll be safe."
Du Xin spoke calmly, placing a few items into Zhong Shan's hands—most notably, a magic crystal from a Tier 4 magical beast.
"Milord... this? But if we leave, what will become of you and Lady Xian Yue?"
Zhong Shan asked anxiously. This honest, simple-hearted man had long since come to regard Du Xin as a brother; hearing Du Xin speak this way, he assumed Du Xin and his companion simply didn't want to send them to their deaths.
"That's right, Lord Ye Yan! Lady Xian Yue! What are *you* two going to do?"
The other mercenaries chimed in, all trying to dissuade them.
"You needn't worry. I have ways to ensure my survival—I still have plenty of items just like the one I used last night. Oh, and here—this is for you."
As he spoke, Du Xin handed a scroll to Zhong Shan.
"This! Is this... a magic scroll?"
"Indeed. It's a Tier 4 Spatial Magic Scroll! This is far too valuable!"
The surrounding mercenaries held their breath in astonishment. This was a true treasure; the value of this particular scroll far exceeded even that of the Fire Magic Scroll used the previous day—it was a genuine life-saving artifact.
"Milord, I cannot accept this! Our contributions on this expedition haven't come anywhere close to earning the worth of this scroll!"
As he spoke, he tried to push the scroll back, but Du Xin pushed it right back at him.
"Take it. I have plenty of scrolls just like this one—they were all gifts from my mentor. If you encounter danger on your way out, use it. If you make it out safely, sell it to help equip your mercenary troupe; holding onto a scroll like this isn't exactly a good idea for a lone individual."
With those words, Du Xin took the scroll and firmly tucked it into Zhong Shan's tunic.
In the end, the mercenary troupe departed, leaving behind only Du Xin and his companion.