Already on guard, Mobei-Jun spared a hand to catch this treacherous strike. But as he was preoccupied and thus a bit distracted, he let a wisp of demonic energy slip into his palm. This wisp of foreign demonic energy darted about inside Mobei-Jun’s body. Handling it would only split his attention further, and he couldn’t risk growing careless.
Realizing his first strike had succeeded, Linguang-Jun was wild with joy, but before he had the time to advance another step, someone suddenly leapt out at him, dropping down from above.
“At first I wondered how there could be a guard here even after they were all sent away,” Linguang-Jun said coldly. “Aren’t you the one who left seven days ago? What, back to protect your master? You certainly didn’t look this devoted.”
It was fortunate that Shang Qinghua hadn’t been able to see him at first, because as soon as he did, his legs went even weaker. Though Linguang-Jun was quite good-looking, it was that soft-but-treacherous type of good-looking. That pair of peach-blossom eyes flashed with frosty light like poisonous needles. When he smiled, he revealed a hint of ominously pale teeth—the kind that were especially suited to tearing through raw meat.
Shang Qinghua braced himself and stood in front of Mobei-Jun. “First, who said I came back to protect my master? Second, who told you he was my master?”
“Then why are you standing in my way right now?” Linguang-Jun asked.
“I’m kicking him while he’s down!” Shang Qinghua said forcefully. As he continued running his mouth, he pointed a shaking hand at his own face. “Take a look: he beat me into this sorry state. This nephew of yours really has a temper!”
Behind him, Mobei-Jun spat out a mouthful of blood. It was one hundred percent a product of pure anger toward Shang Qinghua.
“In all these years, the ribs I’ve broken could build another Mai Gu Ridge, and I could drown myself in the blood I’ve coughed up,” Shang Qinghua lamented. “Devoted? Toward this kind of person—this kind of demon? Who the fuck could be devoted? After how he’s treated me, if I, Shang Qinghua, could suffer in silence and swallow my anger without retaliation, how could I call myself the An Ding Peak Lord?!”
As Shang Qinghua said this, he absolutely didn’t dare turn back to see Mobei-Jun’s expression. His back was about to freeze over!
Linguang-Jun laughed out loud. “Mobei, do you hear this? I actually feel bad for you—you’re doomed to be sold out and betrayed. How can you command the Mobei clan like this? If we really let you succeed the throne, with your disposition, wouldn’t our clan forever be on the edge of collapse? You should listen to your uncle; relax and hand the important matters to me. Why don’t you just go?”
On the verge of achieving his cherished dream of many years, Linguang-Jun was in a magnanimous mood. He turned to Shang Qinghua and asked generously, “And how do you plan to kick him while he’s down?”
With a chortle, Shang Qinghua activated a fire spell and flung it behind him.
A burst of sizzling heat hit Linguang-Jun directly in the face, and red light danced madly before his eyes. The icy Mobei clan loathed flame more than anything, especially this flame, which appeared not to be mundane fire, but a fire that Shang Qinghua had shamelessly asked Shen Qingqiu to make for him from a few grains of Black Sun Tinder. A few grains of fear were mixed in with Linguang-Jun’s loathing. He swiftly retreated and covered his face, somewhat astonished.
I had no idea that the stupid and cowardly An Ding Peak Lord of rumor was actually such a ruthless character, he thought. I heard that Mobei-Jun was quite good to him. Who would have imagined that this guy was silently enduring it all for so many years?
And the moment he played his hand, he was so vicious—using immortal flame to burn Mobei-Jun alive! It won’t be a simple death either; this fire would probably burn him straight to ashes. If Shang Qinghua had used this spell on Linguang-Jun at that moment, he would also be in quite the sorry state. He shuddered to think that the human might still have a few grains of that fearsome tinder. But whether he had them or not, Mobei-Jun had no hope of survival.
However, once Linguang-Jun was certain in his calculations and straightened his posture to look, he was instantly enraged.
Mobei-Jun hadn’t been devoured by the raging inferno. Instead, he was shielded between clusters of flame. At that moment, Shang Qinghua hadn’t thrown his handful of tinder onto Mobei-Jun’s body, he had drawn a large circle of approximately ten square meters around him. The leaping and dancing Black Sun Immortal Fire encircled the two within.
Though Mobei-Jun couldn’t exit the circle, neither could Linguang-Jun enter. If he attempted a long-distance attack, the fire would melt his ice spells. When he examined it again, this didn’t look like an attack spell at all, but rather—a protective circle!
As he realized that he had been tricked, Linguang-Jun’s face darkened.
The vicious demonic energy that Linguang-Jun had slapped into Mobei-Jun was still running rampant through his entire body and causing him trouble. He had fallen to one knee, face alternating between green and white, unable to spare the effort to give anyone a single glance. Shang Qinghua circled him, flustered, but he couldn’t assist.
At a distance, Linguang-Jun paced around the circle of Black Sun fire, sneering as he walked. “I misspoke earlier. You’re far more than devoted; you’re practically faithful to the core. You’re willing to come back and throw away your life for this disappointing nephew of mine! But I wonder, how long can your circle last?”
These words jabbed Shang Qinghua right in the sore spot.
He had thrown all the tinder Shen Qingqiu had given him in one go, leaving not a single spare splinter. He squatted by Mobei-Jun’s side to frantically, but rather uselessly, cheer him on. “My king, did you hear? He wants to kill me—your uncle wants to kill me! You have to digest it faster. I really don’t know how long this circle will last!”
Suddenly, with a giant crack of splitting stone, icy dust and frost fluttered down from overhead. Shang Qinghua lost his footing, and he swayed a couple of times with the leaping flames. Only then did he see Linguang-Jun remove a hand from one of the pillars in the corridor.
“You thought that if you didn’t come out, I’d have no way to get to you?” he asked.
He planned to collapse the ice fortress and either crush Mobei-Jun to death or bury him alive.
An ominous web of cracks snaked up the ice pillar. With Linguang-Jun’s second strike about to hit, Shang Qinghua said hurriedly, “Coming, coming—I’m coming right now!”