Lightning Element, Intermediate Level!

"I'm standing right here. Come and get me."

Mo Fan didn't advance — he held his ground at a distance.

"By all means, try. But with that pathetic Magical Energy of yours, barely scraping Intermediate Level, you could throw every last Blazing Fist you have and still never crack my Water Bounty Shield. Take a good look at that woman — she's already caught in my Evil Spider Snare. Give it a little while longer and she'll end up just like those other four: every drop of life drained out of her."

Even gravely wounded, Chao He remained a dangerous beast, despite the visceral agony tearing through his insides.

Mo Fan glanced at Teacher Tang Yue. Around her body, faint threads of black silk had appeared — barely visible, yet unmistakably there. They coiled around her like a second skin, seeming almost ready to bore beneath it. The resemblance to what had happened to the four Dongfang Clan men was unmistakable.

*This man factored Tang Yue into his calculations from the very beginning. And however he managed to trap her in his curse without her noticing... he's something else entirely.*

"You think using my beautiful teacher's life as leverage will work on me? Truth be told, I'm a coward — I don't throw my life away for nothing. So if you kill her, I'm not surrendering either way. Which means..." Mo Fan called out from his position. "How about this: I won't try to blast through your Water Bounty Shield. You lift the curse and let her go. The Fire Element Spirit Seed is yours. The Dongfang Clan members' belongings come to me. Deal?"

Chao He blinked.

*Could he admit that this was exactly what he'd been thinking?*

Honestly, whether the Water Bounty Shield could actually hold against four or five consecutive Blazing Fists was far from certain. Even if it held, his organs would be pulverized in the process.

Losing a Tribunal Agent as breathtakingly stunning as Tang Yue was genuinely painful — but if he could still claim the Fire Element Spirit Seed, the entire purpose of this operation was accomplished. This was a trade Chao He would absolutely accept.

The only thing that nagged at him was having the other side propose it first. It almost suggested the boy wasn't exactly a decent person either. Why else would they be so perfectly in sync?

"The Spirit Seed isn't the only thing you'll be walking away with tonight, is it?" Chao He gave a lascivious smirk, sliding his gaze toward the Tribunal Agent whose cheeks had flushed a deep crimson.

"Then that's a yes. Pleasure doing business."

"Not so fast. I still have the curse under my control — I won't let it progress to the point of taking her life. But I need time to refine the Rose Flame first. Once that's done, you can take her and go."

"And how do I know you won't come for her the moment you're finished?"

"Binding a curse to a life-soul takes time — you can verify that with her yourself. Of course, if you spend that time trying to smash my Water Bounty Shield with Blazing Fists, I guarantee she'll be dead before you land the last one. Relax. When it comes to business, I always keep my word."

The curse did need time to bind to a life-soul. Right now, Chao He wanted nothing more than to grab the Rose Flame and disappear — the last thing he needed was this kid deciding his beautiful teacher's life wasn't worth protecting and just blasting him outright. In that scenario, he could still end up dead on this very spot.

And the longer this dragged on, the greater the chance that others would arrive. Light Element and Mind Element Mages in particular were his nightmare — his curse traps were nearly worthless against them.

"A deranged murderer with a code of honor. Honestly, that's a little embarrassing for a fine, upstanding young mage like me."

Mo Fan confirmed with Tang Yue how long the curse had before it claimed her life — and read enough from Chao He's manner to be certain that the Water Bounty Shield was his only remaining card.

"What did you just say?"

"Nothing. Only — who said I have to use Fire Element?"

From within the treeline, Mo Fan's voice dropped into something cold and iron-hard.

In that same instant, at his feet, brilliant violet Star Trails of lightning began to weave and intertwine. They strained against every restraint, hungry to become the force that gathered in his palm — to bring every living thing before them to its knees.

The Lightning Element Star Chart Book was not fast to invoke. But Mo Fan had bought himself more than enough time through his "friendly negotiations" with Chao He.

Chao He had sensed through Mental Intent that Mo Fan was a barely-Intermediate Mage — had even confirmed that he'd never undergone a Second Awakening. What Chao He could never have imagined was that Mo Fan had already possessed Dual Elements from his very first Awakening.

When the savage, ungovernable force of thunder erupted through the treeline, the shock on Chao He's face was total.

Water Bounty Shield was highly effective against Intermediate-Level Fire Element magic. But against Lightning Element — it was nothing but a prop. Lightning conducts straight through water.

The Lightning Element Star Chart Book had appeared, and now it was too late for Chao He to run. He didn't even have time to bind the curse to Tang Yue's life-soul. He had been given no time at all.

Against any other element, Chao He might have had a fighting chance. But Lightning, given the wreck of his body and that useless Water Bounty Shield as his only trump card —

If one had to describe what was running through Chao He's mind in that moment, it was exactly what had run through Mo Fan's mind only a short while ago: *You have got to be kidding me. How does someone just naturally have Dual Elements?*

Lightning — first among the elements.

Even its Basic-Level skills hit three times as hard and rage three times as wild as their counterparts. At Intermediate Level, Lightning remained the most brutal and domineering force of all.

If the Rock Army Enchanted Armor were still intact, he would have had nothing to fear. Now, it felt like the end of the world.

"Thunderbolt: Overhead Strike."

Mo Fan spoke the incantation in a flat, cold voice and thrust one finger toward the sky.

A single purple bolt split the air without warning, its massive form letting out a sharp, piercing shriek as it tore downward toward Chao He where he stood in the pit below.

Lightning arrives without herald. A true bolt from the blue — in the most literal sense imaginable.

The moment the strike landed, the already-cratered earth around Chao He instantly collapsed and crumbled outward from the epicenter.

As for Chao He himself, standing directly beneath it — his entire body simply ceased to hold its shape.

**BOOM.**

In the detonating roar, Chao He was obliterated by the lightning's savage force. A spray of blood bloomed outward, vivid and horrifying.

The bolt had been so fast, so total, that the destruction was almost clean. Lightning reduced him to fragments so fine they no longer resembled anything human — more like a crimson mist scattering on the wind than any trace of what had once been the deranged murderer, Chao He.

Whether it was the Intermediate-Level Wind Element Wind Disk: Tornado or the Fire Element Blazing Fist: Heaven Shatter — both spells had their unmistakable buildup. One evacuated the air in a sudden rush; the other announced itself with rolling waves of heat. The Intermediate-Level Lightning spell had none of that.

A finger. A bolt.

Simple. Brutal.

The Water Bounty Shield had been utterly, completely, embarrassingly useless.

Chao He died too suddenly for fear. Too suddenly for pain. His body had dissolved into a blood-rain while his soul was likely still standing there, bewildered — no longer able to savour the sight of the exquisite Tribunal Agent, no longer able to elevate his flame to Spirit Grade, no longer able to indulge any ambition or cruelty. He didn't even have time to feel resentment toward the boy with natural Dual Elements who had killed him.