Chapter 693: Chapter 340: Have You Ever Seen Snowfall?
When Ronan broke away from the battle space of the second duel and returned to the crystal room for viewing, he found that there was already another person in the room.
Valentine from the "Fungal Mycelium Society" and Heliodor were glaring at each other like two roosters filled with fighting spirit, glaring big eyes at one another, the force fields belonging to Level 5 Wizards were unfolding recklessly, and the room was filled with a "sword-drawn-and-bow-bent" atmosphere.
Seeing Ronan’s return, the tense atmosphere in the room gradually calmed down.
Valentine gave him a faint glance and then unceremoniously sat down in the spot that originally belonged to him, showing no intention of leaving.
Ronan didn’t need to ask to guess why Valentine had suddenly appeared.
He never expected that, in order to win his bet with Valentine, Heliodor would come up with the "bad idea" of bribing his opponent to help him win.
According to Sigel’s account, Heliodor promised quite a lot of benefits through someone else, clearly showing Heliodor’s firm "determination" to win this wager.
Time slowly advanced, and the third round of the duel began.
Heliodor routinely asked him for his opponent’s name, and Ronan hesitated for a moment but still reported the name to Heliodor.
This duel ended even faster.
Ronan had barely entered the battle space when he immediately came out again.
Because....
His opponent simply didn’t show up!
It is said that because he had an important experiment reaching a critical point, he voluntarily forfeited and hurried back to oversee it.
Ronan couldn’t comment on this.
From afar, he could sense two Level 5 consciousness fluctuations intensely interacting in the room, as if engaging in a fierce "fight," with Valentine occasionally casting knife-like cold and scrutinizing glances at him.
Ronan shook his head and simply did not go in. Instead, he found a random spot on the sidelines to stand.
He had never seen a duel selection as "childish" as the Deep Sea one, and after three rounds, the number of wizards in the field had drastically decreased.
Most of the wizards participating in the selection seemed to have already gained their own sense of "participation," indulging in the "craving" for spell duels that they hadn’t experienced in a long time, and calmly returned to the "audience seats" to formally enjoy the lively atmosphere brought about by this selection.
Some who were clearly promoted wizards even voluntarily forfeited.
In the fourth round of dueling, the Light Ball "spat out" by the Flame Tower projection numbered only five.
Ronan squinted his eyes to count; at this moment, only about a dozen wizards remained on the field.
The Spirit Lake Ring went slightly warm, and Ronan picked it up to check, but unexpectedly saw no opponent’s name.
Instead, there was a force pulling and dragging him to fly towards the field.
As the fourth round of dueling began, the rules seemed to change.
All the remaining dozen or so selection-involved wizards gathered in the center, standing staggered around the five Light Balls of different hues.
Across the Light Ball, directly opposite Ronan, was Misha, with dazzling blue to golden short hair.
The force field around Misha was completely released, wantonly squeezing those around him, and he attracted many people’s attention from the sidelines.
Suddenly, Ronan saw Misha smiling towards him, his lips moving as if saying something to him.
Before he could figure out the message Misha was trying to convey, Misha abruptly spread his hands to the sides, his cheeks facing the high-hanging "Deep Knowledge Crown" above, adopting a hugging posture, and then forcefully "pulled" the two wizards to his left and right, diving into a Light Ball amid their unprepared, panic-stricken expressions with laughter.
In the blink of an eye, cheers and applause erupted from one side of the Crystal Palace outside the field, and the atmosphere suddenly became lively.
"Is the rule of the fourth round of the duel to choose opponents arbitrarily..."
Ronan pressed his lips together and suddenly felt a gaze full of "malice" fall on him. Following the direction of the gaze, he saw, in the distance, in front of a crystal room, Heather with her arms crossed, sneering at him.
Immediately, the two wizards to his left suddenly swapped positions, and a powerful spiritual field belonging to a Level 5 covered him. The next second, the Light Ball before his eyes suddenly burst into absorbing light.
......
"I won!"
In the crystal room, Heliodor contentedly stood up from his seat, clapped his hands, and looked at Valentine beside him with a face full of unabashed pride and complacency.
Valentine remained expressionless, body seemingly nailed to the chair, unmoving.
"Do you feel proud of employing such despicable means to get your disciple into the fourth round?"
"The illustrious president of the Fungal Mycelium Society, renowned Valentine, can’t handle losing either..."
Heliodor mocked: "The content of our bet was to see whose disciple could win more bouts in the second stage of dueling, but there was no specification on the means of victory. As far as I know, Fulensa was already eliminated in the third round...
Valentine, you’ve ultimately lost."
Valentine remained silent, only speaking slowly after a moment: "Heliodor, I admit, you are no longer the loser who used to hold a sunflower tied with red ribbon and secretly cried under the concentric tree..."
"Shut up! I told you, don’t bring up that matter again!..."
Valentine’s words seemed to touch a forbidden topic for Heliodor, who angrily almost jumped in place, his gaunt face turning red.
"Fine, won’t mention it."
Valentine tugged at his lips, looking up at Heliodor with a hint of mockery.
Then he slowly began to speak: "But your joy might be premature, I am not considered defeated yet..."
"What do you mean?"
Heliodor frowned, loudly saying: "Valentine, are you trying to renege on our bet."
"Do you think everyone is like you?"
Heliodor sneered once, and then said blandly: "You also said, our bet was to see whose disciple could win more bouts in the second stage of selection.
Even though Fulensa has been eliminated, I still have a disciple who hasn’t left the field yet..."
"Besides that boy Fulensa, where did you get a second disciple?"
"Just before the fourth round of the duel began, I just accepted one."
"Damn it!"
Heliodor could not help jumping up, pointing at Valentine for a bout of cursing: "Valentine, you have the nerve to criticize me, you’re more shameless than I am!"
In the blink of an eye, roles reversed, Valentine stood up with hearty laughter.
"The bet did not stipulate that you couldn’t bribe opponents to win, nor did it stipulate that you couldn’t accept a disciple on the spot!
Rest assured, Heliodor, the strength of my new disciple isn’t considered strong. Once this round of duel is over, it’ll probably be finished. We’ll likely end in a draw, with no concern for winning or losing.
However, if I didn’t see wrongly earlier, your treasured disciple’s opponent in this round seems to be Dorian...
You probably don’t know, but that fellow is notorious among Level 5 wizards for taking pleasure in tormenting others.
Your treasured disciple has caught Dorian’s attention...
Valentine shook his head, speaking with a face full of sympathy and regret: "Perhaps you should prepare some potions in advance to soothe his physical and mental traumas. You’re the best at configuring magic potions, aren’t you..."
"Damn it!"
Upon hearing this, Heliodor’s face turned drastically, cursing through gritted teeth, then quickly rushed out of the Crystal Room and took out a pile of communication tools with a whoosh, starting to contact them one by one.
........
The sky was gray, seeming to threaten rain at any moment.
Below was decaying ground, scattered chaotically with broken tombstones and such.
The air was filled with the stench of rot and coldness, fitting for a setting where Dark Department wizards could thrive.
Ronan glanced around briefly before finally setting his gaze on his opponent standing before him.
Not far from him stood a strange figure wrapped in bandages from head to toe.
Some dark yellow pus seeped through the bandages, and the skin exposed in the gaps was covered in festering marks.
Behind the bandages on his face, a bloodshot eye stared fixedly at Ronan, resembling a leprosy patient with a mental disorder.
It’s hard to imagine such a bizarre and terrible Level 5 wizard existing within the Deep Sea Faction.
"Creek Creek—"
The mouth of the leprosy-like Level 5 wizard seemed to continuously chew on something.
Ronan looked at him, then spoke: "Dorian.hu..."
"Someone wants me to lose to you in this duel!"
Before Ronan finished his words, the fearsome-looking Level 5 wizard interrupted him.
Ronan paused, feeling greatly surprised.
Is Heliodor starting to exert his power again?
He admitted that he underestimated Heliodor. To stand on the field at this moment already surprised many, considering he appeared as only a newly advanced Level 4 Early Stage.
It would seem Heliodor and Valentine’s wager should have won, yet Heliodor is still paving the way for him.
This little old man didn’t tell him the truth. Could it be that Heliodor and Valentine were betting on him reaching the final stage of the second round?
While Ronan was puzzled, the Level 5 wizard named Dorian spoke again.
"...But someone else wants me to give you a good lesson in this duel."
"Eh?"
Ronan paused, quickly recalling Heather’s cold smile full of meaning before he entered.
He remained silent for a moment, then spoke: "Who do you intend to listen to then?"
"You fool."
Dorian abruptly stopped his chewing action, revealing a crooked smile under the bandages, exposing a mouth full of jagged black and yellow rotten teeth.
"These two demands don’t conflict, haven’t you noticed?"
"I can completely give you a deep lesson first and then let you win the duel!"
"Haha..."
After finishing, Dorian laughed bizarrely, producing a blood-drenched frog as if it had been skinned from somewhere, twisting off its head, and then stuffing the entire headless frog into his mouth voraciously.
In an instant, the entire dark energy in this space converged towards Dorian.
The massive Level 5 force field suddenly expanded, like a distorted halo in black and purple.
Dorian’s whole body expanded rapidly as the bandages burst one by one, revealing a rough and grotesque body, covered in massive pustules.
In a flash, he transformed into an ugly giant toad as large as a small hill, emitting black and purple smoke, with four sparkling crystals flashing atop his head.
"Whoosh—"
Dorian opened his wide mouth full of jagged teeth, spewing out a foul wind imbued with corrosive power, with a deep purple tongue lashing out like a whip.
At this moment, his terrifying aura nearly filled the entire combat space, while the voice emanating from his abdomen sounded muffled, like thunder.
"Kid, don’t blame me..
Treasure every moment that follows; it will be the most unforgettable period of your life."
Once said, Dorian’s unnaturally strong limbs smacked the ground fiercely, causing the earth to crack. He charged towards Ronan like a mysterious black cloud engulfed in incomparable terror.
The terrifying gale lift Ronan’s robe hem and his shoulder-length, spider silk-white hair.
Ronan appeared unperturbed by Dorian’s inflicted terror.
He raised his head, squinting at the gloomy, oppressive sky, and whispered: "Have you ever seen snow?"
"Hmm?!"
The enormous toad-transformed Dorian leapt to a high point, with the deep purple tongue and massive body poised to slam down heavily, pausing slightly upon hearing the voice from below.
"In the dark, damp, foul-smelling depths where you live..."
Ronan extended a hand, a pale fingertip gently lifting a delicately exquisite snowflake.
"Have you ever seen...falling snow?"
Upon saying this, Ronan’s serene pupils suddenly turned into a pure ice blue.
He calmly extended his fingers forward, a slice that seemed to rip open the void like a pocket from which mysterious momentum poured out overwhelmingly.
Simultaneously, the sky above, dim and profound, seemed like it was slashed abruptly, revealing a long deep blue fissure, the dark clouds breaking open..