Versatile Mage

Chapter 357: Ecdysis

Translator: Exodus Tales Editor: Exodus Tales

{Ed. Note: Google it}

Mo Fan fell into deep thought.

Zhan Kong had decided not to reveal to the public that he was still alive, as a precaution against the Black Vatican.

However, if the Black Vatican were trying hard to get rid of him, it would only be a matter of time until they found out the truth.

Mo Fan was bewildered. What did those assholes from the Black Vatican want? Was it the Underground Holy Spring, or the secret of the Totem Beast?

Having this thought, Mo Fan discovered a lovely painting on the wall. It had a gigantic snake that was tall enough to reach the roughly drawn layer of clouds...

Under the gigantic snake was a little creature. It was tiny like an earthworm comparing to the snake. Mo Fan could not help but crack out, “So, this Skyscraping Snake has a little baby, too. It looks rather cute.”

Tangyue followed his finger and said with a smile, “The baby you’re mentioning is the Skyscraping Snake itself.”

“F**k me, what is the thing above it then?” Mo Fan almost wet his pants.

The Skyscraping Snake definitely had the most shocking size that Mo Fan had ever seen before. If it were cloudy, it could easily connect the ground to the sky.

Meanwhile, in the wall painting, the snake in it was more than ten times bigger! Wouldn’t it be shrouding the Heavens!?

“I don’t know either. It was drawn by people in ancient times. Maybe it’s just a wild imagination, that there exists some god that the Skyscraping Snake worships. It lives up above in the sky, and its size is even crazier...” answered Tangyue.

Even their tribe possessed lots of the ancient legends that they could not explain today. After all, it was rather common for the knowledge being passed on to be lost somewhere.

Mo Fan also agreed that it was a mere imagination. Otherwise, if such a gigantic beast were real, he should go to Mars instead. Earth was too dangerous for him.

—-

Suddenly, he heard a deep roar that could penetrate into one’s soul, extremely close to the lake!

Mo Fan began to tremble. He stared at his Miss Tangyue in disbelief.

“Dont...don’t tell me... it’s right here!” Mo Fan’s expression became weird.

Mo Fan now believed Tangyue’s words. Things like totem beasts were discussed in their History textbooks. However, whenever Mo Fan recalled how it could appear out of nowhere, he could still remember the overwhelming fear. The next thing he knew, he was soaked in cold sweat.

“Mm, it’s right there.” Tangyue pointed outside.

“Miss Tangyue, why don’t we discuss this somewhere else, let’s go to your place,” said Mo Fan.

“Hehe, you don’t need to be so scared of it, it doesn’t bite. Should I bring you closer so you can befriend it?” Tangyue could not stop giggling.

“No, no thanks. I’ll let you worship your own god. I’m an outsider, I’m sure that your god doesn’t like my accent,” said Mo Fan sternly.

“Alright, I had my fun. It indeed lives here at the West Lake, but you won’t find it even if you dug three meters deep into the bottom,” said Tangyue.

“Why is that?”

“It has been hibernating in the seal of the Three Pools Mirroring the Moon, but probably around the time when the Black Vatican went to Shanghai to trouble you, the seal of the Three Pools Mirroring the Moon became unstable, allowing it to appear in Hangzhou or the lake as it wished.” Tangyue brought Mo Fan out to a place where they could see the Three Pools Mirroring the Moon.

With a glance, Mo Fan could see three stone statues that looked like cauldrons standing on the surface of the water. It was likely that they were supported by extremely long beams under the water.

They were positioned in a special triangular formation, with equal distance between them. The cauldrons had a small flame flickering inside them, which appeared as a reflection on the surface of the water.

“It has the Eyes of Terror, which plant a Seed of Terror in living things that are weaker than it. The seed will grow deep within the soul, and the prey won’t know that it has grown into a giant tree. When the prey sees the snake again, it will drop to its knees subconsciously, overwhelmed with fear. Its prey would not have the courage to oppose it,” Tangyue explained his condition to him.

“I think so too. Only a woman like Miss Tangyue is able to stop me from sleeping. Any other demon beast won’t be able to do that,” Mo Fan chuckled to pretend that he was relaxed.

“Smooth tongue!” Tangyue rolled her eyes at Mo Fan.

Tangyue had taught Mo Fan the way to overcome the fear. It was fairly simple. As he meditated, when the snake’s face appeared, he would have to insist on staring at it without altering his gaze. As long as he overcame the fear once, the Seed of Fear would no longer sprout. Otherwise, he would be trapped in the nightmare forever, losing his inner peace.

—

Mo Fan went off to make his attempt. It sounded fairly simple from Tangyue’s explanation, but it was not the case when trying to do it. Even though he was only confronting the fear in his Spiritual World, he was still soaked with cold sweat.

However, the effect was instantaneous. The fear soon disappeared, just like the sweat that had evaporated on the wind.

As the fear disappeared, Mo Fan felt like paying the so-called ‘god’ a visit now.

On second thought, he decided not to take the risk. Maybe it was actually not fond of outsiders. It would be a disaster to him if it ended up implanting some spiritual haze in his soul.

—

“I thought I could find out the reason why it showed itself in the city from you, so we could take some precautions. It turned out that you’re as lost as we are, ” said Tangyue as she was taking a walk.

“Please, I don’t think I can be any help for things at that level,” said Mo Fan.

“Why, don’t you want to help me?” Tangyue blinked her eyes.

“It’s not that I don’t want... wait, since when did I say I’m helping you?” Mo Fan was startled.

“When you agreed to come. I tell you the secret, and you’ll help me with something that has been a headache to me for quite some time.” Tangyue opened her eyes wide. It was a mature, glamorous face, but yet she pretended to be naive.

“...” Mo Fan was left speechless.

As a matter of fact, he felt like he was being tricked here! It felt like Tangyue was already planning her trick when she asked him here and decided to tell him the secret...

“Tell me then, what is it that you need?” asked Mo Fan with a wry smile.

“The god needs to go through ecdysis every ten years, and the next cycle will be happening fairly soon. The Head of the Magic Court and Heiyu has made me responsible for it, and asked me to choose a few outstanding candidates. During the ecdysis, the god will be extremely weak. It’s the only weakness that the god has, thus its natural enemy or those with evil thoughts will try to make use of this opportunity to target it. Prior to the ecdysis, it will be fairly sensitive. It will go berserk as long as it detects a slight threat, which is the main reason why it appeared in the center of the city. Normally, if we don’t open the seal, it wouldn’t show itself,” said Tangyue.

============

Ed. Note : We’ll skip over the scene where Mo Fan pulls out his phone to look up what ecdysis is, too.