Chapter 275 : Chapter 275
Chapter 275. Breaking Through
“Guest, entry beyond this point is forbidden.”
When Fulan reached a purple gate on the artificial mountain, the two stone statues at the entrance came to life.
They were statues of two knights. Each gripped the greatsword that seemed to have been embedded in its pedestal and raised it high. Their eyes glowed with a cyan light, like glass spheres.
As the two knight statues moved, Fulan could see a layer of silver spread across their stone skin, as though it had turned the color of white silver.
The two knights raised their greatswords and held them directly before the purple gate, making it clear that Fulan was not allowed to take another step forward.
Fulan did not move for the moment either, because she knew that the Lord of Radiance was about to inflict some negative effects on the two statues. Once that happened, attacking them would be far easier.
Besides, if she started fighting rashly now, would she not just be drawing attention to herself? What if her short sword had not even been recovered yet...
At the same time, Fulan was also observing the strength of the two statues. They were around four meters tall, and they likely possessed some special defensive mechanism. Judging from the force with which they raised their greatswords...
These two statues should have some special blessings from the Spirit Realm. Fulan could see spell-light on them similar to that of Spirit Realm spells.
Their strength should be far greater than that of ordinary First-Tier Professionals, about on the level of a First-Tier Lord, though still nowhere near the Second Tier.
If it were the Fulan from before she had advanced to the Second Tier, dealing with these two statues might have cost her several spells, since they were stone statues with fairly high defense.
But for the current Fulan, who had already reached the Second Tier, they were a trivial matter. She only needed a First-Tier spell strengthened by her mental power to deal with them easily.
In secret, Fulan began channeling [Elemental Radiance], waiting for the Lord of Radiance to make His move.
The two statues had no intelligence. They would only act according to their prior instructions. Still, following those instructions, they had already notified the Emerald Market’s security forces.
Their eyes shone with cyan light as they stared at Fulan, making no unnecessary movements.
Just then, a voice came from the distance.
“Guest, please move away from there immediately. That is a restricted area. Guests are not permitted to enter...”
Before the speaker could finish, a violent noise erupted from the sky. The security guard who had come running looked up at the sound and saw a scene that left him speechless.
The barrier that required a pass permit to cross was being covered from above by a layer of white light, and that white light was spreading across the entire barrier at astonishing speed.
In only three seconds, before the security guard could even grasp what had happened, the white light had covered the whole barrier.
At that point, he could no longer see the familiar low buildings of the Emerald Market through the transparent barrier.
It was as though the entire central district had become a sphere thrown into water filled with blinding white radiance. The light was so piercing that the security guard could hardly keep his eyes open.
At that moment, the two statues before Fulan moved, not because they were launching an attack, but because they had been struck.
Crack!
A crisp sound like shattering glass rang out, and white light flared from different parts of the two statues.
The left statue’s left leg lit up, and then the entire leg dropped away, separating from the rest of the body. The statue lost its balance and crashed down to one knee.
As for the statue on the right, the arm that had not been holding the greatsword suddenly exploded. The severed arm slammed heavily onto the ground, kicking up a cloud of dust, and the entire statue staggered as its body abruptly lost weight.
The instant the light appeared, Fulan released [Elemental Radiance]. She also used Aether to reinforce the spell slightly.
Fulan still had only beginner-level proficiency with this Second-Tier spell, so she was not very skilled in using it yet. But this was already more than enough.
For this activation of Elemental Radiance, Fulan chose the fire element. Under the influence of the spell, she could feel her mental power being steadily consumed.
And as a Second-Tier Elemental Mage, she could sharply sense that the other elements in the air were weakening, while the fire element had become exceptionally active.
“Flame Ray!”
Fulan immediately cast a fire-element spell. Thanks to the Battle Mage Corps’ optimized version, this Flame Ray could be cast instantly as long as she expended a little additional mental power.
Several crimson beams carved burning trails through the air as they shot straight toward the statue that had lost an arm.
Two beams pierced through the statue’s chest, while one struck directly across the bridge of its nose.
After receiving the enhancement from the fire element saturating the environment, the power of Fulan’s spell underwent a qualitative leap.
The silver-white outer surface of the statue was like paper. The three beams punched straight through it and struck the ground behind, blasting several deep pits into the earth.
The statue that had been pierced straight through lost all light in its eyes and toppled backward, shattering into several pieces.
“The power really is excellent.”
Fulan looked at the traces left by the Flame Ray she had just cast, feeling thoroughly satisfied.
With the active fire elements in the environment and the added blessing of Dragon Flame, the power of that Flame Ray was probably already comparable to an ordinary Second-Tier spell.
If even this First-Tier spell she had cast was this strong, she did not dare imagine what would happen if she released a strengthened Second-Tier spell.
Just then, Fulan suddenly heard the air howling. She looked up and saw a giant sword spinning through the air.
It was the statue that had lost its leg and fallen to the ground. It had directly thrown the greatsword in its hand, then grabbed the greatsword of its fallen companion with its other hand.
Fulan saw the spinning greatsword flying toward her, but she showed no panic. She leapt to the side and dodged the attack by the narrowest of margins.
This kind of reckless attack, launched without even adjusting its stance properly, was something Fulan could evade with ease.
And that statue was now using its greatsword as support, trying to climb back to its feet.
Fulan gave it no such opportunity. Still in midair, she began channeling Great Fireball, and the moment she landed, she hurled the fireball out directly.
By the time the fireball struck it, the statue had not yet managed to stand. Its body was far too clumsy and had already lost the integrity of its limbs. How could it possibly get up that quickly?
Fulan had aimed for the statue’s head, but in the process of struggling on the ground, it raised its body slightly, causing its neck to take the hit instead.
Boom!
The statue’s neck exploded on the spot, breaking into several chunks that scattered across the ground.
Its head lost its cyan glow, and its eyes likewise lost their glassy sheen, turning into the appearance of emerald instead.
After dealing with the statues, Fulan lifted her gaze and scanned the surroundings, but she could not find the security guard who had tried to stop her just now.
“There’s no time. Forget him. Just move.”
Fulan did not have the time to deal with that guard, nor did she need to. All she had to do was leave.
Five minutes after Fulan’s footsteps had gone, a figure finally crawled out from behind a broken piece of one of the statues.
He looked around fearfully, and only after failing to spot Fulan did he let out a sigh of relief.
He was a Spirit Realm lifeform. If Fulan had really killed him, then just resurrecting would have cost him two years of work for nothing.
Faced with an enemy like that, there was absolutely no way he would risk his life charging forward.
He only earned that little Spirit Crystal salary every month, and there was not even any resurrection subsidy. Why would he risk his life for that?!
---
After passing through the purple gate, Fulan encountered several waves of interception.
Some were groups of monster-shaped creatures made of emerald. Their eyes were covered by a layer of light, and they could not clearly see their surroundings at all, so Fulan dealt with them very easily.
Others were groups of human-shaped figures made of emerald, a squad equipped for both ranged and close combat.
There were shield soldiers carrying large shields in the front to absorb damage, and behind them were emerald mages waving emerald staves.
But after Fulan split open a shield soldier’s shield in a single blow with Sunflame, she directly used spells to kill all the emerald figures in the rear.
Yet none of the security forces caused Fulan any trouble, and during her advance, she never encountered a single Second-Tier defensive force.
She did not know whether the Lord of Radiance had directly dealt with those Second-Tier defenders, or whether there had been none to begin with.
But none of that mattered. After defeating four waves of intercepting enemies, Fulan finally followed the map the Lord of Radiance had previously scouted out and arrived at the room where the auction goods were stored.
At that moment, the storeroom door no longer bore the blessing of the Spirit Realm. Faint points of light lingered around the handle. Fulan placed her hand on it and pushed gently, and the door opened.
The instant the door opened, Fulan saw her own purple short sword. It seemed that because the weapon had only just been placed into storage, it had been set in the position nearest the entrance.
Fulan went straight over, reached out with her right hand toward where the short sword was placed, and took it into her hand at once.
“At least I didn’t lose this short sword.”
Fulan inspected it carefully, and only after finding not the slightest sign of damage did she finally relax.
Then she turned her gaze toward the other parts of the storeroom, where many weapons and pieces of equipment had been piled away.
“I’ll just take a few things and leave.”
That was what Fulan thought.
In truth, there was nothing especially valuable in this storeroom. Truly valuable things, such as those worthy of being called featured auction lots, did not stay in storage for long before being bought.
At this point in time, the most valuable object here was probably the purple short sword in Fulan’s hand.
And Fulan had not even brought a large bag to carry these things away. She had come here for Spirit Crystals in the first place, and those Spirit Crystals were being transported by the believers. She only needed to recover her own things.
So after making a brief selection, she took seven or eight weapons that were easy to carry and tied them to her body, along with several special metal materials.
“All right, time to go. That fellow said that once I pass through the central district’s barrier, that’s enough.”
Carrying those things, Fulan retraced her path. Since she moved quickly, she encountered no further interception inside and made it all the way out of the artificial mountain.
“See? I told you someone would steal something!”
Fulan saw the figures of two people wearing the priestly robes of the Church of the Goddess of the Currents. They had already assumed battle stances, and they did not seem friendly at all.