Two months later, Kai glided above the Dark Shadow Holy Tower's territory on his metal disc, still hunting for "prey." After three months of roaming this land, his name had finally echoed through every corner of the Dark Shadow domain. Titles likeGolden Mask,Golden Fiend,Butcher, andExecutionerwere whispered among the Dark Shadow's Intermediate and Low-Rank Apprentices—all names for him.
More than once, Dark Shadow's Senior and higher-ranked Apprentices had tried to ambush and surround Kai, but he'd detected them in advance with his crystal ball. Not only did he evade their traps, but he'd turned the tables, striking when they let their guard down or strayed alone—unleashing another wave of bloodshed each time.
"Wisdom truly is the key to a magician's success," Kai murmured after a recent battle, calmly wiping blood from his arm. "Strength is just a facade, secondary at best." Before him lay three Dark Shadow corpses: one Quasi-Magician and two Senior Apprentices. The Quasi-Magician was the strongest opponent Kai had faced since entering the trial space. Beyond summoning two shadow attendants to aid him, the man wielded dark and shadow magic—an unfamiliar, twisted branch of dark magic—that was notoriously .
Kai never learned the Quasi-Magician's name. If he hadn't caught the man off guard with a surprise attack, a fair fight might have ended very differently—especially with two Senior Apprentices backing the Quasi-Magician.
In truth, the Quasi-Magician was Willis, a top prodigy of the Dark Shadow Holy Tower. His status and reputation matched that of Daniel (ranked 1) and Anna (ranked 2) on the Blue Source Holy Tower's combat list. Willis's death was no accident: he'd come for Kai. After hearing how Kai had wreaked havoc in Dark Shadow territory—killing the "Necromancer" Krump and sabotaging the Lanxi Grass Large Resource Point—Willis, as Dark Shadow's star apprentice, couldn't let him go unpunished. He'd even orchestrated the previous ambushes on Kai.
But Willis was overconfident. He'd guessed Kai could detect large-scale traps, so he'd brought only two Senior Apprentices, hoping to lure Kai out as bait. Kai had taken the bait—but Willis never got the backup he'd expected. Worse, Willis had shown off his power too soon: summoning shadow attendants and unleashing his 诡 magic. Kai had responded with six Eye of the Sun beams, followed by twelve more in quick succession.
The two Senior Apprentices could have fled, but they'd frozen—either stunned by Kai's strength or desperate to save Willis. By the time Kai finished Willis off in seconds, it was too late for them to run.
The deaths of three more high-ranked Dark Shadow Apprentices only amplified Kai's infamy. Two days later, when other Dark Shadow Apprentices found Willis's body, one Senior Apprentice paled and whispered, "That thing is more evil than the demons our mentors warned us about."
"We don't stand a chance! Even Willis is dead!"
"Quit spouting nonsense!" another Senior Apprentice snapped, though his pale face betrayed his fear. "We have over 15,000 apprentices in Dark Shadow! Are we just gonna let one Blue Source rat bully us?"
"What if he picks us off one by one?" a third Apprentice said quietly. "For two months now, he's targeted stragglers—mostly Senior or higher-ranked ones."
His words drained the room of energy. Dark Shadow had more apprentices than Blue Source—1.5 times as many high-ranked ones. But if Kai kept killing them, Dark Shadow would lose an entire generation of top talent. Had the last war's anomaly (Martinez) been followed by another monster from Blue Source this time?
"Polly the Death Maiden! We can ask her to lead us against him!" a still-fighting Apprentice shouted. Polly, another Dark Shadow prodigy, matched Willis in fame and power. She specialized in necromancy, summoning two quasi-rank undead creatures at once and enhancing them with magic.
"Wake up! Polly can't even find him, let alone kill him!" someone retorted. "We need to stick together—pair up with Intermediate and Low-Rank Apprentices. If we're in groups of over a hundred, he won't dare attack."
"Learn from the Lanxi Grass disaster!" added another. "When we take resource points, assign guards to watch for ambushes."
Most agreed. High-ranked Apprentices could no longer roam alone; they now hid among lower-ranked crowds. The last holdout, still muttering about revenge, suddenly trembled and chased after the group. "Wait for me!"
North of Dark Shadow Territory
After days of failing to find opportunities in Dark Shadow territory, Kai finally decided to move on. Too many Dark Shadow Apprentices were grouping up, and they'd developed ways to communicate—leaving him no openings.
"What a shame," he sighed. "I can't take resource points alone, or that would be a fortune. Oh well—north it is. Isn't that the Thunder Shine Holy Tower's territory?"
Thunder Shine's territory was larger than both Blue Source's and Dark Shadow's, with more resource points and stronger exotic creatures—fitting, since Thunder Shine was more powerful than the other two. Its strength lay not just in numbers, but in the overall quality and skill of its apprentices.
Yet when Kai entered Thunder Shine's territory, he found most resource points already occupied. Nearly four months had passed since the war began, and by tradition, that was enough time for the two "elder" Holy Towers—Earth Academy and Thunder Shine—to claim all their internal resource points. Weaker towers like Blue Source and Whispering Source usually took six months.
Dark Shadow was the unluckiest this year. Kai's three-month rampage had not only delayed their resource collection but also crippled their high-ranked apprentices. Without a solution, Dark Shadow was all but guaranteed last place.
In Thunder Shine, Kai quickly noticed the difference: more apprentices, and stronger ones. After four months of war, even average Intermediate Apprentices here had decent point totals—worth Kai's while to target. Within two days, he'd collected enough Thunder Shine badges to study.
"So their badges are basically the same as Blue Source's and Dark Shadow's," he muttered, watching glowing dots (marking nearby apprentices) appear in his crystal ball.
At first, Kai moved cautiously. He knew Thunder Shine ranked second in overall strength, and the previous war's top scorer (Martinez) had come from here. But on his tenth day in Thunder Shine territory, he spotted an apprentice glowing faintly gold—and froze.
He recognized that glow. It was identical to the dim light seeping from his own Blue Source badge, though fainter. The glow was a mark of the war's top apprentices: only those with over 10,000 points, and among the top 10 scorers (once at least 10 apprentices hit 10,000 points), received it. And there was an unwritten rule: glow-bearers had the authority to command their fellow apprentices. It was a privilege —even encouraged—by the Holy Towers' official magicians. After all, strong leaders led to better results.
The glowing apprentice was Hippok, a top Thunder Shine prodigy known as theScorched Staff. He wielded both water and thunder magic, and was surrounded by dozens of other apprentices. With Thunder Shine's internal resource points secured, Hippok and other top apprentices had agreed half a month earlier to attack neighboring territories—Earth Academy and Dark Shadow. Since Dark Shadow was weaker, Hippok and another top female apprentice, Larram, were assigned to lead the assault there. Hippok, with more points, outranked Larram and held greater command.
The dozens around him were just his initial force. By plan, 5,000 of Thunder Shine's 20,000+ apprentices would gather at the Dark Shadow border—most under Hippok's lead.
"I, Hippok Tram, will follow in Martinez's footsteps!" he sneered. "Dark Shadow is just the first step. Once we take them, we'll hit Earth Academy hard."
Thunder Shine's deans had avoided targeting Blue Source this year (likely to atone for Martinez's excesses last war), and their territory now bordered Dark Shadow and Earth Academy—making those two their main foes. Word had already come that Thunder Shine and Earth Academy apprentices had clashed to the west; both sides were aggressive. The fighting was new, so details were scarce—but more news would come soon.
Hippok was so lost in his war plans that he didn't notice danger creeping closer. He was using his crystal ball to urge Larram and other high-ranked apprentices to hurry to the meeting point when six blinding golden beams (ripped) through the sky.
"What's that?" asked a female apprentice beside him—her closeness to Hippok made their relationship obvious.
"Hm?" Hippok looked up. Confusion turned to fury. "Ambush! An enemy apprentice is here!"
TheScorched Staffwas far stronger than Willis—though that might have been because Kai had killed Willis too quickly, before the man could fully fight back. Hippok reacted fast, and with dozens of capable apprentices at his side, they fought back immediately. Four of Kai's six Eye of the Sun beams were scattered by a barrage of spells; the remaining two, aimed at Hippok, were blocked by the prodigy's counterattack.
Instead of defending with shields, Hippok fought fire with fire. First, he summoned a blue water curtain—Kai thought it was a defense. But then Hippok lifted his staff, and a thick golden lightning chain erupted. The chain already had area damage, but when combined with the water curtain, it split into a web of lightning that covered half the sky. The water amplified the lightning's power—proof that Hippok, like Kai, had mastered combining two magic types for extra damage.
Talent was never scarce in the Holy Towers. Over a decade ago, Kai had met Domwall, a Quasi-Magician who wielded air magic flawlessly. Now, in this war, there were countless such prodigies—including Hippok, who was younger but just as wise in magic as Domwall.
The enhanced lightning web not only blocked most of Kai's Eye of the Sun beams but also surged toward his hiding spot. "Which Holy Tower's fool dares 挑衅 (provoke) us in Thunder Shine?" Hippok snarled, his staff crackling with electricity. A cyan wind shield appeared around him and the female apprentice—who was also a Quasi-Magician. Kai's weakened beams hit the shield, only rippling its surface.
Splitting the Eye of the Sun into six beams had reduced each one's power. While the total damage was still higher than the original, without focusing fire, individual beams stood little chance against top apprentices.
The lightning web forced Kai out of hiding. When Hippok saw only one apprentice—robed, standing on a metal disc—he froze. But Kai didn't hesitate. The first wave had been met with fierce resistance; if he slowed down, he'd be the one in trouble.
A golden aura flared behind him, and six lifelike golden eyes materialized, cold with . Before Hippok could react, Kai unleashed a second, third, fourth, and fifth wave of Eye of the Sun—twenty-four beams that filled the sky. Other apprentices blocked ten, but Hippok still had to face ten alone.
He activated three spells in quick succession:Lightning Shield(a defensive spell stored in a crystal by his mentor, a last resort he'd never thought to use),Wind Aegis(cast by the female apprentice, whose defense was impressive), andPlasma Surge(a hasty counterattack—without time to combine water and thunder, but still a powerful high-rank fire-thunder spell).
"Coming here alone? You're even more arrogant than Martinez!" Hippok snapped. He assumed Kai, having cast so many spells, must be in a mental power vacuum. He wanted to capture Kai personally, no help needed.
Then the smoke cleared—and thirty-six more Eye of the Sun beams filled the sky.
Hippok turned deathly pale. "Run!" he shouted, abandoning all pride. As a top Thunder Shine apprentice, he was decisive—no wonder official magicians had high hopes for him. He activated his and the female apprentice's Holy Tower badges to flee, and even shattered his mentor's defense crystal. A giant lightning wall erupted where he'd stood—only to be riddled with over twenty Eye of the Sun beams a moment later.