0163 The Mysterious Magician

The occupants of the room did not respond to Moumou immediately. The close-quarters combat that she had anticipated never took place either. After Huanluo leaped through that window, she vanished completely without a sound or trace. Panic rising in her chest, Moumou immediately channeled the surrounding wind elements, using their lift to soar straight toward the window to investigate the situation. However, the moment she approached the opening, she was met head-on by two massive water dragons. Losing her balance instantly, Moumou was hurled backward by the powerful and aggressive impact. In her panic, she only had enough time to cross her arms in front of her chest to shield her vital organs from taking the brunt of the collision.

Crack. The two powerful forces did not attack separately, but instead struck Moumou's arms simultaneously with brutal symmetry. The sheer force of the impact was so great that before she could even process the pain, a crisp snap echoed as her arms broke. A wave of intense numbness, soreness, and utter weakness instantly overwhelmed her, causing her arms to drop limply to her sides, completely incapable of defending her.

After all, ever since she had acquired a high affinity for magic elements, Moumou had grown accustomed to using her hands and arms as a substitute for magic wands to connect with the various natural elements. Alas, at this critical juncture, her habitual use of her arms to block the water dragon's attack left her with virtually no means of resistance. The two water dragons did not continue to focus solely on her arms. While maintaining their forceful assault, they somehow managed to coordinate a new tactic. One water dragon persisted in hitting Moumou from the front, while the other seized the moment when she was completely occupied to instantly transform into a watery veil, enveloping her entire head. At this rate, even if she had the strength to escape, she would suffocate and drown along the way. Furthermore, had the water mage possessed any sadistic preference for a gory demise, they could easily have frozen that water veil into ice and crushed inward from all sides.

One could imagine that this bloody, violent, and age-restricted scene would delight many thrill-seeking viewers, who would happily munch on popcorn while staring unblinkingly at the screen. They might even lend a shoulder to a frightened young lady next to them, achieving both physiological and psychological satisfaction. Unfortunately, the scene currently playing out only involved four people in total, including the director and the actors. One could not help but lament the degradation of public morals. Oh, you bloodthirsty and brutal humans and Night Ghost clans, why do none of you ever pay to watch the official live broadcast? The pirated rebroadcast next door is not only blurry and full of pop-up ads, but it doesn't even let the poor director earn a single penny!

The moment the water veil enveloped her, Moumou completely lost control of her overactive imagination, generating countless ways she might die to terrify herself. She swiftly cataloged all her remaining regrets in this world. The smiling faces of Liangyin, Huanluo, Xi, and others flashed through her mind, and the soldiers who had died unjustly on the battlefield claimed a spot in her pre-death retrospective. The legendary Four Divine Artifacts, rumored to be able to help her return home, even showed up for a casual stroll. Ultimately, all these images uncontrollably froze upon the face she was most familiar with yet least wanted to recall: a silver-haired youth smiling brightly in the sunlight, with gentle eyes and curved lips. That warm appearance was truly impossible to tear her eyes away from... How could this be? Moumou let out an involuntary, cold laugh, her mouth painfully twisting into a grotesque expression she had never seen on herself before.

If I am going to die here and in this manner, how could I possibly be willing to accept it?

Bzzzt! As Moumou's inexplicable fury soared, somewhere on the invisible top-bar interface, her HP, MP, SP, AP, DP, MAP, and MDP values instantly maxed out. Abandoning her immobilized arms, Moumou let out a roar, directly offering up her own body as a carrier for lightning magic elements. A burst of lightning suddenly erupted in the pitch-black night, its golden hue and deafening roar likely allowing even the deaf and blind within a radius of a hundred miles to perceive the immense and unusual power of the lightning. Moumou felt every corner of her body tingling with a triad of soreness, pain, and numbness, but she lacked the ability to alleviate this agony anytime soon. Clenching her teeth fiercely, Moumou endured the pain while sensing that lightning magic gathered through her physical body as a medium was infinitely more powerful than using her hands alone. Forcing a smile, Moumou focused her intent, and the condensed lightning magic surged straight into the house along the current of the water dragons.

Enhanced by the water flow, the lightning magic rushed into the building with an unstoppable, "those who stand in my way shall perish" momentum. Whether due to the presence of two water mages inside or not, the air indoors was saturated with moisture. The moment the electrical magic entered, it acted like it had been injected with adrenaline, excitedly releasing its full voltage across every single square inch of the room, charging wildly into every corner without regard for volume or obstacles.

Moumou flashed a victorious smile and staggered back to her feet with the help of the wind. That last attack had drained a considerable amount of her strength and magic energy, but it was clearly not time for her to rest. Gathering the wind magic elements once more, Moumou wobbled and drifted slowly toward the window. Having caused such a massive commotion, the Night Ghost army was bound to arrive shortly. Since death was certain whether she stood or fell, she might as well see what the two bastards who had attacked her without a word looked like. If they had actually harmed Huanluo, this big sister wouldn't mind making them die an even more miserable death. Heh-heh.

Flashes of *The Texas Chainsaw Massacre*, *The Black Dahlia*, and other films raced through her mind as Moumou mentally cursed and grimaced at the two water mages a hundred times over before finally approaching the ill-fated window at the front of the house. She initially wanted to place her hands on the windowsill to steady herself, but her arms still lacked strength and remained agonizingly weak. The moment she rested them on the sill, they gave way beneath her, and she nearly tumbled headfirst out of the window.

Gathering her last ounce of breath, she silently chanted, "This isn't a romance novel script, there won't be some handsome, wealthy, skilled, and deeply devoted guy to catch me—ahhhhh, if I don't get up there I'm going to fall and it'll be so humiliating, ying-ying-ying," and scrambled clumsily, hands and feet alike, over the fairly large window frame.

To her surprise, the moment she managed to steady her footing, she discovered that the two individuals she thought she had defeated were standing unscathed amidst the dust kicked up by the lightning attack. Dressed in the elaborate, intricate formal attire of Cyrennia that Moumou knew all too well, they stood one behind the other, showing no intention of approaching or resuming their attack. Beside the two of them, a figure resembling Huanluo was also standing upright and neatly in place.

The two sides thus confronted each other in a 3-to-1 ratio, neither side showing any intention of speaking first.