Chapter 1373: 131. Ridiculous

"You bastard! I knew there was something wrong with you!"

Profound darkness descended in an instant, engulfing the entire corridor.

All light vanished. The bright candle flames from moments ago seemed like nothing more than a dream, and every physical object within sight disappeared along with the light. When Muen turned around, the only thing he could see was Huggins's ferocious face.

And......

"Die!"

The radiance of magic suddenly blossoming from his palm.

The magic first condensed into a single point, then, after being compressed to the extreme, erupted violently. There was no chant, no warning—only dazzling lightning like an apocalyptic natural disaster tearing through the darkness, arriving before Muen in an instant.

This was killing intent that had been accumulating for a long time, and it was also a lethal sneak attack unleashed in the shortest possible time, giving the opponent absolutely no chance to prepare!

Fortunately.

Muen had already been on guard.

His pupils were illuminated by the lightning, yet there was not the slightest trace of fear in them. As his body turned, his five fingers clenched into a fist, and he punched directly toward the lightning!

BOOM!

The pitch-black space suddenly trembled. Cracks visible to the naked eye appeared around Muen's fist. Though he was clearly striking something intangible with something tangible, it was as if two mountains had collided head-on!

The lightning was actually shattered by Muen's punch. The dazzling electrical light appeared for only an instant before dispersing just as quickly.

"He actually blocked it?"

Huggins's expression changed slightly. According to his calculations, even if the other man had not been blasted into pieces by that sneak attack, he should at least have suffered severe injuries.

Yet this bastard had merely......

"That was close. Good thing I didn't completely lower my guard, or you bastard really would have gotten me with that sneak attack."

Several wisps of smoke drifted upward.

Muen lowered his eyes.

The fist he had used to strike the lightning was not completely unharmed. Blackened scorch marks were clearly visible across his protruding knuckles, and there was even a faint burnt smell coming from them.

Of course, an injury like this was absolutely no problem for an excellent magic master.

Muen placed his other hand over it and said solemnly, "Healing Magic!"

Magic surged.

When Muen removed his hand, the charred area had already returned to normal, even carrying a slight baby-like tenderness.

"Heh."

Muen sighed softly:

"My magic (powerful physical body) truly has endless applications!"

"......"

The ferocity and disbelief lasted only an instant. By the time the light of the Lighting Spell rose, Huggins had already regained his composure.

His body gradually floated into the air. A breeze from nowhere stirred his mage robes, and an extraordinarily ornate staff appeared in his hand. Looking down from above with the attitude of someone gazing upon an ant, he stared at Muen.

"Forget it. I never expected to kill you that easily in the first place. As long as you've truly been trapped in here, everything is still under my control."

"Trapped?"

Muen raised an eyebrow, his gaze moving upward along with Huggins.

Then, above Huggins's head, he saw a strange floating eye.

That eye was staring at him......no, more accurately, it was staring at the entire space, and because of that, the entire space had sunk into darkness.

Muen spread out his perception and discovered that this darkness seemed boundless, with no end in sight, much less any way to connect to the outside world.

"This place has been sealed off?" Muen was slightly surprised. He had originally assumed this was some kind of magic Huggins had prepared beforehand, but now it seemed this was far more than ordinary magic.

"Ancient Relic, Void Eye."

Huggins said, "Anyone caught within the gaze of this eye will be banished into a mysterious void space. Here, all connection with the outside world is completely severed. No matter what happens here, the outside world will never notice."

"A forced one-on-one?"

Muen sucked in a cold breath.

The effect of this relic was a little ridiculous.

However......

Looking at it from another angle, the fact that Huggins had gone to such lengths to use an Ancient Relic like this against him meant......

"You suddenly attacked me......but you weren't acting on anyone's orders?"

"Orders? Why would you think that?"

Huggins sneered. "Did you seriously take me for your dear friend at first sight? Do you think I was forced into betraying you?"

"No, no, no......I'm not naive enough for that." Muen waved his hands repeatedly. "I'm thinking this because of something else."

Good.

Confirmed.

Huggins's sudden ambush had absolutely nothing to do with Muen's earlier contact with his cheap senior brother.

Just as he had guessed, if they truly wanted to deal with him because of that matter, there would have been no need whatsoever to bring him outside Divine Sigh's range.

Yet Huggins had not only led him out of that dangerous place covered by an immensely powerful formation, but had specifically brought him somewhere deserted before making his move, even going so far as to use a precious Ancient Relic......

Which meant......

"Looks like you don't want the Tower finding out about this......" Muen narrowed his eyes while simultaneously letting out a long sigh of relief.

As long as it was not the worst-case scenario, everything was fine.

Otherwise, things really would have become troublesome.

"Obviously."

Huggins waved his staff, and magical radiance once again began to gather.

"I may indeed have a little status within the Origin Tower, but I'm not stupid enough to publicly kill a famous magic master. I have no desire to be thrown into that prison and spend the rest of my life with those lunatics. I still have a path of my own that I haven't finished walking."

"So......the reason you dishonorably ambushed an old comrade like me......"

Muen asked in confusion, "Is because of some personal grudge?"

But what personal grudge could he possibly have?

This was his first time coming to the Origin Tower, and he had not even been here for a full week.

With his stable, peaceful, and benevolent temperament, when had he ever gotten into conflict with anyone?

Except......

"Wait, Jerome?" Muen asked tentatively. "What is Jerome to you?"

"Don't worry. Jerome does indeed belong to my faction......but I'm not here today entirely because of him."

Huggins said indifferently, "I'm not about to take such a huge risk for the sake of one idiot."

"Then why......"

Muen was completely baffled.

This came out of nowhere.

Where had he managed to earn such intense hatred?

"You're still pretending?"

"Pretending what?" Muen looked utterly confused.

"Heh. I never expected that bastard's new disciple would turn out to be a complete idiot! Has that bastard's judgment gotten worse and worse too?"

The corner of Huggins's mouth curled upward, as though he had just witnessed something that delighted him immensely.

"That bastard?"

"You still haven't realized the problem? You're that bitch's disciple, aren't you!"

"That bitch? Disciple?"

The moment those words entered his ears, Muen froze on the spot.

Compared with the lightning sneak attack from moments ago, those few little words undoubtedly shocked him far more. It was almost as though a bolt of heavenly lightning had struck straight through him from head to toe, leaving him rigid where he stood.

Only after an entire half minute did Muen recover from his shock.

An image of a white-haired, red-eyed little girl appeared in his mind.

Then he looked toward Huggins and cautiously asked:

"What did you just call her? A bitch?"

"So what if I did?"

"Aren't you afraid of her? From what I know, she's......just a tiny bit narrow-minded."

Muen held his thumb and index finger a tiny distance apart.

Mm.

Just a tiny bit.

At least he would never dare call her that openly.

"So what?"

Faced with Muen's warning, Huggins showed not the slightest trace of fear. Instead, he sneered arrogantly:

"She's nothing more than an obsolete old hag destined to be swept away by the dust of history. So what if I call her that? In her current state, where she can only hide within her own tiny patch of territory, can she actually appear in front of me and beat me up?

"Ridiculous!"