He Holds a Rose from the Abyss

Chapter 9 – Combat Exam III

Chi Lang had thought the rest of the journey was all on snow, but after they turned a corner, they saw a different scene. If it weren’t for this assessment, there would have been a long promenade here. But now, the ice and snow stopped in front of the promenade, while the top of the promenade was covered by leaves, and the columns on both sides were densely entwined with vines.

With the entrance of the promenade as the boundary, one side is the wind and snow, and the other side is a forest world with lush branches and leaves.

“It’s just simple wood magic,” Sheffield only glanced at it, “just go in directly.”

The long corridor was covered by leaves so dense that not even a trace of sunlight could penetrate down, Chi Lang inexplicably felt some discomfort. The vines wrapped around the cylindrical column were originally stationary but slowly moved after they stepped into the promenade.

The vines poked out from the column and stretched towards them.

Sheffield whispered an incantation and made a magic gesture for the first time. He still thoughtfully explained to Chi Lang: “This wood magic is not powerful, but it’s troublesome, and it’s annoying to get tangled up in vines.

“So I just used a simple time magic,” Sheffield said to Chi Lang as he walked forward.

Chi Lang looked behind them, behind them, the vines on both sides of the promenade had become entangled, while the vines beside them were stationary in mid-air, and only started to move after they passed by.

“You still have to hold hands on this stretch, otherwise, time magic won’t work on two people.”

“Ah, I don’t mind.” Chi Lang said, “As long as it doesn’t interfere with your use of magic.”

This promenade, which would normally take only a few minutes to walk through, became incredibly long at this time. During this period of time when surrounded by greenery and almost no light, Chi Lang’s heart gradually calmed down.

He always felt that when he was with Sheffield, the world became peaceful, both here and in the library. He kinda liked the time he spent with Sheffield and he could do things much more efficiently.

The only thing he found strange was that Sheffield’s hands were really cold, not like the temperature of a normal person.

Chi Lang also gradually guessed the rules of this final examination. It should be that at every other distance, there would be different elemental magic to prevent them from reaching the auditorium.

And as they walked out of the promenade, Chi Lang guessed that they should meet a new field made of elemental magic.

Only this time, they saw a rose garden.

In a trance, Chi Lang felt that he had crossed over again. The roses were blooming in the rose garden, and at the edge of the rose garden were rusty fences, while the sky turned to a gloomy gray mixed with black.

But the sight lasted only two seconds, and two seconds later, they had the view of the academy before them again.

“What was that just now?” Chi Lang asked.

Sheffield: “The magic of the illusion department, but this kind of magic is only effective in certain situations, like this, most people know that it is fake.”

“Where is that place?” Chi Lang felt that even the magic of the illusion department should follow a law, and such a rose garden would not appear for no reason.

Sheffield whispered: “Where I used to live.”

Chi Lang thought about it and remembered that Sheffield usually likes to pick roses every now and then, so he asked casually, “Do you like roses very much?”

“Yes, I quite like it,” Sheffield smiled, “I think it’s beautiful… I used to love watching roses bloom when I was bored. Watching its petals slowly unfold under the overcast sky was like seeing my future.”

This is quite profound. Anyway, Chi Lang didn’t quite understand it. He asked Sheffield: “Your future?”

A future that grows forever towards the darkness. Sheffield thought, but instead of answering Chi Lang, he just said, “Keep moving forward.”

Chi Lang said to himself: “I also quite like roses,” he recalled the modern times, and said vaguely. “I was short of money when I was a child, so I went to sell roses with my friends…”

“I rarely meet people who tell me that they like roses.” Sheffield said with a smile, “Every time I met people who came to my rose garden, they were very afraid. Finally, an old man who was not afraid came and burned my rose garden down.”

Chi Lang: “That’s too much, did that man have a grudge against you?”

Sheffield’s gaze looked in another direction, Chi Lang did not know what he was looking at, and only heard him say: “So I hate the fire magic in the element system, but had to learn this department to be proficient.”

After the corridor, there was a field of wind magic, with wind blades repeatedly appearing in the sky in the shape of crosses, and after the wind blade field was a field of crackling lightning.

But Chi Lang had an easy journey, Sheffield used what he called “simple time magic” to stagnate all these elemental magics. Chi Lang saw what elemental magic looked like up close in an absolutely safe field.

He fell back into the yearning for magic.

On the way, they also met dozens of unknown creatures from the summoning system, countless enchanted weapons flying from far away, and illusions that appeared from time to time.

Chi Lang even saw the modern scene in the vision. Fortunately, the sight only appeared for a short time that he didn’t see much of it himself, and Sheffield just glanced at him and didn’t ask anything.

Sheffield stopped in his tracks, from their current position, they could already see the roof of the auditorium, there was only a short distance left, but the rest of this journey was an elemental field laid down by Joyce.

Joyce also stood in front of them. After he got down from the clock, he came to the elemental field that had been laid out, and after his elemental field, next was the auditorium.

Chi Long and Sheffield were the first ones to arrive here.

Joyce’s tone was unpleasant: “I can’t believe it’s you guys. Sheffield, I’m not one of those losers who can be solved by you with that simple time magic.” He looked at Chi Lang, “Remember to pay me back those fifty silver coins soon.”

Chi Lang’s good mood was ruined again, and he counted how long he had to work for Mrs. White to pay it back.

Joyce’s element field is different from those just now, and even someone like Chi Lang who doesn’t know anything about magic can perceive it.

Other elemental magics have regional limitations, either on the ground, in the corridor, or in the void. Only Joyce’s magic seems to cover the entire world.

Moreover, other elemental fields are laid by multiple people working together, but Joyce is only one person.

Joyce was indeed proficient in the magic of the element of fire.

One after another, flames fell diagonally from the sky, looking like a huge meteor shower.

These flames did not cause damage to the ground and other buildings. During the final assessment period, all buildings in the academy will be protected by magic circles.

Sheffield was still very calm. He used the protection magic of the water system to spread a thin film of water on top of their heads. These dazzling flames were extinguished above them and could not hurt them.

Ang Chi Lang watched these falling flames, like a mighty rain of flames, he felt that this scene had a kind of thrilling beauty.

Flames and light always attract the eyes of people.

After Chi Lang took his eyes back from the flames a little, he found that Sheffield’s expression was not right.

There was no smile on Sheffield’s face, and for the first time, there was an almost icy expression on his face. He looked at the flames as if he was remembering something bad.

Then Sheffield turned and glanced at Joyce, who was standing outside the flame field, also looking in their direction.

Their eyes met for a moment, and then Sheffield gave an unpleasant smile.

While the two of them were confronting each other, Chi Lang noticed a crack in the water film overhead, and this abrupt crack widened a little, and finally, this water film… shattered a piece.

And the next flame quickly fell.

Chi Lang pulled Sheffield’s sleeve: “Sheffield, this…”

Sheffield seemed to be really caught in some extremely negative emotion. He didn’t hear Chi Lang’s cry and just continued to look at Joyce with a cold expression.

When the flame was about to fall on them, Chi Lang saw that Sheffield had little reaction, and could only push him heavily to the other side, but this push led his own body to inevitably tilt forward to the left.

In addition, he underestimated the speed of the flames falling, he barely had time to dodge, and the flames fell on his back.

The only thing left in this world is the word “pain”.

Joyce’s face changed and he immediately stopped the elemental field. According to the rules of the academy, in the final assessment, students may be slightly injured, but not seriously injured. If the injury is too serious, it is the responsibility of the person in charge of the test.

Joyce saw that Chi Lang’s injury was not a minor injury at all.

After he ran over, he just took a look at the injury and then cursed: “Why doesn’t he have even a little protective magic on him?”

Generally, magicians would lay down basic protective magic on their bodies so that even if they were attacked, they wouldn’t be hurt too badly and would still have the ability to fight back. But Chi Lang didn’t have any protective magic on his body, so the body of an ordinary person was forcibly scorched by the flames.

Sheffield knew the reason, but it couldn’t be told to Joyce, so he had to keep silent.

Joyce didn’t know whether to worry about himself or Chi Lang. He hurriedly used the healing spell and questioned Sheffield: “Why didn’t you use the healing spell? You’re so close to him.”

But the time was too tight and Joyce didn’t have time to say a few more words. He took Chi Lang to the medical department in the academy.

During this whole process, Sheffield didn’t even intervene or say a word.

Why not use a healing spell?

Sheffield looked at his hand, his expression looked dazed in the sun for a moment.

Because he wouldn’t.

And he didn’t need it.

When he was injured, he didn’t need to use a healing spell, because only by remembering the wound, he could fight back better.

As for others, he never thought of using healing magic for others.

Chi Lang fell unconscious when he was injured.

After Joyce sent Chi Lang to the medical department, he only felt that it was really troublesome. If the academy teacher knew that someone was injured so badly, he didn’t know what punishment he would receive.

Chi Lang was lying on the bed in the medical department, Joyce glanced at him, gritted his teeth, and said, “Ah, if this guy gets better, I won’t care about the paper, and I won’t let him pay back the money. So, can he defend me in front of the teacher?”

Joyce felt that it really had nothing to do with him. Who would have thought that Chi Lang had no protective magic at all? Moreover, average students without the ability to survive in the field of the fire element should have been eliminated at the front. They had no chance to reach the last field at all.

Those who could reach the end, even if they could not pass Joyce’s elemental field, wouldn’t suffer such serious injuries like this.

He made a few turns in the infirmary and returned to where the elemental field was, Sheffield had left and the flames were still raining down. Distracted, Joyce thought again of that look Sheffield had given him earlier, the one they had exchanged in the void before Chi Lang had been injured.

He felt that Sheffield wanted to kill him at that time.

On the day when the final exam was over, Chi Lang did not fulfill his wish to invite Sheffield to drink, nor did he go to help Mrs. White.

This evening, the academy was very lively, almost everyone was cheering, and the young magicians were running on the road of the campus.

And Chi Lang slept in the infirmary, unaware of anything.

Joyce went to the roof of the teaching building again and went to the side of the clock.

He was not surprised to see Sheffield there.

Sheffield resumed his usual state, smiled a little, then asked him, “What is your relationship with Hubert?”

The name Hubert has not been mentioned for a long time. When people talk about this person, they prefer to call him by the title “God of Magic”.

Joyce sneered: “Then who are you?”

Sheffield: “For the time being, just a nobody who is very interested in the magic you used today… That fire rain, that’s the magic that Hubert developed.”

“This kind of fire magic is very common.”

“There’s no mistaking it,” Sheffield smiled. “Although there are many fire magic in the shape of a rain of flames, only Hubert’s flames fall at such a rhythm.”

Joyce fell silent.

“So, what is your relationship with Hubert? Hubert’s magical research results have not been made public yet. How did you learn it? Are you his descendant?”

“No, this is his manuscript that I found by chance,” Joyce told the truth intuitively.

“You should be glad you weren’t,” Sheffield stared at him, “or I’d be troubled as to how to kill you without leaving a trace.”

The clock rang, and while the world downstairs was extremely noisy, the place where they stood was eerily quiet.

When the clock finished ringing, Joyce asked the question he wanted to ask: “You wanted to kill me today, that time, right? After you saw this magic, you already wanted to kill me.”

“That’s right.”

Joyce smiled self-deprecatingly: “So today, instead of saying that Micah saved you, it is better to say that he saved me, if not… I should have been killed by you at that time.”

The reason why Joyce said so confidently was because when he saw Sheffield’s eyes, he felt his killing intent, and at that time, he himself could hardly give birth to resistance.

At that time, Joyce understood that Sheffield’s strength was definitely a lot higher than his.

Sheffield turned. “That’s right.”

*

Sheffield stepped into the infirmary, which he hadn’t been to in five years.

He saw Chi Lang who was lying on his stomach, in an inelegant sleeping position.

He was in a very complicated mood now. Seeing Hubert’s magic again made him disgusted, while Chi Lang’s behavior caused him to fall into another irritable mood.

He remembered that the first time he saw roses blooming, he had a sense of happiness in his heart. At that time, he had not been so indifferent to life. He still felt that life was beautiful and roses were sunny.

A long, long time later, he moved the rose garden to the bottom of the abyss and fell in love with the red roses in the dark.

Chi Lang’s actions pulled him back to that sunny afternoon when the roses were blooming.

But only for a moment.

So, Sheffield went to the library to find the most basic magic book and memorized the healing spell. Then he used the healing technique on Chi Lang. His magic level was higher than Joyce’s, so after using the healing technique at this time, the wound on Chi Lang’s back was recovering at a speed visible to the naked eye.

This was the first time he used the healing spell, and perhaps the last.

Sheffield pulled up the quilt for Chi Lang and his movements were very light.

He thought that the rose, whether in the dark or in the sun, was his.

His rose.