Water Mage in the Flame Realm-Chapter 394 - 381: The Beginning of the Fall

Dragon of Greed, Lidzmat.

The moment Andrew heard this name, he felt something within him was stirred.

That was also a name: Andrew Xifa Lin.

This name naturally awakened as a "full name" when he first traversed to the Flame Realm and officially became a Water Mage after defeating the old mage Humboldt in the Wildfire Territory.

The meaning of "Xifa" is "Fire Extinguishing Saint Son."

This can be said to be his mission upon traversing to the Flame Realm, and even more so the core of the power bestowed upon him by the Water God Mark.

Andrew remembered the mysterious feminine voice back then — the voice of the Water God Li — saying to him: "One day, the ’full name’ will completely awaken and evolve into a ’true name’."

And the true name inherently contains the power of rules, which is the ultimate end of the path of Magic Cultivation.

Only this name "Andrew Xifa Lin," after awakening, had been quietly dormant within him for almost all the time, rarely causing any significant stir, and even showed no signs of becoming a true name to this day.

Until just now.

Just now, at that instant when the old man spoke the name "Dragon of Greed Lidzmat."

"So, what can basically be confirmed is..."

Andrew thought, "’Dragon of Greed Lidzmat’ this name, this title, should be a completely awakened ’full name,’ that is, a true name imbued with the power of rules! Not just a simple name. Otherwise, it wouldn’t have stimulated and stirred the name within me.

And having a true name means..." Andrew fell silent.

Even a top strong figure like Guild Master Beiru in the Realm of Magic doesn’t possess a true name.

Having a true name definitely means being above the Realm of Magic.

Endless ages ago, this Dragon of Greed Lidzmat had already surpassed the Realm of Magic, so what level and strength has it now reached?

"Hoo..."

Andrew was silent for quite a while, eventually letting out a long sigh.

The old man looked at him, a trace of surprise in his eyes, then smiled and said: "You are the first person I’ve seen to show a sense of relief upon hearing the name Lidzmat."

Yes, relief.

After the silence, Andrew eventually displayed a sense of relief, rather than weighty emotions.

Andrew himself shook his head, honestly saying: "Relief doesn’t quite cover it; on the contrary, I can feel the oppressive power contained in this name. It’s just..."

Breaking off, Andrew paused, then earnestly said: "At least I finally know who my ultimate enemy is, no longer needing to guess what kind of existence lies behind the Magic Guild as if seeing the world through a mist, isn’t it?"

Andrew still had one sentence unspoken in his heart: Once his full name completely awakens into a true name, it might be the nemesis of this Dragon of Greed Lidzmat.

Because when he heard the other party’s name, the instant agitation of his own name within him clearly carried a powerful emotion interwoven with "tremor" and "excitement"!

"Calm down, calm down!" Andrew told himself, understanding that he still had quite a journey to go before truly standing before this Lidzmat.

Smoothing his emotions, Andrew refocused on the story the old man was telling about the past and asked: "And then? What happened after Lidzmat destroyed and devoured the Titan Race and Dragon Race?"

"As I mentioned earlier, it seemed to be full, not paying any attention to us when we came to aid, then just left on its own," the old man said, "Those of us who survived narrowly, along with the only surviving envoy from the Titan Race, returned to the territory of our Human Race and started preparing for battle immediately."

Andrew nodded.

Preparing for battle is the most normal reaction.

The two strongest races in the world were wiped out by a monster overnight. If it were him, witnessing it firsthand and surviving would also lead to preparing for battle as the first reaction.

It would be foolish to believe that the other party would always spare them just because it let them go once.

The old man said: "For three whole years, Lidzmat didn’t appear again. Events later proved that it probably ate a bit too much at once, needing time to digest and completely transform what it consumed into its own strength.

So, during these three years, the strength of our Human Race grew at an extremely fast pace.

Just when all of us were fully prepared for war, some unforeseen troubles arose: Besides the Dragon Race and the Titan Race, in our era, there were also many other non-human races. We sent them warnings as soon as possible, hoping all races could unite and prepare for war with us.

Yet, they didn’t believe us. Not only did they not believe us, but as time passed, they became increasingly suspicious of us, the Human Race. Because the ’Dragon of Greed’ we warned them about hasn’t appeared in three years, while our Human Race rapidly developed after the downfall of the Dragon and Titan Races.

This inevitably led other races to speculate: Could it be that the demise of the Titan and Dragon Races was actually some conspiracy of our Human Race? And that we fabricated the so-called Dragon of Greed, merely to cover up our crimes, and then took the opportunity to digest the inheritance of the Dragons and Titans."

Andrew furrowed his brows.

This was a completely unexpected change.

Although, putting oneself in their shoes, it’s not entirely impossible to understand the suspicions and doubts of those non-human races.

But Andrew suppressed his feelings for a moment, eventually unable to hold back his complaint: "Are these non-human races all pig-brained? If the Human Race truly had the power to annihilate the Titans and Dragons, would we need to fabricate stories to them? Why not just wipe them out as well?"

The old man sighed, as if recalling the dire situation the Human Race faced back then, his expression turning somewhat grim: "The situation at that time was far more complex than you can imagine now. Back then, the level of trust between different races was very low. To be honest, during those three years, if not for our Human Race’s rapid increase in strength—especially after Xu and Li successively broke through to the Realm of Magic and developed the ’Water and Fire United’ combined technique, vaguely touching the domain above the mage level—we might have been directly overwhelmed by the united non-human races."

Upon hearing this, Andrew’s heart was stirred.

The Water and Fire United that he comprehended with Barbara, was researched by the Fire God and Water God back then?

Two strong beings in the Realm of Magic, fully utilizing the power of Water and Fire United, actually had the potential to enhance combat power to above the mage?

This increase in combat power, isn’t it greater than the boost that President Beiru could achieve by burning the Warm Fire Order!?

Andrew silently made a mental note of this.

Then he heard the old man continue: "Bearing the humiliation and burden, we endured the anger of being wronged, constantly communicating with the various alien races while steadily enhancing our own strength. Over the course of three years, the strength of our Human Race increased to the extent that even if the Dragon and Titan Races were resurrected, we could stand on par with them. And in terms of leadership strength, Xu and Li, who practiced Water and Fire United, even surpassed the former leaders of the Dragons and Titans.

To be honest, by the third year, as Li’s guard, I felt that even if those alien races never understood us, only acted as hindrances and liabilities, our Human Race alone had preliminarily gained the strength to resist that Dragon of Greed, Lidzmat.

But... what I never anticipated... or rather, what no one anticipated was the manner in which Lidzmat reappeared in the world. Xu didn’t expect it, and neither did Li. That manner could be said to have completely disrupted all our war preparation plans.

A Warm Fire Mage, who was very close friends with me, and also one of the best Warm Fire Mages at that time besides Xu, suddenly went mad one day.

Her elemental attribute seemed to change overnight from being purely of the Fire Element to a dark red, Earth Fire Attribute mixed with the Earth Attribute.

If it were only like this, it would be no big deal; the key issue was, after abruptly changing from a Warm Fire Attribute to an Earth Fire Attribute, she seemed like a completely different person.

She began to harbor intense hostility toward her companions, and after truly killing a fellow Human Race member, she exhibited a strong interest in the deceased’s flesh, just like—"

"—just like what the Dragon of Greed, Lidzmat, once did to its people?" Andrew interjected.

His expression involuntarily turned extremely grave.

Undoubtedly, this change was naturally the handiwork of that Dragon of Greed.

So this is what the old man mentioned before: Earth Fire Professionals were initially converted from Warm Fire Professionals?

The return of the Dragon of Greed, Lidzmat, three years later, was no longer a direct massacre by itself, but turned into this vicious method of ’infecting strong members of the Human Race with its own power’!

Thinking for a moment, Andrew asked: "Were only the Flame Professionals from the Human Race infected?"

"Not only that. Among the non-human races, there were also converted Fallen," the old man said, "But only Flame Attribute professionals were changed, because Lidzmat itself was a dragon of mixed Earth Fire Attribute. And back then, the race with the most Flame Attribute members was us, the Human Race. Under Xu’s leadership, the number of Flame Professionals among humans even exceeded that of Water Element Professionals."

Andrew asked: "So, Lidzmat used its own power to create more... of itself?"

The old man nodded: "You could say that. It must have absorbed the Dragons and Titans it consumed three years ago and realized our Human Race had grown too strong in those three years, especially with the combined strength of Xu and Li, which perhaps it wasn’t completely confident in handling. So it chose that way, to weaken and even dismantle us from within. Warm Fire Mages, corrupted into Earth Fire Mages. Crimson Knights, corrupted into Flame Warriors. The origins of the two major professions of the Magic Guild were like this."

Hearing this, Andrew couldn’t help but raise his hand and say: "Wait a minute. There’s one thing I can’t understand: Why does injecting Earth Attribute into the Flame Attribute change not only a person’s profession, but also their personality and demeanor?"

This was actually a question Andrew had long pondered: Why do Earth Fire Professionals all seem so bad? There hardly seems to be any good person among them?

It’s often said that power itself is neither good nor evil; it’s the person using the power who can be good or evil.

However, the impression Earth Fire Professionals give is: only bad people can master the power of Earth Fire Professionals.

Becoming an Earth Fire Professional seems accompanied by inner corruption, not just a transformation of power and elemental attributes.

"Because Lidzmat injected more than just the Earth Attribute." The old man’s voice turned somewhat strange. "The Earth Attribute is just the surface; the key is the thing hidden beneath this mixed-in attribute, which is the core of Lidzmat’s power."