The General Affairs Hall standing at the center of Outpost County had nearly fifty years of history, having endured several invasions by foreign tribes and the ravages of war.
Yet whether facing natural disasters or man-made calamities, the General Affairs Hall had been renovated countless times and remained standing strong, just like the county's subjects.
Successive clerks had witnessed fifty years of change in Outpost County from their offices in the General Affairs Hall.
It could be said that the General Affairs Hall was Outpost County's only official symbol and central nerve center.
Though its actual function was limited, it was still the only official institution established here by the Kingdom of Locke.
But today, after getting a hapless new occupant who loved afternoon naps, this three-story building that had weathered countless storms finally met with disaster and collapsed with a thunderous crash.
And the chief culprit behind it all was a Good-for-nothing Lord.
This Good-for-nothing Lord had inadvertently released all of his Mental Power and magical elements, triggering a resonance among countless magical elements in the surrounding space.
The Good-for-nothing Lord's number one accomplice was a Magus even stupider than an idiot nobleman. He had believed some old fox's nonsense and overestimated himself by trying to test someone else's Mental Power.
That resulted in an extremely rare "Elemental Detonation," commonly known as a mana self-destruction.
Once a mage's cultivation reached a certain level, they could use Mental Power to instantly ignite all the mana in their body. Using themselves as the center and catalyst, they could cause other elements in the surrounding space to resonate.
Since most elemental affinities repelled one another, this would then trigger elemental explosions.
Among common folk, Elemental Detonation was also called a mana bomb. It meant roughly the same thing as a human bomb, except one was a thermal weapon while the other was a mana weapon.
Both involved self-destruction. It did not matter whether you died, as long as you took the other person down with you.
Elemental Detonation was extremely rare. In the recorded history of the Saint Cassis Continent, there had only been a few cases, all involving mages driven to desperation in exceptionally dangerous battles and resorting to this extreme method of mutual destruction.
Yet barren Outpost County had encountered this extraordinarily rare occurrence twice in only a few days.
The first time was after Allen ate the Evil Dragon Egg and his Mental Power surged dramatically. Old Laixi carelessly touched Allen, and then the Old Castle's master bedroom exploded.
Allen had not done it on purpose, and neither had Old Laixi.
If Allen had not been so tough, and if Old Laixi had not instantly cast a shield with his profound cultivation, grass would probably have been growing over both their graves by now.
As for the second time, which was this time, it had also happened in Outpost County. Only the location had changed—it happened at the General Affairs Hall.
Both were historic buildings in Outpost County, both were unique symbols, and Allen had blown up every last one of them.
This time, Allen had not done it on purpose either, and neither had Hels. But Old Laixi had done it on purpose.
Having suffered once before, Old Laixi had immediately sold Allen out to Hels under the pretense of having him test Allen's Mental Power, when in reality he had been scheming to set Hels up.
Hels, completely in the dark, was just like Old Laixi had been before. Driven by curiosity, he carelessly touched Allen.
And then... there was no then.
The General Affairs Hall collapsed with a roar. The earth elements in the ground, the Water Elements in the little fountain, the wood elements in the stables, and more—
It was like pouring a huge basin of cold water into a boiling pot of oil, then adding a cup of highly concentrated sulfuric acid and setting off a barrel of gunpowder beside it...
At the center of the magical storm, Allen felt dizzy from the instantaneous eruption of mana within his body. His ears rang slightly, and he had only suffered minor superficial injuries.
A tiny wood splinter was stuck in his face. His clothes were in tatters, and his face was blackened with soot. The knight merely looked utterly miserable on the surface.
As for Hels, who had been half a meter away from him... he was dead!
Hels lay on the ground in shredded black robes, his face a bloody mess. His arms and legs were twisted at grotesque angles, while his face was frozen in terror and despair.
Hels had only just advanced to Magus when he encountered Allen, whose Mental Power had likewise reached the standard of a Magus.
The former had been forced to read and meditate repeatedly. The mana he had painstakingly accumulated over several days had been spent in an instant today, like merchandise being dumped at a rock-bottom sale.
The latter's more than fifty years of painstakingly cultivated Mental Power, along with the elemental mana he had only recently accumulated through meditation, had also been squandered completely, following Allen's example of vomiting blood and dumping everything in a sale.
But Hels had really vomited blood.
Their similarity was that all the mana in their bodies had completely dissipated.
The difference was that Allen's mana had erupted outward.
Poor Hels's had erupted inward. In other words, he had suffered a backlash.
So Allen was still alive, while Hels was dead.
"Leisi, you old bastard! Fuck your mother!" Allen roared from the rubble.
Carefully pulling the splinter from his face, Allen angrily searched for the Old Butler.
But when he saw the dazed Xiulunte climb out from the wreckage, his face covered in dirt, Allen stopped being angry. After all, there was an idiot even more unlucky than him.
Because he had no idea what kind of emotional journey Xiulunte would go through once he understood what had happened. Hell, who knew what he would go through?
I was taking a nap, and nearly all my men died. I was dreaming, and the mage under my command self-destructed. I was about to get up, and my bed collapsed. I had just gotten up, and the house fell down...
Xiulunte perhaps thought he was still dreaming, stupidly patting his own face.
After a long while, Xiulunte gave Allen an unfocused look. Then he noticed Hels, who was thoroughly dead, and looked back at Allen, his eyes filled with confusion.
Allen innocently spread his hands, indicating that he knew nothing.
Xiulunte shook his head hard. Only then did he notice that outside the collapsed entrance, nearly a hundred knights lay there completely naked.
"Who did this?" Rage filled Xiulunte's chest. He growled like a wounded beast, "What exactly happened? Who attacked this place?"
Allen pointed at Hels's corpse and said innocently, "That idiot self-destructed for some reason!"
"Self-destructed?" Xiulunte was dumbfounded.
As a high-ranking Qi Warrior who had fought on the front lines for years, he had long since sensed the abnormality in the surrounding space with great sensitivity.
Other than a legendary Saint-level Mage casting an Anti-magic Domain, no one could possibly drain all the elements from the surrounding space, except under one circumstance.
That was the "mage self-destruction" mentioned by the equally miserable-looking fellow before him.
Looking at the messengers and sentries groaning all over the ground, Xiulunte was already half convinced, because he knew Hels had advanced to Magus and was fully capable of pulling off such a heart-stopping stunt.
But he could not understand why Hels, perfectly fine just moments ago, had suddenly self-destructed.
With bloodshot eyes, Xiulunte walked up to Allen and pointed at the nearly hundred naked knights outside. "Then what happened to them?"
"I don't know. Those knights went crazy, stripped naked, and tried to rape Hels. Think about it—how old is Hels? How could he take that? In the end, unable to bear the humiliation, he went boom and self-destructed." Allen spoke vividly, even using his hands to make several particularly lewd gestures.
Xiulunte did not believe a word of his nonsense. He roughly shoved Allen aside, blood-red Battle Aura flaring all over his body as he shouted into the distance, "Sakre!"
Sakre's face darkened. Why the fuck were they calling for him instead of the person responsible?
"Go bring the Second Young Master over." Old Laixi's expression was somewhat grim as he continued, "This kid has some serious murderous aura. Nana, hurry."
Dina charged over like an unleashed wild dog, shielding Allen and warily watching Xiulunte, whose Battle Aura had fully ignited.
Xiulunte clenched his fists. He had no mood to deal with Dina or Allen, his blood-red eyes fixed tightly on Sakre.
But when Dina approached him, Xiulunte clearly felt the Battle Aura inside his body draining away like a water vat with a huge hole in it. He could not maintain it at all.
Realizing something was wrong with the Battle Aura in his body, Xiulunte's expression changed drastically, and he threw both fists at Dina and Allen.
"Fuck your mother! Everything was fine just now, so why are you suddenly throwing punches?" Allen twisted aside to dodge.
Dina sneered and met his attack with a single fist.
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