"When?" Fire Child looked in surprise at the snake patterns gradually emerging across his skin.
Yu Chen said nothing. He merely continued chanting, and snake patterns spread across the ground beneath his feet as well. Streams of earth qi transformed into waves of resentment that settled upon Fire Child.
This was the surrounding land's resentment toward Fire Child. The boar totem, as a being that held authority over the earth, had naturally been beloved by the land. The spirituality that had later fled to Yu Chen should also have belonged to some sort of vegetation totem, likewise favored by nature.
As the one who had slain both, and perhaps even more totems besides, Fire Child was bound to suffer the earth's hostility for a time. Yu Chen was relying on that hostility, together with the lingering aura of the totems upon the Serpent Curse Banner, to lay a curse upon him.
Seeing through Yu Chen's method, the youth flew into a rage. One hand pointed to the heavens, the other to the earth. Fire qi surged above his head, turning into crimson clouds that swirled around him, while red light blossomed beneath his feet and condensed into a lotus. Cloud-light churned, concealing the curses and resentment hidden in the unseen; the lotus opened and closed, repeatedly scattering the snake-pattern aura gathering around him.
But once the curse had begun, this was no longer simply a contest of magic between two people. Yu Chen, having spent ninety percent of his mana, collapsed onto the ground and slowly recovered his strength. Fire Child, who stood there with boundless divine majesty, still had to face the endless stream of cursed resentment flooding in from all directions.
Moreover, that cursed resentment grew stronger and more targeted by the moment. In the end, both the