Commanding Wind and Cloud
Chapter 96: Snow Tigers

“Undead?”

Gloria’s thin eyebrows slightly twisted as she frowned. After she sighed, she said with a lonely tone, “I… I don’t even know what I am. Maybe I’m an undead like you said, or maybe I’m not. I was created… generated from my little sister’s excessive longing for me…”

“A second identity?” Qian Jin remembered a technical term from a medical book he read and quickly said it out loud.

“A second identity?” A pondering expression appeared on Gloria’s face. Then, a cold smile appeared; it was so cold that Qian Jin felt like it was even colder than the weather in Four Season Valley. “This is a very suitable term. Did you come up with it?” she asked.

Qian Jin laughed as he shrugged his shoulders. Among all the peers his age, very few of them had read as many books as him. This was true, even among the young people who wanted to become civil officials, doctors, or other professions who needed to read a lot.

“I’m going to start meditating.”

Gloria said coldly. After she said that, she sat on the dry grass and controlled her great Spiritual Power to quickly enter into a meditative state.

Qian Jin didn’t expect there to be such a huge difference between Gloria’s and Gabriella’s personality. He was surprised by the huge amount of Spiritual Power and couldn’t go back to sleep right away. He leaned his back against the wall and looked at Gloria, who seemed a little strange. After making a lot of hypotheses about what was going on, he decided to open his mouth and ask, “Are you interested in chatting a little?”

“Some other day.” Gloria didn’t open her eyes as she answered back casually, “I need to condense my Spiritual Power into Magic Power.”

Qian Jin’s expression froze on his face as he was shocked. “Condense Spiritual Power into Magic Power? Gloria is only one year older than me. There really is a huge difference between mages and warriors,” he thought.

After condensing all of one’s Level 10 Spiritual Power into Magic Power, then Gloria would become a real Supreme Mage! When a group of mages formed a magic array, a Supreme Mage would be the center of the array. They were responsible for controlling the array. The Supreme Mage would combine all of the mages’ Spiritual Power together and use the magic array to cast a large-scale magic spell.

When a mage fought a warrior one on one, he or she could only use magic scrolls. The complexity of the arrangement of magic elements resulted in mages being unable to instantly cast spells like the Fireball Spell. Even low-ranked spells such as the Slow Spell and Frighten Spell required a few seconds to be casted.

However, Supreme Mages were completely different! They were a bunch of monsters who had completely converted their Spiritual Power into Magic Power. They could easily cast magic spells like Slow Spell instantly; even the Fireball Spell could be instantly casted.

Of course, if a Supreme Mage was facing a warrior in a one on one situation, he or she wouldn’t instantly cast spells like Fireball Spell. Warriors weren’t dummies or scarecrows that couldn’t move; they could dodge and defend themselves.

Supreme Mages still used magic scrolls during fights against warriors and other mages. The only difference was that they drew and made their own magic scrolls. The power of the scrolls that mages used was no match to the power of the scrolls that a Supreme Mage made.

Condensing Spiritual Power into Magic Power? Even the most famous Advanced Mage Academy at Zence Empire’s capital – The Holy Capital, would be more than happy to accept such a student and pay for all her expenses.

In a sense, a Supreme Mage who condensed their Spiritual Power into Magic Power was similar to Demon Fighters who advanced from a Level 10 Warrior. However, if you had to rank their status… even Qian Jin would agree that a Supreme Mage had a higher status than a Demon Fighter.

The power and damage that a Supreme Mage had and could deal was limited, but a Supreme Mage who had the help of a group of mages could create an oscillation between their Magic Power and Spiritual Power. The power generated from it was the nightmare for any military troops on the battlefront.

According to a document in the Qian Family, Zola Shoran, the greatest mage who had ever lived in Zence Empire, the mage oracle was an unprecedented mage genius and was praised by all the mages. He was only nineteen when he condensed his Spiritual Power into Magic Power and advanced to a Supreme Mage.

Qian Jin looked at Gabriella, or rather Gloria, in front of him. This girl was only a year older than him, but she was already condensing her Spiritual Power into Magic Power. She was only about seventeen! “If people from the Mage Union saw her, would they kneel in front of her and beg her to join the Mage Union?”

“This is strange,” Qian Jin stared at Gloria in confusion. No matter what Gloria was, the fact that she used the same body as Gabriella couldn’t be altered. “Why do I feel a little inferior when I face Gloria, yet why did Gabriella achieve the worst record in Oakland’s Warrior and Mage Academy Mage Student history?”

After two hours, Gloria’s Spiritual Power increased, but it didn’t condense into Magic Power like she said.

After a short period of silence, Gloria’s cold, yet agreeable voice resonated in the cave again, “Gabriella doesn’t know of my existence.”

“Oh.” Qian Jin nodded. “I won’t tell her then. Are you interested in talking now? I’m a bit curious. What kind of strange past did you and Gabriella experience? How did it form this weird state that you’re in?” he asked.

Gloria, who was still wearing the mage hat, lightly opened her lips and yawned. She said lightly, “There is no time today, we can chat another time. If you are in a dangerous situation and need some help, you can yell my name Gloria, and I can come out and help you for a short period of time…”

The word “you” resonated in the cave as Gabriella’s body lightly lied down onto the dry grass. She fell into a deep sleep, as if nothing had happened. It was as if Qian Jin was hallucinating about Gloria.

Qian Jin rubbed his sore eyes; with one hand on his Zhanmadao, he leaned against the dry grass and the wall and went back to sleep.

The morning sunlight shined and reflected on the snowfield in Four Season Valley. The sunlight that should have been warm didn’t provide any heat as it hit the valley, and it couldn’t melt the silvery white accumulated snow.

Qian Jin ate the piece of rabbit meat that belonged to him, and then he grabbed two handful of snow as he stuffed them into his mouth for water. After, he grabbed the Zhanmadao as he observed the surrounding of his temporary residence carefully.

Qian Jin was now a Level 10 Warrior with all of his ten energy reservoirs connected as one. Although he was still a little bit cold, he wasn’t as cold as he was yesterday, where he had to continuously rub his hands and stomp his feet to stay warm. Connecting the ten energy reservoirs was only the beginning, and Qian Jin wasn’t a Demon Fighter yet. However, he had already shown a clear difference between a Level 10 Warrior and a Level 9 Warrior.

Qian Jin stood in front of the passage where he entered Four Season Valley. The avalanche had stopped, but his thoughts of leaving the valley right away disappeared as he raised his head and looked at the new “snow mountain”. It was so high that it almost connected to the sky.

Although the outer layer of snow looked hard, no one could be sure that it wouldn’t collapse if someone started to climb on it. Even if Qian Jin had successfully climbed to the very top of the snow peak, the snow on the very top wouldn’t be as hard as the snow at the bottom. If he stepped on the wrong location, it would be hard to say if he would fall into the snow and get stuck there or not.

The scariest thing was… Qian Jin saw a pair of sharp and vicious eyes on the very top of the snow peak. Immediately after their eyes met, all the hair on Qian Jin’s body straightened!

Demon beast! Snow Tiger! Qian Jin grasped the Zhanmadao tightly subconsciously. The books in the Qian Family’s library had a record of Snow Tigers. Snow Tigers were a very rare Level 3 Demon Beast! They were as fast as the wind, and their claws could tear through rocks. They had a deep sense of territorial dominance. If anyone under the rank of Demon Fighter engaged in battle with a Snow Tiger, the only outcome would be death under the Snow Tiger’s claws.

After only looking at the Snow Tiger’s eyes once, Qian Jin knew that he didn’t need to double check if the record in the book was accurate or not. He was glad that he didn’t try to climb the snow peak earlier. Otherwise, it would be considered an intrusion of its territory by the Snow Tiger.

Whoosh… whoosh…

Two more white shadows appeared on the thick snow peak. Qian Jin’s heart instantly dropped to his stomach. Three Snow Tigers! The two white shadows were another two mature Snow Tigers; they were at least three meters in length, even if their tails were excluded!

“Phew… thank god…” Qian Jin slowly backed off with the Zhanmadao in his hand. Although these Snow Tiger’s eyes were filled with vicious intent, it seemed like they were in fear as well. They were scared of entering Four Season Valley!

Snow Tiger: a rare Level 3 Demon Beast, very aggressive and typically not scared of anything. However, if it was scared of something, it would be scared of it forever and would never get close to it.

Qian Jin didn’t know what these Snow Tigers were scared about in Four Season Valley, but he knew that he was safe for now. These three Snow Tigers could tear him into pieces, but they weren’t going to enter Four Season Valley anytime soon.

Qian Jin calmed down and took out the treasure map that showed the location of [Supreme Wind and Cloud Power Training Scroll]. He tried to figure out where he was and where he should go by looking at the map and the correspond symbols to the terrain in the valley.

After some comparison, Qian Jin concluded that this map wasn’t fake. Most of the symbols and drawings on the map matched up with the actual terrain. If the creator of the map didn’t come here, the map wouldn’t be this detailed.

“From the look of it, after walking into the inner portion of Four Season Valley, getting through a little forest, and then walking by a stone forest, I should be able to see a lake… After that, the [Supreme Wind and Cloud Power Training Scroll] is hidden at this location at the lake.

Qian Jin raised his head and sighed. He planned to come here later, but since he was already in Four Season Valley and the exit was blocked off by three Snow Tigers, he was better off taking the chance to try to find this [Supreme Wind and Cloud Power Training Scroll] on the map.

Qian Jin turned around and looked at the two girls who just squeezed out of the cave. He scratched his head as he felt a headache. He wasn’t sure if this forest was safe or not. He was a Level 10 Warrior, but he couldn’t be sure if he would survive. If he brought them along, then the last small chance of surviving would be gone.

“Should I just leave them here?” Qian Jin scratched his head again as he was really troubled. “Even if I’m going to leave them here, I will have to try to find them some food. We came here together, so I can’t really just ditch them here and forget about them,” he thought.

“Ahhh!”

Sophia’s high-pitched screamed interrupted and scared Qian Jin. He turned around and realized that the swordswoman had seen the three Snow Tigers on the snow peak.

Qian Jin smiled. “No wonder why Sophia let out such a surprised scream. When I first saw those three beasts, I was so scared that I almost peed my pants.”

“Don’t be scared, you two.” Qian Jin ran to the two girls and said, “They seem to be scared of Four Season Valley. From what I read in a book, they won’t enter this valley. We should try to find some food first…”