Battles between mages are always prepared battles. They never fight unprepared.
Even the most research-oriented mages who dislike combat will, whenever they leave their workshop, engrave mystical runes in the most convenient places on their person—such as between their hands or on their clothing—so that in an emergency they can instantly inject magical energy, ignite the "fuel" to start the "engine," and manifest ancient mystical phenomena for combat or self-defense!
The former is basic magecraft storage.
The latter is a "magecraft outfit" that requires sufficient magecraft knowledge to create.
Rasputin, also a mage, naturally understood this and had certainly prepared.
But no matter how prepared he was, he had only guarded against engraved runes and rituals that condensed mystery—not the magic array formed by countless linked runes, the kind that only appears inside a magic workshop, occupying the terrain advantage—mystic barrier!
What Rasputin faced was exactly that. It was not his fault for lacking preparation; theoretically, such large-scale rituals were nearly impossible to wear on the body—even the most minimal magic workshop with only a single-layer attribute. But Lu Kang came from decades in the future. The rituals he used were deliberately chosen ones that either did not exist in this era or had just been created and were used by almost no one.
Mystery originates from "foundation." With a fixed stock, the more people know it and use it, the thinner its effect and the greater its consumption.
The reverse is also true.
Operating this way, consumption could be reduced to the minimum—low enough for an individual to drive.
At this moment when light flared, the originally black, heavy robe on the youth who gripped Rasputin's face now glowed with fine flowing light all over.
The intricate silver-white patterns looked, from a distance, like the scales of an ancient creature's protective shell, or like holy, flawless feathers. The robe billowed backward as if the wings of a divine messenger had spread!
God!
Nicholas II, immobilized on the throne, had his gaze dyed by the light.
As emperor of the Tsarist Empire he was a devout believer in God; otherwise he would not have invited so many theological masters when his son fell ill. Seeing Lu Kang's display now, he was naturally awed and naturally regarded him as God's messenger, an angel descended to earth!
Nicholas II felt this way.
The steward butler felt the same—if he could move, he would have knelt immediately!
And since Lu Kang was an "angel,"
Then the one opposing the angel was naturally a demon!
"Mr. Demon, are you ready… to go to hell?" Lu Kang smiled at Rasputin. In the light he looked even more holy—if not for this appearance, he would not have come!
He had precisely planned to use this opportunity to make Nicholas revere him!
"You…" Rasputin, noticing the change in Nicholas II's gaze behind him, grew even more furious.
If Lu Kang truly established the fixed impression of an angel in the Tsar's mind, then all his hard work—using illusion to hypnotize, painstakingly engraving runes here to create his magic workshop, trying to control this towering empire—would completely fail!
This was something he could not tolerate.
Something he absolutely could not accept!
So although his face was pressed down by Lu Kang's palm, Rasputin instantly made a decision. He also stretched out his hand—speed so fast it was almost a single instant. A black shadow shot out from beneath his wrinkled, dirty robe in an instant. A sharp cry, loud and piercing like scraping metal, seemed to pierce the eardrums!
Several black crows flew out from Rasputin's body!
They were familiars.
Mages' servants, infused with mystery, non-human entities!
Under Rasputin's conscious control the crows flapped their wings and soared to the highest point of the palace. The wide, majestic hall seemed to raise several bolts of lightning. The familiars' bodies were small yet fast as lightning; the cold edge on their black wings seemed embedded with countless blades!
They were Rasputin's sharp weapons, his best helpers for killing enemies. Used for assassination they were silent; used in direct confrontation they could also achieve surprise victory!
"Kill him!" Rasputin roared. His low, powerful voice exploded inside the palace. The crows dove down like lightning rising then thunder falling.
The airflow they raised tore and scattered the already wrinkled red carpet, turning it into crimson rain!
Under the double "pincer attack" of crimson rain and black lightning, Lu Kang stood motionless, as if he had not reacted. Rasputin seemed to already see his body severed!
Facing Lu Kang's trick of wearing the magic workshop on his body, he had indeed been caught off guard.
But facing the killing move he kept hidden inside his body at this moment—the youth absolutely could not have expected it.
Rasputin was very confident. Even if Lu Kang reacted, he could not block this instantaneous surprise attack!
Because it was too fast—
Fast enough for the black lightning to fall, fast enough for the sound of metal clashing to ring out, fast enough for the crows to hit the ground, flap twice, and fall silent.
Although pressed down, Rasputin could not stop the corner of his mouth from rising in a wild arc!
"You should stop daydreaming, Grigori Rasputin." Lu Kang's tone was calm. His figure stood firm as a mountain, as if what had rushed toward him were not lightning-fast crows with blade-like wings, but a few insignificant mosquitoes or ants.
But how was that possible? Rasputin's eyes widened subconsciously. He had not even realized what had happened. He only saw the crows dive and collide with the youth.
They should have sliced the human body apart like tofu, yet they smashed against an iron wall with a clang and shattered themselves!
The next second, Lu Kang's voice fell and the hand pressing Rasputin exerted force again.
Then the next second.
Patterns similar yet different to those on the priest's robe climbed out from the depths of Lu Kang's sleeve like threads, densely covering the youth's entire palm.
Only then did Rasputin understand—
"Double magic workshop!?" He cried out in astonishment a second time.
"Surprised?" Lu Kang's face, bathed in light, truly looked like an angel, yet carried a playful air.
What had been engraved with the magic-workshop array was not only his clothes, but also his skin!
His skin was also a "workshop," a self-contained system, a magic barrier that combined offense and defense!
Double workshops meant double territories—moreover, they were double "barriers" forged by the mystical techniques brought from the future, following the principles of mystery to minimize consumption! Lu Kang's trump cards were far more than a single "outer garment"!
That was why he neither dodged nor evaded.
Not because he had not reacted, but because there was no need to dodge!
Shock, daze, panic, fear… Endless thoughts surged. Rasputin knew he had encountered a genuine monster, a legendary "crown" level genius. He wanted to beg for mercy, but Lu Kang gave him no chance.
The outer robe billowed and fell like angel wings slowly closing. Extreme high temperature instantly evaporated like a furnace. In the blazing light, Rasputin vanished completely—thoroughly evaporated!
Rasputin was dead.
From body to consciousness, from material existence to conceptual existence in the field of mystery, everything melted away in the light.
Only mottled spreading dust, a torn gold-embroidered carpet, and slowly dissipating silver-white radiance remained.
Rasputin was dead.
And next, Lu Kang would replace his original trajectory and become the mysterious master haunting the palace—
"The demon has been exorcised by me." The priest's outer robe, having returned to its pitch-black color, hung silently. Lu Kang stood in place with hands lowered, facing Nicholas II above, whose eyes were full of reverence, and smiled.
A hypocritical smile.
Yet in Nicholas II's eyes it became the truest, holiest purity!
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