Translator: La0o9 

〖 Has his mind been dulled by the rich amount of mana in the air? 〗sensing the force siphoning his vitality, 'Negary' slightly tilted his head.

Mana was a source of power with a powerful attraction for all mages, even the elves developed the mana addiction disorder from being modified by the Moon Tree.

For these mages who lived in an environment constantly deprived of mana, while they could contain the mana inside their bodies from going berserk within this manrich atmosphere, they would still undergo various symptoms like sudden excitement and decrease in logical abilities.

In layman's terms, this formation master had become intoxicated within this mana rich area.

Of course, this level of 'intoxication' would only result in the formation master acting a bit more impulsively and his mentality becoming a bit more stimulated; sometimes, being like this would instead help him exert himself better.

〖 However, this environment is truly quite suitable 〗

Within this formation, all mana was directed towards the center, additionally, no one outside would be able to influence the inside due to the isolation, and there was a force constantly absorbing any excess vitality; it was as if everything was set up exactly to help 'Negary' give birth better…

〖 Should I praise you for your good work? 〗

'Negary's' skin was slowly cracking away, emanating the aura of newborn life.

“What nonsense are you spouting? Begging for forgiveness?” the formation master's voice resounded from afar.

He could feel mana clearly converging towards him, allowing some originally mundane spells to become exceedingly frightening.

“I won't give you any chance! Die here and become the Fetus' nutrients, then aid my rebirth!” the formation master mobilized the formation's own frequency and waved his hand, sending a ray of light from it.

Under the formation's support, even the simplest magic ray could become a mana bomb, and it was this qualitative improvement that gave the formation master the confidence to call this his home field.

Zi…

Under the Distant Heaven formation's influence, a magic ray wouldn't necessarily fly straight, those using normal senses to perceive this ray of light would find it zigzagging and curving as it approached.

The ray accurately shot and missed 'Negary's' body by a hair's breadth. The intense kinetic energy contained within the ray caused a gust of wind to blow on 'Negary', a part of his skin broke off and fell like fragile ceramic, then scattered into dust in the wind.

“How is that possible!?” the formation master was stunned.

While the environment is under my complete control, with my sense of perception, and the other party not moving at all, I missed?

What kind of ridiculous joke is this?

“No, that's not the key point right now!” the formation master wasn't too concerned with his failure. Questioning the reality of something that had already occurred was something that only fools would concern themselves with, the more pressing matter right now was for him to think of a way to get rid of this detestable b.a.s.t.a.r.d.

“I was careless this time, but you're definitely not escaping this time”

While he made this declaration and gathered mana to cast his spell, some written letters were flowing from his back into his cloak, wrapping himself within it.

This Mana Banquet was clearly abnormal. Not only did the wors.h.i.+ppers of the Seven Churches suddenly partic.i.p.ate, but the Great Magus Stim had also suddenly become rejuvenated; all of these abnormalities clearly pointed to the fact that this year's Mana Banquet would be unlike the rest.

The manrich environment earlier granted him confidence, considering that he was a first-rate mage in his own rights and his strength had been greatly increased. He might not have been able to defeat everyone by himself, but he believed that he would have been among the strongest.

However, reality coldly slapped him on the face, telling him that he wasn't the only 'cheat' in the room. The most he would get was a two-fold increase in mana, while the others could 'cheat' all their values all the way to the sky.

This fact forced the formation master to calm back down, treating 'Negary' as a real enemy. His spirit sense was overclocking itself to try and sense the other party's state. However, he soon noticed something strange as 'Negary' was in some sort of special state, almost like he had just died.

Mobilizing his mana, he shot another magic ray towards 'Negary' while focusing all of his perceptions to sense the changes within the formation. This time, he wanted to know for sure why his attack had missed the previous time.

Formation – Distant Heaven is a distorted zone created from mana that causes a pseudo overlapping s.p.a.ce, so all spatial distance within should be under my complete control.

The formation master continued to track the trajectory of his magic ray, he then discovered that for a split second, a small amount of mana was abruptly absorbed by the Formation – Vitality Siphon.

Due to the three formations overlapping on one another, that abrupt amount of mana had appeared at the exact point of overlap for the three formations, which caused a minute change in Distant Heaven. It was this minute change that distorted the attacking direction of his magic ray.

“This skill…”

Even though he was already prepared for this answer, the formation master couldn't help but feel immense envy. After his formations had been set up, the other party had put in a small amount of mana at the exact necessary time to influence Distant Heaven's effects; the necessary perception and spirit sense required for this was unimaginable, otherwise, if anyone randomly circulating their mana could affect his control, then he would be such a huge failure of a formation master.

This level of spirit sense and perception far surpa.s.sed the formation master's, if he had this level of skill, he wouldn't even bother to partic.i.p.ate in the Mana Banquet in the first place. Ever since he was young, it had always been other people being jealous of his talents, this was the very first time he had tasted the envy of being overwhelmingly inferior to someone else when it came to talents.

This isn't the time to feel envious.

The formation master reminded himself, then focused his mind on a solution against 'Negary'. After knowing what means the other party used to alter the course of his attacks, things would be much easier.

Some of the letters that made up the formation array began to change, altering the structure of his triple formation. Previously it was the Vitality Siphon formation that fueled the Distant Heaven and Thick Earth formations, but now it had been changed to Distant Heaven and Thick Earth absorbing the mana of the Mana Fetus to fuel Vitality Siphon's absorption.

“Your current state must have been invoked by the Mana Fetus, a unique state of being half-dead and half-alive. I'll completely absorb all of your vitality and have you die completely” after stating his plan for 'Negary' to hear, the formation master continued to observe 'Negary's' state. As soon as he noticed anything out of the ordinary, he would immediately trigger his preparations and change his goal tonight.

Earlier, his goal was to take the Mana Fetus for himself and obtain the right to be reborn; but as soon as that failed, his goal would change to preserving his own existence.

〖 Thank you… 〗the outermost layer of 'Negary's' body quickly crumbled away into dust, having been stimulated by the sped-up vitality absorption. 'Negary's' new body was swiftly revealed, emanating a vast amount of vitality mana that entered the Vitality Siphon formation. This mana seemed to have an infectious characteristic, as they swiftly invaded and took over owners.h.i.+p of the letters within the formation.

Having known the difference between them before, the formation master wasn't too surprised with this result; the letters he had prepared on his body instantly began to glow and resonated with the letters around himself. Other than the Vitality Siphon formation, his other formations swiftly receded around his body.

After that, the formation master retreated, sat half-crouched on the ground, and closed himself off.