Through the pure and flawless Magic Glass, Mifang admired the snow scene outside the window.
This is the Ice Sculpture Royal Capital.
No matter how heavy the snowstorm, when it falls here, it is greatly reduced by numerous Alchemy Arrays, turning into tiny, white snowflakes.
These snowflakes are negligible, emitting a faint, gentle glow. Amidst the twinkling lights of the royal capital, they appear tranquil, noble, and elegant.
Every time Mifang gazes at such a snow scene, it leaves him enchanted.
He stood by the floor-to-ceiling window, holding a hot drink in his hand, his brow showing comfort and satisfaction.
This house is located in the central area of the royal capital, where every inch of land is precious, and one must have noble status to own it.
Yet Mifang fought with perseverance for over twenty years to stand here and enjoy the snow scene.
Initially, as a member of the Human Race, he traveled a long way to the Ice Sculpture Kingdom to study.
Mifang was of humble birth but understood the ways of rising in status.
He was lucky. Heaven bestowed upon him the Golden Level Bloodline as well as a handsome appearance. Even among the Snow Elf Clan, he was quite dashing and graceful.
Beauty takes many forms, and each race has different aesthetics. Dwarves admire sturdiness, the Demon Clan prefer something fierce and terrifying, while elves are fond of elegance and beauty.
Mifang’s appearance closely matched the Elf Clan’s aesthetics, making him widely welcomed by female elves.
As a student, he keenly noticed his advantages in this area and made great use of them.
He maintained intimate relationships with many female elves, which drew much dissatisfaction from others. Many suitors began to challenge him constantly, publicly initiating duels.
At first, Mifang regretted thinking he had caused too much trouble.
After hesitating for a while, he bit the bullet and accepted the duels. After winning, he experienced different treatment and suddenly realized a faster shortcut than flaunting his looks.
"It’s the duels!" Mifang marveled.
The culture of dueling seems to originate from the legend of heroic duels. In the Frost Continent and the Ice Sculpture Kingdom, it is extremely flourishing. Dueling is not only the most common form of entertainment for the masses but also infiltrates every aspect of life, serving as a practical tool for every social class. Countless citizens use it to resolve disputes and decide the distribution of interests.
Dueling is so important that the Ice Sculpture Royal Family has always vigorously promoted and encouraged it.
Mifang’s impression is very profound. He remembers many challengers, defeated but not ashamed or angry, instead feeling admiration - some even became his followers!
Dueling culture is the fundamental gene of this kingdom.
As long as you become the victor in a duel, everything else can be discussed.
People will acknowledge your strength, admire you, submit to you, and voluntarily step back.
Even if you are an outsider, not a citizen of the Ice Sculpture Kingdom, even if you are not a Snow Elf but a member of the Human Race.
Deeply understanding the benefits of dueling, Mifang changed his previous conduct, investing tremendous energy into studying the dueling activities in the Ice Sculpture Kingdom.
Each duel is both a challenge and an enormous opportunity!
Mifang didn’t let any opportunity slip away; he grasped both aspects well.
On one hand, he approached female Snow Elves, forming various intimate relationships to obtain ample cultivation resources, intelligence, etc. On the other hand, he actively prepared for battles, winning repeatedly in duels.
With support from his lovers, he overcame the lack of resources at the start, greatly increasing his chances of winning duels. The fame that came from winning duels highlighted his charm, making it easier to develop relationships with lovers. Those who were drawn by his widespread pursuits became his dueling opponents.
Mifang firmly controlled both aspects, working in coordination to form a positive cycle, allowing his personal strength to steadily rise.
As his fame rose, he gradually caught the attention of the higher echelons in the Ice Sculpture Kingdom.
Becoming Golden Level was the biggest turning point in his life.
Golden-Level Transcendents are regional pillars, enough to make those in the middle and upper ranks extend olive branches to them.
Eventually, Mifang accepted an olive branch from a family, marrying into the Jingxiang family.
This was the result of his careful selection.
Although the overall strength of the Jingxiang family was not as strong as the Hanyu family or the Lijian family, they had a strong foundation in potions, with great competitiveness even in such a high-level alchemical environment as the Ice Sculpture Kingdom.
And Mifang happened to be an excellent Pharmacist.
Of course, the reason also includes that the Hanyu family and Lijian family looked down on him. These top-tier families had the intention to recruit but did not want Mifang to become a member, preferring to hire him for significant positions. For instance, Sansa Manda of the Lijian family served as a general in the Navy.
"If I were not just Golden Level but Holy Domain Level, the treatment would be entirely different."
"Unfortunately, I will never have that chance in this lifetime." Mifang was well aware that his bloodline potential was exhausted and understood that Golden Level was the peak of his life.
Jingxiang family’s core Golden Level individuals number a few, with varying status.
In nearly ten years following that, Mifang worked hard to rise in rank within the family.
Having become a son-in-law of the Jingxiang family, the utilization of previous lover relationships greatly reduced. But he did not give up dueling, participating regularly to maintain his reputation.
He participated in many duels, gaining much experience, achieving more victories than losses.
"Dueling ultimately has its limits. Or, more precisely, I personally have limits."
Mifang’s bloodline potential was exhausted, and after maximizing equipment, his combat power also peaked.
The number of Golden Level duelers is far fewer than Silver Level.
Mifang had to carefully select, greatly reducing the number of his opponents.
The benefits that duels brought him were becoming increasingly limited, so Mifang had to shift his focus elsewhere in pursuit of advancement.
The appearance of the Dragon Lion Mercenary Corps presented him with a great opportunity for progress.
The Dragon Lion Mercenary Corps introduced a specialized magic potion for mounts, opening up a new blue ocean market. When Mifang first heard about this news, he felt as if a new world had opened up, filled with endless possibilities.
He seized the opportunity with all his might, utilizing extensive funds and connections to become the interim head for the Jingxiang family in this area.
Subsequently, the Dragon Power Riding Potion became an instant hit with extremely high sales, surpassing the highest expectations of countless industry insiders and attracting widespread attention.
By the time members of the Jingxiang family realized what was happening and tried to intervene, Mifang had already seized the initiative.
Mifang’s ability to rise from the grassroots to his current position is a testament to his talent.
He exerted all his efforts, actively followed up, and, with great speed, reverse-engineered some of the Dragon Power Riding Potion’s formula, then modified it to create the Jingxiang family’s mount magic potion product.
Such magic potions usually require extensive testing before they can be released to the market.
However, Mifang understood the importance of capturing the market and took the risk to push through the opposition and released the mount magic potion ahead of schedule.
This gamble paid off for him.
The Jingxiang family’s mount magic potion was almost as effective as the Dragon Power Riding Potion and did not have excessive side effects.
As a result, the Jingxiang family achieved commercial success, and Mifang solidified his position, truly becoming the project leader.
Such success invigorated Mifang, motivating him to pursue even greater achievements.
"The magic potion business is at the core of the Jingxiang family’s interests. I became a son-in-law and joined the family nearly ten years ago, and only now do I have the opportunity to enter this field and become a project leader!"
"The mount magic potion business has a promising future. I’ve now established my foothold, and with continuous efforts, I can achieve higher power and profit."
"I can climb even higher!"
Mifang is well aware that he has many limitations.
For instance, he is of the Human Race, while the Ice Sculpture Kingdom is ultimately a foreign realm dominated by Snow Elves. Even though he had joined the Jingxiang family, even though he and his wife had always been deeply in love, he could never truly ascend to the highest ranks of the Jingxiang family.
He had long hit the limitations of his bloodline and reached the ceiling of his personal strength, and the highest authority the Jingxiang family could grant him had also been reached.
Breaking through this ceiling is extremely difficult. Taking even a small step forward feels as hard as climbing to the heavens.
In the end, high-ranking members of large organizations almost all have enough political acumen to understand the principle that power overrides everything.
The Jingxiang family is a noble family among the Snow Elves, and like any noble family in the Holy Bright Empire, they share a management consensus of strengthening the main branches while weakening the lesser ones. Mifang, not being a Snow Elf, is not even considered a branch, and the core fields controlled by the main family members would never be accessible to him, an outsider.
However, the reality is that the Dragon Lion Mercenary Corps provided Mifang with a rare opportunity.
Mifang seized this opportunity with all his might, breaking through his previous limits!
As the Jingxiang family continued to succeed in the mount magic potion market, Mifang’s status within the family kept rising, and his influence grew steadily.
"This is the beauty of progress."
This feeling made Mifang intoxicated and spurred him to climb even higher. He was determined to seize this rare opportunity and never let go!
Therefore, although they were both duelers, from Mifang’s perspective, his feelings towards the Dragon Lion Mercenary Corps were complex.
On one hand, the Dragon Lion Mercenary Corps was the enemy of the duelers’ camp; the corpses of Jia Bing, Lin, and the Axe Gang leader were still in their possession.
On the other hand, the Dragon Lion Mercenary Corps had given Mifang the greatest opportunity of his life. This kind of opportunity may only come once in a lifetime!
"I want to defeat these mercenaries and use them as a stepping stone to reach a higher position!"
Mifang’s drive to deal with the Dragon Lion Mercenary Corps was more complex and extensive than other duelers.
He had long been analyzing: "The most potent aspects of the Dragon Lion Mercenary Corps are twofold."
"First is the potions they brought to the market. The three types of mount potions, consecutively introduced, are all exquisite. Back-analyzing and dissecting the formulas from a professional standpoint, one must acknowledge their intricate completeness and ingenious conception."
"Second is the formidable reputation of Long Fu. Long Fu beheaded Teng Donglang at the Silver Level. This starting point is perfect, surpassing many duelers’ lifelong efforts."
Compared to Long Fu’s achievement, even Mifang himself felt dwarfed.
Making a big splash at the Silver Level stage was something Mifang had never contemplated.
His fighting skills, though excellent, were not at the pinnacle level like Dragon-man youth or Zong Ge.
"My bloodline talent is far inferior to Long Fu’s."
"His Dragon-man bloodline clearly leans toward combat with a strong advantage. My Human Race bloodline is more of a production-oriented bloodline."
Therefore, each duel was a challenge for Mifang, and every step forward came at a great cost.
Before each duel, he would carefully select opponents, design multiple strategies, arm himself as much as possible, and prepare a variety of magic potions in advance.Get full chapters from novel·fire·net
He treated each duel as an opportunity fraught with great risk and did everything he could to seize it.
His battles were fought with all his might, to the extent that he used potions excessively, leading to many side effects. To this day, these side effects continued to plague him.
And all of this was just a fraction of the cost he paid to reach his current position.
Even with such thorough preparation, he still experienced defeats.
He had never achieved consecutive victories like the Dragon-man youth currently enjoyed.
However, the impact of failure was much less severe than he had imagined. Ice Sculpture Kingdom citizens did not excessively denigrate or scorn the losers. Instead, they often hoped that the defeated would rise again and bravely challenge the strong once more.
"This is the spirit of dueling!"
"Victory or defeat is just the result of a single duel. For a lifelong duel like life, the most correct response is to keep challenging."
When Mifang grasped this point, he was selected.
He became one of the duelists.
He kept this part of his identity a secret to the best of his ability, even his wife was completely unaware.
Mifang used his lovers to achieve a crucial start, amassing wealth through continuous dueling. The spirit of dueling perfectly matched his personal path of advancement.
He had never been preached to, inspired, or given any Divine Revelation, but he was a duelist inherently possessed with the spirit of dueling.
It was this inner spirit that spurred him on, led him forward, pushing him higher and higher.
Now, what he wanted to do was step on the heads of the Dragon Lion Mercenary Corps and continue upward!
"The alchemy technique of the Dragon Lion Mercenary Corps is very powerful, for now, I can only fully follow along."
"But their other advantage might have a flaw to exploit."
Mifang, who built his fortune through dueling, naturally knew that if Long Fu lost a battle and his reputation diminished, it would severely impact their mount magic potion business.
Then, the Jingxiang family could rise up and replace the Dragon Lion Mercenary Corps, capturing more of the national market.
Mifang took active actions based on this idea.
Zong Ge being poisoned was the result of his efforts. Even during the Zong Ge Wine God Trial, the poison he planted wasn’t solved.
However, Mifang was also intimidated by Zong Ge’s toughness, never daring to hand down himself.
Mifang thought: The enemy is still strong and needs to be weakened further while waiting for a good opportunity.
In the upcoming maneuvers, he focused on supporting Ice Calamity to trouble Long Fu.
As a fellow duelist, Mifang took the initiative to help out. Unfortunately, Ice Calamity’s reputation was well-known, but his combat power wasn’t high. After a duel, Ice Calamity died in battle without weakening Long Fu but instead bolstered the latter’s prestige.
Before Mifang found a better way, he heard new news.
Because Ice Calamity had the frost aura effect of the "Beautiful Future" magic potion, Long Fu fell for it and got promoted to the Golden Level!
Hearing this news, Mifang’s first reaction was to sneer. He always believed: Silver Level was just Long Fu’s guise, the latter’s real level should be Golden Level. This view was in line with many people, including the City Lord of Snowbird Port and Tan Mo.
Immediately, Mifang’s second reaction was a sudden realization as he saw a new opportunity!
He suddenly realized that now that Long Fu had become Golden Level, there were actually more opportunities to deal with him!
Previously, Long Fu was only Silver Level, so finding another Silver Level to challenge him openly and defeat him was extremely difficult!
Ice Calamity once was Golden Level; the result was being suppressed when fighting "Long Fu," it was too miserable.
Now, Long Fu openly announced his promotion to Golden Level, and once again directly repelled "Hua Tang," showcasing his strength.
This allowed Mifang to see many opportunities — other Golden Levels could directly challenge Long Fu. They wouldn’t be gossiped about, looked down upon, or despised by the public for bullying the weak.
But Mifang would absolutely not act personally.
So far, Zong Ge’s terrifying record of one on three still heavily intimidated duelists.
Mifang thought of inciting uninformed Golden Levels to continuously weaken Long Fu. However, before he had the chance to act, new news arrived in quick succession, leaving him a bit overwhelmed.
Overnight, as if the entire country knew about the conflict between the Dragon Lion Mercenary Corps and the Lijian family.
"Wonderful!" Mifang thought this was good news.
He thought in reverse: Long Fu was originally Golden Level, always disguised as Silver Level. Now he’s famous nationwide, his mount magic potion sales are booming, making gold each day, and the Dragon Lion Mercenary Corps has initially established themselves, enduring previously, right?
For the Dragon Lion Mercenary Corps, the Lijian family is not indispensable.
But their distribution of interests was not proportional to their respective contributions. Who would be content with that?
At least Mifang thought, if he were Long Fu, he would definitely not be content!
Additionally, Mifang analyzed and also thought that falling out with the Lijian family now could be the best opportunity for the Dragon Lion Mercenary Corps.
Because the Lijian family’s Second Navy was defeated on the front line, their influence drastically declined. The Kingdom’s top leaders were extremely dissatisfied with this action by the Lijian family!
"The Lijian family is at its lowest point; if not cut now, when else?"
"These rumors should have been deliberately spread by the Dragon Lion Mercenary Corps."
Then, Mifang heard new rumors.
Word had it that the Dragon Lion Mercenary Corps wanted to have business talks with the Jingxiang family, considering cooperation!
"Wonderful."
"Who wouldn’t they cooperate with? The Jingxiang family in the magic potion field is more powerful than the Lijian family. Cooperating with us would undoubtedly be more profitable."
Mifang didn’t find this abrupt.
In fact, he had been keeping an eye on other fronts. According to the internal information he gathered, the Alchemy Guild had recently taken action, forcing the Dragon Lion Mercenary Corps side to sign an agreement with a bet clause.
Although he hadn’t tracked down the specific contents of the agreement, Mifang speculated that it was finally the Alchemy Guild taking action!
For the longest time, the strongest Alchemy Guild had had little reaction.
That was abnormal.
When Mifang was in charge of this work, he never forgot about the Alchemy Guild.
In his view, the Dragon Lion Mercenary Corps abandoning the Lijian family due to unfair benefit distribution and choosing the Jingxiang family was precisely to counter the Alchemy Guild!
"I didn’t expect it. This time, I didn’t create an opportunity but directly got one."
As for why Mifang, as a duelist, was cooperating with the enemy?
It’s completely not a problem!
"I can cooperate on the surface while secretly dealing with them!"
Feign compliance outwardly and target them secretly, isn’t that an easier way to excel?
"Wonderful, indescribably wonderful."
So, upon learning this news, Mifang immediately dispatched a subordinate to send an invitation letter to the Dragon Lion Mercenary Corps. He invited Long Fu for a face-to-face talk and was looking forward to the cooperation with great anticipation.
And now, he was waiting for the subordinate’s report back.
Knock, knock, knock.
Soon, the study door was knocked upon.
"Come in." Mifang knew it was the subordinate who delivered the invitation letter, and couldn’t help but smile.
However, the subordinate brought back a challenge letter.
Mifang opened it and read it, his expression changing drastically: "Long Fu... wants to openly challenge me?"
The subordinate also brought other information: "Lord Mifang, there are new rumors spreading in the Royal Capital now. The source has been confirmed, it’s indeed the Dragon Lion Mercenary Corps."
"Rumor has it: Our family is bullying in business negotiations, looking down on Long Fu, the outsider, forcing Long Fu to openly challenge Lord Mifang, with the intent to use the duel result to push this negotiation forward."
Mifang: ?!
He reacted immediately, his fingers clutching the challenge letter subconsciously exerting force, twisting the paper.
"This is Long Fu creating momentum, forcing me to accept this duel."
"The key point is..."
"I have no way to refuse, can only fight!"
"Damn it."
In the eyes of the public, Long Fu is just a newly promoted Golden Level, with weak combat power. While Mifang has long been famous, an old-established Golden Level.
Therefore, this duel invitation is viewed as the weak challenging the strong.
If Mifang, as the stronger party, retreats, his reputation will plummet.
The key point is, this duel is complex and involves the huge interest of mount magic potions!
Mifang’s pressure comes not just from the public but also from the internal Jingxiang family. After all, he’s an outsider, and the only reason he’s holding this position is that his achievements are outstanding, and others can find no fault.
"Once I avoid the battle, I’ll certainly be pulled down!"
"Poisonous. Long Fu’s move is too poisonous."
"He’s bullying me!"
Perhaps Long Fu wants to negotiate, but only after winning the duel. This way, the Dragon Lion Mercenary Corps is bound to gain significant negotiation advantage.
"Long Fu is sinister, yet so domineering!"
Mifang frowned, his face turning pale with anger.
He was very angry, very annoyed, yet also growing more and more nervous. A fear began to arise and spread deep within him, rapidly accumulating.
Because Mifang was very self-aware.
"Relying on myself alone, I’m sure to lose."
"They spread such rumors; they’re not aiming to pursue a defeat. They have great confidence in winning!"
Mifang was under extreme pressure.
He thought of Zong Ge’s terrifying record of one on three.
The Axe Gang Leader and the other two were not any ordinary Golden Levels; they were all duelists!
"Once such a technique is employed, a defeat would be the best result; worse, I might die!"
"And it’s not the first duelist to die at Long Fu’s hands."
The study was warm like spring, yet Mifang was drenched in cold sweat.
This was the biggest crisis he faced.
"I must fully arm myself!"
"I need to leverage the power of the Jingxiang family, while also seeking help from other duelists!"
"Damn it, even though I have so many people on my side, only one can fight in the duel."
"Damn, why is there such a lousy rule!"
Mifang could no longer sit still, he immediately stood up, pushed the door open, and acted with full speed.