Chapter 827: Chapter 232: Wizard King! Flop! (Part 2)

Just as expected.

The joy of pulling off this kind of revenge really was fucking great! After two thousand years of waiting, his obsession finally satisfied, Merlin relaxed his guard for a moment and let his mood loosen up.

He might not have realized that Ian’s expression had been calm from beginning to end. He just floated there, bobbing around in the "Yellow River," not even bothering to fly up.

"All I want to say is... Great Mage Merlin, you’re still too soft-hearted. You don’t even dare poison your own bladder." Ian even put on a "hate-iron-for-not-becoming-steel" face as he offered his "advice."

"????????"

Merlin had absolutely not expected Ian to say that to his face.

He looked completely dumbfounded.

He had no idea how he was supposed to respond.

And just then—

"Great Mage, if you won’t play fair, then don’t blame me. There’s a saying... an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth—you will repay in pain the theft of my signature move!"

Ian suddenly let out a shout, and the next second, his entire body, as if soaked and swollen in a "pool," visibly puffed up like a balloon at high speed.

"!!!"

Merlin’s face changed drastically in shock.

He realized something was wrong and tried to Apparate on the spot and Merlin-Run, but to his surprise, the Magic seemed to be interfered with, and that brief interference made him miss the best window to escape.

"Bang!"

Ian blew up.

Like a snapping rubber band, it went off with a loud, impressive boom; the huge blast directly churned up the aged "old liquor," sending it splashing in all directions and then all right back onto Merlin.

And that wasn’t all.

After Ian exploded, the air was filled with an even more pungent stench—that was the smell of Oliger. Yellow-brown sludge, mixed with yellow liquid, splattered all over Merlin.

"Cough, cough, cough!" Merlin didn’t even have time to react before he got caught in Ian’s explosion; his hair was blown straight up, and he dropped straight from the ceiling into the very pool he’d created.

Of course.

That still wasn’t what terrified him the most. What terrified him most was the filth covering him head to toe, how utterly wretched he looked, and God only knew how much extra "seasoning" the Little Wizard had added to all that muck.

"No!!"

Merlin’s scalp wasn’t just tingling; even his little heart was trembling.

"I’m gonna die! I’m seriously gonna die!"

Almost on reflex, Merlin cast Magic at once, transferring all the Yellow River filling the room, plus the Oliger produced by Ian’s explosion, to some other unlucky location.

Then.

In the now-empty room.

Merlin finally showed the kind of power befitting the Wizard King—within a single second, Magic went shwoosh-shwoosh-shwoosh as he cast dozens of Spells in a row, all aimed at the room and at himself: modified Scouring Charms of his own design. You could tell that if Merlin had a system, this Spell would’ve been maxed-out ages ago.

Of course, even so, Merlin was still shaking like a leaf; he didn’t dare stop the Scouring Charm at all. Or rather, it should be called the Purification Spell—its invention had helped Merlin stop quite a few plagues in the past.

Just then—

"You’re just not ruthless enough with yourself. You don’t dare be as ruthless with your own clones as I am." Light, easy footsteps sounded from the corridor.

Ian’s real body strolled in unhurriedly.

"Oh, and you’re not as resourceful as I am either." The Little Wizard wore the smile of a victor. Yes, the "Ian" who walked into the dorm just now had only been one of his usual clones.

The moment he realized Ririm was actually Merlin, Ian had started taking precautions. Anyone who’s often feeling guilty should understand this as simple planning ahead.

Exactly because of that.

Ian chose to be cautious.

And sure enough.

The facts proved his caution had been very much on point.

Merlin had wanted to be just as dirty as him.

Unfortunately, Merlin had no idea Ian could go even dirtier. As for Merlin predicting that he would come expose his identity, Ian, who knew all too well that Merlin liked to keep his Prophetic Ability running for no reason, had of course been on guard.

And there you have it.

Looking at Ian’s smug face, Merlin felt both furious and helpless, with a hint of puzzlement. "You... when did you... hide yourself?"

He really had been cheating with his Prophetic Ability, just like the sort of peeping Grindelwald was always doing. Having been taught a lesson by Grindelwald, Ian was extremely wary of people like that.

"Of course it was when I decided to come looking for you with the two professors." Ian blinked. He had wanted to check on his elders, Dumbledore and Nicolas Flamel.

Only to find that the two of them had quietly hidden themselves far, far away.

As if they were terrified he’d open with another Oliger-throw at Merlin.

"..."

Ian was speechless.

He could only turn his head back toward Merlin again.

"Great Mage, I knew from the start you’d try to ambush me, so I prepared in advance. Well? Surprised?" Ian had indeed anticipated Merlin’s petty little schemes.

He just hadn’t expected Merlin’s revenge to take this particular form. Of course, that didn’t stop Ian from having long since decided exactly how he wanted to say "long time no see" to Merlin.

"Fine, fine, fine!" Merlin gnashed his teeth in rage, but he couldn’t refute him. All he could do was lie on the ground, still dry-heaving as he secretly swore that one day he’d get his own back.

"To have fooled my Prophetic Ability—you really are clever!" He ground the words out between his teeth, which also confirmed that he’d used his Prophetic Ability to anticipate Ian’s return and arrival.

Of course.

Ian had simply anticipated his anticipation.

"This also confirms my theory: as long as you can deceive everyone, you’ve basically deceived the world itself—and that will directly affect the Prophetic Ability of you Prophets."