Water Mage in the Flame Realm-Chapter 395 - 382: What Is Greed?

"Lidzmat, clearly a dragon race with both the flame and earth dual attributes, so why hasn’t it been called the ’Earth-Fire Dragon’ or something like ’Molten Giant Dragon’? Because its core of power lies not in its elemental attributes.

But in ’greed’!"

The old man’s voice grew increasingly strange, he said faintly, "The Dragon of Greed, with greed as the core of its power, the power of the molten lava is merely an external tentacle and extension of its most core power of greed. Through the tentacles, Lidzmat plants the seed of greed into the bodies of professionals whose elemental attribute resembles its own. And once the seed takes root and germinates, what it develops into is ’horizontal power.’ The so-called ’horizontal power,’ essentially, is the power naturally manifested when a person greatly desires something. Tyranny, tyranny, why tyranny, why arrogant, isn’t it all to obtain something that doesn’t inherently belong to oneself?

Greed exists in everyone. Horizontal power exists in everyone. Ordinary people with great greed and abundant horizontal power may be strong for a time but find it hard to end well, often encountering accidents or suffering from maladies, almost inevitably ending in a miserable death.

And for professionals, when greed becomes excessive, horizontal power loses control..." The old man paused as he spoke.

Andrew had been quietly listening, and at this moment, he softly interjected, "When professionals’ greed is excessive and horizontal power loses control, is this what the Earth Fire Mage, Flame Warrior, and Earth Fire Professionals of the Magic Guild exhibit?"

The old man nodded: "Yes."

The sea breeze gently blew past.

Andrew fell silent again, quietly recalling and pondering.

All those confrontations and battles with the Earth Fire Professionals, all those doubts about the people of the Magic Guild, seem now to have explanations, they all make sense.

Why, when the First Saintess Capella called forth the Dragon’s shadow, did the power appear like a black hole, seemingly about to devour everything around her, including people, events, and even space and time?

Why are Earth Fire Professionals almost always of poor character and relatively unstable mental states?

Including why, compared to Warm Fire Professionals, the health status of Earth Fire Professionals is often unsatisfactory, their strength formidable, but their quality of life not so good?

It turns out, tracing back to the source, there’s only one reason.

Because of the excessive greed!

However...

"Does it really have such great power? Greed..." Andrew thought for a long time and then looked up at the old man again, "Does greed really have such a big effect on people?"

"Yes, it’s bigger than you can imagine, and much bigger." The old man said, "Not to mention professionals, even speaking of ordinary people, do you think many of the illnesses people suffer from are completely due to external contamination? No, it’s not. Human nature itself produces various evils every moment, including greed, and these inner evils, in fact, are the most harmful. Many common people’s illnesses essentially come from the corrosion of internal evil, and they ’rot from the inside out.’ The power of a professional is far stronger than that of an ordinary person, and once beguiled by Lidzmat’s power, if greed explodes and becomes completely out of control, the harm is far greater than that of ordinary people."

Saying this, the old man suddenly asked, "Earlier, when I mentioned those beguiled by Lidzmat, the ’Fallen,’ you seemed a bit dismissive?"

Andrew hesitated for a moment, nodded, and said, "I feel that ’fallen’ isn’t quite the right term... Aren’t those people victims too? If the seed of greed planted by Lidzmat is a kind of illness, then those you call the fallen are actually patients."

Saying this, Andrew couldn’t help but think of the reformatory in the Wildfire Territory.

At the beginning of establishing the reformatory and imprisoning the captured Earth Fire Professionals like Cook, Sally, and Fleur, it was partly because of the "primordial goodness of human nature" education received before travel, hoping to give those whose guilt wasn’t to the extent of death a way to live, and partly because his heart wasn’t ruthless enough, he couldn’t bring himself to slaughter captives after the battle had ended.

After leaving the Wildfire Territory, Andrew rarely thought again about the existence of a reformatory in his Wildfire Territory.

However, now, upon hearing from the old man that "Earth Fire Professionals are actually beguiled Warm Fire Professionals," Andrew for the first time seriously considered a question: "Is the process of falling reversible? Since the Dragon of Greed, Lidzmat, can turn Warm Fire Professionals into Earth Fire Professionals, could it be the other way around? There should at least be a theoretical possibility!"

Still, that sentence: the so-called fallen also count as victims.

They are enemies, but can also be considered patients.

Since they are patients, shouldn’t we think about how to cure them?

"Don’t think like that." The old man shook his head.

At the same time, the melodious female voice from the Water God Mark also faintly rang out, also saying: "Don’t have such thoughts! Such thoughts will kill you."

Then the old man continued: "You say the fallen are also victims? Yes, but not completely. Because to a considerable extent, whether to fall is a choice. Not every Warm Fire Professional with Lidzmat’s seed of greed planted into them will inevitably fall; only those who are planted with the seed and simultaneously ’choose to fall’ themselves will fall. Essentially, Lidzmat can only amplify a person’s already existing greed and cannot create greed that does not exist at all. Therefore, those with firm desires and good character, especially those with little greed, can actually resist Lidzmat’s temptation.

And the other way around..."

"The other way around?" Andrew sensitively detected a subtle change in the old man’s tone.

"Conversely, those whose own greed is extremely strong, who lose control once slightly beguiled, even if not Warm Fire Professionals, cases of falling exist." The old man said, then surprisingly raised his hand to point at himself, "And this case is me."

"What?" Andrew was startled.

The old man said, "I’m not a Warm Fire Professional at all. As Lily’s guard and partner, I’m a Water Element Warrior, not Lidzmat’s target group. But... I was still influenced. And as far as I know, I’m the only fallen Water Element Professional."

Andrew frowned, unconvinced, "Are you saying that your greed was so great that even not being a Warm Fire Professional, you could be enticed and thus fall?"

"Yes."

"I can’t tell at all." Andrew still didn’t believe it, "What’s your greed about? Since it’s greed, there should be an object of desire, right? What is it that you can’t control yourself from desperately wanting?"

"It’s Lily," the old man said.

Andrew: "?"

The old man calmly said, "I wanted to have Lily, both her body and her heart."

Andrew: "..."

The old man’s tone was so calm it was devoid of any ripples, as if he were speaking of an insignificant matter.

But as Andrew slowly tasted the meaning behind this calmness, he began to feel a bit of a creeps.

"So you’re saying you really like Lily? You like the Water God?"

"Yes, very much."

"But you just said, the Water God and the Fire God Xu are a couple..."

"Yes, I know, so I’ve been restraining my emotions, suppressing them. As a secret admirer, I’ve managed to do what almost no other admirer can: stand by the secret object’s side without getting my feelings noticed. But... perhaps it was hidden too well, too thoroughly suppressed, at the moment when Lidzmat planted the Seed of Greed, I realized: I wanted Lily even more than I thought."

Everything in the small world remained so serene and calm.

Yet a strong, unsettling emotion slowly rose within Andrew.

The old man had previously recounted how Lidzmat wiped out the Dragon and Titan races overnight, and though it was brutal and bloody, the events were so far in the past and not personally witnessed, lacking immediate psychological impact.

When mention was made of "fallen," no specifics were given about how many Warm Fire Professionals had fallen into Earth Fire Professionals or other more detailed situations and data.

In short, until just now, Andrew was still in a "listening to a story" mode.

It’s different now.

His body unknowingly tensed up, Andrew stared at the old man, "What did you do? After being enticed by Lidzmat, what exactly did you do?"

The old man’s eyes met Andrew’s gaze.

He still seemed so calm, not even a hint of a tremor in the wrinkles on his face.

Just looked calmly into Andrew’s eyes, and said quietly, "I found an opportunity when Lily and Xu weren’t together to meet Xu alone, pretending to report the latest situation and developments to him, but in fact, I went to kill him. Kill him, and I could have Lily."

Andrew felt a little short of breath, his voice slightly hoarse asking, "What was the result of the assassination?"

"Xu died," the old man said, "He was stronger than me, and by quite a margin. Even though after I fell, my own power surged with the explosion of greed, becoming significantly stronger in a distorted way, Xu’s strength was still far beyond my reach.

At the time, Xu was close to touching the mysterious Divine Domain above the Realm of Magic, even without coordinating with Lily to use the ’Water and Fire United’ combination technique.

But he still died, killed by me. He didn’t even put up a proper defense, because he didn’t have the slightest alertness towards me, just like that, turning his back to me in front of my face.

The moment Xu died, I understood one thing, that is: I liked Lily, but it was definitely not love. Because all I thought was: I could finally possess Lily. There was no guilt, no regret, only ecstasy, and greed.

I clearly remember that moment when I even had a physiological reaction, thinking of Lily over Xu’s body."

The old man recounted leisurely, using the calmest tone, telling the most terrifying story Andrew had ever heard, "Now do you understand? How terrifying human greed can be. And why I said I am the... culprit responsible for the Flame Realm becoming what it is today."