Wuuli-guhla! That little chick fights dirty!
Inside the rest lounge, Li Fei lay sprawled across Lilith's lap, arm stretched out so Grace could apply burn salve for her.
Once victory had already been decided, she'd wanted to play up the "friendship first, competition second" theme — and, while she was at it, shore up her "beautiful and kind-hearted" persona — so she'd put on a little surrender-coaxing performance.
She hadn't expected that little mage girl, whose casting speed wasn't anything special, to have mastered a secret art — the principle of which was apparently to use rituals and drugs to remodel the right hand into a "heat accumulator" with extremely high specific heat capacity.
In fact, this type of secret art was pretty common. Li Fei had seen the same kind at the witches' coven. Although the effect at the introductory stage was unremarkable, as the modifications deepened, organs and cells could store more heat, and from that they could discharge high-temperature steam or even sunflame rays — covert, swift, with exceptional lethality, and no mana cost on top of that. Plus the cultivation difficulty and cost weren't high either, which made it quite popular among mages.
But generally speaking, the academy didn't encourage students to get distracted by secret arts while in the low Sequences. They recommended instead that students wait until they'd stepped into the mid-Sequences, then selectively practice one or two secret arts to shore up the weak points in their spell system. So Li Fei, caught off guard for the moment, had ended up walking right into it.
Even though it was just a minor burn that wouldn't affect her combat power, the pain was unavoidable.
Thankfully, every kind of medicine that Lady Zhihua had prepared was top-shelf. The moment the medicinal paste was applied to the burned spot, a cool, soothing sensation came through. Barring any unexpected hiccups, the wound would be fully healed by noon.
"Come on, let's go take a look at our next opponents."
Once her arm was bandaged up, Li Fei propped herself up, casually pulled her mage robe back on, and headed back out to the venue.
Each of the ten arenas had a referee on watch, and the exchange tournament was proceeding in an orderly fashion, with a quick pace — fights that lasted longer than five minutes were rare.
At this efficiency, Li Fei estimated the elimination rounds would be done before the morning was out.
"Look, the Model Squad."
"I really want to take Annesia home with me…"
"Go wash up and dream on. Though, when it comes to looks, the Three-Mage-Girl Squad still has the edge."
The whispers from the students beside her caught Li Fei's attention. She followed their gaze and saw two outstandingly attractive young people and one big, tall iron-can standing on Arena No. 5.
A War-school, a Noble-school, and a Life-school mage girl — Li Fei had the basic intel on this team committed to memory.
Clearly this was about as bottom-tier a composition as you could get. The two systems that ranked at the very bottom of the nine schools of Transcendents in terms of combat power were both stuffed into this team. Even the Noble-school Transcendent, due to the constraints of the competition rules, while still a major threat, had lost the ability to be "undefeated in same-Sequence one-on-one duels in the mid-to-low Sequences."
So the question arose:
Why did the students favor this team to make it into the day-three finals?
Although she'd already gathered her intel, Li Fei still focused her attention and silently observed her opponents' performance.
"My name's Bruce. Please go easy on me, everyone."
The first to introduce himself was the slender, tall, black-haired young man on the Model Squad. His features were handsome, he wore a black tailcoat, and on his face hung a worldly-cynical smile. The two unfastened shirt buttons at his collar gave off a frivolous, romantic feeling — as if at this very moment he wasn't standing on a tournament arena, but rather a young, wealthy noble heir drifting through a wine party, scouting for some titillating prey.
"George."
A very rugged male voice came from inside the steel armor — even the head was tightly protected by a cool-toned metal helmet.
Li Fei had seen George himself in person — tall and upright, thick eyebrows and large eyes, the standard kind of masculine handsome man, the type who could throw on a pair of red briefs and a red cape and play Superman without it looking the least bit off.
"I, I'm Annesia. Please go easy on me."
Last was a stuttering, white-haired beauty — short hair, slightly bigger than Irena, with emerald-green eyes as moist and dewy as a fawn's, looking incredibly soft, sweet, and easy to fool. That kind of "I see her and pity rises in me" aura landed dead-center in Li Fei's strike zone.
Once both teams had finished going through the introduction formalities, the referee gave her wand a shake, and the fluorescence drifted down.
As the soft fluorescence burst, the Model Squad's opponents launched their attack with helplessness — and even a hint of tragic resolve.
"Take her out first!"
The assassin with beast ears turned into a gray streak and shot toward Annesia, while the other rogue rolled to the left to adjust the angle, brought up his crossbow, and pulled the trigger on the white-haired mage girl.
Clang!
The hulking iron-can demonstrated astonishing reflexes and agility. George merely gave his arm a flick and easily blocked the streaking bolt; then a leg swept out, kicking up a rolling gale, and slammed into the assassin's abdomen.
The assassin who'd tried to skirt around him was sent flying backward at even greater speed than he'd been advancing — as if a hill giant had clubbed him with a streetlamp — trailing a string of blood spatter behind him.
Li Fei's sharp eyesight caught that the poor wretch didn't even get the chance to scream — he passed out mid-air.
"Holy crap, who is that? His strength is terrifying!"
Having witnessed such an astonishingly massive show of force, the students in the front rows let out gasps of shock.
"George, that guy had pretty average aptitude when he first enrolled. Later his mentor discovered he was extremely gifted at military equipment manufacture and operation. After he mastered the subsidiary knowledge 'Armory' during his first year and pushed it to the Foundational realm, he was promoted to Silver Brooch Student status… You know how it goes — self-made equipment isn't restricted under the rules, so he wears armor he forged with his own hands, with mechanisms inside that provide extra power. At full throttle, even a Sequence 7 warrior has to give him a wide berth."
"Hsss… how do you know all that in such detail?"
"I checked the bracket sheet. I'm running into them next round."
"My condolences."
"…"
On the arena, George had aggressively locked down the attack lanes of the two remaining opponents, while Annesia had already finished casting.
A patch of dim, gray mana-cloud formed, with a rumbling roar inside it — that was a Tier-3 chaos spell adapted from the Tier-5 spell "Thundercloud": Miniature Thundercloud.
The spell itself wasn't anything particularly remarkable, but the instant the thundercloud took shape, mana-light suddenly surged, and then two new thunderclouds split off from it — neither inferior to the original in scale nor in the surging mana-aura they exuded.
"Oh-ho, she pulled a triple."
A schadenfreude-tinged voice came from the students.
As a second-year special-admission student, and a flower-faced, moon-bright white-haired beauty besides, Annesia was naturally one of the topics the campus loved to chew over.
She had awakened an Innate Talent specialty called "Chaos Casting," the effect of which was to give a certain probability of doubling, or even super-doubling, or super-super-doubling her spells. This was wildly different from the multi-cast technique — the latter was a profound and exquisite art, where high-tier mages, after paying the cost of greater mana consumption, longer casting times, or reduced spell effects, could in exchange obtain stable multi-cast results. The former, on the other hand, didn't affect the spell's effect, mana cost, or speed at all — but whether or not it triggered multi-casting, and whether it was a double or a triple… that was entirely up to luck.
A very chaotic Innate Talent — capable of creating surprises out of the blue, and giving enemies a real scare in the process.
"I surrender!!!"
"Teacher, save us!"
The Model Squad's opponents were quick on the uptake — before they could take a triple-thundercloud shower, they chose to surrender, their faces ashen. The thunderclouds were broken apart by the referee, sparing them the pain of a thunderstorm bath.
"Sigh — I reminded you before the match, please go easy… Miss Annesia, things like this can cause accidents very easily, you know."
Bruce, who had stood with his arms folded with no intention of making a move, shrugged and spoke in a faintly teasing tone.
"I — I'm sorry, I didn't control my mana output properly…"
Annesia uneasily voiced her apology.
"Just kidding. I don't mind being able to coast my way to victory this easily."
"Tch, not much of a haul — it's all intel I already knew in advance."
Li Fei smacked her lips and waited for her next set of targets to step into the ring.
Unfortunately, all the way up to nearly noon, she hadn't managed to pick up any particularly valuable information.
Alex's Cleaver Squad, a rock-solid championship favorite, was putting on a "gods block, gods die; buddhas block, buddhas die" kind of momentum. They didn't care at all about what configuration the opponents had, what tactics they'd planned, or which Sequence they were — the second the match started they'd come howling in to charge. "One person, one kill" was their entire tactic.
As for Klein and Kova's team, their on-field performance was basically "Iron-Head Girl" soloing three opponents, with her two teammates loafing along to pick up assists — Klein occasionally flashed a kind of pinpoint control while snatching kills that, to others, might give the impression that "this kid isn't to be underestimated." But Li Fei had never underestimated this guy from the start — the smell of "web-novel male protagonist" coming off him was just way too strong.
"Last match of the day. Fight well — afterwards we'll go have lunch at Lilith's place."
Seeing the final match was about to start, Li Fei rose leisurely, glancing down to feel over the gear she had on.
"Why my place?"
Lilith asked, puzzled.
"After lunch, I'll give you a little sister as a gift."
One line from Li Fei nearly pierced her stepdaughter's heart clean through.
Luckily, the match was about to start. Lilith only let out a small "hmph" before quickly adjusting her mood, refusing to let the trash talk affect her mentality.
She knew very well that anyone who could last all the way to the final round of the elimination stage was, no matter what, no weak opponent.
Guided by a teacher, the three of them stepped up onto Arena No. 6.
Li Fei smiled and waved at Melodia:
"I like the number 6 too."
Murmuring to herself, Li Fei shifted her gaze to her opponents.
One pretty, effeminately-featured man, his long chestnut hair tied into a ponytail, his transcendent aura blurred yet deep — solidly Sequence 7. Combined with his performance she'd observed in earlier matches, he was very likely a Sequence 7 Noble-school Transcendent, and the possibility of him dual-cultivating two schools couldn't be ruled out.
A bronze-skinned bald man with a long staff propped in front of him — Sequence 8 warrior.
A Sequence 7 senior with wavy, light yellow curls, who also happened to be Lilith's classmate.
"It is my honor to meet you three on this stage of exchange. I am Matthew."
The ponytailed man's voice was refined and polite. In his hand he toyed with a gold coin, that gleam of gold — symbol of wealth — drifting back and forth between his fingers.
"Palmer."
The bald monk twirled a flourish with his staff, his eyes burning a little hot as they looked at Li Fei.
"Good afternoon, junior sisters — and Lilith."
The senior wore a warm, bright smile, her voice sweet and crisp: "You can call me Lucoa."
"Li Fei. Pleased to face you."
Li Fei stared at Lucoa as if facing a mortal enemy.
This senior couldn't be described as "on the verge of spilling out" — she was more like on the verge of collapse.
Judging purely from appearances, as a cleric with the nickname of "healer," Lilith had been defeated so badly she was practically beyond watching.
"Grace."
Miss Pokerface had noticed the bald monk's gaze, and her expression turned even colder than usual.
"Lilith."
Miss Stepdaughter gripped her staff in both hands, adjusted her center of gravity, and took on a coiled-and-ready stance.
Melodia waited quietly for both sides to finish their introductions, then casually scattered a single mote of light. The instant that point of light shattered, Matthew's gaze locked firmly onto Li Fei, and without the slightest hesitation, his hand shot toward his waistband and grabbed the Spell Scrolls tucked there.
— I knew this jerk would target me!
Li Fei, who had observed her opponent's tactics, immediately threw out a hand gesture and retreated, while Lilith, with practiced coordination, closed in toward Li Fei.
Any! Any Noble-school Transcendent at all, once they'd mastered introductory-grade transcendent knowledge, the first skill they would inevitably train was [Do As One Pleases].
Once they learned this skill, Noble-school Transcendents could use Spell Scrolls of the five schools corresponding to their rank and transcendent knowledge realm!
As is well known, Spell Scrolls have two major drawbacks: one, they're expensive; two, you must have mastered the prerequisite transcendent knowledge to use them. Aside from those, any other drawback can be made up for by "instant casting."
Can't enjoy the "spell penetration," "spell effect amplification," or "spell level boost" granted by your Meditation method, class, Sequence level, or equipment?
The vast majority of Spell Scrolls cast spells at Lv1?
No problem — just throw a few more.
After all, nothing looks cooler than a noble lord tearing open a Spell Scroll worth a thousand gold with one hand.
And [Do As One Pleases] is also the origin of the saying that "a wealthy Noble-school Transcendent is invincible in same-rank one-on-one duels in the mid-to-low Sequences" — once the two major obstacles of "price" and "usage requirements" were solved, Transcendents got a thorough lesson in the power of money.
Both being Sequence 9, while the esteemed mage lord hasn't even finished chanting one Fireball, the even more esteemed noble lord has already torn open a full set of Tier-1 scrolls, slapping the Life-school spell "Blessing" on himself, summoning a fairy in front of himself as a meat shield, plus flinging a Chaos-school fireball + Death-school Curse + Order-school Spell Missile right in the face — how are you supposed to fight that?
As for the time wasted on the act of tearing scrolls, no need to worry — how to efficiently tear scrolls one-handed is also one of the required courses for Noble-school Transcendents.
Matthew looked like a sharpshooter in a Western cowboy movie. His right hand, which had been hanging naturally at his side, gave a flick at his waist; by the time his arm came up, an Ice Arrow had shot forth from a torn scroll, streaking straight for Li Fei's abdomen.
"That's a Tier-2 scroll!"
Li Fei's gaze sharpened.
She wasn't about to gamble on whether her Lv4 swordsmanship could slice apart a high-speed Ice Arrow in a single stroke. Instead, she simply hiked up her mage robe — the battle-qi vortex inside her abruptly surged to 35 revolutions per second, and a magnificent deep-red battle-qi radiance bloomed across the surface of her body.
"She's not popping her shield?"
Matthew was a little taken aback.
According to the rules, each student could use a shield-type piece of equipment at most once per match. Whenever Matthew ran into a strong opponent, it was always one scroll to break the shield, a second scroll to send them out — never failed once.
You see, although Spell Scrolls couldn't enjoy the boosts of spell penetration and the like, they could be amplified by "equipment damage bonus"! And that just happened to be the strong suit of the Noble-school class.
Although the amplification ratio wasn't huge, it was still enough to bring a Spell Scroll's power up a notch.
Even a Sequence 8 warrior, with a body tempered a thousand times and battle-qi reinforcing his resistances, would take a fair amount of damage hard-tanking a hit like that. A petite-bodied mage girl daring to tank it head-on in place — was she courting death?
Crash —
The deep-blue arrow slammed into Li Fei's body, letting out the sound of ice crystals shattering, while ultra-low-temperature white mist billowed and spread, swallowing her silhouette from view.
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