After the morning matches ended, Xuan Xi and the others returned to the inn to rest for a short while before coming out again, because Xing Ye had said she would take them to observe the matches of the same group in the afternoon.
The afternoon sun was still strong.
By the time Xing Ye led the Team of Five into the spectator seats, the afternoon match had already begun.
The best viewing spots in the front rows were basically all taken, so they sat in the upper-middle section of the stands.
Although it was a bit far, the view was open, just enough to see the entire match arena clearly.
This match was the Elf Race representative team against the Human Race representative team.
When Xuan Xi sat down, SigrdrÃfa naturally sat down beside her.
Between them was only a shared armrest, and Sige’s hand was on top.
Elsa leaned forward, trying to move closer, but Reggie tugged at her clothes, so she sat back sullenly, eyes wide as she tried to see every detail of the match.
Veralis leaned against the back of her seat beside Xing Ye, watching the match seriously.
The match had been going on for some time.
Spells from both sides flew everywhere like special effects, striking the protective barrier and splashing ripples.
The ten people exchanged attacks, but by comparison, the Human Race team was at a clear disadvantage.
The five of them had an attribute setup very similar to Xuan Xi’s squad—one Water Element, one Lightning Element, one Earth Element, one Fire Element, except Veralis was replaced with a Wind Element, and the five people’s positions and formation were nearly the same.
But the opposing Elf Race had set up a completely different formation.
Their defensive formation was like a giant net.
Combined with the Elf Race’s unique Wood Element magic, it made countless treants emerge from the ground and spread from the edges of the arena toward the center, compressing the Human Race team’s movement space layer by layer, sealing every retreat in advance.
The Human Race formation was continuously compressed, changing from an initial pentagon into a general defensive formation, and then from a defensive formation into five people pressed tightly together.
Each of their shifts was slower than the last, as if every step had been predicted in advance by the Elf Race.
Arrows pierced through their defense line precisely during the gaps when they adjusted positions, striking different spots, forcing them to readjust direction, then striking again, and again forcing adjustment.
Xuan Xi saw the Water Element contestant.
She stood at the very rear of the team, exactly the same position Xuan Xi held in her squad—the team’s commander.
She spread out her Water Curtain, trying to block the flight paths of the Elf Race arrows so her team could catch a breath.
But the opposing archer’s arrows landed precisely on the edge of the Water Curtain every time, avoiding the thickest front of her defense and striking the weakest flank.
She had to adjust the direction of the Water Curtain, but every adjustment exposed a new weak point in another direction.
Sitting in the stands, Xuan Xi watched both sides’ hand speed and rhythm, feeling that suffocating sense of being gradually compressed—the opponent would not engage you head-on, just kited you to death, peeling apart and dismantling your formation bit by bit, then peeling it apart again, until there was nowhere left to retreat.
When that Water Element contestant adjusted the angle of the Water Curtain again, she was forced to leave the core area of the defensive formation.
Her position drifted outside the coverage of the defensive formation, which also created a brief gap in the team.
The Elf Race archer seized this fleeting opportunity.
An arrow shot from his longbow, and during its flight it even completed a deflection, the arrowhead changing a tiny angle in the air, passing through the defensive gap and hitting her shoulder—not enough to kill, but enough to make her lose control of the Water Curtain for a time.
During those few seconds when she lost control of the Water Curtain, another arrow had already flown along the same trajectory, without deflection, without slowing, and very concealed; if Xuan Xi had not had sharp eyes, she might not have been able to see it at all.
Her body was pierced by the arrow—entering through her chest and exiting through her back.
The arrow carried enormous inertia, causing her body to fall backward, landing on the floor tiles with only a dull thud and the sound of the arrow shaft breaking.
Before Xuan Xi could see blood flow from that person’s body, her line of sight was covered.
A hand reached over from her side, palm pressed in front of her eyes, blocking her view.
At the same time, she heard Elsa’s voice: “Hey—what are you doing—”
Then she heard Reggie say, “Don’t look. Bloody scenes are bad for little kids.”
Xuan Xi reached out to pull SigrdrÃfa’s hand away.
Sige’s fingers twitched slightly, but did not let go.
“I’m not a little kid anymore,” Xuan Xi muttered.
SigrdrÃfa did not answer.
She thought for a moment, then finally lowered her hand.
When her gaze returned to the arena, the match had already ended.
That Water Element contestant had been carried away for treatment.
A dark red drag mark remained on the floor tiles, and staff members were cleaning the site with sand.
Xing Ye sat in a row farther ahead, her gaze fixed on the drag mark in the center of the arena that was being covered.
Leaning against the back of her seat, she murmured to herself: “This Elf Race is not easy to provoke. Every step is a killing move. Could it be that they are taking revenge for the war between the two nations?”
After the match ended, at Xing Ye’s request, Xuan Xi brought SigrdrÃfa to the contestants’ medical area to treat that contestant as much as possible.
She first asked the staff member at the entrance where the Water Element contestant who had been pierced by the arrow had been sent.
The staff member pointed to the room at the end of the corridor.
When she pushed open the door, there were only two people inside: one was the severely wounded patient lying on the bed, and the other was an elderly person standing at the foot of the bed, wearing the same uniform as the wounded, with a Marking on the cuffs—probably the representative team’s Teacher.
The wounded person’s eyes were closed, and she appeared to have passed out from pain.
Thick Bandages were wrapped around her chest, and a frightening pale red bloody fluid still seeped from the edges of the Bandages.
The Teacher turned to look at the two of them, eyes sizing up Xuan Xi and SigrdrÃfa: “Who are you two?”
Xuan Xi only said that Xing Ye had sent them, and the lead Teacher no longer blocked them.
Xuan Xi walked to the bedside and looked at that pale face.
The wounded person’s lips were purple, her complexion ashen, and her breathing was already very shallow and intermittent.
Xuan Xi extended her hand, palm hovering above the wound.
Water surged from her palm, and mist carrying Spiritual Energy condensed into a thin layer above the wound.
Spiritual Qi slowly seeped into the gap between the bandages and skin, and the bleeding caused by the wound stopped within a few breaths.
When she withdrew her hand, she could feel that her Spiritual Energy had been consumed considerably, and she was somewhat short of breath.
It seemed she would need to replenish it properly through “dual cultivation” once she returned.
She turned to look at the Teacher and said: “I have already stopped her bleeding. As for whether she can survive, it depends on her own will to live.”
The Teacher looked at Xuan Xi’s somewhat pale cheeks from excessive Spiritual Energy consumption, then glanced at the Bandages on the wounded person’s chest that were no longer seeping blood.
“Thank you!” she said.
“You are Xing Ye’s students, right? Thank her for me. After all these years, she still hasn’t changed—still so kind, and the students she brings out are the same.”
“You praise us too much. We simply could not bear to watch a living person disappear before our eyes.”
After a round of mutual flattery with that person, Xuan Xi left first.
The corridor outside was very quiet, and their footsteps echoed back and forth through the passage.
Xuan Xi saw no one and heard no sound from anyone.
But she kept having a feeling that a gaze was cast from the corner at the end of the corridor, falling on her and Sige.
She looked back.
There was indeed no one there.
‘Maybe I am overthinking it,’ Xuan Xi thought.
After the two left, at the end of the corridor, an Elf Race figure walked out from the shadow at the corner and glanced in the direction they had gone: “What a Western Dragon Race…”