With the defeat of the one hundred ninety-eighth freshman, the hearts of the four College Mentors sank to their lowest point.
It seemed there was only one way out.
“That guy got held up; he’ll be here a little later.”
The atmosphere grew slightly awkward.
“Aren’t there still two freshmen left?” the White Tiger Mentor said unwillingly. “We admitted 200 freshmen this year, right? How come two haven’t even gone in yet? Could there be some cowards?”
“Maybe they’re the cowards from your department,” the Azure Dragon Mentor shot back.
“Impossible! If we had cowards, they wouldn’t even dare enter the challenge. I’d expel them right now!”
“Uh…”
Cluru and I finally arrived.
I timidly raised my hand to indicate there was still one more person here who had just gotten to the scene.
“Late on the first day of school, impressive,” the Vermilion Bird Mentor said, clearly already aware of my identity and absence, but not pressing the issue. Instead, she asked, “Yun Luo Xian, do you want to try entering?”
“Wait a moment.”
I took a moment to examine the Result.
I had some understanding of the Way of Arrays, so I quickly grasped the mechanism behind this Result.
“So that’s how it works. It balances Immortal Spirit power to control the strength of the caster.”
The surrounding mentors instantly looked confused.
“You were eavesdropping just now, weren’t you?!” the White Tiger Mentor bluntly accused. “Otherwise, how could anyone figure out the Result’s effect just by observation?”
I scratched my ear with an awkward smile and explained, “Actually, it’s observable. By the shape of the Result and the materials used— see, at the northwest corner, there’s a Yuxi Stone which is quite sensitive to Immortal Spirit power. Next to it is a big stone that stores Immortal Spirit power.”
“Ah, that…”
The team’s lead instructors were only skilled in combat and not familiar with materials science, so they didn’t recognize these items.
In reality, unlike the well-developed fields of magic potion studies and forging, because Immortal Spirit arrays are rare, Earth’s array studies haven’t matured into a full-fledged discipline.
“You don’t mean you’ve researched those Immortal Spirit arrays too?”
“Hehe~ all the knowledge comes from the Qilin~” I humbly scratched my head. “She’s very knowledgeable.”
“Such good luck,” the four mentors sighed in admiration. “Not only did you awaken a rare Immortal Spirit like the Qilin, but you’re also so knowledgeable.”
As they expressed their admiration, they noticed the little sheep hairpin on my head twitching at the corner of my mouth.
What kind of hairpin is that? And it can move?
“So, is there a way to break this array?” the Vermilion Bird Mentor quickly asked.
“There is, but it’s troublesome—better not to break it.”
I thought for a moment.
Originally, I planned to have Cluru go in first to challenge, because from her appearance, it looked like she would break a lot of things.
If we could farm twice, farming twice was best.
But Cluru’s Immortal Spirit power was absurdly abundant. If she went in, that Water Monkey would probably be strengthened into the Qitian Dasheng.
So it was better that I went in for the challenge.
After deciding, I stepped into the Barrier.
“So, please point—?”
The moment I entered the Barrier, the Wuzhiqi opposite me collapsed stiffly onto the ground!
It clutched its chest in terror, frothing at the mouth and rolling its eyes wildly, looking like an old man in his seventies having a seizure!
It had never felt so weak and powerless before; the Immortal Spirit power sustaining its existence was completely empty! Not a speck left!
Not even a bit!
Is this… the great fear of death approaching?!
It trembled, struggling, reaching out and hurriedly tossing its most precious victory reward away.
“?”
A Bai Ze notification box appeared before me.
[You have received the sincere blessing of the Wuzhiqi Juvenile—while diving, you can easily withstand water pressure beyond five hundred meters, and water damage is reduced by 10%.]
Ah, this.
Ah this this this…
“…”
The students and mentors around me were all stunned.
Could this be the domineering aura of the Qilins Master? Wuzhiqi had been so mighty before, crushing anyone in its path. But when faced with this young lady… how did it just get handed over so easily?!
“Cough—cough cough cough—” the weakened Wuzhiqi gasped desperately like a tuberculosis patient, then slapped the nearby array materials into the river and jumped in after them.
Gone, gone.
It had never been this scared in its life.
That experience was just too terrifying.
With the array materials discarded, the Result that had been plaguing the whole city was instantly nullified.
The surroundings fell utterly silent.
I myself was a little dazed.
So I really don’t have any Immortal Spirit power at all?!
I thought maybe I was just used to Ling Qi and didn’t feel it…
Ah, thinking about it like this is a bit discouraging! Does that mean I’m basically useless in this world?!
Whether I’m useless or not, I don’t care, but the key is… this Immortal Spirit power might affect the number of tails I have!
Am I doomed to only ever have one tail?!
I shut down.
I shut down completely.
“Roar—”
Just as I was feeling sorry for myself, a defiant roar came from the sky.
The roar echoed across half the city, shaking the teacups in the office buildings.
The autumn breeze along the bridge suddenly warmed several degrees, the once refreshing coolness turning into a rolling heatwave, making people irritable.
“Does this guy always have to show off when appearing?” the White Tiger Mentor blurted out.
“Cut him some slack, he’s just a kid who likes to show off,” the Azure Dragon Mentor shook his head. “If you had a DoraGon, you’d be even more showy.”
“Whoosh—”
The fiery red figure flapped its twin wings, forcing us to raise our arms to shield against the wind and dust.
“Where is he? The Wuzhiqi you couldn’t handle?” Joanna Lancelot shouted loudly, looking around.
“Uh… sorry,” the Vermilion Bird Mentor said apologetically, “he was just taken care of by one of our College students.”
“Huh? Since when did you have that ability?” Joanna frowned in displeasure. “Who did it? Didn’t you say you couldn’t handle him?”
“Well, Wuzhiqi grows stronger against strong opponents, but um… weaker… against weak ones…” the mentors scratched their heads awkwardly.
They really didn’t understand what had just happened.
Could it be that the Qilins Master’s Immortal Spirit power was actually very low? That’s not possible; after all, it’s the Qilin!
Or maybe, was it truly because of the Qilin’s overwhelming presence?
Damn it, they couldn’t explain it with their own knowledge at all.
“So who did it? I want to see who has the guts to steal my blessing and make me come all this way for nothing!” Joanna sat impatiently on the dragon’s back, looking down at everyone on the bridge. “You stood me up; I’m really mad now. If you have the guts, come fight me!”
“This…” The mentors looked troubled.
Everyone knew that although the Qilins Master Little Luo Xian was famous, it wasn’t for her fighting prowess.
She was known for her knowledge.
In the Daoist Gym Battle just a few months ago, Yun Luo Xian’s combat ability had been nowhere near the little princess of the Lancelot Family before us.
There was no way she could catch up in just a few months.
If a fight broke out now, wouldn’t she get beaten badly?
Yun Luo Xian was at least a recent rising star. If she were bullied, it would feel like the entire Academy was losing face to the Lancelot Family.
They couldn’t afford to lose face.
However, before they could find words to smooth things over, the girl already stepped forward herself.
“It was me.”