Chapter 181, Running on Fumes

Translator: Tamon

 

[I won?]

 

Staring at the sliding Ai Changyuan, Wang Qi made weird faces again in disbelief.

 

He wasn’t certain he could win against someone like Ai Changyuan.

 

He was ready to follow through with another savage attack as he used his everything in the last strike.

 

[I actually won?] “Ha-ha…” Wang Qi’s unrestrained laughter echoed in the examination area. He flicked his blade, pointing the tip at Ai Changyuan. “I won. It was a blast!”

 

Zhen Chanzi quipped, “Boy, do you have to say that every time you beat a strong opponent?”

 

Ai Changyuan leaned against the arena’s barrier, too spent to get up. The barrier offset Wang Qi’s final strike at the last moment, and with Ai Changyuan wearing basic magic attire, he didn’t get hurt. Hearing Wang Qi, the proud and unyielding genius’ chest heaved, then he settled on exploding into stammering laughter. “Ha-ha… ha… yes, it was fun… cough~”

 

Wang Qi closed his eyes and propped the blade on the ground with a smile.

 

“Celestial Hymn Odyssey, ha-ha. It’s plain to see your training in it pales when compared to Grand Ripple Enigma and Celestial Entropy, yet that was what you used in the last move. That was a good attack…”

 

Wang Qi had used Celestial Hymn Odyssey at the last moment, despite having stopped training it months ago. His Celestial Hymn Odyssey spiritual power was less than a tenth of Wu Shiqin’s. After September’s monthly examination, he rarely used it in fights and his schoolmates forgot about the mental art based on the Four Heaven-opening Forces.

 

It was the perfect camouflage.

 

Wang Qi’s last ten slashes relied on Riemannian geometry. ‘Through a point not on a given line, no line can be drawn that is parallel to the given line’ was the fundamental principle of Riemannian geometry that guided his skill. The first nine slashes intersected in pairs, seamlessly intertwining to form a whole. The final strike, however, followed the essence of Thunder Resonance Blade Art, synchronizing the nine electromagnetic Saber Energy to converge and stimulate a transient electromagnetic field—an electromagnetic pulse.

 

Unlike the average electromagnetic wave from spiritual power, the Saber Energy’s pulse was way faster, as was its power.

 

Of the four fundamental forces, electromagnetism and gravity had yet to be combined. Against the electromagnetic spiritual power, Ai Changyuan lacked a good defensive skill, letting Wang Qi capitalize on it.

 

“However… cough~, I still have a skill I haven’t used. Using it against you made me believe it was a cheap win. But throughout the examinations, we’ll be fighting more than once. I’ll be looking forward to it… cough~.”

 

Wang Qi smiled. “You were lucky. I was down to ten percent of spiritual power.”

 

Ai Changyuan blinked. “Oh, is there an amazing skill that you can only use in that state?”

 

“No, being at ten percent is an amazing skill in itself.”

 

Not to mention an inherent cool factor and frozen health points.(Tamon: reference to cheating in games.)

 

Seeing his pretentious mug, Ai Changyuan took it as Wang Qi’s way of not wanting to reveal his trump card to others and just smiled. “I’m looking forward to seeing it six months from now.”

 

The barrier faded and Ai Changyuan slumped, but Lu Qianqian was there to catch him. “C-Changyuan, I-it seems you lost.”

 

“I know. You’re talking like I died.”

 

“I-I’m not. It’s just that you actually lost for real!”

 

The two walked away, yet Wang Qi stayed put despite Ai Changyuan having gone to rest.

 

His eyes were still closed and holding the blade in his royal pose.

 

Like a badass.

 

Mao Zimiao could tell what ran through his mind and found it funny. She came over and pulled on his clothes. “Little Qi, let’s go, nya.”

 

It turned out Wang Qi had not a drop of strength left, leaning against the girl. Mao Zimiao cried out. “Little Qi, are you hurt? Don’t force yourself, nya!”

 

Wang Qi shook his head weakly, putting away the blade and walking away in haste.

 

The more she saw him like this, the more the cat-eared girl’s heart raced in alarm. [He would do anything to show off even a little. He’d even suffer for it. There goes his weirdo self showing up again.]

 

The girl forced his head to look at her. “Little Qi, what’s wrong, nya?”

 

He was so embarrassed that he tried forcing his head to look away. It only worked to affirm Mao Zimiao’s guess. Besides, with his usual skin thicker than a wall, he’d never show such a shy look. The girl held tighter to keep his head in place. “Tell me where it hurts. We’ll visit Senior Sister Ai, nya.”

 

Wang Qi struggled to get away, panicking. Mao Zimiao sighed. “Checking your wounds won’t kill you, nya. Why so stubborn?”

 

Wang Qi gave up in the end, opening his mouth to take a long gasp.

 

“Bleah~”

 

What followed was a squeal from Mao Zimiao’s face behind all the barf on her face. “Nya!”

 

Ahem, guess folks have forgotten that Bookworm Wang’s greatest weakness was motion sickness.

 

The fight with Ai Changyuan was no different than a roller coaster, being pulled in every direction, and he had to endure as the world whirled around him.

 

Wang Qi found this Universal Pull’s side effect to be worse than facing a Heaven Fall Palm.

 

Fighting any longer with a barely functioning spinning head, about to hurl, and just a tenth of his energy left would have ruined both Wang Qi and Ai Changyuan’s pretentious styles—looking at it another way, a ten percent Wang Qi was not to be messed with.

 

Ai Dinglan looked on with disdain. Her tone was unnatural as she addressed the paralyzed and somewhat twitching Wang Qi on the ground from puking to collapse. “Is this your excuse for shooting your bodily fluids on a girl in front of the whole crowd?”

 

“Senior Sister, you know me so well… Also, in regards to the theory of living beings, the digestive tract is technically speaking outside one’s body. Gastric juice and saliva aren’t bodily fluids…”

 

Wang Qi bit back a weak comeback.

 

“Oh-ho, now you’re debating theories with a Heavenly Spirit Range true disciple? Even the path of life? Junior Brother, you have guts.”

 

“I’m not…”

 

“Innate Peak and Spirit Beast Mountain have their own opinions when it comes to whether gastric juice belongs to the body or not. One says the digestive cavity belongs outside the body, as does the gastric juice, while the other believes the gastric juice to be the stomach’s secretion, extracellular fluid, and a part of the body.”

 

“Does it matter?”

 

Ai Dinglan shook her head ruefully. “It’s because it doesn’t that almost no one researched it, to the point there’s no clear conclusion to this day.”

 

Wang Qi strained to press his temples. “Let’s not talk about bodily fluids. What’s the situation with the martial examination?”