Chapter 1074: Aren't Geniuses from Outside the World All Like This?
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 1074: Aren't Geniuses from Outside the World All Like This?
"No! Xiao Han! Don't do anything stupid!"
Just as that member of the Blood-kin caught the contract I had thrown, a figure emerged from the void.
Her appearance seemed to pull back a curtain, as several more figures manifested immediately after.
These were the witches who had caught wind of the news and come to watch the show. However, their numbers were few—not even a fraction of the crowd that had gathered back at the Qunluosen Wasteland.
I glanced sideways through the group of witches but didn't see Sister Bai. I couldn't help but offer a helpless smile.
If it were Sister Bai... I think she would support me.
However, the sudden appearance of these Transcendent Witches immediately made the atmosphere at the Blood-kin Affiliated Academy incredibly stiff.
The students within the combat sequences all halted their spells.
They weren't shocked, though; they were exhilarated!
With mentors appearing to back them up at a time like this, they no longer had any lingering worries!
Even though they had followed Xiao Han, no one would believe they didn't have at least some trepidation about facing a Transcendent head-on.
But now, things were different.
Still, many students didn't seem to realize the gravity of the situation.
I was quite familiar with the first witch who appeared. It was Dinah, the Transcendent Witch who ran all those witch cat cafes in the academy.
She was also the kind witch who had been willing to take in the Fool's Dream clan and provide them with jobs!
"Witch sisters, please don't be so agitated. I appreciate your concern," I said, stepping forward and addressing the group. "But if you act this worried, it makes me look very weak."
"It's not that we don't believe in you, Xiao Han, but the gap between the Extraordinary and the Transcendent is insurmountable! Don't look down on Transcendents just because of one past victory..." Dinah hesitated several times, but ultimately couldn't help but try to dissuade me.
"It's fine, I'll prove—" Before I could finish my sentence, the binding force of a contract flickered across my body!
"Ah well... looks like someone has already made their choice. Sisters, there's no use in trying to stop it now." I acted as if the matter were settled, then turned my gaze toward a specific point in space.
There, under my watchful eye, Sister Bai stepped out from her hidden space.
"Even if you don't believe me, you should at least believe Sister Bai, who knows me best, right?"
The witches all turned to look at Bai Yu. Everyone present knew the nature of the relationship between Bai Yu and Xiao Han, yet they found that Bai Yu showed no intention of intervening.
Facing the gaze of so many witches, Bai Yu looked at me with a complicated expression before speaking firmly: "Everyone... I believe in Xiao Han."
With those words, the witches fell silent.
The heavy atmosphere lingered until the Transcendent of the Blood-kin broke it: "I say... are you witches planning to go back on your contract? She's the one who threw it to me!"
The Blood-kin who had signed the contract stepped forward. It was the same one with the foul attitude from before; he had acted as the representative to sign it.
"I never said it wouldn't count." I turned to face him, looking him up and down before speaking again. "The sisters are just worried about me. I'm grateful they showed up, but I also need to prove something to them... I may lack combat experience, but that doesn't mean I lack combat power."
"Heh... do you have any idea how foolish you're being?" The Blood-kin didn't care about the details. If he could kill this little witch here, he wouldn't have to take the fall for the earlier mess—he might even be rewarded!
As for losing?
The thought hadn't even crossed his mind!
"Did you know? A Rebel Witch once told me that the stage of the Main World is too small for me... but when I set my sights on the Transcendent level, I realized it's actually not that small at all."
"Arrogant!"
With just those two words, his aura flared.
The students recoiled. Only at this moment did they truly realize what was happening.
Their Teaching Assistant Xiao Han was actually going to engage in a life-and-death duel with a Transcendent!
That was a Transcendent mentor! Many of them had seen glimpses of a mentor's power; they were beings who could crush them while fighting with one hand behind their back.
Even if the challenger wasn't a Transcendent Witch but a Transcendent Blood-kin... the inherent image of the "invincible Transcendent" was deeply rooted in their hearts.
Only a Transcendent can defeat a Transcendent. There were no exceptions.
They instinctively backed away. When Transcendents fought, even the aftershocks could be fatal to them.
In an instant, the area in front of the destroyed Blood Worship Chapel at the Blood-kin Affiliated Academy became the center of a natural battlefield.
"How do you want to do this? Although the contract you provided didn't specify a time, place, or method, as a Transcendent, I won't stoop to taking advantage of a little witch."
"An unrestricted battle, of course. In a fight to the death, restrictions are just annoying, don't you think?" I said matter-of-factly.
"Heh... if you're looking for death, this is certainly the way. You can announce the start of the battle! I wouldn't want you claiming I ambushed you because you couldn't see my movements."
"Actually, the battle began the moment the contract was signed. You're the only one who's been stalling. But since you want me to say it... then let's begin."
The moment the words left my mouth, invisible blood spikes condensed instantly. In the blink of an eye, they pierced through my body!
With a series of wet squelches, over a dozen blood spikes ended the match right then and there.
"She's... she's dead?!"
Everyone present watched in disbelief. The reversal had happened far too quickly.
But before the emotions of the crowd and the witches could boil over, a flash of magic surged, and I was restored to my original state.
"What a fast attack... that's the first time someone has injured me to the point where my immortality almost couldn't react in time. Is this a strike from a Transcendent who has delved into Real Time?" I acted as if I were realizing the danger after the fact, looking frightened out of my wits.
But that was merely a facade.
Only I knew how truly perilous that strike had been. Without the enhancement of Body Cultivation Time Sense, a Transcendent's life level allowed them to utterly crush a non-transcendent little witch like me in every aspect—including reaction speed.
However, it was a bit surprising that his strike didn't kill me outright. After all, I hadn't even needed to use the reincarnation spell I had prepared.
A Resurrection Spell cannot be used on oneself; only its derivative, the "Rebirth Spell," can be cast on oneself in advance. As for reincarnation, the conditions for its use were even more flexible.
As I finished speaking, his inscrutable attacks came again. But under my Time Sense, I dodged them with ease.
"The same trick won't work twice. Try something else." I spoke provocatively, my body shifting to another position.
I might be a little witch, but that didn't mean I was a pure Magic Cultivator. Body Cultivation was an equally vital component of my power.
After several moves from this Transcendent Grand Duke, all of which I dodged effortlessly, a sense of irritation began to build within him.
I, too, was starting to feel a bit bored. These few attacks followed the same patterns and methods—pure suppression through power levels, with nothing particularly special about them.
He even went so far as to manually block a few of my fireballs. He wasn't even willing to maneuver, retreat, or dodge... Heh, what a ridiculous display of stubbornness.
"Get... serious!"
With a sharp cry, an invisible wind blade grazed his cheek. Crimson blood trickled from a wound on his cheekbone.
The process of the warm sensation of a drop of blood gradually turning cold was the exact duration of his stunned disbelief!
A Transcendent's self-healing ability should have closed a wound caused by a non-transcendent before a single drop of blood could even escape.
And yet... he had been injured by a basic spell like a wind blade, which cost almost no mana!
The wound was still bleeding, which meant...
"Give it your all! Do you think I'm playing house with you? To be hit by a wind blade..."
Before I could finish my taunt, he was clearly enraged. More importantly, his Transcendent pride had been violated!
"Die!"
With a roar, a terrifying burst of blood-colored energy exploded outward. He then shifted into a Blood-kin combat form, lunging at me like a predatory beast!
The pressure of a Transcendent's life level slammed into me. In an instant, the distance between us vanished.
Every claw he swung unleashed a gruesome blood-colored slash. Blood energy seeped into the air, tearing momentary rifts in space.
Even in his rage, his combat techniques remained precise and elegant. His cloak of condensed blood energy occasionally transformed into sharp scythe blades, striking at unexpected moments like an extension of his limbs to deliver a fatal blow.
In just that first moment of close-quarters combat, his terrifyingly deep combat experience and instincts left me wounded.
Unlike Sister Bai, who held back with every strike, he was committed to killing me with every blow!
That wind blade strike, which had delved into Real Time to draw a single drop of his blood, had completely incensed him.
And that was exactly what I wanted!
Such an intense and oppressive battle ignited my yearning for combat arts.
The body arts I had practiced previously began to shift from mere training forms into actual combat methods, moving from theory to practice... They say you learn from your mistakes, and in just this short span of battle, I had learned more than in all my previous experiences combined.
"Die! You only know how to use Healing Spells, but a Healing Spell won't save you now!"
The Blood-kin Grand Duke roared again. This claw strike was exactly as he said—a blow intended to end my life.
Just as many onlookers began to show complicated expressions, the radiance of a reincarnation spell caused everyone's expression to freeze.
"A Resurrection Spell?"
"Ignorant. The one you can use on yourself is a Rebirth Spell." I straightened my collar and offered a blunt, mocking retort.
A Rebirth Spell!
Even Transcendent Witches would covet such a spellbook.
After all... Rebirth was a derived spell. The prototype for all resurrection-type spellbooks was the Resurrection Spell. In the Great Library of the witch world, Resurrection Spells were for sale; they were expensive, but a witch who had accumulated enough mana sources could afford one if she gritted her teeth.
However, derived spellbooks like the Rebirth Spell were the type that were snatched up the moment they appeared. After all, resurrection required the help of another, while rebirth allowed one to return to life on their own.
"What a lavish hand... someone actually gave you a spell like that?" At this moment, the Blood-kin Grand Duke's jealousy was pushed to the limit. "Then I'll just have to see how many times you can resurrect!"
"No one gives you anything because a waste like you has no investment value, right?" My mockery didn't stop. "But you might have misunderstood... Dean Mei gave me a Resurrection Spell. Self-rebirth is something I derived myself. Don't tell me you don't even know how to use rebirth? What a waste~"
"In that case, you'd better be careful... I can die many times, but you... you only get to die once!"
While I was talking trash, I narrowly dodged another of his attacks.
I had already figured some things out, and the "Transcendent" level had been largely demystified for me.
If a Transcendent's attacks couldn't hit me, then the ironclad rule that the boundary between the Extraordinary and the Transcendent was insurmountable was nothing but a joke. Rumors really do kill people—by letting yourself be shackled by fear before even trying, you lose the right to judge.
Still, I was currently being suppressed and forced to constantly use spells like the Healing Spell, which was indeed frustrating to watch.
"Success."
As I uttered those words softly, many people looked confused, wondering what I had succeeded at.
Even the Blood-kin Grand Duke I was fighting narrowed his eyes, unable to figure out what he had missed.
As the faint light of magic flickered on my hands, effects similar to a Healing Spell and a Dispel Spell shimmered over me. Immediately, I felt a weight lift from my entire body.
"Your initial blood spike attack, and every strike after that, was laced with some kind of blood toxin. There seemed to be a blood curse mixed in as well. Were you waiting for the toxin and curse to erupt so you could kill me from the soul level in one go?"
As I finished, he remained silent, but the wariness in his eyes grew.
Finally, he spoke stubbornly: "Ordinary healing, detoxification, and dispelling spells cannot cure that."
"That's why I derived a detoxification and dispelling spell specifically to deal with this chronic blood toxin and curse," I replied in an incredibly punchable tone. "Back when I first entered the academy, my homeroom teacher, Teacher Ji Niang, told me to guard against arrogance and impetuosity. She said geniuses from outside the world... can even derive counter-spells based on the flow of battle to turn the tide. I think I've finally stepped into that realm of genius."
As I spoke, the surrounding area fell silent.
Both the Blood-kin and the witches were stunned.
Even the Blood-kin Grand Duke before me narrowed his pupils, his face full of disbelief.
I was very satisfied with my enemy's expression.
"Your shock is the best applause I could ask for! You really are a waste. Aside from your Transcendent realm, you don't have a single method that can best me. Starting to sweat, aren't you... vampire? You've lived so long, and yet all that time was wasted on being a flying rat?"
"A genius..." The Blood-kin Grand Duke's face turned grim. A massive amount of blood energy, carrying his killing intent, locked onto me through his blood-red gaze and was fully released!
"So what if you're a genius! Today... you must die here!"