Chapter 155: This Single Strike Slays the Entire Freshman Competition
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 155: This Single Strike Slays the Entire Freshman Competition
After responding to Tan Han, I quickly regained my composure.
I knew exactly what I needed to do.
Right now, I should be on the battlefield, using my Fireball Spellbook to utterly blast Tan Han into oblivion. I shouldn't be in this "who-knows-where" place, having a private chat with her.
Therefore, my priority was to leave.
If I wasn't mistaken, this place was likely a dreamscape similar to the one before—or perhaps a space of consciousness. Regardless, it definitely wasn't reality.
My Spirit Vision told me clearly that everything here was nothingness. I had never seen such a "clean" feedback while my Spirit Vision was active; it was as if nothing existed here besides myself. As far as the eye could see, there was only the void.
Of course, that excluded the Tan Han standing before me. At this moment, she was enveloped in a brilliant gold, looking like the first ray of light born from a meaningless abyss.
Golden energy converged into threads, weaving a cage that surrounded her.
The whole setup looked like a massive loom. The threads coiled around Tan Han, pulling at her limbs in a rhythmic repetition. She looked like the Weaver Girl of this loom, spinning the threads of her own destiny.
The finished fabric drifted into the past, displaying the glories of her history. Meanwhile, she continued to weave the future. It all looked so natural, sacred, and inviolable, yet I could sense the tragedy in it.
It was like a marionette having its fate manipulated.
An epiphany dawned on me...
"I see... Spirit Eye! This is its true purpose! To see through fate and weave destiny! And that golden power is the raw material used to condense the threads of fate!"
Tan Han suddenly spoke with wild ecstasy, as if she had reached a profound understanding, treating me as if I were mere air.
"You've gone off the deep end..." I spoke up to warn her. Seeing through fate? Weaving destiny? How could such ethereal things be grasped by a single person?
"I forgot... Xiao Han, you're here too. But I should thank you, truly... though I don't know why the complete liberation of my talent dragged you in as well..."
"Ha? You call this situation 'talent liberation'?"
"Perhaps. I'm not sure myself, but I've discovered... I can weave my own destiny by hand. Look at my past... every single event..."
Tan Han’s hand lightly brushed the past woven from golden threads. She knew every node like the back of her hand.
Something was wrong. Terribly wrong.
"Yeah... she's definitely lost it." The Tan Han before me felt completely different from the wealthy young lady I knew.
Perhaps this was her true nature, or perhaps her personality had been influenced by something, but I much preferred the way she was before.
When facing the unknown, one should first maintain skepticism rather than immediately forcing it to fit one's existing perceptions. That should be a last resort when nothing can be confirmed.
To draw a conclusion without seeing the whole picture is as foolish as a blind man describing an elephant.
Tan Han believed this was a means to weave fate, a talent that allowed her to master her destiny. But from my perspective, she looked like a pathetic, manipulated doll. She wasn't the one driving fate; she was the one being toyed with by it.
Good grief... I almost let her influence me. Even I nearly accepted that the golden power was "fate." How could fate be something you can see and touch? If it truly existed, it was more likely just a wicked thing that played with people.
I realized that while I had a "physical body" here, I lacked my Mana Source and my spellbooks. It was as if I only existed as the "concept" of myself, stripped of everything else.
Except... for my mental power threads.
Phew. At least I had some power to use. I wondered if my mental power could help me now.
I turned my Spirit Vision toward the loom. Since it was a tangible object that I could observe in this form, what kind of feedback would Spirit Vision give me? Even if I couldn't understand the information, what about basic methods of destruction?
I walked toward Tan Han step by step, approaching the massive loom.
But I saw nothing...
"Xiao Han, what are you doing?"
"I can see the malice in your eyes. Any action you take will be woven by my hands."
"Do you want to destroy it?"
"Heh... You! You can't do it!"
Tan Han spoke as if she saw through everything, her voice filled with confidence and certainty.
"How will I know if I don't try? Just like when the match started—I'll say it again: how do you know it's impossible if you don't try!" I retorted.
Then, my walk turned into a sprint. I felt incredibly light as I rapidly closed the distance between us. The gap vanished in an instant.
"On the battlefield? Heh, if you hadn't mentioned it, I would have forgotten. I am the one who will win this match." As Tan Han said this, a flicker of confusion crossed her eyes.
As she wove the final thread, she felt as though the final outcome had been settled.
But the process... it was a blur. Only now did she realize she still held so many threads in her hands that hadn't been woven in. If the ending was already set, why were there so many threads left over?
This was what Tan Han found curious.
In her moment of doubt, the threads in her hands slipped from her control and flew forward.
"So... they're helping me restrict the unstable element."
Tan Han watched as the threads coiled around me. Even though I was so close to her, I was tripped up by these things at the very last moment.
Being tangled in so many threads made me look quite pathetic.
"Tan Han! I suggest you find a mirror and see how nauseating your self-righteous face looks right now."
I looked at my hand. I had almost touched the machine. It was a pity.
Even I wasn't sure what touching it would actually achieve. But that sense of epiphany was driving me to reach for it, as if Spirit Vision was telling me it held a massive secret.
"Is that so? But your current state is also quite an eyesore."
"Heh..."
I responded with only a cold sneer. At that moment, I really wanted to slap her across the face and wake her up!
But as I struggled, I realized I had already made contact with the loom.
For a moment, I froze.
It wasn't that I couldn't react; it was that the moment of contact caused a massive torrent of information to wash over me!
In that instant, I understood. Everything here was nothingness—including distance. The lack of feedback from Spirit Vision was also because there was no channel for it.
Just as Spirit Vision provides no information for things it cannot see, it had no channel here. Only when I made contact with the only meaningful thing in this space did a channel for information feedback open.
In other words, in this space, physical contact was the channel for Spirit Vision to "see" and return information. The void here had even severed the channels for information.
That was why Spirit Vision had urged me to touch it. My current "sight" was meaningless; it was merely what I thought I saw within the void.
It was like having my eyes closed and seeing nothing, yet knowing through some mysterious sense that something was in front of me. My eyes were urging me to open them. In this place, "opening one's eyes" was equivalent to touching the object.
At that moment, my brain felt like it was going haywire. The helplessness of being filled with such a gargantuan amount of information reminded me of when I first gained Spirit Vision and hadn't fully mastered it.
The information poured in all at once, like a dam bursting. Scattered splashes of water formed fragments of unfamiliar images.
It felt as though an eternity had passed, but in reality, it was only a split second.
When the information finally stopped, I remembered only one image: ...Tan Han... wins...
I realized the golden threads were no longer obstacles. They drifted nimbly around my shoulders, and I felt as though my mental power threads could manipulate them at will.
"Yang Yuehan... you..."
Before Tan Han could finish, I looked up and stared at her. The gaze made her skin crawl.
Slap!
A crisp sound echoed through the space. I had slapped Tan Han right across the face.
But it all happened too fast. I didn't even have time to enjoy her shocked expression before a sensation of weightlessness, like a blackout, hit me.
When my vision cleared, the biting cold of a blizzard made me shiver instantly.
I'm back?
That was my first thought. I didn't expect that a single smack to Tan Han would bring me back so efficiently.
I quickly realized my situation wasn't great, but then I looked at Tan Han’s massive Ancient Remnant Ice transformation. The giant, intimidating eye that had terrified me before was gone.
The Ancient Remnant Ice was currently making a strange movement—it was instinctively clutching its face.
Seeing that, I realized Tan Han was back too!
As I suspected, the thing controlling that transformation earlier wasn't Tan Han. That eye-like thing was likely the "Spirit Eye" she mentioned—her talent. She truly was a favored child of heaven to have such a high-spec talent, but it seemed she couldn't control it yet. She'd better be careful not to let the talent become the master.
But thoughts were just thoughts. I wasn't going to let this opportunity slip by.
Since I was the first to react, the finishing blow of this match would be mine.
A spellbook without a carrier outside would slowly self-destruct, but it was also in its most unrestrained state.
The spellbook unfolded. I knew every single structure within it by heart. Seeing it so clearly now felt almost nostalgic; after all, this spellbook had been with me for a while.
Now, it was about to become the second spellbook I used until it broke.
To completely destroy Tan Han’s transformation, I had to shatter the energy nodes of her current body, break the ritual structure of the spell, and hit Tan Han herself at the core.
If it were just a normal Fireball Spell explosion, the power would be too dispersed. A Fireball Spell was just a Fireball Spell; it couldn't break through the defenses of that transformation.
Unless I focused everything on a single point to pierce the core, I wouldn't be able to break her magic in one go.
"Then I'll modify it into a Flame Cone..."
This was a modification based on the most primitive methods: rotating and binding the violent power inside the Fireball Spell to create a point-focused explosive burst. Combined with an Energy Shield for a shaped charge effect, the power would be even greater.
The Energy Shield would definitely shatter, but the directional explosion was mainly to ensure I took less damage.
The Modified Fireball Spell I was creating would be terrifying. It wasn't just a matter of increased conversion rate; it was the fact that multiple Mana Sources were providing power simultaneously.
Hadn't my first Fireball Spellbook accidentally removed the limit, infinitely absorbing mana until the book was destroyed? I was using that mistake—or rather, that experience. I would detonate it at the very last moment before it could no longer hold the power.
I could hardly imagine it. Would such a Fireball Spell even still be a Fireball Spell?
But it made sense. After all, this was a maneuver where the spellbook could only be used once.
"Xiao Han?"
Tan Han had also come to her senses. Amidst her confusion, she realized she was back. Her previous behavior seemed unbelievable even to her, but the phantom pain from that slap still lingered on her face.
However, time didn't allow for much reflection.
Though she felt some regret for the arrogant words she’d spoken in that unknown place, she knew she was still on the battlefield. With the advantage she held, she didn't see how she could lose.
"I'm sorry for what I said earlier, but I still won't hold back on the field."
"Sorry?"
I raised an eyebrow. I didn't expect Tan Han to apologize immediately. Did that slap clear her head? Well, it was better that she wasn't so delusional anymore. That golden power really wasn't anything good.
"No need for apologies. Let's just get back to the match."
As I spoke, I dodged the ice spikes flying toward me. Despite their numbers, I felt as though I had become much more agile. Under the influence of Spirit Vision, I could even predict the trajectory of the falling spikes. Had my Spirit Vision improved again?
No, my control over Spirit Vision had improved!
It was just like that time I meditated with Tan Han. It seemed every time that Spirit Eye appeared, it brought me something good, even if it caused massive trouble beforehand.
As I moved, I thought I saw a flicker of gold drift by, but I quickly focused my attention on the arena.
"Don't worry! I'll use my strongest method to give you the most grand defeat possible."
Tan Han swung her ice staff as she spoke. Her tone wasn't mocking; it was a sign of respect for the duel. Defeating an opponent with one's strongest move was the ultimate form of respect!
"What?"
I watched as the blizzard instantly condensed into a meteor that looked like a falling star. This was the true form of the Ancient Remnant Ice. It carried an ancient aura, as if charging at me across the river of time, freezing the air with Absolute Zero. The strike felt as if it were smashing through space itself, sending a shattering sound echoing through the entire area.
A piercing screech rang out across the arena. Even the spectators protected by the solidified spells of the stands instinctively covered their ears.
It felt as though the match had reached its conclusion at this very moment.
Tan Han instinctively looked toward the referee teacher, but the woman showed no intention of declaring a winner yet.
Meanwhile, the stands erupted in thunderous cheers. After such an attack, even a senior student wouldn't have a chance to resist, right? Might as well start preparing the Resurrection Spell.
This was the most spectacular Freshman Competition they had ever seen!
Tan Han’s name seemed to echo throughout the entire stadium.
It wasn't until a figure appeared that the arena fell silent again.
"How is that possible? I watched you get..."
No one was more shocked than Tan Han. She finally understood why the referee hadn't declared her the winner. Was she being self-righteous again? She remembered being called self-righteous in that other place... realizing you're being arrogant, even without a mirror, makes you feel ridiculous.
"Just an Illusion Clone."
After a brief explanation, I charged at Tan Han again.
I leaped up, my toes tapping off Energy Shields. If I didn't get up there, I wouldn't be able to hit Tan Han’s weak point. Since I was overloading the spellbook to such an extent, the resulting spell couldn't be released normally. I had to personally escort this spell to its final destination!
I began stacking Energy Shields in front of my body. One layer, two layers, three...
The spellbook was continuously draining my remaining mana, and I was fighting the Fireball Spellbook for control of that mana until it was nearly depleted. The yield of this fireball was definitely not something a few layers of Energy Shields could block. Even with a directional explosion, the damage I would take would be horrific.
It looked like the Energy Shield spellbook would have to make some sacrifices too.
"What is that?"
Tan Han could naturally see what was in my hand. A spellbook! The terrifying energy fluctuations coming from it made her heart skip a beat!
But she could also see that the spellbook was far beyond its load limit. Using a spellbook like this was a total waste of a precious resource!
"Xiao Han! Are you crazy? You're using such a powerful spellbook like that! It's just one match! It's not worth it just for a win!"
"Heh, it's just a Fireball Spell."
"What?"
Tan Han looked at me in disbelief, stunned by the casual tone of my voice.
A Fireball Spell? How could that be?
But Tan Han had no time to react. Her ice staff, constructed from magic, met the spell in my hand.
I didn't dodge. I aimed straight for the frost core at the center of the staff—one of the most vital energy nodes of her transformation spell.
If I shattered that, Tan Han’s weakness would be completely exposed!
At that moment, the Fireball Spell in my hand turned into a spiraling cone, with a sky full of raging flames behind it. These were the flames converted from leaking mana, proof that the spellbook had reached its end.
The moment Tan Han’s staff core touched my flames, a horrific explosion occurred.
Fire and ice elements clashed at a transcendent energy level, triggering a terrifying blast. The resulting shockwave, mixed with lethal shards of ice, rippled outward.
The students in the stands instinctively reached out to protect their heads. However, the solidified spells on the stands weren't the temporary ones used on the field; the shockwave and ice were blocked at the edge. Even though the audience wasn't hurt, many students in the front rows were scared half to death.
But it was far from over.
"Estimate: what's the mana conversion rate of that Fireball Spell?"
The Transcendent Witches were currently discussing the topic with great interest.
"20%?" one teacher guessed hesitantly.
"The peak conversion rate should be 40%, I'd guess it doubled," another teacher said bluntly.
"To be precise, it's 56%," Lina spoke up, ending the speculation.
"Lina? Why are you back?"
"The stuff is ready. Looks like the winner is about to be decided." Lina turned to watch the field. Even she was curious to see how Yang Yuehan would lose.
Yes—how Yang Yuehan would lose.
"A 56% mana conversion rate for a Fireball Spell? What kind of joke is that?"
"It's not impossible. You just can't do it."
"Don't forget, he pulled out the spellbook itself. He has no intention of bringing that book back in one piece. A peak of 56% isn't that strange."
"I suppose so."
* * *
Because of that initial explosion, the shards of ice instantly tore through the several layers of Energy Shields I had stacked.
The remaining layers didn't give me much of a sense of security, but they would have to do. At most... I'd just be heavily injured. I hadn't experienced being heavily injured yet.
Besides, the academy covered the medical costs for contestants; I hadn't forgotten that. Otherwise, with people fighting while injured, the Freshman Competition wouldn't be finished in just five days.
My Mana Sources were empty. I grabbed my Witch Cape—it wouldn't do much, but it gave me a sliver of false security. As for my Witch Hat? That had flown off to who-knows-where long ago.
BOOM!
The horrific collision finally produced a terrifying roar. This explosion was even more monstrous than the last.
It was the result of a complete, over-limit Modified Fireball Spell clashing with the core of a transformation spell. The direct contact between the sources of fire and ice magic made even the referee lose her composure. She silently cast a protection spell on herself.
The Fireball Spell, acting like a spear of flame, pierced into the core of the Ancient Remnant Ice.
The horrific explosion bloomed in the center of the arena like a grand piece of performance art. A massive heatwave, accompanied by shards of ice, swept across the field once more, giving the audience a second shock. Even the protection spells on the stands rippled.
This strike didn't just end the match; it felt as if it had slain the entire Freshman Competition!
The very first match had given all the students a "freshman shock," acting like a heavy hammer that completely overshadowed the matches yet to come. The climax of the entire five-day competition had been reached and concluded in the very first round.
As the sound of the explosion died down, the referee and Lina both rushed toward the field.
In their experience, an explosion of this magnitude was not something a freshman could survive. Tan Han had her transformation spell to tank the hit—at worst, she’d lose consciousness. But what did Yang Yuehan have? That ridiculous Energy Shield that only cost a tiny bit of mana? It was no better than wet paper.
Though thick smoke covered the field, a figure flying backward was still very visible.
Indeed, the person flying through the air was me. Even after hitting the ground, my momentum sent me tumbling several times.
I managed a "safe" landing, if you could call it that... Heavily injured? Multiple fractures? So that's what the sound of bones breaking is like...
At least I wasn't dead. My body had completely lost all sensation.
I had been heartbroken when the first layers of my Energy Shields were destroyed. The ice had shattered several of them; while Energy Shields were great at blocking energy, they were much weaker against physical attacks.
The main thing was that I had even removed the energy consumption limit on the Energy Shield spell. Otherwise, in that short window of time, how could my Energy Shield spell have competed with the Fireball Spell for mana?
When I got back, I’d have to give the Energy Shield spellbook some serious maintenance. Using it like that, I was afraid it might be damaged too.
Luckily, it wasn't broken. As long as it wasn't broken, there was a chance for repair.
"You're okay? Your Energy Shield was modified too?"
A voice came from nearby, but I could no longer see who it was. Probably the referee or a teacher...
"Don't move. I'll heal you."
As Lina finished speaking, I felt a strange power surge into my body. My body, which hadn't yet registered the trauma, was suddenly jolted by the stimulus. Agony flooded my entire being.
Sometimes, people don't scream because it doesn't hurt enough. Right now, I felt like even breathing was tearing at my throat. My body twitched uncontrollably.
This so-called healing spell had completely stimulated me, making my body realize exactly what "heavily injured" and "pain" meant.
"Are you a hot-blooded idiot? Do you have no regard for your own life?" Lina said, unable to help herself as she looked at my miserable state.
* * *
On Arena No. 1.
The referee looked at Tan Han, who was lying amidst the shards of the Ancient Remnant Ice. Tan Han was clinging to the last sliver of consciousness. She looked toward the referee with difficulty, but before she could say anything, she passed out.
The referee then looked at No. 14, far on the other side of the arena, and finally spoke.
"No. 14 has left the field. No. 1, Tan Han, is the winner."
The referee's voice held no excitement for either side. Strictly speaking, it was a mutual defeat, but she had to make a ruling. A draw would mean a rematch, and the arena couldn't handle another round of their chaos.
"Medical team, move! What are you standing around for!"
At the shout, the volunteer senior sisters who had been cowering behind the protection spells of the stands rushed onto the battlefield as fast as they could.
The battle finally came to a close.
In the stands, a thunderous roar of cheers and applause erupted, even though the two contestants they were cheering for could no longer hear their passion.