Chapter 211

After grumbling, Su Bei shifted his gaze from the arena. While Si Zhaohua and Huangfu Mingzhe’s match was certainly interesting, he had more important things to do.

—He needed to find the Black Flash Organization members.

Since the bodyguards hired by Lan Subing’s parents could sense being watched, the watchers must be hidden nearby.

But logically, this place should be entirely filled with Ability Government personnel; anyone with the slightest identity issue wouldn’t be allowed in. So, where would the Black Flash Organization members be hiding?

Looking out the window, the surroundings were filled with excited spectators. Only the very top floor had private boxes, but the people seated in those boxes would definitely have unproblematic identities; the Ability Government wouldn’t be so careless as to let people with questionable backgrounds in. And in their eyes, those with unproblematic identities were high-ranking figures in the ability world. If they were undercover, there was truly nothing he could do.

He decided to use his ability first to see if anyone’s Destiny Compass was problematic. Su Bei activated his ability, and countless Destiny Compasses materialized before his eyes. Large and small golden compasses appeared above everyone’s heads, so dense that Su Bei felt a momentary dizziness.

In truth, checking a person’s Destiny Compass consumed a certain amount of mental energy, but because the consumption was very small, it could usually be ignored. However, having to examine so many people’s compasses at once, plus maintaining their continuous existence, meant the mental energy consumption was too significant to ignore.

There were about a thousand people in the venue, and screening so many Destiny Compasses one by one would definitely be a huge undertaking. Su Bei suddenly realized from this that his mastery of this ability was not as strong as he had imagined.

As a Destiny-type ability user, unless he intended to stop here, there would always be occasions where he needed to view many people’s Destiny Compasses at once. After all, ordinary destiny users looked at individual destinies, while great destiny users looked at the destinies of nations or even the world.

“It’s a good opportunity to practice,” Su Bei thought. He felt he probably wouldn’t be needed in the arena today. Even if he were, reserving half of his mental energy would be enough to deal with a few opponents.

As for how to practice, it was simple. Su Bei began using the elimination method, precisely shutting down large areas of unproblematic Destiny Compasses. An unproblematic compass was one where the small pointer was near the center, and the large pointer was in the upper half of the compass. He absorbed the information of large groups of audience compasses into his mind through mental energy overlay, then identified identical and unproblematic compasses to shut down simultaneously.

After several repetitions, the remaining Destiny Compasses in the venue were few and far between.

The remaining few individuals couldn’t be filtered by the previous elimination method, so Su Bei had to examine them one by one. Among these, two were destined to die, while the rest were just ordinary cases of illness or injury.

However, these individuals were located far apart, seemingly without any pattern, and didn’t appear problematic. Moreover, logically, even if the Black Flash Organization intended to act, they would only choose the third day, not today, so their issues didn’t indicate anything. In fact, judging by their appearance, they probably weren’t spies sent by the Black Flash Organization either.

So, that meant at least the audience seating was clear today? But that was impossible; the venue only had two areas: the surrounding audience seats and the central arena.

The central arena could be seen entirely at a glance; unless someone was hidden underground, it would be impossible to see others, let alone cause those bodyguards to feel watched.

It still had to be in the audience seating.

However, the entire audience seating, apart from the visible seats, consisted of smooth walls that looked like they couldn’t conceal anyone.

Wait a minute…

Su Bei suddenly realized something. Were these walls solid? Could they be hollow inside? To save building materials and costs, many designers would make such spectator stands hollow.

And if that were the case, hiding people inside would be very easy.

Furthermore, because spotlights were installed both in front and behind these walls, anyone inside could perfectly observe the outside situation through the spotlights. Even without spotlights, if they possessed a透视 (X-ray vision) ability, they could still give off the feeling of being watched.

Having discovered the possible location of the observers, Su Bei didn’t feel relieved. What could he do even if he knew? Should he tell the organizers? He could only infer what the Black Flash Organization intended to do based on their hiding place.

According to Su Bei’s previous speculation, the Black Flash Organization would act against the students participating in the Exhibition Match on the third day. Those chosen by the audience to participate in the Exhibition Match would definitely be Ability users who performed exceptionally well earlier. Capturing these individuals would hold immense appeal for them.

Their hiding in the audience seating couldn’t possibly be to attack the spectators; it could only be to “burst forth” at the appropriate time and capture everyone on the arena in one fell swoop. Their location was perfectly suited for this purpose.

So, he just had to avoid participating, Su Bei was now certain of this. As long as he wasn’t chosen for the Exhibition Match, he would likely not be implicated.

However, he still had to participate in this event; there were some things he couldn’t escape. Not only could he not escape the fate of the audience choosing him for the Exhibition Match, but more importantly, he couldn’t escape the major main storyline.

For plots involving important main storylines, merely reading the comic wasn’t enough; many things could only be discovered by personally participating and uncovering the hidden information.

Although Su Bei’s ultimate mission actually had little to do with the comic’s main storyline, he needed to leverage the main storyline to see if he could complete his own mission. Otherwise, relying solely on Jiang Tianming and the others’ current strength, saving the world would be too difficult.

The person currently closest to saving the world was actually Wu Mingbai. His ability, [Earth Element], was the most likely to destroy the meteorites. Su Bei had already realized this when Wu Mingbai could summon meteorites falling from the sky and accurately identify the floating debris in the Nightmare Beast world as meteorites.

But his strength was still far too lacking. Even though Wu Mingbai’s [Earth Element] had been enhanced, he still had a long way to go to become a true ability master capable of summoning earth elements on a world-wide scale.

And he had just been enhanced by the author not long ago, so the next time was unknown. Su Bei felt that if he followed the plot step by step, he might have to wait until they graduated from high school to fully utilize Wu Mingbai.

Too much time, too many variables. Su Bei didn’t want to wait that long. If the plot ended before graduation, he would completely lose the chance to save the world. After all, without the forum’s help, even if the meteorites were successfully destroyed, it might not necessarily eliminate the Nightmare Beasts.

His thoughts gradually drifted, then were pulled back by the scene in the arena.

Huangfu Mingzhe truly lived up to being the ultimate weapon of Skydome Ability Academy, on whom they pinned all their hopes. His invulnerable body and ever-changing abilities made it difficult for even someone of Si Zhaohua’s strength to win easily.

They had been at a stalemate for a long time, unable to overcome each other. Huangfu Mingzhe wanted to use his formidable physique to clash head-on with Si Zhaohua, but the protective umbrella formed by Si Zhaohua’s wings wasn’t so easily broken.

Moreover, due to previous incidents, Si Zhaohua valued his agility in flight; if he truly tried to escape, Huangfu Mingzhe couldn’t catch him.

Unable to defeat each other, both finally lost their patience and decided to unleash their ultimate moves.

That’s right, it wasn’t just Si Zhaohua who had an ultimate move; Huangfu Mingzhe, also from an influential family, had one too. In fact, it would be easier for him to acquire ability-related skill books.

After all, the Huangfu family had a bloodline ability inheritance and had always deliberately collected dragon-attribute skill books. The [Angel] ability was not a bloodline ability, so even if the Si family wanted to spend a fortune to find skill books for Si Zhaohua, their collection would certainly not compare to the Huangfu family’s.

The Tri-School Competition was unlike previous ordinary monthly exams, where teachers would directly intervene to prevent students from being harmed when Si Zhaohua unleashed his ultimate move. Now, the referee merely watched nervously from higher up in the air, and many healing-type Ability users had gathered on the ground outside the arena, ready to rush over at any moment to save the lives of the contestants.

Both unleashed their ultimate moves simultaneously. A dazzling white light and a brilliant golden light bloomed in the air, followed by the light beam released from Si Zhaohua’s hand directly colliding with Huangfu Mingzhe’s golden-glowing body.

“Bang!”

A huge explosion echoed, and everyone’s eyes were fixed on the point of explosion in the air. Many spectators stood up, clinging to the railings in shock as they looked out.

“Who do you think will win?” Li Shu suddenly asked before the light dissipated.

“It’s definitely Zhaohua!” Ai Baozhu said without hesitation, but her expression suggested she wasn’t entirely confident in her answer.

Qi Huang stroked his chin and spoke honestly: “I also think it’s Si Zhaohua. His skill has strong attack power. And Huangfu is using his body to resist the attack; even if he manages to withstand it, Si Zhaohua might not concede immediately, right?”

“Doesn’t he lose all his strength after using ‘Holy Judgment’?” Wu Mingbai, who wasn’t as familiar with Si Zhaohua, asked curiously.

Before Ai Baozhu could answer, Jiang Tianming, who had secretly sparred with Si Zhaohua not long ago, shook his head: “He can now retain some strength even after using that skill.”

He had been badly tricked precisely because he hadn’t known this, so the memory was fresh.

“That’s right,” Ai Baozhu nodded in satisfaction, then looked at the others, “Who do you all think will win?”

Although it was a question, her intent was clearly different from Li Shu’s. Li Shu was genuinely asking, while she clearly only wanted to hear what she wanted to hear, her pink eyes full of menace.

Lan Subing chuckled and indulged her wish: “Si Zhaohua wins.”

The usually inconspicuous Wu Jin silently nodded: “Mm.”

“Zhaohua will definitely win!” Mo Xiaotian said naturally; he was also the one among them most certain of this answer.

Ai Baozhu immediately looked at him with appreciation: “You have good judgment! How can you be so certain?”

The original intention of asking this was to get information from Mo Xiaotian, but she had clearly miscalculated. Mo Xiaotian earnestly replied: “Because Zhaohua is on our side, of course I have to say he’ll win.”

He was clearly a typical ‘favoritism’ type, believing Si Zhaohua would win simply because they were on the same team. This made Ai Baozhu, who had hoped to gain some confidence from him, freeze for a moment.

But she quickly recovered, nodding haughtily: “You’re right, Zhaohua is from our academy. I’d like to see who in our academy would think he couldn’t win!”

Since the outcome was the same, Ai Baozhu felt she didn’t need to care about the process. She had originally thought Si Zhaohua would win simply because she knew him well, no different from Mo Xiaotian.

After saying this, she looked at Su Bei, her implication clear without needing words: she wanted Su Bei to express his support for Si Zhaohua.

Su Bei glanced at the two figures in the arena, whose pointers looked identical: “It’s a draw.”

Sure enough, the very next second after he spoke, Huangfu Mingzhe successfully broke through Si Zhaohua’s ultimate move and landed a punch on him. Amidst everyone’s exclamations, both fell into a coma, plummeting simultaneously from mid-air.

Sensing that both had indeed lost consciousness, the referee blew his whistle to signal the end of the match and swiftly swooped down, catching them both with a bubble. His ability was [Rainbow Bubble], allowing him to fly and protect people, which was one reason he was chosen as a referee.

“It really is a draw!” Mo Xiaotian’s eyes widened, and he looked at Su Bei with admiration, “That’s amazing! I wonder what it feels like to be hit by those two abilities.”

“If you’re interested, you can ask them to hit you to try,” Wu Mingbai said with a half-smile.

While they were talking, Lei Ze’en walked in. As soon as he entered, he got straight to the point: “Si Zhaohua is unconscious and cannot continue the competition. We need to replace him for the next match.”

At these words, everyone’s eyes immediately lit up. Mo Xiaotian raised his hand and bounced up: “Me, me, me! Teacher, let me go, let me go!”

“Don’t listen to him, Teacher, let me go!” Wu Mingbai pushed Mo Xiaotian down, saying righteously, “My ability is more common. You said earlier that the next matches are all support roles, so any of us can go. Letting me go is the least likely to expose our academy’s trump cards.”

It must be said that his reasoning was impeccable. Lei Ze’en indeed did not intend to field ability users with more unique abilities to deal with Skydome Ability Academy’s remaining opponents.

Why use a butcher’s knife to kill a chicken? Although the opponent’s reserve team had many strong offensive Ability users specifically designed for such situations, their strength would certainly be much lower than Huangfu Mingzhe’s.

And their academy’s team had many Ability users no less capable than Si Zhaohua. In other words, they had many choices.

After glancing at the eager few who raised their hands, Lei Ze’en shifted his gaze to those who weren’t raising their hands: Lan Subing, Wu Jin, Su Bei, and Li Shu.

Compared to those frantically volunteering, he preferred to choose from those who were reluctant to participate. This wasn’t due to Lei Ze’en’s peculiar sense of humor, but his thoughtfulness.

Because Skydome Ability Academy’s main strength this time was essentially only Huangfu Mingzhe, the upcoming matches shouldn’t be too difficult. Easy matches could be passed with ease, and participating now would provide a good reason not to participate later. So, for those students who didn’t want to participate, going now was the best option.

However, to avoid any unexpected mishaps and throwing away the excellent situation Si Zhaohua had created, the next contestant had to possess sufficiently robust strength.

Wu Jin and Su Bei were excluded first; both were meant to be trump cards, shining brightly in the upcoming team battles, so it was definitely not suitable for them to go up now.

As for Lan Subing and Li Shu… After a moment of thought, amidst everyone’s expectant gazes, Lei Ze’en looked at one of them: “Lan Subing, it’s you.”

“Huh?” Lan Subing looked over in surprise, her expression instantly changing as she hurriedly refused, “Teacher, so many people want to go, there’s no need to force me…”

Before she could finish, Lei Ze’en interrupted her: “You’ll have to participate in the team battle eventually. If you can’t adapt to being in the spotlight now, what will you do then?”

At these words, Lan Subing fell silent. Lei Ze’en was right; she had worked hard to get selected for this team, not just to watch. If she couldn’t go on stage simply because of her social anxiety, she might as well have forfeited during the monthly exam.

“Alright, I understand.” Pressing her lips together, Lan Subing finally decided to overcome her fear. She truly couldn’t continue like this; at the very least, she couldn’t disappoint her classmates.

“Go, A-Bing!” Jiang Tianming and Wu Mingbai encouraged her together, then looked at Lei Ze’en, “Can we go outside and watch the match from the arena?”

If she stayed in the lounge, Lan Subing wouldn’t be able to see them. For someone with social anxiety, having familiar faces within her line of sight would make her feel much better.

Lei Ze’en nodded: “Go ahead, just don’t get into conflicts with anyone.”

Before they left together, Jiang Tianming suddenly remembered something: “Oh right, Teacher, where is Zhaohua now? Is he seriously injured?”

Ai Baozhu had wanted to ask this question for a long time but hadn’t found an opportunity to interject since they were discussing other matters. Now, hearing Jiang Tianming ask, she quickly perked up her ears, not forgetting to add: “If needed, I can help out. Anyway, the individual battles don’t really need me.”

“Don’t worry, he’s already been sent to the venue’s infirmary. The doctor our academy hired is very reliable,” Lei Ze’en patiently reassured them. “I haven’t told you yet about the new Doctor Fo our academy hired, have I? His ability is [Rapid Healing], and his healing capabilities are extremely powerful. If all goes well, Si Zhaohua should wake up tonight.”

Hearing him say this, everyone finally breathed a slight sigh of relief. Generally, healing-type Ability users with very pure abilities have very strong healing methods. After all, with only one ability, they naturally develop it very deeply.

He then looked at Ai Baozhu: “If you want to go, you can, but you’ll have to come out with us first. On the way, I need to brief Lan Subing on this opponent’s specific situation.”

As Ai Baozhu said, this occasion indeed didn’t require her; she was more suitable for tomorrow’s match. Therefore, Lei Ze’en didn’t mind fulfilling her wish. As for the others, they shouldn’t even think about it; they needed to stay here to deal with any potential emergencies.

With the teacher and four students leaving, the lounge suddenly felt spacious. Su Bei monopolized half the sofa, leisurely watching Lan Subing’s match.

Despite Lan Subing appearing terribly socially anxious in front of them, she held her own very well in public. Don’t underestimate her status as a young lady; years of etiquette training ensured that she wouldn’t lose face, even in such a panicky situation.

In the arena, Lan Subing, wearing the Endless Ability Academy’s sports uniform, stood ramrod straight. Her long, aquamarine hair was tied into a high ponytail, looking neat and attractive.

Standing opposite her was another blue-haired girl, but she wasn’t anyone from the main team they had previously known; she was from the reserve team.

The opponent was a strong offensive Ability user whose ability was likely water-related. When she entered the arena, one could clearly see damp marks on the arena floor from the glass window.

For such a sight to appear immediately upon activating her ability was enough to show how concentrated her water element ability was.

Knowing that Lan Subing’s ability was the extremely powerful [Word Command], the opposing girl decided to strike first, enveloping Lan Subing completely with “Water Bubbles.” She surely couldn’t speak underwater, could she?

This was actually a very good method. However, none of this had any effect on Lan Subing. [Word Command] was such a ‘bug-like’ ability; unless one’s mental energy was much higher than Lan Subing’s, allowing them to ignore her control, or they had made ample preparations in advance, they would be controlled until defeat.

And the opponent clearly hadn’t made ample preparations. No matter how quickly she used her ability, it couldn’t be faster than the instant activation of [Word Command]. So, before she could successfully envelop Lan Subing with “Water Bubbles,” Lan Subing had already activated her ability.

Because she planned to defeat four opponents in a row (one-against-four), needed to conserve mental energy, and was swayed by her social anxiety, Lan Subing only spoke two sentences since stepping onto the stage: “Freeze,” and “Ability Seal.” Then she walked over and easily sent her opponent off the stage.

Such immense strength stunned the audience. They hadn’t expected Endless Ability Academy’s second contestant to be completely on par with the first, and in some ways, even more terrifying.

Zhao Xiaoyu, at the host’s stand, was delighted to see her classmate perform so brilliantly, her commentary becoming even more passionate: “Student Lan Subing from Endless Ability Academy has overwhelmed Skydome Ability Academy’s contestant with a crushing advantage, controlling them off the arena! Let’s see if she chooses to continue the match!”

The referee came up to inquire, and Lan Subing naturally chose to continue. However, even though she had easily won without much mental energy consumption just now, she didn’t feel very relaxed.

Her ability wasn’t a secret, and Skydome Ability Academy must have thoroughly investigated it long ago. Sending that girl up earlier was likely just an initial probe. After confirming her ability’s strength, they would probably increase the difficulty for her next.

As Lan Subing expected, the next contestant to enter the arena existed purely to counter her. The match began with an immediate activation of their ability: “[Silence]!”

Upon hearing this, Lan Subing immediately felt a deep sense of foreboding. Sure enough, after the opponent used her ability, Lan Subing found herself unable to speak. For the [Word Command] ability, if it was just that the opponent couldn’t hear her speak, there would still be some room for maneuver. But to directly prevent her from speaking, Lan Subing was completely helpless.

“Skydome Ability Academy actually brought an Ability user specifically to counter Lan Subing?” Qi Huang asked in disbelief.

“Surely not?” Li Shu shook his head, smiling gently as he delivered a not-so-gentle assessment, “Unless they’re crazy.”