Chapter 214

“Weren’t those deadly moves just now?” The green-haired youth lay on the ground, acting like he was about to cause trouble.

Before he could complain a second time, Su Bei leaned down, grabbed his neck with a large hand, applied slight pressure, and said with a half-smile, “This is a deadly move.”

“No, no, no! I’m wrong, I’m wrong!” The green-haired youth shrieked, his voice hoarse. Although Su Bei wasn’t using much force, he still felt his life was threatened. The Arena Ability couldn’t guarantee the safety of the contestants’ lives, after all!

Su Bei finally released him. “Still not conceding?”

“I have one last question. I’ll concede after I ask it.” The green-haired youth wanted to drag out the time to avoid losing face, but he was also genuinely curious.

Su Bei nodded, mercifully granting his wish. “Speak.”

The green-haired youth asked with hopeful eyes, “Did you use your ability?”

Even now, he couldn’t believe Su Bei’s combat skills were truly that strong. He hoped Su Bei had used an ability, which was why he had been so utterly crushed in a skill he prided himself on.

Then he saw a playful smile appear on Su Bei’s face. “No. If you’re trash, you just have to—.”

“I concede!” His self-esteem had been thoroughly trampled. Before Su Bei could finish his taunt, the green-haired youth immediately conceded and fled this heartbreaking place.

As his words of concession fell, a mechanical voice rang out: “Match over. Red Team wins.”

Immediately after, the surrounding arena mechanically separated, and the scenery around them quickly faded. The subtle rule-based restraints on their bodies vanished, and the two reappeared on the main stage.

Unexpectedly, they came out so quickly this time. The referee was surprised for a moment before asking for the match results from above. There was no other way; once the green-haired youth’s ability was activated, outsiders couldn’t see the match inside, and naturally couldn’t know the result.

But he certainly couldn’t lie and say he won, otherwise, Su Bei would just beat him up again on the spot, which would be even more embarrassing.

Actually, this ability was quite suitable for throwing matches: taking money to compete against other academies, then just wasting a little time in the Arena Ability before conceding. However, the Ability Government didn’t care. If an academy could cultivate a player who threw matches, then they weren’t fit to participate in international competitions anyway.

The green-haired youth dejectedly replied, “He won.”

Upon hearing this result, the audience instantly erupted in an uproar. It wasn’t that they disbelieved the green-haired youth could lose; it was mainly that they didn’t expect him to lose so quickly. With his ability, how did Su Bei manage to win so fast?

The referee wasn’t too surprised either. The green-haired youth had competed so many times that Endless Ability Academy wouldn’t send a contestant he couldn’t possibly handle. The reason the match ended so quickly was clearly because this child was utterly crushed.

Thinking this, he announced the match result while curiously sizing up Su Bei. He had also seen Su Bei’s profile: a Destiny Gear Ability user, a rare Destiny-type. He could actually win even with his ability sealed, and win so cleanly? He had thought this child would be a pure mage. Now, it seemed he might even be a warrior.

After announcing the results of this match, the referee asked as usual, “Do you wish to continue competing?”

“No.”

“Okay, continue… What? Not continuing?” The referee’s expression was very surprised, but he quickly understood. “Alright, please submit the next participant list as soon as possible.”

Su Bei walked off the stage feeling lighthearted. Mo Xiaotian was already waiting below to greet him, cheering as he came down, “Su Bei, you’re amazing! You finished the match in less than seven minutes! How are his physical skills? Was he really strong?!”

Logically, seeing a match end in seven minutes would imply the opponent’s physical skills were poor. But Mo Xiaotian wasn’t being sarcastic. Su Bei’s opponent was Su Bei, after all, and Su Bei’s physical skills were already rarely matched. Being able to last seven minutes was already impressive.

“He was alright,” Su Bei gave what he considered a fair assessment.

Just looking at how the students from Alpha Ability High School, who had tag-teamed him, were defeated in seconds, it was clear that the green-haired youth’s ability to last over six minutes was already a very good record.

“Hey! Can’t you say ‘not bad’?” The green-haired youth, who hadn’t gone far, overheard his assessment (or perhaps he’d been secretly paying attention) and couldn’t help but exclaim.

His teammate next to him retorted speechlessly, “But you were defeated in less than seven minutes. Him saying ‘alright’ is already giving you a lot of face, isn’t it?”

Speaking of which, he was also shocked. Not just him, but everyone in their academy was shocked. They knew the green-haired youth’s strength. Because his ability itself required good combat skills, he was the most diligent in physical training in their class. His strength might not be the strongest, but it was definitely among the best. Yet, such a person couldn’t last seven minutes against Su Bei. How strong were Su Bei’s combat skills? Wasn’t he a standard mage-type Ability user? Why did he possess such powerful combat skills? He was utterly baffled.

“You don’t understand. If you fought him, you probably couldn’t last five minutes,” the green-haired youth swore to justify himself.

He then looked at Su Bei in confusion. “But why are you stepping down?”

At this, the green-haired youth suddenly showed an incredulous expression. “Could it be that you can only defeat me when I don’t have other abilities?”

“No, no, no, impossible.” But he quickly shook his head to himself. “You’re an official contestant sent by Endless Ability Academy; how could you be so weak? You must be trying to conceal your true strength, I guessed right, didn’t I?”

Watching his smug expression, even Su Bei felt a little speechless. He looked at his companion beside him. “Can his habit of talking to himself be cured?”

“Not a chance.” The companion also felt extremely embarrassed, showing an unbearable expression, and forcibly dragged the still-bellowing green-haired youth away.

“That guy’s quite interesting,” Jiang Tianming walked over and bumped fists with Su Bei. “Congratulations on winning the match.”

Su Bei didn’t have much to say about winning the match; his opponent was too weak, which really didn’t spark his interest.

“By the way, which option did you choose inside?” he asked curiously.

“Prohibited items,” Su Bei replied.

“Then I bet Su Bei, you must have prohibited both sides’ eyes, right?” Mo Xiaotian immediately chimed in excitedly.

Wu Mingbai walked over and also guessed, “It must be the limbs. If you prohibit eyes, Su Bei himself wouldn’t be able to see.”

“I guess he didn’t prohibit anything,” Jiang Tianming had a different guess from them.

Listening to no one guessing correctly, Su Bei calmly stated the answer: “Prohibited escape.”

“…”

Everyone fell silent for a moment. After a long while, Lan Subing finally sighed, “As expected of you.”

That was too arrogant!

Su Bei shrugged. “Who’s up next?”

“Me.” Qi Huang showed a satisfied smile. Although she wasn’t the first to go in the second round, she was happy just to be on stage. It would be even better if she could defeat four opponents like Lan Subing.

Su Bei, however, didn’t have such great confidence in her. He had a premonition that Qi Huang might not last long. If this were the real world, he wouldn’t have such thoughts.

But this was a comic world. Unless the author wanted to show Endless Ability Academy utterly dominating the other academies, it was impossible for all of them to achieve four consecutive victories.

Endless Ability Academy had won too much; it was time for a real defeat.

For the second match, the opponent sent up a body-enhancement Ability user. Endless Ability Academy’s participant arrangement was perfect; the enemy, unable to fly, had no way to deal with Qi Huang and was easily knocked off the stage.

Next was the third contestant. Qi Huang remained, and the opponent changed to another person. This time, it was also a body-enhancement Ability user, but he wasn’t enhanced like a wooden automaton or the previous one; he had body-morphing enhancement. Speaking of which, he was somewhat similar to an Ability user from Endless Ability Academy who could also transform his body into various shapes, but their academy’s user was rubber, while this contestant seemed to be modeling clay.

After learning his ability, Qi Huang couldn’t help but ask, “This ability sounds more like something from Skydome Ability Academy or our academy, right?”

After all, Houde Ability Academy focused more on physical combat, and Ability users more inclined towards pure abilities usually wouldn’t come to their school.

Hearing this, Meng Huai sneered, “Never heard of Judo?”

Soon, Qi Huang stepped onto the stage. She did not underestimate the opponent’s ability. As soon as she got on, following Meng Huai’s previous advice, she rode her phoenix into the air and then released several fireballs at the opponent.

But unexpectedly, while dodging the fireballs, the boy’s arm suddenly stretched incredibly long, directly reaching Qi Huang, who was flying in mid-air.

Qi Huang hadn’t expected that even flying in mid-air, her grounded opponent could still reach her. In a panic, she didn’t raise her altitude in time to escape his entanglement, which led her into a passive situation.

The scene on the stage at this moment was exceptionally unsettling. The boy standing on the ground, like an alien from some movie, brandished two long arms, interfering with the beautiful girl flying in mid-air.

Fortunately, Qi Huang was no pushover. As long as her opponent wasn’t completely impervious to fire, if her flames touched him, he could only endure the pain. His body enhancement ability couldn’t help him deal with the phoenix flames. Relatively speaking, he was the one more severely countered.

However, when the flames spread to his arm, the opponent also knew that continued interference would only make him more passive. So, he pushed off with his feet, using the strength of his arms to spring upwards, launching himself directly onto the phoenix, level with Qi Huang.

Meng Huai had previously warned Qi Huang never to let an opponent get close. And now, the opponent had successfully gotten close.

Undoubtedly, Qi Huang lost the third match. In fact, one could say that the moment the opponent got close, her defeat was sealed. The opponent’s Judo was truly formidable, entangling Qi Huang until she lost her temper.

Although she managed to cover her opponent’s entire body with flames when she was on the verge of suffocating, even smelling the scent of roasted meat, this opponent likely had some resistance to damage and wouldn’t be burned to death quickly, while Qi Huang genuinely risked suffocating to death. So, in the end, she failed.

When she stepped off the stage, Qi Huang looked very dejected. She knew this failure was due to her own carelessness. If she hadn’t relaxed her guard upon learning that this enemy was also a “ground chicken” with no flight ability, she wouldn’t have been easily entangled.

“Sorry everyone, I let you down.” Qi Huang’s eyes were red, but she stubbornly held back her tears. There was still a purple mark around her neck, caused by her opponent’s entanglement. “My skills are inferior. Teacher, please punish me.”

“You should indeed be punished. I’ll punish you by making you drink Doctor Wang’s special concoction,” Meng Huai replied coldly.

Lei Ze’en glanced at him, chuckling, “I’ll go call Doctor Wang. It’ll be quick; he should have that potion prepared beforehand.”

“Teacher…” Hearing this, Qi Huang’s eyes grew even redder. But this time, it wasn’t from sadness, but from gratitude. She thought Meng Huai was going easy on her; what kind of punishment was drinking medicine? It was clearly just a way to treat her injuries, wasn’t it? This failure was her mistake, yet her strict teacher, for once, used this method to console her, making her feel both moved and guilty.

The others also came over to comfort her. The opponent’s tactics were indeed unexpected; once he latched on, he was like chewing gum, impossible to shake off. Even they might not have easily resolved it on their first encounter.

After a short while, Lei Ze’en returned with Doctor Wang. Doctor Wang held a paper cup containing a dark pink opaque liquid that looked quite appealing.

“This is a special healing beverage I made with my ability. Drinking it can clear external wounds and some minor internal organ damage, perfect for your current situation,” Doctor Wang introduced it in a calm and composed manner, looking very mature and steady.

Hearing his introduction, Qi Huang became even more convinced of her earlier guess. Teacher Meng truly had no intention of punishing her; even the medicine he made her drink was specially prepared for her.

Filled with gratitude, she gulped down the faintly sweet-smelling drink in one go.

The next second, Qi Huang’s expression crumpled.

She felt as if she had swallowed every piece of candy she could ever eat in her life all at once. Her entire body instantly turned to sugar, her blood becoming viscous syrup, and her throat was so cloyingly sweet she couldn’t speak. Sweet food should be delicious, but now she felt as if she was undergoing torture. Qi Huang would rather eat extremely spicy chili than take another sip of this stuff. In fact, she felt that for the next year, she might not want to taste any sweets again; just thinking of the word “sweet” made her want to vomit.

When all the liquid had been swallowed, Qi Huang finally couldn’t bear it anymore and collapsed with a thud. Before she ‘died’, she laboriously stretched out a hand. Lan Subing quickly grasped it, her eyes filled with tears: “Do you have any last wishes? Quick, tell me, I will fulfill them all!”

Qi Huang, her voice hoarse and dry, opened and closed her mouth several times, finally managing to utter one word: “Water—”

Then she completely fell unconscious.

Watching her maintain that twisted, distorted expression even in unconsciousness, the others couldn’t help but shiver, looking at Doctor Wang with a respectful gaze.

Doctor Wang still had his gentle demeanor, his expression even showing a pure bewilderment: “Is it that bad? But it’s sweet-flavored.”

If sweet-flavored could be made this bad, everyone’s expressions grew even more reverent.

Meng Huai snorted, “See? This is what happens if you make a mistake! Next time any of you make a mistake, hmm, you’ll get the same treatment.”

“Ah, did my treatment turn into a punishment?” Doctor Wang looked oblivious.

Lei Ze’en seemed to have a good relationship with him, wrapping an arm around his shoulder. “I just helped you develop a new skill, aren’t you going to thank little Meng?”

Doctor Wang subconsciously followed his words: “Thank you, little… Teacher Meng.”

Before they could finish their playful banter, seeing that time was running out, Jiang Tianming quickly asked, “Teacher, who are we sending up next?”

“Li Shu, you go,” Hearing the question, Meng Huai looked directly at Li Shu, who was observing Qi Huang’s misfortune with glee. “There are two matches left. Win both, and you won’t have to participate tomorrow. If you don’t win, then you must participate in tomorrow’s team battle.”

“…I understand.” Li Shu was completely at his teacher’s mercy. He really didn’t want to participate tomorrow, especially the team battle which required cooperation with others, and his cooperation had always been lacking.

While Endless Ability Academy replaced their participant with Li Shu, Houde Ability Academy also changed their contestant.

There was no other way; the previous modeling clay Ability user had severe full-body burns, and because it was phoenix flames that burned him, even with immediate treatment, the internal fire poison wouldn’t be cleared up anytime soon.

The new contestant was a weapon-type Ability user. His weapon was a particularly ordinary-looking cleaver, so ordinary that it hardly seemed like an Ability user’s power, but rather a normal tool.

Lei Ze’en, who had already investigated this ability, was beaming with a smile. “Don’t underestimate the cleaver in his hand. That’s the All-Severing Blade. It can cut through all things, including various abilities you release, like fireballs. As long as he can hit it, it won’t work.”

This ability was indeed powerful; it could probably even withstand some of Si Zhaohua’s ultimate moves.

But they also understood the reason for Lei Ze’en’s smile—their selection strategy had once again been a great success. Li Shu’s ability was Illusory Art, which wasn’t an ability that could be cut by a cleaver.

Since studying with that master at the end of last semester, Li Shu’s Illusory Art had become increasingly natural. When sparring with him, people could unknowingly fall into his illusions, only breaking free after losing the match.

In the entire S-class, only Jiang Tianming and Su Bei could easily see through his illusions. Jiang Tianming could see through them because he possessed an ability that granted immunity to all abilities, while Su Bei could see through them because Li Shu couldn’t perfectly simulate a Destiny Compass that had no issues. In fact, it was already impressive that he could simulate a Destiny Compass with his ability, as that object was completely outside his scope of knowledge, purely created by his ability based on Su Bei’s own memories. But the pointer couldn’t be adjusted, so no matter how similar the exterior was, Su Bei would still recognize it as an illusion.

The audience simply saw that after the match began, the opponent and Li Shu fought properly for a while. Not long after Li Shu was being suppressed, he suddenly retreated silently, leaving the opponent fighting only air.

Audience: “?”

Even throwing a match isn’t done like this, is it?

Soon, Zhao Xiaoyu’s commentary provided everyone with an explanation, and they then realized the opponent had fallen into Li Shu’s Illusory Art.

When casting Illusory Art, Li Shu couldn’t perform offensive actions. He had to fully concentrate on maintaining the illusion’s stable performance; otherwise, the scene his opponent saw might fluctuate, causing him to notice an anomaly and his efforts to be in vain.

Now it was up to Houde Ability Academy’s contestant to discover in time that he was in an illusion. If he could discover and break the illusion, Li Shu would undeniably lose. But if he couldn’t, he would probably be sent off the stage unknowingly.

Unfortunately, this opponent was unsuccessful. He fought for a while and then jumped off the stage himself.

It wasn’t until the referee announced the end of the match and Li Shu’s victory that the Illusory Art on him was dispelled. Discovering that he was now off the stage, the opponent was full of confusion and was led away by his companions.

Next were the final contestants from both sides. Li Shu remained for their side, while the enemy replaced theirs. The opponent might have thought that merely knowing they would fall into an illusion would give them a way to break free, but they clearly underestimated Li Shu’s strength. Li Shu pulled a