Fortunately, what we couldn"t provide with physical evidence, we compensated with Bai Ning Xue being an eyewitness. Being the student council president, Bai Ning Xue"s testimony was invaluable and considered credible. Of course, it irked me to see the double standards and clear unfairness at play here, but since it worked in my favor for now, I wasn"t going to complain.

After reporting the event to Teacher Jiao, who promised to lengthen Li Chun Long"s isolation training to a year, I returned to the dormitory to have a good sleep. Little did I know, it turned out that the Treegons were also after Zhu Jiao. While I was the priority, Li Chun Long had also directed his Treegons to a.s.sa.s.sinate Zhu Jiao right before the semifinal.

As it turned out, Bai Ning Xue had suspected that to be the case, which was why she was stalking us. I realized that I was being overly self-conscious all this while. Bai Ning Xue wasn"t looking at me and wondering why I chose to not use my Heaven and Earth Formula. She was primarily concerned with what sort of stunt Li Chun Long and the disgraced, ex-student council members would pull. And it turned out that her intuition was spot on.

I felt extremely embarra.s.sed when I learned about that, but fortunately I hadn"t voice out my delusional opinions, or I would be digging a hole to hide myself in right now. Ugh. Well, rather than tell, I might as well show.

"The Treegons were after Jiao as well," Bai Ning Xue told me. It was shortly after we cleaned up the Treegons and I had just sent a text message to Teacher Jiao. She was poking the ashes of the incinerated Treegon with the toe of her shoe.

"Huh?" I uttered, astonished. I was still engrossed in figuring out how I should kill Li Chun Long without getting caught. I mean, it all fell into place. The b.a.s.t.a.r.d obviously resented his defeat by me, and sought revenge. I was responsible for foiling his plans and causing him to get imprisoned for isolation training. Of course Li Chun Long wanted to a.s.sa.s.sinate me.

However, Bai Ning Xue was staring at me, mystified.

"Their primary target is Jiao. You were just second on their list."

"…eh?"

That was all I could make out. The possibility that the Treegons were targeting Zhu Jiao didn"t even cross my mind to begin with. As ashamed as I was to admit it, I was being awfully self-centered here, only thinking about myself.

d.a.m.n, I was ashamed of myself.

"But why…?"

"Are you seriously asking that, when you were the one who found out and exposed the ex-student council members" schemes?" Bai Ning Xue was staring at me with a frown. "Of course it"s because he wants to take out Jiao before our semifinal tomorrow."

"Oh…yeah. He still hasn"t given up on that yet?"

"I wouldn"t be surprised if Gu Chun Song was the one who requested him to do so. And Li Chun Long was only happy to agree. He always had a grudge against Jiao for some reason."

I almost rolled my eyes at that. Did Bai Ning Xue seriously not realize that Li Chun Long had a crush on her, and thus resented Zhu Jiao for hogging all of her affections? Suppressing the urge to tell her – for I didn"t have the right to do so – I merely nodded.

"I see."

"That"s why I was following Jiao. I had a feeling Chun Long or Chun Song would pull a stunt like this, and I wanted to be in position to stop it. I knew they would launch an attack!" Bai Ning Xue kicked the ashes viciously.

"Uh…okay." I wanted to bury my head in the sand. So Bai Ning Xue wasn"t staring at me or following us because of me. She had no interest in why I didn"t use Heaven and Earth Formula. d.a.m.n, but I was being overly self-conscious. I was so glad I didn"t voice that out to anyone, especially Bai Ning Xue herself.

I would have died from the embarra.s.sment. Well, I was dying now when I remembered my first question to her.

"What does the rich little misstress of the Bai Clan want with me?"

Nothing. The one she had business with was none other than the protagonist Zhu Jiao. I was just a side character, a minor irrelevance at best, an irritance at worst.

At least she seemed to have forgotten all about that. And she wasn"t rude enough to shut me down and focus completely on Zhu Jiao, even asking me about why I "held back." I didn"t hold back, I just didn"t want to murder people for no good reason, and reveal my trump card that easily. If the whole academy knew about my secrets, then I would be in trouble.

Heaven and Earth Formula wasn"t something I could afford to let people know about. Not after the Martial Arts Alliance murdered my master. I wasn"t stupid enough to announce to the whole world, especially one where the killers of my master held hegemonic rule, that I had learned the legendary Heaven and Earth Formula. The same demonic martial arts technique that my master and his sect were persecuted for.

Only an idiot would show it off in an official tournament that was being broadcasted around the continent.

"Well, I"ll go check on Zhu Jiao before I report to Teacher Jiao."

"I already checked on Jiao." Bai Ning Xue was staring up at a window before she glanced at her cellphone. I gulped. Did she bug his room or something? Wow, that was some dedication, going as far as to stalk her childhood sweetheart. I didn"t know whether I should be impressed or disturbed. "He"s all right. No point causing him to worry about this."

"…if you say so."

Not wanting to argue, I complied. With that, I went to report this case to Teacher Jiao, and the rest, as you know, was history.

As an addendum, Li Chun Long had his isolation training extended to ten months. Two months for attacking me after the match had ended, and another two months for the attempted a.s.sa.s.sination. It was far too little, in my personal opinion, anyway, but without any physical evidence it was tough to prolong his isolation training. Moreover, he failed. If he had succeeded and either Zhu Jiao or I died, the punishment would have been more severe. Apparently.

I had an inkling that the only reason why Li Chun Long wasn"t executed or sentenced to death (though he would most likely have been if he had succeeded in murdering either me or Zhu Jiao – according to the martial artists" way, a life must be repaid by a life), was because the Green Dragon Sect had intervened. Furthermore, there was no such thing as life sentences. In this timeline, no organization or nation-state would be merciful enough to keep you alive for a lifetime in prison. They would much prefer to either kill you off and save resources, or put you to work. Why should they feed someone who was doomed to rot inside prison for the rest of his life?

In contrast, isolation training was meant to force the guy to reflect on his actions, meditate, cultivate and grow stronger, so that he could once again contribute to society when he was released. Of course, if he was too dangerous, he would be executed instead of being imprisoned. However, as much as I held a grudge against Li Chun Long for all the things he had done, he technically wasn"t that evil to the point where he deserved to have his life terminated. Not from the point of view of the academy or the Green Dragon Sect, anyway.

From their perspective, if Li Chun Long emerged and killed me, then I was too weak. Of course, he would get punished, but only with a slap on the wrist and another few months of isolation training. As long as he didn"t go around ma.s.sacring large numbers of students and indulged in ****, he shouldn"t get executed. He would, however, increases the chances of a death sentence if he became a repeat offender and killed a few more, like Zhu Jiao for example.

The guy had to be very careful and toe the line, or even his sect wouldn"t be able to protect him in the future.

With that, Li Chun Long and the other student council members went into isolation training, with the exception of Qing Xin Xia, who would only go in after the tournament ended. Right now, even the group stages were all but done, with only a few matches left.

And one of those matches was the long-awaited semifinal between the cliché protagonist Zhu Jiao and the ice princess Bai Ning Xue.

*

"You okay, Jiao?"

I was patting him on the back as he nervously made his way to the coliseum.

"Yeah," he replied with a nod. However, he was visibly perspiring and I could even see a slight tremor pa.s.s through his body. "I"ll be okay. I"ll definitely win this!"

"You had better!" Tang Qi Hong said encouragingly, and winked. Lian Rou giggled and waved to spur him on as well.

"We believe in you!"

"Do your best," Tong Xue added as he gripped Zhu Jiao"s arm a.s.suringly. The protagonist-if-this-was-another-story laughed.

"Why the h.e.l.l are you all sending me off as if I"m going to war or something? Stop that, it"s creepy."

"Well, this will be the biggest match in your life," Ban Zhang pointed out. "You have so much at stake here it"s not even funny."

"Yeah. Make sure you don"t get dumped. Win the match, and win her heart."

Everyone stared at me.

"Dude…" Tong Xue moaned.

"Can"t you have a little more tact?" Tang Qi Hong snapped. I blinked, confused, as I glanced from one person to the next.

"What? What did I say?"

"It"s okay!" Zhu Jiao chuckled. "I needed that anyway. Thanks!"

He turned away and proceeded toward the preparation room, waving his hand.

"I"ll do my best, guys. You just watch!"

As he disappeared, the rest of us nodded and began to make our way up to the spectator box above. Unsurprisingly, there were already many people gathered in the spectator box, eagerly pressing against the window to watch the match of the year. The five of us had to squeeze through the crowd to find relatively good spots.

"Ah, Bai Ning Xue is already there!"

Tang Qi Hong"s eyes narrowed. As always, she had a vendetta against Bai Ning Xue. She constantly sought a way to one-up her self-proclaimed rival, even though the latter never took her seriously. To make matters worse, she almost always lost. And even the ones she won were insignificant non-battle matches that Bai Ning Xue couldn"t be bothered with (like fashion or something as relatively "unimportant" as that).

"You had better win, Jiao," Tang Qi Hong muttered under her breath. I smiled and patted her shoulder.

"Let"s believe in him."

Otherwise I would have to take revenge for him, but honestly, I didn"t know if I could defeat Bai Ning Xue. At least not as I was right now.

"Sorry to keep you waiting!"

Zhu Jiao burst into the arena, heaving for a moment before he straightened himself. He then smiled and raised his hands to a fighting stance.

"Sorry for being late."

"No, it"s all right. I"m used to it…I mean, you"re just on time."

A ghost of a smile flickered over Bai Ning Xue"s pretty face, and she quickly corrected herself. Unfortunately, her slip (I suspected she did that on purpose) had reached the ears of many students, and all those guys who were chasing her couldn"t help but perk up at that.

I thought back to Li Chun Long and Gu Chun Song, who were in isolation training. Even though they were barred from all kinds of media and contact from the outside world, the teachers would most likely send them videos of the tournament seminfinals and final as "resources" for them to watch and learn. So they would know about this even before they were released. It was a pity we wouldn"t be able to see their expressions, though.

It would be hilarious if they emerge from isolation training months later, only to find out that Zhu Jiao and Bai Ning Xue were officially a couple. That would be the ultimate sweet irony. And it would totally serve them right.

"Let"s begin," Bai Ning Xue said. Zhu Jiao nodded in agreement. Seeing no objection, Bai Ning Xue then turned her head up to the speaker. "Teacher Cai, we"re ready to begin the match."

"Sure." Teacher Cai"s voice boomed out of the speaker. "The both of you may begin whenever you"re ready."

The spectators collectively held their breaths as they waited.

"Hu…"

The surrounding atmosphere was so thick that you could cut the tension with a knife. The two contestants faced off against each other, and Bai Ning Xue stepped forward to introduce herself as part of the formal ceremony before a duel.

"I am Bai Ning Xue of the White Tiger Sect. My cla.s.s is 1-4 in the high school division. My specialties are the Living Lightning, Divine Thunder Tiger Formula and Heavenly Thunder Strike techniques. My approximate inner qi level is thirty years."

By now, everyone was already familiar with Bai Ning Xue. She didn"t need to introduce herself, but she did so as a matter of formality. Similarly, everyone knew who Zhu Jiao was, but he stepped forward as part of the ceremony before a duel.

"I"m Zhu Jiao, cla.s.s 1-4 in the high school division. I"m trying to revitalize the Golden Kirin Sect. My killer move is the Golden Kirin Sacred Beast technique…at least I"m doing my best to restore it under Wu Ling Academy"s guidance. My inner qi level is about three s.e.xagenaries."

Oh? This was a change. Well, it wasn"t, to be honest. Throughout the tournament, Zhu Jiao had been using a similar introduction. It appeared that his master had finally allowed him to reveal that he was the successor of the Golden Kirin Sect, with the caveat that he didn"t mention the ghostly existence of Qi Lin. Currently, Zhu Jiao was going with a fabricated story about how he was trying to restore the lost martial arts techniques of the Golden Kirin Sect, same as how I was trying to restore the lost techniques of the Heaven and Earth Sect.

The only difference was that I was not ready to reveal my Heaven and Earth Formula to the world. Qi Lin was killed over two hundred years ago, and the Golden Kirin Sect had been lost in time, consigned to history books. In contrast, Master was slain less than three years ago, and the Heaven and Earth Sect destroyed not much longer than that. The people in the Martial Arts Alliance who murdered my master were still alive and around. Therefore I couldn"t afford to be careless. Whereas the people who razed the Golden Kirin Sect had been dead for centuries, and n.o.body cared if Zhu Jiao claimed that it was an orthodox sect.

"All right, let"s begin!"

Teacher Cai"s voice rang across the arena, and in the next second, both Bai Ning Xue and Zhu Jiao disappeared.

"?!"

"Where did they go?!"

"Fast!"

The spectators gasped and marveled at their superhuman speed. As for me, I had to rely on my gla.s.ses to track their movements. I could barely follow them, but I caught sight of a silver blur and a golden blur before they clashed in the middle of the arena. Lightning exploded against golden, fiery qi that was st.u.r.dy and unyielding.

At some point, both Zhu Jiao and Bai Ning Xue had drawn their weapons. Zhu Jiao had donned his armored gauntlets whereas Bai Ning Xue had unsheathed her elegant sword. The couple were striking each other fiercely, Zhu Jiao"s armored fists deflected by Bai Ning Xue"s sleek blade before they could smash into her.

Clang!

Zhu Jiao and Bai Ning Xue exchanged several blows in the middle of the arena, the impact from their clash reverberating across the ground. Electricity and golden qi danced around, tangling, intertwining and conflicting ferociously, neither yielding a centimeter. As Bai Ning Xue slapped away one of Zhu Jiao"s gauntlets with her sword, she threw out her other hand and unleashed a lightning bolt right at his chest. Zhu Jiao blocked the lightning bolt with his other hand and then threw it out to fire off a golden blast of earth qi that would have impaled her if Bai Ning Xue didn"t flip her body about in midair and dodge it. Widening the distance between them, she landed a few paces away.

The both of them eyed each other warily. The opening clash had merely been a prelude, a strenuous warmup before the actual fight. They were both testing the waters, feeling out each other"s strength before deciding to commit.

Taking a deep breath, Bai Ning Xue lowered her sword before thrusting it forward. Zhu Jiao caught it with one of his gauntlets, but his opponent had expected it, twisting her body around to deliver a kick to his chest. Zhu Jiao parried her foot with his other hand, but her blow was strong enough to drive him backward.

Silver lightning crackled around her leg as Bai Ning Xue withdrew, raising it for emphasis.

"Hu…"

Zhu Jiao exhaled, realizing that there was electricity running around his arm. Without hesitation, he plunged it into the ground and discharged it, then straightened up. Golden qi flared up around him, forming what seemed like a protective sphere.

Bai Ning Xue frowned, but then she lunged forward. Silver lightning wreathed her body as she struck, almost disappearing iinto a blur. Zhu Jiao blocked her first sword strike, and then ducked under her kick. His counterattack almost caught Bai Ning Xue off guard, his free gauntlet zooming up and slamming into her. Bai Ning Xue was able to cross her arms and block the blow, but the sheer power behind Zhu Jiao"s attack sent her flying several meters back.

"Kuh!"

Flipping in midair, Bai Ning Xue deftly landed on her feet, but her momentum continued to carry her backward. She shook her arms to disguise the trembling, but it was clear that she felt the punch. She grimaced and shook her head.

"What a powerful blow…my arms have gone totally numb from that."

Unfortunately, Zhu Jiao wasn"t going to give her time to recover.

"!"

Bai Ning Xue was forced to jump away when Zhu Jiao barged in, smashing his fist into the ground where she was standing on and carving a crater into the reinforced concrete. Bai Ning Xue kicked out in reflex, hoping to land a counterattack, but Zhu Jiao merely knocked her leg away and rammed her with his other fist.

"Kuh!"

Fortunately, Bai Ning Xue managed to deflect his punch with her sword, but she was hurled across the arena again and crashed into the wall.

"Argh!"

A bit of blood dribbled from her mouth as she slid down the cracked wall, but she wiped it away calmly and coolly a.s.sessed her opponent.

"I see. He"s stronger than me, but I should have the edge in speed."

As she said that, silver lightning blasted out and danced around her, engulfing her in a shimmering aura that was almost too bright for the spectators to see directly. Fortunately for me, my gla.s.ses automatically darkened to protect my eyes.

"This is…Living Lightning?"

Tong Xue cried out in shock. I rolled my eyes at the cliché reaction.

"Dude, what are you so surprised about? It"s not as if this is the first time Bai Xue Ning has used Living Lightning in front of us."

"Oh…right."

Admittedly, her Living Lightning had improved by leaps and bounds since the last time she used it. The last opponent she used it against, Tang Qi Hong, was chewing her lip in frustration. No doubt she wouldn"t be pleased that her perpetual rival had surged ahead of her, even so soon after she was defeated less than two weeks ago.

"The distance between us has grown again," she muttered as she clenched her fists. I placed a comforting hand on her shoulder.

"There are things that you will always be better than her at, like Spirit Engraving and smithing weapons."

"…thank you."

Tang Qi Hong gritted her teeth, but she knew I meant well, so she didn"t snap at me. She tightened her grip around the railing and stared through the window.

Bai Ning Xue was launching a deadly combination of sword strikes and kicks from all directions, silver lightning trailing and wreathing her attacks. Zhu Jiao held strong, the golden sphere of yang qi around him st.u.r.dily enduring whatever his opponent threw at him. He almost couldn"t catch up, slowly raising his gauntlets to deflect whatever he could.

Which wasn"t a lot.

"Ugh!"

A bead of perspiration ran down his face. On the other hand, Bai Ning Xue"s impa.s.sive expression cracked a little when she realized that she had done little to penetrate that impervious barrier of her childhood sweetheart.

"He"s tough," she murmured to herself.

"…"

"!"

While Bai Ning Xue constantly rained down attacks on the almost unmoving Zhu Jiao, he suddenly lashed out with an armored gauntlet and nearly caught her by surprise. Bouncing away, she put as much distance between herself and Zhu Jiao as she could.

"Hu…"

Zhu Jiao exhaled as he kept his eyes on his beloved. He seemed to be thinking seriously, which was unusual for him.

"Ning Xue is too fast. I can"t keep up with her movements. I have no choice but to counter speed with stillness and look for a chance to counterattack. With the amount of power behind my strikes, I only need one clean hit and she"ll be down, or at least severely injured."

"What a dense aura of yang qi!"

Bai Ning Xue was also evaluating her opponent as she plotted her next move. Even though she did not show any frustration on her face, she was no doubt finding this a stiff challenge. Taking a deep breath, she rejuvenated the silver lightning around her.

"It"ll be difficult to break through his st.u.r.dy, unyielding defense. I"ll have to wear it down with multiple, repeated attacks and chip away at his defensive aura until I force it open." her brow creased slightly. "I don"t believe I can"t break through his defense."

The two of them stood off for a few more seconds, and then Bai Ning Xue vanished once again. A silver blur streaked across the arena before she materialized in front of Zhu Jiao, baiting him into defending against her kick. However, even as he parried her foot, Bai Ning Xue disappeared and then slashed at his back.

Clang!

Her blade bounced harmlessly off the golden defensive sphere of yang qi. As Zhu Jiao whirled around to counterattack, Bai Ning Xue quickly moved away and attacked from a different direction, this time thrusting her sword from his blind spot.

Clang!

Zhu Jiao"s impressive reflexes saved him and he batted her blade away with the bottom of his gauntlet. Not that he needed to. I doubted that Bai Ning Xue"s attack would have pierced through his defenses.

Still, it was a good habit not to let one"s guard down.

Bai Ning Xue zomed and streaked across the coliseum, raining down attacks on Zhu Jiao from multiple directions, seeking for a way to smash through his defense, but he was equal to her challenge. Despite remaining static, he defended against her attacks flawlessly, either with his impenetrable golden sphere or his reflexes.

"Isn"t his defense even stronger than that of Wu Hei Gui or Li Guo Qiang?"

Someone in the spectators voiced out in amazement. I wondered about that. Certainly, Bai Ning Xue had yet to break through Zhu Jiao"s defenses, but it wasn"t because Zhu Jiao"s golden sphere of yang qi was denser and st.u.r.dier than Wu Hei Gui"s Unbreakable Sh.e.l.l or Li Guo Qiang"s Iron Soul technique. Zhu Jiao hadn"t given her the chance to crack open his Golden Kirin Yang Sphere because he parried many of her attacks with his gauntlets.

Realizing that she was getting nowhere at this rate, Bai Ning Xue launched one final lightning-wreathed kick, which Zhu Jiao blocked, and then rapidly withdrew to a safe distance. She seemed a little out of breath, which was only natural. All this time she had been moving nonstop and expending a lot of lightning qi to maintain her movements and relentless a.s.sault. I was actually amazed that she could keep it up for so long.

"Seems like this strategy won"t work. I"ll need a stronger attack."

"Stronger attack?" Zhu Jiao tilted his head and frowned in disapproval. "Stop holding back, Ning Xue. If you still have any moves, bring them on. I"ll take on every one of them."

"Oh, I still have plenty of moves," Bai Ning Xue a.s.sured him, a smile flickering over her beautiful face. "I was just hoping to save them for later…but you"re right. This is no time for me to continue holding back."

Lightning crashed down onto her and the aura of a white tiger materialized behind and above her, roaring silently.

"Thunderous Tiger Crash."

"?!"

The lightning tiger slammed into Zhu Jiao, actually knocking him off his feet. Zhu Jiao writhed and flailed about, only for the tiger to bite him before exploding in a silver blast of electricity that filled the entire s.p.a.ce of the coliseum.

"Whoa!"

"Ugh!"

"I can"t see!"

Blinded, the spectators raised their hands to shield their eyes. Only I managed to continue watching, my lenses darkening again to protect my eyes. Even so, I couldn"t help but curse when I saw what happened to Zhu Jiao.

"Ugh…!"

Zhu Jiao was still grappling with the tiger, which actually managed to tear holes in his golden sphere. He obliterated it with a single punch of his gauntlet, fiery golden qi engulfing his armored fist and detonating against the lightning ent.i.ty.

"Thunderous Descent."

However, Bai Ning Xue wasn"t going to wait for her opponent to counterattack. The moment Zhu Jiao vanquished her lightning tiger, she immediately launcher her next attack. A tremendous lightning bolt crashed from above and slammed into Zhu Jiao before exploding.

"AAAAAAAAAAAH!"

Zhu Jiao was hurled across the arena, his body smoldering. Blood dripping from his mouth, he crouched on all fours and coughed as his body went into spasms. Desperately pressing his hands against the ground, he quickly discharged the lightning.

"As expected from an earth element martial artist. You"re able to discharge the electricity from your body quickly."

Bai Ning Xue kicked Zhu Jiao before he could get up, the silver lighthing on her leg detonating as she made physical contact. Zhu Jiao was flung across the arena before he slammed into the ground, sliding a few meters away.

"Jiao!" Tang Qi Hong cried out, pressing her hands against the window.

"No way!" Lian Rou gasped.

"Can no one defeat that ice princess?" Tong Xue demanded, his face ashen. "She"s just too powerful."

Bai Ning Xue studied Zhu Jiao"s unmoving body for a moment before she turned to glance up at the speaker expectantly.

However, Teacher Cai didn"t say anything. Frowning, Bai Ning Xue opened her mouth to speak, but she froze when she heard a sc.r.a.ping sound behind her.

"Not yet…"

Zhu Jiao was forcing himself back to his feet, his body smoking. He was grinning fiercely despite his injuries and the blood dripping from his mouth.

"I"m not down yet, Ning Xue."

"I see." Bai Ning Xue regarded him coolly. "I"ve to say, I"m impressed by how tenacious you are. But even so, you should know the difference between our strengths."

"Really?" Zhu Jiao wiped the blood from his mouth. His golden qi flared up and coalesced around him, taking the form of a golden Kirin.

In that instance, everyone froze as they received the full force of the golden Kirin"s intimidating presence. It was almost as if we were plunged into an ocean all of a sudden, suffocating and drowning in its immense power.

"I apologize," Zhu Jiao said, his grin expanding wider. "I shouldn"t have held back against you either."