"What are you talking about?" Tong Xue asked, confused.

"…nothing."

We were in the cla.s.sroom the next day, for academic reasons. Even though we were getting ready to partic.i.p.ate in a mission, we still had to attend cla.s.ses and get enough credits to graduate. Just like what Zi Shou De told me.

Oh well.

"Hey! Big news!" someone from outside our cla.s.sroom shouted. "There"s someone who just appeared in front of our school! Looks like a big shot!"

"Oh!" Tong Xue was immediately up on his feet while consulting his smartphone for the latest news. "Interesting! I"m going to check it out!" he glanced at me, but I was still sprawled across my desk, reluctant to get up. "You coming?"

"No," I replied flatly. I couldn"t care less even if the Emperor himself had arrived on foot. I was tired from staying up last night to study and craft another Sunburst bomb.

Tong Xue raised an eyebrow, looking a little disappointed, but he moved before my lethargy could infect him. "All right, I"ll be going then."

"See you."

I promptly placed my head on my desk and dozed off.

Unfortunately, I didn"t even get to sleep much before a deafening noise woke me up. The corridors of Wu Ling Academy were erupting with yells and shouts, which burst into my dreams and hurled me into full wakefulness. Good thing it did too – even though I couldn"t remember much, I was under the impression that I was having some sort of nightmare.

"Ugh…"

Rubbing my stiff neck, I propped myself up on my desk and looked around. The cla.s.sroom was mostly deserted. Apparently most people had rushed off to look at the big shot, and that same big shot seemed to have cause quite the furor, judging from the noise outside. I honestly didn"t see what the big deal was, but if people enjoyed making a fuss, then let them.

Or at least that was what I thought, until Tong Xue rushed into the cla.s.sroom.

"Fei Wu!" he bellowed.

"What is it?" I asked, rubbing my ears in annoyance. Was there a need to holler my name? At least he wasn"t "lightly shouting" like all those idiots in Spirit Realm.

"Do you know a person called Song Ting Yu?"

The name sounded familiar, but too vague. I tried to search my memory, but at that time for the life of me I couldn"t recall where I had heard it before.

"Um…I don"t think so. Why?"

"Then why is she looking for you?!"

"Who is she?"

"Song Ting Yu!"

I sighed heavily and pressed my palm to my face in irritation. "That"s not what I mean. Who is Song Ting Yu? And why is she looking for me?"

"That"s what I want to know!" Tong Xue snapped, planting his hands on my desk and jolting me back. "Oh, and Song Ting Yu is the daughter of the Martial Arts Alliance chief Song Yu. She"s a very high status lady…sort of an ojou-sama, but she"s also talented and extremely powerful. I think she might even be above Bai Ning Xue!"

"Okay…?" that really didn"t tell me anything other than what I already knew – that she was a big shot. Then suddenly it struck me. Something about the Martial Arts Alliance. Elder Zhao called me last night, saying that they wanted to buy my Sunburst bombs. If I recalled correctly, Song Ting Yu was the negotiator the Martial Arts Alliance sent.

Tong Xue must have seen the realization dawn on my face, for he scowled.

"You do know who she is, after all!"
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"I just remembered. She"s the person the Martial Arts Alliance sent to buy my Sunburst bombs." I folded my arms and scoffed. "I"m not selling them."

Tong Xue watched me, puzzled, then suddenly understood. He struck a fist into his palm and noded.

"Oh! So that"s why…!" He then tilted his head. "You haven"t met her before, I presume?"

I shook my head. "Nope."

Tong Xue merely nodded, as if comprehending something. I stared at him, my gaze turning glacial when he didn"t seem like he was going to explain. In any case, he wasn"t given any chance to explain. Lian Rou entered the cla.s.sroom and he went off to talk to her.

Lian Rou was also glancing in my direction, but she didn"t say anything. I didn"t like the stare that she was giving me.

Before I could ask her or Tong Xue what the h.e.l.l was going on, Zhu Jiao strolled into the cla.s.sroom. Unlike all the other cla.s.smates and schoolmates, he didn"t seem excited. He wave at me before taking his seat.

"It"s quite noisy today," he remarked casually. "Did something happen?"

"Apparently someone called Song Ting Yu arrived," I informed him dryly.

Zhu Jiao merely knitted his eyebrows in bewilderment, the name obviously not registering with him, and then shrugged nonchalantly. As expected of the real protagonist. He was unaffected by all these random characters and big shots showing up out of nowhere. Then again, so was I, but that was because I was ignorant of their ident.i.ty.

Zhu Jiao, on the other hand, truly couldn"t give a f.u.c.k even if he knew.

"Do you now who Song Ting Yu is?" I asked. Zhu Jiao shook his head.

"Never heard of her."

…right. Of course he wouldn"t. And he didn"t seem interested either. As for me, I had no choice but to take an interest, not only because she was looking for me, but because she clearly wanted to get her hands on the Sunburst bombs.

I thought for a while, and then proceeded toward the windows of the cla.s.sroom. Zhu Jiao noticed my strange movements and raised his head, confused.

"Where are you going? Cla.s.s is about to start."

"Out of here," I told him, and then jumped out of the window.

Not a moment too soon. Shortly after I made my hasty exit, the commotion intensified as students broke before a single beautiful girl like the Red Sea before Moses, and she sashayed into the cla.s.sroom where I had been a few minutes ago.

"Is Fei Wu here?" she asked, her voice gentle and charming. All the guys except Zhu Jiao seemed to freeze up and stare at her, their mouths wide open. Even the girls couldn"t help but be charmed by her, Lian Rou nodding hypnotically.

"He was here," Zhu Jiao replied in an offhanded manner, completely immune to her charm because he had to function as the stoic protagonist who played hard-to-get, and all the random heroines fell for him instead of the other way around. He then looked around, and then shrugged. "But he left a few minutes ago."

"Oh?" Song Ting Yu seemed impressed that Zhu Jiao was resistant to her charm, but she couldn"t afford to waste her time on him. She just made a mental note and focused on the issue for now. "Do you happen to know where he went?"

"No idea." Zhu Jiao shrugged. "He didn"t tell me."

At least my friend was smart enough to not tattle on me and inform her that I had exited through the window. He had put two and two together and realized that I was most probably avoiding this girl, though for the life of him he couldn"t imagine why. He did recognize that she was extremely beautiful, but he was surrounded by beautiful girls such as Bai Ning Xue, his little sister, Qing Xin Xia, and even Yan Qing Wu (who would probably make an appearance soon), so an additional beauty to his harem was nothing to him.

No doubt he secretly believed that even though this beautiful girl was searching for me now, she would inevitably fall for him, approach him while he played hard-to-get, and try all matters of seducing him before she eventually became an official member of his harem. So for now he decided to play the long game, feigning patience and "help" me out. In fact, if he helped me avoid this beautiful girl, then the chances of her joining his harem would be much higher.

And even though he was resistant to Song Ting Yu"s charms, even a heteros.e.xual male like Zhu Jiao could appreciate her beauty, her gorgeous figure and ample a.s.sets and terrifying charm. All the more he wanted her as part of his harem, but obviously he knew that making a move on her now would destroy his chances of obtaining her. So he decided to adopt the appearance of a man unmoved, which would certainly pique her interest while not announcing to her that he had been attracted to her. The guy was crafty.

However, as I said, Song Ting Yu didn"t have the time to play his hard-to-get game, so she nodded gratefully.

"I"ll continue looking for him then," she said, and stepped out of the cla.s.sroom, much to Zhu Jiao"s disappointment.

Oh well, he thought to himself, and then grinned darkly. She"ll eventually be mine anyway, so I can afford to wait.

"Has anyone seen Fei Wu?" Song Ting Yu asked the mesmerized students in the corridor, trying to mask her impatience. She smiled sweetly at them, causing both guys and girls to swoon under her radiant beauty. "I would appreciate it very much if you could help me."

"He was in the cla.s.sroom earlier…I didn"t see him leave, though." one of my cla.s.smates betrayed me.

"Hmm? If he wasn"t seen leaving…" Song Ting Yu glanced back inside the cla.s.sroom, and her sharp mind suddenly clicked when she caught sight of the windows. "I see. There are more than two exits to the cla.s.sroom."

Each cla.s.sroom had two doors, hence we usually perceived them a.s.s having two exits.

I had managed to cover some distance over the courtyard, trying to sneak through the trees and stuff. Unfortunately, while I had learned Shadow Steps, I wasn"t a disciple of the Smart Shadow Sect or Divine Shadow Sect, so stealth wasn"t my kind of thing. I was more of the gla.s.s cannon who dished out terrifying amounts of firepower than an a.s.sa.s.sin sneaking around in the shadows.

Thanks to that failing of mine, I was inevitably discovered after less than thirty minutes of skulking around the academy"s garden despite my best attempts to stay hidden.

"Are you not willing to meet me, Mister Fei Wu?"

A pleasant and seductive voice resonated across the garden. My military instincts kicked in, and I dove into cover, rolled to my knees and crouched behind a tree while my hand went for my Azure Lotus Sword and Shadow Fox stored inside Snow Aegis.

A beautiful young woman my age strode in the middle of the garden, dressed in a fashionable pink dress with a short skirt, and her hair was adorned with that ridiculous giant lotus flower hairpin that would only look good on an anime character.

She was surrounded by a bunch of my schoolmates, who apparently couldn"t resist her charms and followed her like an entourage. I could see bodyguards in suits and sungla.s.ses following her closely too, mixed inside the crowd of Wu Ling Academy students. Probably bodyguards a.s.signed to her by the Martial Arts Alliance.

The girl rested her heart-melting gaze on me, a gaze that could soften the heart of any guy and invoke some strong sense of protectiveness in them to the extent that they would sacrifice anything for this girl.

Unfortunately for her, all I felt was a sense of dread. Admittedly, I found her extremely attractive and beautiful. In the end, I was a straight guy after all. Unless I swung the other way, it was impossible for me not to find her highly appealing.

However, there was a sharp pain in my heart. The wounds from Tang Qi Hong"s death were still raw and fresh, and I couldn"t in my conscience cavort with another girl. Not this soon, and especially not just after the death of the girl I liked.

So while I acknowledged the girl"s beauty, I was able to somehow maintain a grip on rationality. As I did so, I sensed the terrifying amount of qi emanating from her, and the complex spiritual patterns that formed her technique. That was what caused me to feel dread – being confronted by such a high-level technique and horrifying amount of qi!

Focusing my eyes on the flawless beauty, I timidly hazarded a guess.

"Are you…Song Ting Yu?"

"Indeed I am. I"m curious as to why you"re avoiding me."

Song Ting Yu smiled sweetly as she locked her eyes with mine. When I met her gaze, I suddenly felt a wrench in my heart. Deep inside me, desire swirled and I almost fell into the trap of becoming willing to submit to any of her demands. I resisted the vague urge of wanting to throw myself before her feet and bow to her, while promising her my life and whatnot.

"This is…"

But they were just weak, vague urges that were easily repelled. Inside my pocket, my Snow Aegis glowed faintly, reinforcing my spiritual defenses with its power.

Evidently Zi Shou De had been telling the truth when he told me that he had upgraded my Snow Aegis. I was grateful to him for this, or I might have been rendered vulnerable to Song Ting Yu"s terrifying charm.

However, it wasn"t as if just having Snow Aegis would protect me. As I said before, a Treasure Spirit Weapon in the hands of an amateur was useless. The Spirit Weapon was only as powerful as the wielder. If I hadn"t trained myself to have a powerful enough spiritual and mental defense, Snow Aegis would have nothing to reinforce, and would thus remain a dull, almost inert Spiritual Equipment. It was because I had already developed my own defenses beforehand that I was able to use Snow Aegis to bolster me, rather than just completely rely on it. Simply put, Snow Aegis could only enhance what was already present in the wielder, and not just completely erect a spiritual and mental defense from scratch.

And speaking of my spiritual and mental defense…

Frost qi began pouring out of my heart as I strengthened my spiritual barrier, which was just as well as it shared the elemental affinity with Snow Aegis. Thanks to that, I could extinguish the flames of desire by freezing them. Taking a deep breath, I allowed the mind-freezing spiritual aura to shroud my soul and dissipate the blazing pa.s.sion that gripped my chest and loins.

Breaking out of my opponent"s technique, I fixed her with an icy stare that was imbued with warning.

Through my gla.s.ses, I noted once again the hypnotic and spirituall intoxicating qi and aura that was being emanated from her gleaming eyes and perfectly curved figure. I coolly a.n.a.lyzed the spiritual patterns that her technique was generating, which almost resembled ripples on the surface of a lovely lake, and saw a similarity between them and magnetic fields that drew men"s hearts and attention toward her like metal.

Hmm, I"ve never heard of such a technique before. It must be a mind technique.

Such techniques weren"t unheard of. Illusion techniques, charm and seduction techniques, telepathy, intimidation techniques – all of these fell into the category of mind techniques. But Song Ting Yu was incredibly formidable even among the masters of these mind techniques, having polished her art to perfection.

Not only was this lady from the Martial Arts Alliance exceedingly beautiful, she was also skillful at employing her innate charm and figure to her advantage. And even beyond that, she had cultivated a technique that would further enhance her charm.

This spiritual technique allowed her to charm, which was already normally irresistible to males, to be amplified several times!

Worse, the girl had developed her technique to the extent where she could fill the entire s.p.a.ce with those magnetic field-like spiritual aura and cause almost all the men within its range to fall to the allure of her breathtaking charm, to the point where they would willingly offer their souls up to her on a platter.

Fortunately, I had my Snow Aegis to help bolster the already formidable spiritual defenses that Heaven and Earth Formula offered me. Moreover, the combination of Snow Aegis and Heaven and Earth Formula had allowed me to resist the terrifying intimidation and hypnotism – well, mind control – of Tian Yu Di. Honestly, Song Ting Yu was far from the strongest opponent I had ever faced. I had confronted far more terrifying enemies, and survived.

h.e.l.l, Tian Yu Di ended up becoming my subordinate, though that was more because I just happened to have the Golden Dragon Medallion that proved my inheritance of the role of Sect Leader of Heaven and Earth Sect than because of any true strength.

"Well…does this look like I"m avoiding you?" I shrugged and forced a smile. "You"ve got your meeting. What do you want?"

In order to prove my point and dominate the discussion, I allowed my frosty qi to expand. The garden suddenly froze over, almost as if winter had arrived early. The trees seemed to be encased in ice, and the gra.s.s was blanketed by a frozen layer. All the students who had tagged along to watch the show involuntarily shivered from the extraordinary cold. Their hair began coated in white snow, much like the leaves of the trees around them.

If Song Ting Yu was confused by my apparent immunity to her charms, she didn"t show it. Instead, she maintained that ethereal smile of hers. She alone was unaffected by the ice, the snow refusing to touch her body, with her spiritual aura keeping the frosty qi at bay.

"You"re unwilling to see me, so I had no choice but to chase after you. Why are you so cold toward me, Mr. Fei Wu? I"ve taveled quite some distance in order to meet you. All I ask is for a bit of your time, to have a conversation. Don"t you think it"s reasonable and polite to at least listen to me for a bit?"

Song Ting Yu was displaying a dazzling smile, even as her eyes glowed with indignation and cute self-centeredness. Anyone watching this would believe that she was a young lady deeply in love who was neglected and asking her distant lover to give her just a bit of his time. They would be on her side out of righteous anger, if they weren"t frozen by my ice.

I scoffed at that. "Anyone knows what it means to have a face-to-face conversation with you." I narrowed my eyes. "And if you want to talk about manners, don"t you think it"s only polite and sincere to converse without casting your mind techniques on the other party and charming them?"

"…eh?"

For the first time, Song Ting Yu looked a little unsure of herself.

Thanks to that, amidst the audience, Tong Xue suddenly shuddered and woke up. He wrapped his arms around himself, shivering from the cold, and then realized what was going on after a few seconds of a.s.sessing the situation.

"That"s one h.e.l.l of a technique!" he exclaimed. He then suddenly recalled what happened when Song Ting Yu arrived in the sect yesterday, and when she first showed up in Wu Ling Academy, and he frowned.

His shoulders sagged when he realized that he had actually lost himself temporarily when looking into Song Ting Yu"s eyes, despite his love for Lian Rou. If it wasn"t for me unleashing my own ice technique and freezing the surroudnings, he wouldn"t have snapped out of the hypnotic charm. He would still be trapped by her illusion.

"What a terrifying girl!" he gasped. "Her charm technique is several times stronger than before!" shutting his eyes, he realized that Song Ting Yu did not use this technique when strolling across the school earlier, or when she arrived at the sect yesterday. She didn"t take the students here seriously at all, and probably recognized that the Zi couple, who were on a totally different level, wouldn"t take too kindly to her hypnotizing their sect members.

Tong Xue gritted his teeth and pushed down the fear that had wormed into his heart during the onslaught of the cold.

"Time to get out of here," he muttered, and then he spotted Lian Rou among the students who were huddling together behind Song Ting Yu. He immediately went for her and shook her. "Lian Rou? Let"s go."

Lian Rou didn"t reply. She was still staring blankly at Song Ting Yu, just like the sizable number of girls who had followed along. Guy or girl, they were all trapped inside the illusion, unable too break free. Tong Xue only got out because he had been trained in Smart Shadow Sect and had developed a slight resistance to mind techniques.

"d.a.m.n it!" Tong Xue cursed. "That Song Ting Yu"s charm and techniques work on both men and women?!"

His shock grew, and he acknowledged just how terrifying the only daughter of the Martial Arts Alliance chief Song Yu was.

A charm that could entice both men and women, and a technique that could hypnotize anybody to submit willingly to her. With her working for the Martial Arts Alliance, just how many people throughout the Great Zhou Empire would be able to resist her advances and remain stalwart in the face of her devastating beauty?

Tong Xue glanced at me, and I met his gaze with a shrug. He breathed a sense of relief when he saw that I was still myself. Only because I had Snow Aegis, or I would practically be destroyed, to be honest. Hey, that didn"t count as a Deus ex Machina. I forged Snow Aegis with my very own hands! And even got help to perfect it! It wasn"t as if I was pulling Snow Aegis from my a.s.s and pretending that I could resist such techniques out of nowhere!

You haven"t forgotten how I used Snow Aegis to resist Tian Yu Di during the arc with the Spirit Engraved Pillars, have you?

Tong Xue then nodded when he caught my gaze, and then proceeded to Lian Rou. He shook her slightly.

"Lian Rou! Wake up!"

Lian Rou blinked, slightly aroused from the trance and turned to stare at Tong Xue in bewilderment.

"Follow me."

"…eh? Huh?"

The emptiness in her eyes faded somewhat, and she shuddered as she glanced fearfully at Song Ting Yu. She realized what had just happened.

According to Lian Rou, when we listened to her later, she had fallen into an illusion where she believed that Song Ting Yu was an Empress who ruled over a kingdom of women, and she had the great honor of serving as one of her guards. She had sworn to defend Song Ting Yu with her life, and listen to her every orders.

All the other girls in there also said the same thing. Every single of them described how the illusion was so real that even though they woke up later, they still felt some doubt as to which of their worlds were real and which was fake.

"I"m sorry." Tong Xue knew the most effective way of breaking out of an illusion, and after apologizing, he drew his hand back and slapped Lian Rou.

"Ouch! Hey!" Lian Rou complained angrily, and then she started, looking confused "Eh? Where was I…? Huh?"

"Let"s just get out of here." Tong Xue grabbed her hand and began pulling her away.

"What about the others?" Lian Rou asked, glancing at the crowd of mesmerized students all around them.

Tong Xue looked at her sadly. "I can"t save all of them. I"m sorry." He turned toward Song Ting Yu"s direction. "She"ll eventually release all of them once she"s done with whatever she came to do. I can only hope Fei Wu will be able to resist her until the end."

"That girl is a demon!" Lian Rou shuddered, wrapping her hands around herself. "I don"t think I"ve ever encountered such a terrifying enemy before. Her technique actually caused me to completely lose my mind and ident.i.ty, and become trapped in such a convincing illusion that locked away all my memories! Just who the h.e.l.l is she?"

"The top echelons of the Martial Arts Alliance," Tong Xue replied quietly.

"What about Fei Wu? Will he be able to stand against her?" Lian Rou asked.

Tong Xue shrugged. "If he can"t, Zhu Jiao will save him."

Yeah, because that b.a.s.t.a.r.d Zhu Jiao was the protagonist, and he can"t allow a potential harem member to fall for a side character…

When that thought crossed my mind, I buried my face in my palm, and thanks to that I ended up momentarily being consumed by an illusion.