qizi / 57
Ever since he discovered Ling Xiao’s unspeakable “secret”, Ying Feng’s very few hobbies grew by one more. Before he gets to show off his hobby though, he has to face fierce resistance from Ling Xiao each time.
Sadly, Ling Xiao is no match for Ying Feng in all aspects. Once his defense line is broken, his limited resistance drops to nearly nothing, and his original strategy of latching onto Ying Feng’s arm and pushing it away changes into a firm and secure grip instead.
To be pet by one’s own Qizhu is an extremely comfortable thing, it’s like bursts of electric shock all over the body. In less than several strokes, Ling Xiao rolled into Ying Feng’s arms, spinelessly humming.
Ying Feng finished enjoying the smooth and slippery feeling on his hand. He felt a sense of accomplishment—this man who was always so headstrong dropped his sharp edges to rub against his body. He put his hand away and said, “Stop wasting time, today is Yutian’s entrance exams.”
With his pleasure abruptly cut off, Ling Xiao sat up from bed with an indignant expression: Who exactly is it that’s wasting time? My butt is still sticking out!
It turns out that they totally could’ve wasted a bit more time. When they got to Yutian by driving Li Fei Sha at the highest speed, the school vehicles of several institutions had not arrived yet. After waiting ten or so minutes, the exam candidates all trickled in together.
That Shiji pair really did show up in the same exam room too. As soon as Hong Mao saw Ling Xiao, he excitedly called out, “Whoa, so you really can stand up? Hey, did you see that Li Fei Sha parked outside the school gate when you got here? It’s so cool!”
Ling Xiao, “…”
The exams on the first day were all written exams. The first course was social sciences, then it was a combination of biology and chemistry, followed up by a combination of astronomy and geography in the afternoon, and finally, history.
Ling Xiao was in frenzied studying mode during this period of time, so most of the subjects were not a problem for him. After the exam paper for social sciences were passed out, Ling Xiao’s number one habit was to read the last essay question: ——Times have progressed, science and technology have improved, is it still necessary to preserve the effect of the Seventh Bill? Please clearly state your point of view and provide a detailed explanation.
In recent years however, this bill has been a subject of controversy. There was a group of scientists who believed that after several thousand years of progress, civilizations on many planets have been able to take science and technology to the next level because of the emergence of intelligent AI, yet Tianxiu was still shackled by the restrictions of this premature ancient law, and they felt that to lag so far behind in this field was a sign of complacency.
If this were before, as a hot-blooded youth with a strong propensity for accepting new things, Ling Xiao would also stand on the side of repealing this bill, but ever since his outlook in life was completely overturned at a certain underground site, he finally understood the true meaning behind the Seventh Bill.
It isn’t that we lag behind others, it’s that we are far ahead. It isn’t that we are not allowed to make intelligent AI, it’s actually because we are intrinsically androids ourselves.
He was facing this prompt in silence without anything to add when Ying Feng’s voice suddenly rang out in his mind, causing him to jump out of his skin.
——Don’t make things up.
Ying Feng was sitting in a back corner diagonally behind him. He was 80% sure that Ying Feng had also seen the last question. He was probably worried he would indiscriminately write whatever he wanted, so he specifically came to warn him. But Ling Xiao certainly couldn’t look back, and he didn’t have the ability to reply back with spiritual communication either. He could only grab a piece of scrap paper and write a very large “I GOT IT” on it, followed by a number of flamboyant exclamation marks, in hopes that Ying Feng would see it.
Only then did Ying Feng withdraw his spiritual vision and start focusing on answering the questions.
The exam schedule was jam-packed, and very quickly, it was time to take the last one. The history questions were not difficult for Ying Feng at all. He finished the exam early and then lowered his head, pretending to ponder. With spiritual vision, he switched his viewpoint to the space above Ling Xiao’s head.
He first checked out the two proctors at the site. There wasn’t any change to their expressions, but the surveillance device placed at the corner diagonally above rotated slightly, stopping right at Ling Xiao’s seat. Ying Feng’s heart tensed up.
But after a brief moment, the surveillance device resumed its regular rotations again. It seemed that the anomaly just now was merely a coincidence.
Ying Feng eased up and rapidly skimmed through Ling Xiao’s exam paper. He discovered that after more than half a month of onslaught studying, this guy actually managed to answer more than 60 points. Even if he didn’t help him, he could pass by himself.
Ling Xiao was in the middle of racking his brains over a question he memorized but couldn’t recall when he heard Ying Feng say in his ear:
——Dumbass. Problem 14 is so easy and you still got it wrong.
Not this again! He angrily snatched the same piece of scrap paper over. Under the big “I GOT IT”, he wrote:
——Can’t you save your spiritual power to say something more useful!
Ying Feng stopped talking nonsense and helped him correct a few mistakes. Then he patched up the problems Ling Xiao didn’t get and went over the whole paper again. After confirming there were none, he tracelessly withdrew his consciousness.
After going through this period of practice, he felt that he even had a concrete visual of his own spiritual power. He was gradually able to detect his power’s boundaries, so an incident like last time where he was cut off mid-sentence shouldn’t happen again. After he finished advising Ling Xiao on his exam paper, he still had some power remaining. As time passes, his depleted spiritual power will also automatically recover.
“Can I get a full score? I have never gotten a full score on history before!”
After he turned in his exam, Ling Xiao impatiently rushed over to ask.
Ying Feng didn’t want him to get too smug, so he just said, “We’ll see.”
Ling Xiao started to draw up the corners of his lips for a grin, then drew them back down again, asking, “There’s no way there’s something even you don’t know the answer to, right?”
“Who knows,” Ying Feng turned around and briskly walked away.
“Hey! Where’s your sense of responsibility!” Ling Xiao hurried to keep up with him.
The two proctors who were still in the classroom exchanged a knowing look.
“There’s finally a pair this year who used spiritual communication to cheat.”
“Yeah, it’s already been two years since the last one. I really kind of miss it.”
“If this was another department’s exam room, they would have long been disqualified.”
“But who made us the Joint Combat Department?” He specifically put a heavy emphasis on the word, “Joint”.
On the second day, the actual combat exam finally arrived. After the examiner announced that there were a total of three tests, the first one was unexpectedly on single-person combat abilities.
The so-called “exam room” was an enclosed virtual space. There was nothing in this space at first. It will then follow the student’s selected terrain to simulate the corresponding surroundings. The generated opponent will also be a realistic creature appropriate for the environment.
Due to the large volume of exam takers, there were a total of five virtual spaces like this. While Ying Feng was still carefully weighing the pros and cons of each terrain, Ling Xiao—with sharp eyes and quick hands—pressed down on the jungle option. Ying Feng couldn’t block him even if he wanted to.
“You…”
“What’s wrong? Is this one no good?” Ling Xiao didn’t think too hard about this terrain at all, he just thought he liked it so he picked it.
The jungle was probably a terrain that many people did not want to face. There were many obstacles in the way and it caused a narrow field of vision. Furthermore, most of the opponents in the jungle were highly agile, experts at mobile combat, so it was tough for people to take the upperhand.
Once a terrain has been selected, it can’t be changed, so Ying Feng could only accept this reality. Soon, everyone’s selection decisions were out, and a significant portion of the candidates picked the desert, which provided a wide field of vision and had almost zero obstacles. The Bingcan duo chose the icefield. But the jungle still wasn’t the least picked. A pair of candidates selected the swamp, and it seemed like this was the most unpopular landscape.
The majority of the candidates were not adults for very long, so they had yet to reach the phase of full development. This phase was actually very awkward. If the opponent was a level lower, they would have no difficulty challenging it at all, but if the opponent was a level higher, the difficulty soared exponentially and it became hard to prevail.
In light of this consideration, the opponents for a Qizhu and Qizi are set at SS-level and S-level respectively, but it was not at all required to completely defeat the opponent. As long as they can ensure their own survival for 15 minutes, then it’s considered a passing score.
Ling Xiao drew a lot that was rather close to the front of the line, so it was soon his turn to go on stage. Some eagle-eyed few recognized him.
“Isn’t he that student who came to visit in a wheelchair on Open House day?”
“And isn’t he also that target who the creature identified as the weakest link in the whole crowd and nearly knocked over?”
“Yeah, can he even sign up for the test?”
Ling Xiao naturally didn’t hear anything since he had already entered the exam room, but Ying Feng, who was outside, heard it all very clearly. Bingcan also heard it and held back a smile to comfort Ying Feng, “Don’t mind them. But I also look forward to seeing how Ling Xiao will surprise us.”
Ying Feng was the only one who was fully aware of Ling Xiao’s true strength, so he didn’t need comfort at all. Among the pairs who just finished the test, the Qizi of each one held on for 15 minutes. There hasn’t been one who completely defeated the opponent yet, and there was even one who had lost. After watching their performances, Ying Feng had full confidence in Ling Xiao.
Not to mention that the terrain of the competition was also a jungle which Ling Xiao excels at. It was practically like releasing a monkey back to the mountains.
Sure enough, as soon as the test started, Ling Xiao refreshed the audience’s memory. Everyone was surprised to see that this man who couldn’t even stand up was now flying through the jungle, leaping quickly from branch to branch. The primate beast behind him couldn’t even catch one corner of his clothes at all, making people reconsider whose home ground this really was.
The primate’s strength, defense, and HP were below average stats among creatures of the same level, but its agility was the best among all creatures. It also had two extremely formidable skills.
The audience exploded with cries of alarm. Right at this moment, Ling Xiao abruptly dropped to a diagonal angle. Onlookers tried to look for any advantages he might have, but couldn’t find even one. They watched as he fell for more than a meter, easily avoiding the attack. But it wasn’t over yet. Still in a falling posture, Ling Xiao suddenly flew up again. A thing in his hand loosened, and a vine swung into the air—so it was a vine that Ling Xiao relied on to control his own flight elevation.
Flying in midair, Ling Xiao sent the primate crashing into the tree with one unceremonious kick, then rushed over to add on a series of attacks. His combat intuition was clear and accurate, because to deal with a highly nimble creature, it was necessary to smoke out a blind spot, then spare no effort to strike.
Before he knocked the primate out, it desperately tried to use teleport once more. Everyone clearly saw Ling Xiao throw a fist out into the air. The punch missed, and the primate teleported to the spot right behind him. Just when everyone thought that he definitely couldn’t dodge this one, Ling Xiao gave the audience a huge surprise once again.
Without any external momentum whatsoever, he all of a sudden did a backflip, then both feet, one after the other, squarely bashed the top of the opponent’s head. The abnormal amount of time he can stay suspended in the air and his reaction time while midair made people suspect he had wings behind his back.
Kicked sprawling to the ground, the primate’s HP line fell below 10%. It activated berserk mode and also released its second daunting skill一Significantly Enhanced Agility. As long as the primate can reach its enemy, it will cause an enormous amount of damage. No opponent would dare to engage head-on with it, and unless they had a ranged attack ability, the only other option was to flee.
In the following time, Ling Xiao staged a peerlessly brilliant chase in front of everyone. Usually, the main attraction of this sort of show was how the protagonist chases, but today’s main attraction was how the protagonist escapes. The primate nearly injured Ling Xiao many times, but Ling Xiao used outrageous angles to evade it each time. While midair, he used all kinds of sharp turns, abrupt stops, and mad dashes, dazzling anyone who saw. Maybe a Qizhu can still keep up with his speed, but a Qizi could only pretend it’s a wild fantasy movie and just appreciate it.
The full two-minute berserk period ended, and Ling Xiao cruelly did not let it touch him at all. When it ended, one man and one beast were still flying through the air, but Ling Xiao suddenly disappeared at the front. At this moment, as everyone grew stupefied, a dark shadow appeared behind the primate.
“Teleport!” Someone couldn’t help shouting out, “How could he know the primate’s teleport ability?!”
“What he used wasn’t teleportation,” Ling Xiao moved too fast just now, and even many Qizhu couldn’t clearly see what transpired, but there were still many experts at the scene so some of them caught on, and one of them continued, “He used the two sturdy trees in front of him to ricochet to back to spot behind the primate. Because his speed was so fast, it looked like it happened instantaneously.”
Everyone suddenly understood, then saw the newly reappeared Ling Xiao deal a fatal blow to the primate from behind it. The poor primate was knocked to the ground and rolled in countless circles before it crashed into the interior glass of the simulated space.
Even the instructors in the proctors’ seating area couldn’t resist clapping their hands, and said, “Looks like we misread them that day. With their abilities, the two of them will definitely get into our department.”
“Yeah,” parroted the other instructor, “He can run like this but didn’t want to walk. Seems like it isn’t that he’s too weak, just too lazy. We must properly encourage him in the future.”
“So badass!” Seeing him coming down, Hong Mao was excited and wanted to go up and give him a hug, but was pushed aside right before he could. The one who just pushed him breezed past the two of them to enter the arena without looking back.
Ling Xiao wiped his sweat and waited with Hong Mao for Ying Feng’s match to begin. Because of his astonishing performance just now, everyone was curious—who exactly was this man who defeated Ling Xiao at the Adult Ceremony?
In the process of coming up to the field, Ying Feng secretly concentrated his spiritual power in his right hand. Unlike Ling Xiao, the jungle was not his playing field, so therefore, he must get this battle over with quickly to be safe.
In the process of cultivating his spiritual power, Ying Feng vaguely figured out a way to convert spiritual power into attack power, but never tested it out before. Today’s match will be a gamble.
He put his full concentration on condensing his power. Right in front of him, the opponent appeared, a gigantic bear. Whether it was attack power or defense power, this kind of bear was exceptionally terrifying. It could rank within the top 10 of all SS-level creatures.
The black bear roared and rushed towards Ying Feng at a very fast speed that was not at all consistent with its heavy body.
As for Ying Feng, he stood still, and didn’t even mean to dodge it at all.
“What is he doing? He’s gonna get blown away!” yelled someone nervously. Even the instructor felt that something was wrong. This bear’s assault was especially strong, and if Ying Feng rigidly ate it head-on like this, he would absolutely receive some serious injuries.
“What are you distracted for? Run!” This time, it was Hong Mao who couldn’t help jumping up, but when he finished yelling, the black bear was already in front of Ying Feng.
Right at this moment, Ying Feng suddenly jumped up in place and vigorously flipped the bear over in the air. When he landed, he fastened his hand on the top of the bear’s head, then exerted force.
No one could clearly see what exactly happened at the scene. They only saw the black bear quiver all over once, then softly fall down. The green light above the arena turned on, and the timer stopped.
0’08”13.