136 Duel (1/2)

”That’s right. This is the interpretation method,” Charles whistled. ”Did you really think that the things Professor taught can only be used to explain music scores and ancient languages? It’s teaching you how to ‘read!’ If it can help you interpret music scores and runes, why can’t it explain the changes of aether?”

Ye Qingxuan did not reply. His expressions changed as he pondered, but his brows quickly furrowed again. ”Senior, cast a note for me.”

Charles obeyed.

Once again, Ye Qingxuan was hit in the face with frost, but this time he did not move at all. As if fossilized, he let the rays of frost hit him with immense pain.

”I think I feel something,” Ye Qingxuan murmured, looking up. ”Again.”

”Okay.” Frost again!

Whack! This time, Ye Qingxuan finally moved but he was too late. He had just started to raise his hand when the frost covered his face. It burned, but he started laughing.

It was as if he had been running in the dark and found an open door. The sunlight that fell on his face was weak, but the world was completely different now. He finally understood why the translation method skipped many steps in order to quickly achieve an unclear rune instead of a developed one. It was to reduce his time of interpreting to its limit. He must ignore practically ninety percent of all information to be one tenth of a second faster.

”Again!”

”Okay.”

As Charles raised his hand, Ye Qingxuan’s expression changed. He begged, ”Don’t do it to my face. It hurts!”

”Too late.” Charles continued raising his hand, planning on covering his face with frost.

Shocked, Ye Qingxuan gave up on begging for mercy, and quickly began chanting. He subconsciously gathered aether before him like a shield. The surface was smooth and sturdy. Rune: Mirror.

Whack! The cool blue rays landed on the mirror, refracted, and disappeared along with the mirror. Coldness spread, and the flying dust turned to ice particles and fell on the ground.

Ye Qingxuan froze while Charles’s smile stiffened.

”Didn’t you say you were going for my face?” Ye Qingxuan asked faintly. ”Why did you aim for my chest? That wasn’t what we agreed on.”

”Aha…I pitied you and changed to somewhere meatier,” Charles chuckled dryly. ”Can’t believe you improved so quickly that you could even tell where I was aiming!”

The corners of Ye Qingxuan’s lips twitched. ”If I didn’t interpret it, I’d have to get hit by your frost for no reason again, right?”

”What do you mean ‘no reason’? What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger!” Charles praised himself shamelessly. ”I’m doing this for your own good!”

”…” Ye Qingxuan was secretly amazed at his reaction in that second. He could not believe how fast his reaction speed became in a time of crisis.

When he had subconsciously sensed the rippling aether from Charles, his body reacted instinctively. His brain had not even processed the information when he went into defense mode.

”Junior, it seems like you’ve been enlightened!” Grinning cheekily, Charles asked, ”Did you find the secret trick?”

”I guess. I just have to pretend you’re a music score and interpret that, right?”

”Basically, but…I won’t be like a music score and stand here without moving!” With that, Charles finished chanting. The boxes of screws around them began shaking. The aether’s magnetic field pulled the screws toward Charles’s hand. They spun at his fingertips, whistling and rumbling, ready to attack!

For the first time, Ye Qingxuan felt just how terrifying Charles’s talent was. He had never seen anyone else who could control hundreds of screws with just one note. Charles had done so without any preparation—everything had happened with a simple raise of the hand.

”Since you know the method now, I don’t have to go easy on you anymore,” Charles’ voice came from behind the layers of screws. ”Next, I’ll be entering destruction mode. Watch out.”

”Wait, I’m not ready yet!” Seeing the dense wall of bullets, the hair on Ye Qingxuan’s neck rose.

”Okay, I’ll wait.”

Ye Qingxuan relaxed at those words, but then the screws whistled, shooting forward at his limbs and chest without any warning.

Even though he had given up on Charles’ morality, seeing him act so perversely gave Ye Qingxuan a chill. There was no more trust between people!