268 Chapter 268: United Fron (1/2)
”Where the fuck are you?!” Ji Xuan bellowed into the forest. Even though there was obviously no reply, he continued ranting and railing. ”Cowards! Come out here and face me! I took the trouble of presenting myself in the open! The least you could do is fight me!”
The idiot thought he was entitled to a ”fair” fight just because he exposed himself in the open? Never mind that he still had about fifteen dudes under his command, and they outnumbered the two of us by almost eight to one. Did he really think we would accept him having a numerical advantage and confront him on his terms?
While Lilith and I could simply summon our Soul Beasts before we walked right into the trap, I was sure the enemy would have prepared countermeasures for our summoned creatures too. They probably had spirit arrays or formations cast over their area of choosing, and the moment we stepped into the range of the array or formation, a large-scale spell – not too dissimilar to my so-called strategic-level spells – would be cast immediately and wipe both the summoners and their summoned beasts in one shot.
What? You think the protagonists would be the only ones allowed to prepare? As a side note, this was exactly why tournaments banned the use of spells or summons before the match began. If summoners were allowed to summoned their Soul Beasts outside the match and bring them into the arena, then why weren't other mages allowed to finish casting their large-scale or strategic-scale spells? Why wouldn't other mages be allowed to bring in their completed spirit arrays and formations? The matches would end in one second, with both large-scale spells clashing and obliterating everyone within the vicinity. It would be mutual destruction. It was the same logic as why students were not allowed to bring their textbooks and notes into an examination. If you could already prepare and finish casting your best spells right before the match began, and unleashed them immediately from the first second (and your opponent too), then what was the point of having the match in the first place? To see whose best spell was more powerful?
Not to mention, you weren't always going to be prepared when you go into the battlefield. The enemy could attack you while you were still in the convoy, moving from one place to another, while you haven't cast any spells. It was impractical to expect summoners to maintain the existence of their Soul Beasts 24/7 in the material world because it would be far too draining for them, and consumed more mana than they could afford. Similarly, you couldn't just complete the casting of a spell and hold it indefinitely. There was an expiry date, sort of, and if you didn't just cast the spell after a few hours, the casting would be reset. Same with summoning.
Too many readers just jumped into the comments, complaining about why people didn't abuse the system. It wasn't because the characters and I were stupid. It was because we couldn't abuse the system, there were already rules established in place. But they didn't care. So many readers only wanted to read about how the overpowered Mary Sue protagonist exploited the system and started cursing him as stupid when he didn't do as they directed. They weren't the ones living in this world and had no idea how it worked, yet they had the gall to think they were smarter than the protagonist and could tell him what to do.
Ji Xuan was similar in that way, I supposed. Always looking for ways to exploit the system, and then raging when nothing went his way. Like now.
”COME OUT AND FIGHT ME, YOU COWARDS!”
That amused me. I honestly didn't care if he thought I was a coward and labeled me as such. The hypocrisy was just too delicious to savor. Can you imagine? He called us cowards for not facing him in the open, yet this was the very same guy who chose to hide for so long until now, who relied on sheer numbers to gang up and bully other people – he literally sent thirty dudes after two people – and the very same guy who continued to hide behind his lackeys, even now. Even if we showed up to fight, we would have to get through the fifteen ninja dudes who were ordered by contract to protect him before we could actually engage him in combat. No doubt he didn't expect to dirty his hands and believed we would fall to his hired assassins before we could reach him.
And this guy called us cowards? Wow. The hypocrisy was just amusing.
Anyway, Lilith and I left him raging where he was, and continued to survive in the forest. By now, there weren't many other students left in the Spiritual Road, so I wasn't able to record much of their fights. Furthermore, they seemed less interested in fighting against each other than they were in eliminating the single biggest threat that remained.
”Over here!” Someone called out to us with a wave. Apparently, there was a gathering among the majority of the survivors, and they were meeting in a clearing that was pretty far from the place that Ji Xuan and his Assassins selected for their final battleground.
”What's going on?” I wondered out loud. Lilith shrugged.
”I say we go check it out.”
”Uh, okay.” I doubted this would be a trap. Unlike Ji Xuan and his cronies, the other students in the Spiritual Road held no grudge against me. What, did you think I'm some cultivation or xianxia protagonist who somehow made an enemy of everybody I met just by the virtue of existing? That every single person in the world would look at me, somehow start frothing in the mouth and ranting about how I was trash, or for some inane reason get jealous of me either because I somehow have treasures, skills or maybe because I was simply being accompanied by beautiful women?
Nah, humans are not that superficial or one-dimensional. They didn't exist just to hate on the protagonist and give him justification to beat them up or kill them. The world didn't revolve around me. Most of the time, the other people in the world didn't even know I existed, or if they did, they couldn't care less. If I didn't offend them, then they had no reason to hate me or pick on me like every other antagonist in cultivation and xianxia novels.
Lilith, on the other hand, turned out to be very famous. A few of the students in the clearing gaped in shock and awe when she showed up in the clearing.
”The Hellfire Bear goddess!”
”The princess of the Porter clan!”
”The Holy Maiden of the Porter clan!”
That was quite a lot of titles. I wished people would decide on one. Okay, maybe the princess and Holy Maiden thing weren't titles, but more of a reference to her status. From what I knew, Lilith certainly was the next in line to inherit the leader position from her grandfather, so calling her a princess was not wholly inaccurate.
I didn't know about the Holy Maiden thing, and Lilith avoided answering when I asked her about it. The only thing she told me was that ”Luo Li was considered the Holy Maiden of the Luo Clan, and since I'm based off her, the author randomly gave me that status for no reason other than because he wanted to rip off The Great Ruler.”
I guess I should prepare for the inevitable event where I met the Nine Nether Sparrow and accidentally absorb her, and have her caged in my qi sea or mana sea or whatever. Nah…like hell I'm going to copy The Great Ruler.
”Who's the guy next to her?”
”Oh, I know him. Isn't he the guy with the strategic-scale spells and the one who defeated the Invincible Goddess of War?”
”Ah…now that you mention it…”
I resisted the temptation to mention that if Cecilia Stuart had been defeated, then she surely was no longer the ”Invincible” Goddess of War. Not just me, but she lost to Shawn Franklin as well.
Speaking of which…
”It's been a while.” Cecilia waved toward me. She was accompanied by a few familiar faces. I didn't see Hal Gunther, thankfully, but I recognized Chang Cheng and Doug Daniels. The latter waved at me, and I responded with a bow.
”Yeah. I hope you've been well.”
”Oh? You know each other?” Kureha Franklin sounded surprised. For some reason, she was close to Cecilia. I remembered that she, Cecilia and Alicia were all friends or something, so I wasn't shocked that they were together even though they were from different academies.
”Yeah.” Cecilia nodded, and then frowned. ”I thought you already knew that.”
”Oh, right. He's the first guy who defeated you.” Kureha nodded. She then turned to Lilith with a raised eyebrow. ”And you're…Lilith Porter?”
”Nice to meet you, Miss Kureha.”