Chapter Ninety-One [Xu Rongyi]

Chapter Ninety-One: Xu Rongyi

Today’s live commentary came from someone else: a woman, the kind with a striking figure and exceptional beauty. Her partner was an elderly man past fifty, with silver at his temples and a distinctly scholarly air.

“Ladies and gentlemen, the first match of the day is about to begin. It will be a clash between the rising star Xia Zheng and the Class A esper Xu Rongyi. This promises to be a fierce and thrilling contest.”

The woman’s commentary was steady and measured; she was no mere decorative face.

Her male partner added, “Under normal circumstances, when the gap in rank is too large, the weaker side has almost no chance of victory. But today may be an exception, because his opponent is Xia Zheng. He is a psychic, and he has received a dragon-tier evaluation from the Professional League, which means he possesses the ability to fight above his level. Let us wait and see.”

Xia Zheng and Xu Rongyi stepped into the barrier and stood facing each other. When Xu Rongyi heard the two commentators, her expression immediately turned cold.

She was a Class A esper, yet they looked down on her so blatantly. The other side was merely a rookie Class B esper, not even a year into his career. So what if he was a psychic?

Xia Zheng, on the other hand, frowned slightly. He was not sure whether the two commentators were doing this on purpose, especially the man. His words were obviously stoking hostility toward him. Could the Professional League really be doing this for ratings?

But this was not the time to think about that.

No matter what, Xia Zheng had to defeat today’s opponent, even if she possessed Class A strength.

As the duel officially began, the barrier protection activated swiftly. It was still a level-four barrier, but out of caution the Professional League had added extra reinforcement, bringing it close to level five.

Once the match started, Xia Zheng first raised a water shield around himself, beginning in a defensive posture as always.

Xu Rongyi lifted a hand directly. The arena floor rumbled, and from the ground sprang up row after row of trees. Flowers and grasses followed in all directions, and within an area of roughly ten meters in radius, the stage instantly transformed into a lush miniature woodland.

Then Xu Rongyi stepped into the forest and vanished into it.

Xia Zheng seemed to have been surrounded, but the broadcast still clearly showed what was happening inside.

“Xu Rongyi’s nature-based power can instantly alter the environment. Since she is a plant-type esper, a woodland setting is far more favorable for her. Still, Xia Zheng is now at a disadvantage. But as an acclaimed genius, surely he must have a solution,” the woman said, her tone full of confidence in Xia Zheng, though there was a faint note of schadenfreude beneath it.

Xia Zheng surveyed his surroundings and even tested the ground beneath his feet. It all felt very real.

“Divine Eye.”

He activated his spiritual sight at once. The skin around his eyes turned crimson, veins bulging slightly, giving him a fierce and almost savage appearance.

He began scanning the area. The scene before him seemed real, but many parts were illusions. Within those layered images, a faint figure was lurking ten meters away, concealed on a tree branch.

“Interesting. She can combine illusions with her ability to alter the environment. No wonder she’s a Class A esper.”

Xia Zheng quickly locked onto Xu Rongyi’s position and continued walking as though nothing were amiss. On the surface, he showed no sign of having noticed anything.

Suddenly, Xu Rongyi struck.

Two lashes of vine shot toward him. Xia Zheng immediately turned his spiritual power into a long blade and hacked them apart. But more vines came surging in at once, relentless and annoying.

Amid that endless barrage of vines, a shadow moved rapidly across the ground, closing in on Xia Zheng.

When that shadow finally reached the area directly beneath his feet, it burst upward with a crash. Countless vines, like writhing tentacles, wrapped around him in an instant.

Many in the audience were shocked by the sight. It had happened far too suddenly, like the ground beneath your feet had turned into a face-hugger and clamped down on you in a split second.

Xia Zheng vanished from view, and many people began to worry for him.

“Will Master be all right?” Dream Fox asked nervously from the stands.

Nalan Sheng shook her head. “Brother won’t be beaten so easily.” She sounded very confident.

At that moment, Xu Rongyi appeared again, standing ten meters from Xia Zheng’s position. Green light flashed in her hand, and numerous branches and vines, under her control, twisted into a sharp spear. She hurled it with force. The spear flew so fast that in less than a second it pierced straight through the vine-wrapped Xia Zheng, passing clean through and shocking many spectators.

Yet Xu Rongyi frowned. Unease stirred in her heart.

When the vines around Xia Zheng finally parted, there was nothing inside. Her alarm instantly rose.

Boom.

Divine Thunder struck again, transforming into a scarlet bolt of lightning that crashed down before Xu Rongyi.

“Hmph. I knew it wouldn’t be that simple.”

Xu Rongyi seemed prepared. Green light erupted from her body, forming a wooden shield that barely managed to block the strike.

“Telekinetic Force!”

A powerful pull suddenly formed. Xu Rongyi had just lowered her wooden shield when she was caught by the force, and at that same moment a ghostly figure lunged at her with a long blade raised high.

Xu Rongyi let out a sharp cry. The trees around her seemed to heed her summons, instantly transforming into two thick arms that folded together in a massive fist.

The enormous fist blocked Xia Zheng’s slash. Xu Rongyi felt the strain, and in her heart she could not help but think that fame was not undeserved. Xia Zheng was indeed utterly different from the other Class B espers, and he exerted tremendous pressure on her.

She snapped up a leg and, while holding Xia Zheng at bay, kicked upward. A huge foot-like strike came exploding up from below.

Xia Zheng immediately changed his force from attraction to repulsion, blasting Xu Rongyi high into the air while he himself was forced back, narrowly avoiding the kick. Then he switched back to attraction and activated the flight function on his boots.

He charged in again and slashed at her, only to be blocked once more by the wooden shield. Xu Rongyi’s arm was wrapped in green light as she threw a fist straight at him.

The blow smashed into Xia Zheng. His water shield shattered, but fortunately his flame armor held. Xia Zheng then switched to repulsion and bounced away.

Every five seconds, he changed the property of his mental force, leaving Xu Rongyi constantly off balance. She was repeatedly pulled in and pushed away, as though he were toying with her.

Outside the barrier, the male commentator’s voice rang out. “The two of them held nothing back from the very start and went straight into rapid offense. The pace is extremely fast. At first Xu Rongyi had the upper hand, but now the situation has reversed.”

The female commentator added, “As a psychic, Xia Zheng’s mental power is truly extraordinary. Xu Rongyi seems to have a hard time shaking him off.”

The audience had finally recovered and began cheering Xia Zheng on. After all, he was still the more popular one.

Inside the barrier, Xu Rongyi tried several changes in tactics, but she still could not shake Xia Zheng off completely. Feeling his momentum pressing against her, she could not help but smile. “Now this is the kind of fight I wanted.”

As soon as she finished speaking, her body gave off a series of popping sounds, as though her joints had slipped out of place.

Xia Zheng immediately switched to repulsion and dodged. Xu Rongyi’s entire body had become extremely strange. Aside from her facial features, her limbs and neck had grown much longer, giving her an almost serpentine appearance.

“Superhuman transformation?”

Suspended in midair, Xia Zheng quietly waited for the restorative effect of the moonlight wristband. That earlier burst of rapid attacks had drained a tremendous amount of his spiritual power.

Seeing her dramatic transformation, Xia Zheng felt he had to be even more careful.

Xu Rongyi’s transformed state made her look like a monster. Several children in the crowd began crying at the sight, and some of the more timid parents could not bear to watch either. They hurried away with their children, planning to just watch the highlights later.

But many others remained glued to the live broadcast. After all, superhuman combat was nothing like a special-effects film. It was far more thrilling.

After transforming, Xu Rongyi slapped out with a palm. Xia Zheng dodged immediately, but the next second another palm struck from behind him. Caught completely off guard, he was hit squarely. The flame armor over his chest shattered, and a ball of fire ignited on her palm as well.

Xu Rongyi knocked Xia Zheng from the air to the ground. He fell, then quickly rose again, feeling a dull ache in his chest. It seemed he had sustained a minor injury.

Seeing the hand behind him quickly withdraw and return to Xu Rongyi’s side with the flame extinguished, Xia Zheng finally understood. Her limbs now functioned almost like hidden weapons, able to attack from any angle. He had to remain wary of her ambushes.

He activated the Divine Eye again and caught her sneak attacks, dodging them one after another. By then, he felt that the spiritual power in his brain had recovered mostly, so he began to engage her from range.

All the throwing daggers, needles, and shuriken-like weapons on his person were lifted by his mental power and turned into streaks of light that circled Xu Rongyi like meteors.

Yet when those weapons struck her, they emitted a metallic scraping sound. She seemed to be wearing some special equipment and showed no fear of the attacks.

Xia Zheng simply let his imagination run free.

At one moment he summoned flames to burn the surrounding area, hurling massive fireballs outward. At another, torrential rain descended, gathering into a thick water dragon that lunged and bit at Xu Rongyi. Then rows upon rows of earth spikes shot up, throwing her into confusion. Then came flashes of lightning and peals of thunder, tearing the entire scene apart.

After nearly half an hour, the barrier interior had become a wreck. Xia Zheng was breathing heavily, and the spiritual beads clenched in his hand were replenishing his mental energy.

Xu Rongyi on the other side was equally battered. Xia Zheng’s endlessly varied attacks, made real through his imagination, had put her under severe pressure. She was almost facing an all-attribute nature esper, and on top of that she had to guard against his even stranger mental assaults.

What astonished her even more was Xia Zheng’s recovery speed. It was astonishingly fast. Even with expensive energy potions, she still could not keep up with him.

“A war of attrition? You can’t outlast me!”

Xia Zheng absorbed the last of the spiritual power from the bead in his hand, then took out another and tucked it into his sleeve. He still had eight more of them. There was no way Xu Rongyi could outlast him.

“Telekinetic Force!”

This time Xia Zheng did not move. Instead, he simply yanked Xu Rongyi toward him with brute force, causing many in the audience to cry out.

After all, the sight of one man dragging a transformed Xu Rongyi toward him with sheer power was truly shocking.

Xu Rongyi could hardly resist that pull. She grabbed two nearby thick trees with both hands and feet to steady herself, but by then Xia Zheng had already leapt high into the air. A silver blade flashed as it came cleaving down from above.