Chapter 198: Mutual Destruction

Hearing Bai Zhenzhen’s words, Dai Xingzhi’s brow arched, and he said coldly, “Oh? You think the competition in the Immortal Capital is easier than outside?”

“What else?” Bai Zhenzhen said as if it were a matter of course. “The number of university slots in the Immortal Capital each year is far greater than in any other city, right?”

“If we have to be one in a hundred to get into a university, then for you it’s one in ten, or maybe even one in three.”

“If the slots weren’t allocated by city, and all the students from Kunxu’s first layer competed directly for them, all of your Immortal Capital slots would have been snatched away long ago.”

Dai Xingzhi chuckled. “A naive thought. Immortal Dao potential is a contest of money, and the Immortal Capital is the wealthiest city on the entire first layer of Kunxu. The resources here far exceed those of your small towns. No matter what we compete in, we will inevitably hold the absolute advantage.”

A trace of Immortal Capital arrogance appeared on Dai Xingzhi’s face as he said, “If there were truly a unified admission for the entire layer, then every high school student from the Immortal Capital could get into a university, and even snatch all the spots from the top ten.”

Bai Zhenzhen snorted and said, “You’re quite proud, but from your accent, you don’t sound like a local of the Immortal Capital. You weren’t born in the Immortal Capital, were you? Or was it your father or grandfather who was the outsider?”

Below the ring, a high school student from the Immortal Capital heard this and a slight smile appeared on his lips, but he quickly suppressed it. He just looked at Bai Zhenzhen with a hint of surprise, as if he hadn’t expected this outsider woman to be able to discern the difference between Dai Xingzhi’s accent and theirs.

Hearing her call his family ‘outsiders,’ and the comment about his accent, a flush of red crossed Dai Xingzhi’s face, and he said angrily, “I was born in the Immortal Capital! You’re the damn outsider!”

His figure flashed, and he shot out in a series of afterimages. The afterimages and his real body blurred together, surrounding and attacking Bai Zhenzhen from four different directions.

Although Dai Xingzhi’s face was a picture of rage, his mind was incredibly calm and composed.

How could I fall for such a simple provocation?

Sneak attacks, provocations, insults… these basic yet crucial combat techniques were something Dai Xingzhi, as a high school student from the Immortal Capital, was well-practiced in and had undergone rigorous training for.

He had even taken specialized courses like “How to Discriminate Against Outsiders?” and “Three Sentences to Break an Outsider’s Composure,” mastering many techniques specifically for dealing with outsiders, allowing him to quickly enrage opponents in battle and gain an advantage.

After all, people from the Immortal Capital had a natural advantage in angering outsiders, a talent that Dai Xingzhi believed was essential to master.

So, just a few sentences into Bai Zhenzhen’s speech, Dai Xingzhi understood her strategy.

Trying to provoke me?

Then I’ll just pretend to be provoked…

As Dai Xingzhi’s figure flickered, he sent a palm strike viciously towards Bai Zhenzhen’s head.

At that moment, he appeared flushed, his eyes filled with rage, looking for all the world like he was lashing out in anger, and the palm technique he used seemed full of openings.

But Dai Xingzhi’s mind was incredibly clear; the palm that seemed to be striking in anger contained very little magic power. The bulk of his strength was stored within his body, waiting for the true explosion.

He was confident that if Bai Zhenzhen attacked the opening he had deliberately shown in his palm technique, she would be severely wounded by his follow-up move.

At the same time, his legs were secretly gathering strength, ready to retreat at full speed if anything went amiss.

Always holding something back, always avoiding injury—this was the ideology passed down through generations of his Dai clan, the very thing that allowed them to establish themselves in the Immortal Capital.

Bang!

To Dai Xingzhi’s astonishment, Bai Zhenzhen slightly tilted her head and took his palm strike with her shoulder, completely disrupting his follow-up opportunities.

In that brief moment of Dai Xingzhi’s astonishment, he saw the do-or-die fighting spirit in Bai Zhenzhen’s eyes.

From before she even stepped onto the ring, Bai Zhenzhen had been observing Dai Xingzhi—his movements, his fighting style, his bearing and habits.

Like Dai Xingzhi, Bai Zhenzhen had also recognized him as her biggest rival for a top-two spot.

Through continuous observation, Bai Zhenzhen realized that her opponent was a cautious individual with extremely high attainment in lightness skills and movement techniques, and his speed was in no way inferior to her own.

He is, after all, a third-year young master from the Immortal Capital.

Not only is his physical strength superior to mine, but apart from the Myriad Sword Everlasting Art, most of the techniques he has mastered are likely stronger than mine. If I fight him at full strength… my chances of winning are at most thirty or forty percent.

I must target his weakness and drag the fight into an area where I have the advantage…

This guy is so cautious, so adept at avoiding injury, which likely means he is not good at fighting with his life on the line.

Bai Zhenzhen knew very well that for her, the 1,000,000 points of medical coverage was an enormous amount, but for a wealthy person like a young master from the Immortal Capital, 1,000,000 points was far too little, perhaps even giving them a sense of insecurity.

Furthermore, these wealthy people were already hesitant to risk their lives, unlike a poor person like her who often had to risk everything just to earn things that the wealthy could obtain with a wave of their hand.

So she deliberately provoked him, deliberately took his blow head-on, all in the hope of finding an opportunity for a close-quarters, life-or-death struggle.

She just hadn’t expected him to be even more cautious than she had imagined; that seemingly enraged palm strike was just a feint.

But it didn’t matter…

Now, their eyes met, so close, and within Bai Zhenzhen’s eyes, filled with blazing fighting spirit and electric light, there was only one goal.

Unleash the strongest, fastest, most ferocious sword strike with every ounce of her being, and see whether he runs out of medical coverage first, or she does.

Ever since she stepped onto the stage, Bai Zhenzhen had been accumulating magic power with the expert-level breathing exercise, Surging Waves Nine Revolutions.

This technique emphasized a ceaseless cycle; after nine revolutions, the magic power could draw in even more magic power. It was a technique whose effect grew stronger the longer one performed the breathing exercise.

During her last Foundation Establishment examination, Surging Waves Nine Revolutions had performed miraculously, and now, after nine consecutive revolutions, her magic power exploded like a spring compressed to its limit.

And in that instant, a host of techniques, all deduced by her True Spiritual Root, erupted simultaneously.

Over the past few months, Bai Zhenzhen had used her True Spiritual Root to deduce almost all the techniques she had mastered, granting them more powerful and suitable level 10 effects.

And every single one of these level 10 effects was related to speed.

Bai Zhenzhen believed that even if her techniques were not as expensive as her opponent’s, after countless deductions, they were absolutely the most suitable for her cultivation and fighting style.

At this moment, Electric Flash Step was activated at full power. Wisps of thunder magic power shot through her nerves, muscles, and meridians, and under the effect of the level 10 deduction, it madly accelerated the speed of her sword strike.

Body-Piercing Sword Qi surged from her dantian, and under the influence of the level 10 deduction effect, it crackled with lightning as it shot through her meridians like a cannonball, racing towards her fingertips.

The expert-level combat technique, Formless Sword Art, caused her sword intent to agitate the air before the strike was even launched, forming an electric field that reduced the air resistance she would face.

Under the pressure of this desperate struggle, the Cold Soul Ice Heart Art pushed Bai Zhenzhen’s mind to a state of extreme calmness, and the magic power and muscles within her body became incredibly active.

And the thunder magic power that coursed through her body, inside and out, continued to accelerate everything! Faster! And faster still!

On the other side, although Dai Xingzhi was stunned for a moment, feeling Bai Zhenzhen’s astonishing fighting spirit and the sheer power of her incoming strike, he reacted quickly.

His leg kicked up a gale-force wind, his right leg seeming to vanish in that instant, leaving only a surging wave of energy blasting towards Bai Zhenzhen’s dantian.

Both fighters were trading speed for speed, their exchange set to conclude in an instant.

But in the eyes of the surrounding righteous gods, this instant could be observed in slow motion, slow enough for them to see Dai Xingzhi’s savage expression, to see Bai Zhenzhen’s hair standing on end from the stimulation of thunder magic power, to see the flashes of electricity and gusts of wind in the air…

Within this single instant, the righteous gods could even complete all sorts of communications on their internal network.

Huang Zichou watched this scene and remarked, “To think that two people this fast would decide the match in a single move. I originally thought they would rely on their respective speeds to engage in a drawn-out skirmish and fight for the full ten minutes.”

Another righteous god, watching the exchange, analyzed, “In this instant of close-quarters combat, facing the opponent’s all-out attack, what is tested is the most primal reaction in each person’s heart.”

Huang Zichou’s gaze swept over Bai Zhenzhen’s sword-finger thrust and the Body-Piercing Sword Qi infused with thunder magic power contained within. He could feel that this strike held nothing back, feel the courage within it to face death and gamble everything.

Then he looked over at Dai Xingzhi, at the fierce wind kicked up by his leg, and his fully unleashed muscles.

But…

Huang Zichou said, “Although Dai Xingzhi also used his full strength, perhaps… due to habits formed over the years, perhaps due to an instinctual aversion to injury, perhaps due to a subconscious desire to hold something back.”

“The accumulation of these small things in his daily life has ultimately, in this moment, in his most primal reaction, caused him to subconsciously hold back some of his power, failing to truly risk everything…”

Just as the righteous gods were communicating at super speed on their internal network.

Boom!

The wind scattered, lightning flashed, and Bai Zhenzhen and Dai Xingzhi had both completed their attacks.

With a loud bang, Bai Zhenzhen was sent flying backward, spitting out a large mouthful of blood that contained fragments of her internal organs.

But on the other side, Dai Xingzhi clutched a large hole in his chest, watching the wound continuously heal under the effect of divine power.

At the same time, the medical coverage numbers above both Dai Xingzhi’s and Bai Zhenzhen’s heads began to plummet, both hitting zero in the blink of an eye.