Chapter Nineteen
-Xiao Lan-
"So what exactly are Heaven and Curse?"
The two sisters who often appeared around Xia Youjie raised their eyebrows dramatically—though I didn't understand what was so surprising about it, I just didn't know.
"You don't know?" said the brown-haired girl, Panda, who told me her name was Mimiko. The other girl with yellowish-brown hair was Nanako.
"How would I know?" I asked, bewildered. "Is this something I absolutely need to know?"
The sisters stared at me, and I stared back at them.
Forget it, we'll talk about what "heaven and curse" really mean later. Anyway, Nanako and Mimiko don't seem like they'd be so kind as to explain it to me.
"Stop for a second." I dodged Nanako and Mimiko's punches and took out my phone, which had been ringing since the beginning, from my pocket. "It seems someone sent me a message."
I don't think Teacher Wu would message me at a time like this. Thorn and Panda are right next to me; there's no reason for them to insist on using their phones to message me. Maki is alone at the Jujutsu High School, but she doesn't use her phone much, so she's out of that category too. Yuta is still missing... so the only one who would message me at a time like this is Shaohan.
"Let me see... what exactly is Shaohan sending me? She keeps spamming my feed..."
I swiped the screen, and a barrage of message notifications popped up, almost bursting the chat window. The messages were interspersed with a series of exclamation marks, along with several crookedly taken photos.
[Look! It's Old Deng! I spotted a wild Old Deng on the streets of Kyoto!]
[How dare she! She actually ran away as soon as she saw me! Isn't that going a bit too far?]
[When are you done on your end? Hurry up! Come over as soon as you're done, let's team up and give this guy a good beating.]
I'm fed up with her; she's disappeared again... I'll go look for her (PS: when that skinny old man finally stops paying attention to me).
Anyway, call me back when you see this!!!
I:"……"
I stared at the string of exclamation marks on the screen, a veritable brainwashing display, my temples throbbing. I casually shoved my phone back into my pocket, pretending I hadn't seen the barrage of messages from Shaohan.
...But that Deng Xiqi...actually went to Kyoto?
"Do you guys know Deng Xiqi?" I met the gazes of Xia Xiazi and Meimeizi, who were standing with their arms crossed and looking impatient. "Um, she has blond hair—I'm not sure if she's recently turned her hair a little whiter. Pointy ears, and she wears black-rimmed glasses. She prefers Western-style designs...that's about it."
Nanako blinked first, then turned to Mimiko, as if confirming her memory. "Ah," Mimiko's forehead veins throbbed fiercely, "So you know her..."
"That's perfect." She cracked her knuckles. "You two can settle both your old and new scores together."
Seriously?! What does this have to do with me?! I've really discovered that Deng Xiqi, you're quite the master at stirring up trouble! What's wrong? Judging from their behavior... Did you blow up the Panxing Sect? Or did you insult Xia Youjie in front of them?
I can't see the expression on my face right now, but I guess it's something that's hard to describe in words.
I took several deep breaths, inhaling and exhaling, to make sure I wouldn't suddenly faint. Expressionless, I took out my phone, unlocked it, searched my contacts, and left a message for Shaohan.
Let me know when you find her.
By the way, the first thing you should do when you find her is to slap her for me.
That's not excessive, is it?
I sneered while holding my phone: I'll take the blame for Xia Xiazi and Meimeizi's anger for you. In exchange, Shaohan will slap you to vent her anger. Is that too much to ask?
Shaohan replied to the message surprisingly quickly. She sent an "OK" emoji and told me that she had separated from the main group of sorcerers and was now preparing to capture Dengzi.
"Don't worry!" she sent a 20-second voice message, her tone incredibly excited. "Hehehe, I'll definitely give her a good beating!"
I felt a little relieved—this was a way of venting my anger. "Alright," I gestured to Thorn and Panda to move away, "I've sorted out all the miscellaneous things here, thank you both for waiting for me so long."
I tilted my head slightly: "Then, let's start the fight."
Before I could finish speaking, Mimiko had already charged forward like an arrow. She was at least 30% faster than when she had been testing me earlier. The wind from her fists grazed past my ears and slammed into the tree trunk behind me, sending a few withered leaves fluttering down.
"Quick reaction." She raised an eyebrow, and suddenly several fine threads of magical energy flicked from her fingertips, coiling towards my ankle like venomous snakes.
I used the momentum to flip backward, my boot soles tracing a semi-circle on the ground, narrowly avoiding Nanako's sweeping leg from the side. Her curse was heavier than Mimiko's; when she landed, I could see the fine cracks in the blue bricks—good heavens! That was terrifying!
Thorn called out softly from afar, "Tuna mayonnaise!" Panda, paws raised, nervously looked around, probably deciding whether to interrupt. I didn't have time to turn around, because Mimi's threads had already woven a net, pressing in from all directions.
Good heavens! What would happen if I were caught by this net? After the fight just now, no one knows better than me what this would happen. I'm still young, and I don't want to become a piece of a puzzle that has completely lost its vitality!
I hide, I hide, I dodge!
"What grudge do you have against Deng Xiqi?" I squeezed through the gap in the mesh, my elbow bumping into Meimei's ribs, but she forcefully blocked it. "Can't you just give us an explanation?"
"Mind your own business." Nanako's voice came from above me. I looked down sharply, and her knee grazed my nose, the cursed energy burning my skin.
Judging from the other person's tone, I figured I wouldn't get anything out of them. I stopped being distracted—if Shaohan saw me looking like this, she'd probably laugh at me mercilessly.
"You guys get out of there," I said. "I'm going to go all out."
"Chang Ning decides the first thing, and treads through wind and snow; Chang Ning decides the third thing, and the white snow grows long."
Actually, I should have the upper hand right now, since I came from the cultivation world, but Nanako and Mimiko don't know that. Also, the power system within me should be considered spiritual power, not curse power.
The moment the words left my lips, the spiritual energy of heaven and earth suddenly converged around me. The moment Mimiko's spell threads touched the white light emanating from my body, they shattered inch by inch, and ice crystals grew wildly along the breaks, instantly weaving into an ice field at her feet.
Nanako's pupils contracted sharply, and as she instinctively stepped back, she found her shoes stuck to the ice. She tried to break free using her magical power, but the ice, as if alive, was drilling into her body along the lines of her power. "Hey! What is this?!"
I wore a mysterious smile, remaining silent. Did she really think I was that naive, like the villainous boss in my novels who, while fighting, points out the weaknesses of his moves, and then, after being defeated by the protagonist, shouts, "Why? Heaven has forsaken me!"
However, it's fine to write it in a diary. The special thing about "White Snow Long" is that it becomes more resilient as the opponent's power fluctuates. This applies to spiritual power as well as magical power.
I lightly touched the ground with my toes, my figure weaving through the swirling snowflakes, each step forming a half-foot-high icicle. The spiritual energy of the cultivation world is far more corrosive than magical power, especially techniques like the "Long-Lasting Condensation Technique" that control ice; dealing with the threads formed by magical power is like a dimensional reduction attack.
Thorn and Panda next to me were completely dumbfounded. I turned my head and winked at them.
"That's a foul!" Mimiko was forced back by the icicles, the snowflakes clinging to her hair suddenly exploding. She glared at me, "What kind of magic can freeze magical power?"
"Oops—who told you I used a spell?" I stuck my tongue out at her and raised my hand to form a hand seal, "Chang Ning Jue, Fifth Form, Freezes a Thousand Miles."
In an instant, the chill, accompanied by mist, swept out like a tsunami. The magical shield that Nanako had condensed was instantly covered with thick ice upon contact with the chill, and the silk net that Mimiko had just woven froze into a translucent dome. Even the panda watching from afar shivered and huddled closer to Thorn, clutching its paws tightly.
"Game over." I flashed a "V" sign with both hands, looking at the two sisters who were frozen solid but still looked defiant. "Game over!"
I proudly raised my head, closed my eyes, and heard applause coming from the side. While inwardly praising Thorn and Panda's keen observation, I triumphantly opened my arms wide, as if embracing the wind: "The champion is here!"
"Not bad."
That wasn't Thorn or Panda's voice. I suddenly opened my eyes, awkwardly lowering my hand—what could be more embarrassing than being seen by my homeroom teacher (probably?) doing something childish? "Teacher Wu! Long time no see!"
"...It's not like we haven't seen each other for a long time." Panda popped its head out from the side again, sharply criticizing, "We just saw each other before the Night Parade of One Hundred Demons started today, didn't we?"
"I won't say much more." Teacher Wu grabbed me, Thorn, and Panda by the collar. "I'll send you back to the vocational high school right now. Jie is probably there. The worst-case scenario is that Maki, who's still at the vocational high school, is already dead."
I blinked, a little confused, and exchanged a glance with Ji next to me: What is Xia Youjie going to do at the college?
I can't possibly have suffered too much in my vocational college days, and then decide to return to my alma mater as a successful person and completely blow it up.
It perfectly illustrates what it means to have the sun shining brightly, flowers smiling at me, birds chirping "Good morning, good morning," and then ask, "Why are you carrying a bomb?"
...By the way, this is a derivative work of a very interesting children's song from our area, written by Linglong Watsakara Mengyue.
Yes, I now know that Xia Youjie, the top-level curse master, was a student at Tokyo Cursed Arts Academy and a close friend of Teacher Wu. He could also be considered my senior.
Okay, senior... but last time when we were at Panxing Sect, you didn't take into account that we were also students of the Spell Arts Academy, and you beat us really badly.
When I went back to the dorm last time, I saw that my body was covered in bruises, it was really scary.
"Be careful." Teacher Wu stood in front of us, her smile long gone. "I'll be there as soon as I'm done."
He clapped his hands. With a crisp slap, I felt myself flying into the sky with Panda and Thorn.
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