Chapter 161: The Long Wind-Up
Great Four Symbols Mountain was actually even more tricky than Little Four Symbols Mountain. There were plenty of visual obstructions inside, even more trapping formations, and the danger level was directly two stars higher.
Yet everyone liked the second round the most, because in this round, the resources obtained from the Four Symbols Mountain could be split fifty-fifty with the academy.
Although giving up half was painful, everything here was basically picked up for free!
Some items couldn’t be evenly divided, but they could be converted into soul stones, with half given to the freshmen.
Si Er felt this was practically a bonus round—basically handing out resources to the new students.
Even though Black Tortoise Academy’s freshmen had ranked last year after year, earning something in this round still wasn’t a loss, right?
They might not be as driven as others, but it wasn’t like they’d come up empty-handed.
Soon, the second round began. Just like before, everyone was randomly teleported.
The moment Si Er entered, he saw Si Ran not far away.
Si Er’s eyes lit up.
What does it mean when something falls into your lap without effort? This was it!
Si Ran’s vision darkened the moment he saw him. He turned and bolted.
Unfortunately, his speed was nowhere near Si Er’s. In the blink of an eye, Si Er had one hand clamped down on his shoulder.
Si Ran looked like he was about to cry. He turned his head toward Si Er.
“Student Si Er, even if there’s some enmity between us, you vented it in the previous round, didn’t you?”
“And this round is different from the last. The previous round only counted points. This time, the resources we obtain can be split in half!”
“You wouldn’t want to waste all your time on me, right?”
Si Er nodded. “True, I don’t.”
Si Ran brightened. “In that case, then—”
Si Er smiled. “So you should just exit directly.”
“What?”
Si Ran looked down and realized that at some point, the identity token at his waist had already ended up in Si Er’s hand again.
“No—!”
Before he could beg for mercy, he was teleported away.
Si Er said happily, “My luck’s pretty good this round. Got rid of someone annoying so quickly.”
“By the way, Guagua, do you know where Di Lintian and Yu Feiqing are?”
“The three of them are so close. They must really want to be by each other’s side.”
“As a great and kind person like me, of course I should help reunite their little family of three.”
Guagua tilted his head. “A family of three?”
Si Er grinned. “A couple and a dog counts as a family of three, right? Even if the dog is the ‘bootlicking’ kind.”
“Ohhh, so that’s what you mean!”
Guagua thought it sounded a bit strange, but when he looked at Si Er’s face, he decided that since Er’er was good-looking, whatever he said must be right.
“Di Lintian and Yu Feiqing aren’t far from here. I’ll take Er’er to find them!”
With that, Guagua turned into a streak of white and shot forward. Si Er followed closely behind. In no time, the man and rabbit were standing in front of Di Lintian.
Di Lintian was startled.
“Why is it you two again?”
Si Er smiled. “We came here specially to find you. Surprised? Delighted?”
Very surprised. Very horrified.
Di Lintian had never imagined that one day he would fear someone his own age like this.
Back on the Cang Beast Continent, he had never suffered such fright.
Si Er was truly a monster. That strength, that speed—even body cultivators couldn’t match it.
Not wanting history to repeat itself, Di Lintian decided to strike first.
He hurriedly retreated while forming hand seals, trying to subdue Si Er with a spell before Si Er could attack.
The moment Guagua saw his movements, he knew what was coming. “Oh no, Er’er, he’s casting a spell.”
“Got it. I’ll go interrupt it.”
Si Er flashed in front of Di Lintian and punched apart the hands forming the seal.
Di Lintian stared at him in horror. Before he could even react, Si Er kicked him to the ground.
“Your wind-up time is way too long. That won’t do.”
“Even if you hadn’t run into me, there are plenty of strangely fast exotic beasts on the Ten Thousand Beasts Continent.”
“There’s no way you could finish that whole set of hand seals.”
Guagua nodded. “He seemed like he was trying to use a Body-Freezing Spell on Er’er. But since when is the hand seal for that so long? Did he learn a fake version?”
“In my inherited memories, I’ve never seen such a long seal.”
Di Lintian was indignant. “What does a rabbit like you know? The thinner the spiritual energy, the harder it is to sustain spells. The hand seals naturally become more complicated.”
Ever since the Cang Beast Continent split from the Ten Thousand Beasts Continent, spiritual energy had grown thinner year by year. Many spells required longer and longer hand seals.
So on their continent, everyone trained their hand speed to be incredibly fast—otherwise they’d be killed before finishing a seal.
Di Lintian believed his hand speed was already impressive.
But he had forgotten that in this world, no one used hand seals at all—so no one would patiently wait for him to finish.
If his opponent today had been anyone from another academy, the result would’ve been the same: interruption.
In the “original plot,” Di Lintian had relied on his spells to dominate, largely thanks to Si Ran.
Si Ran raised all sorts of strange insects with bizarre abilities.
Later, he would contract a swarm of bees whose strange buzzing could temporarily immobilize others.
By the time people could move again, they had already been blasted away—or killed—by Di Lintian.
Before Si Ran contracted those bees, Di Lintian had never even encountered an opponent who required him to use spells.
But that had been the script of an external Heavenly Dao. Now that he’d met Si Er, he could only get beaten.
Si Er decided to deal him another blow.
“Were you just trying to use a Body-Freezing Spell? I thought a real one looked like this.”
He raised his left hand, pressed his index and middle fingers together, pointed at Di Lintian from a distance, and called out, “Freeze.”
Di Lintian immediately found himself unable to move.
“Just as I thought. The Body-Freezing Spell is that simple. I didn’t expect you to make it so complicated.”
Di Lintian was utterly incredulous. Since when had the spell become so easy to cast?
Even if the spiritual energy on the Ten Thousand Beasts Continent was far denser than on the Cang Beast Continent, it shouldn’t be simplified to this extent.
Only ancient great powers could use such simple seals, right?
He refused to believe Si Er possessed such ability. He would rather believe that a powerful exotic beast was secretly assisting him.
Di Lintian desperately wanted to ask what was going on—but he was frozen solid and couldn’t speak.
Si Er shot Guagua a look. Guagua hopped straight onto the teleportation button on Di Lintian’s identity token and sent him away.
“That’s another one dealt with!” Si Er clapped his hands in satisfaction. “Let’s go, Guagua. Time to find Mr. Bootlicker.”
“Is he far? If he’s too far, we’ll search for treasures nearby first.”
Guagua shook his head. “Not too far. The three of them are really fated—every time they get teleported to the same area.”
“But this time, Mr. Bootlicker has more fate with Student Lu Taiping. The two of them ran into each other, and Mr. Bootlicker is planning to send Lu Taiping out directly.”
“What?” Si Er instantly jumped up. “How can that be allowed? Lu Taiping’s Treasure-Seeking Mouse absolutely cannot be sent out!”
