Chapter 323 – Truths and Lies (IX)

Chapter 323

Truths and Lies (IX)

I desperately ignored the thing that would undo my entire fabric of reality if I peeked under its hood, focusing on the fights.

There weren’t any as exciting as the wind-fire duel, though quite a few were in the tier below, such as the guy who purposefully let himself be cut and wounded as he then used that spilled blood as a form of artillery. Strangely, it was only the second time I saw someone use their own blood as a weapon.

… ERs at 3AM are wild.

The chatter slowly resumed the further away from the kids’ fights we got, though I mostly tuned all of it out.

I was worried.

Worried that Long Tao looked just about ready to fight. And this wasn’t his default–if anything, this was a great anomaly. The guy usually walked around as cool and as chill as teenage boys thought they were, and yet now he seemed… tense.

I’d long since primed the tortoise by stuffing it into my hand and hiding it in my robes: whether it could deflect, whether it would matter, whether it was smart to use it… I didn’t really care. It was comforting.

The second round began rather shortly after the first, and, once again, the kids were all trotted out first–though, this time, they were poised to face each other. We already kind of assumed this would happen (honestly, I thought they’d do it in the first round), so they discussed the peaceful way to resolve–nope, they’re really trying to kill each other.

Dai Xiu, especially, started throwing some major haymakers at Wan Lan, with each punch rippling outward and causing the arena to rumble and for debris to fly upward like a pipe burst underneath it. The latter wasn’t shy herself, either, paying back in kind.

Offensively, they matched well enough, actually, despite Dai Xiu having a lower realm; defensively, however, it was a completely different story. Dai Xiu fought more and more like an evasive boxer, I realized, in that she rarely took on a direct hit; Wan Lan, on the other hand, was the exact opposite. She barely ever bothered dodging, letting the attack crash into her body.