novelraw Chapter 27 : Seven Schools Training
Chapter 27 : Seven Schools Training
Fourth Ring First Academy had indeed manipulated things.
The training match, after all, wasn't a formal competition.
Western Wood Crater needed academies to relieve energy field pressure and hadn't expected anyone would disregard competition law. During inspection work, they weren't as strict as formal competitions required.
This gave them an opportunity to exploit.
The person in charge looked extremely displeased when suspending the training match, feeling annoyed just seeing the people from Fourth Ring First Academy.
With the competition interrupted, all students were withdrawn.
Puluo's spiritual body depletion rate reached 50%, with his core crystal sustaining some damage.
When sent to the medical center for treatment, he was still somewhat reluctant.
But Yan Mingyu insisted. After all, this was just a training match, not a situation requiring injured infantry to fight. The school team could still compete in subsequent matches without one infantry, just needing more attention to formation.
Others clearly also preferred Puluo to receive treatment.
When Tong Wei heard Puluo say he wanted to continue the competition, tears fell, finally making the two-meter gentle giant close his mouth meekly and be sent to the medical center.
Puluo was injured because of protecting her.
Tong Wei felt immensely guilty. As an analyst, she not only failed to detect the surrounding energy fluctuations but also overlooked the energy body's attack.
She sat regretfully on the bench at the monitoring station. Even with Gu Qinxue's hand constantly soothing her back, it couldn't make Tong Wei feel much better.
Yan Mingyu was just coming out of the monitoring station's conference hall, seeing a group of kids waiting there. She waved the handling notice in her hand, recalling the attention of the quietly silent group.
"Alright, don't be so downcast."
She sat down in front of the school team, with Chen Sui closely following behind her. Having witnessed a tearing match in the conference hall, Chen Sui was still smacking her lips, finding it quite enjoyable.
Feeling the team's depressed atmosphere, Chen Sui also quietly sighed.
Puluo's injury wasn't severe, just being sent to the medical center for examination and repair to prevent serious depletion due to core crystal damage.
"Look, in the end, this can't be blamed on you all," Yan Mingyu comforted, then looked to the center, "This energy crystal has special attributes. As an analyst, you didn't fail in your duty."
Yan Mingyu wasn't wrong. The energy monitoring station thoroughly investigated the handling process of the energy crystal, discovering it wasn't independently processed by Fourth Ring First Academy's analyst, but after buying it at the Star Ring Feast auction, they hired a senior analyst to analyze and edit it.
"This crystal is a rare A+ level energy crystal, dark attribute, with concealment and manipulation special attributes. Not detecting the fluctuations wasn't your fault."
Yan Mingyu patted her, "Fourth Ring First Academy bought it for five hundred million star coins, but because it violated competition rules, they've been disqualified from the training match by the Western Wood Crater energy field, and reported to the competition committee. They can't even participate in the Star Ring selection, possibly missing this Star League Competition."
Chen Sui quietly sat next to Yan Mingyu eating melon seeds, when suddenly hearing five hundred million, the vines on her head stood up in shock.
This caused the school team members opposite to raise their eyes.
Tong Wei, hearing it wasn't her fault, felt somewhat relieved. When she heard about Fourth Ring First Academy's penalty, her mood gradually brightened. Looking up and seeing Chen Sui's head, she suddenly laughed.
"Pfft."
"Suisui, how did you end up like this?"
She rose from her seat to grab the top of Chen Sui's head.
Chen Sui instinctively tilted away, her hand touching her head, feeling the upright vines. Her green eyes blinked, helplessly putting her hand down to press them down.
Gu Qinxue also had her curiosity piqued, moving forward a bit, immediately smelling the woody scent coming from Chen Sui, mixed with a hint of floral fragrance.
"Is the awakening period ending?"
She flicked the vines on Chen Sui's head, asking.
Unable to press down the vines, Chen Sui had already given up, allowing the two graceful young girls to play with her head.
Hearing Gu Qinxue's words, she was also stunned for a moment, thinking of what the staff member had said, nodding somewhat perplexedly, then quickly shaking her head.
"I don't know either," she scratched her short hair, discovering that the ends of her hair had also sprouted some extended green buds, though being quite short, they weren't noticeable.
Xie Chunshi's eyes occasionally swept over, and even Zhou Chen was somewhat itching to touch, but being unable to squeeze past the two girls, he pretended not to care, sitting in his spot and curiously glancing from the corner of his eye.
"The spiritual body hasn't appeared, and I don't feel the core crystal. The curve peak seems to be coming soon, still rising."
Chen Sui saw the curve on her bracelet still in the rising stage.
Yan Mingyu folded the handling notice and put it in her pocket, patting her shoulder:
"Spiritual body appearances vary. Generally, it's visible after awakening, but some people don't see it and think they've failed, then suddenly establish resonance later, making the spiritual body appear. Some encounter danger, and the spiritual body appears suddenly. Situations differ. You've already shown pseudo-resonance with spiritual body assimilation, and the energy monitoring station earlier said your energy fluctuation was weakening, indicating a high likelihood of successful awakening."
"Resonance..."
Chen Sui lowered her eyes. Resonance with a spiritual body requires enormous energy support.
After resonance, one can see the spiritual threshold and command its power, gaining the spiritual body's attribute enhancement and energy sharing, which is key to fighting with a spiritual body.
The level of resonance with a spiritual body indicates the degree to which one can utilize the spiritual body's values, also an indicator for evaluating awakeners' abilities.
While Chen Sui was pondering, Yan Mingyu suddenly felt the folded handling notice in her pocket, thinking of something, asking her:
"The competition continues, Puluo has gone to the medical center, do you want to enter the energy field to take a look? Perhaps it could help establish resonance faster."
Before Chen Sui could respond, the school team got excited first, "Hey, then we have an infantry again."
Tong Wei blinked at Chen Sui, holding her hand: "I will definitely protect you well!"
Chen Sui paused for a second, not saying that the infantry's task is to protect the analyst, just recalling the scene of the school team killing energy bodies in the energy field, and the crystals scattered all over the ground after the ice shattered, with no one picking them up.
Previously indifferent, but after hearing Fourth Ring First Academy bought one energy crystal for five hundred million, she felt those were all money, her heart instantly aching.
"Teacher, do all the crystals obtained from killing energy bodies in the energy field belong to us?"
Chen Sui asked.
Yan Mingyu raised an eyebrow, nodding, "Of course, these crystals are rewards given by the energy field."
After she finished speaking, she felt Chen Sui's expression change.
She had always appeared indifferent, not caring about anything, but after hearing this, her whole demeanor changed somewhat, her eyes brightening, like spotting prey, looking quite startling.
Yan Mingyu didn't know that afterward, Western Wood Crater would never again open for training due to excessive energy bodies. She only heard Chen Sui seriously nod and gratefully say: "Thank you, teacher," and didn't think further.
Due to Fourth Ring First Academy's violation, along with Team Leader Chun Fan's summoned body's crystal shattering and core crystal damage, requiring treatment, they would not participate in the subsequent training match.
The remaining six academies continued to enter the energy field, searching for the location for the energy monitoring equipment.
This time, Chen Sui entered the energy field as an infantry.
Besides the energy field encountered on the Border Star, this was her second participation in energy field combat.
Western Wood Crater and the Border Star energy field were vastly different.
The terrain inside the crater differed greatly from Karma Star's landscape. The energy field had completely corroded the original ground environment. Even if one day the energy body forming the field could be resolved and the field's energy absorbed, the recovered environment would still be just ruins.
Chen Sui followed the school team through the black forest.
Tong Wei knew it was her first time participating in a training match, seriously explaining the match system and the condition of the Western Wood Crater arena.
Regarding the lowest energy point for placing energy monitoring equipment, most relied on analyst searching, so after explaining the general situation, Tong Wei quickly immersed herself in the task.
The school team's points were already leading, but the interrupted competition caused a refresh of the entry point, putting them at some distance from the determined target location.
Added to that, Chen Sui, upon seeing energy bodies, rushed forward to frantically harvest, so the school team temporarily turned back to kill another batch of energy bodies.
Chen Sui had just pulled her long knife from a convulsing tree trunk. The trunk's surface still had a distorted face, looking extremely ferocious. She grabbed the treetop with one hand, pulling the entire root system from the ground, the roots still covered with moist soil.
The knife tip brought out a green crystal from inside the trunk. Chen Sui immediately threw away the lifeless trunk, removing the crystal from the blade edge.
The school team also finished dealing with other tree-type energy bodies, with Tong Wei checking the depletion degree of the energy crystals.
Energy body attacks and energy crystals both belong to energy particles.
Energy attacks damage the energy concentration level within energy crystals, or the depletion rate of energy crystals.
Generally, the lower the depletion rate of an energy crystal, the closer the edited summoned body is to the power of the original energy body. If the depletion is too high, the summoned body's power is greatly reduced.
"Wow, Suisui, another 100% completely undepleted crystal!"
Tong Wei exclaimed, watching Chen Sui throw the checked energy crystal into the storage space.
Zhou Chen looked at his own 30% depletion rate, "I hit exactly where Tong Wei said, why is the depletion so high? This isn't normal!"
Although knowing that without energy particles, there would naturally be no energy crystal depletion, but------
"How do you even extract crystals with a mecha? Is energy body regeneration just for show?"
Zhou Chen muttered in disbelief.
He understood that energy body attacks on crystals, with depletion around 30%, were quite normal, as the analyst's determined position also had errors, but the comparison was stark!
It just wasn't balanced!
Chen Sui didn't mind regeneration at all, having planned her speed after determining regeneration time. All her attacks followed one principle.
"Simple, just attack faster than regeneration."
Hit it before it regrows, what does it matter if it can regenerate?
Zhou Chen was silent for a second.
That's even stranger!
You haven't even used a spiritual body, where does that speed come from?!
He held back, not directly critiquing.
After resolving the energy bodies in the center of the black forest, Xie Chunshi calculated the score level, "We've got enough energy crystals. Next, let's place the monitoring equipment. Everyone's tired after competing so long."
It was time to end.
Understanding the implication in his words, Chen Sui had no objections.
Tong Wei had already locked in the position for the energy monitoring equipment, in the narrow path between two high mountains outside the black forest.
The team stopped at the path's entrance, with high mountains on both sides.
"This energy level..."
Chen Sui frowned, a strange premonition rising in her heart, feeling the dry wind around and the swirling sand.
She unobtrusively shielded Tong Wei, "Are you sure this is the target location?"
Tong Wei, looking at the unusually quiet mountain path, also found it strange, "The detected energy value here is indeed the lowest position."
Outside the energy field, seeing this scene, Yan Mingyu suddenly stood up, her face serious as she stared at the light screen.
At this moment in the light screen, Chen Sui still felt something unusual. The energy fluctuation was indeed suppressed very low, but she also sensed an unusual energy fluctuation.
"Rustle..."
Faint rustling sounds arose.
Something emerged from the black rocks on both sides of the mountain.
The school team hadn't noticed these sounds. Zhou Chen patted Chen Sui,
"Alright, don't waste time, let's finish this quickly."
Having said that, he was about to move forward.
Chen Sui's premonition grew stronger. As the mecha passed by, she instinctively held Zhou Chen back.
"Wait!"
Zhou Chen's figure stopped, turning to look at her: "What's wrong?"
During this interval, Fourth Ring Sixth Academy, arriving a step late, quickly came to the narrow path from another exit, seeing Zhou Chen about to act.
Cang Jing immediately became vigilant, then swiftly flashed forward.
"What are you doing, dawdling when it's right in front of you? Don't you want the doubled points?"
Competition rule: Placing energy monitoring equipment, points doubled.
Zhou Chen, seeing Cang Jing about to act, became anxious, "Don't hold me, I'm going."
Chen Sui held onto him, her long knife swiftly swinging.
Blocking the other three people.
Her brows slightly furrowed, her expression determined, her gaze sharp as she stared ahead.
The surrounding energy fluctuation maintained a slow, low level.
But an intangible pressure made the vines on Chen Sui's head continuously rigid, with the fine buds at her hair ends also slightly bristling.
"Don't move."
"The energy fluctuation isn't right!"
Zhou Chen frowned, about to persuade her not to make trouble, but before the words left his mouth.
He saw Chen Sui release his shoulder, her right hand throwing out a metal claw, tossing it into the air.
The school team didn't understand. Fourth Ring Sixth Academy thought she was trying to block Cang Jing, involuntarily speaking up: "Your Zhu Jing Fu still engages in this kind of competition, falling a step behind and wanting to block our lead..."
His words were almost complete when a violent energy wave broke the surrounding low-energy state.
The analysts first felt something was wrong, with a "Not good" not yet uttered.
Suddenly, many long-tailed scorpions appeared on the surrounding mountain rocks. The huge scorpion tails tapped on the rocks, the poison at the tips corroding the rock surface, leaving black marks.
Dense 'rustling' sounds.
Dense black moving insects.
Dense red eyes...
The two teams present couldn't help but break out in goosebumps.
Zhou Chen instinctively muttered: "Damn, what's going on..."
No one heard his words, as everyone's attention was quickly drawn to what was in front of them.
A giant tail whipped out from the ground, the scorpion tail almost ten meters long, hitting the narrow path, creating a rift in the center. A huge black shadow suddenly flew up from underground.
Cang Jing was in mid-air, sensing the metal hook thrown out behind him, about to control the wind flow to avoid it.
But a wave of foul-smelling gas from below made him dizzy for a second, followed by a huge energy roll, the surrounding air becoming extremely hot.
Flame-like sensations surged toward him from all directions, a burning sensation hitting his face.
In Cang Jing's momentary confusion, there was a sound of metal collision, with a binding sensation at his waist.
The metal hook wrapped around his waist once, the dragon claw hook provocatively slapping his face, the hook fingers opening to grip his jaw.
"Swoosh------"
A tremendous pulling force yanked, removing him entirely from the flame-enveloped environment.
"Team Leader!!"
Fourth Ring Sixth Academy team members, their faces still showing shock, instinctively moved forward, trying to catch Cang Jing.
But Chen Sui, holding the other end of the metal hook, very casually threw him to the ground.
"Ow!"
Cang Jing's waist hit a rock, letting out a painful howl.
The metal hook around his waist was instantly retracted by the mecha, dragging him to roll a couple of times on the ground, his body bumping back and forth between two rocks.
Seeing their Team Leader's miserable state, Fourth Ring Sixth Academy members instinctively looked at Chen Sui.
The infantry coldly raised her hand, and after retracting the metal hook, drew the long knife from her back.
The sharp blade edge made one imagine her ruthless expression.
The member who had suspected she was trying to block Cang Jing instinctively stepped back, and even Zhou Chen quietly moved closer to Gu Qinxue, causing her to coldly glance at him.
"Recorded energy body: Fire Scorpion."
"Fire attribute crystal, level S, attack 78, defense 54, rare attribute: concealment 85, main concealment direction: lowering energy level, variant branch concealment direction: form concealment."
The Fire Scorpion's attack value had already reached S-class, not to mention the rare attribute enhancement.
Chen Sui drew her long knife, her gaze sweeping over the others, nodding to her teammates, conveying the information she had discerned.
She had also analyzed Fourth Ring First Academy's energy crystal outside the energy field, which no one had paid attention to at the time.
This time she instinctively also analyzed the giant scorpion that sprang from the earth.
Yet she didn't notice that the analysts from both academies were eyeing her with a peculiar gaze.
At the same time, Yan Mingyu, observing them from outside the energy field, suddenly thought of something, immediately furrowing her brows, staring intently at Chen Sui.
Chen Sui, the focus of attention, only had eyes for the gradually emerging Fire Scorpion, her mind occupied with one conversion thought.
S-class energy crystal, with rare attribute concealment, auction starting price: five hundred thousand.
We're rich!
Green eyes seeming to flash with the light of coins, Chen Sui quickly flashed out.
"I'll draw aggro, outputs follow up, analyst fall back."
She rapidly charged forward.
The others were briefly silent for a second, then quickly reacted.
Cang Jing sprang up from the ground like a carp, his fighting spirit instantly igniting, looking at Xie Chunshi: "Damn, beaten to it!"
"Less talk!"
Zhou Chen swiftly raised his hand, Black Arrow Hawk instantly appearing, flapping its wings and shrieking once, then Zhou Chen holding a lightning-flashing whip, seizing the initiative, quickly moving forward.
"I'm going in too."
The outputs quickly followed, and Chen Sui didn't waste time either.
The long knife cut through the wind, the fast-moving gusts blowing the Fire Scorpion's bristles, making its side eyes catch Chen Sui's position, then a wall of fire rose from the ground, a huge fire wheel rolling toward Chen Sui's position.
Chen Sui jumped between the mountain rocks, each knife swing leaving a cut mark on the rock, with fragments of small scorpions' bodies remaining under the blade edge.
The mecha flashed quickly, moving back and forth between two opposing mountain rocks, the fire wheel unable to capture her trajectory.
Originally sensing energy fluctuation threats from the front, the Fire Scorpion with its middle eye above its abdominal segment facing the narrow path entrance finally sensed something unusual.
Chen Sui was already within three meters of it, hearing the others following up, her peripheral vision noting more and more small scorpions gathering on the surrounding rocks.
The densely distributed insects could instantly trigger fear of clusters, raising goosebumps.
Chen Sui frowned.
The small scorpions were low-level energy bodies, with low energy levels.
But there were so many of them.
—This was a scorpion swarm.
The S-class Fire Scorpion below was their leader.
Chen Sui's figure stopped about three meters from the Fire Scorpion.
Standing in place for just a second, the approaching scorpion swarm lunged toward her position.
Scorpion tails heavily hit the ground, their stingers easily poking small holes in the surface.
She quickly dodged the falling small scorpions, this scorpion sea tactic raising an inexplicable irritation in her, making her look at the Fire Scorpion with quite unfriendly eyes.
The Fire Scorpion was about two meters long, its slender scorpion tail longer than its body, curved like a crescent behind its abdominal segment, with a sharp stinger at the raised tip like cold metal, holding a ball of burning flame, a wall of fire burning in front.
"Let's lure it out first."
Chen Sui said to those behind her. Wind blades and lightning whips lashed at the mountain rocks, accompanied by huge energy wave surges, along with groups of small scorpions blocking the way.
The narrow mountain path's terrain was unfavorable for displaying output skills. Once the Fire Scorpion launched fire attacks, they would be hard to dodge, not to mention that both sides of the mountain walls were covered with dense scorpion swarms.
Zhou Chen and Cang Jing also became somewhat annoyed.
They immediately raced along the mountain rocks, one on the left, one on the right. Gu Qinxue was a step slower, but her figure moved simultaneously with Chen Sui.
The left side raised sharp wind blades, the right had lightning flashes, and behind came a wave of heat, a fire dragon rushing fiercely past Chen Sui's side.
The red fire wall surrounding the Fire Scorpion shattered immediately.
Chen Sui looked up, seeing energy particles from the fire wall scatter, opening a hole in the middle. She instantly rose, speeding forward, quickly rushing in.
The long knife momentarily illuminated the dim crater, a cold iron light flashing.
"Roar------"
A muffled piercing sound, the mecha holding the knife half-kneeling on the Fire Scorpion's body.
The Fire Scorpion suddenly howled, its tail straightened, its black pearl-like middle eye trembling a few times, then columns of fire from the ground, wrapped in yellow sand, spewed out.
The long knife fully penetrated the Fire Scorpion's upper abdominal segment, one foot stepping on its head, kicking forcefully to leverage, withdrawing the knife to avoid the fire column attacks.
With its protection broken and itself provoked, the Fire Scorpion became somewhat frenzied.
Gu Qinxue immediately followed behind Chen Sui, Xuebai jumping nimbly, burning flames following its steps, scorching the Fire Scorpion's abdominal segment and seeping into the wound, energy particles disrupting the regeneration fluctuation.
"Regeneration 7," Chen Sui read the seconds, grabbed Xuebai's long ears with a backhand, threw it toward Gu Qinxue's position, then quickly left the Fire Scorpion's vicinity, avoiding the surrounding scorpion swarm.
The Fire Scorpion's rage made it quickly pursue the person who had injured it.
Chen Sui poured energy liquid on her mecha's arm, the dispersing energy particles enticing the Fire Scorpion's desire, making it eager to tear apart this nonsensical iron lump, then devour her energy.
The narrow path was about a dozen meters long, with outputs from both academies jumping back and forth on the left and right mountain rocks.
The scorpion swarm was endless, with spiritual bodies releasing energy during movement, wind, fire, lightning, and electricity all erupting, creating a somewhat chaotic scene.
Chen Sui reached the narrow path entrance first. Just as she was about to land from the mountain rock, her foot stepping on the yellow sand, she suddenly felt something amiss, immediately stepping back.
She collided with Gu Qinxue who was closely following her. Gu Qinxue instinctively raised her arm, supporting it against the other mecha's lower back, stabilizing Chen Sui's posture.
Then she saw her swinging her long knife.
"Swoosh------"
The blade edge cut through the air waves, the sound of breaking wind arising simultaneously with the sharp cutting sound.