The moment Xu Le heard White Cicada say those words, excitement stirred in his calm heart.
Had his preparations, arrangements, and ritual really succeeded?
It felt like a dream.
But before her words had faded, before his excitement could fully erupt, time seemed to suddenly stop.
An icy presence surged out of his body.
This power was entirely different from the Guyinduo Soul Tree, and vastly unlike the Veteran's Soul.
If he had to describe it, he could distinctly sense that this power was red.
The crimson of blood!
It felt like some reward he had received for completing the ritual.
This power came from the Red Moon.
Xu Le felt it flow throughout his body, circling and probing as though searching for something inside him.
Eventually, the icy presence stopped before the Guyinduo Soul Tree.
It began to accumulate, forming a pool. The more water gathered, the colder Xu Le became.
Before the pool stood the Guyinduo Soul Tree.
At its center hung the Red Moon.
A feeling of transcendence arose in Xu Le's heart.
"An elevation of my fundamental essence? Things are different now."
The Red Moon shone upon the Guyinduo Tree, and the tree began to absorb the pool of red water before it.
As the tree absorbed it, the water dwindled, and the chill in Xu Le's heart began to subside.
The Red Moon at the center of the pool grew indistinct.
After an unknown length of time, the blue Guyinduo Soul Tree had turned red.
When the two merged into one...
Xu Le clutched his head. His once-vague grasp of that special ability gradually became clear.
He slowly opened his eyes and looked at the Guyinduo Soul Tree in his mental world.
The prompts appeared again, no longer distorted or blurred.
Clear and precise.
That was the power of the Guyinduo Fruit.
Xu Le's pupils shifted slightly, red replacing their original deep brown.
At last, he had fully mastered his innate abilities:
-------- Forbidden Warlock LV1-Spirit Medium. Talent 1-Guyinduo Fate. Talent 2-Guyinduo Secret Language. Ability 1-Medium Summoning: Ancient God, Guyinduo, Red Moon, Evil God. --------
Only now did Xu Le finally understand what his abilities were.
"Talent-Guyinduo Secret Language. That should be this, but what is Guyinduo Fate? And shouldn't my advancement have made me a Red Moon Warlock LV1-Medium? How did it become Forbidden Warlock LV1-Spirit Medium?"
As he puzzled over this, time seemed to resume. Xu Le's first reaction was to look for the black cat.
But the black cat had long since vanished somewhere.
Xu Le set his thoughts aside, looked up at the sky, and nodded slightly.
"Hello, Miss White Cicada."
White Cicada gave Xu Le a faint smile in return.
"At your service, honored Medium."
Was this the voice I heard during that hallucinatory moment in my inner world?
It doesn't quite sound the same...
"Could you help me get rid of him?" Xu Le pointed at Black Cicada.
He couldn't worry about all that now. His first priority was to deal with the monster, Black Cicada!
"Of course!"
White Cicada raised a hand, and countless white phantoms began to gather around her.
Just as Zhang Zhe had said earlier, Black and White Impermanence were twins born as one.
White Cicada was female, and Black Cicada was male.
White excelled at spells, while Black ruled close combat.
The two Oddities specialized in different things, but both were equally powerful level 3 defiler Oddities.
With that, White Cicada sent the white phantoms in the air flying toward Black Cicada.
Black Cicada refused to yield and threw a punch at White Cicada.
Bam!
The white phantoms and black fist collided again.
His fist scattered the white phantoms, but their residual force blasted Black Cicada backward as well.
Already wounded, Black Cicada staggered back more than a dozen steps before barely managing to stop.
White Cicada, meanwhile, floated in the air without budging. She was at her peak.
She would not have feared Black Cicada even at full strength, let alone now.
Black Cicada landed on the ground, his narrow eyes scanning White Cicada as though assessing her current condition.
While he observed White Cicada, she was watching him as well.
The two cicadas stared at each other.
Chirr, chirr, chirr!
Chirr, chirr, chirr!
Their twin cicada cries clashed in the air, shattering the classroom's frosted glass pane by pane.
The glass had never been particularly sturdy. Under the vibration of the sound waves, it shattered instantly.
Everyone covered their ears and retreated.
Only Wang Man, despite also covering her ears, seemed to have some additional resistance to the sound waves.
Wang Man ran excitedly to Xu Le's side. Once the noise weakened a little, she said eagerly:
"Xu Le, you really didn't become an Oddity's slave! You actually succeeded! You became a Warlock!"
The students who had doubted Xu Le fell rather silent. It was hard to tell whether they felt ashamed of their earlier doubts or frustrated by his strength.
Still, watching the black and white cicadas locked in combat, they all breathed sighs of relief.
Helping one another was a central tenet of the Dark Age, but so was hatred of Oddities.
If White Cicada was on their side, they should be safe.
Everything else could wait. At least they had survived, hadn't they?
Elsewhere, Gu Beichen helped Wang Shu up. Looking at Xu Le, Wang Shu murmured:
"He's the one the captain had her eye on. He really did it-he actually became a Medium like Mr. Gan. The captain really does have a good eye for people. Beichen, what do you think of him?"
Gu Beichen raised his head with a slightly arrogant air.
"Not bad."
"He became a Warlock, and he's only 'not bad'? Surely that counts as outstanding?"
"Hmph."
Hearing Wang Shu praise Xu Le, Gu Beichen turned his head away in displeasure. His face all but screamed that he refused to concede.
While everyone watched him, Xu Le, the center of attention, was looking up at White Cicada in the sky.
He, too, had doubts about whether the White Cicada he had summoned could defeat Black Cicada.
Boom!
Another collision. As Black Cicada and White Cicada separated again, a faint ray of light illuminated the ground.
That faint light seemed to dispel the redness and bloodshed.
It lent a touch of holiness to the entire sky.
Dawn had broken!
Black Cicada saw that first ray of morning light, and the murderous viciousness in his eyes quickly receded.
Once the Black Tide passed, Oddities lost their desire to fight. Even Black Cicada was no exception.
He swept his gaze over the surroundings, then fixed his eyes on White Cicada, retreating while keeping his guard up.
As far as he was concerned, White Cicada was the only creature present capable of hurting him.
He only needed to stay wary of her.
Black Cicada's intentions were obvious. Xu Le could also see that he meant to escape.
But Xu Le had no intention of letting him go. An escaped level 3 Oddity was certainly no better than a dead one.
Quite apart from anything else, what if he left behind a Gundo Relic or something? Wouldn't that make everyone happy?
That was how Xu Le saw it, and the others felt much the same.
A dead Oddity was a good Oddity!
"Attack!"
Xu Le's shout was not meant for White Cicada alone.
He figured that, unless Gu Beichen and Wang Shu were particularly slow on the uptake, they should attack together now.
Three forces united-no, Xu Le himself would fire a couple of shots too. That would make it an ambush from four sides.
Bang! Bang!
Xu Le fired twice first. Yes, he spent two bullets and successfully held Black Cicada's attention for over a second.
Just as he expected, Wang Shu had already prepared his attack by the time he fired.
Wang Shu charged straight into Black Cicada's retreat path. His saber swept horizontally, its blade cutting a fierce arc that forced Black Cicada into the sky.
Once airborne, Black Cicada could still adjust his flight by beating his wings.
But he was nowhere near as agile as he had been on the ground.
That gave Gu Beichen an opening.
"Flame Line."
He unleashed Flame Line again. Like a sweeping laser, the red line raked across Black Cicada's wings.
Sizzle!
Even those tough wings could not withstand a Flame Walker's Flame Line.
Gu Beichen might have been arrogant, but his combat instincts were excellent.
With White Cicada here, he no longer needed to aim for the kill himself.
He only had to hold Black Cicada back. White Cicada would surely deliver the final blow.
White Cicada flew toward Black Cicada and brought her hands together, actually forming a gesture that resembled a spell seal.
A cicada's cry also emerged from her mouth.
Once again, Xu Le alone could understand it.
"Guyinduo Secret Art-Lin-Jie-Qian, White Stupa."
White radiance descended onto Black Cicada from above, its splendor almost dazzling.
But only Xu Le, who could see Guyinduo power clearly, knew how sinister and terrifying this move truly was.
The so-called white light was merely the energy emitted by countless white maggots.
These white maggots swiftly attached themselves to Black Cicada and began devouring his body.
Some kind of toxin existed inside Black Cicada's body. After a few bites, the white maggots would die and fall away.
But there were simply too many of them.
Whenever white maggots died, even more took their place and continued feeding.
Chirr, chirr, chirr!
Amid those repeated cicada cries, the maggots devoured Black Cicada bit by bit until nothing remained, and he vanished into the air.
To everyone else, however, White Cicada's White Stupa had looked magnificent, as though beautiful white light were slowly purifying Black Cicada.
The scattered maggots vanished into the air like drifting motes of light.
Black and white alternated, breathtakingly beautiful.
"It's so beautiful!" Wang Man exclaimed sincerely.
"If you could really see it, you wouldn't say that."
Xu Le muttered to himself, walked over to where Black Cicada had disappeared, and crouched down. He felt around for a while, as though searching for something.
Suddenly, sensing something, he raised his head and looked at White Cicada in midair.
"My time is up, honored Medium."
"Thank you."
Xu Le felt somewhat fortunate. White Cicada had actually only been active for six minutes.
If they hadn't acted decisively just now, they might not have managed to stop Black Cicada from escaping.
White Cicada gave Xu Le a slight nod. Then her body distorted, and with a pop, she turned into white smoke and vanished from sight.
The redness in the sky was gradually fading.
Light emerged once more.
The surviving students began cheering with joy, but after a while, they embraced one another and wept.
At that moment, their emotions finally found a true release.
Wang Man scampered over to Xu Le and spread her arms.
Clearly, she wanted a hug.
Xu Le looked at those heaving curves, forced his twitching eyebrows under control, then pushed her away.
"With no woman in my heart, my swordsmanship will be divine. A beauty brings disaster and disrupts my resolve. I only just became a Warlock-a Forbidden Warlock, at that. Even the name sounds wrong. I don't even know whether there are any taboos I have to follow, and you already want to undermine my resolve? Not a chance. Absolutely not!"
"Xu Le..." Wang Man drew out his name, her voice heartfelt, a little bashful and timid.
Xu Le took one look. Fuck, fucking hell. I pushed her in the wrong place.
This damned hand-why was it groping all over the place?
Could Guyinduo Pollution have awakened some unspeakable will in it? I'd definitely have to give it a thorough purification tonight.
Before you continue