Heroic Spirits at Play

In the fierce winds of the dark night, a completely unknown power appeared aboard the Zhiyuan, filling the once-empty White Bone Mark. The hull, damaged by the initial magic attack, slowly repaired itself.

"Your fellow countrymen know their stuff," Zijin said, rising to her feet in the wind atop the deckhouse. She clasped her hands and stretched them out in front of her. "But what they're asking is really putting me on the spot."

"Why do I get the feeling you're itching to do it?" Su Ming exposed her without mercy.

"I have a temper too, you know, after being chased and beaten this whole time!" Zijin rolled her shoulders. "That ship hit me hard just now. I thought I'd have to wait a while to get revenge-but it feels great to settle the score right away!"

Once she was on the battlefield, Zijin's scholarly demeanor vanished completely.

But this was Su Ming's fault, so he quickly controlled the White Bone Mark to dismantle the sails and masts and reassemble them into the deckhouse. The Zhiyuan returned to its original form as a steam warship, and its speed inevitably dropped sharply.

The bone platform beneath Zijin's feet rose, and she focused on deploying a magic circle.

Multicolored patterns appeared across the entire ship. Its structures were rearranged down to the finest details, and channels for Magic Power formed along the bones, carrying an increasingly swift flow.

White Bone Fortress, spell attack configuration!

Su Ming also switched the White Bone Mark's mode and activated every relevant node. A vast amount of Magic Power began to synchronize, merging with Zijin.

White Bone Mark, spell amplification form!

Startled, Zijin tried to stop him, but after Su Ming joined the Magic Power synchronization, he actually managed to withstand the intense magical pressure.

He's improving so fast! she marveled inwardly.

Ahead, the commander of the Fusang watched the scene in bafflement, unable to understand why the enemy, who had been about to leave, had suddenly slowed down. But this gave the Fusang another chance to attack, and he quickly organized a broadside.

The Zhiyuan executed a remarkably smooth Z-shaped maneuver, dodging most of the shells. The few that posed a threat were intercepted by Zijin.

"Su Ming, my bounty's going to go up again." Miss Scholar sounded deeply aggrieved.

"Isn't it said that once you have enough lice, a few more won't make you itch?"

The girl turned sideways and held her right arm out level. She wasn't holding the Divine Favor Scepter; it floated on its own in the sea breeze, parallel to her arm.

The scepter first took on the cyan glow of the wind element, followed by the red of fire, the blue of water, and the yellow of earth, until it was multicolored. Then came the radiance of light, and finally it was wrapped in dark black, settling into stillness without another ripple.

The once-surging fluctuations of Magic Power aboard the Zhiyuan grew weaker and weaker, until they even disappeared. A noticeable negative Magic Power pressure formed across the surrounding sea, as though an elemental black hole had silently appeared there.

Three kilometers away, an unknown force locked onto the Fusang from afar.

The officers aboard the Fusang went pale. This was already beyond their comprehension. As a weapon of destruction at sea, the Songstress Class's sharpest weapons were range and maneuverability, but today they had been mocked again and again.

"Six Points · Deathrattle · Divine Decree!"

Zijin hadn't spoken the words, but everyone present heard the voice.

The phantom image of an ancient-looking cannon shell appeared out of nowhere and shot forth.

"Evasive action!" the Fusang's first mate cried.

But it was meaningless. In the next instant, the Fusang's entire superstructure was riddled with holes, then collapsed with a thunderous crash!

Amid the flying fragments of wreckage, every one of the Fusang's cannons was blown away, and sailors and officers lay sprawled across the deck. Shells and propellant powder were scattered everywhere, yet none of them detonated.

Under such a terrifying attack, nobody was hurt or killed?!

"No explosion?" The scholar was extremely surprised by the result. She glanced at the Divine Favor Scepter beside her. It seemed she hadn't killed a single person since she started using it.

In the end, the scholar attributed it to the enemy's shitty luck.

But the people on the other side didn't think so. The sudden turn of events had already left them trembling with fear. To encounter such an unreasonable enemy, they must have had the worst luck in eight lifetimes!

The captain of the Fusang steadied his trembling hand, picked up the signal pistol from the ground, and thrust it into the arms of the still-shaken messenger beside him. "Now, three blue flares. Announce that we're withdrawing from the battle!"

Three brilliant blue flares rose into the sky, then floated slowly downward, bringing faint glimmers of light to the dark battlefield.

"What willful heroic spirits." Zijin sensed the satisfied points of light drifting away one by one. Soaking wet, she lay spread-eagle atop the deckhouse, watching them vanish beneath the canopy of stars. "Is everyone in your world like this?"

"Yes." Su Ming closed his eyes. Although the battle hadn't lasted long, the moment he relaxed, exhaustion filled his entire body.

He sensed those presences departing. "They're thanking me for my spatial and undead abilities, for giving them a chance to play in the mortal world-I'll never dare choose names carelessly again."

"I think the people on the other side are the ones who should regret choosing the wrong name," Zijin said.

"By the way, Su Ming, are you really not a combat-class professional in your world?" she continued.

With more than a dozen battleship cannons trained on him, he had calmly searched for an opening and turned the situation around. That wasn't something an ordinary person should have been able to do.

Su Ming thought for a moment and decided to explain. "Maybe it has something to do with games."

Not ordinary games, but hardcore war games with teams of fifty.

Su Ming had loved them in college and had worked his way up to commanding his team.

Whenever things grew intense, a mistake in judging the situation or a bombing order that missed its target could cause the battle to fall apart in an instant, wasting an hour of effort from every team member.

It had taken him about three years to go from being unable to bear the pressure of failure to calmly handling all kinds of setbacks. Through countless reviews and accusations, he had painfully corrected his bad habits and shortcomings amid regret and reflection.

When facing a crisis, whether what hung in the balance was the outcome of a game or a real battle, the principle was the same. Only by staying calm was there a chance; panic would inevitably lead to failure.

At that moment, Su Ming had achieved a tranquil state of mind as if through muscle memory. Only belatedly had he realized that he wasn't tapping on a keyboard or facing a virtual contest, but fighting a duel to the death.

"That's possible?" Zijin looked utterly bewildered. "You can actually get that kind of experience without risking your life for it?"

"I don't know either, but practice in similar situations probably helps."

"That makes sense." The girl thought for a moment. "I should also put your training on the schedule."

"What training?"

Zijin didn't answer. Instead, she looked up at the night sky, where a tiny black speck was arriving belatedly in the distance.

It was Archbishop Stanton.

From far away, he had sensed the arrival of that vaguely familiar fluctuation, then watched it brutally shave the Fusang bald.

So back at Cuian Sea Cliff, had he been hopping around in front of something that terrifying? Stanton recalled the incident in horror, immensely grateful that he had activated Bone Dragon Illusion first and put on his act faster.

He took a deep breath and made a token pursuit of the Zhiyuan. After all, he had been flying for so long that it was only natural he had no strength left to accelerate and was eventually left behind.

Zijin waved gently toward the horizon, then said to Su Ming, "I'm going to sleep for a bit. You keep at it."

"Give me a minute. I'll take you back to your room."

Su Ming sat up in his chair and steered the Zhiyuan back toward the east, while pushing the boiler and steam engines to maximum power.

Forward!