Chapter 144: Bewitching Butterfly (3)

A ferocious explosion ensued, laying waste to a vast area. Hundreds of feet away the shockwaves could still be felt, and the three Su Chen targeted received the brunt force of it.

Jin Ling’er was at the nucleus of the explosion, and the violent waves of energy rocked the Bewitching Butterfly into the air, breaking her magic barrier. Several aftershocks slammed into Jin Ling’er, causing her to spit out a mouthful of blood.

With sword in hand, streaks of light erupted forth in a final attempt to endure. In the next instant, she met eyes with Su Chen, jolting her mind. That guy even has consciousness-type attacks!?

It was already far too late for Jin Ling’er as an Erupting Firebird came screaming towards her.

Just when it seemed that Jin Ling’er had no way of defending herself, Pan Yue flew forwards with a yell, using his body to intercept the firebird.

Pan Yue was already in a precarious state after the injuries he received earlier on. This forceful interception blasted a giant hole in his chest, causing chunks of blood and gore to rain down.

Before she could blink her eyes, another object flew toward Jin Ling’er.

This time, it was a wine jug. Although it didn’t seem large, Jin Ling’er intuitively knew its size didn’t represent its power.

A cry erupted from her throat at that critical moment. A silver light shot forwards from her sword and slammed into the wine jug.

BANG! The wine jug exploded. Jin Ling’er was sent flying another tens of feet by the powerful waves of energy.

She finally understood where the previous explosion had come from. But she was a step too late yet again.

What awaited her was a vicious punch from Su Chen.

Bang!

Su Chen showed no mercy even though she was a woman. His fist slammed into her face, laying her out.

Su Chen let out a long, deep sigh. His legs swayed beneath him as he almost fell over.

Although the path to victory seemed like a walk in the park, it was narrow and fraught with peril. Su Chen kept a graceful and carefree appearance throughout the battle, but this arduous fight had nearly pushed him to his limits.

Battle mathematics were very strange. When their strengths were roughly equivalent, one plus one was greater than two. When their strengths were far apart, one plus one was less than two.

Su Chen’s strength was at the same level as Pan Yue and the silver-armored youth. When the two of them teamed up, they put a significant amount of pressure on Su Chen. This was not even including Jin Ling’er, who possessed quite considerable strength herself.

Under normal circumstances, he could not possibly have won.

Even if he had the exploding wine jugs, it wouldn’t have made a difference.

Su Chen was very clear that people like Jin Ling’er were very good at protecting themselves. If he were to toss out the wine jug, she would definitely avoid it even if she had never seen it before. She was rather fast and agile as well, which could be seen by the fact that she had released the Jade Dew Fragrance while in midair.

Thus, Su Chen had come to the conclusion to hold out on using this technique at the start, choosing another method instead.

He had purposefully spoken, pointing out the weakness of Jin Ling’er’s Origin Skill to emphasize that as long as he continued to delay, he could defeat her. In the end, Jin Ling’er simply lacked experience, and she fell right into his trap.

In reality, Su Chen was the more likely one of the two to first collapse from exhaustion given the condition he was in. That was, if he could endure the barrage of attacks launched at him.

But once Su Chen had ensnared her with his words, Jin Ling’er lost her cool. She took the initiative to attack, playing right into Su Chen’s hands.

Su Chen’s wine jugs exploded as a result of the mixing of two distinct liquids; depending on the way he mixed it, he could time the moment of explosion.

Su Chen usually twisted the handle of the wine jugs to their maximum, allowing the liquids to mix as fast as possible to generate an instantaneous explosion.

This time, however, Su Chen only twisted the handle a little, causing the liquids to mix at a much slower rate. This method was extensively tested by Su Chen, and he was confident in his ability to get the timing down to the second.

After setting the time for the wine jug to explode, Su Chen had tossed out all of the random objects inside his ring just like they were rubbish.

Of course, these objects posed no threat to those three people, and they would not explode instantaneously, so Jin Ling’er had lost her wariness.

But she had not expected that Su Chen would throw something out that would explode on a delayed timer.

Su Chen was carefully keeping track of time from the very beginning. Right before the explosion was set to occur, he had drawn the three of them into the blast radius.

Everything had been meticulously planned out by him. If any segment of his plan had gone wrong, he definitely would have lost.

Even so, because he had made a small miscalculation, Su Chen was also struck by the remnants of the shockwave. Thankfully, he had applied many barriers to himself in the first place, allowing him to avoid being injured.

Su Chen was exhausted, both mentally and physically, and he was about to collapse.

After knocking Jin Ling’er out, Su Chen glanced at Pan Yue only to discover his corpse. The Erupting Firebird had already taken Pan Yue’s life.

Su Chen stood in a daze, then muttered to himself, “Now that’s what you call an accident.”

Clang!

A noise came from behind him. Su Chen quickly turned around, and found himself looking at the silver-armored youth. Although this youth was struck with the successive wine jugs explosions, he was the first to regain consciousness.

Members of Bloodline Nobility Clans were really annoying to deal with.

Su Chen prepared to face of with this youth, but here seemed to be no need. After the youth gazed at Jin Ling’er, he seemed to remember something as he let out a cry and ran away.

He ran? Su Chen was speechless.

It seemed the intellect of this youth wasn’t particularly praiseworthy. With such a cowardly attitude, it was no surprise he fell victim to Jin Ling’er’s puppet technique.

“Alright, it seems it’s just you and me now.” Su Chen turned around to look at Jin Ling’er.

————————————————

Su Chen was unaware of the turmoil his fight with Jin Ling’er had caused in the high tower.

The exam was already in its third day, with less candidates remaining every minute. The ones still standing received more and more time on the light screen.

Su Chen was one of the few frequently shown, and the battle between him and Jin Ling’er was shown in its entirety.

Su Chen had actually defeated Jin Ling’er, the Bewitching Butterfly?

His nighttime chase was already breathtaking enough, but it was nothing compared to how they felt after watching him beat Jin Ling’er.

Although Jin Ling’er’s martial strength wasn’t anything special, she could control other people, so she always possessed a numbers advantage. Her combat prowess was nothing to look down on, and she could definitely be considered one of the strongest participants in the exam along with Ji Hanyan and Zhong Ding.

For her to fall victim to someone without a bloodline was beyond shocking. Everyone was stunned speechless.

Someone said, “It seems like a new Long Pojun is about to appear. After taking Jin Ling’er’s points, he is destined to be part of the top ten.”

“What Long Pojun? He just used a couple cheap tricks is all. His actual strength is average at best. In a fair fight, he definitely won’t be a worthy opponent for anyone in the top ten. It’s only because he’s crafty and enjoys using sneak attacks that he can contest with the top ten.”

“That’s right! He used those wine jugs quite well, but that’s not his own strength. If they were to have a rematch, Jin Ling’er would definitely not fall for his cheap tricks again.”

“Jin Ling’er was simply too careless, giving him an opportunity to turn the tables on her.”

“Still, he calculated everything while under the pressure of those three. That’s not easy.”

“It’s not easy, but not very useful either. The path of shrewdness and scheming is narrow. When faced with a horde of beasts, no amount of tactics for disturbing the opponent’s state of mind will be useful. Only true strength will reign supreme.”

“You’re absolutely correct. Although he can enter the top ten, he is not Long Pojun. He does not possess the same natural strength.”

“I think you’re wrong. Strength can be trained, intellect can’t. If it were me, I would put my money on that youth.”

“...... Hmm, that actually makes quite a bit of sense.”

“However, this kid ruined any hope for a future in this world. He actually dared to kill a member of the Pan Clan. Hehe, Pan Xiang definitely won’t let him go.”

The various nobles voiced their own opinions. Some were shocked, others had ill intentions, and still others were enraged.

Amongst the large group of people, a few pairs of eyes were fixated on Su Chen, as if they were trying to memorize every facet of his appearance.

A low voice sounded out. “He dared to kill my son. That kid must die!”

At the same time, Su Changche was facing a similar amount of distress.

On one hand, Su Chen had successfully entered the top ten, and many people came forth to congratulate him. But on the other hand, Su Chen had permanently offended a powerful Bloodline Nobility Clan.

What was the Su Clan to do? Su Changche was at a loss.

Su Cheng’an was much calmer. Watching his son kill Pan Yue, the turmoil in his heart found peace.

Someone just so happened to be congratulating him at the time. Su Cheng’an replied in a low voice, “There’s no need to congratulate me. That unfilial boy has not been my son for a long time. Whatever successes he obtains, they have nothing to do with me. Similarly, whatever calamities he invites upon himself, they have nothing to do with me.”

However harsh these words sounded, they were how he truly felt.