Applied Immortality

“I just went through an upgrade, and he delivers himself before me so I can gauge the improvement.” Wang Qi beamed. “How thoughtful is that?”

“That’s altruism; is that what you wanted me to say? We both know he’s stirring crap up, yet you still want to jump in. What are you, a dung beetle?”

“You wound me! My guess is that giving him a covert setback will make the Immortal Institute leadership turn a blind eye.”

The trouble picked up again in the meantime.

Du Bin thrust his longsword forward, and Mao Zimiao’s strained muscles burst into action. 

[Shit!] Wang Qi rushed as well.

The disciple Wang Qi talked with saw nothing but black for a moment, and then Wang Qi was gone. The audience watched the demonborn and human with rapt attention, gawking at the ridiculous development from a fight to something else.

The fiery Mao Zimiao held her ear and jumped back with a red face. It wasn’t anger, but indignation. Du Bin just stood dumbstruck as the longsword flew out of his hand, over the crowd, and planting on a table.

“What the hell?” The crowd whispered, with the few stronger disciples among them seeing some parts. The full story was soon pieced together.

Wang Qi ignored their chattering, the smug grin never leaving his face as he gave Mao Zimiao a two-finger salute, “Yo!”

Let’s go back and watch it all unfold in slow-motion.

After Zhen Chanzi analyzed Du Bin’s motivation, Wang Qi figured out his reasoning. Du Bin’s swordsmanship intimidated Mao Zimiao. From Wang Qi’s assessment, Du Bin’s sword would’ve never gone for Mao Zimiao. If she couldn’t restrain herself, it would’ve been her who attacked first.

An attack on a fellow student at the Immortal Institute resulted in deducted merits. The teachers knew Du Bin instigated this, but Mao Zimiao would be labeled rash and impulsive. By harming the other student, in the case of a demonborn like her, the odds were high she would be expelled. This hidden ploy was nothing short of ruining her future education.

Why then did Du Bin go after Mao Zimiao of all people? Wang Qi didn’t bother thinking too hard. It was most likely along the line of extreme hate for the ‘savage demonborns’ that went to his head. 

Finding out Du Bin’s goal, Wang Qi’s disgust for clan disciples exploded. If there was one type of people he hated, even back on Earth, it was the useless fools willing to drag others down with them.

It was why he jumped in before Mao Zimiao got to strike.

His interference would cause Du Bin to fail. [I won’t even get my merits deducted. In fact, I might even be praised for putting this crap stirrer in his place!]

Yep, that was the gist of it, and certainly not over that foolish cat.

And what if he did get his merit deducted? [Ha! Wasting a few points over cutting some coward down to size? Worth it!]

The real reason for his joy was Wang Qi uniting all those cultivation methods last night. It was the only reason he could even do something like stopping this fight.

Wang Qi kicked things off with Celestial Entropy. Warmth enveloped him and gave him the speed to vanish from the sight of Nurturer disciples.

Celestial Entropy’s true function was to raise temperature, which translated into heightened molecule activity within the body. The complementary art to the Celestial Entropy pointed all this activity in one direction.

Wang Qi revved Grand Ripple Enigma to the max as he moved. The ripples around him turned into blades, and he focused them on his shoulders. As he barged into the cat-and-dog fight, his shoulder touched Du Bin’s longsword.

Thousands of years ago, when the nine demon kings raised hell, the eighth demon king was an ancient sword that gained sentience from being soaked in blood and malice. It had the sword energy to pierce the heavens, yet this same incredible power ended up being cut in two by a hand chop from Harmony Coalition’s Unfettered, Creation Severer Broglie.

Wang Qi was no Creation Severer Broglie, but neither was Du Bin’s longsword, the Golden Sword Demon King. Either way, the pointy end didn’t so much as pass the ripples. In fact, the strong and sharp waves damaged Du Bin’s spiritual sword. 

Meanwhile, Wang Qi took his sweet time touching Mao Zimiao’s ears and rubbing them.

The ears are sensitive to a cat demon, and Mao Zimiao would stop any that got handsy. Under this violation, she, of course, jumped back in shame.

Mao Zimiao felt aggrieved as she heard him. “What’s ‘yo’ supposed to mean, nya? Why the hell did you butt in, nya?”

Wang Qi put on a sincere face and said, “Saying hi. I had a major breakthrough last night and am dying to share the good news upon seeing there’s a good friend around, A’Zimiao.”

“Read the room, nya!”

Wang Qi ignored Du Bin all this time, joking with Mao Zimiao instead. The blatant disregard had the Doberman fuming. “Brother Wang, must you stick out for these savages?”

Wang Qi acted like he only knew he saw Du Bin, turning around and being all cordial. “Oh, Little Du, you’re here too?”

Mao Zimiao’s face fell.

It was hard to come up with a reason to fight nice people, and Du Bin’s anger deflated at the other’s smile. “Brother Wang doesn’t understand the situation?”

Wang Qi shrugged, playing innocent.

“I have a score to settle with this demonborn.”

“Don’t care.” Wang Qi cut him off and stepped aside. “I just love a good show.”

Du Bin gave him a doubtful look, caught off-guard by his quick withdrawal. [Did he step into my sword’s path on purpose?]

Then again, the act didn’t stop him from recalling the flying sword he had refined. Du Bin ignored him as he called, “Sword!”

Mao Zimiao looked to be crying.

[So damn fickle! Showboat!]

Wang Qi was jovial, staring at Mao Zimiao in expectation of her next expression.

“Little Du, are you having trouble recalling a flying sword you refined?”

Du Bin looked awkward as he reached out a hand for his longsword to fly into.

He found that the flying sword was badly damaged.

The mere brush with Wang Qi resulted in the violent waves breaking the flying sword’s art sealed inside. The damage was so great that Du Bin had a hard time controlling the flying sword.