Chapter 537: Lesson

Translated by: La0o9

Proofreader: Arya

“O’ destiny! When I wither is when I bloom!”

Su Xue Er loudly chanted the Fog Isle’s incantation.

The 77 cards hovering in the sky released a blinding light.

Given copious amounts of Soul Points, they were ready to showcase their full power.

While Su Xue Er’s figure started to become transparent.

——-this was the symptoms of burning one’s own life force away.

On the other side, the 2-meter tall warrior raised his hand, trying to reach forward.

Bam!

His hand was knocked backwards, his gauntlet itself became hot from the friction.

He finally understood.

Swing his hand, he ordered: “Everyone back off, gather behind me and prepare the defensive formation”

“Boss—–” one of them tried to protest.

“Quickly! She doesn’t care about living anymore, but we can’t follow her to death!” the warrior solemnly declared.

He quickly stepped back and propped a large metal shield in front of himself.

The group quickly regained their composure and gathered behind him, forming their defensive formation even while confused.

It was now too late to run away.

The 77 cards began to weave together as Su Xue Er’s body shined in a blinding holy white light.

Three tornadoes formed around Su Xue Er, drilling through the frozen ground below until they dug through and began to sweep the icy water below to the sky.

Seeing this, the Warrior silently cursed under this breath.

This power is too great.

She hasn’t even attacked and it already looked like that, seems like the little girl really didn’t want to live anymore.

But then—— why?

We were already going to leave.

I already gave the order to avoid complications, stopping them from trying to do anything to her.

Why did she still decide to risk her life?

No matter how much the Warrior thought about it, he still couldn’t understand.

The three tornadoes in the sky dissipated.

But the icy cold stream of water swept up by the tornadoes were frozen in the sky, forming three pillars of shining ice, a miraculous sight never before seen on this frozen wasteland.

The snowstorm had already stopped.

The sky went dark, icy cold fog had hidden the girl away from their sight.

The entire place was plunged into a zone of stifled silence.

This feeling was similar to being in a nightmare, harshly pounding on the mentality of those who felt it.

Although none of them were over 30 years old, they were all experienced veterans who knew their stuff, a few of them were even shaking.

“We definitely have to withstand this attack!” one of them declared in a frenzy.

“That’s right, everyone, full power——” the Warrior shouted.

The group loudly replied: “Defend!”

At this moment, they were using 120% of their power, uniting around the Warrior.

Across from them, the icy cold fog quickly boiled and expanded.

This fog had completely hidden both the ground and the sky, as if it was a great ancient beast, preparing to devour all.

The group gulped, entering a state of total defense.

A fatal strike was about to arrive!!!

Within the icy fog.

Su Xue Er was chanting an incantation in a low voice, gathering the power of all her cards.

Her figure was now even more transparent than before.

Su Xue Er had only a single thought left in her mind.

I don’t have much time left, I need to take this chance and do everything——

Then, her body trembled slightly.

A bright green leaf appeared between her eyebrows.

The leaf seemed to carry an endless amount of life force, instantly reverting her transparent body back to being solid again.

A lapis-colored light poured out, drowning her in it like a green flood.

This was life force that exceeded all else, endless power that normal living beings couldn’t even imagine!

Su Xue Er was stunned.

She noticed that her life force was still being burnt away, but another overflowing source of life force was there replenishing it faster than she could burn it.

This power was completely above her understanding.

Under the effects of this power, all the impurities in her body were completely expelled.

Her body became more pure, capable of forming a closer connection to the heaven and earth, the world, the Law, and Origin.

She could even feel the minute waves of changes that this world was going through.

“This can’t be! I should be close to death… why did I instead advance further and reached the level of normal Gurus?” Su Xue Er was shocked.

She carefully sensed herself and noticed something.

Waving her hand in the air, Su Xue Er took out a silver mirror.

She saw a bright green leaf between her eyebrows, fluttering in the wind.

Su Xue Er then recalled.

The wooden woman Gu Qing Shan and I met back in Infini-worlds Town.

She claimed to be an acquaintance of Teacher’s, and gave me a leaf after we ate dinner together.

“It’s her…” Su Xue Er muttered.

Right after that, a purple card came out from Su Xue Er’s body and shattered in the air.

“No! My [Fate Substitution] card!”

Su Xue Er hurriedly called out.

But she didn’t have time to do anything else.

A faint figure appeared, caught her and brought her away in a flash.

…

Aboul.

It was now the dead of night, but the party in Aboul wasn’t over.

The Bramble Bird princess’ coming of age ceremony would continue for three days and three nights.

Everyone was partying their hearts out, enjoying the generosity of the Bramble Bird royal family.

An observatory at the highest floor of the hotel.

The wooden woman stood still.

She stood as if she was separated from the hustle and bustle below, as if she was a god overseeing the world.

A royal guard came, knelt on one knee and respectfully spoke: “Heart of all wood, Spirit of the Holy Tree, Witness of the Old Gods, close friend of the Bramble Birds, esteemed Lady Tethys, I brought a message to you”

The wooden woman didn’t even turn around: “Speak”

“Madame Triste inquired the progress of your investigation”

The wooden woman, Tethys laughed: “I really must say, although your princess is naughty, she is one with impressive talents”

“You mean?”

“I’ve found——”

She suddenly went silent.

“Lady Tethys?” the royal guard asked.

“Wait a minute, I need to deal with a bit of personal business before we continue” Tethys replied.

She raised her hand.

A green flame erupted from her hand before enveloping her.

The royal guard quickly stepped back.

At first he just looked at the expanding flame without moving, but then he thought that observing another’s personal business was unbecoming of Bramble Bird etiquette, so he went down the observatory to wait until she finished with her business.

The Spirit of the Holy Tree, Lady Tethys was now standing inside the green flame.

“So it really is Bloodcloak’s [Fate Substitution] technique, the exact same irritating technique it always was”

Recalling the past, she couldn’t help but shake her head.

In the past, Lord Bloodcloak also used this technique on her, eventually earning him her fury. From then on, there was no longer a chance for the two of them to become anything else but acquaintances.

“The master is a self-righteous idiot, and the disciple was taught to be just as much of an idiot”

Lady Tethys appeared a bit angry: “Not saying a single word, arbitrarily deciding something for others, you think yourself as some sort of hero?”

She muttered, but her hands didn’t stop and she was preparing another spell.

Since that time, to prevent others from trying to take on something else for her, she has been specifically researching a spell to return fate to their original owner.

“And now, I’m going to break your [Fate Substitution] card”

The spell activated.

Tethys appeared triumphant as her gaze peered towards the vast night sky, observing the two whose fate had been returned to normal.

Very briefly, she noticed something strange.

Without the fate card and the spell she used to dispel it, she wouldn’t have, or rather couldn’t possibly have noticed such a situation.

“Strange, why is he in that world right now?”

“Laura as well… what exactly is going on!?”

Tethys’ expression became solemn.

She had seen countless worlds being born then destroyed, experienced too many things, so she could instantly make a few guesses of various situations.

Which caused her to be cautious.

“It’s her world, so I won’t be able to do too much without alerting her”

Tethys muttered as she prepared another spell.

“I need a temporary Phase Interface…” (1)

The green flame in Tethys’ hand turned into a faint figure of her before disappearing into the void of space.

The faint figure had travelled through space and split into two parts. One part appeared where Su Xue Er was and the other part where Gu Qing Shan was.

The figure quickly caught Su Xue Er and disappeared from Triste’s world.

…

Fog Isle.

Lord Bloodcloak was standing in his personal library silently observing a card.

The card depicted Su Xue Er.

Her portrait on the card was becoming dim, about to disappear from it.

Lord Bloodcloak found that unexpected, muttering: “It’s just a simple call of the Bramble Bird, how could it be tough to this degree?”

He lightly waved his hand, summoning hundreds of blood-glowing cards from the void of space.

“Blood Sea Death Substitution, prepare”

He ordered.

The hundreds of cards all glowed red as they surrounded the card with Su Xue Er’s portrait.

All of a sudden, Lord Bloodcloak sensed something and pointed at the void of space: “Allow entry”

A crack opened in space as Tethys’ faint figure appeared with Su Xue Er.

“Tethys, it’s been a long time” Lord Bloodcloak smiled and greeted her.

“This is your disciple, take care of her” Tethys coldly replied.

“What happened? Did she cause trouble?”

“No, she’s an idiot just like you. She thought she could trap her boyfriend and tried to take on something for him”

Tethys glanced at him coldly before jumping back into the crack in space and disappeared.

“Wait a—– Tethys!” Lord Bloodcloak loudly called out.

But she was already gone.

Lord Bloodcloak sighed and turned to Su Xue Er and asked: “My dear disciple, what is this about exactly?”

Su Xue Er also sighed.

“Teacher, I was in too much of a hurry at the time. Thinking back, I should’ve told you about this first”

“It’s like this…”

Within the empty House of Law, the teacher listened as his disciple slowly made things clear.

“It seems a full-scale war for the 900 million World Layers is about to begin” Lord Bloodcloak sighed and said.

“Teacher, will you also participate?”

“Of course, this isn’t something one can simply ignore”

Lord Bloodcloak returned to his seat, took out a bottle of wine, poured a glass for Su Xue Er before pouring one for himself.

“Come, my disciple, let us have a drink while we talk”

Normally, this meant that he was about to teach her something.

Su Xue Er then received her glass: “Yes”

The two of them took a sip.

Sure enough, Lord Bloodcloak asked her: “Xue Er, do you know what you did wrong?”

“I discovered the truth but hid it from you?”

“That is one thing, but more importantly, you shouldn’t have kept it a secret from your lover and try to take everything on by yourself”

Su Xue Er was stunned.

Lord Bloodcloak laughed deprecatingly and spoke: “You really are my student, being similar to me to this degree. But I must tell you, doing this will only cause your other half to feel pained”

“Pained?”

“Indeed” Lord Bloodcloak sighed and told her.

At this moment, he didn’t seem at all like a top-level Combatant of the 900 million World Layers, instead he was like a middle-aged man who had no luck with love.

“I made a mistake just like you did once. It wasn’t until years later did I know just how stupid of a mistake I, and similarly you, had made”

“But if I didn’t take it on for him, how would he be able to face the fate of certain death, this couldn’t be helped at all”

Su Xue Er shook her head.

“How do you know he couldn’t face his fate?” Lord Bloodcloak asked her in return.

“The fortune telling card showed his fate very clearly—– either he would die, or become demonized” Su Xue Er answered.

She worriedly added: “Now that fate has returned to its original course, I’m worried he might die in that dire environment”

Lord Bloodcloak laughed and asked her: “Then tell me, how did you trap him in the inn?”

“The [Witch’s kiss], [Binding Oath] and [Lord’s Protection]” Su Xue Er replied.

“What Tethys said just now meant that your boyfriend has already escaped from these traps, tell me, how did he do it?”

Su Xue Er froze.

“These three layers of traps, can you yourself escape from them?” Lord Bloodcloak asked again.

Su Xue Er couldn’t help but think about it.

[Lord’s Protection] is impossible with my current strength.

[Binding Oath], if I risk my life until I’m an inch from death, I might have a tiny chance to dispel it.

[Witch’s kiss]’s dispel condition is too special so I won’t be able to escape it as well.

“I can’t. I wouldn’t be able to escape from even the first layer” Su Xue Er answered, then became flushed.

Wait a minute!

How did Gu Qing Shan escape from the [Witch’s kiss] then…

Su Xue Er fell into a strange silence.

“Do you see? You don’t know too many things, yet you expect to take everything on for him. This in itself is a kind of unfair treatment” Lord Bloodcloak began his lesson.

Note:

(1) phase interface: Quoting Wikipedia “In the physical sciences, an interface is the boundary between two spatial regions occupied by different matter, or by matter in different physical states. … In thermal equilibrium, the regions in contact are called phases, and the interface is called a phase boundary”. Read more about it here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interface_(matter)

Yes, the author actually used these words. No, I couldn’t find another word to replace it that would make the same sense. If you find it hard to imagine, think of it as the overlapping part of a Venn diagram where the two circles are the worlds.