Cohabitation with Sword Spirit-Chapter 339 - 76: Another Use for the Mushroom Cloud

Chapter 339: Chapter 76: Another Use for the Mushroom Cloud

When Li Xinyu snapped out of his daze, he found himself standing outside the competition arena, surrounded by silence. Dozens of eyes were focused on him, making the usually thick-skinned chubby guy feel a bit restless.

What’s going on? He clearly remembered walking into the circle, waiting for Mr. Wang Jiu to help him defeat Shen Bailin, win the birthday banquet tickets, flirt with sexy maids, and reach the peak of his life... How did it suddenly feel like he was sent back to a few seconds ago?

If this is a time travel, it’s way too short-lived! Please let me travel back five years, will you? I’ll definitely work hard to lose weight and get fit, become a handsome guy, and make those star-struck sisters fall head over heels for me!

However, the chubby guy’s prayer had no effect. As he was dumbfounded, he heard the icy voice of Instructor Shen Herong in his ear: "Li Xinyu defeated, time taken: 3 seconds."

The chubby guy was stunned for a full five seconds before incredulously shouting, "Impossible! This is impossible! How could I be defeated? You can’t have double standards! Why is it that Sister Qingming’s self-destruction counts as a win, but mine counts as a loss? Just because I’m ugly and fat, does that mean I have no rights, no achievements? If that’s the case, Shen Feihong is uglier than I am, so why does he have achievements?"

The words hadn’t fully left his mouth when a flash of pink sword light swept before his eyes, and Li Chaolu’s Hundred Flowers Sword Qi mercilessly struck him on the head. Known for its dazzling variety, the sword qi was refined by the girl until it resembled a heavy hammer. The unsuspecting chubby guy was smashed into an ancient turtle posture, with half of his head retracting into his chest cavity and the residual shock making the fat on his cheeks ripple like waves...

The Outer Courtyard youths standing by, who were ready to scold this foul-mouthed fatty, especially the girl with unique aesthetics who deeply loved Shen Feihong and had already unsheathed her weapon... when they saw the chubby guy’s tortoise-patterned rapid movement, they were all horrified and dared not speak more.

Right after, they saw the chubby guy raise his hands, grab his chin that had sunken in, and yank his head out. His fatty flesh was rippling, still with a silly smile on his face.

"Chaolu, there you go being naughty again. Didn’t we agree not to hit me casually?"

The chubby guy’s line was complaining, but his face clearly radiated with happiness.

"Of course, if your hands really itch and you want to hit a couple more times, that’s fine too. I’m just here, hit me whenever you like!"

Li Chaolu snorted, "In your dreams, I’m afraid it’s dirty. I hit you because you were in the way, get lost quickly since you’ve already been eliminated."

Only then did Li Xinyu realize that he was indeed eliminated.

"What on earth happened? Did I not self-destruct successfully?" After saying this, the chubby guy looked at Wang Jiu with immense confusion, "Mr. Wang Jiu, was there an unexpected event?"

Wang Jiu said, "No unexpected event. I didn’t install a self-destruct device on you, so you fought Shen Bailin with your own abilities. Thanks to your thick layer of fat, when Shen Bailin used the heavy sword to cut you in half, it took an extra 0.02 seconds, so your defeat time was 2.17 seconds, placing you fifth from the bottom in the regular speed competition, which is not bad."

"How is that not bad!? Fifth from the bottom out of over a hundred people! It didn’t highlight my charm at all, much less make the beauties of the Outer Courtyard fall for me!?"

The words hadn’t finished when the outer courtyard beauty couldn’t help but refute, "Shameless self-destruction, what’s charming about that!?"

Li Xinyu chuckled, "That’s because you haven’t seen my mushroom... cloud." As he spoke, the chubby guy turned his head, and two eyes stared straight at the challenging beauty who instinctively stepped back a few steps.

Shen Family people wouldn’t step back out of fear, but for disgust... it’s understandable.

Seeing the other party retreat, Li Xinyu became even more pleased, "Miss, you don’t know, my brother’s mushroom is long and large, and thanks to all this oil on my body, the surface of the mushroom is exceptionally smooth..."

"Ahhh!" The outer courtyard beauty finally couldn’t take it, screamed, and fled in panic.

Li Xinyu regretfully shook his head, then asked Wang Jiu, "Anyway, with my score at the bottom, isn’t it true I won’t be able to attend the birthday banquet?"

Li Chaolu said next to him, "I asked Mr. Wang Jiu to have you eliminated."

Li Xinyu was shocked, "Why!?"

"Anyway, the main character of this birthday banquet isn’t you, you really have no need to attend. It’s better to leave the spot for someone who truly needs it. Besides, if you went, you’d probably just gorge yourself, get drunk, and use that as an excuse to harass the Inner City maids, right?"

Li Xinyu was dumbfounded, "How do you know!?" Then he was delighted, "As expected of siblings, we’re truly telepathic!"

As soon as the words fell, a second Hundred Flowers Iron Hammer came crashing down.

"Who shares a telepathic connection with you! How revolting!?"

——

In any case, under Li Chaolu’s manipulations, Li Xinyu was eliminated and missed the birthday banquet. As for everyone else, they naturally advanced without suspense.

Li Chaolu, the third contestant, specifically used the Hundred Flowers Hand to activate the Spirit Stone, successfully forming the Hundred Flowers Seal within 0.42 seconds at the start, and simultaneously detonating all the Spirit Stones to create an even bigger Qingyu-colored mushroom cloud, securing victory and temporarily ranking first.

The fourth to appear was Li Wanqing, who also chose the Spirit Stone Self-Destruction Technique in a plain manner, with speed between Li Wanqing and Shen Qingming. Her choice somewhat disappointed the Outer Courtyard members.

People initially expected this Li Family cultivation genius to compete honorably against the Shen Family Outer Courtyard elites.

With Shen Feihong’s astounding record of 5 seconds, if not using a method like Spirit Stone Self-Destruction, could it be further compressed? Is there a faster method within similar realms?

Who would have thought this genius girl would lack a bit of expert pride, unhesitatingly choosing a shortcut that seemed like cheating to overtake others?

To this kind of complaint, Li Wanqing simply scoffed.

"I’d be crazy to compete with that gorilla in brute force. I’m already half a step behind in the True Essence Realm, without a Divine Weapon like Silver Frost. Winning would indeed be a miracle. Attacking the enemy’s strength with one’s weakness, and she’s not even some magical girl, why would I do such a thankless and foolish thing?"

By now, of the 5 Li Family members, 3 have secured qualifications to attend the City Lord’s birthday banquet.

The last to appear was Wang Jiu.

His appearance also attracted many eyes.

This leader of the Li Family envoy was long not regarded as a peer. Though he appeared quite young and his True Essence Fluctuation not strong, that unfathomable mystery made it seem as if he belonged to a different world than everyone else.

So, what choice would such a master make? Would he also choose the unbecoming Spirit Stone Self-Destruction? Or was there at least one among the Li Family’s five who would fight honorably?

And if Wang Jiu decided to fight honorably, what would his performance be like, could he surpass Shen Feihong?

——

For the Celestial Divine Sword, dealing with the likes of Shen Bailin’s Cloud Flipping Realm projection certainly wouldn’t use any Spirit Stone Self-Destruction Technique.

Because the Spirit Stones were already used up.

The biggest issue with the Spirit Stone Self-Destruction Technique is its extremely high-cost explosion, lacking cost-effectiveness even more than Qian Family’s Qiankun Throw. Triggering over a thousand entangled activated Spirit Stones just barely simulates a strike from a Mountain-Overturning Realm expert, which is quite inefficient in terms of efficiency.

Extracting activated Spirit Stones from ordinary Spirit Stones involves a 50% loss, and entangling activated Spirit Stones causes further loss, meaning one Self-Destruction of Spirit Stones is enough to bankrupt some small families. 𝙧𝙚𝙚𝔀𝒆𝓫𝓷𝙤𝓿𝒆𝙡.𝒄𝙤𝓶

Before leading the team to Shen City, Wang Jiu had only about ten thousand Spirit Stones in cash, and after a period of luxurious expenses at places like the Divine Sword Tower, the remaining Spirit Stones were only enough for three explosions, and even though the Dream Transformation Cave Mansion could convert all damage into illusions, consumed Spirit Stones wouldn’t regenerate.

Even though Shen Qingming had a ten-thousand Spirit Stone check, clearly, checks couldn’t explode.

Moreover, in the view of the Celestial Divine Sword, the Spirit Stone Self-Destruction Technique was still too slow.

To ensure the activated Spirit Stones wouldn’t prematurely explode from bumps before battle, they must be suppressed with a Rapid Freeze Seal. During combat, to guarantee simultaneous detonation of thousands of Spirit Stones and the overlapping of shockwaves, one must break the Rapid Freeze Seal at the unique moment of activation, and the time to make the seal and transition from activation to explosion together is way too long for the Celestial Divine Sword.

Next, under the gaze of the crowd, Wang Jiu stepped forward and crossed the boundary line. Simultaneously, with the Sword Spirit True Form hand on the sword hilt, the index and middle fingers lightly tapped the remnant "Jiu" character of the Nine Provinces Sword King.

The next moment, as the forward step fell, the text on the sword hilt emitted invisible ripples.

In the Sword World, a heavy bell sharply rang, the sound waves swelling, bursting outward from the Sword World!

Boom!

A silent roar raged throughout the field, spreading beyond the boundary, and the boundary line theoretically capable of separating the virtual from the real couldn’t withstand this roar! Everyone outside the circle seemed to hear a harsh screeching noise in their ears, like knives stabbing into their brains, causing unbearable pain and stars to dance before their eyes.

Fortunately, though painful, the roar caused no actual harm, and after clutching their heads, the Outer Courtyard youths felt the symptoms gradually ease. They hurriedly looked back toward the field.

Inside, Wang Jiu had already turned around and was stepping toward the exit. Behind him, the grand competition arena was empty; the Cloud Flipping Realm power of Shen Bailin had vanished without a trace!

As for Wang Jiu, he was still dressed in snow-white clothing, calm and composed, appearing like an immortal, no different from before! A faint smile spread across his face, as if this had been merely an impromptu game rather than an intense battle.

Much later, Shen Herong looked incredulously at the settlement results returned from the Battle Array Map and announced, "Wang Jiu wins, in a time of...0.28 seconds."