Don't disturb the sorcerer's scientific research

Chapter 144: While Jia Xiu was invincible, the tournament organizers were in a state of mental collapse.

When Jashu mentioned that the Radiant Knight had a hole in his hand, the world seemed to fall silent.

Jacob and his friends fell silent.

The commentators fell silent.

The audience fell silent.

Even Ram floated there quietly. He didn't really understand the point of Jashu's hellish joke. The upper limit of the complexity of his jokes was children's books, and this was a bit beyond his comprehension.

As for why he became quiet, it was mainly because he noticed that everyone had suddenly become quiet, so he followed suit and made himself silent.

Trying every possible way to fit in is a way for an oddly-looking freak to survive in this malicious world.

Everyone realized that they had to "thank" Jia Xiu. After he conducted the Radiant Knight Divine Guidance Technique Q&A on the first day, many people asked questions out of curiosity.

Who exactly is the Glorious Knight?

I also learned a lot of historical anecdotes about the Radiant Knights.

The commentators even thoughtfully provided short educational segments on the basics of Radiant Knights during breaks in the battle.

Therefore, most of the audience members present knew the story of the Radiant Knight being nailed to the ground.

That's the most famous thing about Justina; after she was made a demigod, she didn't have a single story worth telling.

Ultimately, her death was the most "spectacular," and it was precisely because her death was so legendary that she was honored as a model.

The people in the audience can now be roughly divided into two types.

Those who believe in the Holy Light are first momentarily stunned, then their anger begins to surge.

They began attacking Jaxiu with all sorts of vicious words and tried to complain to the event organizers, demanding that this blasphemous, depraved, vengeful, and vile sorcerer, who could be described with any negative word in the world, be disqualified from the competition and then handed over to the Inquisition for trial.

A severe sentence is necessary!

They do not worship any specific Radiant Knight, but He is also part of the Holy Light pantheon. As followers of the Holy Light, every member of the pantheon is not to be insulted by them.

For those who do not believe in the Holy Light, the time has come to test their resolve.

If they laugh out loud, the believers of the Holy Light who cannot be caught in Jasius's judgment will probably be judged first for their laughter and venting of anger.

He was convicted of blasphemy because he heard people telling jokes about hell while watching a game.

That's really bad luck.

Margaret was so surprised she couldn't speak. How dare Jassi tell such a joke?
She can't protect it. If the Holy Light Church takes it seriously, even Marcus Aurelius will have a hard time handling it.

The best way to enrage a fanatical believer is to blaspheme.

The severity is even far greater than simply killing believers.

After all, faith in the gods is more important than life itself.

"It's over, it's over, it's all over..."

"What's over?"

Bubu, who was cheering for the leader but didn't understand the joke, asked curiously.

“Jash, the Holy Light Church is very likely to hold him accountable for blaspheming the Radiant Knights.”

“But the boss knows the Radiant Knight,” Bubu blinked and replied, “shouldn’t the Radiant Knight decide whether it’s blasphemy or not?”

It simply couldn't understand where the boss had committed blasphemy.

Upon hearing what Bubu said, Margaret also realized what was happening.

Yes.

Jashu knew the Radiant Knight.

In Gillian's family laboratory, they're still using other people's magic to run experiments.

The demigod would surely know if he told a joke.

The Radiant Knight himself wasn't upset, so why were these believers so anxious?

Realizing this, Margaret immediately went to the commentary booth, hoping to explain things clearly and calm down the almost agitated believers.

As the team leader and teacher at St. Terrell's Academy, and a member of the Capet family, Margaret found a guide without much difficulty.

The commentator was also struggling with how to continue.

The two sides are in a perfect supply and demand relationship.

A few minutes later, the dwarf's strong and powerful voice rang out again.

"Dear viewers, please calm down. We all know that Jia Xiu used divine guidance techniques related to the Radiant Knight multiple times during the competition. He was a person who was granted divine power by the Radiant Knight himself, so his actions should have been permitted. Perhaps the Radiant Knight is a god with a sense of humor, and He is laughing at this joke."

The dwarf's explanation did indeed resonate with many believers.

That makes sense.

The Radiant Knight didn't object either.

For devout believers, the most authoritative authority, even more so than a court of law, is the deity himself.

If the Radiant Knight himself doesn't think it matters, then this joke really doesn't seem to matter either.

It's even quite interesting.

So it seems that the Radiant Knight is actually a very humorous and approachable demigod...

……

Unlike the gradually calming audience, no one on the field helped Jacob and his teammates regain their composure.

The Holy Son Jacob himself was able to barely maintain his composure. He knew that this was Jaxiu's tactic to provoke them and make them give up defending the protective barrier.

On the bright side, this also means that Jia Xiu currently has no way to deal with this barrier.

As long as they can hold on, victory will still be...

Just as Jacob was about to regain his senses, the others in the group lost their composure.

"You blaspheme against the gods! You will be punished!"

Meryl!

Being too fanatical about gods, even for seminaries, is sometimes not a good thing.

Jacob didn't stop immediately, and Meryl ceased her continuous spellcasting and instead channeled a lightning spell, preparing to strike Jash with lightning.

Punishing this blasphemer has temporarily taken precedence over all other matters in her mind.

However, the entire protective barrier was maintained by the entire team, and a single person's magic power could not withstand the frequent firing of the dwarves' rapid-fire guns.

As Meryl stopped casting her spell, a gap immediately appeared in the barrier.

Before the lightning strike even landed, Ram's gun fired, hitting another person in the formation precisely.

Jacob was sweating profusely. He wasn't sure if Ram's reaction was that quick or if he just happened to be lucky and fired as soon as a gap appeared in the barrier.

Although the attack through the gap will not harm the player, the event organizers thoughtfully prepared feedback on the player's experience.

When a spell bullet hits a shield, the remaining shield value, representing health, decreases, and pain is transmitted to the person who was hit.

The sudden pain interrupted his continuous spellcasting.

Before the old gap could be filled, a new one appeared.

What was once a solid and reliable protective barrier has become a leaky structure in the blink of an eye.

The question is whether to continue with the original plan or to launch a direct counterattack and win through sheer strength.

After a brief moment of thought, Jacob decided to hold back and wait for the circle to shrink.

He thought this was a wise show of weakness, in case they started to fight back and Jassiu pulled out some strange thing again.

Jacob quickly assessed the current situation. Although the barrier was incomplete, they could still repair it with small protective spells. As long as they could hold out for the last bit of time, they would be fine.

Meryl!

Meryl, who had been shot, regained some of her senses and realized that if she wanted to punish those who blasphemed the gods, she first needed to have the ability to do so.

The regrouped seminary team began a war of attrition with Ram, using protective spells to cover any gaps in their defenses.

Occasionally, a few shots would hit the player directly, and the player would immediately use a potion to restore their shield.

Jacob wanted to ensure that everyone was at full strength when fighting within the final anti-magic realm.

Even when outnumbered, you should use the most stable approach with the highest probability of winning.

respect!

After struggling frantically for a while, Jacob finally saw the light at the end of the tunnel.

The safe zone began to shrink again, this time for the last time. There would be no more safe zone this time, but the entire forest would be swallowed up, and Jashu's team would have no room to maneuver.

Success or failure depends on this!
As the distance between Jaxiu and them grew closer, Ram had no room to wander around aimlessly.

"Right now!"

Jacob shouted, his voice filled with barely concealed excitement.

The squad immediately dispersed, pulling out scepters, flails, warhammers, and other weapons.

As a loyal follower of the Holy Light, one must also learn physical exorcism techniques.

The anti-magic field unfolded instantly, a gray-black, semi-transparent dome covering the remaining non-toxic area. Within a radius of twenty meters, unless a god descended, no magic could be channeled.

Jacob's longsword struck the shield, making a loud thud.

If he yells a couple more times, he'll sound exactly like a barbarian challenging someone to a duel.

"You didn't expect this, did you, Jia Xiu? This is the tactic I meticulously prepared for you. I will defeat you with the longsword in my hand..."

Jacob had been looking forward to this moment for days, and he couldn't wait to make his tough remarks.

I wanted to see confusion, tension, and panic on Jia Xiu's face.

But neither.

Not only was he not nervous at all, Jia Xiu even smiled at him.

That smile put Jacob on high alert. He realized something was wrong, but he couldn't figure out what was wrong, since he had already activated his magic-suppressing domain.

What else could Jia Xiu do?

Is it possible...

To Jacob's astonishment, Jasmine rushed into the poisonous fog without looking back, running far away, beyond the range of their spell attacks.

Then Mia and Ram began "unloading".

Although the word "unloading" sounds strange, it's the most fitting word Jacob could think of.

The two of them pulled out healing potions to restore their shields from their packs, waist pouches, and every pocket they could find.

Jacob was stunned. How many people had Jaxiu and his group eliminated to gather so many potions?

And why so many medications?
Why... after a brief brain short-circuit, Jacob's brilliant intelligence regained its dominance?

Jia Xiu has to rely on piles of medicine to withstand the toxic fog!
So even though Ram was such a good shot, he only fired one shot at most each time, never hitting multiple targets in a row. Ram never intended to cause casualties with that shot; instead, he was just consuming their stockpiled medicine.

So Jia Xiu had already made arrangements for them back then!

Jacob was sweating.

What to do now? The poisonous fog is closing in, and the anti-magic field has become a "cage" that is only hurting me.

How many doses of medicine do we have?

"And that's all."

Jacob looked back and saw that it was less than one-fifth of Jassi's reserves.

How can we compare to them?

Calm down, be calm.

How could the Holy Son of the Papacy be so easily defeated, even without much fighting, and fall down so easily?

The potion restores the shield, and the shield is a spell of the defensive school. No matter how many strange functions it adds, it is still essentially a shield.

The duration of the anti-magic field is limited. He can use potions to prolong the duration and then use his own spells to repair it. He is a genius at protecting against magic.

does it work?
Jacob carefully examined the shield magic on his body. Theoretically, it seemed feasible; there was no opportunity to test it, and if it didn't work, this was the only method he had.

"How many mana replenishing potions do we have?!"

"There are more of these."

"Leave it all to me. Trust me, I will keep the championship at Holy Light Theological Seminary!"

At the Holy Son's command, the others immediately took out all their magic replenishing potions.

By this time, the poisonous fog had spread, and both teams, except for their core members Jassiu and Jacob, had been eliminated.

The two remaining players began a fierce battle of "drug application," which was quite intense and tense for them.

In the final stage, the shield drops very quickly, and you can't stop using healing items even for a moment.

From the audience's perspective, however, the intensity was negligible.

The Silvermoon Academy's competition team is in an uproar.

What happened to the promised battle for traffic?

A spectacular and imaginative magical battle between the Holy Son of the Papacy and the dark horse of the competition.

What's with this competition about who has more medicine now?

To be honest, they did have some imagination; at least they didn't expect things to develop like this.

The team has already started shifting blame among themselves.

"I told you we should just eliminate them when they're not in the safe zone, but you had to add something like gradual self-destruction to the shield."

"Didn't you agree at the time that it would have been more reasonable not to eliminate them directly?"

If this competition is ultimately decided by who has the most drugs, then this event will likely be recorded in the history of competitions for hundreds of years, as a negative example.

There's nothing to say to the commentator; what's there to explain?

"Well, we can see that both teams are using recovery potions at a very rapid pace, stubbornly persevering in the poisonous fog."

What he really wanted to say was that these two were still clinging to life in the poisonous fog.

"It seems Jacob is in trouble. His drug reserves are clearly running low. Is this close match about to be decided?"

The audience supporting both sides is still on edge.

Neutral viewers are already wondering if one of these two has to win.

"Oh my god! The moment the anti-magic field disappeared, Jacob's protective spell on himself restored his shield. He can restore his shield with his own spells, which has changed the course of the match!"

On the field, Jacob, whose hands were numb from constantly applying medicine and covered in sweat, had a smile on his face.

It worked!
Being able to restore his shield means that he can exchange magic for "health points".

Jia Xiu's potions were dwindling, while he still had plenty of magic potions.

He still has a chance to win!

In the distance, Jia Xiu's spraying speed began to slow down.

Jacob was in high spirits.

It must be that Jia Xiu realized he couldn't outlast him, it must be that he was about to win, and in the end, it was his magic that triumphed!

However, Jia Xiu, whose movements had slowed down, took out a scroll—a damage-boosting scroll.

Jacob remained calm; it was just a final struggle.

What's the use of increasing damage if the distance is too far, exceeding the spell's effective range? What's the point of simply increasing damage if it doesn't achieve the desired effect?

Run back again? The shield would have exploded long ago on the way.

He's the champion!

If Jacob hadn't had to keep up with his spells, he would have started celebrating.

Jia Xiu then used a damage-boosting scroll on himself.

Then he sat down on the ground and looked at Jacob slowly.

Five seconds passed, and Jacob was bursting with excitement.

Ten seconds passed, and Jacob felt a little panicked.

Half a minute later, Jacob's pupils dilated.

Why isn't Jia Xiu "dead"?

Why!
Where's the event organizer? The event organizer, come out here! There's a problem, definitely a problem, he's going to file a complaint.

Jacob felt particularly helpless.

He felt he had performed at his best, and even after the original tactics failed, he was still able to keep up with Jia Xiu's pace and come up with a solution in a moment of inspiration.

Is it still impossible?
"Why!" Jacob asked unwillingly.

"My damage-boosting spell is applied to shields!"

Jia Xiu called out in response from afar.

"Your only chance is to rush in and fight in the final round. From the moment you chose to stay put, you were already doomed to failure."

A damage-boosting spell that adds to a shield?

Jacob thought he was hallucinating.

Are these two things even related? What's the difference between this and cream puffs filled with hot sauce?
The event organizers were frantically trying to figure out what had happened.

Only two people remained, surrounded by a ring of surveillance cameras, which could clearly see every detail of their movements.

"From the process, it was indeed just adding damage to the shield; to be precise, it was adding damage-boosting spells to the self-destruct spells within the shield's poison mist."

"I told you, you shouldn't have bothered with that damage-boosting spell!"

Is now the time to talk about that?

"Stop!" The team leader interrupted the team member who was still trying to shift the blame. "If the damage-boosting spell is applied to self-destruct, shouldn't the shield decay even faster inside the poisonous fog?"

"Logically, that should be the case, but judging from how the damage-boosting scroll takes effect, it seems that some kind of modification has been made."

Do our rules allow resizing?

"Permission is granted, but modifications must be reported and confirmed to ensure they do not directly attack the player's body."

"How can he modify it to withstand the damage reduction, changing the damage increase to damage reduction?"

"I've checked the results of Jia Xiu's report!"

"It's happening in the corner," another member of the event team said.

"What effect!"

"The original shield decay value was changed to 50% loss each time. At the time, it was thought that the damage increase effect was correct and that it was also an attack on the shield, so it was approved."

The team leader was momentarily confused by what his team member said.

"50%, that's definitely a damage increase... Wait! Is this 50% the maximum value, or the current 50%?"

The team leader rushed over to the team member and carefully examined the revisions to the scroll that Jia Xiu had reported.

"The current situation is the current situation, so does that mean his shield will never decay on its own?"

If you reduce it by half each time, it will only approach 0 infinitely, but it will never reach 0!

Oh no, this is going to be a historic moment in the tournament, and in a way that's even worse than two people trying to decide a winner by taking drugs.

The 500th edition of the Five Universities Championship will be remembered for "the tournament organizers leaving a foolish loophole that allowed contestant Jia Xiu to easily win the championship."

This is probably more than just a negative example; it's likely a classic case that will be studied by generations of future event designers.

The event organizers' office fell silent.

At this moment, the group member who had spoken earlier said timidly, "How about we look on the bright side? This result will definitely generate a lot of traffic. Tomorrow, all the newspapers will surely be filled with analytical articles about 'How exactly Jia Xiu won't win'..."

On the field, Jacob persevered until the very last moment, even running out of magic potions.

Starting five minutes ago, Jia Xiu's shield was in a state of being "easily shattered upon contact," a thin layer.

But that last little bit was incredibly resilient.

Jia Xiu had already explained to him why he was able to endure the poisonous fog for so long.

Jacob understood, but was unwilling to accept it.

The opportunity to defeat Jia Xiu, which had been planned for many days, never even took place between them.

Intelligence has been suppressed.

Unwilling to accept defeat, Jacob made a last-ditch effort, barely maintaining his spell while trying to get closer to Jash.

Just one hit and the shield will shatter.

However, the closer he got, the further away Jia Xiu would move, his steady approach bordering on absurd, never giving him even the slightest chance to hit.

The scene was utterly despairing.

The indomitable Holy Son tried his best to reach the scheming sorcerer Jia Xiu, but the distance between them was like an insurmountable chasm, and the Holy Son could not overcome it no matter how hard he tried.

After struggling for dozens of meters, Jacob gave up.

"I give up, I've lost!"

Jacob cried out one last time, his voice sounding like he was about to cry.

However, the Holy Son is also a man of principle.

Even though he was eliminated in this way, he didn't say anything about it being unfair or unethical. Instead, he lay on the ground and gave Jia Xiu a thumbs up.

"You're awesome."

"What did you say? I didn't hear you. Speak louder!"

Jia Xiu's smug voice rang out from afar.

"You're amazing!"

"Praise me if you want, why are you being so grandiose?"

With the elimination of his last opponent, Jia Xiu won the championship of this competition without any major incidents.

Jassiu was ready to show off his champion's style, so he found Jacob lying on the ground, who was clearly so aggrieved that his eyes were filled with tears, but insisted that he was not so sad as to cry, and pulled him up.

"Although you outnumbered us and didn't eliminate a single one of us, and didn't launch any effective attacks throughout the entire match, your skill level is still quite good."

Do you really have to say it that way?

"I call this a way of diverting your attention by stirring up hatred, to alleviate your sadness. Watch carefully and learn from it."

As Jia Xiu spoke, he felt that something was a little strange.

Where...

"Hey, why are you still here?"

"Can't you?"

"No, the competition is over, shouldn't we be teleported out of the forest? Why is there no movement? Where did the event organizers go?"

Upon hearing what Jassiu said, Jacob also realized the problem.

He rolled over and exclaimed, "Yes!"

Instinctively, the Holy Son also felt this was not a good sign and immediately went to find his weapon.

Just then, the sky above Theldarion suddenly turned red, and a huge crimson magic circle appeared out of thin air, its eerie runes exuding an ominous aura.

Having encountered demonic magic in the illusionary world, Jia Xiu recognized it at a glance: "It's a demonic magic array!"

"Demons?" The Holy Son approached, sword and shield in hand. "Are you sure?"

"I'm absolutely certain..."

Before they could finish speaking, a small teleportation array suddenly lit up beneath their feet, enveloping them in a light barrier...

(End of this chapter)