The Twelve Trials Starting from Zero

Close combat! If I can get him into a close-quarters fight with me, with my swordsmanship, I will undoubtedly have the upper hand!

With this in mind, he pushed his speed to the limit, like a white lightning bolt flying back and forth in the air, crisscrossing and charging at Ye Wang dozens of times in a short time. However, the result was... he didn't even touch the hem of Ye Wang's clothes.

"Why are you able to dodge my attacks so easily every time?"

Su Qi stopped and asked the question.

However, Ye Wang was clearly not the wise boss who would explain things to a powerful enemy. He didn't reply at all, but simply reached out and shook hands. Su Qi's figure was then engulfed by a massive fireball about six meters in diameter. A huge explosion resounded in mid-air, like a red lotus blooming in an instant.

boom!!

Simultaneously exhaling air from his body, he blasted away the surrounding flames, instantly rushing out of the blast radius, though his armor bore some scorch marks.

Why is it that he always manages to dodge my attacks perfectly?

Without solving this mystery, Ye Wang could not be harmed in the slightest. Therefore, he did not launch any further attacks. Instead, he dodged the enemy's continuous barrage of explosive attacks while pondering the problem.

No! In terms of speed and reaction, I was superior this time. Simple dodging couldn't have achieved this level of skill. Even with Ye Wang's abilities as a magic-based class, he couldn't have seen through my attack patterns. Thinking back to his dodging movements... I see, it wasn't dodging, it was anticipation!

Soon, Su Qi noticed something amiss. While dodging the attacks, he said, "I understand, King Ye. The reason you were able to easily dodge my attacks is because you used divination, isn't it?"

Ye Wang remained silent, relentlessly launching his attack. Patches of sky were set ablaze by his assault, making it appear as if dusk had fallen prematurely, with fiery clouds stretching across the horizon.

Since that's the case, then verify it yourself...

Su Qi didn't take it seriously and began to multitask, dodging attacks while using the Plum Blossom Divination method to predict the direction of his opponent's next attack.

This kind of thing wasn't too difficult for him, whose soul, will, and thinking speed far exceeded those of ordinary people. Although he was almost roasted into a chicken by his opponent at first due to distraction and lack of skill, it wasn't long before he was able to predict the direction of the attack and easily dodge the opponent's attack, just like Ye Wang.

"To discover and learn the Super Witchcraft Formation so quickly, Dao Cheng, you have surprised me once again." At this moment, Ye Wang finally stopped his attack and sneered, "But precisely because of this, I cannot let you live. You will become an obstacle to my building of a new world."

"It's an honor to be your stumbling block. So please, bring on any other tricks you have up your sleeve."

Su Qi also stopped and speculated on the enemy's next move.

The current situation is that both of them will have the technique named "Super Witchcraft Armor" by Ye Wang, which allows them to predict the other's attack trajectory in advance. So theoretically, they are both invincible and neither can do anything to the other, unless... it is a move that cannot be avoided even if it is predicted, or that there is no time to avoid.

Oops!

A possibility suddenly flashed through his mind, and he immediately accelerated to full speed, rushing outwards.

"Did you realize it? But it's too late."

As Ye Wang spoke, the two tail fins on his back, which were positioned against his shoulders, moved upwards and broke off in the middle, revealing a cross-section filled with molten lava-colored ring patterns and a dark, gaping cannon muzzle in the center.

"Will-o'-the-wisp!"

Before he finished speaking, two streaks of fire shot out from the cannon muzzles and caught up with Su Qi in the blink of an eye.

Danger! Extreme danger!!

His heart skipped a beat, and the hairs on his body stood on end. He abruptly changed direction according to the divination, narrowly avoiding the attack. But the next second, the two streaks of fire that had passed by him exploded right next to him.

Then, blinding light engulfed everything.

boom!!

A massive cloud of fire exploded between heaven and earth, setting the sky a thousand meters in radius ablaze, the flames piercing the heavens. Heat waves and shockwaves spread outwards, accompanied by rolling thunder. Wherever they passed, grass burned, trees felled, and the old Asakura family house below instantly transformed into giant torches. The windows of nearby houses were shattered into pieces.

As for Su Qi, who was at the center of the explosion, well, he's been burned to ashes, leaving no trace of his body.

……

The same pure white space, the same spread-eagle reclining posture, the same people.

"As expected, to confront Ye Wang head-on, one must at least have a spirit of the same level, otherwise I would be defeated by his powerful attack."

Su Qi got up from the floor and sat on the second black stone step, beginning his routine situation review.

Previously, when Ye Wang was preparing to unleash his ultimate move, he immediately realized that the opponent intended to use an AOE attack. However, he did not expect that the opponent's attack range was larger than he had anticipated, and the attack power was so strong that it could destroy his super spirit body in an instant.

Although Su Qi could reconstruct his super spirit body with just a little breathing time, the flames surrounding him left him no opening whatsoever. One second they burned his super spirit body, and the next they were already attached to him, instantly turning his body to ashes.

"Those flames weren't ordinary flames; they were soul fires fueled by witchcraft, compressed to the extreme, capable of burning everything, even souls... Fortunately, the system is amazing; even if my soul is scattered, I can be resurrected..."

In his final moments, Su Qi once again experienced pain that reached his very soul. While in the Shikon Jewel it was tearing apart, this time it was being roasted. Fortunately, he had already overcome that ordeal within the Shikon Jewel; otherwise, the feeling of his soul being tormented in fire and dying in endless agony might have left him with psychological trauma.

"So, how should we deal with that move?"

Shaking his head to suppress the lingering pain in his soul, Su Qi calmed down and began to think of a solution.

First, Ye Wang's will-o'-the-wisp is an attack with an extremely wide range. Unless one's speed is high enough to traverse hundreds of meters in an instant, it's almost impossible to dodge. In this world, even if he could use the White Tiger's wind-controlling power, achieving that speed would be virtually impossible; and even if he could, how to protect his fragile body at high speed would be a problem.

So, if dodging directly is out of the question, we should think about how to defend against it, or prevent him from using that move.

Oh, right, nullifying magical power...

At this moment, a thought flashed through Su Qi's mind, but he immediately shook his head and rejected it again. The essence of nullifying witch power is to interfere with the witch power of others with one's own witch power, or it can be seen as diluting the witch power of others with one's own witch power. However, the concentration of witch power contained in Ye Wang's ghost fire is too high, and it will be burned to ashes before it can be completely diluted, so this method will not work either.

1. I'm so frustrated with my liver from being stuck in this situation.

Second: I almost forgot... Fran Xiu Xiu is the best!! As long as you and I rave about our idol together, we'll be friends forever.jpg

Chapter Thirty-Seven: Plot Changes

"To withstand Ye Wang's full-force attack, one would need at least a super-spirit body of the same level. My magical power is sufficient, but my spirit possession is insufficient, so I still need a fragment of a great soul. As for not giving him the opportunity to launch a full-force attack, I would either use ranged attacks or strike first before he unleashes that move, but this would also require powerful attacks, namely, a super-spirit body capable of breaking through Ye Wang's super-spirit body..."

After a moment's thought, it all comes down to hard power.

"What if we attack using modern technological weapons?"

Su Qi shifted his focus to another direction, but quickly shook his head, not optimistic.

In the original story, Ye Wang once blocked a satellite laser weapon, which was indeed an ultra-long-range attack and its attack speed after locking on was the speed of light, but it was still ineffective. As for conventional weapons such as firearms and missiles, in the original story, he single-handedly destroyed several warships, which were no match for him.

While the most powerful weapon in human history, the nuclear bomb, might be able to injure Ye Wang, it would be extremely difficult to accurately hit a highly mobile individual like him. Moreover, unless he was in the center of the nuclear explosion, it might not be able to cause him much damage.

Not to mention that as the strongest psychic and the strongest Onmyoji, Ye Wang's premonition and divination of danger can basically eliminate any possibility of being accidentally injured, assassinated, or ambushed; similar to the Path of Sincerity in a certain Chinese martial arts novel, he can foresee the future.

In this way, underhanded tactics such as poison, gas, and infrasound weapons would probably be ineffective, and as for long-range sniping, even satellite laser weapons wouldn't work, let alone a mere sniper rifle.

Therefore, we can conclude that as a boss, Ye Wang is almost flawless and invincible, and can only be confronted head-on. The reason for saying "almost" is that the author of the original work designated one weakness for him: his mother.

When Su Qi saw the ending, he wondered if, in the later stages of the story, even the author didn't know how to logically strengthen the protagonist's ability to defeat Ye Wang, so he created such a seemingly absurd weakness.

While there is some foreshadowing of this point in the original work, it all happens later in the story and is so little and subtle that it's hard to believe.

By the way, should we try inviting Ye Wang's mother out?

As his thoughts wandered, this idea popped into Su Qi's mind.

Ye Wang's weakness is his mother, a fact he was already aware of in the original story. However, he didn't think the trial world chosen by the system would allow him to pass so easily, so he didn't initially intend to take advantage of this. But after personally experiencing Ye Wang's power, he couldn't help but think of this "shortcut."

"Well, although the chances of success are extremely slim, let's give it a try. If it doesn't work, we'll have to use a super spirit to fight another super spirit."

Next, he gathered his scattered thoughts and began to think about the next question: how to deal with the "Super Witchcraft Formation" move.

"Either increase the speed again so he doesn't have time to do the divination, or gather others to attack him, increasing the variables."

Because he also knew this move, Su Qi quickly found the weakness.

The so-called "Super Witchcraft Escape Technique" is essentially about using the Great Soul, a "supercomputer," to predict the enemy's attack trajectory. A few variables certainly won't crash the Great Soul, but the diviner on the client side will definitely be affected. As more data needs to be processed, the upload and parsing speeds will slow down, making it difficult to keep up in battle.

"Besides these two questions, I wonder if Ye Wang has any other trump cards that we need to continue testing, and..."

He looked down at his right hand, which was bound by bandages. "My chuunibyou energy is fully charged. I need to find an opportunity to give him a good whack and test the power first. Although it's unlikely to kill Ye Wang in one shot, what if it really crits? Wouldn't I be making a huge profit?"

Afterwards, Su Qi still did not waste the precious halftime break. He conducted simulated training in the pure white space for a long time, honing his skills in using various magical powers to a higher level. Then, combining the feedback from the real world over the past year, he continued to ponder the Daoist scriptures and the "Super Divination Guide" in his mind, further deepening his understanding of the myriad phenomena of heaven and earth, yin and yang, and the five elements.

Only when his resources were exhausted and there was no further improvement in the short term did he choose to reload the save file once again.

……

This time, the rewind point is the evening after the conversation with Anna, at the Asakura house.

Before the others had left, Su Qi approached Anna Kyoyama once again.

"Is today my unlucky day? I've seen something so ominous again."

In the moonlit courtyard, Anna saw Su Qi again after a short time, her face full of disgust.

"No, it must be a lucky day to see such a handsome and elegant man as me so many times."

Su Qi was seriously praising himself.

"That's enough, I'm going to throw up if you keep talking."

"What?! You and Ye are developing your relationship so quickly?"

Before she finished speaking, Anna suddenly raised her leg and stomped heavily on Su Qi's right foot.

The latter took a half-step back in time, narrowly escaping disaster.

"Looks like you came here specifically to fight me." Anna ripped off her rosary beads, her face icy.

"Qiao Dou Ma Dai, I'm here on serious business."

"What does this have to do with me? Front ghost, back ghost, get them!"

Boom boom boom boom...

The ground shook, air blasts exploded, and a sudden battle began and ended just as quickly.

"Miss Anna, you know you can't beat me, so why do you still insist on fighting me?"

A moment later, Su Qi quickly defeated Anna and sent away Asakura Yeming and the others who came to check after hearing the commotion. He looked helpless.

“I like it.” Anna crossed her arms and said coldly, “If there’s nothing else, I’m going back to sleep.”

"Didn't I just say I had important business to attend to?"

"Is there?"

"No?"

"I didn't hear it."

"Then I'll say it again, I need your help with something. If you don't help me, I'll probably sing in your room all night."

"Hmph, your way of asking others for favors is as shameless as ever." She said with disgust, "But spending the whole night with you is worse than killing myself. So, what is it?"

"I need your help to summon someone's soul."

"Who?"

"Hana no Ha, Ye Wang's mother."