111: Chapter 111 Two Slaps to Wake Him Up!

"You only won by cheating! If you're so good, don't use Time Stop! You say I can't beat you—you're just relying on that perverted time ability! And relying on my dad to speak for you! Relying on Li Qingyue as your backer—aren't you just counting on everything going your way—!"

She pointed at Su Bai, her finger trembling.

"You're all the same! Everyone! Everyone is just—caring about my dad's face—no one has ever fought me for real—never—and you're the same—you damn well are just like them—!"

Slap!

A crisp sound on her left cheek.

Her head turned to the side, a red mark rising on her left cheek.

All sound in the courtyard vanished at once. The leaves on the old locust tree stopped falling. War Emperor Wei Potian's expression froze on his face. Kyubey's tail on the windowsill went still.

Wei Xiaoyu covered her face, her mind blank.

That just now...

A slap?

He slapped me!?

This person—this Rank 2 Card Creator, two ranks lower than her—slapped her!

Su Bai pulled his hand back.

"The first slap. You say I won by cheating."

Wei Xiaoyu's fingers pressed against her burning cheek, her pupils filled with the disbelief of "the world has gone mad." She opened her mouth, her voice squeezing out from the depths of her throat: "You—you dare hit me? My dad is a Rank 9 War Emperor—he's right there—you dare hit his daughter right in front of a War Emperor—how dare you—!"

Slap!

Her right cheek turned red too.

Su Bai pulled his hand back. His movement was as natural as turning a page.

"The second slap. Since you know that no one dares to fight you for real because your dad is here, it means you've always known in your heart—you're weak, and the root cause isn't your talent, it's that everyone is letting you win."

Wei Xiaoyu stood in the moonlight.

Both hands covered her cheeks.

Her dark golden eyes were wider than ever before.

She didn't feel pain. Her face didn't actually hurt that much.

It was somewhere else that hurt.

Su Bai's voice was very calm, as if stating the result of a mathematical equation.

"You are Rank 4. I am Level 20, I only just reached Rank 2 the day before yesterday. There is a two-rank difference. Even without using Time Stop, I saw three flaws in your opening move within three seconds. The stance you posed in the courtyard was very flashy, but unfortunately, beauty can't save you. Your center of gravity is too heavy, your footwork is like two nails driven into the ground. The core of a Berserker's fighting style is charging, the impact while moving, yet you stood still from start to finish."

He paused.

"I agreed to spar with you today because I wanted to ask you to be my Magic Card Master. The National Competition requires a two-person team, and I'm missing a partner."

Wei Xiaoyu's hands covering her face were trembling.

"...You came to invite me... and then you hit me..."

"Yes, but I am very disappointed in you."

Su Bai looked at her.

"Combat power can be improved. Character is another matter. You've been cursing since you walked in—loli-con, cross-dresser, little girl aesthetic. My master is a 9th-tier Supreme, and you called her unreliable right to my face. I can overlook all of that."

He took a step forward.

"You clearly know you are far inferior to me, yet you immediately accused me of cheating. Rank 4 versus Rank 2—you need to summon a card to even be qualified to stand and talk to me. And then you said I cheated. You haven't even figured out how you lost, and your first reaction is to blame the rules for being unfair."

Wei Xiaoyu's lips trembled.

Su Bai turned around and walked toward the gate.

"I'll look for another Magic Card Master. There are plenty of Rank 4 peaks in all of Jinghai, finding one who is willing to listen shouldn't be hard."

The moment his shadow was about to disappear into the doorway—

"Wait a minute."

Su Bai stopped. He didn't look back.

Wei Xiaoyu knelt in the moonlight.

Both cheeks were marked with red prints. Her hair was still stuck with locust leaves that had fallen when she hit the tree. Below her knees, the coldness of the bluestone slab seeped up through the fabric of her combat suit.

"I—"

Her voice was shaking.

"I know I'm weak!"

The moment these words were spoken, she felt something that had been twisted in her chest loosen. It was strange; admitting that she was weak actually felt like this—sour, but not as painful anymore.

"I know." Her fingers gripped the fabric on her knees. "When I was in elementary school, I could beat three male classmates at once. But after entering the Card Creator academy, everyone started letting me win. The teachers let me, classmates let me, sparring partners let me, even those who said to me 'Miss Wei, please go easy on me'—they started letting me win after the first move. My dad is a War Emperor. Who would dare to really hit me?"

She sniffed.

"I didn't beat that Rank 3 opponent either. He hesitated for a second when he attacked—just one second. But I saw it. Was he afraid of hurting me, or was he afraid of my dad sitting under the stage—I still don't know which one it was until now. He only hesitated for a second, but it all became meaningless. Why did he hesitate—because he could have beaten me. He knew he could beat me. And he knew that I knew he could beat me."

She looked up.

Her eyes were red.

"That's why I kept being stubborn, saying everyone was weak, trash, and unworthy of fighting me. I was afraid they would get serious. If they got serious, I would completely discover—that I was so weak I couldn't even stand to look at myself. I know all this. I know—but I don't know what to do, no one has ever told me what to do. No one has ever really slapped my face, you are the first one."

Her lips trembled and closed.

Su Bai turned around. He looked at the girl kneeling in the moonlight. He was silent for a few seconds.

"So you admit you're weak."

"...Yes."

"That's not bad." Su Bai squatted down to look her in the eye. "At least you know your own worth. That's already better than most spoiled young ladies—they never know it in their whole lives."

Wei Xiaoyu looked up abruptly.

Under the moonlight, the young man's face was very calm.

Su Bai looked at her.

"Rotten wood can be carved. Wei Xiaoyu—are you willing to be my Magic Card Master?"

"...Do you really think I can?"

"You were a hundred times better when you were reflecting just now than when you were posing."

"But—don't you mind that I'm weak?"

"You are indeed weak." Su Bai stood up. "But I can make you strong. Strong in the true sense—not relying on your dad's face, not relying on opponents holding back. The kind of strength where you stand in the middle of the arena and win with your own hands."

In fact, Su Bai was lying when he said he could easily find a Rank 4 Magic Card Master. Who could a Rank 2 like him find to team up with? Even if Li Qingyue stepped in, she probably couldn't get anyone... because the National Competition screening was very strict, and everyone participating wanted to compete for the ranking. No one was willing to team up with a Rank 2 like Su Bai. It could be said that Wei Xiaoyu came at the right time, but her personality was indeed very important. If she had remained in that state of mind from before, Su Bai would have had to look for others and try his luck.

Wei Xiaoyu stared into his eyes.

Her brain was trying to detect if there was even a shred of falsehood in this statement.

There wasn't.

This Rank 2 Card Creator in front of her had just knocked a Rank 4 Berserker into a tree within two minutes, slapped her twice, and then squatted on the ground and dismantled her from the inside out. Every word he said felt like a hammer blow—unpleasant, but he didn't dodge or evade, hitting hard.

She bit her lip and wiped the tears off her face messily.

"But..."

"...But what?"

Wei Xiaoyu stood up, her voice still retaining a sobbing tone, but her tone had changed.

"But people die in the National Competition."

Su Bai's eyebrows moved.

"...What?"

"You don't know?" Wei Xiaoyu's expression was terrifyingly serious. "The average death rate of previous National Competitions—thirteen percent. It's even higher in the individual finals. Because the Philosopher's Stone is too valuable, the competition format is basically equivalent to no-holds-barred fighting. My dad says that every year, there are contestants who die on the stage, and even the referees don't have time to intervene."

Su Bai turned to look at War Emperor Wei Potian.

The War Emperor nodded. His movements were slow, and his eyes were filled with a deep weight.

"It's true."

He walked to his daughter's side. His hand, the size of a sand pot, rested on top of Wei Xiaoyu's head, the force so light it didn't seem like a Rank 9 Berserker at all.

"That's why I stop her from signing up every year. I'm afraid she'll die on the stage."

He looked down at his daughter's head.

"She signs up secretly every year, and I stop her every year. This year, I won't stop her."

Wei Xiaoyu looked up.

"...Dad?"

"You were slapped twice and didn't hit back, and you were able to cry and admit you were weak while kneeling on the ground." War Emperor Wei Potian's mouth twitched, not looking like a smile, but his features were trembling slightly. "My daughter couldn't do these things before."

He turned to look at Su Bai.

"So I trust him. If he says he can make you strong, then I believe it."

Before Su Bai could speak, Wei Xiaoyu had already turned to him.

That pair of dark golden eyes—which had always been filled with arrogance and pickiness—now had only one kind of light. Very clean, like water just drawn from the bottom of a dry well.

"Su Bai. I will be your Magic Card Master."

She paused.

"Don't let me die on the stage."

Su Bai looked into her eyes.

"...Deal."

War Emperor Wei Potian let out a long breath. There was a taste of surviving a disaster in that breath—relief, the gratification of an old father, plus a little bit of lingering fear that made his teeth ache. He pressed one hand on his daughter's shoulder, pointed at Su Bai with the other, opened his mouth and closed it again, and finally said in the worldly, weary tone of someone who had been through it all: "Just... I have no other requirements for you—just make her happy."

"Dad, your way of speaking is very lame."

"...You've been infected by him, haven't you?"

Kyubey jumped down from the windowsill and landed on Su Bai's shoulder. Its red eyes glanced at Wei Xiaoyu.

[Congratulations. You are Number Two.]

"What Number Two—wait, this cat can talk?!"

[Strictly speaking, I am an Incubator.]

Wei Xiaoyu stared at the fluffy white cat-like creature.

Her brain went into a brief crash again.

A talking cat. Transmitting sound with Mental Power. Its expression hadn't changed from beginning to end, but those red eyes made her spine chill—like someone was using a microscope to observe your soul. Su Bai walked around with this thing every day?

Forget it.

She had already decided to be a Magic Card Master.

She would just have to endure this weirdness.

War Emperor Wei Potian rubbed his daughter's head and wiped the corner of his eyes with his sleeve again. Kyubey's tail brushed across Su Bai's earlobe, asking him how much dinner was left.

War Emperor Wei Potian suddenly coughed, his face becoming a bit more serious: "Su Bai—to be honest, I'm still not very reassured about your cards."

He crossed his arms, his eyebrows knitted together.

"It concerns my daughter's life. I have to be clear—the magical girl card was created by you in the past, but the National Competition requires a new system, so the Magical Girl can't be used. But your new system won't be perfected overnight, right? Is it stable? Are there any hidden dangers? I trust you, but if my daughter runs into any trouble..."

Su Bai opened his mouth.

Just then—

Knock, knock, knock.

A knocking sound came from outside the courtyard gate. The sound wasn't heavy, but it was exceptionally clear in the dead of night.

The three of them turned their heads at the same time.

A figure in a gray robe stood at the gate. A hood covered most of their face, revealing only the curve of their chin and a pair of bloodless lips.

"Apologies for the late-night intrusion." The voice was very old, dry like wind scraping out of a dry well. "I am the steward of the Tianbao Pavilion, seeking an audience with Mr. Su Bai."