32: Chapter 32 Familiar Theories

Lin Xiao straightened her collar and stepped forward with composure.

Su Bai followed behind her, moving sluggishly.

In stark contrast to Lin Xiao's composure, every step he took made the eyes of everyone in the audience shift along with him.

In the observation stands outside,

the observers from the major chambers of commerce had recovered from the shock of Zhao Dahai's performance, and everyone's attention was now focused on Lin Xiao.

"The daughter of the Lin family, Lin Xiao. That bow she had just now—it also looks quite impressive."

"I heard she's also in the same group as that student named Su Bai."

"No way? Another one who learned from Su Bai?"

"No, Lin Xiao is from the Lin family after all. Her own foundation is already very solid, so it's hard to say."

Lin Xiao walked to the center of the testing area.

She was not distracted in the slightest by the surrounding chatter; she simply drew an ice-blue magic card from her card bag.

"Lin Xiao."

Her voice was not loud, but every word was extremely clear.

"My Armament Card—"

The magic card activated.

A longbow, entirely condensed from ice crystals, materialized in her hands.

The bow body was not made of physical material, but was a pure condensation of ice-blue magic. The bowstring was woven from special magic; at first glance, it appeared transparent, but as soon as one channeled their own magic into it, the string would manifest.

No arrow was nocked,

yet the surrounding temperature had already plummeted by several degrees.

"— [Glacial Ice Bow]."

Lin Xiao's voice was calm, but her tone clearly carried a considerable degree of confidence in her weapon.

Unlike Zhao Dahai,

when Zhao Dahai saw Su Bai's Spatial Circuit, he only thought about upgrading his magic card, but she, Lin Xiao, took a different path, transplanting the Spatial Circuit from the magic card onto the weapon.

In other words, the bow before them had theoretically copied part of Su Bai's theory!

"The bow's features are simple. I gave up on stacking pure destructive power and attack speed, and instead attached a microscopic spatial jump array to the arrows."

"After the arrow is shot, it will automatically lock onto the target's spatial coordinates."

"Then."

"Jump."

As Lin Xiao finished speaking.

The whole arena went silent for a beat.

Spatial jump?

This term was not something a second-year student should be saying.

That was the research field of spatial-type Card Creators above the fifth rank!

In the sky.

The golden light of the universal balance descended.

[Name: Glacial Ice Bow]

[Type: Physical Armament · Spatial Type]

[Spatial Stability Rate: 73%]

[Armament Level: A]

[Characteristics: Micro Spatial Jump, Glacial Freeze]

[Appraisal: A perfect innovation in microscopic Spatial Circuits. It abandons the singular stacking of magic output power, instead utilizing spatial displacement to achieve the negation of defense. It breaks the tactical limitations of conventional shooting trajectories.]

A!

And not an A-!

It was an A!

The whole arena erupted!

A flash of surprise also flickered in Li Qingyue's eyes. She stared at the magic card, and the Spatial Circuit on it instantly magnified in her vision; immediately after, all the microscopic structures were laid bare.

Then, she paused for a moment and muttered, "Why does this feel familiar?"

It did indeed feel a bit familiar; Li Qingyue herself was a researcher of spatial theory, so she had written a few books.

Previously, Zhao Dahai's magic card had given her a faint sense of familiarity, but Zhao Dahai's technique was too crude, so she couldn't make anything of it.

Now, after Lin Xiao's appearance, that feeling of familiarity was even stronger, reminding Li Qingyue of a few books she had written a long time ago:

"High-Dimensional Weapon Structure and Material Collapse Analysis", "Non-linear Spatial Geometry and Morphological Topological Evolution", and "Micro-Spirit Particle Jump and Superconducting Magic Fluid Theory".

For her now, the theories in these three books were not worth much attention, because those were frontier theories, not things that could truly be put into actual combat. Li Qingyue herself had just derived the theories and then abandoned them.

But now, Lin Xiao's bow was so similar to her own theories!

However, Lin Xiao's Spatial Circuit was not exactly equal to her own theory, but rather a type that had clearly undergone special transformation and deformation...

"How strange. Could it be that the ancient Card Creators' line of thought was the same as mine? That shouldn't be..."

Li Qingyue muttered.

While lost in thought, she simply stood up and moved her figure.

Whoosh!

Space seemed to flicker, and immediately after, Lin Xiao saw an extremely cute silver-haired loli suddenly appear before her eyes. She was barefoot, treading on the air, looking down at her as she said, "Your bow is very interesting. May I test it myself?"

"O-of course!"

Lin Xiao's eyes widened, and she was immediately overjoyed.

Being able to have Li Qingyue test it personally was the greatest honor; not just anything could catch the eye of someone of her stature.

And...

So cute!

Li Qingyue nodded slightly, grabbed with her five fingers, and the ice bow appeared in her hand.

At first, the huge bow did not match her petite frame, but the next moment, the bow suddenly shrank by a few inches, and after Li Qingyue injected magic, her fingers hooked the string.

An arrow condensed from pure ice-blue magic automatically formed.

The arrow tip was aimed at the Stone Demon—the Stone Demon had already raised that massive shield, which was thick enough to withstand a direct hit from a C-rank card.

Then.

Release.

The ice-blue arrow traced a blinding arc in the air.

Then—

It vanished.

It wasn't shot down.

It wasn't blocked by the shield.

It simply disappeared from material space.

The next second—

Bang!!!

The sound of ice crystals shattering rang out from the back of the Stone Demon's head.

The arrow appeared behind the Stone Demon. It had directly jumped over that massive shield, which was thick to the point of being unsolvable. Then, the moment it touched the back of the Stone Demon's head, it detonated!

Frost spread rapidly like a living thing, and within three seconds, it had frozen the Stone Demon's entire five-meter-tall body into an ice sculpture.

—It didn't attack the front.

—Instead, it directly bypassed the defense, striking fatally from behind.

The arena went silent again.

Then—

"Holy crap!!"

"Spatial jump!! It's really a spatial jump!!"

"The arrow disappeared!! And then appeared directly at the back of the Stone Demon's head!! How is one supposed to defend against this?!"

"Lin Xiao!! Lin Xiao!!"

The barrage was completely irrational.

[Miss Lin Xiao, please marry me!!]

[The person in front, go get in line with the Lins first!! I've been waiting in line for two years!!]

[Spatial jump arrow!! Is this something a second-year student can come up with?!]

[The Lin family!! Another monster has appeared!!]

At this moment, Li Qingyue was feeling the state of the Spatial Circuit, a thoughtful expression flashing in her eyes.

After a moment, she let out a soft breath and praised:

"A very ingenious concept."

She said.

"It's a step further than Zhao Dahai's spatial compression from just now. It's not compressing the space within a cavity, but directly jumping the arrow from the launch point to the target point. This means you need to process the phase matching of two spatial coordinates simultaneously. This difficulty far exceeds compressing a single volume."

Most importantly, in this instant, Li Qingyue felt a brand-new line of thought, similar to the paper she had seen yesterday.

Although this line of thought was very weak, and regardless of whether it was Lin Xiao, Lin Weiwei, or Zhao Dahai, their reproduction of it was very poor, Li Qingyue did indeed have some sudden insights.

That alone was enough!

Lin Xiao bowed slightly: "Thank you for your comments, Master."

"It doesn't rely on high-grade materials. A perfect A-rank evaluation. I also give it an A."

There was a hint of pleasure in Li Qingyue's voice.

"There really are a few interesting seedlings this time."

As her words fell.

In the outside audience stands.

The representatives of the major families all stood up in unison.

"Get her!! Get Lin Xiao!!"

"Let her name her annual salary!! Give her the highest treatment!!"

"Send someone to prepare a contract—no, go now!!"

The sound of phones dialing.

The sound of internal bidding.

The sound of mutual threats.

It was a chaotic mess.

But Lin Xiao just calmly put away the ice bow card and turned to walk off the stage.

When passing by Zhao Dahai, the two exchanged a glance.

There was no showing off in that look.

Only gratitude.

—Because both of them knew that the light they had today was just a small beam shared from Su Bai.

Zhao Dahai felt so excited he wanted to pee.

That was Li Qingyue!

To think she was standing on the testing stage at such close range?

Then.

Li Qingyue's voice sounded again.

Her voice carried something that hadn't been there before—anticipation?

Or perhaps curiosity.

"The last one."

The golden light descended.

It shone on Su Bai.

"Su Bai. Your groupmate just said that you taught him less than one-thousandth of what you know, and he got a B+. Your classmate just got my first true A of the day."

Li Qingyue tilted her head slightly.

A playful smile appeared on that twelve-or-thirteen-year-old face.

"Even I am curious—what exactly is that card in the hands of the person they both hold up on a pedestal?"

The entire internet was live-streaming.

13.72 million online viewers.

Everyone's eyes focused simultaneously.

Su Bai stood where he was.

He looked down at the dark pink magic card in his hand.

The smiling Kyubey on the card face was looking back at him with its red glass eyes.

[Su Bai, I'm starting to miss the other you.]

Kyubey's voice rang in his mind, its tone devoid of waves.

[After all, it is the Magical Girl's debut.]

Su Bai was silent for a moment.

Then he raised his head and sluggishly took a step.

He walked toward the testing area.