Chapter 97: Bullying People
The old residential district had its own plaza. Apart from a basketball court and a cemented open space, there wasn’t much else. In peaceful times, it was a place for children to play and for aunties to do square dancing.
Now, it had been repurposed into a small marketplace for transcendents to set up stalls and trade. The basketball court had become a sparring ground.
Compared to the official trading grounds established by the administrators, this place didn’t charge stall fees—but it also didn’t offer any safety guarantees. Each had its pros and cons.
The four-person team clearly had a certain reputation in the residential district. Xu Zhi noticed that every transcendent passing by would glance over, especially once the group approached the basketball court and confirmed no one else was using it. Even more people began looking their way.
Xu Zhi glanced around curiously, then asked directly, “So, will it be a gauntlet match or all of you at once?”
She didn’t care either way.
Her tone was light, even casual, which made the people about to fight her feel slightly irritated. It was as if she were saying that fighting them was as easy as eating or drinking. Who could put up with that?
They originally intended to fight her one at a time, so she wouldn’t lose too badly, but that plan immediately went out the window.
“Fine. All at once.”
Even a clay figurine has some temper—let alone powerful transcendents.
Seeing the four-person team and Xu Zhi walk onto the court and stand on opposite sides, the onlookers quickly became interested.
A buzz of chatter broke out. Xu Zhi looked around but didn’t recognize anyone. Only then did she feel just how much the population in the district had grown.
The court, used for sparring, was overseen by a guard to prevent accidents.
Though the guard hadn’t met Xu Zhi before, they had clearly heard about her from Zhong Lingfan, so they didn’t try to intervene. They simply asked if everyone was ready, and then signaled for the match to begin.
The setup was somewhat like a ring fight. When the signal came, Xu Zhi drew her wooden sword.
Seeing this, the expressions of the four men turned even uglier.
What did it mean to not use a real weapon and instead bring out a wooden sword?
Wasn’t that just plain insulting?
Some of their anger now pushed aside any hesitation over Xu Zhi’s identity. The four moved in with practiced coordination, activating their transcendental abilities and charging toward her.
Before the match began, Xu Zhi had already used her Eye of Secrets to discern each person’s attribute: Blade, Winter, Inspiration, and Heart.
The one with the Heart attribute was the team’s greatest trump card.
Blade and Winter handled combat, Heart provided healing and continuity, and Inspiration had both combat capability and access to expanded knowledge.
As a four-person team, their combination was solid.
Naturally, the ones leading the charge were the Blade and Winter types.
As Level 4 transcendents, they had the ability to probe with their powers. When one of the Blade users got close to Xu Zhi, he immediately unleashed his ability.
Xu Zhi felt a sudden jolt of paralysis—like being shocked by electricity.
For ordinary transcendents or mutated creatures, this kind of paralysis would momentarily incapacitate them. But her current body’s strength easily withstood it.
The man clearly thought she wouldn’t be able to fight back, and came at her with an electrified fist aimed straight at her shoulder.
Yes—there were even flickers of blue lightning crackling around his fist.
Xu Zhi’s light gray eyes showed a hint of admiration. After all, punches that burst into flame or electricity were pretty cool.
But thinking he could hurt her with that?
Not even close.
Just as the fist came toward her, Xu Zhi used the very hand that was supposedly paralyzed to lift her wooden sword and block. The impact didn’t move her an inch. The only effect was her hair being tousled by the breeze of the blow.
Her expression didn’t even change.
The man sensed something was wrong and quickly tried to retreat.
But he didn’t get the chance.
Xu Zhi had already raised her wooden sword and slashed it sideways—seemingly casually and effortlessly—across his skull.
Smack!
The blow landed cleanly. His head almost dented from the impact, and his body staggered and tilted to the ground. He should’ve been able to catch himself with his hands, but his eyes rolled back and he passed out cold.
Xu Zhi sighed at the sight.
“Don’t underestimate a wooden sword. If I’d used my real weapon, you’d be getting a cranial autopsy right now.”
With her current strength, even a transcendent’s skull wouldn’t survive a real strike. It’d be like slicing a potato.
But she wouldn’t aim for the head with her real sword anyway—and she’d also held back on the force.
Before Xu Zhi even finished her sentence, the other men kept attacking, undeterred by their teammate’s fall.
As she fought the Inspiration and Winter types, Xu Zhi felt her perception and body slow slightly—likely a result of the Winter user’s abilities.
But that minor sluggishness didn’t hinder her at all.
Then, in the heat of battle, the back of her hand—holding the sword—suddenly split open, revealing a deep, bone-deep wound. Blood spurted out.
She felt pain—something she hadn’t experienced in a while.
Surprised, her gaze swept the field—and she saw the Heart user had a matching wound on his own hand, and was holding a bloody knife.
“How interesting,” she said.
It seemed like a “shared damage” type of ability?
Most Heart-attribute transcendents came with built-in healing, so this fit well.
What he didn’t expect, however, was that Xu Zhi’s wound healed faster than even a Heart user’s.
Seeing this, the other three finally showed some change in expression.
She could resist paralysis, shrug off electric attacks, knock out one of them with a single casual strike, and now her regeneration outpaced even the healer?
What kind of monster was this?
In just a few exchanges, they finally understood why she had the strength to build an entire residential district.
One of them was still unwilling to accept it. He noticed that Xu Zhi was only using her wooden sword and some passive abilities—she hadn’t even used her transcendent powers.
The feeling of being underestimated was too frustrating, so he asked directly, “You’re fighting us—why aren’t you using your transcendental powers?”
Xu Zhi smiled.
“If I used my powers on you… wouldn’t that just be bullying?”
