To Win and Lose

Not just the young man, everyone who saw their first exchange of moves was shocked by Shui. It was amazing enough that he was the disciple of an array master and could defeat opponents three levels above him, but being able to jump realms surpassed the level of genius and was more of a monster.

As Shui got more serious about this fight, he started to forget his original purpose and completely focused on how to win. Shui had tried to attack the young man with 'Lightning' while his fist had connected with his fan, but he somehow repelled it.

'I guess I can't treat him lightly.'

Under harmonic trinity, his body, energy and soul were forcibly balanced so his soul was stronger than usual, however his body was weaker. Even so, the control over his body and energy he gained from having a stronger soul, made up for it. This was necessary for him to face an opponent an entire realm above him, but since he hadn't mastered it, like most of his trump cards, it had a time limit. And even if he ignored the time limit, harmonic trinity couldn't overcome the fact that the young man had overwhelmingly more energy than he did. In other words, he had to finish him quickly if he wanted to win.

Instead of Matt, Shui was the one to initiate the next exchange. Since he knew he couldn't move faster than Matt could react, Shui revealed one of his tricks to catch him off guard. He took out a knife from his space expansion bag and threw it at Matt while drawing 'Lightning' mentally. The knife became an electrified bolt that smashed through his hastily put up barrier and left a mark across his left cheek.

"Was that a spell?!"

"But isn't he in the Mortal Realm?!"

"He should be!"

While the onlookers were stunned once more by the technique Shui used, he took the opening that the knife provided to close in on Matt and slam his fist into his face. Although it only pushed him back four steps, the humiliation that Matt felt from getting punched by Shui completely destroyed the bit of restraint he had. Before Shui could land another attack, he saw the fan in Matt's hand glow with an enchanting red light. Matt raised the fan above his head and fire formed an arsenal of deadly weapons aimed at Shui.

"You little brat! Die!"

The moment he saw the barrage, Shui quickly drew the symbol for 'Protect' in his mind to create a barrier, but the onslaught was only increasing in ferocity.

'Damn it! Is this the effect of his fan?'

Shui knew that a fan that could stop one of his attacks couldn't be ordinary, but he didn't expect it to have such an annoying ability. Even though his soul under harmonic trinity could use the power of inscriptions much better, he doubted that his soul would last longer than Matt's energy. Since he could see this continuing to his defeat, Shui decisively used his fingernail to dig into his palm and make it bleed. He then drew two layered 'Protect' symbols on the ground. It would be better if he layered three but he was still focusing on the one in his mind to defend against Matt's spell. Once he was finished, the ground captured him in its embrace and made a structure similar to an igloo to defend Shui. However, this would also only be a temporary fix.

Now that he could stop focusing on the symbol of 'Protect', Shui used his soul to support the World Assimilation Art. Normally, he could only absorb essence that was concentrated to a certain degree, but in this state it was possible for him to forcefully draw essence from anything in nature that came in contact with his skin, such as earth essence and wind essence. He could add this essence to his cultivation but that would just be a waste. Instead, he purposefully absorbed these two essences without refining them in order to push himself to an overload state.

When his body took in too much unrefined essence, he would face a backlash based off of what essence was being absorbed. For human essence he would forcefully mutate, for lunar essence he would be trapped in a daze and for earth essence he would become petrified. However, by stopping just before this overload state, he could use the power of these essences for a short time without facing any backlash. Wind essence would drastically improve his agility while earth essence improved physical power.

"What! What the hell are you?!"

As Shui put down the barrier formed by the ground and broke through Matt's flaming barrage with just his bare body, Matt couldn't help being surprised. His clothes started burning to ash but there was not a scratch on his body that glowed with a golden light. Even with harmonic trinity, or maybe because of it, he couldn't use both essences at once but it would be enough.

As Matt was frightened by Shui's ability to force himself through his spell, Shui got close enough to send Matt flying with an uppercut, but it didn't end there. By the time Matt reached the apex of his flight, Shui, now glowing with a bluish white light, jumped and readied a palm when he was right above Matt. Without any mercy, Shui slammed his palm on Matt's chest and mentally drew 'Burst'.

The sudden explosion sent Matt back to the ground with so much force that a small crater was created. Seeing his bloodied figure and rolled back eyes, the instructors in the area took a step toward Shui as he landed, but they restrained themselves when he glared at them. They didn't want to call it fear, but they were reluctant to go up against a monster that could beat Matt despite his overwhelmingly inferior cultivation. However, Shui didn't expect for them to stay like this for long.

He put on his silk coat once more and took out the package he came with.

"Bring me to Head Martial Instructor Riley. I have a package for him from my master."

Once Shui brought up his master, the instructors remembered his status and decided not to trouble him for the time being. One group of them went to treat Matt while the other led Shui somewhere. Before he met Riley, the instructors informed him of the incident. Riley was a hulk of a man who fit his title perfectly. He was also upright enough to see the fault in Matt's actions, but he knew that this incident couldn't end here.

"Don't do anything for now. We can't afford to cause any more trouble with him and his master."

Unlike what Shui expected, Head Martial Instructor Riley was very courteous. However, he didn't let his guard down. Even though he didn't think he did anything wrong, there would definitely be consequences for his actions.

When Shui went back to Nikolai's mansion, he went straight to his office to report what happened. When Nikolai heard Shui's simplified explanation, his first response was anger.

"Those damn muscle-headed buffoons! They dare treat my disciple like this! Why I ought to-"

"Please calm down Master! Even if they started it, it's a fact that I beat up the deputy headmaster's disciple. They won't let this go easily, but there's no reason for us to make the first move."

Shui knew that Nikolai was more angry about them disrespecting his disciple rather than Shui himself, but exactly because of that he couldn't let him be reckless. They couldn't be hurt as long as they stayed in the mansion, but if he strutted over there then he would likely suffer a loss.