562 Chapter 562: Interview Duel

"Not exactly," I muttered. "But let's just do this."

"Ha ha ha!" Xing Er Song laughed. "So are you ready to lose?"

"No I'm ready to sing a song."

"You…!" Xing Er Song snarled, but Dean Xiao stopped him by clearing his throat. He gestured for the both of us to get onto the stage.

"All right, let's begin," he said.

"I've been waiting for this!" Xing Er Song exclaimed with relish. He held both of his hands up the moment we both got onto stage and began gathering mana into them. A few seconds later, earth spikes burst from the ground to impale me.

Fortunately, we were allowed to use other types of magic and weapons without necessarily being restricted to the magical element we were supposed to major in. I had remembered to ask the question earlier, and the invigilators confirmed that it wouldn't be a problem. Xing Er Song had seemed to be all right with this, so I suspected that he had another element in hand.

So did I, so I wasn't worried.

I wasn't going to draw Hei Yue and Bai Ri against a foe like him, though. They would be wasted on an opponent of such caliber. Not that I underestimated him, but my real swords were for killing, not for a duel. I didn't want to accidentally kill anyone during a sparring session.

Instead, I summoned my swords.

"Gemini."

The black and white short swords materialized in my hands and I cleaved through the earth spikes with consummate skill. Twirling them in my hands, I spun through the barrage of earth spikes and cut through them without suffering a single injury.

"This…!"

Xing Er Song looked furious when he saw that I had managed to evade his spells, unscathed. He threw out his hands and summoned a pair of colossal serpents that writhed and twisted before slamming down on my position. Too big for me to cut through, I was forced to dodge.

Leaping on one of the broken earth spikes, I kicked off and launched myself into the air. One of the colossal earth serpents struck at me, but I twisted my body in midair before landing on its rocky hide. Before it could crush me against the ground, I was already jumping up and propelling myself upward, scaling its immense body.

Its comrade then dove straight at me, but I was ready, leaping away and landing on its head. Running along its neck and then the length of its body, I dove off before it could collide with its comrade. There was a huge crack as the enormous earth serpent slammed into its brethren, and I was falling. Tucking my legs into my chest, I spun about to right myself upward and then altered my trajectory.

Dismissing Gemini, I then summoned Sagittarius. Pulling back a flaming arrow, I unleashed it upon the two colossal earth serpents and engulfed them in a massive inferno.

"What?!"

Xing Er Song's jaw dropped when he saw the destruction I had wrought. He weaved his hands to erect an earth barrier to counter my second arrow – indeed, that was why I didn't bother firing at him the first time. I already knew that he had countermeasures set up. Furthermore, I could see a glowing amulet hanging from his chest.

The rich, chubby kid had defensive magical tools of his own. He would have neutralized my arrow with the combination of his defenses and earth barrier, while his earth serpents pulverized me to the ground. Fortunately, I had chosen to destroy the latter so I didn't have to worry about the threat of being crushed by those rock spells.

"Now it's my turn to summon," I said jokingly. Those earth serpents weren't real soul beasts or summoned monsters, by the way. They were jut rock that took the shape of serpents, without any real intelligence, features, sensory organs or anything that made them "creatures" in any sense of the word. They couldn't even be counted as golems.

"As if I will let you!"

Lowering his barrier, Xing Er Song hurled several boulders at me. I dove downward, swapping my Sagittarius for Gemini and cleaved through the boulders. As I descended, I completed my casting spell.

"Capricorn!"

The sea goat materialized below me and I landed on his back. With a bray, he smashed through the barrier with his horns and charged at Xing Er Song. The chubby fella threw himself to the side, conjuring another earth barrier. Simultaneously, he launched a barrage of earth spikes from the ground, but being an agile Constellation spirit, Capricorn deftly evaded all of them.

Jumping nimbly from side to side to avoid the earth spikes, Capricorn cleared the thorny patch of lances before landing right in front of Xing Er Song's earth barrier. This time, he failed to smash through it, probably because he didn't use the gravity to increase his momentum this time.

Not that he needed to. Stomping on the ground, he raised a wall of earth from beneath Xing Er Song's feet and sending the chubby guy off balance.

"What the hell?! This is an…earth spell too?!"

Throwing a hand out, he flung an earth lance at us while simultaneously shoving his other hand down to forcibly take control of the earth below him.

Capricorn smashed the earth lance into smithereens with his horn while Xing Er Song steadied himself. Huffing, he pressed both of his palms onto the ground.

"Whoa!"

The floor beneath Capricorn's feet suddenly softened and caved in, turning into some sort of crater. Capricorn brayed when his feet sank into the soft earth, which ravenously attempted to swallow him. Despite kicking out and struggling to get free, Capricorn failed to find his footing.

"Ha ha ha!" Xing Er Song laughed triumphantly. "Let's see how you'll get out of my quicksand! You'll be swallowed whole along with your soul beast!"

"Did you forget that he can manipulate earth too?" I asked dryly. I cocked my head at Capricorn, who nodded at my mental command and stopped panicking. He calmly remained still and the quicksand no longer dragged him down.

"What…what?!"

Even as Xing Er Song spluttered, Capricorn summoned a torrent of earth that erupted from the sea of quicksand and allowed him to jump free. He landed on the ground near my chubby opponent, who backed away, flustered. His hands rose and he conjured a barrier between himself and Capricorn before my Constellation spirit could strike him.

But I already had another contingency in mind. Aries materialized behind Xing Er Song and rammed into him, causing him to topple over. Despite his defensive amulet generating a small barrier, blood gushed from his mouth.

"No choice…I didn't want to reveal this, but you forced my hand!"

Xing Er Song raised his hand and cast a spell he had reserved for emergencies.

"Ice Lock!"

Dozens of icicle spears materialized, frozen chains linking them and casting a net around my two Constellation spirits. We were essentially trapped.

"Isn't that…intermediate magic!? Xing Er Song has already mastered intermediate magic?!" one of the invigilators cried. The othr invigilators turned to stare at him wryly.

"Wrong universe and wrong story, dude."

"Oh…come on," the guy Xing Er Song called Uncle Li complained. "At least give Xing Er Song some credit, all right?! Then what am I supposed to say? That he's getting his ass kicked one-sidedly?"

"I wouldn't go that far…"

"Well, his performance has certainly been impressive, and he shows proficient mastery of not one but two elements…"

"Yeah, he's also quite the promising candidate."

Regardless, I wasn't going to lose to him. Even as the icicle spears rained down upon my Constellation spirits, the frozen chains sparkling behind them, I blocked all of them with a single summon.

"Black Tortoise."

The ice chains all halted when Black Tortoise appeared and cast Ice Sphere. A circular barrier of frost covered all of my Constellation spirits and myself, protecting us from ice. At the same time, fog billowed out around Xing Er Song's position and he found himself entombed inside ice.

"Ugh!"

Using his mana as well as the defensive mechanisms of his amulet, he shattered the ice, but I was already charging forward, Gemini flashing in my hands.

"I won't let you!" he shouted, conjuring another earth barrier, but Black Tortoise launched a single gigantic icicle almost the size of a building at him, which shattered the barrier and even broke the defensive field that his amulet generated. Blood gushed out of his mouth and he crashed into an undignified heap.

I then had the black blade of Castor pressed against his throat before he could get up. Xing Er Song stiffened but didn't move, aware that his skin had been cut and a single thick line of blood was trickling down his neck. He didn't even dare to gulp.

"All right, that's enough." One of the invigilators clapped his hands. "The duel is over! I'm sure the outcome is clear for all to see."

"You're satisfied with the result now, right, Xiao Song?" His uncle Li asked. I withrew my Castor and the chubby fella nodded sourly.

"I can't complain after losing so spectacularly," he said bitterly.

"Hey, you put up a good fight," I assured him. Xing Er Song snorted and looked away, unconvinced.

"You were just toying with me, weren't you?" he scowled. "You even deliberately used earth type and ice type Soul Beasts against me. Were you trying to say your mastery of those elements is better than mine?"

"I wouldn't dare," I replied, but I knew why he thought so (and he was right, actually, not that I would admit it). In order for my Constellation spirits to wield such powerful elemental magic, I would need to at least in theory know the fundamentals of the elemental spells.

By the way, that was different from actually being able to cast elemental spells. I only knew how to cast ice spells right now, but I had theoretical knowledge of the fundamental elemental spells, which was what allowed me to conceptualize and form my summoned spirits. Simply put, I had to know the theoretical principles of the elemental spells in order for my summoned spirits to cast them, but whether I could cast those elemental spells myself was another matter altogether.

"I think it's safe to say that Richard Huang will be admitted into the summoning department," the invigilator who petitioned Dean Xiao earlier to have me join the department declared. The rest of the invigilators nodded, including Uncle Li. None of them had any objections.

"It's decided then." Dean Xiao nodded, his bald pate gleaming. "From this day onward, Richard will be a summoning student in Vermillion University. I'm sure Director Porter will be happy to hear this."

"…"

Xing Er Song watched them silently, and then skulked off. He nodded at his butler and sighed quietly, but he had accepted his loss. And no, before you start jumping into conclusions, he had no intention of hiring assassins to kill me just because I "humiliated" him or "offended" him. Where the fuck did you get that from? I see some people have been reading too much urban cultivation stories or Battle Frenzy.

However, before he could get far, Dean Xiao called out to him.

"Hey, kid. Don't be in such a hurry to leave."

"Eh?" Xing Er Song stopped.

"I think we will manage to squeeze you in, Mr. Xing," he told him. "If you are willing to take the spot in our department of earth magic, of course."

"What? Really?" Xing Er Song spun around, shocked. "But I…"

"You learned a valuable lesson today, didn't you?" Dean Xiao smiled at him. "Even before you begin the actual semester itself…don't you think this is a great starting point?"

"I…" Xing Er Song's eyes were wide in disbelief, and then he nodded humbly. "Thank you, Dean Xiao."