Chapter 404: The More I Think, the Angrier I Get

July 20th, Yuan'an Temple.

A young Daoist with delicate features and fair skin, and a young monk with a kind face and a sturdy build—one in moon-white Daoist robes, the other in yellow monk robes—walked side by side along the red-lacquered corridor, with wisps of blue smoke curling from the incense burners nearby, forming an inexplicably quiet scene.

"Qingcai Caike, Zhang Suannai, long time no see."

"Amitabha, long time no see."

"Long time no see." Chen Shu greeted them with a smile. "Is Dharma Master Tongdeng here too?"

"Yesterday, my master came to discuss the scriptures and the Dao with the uncle-master of Yuan'an Temple, so I followed along to take a look." Dharma Master Tongdeng pressed his palms together, his voice gentle. "It just so happened that I heard Junior Brother Xuanzhen say that the two of you were coming to test a Spell, so I shamelessly tagged along."

"So that's how it is."

Chen Shu also learned to press his palms together like him.

Beside him, Zhang Suannai had a numb expression.

She never expected that being a sparring partner was one thing, but there were actually two people here to watch the show.

Are these two idiots live-streaming this in the group chat?

"Shall we go now?"

"Please."

"Please."

A moment later, in the mountain forest.

Two figures stood in mid-air, looking at each other from a distance.

Below were also two figures; the one in monk robes was gnawing on a pear that had just ripened at Yuan'an Temple, while the one in Daoist robes held high a Flagship Phone from a certain manufacturer this year. The monk and the Daoist turned their heads to chat every now and then; the scene looked strange no matter how one viewed it.

"Let's start with a thousand Sword Lights."

"..."

"Medium Spirit Power."

"..."

"Medium speed."

"..."

"Medium size."

"..."

Zhang Suannai was accommodating, but her expression remained numb.

With a casual flick of her Sword, Sword Lights emerged one after another around her, aiming at Chen Shu in the distance.

"Ready."

"Whoosh!"

The Sword Lights turned into a Sword Rain and shot out instantly.

The opponent also shot out streaks of red light.

To facilitate observation, every Tracer was glowing; the light was scarlet, dragging long tails like meteors as they headed toward the Sword Rain.

These Tracers were not fired in a single volley.

At most, only a few Tracers were fired at the same time, but they came in wave after wave, with extremely high frequency, extremely fast speed, and continuous motion.

There were two reasons for this—

On one hand, the Tracer Technique had its limitations; as a standard Spell for Low Tier Spirit Cultivators, its excellence clearly could not compare to the foundation of the Sword Sect. At the same time, the different casting principles meant it could not be like the Sword Control Technique, where thousands could be summoned instantly and accumulated into tens of thousands. On the other hand, continuous firing was actually more advantageous for interception; it wasted less, was less likely to miss, was more efficient, and avoided chain reactions when exploding, which would result in intercepting oneself. For those large targets that were difficult to intercept with a single Tracer, it could also achieve a volley of dozens or hundreds.

No sooner said than done.

The two sides closed the distance in an instant.

Under Zhang Suannai's control, the thousand Sword Lights were extremely agile, instantly scattering to bypass the meteor-like Tracers and carry out an attack.

But at this moment, the Tracers seemed to have locked onto their targets, automatically adjusting their direction and still crashing into the Sword Lights.

The Buddhist-Daoist duo below widened their eyes instantly.

It was their first time seeing a Tracer Technique that could turn corners.

In the blink of an eye, the first batch of Tracers met the Sword Lights.

"Boom..."

The scarlet meteors exploded with blinding light.

The improved Tracer Technique had enhanced destructiveness toward Spirit Power structures; with such an explosion, the structure of many Sword Lights immediately lost stability and disintegrated directly.

One had to consider that Zhang Suannai had already served as his sparring partner several times before he returned to Yuanzhou, so she already had experience with this; the Sword Lights were dispersed quite widely. If it had been any other Traditional Sword Cultivator who lacked understanding of the automatic defense version of the Tracer Technique, the interception efficiency would have been much higher.

Subsequent Tracers followed one after another, with almost no gap in between, all heading toward the Sword Lights.

Explosions rang out across the sky.

Chen Shu observed carefully while casting his Spell.

The speed of the Tracers was slightly inferior to the Sword Lights, but fortunately, both sides were "rushing toward each other," so the impact on the interception effect was not as great as imagined.

However, the agility of the Tracers was far inferior to the Sword Lights.

The Tracers were constantly fine-tuning their direction, and the entire turning process was very gentle; visually, the arcs they drew in the air were also very graceful. The Sword Lights, however, could even turn around or circle in the air; if the Sword Lights made large evasive maneuvers, the Tracers could hardly keep up.

To ensure the effectiveness of the sparring, Zhang Suannai did not do so for the time being.

Finally, the interception of the Tracers was not considered precise.

Many times, the two sides did not actually touch.

At this moment, Spirit Sensitivity came into play; the Sword Light only had to brush past the Tracer, and the Tracer would explode.

In less than a second, Sword Lights had already reached Chen Shu.

"Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh..."

The Sword Lights all struck into the soil.

Chen Shu stood motionless, counting to himself.

One thousand Sword Lights, with an interception efficiency of over eighty percent.

The results were very Joy-inducing.

But the Tracer Technique consumed over a thousand tracers as well.

The interception efficiency was highest at the beginning, where one tracer could even intercept several Sword Lights; the further it went, the lower the efficiency became, until in the end, even several tracers might not be able to intercept a single Sword Light. Therefore, in actual combat, when facing such an attack method that also relies on quantity—or even has a greater quantity than one's own—the most cost-effective way is to first use tracers to weaken it, trading few for many, and then use other defensive means.

Chen Shu pondered quietly.

He then spoke again, shouting into the distance: "One thousand again, increase the speed, keep everything else the same."

"..."

Another round of confrontation.

Over and over again.

Increasing the quantity, increasing the Spirit Power, increasing the size...

Constantly changing the patterns.

Zhang Suannai cooperated the whole time with a numb expression, looking like a "whatever you say goes, I am just an emotionless Sword Light casting machine."

The two people below clicked their tongues in wonder.

Finally, a massive Sword Light appeared in the sky.

The Spirit Power consumed by this giant Sword Light was no less than that of a thousand small Sword Lights; if used in actual combat, it would definitely be a powerful tool for breaking through, used to shatter an opponent's final line of defense, yet Chen Shu intercepted it with a volley of less than one hundred tracers.

As expected—

The Tracer Technique is still best suited for intercepting high-value targets that are large and powerful; for ordinary Sword Lights that are small, scattered, numerous, and flexible, the best way is still to shoot back at them and see whose firepower is fiercer.

"Are you done yet?"

"Done, done."

"Had your fun?"

"It was alright..."

"I'm exhausted."

"Thank you for your hard work."

Chen Shu hurriedly flew over to the sparring partner who had contributed precious test data and said: "I'll cook something delicious for you when we get back to nourish you."

"Then I want to eat Yuer Chicken!" Zhang Suannai instantly perked up, and without thinking, she paused after speaking, "And I also want to eat that dish Chen Banxia posted on her feed after you returned to Yuanzhou, the one where the tripe can be eaten like noodles!"

"What is that?"

"The one she posted last time!"

"Which one?"

"The one from the second day you returned to Yuanzhou!"

"Oh..."

Chen Shu then remembered; she was talking about Mao Xue Wang.

His family cooked with heavy seasoning, following their own preferences, putting in plenty of whatever they liked to eat; Chen Banxia loved tripe, and Qingqing liked it too, so Chen Shu put in a lot. Large helpings of tripe were scooped out of the red broth, and with one slurp, it really was like slurping noodles.

"Okay! No problem!"

The two drifted down and landed on the ground.

"Amitabha."

Dharma Master Tongdeng recited a Buddhist chant toward them: "Qingcai Caike, was that the Tracer Technique just cast?"

"Yes, it was."

"I had heard that some Spirit Cultivators who reached High-Tier would modify the Tracer Technique from an offensive spell into a defensive one, but I was unaware... that the Tracer Technique now possesses an automatic interception effect?"

"It's still in the experimental stage." Chen Shu paused, "Not just me, many institutions and individuals are researching it, and basically all have achieved some results."

"..."

Dharma Master Tongdeng was silent for a moment, then couldn't help but say: "Qingcai Caike has extraordinary talent; I admire you."

Master Xuanzhen translated for him: "Awesome!"

"You flatter me, you flatter me."

"You need not be humble, benefactor."

"Two masters, I won't chat more; I must go back to adjust the spell, we shall meet again."

"I shall not disturb you further."

"Wait a moment, two masters. The fragrant pears on Yuan'an Temple mountain have just ripened; since you are here, you might as well take some back."

"That would be good."

The four flew up and headed toward Yuan'an Temple.

The two took a pile of fragrant pears and then returned.

Chen Shu rushed upstairs, entered the study, wrote down the findings from this experiment, and then faced the spell structure, slowly thinking about improvements.

Zhang Suannai also returned to her own courtyard.

As soon as she got home, she took out her Mobile Phone and opened the group chat.

Sure enough, that instigating Daoist had posted several videos in the group, with the caption: Large-scale Sword Control Technique interception scene.

The people below were full of Surprise.

Suddenly Closed Mouth Standing: What is this? The Tracer Technique can even turn corners? How come I didn't know that?

Haoran Righteousness: /thumbs up/thumbs up/thumbs up

Haoran Righteousness: It's an intelligent interception version of the Tracer Technique. Several military research institutes are also studying it, wanting to use it on High-Tier ancient cultivators and ship-mounted Spirit Power Cannons. I went to see the field test two months ago, and the results weren't necessarily better than this.

Beauty with Eight-Pack Abs: Amazing.

Just Call Me Luo Huaian: Looking at the video results, this Tracer Technique seems to have a very good interception effect against the Sword Sect Sword Control Technique; in the future, Spirit Sect Spirit Cultivators might conversely suppress the Sword Sect system.

Gate of All Wonders: What do you all think?

Gate of All Wonders: Can the current Zhang Suannai beat Qingcai?

Just Call Me Luo Huaian: I don't think it's possible.

Just Call Me Luo Huaian: However, that person Zhang Suannai is arrogant and stupid. When she sees this later, she will definitely jump out to refute it. Hmm, I can already imagine her stomping her feet in anger when she sees this message.

Gate of All Wonders: It had to be you.

"Damn it!"

Zhang Suannai gritted her teeth.

She didn't want to look at the rest anymore, tossed her Mobile Phone aside, lay back on the sofa, stared at the ceiling, and her chest heaved.

Being a sparring partner for Chen Shu did indeed give her a certain sense of crisis, making her feel a bit nervous again after more than half a year. But this idiot "Weiweiwei" was clearly trying to disgust her on purpose by saying that.

The more she thought about it, the angrier she got; the more she thought about it, the angrier she got.

The Yuer Chicken and Mao Xue Wang had calmed her dissatisfaction with Chen Shu, but they could not calm her opinion of this piece of trash from the Royal Court.

No! I can't take this anger!

Zhang Suannai picked up her Mobile Phone again—

Grandma always says: If it's not bright in the east, it's bright in the west; you are just as much of an idiot as they are.

Grandma always says: @Just Call Me Luo Huaian