Chapter Twenty-Five: The Battle of the Psychic Abilities

Chapter Twenty-Five: The Battle of Espers

As the duel officially began, Nalan Sheng’s expression changed swiftly. Starlight surged in her eyes, and an invisible force immediately swept outward. Instantly, the ground started freezing rapidly, spreading at an astonishing speed. In the eyes of all spectators, it seemed as if Xia Zheng, all but his head, was instantly frozen in place.

“Is it over in a single move?” Many spectators felt their pre-match predictions had been spot-on—this Xia Zheng was simply no match for Nalan Sheng.

Nalan Sheng was not at all surprised by Xia Zheng’s immobility. Under her unique mental power, opponents were often suppressed with overwhelming advantage, unable even to muster a counterattack. Such was the ancestral mental cultivation technique of the Nalan family.

In the era of genetically modified humans, mental cultivation techniques already began to show their power, but it was only with the coming of the era of superpowers that mental abilities truly revealed their might.

With a casual lift of her hand, Nalan Sheng sent a mass from her sleeve, which seemed to inflate with gas in an instant, forming a massive white fist. Controlled by her mind, it flew at Xia Zheng and hovered above him.

“Brother Xia, do concede. If you admit defeat of your own accord, you will be spared needless pain. What do you say?” Nalan Sheng asked politely.

Xia Zheng seemed to ponder something at that moment. He found himself able to move again, shook his head, and chose to refuse.

“So stubborn!” Nalan Sheng sighed, then commanded the fist to strike down, intending to knock him out and end this tedious fight.

Bang!

But in the next instant, a huge crash startled the onlookers—a sudden shield appeared above Xia Zheng, blocking Nalan Sheng’s blow.

“Hm?” The unexpected turn surprised many. Nalan Yun also sensed something amiss, and even Camilla, despite being mentally prepared, was astonished by Xia Zheng’s mental attribute.

“So… he’s not just a telekinetic? Could he, like that girl, possess dual attributes?” Camilla was thunderstruck. “Telekinetic” was a special term for mental ability users, though it was not widely adopted, used mostly among the upper echelons of the Professional Alliance and within the telekinetic circle. Yet, even that term could not encompass all mental-type espers.

Most telekinetics mastered only one mental attribute; the rare few, like Nalan Sheng, mastered two.

Xia Zheng had blocked Nalan Sheng’s attack and then broke free from the icy restraints, which vanished like mist, confirming his suspicion about the young woman’s particular mental attribute.

With a push to one side, Xia Zheng emerged from beneath the shield. He drew his weapons from his belt—two throwing knives and two stiletto spikes—which, guided by his mind, whistled into the air, tore through the white inflatable fist, and then shot toward Nalan Sheng.

After a moment of shock, Nalan Sheng reacted swiftly and threw her own weapons—a long spear and a silver-white shield. The shield stood before her, expanding into a wall that gleamed with silver light. The spear, its edges wreathed in flames, looked to be of the highest quality.

Xia Zheng’s knives and spikes rained down, but were easily blocked by the shield wall. Yet the relentless assaults forced Nalan Sheng to take him seriously, no longer able to ignore him as before.

Under her control, the long spear shot forward at lightning speed.

Could it be… she doesn’t have just one mental attribute? Xia Zheng thought, facing the spear. With a simple twisting motion, a thick vine materialized and coiled around the spear, binding it tightly and preventing it from breaking free.

“What… what ability is this? He can summon things out of nowhere?” Many spectators were baffled. Xia Zheng had clearly been at a disadvantage, yet now he was counterattacking, even disrupting Nalan Sheng’s offensive.

“So, you’re a mental esper too. Good. Very good. Then I can go all out.” Nalan Sheng realized her opponent was also a mental-type esper, and his attributes seemed no weaker than hers. Having practiced the family’s secret arts for years, she had battled many mentalists and did not fear them.

Boom!

The scene transformed again. The space, once covered in ice and snow, turned into a sea of fire, flames raging and the temperature soaring. Even with energy barriers in place, the arena grew oppressively hot. Many wondered how much worse it must be for Xia Zheng, trapped within the closed space.

Camilla, feeling the heat, loosened her collar, causing all the men’s eyes to widen and many women to feel both envious and resentful, knowing they could never rival such a figure.

At the same time, Xia Zheng felt the transformation from ice to flame. The abrupt rise in temperature singed his hair and left him parched.

“What a formidable illusion—almost real… But a falsehood is still a falsehood. I’ll shatter your illusion with reality.” With that, Xia Zheng closed his eyes. Frost began to fall gently above his head, spreading until it enveloped him in a storm—a blizzard.

The temperature around him plummeted, chilling the spectators nearest to his side to the bone, while those farther away sweated in the heat. This cold was even more terrifying than before; now the audience was truly shivering, not just feeling a chill.

Nalan Yun stared at Xia Zheng in disbelief. He could hardly accept that such an esper existed. Even among telekinetics, none possessed such miraculous abilities.

“Manifestation… this is the manifestation of mental power… an almost perfect attribute… Why… why is he not a descendant of my Nalan family?” Nalan Yun roared, his outburst heard by many, and Camilla finally confirmed Xia Zheng’s attribute: the legendary ability to manifest imagination into reality.

The spectators were in an uproar, and with the commentary of some “experts,” realized that Xia Zheng was not only a mental-type esper but possessed an almost perfect, unique attribute.

Nalan Sheng was swayed by the crowd’s emotion, especially after hearing her father declare that the young man opposite possessed this near-perfect power. The near-perfect confidence she had always carried began to shake and crack.

The manifested blizzard weakened her powers. She gritted her teeth and forced herself to her limits, letting her immense mental strength surge, making the flames more violent.

The energy shield was at its fifth level and still could not hold back the illusory fire. Camilla ordered it to maximum, finally suppressing the heat and allowing the audience to breathe easier.

Around Xia Zheng, more than a dozen weapons floated, all charged with power, then shot at Nalan Sheng, attacking her relentlessly and forcing her to take shelter behind her shield wall. He dared not hold back, for Nalan Sheng’s mental power was no weaker than his own.

Nalan Sheng’s outburst made her spear blaze with light. Enhanced by illusory fire, it broke free of the vine, leaving a blur behind, and struck Xia Zheng’s blizzard.

Spear and storm clashed—a battle of minds. Xia Zheng gritted his teeth and held on, while Nalan Sheng attacked with abandon. She even abandoned her shield, switching to a second spear, knocking aside the weapons floating overhead one by one. In terms of quality, Xia Zheng’s weapons were ordinary, no match for Nalan Sheng’s superb spears.

The thrown knives and spikes, as they fell, were entangled in a mysterious black force, severing Xia Zheng’s mental link with them.

“Hm? That second spear of hers is odd—it can sever my connection to my weapons,” Xia Zheng realized. He clenched his fist, and in his mind conjured a giant fist of stone. With a massive surge of mental power, a stone fist descended from above, smashing the flaming spear aside and sending it flying, then continued on toward Nalan Sheng.

Nalan Sheng no longer kept her distance; perhaps she believed that, since Xia Zheng was also a mental-type esper, he would be weak in close combat.

The enormous stone fist plowed through the sea of fire, snuffing out the illusionary flames. This was a blow fueled by Xia Zheng’s tremendous mental power, and it would not be easy for Nalan Sheng to block.

Yet she seemed almost frenzied now. She infused her spear with immense mental energy; the butt spun furiously, unleashing a tremendous vibration that shook the entire space.

Seeing this, Camilla rushed to the dueling arena, energy surging in her hands. An earthen yellow force rose around the barrier—Camilla was an elemental-type esper, specializing in earth. Soon, thick, sturdy walls of earth rose on all sides, sealing the dueling space once more. The audience grumbled, but the arena’s screens promptly broadcast the events inside, and the crowd burst into applause.

Nalan Yun was anxious—he hadn’t expected his genius daughter to be forced to unleash her potential. Such an outburst would leave her frail for ten days or more—one of the forbidden techniques not to be used lightly.

“Who exactly is this young man? Is he from some hidden family or a prodigy secretly nurtured by the military?” Nalan Yun could not believe that an esper with such near-perfect mental power could be an ordinary civilian; the odds were almost impossible.

Inside the sealed space, Nalan Sheng acted. She hurled her spear, which spun with a shrill whistle, stirring the very air. The energy barrier trembled and rippled, struggling to withstand the force.

The mighty stone fist met the whirling spear—a collision of staggering power. The energy storm shattered the shield, a blow surpassing even a full-strength attack from a B-rank esper.

The energy storm spread, slamming into Camilla’s earthen barrier and dispersing. In the face of absolute strength, the duel between two fledgling telekinetics was finally contained, though even Camilla was left in awe. She had known telekinetics were formidable, but this was beyond expectation.

Amidst the shattered ground, Xia Zheng fell, coughing, his appearance disheveled, his clothes torn, even his organs lightly injured.

Opposite him, Nalan Sheng, hair disheveled, had become strange and wild. Her clothing, too, was ripped by the earlier explosion, revealing her sensual figure. Xia Zheng only had a moment to appreciate the sight before a surge of even greater mental power erupted from her.

A shriek—piercing, laced with madly swelling psychic force—spread in all directions. This time, not even Camilla’s earthen walls could block this intangible psychic scream.

Camilla and the others could endure, but the ordinary espers among the audience clutched their heads in agony, squatting or collapsing to the ground, writhing in pain.

Nalan Sheng had lost control. She could not accept defeat—she was the favored child of the heavens; why should Xia Zheng take her place?

I—will—not—accept—this!