Science/Magic 160 Thieving Demon

...

One hour later, Bloed and Liu Ying were in Bloed's laboratory (Regina had gone to prepare breakfast).

Liu Ying was lying inside a transparent capsule while a strange artifact scanned his body. Bloed was outside the capsule, looking fixedly at a screen and examining Liu Ying's data.

Five minutes later, the artifact finished examining Liu Ying. Bloed heaved a sigh and opened the capsule, letting Liu Ying out.

"How is it?" Liu Ying asked.

"Amazing," Bloed said without hiding the admiration in his voice. "Just your mana alone is fifty percent more abundant and twice as pure as before. Moreover, each cell in your body seems to have evolved to a new level, making the stats of your body around thirty percent higher."

"Seriously?" Liu Ying asked in disbelief. "Exactly how much stronger am I now?"

"You are easily twice as strong as before, and you are still at the initial stage of B-Rank. When you reach the peak of B-Rank, your combat ability will be around five times higher than when you were at C-Rank."

That was a great increase in strength. With Liu Ying's talent, she was already able to fight B-Rank practitioners as an equal when she was at the peak of C-Rank. Now that she was at B-Rank, nobody below Rank was her opponent with a few exceptions.

Rank, on the other hand, was still a bit too much for her. A normal Rank was around ten times stronger than a normal B-Rank, thus, Liu Ying still needed to become a bit stronger if she wanted to face enemies like that.

"Hahaha, great!" Liu Ying smiled in excitement and rushed to hug Bloed. "Finally I'm a B-Rank! It was so slow!"

Bloed was speechless. Currently, Liu Ying was only fifteen, one year younger than him. If she was considered slow, then, what about him?

Perhaps noticing Bloed's expression, Liu Ying laughed sheepishly.

"I'm sorry. I was a bit too excited. Don't worry, I'm sure you will breakthrough soon too."

Bloed smiled without answering. In fact, only a thin layer was separating him from B-Grade. The current Bloed could become a B-Grade ESPer at any time.

Although to be honest, Bloed had to admit that he felt a bit weird knowing that Liu Ying broke through before him.

"Anyway, how are you feeling? You don't feel anything wrong, right?" Bloed asked.

"Nope." Liu Ying shook her head and clenched her fist. "Quite the opposite. My body feels full of energy. I never felt so great."

Bloed fell deep in thought. That was a bit unusual.

At least, he never felt that his body was full of energy when he broke through before. He only felt his mind refreshed and his thoughts moving faster.

Although after thinking for a while, Bloed concluded that it was a result of the differences between ESP cultivation and Mana cultivation.

After spending time with Liu Ying, Bloed had noticed some differences between the two cultivation systems.

ESP cultivation relied uniquely on psychic energy to grow.

Mana cultivation, on the other hand, relied more on mana. And although psychic energy was still important (In this world it was called soul power), it was less important than mana.

Of the two systems, ESP offered stronger individual power and greatest specific abilities (most of the time), but mana was more versatile. In fact, mana cultivation could strengthen the body and increase lifespan (the later when you become a demigod), something that was impossible for ESP cultivation.

In hindsight, though, the human confederation's Body Enhancement Surgery could increase the lifespan of normal humans and ESPers as well. Stronger ESPers, particularly, could get a much greater lifespan through body enhancement surgery.

In the information Bloed read about the human confederation, there were records of powerful ESPers beyond SSS-Grade living more than five hundred years.

When Bloed exited his thoughts, he realized that Liu Ying was looking at him fixedly.

"Liu Ying?"

"Oh? Sorry. By the way, Bloed, wanna spar for a bit?"

"… Are you getting cocky now that you are stronger than me?" Bloed asked in amusement.

"Nonono, never. I just want to test how much stronger I am. Then, are we doing it? Or are you afraid?"

Bloed looked at Liu Ying and sighed. "Okay, but we need to hold back when we attack. Let's do it, we will stop just before hitting the opponent. Besides, I will not use my guns or [Molecular Disintegration], and you will not use your aspect either."

"Okay."

Just like that, Bloed and Liu Ying walked to the courtyard.

Bloed and Liu Ying stood each in a side of the courtyard, separated by ten meters of distance. Liu Ying was clenching her fist in excitement and Bloed holding his saber.

Then, as though they had read the thoughts of the other, both of them moved at the same time!

Liu Ying kicked the ground, closing the ten meters of distance in an instant. Then, she swung her punch in a powerful uppercut.

Bloed evaded her attack calmly. His eyes narrowed, looking at each movement of Liu Ying, and his saber slashed towards her.

As though reading his intention, Liu Ying twisted her body and spun around, unleashing a kick that Bloed evaded by ducking. Then, he counterattacked with three kick thrust.

When Liu Ying evaded them, she realized that a kick was coming towards her.

Bloed continued his kick with as successive series of attacks. He did not limit himself to using his saber, and instead, used his entire body to attack Liu Ying.

At this point, something interesting happened. Although Liu Ying was much faster than Bloed, she was being quickly cornered!

Liu Ying was surprised. She hurriedly tried to take control of the fight, but with each second, the fight seemed to lean more in Bloed's favor.

'Impossible!' Liu Ying suppressed her surprise and hurriedly jumped back, evading another attack.

"H-How?"

"Did you forget about it?" Bloed smiled softly. "I taught you how to fight. Besides, although you are faster and stronger now, your movements are much less precise. There are a lot of flaws to pick."

Actually, that was just half of the reason. The other half was that Bloed was too familiar with Liu Ying's combat style.

Bloed's first ESP ability, [Enhanced Brain Capacity], was perfectly suited to calculations. That, combined with Bloed's mechanical eyes, were perfect tools to predict the enemy movements.

Of course, Bloed needed to study the enemy and learn his attack pattern first if he wanted to predict his movements, but Liu Ying was someone that lived with Bloed and had fought several times beside him. Bloed knew practically everything about Liu Ying's combat style.

In that situation, Bloed found it easy to predict Liu Ying's movements.

It was like a game of chess where Bloed knew almost all the movements of his opponent beforehand. Even if his opponent level of chess was higher than Bloed, unless the difference was too great or Bloed was an idiot, he could not lose.

Liu Ying bit her lips. To be honest, she was expecting to win easily now that she broke through. So she was not expecting something like this.

After several seconds though, she took a deep breath and put on a serious expression.

"I don't believe I can't beat you!"

With a roar, Liu Ying rushed towards Bloed at full speed. In an instant, she was in front of Bloed again.

Like before, she started the exchange with a punch. Bloed evaded it easily while slashing towards her waist.

But at that moment, Liu Ying's movement transformed completely!

It was a movement completely outside Liu Ying's usual combat style. Instead of punching, elbowing, or kicking Bloed, she opened her arms and kicked the ground.

Then, using her maximum speed, she...

... Hugged him.

Bloed opened his eyes wide. Before he could react, Liu Ying's weight was already atop him.

The next second–

*Bam!*

The pair fell on the ground and raised a cloud of dust.

Liu Ying curved her lips up and straddled Bloed's waist.

"I won."

Bloed smiled wryly. "Are you going to hug your enemies during a fight?"

Liu Ying shrugged. "Well, you are not my enemy."

At that moment, though, she noticed how embarrassing their current position was.

Instantly, her expression turned red in embarrassment.

Bloed also realized the awkwardness of the situation. But when he was going to say something to alleviate it, he saw Liu Ying leaning forward.

Then, her lips touched his.

Bloed was stunned. For a brief instant, he did not know how to react.

Liu Ying, on the other hand, turned even redder. However, instead of stopping, she gathered all her courage and went to kiss Bloed again.

When suddenly–

*Clash!*

The sound of something falling on the ground reached their ears. Then, an intense killing intent assaulted Bloed and Liu Ying.

The pair turned pale and looked in the direction of the killing intent.

There, they saw a silver-haired girl staring at them with a beautiful smile.

"Master, should I kill this thieving demon?"

...

P4TRE0N: patr-eon.com/aidnovels

Chapter end