Chapter 457: Chapter 454: Crushing
"Hmph, fine, my turn it is! You humans love to act all pretentious and mysterious, but you’re just a bunch of useless hacks."
The Minotaur, holding his Jiao Patterned Silver Saber, plucked a hair from his head.
He glanced at the strand of hair in Mo Qi’s hand and laughed. "My hair is thicker than yours. You’re definitely going to lose!"
Mo Qi’s expression remained impassive. He extended a hand in a "please" gesture. "It’s too early to talk about winning or losing. Please, begin your performance."
The Minotaur snorted coldly, air puffing from his nostrils.
Without another word, he flicked his finger, sending the bull hair shooting into the air.
Then, his massive body moved.
WHOOSH—
He seemed cumbersome, but he moved like lightning.
In his hand, the Jiao Patterned Silver Saber became a blur of countless afterimages.
SWISH SWISH SWISH!
The air shrieked as the blade sliced through it, a sound like the roar of a tiger and the cry of an ape.
The bull hair seemed to be dissolving at a visible rate, but in reality, it was because the shreds were being cut so fine that one couldn’t make out the details.
Watching this, Mo Qi had to admit, ’This bull’s Sword Technique really is impressive. He must have also grasped the Sword Domain.’
’No wonder he’s so confident he can beat me.’
’A pity, though. A pity he ran into me. This is destined to be a tragedy for him.’
The Minotaur’s display wasn’t long; he stopped swinging his saber in under two minutes.
"Two thousand three hundred seventy-two strands in total. Little thing, with your level of Cultivation, I bet you couldn’t even follow my movements!" the Minotaur said, sheathing his saber and looking at Mo Qi with a mocking grin.
He was in peak form today, far exceeding his usual performance. Normally, the Minotaur estimated he could cut the hair into two thousand strands at most.
But now he had managed two thousand three hundred seventy-two. The number itself was terrifying to even consider.
He refused to believe a mere Human Race Cultivator in the Vajra Realm could do better than him.
Over in the Hall of Envoys, apart from the Feng Family Immortal and the Liu Family Immortal who had witnessed Mo Qi’s Sword Skill before, the other experts all looked anxious.
"What do we do? That kid Mo Qi dug his own grave. He ran right into the guy’s specialty."
"If he loses, ten percent of us will be slaughtered by that Demon Wolf!"
"It’d be one thing if he just screwed himself over, but he’s dragged all of us into it. What the hell is this?"
No one wanted to be part of that ten percent.
But now, it was obvious that Mo Qi was doomed to lose.
"That menace! If I’d known it would come to this, I’d rather we just fought the Demon Wolf!"
"Exactly! If you don’t have the skills to back it up, don’t just jump out and show off. Couldn’t he have discussed it with us first?"
If not for the fact that all the Immortals had experienced the mysteries and benefits of Mo Qi’s peanuts, they wouldn’t just be complaining right now—they would probably be cursing him out.
"That’s enough out of all of you," Granny Jin Hua snapped. "The contest isn’t over, so what’s all this fuss about? It seems to me you’ve been Immortals for so long, so used to the good life, that your minds have regressed to the state of a newborn!"
The Immortals were left speechless, not daring to argue and not knowing how.
The Feng Family Immortal and the Liu Family Immortal exchanged a glance, their expressions relaxed.
While the Minotaur’s Sword Skill was impressive, they knew it was nothing compared to Mo Qi’s.
"Only a little over two thousand strands?" In the clearing, Mo Qi rubbed his nose and looked at the Minotaur. "Is that your limit?"
’Even before I had any Cultivation, I could already slice a hair into thirteen thousand, six hundred strands.’
’I’m a long way from the Kitchen Hand I used to be, so a mere two thousand strands is just child’s play.’
"Don’t just run your mouth, little thing. Now it’s your turn!" The Minotaur was furious; he hated being looked down upon. "I’d like to see just how many strands you can manage!"
Mo Qi just smiled. "Then you’d better watch closely."
With that, Mo Qi casually tossed the strand of hair into the air.
SHING!
The blade left its sheath with a metallic ring, its gleam like a fleeting shadow.
The Minotaur, and the vast majority of the Immortals, saw only a black streak flash past.
The next moment, the strand of hair Mo Qi had tossed into the air vanished, as if it had evaporated.
Only a select few Immortals and the Wolf Demon, who had been feigning sleep, saw Mo Qi’s movements clearly.
In the instant the black light flashed, Mo Qi had struck two thousand, three hundred, and seventy-two times, splitting the single strand of hair into two thousand, three hundred, and seventy-three threads.
Precisely one more thread than the Minotaur.
"You..."
The Minotaur was dumbfounded. Mo Qi’s speed was too fast for him to follow, but he could clearly count the number of gossamer threads now hovering in the air.
"One more than me?!"
’Could it be such a coincidence?’
The Minotaur refused to believe it was a coincidence.
The only other explanation was that Mo Qi had done it deliberately!
He had deliberately cut just one more strand to humiliate and mock him.
Though he was reluctant, the Minotaur had to admit that this little Human Race brat’s mastery of Sword Technique far surpassed his own.
"You... How did you do that?" The Minotaur’s face was a mask of disbelief. "You’re human, and your Cultivation is only at the Vajra Realm. Your physical body shouldn’t be strong enough to withstand that kind of speed! Why didn’t you just collapse?"
Mo Qi put away his Obsidian Kitchen Knife. He didn’t answer the Minotaur’s question, asking one of his own instead: "This contest... does this mean I win?"
The Minotaur’s broad face instantly flushed crimson.
He remembered how, just a minute ago, he had been mocking Mo Qi, thinking the human couldn’t even follow his movements.
He never expected that the boy had not only seen everything clearly, but had done it even better.
First, there was the difference in time: one took nearly two minutes, the other a mere flick of the wrist.
Then there was the thickness of the hair itself. Each of the Minotaur’s hairs was as thick as a noodle, while Mo Qi’s was of normal human thickness.
There was simply no comparison between the two.
"Why the silence? Did I win?" Mo Qi pressed when the Minotaur remained quiet. "What, you plan to deny it now that you’ve lost?"
At that, the Minotaur snapped his head up and glared at Mo Qi. "Hmph! We of the Demon Race aren’t treacherous like you of the Human Race. Yes! You won this round."
"But... what kind of skill is slicing hair? What a boring contest!"
"Boring?" Mo Qi smiled, not bothering to argue. "Perhaps."
’Then again,’ Mo Qi wondered, ’what in the world has this bull been through?’
’Why is his impression of humans always things like ’unscrupulous,’ ’useless,’ ’hacks,’ ’pretentious,’ and ’treacherous’?’
’Isn’t there anything good about us?’
Victory in the first round.
Only then did the crowd of Immortals finally snap out of their shock at Mo Qi’s Sword Skill.
"He... won?"
"Yes, it seems he really did win."
"Win? It was more than a win! That was a complete, one-sided beatdown and humiliation! So damn satisfying! Let’s see the Demon Race act so arrogant now!"
"That kid Mo Qi really hides his strength well. I never expected him to have a move like that."
"Damn it, that kid must be doing this on purpose, trying to give us all a heart attack!"
The Immortals’ dissatisfaction with Mo Qi vanished in an instant, though many now held a playful grudge against him for the scare.
"So what if I let you win one round, little thing? Next, it’s my turn to decide the contest. I’m going to smash you into a pulp!" The Minotaur’s eyes glinted with a cold light.
