Chapter 77: The Art of Null Magic

While Yueyue creates an opening, Qing… cough, Classmate Wanqing, remember to seize the moment and finish the battle with water magic,’ Ye Xingchen whispered to Mu Wanqing, nearly biting his tongue in the process.

‘That was a narrow escape,’ he mused, ‘I almost habitually called her “Qingqing”… If she were to overhear that, she would undoubtedly misinterpret my intentions, perhaps even thinking I wanted to “fly wing-to-wing” with her again.’

Mu Wanqing offered a subtle nod, as ice-blue magic began to coalesce at the tip of her wand, slowly spiraling into layers of ethereal frost.

She harbored no concerns about Su Liyue’s ability to withstand the impending attack.

If Yueyue claimed to have a solution, then success was undoubtedly assured.

Her sole task now was to unleash the most potent water magic at the precise moment, ensuring a decisive victory with a single, devastating strike.

BOOM!!!

The formidable combined magic unleashed by Zhao Yan and Lin Mo’s two teams had fully materialized.

A maelstrom of flying sand and debris, blazing meteors, high-pressure water blades, and turbulent wind blades intertwined, forging a destructive whirlwind over ten meters in diameter.

In its wake, the very ground fractured, the air shimmered and distorted, and even the ambient light seemed to be devoured.

Chixiao’s expression shifted drastically, a cold sweat breaking out and trickling incessantly down his back, compelling him to cry out:

“Classmate Su, quickly take cover! An attack of this magnitude would drain your magical energy dry, even if you managed to barely withstand it! Don’t be reckless!”

Even the trio huddled in the corner, observing the battle, found themselves instinctively holding their breath; one of them even unconsciously recoiled a half-step.

“She can’t seriously intend to face that alone, can she? That’s a combined spell from eight individuals!”

“Has she lost her mind? Even the third-year’s top student couldn’t possibly endure such a concentrated assault from so many people head-on!”

“Even if she manages to block it, her magical reserves would surely be depleted, wouldn’t they? How could she possibly continue fighting after that? The outcome is practically sealed!”

Yet, confronted by the all-encompassing storm of destruction, Su Liyue merely offered a soft smile, her wand executing a graceful twirl between her fingers, its tip suddenly blossoming with a faint, nascent glow.

Zhao Yan and Lin Mo, observing their imminent mixed magic strike, found their faces already alight with the wild exhilaration of triumph.

This battle, they believed, would undoubtedly bring them renown across the entire academy, perhaps even garnering the admiration of innumerable senior and junior female students.

And, most importantly, including their very own Goddess Su.

Zhao Yan’s lips stretched into a grin that nearly reached his ears, his eyes glinting with a pathological excitement, as if he could already envision his name emblazoned across the academy’s headlines.

[Shocking! Third-year’s top student Su Liyue miserably defeated by Zhao Yan’s team!] He cast a sidelong glance at Lin Mo, and the two exchanged a look of absolute, unwavering certainty.

“Hahaha, give up, Classmate Su! This level of combined magic would make even a seasoned mage retreat three steps! It’s still not too late to surrender now, otherwise, if you end up blasted into a sorry state, don’t blame us for not ‘cherishing jade and pitying flowers’ (TL Note: A Chinese idiom, ‘lián xiāng xī yù,’ referring to being gentle, protective, and considerate towards women, especially beautiful ones)!”

Zhao Yan’s voice, shrill with excitement, sliced through the air.

Lin Mo, even more dramatically, spread his arms wide, as if already basking in the cheers of victory. “Everyone is watching, you know,” he declared,

“are you truly determined to keep up this bravado? If you surrender now and submit to me, perhaps I might even consider showing great mercy and letting you off the hook!”

‘Indeed… such creatures as men are, to her at this moment, utterly repulsive,’ Su Liyue mused.

Su Liyue sighed silently within herself, a fleeting glint of coldness flickering in the depths of her eyes.

“You two… seem to utterly misunderstand the fundamental principles of mutual generation and mutual restraint among all things. And the true art of magic… is Patrick Star!”

Her voice, though soft, pierced through the thunderous roar of the magic storm with astonishing clarity.

“Patrick Star?!” Everyone present froze in bewilderment; this utterly nonsensical term elicited a blank, confused expression from all but Ye Xingchen.

Was ‘Patrick Star’ some form of high-tier magic? A lost ancient incantation, perhaps? Or a forbidden magical theory? Even Chixiao, who had been diligently channeling his fire magic nearby, couldn’t help but momentarily gape in confusion.

Mu Wanqing, for her part, nearly faltered in channeling her magic. ‘Patrick Star?’ she thought. ‘Didn’t Yueyue once mention that Patrick Star had a best friend named SpongeBob?’

Zhao Yan’s expression stiffened, his voice sputtering, “You—what in the world are you babbling about…”

However, Su Liyue had already dismissed him from her thoughts.

She gracefully raised her wand, and at its tip, an almost imperceptible shimmer of light bloomed, reminiscent of the very first ray to pierce the primordial darkness of the nascent universe.

“Watch closely,” she commanded, “Null Magic: Transmute Being into Non-Being!”

In the ensuing moment, the catastrophic mixed magic, which had threatened to tear apart the very fabric of existence, began to eerily unravel and dissipate into the air, as though wiped away by an unseen eraser.

An uncanny silence descended upon the entire battlefield, broken only by the faint rustle of the breeze whispering across the ravaged ground.

“This… how can this be?!” Chixiao’s pupils constricted violently, the wand he had been channeling magic into nearly slipping from his grasp.

Even he, lauded as a genius of fire magic, had never before witnessed a phenomenon so utterly defiant of fundamental magical principles.

Could magic truly be… erased?

Even Mu Wanqing, standing nearby, was momentarily stunned by this sudden spectacle; her grip on her wand involuntarily loosened, and the water magic array she had been preparing faltered, its charge momentarily interrupted.

Her eyes, like limpid autumn waters, widened perceptibly.

While she had previously witnessed Su Liyue employing Null Magic to dispel Xiao Qicai’s fire spell, observing a mixed magic of such immense scale vanish instantaneously from such close proximity still caused her breath to catch in her throat.

The residual magical fluctuations in the air softly caressed her cheek, leaving a faint, tingling sensation in their wake.

Mu Wanqing instinctively bit her lower lip, realizing that dispelling a magical assault of such magnitude must have demanded an astronomical expenditure of mana.

She cast a worried glance toward Su Liyue, only to find her friend still maintaining an impeccably elegant posture.

Had the recent, immense spell truly had no discernible effect on her?

The trio concealed in the corner were utterly dumbfounded; one of them even collapsed onto the ground, their voice trembling uncontrollably:

“Null Magic? What in the blazes was that?!”

“To make magic vanish into thin air… that surely transcends the capabilities of any ordinary mage, doesn’t it?!”

“No wonder she dared to face the combined assault of eight people alone! This is nothing short of a Dimensionality Reduction Strike (TL Note: A Chinese internet slang term, ‘jiangwei daji,’ referring to an overwhelming attack from a higher dimension or level, rendering the opponent’s methods utterly useless)!”

Yet, the most profoundly shaken individuals were, without question, Zhao Yan and Lin Mo.

The triumphant smiles that had graced their faces had long since congealed, supplanted now by an expression of unadulterated terror.

Their teammates, standing behind them, had turned ashen; one wind mage, his legs suddenly giving way, collapsed directly to his knees.

This was no mere third-year’s top student… this was undeniably a monster!

Su Liyue gave her wand a delicate flick, as though idly brushing away a speck of dust.

Her breathing remained perfectly even, and there was no perceptible diminution in her magical energy fluctuations.

“Now… it’s my turn,” she declared with a faint smile, her gaze sweeping over the eight utterly dumbfounded figures opposite her.

The battle, it seemed, had only just begun!