Chapter 24

Tong Fei soon found out about Qi Wu and Tong Luo coming in first among their group.

That infuriated her so much that her face twisted into an ugly look.

“Tong Luo does not deserve to be first place!” she screeched.

She then turned and scowled at Qiu Yan. “We will be first place as well.”

Qiu Yan could not even be bothered to respond to her by now. In the back of her mind, she jeered and mocked Tong Fei’s arrogant and furious words. At the very least, those two had gotten first place because they could do it, unlike Tong Fei who was all talk and no action.

Soon after the first group was finished, the second group was sent over to tackle the obstacle course.

Many of the teams in the second group wanted to imitate Qi Wu and Tong Luo’s tactic but for some strange reason, they could not keep up the same pace for long before they kept making mistakes. The scene was like the blind leading the blind.

When the first group that was resting after going through the obstacle course saw that, they all burst out laughing.

“If it was really that simple, we would have imitated them long ago!”

Song Qi, who was already back with the production team, frowned and shook his head when he saw what the second group was doing.

“Just what are they doing?”

Qu Man smiled. “They’re trying to mimic Qi Wu and Tong Luo’s method of getting through the obstacles.”

Song Qi was so angry that he scoffed several times in a row.

“They can mimic Qi Wu and Tong Luo, but they’re only imitating what’s on the surface. They just don’t understand that the pair can do what they did because they compromised and compensated for each other.”

Song Qi had hit the nail on the head, bluntly pointing out the critical mistake everyone in the second group was making.

It was only because Qi Wu and Tong Luo had such great chemistry that even if one of them made a mistake, the other person would quickly make up for it. This way, their likelihood of failing was drastically decreased.

Jiang Xuxu quickly pulled Ke Lu over for a “study session.”

They were lucky to have been placed in the last group, so they had enough time to observe and learn from the previous winners.

“My goodness! How were you two so well-balanced?”

Qi Wu looked up at Jiang Xuxu and Ke Lu and asked a question that thoroughly confused Jiang Xuxu, “Do you like her?”

“Huh?”

Jiang Xuxu was stunned. Her mind had almost gone into the gutter when she took another look into Qi Wu’s eyes and realized that Qi Wu really did just mean the basic version of “like” instead of the implied “love.”

She glanced at Ke Lu. “We… get along.”

She was too afraid to be too confident in her answer since the two of them had only properly interacted for one day, but their personalities meshed together quite well.

“Yes.”

“In that case, accept her,” Qi Wu stated.

Jiang Xuxu was at a loss for words.

Did all powerhouses like to beat around the bush?

Ke Lu grabbed Jiang Xuxu by the arm and nodded to Qi Wu. “I understand.”

Jiang Xuxu whirled around in pleasant surprise when she heard that. “Really? Let’s hurry up and practice then!”

She then waved farewell to Qi Wu before following Ke Lu back to their spot for some practice.

After Jiang Xuxu and Ke Lu were gone, Tong Luo, who had been silent since they finished the obstacle course, finally summoned the courage to call out to Qi Wu.

Qi Wu turned around and silently looked at her.

When Tong Luo looked into Qi Wu’s eyes, her courage almost fled from her.

“Don’t be so nice to me in the future. We can’t always be allies.”

Her voice was trembling as she spoke.

She liked Qi Wu a lot but for the sake of her future, she had no choice but to abandon her one and only friend.

Tong Luo kept asking herself if it was worth it.

However, she could not afford to risk it.

After her mother passed away, she made a vow in front of the grave. No matter what the price was, she would return to the stage.

“Why?”

Qi Wu was confused. “Why can’t I be nice to you just because you’re my opponent? Am I in your way?”

The confusion and lack of understanding swirling in her eyes made her look like an innocent little child slowly figuring out the rules of the world around them.

While it had been a long time ago before she was an actual priestess, Qi Wu would never forget the girls who were being tested alongside her. Those girls felt nothing for her except for awe and fear.

Even if they knew they could never be the next priestess because she was there.

“Not at all!”

Tong Luo’s sense of rationality went out the window when she heard Qi Wu’s last question. All concerns and worries were thrown out the window as she frantically tried to explain her thought process while stumbling over her words.

She had never thought Qi Wu was in her way.

On the contrary, she was very happy to have an opponent like Qi Wu.

The confusion in Qi Wu’s eyes slowly faded away. When she next spoke, her voice was as gentle as it had always been, making her sound like a merciful goddess filled with pity for the world.

“I’m not that nice to you. You deserve better.”

“Aargh! You…!”

Tong Luo was overwhelmed by the indescribable feelings warring in her.

With bright red cheeks, the only reaction she could think of was stamping her feet to hide her embarrassment.

Her face burned even brighter when Qi Wu innocently blinked at her in response.

She had been so mean to Qi Wu, so why was Qi Wu still…

After a while, she seemed to have given up struggling against her impulses, and her shoulders drooped.

“How are you so cute?”

Her tone was not just a little depressed, as if she was despising herself for surrendering so quickly.

Qi Wu’s eyes lit up with a bright smile as well as a yearning for knowledge. “Is ‘cute’ a compliment? In that case, you’re also very cute.”

Tong Luo stared in silence.

She decided to just give up her dignity in the face of the second wave of cuteness directed her way and immediately covered her face with her hands.

After a long while, she said, “I will work hard to become an opponent worthy of you.”

She placed her hands down, revealing eyes burning brightly with the desire to win against an evenly matched opponent.

“I’ll see you at the top, one day.”

“Alright.”

Qi Wu replied with the same serious tone Tong Luo used.

Tong Luo had not expected the dilemma bothering her for so long to be resolved with just a few words from Qi Wu.

There was nothing else to worry about now.

Qi Wu was right. Being friends would not affect the competition. On the contrary, she should work harder just to be Qi Wu’s opponent.

It was the kind of mutual respect that could only exist in competitions.

“Qi Wu, you’re amazing!”

Tong Luo’s tone was full of admiration and awe.

Qi Wu was a few years older than her, and that age gap made it easier for Tong Luo to view Qi Wu with even more admiration than before. Moreover, now that she was free from her mental burden, she was starting to open up again.

The gloominess and wariness lingering around her when they first met seemed to have disappeared.

“Is that considered amazing?”

Qi Wu was serious, but Tong Luo assumed she was just being humble.

She waved her hand. “I know. Powerhouses like you prefer to be humble and lay low. I understand.”

Qi Wu blinked.

Over an hour passed, and finally, the last group was going to run the obstacle course.

Jiang Xuxu and Ke Lu were not the only ones they knew who were in this group. Tong Fei and Qiu Yan were also in the last group.

They just so happened to be assigned to the starting position next to Jiang Xuxu.

When Qiu Yan spotted Jiang Xuxu, she could not resist sneering. “What a coincidence, Jiang Xuxu. From the way you look, you’re not trying to get first place, are you?”

Jiang Xuxu languidly glanced at her and laughed. “Even now, I still feel pity for you, Qiu Yan.”