Absolute Choice
Absolute Choice - Chapter 422: Goodbye

On the day of the life-and-death battle between the three kings. Early in the morning.

Shi Xiaobai woke up from his Cogitation and could not help but frown. For some reason, the effects of his Cogitation were surprisingly terrible. He had always been accustomed to using Cogitation to replace his sleep. In the past, a night of Cogitation would allow him to feel an obvious increment in his psionic power.

But ever since he came to the seventh level, Shi Xiaobai was shocked to discover that his psionic power would not increase during his Cogitation. It was as though he had reached a bottleneck.

What was going on?

Shi Xiaobai still did not have a complete understanding of the psionic cultivation system up till this day. There was no way to fix it as he would have a headache just reading the dense sprawl of text in books. There was no way for him to continue reading.

Shi Xiaobai contemplated for a moment and came up with many possibilities. However, there was no way for him to decide which was the correct one. He could only temporarily shelve his doubts and find a chance to ask others when he has an opportunity.

Shi Xiaobai stood up from his seat. Straightening his arms, he forcefully twisted his body.

As Shi Xiaobai stretched his stiff body after a night of sitting, cracking sounds that resembled firecrackers were heard. From the sounds, one could tell that it was power surging through him.

A smile suffused across Shi Xiaobai's lips.

In the past ten days or so, he had completely digested the energy from the holy tree's fruit and the Celestial Jade and converted them into physical strength. The holy tree's fruit and the Celestial Jade had allowed his body to experience two gigantic leaps in power. It was as if he had experienced two terrifying metamorphoses.

Shi Xiaobai did not know how to measure his physical strength either. In fact, he did not have much systematic knowledge about the way physical strength was measured in this world either. However, Shi Xiaobai knew that his physical strength must have reached an astonishing stage. At least for the rookies in the Psionic Mortal Realm, it was an unimaginable height.

This was also all thanks to him suddenly possessing a superpower—the ability to eat any item as food. Furthermore, it was a superpower that gave him the ability to obtain the nutritional value from what he ate to increase his physique.

Shi Xiaobai named the superpower—"Power of Taotie".

The Power of Taotie was immensely helpful for Shi Xiaobai at his present stage. His physique was only considered above average among rookies in the beginning. Although This Turtle Is Hardest had allowed his right arm to be called a Qilin arm, his other body parts were considered relatively weaker.

However, after eating the Transcendence fruit and through the Power of Taotie, Shi Xiaobai's physical toughness had risen to the point of being able to crush Moya and be on the same level as Leonis.

This was of course the reason why the Transcendence fruit was considered one of the rare holy items. It was truly a great opportunity for Shi Xiaobai to have eaten the Transcendence fruit.

And at the moment when he had accidentally eaten the Celestial Jade, it caused Shi Xiaobai's physical toughness to be enhanced once again. Shi Xiaobai guessed that if he battled with Leonis again, the one that would be sent flying would definitely not be him.

In fact, Shi Xiaobai was slightly surprised. Theoretically speaking, the Celestial Jade should have been a holy item that would be vied for by the trial-takers of the alternate world that he found himself in. It was probably an item that the assessment program could not even replicate. But why did the real Celestial Jade still exist after thousands of years to the point of him successfully eating it?

It was as though it was deliberately sent into his mouth?

Shi Xiaobai found the matter suspicious, but he accepted the benefit he had gained with peace of mind.

In his boredom, Shi Xiaobai even gave his physical toughness a new name. He called it the 'Body of The Heretic King'.

Due to the two metamorphoses he underwent thanks to the Transcendence fruit and the Celestial Jade, his physical toughness had reached the third stage of the Body of the Heretic King!

As Shi Xiaobai felt the strength of the blood flowing in his body, the feeling of being filled with power gave him absolute confidence, to the point of it being a bit 'inflated'. The third stage of the Body of the Heretic King made him not worry about the upcoming life-and-death battle between the three kings.

The sounds that came from Shi Xiaobai twisting his body echoed in the bedroom.

A lazy and charming voice sounded at that moment.

"Darling sat on that cold chair all night once again. It hurts me so much. The sky has just turned bright, why doesn't Darling come into bed and snooze for a while? The bed here is fragrant and warm. It will definitely be very comfortable for Darling."

The Infernal Queen lifted the quilt slightly. In the shadows, the beautiful figure could be faintly seen. If one was closer, one would be able to smell an alluring body fragrance emanating from the bed.

Shi Xiaobai was already accustomed to the teasing and temptation. Although a warm bed was quite tempting for him, he would rather sit on a cold and hard chair than lie in that bed. That was because Shi Xiaobai knew that it was not a bed, but a grave.

Shi Xiaobai hesitated for a moment and said, "Stop sleeping. Get up and play one last game with This King."

The Infernal Queen was surprised as she said in surprise, "Why did Darling say that it would be the final game?"

Shi Xiaobai shook his head and said, "No idea, but intuition tells This King that this will be the last game between us."

When the Infernal Queen heard this, she immediately sat up. The quilt slid down to her waist and under her translucent nightgown, her impressive figure could be faintly seen. The Infernal Queen said in a coquettish tone, "Darling's intuition is probably problematic. Quickly set up two games. I will play two rounds with Darling at the same time!"

...

The Infernal Queen successfully defeated Shi Xiaobai's intuition. The duo began dual-tasking. Their left hands played Go, while their right hands played Chinese chess. Furthermore, the rules were such that each move could only be contemplated for three seconds. In a short period of time, the both of them began playing two rounds simultaneously.

If others were to see this scene, they would probably be appalled. As the duo simultaneously played two games, the speed at which they moved was staggeringly fast. It was as though they were deliberately competing in speed. The other person would immediately land a piece when one of them made their move.

However, despite the time to contemplate was so short and them needing to dual-task, the duo's every step could be considered near perfect. There was almost no flaw left behind. Even if a flaw appeared, it could be rescued in a few moves later.

Therefore the final outcome of the two games that ran concurrently was—a tie.

The Infernal Queen said in a faint voice, "Another round. If I cannot defeat Darling in one game, I really wouldn't be able to sleep and eat."

Shi Xiaobai chuckled and said, "No more. There might not be any outcome even after another hundred rounds. The both of us have played countless games over the past ten days. No one can win the other and it is not a coincidence. Furthermore, This King has to set off now."

The Infernal Queen lowered her head and said softly, "For the life-and-death battle between the three kings, I won't be accompanying you."

Shi Xiaobai was slightly surprised and asked out of curiosity, "Why?"

The Infernal Queen looked Shi Xiaobai seriously in the eyes and gently said, "That's because the battle will be a tough battle for Darling. If I were to watch by the side, I might not be able to resist intervening if Darling were to be injured. My heart really aches for Darling."

Shi Xiaobai was surprised. Disregarding the fact that the Infernal Queen's words were not sincere, what sort of logic was it for her to rather not see something because she was afraid to not be able to hold back if she saw him injured?

Shi Xiaobai did not mind if the Infernal Queen would accompany him to watch the match. Without harping on the issue, he nodded and said, "Alright, This King will be going."

"Goodbye." IChooseDogLeading (我选择狗带) when read in Chinese sounds like I Choose Go Die. It was a meme that resulted from a former member of famous Korean boygroup, EXO, TAO (Huang Zitao). At a concert, there was a part in a rap that where he said "", but due to a mispronunciation, it sounded like he will not easily choose to be led by dogs. This phrase now means 'I'd rather die/I choose death'.