Contents
Chapter Seventeen: Utterly Relatable
Overview
After Wang Shicong’s harassment escalates, Li Shimin demolishes him and a Fire-type pilot, with Zetian aiding at a critical moment. The crowd’s bloodlust flips to adulation, briefly bonding Zetian and Li Shimin. Soldiers then muzzle and sedate Li Shimin, who warns something is wrong, deepening tension and external control over them.
Summary
As the cafeteria crowd turns to the commotion, a Fire-type pilot fires a qi blast that barely misses Li Shimin. Li Shimin disables the Fire pilot with swift, precise strikes while also engaging Wang Shicong, whose Earth armor offers no real advantage against Li Shimin’s circling, relentless technique.
Li Shimin breaks Wang Shicong’s leg and then targets the Fire pilot again when a second blast charges. Zetian hurls a metal tray, disrupting the attack and allowing Li Shimin to smash the pilot’s face into the table until he collapses. The spectators’ hostility becomes raucous support, chanting Li Shimin’s name.
Li Shimin regains control and stops, exchanging a brief, surprising moment of mutual recognition with Zetian. He apologizes for making things harder; Zetian responds that they were doomed to scorn regardless, yet refusing submission feels right. A faint, fragile camaraderie sparks between them.
Soldiers finally intervene with a warning shot, subduing Li Shimin. As they cuff him, Li Shimin warns Zetian that something feels wrong. The soldiers muzzle him with a steel device and sedate him with a syringe, dragging him away while the injured pilots are tended. Zetian, shaken, realizes the severity of their vulnerability under military control.
Who Appears
- Li ShiminOverpowers Wang Shicong and a Fire pilot with brutal efficiency; thanks Zetian; warns something is wrong; muzzled and sedated by soldiers.
- Wu ZetianIntervenes by throwing a tray to stop a qi blast; coolly witnesses the fight; shares a bonding moment; ends shaken by Li Shimin’s capture.
- Wang ShicongEarth-type pilot and instigator; attacks Li Shimin; suffers a broken leg and is left moaning on the floor.
- Unnamed Fire-type pilotAttempts multiple qi blasts; is incapacitated by Li Shimin after Zetian’s disruption; bloodied and defeated.
- Camp soldiersBreak up the brawl, fire a warning shot, cuff Li Shimin, muzzle and sedate him despite his resistance.