Volume 2: Shenzhou Academy & The Battle of Venice
Chapter 106
Opening of the Skymagic Coliseum
The blazing sun beat down relentlessly over Jinghai Bay, pouring sweltering waves of heat across the colossal marble dome of the Skymagic Coliseum.
This magnificent elliptical colossus boasted a capacity of over ten thousand spectators, hewn from titanic slabs of arcane bedrock quarried from subterranean ocean trenches. Twelve towering demon-sealing pillars, each sculpted in the likeness of primeval beasts, radiated interlocking ribbons of sapphire barrier light. Together, they formed a shimmering, transparent protective cage designed to completely contain every violent shockwave of elemental magic within the arena floor.
At this moment, the tiered grandstands were packed to overflowing. More than five thousand freshmen of Shenzhou Archmage Academy had assembled in full force, their distinct seating zones strictly demarcated by the vibrant uniform colors of their respective elemental faculties.
To the east blazed the fiery crimson of the Fire Faculty; to the west swirled the deep violet of the Lightning Faculty; to the north stretched an immaculate expanse of pristine white belonging to the Ice Faculty. Interspersed among them were the breezy cyan-blue of the Wind Faculty, the earthy ochre-brown of the Earth Faculty, the deep azure of the Water Faculty, and the shimmering golden radiance of the Light Faculty.
The din of countless conversations, taunts, and mocking laughter echoed off the stone amphitheater, coalescing into a low, rumbling hum that resembled rolling thunder before a gathering tempest.
“Word has it the Summoning Faculty only managed to recruit seven pathetic stragglers this year?” A male student from the Fire Faculty sneered, nudging his friend’s shoulder.
“What the hell can seven people accomplish? Last year they had twelve, and they still got beaten half to death—barely crawling to the sixtieth challenger before every last one collapsed unconscious! With only seven of them this time around, it’s no different than throwing seven plump sheep into a den of ravenous wolves!”
“Just wait and see. Once I step onto that stage, a single cast of Fire Burst: Bone Scorch will roast their mangy beasts to cinders. When the Summoning Faculty’s entire annual mana stone endowment gets seized, our Fire Faculty is taking the lion’s share!”
Gleaming eyes full of predatory avarice and contempt swept continuously toward the Summoning Faculty’s waiting dugout. To the five-thousand-strong mob, today’s Beast Battle Tournament was nothing less than a lavish, free-for-all banquet. The academy’s bylaws were clear: so long as they tore down the ring from the summoners’ grasp, every scrap of high-grade mana stones and year-long cultivation elixirs allocated to the Summoning Faculty would be forfeited and divided evenly among the victorious faculties!
High above on the VIP mezzanine tier, dozens of distinguished professors and faculty deans occupied rows of plush velvet armchairs, seated alongside influential dignitaries from the Magic Capital’s most illustrious patrician lineages—the Dongfang Clan, the Lu Clan, and the Liu Clan.
At the center of the front row sat Dean Xiao Zhenshan of the Summoning Faculty, draped in simple gray robes. His silver beard stirred faintly in the sweltering sea breeze. Taking a slow sip of cooled tea, his brows furrowed into deep, troubled crevices.
“Old Xiao, your complexion isn’t looking too lively today, is it?” Dean Chu of the Fire Faculty—a burly, broad-shouldered man with fiery embers dancing in his eyes—chuckled boisterously, fanning himself with a crimson feather fan inlaid with scarlet jade. “This batch of freshmen in my Fire Faculty boasts over a thousand hot-blooded youths brimming with bloodlust. Have those seven darling disciples of yours prepared themselves to have their entire annual budget wiped clean?”
Xiao Zhenshan cast a sidelong scowl at his long-time rival and let out a frosty snort:
“Madman Chu, don’t break out the celebratory wine just yet. You’d best warn those precious fledglings of yours before they step into that ring—if a beast bites a chunk out of their backsides, don’t come crying to me begging for healing herbs!”
“Hahaha! Then keep your eyes peeled and watch!” Dean Chu roared with laughter.
CLANGGG——!!
The heavy resonant toll of an ancient bronze bell reverberated in rapid, booming cadences, vibrating the eardrums of every soul in the arena.
The Chief Arbiter, clad in an immaculate obsidian formal coat, descended gracefully into the center of the vast coliseum stage. His deep, resonant voice boomed outward in all four directions, carrying the weight of thunder:
“All faculty, instructors, and students of Shenzhou Archmage Academy, silence! The traditional Freshman Beast Battle Tournament hereby officially commences!”
The Arbiter hoisted his arcane staff skyward. From its glowing tip, a colossal light-hologram tally board projected into midair, hovering prominently for the entire stadium to see:
“The Summoning Faculty fields seven contestants this year. In sequence, they shall hold the arena alongside their contracted war beasts, facing open challenges from over five thousand freshmen hailing from the seven remaining elemental faculties! The demarcation line between victory and defeat is THE NUMBER ONE HUNDRED!”
The Arbiter’s steely proclamation echoed through the air:
“If the seven Summoning students join forces to defeat a full one hundred challengers, the Summoning Faculty shall retain its entire first-year cultivation quota completely intact! Furthermore, the final student standing undefeated upon the arena floor shall claim the supreme grand prize: A PRICELESS VIAL OF CONDENSED SPIRIT GATHERING ELIXIR ALONG WITH THE ENTIRE SPECIAL MANA STONE TREASURY OF THE ENTIRE FRESHMAN CLASS! Conversely, should they fall before reaching the one-hundred threshold, every last ounce of their resources will be stripped bare and divided among the rival faculties!”
Audible gulps rippled through every sector of the grandstands. Condensed Spirit Gathering Elixir—a legendary alchemical treasure capable of boosting the success rate of breaking through to the Intermediate Mage tier by a staggering thirty percent! A priceless boon that sent blood roaring through the veins of every ambitious youth present!
“Will the first contestant of the Summoning Faculty... STEP FORWARD!”
A radiant beam of arcane illumination beamed down onto the southern staging alcove. Wang He—eldest son of a branch lineage of the prominent Wang Clan—strode purposefully onto the arena floor. Halting at the center of the summoning circle, he bit down lightly on his index finger, smearing a single droplet of fresh crimson blood onto the flagstones:
“Emerge, Granite Hound!”
The air fractured open, tearing into a dimensional spatial rift glowing with earthy ochre luminescence. A colossal hound over three meters in length lunged forth, its four massive paws slamming into the stone floor with a bone-jarring thud that rattled the surrounding flagstones. Its entire body was encased in thick, overlapping plates of granite stone armor, while its crimson eyes burned like smoldering embers. The vicious, ferocious aura of an Upper Servant-class beast erupted across the entire stage!
ROARRR——!!
A booming, guttural bark carried a concussive shockwave of splintered stone dust across the front rows. Wang He crossed his arms with haughty arrogance, his chin raised high:
“Whoever wants our resources, drag your asses down here!”
“Let our Fire Faculty teach you how to behave!”
A male student from the Fire Faculty vaulted over the guardrail and dropped onto the arena floor. Sweeping his hands through the air, seven crimson stars connected into an unbroken Star Path:
“Fire Burst: Crimson Sparks!”
A blazing red fireball hissed through the wind, hurtling straight forward. Yet the Granite Hound merely whipped its club-like stone tail, batting the flames aside and scattering sparks in all directions. In the next instant, the massive beast charged forward like an armored bulldozer. Crashing straight into the Fire Mage’s midsection, it launched him and his staff thirty meters through the air, sending him splashing headfirst into the moat surrounding the arena floor!
“Contestant number one eliminated! Victory: Wang He!” the Arbiter bellowed.
The lightning-fast opening round sent a tremor through the grandstands, but it only served to stoke the audience’s combative fury:
“Don’t duel it head-on! Snipe from range!”
“Form groups and flank it!”
Wave after wave of challengers surged onto the stage. Relying on its dense stone armor to shrug off sporadic, uncoordinated elemental spells, the Granite Hound dismantled fourteen opponents in rapid succession. But by the fifteenth challenger, three students from the Lightning Faculty synchronized their assault, slamming down three consecutive Lightning Strike bolts that shattered the hound’s chest plating. Gritting his teeth in frustration, Wang He recalled his battered beast and stepped down.
The second summoner, Song Chun, stepped up to take his place. A spatial portal unfurled, unleashing a majestic Thunder Bird with a four-meter wingspan. Wheeling overhead, the avian raptor unleashed blinding cascades of arcing lightning, bombarding the arena to strike down another twelve challengers!
Next came Chen Lang and his phantom-quick Windscar Leopard, flickering through the arena like an ephemeral gale; then the female summoner Xu Mengmeng, commanding a Poison-Tailed Giant Scorpion that sprayed clouds of paralytic venom to incapacitate challengers; followed by Dong Bo, who summoned an enormous Berserk Bear that stomped across the arena floor with bone-crushing force...
The detonation of elemental magic mingled with the deafening roars of enraged beasts, turning the Skymagic Coliseum into a boiling cauldron of adrenaline. The holographic tally hovering overhead ticked upward at a dizzying pace:
Thirty challengers... fifty challengers... seventy challengers!
In the stands, the smug sneers of the freshman mob rapidly contorted into bitter outrage. Seventy challengers knocked unconscious or hurled off the stage! That already surpassed the entire record set by last year’s Summoning class!
“Enough! Are you idiots trying to hand over our resources on a silver platter?!” Lu Zhenfeng—the prime Fire prodigy of the Jinghai Lu Clan—shot to his feet, his narrow eyes gleaming with venomous calculation. “Stop challenging them one by one! The beasts’ stamina and those summoners’ mana reserves are running on fumes! Ice Faculty, Earth Faculty, Fire Faculty—immediately dispatch our strongest four-man strike teams! Use combined suppression tactics and crush them underfoot!”
His rallying cry was like a spark tossed into a powder keg. The five-thousand-strong mob snapped out of their chaotic frenzy, swiftly organizing into coordinated, multi-elemental strike squads!
Four elite figures dropped onto the arena floor in tight formation. Standing alone on the opposing end was the sixth summoner—Gu Kaishan—alongside his monstrous Cold-Rolled Steel Rhino. Weighing nearly four tons, the behemoth was plated in biological armor as hard as tempered steel, brandishing a gleaming horn over a meter in length that shimmered with metallic menace.
ROARRR——!!
Lowering its massive plated skull, the Steel Rhino’s four heavy hooves pulverized the granite floor as it charged forward like a heavyweight artillery shell directly at the four challengers.
Yet this time, the challengers did not retreat a single step.
“Earth Ripple: Pitfall!” The Earth Mage dropped to one knee, slamming both palms hard into the stone arena.
The solid flagstones beneath the Steel Rhino’s hooves instantly liquified into a treacherous quagmire of churning mire and loose sand. The armored juggernaut’s momentum ground to a screeching halt, its front forelegs sinking deep into the mud!
“Ice Spread: Freeze!” The Ice Mage followed up without missing a heartbeat. A bone-chilling wave of frosted white mist snaked across the floor, flash-freezing the quagmire into solid, unbreakable permafrost in the blink of an eye and locking the beast’s limbs into rigid stone!
“Wind Path: Gale!” A howling vortex whipped up abrasive sand and razor-sharp grit, blasting straight into the rhino’s eyes and stripping away its vision completely!
The Steel Rhino bellowed in agony, thrashing madly against the icy encasement and blinding squall. And right at that critical opening, the Lightning Mage standing in the rear delivered the executioner’s blow:
“Lightning Strike: Furious Wrath!!”
BOOOM——!
A violent bolt of jagged violet lightning lanced down from above, detonating squarely at the root of the rhino’s horn. Electric arcs tore through its metallic hide, spraying dark crimson blood into the air. A horrifying crack resounded through the arena as the beast’s proud steel horn snapped clean off, tumbling through the air before embedding itself deep into the stone floor!
Spurt!
Suffering severe spiritual backlash through the contract conduit, Gu Kaishan coughed up a mouthful of blood and collapsed onto his knees upon the cold stone.
Below the stands, a triumphant roar erupted like a breached dam:
“Magnificent! Wipe the Summoning Faculty off the map!”
Coordinated elemental battle tactics and ruthless attrition continued to grind down every remaining war beast. The polished granite stage devolved into a bloodstained battlefield littered with singed feathers, cracked stone scales, and puddles of gore.
The Thunder Bird’s wing was impaled by jagged ice lances, plummeting limply to the floor; the Windscar Leopard suffered severed tendons; the Poison-Tailed Giant Scorpion was crushed beneath falling boulders; and finally, Dong Bo’s Berserk Bear, having desperately clawed down five more challengers, was engulfed by a relentless barrage of over a dozen fireballs, burning fiercely before crashing to the earth motionless!
“Cease combat! Stand down!” The Chief Arbiter swept his staff, raising an emergency barrier to forcibly separate the combatants.
Trembling from head to toe, Dong Bo dismissed his scorched war beast back into the void. Collapsing backward onto the floor, his hollow eyes brimmed with utter despair.
The glowing light-tally suspended in midair froze upon a glaring crimson figure:
TOTAL CHALLENGERS DEFEATED: 85!
Eighty-five challengers!
A mere fifteen opponents shy of the safe harbor of one hundred!
Yet those fifteen remaining slots now loomed like an impassable chasm between life and death. All six Summoning students were utterly drained of mana, their souls heavily battered from spiritual recoil. Slumped upon the cold stone floor, their faces were pale as chalk, drained of every drop of blood. All the pride and haughtiness they had carried into the arena had shattered into powdery ash.
“It’s over... We really lost...” Xu Mengmeng buried her face in her hands, weeping bitterly.
“Dammit! Only fifteen more people!” Wang He slammed his fist violently into the stone floor, grinding his teeth in bitter, helpless fury.
Across the amphitheater, five thousand elemental freshmen danced and cheered in wild delirium:
“Hahaha! Eighty-five down! You’re out of beasts, aren’t you?!”
“Hand over the first-year resources! Hand them all over!”
“A bunch of parasites who only know how to hide behind wild beasts! The second you face true magical teamwork, you’re exposed for the frauds you are!”
On the VIP podium, Dean Chu of the Fire Faculty smiled with triumphant smugness:
“Old Xiao, eighty-five is an admirable effort, but rules are rules. Even falling short by one person counts as total defeat!”
Xiao Zhenshan sat rigid as a corpse. His ten fingers gripped the granite armrests so fiercely that hairline fractures spiderwebbed across the polished stone. Letting out a bitter, sorrowful sigh, he closed his eyes. Was the century-old honor of the Summoning Faculty... truly doomed to perish here today?
On the arena floor below, the Chief Arbiter slowly raised a black signaling flag:
“The Summoning Faculty has suffered defeat across six contestants. If no other representative steps forth onto the arena floor to accept challenges within the next thirty seconds, I shall officially declare the Summoning Faculty DEFEATED...”
“Thirty! Twenty-nine! Twenty-eight!”
Five thousand voices roared in unison, counting down in drunken ecstasy:
“Fifteen... Fourteen... Thirteen...”
Tap.
Right as the deafening countdown was about to dip into the final ten seconds, a dull, crisp footstep abruptly echoed from the threshold of the contestants’ tunnel.
The footsteps were neither hurried nor hesitant. Measured, unhurried, and resolute, they resonated like the steady ticking of a grandfather clock in the dead of night.
Tap... Tap... Tap...
Each stride fell squarely upon the stone slabs still stained with drying blood and littered with scorched fragments of shattered rock.
Emerging from the deep shadows of the arched tunnel, a tall, slender silhouette draped in a simple ash-gray windbreaker stepped slowly into the blinding sunlight. Both hands rested casually inside his pockets, his jet-black hair fluttering gently in the breeze laden with magical ozone.
His eyes were deep and fathomless, calm as a bottomless glacial lake in the dead of winter. Sweeping his gaze past the smears of blood on the arena floor, he slowly tilted his head upward, regarding the sea of five thousand jeering freshmen across the grandstands.
Lin Feng!
The seventh contestant—the only student of the Summoning Faculty who had yet to set foot in the arena!
Lin Feng’s sudden appearance caused the roaring countdown to stutter for half a second. But immediately afterward, an even louder avalanche of derisive mockery erupted:
“Who the hell is this kid?! Don’t tell me he’s the Summoning Faculty’s so-called savior?!”
“Dressed like a refugee from the borderlands! No magic staff, no enchanted armor—did he just come up here to forfeit his life and fill the quota?!”
“Scram back down, brat! Before you end up crying for your mommy!”
The six defeated Summoning students slumped on the ground stared blankly at Lin Feng’s retreating back. Over in the Light Faculty stands, Xie Zhaoyuan sprang to his feet, shouting at the top of his lungs until his voice cracked: “Lin Feng! Watch out! Those bastards have completely lost their minds!”
High on the VIP balcony, Xiao Zhenshan’s eyes snapped open. A gaze sharp as a drawn sword locked squarely onto the youth strolling toward the center of the ring.
Lin Feng halted dead center in the arena, resting one boot atop the severed, shattered steel rhino horn.
The stadium wind billowed through his ash-gray coat. Facing him was an ocean of five thousand adversaries, churning with greed and condescension. Beneath his feet lay the fresh blood and crushed hopes of his fellow summoners.
Yet not a flicker of hesitation rippled across the youth’s face. Slowly withdrawing his right hand from his pocket, he gave a crisp, nonchalant flick of his fingers.
The corners of Lin Feng’s lips curled into a chilled, razor-sharp smirk. Amidst the deafening chorus of jeers and catcalls, his calm, level voice resonated through the open air:
“Eighty-five challengers defeated, is it?”
He raised his eyes, gazing squarely into the mob across the grandstands as if looking upon a swarm of insects:
“Only fifteen more to go... But in my opinion, fifteen seems a bit too few.”
Curling his index finger, Lin Feng made a casual, beckoning gesture toward the roaring crowd:
“Whoever wants to rob the Summoning Faculty of our resources... Come at me all at once!”