Volume 2: Shenzhou Academy & The Battle of Venice
Chapter 108
Challenging the Entire Class, Monopolizing Resources
The acrid stench of scorched earth mingled with the bone-chilling frost radiating from crushed shards of ice strewn across the dueling platform.
At the foot of the four-thousand-square-meter granite stage, four young men from the Earth and Ice Faculties lay sprawled in disarray. One clutched a shattered arm, groaning in agony; another’s defensive armor was pulverized, his mana completely drained, leaving him unable to rise. A medical squad bearing stretchers dashed through the warding barrier, swiftly hauling the four vanquished challengers from the ring.
That made twenty-five squads to step onto the stage that morning.
Factoring in all the previous rounds, the tally of defeated foes fallen beneath the obsidian fangs and talons of the pitch-black magical beast had just hit the clean, round milestone of one hundred!
Up in the eastern spectator stands reserved exclusively for the Summoning Faculty, Xie Zhaoyuan slammed both palms against the iron railing, leaping into the air and roaring at the top of his lungs:
“One hundred! That’s a hundred down, brothers!”
Beside him, Zhang Meng was drenched in sweat, his eyes flushed red with emotion as he gripped his friend’s sleeve:
“We held it... We actually protected our mana stone resources for the whole year!”
Only now did the remaining four summoners dare to breathe a collective sigh of relief. From early morning, gazing upon the five-thousand-strong sea of students encircling them, they had resigned themselves to humiliation, mentally preparing for the nightmare of surrendering every last scrap of their cultivation resources. Who could have imagined that Lin Feng and his black wolf would stand like an unyielding mountain in the center of the arena, tearing through a hundred consecutive challengers without conceding an inch!
At the center of the ring, the gray-robed presiding referee stepped out from the safety zone. Looking at the colossal black wolf towering in the middle of the grounds, he marveled inwardly at the creature’s monstrous physical constitution.
Raising a glowing azure signal flag, the referee brought the acoustic transmitter to his lips:
“In accordance with the regulations of the Shenzhou Archmage Academy’s Beast Battle Gala, the Summoning Faculty has fulfilled its quota by withstanding the challenge of exactly one hundred students from all faculties! I hereby declare that the resource defense trial for representative Lin Feng has officially—”
“Hold on.”
A low, calm voice cut the referee short.
The referee’s raised arm froze in midair. Caught off guard, he turned around.
Lin Feng remained standing tall upon the sleek, black lightning-scaled back of the Abyssal Thunder Wolf. Gusts of arena wind whipped through the hems of his black duster, revealing his solid, chiseled chest and the dark stone pendant resting against it. He didn’t spare a single glance at the four defeated challengers being carried off, merely raising a hand in a casual gesture to halt the announcement.
“Student Lin Feng, what is the meaning of this?” The referee frowned. “One hundred challengers is the highest threshold required for the Summoning Faculty to preserve its cultivation resources for this academic year. Your war beast has just weathered a hundred volleys of magic, expending a considerable amount of mana. Should you choose to remain on the stage, you must bear full responsibility for any consequences.”
Beneath his feet, the Abyssal Thunder Wolf snorted contemptuously through its nostrils. Plumes of pitch-black heat mingled with crackling violet sparks shot down onto the granite floor, charring the stone tiles black. Its violet-rimmed amber eyes burned with murderous bloodlust; its bristling black fur and rippling cords of muscle showed not the slightest trace of exhaustion. Having steamrolled through a hundred battles, the ancient sovereign bloodline awakened by the Primordial Dragon Qi within its veins felt as though it had only just warmed up!
Lin Feng patted the giant wolf’s broad shoulder and stepped down onto the arena floor. He plucked the acoustic microphone mounted to the stone pillar near the ring’s edge, turning the dial to maximum volume.
The static hum of the amplification system reverberated outward, instantly seizing the undivided attention of five thousand spectators packed tightly into the steep, tiered stands.
Lin Feng lifted his chin, his razor-sharp gaze sweeping across the seating sections of the Fire, Lightning, Ice, and Wind Faculties. The corners of his lips curled into an arrogant smirk, his voice booming straight into everyone’s eardrums:
“Who told you all that my goal today was merely to stop at a hundred just to play it safe?”
The entire Demon Sky Colosseum plunged into dead silence. Thousands of eyes stared down at the solitary figure standing in the arena center, bewildered, wondering if their ears were playing tricks on them.
Lin Feng didn’t pause. His voice rang out like an iron hammer striking an anvil, each syllable falling with crushing weight:
“From the moment I crossed the gates of Shenzhou Academy, my ears have been pounded with your self-proclaimed titles of metropolitan elites and aristocratic clan prodigies. Relying on numbers to bully the few, you treated the seven students of our Summoning Faculty like fat lambs ready to be carved up for our meager scraps of resources.”
“Those hundred failures who were just dragged off this stage... to tell you the honest truth, to me and my war beast, they were nothing more than a light warm-up to stretch our muscles!”
He extended his index finger, pointing straight toward the central VIP stands where the noble heirs and aristocratic scions of the Magic Capital were gathered:
“Today, anyone who still wants to plunder the Summoning Faculty’s resources... anyone who fancies themselves a clan prodigy while looking down on poor students from remote frontier towns... haul your asses onto this stage at once! This young master welcomes every last one of you!”
BOOM——!!
It was like a burning torch tossed straight into a powder keg!
Five thousand freshmen vaulted to their feet in unison. Deafening roars of outrage and vitriol erupted, unleashing a tidal wave of fury unprecedented in the history of the Beast Battle Gala!
“Arrogant bastard!”
“A backwater hillbilly from the boondocks of Bo’an City dares to look down on our entire class just because of one lucky beast?!”
“Kill him! Tear that damn beast into mincemeat!”
The stands boiled like a cauldron of scalding oil. Hundreds of fingers pointed in fury, countless venomous glares boring into the youth on the stage. To those born into illustrious, powerful dynasties of the Jinghai Magic Capital, Lin Feng’s raw insolence was nothing short of a resounding slap across the face of their noble heritage.
Up on the elevated VIP honorary balcony, the atmosphere grew tense to the breaking point.
Xiao Zhenshan, Director of the Summoning Faculty, clutched his porcelain teacup so tightly that tea sloshed over the rim. His bushy brows twitched uncontrollably, his chest heaving with fierce turbulence.
For years, the Summoning Faculty had always been the underdog, enduring endless humiliation at the hands of the elemental faculties. In every previous Beast Battle Gala, their students could only grit their teeth and suffer, shedding tears of gratitude if they managed to hold off thirty or forty challengers. Never before had anyone possessed the supreme swagger to sneer down at the entire academy, pointing right at five thousand peers and issuing an open challenge like Lin Feng today!
Beside him, the Director of the Fire Faculty, Zhou Zhenping, slammed his hand onto the table and roared:
“Preposterous! Just how is this summoner being educated? Vice Chancellor Lu, this cannot be tolerated! He must be severely disciplined to maintain academy order!”
In the center seat, Vice Chancellor Lu Min gently stroked his silver beard. The keen, incisive eyes of the venerable powerhouse were fixed intently upon Lin Feng and the giant wolf below. Unlike the outrage of those around him, a profound spark of intrigue danced within his gaze.
Lu Min raised a hand to signal Zhou Zhenping to calm down, picking up the magical acoustic transceiver linked directly to the barrier control nexus.
The deep, resonant voice of the Vice Chancellor rolled down from the arena’s vaulted ceiling, instantly smothering the clamor of five thousand students:
“Silence!”
A mere two words, yet infused with an overwhelming spiritual pressure that snuffed out all noise across the colosseum in a single breath. Countless eyes snapped upward toward the rostrum of honor.
Lu Min gazed down at Lin Feng, his tone slow and deliberate:
“Student Lin Feng, the century-old regulations of the Shenzhou Archmage Academy have never barred a student from continuing to defend the arena. However, the rules governing the latter half of the Beast Battle Gala are far more brutal.”
Lu Min paused for a beat, allowing the gravity of his words to sink into the minds of every listener:
“Under academy law: If you can single-handedly defeat consecutive challengers up to the one hundred and fifty mark, the entire annual mana stone quota for the Summoning Faculty will be doubled!”
“And should you reach the threshold of two hundred...” Lu Min raised his voice, each word reverberating like rolling thunder: “...You will seize the ENTIRE annual cultivation mana stone quota of all five thousand freshmen in this class! Furthermore, the ultimate personal reward—a vial of CONDENSING STAR SPIRIT ELIXIR, personally endorsed by the Academy Leadership—shall be yours!”
The entire colosseum fell dead silent, the crowd gasping in unison!
The Condensing Star Spirit Elixir! A priceless holy draught capable of shattering magical bottlenecks, a treasure that even heirs of the great clans coveted with bloodshot eyes. As for the entire annual mana stone allocation of five thousand freshmen... it was enough to sustain a mid-tier magical clan for a whole year!
Yet, Lu Min’s voice abruptly took on an icy edge:
“However, the cost of defeat is equally merciless. If you choose to press forward and are vanquished before reaching the two hundred mark, the Summoning Faculty will be stripped of its ENTIRE first-year resources! And you yourself will receive an official academy-wide disciplinary citation.”
“Lin Feng, do you still wish to proceed?”
Below the stage, Xie Zhaoyuan was frightened out of his wits by the punitive terms and screamed at the top of his lungs:
“Lin Feng! Don’t be reckless! One hundred is enough! Don’t gamble away our faculty’s entire year!”
Zhang Meng’s hands were clenched white, all color drained from his face.
Yet, standing at the eye of the tempest beneath thousands of scrutinizing glares, Lin Feng did not hesitate for even a fraction of a second. Lifting his gaze to meet the Vice Chancellor’s eyes squarely, his answer rang out sharp and resolute:
“I accept!”
Two words, struck down like a heavy blade cleaving through stone!
RUMBLE!
The roar from all directions erupted once again, twice as deafening as before.
“Courting death!”
“Magnificent! If we don’t cripple him today, the reputation of our elemental faculties is finished!”
In the front rows of the Fire and Lightning Faculties, the atmosphere underwent a chilling transformation. It was no longer the disorganized jeering of the rabble, but the cold, calculated movement of core disciples from the great clans.
Within the Zhao Clan’s seating area, a tall youth clad in an exorbitant silver-embroidered beast-hide cloak rose slowly to his feet. His name was Zhao Kexiong, a direct scion of the Zhao Clan in the Magic Capital, an elite wielder of Lightning magic. Casting a sidelong glance at the three companions beside him, his voice dropped into a murderous murmur:
“We cannot let this countryside peasant drag our dignity through the dirt for another second. Those hundred who went up earlier were nothing but undisciplined trash—no defensive magic gear, weaving Star Paths slower than snails—which was why that brute ripped them apart.”
The Earth mage beside him, Wang Bao, let out a sinister chuckle, patting the bronze magical shield strapped to his back:
“Brother Kexiong is right. Our four elite squads will enter the ring together. Four squads of four, textbook coordination: Earth armor to tank, Ice and Water to ensnare, Lightning and Fire to rain down catastrophic devastation. Even if that wolf is a Peak Servant-class beast, under the concentrated bombardment of sixteen mages armed with high-grade magic equipment, it will be reduced to mincemeat!”
“Take the stage!”
Four elite squads—sixteen figures clad in radiant magical armor, clutching gem-encrusted staves—rose from their seats in unison, striding purposefully onto the dueling grounds.
The emergence of these sixteen figures sent shockwaves reverberating through the entire audience.
“It’s Zhao Kexiong’s squad!”
“There’s also Yan Hai from the Ice Faculty and Sun Ren from the Fire Faculty! Every single one of them is a top seed backed by a prominent clan!”
“Sixteen elite mages executing interlocking formation tactics! That’s the textbook vanguard deployment used to hunt Warrior-class beasts in the wild!”
Heavy combat boots pounded against the stone pavement. The sixteen mages fanned out in four directions, locking into a tight crescent formation that cordoned off half the arena facing Lin Feng, barely fifty meters away.
Inside the barrier, the air turned suffocatingly thick. The heavy scent of elemental magic crackled through the arena, mana churning so violently that fine dust motes swirled in airborne vortexes.
Zhao Kexiong stood dead center, his right hand gripping a magic staff embedded with a deep purple thunder gem, his eyes glaring daggers at Lin Feng:
“Lin Feng, you had the chance to preserve a shred of dignity and crawl off this stage, but you chose the most idiotic path. Today, I’ll teach a country bumpkin like you the insurmountable chasm between a provincial nobody and the millennium-old heritage of the Magic Capital’s noble clans!”
Confronted by sixteen pairs of bloodthirsty eyes and an array of humming defensive magic equipment, Lin Feng merely gave a subtle shake of his head, offering a lazy retort:
“Too much prattle. Make your move.”
“You want to die!”
Zhao Kexiong let out an earth-shattering roar!
CLANG——!!
The referee’s whistle had barely ceased echoing when all sixteen elite mages simultaneously ignited the mana within their spiritual seas!
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
The four Earth mages drove their staves violently into the ground. Four earthen-brown Star Paths linked in a flash, instantly raising a solid granite wall over three meters tall to fortify the vanguard. Simultaneously, their protective shield equipment flared with interwoven bands of earthen-gold light, creating an impregnable fortress!
Behind them, the four Water and Ice mages swept their arms forward. A slick sheet of treacherous frost surged beneath the Abyssal Thunder Wolf’s paws, accompanied by churning magical water vortexes designed to bind the beast’s limbs!
At the same time, the eight primary assault mages of Fire and Lightning in the rear ranks completed the alignment of their seven Stars!
“Lightning Strike: Wrathful Peak!”
“Fire Burst: Rupture!”
Over twenty destructive spells detonated at once, ripping the atmosphere to shreds!
The sky above the stage was painted in blinding shades of blazing crimson and deep violet. Fireballs as massive as cauldrons burned with suffocating heat, converging with dozens of shrieking violet lightning bolts crashing down from above. The interlocking assault trajectories wove a sky-spanning web of death, sealing off every avenue of escape as they descended upon Lin Feng and the Abyssal Thunder Wolf!
The ecstatic roars of five thousand students threatened to blow the dome off the colosseum. Everyone waited eagerly for the arrogant youth and his black beast to be roasted alive in the inferno of thunder and flame!
Yet, amidst the apocalyptic storm crashing down upon his head, Lin Feng stood motionless upon the wolf’s back, his duster whipping wildly in the tempest. A razor-sharp smirk tugged at the corner of his lips. His left hand slipped inside his pocket, gently tightening around the Primordial Dragon Pendant pressed against his chest as it pulsed with a familiar, comforting surge of warmth.
“ROAR——!!”
The Abyssal Thunder Wolf threw its head back in a roar that shook the spiritual seas of everyone present, the obsidian horn upon its brow detonating with blinding violet-black lightning!
In the exact millisecond before the inferno and lightning swallowed their target, the silhouettes of man and beast dissolved into wisps of demonic black mist, vanishing without a trace right before sixteen pairs of horrified eyes!