Volume 2: Shenzhou Academy & The Battle of Venice
Chapter 122
Abyssal Thunder Wolf Solos the Demon Crab Domain
Ocean winds from Whale Sea Bay whistled across the granite precipice, carrying damp brine and the choking stench of seabed sludge. Subterranean swells roared as they slammed against the base of the rocky ledge, sending sprays of curdled crimson foam vaulting dozens of meters into the air, blending into the drizzling mist that blanketed the southern shore of Huanglu Island.
At Howling Wind Chasm—the perilous bottleneck connecting the shallow mudflats to the granite mountain slopes—the tension in the air was so dense it felt primed to detonate.
More than thirty students from the Fire, Ice, Light, and Wind Faculties of Shenzhou Magic Academy were huddled behind the rocky ledge. Their tactical combat uniforms were shredded into tatters, grime and muck caking over deep, bleeding lacerations. Ragged, hitching gasps mingled with the trembling clink of metallic gear. Across the faces of these young prodigies—once so haughty and untouchable within their distinguished clans back in the Magic Capital—now lingered only raw, unadulterated terror before the ocean of monsters surging relentlessly from the surf.
CRACK... SNAP...
The brittle, dry grinding of fracturing bedrock echoed from the front.
Tearing through the foul, briny fog, four colossal black silhouettes slowly hoisted themselves up from the submerged sandbar.
They were four Gluttonous Demon Crab Leaders!
The bulk of each monster resembled a heavy armored tank, its pitch-black carapace shimmering with the toxic purplish luster of metal soaked for centuries in abyssal ocean depths. Across the jagged, uneven surface of each shell crisscrossed crimson magical striations—berserk marks triggered by the Blood Sacrifice reagent drifting from offshore. Eight tapering legs, akin to steel lances, stabbed deep into the granite bedrock; with every lumbering step, gravel and stone were pulverized into fine powder. Most monstrous was the pair of serrated, jagged pincers—spanning over three meters in length—whose crushing vice could turn a thousand-pound boulder into gravel with a single snap!
Half-step Warrior-class! In fact, the alpha leading the vanguard—its carapace unusually thick and dark—had already stepped one foot firmly into the rank of Lower Warrior-class!
PFFFT... SZZZZZT——!!
Abruptly, the foremost Giant Demon Crab Leader unhinged its mouthparts, drooling oily black mucus beneath its chest plate. A torrent of bubbling, frothing dark-green toxic foam spewed straight toward the defensive rock face.
The moment the fluid contacted the solid granite, billowing plumes of gray smoke erupted, carrying an acrid, sour reek of putrefaction. The reinforced stone was corroded at a speed visible to the naked eye, hissing and frothing before caving into deep, slimy hollows. Toxic vapors wafted into the student ranks, sending the nearest mages into coughing fits as exposed skin flared with scorching red blisters.
“Fall back! Scatter toward the rock alcoves behind us, now!” Ye Qingwan’s crisp, commanding voice sliced through the paralyzed panic.
She stood at the forward vanguard of the chasm, her tactical boots planted firmly upon an outcrop overhanging the drop. Her high black ponytail whipped wildly in the biting sea wind. Cold beads of sweat beaded across her fair forehead, trickling down the bridge of her delicate nose to drip from her chin, yet the young woman’s eyes retained a rare, ironclad composure.
Both her hands tightly gripped her spiritual sandalwood wand. Beneath her boots, a vibrant emerald-green magic array flared and pulsed with arcane light, channeling surging currents of vitality from her sea of consciousness into the bedrock below:
“Bramble Wood Cage: Fortified Wall!”
The earth shuddered violently. Hundreds of thick roots, thick as adult thighs, erupted from the fissures of the cliff face. Twisting and braiding into dense, interlocking layers, they erected a towering thorny barricade over four meters high across the mouth of Howling Wind Chasm.
The moment the Wood barrier solidified, waves of smaller Servant-class Gluttonous Demon Crabs and swarms of Venom-Clawed Sirens crashed in like surging breakers. The harsh scratching of claws raking against timber and the frenzied gnashing of fangs rasped against the ears, chilling the spine. Thorns on the vines impaled the carapaces of dozens of low-tier beasts, spraying slimy green ichor, yet their numbers were simply overwhelming. Trampling over the carcasses of their kin, the smaller crabs snapped their pincers with maniacal frenzy, shearing through branch after branch.
Beside Ye Qingwan, Gu Xiaowei gasped for breath in shallow, ragged bursts. Her chubby, normally bubbly face was pale as chalk, her knees knocking together in terror.
“Lightning Spark: Crackle!”
Biting her lip until it bled, Gu Xiaowei whipped her hands forward, hurling clusters of azure electrical arcs. The lightning danced amidst the monstrous throng, crackling and popping as it paralyzed a patch of smaller crabs. Yet the offensive output of a Primary Tier 2 Lightning Mage was fundamentally insufficient to breach the armored hides of these deep-sea abominations. On the contrary, continuously channeling spells for over half an hour had drained the final drops of mana from her Stardust.
“Xiaowei, stop using area-of-effect spells! Conserve your mana to protect yourself!” Ye Qingwan called out in warning, though her own chest heaved violently under the strain.
The wall of vines began to groan with sharp, brittle snaps.
KRRR-CRACK... SHATTER!
Two titanic Demon Crab Leaders on the outside had lumbered into range. Their pitch-black steel pincers—looming like twin guillotine blades—swung through the air, crashing down against the outer surface of the timber barricade. The cataclysmic impact of tens of thousands of pounds sent the entire barrier shuddering violently, splintering thorns and sending fragments flying in all directions. Fissures the width of a palm tore through the Wood-element construct.
Toxic fluid continuously spewed from the abominations’ maws into the breaches, rotting the supple vines into blackened, decayed timber that crumbled into heaps.
BOOM!!
A section of the barricade nearly three meters wide collapsed in ruins.
The oceanic gale blasted straight into Howling Wind Chasm, carrying the suffocating stench of gore. The bloodshot eyes of the two Demon Crab Leaders loomed through the toxic smoke, locking squarely onto the trembling students huddled behind.
“We’re done for! The barrier breached!”
“Run... run up toward the summit, hurry!”
The student ranks behind instantly fell into utter chaos. Several Wind Faculty boys panicked, hastily triggering Wind Tracks to flee, but the steep, slick incline of the chasm coupled with the howling tempest threw them off balance, sending them crashing hard against the jagged gravel.
Bai Wei sat slumped at the foot of the cliff, his hair disheveled, his eyes bulging hollowly at the gargantuan pincer raised high above. The heirloom jade ring on his finger sputtered with a faint, dying ember of fire; his throat tightened, unable to squeeze out a single syllable. He was supposed to be the foremost genius of the prestigious Bai Clan’s Fire Faculty, yet facing imminent demise amidst a feral horde of beasts, every shred of his everyday arrogance had curdled into wretched cowardice.
SKREEECH——!!
One of the Demon Crab Leaders screeched an ear-splitting hiss. Its massive right pincer cleaved the air, crashing straight toward the heads of Ye Qingwan and Gu Xiaowei! The howling wind roared, the crushing atmospheric pressure gouging the earth beneath the two girls down several inches.
Ye Qingwan wanted to dodge, but her depleted mana left her legs heavy as lead. Gu Xiaowei squeezed her eyes shut in terror, clutching Ye Qingwan’s arm with all her might.
In that hairbreadth moment of life and death, a burly figure suddenly lunged across the rocky fissure, interposing himself before the two girls.
“Don’t you dare touch them, you filthy beasts!”
It was Xie Zhaoyuan!
The normally carefree, roguish face of the young master was contorted in agonizing exertion, his teeth gritted so hard that a trickle of crimson blood seeped from the corner of his lips. He knew full well that he was merely a Primary Tier 3 Light Mage; taking the crushing blow of a Half-step Warrior-class abomination head-on was no different from throwing an egg against a boulder. Yet seeing Ye Qingwan and Gu Xiaowei on the verge of being pulverized, the chivalrous resolve in the young heir of the Whale Sea Banking Clan erupted, eclipsing even his survival instincts.
“Light Protection: Sacred Aegis!”
He roared himself hoarse, draining every last shred of mental energy from his sea of consciousness without holding back a single drop.
Seven golden-bright Light Star Particles ignited in brilliance, converging into a dazzling radiance that enveloped Xie Zhaoyuan before rapidly expanding outward, condensing into a semi-lunar barrier of sacred light shaped like a divine tortoise carapace!
CLANG——BOOOM!!
The black steel pincer hammered squarely into the barrier of Light Protection.
A deafening metallic clang thundered across Howling Wind Chasm, the sweeping shockwave flinging hundreds of surrounding boulders into the air. The golden light shield caved inward, dense spiderweb fractures spreading across its surface.
Spurt!
Xie Zhaoyuan coughed up a mouthful of fresh blood, his knees slamming hard against the jagged stone. Green veins bulged across his forearms as if ready to burst under the cataclysmic pressure. Yet the golden aegis held steadfast without dissolving, stubbornly arresting the deadly pincer less than a span above their heads!
“Xie Zhaoyuan!” Ye Qingwan cried out in dismay, hurriedly reaching out to support his shoulder.
“Cough... cough... Quick... fall back... I can’t hold out for more than... three seconds...” Xie Zhaoyuan exhaled bloody breath, his vision blurring into darkness.
Seeing its kin’s strike thwarted, the second Demon Crab Leader’s stalk eyes swiveled with savage fury. Without hesitation, it hoisted its colossal secondary pincer high, aiming straight at the fracturing shield to deliver the finishing blow!
If that strike landed, not only would the aegis shatter to dust, but all three of them would instantly be pulverized into a paste of flesh and bone!
Right at that razor’s edge of annihilation, a deep, chilling roar—resonant as thunder rolling up from the ninth circle of hell—abruptly reverberated from the summit of the granite cliff:
AWOOOO——ROAAAR!!
This was no ordinary beast’s howl. It carried the absolute sovereign dominion of an apex predator, saturated with wrathful lightning and boundless darkness!
The entirety of Howling Wind Chasm was plunged into a suffocating gravitational pressure. The horde of smaller fiends gnashing frantically around them froze simultaneously, their bodies shuddering as if paralyzed by ice.
A streak of jet-black darkness cleaved the air, hurtling downward from the crest over thirty meters high!
BOOOM!!
The ground at the mouth of the chasm detonated into a crater five meters wide, billowing plumes of pulverized dust and stone.
As the curtain of grit parted, a towering, majestic beast materialized, standing immovable before Xie Zhaoyuan’s shield.
It was none other than the Abyssal Thunder Wolf!
Yet at this moment, it was no longer the fledgeling beast of days past. Having fully digested the essence of the Battle-Bone Soul Essence and undergone tempering beneath the Primordial Dragon Aura, it had experienced a complete metamorphosis, fully unleashing the true form of a genuine Warrior-class sovereign beast!
The black wolf measured over six meters in length and stood nearly three meters tall, coils of dense muscle rippling beneath pitch-black fur that seemed forged from millennia-old cold iron. Along its spine, dark violet thunder-scales bristled upright, spitting ghostly crackles of static. Most terrifying was the solitary obsidian horn jutting from its brow—where currents of abyssal dark lightning coalesced endlessly, spiraling around the sharp tip to condense into a viscous orb of black thunder!
Its blood-blue wolf eyes swept coldly over the two Demon Crab Leaders before it, radiating an overwhelming murderous aura that plummeted the surrounding temperature to freezing.
HIIISS——!!
Sensing an existential threat, the foremost Demon Crab Leader’s savage instincts flared. It immediately redirected its assault, swinging its gargantuan steel pincer in a vicious horizontal sweep aimed straight at the wolf’s flank, intending to cleave the beast in two!
Yet that gale-cleaving blow struck only an ethereal wisp of black mist.
Shadow Escape!
The silhouette of the Abyssal Thunder Wolf vanished from the spot, leaving behind only a faint, fading afterimage in the air.
A speed far beyond what the naked eye could track!
Before the Demon Crab could even retract its unwieldy pincer, the space above its colossal dorsal carapace warped violently. A massive black shadow materialized directly atop the monster’s crown.
The Abyssal Thunder Wolf’s forepaws crashed down with brutal finality!
Razor-sharp pitch-black claws, over half a foot in length and wreathed in dense dark energy, stabbed directly into the seam connecting the monster’s dorsal shell and neck.
CRUNCH——SNAP!!
The thick carapace—capable of easily shrugging off Primary magic—was shredded and pried open by the Warrior-class claws, gouging out a hole the size of a washbasin. Dark green crab ichor spurted out in torrents.
The monster screeched in agony, thrashing frantically in an attempt to dislodge the predator from its back.
Yet the Abyssal Thunder Wolf gave it no quarter to struggle.
The obsidian horn at the center of the wolf’s brow blazed with blinding brilliance!
ZZZZT——KABOOM!!
A bolt of pitch-black lightning, thick as an adult’s thigh, blasted from the horn’s tip directly into the ruptured wound on the crab’s shell! The berserk, destructive dark electrical current snaked into every corner of the beast’s internal anatomy, incinerating organs and flesh into scorched cinders.
The Demon Crab Leader’s screech choked in its throat. Its entire bulk spasmed violently, acrid black smoke pouring from the joints of its limbs. In less than three seconds, its eight steel-spear legs buckled and snapped. Its colossal body collapsed onto the bedrock with a dull, heavy thud—dead before it even knew what hit it!
An instant kill!
A Half-step Warrior-class brute endowed with terrifying defense had been pulverized by the Abyssal Thunder Wolf in a single blow!
ROAAAR!!
The adjacent second Demon Crab Leader flew into a berserk fury. Seeing its comrade slaughtered in a heartbeat, its remaining pincer clamped together in midair with a thunderous boom, while dozens of venom-coated black spikes erupted from its dorsal shell, showering down toward the Abyssal Thunder Wolf like a deadly hail.
The black wolf did not even bother to dodge. Pivoting mid-air, its long, steel-armored tail swept around in a flawless arc.
A dark vortex erupted, deflecting every venomous spike and embedding them deep into the surrounding cliff face. In the next breath, its frame blurred into a streak of black lightning, hurtling forward. Jaws bristling with crackling thunder snapped directly onto the second crab’s eye stalk; the monstrous bite force sheared through the stalk eye and shattered half of the monster’s cranial armor!
Soloing the monstrous swarm, the Abyssal Thunder Wolf’s shadow claws and black lightning swept like an unstoppable meat grinder, completely overwhelming the first two leaders!
That savage, relentless bloodbath left the students huddled behind Howling Wind Chasm utterly dumbfounded.
“Good heavens... Is that... is that Lin Feng’s summoned beast?!”
“Warrior-class! That’s a genuine Warrior-class! That level of close-quarters combat prowess... could it possess the bloodline of a Wolf King?!”
“So monstrously strong... Pulverizing a Half-step Warrior-class crab carapace in a single claw...”
Before their astonished murmurs could even subside, another terrifying crisis descended.
THUD! THUD!
From the coastal reefs, the remaining two Demon Crab Leaders—drawn by the fresh scent of wounded students’ blood—completely bypassed the Abyssal Thunder Wolf’s battlefield. Capitalizing on the black wolf being locked in combat with the second crab, they charged across the scree, closing in on the mouth of Howling Wind Chasm!
Their carapaces glowed an eerie, curdled crimson, their movement speed doubled under the stimulant effects of the Blood Sacrifice reagent. Scuttling past the ruined remnants of the rotted vine barricade, their towering steel pincers hoisted skyward, radiating suffocating bloodlust as they swung down toward the clustered students!
“We’re dead! They’re targeting us!”
“It’s too late to run! Stone wall... Erect a stone wall, quickly!”
Two Earth Faculty students frantically attempted to channel their Star Tracks, but under the crushing weight of imminent death, their Star Particles broke apart repeatedly. The nascent magic dissolved into harmless flecks of light before it could even ignite.
Xie Zhaoyuan had already collapsed unconscious in Ye Qingwan’s arms from sheer exhaustion. Ye Qingwan gritted her teeth, attempting to summon whatever meager dregs of mana remained to weave vines of obstruction, but before the massive steel pincers cleaving through the air at gale speed, all her efforts were utterly futile against that absolute disparity in power.
Death was merely a fraction of an inch away!
The foul wind lashed searingly against their faces. Bai Wei curled into a ball on the ground, shutting his eyes in sheer despair, bracing for the moment his body would be sheared in two.
Yet right in that fathomless abyss of despair, a slender silhouette, tranquil as an ancient snow-capped mountain, stepped unhurriedly out from the shadows of the cliff.
Lin Feng!
From the inception of the battle, he had stood watch atop the high granite ledge, his gaze detached and observant as he tracked every movement across the offshore reefs. But now, with the lives of his squadmates and dozens of students teetering on the precipice of doom, he could no longer stand idly by.
Nor was there any need to conceal his strength any longer!
Hiding one’s trump cards was for survival, but when facing the savage abominations bred by the Nether Church, the only currency that guaranteed survival was absolute, overwhelming destruction!
Lin Feng clenched his fists, his chest rising and falling with the surging waves of thermal energy radiating from the Primordial Dragon Pendant.
BOOOOM——!!
Within his Sea of Consciousness, a deluge of deep violet mana saturated with divine sovereignty erupted like a volcanic detonation!
Forty-nine violet-black Lightning Star Particles, already revolving furiously within his Lightning Nebula, illuminated the entire firmament of his mind simultaneously.
No cumbersome incantations.
None of the hesitation or stuttering of ordinary mages!
Under mental control honed through thousands of life-and-death crucibles in Bo’an City, bolstered by the primordial resonance of the Primordial Dragon Pendant, forty-nine Lightning Star Particles aligned at the speed of thought!
Seven Stars formed a Star Track!
Seven Tracks wove into a Star Pattern!
A colossal, flawless violet-black Lightning Star Pattern—over ten meters in diameter—erupted into existence beneath Lin Feng’s boots! Sharp, intricate lightning glyphs blazed with blinding radiance, instantly incinerating the foul, briny mist in all directions!
The entirety of Howling Wind Chasm fell dead silent in an instant. The surrounding air turned bone-dry in a flash, the hairs of every student standing on end under the terrifying static attraction!
Lin Feng’s eyes shifted into an abyss of deep, fathomless violet, the hem of his tactical coat whipping wildly amidst the electromagnetic tempest. He thrust his right arm toward the heavens, his index finger pointing straight at the dense, churning storm clouds overhead, his voice low yet reverberating across the shore:
“Intermediate Lightning Magic—”
“RAGING THUNDER: SCARLET ARCS!!”
CRACK-BOOOOM——CATACLYSM!!
The gloomy vault above Howling Wind Chasm split wide open!
A tempestuous vortex of black storm clouds churned violently, within which thousands of violet-black lightning arcs braided together like a den of roaring thunder dragons.
Then, four colossal lightning pillars—thick as ancient redwood trunks and blazing with apocalyptic violet-black radiance—tore through the fabric of space from the nine heavens, crashing down upon the earth!
The velocity of lightning far exceeded all biological reflexes!
The two Demon Crab Leaders had barely raised their pincers to strike, before their minds could even register what was occurring, when the divine thunderbolt smashed directly into the crowns of their carapaces!
KABOOOOM——CRASH! CRASH! CRASH!!
An earth-shattering detonation tore through everyone’s eardrums. The lightning shockwave swept through the chasm, blasting soil, gravel, and swarms of smaller monsters dozens of meters backward.
The violet-black lightning, carrying tens of thousands of degrees of searing thermal energy and limitless armor-piercing lethality, pulverized the unyielding steel carapaces of the two Demon Crab Leaders into minute fragments! Lightning gouged into the bedrock, forging a gargantuan crater glowing with molten magma. The crab meat within had no time to char; it was vaporized into nothingness under the savage fury of Raging Thunder: Scarlet Arcs!
The two Half-step Warrior-class behemoths that had just been rampaging unchecked were transformed in an instant into two smoking, charred ruins at the bottom of two deep craters!
The residual thunderous aftershocks rippled outward, violet-black arcs dancing across the earth and incinerating hundreds of Servant-class Gluttonous Demon Crabs clinging to the slopes, reducing the entire entrance of Howling Wind Chasm into a blazing lightning scorched-earth zone!
The tempest gradually subsided.
All that remained was the intermittent whistling of sea wind slicing through the chasm and the crisp snapping of dying embers across the blackened stone.
Inside Howling Wind Chasm, absolute silence reigned.
Every student—from those who had fled in panic to those sprawled upon the ground—stood frozen with jaws agape, staring with bulging eyes at the slender back of the youth standing at the cliff’s edge.
Gu Xiaowei clapped both small hands over her mouth, her round eyes wide and vacant, unable to process the scene before her. As a Lightning Mage herself, she understood better than anyone how grueling it was to align forty-nine Star Particles and unleash an Intermediate-tier spell! Normal mages spent years in arduous training, chanting each syllable with trembling precision before daring to release a spell. Yet Lin Feng... with a mere flick of his sleeve, his Star Pattern had manifested in under two seconds?!
Ye Qingwan stood frozen, her hand supporting Xie Zhaoyuan trembling slightly. She stared fixedly at the lingering wisp of violet-black lightning dancing across Lin Feng’s fingertips, her heart hammering with profound shock:
“Intermediate... An Intermediate Lightning Mage?!”
“Isn’t he... isn’t he a freshman from the Summoning Faculty?!”
A boy’s strangled shriek broke the dead quiet.
In the next second, the entire crowd erupted into pandemonium!
“Heavens above! One spell... Just a single cast of Raging Thunder: Scarlet Arcs obliterated two Half-step Warrior-class monsters?!”
“Constructing a Star Pattern in the blink of an eye! What kind of monstrous mana control is that?!”
“Could he be... an Innate Dual-Element prodigy?! He possesses a Warrior-class contracted beast AND he’s an Intermediate Lightning Mage?!”
The gazes fixed upon Lin Feng held not a trace of the prior skepticism or disdain reserved for a commoner from a remote backwater. In their place burned boundless reverence, awe, and gut-wrenching gratitude! Had it not been for that earth-shattering barrage of Raging Thunder, all thirty students in Howling Wind Chasm would undoubtedly have been reduced to demon crab chow!
In a dark, jagged recess, Bai Wei sat slumped on the gravel, shivering uncontrollably. He stared at the two smoking craters before him, then down at his own empty, trembling hands.
His haughty sneers, his petty jealousy, and the meticulous schemes he had nursed to seize the seeded roster quota... in this instant, they felt so utterly laughable, so pathetic.
He had always prided himself on being the direct heir of the eminent Bai Clan of the Magic Capital, backed by limitless wealth and looking down upon commoners hailing from impoverished border frontiers. But standing before an eighteen-year-old Lin Feng who commanded the power of an Intermediate Mage, capable of turning the tide solo amidst a horde of Warrior-class beasts... he was nothing more than an insignificant speck of dust at the foot of an immovable mountain!
“Impossible... How could this be...” Bai Wei muttered incoherently, cold sweat drenching his back, every shred of his will to compete thoroughly extinguished.
Yet amid the rapturous cheers of gratitude and the reverent stares of the crowd, Lin Feng showed not the slightest hint of complacency, nor did he lower his guard.
He flicked his sleeve, extinguishing the residual lightning dancing on his fingertips.
Chuff...
Having ripped the second Demon Crab Leader to shreds, the Abyssal Thunder Wolf shook itself, scattering foul blood from its coat before padding unhurriedly over to stand beside Lin Feng. Its proud wolf head nuzzled gently against its master’s bicep, yet its blood-blue eyes remained fixed in a predatory glare toward the ocean.
Lin Feng did not spare a glance at the heaps of monster carcasses at his feet. His gaze swept past Howling Wind Chasm, past the blood-soaked beaches littered with corpses, locking directly onto the crescent-shaped reef three kilometers offshore.
There, the sinister columns of black smoke rising from the Blood Sacrifice Altar had not diminished; instead, they grew thicker and denser, billowing into the nine heavens like gargantuan pythons of black ink cleaving the sky.
The crimson gleam pulsing from the altar flashed with manifold frenzied intensity.
The sea encircling the reef churned into a violent boil, titanic tidal surges over ten meters high roaring as they crashed against the base of Huanglu Island.
And from the abyssal marine trench far beneath the altar, a dull, primordial thrum—resembling the war drum of an abyssal demon god—surged through the heavy layers of ocean water, hammering directly against Lin Feng’s chest:
THUD——THUD——
A terrifying aura, hundreds of times more dreadful than any Warrior-class beast, was slowly awakening from the pitch-black depths of the sea!
Lin Feng’s expression darkened, an ice-cold glint flashing in the depths of his eyes:
“It’s not over yet... The truly terrifying monster... is only now beginning to surface!”