Volume 2: Shenzhou Academy & The Battle of Venice
Chapter 124
Dual Elements Unleashed, Slaying the Blue Deacon
The ocean gale shrieked without pause, howling like a pack of starved ghouls dredged from the nine depths of purgatory. Waves thick with the oily crimson sludge of the Blood Frenzy Demonic Liquid battered ceaselessly against the jagged spires of the Blood Tail Reef, churning up frothing sprays that carried a sickening, metallic stench of rot that violently assailed the nostrils.
More than three kilometers off the coast of Huanglu Island, the offshore reef breached the ocean’s depths like the colossal, frost-bitten spine of an ancient abyssal leviathan. Across the jagged black granite encrusted with razor barnacles and thorny kelp, thousands of dark crimson arcane grooves were carved deep into the bedrock, funneling frothing demonic liquid into a cavernous, subterranean whirlpool that spiraled endlessly downward into the void.
At the very nexus of the reef, a Blood Sacrifice Altar erected from the hollowed skulls of hundreds of deep-sea abyssal beasts cast an eerie, rhythmic crimson pulse over the water—throbbing with a dull, heavy cadence, like the monstrous heart of an ancient fiend beating within the nocturnal sea.
Standing tall upon the highest tier of the altar, Zhou Zhending looked down upon the poisonous blood bleeding into the oceanic current, his lips twisting into a grotesque, intoxicated sneer.
The dignified lecturer’s robes of Shenzhou Arcane Academy had been torn from his shoulders, trampled into the mud at his feet like a soiled, discarded rag. In their place, his gaunt frame was wrapped in deep navy vestments, the hem embroidered with jagged crimson teeth—the supreme insignia of authority belonging to a Blue Deacon of the Nether Church.
“A wilderness assessment? The proud prodigies of Shenzhou Academy?”
Zhou Zhending threw his head back with a guttural, raspy cackle, his shrill voice cutting through the shrieking squalls:
“Nothing more than three thousand prime, fattened lambs offered up by those decrepit academy deans to the Divine Beast sleeping in the deep! Once the blood of these clan scions stains every inch of this island and the sacrificial array reaches its zenith, the Divine Beast shall awaken and obliterate the coastal bulwarks... and the entirety of the Great Sea Magic Capital will drown in a sea of blood!”
“You’ve daydreamed long enough, Zhou Zhending.”
A voice as frigid as ten-thousand-year glacial ice abruptly cut through the night, slicing clean across the Blue Deacon’s arrogant laughter.
Zhou Zhending froze, the sneer on his face instantly petrifying. His sallow, malevolent eyes darted sharply toward a jagged outcrop of rock jutting from the surging surf barely thirty meters away.
There, standing tall amidst the churning crimson foam, was the silhouette of a slender youth. A black tactical combat suit clung to his lean, powerful frame, its hem snapping crisply in the biting salt spray. Droplets of sea brine clung to his jet-black hair, yet his eyes were horrifyingly calm—like the surface of a frozen abyssal lake, without a solitary ripple.
Lin Feng.
Zhou Zhending narrowed his eyes, catching sight of the freshman badge belonging to the Summoning School still pinned to the boy’s chest. A fleeting ripple of astonishment flickered through his gaze, only to be instantly consumed by raw contempt and a repulsive, sneering smirk:
“Hmph. Here I thought an elder of the Tribunal or a high-ranking military battle-mage had tracked me down. Turns out it’s just a lucky sewer rat of a freshman crawling out of the muck.”
He shook his head in disgust, pointing a withered, branch-like finger directly at Lin Feng’s face:
“Brat, managing to slip past the offshore beast packs and crawl all the way to the Blood Tail Reef proves your knack for hiding in the mud isn’t half bad. But unfortunately for you, this isn’t a lecture hall where raising your hand earns you mercy. Since you’ve brought your own carcass to my doorstep, obediently offer up your organs as fertilizer for the grand array!”
Zhou Zhending did not even deign to step down from the altar steps. With an idle flick of his blue-robed sleeve, he issued a callous execution order:
“The three of you, lock down the perimeter. Use Shadow Traps to shatter his limbs, rip out his heart and liver, and cast them into the formation eye!”
“By your command, Lord Deacon!”
The three black-robed men guarding the base of the altar responded in unison. Shrill, chittering hisses like carrion-eating bats echoed from beneath their cavernous cowls as suffocating murderous intent instantly smothered the reef.
These three Black-Robed Zealots were elite deathsworn of the Nether Church, their cultivation at the peak of the Basic Tier, their hands steeped in the slaughter of dozens of atrocities. In their eyes, an eighteen-year-old freshman who had barely set foot inside an academy was nothing more than a fragile chick whose neck could be snapped with a twitch of the wrist.
Shing! Shing! Shing!
Without an ounce of wasted motion, the three zealots channeled their magic in unison.
Beneath their boots, seven pitch-black Star Cores rapidly linked into three gloomy Star Paths. Coils of living shadow slithered across the waterlogged rock like venomous serpents bursting from their nest, weaving into a thorny, spiked net of darkness—the Shadow Trap.
The suffocating ring of shadows snapped shut in an instant, cutting off every vector of escape!
The zealot on the left drew twin poisoned daggers that glistened with a venomous emerald sheen, his body melding into the shadows as he skimmed across the wet stone, aiming straight for Lin Feng’s Achilles tendons. The zealot on the right whipped an enchanted iron chain bristling with rusty barbed spikes, ripping through the gale with a shrill whistle aimed directly at the youth’s throat. The cultist charging dead center bared teeth yellowed with decay, a cruel grin splitting his face as his palms condensed heavy, viscous concussive shadows, intending to shatter both of Lin Feng’s shoulder joints in one brutal collision.
Three lethal angles of attack, coordinated with suffocating ruthlessness!
High upon the altar platform, Zhou Zhending crossed his arms over his chest, a sadistic smile playing on his lips as he leisurely waited for the young mage to crumple to his knees, screaming in helpless agony.
Yet standing at the very epicenter of the death trap, Lin Feng did not yield half a step.
Not a single line on his face shifted. His dark eyes regarded the three converging killers with chilling serenity.
His right hand casually snapped in empty air, his voice low, flat, and absolute:
“Go snap their necks.”
ROOOOOAAAAR——!!
An earth-shattering wolf roar abruptly tore the nocturnal storm asunder!
The space directly before the dagger-wielding zealot violently fractured into a brilliant violet-black dimensional rift. A savage, tyrannical aura belonging to an authentic Warrior-class mutated beast exploded outward like a collapsed dam, the concussive pressure blasting the surrounding surf dozens of meters away!
A titanic silhouette over four meters long, coiled with corded muscle like blocks of tempered steel, breached the threshold of reality!
Glossy obsidian fur was armored with overlapping thunder-scales that gleamed with a cold, metallic sheen, while the tapering obsidian horn at the center of its brow spat searing sparks of violet lightning. Having completed its breakthrough to a full-fledged Warrior-class beast, the Abyssal Thunder Wolf’s physical might and predatory lethality stood at the zenith of an apex killer!
Before the zealot on the left could even comprehend what was unfolding, a wolf paw as broad as a bronze millstone—wreathed in violent thunder and swirling shadows—tore through the atmosphere and slammed down atop his head!
CRACK——SPLAT!!
The cultist’s flimsy protective mana shield detonated like a soap bubble. Razor-sharp wolf talons crushed the zealot’s skull as effortlessly as cleaving through soft tofu! His head and upper torso were flattened into an unrecognizable pulp, dark blood and shattered bone exploding across the jagged rocks!
Before the first drop of gore could hit the stone, the Abyssal Thunder Wolf’s long tail—bristling with spiked thunder-scales—swept across the air in a terrifying sonic arc!
BOOM!! CRACK!!
The tail whip carried the momentum of a ten-thousand-pound iron sledgehammer fused with raging violet lightning, striking flush against the flank of the chain-wielding zealot on the right. The sound of his spine snapping was sickeningly crisp! His entire frame was bent backward into an unnatural right angle, rocketing over twenty meters through the air before violently crashing into the granite wall, pulped like a sack of minced meat before sliding down into the churning red surf!
Two Basic Tier Peak zealots annihilated in the blink of an eye!
The third black-robed cultist charging down the center froze dead in his tracks. The feral grin on his face twisted into an expression of sheer, unadulterated horror, his pupils dilating to their absolute limits.
Warrior-class! That was a Warrior-class contract beast!
How could a first-year freshman possibly command a fully realized Warrior-class apex beast?!
“Mon... Monster!!”
The cultist shrieked in mortal terror. Primal survival instincts overriding all else, he hastily severed his spell, spun on his heel, and desperately splashed through the water back toward the altar.
Yet the instant his boot lifted from the ground, a silhouette eerily surfaced directly from the shadow beneath his feet.
Shadow Slip!
Lin Feng materialized directly in his path, blocking his escape like a sovereign reaper stepping out from the nether realm. Before the zealot could raise a hand, Lin Feng’s fingers clamped around his throat like vices of cold steel, hoisting the man’s eighty-kilogram frame clean off the ground!
“You... You...”
The zealot’s eyes bulged, his legs thrashing wildly in empty air as choked, desperate gasps scraped against his crushed windpipe.
“Rats have no right to run.”
Lin Feng spoke without inflection. Within his palm, the concentrated destructive force of Intermediate Lightning—the terrifying Violet-Black Lightning of Thunderbolt: Cleave compressed to its lethal extreme—abruptly detonated!
SIZZLE... CRACK-BOOM!!
Tyrannical violet thunder bored through flesh like thousands of searing needles, tunneling straight into the cultist’s seven facial orifices. A sharp, concussive thunderclap cracked inside his skull; columns of acrid black smoke blasted from his eye sockets and ear canals. Every fiber of brain tissue was incinerated to ash by tens of thousands of volts in a fraction of a second!
Lin Feng released his grip.
Thud!
The blackened, lifeless husk plummeted into the muddy puddle below, twitched twice, and ceased all movement.
From the moment the three zealots sprung their trap to the instant all three were reduced to minced meat and charred charcoal, less than five seconds had elapsed!
The Blood Tail Reef plunged into a suffocating, deathly hush. Only the ocean gale howling through the crags and the steady patter of fresh blood dripping into the sea broke the silence.
Atop the altar, the smug arrogance on Zhou Zhending’s face had completely vanished.
His complexion was as pale as a drowned corpse, his eyes bulging as he stared at the remains of his three elite disciples scattered at Lin Feng’s feet. His chest heaved violently in an explosive collision of towering fury and seismic shock.
A newly enrolled freshman... not only commanded a savage Warrior-class contract beast, but he himself could execute phantom-like Shadow footwork and wield a mutated Lightning element possessing such terrifying destructive potency?!
“Bastard! You dared slaughter my disciples?!”
Zhou Zhending ground his teeth and roared, his screech of venomous hatred tearing at the ears:
“Good! Very good! So what if you have a Warrior-class beast? So what if your lightning is mutated? Did you honestly think a fledgeling’s paltry tricks give you the right to strut before an Intermediate Mage like me?!”
With that roar, the tyrannical aura of an Intermediate Blue Deacon tempered by countless bloodbaths detonated like a hurricane!
Zhou Zhending spread his gaunt arms wide. Beneath his feet, an arcane radiance of deep cerulean infused with malignant emerald green began to churn hysterically.
Forty-nine luminous Water Star Cores blazed around his body, rapidly connecting into seven resplendent Star Paths, intertwining to construct a complete Water Star Map!
Nor did it stop there. Across Zhou Zhending’s mottled skin, repulsive violet-black veins bulged—the mana of the Poison element! He was a dual-element mage of Water and Poison, infamous within the church for his gruesome methods, having once dissolved an entire hunting squad of over twenty veteran mages into soup!
RUMBLE... CRASH!!
The sea encircling the reef violently churned like a titanic cauldron of boiling oil caught ablaze. Thousands of tons of crimson ocean water, seized by Zhou Zhending’s frenzied mana, surged upward into a gargantuan fifteen-meter tidal wall!
Worse yet, that raging ocean water was no longer ordinary brine; saturated with corrosive acidic toxins, it had been dyed a greasy, frothing blackish-green. Stray droplets of spray sizzling against the granite hissed sharply, dissolving stone into bubbling, smoking pits that reeked of caustic acid!
“Dying beneath my fused magic is the greatest honor of your miserable life!” Zhou Zhending shrieked like a lunatic, his hands violently swinging downward:
“Intermediate Water Magic——RAGING WAVE: SURGING CREST!!”
KABOOOOM——!!
The gargantuan tsunami of toxic venom tore across the night sky, resembling a prehistoric behemoth opening its gaping green maw, bearing down upon Lin Feng and the Abyssal Thunder Wolf with crushing tonnage and flesh-melting acid!
The raw destructive power of Intermediate magic fused with flesh-corroding venom!
Before this sky-blotting venomous deluge, the Abyssal Thunder Wolf let loose a ferocious snarl, lightning along its spine erupting skyward, yet its massive frame was forced back half a step by the sheer atmospheric pressure of the squall.
Atop the high platform, Zhou Zhending threw his head back and laughed maniacally:
“Hahaha! Die! Be crushed into the ocean abyss and rot into putrid pus! No matter what supreme prodigy you think you are, in the eyes of my Nether Church, you are nothing but walking meat!”
Yet in that razor-thin instant between life and death...
Lin Feng slowly raised his head.
His eyes locked onto the colossal toxic wave crashing down with apocalyptic force. Within those bottomless pupils, there was no panic, no trace of terror—only an incinerating, boundless killing intent that threatened to set the heavens ablaze!
“An Intermediate Mage?” Lin Feng murmured softly, the corners of his lips curling into an icy sneer that could freeze bone marrow. “Did you truly believe... you were the only Intermediate Mage under the sky?”
HUMMM——!!
Against Lin Feng’s chest, the Primordial Dragon Pendant violently resonated! A supreme primordial draconic pressure erupted, encasing his body in an inviolable divine aura!
Within Lin Feng’s boundless sea of consciousness:
Forty-nine crimson Fire Star Cores blazed simultaneously like miniature stars!
Under Lin Feng’s monstrous spiritual focus, they did not waver. They snapped into alignment at a speed impossible for the naked eye to track!
One Star Path! Two Star Paths! Five... Seven Star Paths!
Seven blazing scarlet paths interwove, coalescing into a magnificent, sovereign Fire Star Map—ten times more brilliant, pure, and terrifying than Zhou Zhending’s Water Star Map!
The Fire mana that Lin Feng had tempered and suppressed within his body for so long detonated without reservation!
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM——!!
A pillar of roaring crimson flame towering twenty meters high erupted beneath Lin Feng’s feet, tearing through the murky night of Huanglu Island! The frigid, damp air surrounding the reef was flash-boiled by temperatures exceeding thousands of degrees in an instant, thick steam hissing into the sky!
Lin Feng’s eyes burned with crimson infernos. His right fist clenched tight, the Scarlet Flames coalescing into the savage, ferocious head of an ancient dragon, every fanged jaw and blazing scale etched with living clarity!
“Intermediate Fire Magic——”
Lin Feng took a thunderous step forward, the granite reef beneath his boot shattering into a hundred fragments! He drove his blazing fist forward with everything he had, roaring like rolling thunder:
“FIERY BURST: RAGING DRAGON BURST: SKY SHATTER!!”
ROOOOOAAAAR——!!
A primordial dragon’s roar tore the vault of heaven asunder!
A colossal fire dragon over twenty meters long, forged entirely from concentrated, violent flame, blasted forth from Lin Feng’s fist with an earth-shattering roar!
Carrying the apocalyptic heat of Intermediate flame, the dragon collided head-on with Zhou Zhending’s toxic tidal wave!
SIZZLE... CRASH... KABOOM!!
The instant the two Intermediate spells collided, a world-shattering spectacle unfolded!
There was no deadlock! No struggle!
Beneath the thousand-degree incinerating heat of the Raging Dragon, thousands of tons of toxic black-green ocean water were vaporized into nothingness before they could even brush against Lin Feng! The surging poison waves flashed into screaming columns of white steam that blasted into the night sky!
The blazing dragon maw devoured the acid tide whole, ripped straight through the veil of scalding steam, and roared onward toward the platform where Zhou Zhending stood!
“What?! Inter... Intermediate Fire?!”
Seeing the colossal fire dragon hurtling toward him, Zhou Zhending’s soul nearly fled his body, the blood in his veins turning to ice!
How was this possible?! This brat had just used Shadow and Lightning—how could he possibly cast an Intermediate Fire spell of such flawless perfection?!
Three elements?! His Fire element had reached the Intermediate Tier?!
“Impossible!! Tortoise Shield, block it for me!!”
In sheer hysterics, Zhou Zhending screamed until his vocal cords tore. He frantically crushed the enchanted ring on his finger, triggering his ultimate lifesaving defensive artifact!
A massive, ash-gray shield modeled after a primordial tortoise shell materialized before his chest, radiating heavy, solid Earth element runes. This was the Tortoise Shield—a defensive magical equipment that had once successfully withstood the full-force strike of a Tier-2 Intermediate Mage!
Yet before Lin Feng’s Raging Dragon, all defense was a pathetic joke!
CRACK——BOOOOOOOM!!
The fist of the fire dragon slammed dead center into the Tortoise Shield!
In the span of a single breath, glowing crimson cracks webbed across the shield’s surface like molten lava. An instant later, the priceless defensive artifact exploded into molten metal shrapnel, scattering in all directions!
The unstoppable fury of the Raging Dragon did not diminish in the slightest. Obliterating the shield, it drove clean into Zhou Zhending’s chest!
“AAAAAAAGGGHHH——!!”
A soul-rending shriek of agony echoed across the reef.
Raging flames engulfed Zhou Zhending’s upper torso. Flesh, his right arm, and half of his face were charred to blackened charcoal. The titanic kinetic force hurled his body backward over thirty meters, slamming violently into the stone pillars of the Blood Sacrifice Altar!
CRASH!!
The altar’s stone pillars groaned and shattered, massive fractures tearing across the structure. Zhou Zhending collapsed into a pool of gore, his scorched body spasming uncontrollably as acrid black smoke billowed from his charred, oozing wounds.
One strike!
With a single, all-out Intermediate Fire spell, Lin Feng had shattered his magic, obliterated his magical artifact, and utterly crippled a notorious Blue Deacon!
The smoke slowly thinned.
Slow, deliberate footsteps sounded against the jagged rock.
Lin Feng walked toward the altar, step by step. His combat fatigues rustled in the night wind, his right fist still carrying residual crimson embers and dancing arcs of violet-black lightning. Behind him, the Abyssal Thunder Wolf paced forward, its crimson eyes fixed upon the ruined foe.
Zhou Zhending lay gasping in the pool of rancid blood. His single intact eye bulged, staring at the approaching youth as if beholding an emissary of death risen from the underworld.
The excruciating agony wracking his body could not compare to the sheer horror screaming in his soul.
Violent violet-black lightning... the terrifying Intermediate power of Thunderbolt: Cleave that had executed cultists and beasts alike...
Raging Intermediate fire... Raging Dragon Burst: Sky Shatter...
Both apex elements possessed by a single boy!
A terrifying memory from six months ago on the border battlefield of Bo’an City flashed through Zhou Zhending’s mind like lightning splitting the night. A confidential report sent to the Nether Church’s supreme conclave after the catastrophic disaster at Thunder Ridge... An unknown youth had unleashed Intermediate Dual Elements—shattering a Warrior-class beast with lightning and fire, and completely dismantling the city-wide annihilation orchestrated by Blue Deacon Nether Wolf!
“You... You...” Zhou Zhending shuddered, choking up mouthfuls of viscous black blood, his voice trembling with abyssal despair: “Intermediate Dual Elements... You... You’re that monster... who ruined the Church’s grand plan in Bo’an City?!”
Lin Feng stopped before the dying Blue Deacon.
Looking down at the wretch, there was no pity, no hesitation in his eyes—only cold, merciless judgment etched into his very marrow.
“You guessed right.”
Lin Feng raised his boot, planting it firmly onto Zhou Zhending’s chest, his voice low and deliberate:
“Die, and let Bo’an City rest in peace.”
CRACK!
Zhou Zhending’s sternum caved in. The light faded from his staring eye, his breath cutting off completely!
The moment the Blue Deacon drew his final breath, the Primordial Dragon Pendant against Lin Feng’s chest suddenly blazed with blinding dark brilliance!
The ethereal silhouette of an ancient Black Dragon, invisible to ordinary mortals, coiled out from Lin Feng’s chest, opening its colossal maw to generate a terrifying spiritual vortex!
WHOOOOSH——!!
The deep navy Remnant Soul, laden with boundless malice, along with every residual memory of Blue Deacon Zhou Zhending, was devoured whole into the pendant—leaving not a single fragment of soul behind!
Simultaneously, the mana powering the Blood Sacrifice Altar severed completely.
The concussive aftershocks of the Raging Dragon Strike, coupled with the destruction of the array eye, caused the altar of beast skulls to violently convulse!
RUMBLE... CRASH!! CRASH!!
Stone pillars shattered into tens of thousands of fragments, tumbling down into the churning abyss below! The blood formation was broken, and the flow of Blood Frenzy Demonic Liquid into the ocean was permanently severed!
Yet just as Lin Feng exhaled and began to retract his mana...
BOOM... BOOM... BOOM...
From a fathomless oceanic trench not far from the reef, a terrifying subterranean shockwave suddenly pulsed upward through the water!
A pair of colossal eyes, resembling two titanic blood moons, abruptly snapped open in the abyssal depths, glaring straight up at Lin Feng’s silhouette upon the reef!
The Commander-class leviathan of the ocean abyss... had been awakened!