Volume 2: Shenzhou Academy & The Battle of Venice
Chapter 161
Assembly of the Ten Prodigies
Dawn over the Magic Capital was draped in a milky, opaque haze laced with the salty brine drifting inland from Whale Sea Bay. Yet atop the central hill of Shenzhou Archmage Academy, that early-morning mist was torn to shreds by nine solemn reverberations of an ancient bronze bell.
DONG... DONG... DONG...
The bell’s sonorous tones carried immense acoustic weight, echoing directly into the minds of tens of thousands of disciples and rattling the century-old pine groves girdling the grand plaza. This was the Bell of Divine Revelation—a sacred resonance that rang out only during the academy’s most momentous convocations, or on the rare dawn when the Shenzhou Pocket Realm swung wide its gates.
Inside a modest apartment nestled beside the nursery of the Herbology Institute, Lin Feng opened his eyes after a full night of circulating his mana. The four Nebulas churning within his sea of consciousness—crimson Fire, vivid violet Lightning, sapphire Summoning, and pitch-black Shadow—bore not the slightest attrition from his fierce duel against Ye Chengfeng yesterday. Rather, honed through the crucible of life and death, every single magical star had condensed further, blazing with a sharper, more incandescent luster than ever before.
Beep... Beep...
The Student Magic Badge resting on the work desk suddenly vibrated, projecting a shimmering beam of golden light that coalesced into a floating message midair:
【 Urgent Summon: The Ten Great Prodigies of the Battle Ranking are to assemble immediately at the North Gate of the Gravity Tower before the Hour of the Dragon. Failure to arrive by the appointed time shall result in the permanent forfeiture of all privileges to enter the Shenzhou Pocket Realm! 】
Lin Feng rose to his feet, casually brushing away the faint specks of dust from the hem of his black jacket. He adjusted the chain concealing the Primordial Dragon Jade Pendant beneath his shirt. His gaze was composed yet as fathomless as an abyssal cold pool as he stepped out the door.
The North Gate precinct of the Gravity Tower had always been a top-secret restricted zone of Shenzhou Archmage Academy. This morning, its atmosphere hung even heavier with lethal solemnity. Flanking the paved pathway leading to the tower’s portal stood two rigid lines of law enforcement officers clad in heavy, black-iron enchanted plate, their gauntleted hands resting upon massive thunder-crackling battleaxes.
Lin Feng presented his Student Magic Badge, passed through three successive layers of runic security barriers, and entered an ancient crystal-shaft elevator cage.
Screeech... CLANG!
The massive meteorite-alloy door slid shut with a deafening thud, severing all sound from the outside world. The cabin shuddered violently once before hurtling downward in a sheer vertical plummet at wind-tearing velocity.
The sudden freefall sent a sharp jolt through his gut. Gales screeched past the track grooves in ear-piercing howls. One thousand zhang... two thousand zhang... then three thousand zhang! The deeper it descended, the steeper the ambient temperature plummeted. The gloomy chill amassed over thousands of years within the submarine granite seeped through the thick alloy plating, buffeting against his face.
Precisely three minutes later, the elevator decelerated and ground to a halt three thousand zhang beneath the foundations of the Magic Capital.
The doors parted.
Unfolding before Lin Feng’s eyes was a subterranean cavern of monstrous proportions, carved directly into the seabed bedrock. Eighty-one sky-propping pillars of black obsidian, densely etched with archaic runic arrays, radiated a diffuse, spectral white luminescence that bathed the subterranean expanse.
At the center of the vast plaza stood a colossal gray stone archway rising over thirty zhang into the vaulted gloom. It possessed no physical gate leaves; rather, within the core of the archway churned a massive vortex of primordial chaos, revolving in a slow, hypnotic churn. Ripples of spatial mana erupted intermittently beyond the stone perimeter, warping the surrounding atmosphere and tearing open hairline voids of pitch-black emptiness that snapped shut just as swiftly.
This was the Eternal Spatial Gate—the singular nexus binding the mortal realm to the Shenzhou Pocket Realm!
Standing squarely before the gate was Dean Xiao Yan, robed in crimson silk embroidered with sun and moon motifs. His hands were clasped behind his back, his presence exuding the crushing, latent cataclysm of a slumbering volcano. Flanking behind him were five vice deans and twelve grand arch-mentors of the Council of Deans, each radiating unfathomable, oppressive auras.
Roughly ten paces before the council, a row of nine elite disciples had already assembled. When Lin Feng strode forward and took his position at the end of the line, the Ten Great Prodigies of Shenzhou Archmage Academy were officially complete!
Lin Feng subtly swept his gaze over his peers.
At the far right of the formation, standing in haughty isolation, was the indisputable Rank 1 of the Battle Ranking—Ye Lingtian. This legendary monster wore an unadorned ash-gray mantle, his hood drawn low to conceal half his face, leaving visible only a chiseled jawline and thin, tightly pressed lips. Around Ye Lingtian’s silhouette, space itself rippled and folded like water disturbed by an unseen pebble. Occasionally, a spark of deep amethyst lightning would flicker across his fingertips, only to vanish soundlessly into the void. The aura of this dual Spatial and Lightning wielder was so unfathomably profound that even Lin Feng’s razor-sharp spiritual perception could not fathom its depths.
Three paces away from Ye Lingtian stood Rank 2—Han Yue, renowned throughout the empire as the Celestial Demon Frost Empress. She was draped in a pristine snow-white gown embroidered with delicate pale-azure snowflakes. The hem of her skirt drifted faintly with each breath, despite the utter absence of wind within the subterranean vault. Cascades of raven hair framed skin as translucent and immaculate as white jade. Her countenance was peerlessly exquisite yet bone-chillingly frigid. Those crystalline, glazed-jade eyes remained fixed upon the spatial vortex, deigning to grant not a single glance to anyone around her. Beneath the soles of her embroidered slippers, delicate frost flowers continuously bloomed atop the black obsidian floor before shattering into mist.
From Rank 3 to Rank 8—excluding Lin Feng—stood seasoned third- and fourth-year seniors, tempered through countless battles and carrying a heavy, battle-hardened air. Yet the figure commanding Lin Feng’s sharpest scrutiny was the man occupying Rank 5: Zhao Tianlei!
The fourth-year’s foremost Lightning specialist stood nearly two meters tall, boasting a hulking, muscular frame clad in pitch-black beast-hide armor bordered with mana-conductive alloy. His coarse hair spiked upright like steel needles, crowning a rugged, feral face. Most striking were the deep, bruised rings encircling his eye sockets, crackling ceaselessly with volatile azure lightning like two storm fonts primed to unleash apocalyptic devastation.
The instant he registered Lin Feng’s footsteps, Zhao Tianlei whipped his head around. His thunder-swirling eyes locked onto Lin Feng, radiating untamed savagery and thick, undisguised murderous intent.
To the Zhao Clan of the Magic Capital, the past few days had been an unmitigated nightmare of humiliation. Zhao Jingshan’s botched scheme—hiring Black Blood assassins to eliminate Lin Feng, only to be caught red-handed with undeniable physical evidence by the Law Enforcement Court at the Whale Sea Auction House and subsequently thrown into the Demon Prison Tower—had dealt a catastrophic blow to their clan’s prestige. Stripped of his student status, Zhao Jingshan now faced an impending decree of exile from the Judgment Court. Up in the imperial capital, the main lineage of the Zhao Clan had erupted in furious outrage, firing off blistering reprimands to the Magic Capital branch.
And the sole architect of this entire domino collapse was the first-year freshman standing right before him!
”Freshman... your guts are truly not small.”
A voice compressed by dense Lightning mana shot directly into Lin Feng’s ears, scraping with the grating screech of metal gouging across stone. Zhao Tianlei was utilizing the Secret Sound Transmission technique to deliver his venomous warning:
”Do not delude yourself into thinking that defeating Ye Chengfeng and claiming Rank 9 grants you the privilege to swagger before my Zhao Clan. Your little circus at the Whale Sea Auction House ruined my brother Jingshan’s reputation and destroyed his future. This blood debt... my clan will collect it back in full, with interest compounded tenfold!”
Lin Feng tilted his head slightly, impassively meeting Zhao Tianlei’s vicious glare. The corners of his lips curled into a faint, mocking smirk as he casually circulated his mana to transmit his reply:
”Ruined his reputation? You have it backward. That useless waste brought ruin upon himself—pathetically incompetent yet arrogant enough to play filthy parlor tricks. Brooding in the Demon Prison Tower to repent for his sins is far too lenient a price for daring to lay a finger on me.”
”You seek death?!” Zhao Tianlei’s teeth ground together audibly, wild arcs of emerald-blue thunder flaring within his pupils. His armored gauntlet clenched into a fist, knuckles popping like exploding firecrackers.
”Do you believe this place is still an arena ring where referees can shield your worthless hide? The Shenzhou Pocket Realm is boundless and teeming with perils! A haughty freshman dying inside is nothing more than a grain of sand sinking to the ocean floor! You had better pray to whatever gods you worship that the teleportation does not drop you anywhere near my sector. Otherwise, I will snap every single bone in your body one by one and drain your magical sea dry to consecrate the honor of the Zhao Clan!”
Faced with this blood-drenched threat, Lin Feng did not bat an eyelash. His gaze remained glacial, piercing directly into Zhao Tianlei’s sea of consciousness like a razor-honed dagger:
”If you intend to collect that debt, you had best prepare your own coffin first. Zhao Jingshan barked with the exact same arrogance before he was crippled. If you are so eager to reunite with him in that dungeon, I have no objection to sending you on your way ahead of schedule!”
”You—!”
Zhao Tianlei’s blood boiled to the bursting point, his massive chest heaving violently. A berserk wave of Lightning mana erupted around his frame, crackling arcs of azure plasma violently lashing against the obsidian floor with loud snaps, his legs tensing to march over and physically crush Lin Feng where he stood.
RIGHT AT THAT MOMENT!
”Hmph!”
A faint, thunderous snort descended out of thin air!
The sound was subtle, yet it carried the crushing weight of ten million tons of bedrock slamming squarely onto Zhao Tianlei’s shoulders. The feral Lightning mana raging around his body was squashed flat in an instant, disintegrating into flickering motes of light before sputtering out entirely. Zhao Tianlei let out a muffled groan, staggering half a pace backward as his face drained of color, his chest seizing under suffocating pressure.
Dean Xiao Yan slowly retracted the casual glance he had cast toward the ranks. The aged gaze of the Shenzhou Archmage Academy’s supreme titan was as deep as an abyssal chasm, slowly sweeping across the ten prodigies standing before him. The Void Hall plummeted into absolute, pin-drop silence. Even an arrogant madman like Zhao Tianlei was forced to bury his head low, cold sweat trickling down the back of his neck, not daring to breathe another syllable of defiance.
Xiao Yan spoke, his deep, resonant timbre echoing throughout the subterranean cavern:
“I summon the ten of you here today for a reason that needs no introduction.”
He pointed a finger toward the churning Eternal Spatial Gate behind him:
“The Shenzhou Pocket Realm is a drifting continental fragment from the primordial era. Swallowed into a secondary spatial rift eons ago, it was discovered and sealed by our predecessors three centuries past. Only once in every ten-year cycle do the spatial laws within stabilize for a brief, fleeting window.”
“Within the pocket realm, the density of elemental mana is ten times greater than in the outside world. When mages cultivate inside, their Nebulas and star patterns receive profound cleansing and sublimity at an astonishing pace. Furthermore, across this ancient expanse lie countless deposits of the purest top-grade magic crystals, extinct thousand-year herbs, and mythological architectural ruins preserving ancient magic legacies from the dawn of time.”
Hearing this, an intense fire of yearning ignited within the eyes of the upperclassmen. A fortune of this scale appeared but once a decade. Anyone capable of seizing it stood a genuine chance of shattering their cultivation bottlenecks, perhaps even brushing against the legendary threshold of the Super-tier!
Xiao Yan paused for a beat, his expression turning extraordinarily solemn:
“However, immense fortune is forever twinned with mortal peril. The Shenzhou Pocket Realm has never been truly tamed. Vicious primordial demon beasts still roam its wilds, alongside natural spatial rifts capable of swallowing an archmage whole in the blink of an eye.”
“There are three ironclad rules governing your entry into the Shenzhou Pocket Realm. You must carve them into your very bones:”
“First: The realm remains open for precisely seven days—one hundred and sixty-eight hours. The moment that duration expires, the spatial vortex will invert and seal itself entirely. Anyone who fails to return to the designated boundary coordinates will be trapped inside for the next ten years. In that primordial wild, remaining behind is virtually certain death!”
“Second: Each of you shall be issued a Shenzhou Protective Jade Talisman. Should you find yourself trapped in a lethal predicament where death is imminent, crush the jade talisman. The spatial tether array will forcefully extract you back to this chamber. But remember: the moment you shatter that jade, your qualification to cultivate within the realm is irrevocably terminated!”
“Third: The academy respects the natural law of survival and competition. Within the pocket realm, resources and fortunes belong to the strong; the academy will not intervene in clashes or treasure disputes between students. However, IT IS STRICTLY FORBIDDEN to intentionally slaughter your fellow disciples or cripple another’s sea of consciousness! Anyone who violates this edict will be sentenced by the Law Enforcement Court to the total destruction of their magic cultivation and permanent exile from Shenzhou!”
Xiao Yan’s piercing gaze lingered on Zhao Tianlei for a fraction of a second. The fourth-year Lightning champion shuddered inwardly, hurriedly tightening his fists and bowing his head in submission.
“Lastly,” Xiao Yan waved his sleeve, “this Eternal Spatial Gate is bound to a Seven-Color Chaotic Flow Array. The moment you cross the threshold, the spatial currents will scatter each of you to random coordinates across the pocket realm. Whether you plunge into a land of hidden treasures or the nesting den of an apex demon beast will depend entirely upon your fortune and your instincts for survival!”
With those final words, Dean Xiao Yan and the five vice deans simultaneously wove intricate hand seals!
HUMMMMMM!
The subterranean earth trembled violently. The eighty-one obsidian pillars blazed with incandescent radiance as tens of thousands of top-grade magic stones detonated in unison, liquefying into torrents of pure, unadulterated mana that surged along the engraved channels on the floor, pouring madly into the spatial portal.
BOOM!
The veil of primordial chaos churning at the center of the archway shattered! A magnificent, blinding vortex of prismatic, seven-colored radiance exploded into motion, spinning at a speed that tore the fabric of space itself. A tempestuous storm of magical energy whipped the robes of everyone present. The deafening roar of spatial turbulence thundered like the awakening cries of ten thousand ancient dragons!
“The Hour of the Dragon has arrived! The gates of the pocket realm are open! Disciples, enter!” Xiao Yan’s commanding shout cut cleanly through the howling gale.
SWOOSH!
The first to move was Ye Lingtian. His ash-gray figure blurred into an ethereal phantom, materializing before the center of the prismatic vortex in a fraction of a heartbeat. Without the slightest hesitation, he took a single stride into the void. His entire silhouette was instantly swallowed by the seven-colored radiance, vanishing without creating so much as a ripple.
Next came Han Yue. Lightly rising on lotus toes, her graceful form soared like a ribbon of glacial silk into the air, leaving behind a glittering trail of frost mist as she sank into the magical vortex.
“Hmph! Freshman, remember my words!” Zhao Tianlei shot Lin Feng one last venomous glare. With a guttural roar, pillars of violent azure lightning erupted across his frame, transforming him into a bolt of thunder that blasted directly into the heart of the gate!
One after another, the prodigies plunged into the vortex.
Then came Lin Feng’s turn.
Gripping the cool surface of the Shenzhou Protective Jade Talisman, he drew in a deep breath to steady his mind. His dark pupils peered deep into the howling prismatic abyss churning ahead. In the depths of his eyes burned an insatiable hunger for supreme power and new heights!
Shhhk!
Beneath Lin Feng’s boots, spectral shadows surged. His Shadow Shift ignited, transforming his entire body into a streak of pure jet-black afterimage that plunged decisively into the blinding seven-colored tempest!
KABOOM!
A violent sensation of heaven and earth turning upside down crashed over him. All five of Lin Feng’s senses shuddered violently within the tempest of spatial turbulence. Invisible, crushing pressure bore down from every direction, squeezing against his body until his skeletal frame groaned with popping creaks.
Clenching his teeth, Lin Feng mobilized every shred of his Shadow and Fire mana to protect his internal organs, maintaining razor-sharp lucidity amidst the nauseating, disorienting vertigo.
After what felt like ten agonizingly drawn-out breaths, the floating sensation finally snapped.
THUD!
Lin Feng’s boots struck solid ground. He instantly dropped into a low crouch, lowering his center of gravity while his right palm ignited with a blazing Fireball. His razor-sharp gaze swept rapidly across his surroundings, primed for any ambush.
No assassins. No surprise attacks from demonic beasts.
Surrounding him was an eerie, suffocating expanse of desolation. Frigid wind wailed through jagged rock crevices, carrying the parched scent of millennia-weathered dust and ancient moss straight into his nostrils. Lin Feng straightened slowly, taking in the full breadth of the terrain.
He had materialized inside a colossal gray stone valley that stretched endlessly toward a hazy horizon. The ground beneath his feet was carpeted in razor-sharp, ash-gray gravel like scattered blades. Strung across the valley floor were barren gray monoliths thrusting into the gloomy sky—and most astonishing of all, countless fossilized skeletons of gargantuan primordial beasts!
Some ribcages were so vast they resembled two-story stone manors. Massive bleached skulls, tens of meters in length, lay half-buried beneath crumbling gravel. The entire expanse exuded the desolate, tragic majesty of an ancient battlefield forgotten by time for tens of thousands of years.
Lin Feng drew in a slow breath. Just as Dean Xiao Yan had described, the elemental mana density here was staggering!
Pure streams of elemental essence seeped through his pores like cool mountain brooks, causing the four Nebulas within his sea of consciousness to thrum in ecstatic resonance. The circulation speed of his magical energy was several times faster than in the outside world.
Yet what truly arrested Lin Feng’s breath was not the astonishing mana density.
Rather, it was an alien presence lurking within the desolate winds sweeping across the gray valley!
An ancient, boundless, and suffocatingly majestic fluctuation of draconic aura!
This aura was fundamentally different from any pseudo-dragon or sub-dragon Lin Feng had encountered in the mortal world. It possessed the absolute purity, sovereign tyranny, and primordial antiquity of a True Dragon from the dawn of creation—like an ancient god casting its gaze down upon the mortal dust!
BOOM!
Just as Lin Feng focused his senses to probe that enigmatic draconic signature, the Primordial Dragon Jade Pendant resting against his chest suddenly violently throbbed!
A searing, terrifying heat erupted from the ancient jade. It burned like a white-hot ember pressed directly against his flesh, scorching Lin Feng’s chest with blistering intensity!
ROOOOOOAAAR————!!
A deep, sonorous draconic roar erupted from the deepest core of the Primordial Dragon Jade Pendant!
That roar did not travel through the air. Instead, it detonated directly within Lin Feng’s soul and sea of consciousness!
It was the tragic, magnificent hymn of a primordial sovereign, carrying boundless sorrow and sky-scorching battle will that tore through the mists of time itself! That draconic resonance sent every drop of blood in Lin Feng’s veins boiling in wild delirium. Within his sea of consciousness, his Summoning and Lightning Nebulas resonated uncontrollably, their magical stars spinning frantically as though on the verge of erupting!
SWOOSH!
From the collar of Lin Feng’s jacket, the Primordial Dragon Jade Pendant unleashed a blinding beam of imperial golden light, shooting straight toward the north!
The golden beam sliced through the thick gray mist blanketing the valley, forging an unwavering path of light that guided Lin Feng’s gaze directly toward a towering range of black marble peaks looming in the distance.
Those black marble ridges rose from the heart of the pocket realm like the colossal spine of a slumbering black dragon.
And perched at the absolute zenith of that black ridge, piercing through layers of millennia-old mist, Lin Feng caught sight of the faint, colossal silhouette of an ancient megalithic structure as massive as a hill.
A buried Ancient Altar!
Surrounding the perimeter of the altar stood dozens of shattered runic pillars, radiating an aura of chilling antiquity and arcane mystery. Meanwhile, the dragon roar within the Primordial Dragon Jade Pendant pulsed with frantic urgency, practically screaming with visceral yearning for him to approach!
The corners of Lin Feng’s mouth curved upward into a sharp smirk, his fingers curling into tight fists.
Within that forgotten primordial altar... what earth-shattering secret of the ancient dragon race was buried away?
Without the slightest hesitation, the youth’s black-clad figure kicked off the ground, shattering the razor gravel beneath his boots as he rocketed toward the black marble peaks!