Volume 2: Shenzhou Academy & The Battle of Venice
Chapter 163
Duel with Rank 5: Lightning and Flame Showdown
The ancient stone gates of the Shenzhou Pocket Realm, sealed for a millennium, groaned with a heavy, grinding creak as they slowly swung shut, severing the thick, primeval aura that churned behind them.
The sprawling Shenzhou Plaza, paved in lustrous pitch-black granite, opened before the eyes of the ten elite freshmen. A brine-laden ocean gale sweeping in from Whale Sea Bay whipped through soaring pillars carved with totems of demonic beasts, dispelling some of the damp, mossy stench clinging to the garments of those who had just endured a life-and-death crucible beneath the subterranean depths of the Magic Capital.
Yet the open air outside offered not the slightest sense of relief. On the contrary, the atmosphere grew thick with the suffocating stench of gunpowder the instant their boots set foot upon the plaza’s flagstones.
A towering figure draped in a gold-trimmed cloak embroidered with thunderbolt motifs stood like an immovable monument in the middle of the lone thoroughfare, obstructing the path back toward the Top Ten Dormitories. Arms folded across his chest and chin tilted arrogantly high, his narrow, triangular eyes bored relentlessly into the youth in the black coat walking amidst the group.
Zhao Tianlei.
The powerhouse who had reigned undisputed at Rank 5 on the Shenzhou Academy Battle Ranking stone tablet for two consecutive years, the foremost prodigy of the illustrious Zhao Clan from the imperial capital.
From the moment they had stepped into the Shenzhou Pocket Realm, Zhao Tianlei had shadowed Lin Feng like an inescapable wraith. His intended prize had always been the central sanctuary—the legendary resting place of the Ancient Dragon God Altar. Yet the one who had successfully breached the altar and emerged draped in resonant draconic chants and surging primordial energy was not him, but this newly crowned freshman who had just clawed his way into Rank 9!
Catching sight of the faint, golden wisps of mana still lingering along Lin Feng’s muscles and collar, the veins along Zhao Tianlei’s temples throbbed violently. Unbridled fury and insatiable greed flared simultaneously in the depths of his eyes.
“Lin Feng, halt right there.”
Zhao Tianlei’s voice was gravelly and dense with mana, rolling out to echo across the four corners of the plaza.
“Hand over the Dragon Blood Stone and the secret art you scavenged inside the Dragon God Altar. The fortuitous encounters within an ancient pocket realm are communal academy resources—a backwater trash hailing from a gutter border town has no right to hoard them. If you know what’s good for you, surrender them into the safekeeping of the Zhao Clan, and I might just consider letting you enjoy your hollow Rank 9 title in peace. Otherwise...”
Zhao Tianlei sneered viciously. His right hand dropped slowly, azure sparks crackling and dancing along the knuckles of his fingers.
“...not a single soul leaves this plaza in one piece today.”
All around them, the students who had just exited the realm scrambled backward to establish a safe perimeter.
Leaning against a stone column, Ye Chengfeng’s lips twitched slightly. Having just tasted a humiliating defeat at Lin Feng’s hands in the prior duel, he remained silent, his gaze fixed intently upon his former opponent’s back. Beside him, Gu Xiaowei gripped her magic staff tightly, her cheeks flushed crimson with indignation.
“Zhao Tianlei! Have you no shame whatsoever?! The Pocket Realm was unlocked for the Top Ten to seek out their own fortunes—whatever one finds belongs to them by right of capability! You’re a senior holding Rank 5, yet you dare openly plunder a freshman’s spoils?!”
“Shut your mouth, Gu girl!” Zhao Tianlei barked, shooting her a murderous glare. “In Shenzhou Academy, iron fists dictate the rules! The weak harboring extraordinary treasures is a cardinal sin! Even if the Dean were standing right here today, I hold the right of compulsory challenge to reclaim these resources!”
Zhao Tianlei’s bellow immediately drew hundreds of upperclassmen training nearby to gather around the plaza. Murmurs and hushed chatter erupted like an agitated beehive. Everyone knew Zhao Tianlei’s overbearing, tyrannical temperament. Backed by the towering prestige of the capital’s Zhao Clan and armed with the violent, all-annihilating might of his Lightning element, virtually no one had ever dared cross him to his face.
Yet, confronting that suffocating aura and blatant extortion, the youth in black remained motionless.
The sea wind ruffled the frayed hem of Lin Feng’s combat jacket. He casually brushed a speck of stone dust from the back of his hand, the corners of his mouth curving into a cold, derisive smirk.
Raising his eyes, he stared straight into the insolent face of Rank 5.
“You want to rob me? Step forward and prove you have what it takes.”
Ten words, sharp and frigid as a blade drawn from a sheath of ice, sliced directly into the eardrums of every onlooker present.
The crowd fell dead silent.
Not a single plea. Not an ounce of hesitation. The freshman had severed every retreat the moment he spoke, openly declaring war against Shenzhou’s notorious Lightning fiend!
Zhao Tianlei’s expression stiffened for a fraction of a second before twisting into a hideous grimace of sheer humiliation and incandescent rage. As the exalted scion of the Zhao Clan and the inviolable Rank 5 on the Battle Ranking, when had he ever suffered such unvarnished contempt from a greenhorn newcomer?
“Good! Splendid! A pathetic ant from Bian’an Town manages to crawl into Rank 9 and suddenly fancies himself an equal to the capital’s proudest prodigies!”
Zhao Tianlei roared, a deafening thunderclap erupting from his lungs. Tearing off his ornate cloak, he hurled it to the ground, revealing sleek, silver-gray runic combat armor stretched tight over corded slabs of muscle.
Clang!
A heavy metallic ring shattered the silence. In Zhao Tianlei’s palm, a brilliant azure radiance surged, coalescing into a menacing, black-bronze warhammer nearly a meter and a half long. Its massive octagonal head was densely etched with archaic lightning runes. Thumb-thick tendrils of emerald-azure lightning snaked violently around the haft, emitting terrifying, ear-splitting crackles.
“The Thunder God Hammer! It’s the Zhao Clan’s top-tier Intermediate offensive magic artifact!” an upperclassman at the edge of the plaza blurted out in horror.
“Not just the artifact! Look at that lightning... dense and translucent as polished jade! That’s Zhao Tianlei’s famed, peak-grade Spirit Seed—Jade Azure Divine Lightning!”
“It amplifies lightning potency by 2.4 times! Combined with its innate defense-rending trait... Zhao Tianlei is aiming to cripple Lin Feng in a single strike!”
The atmosphere above the plaza was instantly ignited by wild static electricity. Even onlookers standing dozens of meters away felt their hairs stand on end, goosebumps erupting under the suffocating pressure of raw Lightning elemental mana.
Zhao Tianlei stamped his boot violently against the ground. The reinforced granite flagstones beneath him shattered into a spiderweb of jagged fractures, spraying gravel everywhere. He hoisted the Thunder God Hammer high overhead, the entire reservoir of Lightning mana in his body bursting forth like a collapsed dam, surging directly into the runic engravings along the weapon’s haft.
“Kneel before me!”
Zhao Tianlei shrieked in manic fury. His arm coiled like a spring before bringing the Thunder God Hammer crashing down through the empty air!
“Thunderbolt—YAKSHA!”
BOOOOM!
The clear sky above the plaza darkened in an instant. A deafening clap of thunder ripped down from an illusory storm cloud, striking the hammer’s head before fracturing into nine thick, serpentine bolts of emerald-azure lightning, writhing violently like nine demonic Yakshas brandishing talons of pure destruction!
The nine arcs of Jade Azure Divine Lightning carved nine deep, scorched furrows across the plaza floor. Smoke billowed from pulverized rock, a wave of scorching heat and pungent ozone sweeping across the entire plaza. There was not a shred of mercy in this assault—the nine arcs converged into a colossal lightning drill, hurtling straight toward Lin Feng’s chest!
The speed of lightning far exceeded normal human reflexes. For an ordinary Intermediate Mage, the time between witnessing the blinding flash and having one’s body reduced to charred cinder was less than a tenth of a second!
“Lin Feng, watch out!” Ye Qingwan cried out involuntarily from the distance, her slender hand instinctively reaching forward as Ice mana surged to coalesce.
Yet she was too late to intervene. The azure lightning drill was already bearing down upon Lin Feng, the distance closing to a mere fifty meters!
Fifty meters—the boundary between life and death!
Yet, the very instant the vicious azure lightning drill pierced the fifty-meter perimeter encircling the youth, an extraordinary phenomenon abruptly manifested.
Wuuuung...
No blinding flash erupted; no intricate magic circle was traced.
From deep within Lin Feng’s chest, where the Primordial Dragon Pendant pressed flush against his skin, an invisible ripple—resembling concentric ripples across still water—silently radiated outward in all directions.
It was an undulation carrying the desolate breath of primeval antiquity, solemn, ancient, and overwhelmingly majestic.
ROOOAAAR!
A deep, resonant draconic roar, echoing as if from an abyss ten thousand fathoms underground, suddenly reverberated within the consciousness of every soul present!
That roar bypassed physical eardrums entirely, striking straight into the depths of every mage’s soul and Star Sea. A tyrannical, primordial pressure descended like an invisible Mount Tai, crushing down upon every inch of flesh and constricting the mana circulation of Zhao Tianlei!
Dragon Might Domain!
The supreme passive capability Lin Feng had just awakened from the Ancient Dragon God Altar within the Shenzhou Pocket Realm!
Within a fifty-meter radius, all magic cast by enemies of the same tier suffered an absolute suppression of twenty percent!
Sssss...
The earth-shattering howl of the nine Jade Azure Divine Lightning bolts abruptly choked, as though a rabid beast charging headlong had been snared by a colossal iron collar.
Under the suffocating suppression of the Dragon Might Domain, the vibrant brilliance of the nine azure lightning arcs visibly dulled, their luminous girth shrinking by nearly an entire ring. Not only was their destructive payload throttled by a full fifth, but even the piercing, wind-shearing velocity of the lightning drill decelerated drastically, exposing every twisting trajectory of the fractured arcs in plain air!
“What... what kind of sorcery is this?!”
Zhao Tianlei’s eyes bulged, breath catching in his throat. He distinctly felt the conduit of mana tethering him to his Thunderbolt spell warp under an invisible force, sending the terrifying potency of his Jade Azure Divine Lightning into a precipitous freefall!
Standing at the epicenter of the Dragon Might Domain, Lin Feng moved.
He did not retreat half a step, nor did he bother activating any costly defensive magic artifacts. Facing the throttled, sluggish lightning drill, Lin Feng merely shifted his torso half an inch to the right, the tip of his boot pivoting lightly against the fractured stone.
Swish!
The nine savage bolts of azure lightning grazed the hem of his black coat by a millimeter, slamming directly into the ground behind him to blast open a crater three meters wide, billowing acrid black smoke.
Not a single strand of Lin Feng’s hair was singed!
The entire plaza turned to stone.
Dodging a Thunderbolt? With the naked eye and unaugmented footwork alone?!
In the world of magic, this was nothing short of an absurd myth! Lightning was universally recognized as the fastest offensive element in existence; once targeted, a mage could only rely on defensive magic artifacts or fortify with defensive spells to withstand it head-on. How could a creature of flesh and blood evade a Thunderbolt at point-blank range?!
“You... how could you possibly...” Zhao Tianlei stumbled back half a pace, his hand gripping the Thunder God Hammer beginning to shake.
Through the drifting haze of smoke and dust, Lin Feng’s figure emerged unhurriedly.
His expression was calm and rippleless, but his fathomless pupils were now dyed in the radiant golden luminescence of an ancient divine beast. He regarded Zhao Tianlei as one would look upon a clown capering across a stage.
“Thunderbolt: Yaksha? A peak-grade Spirit Seed? A 2.4-fold amplification?”
Lin Feng raised both arms with steady deliberation.
His voice remained even, yet every syllable caused the heartbeats of the onlookers to quicken in their chests:
“You truly believe you’re the only one who wields Lightning? Open your eyes and watch closely!”
BOOM!
The instant the words left his lips, a muffled detonation—like a waking volcano—erupted from within the youth’s frame.
Lin Feng’s right hand abruptly burst into flames!
This was no ordinary orange-red flame of Basic Fire magic, but a dazzling, incandescent golden blaze, brilliant as the midday sun! Blossoms of golden flame coiled around his five fingers, radiating a terrifying heat that warped the surrounding air into fractured distortions.
Scarlet Blaze Flowing Flame!
A mutated Fire Spirit Seed possessing cruel adhesive properties and the terrifying ability to incinerate mana!
A rolling wave of golden heat surged forward, washing over Zhao Tianlei’s face. His eyebrows instantly singed into ash, his skin blistering as if he had been shoved directly into a blast furnace.
Yet Zhao Tianlei’s nightmare was only just beginning.
At the exact moment the golden flame erupted on his right hand, Lin Feng’s left hand clenched into a tight fist.
CRACKLE! CRASH!
Bolts of deep purple-black lightning, abyssal as the void of night, suddenly rent the air, writhing frantically across the knuckles and bones of his left arm! This lightning lacked the raucous crackle of Zhao Tianlei’s Jade Azure Divine Lightning, yet it emitted low, rumbling shrieks pregnant with pure annihilation—the rawest, most primordial fury of heavenly tribulation!
On his right: the golden inferno of the Scarlet Blaze Flowing Flame!
On his left: the tyrannical purple-black fury of the Nine Heavens Thunderbolt!
Dual elements! The two most devastating destructive forces in nature manifested simultaneously upon a single mage, condensed in the exact same heartbeat!
“Good heavens... Has he lost his mind?!” Xie Zhaoyuan clutched his head from the periphery, his spectacles nearly sliding off his nose. “Simultaneously channeling two offensive elemental spells?! How can his Spiritual Force withstand the violent conflict between Lightning and Fire?!”
“No! Look closely at his mana!” A supervising professor seated on the elevated pavilion suddenly surged to his feet, his voice trembling with sheer disbelief. “The two mana streams aren’t canceling each other out! They are... they are resonating!”
Under the consummate control of Spiritual Force at the Metamorphic Realm and the harmonizing essence of the Primordial Dragon Pendant, the golden flame and purple-black lightning coursing through Lin Feng’s hands did not collide in discord. On the contrary, as he brought his palms together before his chest, the two destructive powers coiled around one another like twin intertwining celestial dragons!
A colossal Lightning-Flame Colossal Dragon materialized in midair—its scales forged of brilliant golden flame, its talons and horns crackling with raging purple-black thunder!
“Tyrant Dragon Force—Twin Lightning-Flame Sovereign Strike!”
Lin Feng roared, both arms thrusting violently forward!
KABOOM!
A tempestuous vortex of lightning and flame tore across the plaza flagstones, hurling thousands of granite slabs weighing tons into the air before grinding them into powdery ash in a heartbeat. Scorching incinerating heat and explosive concussive thunder combined into a catastrophic shockwave over ten meters high, howling straight for Zhao Tianlei!
Facing the apocalyptic storm of lightning and flame barreling down upon him, all the arrogance and tyrannical haughtiness of Rank 5 vanished like smoke in a gale.
In the depths of Zhao Tianlei’s eyes, only sheer, unadulterated terror remained!
He sensed the cold embrace of death nearer than ever before. This strike completely surpassed what any ordinary Intermediate Mage could ever hope to withstand!
“Lightning Radiance Shield! Phantom Thunder Aegis! BLOCK THIS FOR ME!!”
Zhao Tianlei shrieked at the top of his lungs. He slammed the Thunder God Hammer into the flagstones and crushed the defensive artifact ring on his right index finger.
BZZZZT!
A circular shield of luminescence three meters in diameter, wrapped in thousands of dense azure lightning threads, materialized instantly before him. This was a peak-grade defensive magic artifact bestowed by the Zhao Clan as a lifesaving trump card, capable of absorbing the full-force strikes of an early Commander-tier demon beast!
Yet...
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
Lin Feng’s lightning-flame vortex battered against the thunder shield like a meteor slamming into the mortal realm!
The deafening cacophony of the impact forced hundreds of spectating students to clamp their hands over their ears, blood seeping between their fingers. The plaza floor collapsed completely; cavernous fractures spiderwebbed hundreds of meters into the distance as billowing plumes of fire and smoke rose into the heavens.
CRACK! CRACK! CRACK!
A mere two seconds into the collision, hair-raising sounds of brittle fracturing echoed across the battlefield.
The indomitable Lightning Radiance Shield of the Zhao Clan, subjected to the incinerating heat of the golden Scarlet Blaze Flowing Flame and the violent concussive fury of the purple-black Thunderbolt, began to fracture with gaping fissures!
“Impossible! My peak-grade artifact shield...” Zhao Tianlei screamed in utter despair. His bracing arms shuddered violently, capillaries rupturing beneath his skin under the sheer pressure.
“Shatter!”
From within the swirling sea of flames, Lin Feng’s frigid command dropped like an executioner’s gavel!
KRAAACK... BOOOM!
The lightning shield detonated into millions of glittering azure shards of dissipated mana!
The lightning-flame tempest did not relent. The residual fury of the Tyrant Dragon Force, carrying an infernal shockwave, slammed squarely into Zhao Tianlei’s chest!
“AAAAAAARGH!”
A blood-curdling shriek pierced the sky.
Zhao Tianlei’s burly frame was blasted backward like a ragdoll for more than thirty meters, pulverizing three colossal granite columns along the pathway before crashing violently into the earth.
Spurt!
A mouthful of dark crimson blood mingled with shredded viscera sprayed from his lips, splattering across his shredded tunic. His silver-gray runic armor was scorched pitch-black, the flesh across his chest seared away in massive patches, reeking pungently of charred meat.
The prestigious Thunder God Hammer was hurled dozens of meters away, buried deep into the fractured earth. The azure lightning along its haft was extinguished entirely, reducing the proud weapon to a lifeless, blackened chunk of iron.
Silence.
A graveyard hush descended over the entirety of Shenzhou Plaza.
Over five hundred students and instructors stood with their jaws slack, frozen in place like wooden effigies. The sea wind drifted past, carrying the acrid stench of molten granite and coppery blood, yet not a single person dared utter a breath.
One strike!
A single, decisive blow!
Rank 5 on the Shenzhou Academy Battle Ranking, the illustrious prodigy of the capital’s Zhao Clan, possessor of the Jade Azure Divine Lightning and top-tier magic artifacts... had been battered into a crippled wreck by a freshman, sprawled like a dead dog in a pool of his own blood!
“Cough... cough...”
Zhao Tianlei trembled as he propped his hands against the fractured stone, struggling to raise his head. Fresh blood welled continuously from his mouth and the corners of his eyes, blurring his vision into a red haze.
Yet what caused his soul to quiver in boundless dread was not the bone-deep agony wracking his broken flesh.
It was the mana within his body!
“The fire... this fire...”
Zhao Tianlei muttered in delirium, his eyes wide with horrified panic.
He realized that after Lin Feng’s golden flame had shattered his shield, it had burrowed directly into his meridians and his Lightning Star Nebula! It refused to be extinguished. Like a swarm of bloodthirsty parasites, it clung tenaciously to every lingering drop of mana within his body, burning and gnawing away inch by inch!
Every time he attempted to mobilize mana to stem his injuries, that golden fire flared up violently, scorching his meridians and inflicting agonizing pain as though his flesh were being torn apart into a thousand pieces!
His magic power suppressed!
His prized magic artifacts crushed!
His internal mana devoured and incinerated from within by that golden flame!
What sort of monster was this?! Was this truly a first-year student hailing from a tiny border town?!
Clack... clack... clack...
The sound of boots crunching slowly and rhythmically across the shattered rubble resonated with chilling clarity through the stillness.
Lin Feng strolled over to the defeated scion, his hands clasped behind his back. The wind tousled the unruly black bangs across his brow, revealing eyes cold and aloof as a primordial deity gazing down upon an ant. Hovering above the tip of his right index finger, a solitary bead of golden flame—no larger than a soybean—drifted gently, emitting soft, menacing crackles.
Halting three paces before Zhao Tianlei, Lin Feng looked down upon the trembling prodigy sprawled in the dirt. His voice was dreadfully calm:
“Zhao Tianlei, what was it you said earlier? Who is the weakling? Who lacks the right to possess extraordinary treasures?”
Zhao Tianlei bit his lip until blood dripped, his entire frame shaking violently like a leaf in an autumn storm. Overwhelming humiliation and suffocating terror gripped his heart. Beneath Lin Feng’s razor gaze, he dared not even lift his head to meet his eyes.
Yet deep within the bloodshot gaze of Rank 5, a sudden glint of psychotic malice flared. The hand concealed behind his back surreptitiously probed into his inner breast pocket, grazing the cold texture of an ancient scarlet blood talisman—the Zhao Clan’s forbidden trump card reserved strictly for ultimate life-or-death extremities...
This battle, it seemed, was far from reaching a peaceful conclusion!