Volume 2: Shenzhou Academy & The Battle of Venice
Chapter 179
The Dragon Pendant Shatters the Permafrost, Scarlet Blaze Cleaves the Skies
The entire Shenzhou Prestige Arena seemed to plunge directly into an eternal ice age.
A howling blizzard tore through the rarefied air thirty meters above the ground. Razor-sharp snowflakes resembling miniature scythes spun in a frenzied vortex, slamming violently against the transparent magical barrier surrounding the arena and producing a series of bone-chilling, screeching impacts. The four barrier pillars at the corners of the stage trembled violently, their protective blue magical rune arrays flashing incessantly in a state of severe overload.
All thirty thousand spectators packed tightly into the crescent-shaped stands held their breath in unison. There were no more deafening cheers, no more wild, passionate whistles of encouragement from the freshmen and sophomores. The vast arena—capable of accommodating an entire magical regiment—was suffocated by an oppressive, frigid elemental pressure that made even human souls shiver.
At the pinnacle of the arena, suspended at the heart of the raging blizzard, was Han Yue.
The glacial wings upon her back—the “Ice Crane Wings”—spread nearly ten meters wide. Every single feather, formed from translucent blue ice crystals, emitted a cold, illusory luminescence. The silver-trimmed blue combat robes fluttered wildly in the gale, and her cascading long hair was dyed a pure, immaculate snowy white. Her normally aloof eyes had completely transformed into two flawless lapoliz lazuli gemstones unstained by mortal dust.
This was the majestic stance of an Ice Empress, the absolute sovereign who had reigned unchallenged at the #2 position of the Shenzhou Honor Roll for two full years!
“Lin Feng, it’s over.”
Han Yue’s voice was not loud, but it cut through the howling wind and blizzard, pouring directly into everyone’s eardrums with a bone-piercing, freezing pitch.
She gracefully raised her slender arms toward the dome of the arena. Instantly, all the frost and snow essence accumulated within the Absolute Ice Realm seemed to find a colossal discharge vent, converging crazily toward the crown of her head.
RUMBLE... CRACK-CRACK!
The air froze into tangible blocks. A colossal crescent-shaped ice monolith exceeding forty meters in diameter slowly took shape mid-air. Its surface was smooth and slick like a waning moon fallen from the ninth heaven, yet its core radiated sub-zero temperatures plummeting hundreds of degrees below zero, heavy enough to warp the surrounding ambient oxygen currents!
A pinnacle Intermediate Tier 3 Ice-element magic combined with an Extreme Cold Spirit Seed—Glacial Moon Drop!
A fatal strike carrying the crushing weight of an entire snow-capped mountain range!
“Good heavens... she actually unleashed the Glacial Moon Drop!” On the VIP seating tier reserved for professors, an Earth Pavilion vice dean blurted out, both hands gripping the stone armrest tightly. “That moon monolith weighs at least fifty thousand catties of ice magic crystals! Even with a defensive magical armor, that freshman’s bones and marrow will be pulverized!”
“Quickly activate the third backup barrier layer!” Dean Xiao Yan sat at the center, his expression stern as he barked into the communication device. “Do not let the frost pressure leak out and injure the spectators!”
Below on the stage, at the epicenter of the destructive storm, Lin Feng stood frozen in place.
The frigid aura radiating from the Glacial Moon Drop above created an absolute zone of pressure. The half-meter-thick anti-magic granite floor beneath his feet had split open, covered in a thick layer of frost half a foot deep. The bone-numbing cold did not merely cling to his skin; it ruthlessly crept through the fabric of his magical uniform, seeping deep into his meridians and paralyzing his blood circulation.
Layers of opaque white frost spread rapidly from the soles of his boots up his calves, crawling toward his knees.
Frost toxin invasion! The blood in Lin Feng’s veins felt as though it wanted to freeze solid into microscopic ice crystals. Every breath he exhaled turned into a blinding white, freezing mist, his chest aching as if pierced by thousands of ice needles. His entire body gradually lost sensation, growing heavy as though buried deep beneath a millennium-old glacial river.
“Is he frozen solid? Lin Feng can’t move anymore!”
“Senior sister Han Yue’s frost aura possesses the property of freezing magical energy and paralyzing muscles. He’s contracted the frost toxin too deeply; he can’t possibly complete the connection of the Star Paths!”
“Surrender! If that glacial moon monolith crushes down, even if the Dean rescues him in time, crippling his cultivation will be inevitable!”
In the stands, tens of thousands of anxious voices erupted. Ye Qingwan sat in the front row, her hands gripping the hem of her dress so tightly her knuckles turned white, her beautiful eyes brimming with extreme anxiety. Beside her, Gu Xiaowei could not help springing to her feet, her small lips pressed into a tight line, her wide eyes staring intently at the lonely figure at the center of the arena.
High above, Han Yue’s gaze fluctuated for a fraction of a second. Seeing Lin Feng standing motionless amidst the frost, she let out a clear, chilly sigh and resolutely lowered her hands:
“Drop!”
BOOM —— CRASH!!
The colossal Glacial Moon Drop shrieked as it tore through space, dragging a hundred-meter-long trail of frost and ice as it plummeted straight from the firmament toward Lin Feng’s head! The falling speed was breathtakingly fast, the plunging wind pressure crushing the surrounding stone floor into piles of fine powder, swirling into a blinding snowstorm!
Ten meters... Eight meters... Five meters!
The darkness of death and frigid cold engulfed Lin Feng’s entire field of vision.
Yet, right at that razor-thin borderline of life and death, the young man’s frost-covered lips suddenly curved into an arrogant smile.
You possess the Ice Empress looking down upon the nine heavens...
Then I possess the Primordial Dragon suppressing all realms!
O O O ——!!
Suddenly, right in front of Lin Feng’s chest, beneath his tattered combat tunic, a stream of ancient black-gold light burst forth brilliantly, piercing through the dense layer of ice mist!
The Primordial Dragon Pendant pressed against his heart seemed to awaken from a millennium-long slumber. It was not merely warm; it erupted like the divine smelting furnace of a primeval wilderness!
The majestic, thunderous roar of an immemorial True Dragon did not emit into the open air but resonated directly into Lin Feng’s soul. ”ROAR ——!” The dragon roar echoed across his sea of consciousness, supreme in its majesty, carrying an arrogant disdain for all the mundane elemental rules of heaven and earth!
CRACK!
A stream of pure black-gold dragon breath resembling volcanic magma gushed overwhelmingly from the Dragon Pendant into every single meridian, blood vessel, and cell within Lin Feng’s body. The micro-crystals of frost toxin that had just begun solidifying in his blood were instantly vaporized by this divine thermal energy in a split millisecond!
The thick layer of ice encasing his legs and knees exploded into countless microscopic fragments!
Lin Feng’s entire body billowed with rolling waves of heat, and his pitch-black eyes shone brilliantly like twin golden torches amidst the wintry night storm. His aura did not diminish in the slightest; instead, it surged skyward, so ferocious and scorching that it dyed a corner of the arena a fiery red!
“Want to crush me with ice? You aren’t qualified yet!”
Lin Feng let out a resounding roar like a thunderbolt cleaving across the sky.
He stamped his right foot fiercely onto the ground!
SLAM!
The arena floor cracked open in a deep, ten-meter-long fissure. Within his boundless sea of consciousness, the Fire-system Star Nebula, which had been boiling furiously, exploded into full totality.
Fast! So fast it defied the conventional understanding of spellcasting!
The first seven Star Jewels flashed... The first Star Path complete!
Fourteen jewels... The second Star Path! Twenty-one jewels... The third Star Path!
Under the blessing of the primordial spiritual force from the Primordial Dragon Pendant, Lin Feng’s Star Jewel connection speed reached a frenzied peak. Crimson-gold streaks of light intertwined across the void, sketching mystical, majestic, and supremely intricate geometric patterns.
Seven Star Paths intersected! All forty-nine Star Jewels of the Intermediate Tier 3 Fire System shone brilliantly, stacking upon one another to form a flawless Fire System Star Diagram suspended directly beneath Lin Feng’s feet!
The extreme Burning Energy of the Scarlet Flowing Flame Spirit Seed blended seamlessly into the spell!
The Glacial Moon Drop was now a mere three meters above his head! The descending frost caused his jet-black hair to whip backward, and the colossal downward pressure made the air around him emit crackling explosive snaps!
Lin Feng did not retreat, nor did he bother to summon a defensive magical shield. He hunched his torso, his right arm clenching into a fist, pulling backward like an overtensed bowstring. Golden flames surged from the Star Diagram into his fist, compressing into a dense, ink-black sphere of destruction!
“Intermediate Tier 3 Fire System ——”
Lin Feng’s voice sounded like the verdict of a descending deity, rumbling across the Prestige Arena:
“Blazing Flame: NINE PALACES FIERY DRAGON FORCE!!”
CRASH —— ROAR!!
Lin Feng’s flaming fist did not strike upward at the sky; instead, it smashed heavily into the center of the Star Diagram on the ground!
The moment his fist touched the stone floor, a golden shockwave swept horizontally across the ground, blowing away all ice and snow within a fifty-meter radius into ashes.
And then... the earth trembled violently!
One... Two... Three... Nine!
The nine palaces positions across the arena simultaneously cracked open, revealing nine bubbling lava craters. Immediately afterward, nine colossal golden fire pillars, each up to three zhang in diameter, erupted fiercely from the earth toward the sky!
The temperature in the arena skyrocketed in an instant from minus thirty degrees Celsius to over one thousand degrees Celsius!
The blizzard vanished in a fraction of a second. All the coldness was swallowed whole by the golden flames, leaving not a trace behind. The air was scorched dry of oxygen, warping and bending like liquid water waves.
Yet that was not all!
The nine colossal fire pillars were not merely erupting flames. Amidst earth-shattering roars, the golden flames spiraled and morphed into the shapes of nine immemorial fire dragons!
Every single dragon scale flashed with a crimson border and golden trim, their razor-sharp claws forged from extreme burning energy, and their dragon eyes blazing with the ferocious fire of the Scarlet Flowing Flame! The nine fire dragons reared their heads and roared, their roars carrying the ancient majesty of the Primordial Dragon Pendant, shaking the souls of the thirty thousand spectators in the stands!
”ROAR ——!!”
The nine fierce dragons intertwined, forming a colossal spiral flame drill that carried an unstoppable, destructive force as it blasted straight upward into the sky, welcoming the falling Glacial Moon Drop head-on!
An earth-shattering head-on collision between Ice and Fire!
All the deans in the VIP stands sprang to their feet in unison, their eyes glazing over in utter astonishment:
“Nine Palaces Fiery Dragon Force?! This is a mutated Tier 3 Blazing Flame spell!”
“Unbelievable! He’s only a freshman; how can he control an Intermediate Tier 3 spell to such a miraculous realm?!”
CRASH —— CRACK —— RUMBLE!!
The first dragon head collided directly with the Glacial Moon Drop!
The deafening impact sounded like two cosmic meteorites smashing into each other mid-air. The diamond-hard ice surface of the moon monolith instantly sprouted spiderweb-like cracks across its entirety.
The second dragon smashed into it! The third... fourth... fifth!
Every single fiery dragon, carrying thousands of degrees of thermal energy from the Scarlet Flowing Flame, frantically slashed and tore, transmitting the extreme burning property deep into the ice core. The colossal, seemingly inviolable block of ice began to melt at a visible speed, torrents of boiling water gushing out only to be instantly vaporized into white steam!
When the ninth dragon arrived, carrying the full might of Lin Feng’s Fiery Dragon Force ——
CRACK... BOOM!!
The forty-meter-long Glacial Moon Drop shattered completely!
A colossal energy explosion erupted mid-air. Ice shattered, golden flames detonated, and thousands of tons of snow and ice were instantly melted by the scorching temperature, creating an unprecedented, terrifying steam explosion!
SWISH —— BOOM!!
A blinding, scorching white downpour of steam billowed violently, enveloping the entire arena space within a radius of hundreds of meters. The visibility of all spectators, and even optical reconnaissance magic devices, was completely obscured by the dense mist. The arena stage now remained only a blinding white expanse of steam and the bubbling sound of earth roasted red-hot.
High above, the total destruction of her ultimate strike brought forth a fierce magical backlash.
Han Yue let out a soft groan, her complexion turning as pale as paper, devoid of a trace of blood. The Ice Crane Wings behind her fractured and shattered into countless blue light motes. The magical energy within her body was nearly depleted after pouring her all into the Glacial Moon Drop.
Her slender figure staggered, falling into a freefall from the heights.
Relying on her rich combat experience as the #2 of the Honor Roll, she bit her lip, desperately mobilizing the residual magical energy beneath her soles to form a thin ice cushion, dampening the landing impact.
THUD.
Han Yue’s toe touched the scorching granite floor. She staggered back three steps before steadying herself, her chest heaving violently beneath her combat robes, cold sweat beading on her delicate forehead.
“This fog...”
Han Yue narrowed her eyes, her gaze filled with utmost vigilance.
As a veteran combatant, she understood all too well that in battle, once vision was lost, death could arrive at any moment. Where was Lin Feng? Had he been struck down by the shockwave of the explosion, or had he...
SWISH!
Suddenly, from a blind spot in the scorching steam beneath her feet, a bizarre shadow ripple glided swiftly across the ground.
The speed of the shadow ripple tore right through the mist!
“Shadow Element?!”
Han Yue’s pupils constricted violently down to pinpricks.
A freezing unease ran down her spine. He hadn’t been injured by that terrifying explosion at all! Instead, he had utilized the steam fog generated by the melting Glacial Moon Drop to execute Shadow Sneak!
Behind her!
WHOOSH!
The space behind the nape of Han Yue’s neck suddenly plunged into pitch-black darkness. From within the mist’s shadow, a slender yet powerful, cheetah-like silhouette tore through the fog and stepped out.
It was none other than Lin Feng!
His combat tunic was slightly singed at the hem, but his eyes burned like stars in the night sky, chillingly sharp and breathtakingly keen.
“Ice Crane Magic Armor —— Defense!!”
In that razor-thin moment of life and death, Han Yue’s survival instinct, honed through hundreds of bloody battles, erupted. Without even turning her head, her right arm immediately shattered her final blue-jade-inlaid defensive magical bracelet.
O O O!
A blinding wave of blue-light condensed into a massive ice shield shaped like a pair of spread crane wings, thick and sturdy as a steel fortress, blocking right between her and Lin Feng’s figure!
This was the highest-grade defensive Magic Armor bestowed upon her by her family, having previously blocked countless ferocious attacks from Commander-tier magical beasts!
Yet, before that sturdy shield, Lin Feng’s stride did not slow by even half a beat.
His right arm lashed out.
No incantation needed, no complex Star Diagram required. This was the pure condensation of Scarlet Flowing Flame and explosive fist force after the Dragon Pendant activated its draconic might! Golden flames blazed around his fist, so hot that the surrounding air visibly warped and twisted.
“Break for me!!”
Lin Feng roared, delivering a punch straight into the center of the Ice Crane Magic Armor shield!
SMASH —— CRACK!!
A spine-chilling, crisp shatter echoed out.
Han Yue’s proud defensive artifact shield held out for precisely one-tenth of a second! Beneath the thousand-degree heat of the Scarlet Flame and the soul-shaking physical force, the ice shield cracked into tens of thousands of glittering fragments like diamond dust, scattering in all directions!
The gale-force wind shrieked piercingly!
Lin Feng’s golden-flame-enveloped fist, having shattered the ice shield, continued forward with terrifying might!
Han Yue whirled around sharply. Her silver-blue long hair fluttered in the gale. Before her eyes, the youth’s flaming fist magnified at the speed of light, its destructive aura engulfing her entire field of vision. She possessed no remaining magical energy for defense, nor could she dodge.
Death... was imminent!
WHOOSH ——!
A scorching gale suddenly halted dead in its tracks!
Lin Feng’s fist froze mid-air.
The distance between his hard, golden-flame-wrapped knuckles and Han Yue’s delicate tip of her nose... was a mere half-inch!
Half an inch! A distance so fragile that had Lin Feng advanced even a tenth of a millimeter, the Ice Empress’s breathtaking, peerless face would have been pulverized by the kinetic pressure!
Golden flames crackled on his fist, radiating simmering heat straight onto her porcelain-white face.
A bead of cold sweat that had just formed on Han Yue’s elegant temple was instantly melted by the heat, vaporizing into a thin wisp of smoke that vanished into the air.
Han Yue’s gorgeous lapis lazuli eyes widened, staring blankly into the deep, calm yet infinitely powerful dark eyes of the youth before her.
The wind stopped.
The flames ceased their roar.
The entire arena plunged into absolute silence.
The steam mist gradually dissipated, revealing the scene of the two facing each other amidst the ruined center of the arena, right before the dumbfounded gazes of thirty thousand people!