Volume 2: Shenzhou Academy & The Battle of Venice
Chapter 189
Four Elements Unite, Shattering the Void
The howling gale sweeping across the shattered surface of the Divine Continent Arena abruptly died away, replaced by an atmosphere so oppressive it bordered on suffocation.
Tens of thousands of spectators in the stands seemed to have forgotten how to breathe. The vast amphitheater—gathering elite students, prestigious noble elders, and the faculty board of the premier magic academy in Modu—was locked in a dead gaze toward the center of the stage. Not a single whisper broke the silence; only the flickering glow of residual magic light illuminated faces stiff with disbelief.
In the center of the ring, Ye Lingtian set his heel down upon the obsidian-slate floor. That half-step back, though merely the length of a palm, was nothing short of a thunderclap tearing across a clear blue sky for the reigning monarch of the Combat Rankings for three consecutive years.
The silver-bordered hem of his long robe fluttered in the lingering remnants of lightning and flame. He stood upright, arms hanging loosely by his sides, but his aura had transformed completely. The casual, detached smile and the regal poise of an upperclassman looking down on a junior had vanished without a trace. In its place was a solemnity that had never before appeared upon those handsome features—a stillness as deep as a millennium-old glacial lake, beneath which surged a tempest capable of tearing apart all obstacles.
“Very well.”
Ye Lingtian spoke slowly. His voice was not loud, but amplified by magic mana, every single syllable hammered clearly into the ears of the listeners:
“Lin Feng, in these past three years at the Divine Continent Academy, I have faced countless opponents. Those arrogant and conceited, those relying on family magical artifacts for suppression, those awakening mutated magic... not a single one was missing. Yet never has anyone of the same generation and tier been able to force this Ye Lingtian to move his feet back even a single inch.”
He paused for half a beat, his gaze locked ruthlessly onto the towering figure of the black-robed youth:
“You are not merely an outstanding freshman. You are a match in every sense, the most worthy adversary I have ever crossed paths with throughout my years at this academy. To match your strength, in this match, I shall hold nothing back.”
Down in the stands within the contestant sector, Ye Qingyun unconsciously clenched her fists. Her slender fingers turned pale white from the sheer force. Growing up together, she understood precisely what her brother’s expression signified. It meant that Ye Lingtian regarded his opponent as a mortal threat, preparing to unleash the most taboo ability he had always concealed to leap across realms into the Advanced Tier.
Beside her, Gu Xiaowei interlaced her hands tightly before her chest, her round eyes welling up with boundless anxiety: “Lin Feng... you must be careful...”
Up on the judges’ row, Dean Xiao Yan and the senior instructors all straightened in their seats under the surging pressure rolling off the arena.
A terrifying catastrophe descended immediately.
Ye Lingtian brought his hands together before his chest. His ten fingers danced in intricate patterns, weaving a bizarre spell formation that far transcended all conventional magic standards. The Space Nebula within his body surged violently, brilliant silver mana piercing straight through his flesh and skin.
All around Ye Lingtian, space began to warp and ripple madly. Crystalline silver ribbons of liquid-like light burst forth from the void, intertwining densely into a colossal net that shrouded the sky.
——Spatial Lockdown: Infinite Compression!
A roar as cold as a razor blade escaped the corners of Ye Lingtian’s lips.
Boom!
There was no earth-shattering explosion, but an invisible spiritual shockwave swept across the entire arena. A fifty-meter radius around Lin Feng was instantly seized by an invisible hand, completely severing its connection with baseline reality.
The brilliant silver outlines locked into place, forming a colossal transparent cube that imprisoned Lin Feng and the Netherworld Black Wolf within.
The instant the prison took form, terrifying retribution descended!
Crack! Crack! Crack!
The obsidian flooring, harder than steel and capable of withstanding tier-three magic assaults without a scratch, fractured in a dense web beneath Lin Feng’s feet. The entire stone floor within the cube sagged, shattering into tens of thousands of fragments before plunging downward by nearly half a meter!
Gravity skyrocketed twentyfold!
Without pausing, all the air inside the colossal cube was ruthlessly expelled outward by the immense spatial pressure. An absolute vacuum formed, accompanied by the ruthless contraction of the invisible spatial walls. The cube began to shrink inch by inch, carrying a crushing force capable of pulverizing diamonds!
Roar!
The Netherworld Black Wolf standing beside Lin Feng let out a cry of agony. Under twenty times gravity and the crushing weight of collapsing space, its four sturdy limbs trembled violently. The gloomy fog and black lightning protecting its body were crushed, shattering into flickering sparks of light. The beast’s bones emitted popping cracks, and fresh blood oozed from the corners of its mouth and pores. The summoning gate behind Lin Feng distorted violently, on the verge of collapse.
Feeling the soul-rending agony of his battle-partner, Lin Feng gritted his teeth and waved his left hand in a decisive command:
“Return, Black Wolf!”
The magic gate flashed, pulling the Netherworld Black Wolf back into the summoning dimension before its skeleton could be crushed to powder. Upon the ruined arena, only Lin Feng remained, standing alone to weather the lethal prison.
All the pressure instantly converged upon the youth’s body.
“Ugh...”
A stifled groan choked in Lin Feng’s throat. His legs felt as though heavy iron mallets had driven them thousands of catties deep into the shattered stone. Twentyfold gravity bore down on his shoulders, every vertebra popping. His chest flattened, his lungs burning as if he had swallowed glowing coals because not a single molecule of air remained to breathe. The extreme pressure differential between inside and outside made his eardrums ache as if pierced by needles; fresh blood began to seep from the corners of his eyes, nose, and mouth, staining his tattered black robes crimson.
Every single muscle fiber across his body strained to the point of tearing. Blood vessels bulged beneath his skin, and his flesh split open in bleeding trails. The invisible spatial walls continued their ruthless contraction: fifty meters, forty meters, thirty meters, then twenty meters...
The narrower space became, the more the pressure multiplied exponentially!
“Stop at once! Where is the referee?!” cried a student in the stands, panic-stricken.
“That’s half-step Advanced Space magic! Spatial compression at close range will crush internal organs in the blink of an eye!”
Dean Xiao Yan crushed the stone armrest of the stands with both hands. But his gaze suddenly froze.
Amidst the violently contracting death prison, the blood-drenched figure had still not collapsed. Lin Feng’s knees shook violently beneath the mountain of weight, but his spine remained as straight as a spear driven into a snow-capped peak, resilient enough to make onlookers’ hair stand on end.
From afar, Ye Lingtian looked at Lin Feng, his cold voice transmitting through the distorted spatial barrier:
“Lin Feng, surrender! Your prowess today is already enough to be recorded in the annals of the Divine Continent Academy. This is a forbidden technique I comprehended upon touching the threshold of the Advanced Tier. Once it shrinks to a radius of one meter, the pressure of void collapse will grind you to dust. By then, no one can save your life!”
Every word from Ye Lingtian struck like a death knell straight into the mind.
Surrender?
From the moment he stepped onto the path of magic, facing hordes of demonic beasts in the wild or the ruthless blades of the Nether Cult, Lin Feng had never known how to bow his head to anyone!
His chest burned as though ready to burst, his consciousness gradually dimming amidst the sea of blood.
Thump, thump!
Suddenly, right at the fragile boundary between life and death, an ancient heartbeat erupted from within Lin Feng’s chest.
The Primordial Dragon Pendant!
The dragon-shaped jade pendant pressed against his skin suddenly radiated a pure golden brilliance, as vast and resplendent as the ocean. That mysterious, warm energy swiftly permeated every meridian, sealing his wounds, soothing his lacerating lungs, and rushing straight to his glabella, blowing wide open the gates of Lin Feng’s spiritual consciousness.
Whoosh!
The world before his eyes instantly inverted.
The invisible prison was no longer an impenetrable mass of black. Under the blessing of the Primordial Dragon Pendant’s spiritual awareness, the entirety of Ye Lingtian’s magical structure was dissected down to the smallest detail.
Lin Feng saw tens of thousands of silver threads of mana interwoven densely together. And right at the center of that complex web, roughly three feet forward and to the right of Ye Lingtian’s chest, a pale silver point of light vibrated in rhythm with his breathing.
That was precisely the ”spatial node”!
The core node maintaining the equilibrium of the entire lockdown grid. Striking the spatial barriers would result in infinitely dispersed power. But piercing this single node would cause the entire prison to automatically detonate from within!
“Found you...”
Lin Feng’s bloodied lips curled into an arrogant smile.
He slowly raised his right arm. Every heavy movement dragged like a volcano, yet possessed an unshakeable firmness.
Crack!
Lin Feng stamped his right foot heavily, spraying flying stone chips. He tilted his head back and let out a roar that pierced eardrums, the sound carrying a rolling dragon-roar majesty that echoed across the nine heavens:
“Ye Lingtian! You want me to surrender? This prison of yours... IS STILL UNQUALIFIED!”
Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!
Inside Lin Feng’s spiritual sea, four magic nebulae erupted simultaneously, spinning at their most frenzied pace yet. All the mana accumulated through months of life-and-death tempering was unleashed without holding back a single drop!
Four Elements Unite!
The Lightning Nebula thundered!
Deep purple lightning bolts carrying the ruthless aura of the Yaksha Divine Lightning surged from his bloodline. Deep purple lightning radiance wrapped tightly around his right arm like dozens of furious lightning serpents, tearing apart the vacuum space with crisp, sharp explosions.
Instantly, the Fire Nebula ignited!
The Crimson Flame of Flowing Fire erupted across the sky, scarlet red like a rolling river of magma. The temperature inside the cube skyrocketed past a thousand degrees Celsius, scorching the shattered stone floor. Red fire intertwined with purple lightning, forming violent, roaring fire-lightning vortices around his right fist. Lightning borrowed fire’s momentum, fire aided lightning’s might, multiplying destructive output exponentially!
Following that, the Shadow Nebula awakened!
A pitch-black mist like eternal night poured from the void, gracefully wrapping around Lin Feng’s wrists and joints. The dark aura did not conflict with the lightning and fire, instead transforming into a mysterious spiral cushion that neutralized all resistance and recoil from the void, turning his fist into the sharpest drilling point in existence!
And finally, Dragon Soul Summoning resonated with the Primordial Dragon Pendant!
ROAR———!
A deep, majestic dragon roar echoing from primeval antiquity suddenly pierced the spatial barrier, vibrating straight into the souls of tens of thousands in the stands!
Brilliant golden light poured from Lin Feng’s chest straight into his fist, condensing into an illusory golden divine dragon coiling around his right arm. The dragon’s eyes blazed with golden lightning, its sharp claws and fangs blending seamlessly with the vibrant purple lightning, blazing red fire, and profound darkness!
The four magic elements: Purple, Red, Black, and Gold merged flawlessly into a single entity upon Lin Feng’s right fist.
The space surrounding his fist warped violently, spawning minuscule pitch-black fractures. This might had transcended the conventional realm of Intermediate magic, touching upon the destructive threshold of natural laws!
”Four Symbols Dragon Fist — VOID-SHATTERING DRAGON WRATH!”
Lin Feng roared, his figure darting forward like lightning tearing through the night!
He did not strike blindly at the spatial walls, but concentrated his entire fist power—bearing the four-colored dragon head—directly into the bright spot three feet from Ye Lingtian’s chest: the location of the ”spatial node”!
CLANG———!
A sharp, piercing sound rang out like a diamond drill piercing millennia-old glass. The collision shockwave forced thousands of students in the stands to clamp their hands over their ears, their faces turning pale.
In a fleeting hundredth of a second, all creation seemed to freeze.
Lin Feng’s fist pierced into the illusory silver spot of light. The four-element energy of purple, red, black, and gold poured down madly.
CRACK! CRACK! CRACK!
From the point of impact of his fist, countless silver cracks propagated in all directions at a horrifying speed, spreading like a spiderweb across the entire cube.
BOOM———!
An earth-shattering explosion shook the entire Divine Continent Arena!
Ye Lingtian’s half-step Advanced “Spatial Lockdown” prison completely shattered! Millions of silver spatial fragments scattered like broken glass before dissolving into the void. The gravitational pressure vanished completely, and rushing air billowed back, generating fierce, howling gales.
Yet Lin Feng’s fist did not stop!
“What?!”
Ye Lingtian’s pupils contracted to pinpricks. He felt the scent of mortal death brushing against his face!
After shattering the spatial node, the Dragon Wrath borrowed the very recoil of the collapsing void to accelerate, transforming into a destructive shockwave pillar carrying furious lightning, raging fire, and dragon imagery straight toward Ye Lingtian’s chest!
In the fraction of a life-or-death second, the combat instincts of the Combat Rankings’ number one drove Ye Lingtian to unleash his absolute defense:
“Spatial Shield! Triple Interception!”
Three shields of dense spatial energy instantly materialized before his chest. Simultaneously, a platinum radiance flared across Ye Lingtian’s body—the top-tier defensive magical artifact ”Platinum Holy Armor” activated automatically, encasing his entire body in the sturdiest armor possible.
Crash!
The first shield shattered!
Crash!
The second shield exploded into stardust!
Crash!
The third shield vanished like soap bubbles!
Lin Feng’s fist, carrying a furious dragon roar, slammed directly into the Platinum Holy Armor upon Ye Lingtian’s chest!
CLANG———!
A crisp, shattering ring of metal echoed across the arena. The superior spirit-grade protective armor, the pride of Ye Lingtian, cracked in a dense web before shattering into pieces that rained down onto the stone floor, smoking with acrid fumes.
WHOOSH!
The violent gale shrieked, but right at that hair-trigger moment...
Lin Feng’s fist abruptly came to a dead halt.
A sudden halt that contrasted completely with the ferocious momentum moments before!
All the terrifying kinetic force was forcibly locked down by Lin Feng’s iron willpower right inside his fist.
The bloodied fist, still wreathed in traces of purple-red lightning-fire and dark mist, hung frozen directly in front of Ye Lingtian’s throat...
The distance between Lin Feng’s knuckles and the skin of Ye Lingtian’s throat was a mere... HALF AN INCH!
Whoosh... whoosh...
The belated gale born from the punch blew past, fiercely whipping back Ye Lingtian’s long hair. His white shirt collar was torn to shreds by the kinetic Qi, and a thin, crimson thread of blood oozed across Ye Lingtian’s fair neck, sliced by the razor-sharp pressure of the passing punch.
The dust slowly settled.
The air was thick with the scorching smell of melted stone, the pungent ozone of lightning, and the heavy tang of fresh blood.
Ye Lingtian stood frozen in place. His entire body stiffened, eyes wide as he stared fixedly at the smoking fist right before his throat. A single bead of cold sweat trickled slowly down his cheek, landing squarely on the bruised back of the opponent’s hand.
He could feel the scorching heat of the red fire, the numbing terror of purple lightning, the bone-chilling cold of darkness, and above all... the terrifying might of an ancient dragon glaring straight into his soul.
Had this fist advanced just half an inch further, his throat would have been pulverized, and the life of the undefeated Martial God of Divine Continent Academy would have ended at this very second.
Yet that fist had stopped.
Silence.
A deathly silence blanketed the vast Divine Continent Arena, which seated tens of thousands.
Not a single breath.
Not a single movement.
Every spectator in the stands, from the freshmen to the proud third-year geniuses, from the instructors to Dean Xiao Yan, stood stunned like lifeless statues. Their chests felt squeezed by invisible hands.
The half-step Advanced spatial lockdown prison... smashed to pieces!
The triple spatial shields... pulverized!
The Platinum Holy Armor... shattered into scrap iron beneath his feet!
And now, the fist of a freshman enrolled for less than a year rested directly against the throat of the invincible Ye Lingtian!
What kind of miracle was this?!
In the staging area, Ye Qingyun let her arms drop, her chest heaving violently. She let out a long breath, her beautiful eyes welling with tears as she gazed at the solitary yet towering back of the youth amidst the ruins. Beside her, Gu Xiaowei was so emotional she threw her arms around Qingyun’s arm, weeping tears of pure joy.
On the stage, Lin Feng slowly exhaled a plume of scorching air reeking of blood.
His chest rose and fell heavily; the nebulae within his body were nearly depleted of mana after that full-power punch. Yet his dark eyes still shone bright as stars in the night sky, calm and profound.
Lin Feng slowly retracted his fist to his side. He stood upright, facing Ye Lingtian, the corners of his lips curving slightly into a faint smile:
“Senior Ye, thank you for holding back.”
His voice was hoarse from throat damage, but rang out clearly across the silent space.
Ye Lingtian stared at the retracting fist, then slowly lowered his head to gaze at the shattered armor fragments scattered around his boots. He raised a hand, lightly touching the tiny drop of blood at his throat, feeling the genuine stinging pain transmitting to his brain.
Undefeated for the past three years...
Reigning at the absolute peak of the Divine Continent Combat Rankings...
Today, right here, he had lost. Thoroughly and decisively, bowing in absolute surrender to a void-shattering punch from a freshman youth!
A smile suddenly blossomed across Ye Lingtian’s face. That smile began as a slight smirk, then widened into a carefree, radiant grin unlike anything ever seen in his life.
Ye Lingtian took a deep breath, lifted his head high, and locked eyes with Lin Feng. He parted his lips, preparing to utter a declaration that would shake the entire magic world of the Divine Continent...