The next match was Liu Xiaoyun’s turn. Lu Yin was looking forward to seeing her true power, but her opponent was merely an Area Master, and the disparity was too great; the Area Master was easily dispatched.
After Liu Xiaoyun was Han Chong, Astral-2’s leader…
…His battle ended in a similarly relaxed manner.
The fourteenth match made the crowds perk up. On one side was Sha, and on the other was Hart Phoenix, the genius of the Phoenix clan who had defeated an Area Master as a Melder.
Every Melder who had reached the fourth round of matches was a freak. The few Melders still in the tournament were Lu Yin, Liu Shaoqiu, Xia Luo, Silver, and lastly, Hart Phoenix. Also, Hart had a brother who dominated the universe: one of the Ten Arbiters, Serati Phoenix.
Ever since Hart had been defeated by Lu Yin, he had vanished, only reappearing now. Lu Yin was very curious as to what the young man had experienced during his time away and how he had grown so powerful. Hart’s entire temperament seemed to have changed, becoming much more refined.
Many were waiting to see how Hart would fare in this battle and only a few were concerned about Sha, such as Lu Yin or Silver. Only those two knew that Sha was from the Neohuman Alliance, an incomparably frightening organization.
For Hart, Sha did not even qualify to enter his eyes. Hart was like Jared and was of the opinion that only those who he had targeted were worth his attention, such as Lu Yin or Bonny Phoenix.
Sha had a calm expression, as if he did not care about anything in the world. His entire body gave off an icy-cold impression, as if he were a block of ice. After all, he was the Ice Domain’s Area Master in the Dao of Slaughter.
Hart finally looked at Sha and then immediately frowned—he hated the cold. Hart didn’t even speak before making a move. Following a high pitched whistling sound, gigantic golden flames engulfed the entire arena plains. No one thought that Hart would cause such a huge spectacle with his first move, and many students retreated in fear, not even daring to touch the golden flames. These flames had already burned an Area Master to a crisp once before.
The golden flames surged as they wrapped around Sha. Hart reckoned that this guy would not be able to cope with the intense heat, but reality shocked everyone. The golden flames gradually froze over and were encased with ice. Then, the blue layers of ice started extending outwards, slowly but steadily freezing any and all golden flames that it came into contact with. Eventually, a marvelous display of golden flames encased in blue ice that covered the entire plains was formed.
Hart’s pupils constricted. He knew better than anyone how terrifying his golden flames were. It shouldn’t have been possible for this person to seal them.
Sha did not make any unnecessary moves. An area of extreme cold had formed beneath his feet before spreading out, freezing everything as it inexorably creeped towards Hart.
Hart felt furious at this development, as this was his stage. He could not allow himself to be suppressed by anyone.
In the next moment, the clarion call of a powerful bird shook heaven and earth. From within the sturdy ice, the golden flames roiled and quaked. Its sudden liveliness shattered the ice before rising into the skies to assume the form of a golden Undying Bird. It spread its wings, and the high temperature that it released caused the void to twist and rupture. This scene was much more horrifying than Arikar’s Endless Darkgold palm, as it felt that a real astral phoenix had been born before their very eyes.
Lu Yin leaned forward expectantly; Hart’s Undying Bird had changed once again, and it was even more majestic and powerful than before. The golden flames of the Undying Bird practically evaporated everything that they touched, overwhelming many students who continuously retreated from the arena.
But no one noticed that the extreme cold beneath Sha never stopped spreading. The star energy in his body exploded out, triggering his blue ice to suddenly sweep out and seal everything within a thousand meters, which included the golden Undying Bird and Hart Phoenix.
Nobody had even comprehended what had just happened when Sha raised his hand and caused a sturdy ice spear to form in it. He then thrust it directly through Hart’s body and into the ground, instantly killing him.
With Hart’s death, the golden flames vanished, leaving only an icy-blue world in the arena plains.
No one thought that even the Undying Bird could be frozen. The confrontation between ice and fire had resulted in a complete landslide victory.
Up on the highest peak, all the student leaders had somber faces.
“What a strong domain. So even the Phoenix clan’s Undying Bird was frozen by it. Xue Liuyun, did you know that this Area Master below you was this powerful?” Feng Shang asked with a strange expression. The others also shifted their gazes towards Xue Liuyun.
Xue Liuyun calmly stared at Sha, but there was a rarely seen glimmer of shock in his eyes. He really had no idea that this person was this strong.
Outside the arena plains, Xia Luo’s brows creased in frustration. He hated this Sha purely because his aura was similar to Silver’s; it was extremely disgusting.
Off in the distance, Silver’s smile was splendid. He was standing alone as most of the surrounding students had avoided him out of fear that he would go crazy with his butterfly knife. This person had killed almost two hundred people by himself during the Three Academies Guarding the Gate stage, after all.
The next two matches were battles between Area Masters. Normally, these battles would be attention-grabbing, but they were not dazzling in the slightest on the current stage. Wu Da could not even be bothered to record them. While these battles were taking place, his small eyes were scanning all the other competitors, and nobody knew what he was thinking.
The seventeenth match was a long-anticipated one. Before their screens, countless people in the Innerverse cheered when they saw the appearance of their goddess, Yue Xianzi.
Yue Xianzi was another student who had only recently joined the Astral Combat Academy. Although she was pretty, many students still regarded her as an outsider since she had also snatched the Blackwater Lake inheritance not long after she joined. Hence, many students did not like her. Facing her was her opponent, Charon.
Lu Yin smiled when he saw Charon walk out; this was a sure victory.
The only thing that the spectating audience knew about Charon was that he was a powerful Area Master. Otherwise, he would not have been able to occupy Whitebones Gorge. Among everyone, only Lu Yin knew about Charon’s true strength; between his mastery of a domain, his star energy control, and his Unveiled Sword, he was more than qualified to roam the universe unhindered. He was definitely the ideal candidate to challenge a Realm Master, but he had not yet revealed his power. Additionally he could not bring his sword into the Lifeseek Realm either.
Yue Xianzi slowly bowed as she faced Charon. “Senior, forgive my impropriety.”
Charon duly replied, “It is my honor to battle against the young mistress of the Frostmoon Sect.”
“The Frostmoon Sect is just a small sect, and it is not worthy of senior’s notice. I ask that senior please show mercy.” Yue Xianzi’s words were respectful, and when that was coupled with her beautiful face and sweet voice, she caused many in the audience to admire her bearing.
But Charon remained unaffected; the only woman in his mind was his sister-in-law. But that thought caused him to think of Lu Yin, and he unconsciously raised his head only to coincidentally lock eyes with Lu Yin.
Lu Yin looked at Charon and then at Yue Xianzi. At this moment, this woman had shed her prim manners and mercilessly displayed the battle technique that she had inherited from Blackwater Lake.
Her star energy simulated the flow of water and produced a vortex, which protected her in the very center of the field. An extremely dazzling cold moon rose in the sky, giving Yue Xianzi the bearing of a true lunar deity.
Charon remained calm as he stared at the gradually expanding vortex, which had twisted more than one Area Master to death. The normal-looking flowing water actually had a terrifyingly destructive strength, and no one was capable of withstanding it regardless of how tough their body was. This was the fearsome nature of this inherited battle technique that had come from ancient times. Charon could not forcibly clash with the vortex, and he could only try to dissolve it from the outside. Fortunately, Charon was a genius Lockbreaker who greatly surpassed both Xia Luo and Lu Yin in terms of contributions.
When Charon’s star energy expanded out, mysterious ripples swept out across the field one after another. Yue Xianzi was shocked: a domain! She did not know that Charon had comprehended a domain.
For the first time, the power of a Lockbreaker combined with a domain was witnessed by countless people.
Charon then easily stepped into the vortex and walked in front of Yue Xianzi. “Are we going to continue this?”
Many could not understand what had just happened. How had Charon broken through Yue Xianzi’s battle technique so easily?
Yue Xianzi was initially stunned, but her shock quickly turned to disappointment. “It seems that my battle technique cannot compare to yours. Thank you, senior, for showing me mercy.” Her figure then vanished as she left the Lifeseek Realm.
Charon and Yue Xianzi’s battle had been one of the simplest in the entire tournament, as they had not exchanged any blows. Only a very select few could understand what had transpired during their battle.
A domain contained a very mysterious strength; not only could it help one merge into their surroundings, but it could also forcibly affect those surroundings and increase one’s power almost limitlessly. It could form a visible forcefield, alter one’s heartbeat rate, enhance their five senses, and other abstruse effects. Every person’s understanding of a domain was different.
Sha’s domain had altered his surroundings to turn everything to ice, while Charon’s focused on enhancing his five senses as he was a Lockbreaker. Within the range of Charon’s domain, he was able to clearly sense the activity of every single strand of star energy. This was the reason behind Yue Xianzi’s defeat. Even though her battle technique was very strong, it was nonetheless still powered by star energy. As long as he was facing someone on the same level as him, there was almost no star energy activity that Charon could not see through.
Absolute mastery within the domain’s region of space for the wielder—this was a domain. Not all Lockbreakers could comprehend a domain, but any Lockbreaker who did would undoubtedly be very powerful.
Up on the peak overlooking the field, Dao Bo’s lips curved upwards; Charon was qualified to battle against him.
Not far from Lu Yin, an “18” appeared in front of Astral-1’s leader.
Everyone looked at her; it was finally time for the most unfathomable and mysterious Realm Master of them all to battle.
Lu Yin was naturally curious as well, since the ten academies and their respective student leaders were all ranked by strength. This woman had to be able to suppress Nightqueen Yanqing, Dao Bo, Feng Shang, and other such super powerhouses for her to take the position of first. Lu Yin was eager to see her power.
However, the battle did not even take place as the opponent readily admitted defeat.
None of the Astral Combat Academy’s students found this strange. This student had been matched up against Astral-1’s leader, the person who could be considered the strongest within the entire Astral Combat Academy. Not even most Area Masters would be qualified to exchange blows with her.
Lu Yin was disappointed, but his spirits were quickly refreshed because the next battle was nearly as exciting as the previous one. It was Chilian Daynight. Countless people had seen his powerful moves during the Three Academies Guarding the Gate stage, especially his amazing crowd control abilities. It would be difficult for anyone weaker than him to defend against his attacks. And his opponent for this nineteenth match would be Liu Shaoqiu.
Liu Xiaoyun shivered when she saw Liu Shaoqiu appear in the middle of the arena plains.
She wasn’t the only one who was excited. Before countless screens, especially within the First Flowzone of the Innerverse, many experts from great powers watched this upcoming battle intently. There was not much information readily available about Liu Shaoqiu, but everything that had been found out was shocking to the extreme. He was the second person in the current generation of the Sword Sect to have received the Thirteen Swords inheritance, and he was also an abnormally strong genius who had once injured an Explorer at the Melder realm.
In the First Flowzone, on a dusky land, countless people were kneeling down. The crowd extended far into the horizon, and they were all facing towards the north. There, a tall flag fluttered in the wind, emitting an iron-scented bloodlust. There was one word on the flag—“Yōu.”
Below the flag sat a girl with an exquisite face. She was wearing a dark-colored gown as she looked at the screen that displayed Liu Shaoqiu calmly standing in the arena plains.
Behind the girl, an old maid knelt down deferentially. “Princess, he is your fiancé, a genius of the Sword Sect’s current generation, Liu Shaoqiu.”
The girl continued to look at the screen as curiosity filled her large, resplendent eyes. Her gaze seemed calm, but her eyes had a strange glint within them.
Many around the arena field looked at Chilian Daynight with uncontainable excitement. They did not recognize Liu Shaoqiu and only saw Chilian Daynight. He was a top-tier powerhouse from Astral-3 who was qualified to represent his academy during the Three Academies Guarding the Gate stage, and that wasn’t even mentioning the fact that he was an expert from the Daynight clan.
