“It’s been a long time since I’ve used my full strength. Thank you for allowing me to refamiliarize myself with it before the final battle,” Xia Ye simply said as he kicked out. The Chaosgod Mountain disciple quickly reacted and let out a kick of his own the moment Xia Ye finished speaking. The two were only half a meter apart, and Xia Ye’s right hand was still tightly gripping Cang Shi’s right fist. As they kicked out simultaneously, the void shattered with a boom. Many of the spectating students covered their ears because they could not handle the sound. At that instant, the void around the two students was distorted for a distance of a thousand meters with traces of ruptures appearing.
Xia Ye’s monstrous kick had caused the battle force on Cang Shi’s leg to split before it connected with Cang Shi’s abdomen. At the same time, Xia Ye released the fist that he had captured previously. As a result, Cang Shi’s body was sent flying and vanished in midair.
Everyone stared in amazement at the arena plains, and then at the calm Xia Ye. This battle had been the most intense one yet of this Astral Combat Tournament, not to mention the highest quality. There had been a collision of terrifying physical force, amazing evasive movements and instincts, dazzling attacks, and of course, the shocking four-lined battle force.
No more than a hundred students in the entire Astral Combat Academy had comprehended battle force, and only Area Masters had managed to cultivate two-lined battle force, which was no more than twenty or even fifteen people. Even fewer had cultivated their battle force to the three-lined realm, and Xia Ye was the only one who had revealed four-lined battle force thus far. Even the student leaders of the ten academies had never revealed four-lined battle force before.
This was the Astral Combat Academy, the best training institution in the entire Human Domain. If one widened the scope to include the younger generation of the entire universe, then the probability of encountering someone with four-lined battle force would reduce infinitely close to zero. At this moment, Xia Ye had become the object of worship for countless people.
Atop the peak overlooking the field, Kuang Wang had a serious expression, and it could even be called a little ugly. Xia Ye’s power had far exceeded his expectations, and he was no longer even confident of defeating Xia Ye. Why had this person kept such a low profile until now?
The other student leaders had a similar reaction. Cang Shi was already very powerful, and none of them would dare to claim that they would definitely prevail over his four-lined battle force, but despite that, Xia Ye had won. His battle force’s intensity had even surpassed Cang Shi’s; this was a person who had deeply hidden their true strength. Additionally, Xia Ye had received the Astral Combat Academy’s teachings and was an elite who had walked to this step with his own merits.
“There’s a legend that one of the Ten Arbiters broke through and reached the realm of five-lined battle force while in the Astral Combat Academy, allowing him to crush Explorers with pure power as a Limiteer. Xia Ye’s not too far off from that point,” Dao Bo marvelled.
Astral-1’s leader smiled. “The distance of a single step can be like a vast abyss. In its countless years, the Astral Combat Academy has produced many freaks and geniuses. Although only a few Limiteers have ever achieved four-lined battle force, they still exist in the academy’s history. The accomplishment of reaching five-lined battle force as a Limiteer, however, belongs solely to the Ten Arbiters. No one from the younger generation can surpass them who symbolize this era.”
“They were also the start of an era,” Lu Yin suddenly interjected. He saw Astral-1’s leader, Dao Bo, and a few others look at him strangely, but he merely smiled and said no more.
Nightqueen Yanqing snorted. “Don’t make any rash presumptions about the Ten Arbiters.”
A number then appeared before her. It was her turn.
Nightqueen Yanqing got up and tapped the number to appear in the arena plains.
Many students silently watched Nightqueen Yanqing from within the Lifeseek Realm while countless more watched on their screens. This was a Nightqueen of the Daynight clan.
Nightqueen Yanqing’s opponent instantly admitted defeat. Her opponent was an Area Master who knew that he would be powerless against Nightqueen Yanqing. He did not even dare to show his face.
Next was Xue Liuyun, although this Astral-4’s leader also had no opponent, as the person had also immediately admitted defeat.
Another two new faces appeared in the following match. They could not be considered complete unknowns, however, as one of them had been Astral-5’s representative during the Knocking on the Dragon’s Door stage. His name was Tu Bo, and his opponent was a pretty girl.
When the girl’s name was transmitted, Lu Yin was stumped. Angie? Where have I heard that name before?
After digging through his memories , Lu Yin finally remembered where he had heard the name before. Amu had mentioned that she was the Umbral Butterfly Tribe’s young mistress and also a student of the Astral Combat Academy. It turned out that this was her.
The Umbral Butterfly Tribe could absorb the strength of nearby plants to limitlessly strengthen themselves, but this was also their weakness. Lu Yin looked around at the battlefield. Although this was not a swamp filled with poisonous plants and there were quite a few ordinary plants lying about, these plants would not be able to provide much strength and could only give Angie a small boost. He was rather curious to see how much Angie would be strengthened by the present flora.
Unfortunately, Lu Yin was disappointed as the battle ended too quickly. Angie’s power was decent and approached the level of an Area Master, but the battle ended instantly since she had been matched up against Tu Bo.
Lu Yin shook his head as the Outerverse’s Umbral Butterfly Tribe’s young mistress was just too weak. It could only be said that the Astral Combat Academy held too many talented students that had been gathered from all over the universe. It resulted in a situation that was unfathomable to the average person, where the disparity between geniuses could be seen from someone like Schutz. He was the top expert of the Great Yu Empire’s younger generation, but he could not even get past the first round of this tournament.
Soon after, another person appeared on the arena plains. It was Silver, and his appearance immediately attracted a great deal of attention as his performance during the Three Academies Guarding the Gate stage had been too dazzling. His killing domain was just too disturbing.
His appearance even drew the attention of Dao Bo and some of the other leaders. He had reached this stage even though he was only a Melder. This made his feat even more impressive.
Silver’s opponent was from Astral-9. He was not an unknown student, and was someone else who had participated in the Sounding the Battle Drums stage. His name was Zong. He had a pale face, and his body emitted a deathly aura, giving him the appearance of a walking corpse.
One side smiled horrifyingly while the other gave people the chills just by standing there. Many thought that the two were rather similar.
In the Great Yu Empire, Undying Yushan looked at his screen seriously. Ever since Silver had joined the Astral Combat Academy, the Great Yu Empire had ceaselessly been trying to investigate his origins, but they hadn’t made any progress. His background was too ordinary, to the extent that it was actually extraordinary. This person was definitely not simple.
No trash talk was exchanged on the plains as the two figures simultaneously attacked.
A moment later, the spectating crowd was amazed. Their fighting styles were also very similar; Silver had a silent murderous cold aura while Zong emitted an eerie killing intent. It was like they were watching two specters shuttling and flitting about on the plains.
Xia Ye and Cang Shi’s battle had been earth-shattering, but Silver and Zong’s battle was like watching ghostly demons tangling with each other. Many spectators quickly grew bored as they could only see two shadows criss-crossing nonstop and could not see any flashy special techniques.
But a small portion of the audience had serious faces and were even shocked by the battle. Silver had already activated his domain, but he still could not get a hold of Zong simply because Zong was enveloped in a layer of grey flowing air—three-lined battle force.
Everyone’s understanding and use of power was different. Xia Ye and Cang Shi’s use of power focused around destruction while Zong’s was defense. What’s more, he was even using a flowing layer of incomprehensible grey air to cover it, so as to conceal it from others. On the other hand, Silver’s domain was like flowing mercury. It moved everywhere even as it remained imperceptible, with its only distinguishing mark being the flashes of the butterfly knife.
The butterfly knife playfully danced about, as if it were truly a butterfly flying around a flower. It carried a beautiful silver brilliance as it blossomed in the arena plains. Every one of Silver’s stabs was aimed straight at Zong’s vital points. Additionally, the smile on his face never vanished despite Zong revealing his three-lined battle force. It was as if everything was going as planned.
Atop the high peak, Liu Yin suddenly spoke. “He’s almost at his limits.”
“Who?” Feng Shang asked.
Liu Yin replied, “The man with battle force.”
“How do you know?”
Liu Yin pointed to his ears. “I heard it.”
Dao Bo interrupted, “Zong should be another frozen genius, but he was sealed away for too long. It’s caused his body to be unaccustomed to his battle force, so he’s almost reached his limit.”
Sure enough, before long, multiple traces of blood appeared on Zong’s body. Silver’s smile grew broader as he flashed past him one final time, splendidly killing Zong.
The appearance of three-lined battle force should have been shocking, but it had been hidden by Zong, who was then defeated. This meant that, to the general audience, Silver’s victory was not that impressive. Only those who had seen through the concealed battle force would know the true terror of Silver and his butterfly knife that had sliced through the three-lined battle force. Silver was no less of a threat than Xia Ye.
The battle made Lu Yin feel helpless, and he unconsciously rubbed his temple. He did not know whether these people had been just concealing their power, or if they had truly made such vast improvements over the past few months. Each one had become terrifyingly powerful, and neither Xia Luo nor Silver seemed to have any limits in terms of their progress.
Lu Yin’s own advancements had also been abnormal, as only a rare few could match up to an Area Master after joining the Astral Combat Academy for just a year. But these two had also surpassed an Area Master. He really did not know how these two had managed to accomplish such a feat.
The next few battles were rather dull, as Dao Bo and Kuang Wang were also paired up against Area Masters, and like before, these Area Masters would automatically withdraw since they were not students who had only recently joined the Astral Combat Academy. Thirty one matches had concluded, leaving only one remaining. Calcifer appeared in the arena plains, and his opponent was a rather ordinary-looking young girl from Astral-9.
Calcifer’s origin had been explained by Astral-1’s leader, or else no one would have known it. He had instantly eliminated Uro and attracted a great deal of attention, but only the select group sitting on the peak overlooking the field knew his origin through Astral-1’s leader. He was a powerhouse who had been sealed in ice for a hundred years and even tried to assassinate Starsibyl in the past at one point.
“Starsibyl” was just a title, and no one knew her original name. What was known was that she represented the future, divination, and the hopes of countless people. Her sect was also called the Super Sect, as this was the impression that the outer world had towards Starsibyl. However, no one knew anything more besides that.
Over the countless years, Starsibyl had become a name that was passed on as a belief. Lu Yin had heard of her predictions, such as when Starsibyl had prophesied huge changes in the universe dozens of years ago. For this reason, great powers of the universe had frozen their geniuses, sealing them in ice in anticipation of the day the portended great changes came. At that time, they would be unsealed so that they could fight for their destiny. This clearly showed how far Starsibyl’s influence went.
Calcifer was definitely insane to dare to assassinate Starsibyl. Regardless of his success or failure, no one would let him off, and he would not be able to hide anywhere in the entire universe.
And yet, this person had now overtly appeared in the Astral Combat Tournament and even joined Astral-1, making his actions even more incomprehensible.
Lu Yin had heard news of Starsibyl more than once. The first time was from Jeraldine, the student from the Great Yu Empire’s First Military School. Even a remote region like the Great Yu Empire had heard of Starsibyl, which showed how wide the scope of her influence was.
Calcifer was a powerhouse who had instantly killed Uro, so no one believed that this girl would be able to stand up against him. That is, except for Calcifer.
He stared at the girl, puzzled, as he felt a great sense of danger overcome him as he approached her. It was as if there was a giant blade hanging over his neck that could fall down anytime he even thought about taking another step forward, and the precarious feeling caused his heart to palpitate wildly. This was a killer’s intuition, and he had experienced this more than once before. He had withdrawn every single time he had experienced this feeling before, with the exception of Starsibyl. But now, this feeling had appeared when he was facing this girl.
He instinctively wanted to retreat, but this was a competition, and retreat meant defeat.
The two stared at each other strangely in the battlefield. Calcifer did not move, and the girl also remained motionless, but the two had completely different demeanors. Calcifer stared intently at the girl while the girl’s gaze moved about, as if she had not a single care in the world.
