"Boom!"
A deafening explosion suddenly erupted, and a black sun slowly rose from the competition stage. A terrifying shockwave, centered where the black light spear struck, rapidly spread outwards, unleashing a violent hurricane that swept across the entire arena. The immense power even caused ripples in the spatial barrier surrounding the arena, as if it could shatter at any moment.
Within that dazzling black light, it was clearly visible that the defensive line, composed of metal shields, was torn apart like paper. The metal was disintegrated into countless fragments by the immense power, then mercilessly swallowed by the black light, vanishing without a trace. Everything, under this terrifying strike, turned into nothingness.
When the black sun gradually extinguished, the previously impenetrable metal fortress had vanished. In its place, only a huge pit remained, with faint black light still lingering at its edges, seemingly narrating the power of the terrifying attack that had just occurred.
At this moment, a dim golden light shield appeared around Chi Hengyu, Qing Feng, and Tang Niuniu. It was this golden light shield that had protected their lives under that pitch-black sun. This was a one-time soul tool—the Invincible Shield—which played a crucial role at a critical moment. If not for this shield, they would likely have already been removed from the arena by Dan Heng, losing their eligibility to compete.
Even so, Chi Hengyu suffered severe injuries. He spat out blood, his face as pale as paper, and he collapsed to the ground, having lost all combat ability. Although protected by the Invincible Shield, his martial soul, the Vajra Shield, was engulfed by the black sun, leading to its shattering and causing him a severe backlash.
"Roar!"
A resounding dragon's roar suddenly broke the brief silence. The crimson orb of light beside Gu Yue instantly transformed into a fiery dragon, burning with blazing flames. The fire dragon roared skyward, carrying rolling heatwaves, and charged furiously towards Gu Zhu Jian. Wherever the fire dragon passed, the air was warped by the high temperature like water ripples. Even Ma Xiaotao, observing from outside the arena, couldn't help but twitch her lips upon seeing this terrifying scene. Her eyes were empty and lifeless, as if she was in a state of self-doubt. The temperature of Gu Yue's flames, although not as hot as Firefly's, still surpassed her Phoenix True Fire, which naturally frustrated her.
"Fifth Soul Skill, Bamboo Sword Descends!" Gu Zhu Jian dared not be careless. His black fifth soul ring shone brightly. Instantly, a giant purple bamboo sword descended from the sky, carrying a fierce sword aura, as if to tear the entire space apart, and slashed head-on towards the fire dragon controlled by Gu Yue.
At the same time, the little maniac from Dou Ling Royal Academy held the white Misty Sky Orb, his soul rings shining. In a flash, a purple light spread from his hand, covering more than half of the arena. Within the range of this purple light, everything became blurry and illusory, as if entering a dream world. The Dou Ling Royal Academy team members also used this opportunity to cleverly conceal themselves, making it difficult to pinpoint their locations.
Seeing this, Firefly's third soul ring shone with black light, and a circle of red light rapidly spread outwards from her. The red light swept across the entire arena, and everyone could clearly see that within the purple light's concealment, several figures had crimson flame marks above their heads. This was precisely Firefly's third soul skill—Dead Star Overload. This soul skill not only inflicts a fire-attribute weakness on opponents, but regardless of their attribute or martial soul, they become weak to fire under the effect of this soul skill. Simultaneously, opponents afflicted with the fire-attribute weakness display a distinct mark, and this mark perfectly locked onto the Dou Ling Royal Academy group, whose figures were obscured by the Misty Sky Orb.
After locking onto her targets, Firefly didn't hesitate. Her figure instantly transformed into a flash of fire. Accompanied by the sound of exploding air, she charged towards the little maniac who had released the purple light, like a burning meteor. The little maniac's face instantly changed dramatically. He couldn't understand how Firefly had precisely located him despite the concealment of his soul skill.
"Protect me!" However, now was clearly not the time to ponder these questions. He knew he couldn't block Firefly's terrifying attack. As a control-type soul master, if Firefly landed a single blow, he would undoubtedly be knocked out. Therefore, he decisively sent out a distress signal to his teammates.
Hearing his teammate's cry for help, Vice Captain Qian Yuan immediately released his martial soul possession. In an instant, his arms transformed into two massive bear claws, which he crossed, swiftly blocking Firefly. After releasing his martial soul, Qian Yuan's height rapidly increased, reaching an astonishing three meters. The front of his bear-clawed arms each had five incredibly sharp, giant claws, emanating a cold metallic luster, as if they could easily tear through anything. Qian Yuan's martial soul was the Dreadclaw Bear, a subordinate martial soul of the super martial soulDark Gold Dreadclaw Bear. It possessed a trace of the Dark Gold Dreadclaw Bear's bloodline, and its attack power was extremely formidable, comparable to a top-tier martial soul. At this moment, he stepped forward to face the terrifyingly offensive Firefly.
"Boom!"
Carrying the immense kinetic energy of her charge, the iron fist, enveloped in blazing flames, heavily smashed onto Qian Yuan's crossed arms.
"Crack!"
In an instant, the surrounding air cracked and shattered like a spiderweb under the terrifying impact. Qian Yuan was sent flying backward like a kite with a broken string, completely powerless, as if he had been directly hit by a train going at breakneck speed. Unfortunately, the little maniac behind him had no time to react and was violently struck by Qian Yuan's flying body. Both tumbled uncontrollably in mid-air. At the same moment, golden Invincible Shields suddenly lit up around them.
"Bang!"
Two dull and heavy thuds sounded consecutively. Qian Yuan and the little maniac were forcibly pressed, as if by an invisible yet utterly domineering force, and simultaneously slammed by Firefly's punch, embedded tightly into the barely visible, seemingly tangible spatial barrier. They hung there, straight as boards, a scene both absurd and shocking.
Han Ling'er had been intently focused on the battle unfolding on the stage, but at this moment, her mouth dropped open in shock. She looked as if she had seen the most incredible thing in the world, her eyes wide with disbelief. She felt the howling gust of wind caused by her teammate rushing past her at high speed, then looked at the silver-white mecha, emanating a cold metallic luster, steadily approaching step by step through the dust. Her throat uncontrollably swallowed, a difficult gulp. Fear instantly clutched her heart. Almost subconsciously, she turned and fled, her hurried steps revealing her inner terror.
Tang Niuniu was about to release another soul skill, intending to assist her captain, Gu Zhu Jian, against Gu Yue. However, her actions were a step too slow. In the very next second, Lu Jingming instantly appeared before her. Lu Jingming's expression was calm, his pale index finger slowly extended, with an eerie black-red lightning flickering at its tip. Lu Jingming gently touched Tang Niuniu's glabella with his index finger. An invisible shockwave, imbued with a powerful spiritual will and carrying black-red lightning, surged into her. Tang Niuniu had no time to react. Her eyes instantly rolled back, and she fell straight backward, collapsing into a deep sleep.
Qing Feng, beside Tang Niuniu, watched this scene, his face instantly turning pale as paper, his expression changing drastically. He knew the situation was irreversible. He was about to turn and flee, but before he could even take a step, the black long spear heavily struck his abdomen. In an instant, an invisible spiritual impact washed over him like a surging tide. He felt his vision go black, his head spun, and then he lost consciousness, falling straight to the ground.
Lu Jingming looked at his "results," a satisfied expression on his face. The method he had just used to knock out Tang Niuniu and Qing Feng was an attempt he had meticulously researched for a long time. He had successfully integrated his own powerful spiritual power, spear intent, and soul power to create this new attack method. This attack could be described as all-encompassing, with no blind spots. It not only had physical effects directly on the body but also included spiritual attacks that directly struck the depths of the soul, as well as a strong impact on the opponent's will. The black-red lightning flickering at his fingertips was not his Dismantling Lightning; it was the materialized manifestation of the perfect fusion of spear intent, soul power, and spiritual power. This was a miraculous phenomenon born from the collision and friction between Lu Jingming's own will and the rules of this world, not truly natural lightning. To some extent, this could perfectly be called a self-created soul skill.
As the battle progressed to this point, the outcome was essentially without suspense. Anyone with eyes could see that St. Freya Academy, by only deploying three members, had crushed Dou Ling Royal Academy with overwhelming force in an extremely short amount of time. Han Ling'er was still desperately running, but just then, Firefly's first soul ring suddenly shone brightly. In an instant, blazing flames erupted from behind the silver mecha. Propelled by the powerful thrust of the flames, Firefly's figure flashed three times in quick succession like an illusion, almost too fast for the naked eye to catch. In a blink, Firefly instantly appeared before Han Ling'er. This was precisely Firefly's first soul skill—Blazing Flash Assault. This soul skill not only allowed Firefly to complete three consecutive fiery assaults in an instant but also increased her speed and attack power during the assaults.
Firefly, without a word, directly unleashed a punch. The wind from her fist howled, and Han Ling'er's face instantly turned ashen, completely pale. The next moment, she decisively activated the Invincible Shield on her body. Although she knew that Firefly might not kill her, Firefly's demonstrated attack power was too terrifying, and she absolutely did not want to take a punch lightly.
"Another Invincible Shield!"
Seeing this, Lu Jingming couldn't help but raise an eyebrow slightly. This Dou Ling Royal Academy was truly well-prepared, and their financial resources were indeed abundant and rich. They had equipped almost every team member with an Invincible Shield. One must know that these Invincible Shields were expensive and single-use consumables. Such generosity was evident.
At the same time, a greenish gale swept across the arena, and the green orb of light beside Gu Yue shone with green radiance. Under the augmentation of this gale, the already formidable fire dragon instantly surged several times in power. In just an instant, it completely engulfed the soul skill released by Gu Zhu Jian, leaving no trace.
Gu Zhu Jian's figure flashed, narrowly dodging the deadly dragon's breath spat from the fire dragon's mouth. He looked up at the elemental light orbs beside Gu Yue, then turned to look at Han Ling'er, who had already raised her hand in surrender, her face full of helplessness, and the little maniac and Qian Yuan, who were still "hanging" motionless in the air. He couldn't help but twitch his lips several times. How much time had passed? He had only exchanged a few moves with Gu Yue, and his teammates had already all lost their combat ability, lying defeated.
"We surrender!"
Gu Zhu Jian instantly remembered the upcoming matches. He made a snap decision and decisively raised his hand to surrender. He knew very well that although their team still had some trump cards they hadn't revealed, they hadn't planned to use them in this match anyway. Moreover, judging by the terrifying strength displayed by St. Freya Academy, even if they used all their might and revealed all their trump cards, it would likely be futile, just a pointless struggle. Therefore, he rationally chose to surrender. After all, this was just the group stage; there were two qualifying spots. Dying to St. Freya Academy here was simply not worth it, too unwise.
"Group 1 Round Robin, St. Freya Academy wins!"
Dan Heng's figure appeared again in the center of the arena. His voice was still flat and emotionless, calmly announcing the match result. The battle ended incredibly quickly! This was the unanimous thought in everyone's mind. Everyone had initially expected a fierce dragon-versus-tiger, strong-versus-strong showdown. But who would have thought that Dou Ling Royal Academy would be overwhelmingly crushed by St. Freya Academy? The entire battle process was as swift as a storm, everything proceeding too smoothly, too fluidly. The audience didn't even have time to blink before the match was over.
Even if Dou Ling Royal Academy's captain, Gu Zhu Jian, possessed countless abilities, he couldn't hold out alone at this moment and could only helplessly choose to surrender. At this point, both the Sun Moon Royal Soul Tool Academy and Shrek Academy, seeing this scene, couldn't help but show solemn expressions on their faces. The strength displayed by St. Freya Academy in this match far exceeded their expectations. This, moreover, filled them with deep shock and apprehension. After all, the battle ended so quickly, and Lu Jingming and his two teammates seemed to fight with great ease throughout the entire process, never appearing to use their full strength. Furthermore, St. Freya Academy still had four members who hadn't even made a move. This made it even harder to imagine what a terrifying scene it would be when all of them went all out. It also made one ponder which academy could possibly withstand their full assault.