Chapter 6: The First Strike
The second training arena was a simple, sand-and-stone ring, usually reserved for low-level sparring. Today, however, it felt like the stage for a celestial battle. **Huo Wujiu** stood at one end, his red hair vivid against the pale stone, his hands empty. **Gu Yue** stood opposite him, her silver hair shimmering, her face a mask of cold intensity.
Wujiu knew the rules of this confrontation. He was **Rank 19**, nearing the second ring, with the secret, chaotic strength of the **Golden Dragon Fragment** sealed within him. Gu Yue was likely the same rank, but possessed the devastating power of the **Silver Dragon King**, commanding not just elements, but the very essence of spatial distortion. Wujiu's goal was not victory, but **dominance** and **information gathering**.
"Spirit Masters typically announce their Martial Soul before combat," Gu Yue stated, her voice icy smooth, yet containing a low, dangerous frequency that resonated with Wujiu's bloodline.
Wujiu smirked, allowing his arrogance to boil over. "I don't play by the rules of common Spirit Masters, **Gu Yue**. I'm here because you broke my concentration. If you want a demonstration, you'll have to earn it."
He didn't activate his spirit rings—he had none yet—but he allowed his internal **Primordial Phoenix Divine Flame** to surge. His skin glowed with a faint, visible, searing heat. The sand around his feet began to shimmer, resisting the intrusion of Gu Yue's cold aura. He was fighting the spatial battle simply with the purity of his heat.
Gu Yue's lavender eyes narrowed, a clear flash of annoyance confirming his tactic was working. She raised her right hand, and without any visible ring activation, the air around her fractured. A sheet of razor-sharp **wind blades** instantly materialized, twisting the sunlight into lethal spirals. She wasn't holding back the power she thought necessary to deal with a prodigy.
"Then earn this," she hissed, and the wind blades shot forward, converging on Wujiu in a dense, inescapable torrent.
Wujiu didn't dodge or use his fire. He had to test the **Golden Dragon's** strength. He channeled the chaotic gold energy sealed in his abdomen, forcing it through his limbs, relying purely on the physical boost the fragment provided. He raised his arms in a defensive posture, his fists clenched, and met the wind blades head-on.
*Clang!*
The sound was not the tearing of flesh but the jarring impact of metal. The wind blades, sharp enough to cut through reinforced steel, hit Wujiu's arms and shoulders, showering sparks and leaving deep scratches, but failing to penetrate his skin entirely. He felt a fierce, blunt trauma, but his bones remained unbroken.
The **Rank 22 Equivalent** physical strength of the Golden Dragon Bloodline had converted his flesh into a shield of terrifying density.
Gu Yue recoiled slightly, her eyes widening for the first time. The shock was clear: a spirit master without a single ring should be instantly incapacitated by that attack, yet he had endured it physically.
"My turn," Wujiu growled, capitalizing on her shock. He didn't run; he exploded forward. His speed, also enhanced by the Golden Dragon fragment, was terrifyingly fast. He covered half the distance of the arena in a blur of motion, sand churning beneath his feet.
Gu Yue recovered instantly. She extended her hand, not attacking, but defending. A wall of shimmering, brittle **ice** erupted from the ground between them, reinforced by a layer of earth element she commanded.
Wujiu met the wall with his shoulder. The impact was deafening. The ice shattered, the stone wall cracked, and Wujiu surged through the debris, delivering a heavy, momentum-fueled **punch** directly toward her center mass. It was a simple, brutal physical strike, devoid of Spirit Power elegance.
Gu Yue was far too skilled to be caught by a punch. At the last possible moment, she didn't dodge conventionally; she activated the power Wujiu feared most. A subtle, almost invisible **spatial distortion** rippled around her. Wujiu's fist passed through the air where she was, only for her to reappear three feet to the side, completely untouched.
*She can use space at this level already,* Wujiu realized, momentarily breathless. *I cannot touch her with brute force alone.*
Gu Yue didn't give him time to re-evaluate. She brought her hands together, and the temperature in the arena plummeted. The air crystallized into a cloud of dense, silvery **frost**. This wasn't simple ice; this was the Silver Dragon's primal control over the water element, freezing it to a lethal, absolute zero. The frost coalesced into two massive, razor-fanged **Ice Dragons** that launched themselves at Wujiu.
This was the attack he had been waiting for. It was pure destructive elemental force, exactly what his **Phoenix Divine Flame** was designed to combat.
Wujiu channeled his true power. He focused his will, forcing the **Rebirth Flare (Minor)** outward. He didn't wait for the System prompt; he focused his will, forcing the Phoenix Flame outward.
A dome of intensely pure, searing **red-gold fire** instantly erupted around him. It wasn't a destructive flame, but a **purification shield**. When the Silver Dragon's Ice Beasts hit the sphere of heat, the pure fire didn't melt them; it *consumed* their elemental structure. The Ice Dragons vaporized instantly, releasing massive quantities of spirit energy, which Wujiu's Phoenix Flame immediately filtered and absorbed into his core.
The energy absorbed was staggering, a massive shot of high-quality power that rushed toward his Rank 20 barrier, causing his spirit power to spike dangerously. Wujiu felt the immense spiritual gain, but he was exposed.
Gu Yue, her eyes wide with a mixture of shock and profound recognition, saw the Divine Fire for what it was. Her lavender eyes flashed with primordial fury. This was not a regular fire spirit; this was the **Primordial Phoenix**, the counterpart to her Dragon God. The instinctual hatred between the two supreme entities flared uncontrollably.
"You dare steal my essence!" she roared, abandoning all subtlety.
She activated her most powerful raw ability. A massive, uncontrolled **silver whirlpool** of chaotic, multi-elemental energy erupted from the ground beneath Wujiu. It contained gravity, space, ice, and earth, all tearing at his foundation, trying to rip him apart and claim the power he had just stolen.
*Too chaotic,* Wujiu thought desperately. *If I purify this, it will destroy my body.*
He had to end the fight instantly. He dropped his purification guard and channeled the rawest, most concentrated burst of his Phoenix Flame into his legs, detonating the energy in a massive surge of speed. He abandoned all pretense of fighting and launched himself out of the whirlpool's reach, crossing the distance to the edge of the arena in a single, desperate leap.
He landed outside the ring, skidding to a stop. He was breathing heavily, his clothes torn, a thin stream of blood running from a scratch on his cheek, but he was standing.
The massive silver whirlpool collapsed instantly when he left the ring, leaving a massive crater in the center of the arena. Gu Yue stood motionless, breathing heavily, her hands still faintly glowing silver, her perfect composure finally shattered by the sheer, overwhelming power of her rival.
Wujiu leaned over, catching his breath. He had achieved his goals: he had tested the **Golden Dragon's** defense, established the superiority of the **Rebirth Flare** for spiritual absorption, and most importantly, he had provoked **Gu Yue** into revealing the full, chaotic scope of her Silver Dragon power.
He looked back at her, forcing one last, arrogant smirk. "You have potent frost," he gasped, wiping the blood from his cheek. "But you can't touch me, and you're too slow. Come back when you've learned to stabilize your energy."
He didn't wait for her reply. He turned and walked away, every step an agony of controlled pain and swelling spiritual energy, knowing that the confrontation was far from over, but the strategic advantage was his. He had provoked the Dragon, and now, the Dragon would be obsessed with defeating him.