Fan Yue was breathing hard, chest heaving sharply — but he hadn't lost consciousness.
"Hff... Spiritual Power... at zero." He glanced over at Lan Xuanyu. The pressure had eased, and Lan Xuanyu could move again.
Dozens of ice spears wreathed in burning fire instantly materialized around Lan Xuanyu. They shrieked forward.
Zheng Longjiang swept his hand. Every ice spear was destroyed in a single instant.
Then he lunged toward Fan Yue — but the Sacred Halberd of the Cleaving Abyss cut across his path. Lan Xuanyu stepped into the strike. The blade carved deep into Zheng Longjiang's arm. Blood sprayed through the air.
Since when does a junior have a Divine Weapon?
For Lan Xuanyu, wielding it came at enormous cost — every swing devoured his spiritual power and bloodline energy like a bottomless pit.
He shot a quick look at the timer.
"Fifteen seconds... just fifteen more seconds..."
In that moment Zheng Longjiang's human form appeared at his side. The strike came instantly. Lan Xuanyu's body was sent flying like a ragdoll.
"You made me exert myself," said the wounded Zheng Longjiang, his voice perfectly level.
Then his figure vanished again.
And appeared in the next instant directly behind the airborne Lan Xuanyu.
Lan Xuanyu, unable to stop himself, said aloud:
"Looks like this is the end."
But in that same moment Zheng Longjiang's brow snapped into a hard frown.
"Dangerous." He vanished instantly.
In the place where he had stood a heartbeat before, raging flame erupted. It didn't explode — it burned, alive, consuming everything around it.
Fan Yue caught Lan Xuanyu's body.
And in that moment every eye on the arena shifted to him.
His hair had turned the color of flame. A pair of fire wings slowly unfurled behind his back. A crimson pattern surfaced on his forehead. And the most startling thing of all — five orange-scarlet rings rotated around him.
"What kind of spirit rings are those?!" someone in the crowd shouted.
"That color—" The voice cracked. "Are those... Million-Year Spirit Rings?!"
The stadium erupted. Voices broke out everywhere at once, overlapping in waves of shock.
Up in the teachers' stands, Old Man Shu smiled broadly.
Ho-ho. So you've decided to show everything.
Wang Tianyu leapt to his feet, staring at Fan Yue.
"Those rings — those are bloodline rings! And that's a Phoenix Bloodline!"
The Dean of the Inner Court let out a slow breath.
"Phoenix and Dragon..."
On the arena floor, Lan Xuanyu looked at Fan Yue and gave an irritated laugh.
"So you've been hiding this kind of power the whole time?!"
Fan Yue smirked back.
"Of course. I can't show all my cards at once."
The fifth ring blazed orange-scarlet.
"Fifth Bloodline Skill: Nirvana Fire."
Gentle flame enveloped them both. This was not ordinary fire — it was saturated with life force, made of it. Wounds closed. Bones knit. Exhaustion dissolved as though it had never existed.
Lan Xuanyu drew a long breath.
"Next time," he said, summoning the Sacred Halberd, "give me some warning. I had already made my peace with losing."
Zheng Longjiang stared at the flame burning in the spot where he had stood a second ago.
That fire... it's too dangerous. Could this be Absolute Fire?
His gaze moved to Fan Yue.
That Battle Soul and those rings... Ha. Looks like heaven's favorite.
He exhaled slowly and scratched the back of his head with a wry smile.
"If I had put on my Battle Armor, this would have been simpler. But enough. This fight has gone on long enough."
In the next instant Zheng Longjiang's eighth spirit ring blazed scarlet.
The entire stadium went still.
"He's using a hundred-thousand-year skill?!"
"It looks like Zheng Longjiang intends to end this with a single strike..."
The crowd couldn't hold back, voices spilling over each other in urgent murmurs.
Zheng Longjiang's voice rang out like thunder.
"Eighth Spirit Skill: Heaven and Earth Devouring!"
And space exploded.
A black hole began forming in the air, surrounded by deep violet radiance. The ground shook. The sky darkened. Everything around seemed to pull toward the center of the void. Even the protective barrier let out a piercing wail, barely holding under the pressure.
This didn't feel like an attack.
It felt like a natural disaster.
"This is... insane..." Liu Feng whispered from the stands.
Zheng Longjiang looked at Fan Yue and Lan Xuanyu.
"My final gift." He said it simply, and pushed the black hole forward.
The black hole moved.
Slowly.
Relentlessly.
Its speed was not great — but its gravitational pull erased everything in its path, turning the arena into a landscape of ruin.
Even so, Fan Yue remained calm.
His first and second rings ignited simultaneously.
"First Bloodline Skill: Eyes of the Phoenix."
"Second Bloodline Skill: True Phoenix Fire."
He pressed his palms together. In the next instant his hands blazed like heated metal. When he pulled them apart, a spear of golden-orange flame formed between them.
The temperature on the arena shot to unimaginable heights in an instant. The floor turned red. Steam poured from the stone. The protective barrier flushed a deep crimson. Tongues of fire flared here and there, as though the arena itself was becoming a world of fire.
The spear was not made of ordinary flame.
This was True Phoenix Fire.
Flame before which all other fire lost meaning.
Flame capable of burning what was considered indestructible.
The Emperor of all existing flame.
Even Fan Yue could not wield it without cost. His skin blazed with heat. Steam rose from his body. When he gripped the spear, pain seared through his palms — but his gaze didn't waver. He had long since grown used to this.
Beside him, Lan Xuanyu exhaled heavily as scorching air filled his lungs. In the next moment brilliant rainbow light enveloped his entire body, pouring in a rushing torrent into the Sacred Halberd of the Cleaving Abyss in his hands.
The two of them looked at each other.
No words. No hesitation. Just a single simultaneous nod.
Fan Yue tensed every muscle in his body to its limit. Muscles, bones — everything hummed like drawn strings. In the next instant he hurled the golden-orange spear forward.
BOOM.
The air itself exploded in a blinding flash. The spear tore through space at terrifying speed and drove directly into the black hole.
Every person in the arena held their breath. Not one spectator dared to blink, afraid to miss the outcome.
At the moment of contact the spear blazed with blinding golden-orange flame. But the gravitational pull of the black hole was beyond overwhelming — the flame began to be sucked rapidly inward, torn apart and devoured.
Zheng Longjiang watched calmly, eyes narrowed.
"I didn't expect it to end this quickly."
But in the next instant his expression changed.
Inside the black hole, golden-scarlet light ignited.
True Phoenix Fire erupted from within and began burning the void itself. The black hole lurched. Its rotation slowed. The deep black receded rapidly, replaced by the color of heated metal, as though the very fabric of space was melting and coming apart.
Fan Yue snapped his head toward Lan Xuanyu.
"Your turn. Aim straight for the center."
In that same instant Lan Xuanyu drove every part of his body to its absolute limit. Muscles, bones, tendons — everything working on the edge of destruction. He gripped the Sacred Halberd of the Cleaving Abyss with both hands.
He threw his stance wide open, like drawing an enormous bow—
and hurled the halberd.
FWOOM.
The air screamed. The space behind the halberd was split open, leaving a warped trail. The weapon became a narrow streak of rainbow light and struck dead center into the black hole.
And then something catastrophic happened.
The halberd swept through the scorched black hole, punching straight through it. At the point of impact a massive void formed — warped, black, bottomless.
In the next moment, far behind them from the direction of the spectator stands, a deafening explosion rang out.
The protective barrier had been pierced clean through.
Beneath one of the stands a crater more than thirty meters wide had formed — the space there had been reduced to void, as though a piece of the world had simply been erased.
The force of that single strike was beyond imagination.
Fan Yue was already standing in his normal human form. His clothes were torn. His right arm was scorched black. His face was white as chalk. He was barely keeping his eyes open, his breathing uneven and labored.
Lan Xuanyu stood beside him in the same state of exhaustion. The rainbow light was completely gone. His skin had taken on a greyish tone. His body trembled slightly. He raised the arm he had thrown the halberd with — with effort.
"Looks like it's broken. But..."
He turned the arm with his communicator toward Zheng Longjiang and, despite everything, grinned.
"Oh. Looks like time's up."
Absolute silence fell across the arena.
Zheng Longjiang stared at them with undisguised shock. They hadn't simply survived against him for thirty seconds. They had stood against him — and against his attacks.
In that moment, for the students who hadn't known them or had only a passing impression of them, every last doubt evaporated. What stood before them were monsters — young men who had demonstrated talent and strength beyond the boundaries of reason.
Only Shrek Academy could accept and raise children like these.
Zheng Longjiang was silent for a moment. Then he shook his head.
He exhaled slowly, and smiled.
"Well done. Victory is yours."
He raised both hands and waved them.
"I surrender."
In that instant Ying Luohun appeared between them. Her gaze moved across the destroyed arena, across the spent figures of Fan Yue and Lan Xuanyu — and only then did she speak, her clear voice carrying across the entire arena and stands.
"Very well. I declare the first-years the victors of this battle!"
The moment those words were spoken, the stands exploded.
The tension the first-years had been holding back broke all at once. One after another they leapt from the stands, heedless of rules or propriety, and like people half-mad with joy rushed toward the arena — toward the victors.
Even Xiao Qi, the first-year teacher, could no longer maintain his iron composure. He stepped forward sharply, grabbed Fan Yue and Lan Xuanyu, and threw them into the air.
This was unprecedented. In all of Shrek Academy's history there was no record of first-years defeating upperclassmen all the way through the sixth year. No generation had ever done anything like it.
Before the final match began, Xiao Qi had maintained outward calm. He understood clearly the gap in power between them.
But now—
They had won.
They had actually won.
Throwing aside rank, experience, and unspoken convention, the first-years had challenged their upperclassmen and taken five consecutive victories. This record would be written into Shrek Academy's history forever. And as their teacher, Xiao Qi could not have been anything but overjoyed.
The first-years' victory meant they had earned the right to travel to the Elf Planet and attend the ceremony together. In that moment emotion swept through every single one of them — the class was united in a way it had never been before.
Even Tang Yuge, always calm and composed, was jumping for joy. Tears streamed freely down her face.
We won. We actually won.
Liu Feng, usually a man of few words, laughed openly. Together with Yuan Huihui he was holding up Qian Lei, who had only just regained consciousness. Dun Qianqiu and Lan Mengqin were laughing and holding each other tightly.
In that moment the arena became the center of the first class's triumph.
Fan Yue, thrown into the air again and again, heard his name echoing across the arena.
"Fan Yue! Fan Yue!"
"You were this strong the whole time!"
"Were you hiding your power on purpose just to shine like this?!"
"We absolutely have to eat together sometime!"
For the first time in his life Fan Yue felt genuinely flustered by so many eyes and unending praise. Lan Xuanyu noticed, and looked momentarily surprised — then smiled with real warmth and said:
"Fan Yue. Laugh. Shout. This is our victory."
Fan Yue felt something move through him. He drew a deep breath — and smiled.
"Yeah! We won!"
This was a genuine moment.
The impossible had become real.
The first-years of Shrek Academy had defeated their upperclassmen — a feat that had once been considered unreachable. And from this day forward, this victory would become a legend spoken of for years to come.