Spirit Beast Essence Soul! Spirit of Luo River!

Inside the hall in the outside world, the atmosphere, which had been somewhat noisy because all the battle spaces had started at once, was now unusually quiet.

Almost everyone's gaze was firmly drawn to the enormous main display at the center of the light screen.

"What terrifying control over Ice Attribute Spirit Energy!"

"Is this really a spirit art a new student can use?"

"Senior An Ran is in trouble now. This kid's spiritual energy foundation is simply unfathomable!"

The senior students wore solemn expressions, while the new students were all flushed with excitement.

Just then, the teleportation array at the center of the hall flickered faintly, and a cool, otherworldly white figure appeared out of thin air.

It was Luo Li.

Her aura remained as calm as ever, as if she had merely gone for a stroll.

Clearly, her battle had already ended swiftly in an overwhelming victory.

Luo Li ignored the awe and amazement intermingled in the surrounding gazes and walked straight to a place with a broad view.

She slightly raised her breathtakingly beautiful face, her clear, glasslike eyes quietly fixed on the young man standing proudly in midair on the main display.

Inside the battle space.

Facing the "Mysterious Ice Whirlwind Kill" that tore through the air and seemed capable of freezing and shattering everything,

An Ran's pretty face became completely solemn.

She could sense that if this attack was unleashed with full force, she would likely suffer badly.

"As expected of your reputation! Since you're getting serious, I can't hold back anymore either!"

An Ran took a deep breath and suddenly formed an extremely complicated hand seal with both hands.

Roar!

As the hand seal was completed, a violent and frigid aura of ferocity suddenly erupted from An Ran's body.

Immediately afterward, the phantom of a massive, majestic eagle covered in golden spirit patterns rapidly condensed behind her.

The giant eagle spread its wings, reaching a size of several dozen zhang. Every flap stirred up blizzards that filled the sky, and its pressure was actually several degrees stronger than Bing Tianxiao's Mysterious Ice Tornado.

"Beast Record, Earth Ranking, sixty-fifth place: North Nether Golden-Patterned Eagle!"

A chorus of startled cries immediately rang out in the hall outside.

"Senior An Ran actually used her Spirit Beast Essence Soul! This is one of her trump cards!"

"Bing Tianxiao is in danger now. The North Nether Golden Patterned Eagle is also a top-tier ice-type spirit beast, with extremely powerful resistance to ice-type spirit arts, and its might is terrifying!"

Inside the battle space.

An Ran stood beneath the phantom of the giant eagle, her aura rising to its peak.

She waved her jade-like hand, and the North Nether Golden Patterned Eagle let out a long cry that pierced metal and split stone. Its wings suddenly beat, transforming into a massive ice-blade storm streaked with gold and blue that smashed fiercely into Bing Tianxiao's Mysterious Ice Tornado!

Rumble!

Two storms, both containing extreme cold and destructive power, collided violently in midair, causing the entire battle space to tremble violently.

The berserk shock waves of spiritual energy swept in all directions like a tsunami, completely flattening the rocky ruins below.

Bing Tianxiao looked down at the scene, watching the Mysterious Ice Tornado gradually begin to collapse under the North Nether Golden Patterned Eagle's impact. Yet instead of looking startled, he smiled.

"The Spirit Beast Essence Soul of the sixty-fifth-ranked beast on the Myriad Beasts Record Earth Ranking? It really is something."

He shook his head slightly, his tone carrying a hint of helpless teasing:

"Too bad I haven't fused with a decent Spirit Beast Essence Soul yet. Otherwise, I could show off a little too."

"But I have this!"

Hum!

Bing Tianxiao held out his right hand, and a longbow that was crystalline from top to bottom and radiated a soul-trembling chill appeared in his grasp out of thin air.

It was none other than "Ice Crystal Annihilation"!

He merely drew the bowstring back slowly.

There was no arrow nocked.

Yet the instant the bowstring was drawn, the Ice Attribute Spirit Energy throughout the entire battle space frenziedly converged upon it.

A deep-blue spirit energy arrow, its surface rippling with extremely complicated and profound ice patterns, rapidly took shape.

This arrow contained no flashy techniques.

Only extreme compression and destruction pure to the utmost limit!

"Senior, you'd better catch this arrow!"

Bing Tianxiao's gaze sharpened, and his fingers suddenly released.

Snap!

A resonant twang, seemingly capable of tearing the soul apart, rang out from the bowstring.

The deep-blue arrow transformed into a streak of light too fast for the naked eye to catch. With an invincible momentum that swept away all obstacles, it pierced through the enormous phantom of the North Nether Golden Patterned Eagle, then...

stopped less than an inch in front of An Ran!

The extreme chill radiating from the arrow instantly froze several strands of hair over An Ran's forehead into ice.

The entire arena fell deathly silent.

Although the hovering deep-blue arrow did not continue forward,

the terrifying destructive fluctuations contained within it made every hair on An Ran's body stand on end.

She could clearly sense that if this arrow had truly been fired, even with the North Nether Golden Patterned Eagle protecting her, she absolutely would not have been able to block it!

"Gulp."

In the hall outside,

someone unknown swallowed with difficulty, the sound exceptionally clear in the deathly silence.

Inside the battle space, An Ran looked at the handsome face before her, which wore a smile.

She took a deep breath and completely reined in the spiritual energy surging within her.

With her movement, the phantom of the North Nether Golden Patterned Eagle also let out a mournful cry before transforming into specks of light and scattering into the heavens and earth.

"I lost."

An Ran gave a bitter smile.

She knew that her opponent had not only held back.

From beginning to end, he had not even used his Spirit Beast Essence Soul.

That level of strength was simply unreasonable.

"Heh heh."

Seeing this, Bing Tianxiao snapped his fingers in an easygoing manner.

The spirit energy arrow hovering before An Ran instantly transformed into wisps of icy-blue currents and dissipated into nothingness.

He put away the longbow, the signature smile once again returning to his face. He cupped his fists toward An Ran:

"Thank you for yielding, thank you for yielding. Senior, your strength is impressive too."

An Ran rolled her eyes at him.

This kid had clearly won with ease, yet he insisted on pretending that it had taken everything he had. He was truly infuriating and helpless at the same time.

However, she was not the kind of person who could not accept defeat. After nodding slightly, she said no more.

Hum--

With An Ran's admission of defeat, the battle space's adjudication array was triggered.

A gentle radiance descended from the sky and enveloped their figures.

The next second, the light flashed, and Bing Tianxiao and An Ran appeared simultaneously at the center of the hall outside.

Boom!

The instant the two appeared, the hall, which had been deathly silent, erupted like a powder keg set alight, exploding with deafening uproar.

"He won! He actually won!"

"He pierced through the North Nether Golden Patterned Eagle's defenses with a single arrow! As expected of a Spirit Crown Holder!"

"Good heavens, even Senior An Ran lost. Are this batch of new students going to defy the heavens?"

The senior students looked at one another, their faces filled with bitterness.

They had originally wanted to put the new students in their place, but instead, they had been put in their place themselves.

The new students, meanwhile, were fired up, their gazes toward Bing Tianxiao filled with fervent admiration.

Bing Tianxiao ignored the fervent gazes and commotion around him, passed through the crowd, and quickly walked to Luo Li's side.

"How was it? I didn't keep you waiting too long, did I?"

He habitually flashed Luo Li a brilliant smile.

Luo Li gently shook her head, her clear eyes looking him up and down.

She had seen the battle clearly just now. Bing Tianxiao had relied purely on his spiritual energy foundation and that Ice Bow to crush An Ran, without the slightest fluctuation of a spirit beast's aura on him.

"You... still haven't refined a Spirit Beast Essence Soul?"

It was naturally impossible to see anything in the Spirit Road, where spiritual energy could not be used.

But now that they had arrived in the Great Thousand World, refining a Spirit Beast Essence Soul after reaching the Divine Soul Realm was practically common knowledge among all cultivators.

It could not only greatly enhance one's strength, but also grant the spirit beast's innate abilities.

"I just haven't encountered a suitable one."

Bing Tianxiao spread his hands indifferently and curled his lips. "I can't bring myself to use those ordinary ones.

Better to have none than something inferior. I'll wait until I encounter one that truly suits me."

At this point, a trace of curiosity flashed through his eyes, and he leaned a little closer to Luo Li.

Staring at the girl's breathtakingly beautiful profile, he asked with a grin:

"What about you? What spirit beast did you refine...?"

Luo Li was slightly startled by the aura that suddenly approached her.

That faint male scent, carrying a hint of the clean chill of ice and snow, lingered at the tip of her nose.

She instinctively took half a step back, avoiding his heated breath.

After a moment of silence, she said in a voice only the two of them could hear:

"Spirit of Luo River."