Complete Fifth Style, Space Rune!

Only after the smoke on the training ground had cleared did everything finally settle.

Wu Zhangkong did not look dejected over losing the wager. On the contrary, his slightly damaged white clothes were still worn perfectly straight, and he stood like a cold sword returned to its sheath, his icy presence once more enveloping the entire field.

"Have you seen enough?"

Wu Zhangkong turned around, his ice-blue eyes sweeping coldly over the still-stunned students of Class Five.

"Gulp."

Someone swallowed, the sound especially piercing in the dead silence.

"After watching that battle, do you think that just because your class has a strong fighter, you can rest easy?"

Wu Zhangkong's voice was not loud, yet it was like a basin of ice water poured over the heads of the students whose blood had just begun to boil.

"Delusion."

"That battle had nothing to do with you. He is him, and you are you. Before him, you are still nothing but a bunch of... rotten wood."

The merciless blow made the faces of everyone in Class Five flush red, yet they had no way to refute him.

After all, in a battle of that level, they could not even withstand the aftershocks.

"As the homeroom teacher of Class Five, I do not accept mediocrity."

Wu Zhangkong clasped his hands behind his back and said blandly,

"The academy holds a Class Promotion Tournament every semester. The rules are simple: lower-grade classes may challenge higher-grade classes, or classes of the same grade may challenge one another. The winner takes the other side's class number and resources."

"I have only one goal for Class Five: fight from Class Five to Class One, crush through the entire first grade, and then continue on to challenge the higher grades."

"Tch, what's so difficult about that?"

Within the group, a student who was usually rather lively muttered under his breath, his gaze drifting uncontrollably toward Tang Linyuan at the front.

"With Boss Tang here, forget first grade or higher grades—we could walk all over them, right?"

Though the others did not speak, their eyes clearly conveyed the same thought.

How was this crushing through the grade? This was practically a max-level account slaughtering beginners' village monsters.

Wu Zhangkong seemed to have expected this reaction long ago, and an exceptionally cruel curve lifted at the corner of his lips.

"Very good. It seems you are quite confident."

His gaze shifted to Tang Linyuan, and then he delivered the latter half of the sentence that sent every Class Five student—other than Tang Linyuan himself—plunging into an icy abyss.

"However, Tang Linyuan will not participate in this Class Promotion Tournament."

"Ah?!"

The entire class erupted instantly.

"Why, Teacher Wu?!" one student could not help crying out. "Tang Linyuan is part of our class too!"

Wu Zhangkong shot him a cold glance. "If he goes on the field, what is the point of your existence? A cheerleading squad shouting encouragement?"

"What I intend to cultivate are Soul Masters, not parasites."

"Starting tomorrow, the entire class will undergo special training for the Class Promotion Tournament. Other than Tang Linyuan, everyone must participate. I will personally train you, then select three main members to represent Class Five."

When he said the words "personally train you," a chilling glint that inspired awe flashed through Wu Zhangkong's eyes.

"Those who do not want hardship can go apply to transfer out of Class Five tonight. If you fall behind during special training, do not blame me for showing no mercy."

After tossing out those harsh words, Wu Zhangkong gave no one the chance to protest. With a sweep of his white sleeve, he turned and left, leaving behind only a cold and merciless silhouette.

"It's over... We're really done for..."

The students of Class Five went pale, as though they could already see the hellish life awaiting them tomorrow.

Tang Linyuan, however, had no objections at all.

He had never been particularly interested in bullying the weak.

"Brother, you're not participating?" Tang Wulin asked regretfully. He had originally hoped to fight side by side with his brother.

"This little scene is yours to handle."

Tang Linyuan patted his younger brother on the shoulder. Then urgency flashed in his eyes.

"I have something more important to do. Come on, let's go back to the dorm."

In that battle just now—especially at the moment when the final Ink Dragon: Heaven Severing Stab collided with the Battle Armor—he had clearly felt the Tyrant Profound Divine Spear in his sea of consciousness emit an unprecedented resonance.

That stirring was even stronger than when the Devour Rune had awakened last time!

Back at the small courtyard of the teachers' dormitory.

Tang Linyuan did not waste a moment. After simply telling Tang Wulin, "I'm going into seclusion. Don't let anyone disturb me," he returned directly to his room, locked the door, and sat cross-legged on the bed.

"Phew..."

He adjusted his breathing and calmed his mind.

As the Dragon Swallowing Breathing Technique circulated, the noise of the outside world gradually faded away.

The next second, Tang Linyuan's consciousness descended once more into that gray and hazy sea of consciousness.

"Bzzzz—"

The instant he entered, a vast and ancient hum rushed toward him.

At the center of the void, the enormous Tyrant Profound Divine Spear floated there, faint black mist curling around its shaft.

And at that moment, three inches below the spearhead—beside the place where the Devour Rune had appeared last time—the area once covered in thick remnants was undergoing a violent transformation.

"Crack... crack..."

Faint cracking sounds echoed through the silent sea of consciousness.

It was the sound of the seal of time peeling away.

Tang Linyuan held his breath and guided his consciousness closer.

A thumb-sized patch of dark brown rust, shaken by some invisible force, finally could not hold on any longer. It slowly fell away, turning into ash that scattered into nothingness.

Beneath the rust, a brand-new rune radiating silver-gray light was revealed.

This rune was extraordinarily complex, its lines twisted and folded as though a three-dimensional geometric figure had been forcibly flattened onto a plane.

It did not exist independently. Instead, like a silver chain, it instantly entwined tightly with the pitch-black rune representing Devour that had appeared before!

Black and silver, Devour and Space.

The instant they merged, a dizzying sensation that made his soul tremble swept over him.

Tang Linyuan seemed to see a massive celestial body collapsing inward, space crumbling and twisting because it could no longer bear that ultimate mass.

"This is..."

Enduring the agony in his mind, Tang Linyuan extended a translucent finger and cautiously touched the two interwoven runes.

Boom!

At the moment of contact, it was not a simple surge of energy, but the collapse of an entire dimension.

It was the ultimate collapse of a "point," the infinite distortion of a "plane."

Countless bizarre visions flashed through his mind: light being captured, space being folded, all things returning to a singularity...

An ancient and obscure stream of information flowed through his heart like water, completing the incomplete profound truth from before:

[Ancient Forbidden Canon: Tyrant Scroll: Fifth Style of the Nine Calamity Annihilation Styles]

[Black Hole: Immeasurable (Complete Version)]

"So that's how it is..."

Tang Linyuan's mind shook violently, and unprecedented brilliance burst from his eyes.

"The 'Devour' I comprehended before was merely the surface—the black hole's 'stomach.' The 'Space' now revealed is the black hole's 'bones'!"

"Without the extreme distortion and collapse of space, how could there be a black hole capable of devouring even light?"

"Space is the prison, Devour is the killing force. This is the true Fifth Style!"

Although his Soul Power was still insufficient for him to fully unleash this move in its complete form, this understanding of the "structure of space" was enough to bring a qualitative leap to his spear techniques.

Tang Linyuan completely immersed himself in the vast mysteries of space and Devour, entering a state of deep enlightenment.

The real world.

The room was deathly silent.

Tang Linyuan, seated cross-legged on the bed, seemed to have truly become a miniature, drastically simplified humanoid black hole.

Although no Soul Power fluctuations leaked out, an exceptionally strange phenomenon appeared in the space around him.

The sunlight that had originally shone in straight lines visibly curved and refracted three feet from his side, forming a faint halo—the Event Horizon.

Ripples spread through the air, like a stone dropped into a tranquil lake. Rings of transparent waves slowly radiated outward from his body. It was the rhythm of space under immense pressure.

The cup on the bedside table silently became "misaligned" at its center when touched by those ripples, as though an invisible hand had sliced it apart and twisted its dimension. Yet the water inside did not spill even a single drop, held in place by the closed loop of space.

An aura called "taboo" quietly began to grow within that small room.