Xiao Yan withdrew his gaze and stopped paying attention to Huo Yuhao's dejected retreating figure.
He turned and walked toward the center of the Colosseum. The referee teacher approached with the roster and, as usual, asked about the assessment standard.
"Student Xiao Yan, what age of Soul Beast do you wish to challenge?" The feather pen in the referee teacher's hand hovered over the paper, waiting to make a record.
Xiao Yan did not answer directly. Instead, he looked toward the rows of heavy metal gates deep within the Beast Fighting Zone.
"Teacher, can I directly choose a Ten-Thousand-Year Soul Beast?"
The referee teacher's hand holding the pen suddenly trembled, nearly drawing a black line across the roster.
His eyes widened as he stared in astonishment at the youth in the moon-white robe before him, seriously suspecting that he had misheard.
A Ten-Thousand-Year Soul Beast? Even Inner Court seniors had to proceed with extreme caution against one. Yet an Outer Court student who had only just entered his second year wanted to solo a Ten-Thousand-Year Soul Beast?
Still, the referee teacher had heard of the monstrous talent of Class One's class monitor.
He did not dare reject the request outright. Instead, he turned and cast an inquiring gaze toward Du Weilun, the Director of Education on the elevated platform.
Du Weilun watched Xiao Yan in the arena, lightly tapping his fingers against the railing.
He knew very well that with Xiao Yan's all-Ten-Thousand-Year Spirit Ring configuration, releasing a Thousand-Year Soul Beast would be a complete waste of time. It simply could not reveal the boy's true capabilities.
Only a Ferocious Beast of the Ten-Thousand-Year level could barely serve as a touchstone.
However, Ten-Thousand-Year Soul Beasts were precious combat resources that Shrek Academy's Beast Fighting Zone had raised at enormous cost. Losing even one would be a tremendous loss.
Du Weilun picked up the amplifying Soul Tool, and his voice spread throughout the entire venue.
"Student Xiao Yan, I approve of your choice to undergo the assessment against a Ten-Thousand-Year Soul Beast." Du Weilun paused slightly before adding a condition.
"But remember this: defeat it if you must, but do not take its life."
Upon hearing the approval from the elevated platform, Xiao Yan gave a slight nod in Du Weilun's direction to indicate his understanding.
The referee teacher took a deep breath, retreated to the safe area at the edge of the arena, and raised the signal flag high.
Accompanied by a piercing screech of metal grinding against metal, a heavy refined-steel gate in the deepest part of the Beast Fighting Zone slowly rose.
The instant the gate opened, a surging wave of heat rushed forth. Even the air in that area distorted from the extreme temperature.
Heavy footsteps echoed through the passageway as an enormous beast over five meters long and nearly three meters tall emerged from the shadows and stepped into the sunlight.
A Ten-Thousand-Year Flame Lion King.
Its entire body was covered in crimson fur, while the mane around its neck, unique to male lions, was formed entirely from fiercely burning real flames.
Every breath it exhaled left a patch of charred blackness on the ground.
The savage pressure of a Ten-Thousand-Year Soul Beast erupted without restraint, making the chests of many lower-cultivation freshmen in the stands feel tight and making it difficult for them even to breathe.
Seeing that a Soul Beast of this level had been sent out, everyone's gaze locked onto the somewhat slender figure in the center of the arena, eagerly awaiting the legendary class monitor's move.
The Flame Lion King's beast eyes, each the size of bronze bells, swiftly locked onto Xiao Yan in the center of the arena.
In its eyes, this human who had not even released his martial soul was a delicious snack delivered right to its doorstep.
"Roar—!"
A lion's roar that shook the heavens resounded throughout the venue.
The Flame Lion King fiercely kicked off with its hind legs, its massive body becoming a crimson fire meteor as it charged madly toward Xiao Yan.
Fifty meters, thirty meters, twenty meters.
The distance rapidly shrank, and the oncoming heatwave even whipped up Xiao Yan's long hair.
Xiao Yan remained where he was, showing no intention of dodging.
With a slight turn of his wrist, violet-gold and moon-white radiance intertwined before him.
The ancient, rugged Fuxi Zither appeared out of thin air and hovered steadily in the air.
At the same time, the source authority of the water-element sovereign, [Mystic Yellow Water Controller], silently activated.
This power of law directly attached itself to the Fuxi Zither.
A layer of crystalline frost instantly condensed over the surface of the originally warm Star Thread strings, lending the entire ancient zither a piercingly cold and murderous aura.
By then, the Flame Lion King was already less than ten meters away from Xiao Yan.
With the explosive power of this Ten-Thousand-Year Ferocious Beast, a single leap would allow its flaming maw to swallow the youth before it whole.
But it was destined never to have that chance.
Xiao Yan's ten fingers had already settled upon the frost-covered strings.
With the Fuxi Zither at its center, a domain unfolded.
The temperature across the entire battlefield plummeted in an instant, and a fine layer of white frost even condensed over the ground.
The Flame Lion King charging halfway through its attack bore the brunt of it.
The blazing mane around its neck visibly withered beneath the suppression of this sudden extreme-cold domain, its flames reduced to mere sparks.
Xiao Yan hooked the central main string with his right index finger and flicked it upward.
A heavy note boomed.
First strike.
Frost-laden zither music surged forth.
Wherever the soundwave passed, the moisture in the air was forcibly frozen, turning into visible icy-blue ripples that slammed viciously into the Flame Lion King's massive body.
Several muffled pffts rang out as the lion king's remaining flames were completely extinguished, and frost rapidly covered its crimson fur.
Its originally unstoppable charge became incomparably sluggish under the assault of the bitter cold. The joints in its limbs seemed like rusted gears, producing dull thuds each time they struck the ground.
Xiao Yan's fingering changed as his left hand rapidly slid and plucked across the strings.
Second strike.
The melody became sharp and piercing.
Sound was inherently the finest medium for transmitting vibrations.
Bolstered by [Mystic Yellow Water Controller], this zither note no longer merely froze the surface. Carrying bone-piercing cold, it followed the vibrations of the soundwave directly through the lion king's flesh and bones, reaching its internal organs.
The Flame Lion King did not even have time to howl before this cold that erupted from within locked it firmly in place.
Its massive body remained frozen in the posture of taking a step forward, every muscle stiff.
The beast eyes that had once brimmed with savagery and brutality lost every trace of ferocity beneath the wash of that ultimate chill. They became crystal clear, revealing only the most primal fear.
Xiao Yan pressed both hands down on the strings at once, then suddenly released them outward.
The third strike concluded it.
Cold Note: Triple Frost Fall.
This killing move, developed specifically to work with the water-element authority, reached its final movement.
Icy-blue soundwaves materialized into countless fine ice crystals, completely engulfing the Flame Lion King.
Ice rapidly spread upward from its limbs. In no more than two breaths, the Ten-Thousand-Year Flame Lion King, whose ferocious flames had seemed to reach the heavens, was completely sealed within a massive block of dark ice, becoming a lifelike ice sculpture with even the details of its fur clearly visible.
The battle was over.
From the moment Xiao Yan raised his hand to play the zither until the lion king became an ice sculpture, the entire process had taken only a few short seconds.
Xiao Yan straightened up. With a thought, the Fuxi Zither turned into a streak of light and entered his body.
At the edge of the arena, the referee teacher responsible for recording stood with his arms wrapped around his chest, his teeth chattering with a clacking sound.
Though he was not Xiao Yan's target, the lingering waves of cold that had spread to the edge of the arena alone had already left him shivering violently, his nose running.
Xiao Yan turned toward the referee, his voice calm and clear as it echoed through the silent Beast Fighting Zone.
"Teacher, announce the result."
The referee teacher suddenly shuddered, forcing himself to pull himself together as he raised the signal flag with stiff, frozen fingers.
He raised his head to look at Du Weilun on the elevated platform, his voice trembling violently from the cold.
"Against a Ten-Thousand-Year Soul Beast, Student Xiao Yan... won without injury! Director Du Weilun, please assign a score!"