A week passed in the blink of an eye. The powerful typhoon that had raged for days finally moved on. The dark clouds dispersed, leaving the sky a clear, deep blue and the air fresh and clean.
The campus, suppressed for days, finally reopened completely. The highly anticipated first-year Class Promotion Tournament had at last reached its final match.
Teachers and students had already filled the competition grounds, and the crowd buzzed with noise.
Xiao Mu and Na'er stood quietly at one side of the arena with the other three members of Class One, waiting.
The five of them seemed calm and composed, showing not the slightest hint of nervousness.
Across the arena stood the team from Class Five. Xie Xie and Gu Yue were among them, but Tang Wulin was nowhere to be seen.
The two teams faced each other from a distance. An invisible pressure quietly clashed between them, and the tense atmosphere before the match spread across the arena.
Xie Xie looked at Gu Yue beside him and asked, "Will we win?"
"We will," Gu Yue replied calmly.
Time ticked by, but Tang Wulin still hadn't appeared at the edge of the arena.
The wait gradually became agonizing. Wu Zhangkong, Class Five's homeroom teacher, furrowed his brows slightly as he looked around the sidelines. Tang Wulin was taking far too long.
They couldn't keep waiting forever. He raised his voice, preparing to send Gu Yue and Xie Xie into the match on their own.
"Just you two, then... Tang Wulin, none of you managed to get in touch with him today."
The instant the words left his mouth,
a figure came running from the far end of the crowd.
It was Tang Wulin. He had finally made it back.
Wu Zhangkong spoke at once, his voice still cold. "Gu Yue, Xie Xie, Tang Wulin. All three of you, enter the arena."
"Three of them?"
On Class One's side, Ye Yingluo considered it briefly, glanced over her five students, and made her decision. "Xiao Mu, Na'er, and Wei Xiaofeng. You three will compete."
She knew that Wang Jinxi and Zhang Yangzi had to fight together to unleash their greatest strength.
She would have Wei Xiaofeng go up as the extra. He was a Two-Ring Soul Grandmaster, after all, so he shouldn't hold them back.
The six students stepped onto the competition platform in turn. Class Five's three contestants wore resolute expressions.
Xiao Mu looked calm and unruffled, with an air of arrogance in his eyes.
Confidence showed between Na'er's brows.
Wei Xiaofeng's lips curled up in smug amusement. Isn't this one just a free win?
Xiao Mu and I will team up and mow them down. We're invincible.
Wu Zhangkong's gaze settled on Xiao Mu, and he reminded him, "Xiao Mu, this is the competition platform. You can't use Soul Tools."
"I know that, of course," Xiao Mu replied. "Even without those external aids, I can still win."
The two sides took their positions, fifty meters apart, and faced each other in silence.
Seeing that both sides were ready, Long Hengxu immediately announced, "The match begins!"
The moment the whistle sounded, Wei Xiaofeng and Xie Xie charged forward almost simultaneously.
Two yellow Soul Rings rose from beneath Wei Xiaofeng's feet, and green light suddenly covered his body. A small, jade-green snake appeared on his shoulder. Its body was translucent, and a pair of delicate green wings grew from its back. Though tiny, it gave off a distinctly fierce aura.
At the same time, Wei Xiaofeng's body grew more supple, and a faint green glow spread across his skin.
Xie Xie's two yellow Soul Rings lit up at the same time. His surging Soul Power burst forth, and his aura surged in an instant, driving his speed and explosive power to their limits.
On the other side, Tang Wulin, with only one Soul Ring, faced Na'er, who had two. The gap in their cultivation was plain to see. She kept him firmly suppressed, leaving him restricted at every turn.
The most eye-catching clash in the arena was between Xiao Mu and Gu Yue. Gu Yue raised her hand and drew upon the power of two elements, blending wind and fire. The intertwined forces shot forward along an unusual trajectory, straight toward Xiao Mu's face.
Yet the torrent of elements came to an abrupt halt the instant it neared Xiao Mu. It was as if it had struck an invisible barrier—or been seized by some unseen hand—and was completely trapped, unable to advance another inch.
A closer look revealed that the First Soul Ring beneath Xiao Mu's feet had lit up. A force field had already spread around him.
His First Soul Skill was nothing more than the ordinary ability to control the direction and magnitude of force, but there was no way these people could guess how many variations it had.
In an instant, the roiling flames stopped dead in midair. Heat surged with the wind, yet it couldn't break through even half an inch of space in front of Xiao Mu.
His ability activated without a sound, effortlessly locking down Gu Yue's elemental assault. He looked utterly relaxed, arrogance in his eyes, as if a god were gazing down upon ignorant mortals.
In his eyes, Gu Yue was full of openings.
He casually adjusted the gravity around him, his feet planted firmly on the platform. No matter how the wind swept through or the elements surged, he remained perfectly still.
With a light flick of his fingers, he manipulated the force field around him. The surrounding air currents instantly became chaotic and reversed direction. Layers of wind pressure precisely dismantled the power of wind and fire. Every incoming elemental attack was forcibly deflected and flung away, not even a trace of its aftershock reaching him.
Gu Yue's gaze darkened. She quickly changed tactics, abandoning the ineffective combination of wind and fire.
Earth elements spread out with a rumble, and sharp stone spikes burst densely from the ground, stabbing straight toward Xiao Mu with fierce force. Then, biting water elements wound around the spikes, turning them into frozen earth. The layers piled on, and their power surged.
Facing the dense combined assault, Xiao Mu remained at ease, unhurried, as if everything were under his control.
The instant the attacks touched the invisible force field, they all veered sharply from their physical trajectories. They swept past his clothes and missed completely, accomplishing nothing.
"With power like that, you'll never hit me."
"So you can only deflect attacks?" Gu Yue said softly. "Then you still can't do a thing to me!"
Brilliant white light gathered at her fingertips. A condensed blade of light-element energy tore through the air, moving far faster than any of her previous attacks.
"This move's a little more interesting." Xiao Mu smiled faintly. The instant the blade of light was about to reach him, he raised a hand and absorbed all the attack's kinetic energy and heat, storing them inside his body.
"The attack... was absorbed?"
A clear look of surprise flashed through Gu Yue's eyes. What had just happened?
Had her attack really been absorbed?
Xiao Mu raised his eyes and looked straight at her. "Is that all you've got, Gu Yue?"
"Then I'll defeat you with the kind of attack you're best at!"
As soon as he finished speaking, the air around them suddenly surged backward.
Under the force field's control, the air currents that had been calm moments before turned into countless tiny, razor-sharp wind blades, locking onto Gu Yue's position with precision.
He adjusted the direction of gravity around him. His center of gravity remained as steady as a boulder, and no matter how the gale howled, he didn't move an inch.
The others fighting nearby, however, were greatly affected.
A flicker of surprise crossed Gu Yue's eyes. She tried to control the wind elements but couldn't stop the incoming gale.
Before she could think it through, her figure abruptly blurred. She activated her spatial power and instantly completed a short-range teleport, dodging Xiao Mu's attack.
When she reappeared, she looked at the gale dissipating behind her, astonishment rising in her heart.
Wasn't this elemental control?
What exactly was his ability?
Why couldn't she control the gale Xiao Mu had created?
Xiao Mu raised his eyes, not the least bit surprised. He had all the information he needed. "You dodged. But what will you do about this move?"
As he spoke, he pressed his palm gently downward.
The invisible force field shifted again. The air in the center of the arena was forcibly drawn out and compressed, and the surrounding air pressure plunged sharply.
The air across the entire area grew extremely thin, and a low-pressure environment suddenly took shape.