47 Seconds! A Crushing Massacre!

Linhe City Arena, first day of the elimination rounds.

The bracket for the round of sixteen had just been posted when Blazing Flame Academy captain Jiao Shuo locked onto his opponent. He snorted disdainfully.

"Sky Abyss Academy? Never heard of them."

The six teammates behind him exchanged glances, equally baffled.

That was hardly surprising. Sky Abyss Academy had only burst onto the scene half a month ago, and the one making waves had been Su Chen alone. As for the six people around him, the outside world had almost no information on them.

"A ragtag team that relied entirely on a summoner solo-carrying through the preliminaries." Jiao Shuo clenched his fist, flames flickering in his palm. "As long as Su Chen doesn't take the field, they're just six soft targets."

Their intelligence was not entirely wrong.

In everyone's mind, Sky Abyss Academy was synonymous with Su Chen.

And Su Chen was synonymous with Sky Abyss Academy.

As for the remaining members? They were nothing more than background decoration.

Before the registration desk, Chu Yao returned with the roster in hand, an odd smile playing on her lips.

"Their captain said something rather interesting."

"What?" Jiang Tieyi was rolling his wrists, his joints crackling sharply.

"He said that as long as you don't take the field, we're just six soft targets." Chu Yao looked toward Su Chen.

Su Chen was lounging on a bench in the waiting area, one leg crossed over the other. He held a skewer of candied hawthorn bought from a street stall, crunching through it loudly.

At that, he did not even raise his head.

"Then let them learn what it means when hammers hang from a persimmon tree."

"That analogy seems a little off," Yan Wuji commented flatly.

"Shut up. I think it's vivid."

Su Chen stuck the bamboo skewer into the ground, rose to his feet, and walked over to the Abyss Seven Generals.

There was no blood-pumping pre-battle speech.

Nor were there any impassioned slogans.

He merely raised one hand, spread his fingers, and made a loose grasping motion in the air.

"Twelve-second deployment phase. Jiang Tieyi, take the center line. Ling Shuang, blanket the field with vines immediately. Don't wait for my command. Ye Linglong, lock down their support first thing. Chu Yao, let your poison domain follow Ling Shuang's divisions. Yan Wuji, suppress their fire-element core damage dealer. Mo Qianye—"

He looked at the silent youth in black.

"Finish them."

Mo Qianye gave a slight nod. A cold flicker of flame flashed through his eyes.

"We're choosing 7v7," Su Chen said, stepping back and sitting on the bench again. "I'll wait here for you."

Chu Yao suddenly turned back. "What if something goes wrong?"

"Nothing will go wrong."

Su Chen bit into the last hawthorn, his tone casual yet certain.

"This is a precision killing machine. There is no room for accidents."

The arena.

When Sky Abyss Academy's seven members entered the field, the discussions in the stands suddenly swelled like a rising tide.

"Where's Su Chen? He isn't competing?"

"That summoner didn't come? It's just these six people?"

"It's over. Blazing Flame Academy hit the jackpot with this draw—"

The referee raised a flag.

"Sky Abyss Academy versus Blazing Flame Academy, 7v7 team battle, begin!"

Jiao Shuo immediately summoned his martial soul. Crimson Flame Lion's Roar. Four rings lit up at once, and a fire domain instantly spread across the field. Scorching heat waves baked the stone tiles beneath their feet red.

The six members behind him released their martial souls in unison.

Two fire-element attackers, two close-combat enhancement types, one support, and one controller. Their average level was forty-one. In this tournament, Blazing Flame Academy was widely recognized as a strong upper-mid-tier team.

Jiao Shuo stepped forward, flames turning into a lion's mane that wrapped around his body as he charged straight at Sky Abyss Academy's front line—

But his steps suddenly slowed.

Not from fear.

But from an invisible force of gravity.

Jiang Tieyi stood on the center line, his feet rooted to the ground. The dark golden fur of the Savage Ancient Ape spread from his collar to his arms. He did not move, nor did he even assume an attacking stance.

Yet within a twenty-meter radius centered on him, gravity abruptly tripled.

Jiao Shuo's charge was immediately cut in half. His two close-combat enhancement-type teammates fared even worse, stumbling several steps and nearly falling.

"What—"

Before Jiao Shuo could finish cursing, the ground beneath his feet began to crack.

Not ordinary cracking. Something alive was growing wildly beneath the earth.

Dark green vines burst violently from the gaps between the stone slabs. Covered in sharp barbs and slime, they spread, intertwined, and rose at a horrifying speed.

Ling Shuang stood in the rear, her hands pressing lightly downward, her expression calm.

Heavenly Net Myriad Forms.

The vines did not grow chaotically. They precisely formed waist-high walls between the seven Blazing Flame Academy members.

In just three seconds, Blazing Flame Academy's formation was split into four sections—two people, two people, two people, while captain Jiao Shuo was isolated alone at the front.

"Burn the vines—"

Jiao Shuo's command caught in his throat.

Because their support-type teammate suddenly let out a piercing scream, both hands clamped tightly over his eyes.

Ye Linglong stood thirty meters away. The purple glow of her Annihilation Demon Eyes shot precisely into the enemy support's eyes—Eye of Fear.

The support soul master had been layering fire resistance onto his teammates. The light in his hands immediately collapsed. He curled up on the ground, convulsing all over, his gaze unfocused.

The support had been disabled in an instant.

All buffs were completely cut off.

Then, within each small area divided by the vines, the air suddenly turned pale purple.

Chu Yao's Myriad Poisons Domain did not blanket the whole field at once. Instead, she precisely poured poison into every individual "cell" Ling Shuang had cut out.

The vines were the Iron Wall of the prison. The poisonous mist was the death sentence within it.

Blazing Flame Academy had been locked inside the prison they had stepped into themselves.

"Burn them! Burn through the vines and break out!" Jiao Shuo roared.

His two fire-element attackers unleashed their soul skills at the same time. Crimson flames lashed toward the vines—

Frozen.

Yan Wuji cut in from the flank, and the Profound Ice Forbidden Domain instantly covered one of the cells. Extreme cold of one hundred degrees below zero collided head-on with the flames. White mist exploded outward, and before the two attackers could burn through the vines, their flames were frozen at the source.

Ice countered fire.

Not by a slight margin.

But with absolute suppression.

Jiao Shuo finally realized a cruel fact—

They were not engaged in a soul master duel.

They had fallen into a carefully designed killing formation.

Slow, division, suppression, support disruption, poison, skill sealing.

Six stages, six people, every step stacking perfectly atop the one before it.

This was no longer simple teamwork.

This was a cold, efficient assembly line of death.

He suddenly turned to look at his teammates—they were scattered among four vine cages. The poisoned ones covered their mouths and noses as they coughed violently. Those frozen could not even maintain their martial souls. The support struck by Eye of Fear was still curled into a ball on the ground, delirious.

"Surrender! We sur—"

Before he could finish.

A black shadow glided over the tops of the vines like a ghost, silent and soundless.

Mo Qianye.

The Nether Phoenix's wings suddenly unfolded. Black flaming feathers carved a cold arc through the air as he dove from above.

Nether Phoenix Heaven-Burning Array.

That was no ordinary flame. It was something deeper and darker than fire—Netherworld Flame, which devoured soul power.

A tide of black flames swept across the entire arena. Blazing Flame Academy's seven members had already been weakened to the limit. They did not even have the strength to resist.

Boom!

The arena's protective barrier shook violently, withstanding the overflowing shockwave of the attack.

The smoke and dust cleared.

All seven members of Blazing Flame Academy were down. Not one remained standing.

The referee's raised hand was still trembling slightly.

"Sky Abyss Academy wins!"

The entire venue fell silent for two seconds. Then an overwhelming wave of suffocating discussion erupted.

It was not cheering.

It was fear rising from the marrow of their bones.

"From start to finish... how long did it take?"

The timekeeper lowered his head and looked at the hourglass.

"Forty-seven seconds."

In an inconspicuous corner of the stands.

A young woman in a plain white dress sat at the very edge, a veil covering half her face. Her fingers rested on her knee, never moving from beginning to end.

Yet her eyes remained fixed throughout on the gray-robed youth seated on the bench in the waiting area, who had never once risen.

Forty-seven seconds.

Seven people.

No summons.

He had not even taken the field.

Qian Renxue withdrew her gaze, her fingertips slowly brushing the token hidden within her sleeve, engraved with a Six-Winged Angel.

On the stands opposite her, Tang San stood silently.

He had watched the entire battle.

He had seen the slowing, the division, the support disruption, the control, the suppression, the finishing blow—a six-step crushing chain, with no more than two seconds between each transition.

He had also seen Su Chen sitting on that bench, chewing on the bamboo skewer from his candied hawthorn, not even glancing at the field once.

"Third Brother?" Xiao Wu lightly touched his arm.

Tang San did not turn around.

He shifted his gaze to the tournament schedule. The next round's matchups had yet to be drawn.

Yet in his heart, a clear and powerful intuition had taken root.

The road to the summit was growing narrower and narrower.

Eventually, at the end of that road, they would collide head-on with Sky Abyss Academy.

"Let's go." Tang San turned around, his pace swift.

"More training."

Xiao Wu jogged after him. "Train what?"

Tang San walked out through the stands' passageway. Sunlight fell across his face, but revealed no expression.

"Train how not to fall within forty-seven seconds."

The waiting area.

The Abyss Seven Generals walked off the field without exchanging high-fives or celebrating.

Because there was no need.

The outcome of this battle had been completely decided the moment Su Chen formulated the strategy.

"Your finishing was too slow," Su Chen told Mo Qianye. "You could have been three seconds faster."

Mo Qianye fell silent for a moment.

"Next time."

Su Chen stood and shook the hawthorn crumbs from his robe.

From the corner of his eye, he swept across the highest section of the stands—the figure in plain white had already quietly disappeared.

But the faint trace of soul power she had left behind still lingered in the air.

The aura of an angel.

The corners of Su Chen's mouth lifted slightly.

"Have you seen enough?"

He softly said it to the empty air, then tucked his hands back into his sleeves and led the Abyss Seven Generals toward the passageway.

On the table in the waiting area, the three invitations still lay quietly beneath the teapot, not one of them opened.