Yan Wuji VS Ma Hongjun

The commentator had just raised his teacup, and the tea had not even touched his lips.

The matchup list for the third round had already lit up the entire arena.

"Third individual match—Sky Abyss Academy's Yan Wuji versus—Shrek Academy's Ma Hongjun!"

In an instant, the noise from the stands became a tangible wave of sound.

"Yan Wuji? That name sounds like he plays with fire!"

"What kind of monsters does Sky Abyss Academy have? I've never heard of a single one!"

"Bang—!"

With a loud crash, a chair flew backward, smashing hard into the railing of the contestants' area before bouncing twice and falling to the ground.

Ma Hongjun shot to his feet.

He yanked open his collar, the veins on his neck bulging like furious dragons coiled beneath his skin.

The humiliation from the team battle had been bottled up in his chest for an entire night.

He had not even gotten a clear look at his opponent's face.

For twelve minutes, he had been trapped in an endless maze of vines, like a bird being toyed with.

A bird?

His Martial Soul was a phoenix!

Who dared lock a phoenix in a cage?

"Third Brother."

He suddenly turned his head, his voice suppressing a volcano on the verge of eruption.

Tang San looked into his bloodshot eyes. He said nothing, only gave a tiny nod.

That was enough.

That single nod spoke louder than a thousand words.

Ma Hongjun charged toward the arena in huge strides, the out-of-control evil fire beneath his feet branding two lines of scorched black footprints into the hard stone steps.

Across from him, Yan Wuji was walking up at an unhurried pace.

He wore a plain white robe, its cuffs and collar embroidered with intricate dark patterns in silver thread. His long hair was held up by nothing but a white jade hairpin.

His steps were terrifyingly precise. The length of each stride and the height of every lifted foot seemed to have been measured with a ruler.

He did not look like he was here to fight.

He looked like an emotionless messenger, here to deliver a death sentence.

Ma Hongjun stared at him viciously.

"Your name is Yan Wuji?"

"Yes."

Yan Wuji's voice was gentle, yet carried an air of detachment.

"What's your Martial Soul?"

"Profound Ice Dragon."

Ma Hongjun froze for a moment, then burst into undisguised laughter.

The laughter made the eardrums of the front-row audience buzz.

"Your surname is Yan, and your Martial Soul is ice?"

"Ha! How much fake liquor did your father drink when he named you?"

A burst of laughter rose from the stands.

There was not the slightest trace of anger on Yan Wuji's face. Instead, he revealed a mild smile.

"My father does enjoy drinking."

"But when he named me Wuji, he hoped I would remember one thing."

He extended his right hand and spread his five fingers.

Above his palm, a hexagonal ice crystal condensed out of thin air, slowly rotating and reflecting a deep blue light.

"The most extreme ice in this world is closer to destruction itself than the fiercest fire..."

His voice softened, yet it pierced everyone's hearts like an ice spike.

"...than destruction itself."

Ma Hongjun's laughter came to an abrupt halt.

Not because of those words.

But because the instant that ice crystal appeared, the evil fire surging through his body suddenly trembled violently beyond his control.

It was not fear.

It was the instinctive shudder of a life form being watched by its natural predator!

"Nothing but nonsense!"

Ma Hongjun roared as his Martial Soul fully emerged!

Evil Fire Phoenix!

Crimson fire wings exploded from behind his back, while three Spirit Rings—two yellow and one purple—shot into the sky!

The terrifying heat instantly softened the metal seams of the arena, sending up hissing white smoke.

"Fire defeats ice. That is the law of nature!"

Ma Hongjun clenched both fists, and the evil fire around his knuckles burned so fiercely that the air twisted.

"I don't care if you're some Profound Ice Dragon or Frost Ice Dragon—"

He moved.

His entire body became a blazing meteor, tearing through the air as he lunged straight at Yan Wuji!

First Spirit Skill, Phoenix Fireline!

A blazing white pillar of fire as thick as a water barrel erupted fiercely from his palm. The tip of the flames even carried a trace of eerie purple from the extreme heat!

Yan Wuji merely shifted his body to the side.

The pillar of fire grazed his robe. A large scorched hole was instantly burned into the right sleeve of his white garment.

He lowered his head and glanced at the sleeve, his brows drawing together slightly.

He looked as though he regretted finding a flaw in a beloved collectible, rather than celebrating his escape from danger.

"Not a bad temperature."

He raised his hand and lightly flicked at the sparks lingering in the air.

First Spirit Skill, Frostseal.

A layer of white frost spread outward from his fingertips, flowing in reverse along the path scorched by the flames!

The sparks drifting through the air, still not extinguished, froze one by one.

They did not go out. Instead, they were frozen into orange-red ice crystal granules, clattering onto the ground and shattering into cold dust.

Ma Hongjun's pupils constricted sharply.

Fire... had been frozen?

Before he could process that bizarre sight, his strongest Spirit Skill had already been unleashed!

Third Spirit Skill, Phoenix Firebath!

Evil fire erupted in all directions around him!

A crimson sea of flames instantly swallowed half the arena. The temperature soared beyond a thousand degrees, and the iron railings at the edge of the platform glowed red-hot, letting out overwhelmed groans!

Yan Wuji stood right in the center of the sea of fire.

The hem of his white robe caught fire, but the faint smile on his face remained unchanged.

He raised his right hand again and flicked his fingers for the second time.

Third Spirit Skill, Profound Ice Seal Domain.

There was no deafening blast.

No shockwave.

Only a silent white ripple spreading outward from him as its center.

Then, the entire world lost its sound.

The violently dancing crimson flames of Phoenix Firebath began to lose their "vitality" layer by layer, starting from the outermost edge.

The tongues of flame curling upward froze.

The patterns of the burning flames froze.

Every cluster of flame retained its burning form, yet they no longer swayed, glowed, or gave off any heat.

They died.

They became a vast and magnificent tombstone forged from fire.

The entire venue fell deathly silent.

Three seconds later, thunderous screams nearly lifted the roof off the arena.

"What was that? What the hell was that!"

"Fire! The fire was frozen into ice sculptures!!"

Ma Hongjun stood stiffly in place, like a stone statue.

Trembling, he reached out and touched the motionless "flame" by his feet.

What reached his fingertips was neither cold nor heat.

It was... nothingness.

It felt like touching a stone that had been dead for ten thousand years, one in which even the concept of temperature no longer existed.

"No... that's impossible..." he muttered, his conviction collapsing.

"The essence of flame is the violent movement of matter."

Yan Wuji's voice came from the other side of the "sea of fire ice sculpture," as calm as if he were lecturing in a classroom.

He took a step forward, and the "flame ice sculpture" beneath his foot shattered into red powder.

"What my Profound Ice Dragon freezes is not temperature."

He took another step, crushing a patch of dead flames with every stride.

"What I freeze is motion itself."

"When all motion stops, what difference is there between a thousand-degree fire and ice at Absolute Zero?"

Ma Hongjun staggered backward, his teeth grinding audibly.

He did not believe it!

The pride of a phoenix would not allow him to believe it!

Phoenix Fire Rain!

He raised both arms high as his soul power poured out madly! Hundreds of fireballs the size of millstones formed in the sky, crashing down upon Yan Wuji like an apocalyptic meteor shower!

If single-target attacks could be frozen, then he would drown him in absolute numbers!

Yan Wuji lifted his head and gazed up at the burning sky.

The smile on his face finally faded.

"Your fire is worthy of my respect."

Fourth Spirit Skill, Profound Ice Forbidden Domain—Ten Thousand Miles of Ice Seal.

There was no hand gesture, no violent flash from his Spirit Rings.

An invisible absolute domain with a radius of one hundred meters silently descended around him.

Within the domain, every trace of heat in the air was instantly drained away.

Negative one hundred degrees.

Negative two hundred degrees.

Negative two hundred seventy-three degrees!

The hundreds of roaring Phoenix fireballs froze completely the instant they touched the domain's boundary.

The crimson fireballs became crimson ice spheres, floating in midair in defiance of gravity.

Without moving at all.

Above the arena, beneath the gathering dusk, a sea of stars formed from hundreds of frozen flames hung upside down over everyone's heads.

It was heartbreakingly beautiful.

And despairingly cold.

Ma Hongjun's body became completely rigid in the extreme cold.

The Evil Fire Phoenix Martial Soul behind him let out a shrill, mournful cry. Its dazzling fire feathers instantly dimmed before it was forcibly dismissed back into his body.

His soul power circulation froze, and even the breath he exhaled condensed into white frost before his lips.

Yan Wuji slowly walked over to him, raised a hand, and gently patted his shoulder.

That seemingly soft pat shattered the thick frost coating Ma Hongjun's shoulder.

He suddenly came back to his senses and began gasping violently.

"Your fire is very pure." Yan Wuji's tone carried a trace of sincere praise. "Unfortunately, you are too impatient."

"For a phoenix to be reborn from nirvana, it must first endure nine days and nine nights of stillness."

"And you cannot even wait through nine seconds of silence."

Ma Hongjun dropped to one knee, trembling like a sieve.

He wanted to say something to save face, wanted to curse back, but all his throat could force out were broken, rasping sounds.

In the end, he closed his eyes and exhaled a thick cloud of white mist.

"...I concede."

The chief referee raised his slightly trembling right hand.

"Third match—Sky Abyss Academy's Yan Wuji wins."

No one applauded.

No one cheered.

The entire arena was terrifyingly quiet, with only the chief referee's voice echoing beneath the vast dome.

Three to zero.

Sky Abyss Academy, three to zero.

In a best-of-seven format, the outcome had already lost all suspense.

The head referee cleared his throat, preparing to announce the result.

"According to the rules, Sky Abyss Academy has secured match point. For the remaining rounds, both sides may choose—"

His words were interrupted by two voices that rang out at the same time.

One came from the eastern competitors' bench.

The other came from the western competitors' bench.

"Continue."

"Continue."

The head referee's mouth froze halfway open.

He looked eastward—Su Chen was still lounging against the back of his chair, as though he were watching a play that had nothing to do with him. His gaze held a teasing curiosity.

He looked westward—Tang San sat upright as a bell, his back ramrod straight. In those deep eyes of his lay a coldness and determination sunk to the bottom of a well.

The former was saying: You haven't played all your trump cards yet, have you?

The latter was saying: Three crushing defeats still aren't enough for me to see everything you have.

The head referee fell silent.

He closed the schedule booklet in his hand. The procedures written inside had become utterly meaningless.

He drew a deep breath and shouted the next name with all his strength.

"Fourth match—"