A reeking wind struck their faces! The cold gleam trailing the wolves' claws nearly tore their vision apart! Everything hung by a thread!
Ling Feng's command fell like a warhammer: "Form up!" The order was precise and cold. No panic. No hesitation. Only absolute control forged on the edge of life and death. Time seemed to thicken in that instant!
Tang San reacted with incredible speed! He rolled sharply sideways, narrowly evading a pair of razor-sharp wolf claws stabbing in from an angle! The claws skimmed his back, ripping away scraps of fabric! At the same time, his wrist flicked repeatedly like a phantom! Swish, swish, swish, swish-! The sounds of projectiles cutting through the air fell thick as rain! More than a dozen cold streaks shot out! Their targets were not the wolves' bodies, but the eyes of the leading Demon Wolves! Willow-leaf knives! Sleeve Arrows! Steel needles fired together! Thud! Thud! Yowl! Roar! Blood sprayed amid howls of pain! Three Demon Wolves were instantly blinded. Pain robbed them of their bearings, and they instinctively rolled into their companions, abruptly checking the pack's ferocious charge!
"Xiao Wu!" Tang San bellowed as soon as he landed. "Got it!" The girl's clear voice held a trace of strain. Facing the surging tide of wolves, her little spark of fear was instantly drowned by a stronger desire to survive and her companions' trust. She drew a deep breath, and astonishing strength erupted from her supple waist! First Soul Ring-Charm! Activated at full power! Pale yellow light spread like ripples, not precisely targeting a single wolf, but sweeping in a fan across the five or six nearest Gale Demon Wolves! Her Soul Ring shone more blindingly than ever! Awooo! Whine? A pink haze instantly covered the eyes of the charmed Demon Wolves. The greedy, bloodthirsty red faded, and their lunging fangs froze strangely in midair. They even stuck out their tongues and licked their lips in a daze. Group Charm! Forcibly unleashed! The price was that Xiao Wu's pretty face instantly lost all color, and her Soul Power was heavily depleted.
But that was enough to create a precious instant!
"Wang Sheng! Tiedan! Get back!" A thunderous shout rang out! Ling Feng moved! Not backward! He charged straight into the torrent of wolves, into the momentary opening created by Charm's confusion and the willow-leaf knives' interference!
Purple light burned like flames in the depths of his eyes! Clear Sky Hammer! Appear! Hum! A dull vibration sounded through the heavy air! The little black hammer that symbolized the pinnacle of strength appeared in Ling Feng's palm! No dazzling Soul Rings shone around it (the ten-year white Soul Ring had been deliberately concealed, leaving only the hundred-year yellow glow), but the instant the hammer appeared, an immensely concentrated, crushing pressure from the primordial wilderness spread outward! It was as though that tiny hammer had crushed space itself!
Facing several Gale Demon Wolves jammed together by their blinded companions, snarling as they tried to escape the confusion-including the wolf king with white fur between its brows-Ling Feng's eyes held nothing but icy calm. He used the modified Ghost Shadow Perplexing Track, moving so fast that a string of afterimages trailed behind him! Precisely avoiding one Demon Wolf's instinctive bite, he closed in beside another that was trying to get up, blind in one eye! Gripping the Clear Sky Hammer in his right hand, he swung upward without a flourish! Basic hammer technique! Exertion! Stacking! The "Shatter" formula of Chaotic Cloak! Boom-!!! Infused with Ling Feng's Soul Power and stacked with his terrifying strength, that seemingly tiny hammer unleashed destructive force beyond everyone's imagination! Like a siege hammer smashing into a rotten city gate! The enormous, savage body of that blinded ten-year Gale Demon Wolf, weighing over five hundred jin, looked as though it had been struck head-on by a charging armored rhinoceros! Bones cracked in a barrage like beans popping in a pan! Like a torn sack, the wolf was flung helplessly into the air by that utterly pure force! It slammed into three or four companions behind it! Crash! Awoo-! The Demon Wolves' shrill screams mingled with dull impacts and cracking bones! The pack's confusion grew fiercer. Even the wolf king's furious roar was briefly overwhelmed by that sudden, terrifying blow.
But that was only the beginning! Ling Feng gave the pack no time to regroup! Like a cold-blooded woodcutter, he shifted deftly within a tiny space, the Clear Sky Hammer in his hand becoming a black bolt of lightning that harvested lives! Bang! The hammer fell, and the head of a Demon Wolf that had just broken free of Charm burst like a watermelon! Bang! The hammer swept sideways, smashing the spine of a wolf attacking from the flank into an irregular V. It collapsed with a wretched howl! Bang! Bang! Bang! Every rise and fall of that tiny hammer brought a ghastly spray of blood and a death cry cut abruptly short! Not a single wolf could withstand one blow! Whether fangs and claws or their relatively tough flesh, sinews, and bones, all were as fragile as rotten wood before the Clear Sky Hammer's peerless might bolstered by Soul Power! Smashing rotten wood and withered stalks! Truly smashing rotten wood and withered stalks! Ling Feng threaded through the gaps between the wolves' lunges, dodging and weaving. Every ghostlike appearance ended the life of one or even two Demon Wolves. He precisely avoided the brunt of the wolf king's attacks, picking off ordinary Demon Wolves at the sides and rear. Every hammer strike killed, and not one missed! He was like a red-hot blade plunging into solidified tallow, sending flesh and blood flying wherever he passed! A pack of twenty or thirty wolves, enough to make even a Soul Grandmaster's scalp prickle, had a huge opening torn through it by Ling Feng's sheer brutality and overwhelming force in barely a dozen breaths! Corpses fell in heaps!
"Roar!!!" The wolf king flew into an absolute rage! Its blood-red eyes nearly bulged from their sockets! The pack it took such pride in was being slaughtered so easily! It abandoned its attempt to direct the wolves into an encirclement. Its hind legs drove hard against the ground, and its enormous body shot like an arrow loosed from a bow toward the figure posing such a tremendous threat, trailing a bloody wind! Razor-sharp claws tore through the air! Their target was the center of Ling Feng's back!
"Brother Ling!" Xiao Wu cried out, forcing up her Soul Power to try to activate Charm again. But her Soul Power was nearly exhausted, and the light of Charm merely flickered before dying out. A trickle of blood seeped from the corner of her mouth. Tang San's face paled. Hidden weapons shot from his hands again, but the wolf king was too fast. His willow-leaf knives and Sleeve Arrows merely grazed its fur, leaving several bloody cuts without stopping it! Teacher Zhou finally reached them, his Soul Power erupting and his Martial Soul manifesting! But he was already half a beat too late! He could only watch as those coldly gleaming claws were about to sink into Ling Feng's back!
At that instant between life and death, Ling Feng seemed to have eyes in the back of his head! He suddenly ducked and pivoted! His movement was incredibly fast! By the narrowest margin, he avoided that heart-gouging claw! The wolf king's claws skimmed his scalp, carrying away several strands of hair! As Ling Feng spun, his gaze had already locked onto the soft underbelly of the enormous wolf passing diagonally above his side! Perfect timing! His body transferred its force as he turned! Drawing on the terrifying power generated by the twist of his waist and legs, the Clear Sky Hammer in his right hand traced a deadly upward arc! "Earth-Shaking Blast!!!" His First Soul Ring suddenly lit up! The dazzling yellow light of the Hundred-Year Soul Ring instantly enveloped the Clear Sky Hammer! The formerly concentrated, crushing pressure abruptly transformed into an incomparably violent blast of force! Before the hammer arrived, its force had already struck! The turf burst apart inch by inch! Broken stones flew! This strike targeted neither the wolf king's hard skull nor its spine, but its vulnerable belly, exposed by its forward leap! Boom-!!!! Muffled thunder exploded through the forest! The shock wave of air compressed and then violently released made even Tang San and Xiao Wu, standing somewhat nearby, stagger backward! The Clear Sky Hammer struck the wolf king squarely in its relatively soft abdomen! Crack! The tooth-achingly clear sound of breaking bones mingled with the rupture of internal organs shattered in an instant! Awooo-!!!! The wolf king let out an unprecedentedly shrill howl, mingling agony and horror! Its enormous body, weighing several hundred jin, was blasted bodily off the ground by that rising hammer strike and its violent, vibrating force! It flew backward like an oversized, battered leather ball! It slammed into a tree so thick that two people together could barely encircle it! Bang! The trunk shook violently! Leaves showered down! The wolf king slid limply to the ground, a large section of its abdomen caved in. Blood mixed with fragments of its organs poured from its mouth and nose. Its eyes were round and wide, filled with endless pain, fear, and unwillingness! Its limbs twitched a few times, then stopped moving altogether. With the wolf king dead, the remaining seven or eight Demon Wolves completely lost their mainstay. Whimpering in terror, they tucked their tails and turned to flee for their lives! All they left behind were wolf corpses strewn across the ground and the pungent stench of blood.
Dead silence filled the woods. There was only the moan of the autumn wind and the thick, lingering smell of blood. Wang Sheng and Zhang Tiedan sat collapsed on the ground, utterly drained, staring at the Demon Wolf corpses as they gasped for breath. Their eyes were filled with bewilderment and lingering fear after surviving disaster. Teacher Zhou rushed up. Looking at the wreckage before him, especially the wolf king that had died with its eyes open, his face alternated between ashen and pale. His mouth opened, but not a word came out. With an exceedingly complicated gaze, he looked at the boy standing solemnly with his hammer. Single-handedly! He had shattered the frontal assault of dozens of Gale Demon Wolves! He had even hammered the wolf king to death! Was this really something a teenage Soul Master could do? This was no longer fighting above one's level. This was a crushing victory that transcended species, numbers, and rank! A monster! Pale-faced, Tang San supported the equally unsteady Xiao Wu, his gaze toward Ling Feng filled with the same shock. He had always known Ling Feng was strong, strong beyond reason. But only now, seeing that figure swinging a massive hammer among the wolves like a demon god, did he truly understand just how unreasonable that strength was! It was the perfect union of pure strength and combat instinct! It was domination!
Ling Feng slowly straightened. The purple light faded, but the icy chill remained in his eyes. He turned, his gaze sharp as a blade! He looked neither at Wang Sheng nor at Teacher Zhou. Instead, his gaze pierced straight through the crowd and locked onto the teacher who had "arrived belatedly," whose face still bore expressions of "anxiety" and "lingering fear"! Xiao Yan! He was running over, "panting for breath," as though he had exhausted every means to "lure away" part of the pack.
The atmosphere in the woods was as oppressive as the dead silence before a storm.
Over the next few days, Teacher Zhou and Xiao Yan jointly suppressed the bloody scene in the woods, saying only that they had encountered a large-scale Soul Beast attack and that, fortunately, the students had reacted quickly and repelled it with their teachers' assistance. No details were mentioned. As for Xiao Yan's clumsy acting and suspicious behavior in the woods, under Teacher Zhou's stern questioning, Xiao Yan stubbornly insisted that he had misjudged the situation and disturbed the pack in his haste to draw away another potential threat. It had been an accident caused by insufficient teaching experience. There was no concrete evidence. Swallowing a bellyful of anger, Teacher Zhou could only issue the sternest verbal warning and a disciplinary mark on his record, ordering him to stay away from teaching activities involving Ling Feng's class. Xiao Yan lowered his brows submissively and repeatedly agreed. But Ling Feng knew this was far from over. Whenever Xiao Yan passed him or looked toward him from afar, the venomous resentment pooled deep in his eyes, along with a trace of... even colder calculation, could not be concealed at all. This venomous snake was clearly preparing a deadlier strike.
A week later, the weather had turned thoroughly cold, and even a thin layer of white frost coated the ground in the mornings. The uproar over the practical combat class seemed to have subsided. The students' attention was drawn to a new announcement posted on the academy's notice board. Nuoding Academy's annual "Martial Arena" challenge tournament was beginning! To improve students' practical combat abilities and encourage healthy competition, the academy was opening a public arena. Any student or teacher (for special instructional purposes) could take the stage to issue a challenge. The rules: stop short of serious harm; no crippling or killing.
This was a routine annual event at Nuoding Academy, lively but not wildly popular. Yet one particular piece of news soon spread among the students like wildfire, drawing everyone's attention! Teacher Xiao Yan would take the opportunity offered by the academy's "Martial Arena" to enter personally, with the stated aim of "practical instruction and guiding a genius"! And he had named only one opponent-Ling Feng, the work-study student from Dorm Seven! When the news arrived, all of Dorm Seven erupted. "What? Has Xiao Yan gone mad? A Soul Grandmaster, taking the initiative to challenge a work-study Soul Master? Does he have no shame?" Wang Sheng's face flushed with anger. "Exactly! He's definitely using his position to settle a personal grudge! He suffered setbacks in the Soul Hunting Forest and during the last outdoor class, so now he wants to cripple our boss in the arena!" Zhang Tiedan said indignantly. Xiao Wu's cheeks puffed up in anger as well. "Despicable! Shameless!" Even the usually composed Tang San frowned deeply. "A Soul Grandmaster against a Soul Master has an absolute advantage in Soul Rings, Soul Power, and experience. He's clearly trying to use the rules to take revenge out in the open." An oppressive mood settled over Dorm Seven. Everyone looked toward the silent figure on the bed by the window. Ling Feng was slowly and carefully polishing the black head of the Clear Sky Hammer with a piece of velvet. Its surface was cold, faintly reflecting his calm, unruffled eyes. A challenge? An icy curve lifted the corner of his mouth. Xiao Yan, you finally couldn't hold back, and chose a more sinister yet more "aboveboard" method. You want to trample me in an arena before everyone's eyes? Heh. He set down the velvet and gently curled the fingers of his right hand around the cold hammer handle. Then let's see whose face gets ground to pieces in that arena!
The news continued to spread. The Martial Arena stood in the academy's largest central training ground, surrounded by tiered spectator stands. When Ling Feng approached the training ground with Tang San, Xiao Wu, and the rest of Dorm Seven clustered around him like stars around the moon, gazes converged on him like a tide along the way. Curiosity, shock, worry, delight in his misfortune, and even concealed jealousy. "He's here, he's here! That Ling Feng really dared to come?" "Teacher Xiao is a Soul Grandmaster with two Hundred-Year Soul Rings! He's one of the strongest teachers in the academy!" "A newborn calf doesn't fear the tiger! Does he really think one Hundred-Year Soul Ring makes him invincible?" "I don't like his chances... Teacher Xiao is obviously trying to regain face..." The low murmurs buzzed like gnats. Pressure hung almost tangibly in the air.
As they entered the training ground, the clamor instantly swelled severalfold! Voices boiled over! The enormous open-air platform stood like the center of a coliseum. Students packed the surrounding stands in a dark mass, and even some teachers and senior academy officials had appeared in seats with better views. Every gaze focused on the center of the arena. Someone was already standing there. Xiao Yan. Dressed in the academy teachers' close-fitting black uniform, he stood with his arms folded, like an iron tower. His tall body cast a long shadow in the sunlight, bringing a heavy sense of oppression. His chin was slightly raised, his eyes calm, and a barely perceptible sneer seemed to rest at the corner of his mouth as he waited. When Ling Feng appeared at the arena entrance and climbed the stone steps one by one, the entire training ground quieted slightly, then erupted into an even fiercer whirlpool of discussion! "He's here!" "He really dared to get up there!" "Now we've got a good show!" "Teacher Xiao won't beat him to death, will he?"
Ling Feng turned a deaf ear to the surrounding noise. His steps were steady. One step after another. He mounted the arena. Stopped. Ten paces away, he calmly met Xiao Yan's gaze. One was tall and powerfully built, his presence deep as a mountain range. The other stood slender and solitary, his gaze still as an icy peak. Their invisible presences collided, bringing a strange silence over the clamorous training ground. The sunlight was somewhat dazzling, dividing the arena into distinct boundaries of light and shadow.
Looking at the almost frighteningly calm boy opposite him, Xiao Yan tore away the last trace of feigned composure in his eyes, and the curve of his mouth grew colder. "Student Ling Feng," his booming voice carried across the grounds like a beating drum, "today, in my capacity as this academy's practical combat instructor, I am fulfilling my teaching duties. Seeing your outstanding strength and extraordinary talent, I have specially invited you onto this platform for a spar." He paused, the deliberately emphasized words "outstanding" and "extraordinary" laden with sarcasm. "The purpose is to provide practical combat guidance, point out the shortcomings in your fighting, and help you better realize your talent, develop your strengths, and avoid your weaknesses." His hawklike gaze locked onto Ling Feng. "Do you dare accept this session of... instructional guidance?" He enunciated "instructional guidance" with particular clarity. As his words fell, the entire arena stirred again! Shameless! Utterly shameless! This was plainly a challenge to settle a personal grudge, yet he insisted on dressing it in the hypocritical cloak of "teaching"! He wanted to cripple someone and still claim the moral high ground! Countless gazes filled with anger, pity, and complicated feelings turned toward the boy standing alone in the arena.
Ling Feng slowly raised his head. His face held no expression. His eyes were like a bottomless pool of icy water. Facing that almost crushing pressure and bone-deep killing intent, he said only one word. Clear. Calm. Decisive as severed nails and cut iron. It rang throughout the grounds.
"Come."
Hiss-! A chorus of sharp, cold breaths!
"Roar-!!" The roar of an enraged beast, suppressed for countless days and nights, suddenly exploded from deep in Xiao Yan's throat! This was the moment he had been waiting for! His hypocritical mask was torn away completely! Resentment and killing intent erupted from his eyes like volcanic magma! "Good! You've got backbone!" He gave a savage laugh! "Then let the lesson begin!!!" The instant the last syllable fell, Soul Power fluctuations far fiercer and more violent than during the outdoor practical class erupted from his body like floodwaters breaching a dam! Hum! Hum! Two immensely condensed Soul Rings, bright white with a somewhat murky quality, rose almost simultaneously from beneath his feet! Their white light made him look like a demon god! Beast Martial Soul-Black Rock Demon Lizard! Possession!!! His body swelled in an instant! A fine, tough horny layer like black rock covered his skin, gleaming with a cold metallic sheen. His fingers grew thick and sharp, and ink-black claws like short daggers sprang from their tips! He opened his mouth, revealing rows of sawlike fangs! The fierce, thick, foul-smelling presence of a cold-blooded predator spread without restraint! The Soul Power pressure of a Soul Grandmaster above rank twenty poured out without reserve! Like a tangible, vicious wind, it slammed toward Ling Feng opposite him! Xiao Yan's savage face, covered in black horny plating, twisted beneath the light and shadows of his Soul Rings. His legs drove hard against the ground! Boom! The hard stone arena gave a muffled explosive crack! Like a cannonball fired from its barrel, he shot forward with a shrill whistle and a vicious presence that tore through the air, both claws reaching straight for Ling Feng's throat! You little bastard! Die!!! he roared inwardly! Both white Soul Rings blazed brightly! First Soul Skill! Demon Lizard Venomous Fang Claw! Wisps of foul-smelling, dark green airflow instantly appeared over his black claws! Even the air seemed to give faint, sizzling sounds of corrosion!
Murderous danger! A mere breath away!!