I recognized the spirit array or formation (Ling Zhen). It was the Eternal Winter array, designed to freeze all enemies in the vicinity. Already, my classmates were caught up in the ice, along with their opponents, their movements sluggish from the cold.
"This…!" Tong Xue cried out, using his qi to prevent his body from turning into ice. Not far away, Qin Ying watched in dismay as her Sakura petals were engulfed in frost and fell heavily to the ground to shatter. Fortunately, the same happened to her opponents. Ling Hua and Zi Yan looked around as their plants and purple qi techniques were entombed in ice.
"What? Long Fan Xue was forced to activate her Eternal Winter array!?"
"What's going on!? Isn't Song Jun Wen supposed to be a crippled trash?!"
"Are you blind?" Hao Ren rolled his eyes as he fended off Kuang Zhe's spear, though both of them were much slower than before, encumbered by the frost. "Obviously, he has recovered his cultivation and become even stronger than before!"
"That's not true!" Kuang Zhe hollered. "That's impossible! Trash will always be trash!"
"…and I thought deluded lunatics only exist in cultivation stories and manhuas," Tong Xue muttered under his breath as he conjured a stream of water, only for it to freeze into a wall of ice. Jian Shi and Kai Xuan crashed into it, surprised by the sudden appearance of a barrier. Tong Xue smirked, and I couldn't help but admire his cunning and ability to swiftly adapt to a situation. No wonder he was so good at surviving.
Despite their difficulties, my former and present classmates were actually suffering the least of the spirit array's effects. In the center of the formation, where I stood, gigantic ice pillars were rising all around me to lock me in a glacial prison. Not only that, dozens, perhaps over a hundred ice spears had manifested above, and were launching toward me like wintry comets. Hemmed in by the ice pillars, I had no way to escape the freezing bombardment.
If the target was anyone else, they would have perished from the freezing cold and being impaled by dozens of ice spears. In fact, both Xiao Huo and Da Hai were locked in ice, their figures trapped within frozen blocks and unable to escape.
Unfortunately for Long Fan Xue, her target was me.
Calmly notching an azure arrow to my bow, I took aim and fired. My arrow streaked across the skies, hurtling past the icicle spears, to hammer into one of the arcane runes that made up the glowing formation circles that covered the heavens. For a moment, the formation circles flickered, and then they vanished.
Everywhere around the arena, the ice shattered, frost raining down on us. The colossal ice pillars crumbled immediately, turning to powder, the icicle spears disintegrated in midair, and the tundra vaporized instantly. My classmates, both former and current, suddenly found their movements no longer encumbered. Plants bloomed to life, Sakura petals clashing against vines and tendrils, and purple qi flared vibrantly once more, taking the form of tigers. On the guys' front, swords and a spear clashed violently, their wielders' strength invigorated by the abrupt absence of cold. Da Hai and Xiao Huo shrugged off the frost from their bodies, free from their frozen restraints at last, and took their place at my sides.
"No way…how…?" Long Fan Xue stared at me with wide eyes, unable to believe what had just happened. She glanced up, comprehending slightly. "You…you shot the eye of my spirit array. How do you know where the eye of my array is?!"
Did she really think I would give away my secrets? I wasn't some manhua character who showed off my abilities, only to have them countered later.
Unfortunately, Long Fan Xue was too sharp not to notice. She narrowed her eyes, glaring at me. "Those glasses. They are enchanted, aren't they? They helped you pick out the eye of my array."
I said nothing. There was no point denying it now that she had figured it out, but that didn't mean I had to reply either. Long Fan Xue understood that, and she wasted no time. Kicking off the ground, she charged at me. Even without her spirit array, she was still a formidable opponent. Putting all of her strength behind her sword, the Mystic ranked cultivator cleaved through the coliseum, sending a trail of ice shooting upward.
I had no choice but to switch my bow for my sword, but even so, Long Fan Xue's treasure weapon easily obliterated my blade. I watched in horror as the practice sword turned into ice before shattering, and I jumped back. Long Fan Xue pursued, only to pull back when fireballs sizzled past her.
Without even glancing at Xiao Huo, she swung her sword and froze the entire section. My three-tailed Fire Fox leaped away, but her hind paw was caught in ice and she fell and skidded across the still slippery floor. While she scrambled to her feet, Long Fan Xue returned her attention toward me, thrusting her sword forward.
Da Hai stepped in, blocking the blade with his shell. Nonetheless, he ended up being frozen solid because of it, and I was forced to dismiss him before any lasting damage could be done. Even so, my War Turtle's sacrifice wasn't in vain, for it bought me time to put some distance between us.
"Damn it…" If I had a treasure weapon of my own, I wouldn't be so pressured. Fortunately, I still had another trick up my sleeve. Summoning Azure Frost, I parried Long Fan Xue's next blow, but I found ice creeping across my hands. Gritting my teeth, I shattered them with a swing, turning that same stroke into a counter that Long Fan Xue easily deflected.
She then countered with a riposte that I parried, but the strength behind her blow knocked me back. the both of us whirled around and clashed our swords once more before springing apart. As Long Fan Xue skidded back, she cleaved a few fireballs from Xiao Huo. Using her free hand, she launched several ice blades that impaled my three-tailed Fire Fox and forced a hasty recall out from me.
Damn. Just like that, the ace of the elite class had eliminated my summoned spirit beasts. I was tempted to call in Long Wang, but his strength was locked at peak Yellow Rank, same as me, so he wouldn't be of much help against a Mystic ranked opponent.
What should I do?
"A spirit sword, huh?" Long Fan Xue frowned when she saw her next attack deflected by my Azure Frost. Ice sparked around us, the frost settling upon our surroundings like snow. "I didn't know you attained it. Even I haven't progress that far yet."
She had no reason to master a spirit sword, not when her wealthy and prestigious family could supply her with all manner of invaluable treasure weapons. The unfairness of it hung on me like a pall. This wasn't "strong eat the weak," it was nepotism. People loved to claim the "strong eat the weak" bullshit when it really was just the powerful families monopolizing authority and resources through their wealth and connections to make their children stronger than the others. I mean, let's face it. All babies were born the same. Nobody was born absolutely stronger than the others. But upbringing mattered even in the world of cultivation. A child with the advantage of parents nurturing her with all the best elixirs, equipment, weapons, tutors and other resources would far surpass a child without access to any of those.
But I wasn't going to complain. I battered away her next strike, stomped my foot to shatter the ice that had crept over my shoes, and leaped away to avoid a lethal thrust from her blade.
Honestly, in terms of strength and skill, I was overmatched. Each blow from Long Fan Xue was freezing my limbs, my arms locked in ice with every exchange. Not only did I have to expend qi to break the frozen restraints, I could feel a chill slowly curdling around my meridians and congesting the flow. It was becoming increasingly difficult to fight as the battle dragged on. The longer the duel went on, the more disadvantageous it was for me.
The only reason why I hadn't lost yet was because I could read her movements with Flowing River Clear Sword technique, allowing me to anticipate where each of her next blows would come from, and then evade or block accordingly. Often, that allowed me to spot an opening and counterattack, but those opportunities were becoming far less as time went on and my movements became more sluggish.
Fortunately, my affinity with water and Azure Frost's innate ice element allowed me to combat the cold, otherwise, without my natural resistance to ice, I would have been defeated long ago.
"Huff…"
I dodged to the side, but felt frost spreading across my cheek. Slapping my own face to get rid of the ice, but still feeling the frozen blood on my skin, I grimaced and deflected the next strike from Long Fan Xue. At this rate, my defeat was inevitable. I could already hear the existences from beyond the fourth wall howling in impotent rage, calling me weak, pathetic, a loser and a beta, and screaming about why I couldn't beat an opponent who was in a higher cultivation realm than me.
Oh, shut the f up, keyboard warriors.
Ignoring the hate, I leaped over a stab from Long Fan Xue's sword and twisted around in midair to strike from above. Long Fan Xue simply conjured an ice shield to block the blow from her weak spot, and then she launched a few ice blades at me, but I countered them with my azure arrows.
She narrowed her eyes as I skidded a few meters away. She had opted for close combat because she knew her long range ice projectile attacks would be negated by my azure arrows. In fact, she knew I held the slight advantage in ranged warfare.
"I will admit, I'm impressed," she confessed, righting her sword and taking a new stance. "I never thought you would last this long and give me this much trouble. But even you must know that you will lose inevitably. I'm stronger than you. Even though you're doing well, I estimate that you're peak Yellow Rank at best. I'm Mystic ranked, so there's no way you can beat me. Surrender now before you sustain a severe injury."
"Didn't I say this earlier?" I scoffed and pointed Azure Frost at her. "If the outcomes of battles are decided on cultivation realms, then why bother having a tournament in the first place? We might as well just announce the results without going through all this trouble of actually fighting. The point of having tournament matches is to show that the results aren't determined by the participants' cultivation realms or level of strengths alone. Tactics, teamwork, strategies, knowledge and other factors come into play here. It's not always a simple 'in the face of absolute strength, nothing matters' nonsense like so many cultivation web novels and manhuas love to spout."
"If you're still not convinced of your defeat, then I'll just have to beat it into you." Sliding her foot back, Long Fan Xue lunged at me with a lethal thrust. However, before she could reach me, a burst of Sakura petals clattered into her from the side. Whirling around reflexively, the dark-haired beauty swung her sword to freeze the storm of pink petals before they could cut into her. Then she spun around and parried a sword, freezing the familiar torrents of water that Hao Ren summoned after he learned Flowing River Clear Sword from my dad.
Kicking him aside, she then slashed at Tong Xue, but the latter was smart enough to abandon his attempt to backstab her and retreat. Nonetheless, he was forced to dive to the side as icicles erupted from the ground and lanced toward him.
"You…" She growled, turning her gaze back to where her classmates were. Lian Hua, Zi Yan, Kuang Zhe, Jian Shi and Kai Xuan all lay on the ground, unconscious from their wounds. "How did you win?!"
Qin Ying replied with a storm of Sakura petals, which Long Fan Xue transmuted into snow. She regarded our class representative solemnly, realization dawning upon her.
"You…you are intermediate Yellow Rank, at least. When did a regular student like you make such a breakthrough?"
"I have no obligation to answer that," Qin Ying retorted. Long Fan Xue's eyes darted toward Hao Ren and Tong Xue.
"And the both of you are…beginner Yellow Rank. I never thought the regular students would attain such levels. If you had such abilities, why weren't you put in the elite classes in the first place?"
"Firstly, it's because of Song Jun Wen. He was the one who helped us get this strong." Hao Ren held his sword up defensively. "And his dad trained us too. Funny that if you give the regular students similar resources to the ones the elite students are receiving, they can achieve almost the same results, huh?"
"That's right." Tong Xue smirked as he pointed his sword at the elite class ace. "You might have a higher cultivation realm than all of us, but you're still outnumbered. Do you still think our defeat is inevitable?"
"Yes." Long Fan Xue's expression turned stormy, and her qi aura intensified dreadfully. The temperature plummeted drastically and fog began unfurling from her elegant figure. I could almost see a winter goddess manifesting as a qi aura above her, its hands clasped in cold, merciless judgement. "It doesn't matter how many of you there are. I'll crush all of you in one go."