"Aren't you looking down on us too much?" Tong Xue snapped. Long Fan Xue looked at him coldly.
"Because it's the truth."
That was all she needed to say. She was coalescing all of her qi into her sword, causing the fog to grow denser and the temperature to drop even more sharply. As if sensing the danger, Qin Ying, Tong Xue and Hao Ren quickly moved in, the three of them charging in to stop her before she could execute her technique.
"No!" I shouted, my Flowing River Clear Sword technique allowing me to comprehend that they wouldn't make it in time, that our foe had anticipated that and already factored their attempts into her calculation, as well as the move she was going to use. "Fall back! It's a trap!"
The three of them didn't pull back. Either because they couldn't respond to my warning in time, or they ignored me because they were confident that they could get a hit in, but they continued charging onward. Qin Ying was surrounded by a storm of Sakura petals, while Tong Xue and Hao Ren were shrouded in whirlpools.
Long Fan Xue swung her sword, and at the same time, the winter goddess that manifested as her aura spread her hands.
"Celestial Blizzard."
The whole arena turned into ice. I shielded myself with Azure Frost, cleaving through the snow that suddenly blasted me from the center. As I struggled to withstand the extreme cold and tighten my qi aura to stop the ice from entombing my body, I saw that my three classmates had fallen, their bodies frozen solid.
"Class rep! Tong Xue! Hao Ren!"
"So much for your numerical advantage," Long Fan Xue said, lowering her sword with a stylish swipe. The three ice blocks that held my classmates toppled over, my allies stuck in stasis. My opponent turned to me, that glacial glare still as chilling to the bone as ever. "You're next."
A second later, she was suddenly in front of me. I barely raised Azure Frost in time to parry her blow, but I could feel the ground crumble beneath my feet from the tremendous impact. Not only did the sheer brutal force rattle my bones, ice froze everywhere, seeking to trap me. I coughed and stumbled through the fog, narrowly evading a strike that would have cut open my neck. Deflecting the next blow, I stumbled back and spun away from a riposte that almost eviscerated me.
I could feel my movements grow more sluggish, and a kick from Long Fan Xue sent me hurtling across the arena. I hit the frozen floor and rolled across the slippery surface, staggering to my knees and leaning on my sword. Pulling out Azure Frost from the frozen ground, I raised it just in time to block the next blow that sent me careening to the side. I was forced to roll away as icicles erupted from the ground, pursuing my retreating figure.
"Phew."
While I got to a safe distance, I glanced at my friends. I had summoned a trio of Construction Crabs to carry them out of the coliseum, the huge, orange sea spirit beasts lifting them up carefully with their giant pincers.
"You still have more of those spirit beasts under your command?" Long Fan Xue scowled, but she didn't attack my Construction Crabs because she didn't sense any hostile intent from them, and she wasn't the type to attack defeated opponents who were frozen solid. She probably understood that I simply wanted to transport them to safety. "You don't have to worry about your classmates. I won't hurt them now that they have been eliminated."
"Oh, I know. I'm not worried about you hurting them. I'm more worried that I'll be hurting them with my next move."
"What?" Long Fan Xue's brow furrowed deeper. "You still have another trump card hidden?"
"Maybe?"
She pointed her sword at me. "Bring it out then. Don't waste any time. I'll show you that no matter what you do, it's useless. Use every single trump card you have, and I'll crush each and every one of them."
Wow…the sheer arrogance. She was going to regret that. I couldn't help but laugh and shake my head. Even in the face of overwhelming power, I could calmly analyze her strength and roughly estimate her cultivation realm to be at beginner Mystic rank. Not even intermediate.
Did she really think she won because of that? Sure, the gap between peak Yellow Rank and beginner Mystic rank was still pretty large. It was difficult to make up the difference between two entire cultivation realms, as opposed to the difference between say, peak and advanced.
But I had overcome more astronomical odds before. And I still had…him.
Wiping the frost from my face, I rose to my feet shakily and sighed.
"Ah…I really didn't want to use him in such a place."
"Him?" Long Fan Xue repeated incredulously. I didn't answer, instead reaching into my summoning space. There was a reason why I left him in hibernation within my personal summoning space as opposed to giving him free reign in my dungeon. The last time I let him out in the Deep Sea Palace, he almost destroyed the place and injured my other spirit beasts living in there. It was only thanks to Long Wang's intervention that the damage was minimized.
After that, I never let him out again. Until now.
"Rampage freely, Hei Ba!"
The Abyssal Serpent materialized on the stage, his sheer bulk and weight crushing the concrete ground and causing the coliseum to almost cave in. With a thunderous hiss, he turned upon a stunned Long Fan Xue and attacked.
"What in the world…? An Abyssal Serpent?! How?!"
Long Fan Xue was frozen in shock for a second, but she reflexively countered Hei Ba's attack just before he hit her. A Celestial Blizzard struck the gargantuan spirit beast, only for the frost to shatter against his onyx black scales. There was a blur, and then the elite student was flung across the arena, blood flying from her mouth. Her ice goddess died instantly, the qi aura dissipating like smoke.
"A peak Mystic rank spirit beast?!"
"No! Stop!"
Teacher Wang Fei and Teacher Jiao Shi sprang into action, getting ready to intervene and halt the match in order to stop Hei Ba's berserk frenzy, the both of them in agreement for once. However, they were overruled by the principal.
"Let the match continue."
"What? But it's too dangerous!" Teacher Wang protested.
"What if the students get hurt?!" Teacher Jiao added frantically.
The principal shook his head, chortling loudly in amusement as he stroked his long, white beard. The old man's green eyes gleamed excitedly. "Have you forgotten? In this world, strength is everything. I want to see what heights our students can reach! That boy…his name is Song Jun Wen, correct? I'm amazed that he is able to tame a spirit beast like that."
Rather than tame, I was actually just setting Hei Ba loose on my opponent. Long Fan Xue skidded away, trying to conjure another of her spirit array. Ice pillars erupted from the ground, but Hei Ba obliterated all of them with a single contemptuous swipe of his tail. Hissing ferociously, he snaked across the broken frost and pounced on a battered Long Fan Xue, who pointed her sword determinedly. Blue qi lanced out of her blade and slammed into Hei Ba, but the Abyssal Serpent simply crunched the freezing blast with his fangs and emerged unscathed.
"No way!"
Long Fan Xue's eyes widened briefly, but then she dove out of the way desperately to avoid getting devoured by the yawning maw of the massive spirit beast. Even as Hei Ba slithered past her, his tail lashed out and swatted her across the arena with bone-breaking force. She lay crumpled on the ground, coughing out blood. Rolling to her hands and knees, she leaned on her sword and watched helplessly as Hei Ba turned around to charge once more.
"As if I'll be defeated by a mere snake!"
Almost a hundred ice blades materialized in the air before raining down on the lunging Hei Ba, but they shattered harmlessly against his armored scales. I ought to know how impenetrable his scales were, having fought against him in the deep-sea trench over a month ago.
Long Fan Xue brought up her sword to parry the enormous fangs that almost bit down on her, but the impact was severe on her already badly hurt body and she was flung to the side. Coughing out more blood and unable to even lean on her sword for support this time, she watched helplessly as Hei Ba pounced to devour her whole.
"No!" She screamed, horrified when she realized what kind of grisly fate was awaiting her.
"Stop this at once, Song Jun Wen!" Teacher Jiao yelled. "That's enough! The battle is over! Restrain your spirit beast!"
"Hei Ba, stop!" I ordered. "That's enough! Pull back!"
What? Hei Ba won't obey my command! The Abyssal Serpent hissed ferociously as he bore down on a screaming Long Fan Xue, his jaws opened to swallow her whole. Gritting my teeth, I threw out my hand just as both Teacher Wang and Teacher Jiao leaped into the coliseum, and forcibly recalled Hei Ba. Before his jaws could close around the so-called ice beauty, his entire gargantuan figure vanished, turning into black bubbles of qi.
Both teachers skidded to a halt, astonished by the sudden disappearance, and Teacher Jiao turned to me. I shrugged, feigning nonchalance, though inwardly my heart was beating quickly inside my chest at the almost murder.
"You told me to stop him."
He shook his head and sighed. "You were cutting it pretty close."
"Um, so what now? Do we resume the match? Or am I disqualified?"
"Disqualified? Nonsense!" It was the principal. He was laughing and clapping his hands. "No, you may continue the match. Both teachers, please get off the stage and allow the students to resume."
Teacher Wang and Teacher Jiao exchanged an uneasy glance before they hopped off. I blinked and then turned to a still trembling Long Fan Xue. Mercifully, she had stopped screaming, but she was still in massive shock. She turned her once glacial gaze toward me, her wintry eyes trembling with fear. Then she coughed and recomposed herself, raising a hand weakly. I noticed it was the hand that wasn't tightly gripping her sword.
"I admit defeat. This is my loss." She swallowed and stared at me for a second before lowering her head. "Congratulations on your victory."
At least she was able to recover some of her dignity after all that screaming earlier. But that wasn't what mattered at the moment. right after Long Fan Xue surrendered, there was an uproar throughout the school. Even I wasn't dense enough to not recognize the implication of the outcome of this match.
For the first time ever in the history of Divine Path Academy, a regular class had attained victory against an elite class in its official school tournament. I still didn't realize it at that time, but that single result would forever alter the landscape of cultivator education.