Yuki gulped nervously and made her way towards the arena. As she entered, she could see the crowd cheering loudly as she walked towards the middle of the arena where Ardor Huo was already waiting for her.
He had flaming red hair similar to Ardor Ryujin's hair color, but the biggest difference was that he was slightly shorter than her. Although he was shorter than her, he looked quite muscular. He had a sharp chin, thick eyebrows, and fierce eyes. His posture was straight, and his feet were planted firmly on the ground.
Yuki had heard from Meng Li that he was a disciple of the Fire Dragon Sect and he had a fairly strong spirit. He was currently staring at her with a weird gaze, which made her feel slightly uncomfortable.
Yuki's eyes narrowed as she focused on Ardor Huo in front of her. This was her first serious battle and she wanted to win no matter what. The referee told them to get ready and Yuki activated her spirit.
"Begin!" The referee shouted, and the crowd cheered loudly.
Yuki immediately raised her right hand and sent a blast of snow towards Ardor Huo that was filled with snowflakes.
Ardor Huo grinned as he saw the snow heading towards him. He activated his spirit and simply punched at the incoming snow with his molten dragon claw which turned into steam and melted on contact.
Yuki raised a brow, but wasn't worried and activated her only spirit skill.
"First Spirit Skill: Flurries of the Frozen Heavens!"
The snow that just melted started to freeze and turn into small icy snowflakes and surrounded Ardor Huo, stopping his movements.
Yuki quickly took this chance to send barrages of sharp snowflakes at him.
"First Spirit Skill: Molten Ground!"
A wave of lava exploded from Ardor Huo's body and melted all the snow surrounding him and the ground beneath him turned red and molten.
"Second Spirit Skill: Molten Fist!" Ardor Huo yelled as he sent a punch towards Yuki who dodged it barely.
Huo's first skill causes the ground around him to melt and his second skill causes his fist to be engulfed in flames. Yuki didn't stand there idly and continued to throw sharp ice at him.
Although Ardor Huo had two spirit skills, they took a lot of Kongli to use, so he could only use them one after the other, giving Yuki the chance to counter attack him.
Yuki continued using her first spirit skill and attacking him relentlessly with sharp snowflakes. Ardor Huo could do nothing but use his first spirit skill to melt them and dodge the ones he couldn't melt.
"It's a stalemate." Both of them muttered, but Ardor Huo was extremely unhappy.
'Wouldn't I be laughed at like this?' Ardor Huo thought, and the surrounding area was getting increasingly hotter with his anger.
Yuki, who noticed this, had a strange thought in her mind.
'What if I use 'Fire through the Snow' to neutralize the heat and increase the coldness of my snow and ice?' Yuki thought, and used the Kongli to coat the sharp snowflakes with her energy and sent them towards Ardor Huo.
This caught Ardor Huo off guard as his fire spirit was nullified by the ice spirit.
'Why is her ice immune to my fire?' Ardor Huo thought confusedly as he tried to block her attacks with his bare hands, but ended up getting frostbite as a result. Slavered in cuts and his clothes completely torn, he realized he could no longer sit back like this. He needed to show her some real power.
He took a deep breath and released his second spirit skill again.
"Second Spirit Skill: Molten Fist!" He clenched his first and sent out a molten fist towards Yuki, but this time his kongli was many times higher and denser than the previous attacks.
Yuki didn't stop using her spirit skills and continued bombarding him with sharp snowflakes which didn't do much against the molten fist coming at her.
Yuki put all of her Kongli into the palm of her right hand, and kept on using Fire through the Snow to decrease the heat of the molten fist and to increase the coldness of her own snow ball.
The snow in her right hand grew larger and larger, until it was bigger than her head. The chill radiating from it could now freeze the area around it, which is something a level 12 or even level 25 should be able to do.
Yuki sent the huge snowball flying towards Ardor Huo's fist which impacted directly and exploded into a massive burst of white powdery snow.
The explosion froze all of Huo's movements in place, and the heat in the air turned into vapor and condensed on the floor.
After seeing this, the referee immediately yelled for them to stop, which Ardor Huo could not ignore.
He lowered his fist, which was covered in frostbite. If not for his high resilience because he is a dragon, his entire arm would have been frozen and shattered. He looked at Yuki with eyes full of disbelief, as if she was some sort of monster. He hasn't fought anyone who was weaker than him and lost, so this was definitely a new experience for him.
Yuki was about to ask him if he was okay when she felt an intense gaze coming from her left side and saw Ardor Ryujin glaring at her with fierce eyes.
"Winner, Yuki!" The referee announced, snapping Yuki out of her thoughts.
Yuki smiled in triumph as she left the stage and walked back towards Meng Li, who had a huge grin on her face.
"Great job! Your win was quite unexpected!" Meng Li praised, causing Yuki to smile in embarrassment.
"Thanks, senior." Yuki said politely before asking Meng Li a question that has been in her mind for a while now.
"Senior, can I ask you something?" Yuki said hesitantly, causing Meng Li to raise an eyebrow in surprise.
"Of course, what is it?" Meng Li asked curiously.
"Is Ardor Huo and Ardor Ryujin related? Because they have the same last name." Yuki asked curiously.
Meng Li didn't say anything for a moment before replying, "Yes, they are cousins. They are both very talented people, but Huo isn't as strong as Ryujin."
"Why not?" Yuki asked confusedly.
"Well, Huo has one of the most powerful fire spirits, but will only be active once he gets angry." Meng Li explained.
"That's strange." Yuki commented as she didn't understand why he would only get stronger when angry.
"I know, but if he can get rid of this effect and is able to completely control the heat he outputs, he'd be one of the strongest out of the newest generation." Meng Li sighed as she watched Ardor Huo leaving the arena, being supported by Ardor Ryujin who seemed to be glaring at Yuki angrily.
"Let's leave. There isn't a point of staying here as you can only fight once a day." Meng Li said, getting up from her chair.
"Also, take this." Meng Li said, tossing 30 gold coins to her.
"Senior, this is..." Yuki trailed off as she held the 30 gold coins in her hands.
"Your prize money from the match." Meng Li said before grabbing Yuki's hand and dragging her out of the booth and arena.