78: Chapter 78 The Battle for Supremacy

Driven by the Qi of the Shaping Realm Mid-stage, the speed at which the flames devoured Qi accelerated abruptly.

Feng Yingcai felt his internal Qi collapsing like a breached dam; the wind shield he had just condensed shattered with a "crack," and even the strength to resist was rapidly draining away.

The crowd below finally reacted, and gasps of astonishment rose one after another:

"It's the Shaping Realm Mid-stage! No wonder Feng Yingcai couldn't block it!"

"She has been hiding her Realm all along? This density of Qi is far more solid than Feng Yingcai's!"

Before Feng Yingcai could recover from the shock of the Realm suppression, Ding Siyi had already closed in and struck his chest with her palm.

The seemingly gentle palm strike, bolstered by the Qi of the Shaping Realm Mid-stage, carried a destructive force that sent him flying backward to crash off the platform.

The entire audience was in an uproar.

So that was it! This duel was not a dark horse staging an upset, but a dimensionality-reducing strike from a higher Realm against a lower one.

Beneath Ding Siyi's seemingly gentle exterior lay a cultivation level that even Feng Yingcai could only look up to in despair.

Ding Siyi stood on the arena, the pink-purple flames slowly receding, her expression remaining calm.

On the Spirit Gathering Crystal, her name jumped to fifth place, and this duel had exposed her true Realm.

It made everyone gasp—the strength of this year's New Students far exceeded expectations.

As Ding Siyi's figure walked off the arena, the clamor of the Martial Arts Field suddenly fell silent for a moment.

On the Spirit Gathering Crystal, the final two names finally lit up—Zhao Ya challenged Zhang Wen.

The air seemed to solidify. Everyone's gaze was fixed intently on the Number One Arena, their breathing subconsciously becoming lighter.

Zhao Ya's red clothes fluttered, and with a light tap of her toes on the ground, she leaped onto the arena like a ball of burning flame.

Once she stood still, her Qi erupted without reservation—the pressure of the Shaping Realm Late-stage swept across the entire field like a tsunami.

The bluestone tiles on the arena turned charred black at a visible speed, and even the air was distorted by the heat, as if it would burst into raging flames the next second.

"Zhang Wen," she raised her eyes to look at the youth walking slowly toward her, the flames in her eyes even more intense than the spirit flames around her, "Today, I will not hold back."

Zhang Wen stood opposite her, his expression as calm as ever: "I know."

"Then take this!" Before Zhao Ya's voice had faded, her figure had already turned into an afterimage.

"Crimson Flame Meteor!"

With a swing of her arms, dozens of flame bullets, condensed like rubies, burst through the air with a sharp whistle, attacking Zhang Wen's vital points.

Every flame bullet contained high temperatures capable of melting gold and breaking stone, with tricky trajectories that sealed off all angles of evasion.

Lightning Radiance flashed beneath Zhang Wen's feet as he pushed "Tremor Step Treading Thunder Marks" to its limit.

His figure weaved through the dense flame bullets, as if stepping on invisible thunder patterns, always able to avoid fatal attacks by a hair's breadth.

The flame bullets exploded against his clothes, raising a sky full of fire waves, yet not a single strand of his hair was singed.

"Can you dodge it?" Zhao Ya sneered, her hands suddenly clasping together.

"Flame Sea Cage!" The waves of fire that had exploded suddenly changed direction, condensing into a huge flame cage around Zhang Wen.

Orange-red flames burned on the cage walls, emitting a suffocating heat that twisted even the light into strange arcs.

"Indestructible Thunder Body." Zhang Wen let out a low shout, and purple-gold Lightning Radiance suddenly surged around him.

The Lightning Radiance covered his entire body like flowing armor, with fine electric arcs crackling and popping, forming an invisible barrier on his skin.

The flame cage contracted violently, squeezing hard against the Lightning Radiance armor and emitting a sizzling sound.

A large amount of white mist steamed up, but it could not penetrate the Lightning Radiance at all.

"Break!" Zhao Ya's eyes sharpened as she formed hand seals. The flame cage suddenly collapsed inward, transforming into a burning Dragon of fire.

It opened its giant mouth to bite at Zhang Wen's face; the Dragon scales and whiskers were vivid and lifelike, and even its roar carried a domineering aura that threatened to burn everything to ashes.

Zhang Wen advanced instead of retreating, slowly raising his right fist. Wrapped around his fist was no longer scattered Lightning Radiance, but a giant net woven from countless strands of purple lightning.

The mesh of the net flickered with electric sparks of destructive intent, as if it could lock down everything in the world.

"Rushing Thunder Delusion Breaking Fist: Thunder Net Locking Truth!"

The moment the fist was thrown, the thunder net suddenly expanded, firmly enclosing the entire fire Dragon within it.

Purple lightning and crimson flames clashed frantically; every time the thunder net contracted, large swaths of flames were shredded by the electric power;

and every time the fire Dragon struggled, it would scorch the thunder net, making it sizzle.

The two extreme forces collided on the arena, emitting a deafening roar.

Turbulent energy waves spread outward, forcing the crowd below to retreat repeatedly.

Just at the moment when the fire Dragon and the thunder net were deadlocked, Zhang Wen quietly condensed a strand of purple lightning as thin as a hair in his left hand.

This strand of purple lightning was hidden in the shadow of the Lightning Radiance armor, so fast it almost transcended the perception of time.

"Thousand Mechanisms of Purple Lightning Transformation!"

The purple lightning, like an invisible arrow, instantly pierced through the gap between the thunder net and the flames, aiming straight for Zhao Ya's chest.

Alarm bells rang wildly in Zhao Ya's heart; she subconsciously dodged to the side while condensing a flame shield.

But the purple lightning was too fast, and she was ultimately a split second too slow—with a soft "pfft" sound, the purple lightning grazed her shoulder, shattering the flame shield and sending up a spray of sparks.

As the sharp pain hit, Zhao Ya used the momentum of her dodge to violently spin and kick.

"Heaven Burning Leg!"

Her leg, wreathed in raging flames, lashed out like a whip, tearing the air apart; the high temperature was almost enough to burn through the arena.

This was a counterattack she launched in the brief moment of injury, with an extremely tricky angle.

Lightning Radiance flashed beneath Zhang Wen's feet, and he moved three feet sideways, just managing to avoid the fatal blow.

He looked at Zhao Ya, who was staggering backward; the scorch mark on her shoulder from the purple lightning was particularly conspicuous.

Yet she still held her back straight, the flames in her eyes undiminished.

"Do you still want to fight?" Zhang Wen asked, his tone calm and waveless.

Zhao Ya clutched her shoulder, looking at the still-blazing Lightning Radiance on Zhang Wen's body, and suddenly gave a bitter smile: "I lost."

She knew very well that her opponent had not used his full strength from beginning to end.

If that purple lightning strike had been aimed at a vital point, she would have already fallen by now.

The entire audience was silent for a full three breaths, then erupted into a discussion as loud as a tsunami.

"Shaping Realm Late-stage! Zhao Ya was actually already at the Shaping Realm Late-stage!"

"Yet she still lost... Zhang Wen's Indestructible Thunder Body is too outrageous; he took the Flame Sea Cage head-on and was completely fine!"

"And that Thunder Net Locking Truth, it could even lock a fire Dragon; and that final purple lightning was so fast it couldn't even be seen!"

Amidst the exclamations, everyone's gaze was focused on Zhang Wen, their eyes filled with inquiry and shock.

Zhao Ya's Shaping Realm Late-stage was already enough to subvert conventional understanding, but if Zhang Wen could defeat her so easily, then to what level must his Realm have reached?

"After the Shaping Realm comes the Subtle Realm... Could he have already reached the Subtle Realm?"

"Impossible! The Subtle Realm is a Realm of internal introspection and refining Qi into silk; how could any New Student reach it?"

"But other than the Subtle Realm, who could suppress the Shaping Realm Late-stage so easily?"

Questions came flooding in like a tide, and the clamor of the Martial Arts Field almost threatened to lift the roof off.

Zhang Wen, however, seemed not to hear these discussions; he simply walked off the arena, his expression as indifferent as before.

Sunlight shone through the clouds onto the arena, and the light of the Spirit Gathering Crystal remained brilliant.

But at this moment, everyone knew in their hearts that the conclusion of this duel was merely the beginning of another, even greater mystery—

What was Zhang Wen's true Realm? This question, like a stone thrown into a lake, stirred up ripples in everyone's hearts.

The duel between Zhao Ya and Zhang Wen concluded, the clamor of the Martial Arts Field gradually settled, and the remaining challenges proceeded in an orderly manner.