92: Chapter 92 Zhao Ya, defeated! Poor Wan Hao.

Zhao Ya on the stage obviously heard the discussions below, and the flames beneath her red dress suddenly flared up by half a foot.

I don't care if you're a transfer student or whatever, I'm winning this arena match today!

Before the words left her lips, she spread her arms, and crimson flames poured down like a waterfall, coalescing in front of her into a baring, clawing fire lion. As its mane billowed, even the air was scorched into distortion.

Su Xue, however, remained calm and composed. Her silver hair slid across her shoulders with the movement of her raised hand, revealing a slender yet upright neck.

Your flames are fierce enough, but they still can't burn through my ice.

Her voice was as clear and cold as an ice spring. As she spoke, she stomped her foot onto the ground—in an instant, a circular ice wall suddenly rose up around the edge of the arena.

It trapped the fire lion in the center, and dense ice spikes even formed on the ice wall, reflecting the red light of the flames, creating a strangely symmetrical beauty.

The fire lion rammed frantically inside the ice wall. Each impact sent ice fragments flying, but it never managed to tear open a gap.

Fine beads of sweat seeped from Zhao Ya's forehead; it was clear that maintaining the fire lion form consumed a significant amount of spiritual power.

Su Xue simply stood quietly on the other side of the ice wall, her fair hand pressed against it, as if continuously injecting new cold energy.

If this continues, Zhao Ya is going to be worn down! Ding Siyi couldn't help but clench her fists.

Zhang Wen, however, noticed that the silver tassels at Su Xue's temples were trembling slightly—not from nervousness, but because the extreme cold spiritual power was circulating to its limit, causing even her accessories to freeze over with a thin layer of ice.

Su Xue is gathering strength, he whispered. She is waiting for an opportunity.

Sure enough, just as the fire lion's flames dimmed slightly, Su Xue suddenly withdrew her hand from the ice wall and instead formed a complex hand seal.

The trapped fire lion suddenly let out a mournful cry, and the flames around its body dimmed and solidified at a speed visible to the naked eye.

Countless ice threads suddenly spread from the inner side of the ice wall, entangling the fire lion's limbs like a spider web, freezing the flames bit by bit into crimson and red ice crystals!

This move is called 'Ice Thread Flame Binding', it's an S-rank Cultivation Technique of the ice element! A knowledgeable student below exclaimed.

Zhao Ya's expression changed drastically. She wanted to withdraw her spiritual power, but discovered that the fire lion and her own spiritual power had long been entangled by the ice threads; if she forced a disconnection, she would inevitably suffer a backlash.

In this moment of hesitation, Su Xue moved.

Her figure ghosted through the gaps in the ice wall, her fingertips carrying an aura of extreme cold, pointing directly at the spiritual core in Zhao Ya's chest—the source of the Crimson Flame Dancer's flames.

I accept your concession, Su Xue's voice sounded in Zhao Ya's ear, carrying a chill like shards of ice.

Zhao Ya only felt a chill in her chest; the condensed flames instantly dissipated, and the crimson flames around her retreated like a receding tide.

She stumbled back two steps, looking at her empty palms, and finally understood the gap between them.

The referee announced loudly: First match, Su Xue wins!

Su Xue withdrew her hand, her moon-white cuffs falling gently to cover the thin ice that had formed on her fingertips.

As she turned to walk off the arena, her silver hair traced a cold arc behind her. When she passed by Zhang Wen.

Those ice-lake-like eyes swept over him indifferently, as if to say: The next one might just be you.

Zhang Wen clenched his fists, the lightning patterns on his fingertips becoming clearer due to his excitement.

He knew that this late-arriving transfer student would be the most troublesome opponent in this grand competition.

On the other side, Ji Changkong frowned even more deeply. He knew that in front of her, his Son of the Harsh Winter talent wouldn't be able to stir up any waves at all.

When Zhao Ya walked off the arena, the sparks on her red dress had not yet completely extinguished, but the dejection from just before was gone from her face, replaced instead by a stubborn refusal to admit defeat.

She stood below the stage, clenching her fists, her gaze sweeping across the light screens of the ten arena masters, finally landing on the position of the ninth arena.

Beside Wan Hao's name, the label "A-rank Wood Leaf Pupil" appeared particularly glaring among the crowd of S-rank abilities.

Referee, Zhao Ya suddenly called out, her voice still slightly hoarse from the surge of spiritual power, I apply to challenge the ninth arena!

The whole audience fell silent for a moment, then erupted into even more heated discussion.

Everyone knew that challenging the arena masters was originally a stage after the round-robin tournament, and besides, Zhao Ya had just gone through a fierce battle.

Challenging Wan Hao, who was not top-tier but firmly held his arena position, at this moment really showed a desperate, cut-off-retreats kind of ruthlessness.

Just as Zhao Ya's challenge fell, Wan Hao's pupils on the ninth arena shrank suddenly, and fine leaf vein patterns instantly emerged in his emerald green irises.

The moment he was targeted by Zhao Ya, his heart did tighten, but this nervousness was quickly replaced by another feeling.

When Zhao Ya jumped onto the arena in her red dress trailing flames, Wan Hao took a deep breath and opened his eyes wide.

In an instant, his Wood Leaf Pupil erupted with blinding emerald light, the leaf vein patterns in his pupils seemingly coming to life, flowing and spreading at a speed visible to the naked eye.

Want to take the position of arena master? Get past my eyes first!

As soon as he finished speaking, his pupil power had already permeated the entire arena. Relying on the long-range vision and insight of the Wood Leaf Pupil, the trajectory of the flames around Zhao Ya and the nodes of her spiritual power strength.

Even the subtle movements caused by the rise and fall of her chest when she breathed were nowhere to hide from his eyes.

As soon as Zhao Ya's fire snake turned into a phantom, Wan Hao had already seen through her change of move. With a slight movement of his fingertips, three clusters of vines precisely drilled out from under the stone slabs on the fire snake's path, at an angle so tricky it was as if he had predicted the trajectory in advance.

No matter how fast your flames are, can they be faster than my eyes?

He sneered, his Wood Leaf Pupil capturing the gap in Zhao Ya's spiritual power circulation, and controlled the vines to shoot like sharp arrows toward that flaw.

When the fire whip lashed out with a heatwave, Wan Hao didn't even look at the direction of the whip.

His pupil power had long since locked onto the stagnation point of spiritual power in Zhao Ya's wrist when she swung the whip.

The vines collided with the flames without dodging or avoiding. Under the cover of the burning, another thinner cluster of vines bypassed the fire screen and went straight for that stagnation point, forcing Zhao Ya to hastily retract her move.

A bit interesting.

Zhao Ya raised an eyebrow, the crimson flames condensing into short blades in her palms, and her speed suddenly increased.

But Wan Hao's Wood Leaf Pupil was faster.

The leaf vein patterns in his irises shone like stars, breaking down Zhao Ya's movements into countless tiny fragments, and even the fluctuation frequency of the spiritual power on the flame short blades could be seen clearly.

Your fire blades will show a flaw on the third swing.

He could even predict it in advance. Before the words had finished, he had already controlled the vines to weave into a dense net, precisely covering the opening Zhao Ya was about to reveal.

This feeling of being completely seen through made anger flare in Zhao Ya's heart. The crimson flames surged suddenly, attempting to use absolute power to break through the prediction.

But Wan Hao was like a maggot on the bone; no matter how her flames changed, he could always rely on the Wood Leaf Pupil to set up defenses half a step in advance, even if the vines were burned.

The next wave of attacks could always strike at the node of her spiritual power transition.

Until the very last moment, Zhao Ya paid the price of overdrawing her spiritual power, using flames to create a momentary energy disorder, and finally broke free from the Wood Leaf Pupil's prediction.

When her palm pressed against Wan Hao's back, she could even feel the emerald light in his irises was still sharp—those eyes had not stopped analyzing her movements until the very end.

Your eyes... are very powerful. When Zhao Ya withdrew her power, she said a rare truth.

Wan Hao wiped his face, the light of the Wood Leaf Pupil gradually dimming, but he still kept his back straight: Next time we fight, I won't necessarily lose.