17: Chapter 17 The Prodigy Ranking, Preparing to Create Black and White Impermanence

Zhou Ming's summoning speed was shockingly fast.

Eighty Elemental Spirits were all summoned within 0.3 seconds, their positioning precise and the four colors clearly demarcated.

The red fire spirits were on the left wing, the blue water spirits on the right wing, the yellow earth spirits in the front row, and the white wind spirits in the back row.

The Elementalist hovered in the center of the array, holding a four-colored staff in his hand as the four types of elemental energy swirled around him.

Zhou Ming's voice was calm and decisive: "Elemental Resonance, Fire and Wind Combination! Tornado Flames!"

The wind spirits flapped their wings simultaneously, creating a massive tornado. The fire spirits threw themselves into the tornado, and the flames were instantly sucked into the eye of the storm, forming a ten-meter-high fire tornado that swept toward Su Bai's lines.

A wave of gasps erupted from the stands.

"Tornado Flames! That's an Elemental Resonance skill! Its power is at least three times that of a single element!"

"Can Su Bai's Yin Soldiers hold out? That's AOE damage!"

Su Bai's expression remained unchanged as he raised his hand.

"Sadako. Curse Brand, target: Elementalist."

Sadako's figure vanished from her spot and reappeared behind the Elementalist.

Curse Brand!

The Elementalist's body suddenly stiffened, but the light on the four-colored staff erupted instantly, neutralizing most of the mental impact from the Curse Brand.

[Elemental Resonance, Mental Guard]! The four elements vibrated simultaneously, forming a mental barrier.

Zhou Ming had come prepared.

"I knew you would use Sadako for a decapitation strike, so I had the Elementalist activate Mental Guard before the battle even began. Your Curse Brand is useless against the Elementalist!"

The corners of Su Bai's mouth curled up slightly.

"Is that so?"

He turned his head to look at the Ghost Bride.

"It's your turn."

The Ghost Bride floated out from the Yin Qi, her red dress like blood and her black hair like a waterfall.

She looked at the fire tornado, her eyes sparkling.

"What a big fire."

She opened her arms and met the fire tornado head-on.

[Wraith Avatar]!

Her body transformed into pure resentment, and the fire tornado passed through her body without causing any damage.

The Ghost Bride passed through the fire tornado and appeared in the center of the Elemental Spirit array.

"You all..."

Her voice was as cold as ice, carrying an eerie echo.

[Soul-Claiming Red Makeup]!

A blinding red light erupted from her, instantly enveloping the surrounding Elemental Spirits.

Fire spirits, water spirits, wind spirits, earth spirits...

All the Elemental Spirits enveloped by the red light simultaneously fell into chaos.

They were not living creatures and had no consciousness, but the essence of an Elemental Spirit is a collection of elemental energy, and elemental energy is also susceptible to the influence of resentment.

The fire spirits began to burn out of control, the water spirits began to spray water jets haphazardly, the wind spirits began to create chaotic air currents, and the earth spirits began to create cracks in the ground.

The elemental array collapsed in an instant.

Zhou Ming's face changed.

"Elementalist! Elemental Resonance, Energy Purification!"

The four-colored staff erupted with a brilliant light, and the four elemental energies vibrated simultaneously, attempting to dispel the resentful influence of the Soul-Claiming Red Makeup.

But the Ghost Bride was a Tier 2 hero, while the Elementalist was only Tier 1.

The gap in tier was not something that skills could compensate for.

The resentment of the Soul-Claiming Red Makeup was like a maggot on a bone, deeply embedded in the energy cores of the Elemental Spirits and impossible to dispel.

Zhou Ming grit his teeth and made a risky decision.

"Elementalist! Elemental Resonance, Elemental Sacrifice! Concentrate all the energy of the Elemental Spirits onto the Elementalist!"

Eighty Elemental Spirits simultaneously emitted a brilliant light as their bodies began to dissipate, turning into pure elemental energy that poured into the Elementalist's body.

The Elementalist's aura began to climb frantically.

Mid-stage Tier 1.

High-stage Tier 1.

Peak Tier 1.

Tier 2!

After sacrificing eighty Elemental Spirits, the Elementalist forcibly rose to Tier 2.

Zhou Ming's face was pale, and the veins on his forehead bulged.

This was his trump card and his final gamble.

"Elementalist! Four-Element Fusion, Chaos Impact!"

The Elementalist raised his staff, and the four elemental energies fused at its tip, turning into a sphere of chaotic gray energy.

That energy sphere emitted a suffocating pressure, making the entire arena tremble.

Zhou Ming roared, "Go!"

The gray energy sphere shot out with a boom toward Su Bai's lines.

Su Bai looked at the energy sphere with a calm expression.

He didn't dodge, he didn't retreat, and he didn't even blink.

He just looked at the Ghost Bride and said one sentence.

"Eat it."

The Ghost Bride's eyes lit up.

"Got it!"

She floated in front of the energy sphere, opened her arms, and swallowed the gray energy sphere in one gulp.

BOOM!!!

The energy sphere exploded inside her, and the four elemental energies erupted simultaneously, blowing the Ghost Bride's body into fragments.

Screams rang out from the stands.

"Ghost Bride!"

"She's been blown to pieces! She was blown to pieces!"

"It's over, it's over! Su Bai's ace hero is gone!"

Zhou Ming was also stunned; he hadn't expected the Ghost Bride to directly swallow the Chaos Impact. He had thought she would dodge, block, or use Wraith Avatar to immune the damage, but he never expected her to swallow it.

Su Bai stood where he was, his expression unchanged.

He looked at the Ghost Bride's shattered body, watching her turn into a sky full of red fragments, watching those fragments scatter in the grayish-white Yin Qi.

"Advance."

The moment those words were spoken, the red fragments simultaneously erupted with a blinding light.

The fragments began to regroup, to condense, and to reassemble at a speed even faster than they had shattered.

A red figure stepped out from the light.

Her red dress was like blood, her black hair like a waterfall, and her skin whiter than snow.

But her aura was several times stronger than before.

[Tier 3 Advancement]!

The moment she swallowed the Chaos Impact, the Ghost Bride endured the simultaneous explosion of four elemental energies and completed her breakthrough on the brink of death.

[Ghost Bride (Hero Unit)]

[Tier: Tier 3]

[Quality: 3-Star]

[Skills: Soul-Claiming Red Makeup (Active), Yin Energy Affinity (Passive), Resentment Absorption (Passive), Wraith Avatar (Active), Red Makeup Soul Claim (Active - New)]

[Red Makeup Soul Claim: The Ghost Bride's ultimate skill. Transforms into thousands of red-clothed vengeful spirits, delivering a devastating mental strike to all enemies within range. The more targets there are, the stronger the power. Cooldown: 24 hours.]

The Ghost Bride floated in mid-air, looking down at Zhou Ming and the Elementalist.

"Are you finished?"

Her voice was as cold as ice, with a hint of playfulness.

"It's my turn."

She raised her hand, her red dress fluttering.

[Red Makeup Soul Claim]!

Thousands of red figures split from her body, like countless red-clothed female ghosts, swarming toward the Elementalist and covering the sky.

The Elementalist raised his staff, trying to resist, but the thousands of red figures surged like a tide, submerging him.

Three seconds later, the Elementalist's figure vanished within the red tide.

Reduced to ashes.

Zhou Ming's legs went weak, and he collapsed onto the stage, his face as white as paper.

His elemental world, his Elementalist, and his eighty Elemental Spirits were all gone.

"I... I surrender."

His voice was so raspy it was almost inaudible.

The presiding teacher took a deep breath and raised the flag in his hand.

"Finals, Su Bai, wins!"

"The overall champion of this year's combat evaluation is Su Bai!"

In the stands, over three thousand students stood up simultaneously, erupting into the loudest applause and cheers of the day.

It wasn't polite applause, but a deafening, heartfelt roar.

Because they had witnessed the birth of a legend.

A legend who started with a trash-tier world, used 100 points of Power Of Faith to create a three-star hero, devoured a world in a single day, and completed the advancement of three heroes in three battles.

Su Bai stood in the center of the arena, calmly accepting the cheers of the entire crowd.

The Ghost Bride floated beside him, waving to the audience in the stands and smiling like a child.

The Slit-Mouthed Woman stood behind him, silently gripping her scissors, her mask covering the lower half of her face, but something was quietly changing in those hollow eyes.

Sadako stood quietly at the front of the Yin Soldier array, her long hair covering her face and her bare feet hovering in the air, looking like an introverted child lost at a large party.

One hundred and eighty-eight Yin Soldiers were lined up in neat formation, standing silently in the grayish-white Yin Qi, waiting for their master's next command.

On the judges' panel, nine teachers stood up at the same time, applauding the young man in the center of the arena.

The teacher with glasses took them off, wiped the corners of his eyes, and said with a somewhat choked voice, "I was wrong. Yesterday I said his path was a dead end, but today I've seen that he not only made it work but walked a path that no one else would even dare to imagine."

The female teacher crossed her arms, a smug smile on her face. "I told you before, this person is not simple."

The Old Principal stood there with his hands behind his back, a smile on his face.

"Good lad."

He reached into his robe, pulled out a palm-sized metal plate, and handed it over.

The metal plate was entirely black, its surface engraved with complex energy circuits, and a thumb-sized transparent crystal was embedded in the center.

"This is the Activation Token for the heavenly pride list."

The Old Principal's voice was aged yet authoritative.

"In the entire Qingshi City, there is only one slot."

"Once activated, your world data will be automatically entered into the national prodigy list system. The higher your rank, the more generous the rewards. Ranking in the top hundred can earn you provincial-level resource priority. Ranking in the top ten can earn you national-level resource priority."

"This is the only opportunity that will allow you to come into contact with the geniuses of the entire province or even the entire nation."

In this world, the population of a single province could be as high as several billion, and the population of a nation was nearly a hundred billion!

Among them, those who could have their world data entered into the national prodigy list were few and far between.

Every single one was the equivalent of a City Top Scorer.

Only powerful provinces like the Imperial Capital or the Magic Capital could enter the top five or even the top ten of a city.

Otherwise, with too much data, the heavenly pride list would be meaningless.

Su Bai looked down at the token and was silent for two seconds.

He reached out and took it.

"Thank you, Principal."

The Old Principal nodded and patted his shoulder.

"Go on, work hard."

"Let me see how far you can go on the heavenly pride list."

Su Bai tucked the token away and turned to leave.

The moonlight fell on his young face, reflecting a pair of deep, unfathomable eyes.

Behind him, the cheers on the playground continued.

Ahead, the night was deep, and neon lights flashed.

In his Netherworld World, three hero units were resting in the Yin Qi, and ninety-seven Yin Soldiers were lined up in silence.

And in his heart, those two figures were becoming clearer and clearer.

White Impermanence Xie Bian, always wearing a smile, holding a funeral staff.

Black Impermanence Fan Wujiu, with a fierce expression, holding a soul-locking chain.

He was only 1,000 points of Power Of Faith short.

Then they could step out from the Yin Qi.

The corners of Su Bai's mouth curled up slightly as he walked with firm steps into the depths of the night.

The heavenly pride list?

Very well.

Let those geniuses from across the province and the nation wait.

For the arrival of Black and White Impermanence.