"Well then. I'm going."
Zheng Longjiang stepped forward.
In that instant his eight spirit rings began to move, rotating slowly around his body. The aura around him thickened. The air turned viscous and heavy, pressing down on body and mind alike, as though space itself trembled in his presence.
Even through the barrier surrounding the arena, some of the spectators involuntarily shrank back.
His body was changing rapidly. Muscles tensed and swelled, filling with inhuman strength. His arms lengthened and broadened, fingers curling as though ready to tear through anything in their path. His hair deepened to a rich dark gold, and his eyes ignited with cold, crystalline yellow light.
What stood before them now was no longer a man.
It was a pure embodiment of power and destructive force.
His Battle Soul — the Great Demon Ape. A sinister, tyrannical spirit of the attack type, whose entire existence reduced to one purpose: to crush, break, and annihilate everything that stood in its way.
Few remembered that when Zheng Longjiang first entered Shrek Academy, his Battle Soul had not been considered remarkable at all. The Great Demon Ape ranked only slightly above average — and in an academy where monstrous talents and the rarest of Battle Souls appeared every year, it faded into the background, drawing no particular attention.
But Zheng Longjiang never gave up.
His perseverance, extraordinary effort, and sharp mind allowed him to overcome every deficiency. He refined every aspect of his Battle Soul, forging himself into a lethal weapon.
And in the end, he didn't merely catch up to the best. He became number one in Shrek Academy's Outer Court.
On the arena floor, Lan Xuanyu raised both hands. Golden grass burst from them, instantly coiling around Fan Yue and Tang Yuge. Almost simultaneously, silver grass wrapped around Dun Qianqiu and Lan Mengqin, reinforcing them.
Lan Mengqin's body flared with cold white light. Behind her, a projection of the Snow Lady appeared — stepping forward, settling into position behind Dun Qianqiu.
Icy aura poured from the Snow Lady's form without warning. It enveloped Dun Qianqiu's body, and her figure blazed with deep dark-blue light, as though she had become part of an endless frozen sea.
Tang Yuge, surrounded by five-colored radiance, pressed her palms together. The five-colored light on her hands rapidly compressed and was completely displaced by pure blue. She pulled her hands apart sharply.
A water spear appeared before her. But this was not calm water — inside the spear raged a current like an untameable river.
Fan Yue stepped forward and seized it. In the next instant a dark-gold aura ignited within the water, sharply increasing the spear's density and destructive force. Without hesitating for even a moment, he hurled it forward.
The spear left his hand with such speed that the air behind it exploded — driving straight toward Dun Qianqiu.
She didn't even turn. At the precise moment the spear reached her, Dun Qianqiu timed it perfectly and calmly caught it in one hand.
The water froze instantly. The raging current went still, transforming into a perfectly formed ice spear.
And it was at exactly that moment that Zheng Longjiang was already standing before her. His attack came like a tempest — tyrannical, all-consuming, capable of erasing everything in its path. But Dun Qianqiu did not retreat.
She drove the ice spear directly into the heart of the vortex.
Her body, wrapped in cold blue light, remained still despite the terrifying suction force.
Zheng Longjiang narrowed his eyes slightly. A faint smile touched his lips.
Not bad.
This spear was no ordinary attack. It carried the combined force of five people, bound together by Lan Xuanyu, who had amplified and perfectly synchronized each of their abilities.
Qian Lei did not join the frontal assault. In the moment when the entire arena was being pulled toward the center of the collision, he instead stepped back — to where the pressure was lighter and the space still allowed him to breathe.
He raised his hands slowly. Crimson lines ignited in the air.
In one motion he traced the first triangle, then the second — its mirror image. When his palms came together, both symbols overlapped, and a star enclosed within a thin ring formed before him.
Blood seeped from the pores of his skin, obeying his will, weaving itself into the pattern. With every passing second Qian Lei's body rapidly withered. His skin lost its color. His breathing became ragged. His legs barely held him upright.
Are you out of your mind? What is that symbol? Why are you using your blood essence!
Ying Luohun, as Qian Lei's teacher, wanted to stop him.
She moved to intervene — and in that same instant an invisible pressure crashed down on her. Not a strike. Not a shockwave. A cold, absolute force, as though the will of heaven itself had pinned her to the ground.
In the next moment an unfamiliar voice sounded in her ears.
It's not dangerous. Let him finish the technique.
Ying Luohun knew every elder and teacher in the Academy. This voice belonged to none of them. She didn't trust it — but she could not move. Her body was completely locked in place. She couldn't even part her lips.
Meanwhile, the symbol before Qian Lei was fully covered in blood. He drew a convulsive breath and with a rasping sound spat the final drop of his essence directly into the center of the star. In that instant the blood-red pentagram blazed and turned gold.
On the other side of the arena, Dun Qianqiu's ice spear rebounded with a sharp crack. She was forced back three steps, driving the spear into the ground to keep from losing her balance.
Zheng Longjiang narrowed his eyes slightly and pressed forward. The air around him compressed. He swept his right hand and an enormous palm of dark-gold energy formed above Dun Qianqiu, descending rapidly.
A dark-blue halo flared around Dun Qianqiu. It expanded swiftly, covering dozens of meters of the arena. Behind her an immense, indistinct shadow materialized — impossibly cold and unsettling.
Dun Qianqiu stepped forward. She struck with the spear.
BOOM.
The golden palm shuddered and was driven back.
In that same instant Dun Qianqiu turned, giving her opponent no time to react, and directed the spear straight for Zheng Longjiang's throat. Swift. Without hesitation.
Zheng Longjiang calmly stepped forward and caught the spear with ease.
Dark-gold light tore from his body like the explosive breath of an ancient beast. A wave of force rolled across the arena, instantly shattering the dark-blue halo around Dun Qianqiu.
"You have a Domain?" Genuine, mild interest was clear in his voice.
In the next instant Zheng Longjiang closed his fingers.
The grip tightened. The ice spear exploded, scattering into dozens of gleaming shards across the arena floor.
"Damn!"
Dun Qianqiu was hurled backward as though struck by lightning. She slammed into the ground, skidded several meters, and only barely managed to stay on her feet — nearly dropping to one knee.
But the moment she stopped, the Snow Lady behind her stepped forward and merged with her body. The temperature around her plummeted. Dun Qianqiu's aura blazed, densified, deepened — cold and dark as the crushing depth of an ocean trench.
At that same moment a new water spear was already flying toward her. The silver-blue grass around her waist flared, and the full weight of Lan Xuanyu's support crashed into her all at once.
An ice spear reformed in Dun Qianqiu's hands. A dark-blue halo spread beneath her feet, expanding rapidly. The light of the Domain covered both her and Zheng Longjiang, swallowing dozens of meters of arena.
A Domain. It amplified her in every aspect — and simultaneously suppressed every opponent inside it.
The Domain's name: Boundless Sea.
Zheng Longjiang stepped to the left, calmly sidestepping the spear. Then without warning he stomped the ground.
BANG. The sound was like lightning striking directly into the earth. In the next instant Lan Mengqin, standing far from the epicenter of the fight, was suddenly lifted off the ground.
"What — I can't move!" An invisible force locked her body completely. In that same moment Dean Ying Luohun appeared beside her. She grabbed Lan Mengqin and vanished with her in a silver flash.
Where the girl had been hovering an instant before, a monstrous surge of air erupted from beneath the ground, hurling stone and tearing apart the arena's surface. Had the strike connected, Lan Mengqin would have barely survived.
Meanwhile dark-gold aura poured from Zheng Longjiang's body again — instantly destroying the Boundless Sea Domain.
"Ahh!" Dun Qianqiu cried out in pain and was thrown backward.
Zheng Longjiang closed his hand around empty air. In that same instant a dark-gold hand took shape before Tang Yuge. Enormous.
Already closing around her.
But at the last moment Tang Yuge's figure blazed with silver light — and she vanished, reappearing outside the arena boundary.
Eleven seconds.
From the moment the fight began, only eleven seconds had passed.