Volume 2, Chapter 34: The Heaviest Weight
The change from the old world to the Federation wasn't a clean break. It was a slow, heavy grinding of tectonic plates.
When Lakan abolished the monarchies ten thousand years ago, he didn't execute the kings and emperors. He turned them into managers. The Dai clan of Star Luo, once the masters of their empire, realized early on that they couldn't fight a God. So they became the architects of his new order. But later, the Xu clan, masters of the Star Crown, appeared and made an even bigger contribution. They were rewarded with the management of what was once Star Luo, directly taking over from the Dai clan.
They traded their crowns for seats on the Regional High Council. While in the original timeline the Xu family replaced the Dai family and ruled the Star Luo Empire, in this timeline today, the Xu family doesn't rule Star Luo City — they manage the Citadel of the Abyss. They oversee the Star Division of the Anito Academy, where they've spent centuries refining their Star Crown soul power to interact with the Federation's heavy-industry tech. They are the masters of mass, gravity, and structural integrity.
Basically, it's like the Heaven Dou from ten thousand years ago where they have two teams.
When a Star Division team walks onto the platform, the air doesn't just feel cold. It feels expensive.
Yuhao stood at the center of the platform, his boots feeling like lead.
Opposite him was Xu Ji. The Star Division captain didn't have the sneering arrogance of Xiao Hongchen. He stood with a calm, military posture, wearing a dark navy uniform lined with silver Crystalline wires. He bowed deeply, a relic of his noble lineage.
"Huo Yuhao," Xu Ji said, his voice deep and steady. "The Abyss Branch honors your path. Let's see if your Resonance can withstand the weight of the heavens."
"Begin!"
Xu Ji didn't lunge. He raised his hand, and a massive, translucent Star Crown manifested above his head. But instead of light, it pulsed with a heavy, rhythmic violet glow.
Soul Skill: Galaxy Anchor.
Yuhao didn't see the attack coming with his physical eyes. He saw it through the All-Seeing Library. Deep inside his mind, the mental space Lakan had carved out began to vibrate. The shelves of knowledge — the logical laws of the world — seemed to groan under a sudden increase in pressure.
"Gravity," Yuhao gasped.
The air around Team Anito suddenly thickened. It was as if the atmosphere had turned into liquid mercury. Yuhao's knees buckled. Tang Ya let out a pained grunt as her Blue Silver Grass Martial Soul was crushed flat against the dirt, the wild vines snapping under their own weight. Her calmer Blue Silver Grass Soul Spirit appeared beside it, glowing with a steady, purifying light as it tried to push back and stabilize the collapsing grass, but the heavy pressure was simply too overwhelming.
"Stay… together!" Ma Xiaotao roared. She was the strongest, but even her Phoenix flames were being pushed downward, the orange plumes hugging the ground like a dying campfire.
Yuhao forced the Gaze of Openings open.
Usually, the Gaze of Openings showed him a neat, wire-frame world of straight lines and predictable streams of soul power. But Xu Ji's gravity was so intense it was actually bending the light. The lines of the world were curved, warped like a reflection in a funhouse mirror.
This isn't right, Yuhao thought, his brain screaming. The math doesn't add up.
"The gravity is distorting your sensory input, child," a cold, cultured voice echoed in his mind.
Electrolux. The old necromancer's consciousness stirred in the depths of the Library. He sounded annoyed, like someone being woken up by a noisy neighbor.
"Your 'eyes' are seeing the light, but the light is lying," Electrolux continued. "Stop looking at the world. Look at the Library. Use the knowledge your Professor gave you to correct the image."
Yuhao squeezed his eyes shut. He stopped trying to look at the arena. He dove deep into the All-Seeing Library. He searched the Physics section, pulling out the laws of mass and motion Lakan had archived there.
He used the Library to sort through the gravity. He took the warped, curved data from his Spirit Eyes and ran it through the straight, logical rules of the Library.
The image snapped into focus.
He saw Xu Ji. The captain was the center of the web. The violet glow wasn't coming from the crown; it was being pulled into it. Xu Ji was a vacuum, sucking the movement of energy of the arena into himself to create the pressure.
"The Anchor is the center," Yuhao transmitted through the Resonance. His voice sounded like it was coming from a mile away to Ma Xiaotao and Tang Ya. "He's pulling us in. If we try to push back, we'll just break our own bones."
"Then what do we do?" Tang Ya asked. She was trembling. The Triple-Sovereign Resonance was fraying. The heavy gravity was trying to pull their three separate streams of soul power apart, like someone trying to peel a sticker off a wall.
"We don't push back," Yuhao said, his teeth gritted. "We collapse. Xiaotao… give him everything."
"Are you crazy?" Ma Xiaotao barked. "If I flare up, I'll burn you both!"
"Trust the Resonance," Yuhao insisted. "Tang Ya, act as the lens. Xiaotao, don't fire outward. Fire inward."
It was a suicidal idea. But they didn't have another choice.
Ma Xiaotao took a deep breath. She reached deep into her core, grabbing the roaring, chaotic Phoenix flame. Instead of letting it roar out of her skin, she pulled it into the center of the Resonance triangle. Her Crimson Flame Hawk Soul Spirit circled above her, its bright wings adding its own controlled power, helping her contain and compress the wild Evil Fire Phoenix energy into a tight, focused point.
Tang Ya focused every ounce of her spirit. She used her Blue Silver Grass Martial Soul to weave a tight, Crystalline cage around the three of them. Her calmer Blue Silver Grass Soul Spirit appeared alongside it, glowing with a steady, purifying light as it helped reinforce the structure and reflect the heat more efficiently. She didn't use the grass to attack; she used it to create a perfect mirror, trapping and compressing the fire within.
Resonance Skill: Solar Flare Compression.
Ma Xiaotao's fire hit the inner walls of Tang Ya's cage and bounced back. It hit Yuhao's mental shield and bounced back. The heat didn't dissipate. It stayed in the center, getting tighter, smaller, and brighter.
The violet gravity of the Galaxy Anchor tried to crush the cage. But as it pushed inward, it only helped the compression. The gravity was literally helping Ma Xiaotao build her own sun.
Ma Xiaotao felt something shift. The fire wasn't a roar anymore. It was a hum. A high-pitched, terrifyingly quiet vibration. She saw the sun in her mind — not a ball of fire, but a perfect, white-hot point of law.
"Now!" Yuhao yelled.
Ma Xiaotao opened her palm.
A tiny, pin-sized bead of white light shot out from the center of their triangle. It didn't look like a soul skill. It looked like a needle made of pure noon.
It sliced through the violet gravity field like a hot wire through wax. There was no explosion, no shockwave. Just a clean, silent line of absolute heat.
Xu Ji's eyes went wide. He tried to shift the Galaxy Anchor to block it, but the bead of light was too fast. It struck the translucent Star Crown above his head.
Ping.
The crown didn't break. It evaporated.
The localized gravity field vanished instantly. The sudden release of pressure sent a massive gust of wind howling across the stadium, blowing away the dust and debris.
Xu Ji fell to one knee, gasping for air. His navy uniform was singed, and a thin line of white smoke rose from his shoulder where the light had grazed him. He looked up at the three students. They were still standing in their triangle, though they looked like they were about to collapse.
Xu Ji stood up slowly. He wiped a bead of sweat from his forehead and gave a short, respectful nod.
"I have spent twenty years studying the weight of stars," Xu Ji said, his voice raspy. "I never thought a Level 19 navigator and a Phoenix could turn my own weight against me. You don't just have power. You have… understanding."
He turned to the referee and raised his hand. "The Abyss Branch concedes. We cannot match that level of compression."
The stadium erupted.
Yuhao didn't hear the cheering.
The moment the match ended, the All-Seeing Library in his head began to tilt. The strain of using the Library to fix reality while his body was being crushed had been too much.
He felt a hand on his shoulder. It wasn't Ma Xiaotao or Tang Ya.
Lakan was standing there. He had jumped down from the broadcast booth, moving so fast no one had seen him. He looked at Yuhao's bleeding eyes and his shaking hands.
"You used the Library to sort through the gravity," Lakan said. It wasn't a question. He sounded impressed, but also a little concerned. "That's a lot of data for a Level 19 brain, kid."
"I had help," Yuhao whispered, glancing inward toward Electrolux's quiet corner.
"Yeah, well, the old man always did like a good puzzle," Lakan said. He reached out and tapped Yuhao's forehead. A cool, soothing wave of energy washed over Yuhao's mind, quieting the screaming shelves of the Library. "Go to the infirmary. You've done enough for today."
•••••
As Yuhao was led away by the medics, he looked back at the arena.
He saw Chen Feng standing in the shadow of one of the exit tunnels. The Lifeless looking boy wasn't looking at the winners. He was looking at the dirt where the Galaxy Anchor had been. He looked… hungry.
End of Volume 2, Chapter 34