"This is largely all the information we have regarding this conference. Does anyone have any further questions?" Chen Bo asked the members of the Dao Academy.
"Captain Chen, I'd like to ask, will the specific battles be in team format or individual format?" asked Xiao Hao, the captain of the Eighth Squad.
"The higher-ups haven't informed us of the specific competition rules, so we're not clear on them yet. We'll have to wait for the detailed arrangements at the time," Chen Bo said, spreading his hands.
"Do we have any relevant intelligence on the Ability Users from the countries we'll be facing?" Liang Gong asked a question many were eager to know.
"With the help of the intelligence department, we've obtained some data on our opponents. I've already had copies of this data printed for each of you; they will be handed over to Feng Dong later for him to distribute to everyone present," Chen Bo replied meticulously.
"Thank you, Captain Chen."
"At two in the afternoon, we'll rendezvous with the civilian team led by the higher-ups, then take a chartered flight to Rome. Is there anything else you need to prepare?" Feng Dong asked at an opportune moment.
"No," the members of the Dao Academy replied in unison.
"Captain Ye, we still have a few hours before departure. Could our two teams go to the training ground on the top floor for a mutual exchange?"
"Of course." It was just before the battle, and both sides were interested in having an exchange.
The group took the elevator to the twentieth floor, the top level.
"This venue is pretty much the right size. Later, those who are interested can come down for an exchange, but be sure to know when to stop. Getting injured and delaying the mission would be very troublesome," Chen Bo instructed everyone. "Also, I believe everyone is aware of the power difference between Ability Users with a Life Field and those without. Please be careful and choose your opponents appropriately."
"Captain Ye and I will have a small warm-up match first," he continued.
"Feng Dong, have someone help temporarily remove the boundaries between the four fields. The area of a single field is too small, and onlookers might get affected," Chen Bo told Feng Dong.
"So his 'pretty much the right size venue' actually meant all four fields combined..." The Dao Academy members, who didn't know Chen Bo well, muttered amongst themselves, some feeling Chen Bo was making a mountain out of a molehill.
"Yes, Captain Chen, I'll have the staff come right away," Feng Dong replied earnestly, as if receiving a direct order.
"This Chen Bo is indeed quite extraordinary. His area of effect exceeds that of a single training field. But it's also normal; how else could he be one of the top individuals among the two hundred thousand Ability Users in the military?" Many on the Dao Academy side had this thought.
"I only recently shared some simple concepts of the Life Field to the research institute's internal database, and they've already popularized the knowledge of Life Fields over there, while the Dao Academy side still only has a partial understanding. The treatment of professional soldiers and civilian volunteers is truly completely different," Bai Mo thought, his mind on something else entirely.
There were certainly many who smelled the coming of great change. A large number of ambitious individuals yearned to seize this unprecedented opportunity to stir up the increasingly stagnant waters of Huaxia.
...
Soon, after simple adjustments by the surrounding staff, the four training fields were merged into one.
"Captain Ye, I hear you're an ice-element Ability User. Would I, a fire-element captain, be able to have an exchange with you?" Chen Bo smiled, inviting Ye Zi.
"Of course."
"For the safety of both of us and the venue, we'll only compete using the power of our domains." Through tests in the military training grounds, Chen Bo was well aware of his destructive power. If he were to unleash his full might, this entire floor would likely turn into a fire scene, and the situation would probably be quite awkward.
"Alright."
"Captain Ye, please." Chen Bo made a welcoming gesture.
"Captain Chen, please instruct me."
The military personnel, equally aware of Chen Bo's destructive power, chose the furthest corner from the battlefield to observe.
Anyway, Ability Users generally had greatly enhanced physical qualities like vision, so observing from a hundred meters away wasn't a big problem. However, getting injured by the aftershocks of the two's exchange while spectating would be too much of a loss.
The Dao Academy contingent watched them, utterly bewildered, as they hid far away.
"Captain Li, why did you run so far to watch? Didn't they say they'd stand still and only compete with their domains?" Yue Yu asked Li Wenwei, the captain of the military's Third Squad.
"It's safer to watch from further away. Someone with delicate skin like yours should stay further from Captain Chen's battle too," Li Wenwei said, seeing Yue Yu was a young girl and unwilling for her to suffer, giving her a slight warning.
"It can't be, right? Even if Captain Chen is a fire-element Ability User, standing still, he can still injure me from dozens of meters away?" Yue Yu looked disbelieving.
The others in the Dao Academy also heard their conversation and expressed that the military side was worrying needlessly.
"Believe it or not, it's up to you. Anyway, with everyone's speed, moving dozens of meters away only takes a second or two, and Captain Chen won't be moving this time, so it'll be easy to dodge," Li Wenwei said, seeing that everyone was half-convinced, and simply stopped bothering.
"Captain Ye is the first ice-element Ability User Captain Chen has seen as a true opponent," Li Wenwei tossed out, then ran to rejoin his comrades in the distance.
Seeing that Li Wenwei didn't seem to be joking, the people in the Dao Academy split into two factions: some who weren't too confident in themselves decided to heed Li Wenwei's advice and moved to a corner of the merged training field, while the remaining captains, who were confident in themselves, stayed put.
Bai Mo, who found the two's exchange rather interesting, also chose to remain in his spot.
...
There were no dazzling special effects, no bone-shattering impacts, only the low murmur of the wind narrating this quiet contest.
Two domains, invisible to the naked eye, began to clash.
With the surging airflow as the dividing line, to the left was Chen Bo's heating domain, and to the right was Ye Zi's freezing domain. The two sides wrestled for control in the middle. Whether by coincidence or calculation, this dividing line happened to pass right through Bai Mo, who was standing still.
The air to Bai Mo's left rapidly heated to nearly three hundred degrees Celsius under the effect of the heating domain, while the air to his right quickly dropped to minus fifty degrees Celsius. However, this actually had little effect on him.
In front of a Life Field with energy-absorbing properties, two or three hundred degrees Celsius was really only good for warming one's hands.
He looked completely at ease, but the few people standing in Chen Bo's half of the field fled faster than rabbits.
"Madmen, they're all madmen! I was thirty meters away observing, and it was still over a hundred degrees! If I didn't run now, it wouldn't just be a minor skin burn anymore," Chen Sen and a few others exclaimed, their entire bodies red, as they fled to the edge of the battlefield.
"Good thing I teleported quickly, otherwise my skin would truly be ruined." Yue Yu, who originally hadn't believed it and planned to watch the show, fled faster than anyone this time.
Although she knew there was no way her life would be in danger, out of care for her own skin, Yue Yu still darted to the corner.
"Over a hundred-degree air, how are we supposed to breathe?! Even if we both have Life Fields, we still need to breathe!" Liang Gong, who had thick skin and was resistant to heat, and Zheng Cha, the captain of the Seventh Squad, covered their mouths and noses, fleeing to the edge of the battlefield before daring to take deep breaths.
"It's getting colder and colder over here too; I can't hold on anymore. I really don't know what those monsters are made of," Rong Jingya, standing on Ye Zi's side, managed to endure the minus fifty degrees Celsius for half a minute before deciding to retreat.
On Rong Jingya's side, Yun Jie and Xiao Hao, protected by their Life Fields, remained. After all, cold air was still breathable, unlike air heated to over a hundred degrees which burned one's lungs. Their Spirit Animation Stage conversion wasn't particularly high, and many of their internal organs were still quite vulnerable.
"That idiot Liang Gong chose to watch from Chen Bo's side and fled faster than a rabbit. What's the use of thick skin when your lungs can't handle high-temperature air? Luckily, we were smart and chose Captain Ye's side," Xiao Hao said, rubbing his hands and huffing.
"Don't you have any ambition? Getting all smug just because you weren't injured by their aftershocks," Yun Huan joked with Xiao Hao.
Bai Mo, whose senses picked up on their conversation, glanced at the two.
"It's really like the blizzards in Ukraine," he suddenly thought.