"Second Spirit Ability, Violent Collision."
Shi Meng, looking like a violent bear clad in rock armor and carrying an indomitable Aura, charged resolutely into the mist. Using the mist as cover, he lunged straight toward Caelus's position.
Meanwhile, Lin Lei's Second Spirit Ability, Vine Binding, was also ready to be unleashed, waiting for the moment Caelus was forced into a vulnerability by Shi Meng to immediately trigger the control.
The cooperation among the three was seamless, with control, support, and power attacks connecting in perfect harmony. Against an ordinary opponent facing blocked vision and a powerful surprise attack, panic would be inevitable.
However, their opponent was Caelus.
Facing the surging mist and the hidden lethal collision within, Caelus didn't even move a single step.
His eyes, which had turned into clock hands, were calm and rippleless, as if piercing through the hazy fog to clearly "see" the trajectory of Shi Meng's charge and Lin Lei's ready vines.
He didn't even use the power of any spirit ring.
He was seen slowly raising his right hand, giving a seemingly casual flick toward the front.
Talent: Wind of Time, activate.
There was no earth-shattering explosion of Soul Power, but the air on the entire stage seemed to be endowed with the attribute of "time" in an instant, becoming viscous and sluggish, only to become turbulent in the next moment.
An invisible yet majestic airflow was born out of thin air with Caelus as the center.
This was no ordinary wind, but the flowing Wind of Time containing temporal characteristics.
The howling gale emerged from nowhere. Under the blowing of the Wind of Time, the pervasive mist was actually pushed aside like a curtain by an invisible giant hand, quickly dispersing to both sides. This revealed Shi Meng, who was still in his violent charging posture, as well as the stunned Lin Lei and Su Wan behind him.
The obscuring effect of the mist was practically non-existent before Caelus.
Shi Meng only felt a powerful resistance coming head-on, as if he had crashed into an invisible swamp. His speed suddenly slowed, and his violent Aura stifled.
He roared, attempting to break through the obstruction, but the surrounding air had become exceptionally heavy; every movement cost several times more energy than usual.
"How is this possible?!"
Lin Lei was pale with shock. Before his vines could even be sent out, he felt the surrounding airflow become incomparably chaotic, making his originally precise control extremely difficult.
Caelus's fingers shifted slightly in direction, and the Wind of Time sweeping across the stage became even more violent accordingly.
The howling gale was no longer just dispersing mist and slowing opponents; it transformed into countless invisible yet sharp wind blades and wind pressure.
"Chii chii chii—!"
The tough vines were like fragile grass stems before the wind blades, easily cut and shredded.
Under the continuous impact of wind pressure and the cutting of wind blades, the rock skin on Shi Meng's body produced a tooth-aching grinding sound. Stone chips flew everywhere, and it looked as though he wouldn't be able to hold on much longer.
The light of Su Wan's Pure Heart Bell flickered uncertainly in the gale; the boosted Soul Power could hardly be transmitted effectively in such a chaotic and violent energy field.
Caelus still stood in his original spot, his robes flapping loudly in the gale he had raised himself, his silver hair flying, his expression calm.
He didn't even look at the wretched state of his opponents. Those eyes composed of an hour hand and a minute hand seemed to be appreciating a musical movement titled "Storm" that he had woven with his own hands.
This was the terrifying aspect of combining Future Prediction with the Wind of Time.
He had predicted all of his opponents' actions and the landing points of their Martial Soul Abilities in advance. Under his control, the Wind of Time became the most effective Sharp Weapon to break the situation.
Without needing Martial Soul Abilities, relying solely on his understanding and application of his innate talent, he had already taken control of the entire situation.
"Boom—!"
Finally, under the continuous impact of the increasingly violent wind pressure, the rock skin on Shi Meng's body completely shattered. He was pushed directly off the stage by a concentrated blast of wind pressure.
Lin Lei and Su Wan were even more powerless to resist this omnipresent gale. Their protective Soul Power was instantly broken, and both were swept up and tossed outside the boundary of the stage.
From start to finish, it had only been a short dozen breaths of time.
The gale gradually subsided, leaving the stage in a mess, covered in fine cutting marks as if it had been baptized by countless sharp blades.
Caelus slowly lowered his hand. The phantom of the Regent of Time behind him quietly faded away, and his eyes returned to a fragmented gold color.
The Referee Teacher froze for a moment before suddenly snapping back to his senses and announcing loudly:
"freshman class six, Caelus, Gu Yuena, and Ye Guyi's team, wins."
The entire venue was silent.
Everyone was shocked by this inconceivable way of fighting.
From beginning to end, Caelus hadn't used a single Spirit Ability. The spirit rings had merely floated there, never even lighting up.
Relying only on that strange and powerful talent, he had defeated three Spirit Grandmasters with tacit cooperation in an absolute crushing manner.
In the stands, Elder Xuan had picked up a chicken leg again at some point, but his gaze remained fixed on Caelus for a long time as he muttered in a low voice:
"A talent with the time attribute? Heh, somewhat interesting..."
The smile on Han Ruoruo's face grew even more brilliant, and Zhang Lexuan's eyes also shone with extraordinary light.
Ye Guyi curled her lip and whispered, "Still so... abnormal."
Even she had to admit that Caelus's way of fighting—handling heavy weights as if they were light and seemingly controlling everything—was indeed heart-palpitating.
Deep within Gu Yuena's calm purple eyes, a very faint ripple also flickered.
The control over 'wind' and the absolute insight into the battle situation shown by Caelus caused her evaluation of this classmate to rise by another Rank.
Ignoring the various gazes, Caelus turned and walked off the stage as if he had just done something insignificant.
After Caelus's team easily ended their battle, since it was still early, they went together to the neighboring eighth assessment area to watch the matches.
The battle currently taking place here was between new student class one's Huo Yuhao team and freshman class nine's Ning Tian team.
Both sides were teams that had won all ten matches in the round-robin tournament. Even more eye-catching was that Ning Tian's team had a three-ring Soul Elder—none other than the holder of the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Pagoda, the top existence among support system Tool Spirits, Ning Tian.
Looking at their strength on paper, with the Soul Elder Ning Tian and her powerful buffs, as well as the two Spirit Grandmasters Wu Feng and Nangong Yuner, Ning Tian's team undoubtedly held an absolute advantage.
However, once the match began, the rhythm fell completely into the hands of Huo Yuhao's team.
Under the miraculous assistance of Huo Yuhao's Spiritual Detection sharing, Xiao Xiao and Wang Dong seemed to have a God's-eye view, always able to predict their opponents' actions and respond most effectively with minimal consumption.
Even with the speed and strength boosts from Ning Tian's Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Pagoda, Wu Feng's power attacks were steadily intercepted by Wang Dong, and Nangong Yuner's swift surprise attacks were skillfully neutralized by Xiao Xiao's Three Lives Soul-Crushing Cauldron.
"That Wang Dong's Martial Soul is so beautiful; it's not inferior to my Sacred Angel, and it's also light-attributed."
Ye Guyi's beautiful eyes lit up as she looked at the incomparably gorgeous wings of the Light Goddess Butterfly behind Wang Dong, which shone with a blue-gold radiance. Her tone carried a bit of appreciation and curiosity.
As they both possessed top-tier light-attribute Martial Souls, she naturally felt a sense of affinity.
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