Word Count: 3,059
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Eastsea City’s Elementary Spirit Ascension Platform.
Tang Wulin was still half-dazed when Na Er, flustered by worry, kicked him straight out of the Spirit Ascension Platform.
Zhang Yangzi and Wang Jinxi, both heavily injured by the Golden Dragon Claw’s pulverizing backlash, immediately decided discretion was the better part of valor and fled as well.
In the forest, only three people remained.
Zhao Xuanzhen, Na Er, and Gu Yue.
“You’re Gu Yue?” Zhao Xuanzhen asked, confirming her identity.
“That’s right.”
Gu Yue’s tone was utterly calm, without the slightest ripple, as if standing alone before two monsters meant nothing to her at all.
Zhao Xuanzhen looked at her and suddenly realized she was unexpectedly beautiful.
Her features were exquisite, her skin fair and smooth, calling to mind mutton-fat jade bathed in warm sunlight.
Her eyes were black like a still lake, yet faint ripples of light stirred within them.
He flipped through the memories in his mind and, in less than a quarter of a second, found the reason for the change in Gu Yue’s appearance.
In another timeline, Gu Yue and Na Er had made a wager.
Gu Yue would approach Tang Wulin using an ordinary appearance and make him fall in love with her.
If she succeeded, Na Er would willingly give up her humanity, and the two of them would become one again, allowing the Silver Dragon King Gu Yuena to return to the world.
But from the day Na Er ended up in Shrek City, the world had already changed.
Na Er joined the Spirit Pagoda and never came to know Tang Wulin at all, while Gu Yue entered Eastsea Academy for one purpose only: to obtain the Golden Dragon King Core.
There was no wager of love in this life.
With the pride of the Silver Dragon King’s dragon lineage flowing through her, Gu Yue would never deliberately make herself look plainer than she was.
The stunning face before him now was her truest appearance.
Perhaps it was only the power of suggestion.
Knowing that both girls were halves of the Silver Dragon King, Zhao Xuanzhen found their brows and eyes faintly similar.
Yet the resemblance vanished almost at once beneath their completely different temperaments.
After finishing his observation, Zhao Xuanzhen spoke.
“Spirit Pagoda, Zhao Xuanzhen and Na Er. I’m your evaluator today. Defeat me, and you’ll be automatically promoted to a core disciple of the Spirit Pagoda. Fail, and the Spirit Pagoda will reassess your overall potential.”
Outside, Leng Yaozhu smiled in satisfaction as she watched.
With Gu Yue’s Elementalist Martial Spirit and the background of a hidden clan, she would become a member of the Spirit Pagoda no matter how this battle ended.
Zhao Xuanzhen was simply exploiting the information gap to force her to give everything she had.
“Fine!”
Gu Yue’s answer was clean and decisive.
She had to enter the Spirit Pagoda.
Step by step, she intended to climb to the very top.
Two yellow spirit rings rose beneath her feet, and the aura of Rank 21 spirit power spread outward.
Na Er was secretly delighted and pulled a face when Zhao Xuanzhen wasn’t looking.
Hehe.
Little Gu Yue, my spirit power is higher than yours!
A cross-shaped vein bulged at Gu Yue’s temple.
When she had first transformed into human form, her soul had accidentally split and given birth to Na Er.
On top of that, her Silver Dragon King true body’s origin had been wounded, forcing her to recuperate quietly in the Star Dou Forest for three full years before she managed to recover even a sliver of her power.
And now one of the very culprits was mocking her to her face!
“She’s so fierce, Zhao Xuanzhen! Not like me~ I’m cute and well-behaved!”
Na Er instantly transformed into a pitiful, innocent beauty, stabbing the knife in with bright, shameless precision.
She seized every chance to slander Gu Yue!
Gu Yue’s temper flared.
She let out a cold snort, and both spirit rings flashed at the same time.
Colored spheres of elemental light gathered around her body: earth, water, wind, fire, and more besides.
First Spirit Skill, Elemental Tide!
Second Spirit Skill, Elemental Control!
Unlike Na Er, who fought with the Silver Dragon Spear, Gu Yue had inherited the Silver Dragon King’s most terrifying elemental abilities.
Neither spirit skill was directly offensive.
One greatly amplified the strength of her spirit power, while the other sharply intensified the surrounding elemental forces.
Her fighting style was simple: control multiple elements and bombard the enemy without pause!
Azure light swirled.
The wind condensed into sharp blades that screamed through the air and shot straight toward Zhao Xuanzhen.
“Xun Trigram, Wind Blade.”
A deep blue color spread through Zhao Xuanzhen’s eyes as the Eight Trigrams Qimen’s Earth Plate Daoist Art unfolded.
A stronger wind descended at once and instantly annihilated the wind element Gu Yue had created!
Gu Yue’s expression grew grave.
She raised both hands high, red light flickering at her fingertips as savage fire element gathered there.
One blazing fireball after another roared toward Zhao Xuanzhen in rapid succession.
“Li Trigram, Flame Bullet.”
The result was no different from the wind blades.
Zhao Xuanzhen’s Flame Bullets shattered Gu Yue’s fireballs and kept coming, their momentum undiminished, targeting her directly!
BOOM—
An earthen wall rose from the ground.
The Flame Bullets exploded against it, and layer after layer of crimson fire swept outward, devouring great swaths of forest.
The land became a field of charred black ruin as the surrounding temperature soared.
Gu Yue used the earth element to intercept the attack, then took advantage of the sea of flames obscuring the line of sight to flick an ice spike back at him.
Yet halfway through the air, her ice spike collided with another ice spike, one that was exactly the same!
“Impossible. Absolutely impossible!”
Gu Yue’s composure finally cracked.
Her lovely face twisted with disbelief.
The skill was identical, yet the Silver Dragon King’s elemental power had lost to a human!
If Zhao Xuanzhen had simply crushed her through superior spirit power, she would have had nothing to say.
The real problem was that within his Earth Plate Daoist Art, she could sense it: the world itself was suppressing her!
Zhao Xuanzhen smiled lightly.
The Eight Trigrams Qimen governed the transformations of the world!
“Kun Trigram, Earth Tremor!”
The ground shuddered violently.
Countless grains of sand and fragments of stone rose into the air and rapidly gathered together.
A stone python as large as a mountain took shape, its jaws gaping wider than one hundred and eighty degrees.
Earthen-yellow power flowed over its fangs as it lunged viciously at Gu Yue!
“Blizzard!”
Gu Yue bit down hard on her lip and seized control of the ice and wind elements together, raising a tornado of snow and frost.
The stone python tore through the air and slammed into it, and the tornado exploded on impact.
Ice crystals and shattered rock collided overhead as dark-blue shards and earthen debris poured down like a torrential storm.
Both of them were commanding the elemental power of the world.
Zhao Xuanzhen pointed into the empty air, and hurricanes closed in from both flanks.
Gu Yue pressed her palms together and condensed a hemispherical shell of water into ice.
The instant the hurricanes slammed into it, dense flame patterns spread across the frozen surface.
It was a dual fusion of water and fire elements, and the surrounding area blasted apart into ruins.
The sky flickered without warning.
Gu Yue rode the wind and floated in the air as violet light ignited deep within her eyes.
Light and darkness condensed into tangible tendrils.
Zhao Xuanzhen flipped through the air, and the hurricane around him twisted into a drilling shape.
It punched through the shockwave triggered by the tendrils of light and darkness and shattered Gu Yue’s hastily gathered water element shield into mist.
“My multi-element combinations can’t beat your single elements. The world is helping you, not me!” Gu Yue ground out through clenched teeth.
“What exactly is this power?!”
“Inside my formation, I am the world. I am natural law. The strength of the elements, the relationships of mutual generation and mutual restraint between them… all of it is mine to decide.”
The dark blue in Zhao Xuanzhen’s eyes deepened further.
The wandering elements across the entire battlefield began to collapse inward, and Gu Yue discovered in horror that her control over the elements was being overwritten by a higher order of authority.
Even the wind keeping her aloft had turned against her!
“Beautifully done, Zhao Xuanzhen! Keep suppressing her!”
Na Er was so excited she could hardly contain herself.
She threw playful left and right hooks in the air, punctuating each one with little “hey-ha!” sounds as she cheered him on.
Gu Yue shot Na Er a fierce glare.
Her Dao heart was on the verge of shattering, and that girl was still piling on the mockery!
‘The basic elements are useless.
If I want to turn this around, I have to catch him off guard!’
She was, after all, the spokesperson for the Dragon God’s wisdom.
Gu Yue quickly forced herself to calm down and began searching for a way to break the deadlock.
Silver light flashed.
Gu Yue shifted sideways and appeared directly above Zhao Xuanzhen’s head, a blade of ice gripped in each hand.
Space element, instant transference!
“Qian Trigram, Displacement.”
Zhao Xuanzhen vanished from where he stood and reappeared beside Na Er.
“Xun Trigram, Wind Rope.”
Cycling streams of wind wove themselves into green ropes.
Gu Yue felt her waist tighten as her body was yanked downward against her will.
She poured darkness element into the ropes, trying to corrode them, but the moment one dissolved, more wound around her, soft and flowing yet impossible to resist, sealing off her joints and vital points one after another.
The final rope bound her hands.
The girl glared at Zhao Xuanzhen, half vicious and half helpless.
Na Er was instantly overjoyed at the sight of the immobilized Gu Yue.
She ran all the way over, leaned her pretty face in close, and let her eyes spin mischievously:
“Oh dear, oh dear~ Gu Yue, what’s wrong with you? You couldn’t beat Zhao Xuanzhen even with the elements you’re best at. As the second evaluator, I’m very disappointed~”
“Put me down!”
Gu Yue’s face was full of stubborn defiance.
She looked ready to throw herself into a full-on brawl with Na Er on the spot!
“I won’t! I won’t!”
Under Gu Yue’s murderous gaze, Na Er reached out and gave that delicate nose a hard pinch, finally avenging the grudge of being hunted by the Myriad Demon King four years ago!
Na Er’s moment of triumph!
“That’s enough.”
Zhao Xuanzhen pulled Na Er back before she could get any more carried away, lest she start drawing turtles on Gu Yue’s face next, and released the wind ropes.
Gu Yue rubbed her reddened wrists.
For some reason, a faint blush that seemed almost shy flashed across her cheeks.
“The Spirit Pagoda’s upper echelon saw our entire battle from beginning to end through the Spirit Screen broadcast,” Zhao Xuanzhen said.
“Then can I become a core disciple?” Gu Yue blurted out.
She was preparing to carry out a certain plan, and the premise was becoming a core member of the Spirit Pagoda.
Zhao Xuanzhen had suppressed her elemental power so completely that she was beginning to worry the Spirit Pagoda might not value her as highly as she had expected.
“Go home and wait for news.”
Zhao Xuanzhen said evenly.
“I request a reassessment,” Gu Yue pressed.
“Have someone else fight me. For example… that Na Er beside you.”
“Who’s afraid of who!”
Na Er drew her Silver Dragon Spear.
Gu Yue summoned multiple elements.
The instant their auras rose, the air between the two girls crackled as if filled with gunpowder, silver-white sparks and pitch-black sparks colliding in every direction.
Zhao Xuanzhen smiled helplessly, pulled Na Er back, and turned to Gu Yue.
“You only get one chance. We have a Spirit Pagoda mission to carry out, so we won’t be staying to keep you company.”
Gu Yue’s gaze dimmed slightly.
She watched Zhao Xuanzhen and Na Er leave, then let out a soft sigh and voluntarily withdrew from the Elementary Spirit Ascension Platform.
When she slowly came to, she saw Tang Wulin, Xie Xie, Zhang Yangzi, and Wang Jinxi still immersed in the aftertaste of that battle, along with Wu Zhangkong, who seemed equally moved.
“Now do you understand the gap between yourselves and others your age across the continent?” Wu Zhangkong’s voice was cold as ice.
“There’s no comparing us. We looked like little children.”
Tang Wulin smiled bitterly.
Zhao Xuanzhen had not only toyed with his strength through sheer technique; that final punch, thrown without the slightest flourish, had told him something else entirely: the man who could deflect a thousand pounds with four ounces also possessed a thousand pounds of his own! Read this novel at novelping(.)com for the best experience.
“It’s huge. Like a chasm. Like a heavenly moat.”
Xie Xie’s confidence had been utterly crushed.
Na Er’s Silver Dragon Spear had appeared and vanished like a phantom, and even his Light and Shadow Dragon Daggers together had not lasted more than a few exchanges.
Zhang Yangzi and Wang Jinxi felt much the same.
Eastsea Academy’s most gifted Class Zero had been thoroughly steamrolled by monsters among geniuses.
“There is always someone stronger, always a sky beyond the sky. It’s a good thing you experienced that gap early. It will keep you from becoming too arrogant.”
Wu Zhangkong paused for half a second, then shifted his tone.
“However, never doubt yourselves.
All of you are geniuses with the qualifications for Shrek Academy.
But those two…
even if they were placed in Shrek, they would be peerless freaks rarely seen in thousands of years.
Especially Zhao Xuanzhen.
I couldn’t find a single weakness in him.
He restrains Wulin in close combat and outmatches Gu Yue at range.
The fact that he can command multiple elements means his spiritual realm must be extraordinarily high.
His overall strength is all but flawless.
My personal judgment is that he is very likely to become the leader of the Spirit Pagoda’s next generation.
When that day comes, the Spirit Pagoda may even surpass Shrek Academy and rise to become the number one Spirit Master power on the continent.”
“That scary?!”
Other than Gu Yue, every member of Class Zero stared with their mouths hanging open.
“That’s the reality.”
Wu Zhangkong nodded slightly.
“After the academy break ends, I will train all of you even more harshly. And you must keep chasing after Zhao Xuanzhen.”
“N-no extra training, please!!!”
The miserable wailing of Class Zero echoed through the Eastsea Spirit Pagoda.
Meanwhile, Zhao Xuanzhen and Na Er pressed deeper into the Elementary Spirit Ascension Platform, searching for the guardian Leng Yaozhu had mentioned.
Having defeated Tang Wulin, the king of raw stats, and Gu Yue, the queen of mechanics, Zhao Xuanzhen could not help feeling cheerful.
So it turns out I’m the true emperor of technique!
In the very next instant, his spirit power, already at the peak of Rank 29, broke through to Rank 30 as naturally as water flowing downhill.
A black spirit ring quietly began to condense within him.
Na Er spun her Silver Dragon Spear idly.
Though she did not want to admit it, Gu Yue’s appearance had planted a trace of unease in her heart.
She poked Zhao Xuanzhen’s arm with a fingertip and tested him carefully:
“Zhao Xuanzhen, is Gu Yue pretty?”
“A girl’s appearance isn’t for outsiders to evaluate.”
Zhao Xuanzhen immediately threw up every defense he had.
Nice try.
As if I’d fall for such a clumsy trap!
“Then which one of us is better looking? You have to answer!”
Na Er stamped her foot in frustration.
“Between the two of you, one of you is very good-looking.”
“…”
Na Er raised her fair little fist in threat.
“You’d better be talking about me!”
Whoosh—
A powerful aura suddenly erupted in the distance.
Both of them suppressed every stray emotion at once.
That aura spread at high speed.
The light filtering through the forest dimmed abruptly, and the cries of insects and birdsong fell silent all around them.
The earth trembled.
A giant bear covered from head to toe in dark-gold fur tore through the towering ancient trees blocking its path and entered their field of vision.
It stood well over five meters tall.
Its back was broad and mighty, its body as thick and imposing as a city wall, and from the ends of its massive arms extended cold, dark-gold giant claws.
“A 1,000-year Dark Gold Terror Claw Bear. Almost certainly the Spirit Ascension Platform’s guardian…”
Zhao Xuanzhen’s eyes lit up.
The previous 100-year Dark Gold Terror Claw Bear had been replaced by a 1,000-year one, and this new guardian clearly harbored something unusual!
The guardian of the Elementary Spirit Ascension Platform at Spirit Pagoda headquarters was also a 1,000-year Dark Gold Terror Claw Bear, which gave Zhao Xuanzhen a very direct basis for comparison.
The claws of Eastsea City’s bear were thicker and sharper than those of the headquarters guardian, gleaming with a domineering dark-gold radiance!
‘One beast, two claws…
Teacher really sent us an extraordinary gift…’
Only now did Zhao Xuanzhen fully grasp Leng Yaozhu’s intention.
No wonder she had insisted they kill the guardian!
“Screech—!”
Another shrill cry rang out.
A massive single eye floated into view, four silver tentacles trailing along the ground and gouging deep furrows in its wake.
The Dark Gold Terror Claw Bear was overbearing and tyrannical, but this giant eye was colder and more savage still!
A 1,000-year Evileye Tyrant!
“Zhao Xuanzhen, leave the Evileye Tyrant to me!”
Na Er volunteered at once.
Her own gift was something she would claim with her own hands!
The two of them charged toward their respective opponents.
Three 10,000-year spirit rings spiraled upward around Zhao Xuanzhen, and his third ring blazed with dazzling brilliance!
Ripples of black and white spread wildly outward.
Starting from the roots, his black hair was dyed white.
Body, spirit, and spirit power all shattered their shackles and stepped into an entirely new realm!
Third Spirit Skill, Path of Wuji!
From strong, to stronger still!