In terms of strength, even when heavily injured, the Frost Fairy was much stronger than Tang Jie, but Tang Jie didn’t want to kill her, only use this chance to steal the Red Lotus. In the end, the true specialty of warriors that focused on toughness was seizing things.
Thus, what he wanted was precisely that the Frost Fairy retreat.
Tang Jie’s golden thread swept out, coiling around the Iceflame Red Lotus.
The ice sprite panicked. The Red Lotus was the base of her power, the foundation of her Dao. If it were stolen, advancing any further would be excruciatingly difficult. Her eyes flashed, and two dark beams of energy struck Tang Jie to freeze him once more.
“Out of my way!” Tang Jie bellowed. He turned around and punched at the dark beams of energy, his body momentarily flashing red. With brute strength, he somehow managed to resist the freezing power, but one arm was now completely covered in frost.
Distracted for a moment, Tang Jie moved to draw back the golden thread which had coiled around the lotus, but at this moment, boom! An arrow of light came streaking out of the distance, striking him in the back, and he crashed into the water with a bang.
“Tang Jie!” Wei Tianchong and Cai Junyang cried out in alarm at this sudden development.
Turning their heads, they saw Long Dao proudly standing there with his bow. “The Iceflame Red Lotus is mine!”
A group of students stood behind him, An Rumeng among them.
He once more drew his bow back, and an arrow flew straight at Cai Junyang and company.
“Shit!” Cai Junyang cursed. He pushed Wei Tianchong, and the party of three leaped aside.
As the arrow pushed them back, Long Dao shouted to the students following him, “Get the Red Lotus!”
These students rushed out to get the Red Lotus in the pond, leaving only An Rumeng waiting in the rear.
Seeing more students coming, the Frost Fairy shrieked, and a surge of cold emerged from the pond toward them.
“Watch out!” the leading student shouted in fright.
Long Dao drew back his bow. “Let me… Dragon Roar!”
As he shouted, the silver arrow on the bow shot out. A flame blazed up on the silver tip, and then the arrow transformed into a massive fire dragon that charged at the cold wave.
Long Dao’s face dimmed as the arrow flew out, and he took out a pill and consumed it.
This Dragon Roar was comparable to the Heavenly King Mara Incantation. Fortunately, it was just a one-time attack and didn’t constantly consume spiritual energy like the Heavenly King Mara Incantation. Moreover, as he was a Spirit Sea student, he didn’t use up all his spiritual energy, but it was still an enormous burden.
With an enormous expense came terrifying strength.
Fire and ice clashed, and the explosion sent flames and ice flying everywhere. The fire dragon almost instantly blasted through the cold wave, and with the rest of its strength, it made a circle in the air and then lunged at the Frost Fairy.
The Frost Fairy was shocked, and she shrieked again. As she did, the rime-covered trees in the distance swayed, unleashing a great shower of snowflakes. These snowflakes instantly turned into countless ice bats, rushing at the fire dragon like moths to the flame.
Ice and fire reacted against each other in a frenzy, and innumerable ice bats melted into clean streams of water. But the fire dragon began to weaken under all this ice power, and it grew smaller and smaller, ultimately becoming an ember that vanished without a trace.
Long Dao paled at this sight.
He had thought that the Frost Fairy was too severely injured to fight, but to his surprise, she could still put up a fight.
Tang Jie could resist the Frost Fairy’s attack to seize the Red Lotus, but the others didn’t have that ability.
The Frost Fairy shrieked, unleashing an even greater explosion of frost.
This sprite truly possessed terrifyingly powerful spells, and only in her hands did Immortal arts have the majesty and power they were expected to have.
This tide of icy energy caused all the students to grimace.
Fortunately, at this moment, someone roared.
“Break!”
A storm-like boom resounded through the caverns like thunder exploding in the nine heavens, causing everyone’s ears to buzz. Even the wave of ice was forced back.
Only now did everyone see a person come out from a passage on the side: Peng Yaolong.
These passages were all linked to each other.
This upperclassman of Basking Moon Academy walked out barechested, his body rippling with muscle and a powerful energy coiled around him, and he radiated a wild power.
The icy winds blowing against his body were like a light breeze on a boulder, not moving a single hair.
Long Dao sneered at Peng Yaolong’s appearance. “I knew that Senior Brother Peng possessed divine and peerless strength, but I didn’t expect you to also be able to see through illusions and get out of the illusion formation so quickly.”
Long Dao had been able to get out of the formation because a treasure his father had given him had the ability to see through illusions. It was no good against the Frost Fairy’s illusion formation because he hadn’t been strong enough to break it, but it was more than enough to deal with Tang Jie’s cheap and shoddy Eight Desolations Illusion Formation, and that was how he had been able to break out and come here straight away. He was very surprised that Peng Yaolong had also been able to get out so quickly.
Peng Yaolong indifferently said, “Being a Basking Moon student is all about focusing on the Origin Heart and not being misguided. If I am fooled by a puny illusion formation, how can I walk the Dao? Is that not so, Junior Sister Meng, Junior Brother Ye?”
Laughter came from another passage, and a man and woman appeared, leading several other students. The man was Ye Tianshang, and the woman was a refined and pure lady dressed in robes whiter than snow. It was none other than that Meng Shixue who had assisted Tang Jie earlier.
Ye Tianshang said, “I’ve long heard of Senior Brother Peng’s outstanding talent, but your will is resolved, your Origin Heart set on the Great Dao and unperturbed by illusions. You truly deserve your reputation. As for me, I had to completely rely on Sister Shixue here.”
In Basking Moon Academy, Meng Shixue was rather well known for her attainments in the Dao of Formations.
Meng Shixue chuckled and said nothing, but many more students appeared behind her.
Three parties were now in a stand-off, with the Frost Fairy in the center. While there weren’t too many people, the Frost Fairy had lost her formation, so she could not deal with them so easily anymore.
Long Dao swept his eyes over the crowd. “In other words, this struggle for the treasure will be between the three of us?”
He didn’t even glance at Cai Junyang’s group, not considering them a threat at all. As for Tang Jie, he had yet to emerge from the Frigid Pond and was probably sleeping with the fishes, so Long Dao had put him aside. Only An Rumeng continued to stare pensively at the water.
He had barely spoken when another voice piped up, “Senior Brother Long, aren’t you underestimating the talents of my Basking Moon too much?”
Startled, Long Dao turned and saw another group coming out of a passage.
“Liu Yuan?” Long Dao snorted.
Liu Yuan was a fourth-year student and could be considered the representative of his class.
But Long Dao didn’t take him seriously.
While Liu Yuan was also at the Spirit Sea Tier, he had only just entered Spirit Sea and was far inferior to the others.
Long Dao simply snorted at this new group of students and proceeded to ignore him. He whispered to An Rumeng, “When the fight starts, you’ll be responsible for getting the Red Lotus while I hold the rest of them down.”
The spell arts of the Thousand Passions Sect had always been known for their speed and agility, and the Six Desires Mantra’s “action without trace” was also known as the “ethereal ghost”.
Long Dao had asked for An Rumeng’s help firstly because her background meant that she had no reason to go against the contract and take the Red Lotus herself, and secondly because her speed was rare even among the upperclassmen, making her a powerful ally when taking the treasure.
An Rumeng lightly nodded. “Remember your promise.”
Long Dao chuckled. “Relax. I will have my father teach you the spell art you desire, but you had best remember the other condition we agreed on.”
Anger flashed on An Rumeng’s face, and she clenched her silver teeth. “Relax. So long as you can teach me, I will not go back on my word.”
She cultivated a secret art of the Thousand Passions Sect that emphasized confusing the hearts of others while remaining unperturbed. She instantly realized that her anger was getting to her and mentally recited the mantra, circulating energy according to its method, and emotion disappeared from her face.
Peng Yaolong saw the batch of newcomers and laughed. “Good, another group! This should be enough to kill this Frost Fairy. So what are we still waiting for? Let’s work together and kill this sprite, and then we can fight over the Red Lotus!”
He was a pugnacious fellow, even more excited about killing the Frost Fairy than fighting over the Red Lotus.
In truth, the students all had different goals.
Long Dao wanted the Red Lotus to get famous. An Rumeng was after the lotus to get the art she desired. Peng Yaolong wanted the Red Lotus for the sake of the battle it would stir.
It was probably only Ye Tianshang, Meng Shixue, and Liu Yuan who actually wanted to become a True Inheritor.
But regardless of their goals, their target was the same.
Once Peng Yaolong was done talking, he fiercely punched.
It was an energetic punch that instantly created a whirlwind of energy. The Frost Fairy shrieked and unleashed a wave of ice.
As the two energies collided, everyone discovered to their shock that Peng Yaolong’s iron fist had the upper hand, pushing through the icy wave.
Peng Yaolong charged and bellowed, “That’s all you have!?”
His body surged with energy and flashed with flames of light. The Frost Fairy immediately backed away in fright.
Seeing that Peng Yaolong had the upper hand, Liu Yuan and Ye Tianshang shouted in unison, “Senior Brother Peng, let me help you!”
They both rushed out, but they were actually making their way to the Red Lotus.
Peng Yaolong furiously said, “Don’t even think about it!”
He punched with his left and right hands, sending two gusts of wind at Liu and Ye.
The savage winds immediately blew the two of them away.
Ye Tianshang angrily shouted, “Peng Yaolong, you bastard!”
Liu Yuan waved his hand and shouted, “Hurry and get the Red Lotus!”
The other students began to charge forward.
The Frost Fairy’s moment of weakness was the perfect time to get the treasure.
Long Dao’s eyes glinted with a vicious light. “An Rumeng, go and get the Red Lotus.”
“The time isn’t right. Wait a little longer,” An Rumeng replied. “That ice sprite hasn’t reached the end of its rope yet. She’s scheming something!”
“What?” Long Dao was taken aback, and when he looked back at the Frost Fairy again, he saw a cunning light in her eyes.
He instantly realized that An Rumeng was right. The Frost Fairy was clearly acting weak, drawing the students into fighting each other.
Long Dao wanted to shout a reminder, but then he realized that this was a chance and decided to shut his mouth and just stare at the Frost Fairy. Nearby, Meng Shixue also didn’t move, clearly waiting for the right moment as well.
The students that followed Peng, Ye, and Liu charged forward, but they were stopped by the Frost Fairy. Meanwhile, Peng Yaolong had begun fighting with Ye Tianshang and Liu Yuan.
It was one versus two, but he got stronger and stronger as the fight went on. As he battled without abandon, he shouted, “Divine Firmament Secret Spell, Apex Combat True Astral!”
Energy rushed out of his body and formed a protective layer of Astral energy.
Ye Tianshang thrust his sword at Peng Yaolong’s arm, stirring up a fierce gale. But rather than penetrating into Peng Yaolong’s arm, all he managed to do was bend his sword.
The Apex Combat True Astral was a secret spell of the Divine Firmament Sword Classic.
But while Tang Jie had connived his way into the Divine Firmament Sword Classic, Peng Yaolong had gotten this spell through his own hard work. He had frantically completed many missions for the academy in order to get this spell, accumulating enough contribution points to finally exchange for the prize. In the process, he had sustained many wounds and almost died many times.
Perhaps this was exactly why he had chosen a powerful protective spell, the Apex Combat True Astral, which was on par with the Formless Golden Body. It was just that Tang Jie was learning too many things and hadn’t cultivated for very long, so he had yet to fully exhibit its power. As for Peng Yaolong, he had cultivated the Apex Combat True Astral to a proficient level. Now that he had used it, Ye Tianshang and Liu Yuan felt like they were attacking steel. Various lights exploded on his body, but he was completely unharmed. Meanwhile, his every punch and kick carried enormous strength that managed to suppress the two.
Ye Tianshang saw that Peng Yaolong was keeping him from the treasure, and he frantically said, “You forced me to do this! Sunthrust Godshaker!”
