"I know, I know—the stone pillar broke right after Shi Jin, so the people behind him couldn't get certified at all. Hilarious."

"Pfft, that's truly a tragic turn of events."

"..."

Before the battle had even begun, many people realized that Master Chen Yu had, in a roundabout way, been wronged by Shi Jin, and they couldn't help but look forward to the fight to come.

Chen Yu did have real strength. Though he was a newly minted master of Wuling in the past two years, once his dragon-turtle fusion was complete, the astonishing defense and vitality of the mid-tier king species Dragon-Blooded Turtle gave him formidable self-sufficient combat ability.

The human body's flexibility and mobility, combined with the turtle's defensive power, made up for each other's shortcomings nicely.

On the arena floor, Master Chen Yu fixed his gaze on Shi Jin, every muscle in his body bulging, and said to him: "Shi Jin, is it? I don't care how much of a prodigy you are—I won't be going easy on you. If you feel you can't take it later, surrender quickly."

With anyone else, Chen Yu would have already been cursing up a storm. Considering Shi Jin's special status, he was staying relatively rational for now—but having to fight three extra days of preliminaries because of Shi Jin really did leave Chen Yu irritated.

As a rule, he had no pleasant face to offer anyone who rubbed him the wrong way. As for whether offending people might get him squeezed out of the system—he'd never been inside the system to begin with. He lived alone now, food and drink no worry, so he might as well do whatever pleased him.

"Hmm..." Faced with Chen Yu's words, Shi Li said, "I will. Though I'd still ask you to go easy on me, Brother—I'm only a senior beast tamer."

"How about you summon a commander-tier beast and possess it to fight me."

Chen Yu: ???

"In your dreams!!!" Chen Yu fumed. Why did he feel like he'd just punched cotton after roasting Shi Jin? It somehow made him even angrier.

How infuriating.

In the contestant seats, the many contestants saw the sparks flying between Chen Yu and Shi Jin and all wore cheerful expressions—Lu Heng and Bai Xi were no exception. Masters with tempers like that were a rare breed; it was far more entertaining than a polite, amiable fight.

"Shall we begin?" Chen Yu looked over at the presiding referee, Bai Feng.

Thereupon the referee Bai Feng gave the order to start.

"Awooo!!!!"

No wasted words—in an instant, red turtle armor covered Chen Yu's entire body. At the same time, opposite him, because Crimson Pupil's possession rank was higher, the possession on Shi Jin's side came even faster.

In the blink of an eye, Shi Jin had transformed into his red-haired, crimson-eyed form. Sun-like flames of spiritual energy erupted from his body, and a flaming longsword appeared in Shi Jin's hand.

At this sight, quite a few hearts skipped a beat. After all, only a少数 had seen Shi Jin challenge the rock pillar's pressure back then; now, most people were seeing Shi Jin in his sword-spirit possession state for the first time.

"They say it's a sword spirit—a fire-attribute sword spirit."

In the spectator stands, many murmured.

The dragon-blooded turtle was a dragon-type subspecies, and neither side held an attribute advantage over the other. No telling how this battle would end.

Still, from Chen Yu's perspective, he hardly believed a master-tier beast tamer like himself could be beaten by a senior beast tamer punching above his rank.

But truth be told, Chen Yu found his opponent's attack speed genuinely fast.

BOOM!!!

The instant both sides transformed, Chen Yu felt the light before his eyes snatched away in a heartbeat, as if the world had plunged into darkness.

In that moment, Chen Yu felt a wave of heat rushing at him.

Then, with a thunderous roar, a colossal red sword-light cleaved through the darkness opposite him, becoming a terrifying flame sword-qi that tore the air and landed right before Chen Yu's eyes.

"Lightflame Sword."

Across from him, Shi Jin's flame-demon coat and red cloak billowed as he cut down with the sword-qi one-handed. Because this was a cross-rank battle, he dared not be careless, focusing utterly on seizing every opening.

However.

The Sunflame Sword, fused with super-tier sunflame power, only drew contempt from Chen Yu opposite. He simply lashed out with a claw in midair—with a "boom," his fist seemed to become a giant dragon's claw, instantly whipping up terrifying blood-red energy that scattered the sword-qi in all directions.

High-tier skill, Dragonblood Claw!

Opposite him, Chen Yu faced the scattering firelight and smiled. "I say—your strength's not bad, but is this attack supposed to tickle me?"

"I'll give you one chance. Mount your Iron-eating Beast and try again."

"Don't say I never gave you a chance."

"A mere Iron-eating Beast... haha."

Shi Qi's mouth twitched.

Give you an inch and you take a mile.

You actually think I wanted you to go easy.

"Old man, you're getting awfully full of yourself."

He hadn't wanted to use that so early, but... forget it, forget it. Best to end this quickly; he really had no mood to temper himself right now.

The next moment, Shi Jin walked forward, step by step, leaving Chen Yu opposite him stunned.

"Have you heard of the Iceflame Dragon?"

Shi Jin spoke directly.

Right after, a shimmering ripple of space appeared before Shi Jin's chest.

Shi Jin reached out, plunging his hand into the ruin-space and slowly drawing upward through the air. At once, astonishing cold qi surged forth, and a blue divine sword was slowly pulled out from the other dimension, appearing in Shi Jin's hand.

Through this process, flames and cold qi wreathed Shi Jin's body, becoming a sky-full of iceflame power.

At the same time, a dreadful dragon roar emanated from within the sword.

"ROAR!!!!"

The terrifying dragon roar instantly shook the minds of everyone present, leaving them briefly dazed. And Chen Yu opposite Shi Jue was even more unsettled—struck directly by the dragon's might, suppressed by the very bloodline in his veins.

Meanwhile, Shi Jin rose slowly into the air.

A moment later, when Chen Yu came back to his senses, his pupils contracted sharply—Shi Ying's bearing had changed completely. Right then, a terrifying phantom of an ice dragon was born beneath Jue, becoming his mount.

The colossal frost dragon's body seemed forged entirely of ice stone, its hues woven from ice-blue and deep purple, the sign of absolute cold.

Not only the body—its neck, skull, long tail, talons, fangs, its four powerful legs, and that pair of wings—all bore the texture of ice stone, scales radiating cold, wreathed in wind and snow, in stark contrast to Shi Jin's flame form.

"ROAR!!!!!"

The ice dragon let out a roar and beat its wings.

At that moment, little Chi Tong was cheering too, inexplicably fond of coordinating with the ice dragon phantom.

With everything ready, Shi Jin raised the Ice Dragon Blade high.

Swish!!!

A dazzling sword aura some dozen meters tall, blue and red interwoven like a churning blizzard, like an erupting volcano, swept straight toward Chen Yu on the crest of dragon might, carrying a suffocating deterrence—in raw power, not the least bit inferior to the lightning-flame sword pressure Jue had unleashed on the arena!!

BOOM!!!

The Ice-Flame Dragon Sword crushed down upon the arena, and across from him Chen Yu's pupils shrank as he sensed a threat far beyond the earlier Light-Flame Sword—but when he tried to dodge, the dragon's might had already cowed him; there was nowhere to flee.

The sword light of ice and fire came crashing in, sweeping up a vast cloud of dust that swallowed Chen Yu whole; the astonishing aftershock instantly turned to gale, whipping Shi Ying's red hair.

Atop the ice dragon, Shi Jin—red-haired, crimson-eyed—held the Ice Dragon Blade, his expression flat.

"Sorry, but cracking one little turtle's guard doesn't need the Iron-Eater."