Chapter 139: Childhood Sweethearts

Bai Shengye answered with the same technique:

“Ice Frost Snow Blades!”

The two storms collided, forming two mighty, whirling cyclones that struggled against each other. In the stands, everyone held their breath for the two contestants, wondering which of them would ultimately prevail.

Within the cyclones, every snowflake summoned by Thousand Snow was swiftly and precisely cut down by the snow blades controlled by Bai Shengye. The two remained locked in a stalemate, turning the battle into a contest of magical endurance. The Mechanist behind Thousand Snow was also driven backward again and again by the stray winds and flurrying snow, yet he remained within the range of his own ammunition.

Thousand Snow roared, “I refuse to believe that I, a member of the Ice and Snow Clan, could be inferior to a potion-maker from the Medicine Immortal Clan!”

Once again, she drew upon every ounce of her magic and poured it into the Ice Frost Snow Blades. The blades spun through the air at terrifying speed. But Bai Shengye’s power flowed without end, his breathing steady and composed. With the support of the Extreme Cold Hell beneath him, the storm raged with merciless cold, and it seemed only a matter of time before it overwhelmed Thousand Snow’s blades.

Little by little, Thousand Snow’s magic ebbed away. Unable to sustain the technique, she suddenly saw the blizzard before her scatter apart.

At the same moment, Bai Shengye’s snowstorm surged forward with overwhelming force. He hurriedly withdrew his power, afraid that he might injure her.

The Mechanist seized that instant. The moment Bai Shengye began retracting his strength, every weapon in the Mechanist’s arsenal fired at once.

The heavy snail shell behind him struck the ground with a bang and split open on both sides. Inside was a thirty-six-port rocket launcher magazine, from which rows of powerful projectiles shot into the air.

The two smoke bombs mounted on his shoulders and the small tracking missiles concealed in every joint of his body launched simultaneously. Like fireworks, the projectiles scattered in all directions before converging on Bai Shengye in a net of destruction. The Mechanist had wagered everything on this brief moment of carelessness.

A wave of astonishment swept through the stands. Once again, the spectators marveled at the explosive force the Mechanist could unleash in an instant.

Bai Shengye’s brows drew together slightly. Spirit Dream was stunned by the sudden barrage as well. She instinctively threw up two more shields, but her mind had gone completely blank.

“Ice Wall!”

Bai Shengye summoned the snow still suspended in the air and hastily formed it into an ice wall. But the wall had only just taken shape and had not yet fully solidified when the projectiles struck it.

The shattered ice crystals flew in every direction like swords, streaking toward Bai Shengye and Spirit Dream. Bai Shengye immediately wrapped an arm around Spirit Dream’s waist, lifted her from the ground, and leaped aside.

At the same time, every projectile the Mechanist had fired into the air abruptly changed course. They all turned toward Bai Shengye, sweeping across the sky like a vast flock of birds passing overhead.

Bai Shengye’s brows knitted even more tightly. He realized that every projectile possessed a tracking function. There was no escaping them; he could only withstand the assault head-on.

He drew the Extreme Cold Hell beneath his feet. The staff in his hand instantly transformed into its second form—the Iceblade Sword.

“Ice Dragon’s Roar!”

A deep growl that shook the heart resounded through the arena. Everyone present felt the pressure bearing down upon them, and in a daze, they seemed to glimpse the phantom of an ice dragon emerging in the air.

At the same time, the force of the erupting ice and snow spread outward from Bai Shengye like an avalanche crashing down a glacier, meeting the scattered projectiles head-on.

Boom… boom… boom…

The snow blasted apart by the explosions drifted through the air, forming a dense white fog that shrouded the arena and concealed the figures of the contestants. The detonations continued without pause, and the projectiles fell like a storm of hail. Nearly ten minutes passed before the barrage finally began to subside.

The air was filled with biting cold. As the snowy mist gradually dispersed, Bai Shengye stood behind the dense white haze at one side of the arena, the Iceblade Sword in his hand. Cold white vapor drifted downward from its ice-blue blade.

He was completely unharmed.

“If this continues, my magic will soon be exhausted…” he thought. “And now that my weapon has taken its second form, it consumes even more power. I have to end this match with one final strike.”

The Mechanist had also poured everything he had into that bombardment. All the ammunition cartridges on his body were now empty, and every cannon port at his arms and joints gave off waves of scorching heat.

It seemed that he, too, had exhausted his ammunition.

“Iceblade Sword—Ice Dragon’s Breath!”

Bai Shengye struck once more. The phantom of an ice dragon emerged behind him. Though its form was illusory and insubstantial, its pair of blue eyes was perfectly clear.

The ice dragon opened its jaws. As Bai Shengye swung the Iceblade Sword, it exhaled a mist of absolute cold. One glacier after another surged from the ground wherever the sword’s energy passed.

Thousand Snow was already powerless to resist. Her cultivation had not yet reached the Transformation Realm, and when she saw that Bai Shengye’s strength far exceeded her own, she was so terrified that she forgot to dodge. She simply stood there, staring blankly.

“Thousand Snow, what are you doing?” the Mechanist said irritably.

With no time to concern himself with her, he immediately leaped into the snail shell embedded in the ground. The shell closed, forming a sturdy round carapace. Gears and chains emerged around it, and it began rolling forward at tremendous speed.

When the glacier reached Thousand Snow, it abruptly changed direction and pursued the Mechanist as he slipped away.

Although the Mechanist’s gears rolled swiftly along a curved path, they could not outrun the speed at which the glacier froze the ground behind him. Bai Shengye poured more magic into the attack. The glacier’s formation suddenly accelerated, spreading across the arena as a sheet of ice.

In an instant, it froze the rolling snail shell solid within the ice.

Spirit Dream raised her staff, preparing to attack Thousand Snow.

Thousand Snow stared blankly at the scene before her. Then she lowered her head, sorrow gleaming in her eyes, and said weakly,

“I… I surrender.”

The host, who had been standing atop the high platform above the arena, had already wrapped himself in a thick fur coat. Recovering from the icy air, he immediately announced:

“What a magnificent match! The winners of this round are—the Holy City Magic Academy’s Bai Shengye and Spirit Dream!”

Even the spectators in the front rows were shivering from the snow mist that had spilled throughout the arena. Yet upon hearing the result, they rose to their feet and cheered wildly for the victors.

The Mechanist’s defeat beneath such overwhelming suppression left them sighing in awe. In this era, it seemed, magic truly was the dominant force.

Bai Shengye’s staff returned to its original form. The glacier shattered, and the Mechanist, frozen within it, stretched out his legs, hoisted the snail shell onto his back, and shook the snow from his body.

Thousand Snow turned away with grim resolve and walked toward the exit.

“Thousand Snow!” Bai Shengye called reluctantly.

She did not stop. Her heart had already grown cold to the core.

Why… why had he come to the Holy City?

The question repeated itself endlessly in Thousand Snow’s mind. But what she truly wanted to ask was:

Why didn’t you return to the Snow Domain to find me?

Bai Shengye and Spirit Dream stepped down from the arena, and Black Feather and the others immediately surrounded them. A great weight lifted from Yi Xin’s heart as well.

“Wonderful! We all made it through the first round!”

Several of the brothers threw their arms over one another’s shoulders and walked back to the waiting room together. The girls followed behind, chatting and laughing as they celebrated their victory in the first round.

The arena staff promptly climbed onto the platform and began clearing away the ice and snow that covered nearly two-thirds of its surface.