Han Chong had a calm expression as he spread out his arms. His star energy emerged from his body and took on the form of a picturesque scenery of mountains and seas. Xia Ye’s four-lined battle force covered first was directly blocked by this thin-looking star energy that had been shaped into mountains and seas. He was shocked, but then a strange expression flickered across his face when he saw this mountains and seas painting. A trace of ecstasy seemed to enter his eyes.

Boom!

The landscape painted with star energy rushed at Xia Ye, expanding limitlessly as it crashed down into the earth. Xia Ye foolishly stood in his original spot, letting his body be smashed into pieces by this star energy painting of mountains and seas.

Everyone was stunned; this battle had been too fast! A four-lined battle force user had been wiped out just like that.

Han Chong was also slightly stumped by what had happened, as Xia Ye should not have been that weak. Still, a victory was a victory.

Nightqueen Yanqing frowned; she also could not understand what had happened. Han Chong’s attack had been very powerful, but it was not to the extent where Xia Ye could not avoid it. Why had he been killed so easily?

Starsibyl, Feng Shang, and the others similarly could not understand it.

Lu Yin was the same as the rest even though he had acutely sensed the depth of Han Chong’s attack style. Painting was an extremely unconventional battle technique, and Han Chong could be said to be a true artist.

Soon after, another two students appeared on the arena plains, and yet another student leader had come out to battle. It was Astral-9’s Liu Yin, and his opponent was Grandini Mavis.

When Liu Yin saw Grandini, he took off his earphones as a serious expression appeared on his face. No one dared to look down on the powerhouses from the Mavis family.

Grandini clenched her two fists and immediately attacked Liu Yin as soon as he appeared. Her demeanor seemed to be similar to Lulu’s, but even more violent.

Liu Yin opened his mouth and let loose a tremendous roar that caused the void to immediately collapse, as quickly as a bowstring could be snapped. The sound waves also caused a shock wave to spread out in all directions. Even with the energy barrier, many students still fainted from its effects.

Grandini’s fist crashed into the sound wave, but it was unable to continue any further. Her right leg stomped on the ground and caused an explosion to ring out. Her body moved forward by an inch. Then, another explosion caused her body to inch forward again. With this last bit of progress, the giant sound wave was split apart.

Lu Yin was shocked by what he had just seen. Nine Stacks? That’s right, that was definitely Nine Stacks. He never thought that Grandini would also know the Nine Stacks technique. But, after thinking about it, it wasn’t actually that much of a surprise. Even though the Nine Stacks technique could not be combined with other powerful battle techniques, it could be used to stack physical attacks. Since the Mavis family had an abnormally high physical strength, they were one of the best users for this battle technique.

Lu Yin could already envision Liu Yin’s tragic end after Grandini’s strength was channeled through Nine Stacks.

After eight explosions, Grandini was able to tear through the sound wave and punch Liu Yin’s abdomen, causing him to spit out a mouthful of blood. In response, he grabbed Grandini’s arm and roared out once again. This time, it was the sound of many birds crowing. The void fluctuated briefly before Grandini’s eyes lost their focus as she was dragged into a land of fantasy.

Liu Yin was the Dao of Change’s Realm Master, and he had obtained an ancient bloodline of the Fantasy Crow. His voice could create illusions.

But Grandini quickly broke free from the illusion. At this point, Liu Yin and Grandini had separated again, and Liu Yin’s sound waves had converged into lines that then formed into a ball that suddenly dropped onto the ground. Many students unconsciously covered their ears while Grandini’s eyes widened and she struck out with a fist. Nine booms directly rang out, and then a tenth, eleventh, until it finally stopped at the thirteenth explosion. She had not learned the Nine Stacks technique, but rather, the Thirteen Stacks technique.

Her terrifying strength was magnified even further with Thirteen Stacks, and it forcibly tore the sound wave apart. Even then, its offensive power had not lessened by much. The visible shock wave formed from the soundwaves was then blasted back towards Liu Yin.

The hit landed on Liu Yin again, and he spat out another large mouthful of blood. In front of him, Grandini had jumped up and raised her right leg, ready to slam it down.

Liu Yin’s eyes quivered as he closed them. As everyone watched on attentively, the space around them trembled. With Liu Yin at its center, a black circle with a radius of a hundred meters appeared in the arena. This was the Soundless Field.

Supposedly, all creatures under the sky had an innate sound. Once their innate sound was removed, a Soundless Field would form, where humans could hear everything, even the flow of their own blood within their veins. This was the noise that formed the basis of Liu Yin’s attack method.

Grandini turned pale as she covered her forehead and fell to the ground. Her entire body trembled as though she was trying to bear a torturously loud noise.

Liu Yin panted heavily, as it was very difficult for him to sustain the Soundless Field. Between the two of them, this had become a competition between who would be able to last the longest.

But Liu Yin had forgotten about something. If Lulu Mavis had comprehended battle force, then it went without saying that the stronger Grandini Mavis had as well.

As a three-lined battle force shrouded her entire body, Liu Yin’s Soundless Field was completely shattered, and he became yet another fallen academy leader.

Many students released their pent up breaths. They were relieved that they would not have to bear another one of Liu Yin’s roar attacks, which had been painful even for them as spectators.

Grandini also relaxed, as the torture of the Soundless Field was indeed unforgettable. She had resolved herself to use all her strength and immediately crush her opponent if she ever fought against another person who possessed an innate gift of sound. She did not wish to endure such torture again.

On the high peak overlooking the plains, there were now four vacant seats among the ten seats present. Although Liu Xiaoyun had won, a pyrrhic victory that had ended in mutual destruction was too weak for her to reappear among the rest of them.

In the previous Astral Combat Tournaments, only a few academy leaders would have been defeated at this point, but this tournament was exceptional. Not only were there monsters who had only recently joined the Astral Combat Academy, but there were also students like Xia Ye, Tu Bo, Grandini, and other hidden powerhouses. These hidden experts had caught Feng Shang and the others unawares.

For the next match, Starsibyl was pitted against Silver.

Lu Yin was speechless, and he even wondered if the academy mentors were purposefully targeting Astral-10. Xia Luo’s opponent had been against Dao Bo, and now, Silver was matched up against Starsibyl. Neither one had even a glimmer of hope of winning. Even if Lu Yin was confident in Silver’s power, he did not think that Silver could beat Starsibyl.

Although the Neohuman Alliance was powerful, Starsibyl’s sect was equally monstrous. Moreover, Starsibyl herself was a very mysterious character; no one had managed to understand how she had defeated Liu Tang so far.

Unsurprisingly, Silver simply admitted defeat and exited the Lifeseek Realm.

The crowd felt that it was a pity, but they were not surprised at all as no one believed that he could beat Starsibyl.

Lu Yin frowned, as he had been staring at Silver the entire time. At the moment Silver left the Lifeseek Realm, his eyes had clearly held a grudging reluctance. It seemed that he had wanted to make some achievements in this Astral Combat Tournament, but unfortunately, he had only been able to reach this stage.

At this point, Astral-10’s Xia Luo and Silver had both been eliminated. Only Lu Yin was left.

These results finally allowed the other academies’ students to relax. This felt right, as this round would determine the eight strongest. If there was more than one person from Astral-10 in this group, even after some academy leaders had been eliminated, then it would be too embarrassing for them. After all, it was widely known that Astral-10 had been expelled from the Innerverse.

The Blaze Realm students such as Jared had even uglier expressions; Astral-10 had already achieved stellar results and definitely would not be driven out after this tournament. They would have to abandon their plan of replacing Astral-10.

For the next match, Feng Shang stepped out to face Sha.

Many wore solemn gazes when they saw this match. Sha had defeated Xue Liuyun and was a powerhouse that had reached this point by stepping on an academy leader’s corpse. Feng Shang should have been facing a lot of pressure when the matchup was announced.

But at this moment, Feng Shang was smiling happily, abnormally happily⁠, as he directly appeared on the arena plains. Many people were stumped when they saw his expression.

After the fourth round, the academy leaders had started participating in the battles. The first battle featuring one had been a resounding victory for Feng Shang where he had crushed Arikar with an overwhelming power that made people realize what it meant to be a student leader—a Realm Master. But progressively, the pressure that each academy leader faced had mounted, and that was especially true now that there were four vacant seats atop the high peak. The prestige of the academy leaders had fallen greatly, and Feng Shang had been aching to face off against the students who had defeated other academy leaders. He had finally received his wish.

“Senior Dao Bo, what do you make of this match?” Lu Yin asked curiously.

Dao Bo unhesitatingly replied, “Feng Shang is sure to win.”

Lu Yin was astonished. “Why?”

“Feng Shang is not Xue Liuyun, who specializes in researching his innate gifts and only focuses on upgrading his own. Instead, Feng Shang loves to duel with all sorts of people, and he has quite the reputation in the teleportation battles. He definitely has the most battle experience out of all of us. He already came up with a way to deal with Sha at his first appearance, not to mention now, after seeing so many of his battles.”

“Is Senior Feng Shang famous in the teleportation battles?”

Dao Bo nodded. “He is Big Windy[1] Bro.”

Lu Yin was shocked and numbly looked at the ground. So this bastard was actually Big Windy Bro. Lu Yin would never forget his experience when he first entered the teleportation battles. He had been wiped out instantly before he had even been able to stabilize himself. The person who had killed him was Big Windy Bro. He had met him again during a streak of consecutive victories, which had been promptly ended by Big Windy Bro.

Lu Yin had always thought that Big Windy Bro was an Explorer, and even in his dreams, he would have never thought that he would be Feng Shang. This fellow had actually instantly killed him twice in the teleportation battles.

Out on the plains, the two stood there for a brief moment before Feng Shang acted without hesitation. The sky and earth suddenly turned green as a violent wind suppressed the entire plains from above. Sha’s eyes quivered as the sturdy blue ice beneath him extended out. This was very similar to his previous battle with Xue Liuyun, where the two had clashed through their domains. However, Feng Shang was quicker by one step. He had altered the atmosphere with his own domain and caused the entire plains to become a windy territory.

Even the star energy in the plains had changed color and become green, inhibiting the hard, blue ice. Sha’s domain was completely suppressed from the start. Although the air was still freezing cold, his domain could no longer spread out across the ground as it pleased.

Feng Shang raised his hand, causing a green gale that revolved like a sharp, spinning blade to appear over his palm. It was spinning so quickly that it constantly sliced the void open, causing black spatial cracks to extend outwards. Shivers ran down many people’s spines. Even with their distance from the two battling students and the barrier separating them, they could feel the deadly power that Feng Shang held within his palm right now.

Feng Shang then casually struck out at Sha, who had a gloomy expression from being suppressed from the very start. When Sha saw the strike descending upon him, he immediately dodged. At the spot where he had been standing, a long furrow was carved out, its depth unknown. The spatial cracks came together to form a crescent moon shape that tore into the distance, as if it was connecting heaven and earth. At this same time, Feng Shang appeared at Sha’s side and raised his hand, roughly slapping him.

Sha turned around to defend against the palm as the hard blue ice completely encapsulated him.

Boom!

Sha was smashed into the ground, and the sturdy ice around him cracked before being pulverized by the two clashing domains.

Everyone was surprised by the battle, as it Sha had been thoroughly suppressed from start to end. Feng Shang had not given Sha any respite and had directly attacked him until his death. This battle had been completely one-sided not due to a difference in power, but rather to the difference in battle experience and ability to control the pace of combat. Feng Shang had been much stronger than Sha in all these aspects.

Lu Yin was stunned, as Feng Shang’s final palm had not been simple; it had even contained a miniscule wind blade’s edge. It was this blade that had shattered the sturdy ice around Sha’s body. Otherwise, Sha would not have been defeated that easily. Had Feng Shang calculated all this from the very start? This person’s battle experience was too monstrous.

This was a high-quality match, but not many spectators could appreciate its full beauty. To the majority of the crowd, Sha simply had not lived up to his reputation. Some even thought that Sha had thrown the match; after all, he had defeated Astral-4’s Xue Liuyun.

Feng Shang silently returned to the high peak and arrogantly glanced down below.

“Big Windy Bro?” Lu Yin shouted.

Feng Shang looked at Lu Yin. “Are you talking to me?”

Lu Yin nodded. “I never thought that you would be Big Windy Bro.”

Feng Shang’s eyes brightened. “So you’ve fought against me in the teleportation battles before? I don’t recall.”

Lu Yin smiled, but spoke no further. He felt a burning desire to fight Feng Shang and avenge himself for those two instant kills during the teleportation battles.

[1] Feng means "wind."