Chapter 217: Rhain Vs Zane - II
Chapter 217: Rhain Vs Zane - II
The entire plaza was dead silent.
Even the most cynical aristocrats felt a swell of profound respect for the young spearman’s indomitable will.
Rhain looked at Zane.
A trace of acknowledgment flickered in his dark grey eyes.
In a world filled with arrogant aristocrats and calculating schemers, Rhain actually appreciated this kind of pure warrior’s spirit.
"I agree," Rhain replied calmly, "Let’s decide this with one move."
He unfolded his arms, hanging them loosely at his sides with a relaxed posture.
"You go first."
Zane gave a solemn nod.
He closed his eyes, taking a deep breath.
BOOM!
The moment Zane opened his eyes, the atmosphere inside the arena changed completely.
The overwhelming pressure of his Level 7 Spirit Manifestation Realm essence exploded outward, but this time, it was entirely concentrated.
The embryonic form of the Law of the Spear had reached its absolute pinnacle.
Zane’s body and the silver spear in his hands seemed to merge into a single, flawless entity.
The tip of the spear spear began to emit a blinding, incandescent silver light with a power so dense that the very air around him began to distort.
His eyes snapped open.
They blazed with an incandescent silver light.
"Take this, Rhain!"
Zane roared, his voice tearing through his throat.
"Epic-Grade Martial Art: Astral Dragon’s Piercing Strike!"
BOOM!
Zane launched forward.
His body became a streak of pure silver light, crossing the ten paces between them in a timeframe so infinitesimal that even several of the Core Formation Masters in the crowd couldn’t register the movement.
ROAAAR!
A deafening sound, akin to the roar of a celestial dragon, echoed in the silence of the plaza.
The silver spear transformed into a massive, roaring comet of concentrated starlight.
It was an attack that no Spirit Manifestation Realm cultivator should logically be able to survive.
But Rhain simply raised his right fist.
He didn’t bother drawing a weapon.
Rhain punched directly into the roaring silver comet.
BOOM—!!!
A blinding flash of pure white light erupted from the center of the arena, instantly swallowing both Rhain and Zane.
The sheer luminosity was so intense that thousands of spectators instinctively squeezed their eyes shut, crying out as the brilliant glare blinded them.
Immediately following the light came the shockwave.
A rippling wave of consecutive, destructive kinetic energy blasted outward.
BANG! BANG! BANG!
The defensive arrays erected around the arena activated.
The golden runic barriers rippled like a disturbed pond as they absorbed the powerful impact.
The blinding light began to gradually subside.
Millions of eyes, both in the plaza and across Stormveil City, desperately strained to see the outcome.
When the view finally cleared, a collective gasp sucked the air out of the entire plaza.
Zane was lying flat on his back on the arena floor.
His clothes were torn, and a trail of blood leaked from the corner of his mouth.
His silver spear lay discarded and violently trembling several feet away from his limp hand.
He was completely defeated.
But it was the sight of the other figure that made the crowd’s hearts stop beating entirely.
Rhain was still standing.
His dark, gold-trimmed robes fluttered gently in the residual wind.
He had not moved a single inch. Not even one step backward.
Against the ultimate, full-force strike of the undisputed King of the Inner Palace, an attack infused with the embryonic Law of the Spear, Rhain had simply stood his ground and crushed it into oblivion.
Lying on the cold stone, Zane weakly turned his head to look at the dark-robed youth standing immovably before him.
"Rhain..." Zane coughed weakly, a bitter but peaceful smile touching his lips. "Did you... use your full strength?"
Rhain looked down at Zane for a long moment.
His dark grey eyes were perfectly placid, entirely devoid of arrogance or mockery as he replied.
"You will die."
The plain words struck Zane’s soul like a heavy hammer.
The bitter smile on his bloodied lips deepened.
He had poured everything into that strike.
And Rhain had stopped it with a bare fist.
Even with everything he had, even with his most powerful attack delivered at full force with no reservations, he had not been able to force Rhain to reveal his true strength.
He hadn’t even made him take a single step backward.
"I see," Zane whispered, "So that’s how it is."
High Preceptor Octavius stood at the edge of the grand stage, gradually coming out of his daze.
His fierce eyes swept across the arena as he announced.
"The final match of the Inner Palace Contest has concluded!"
He raised his massive arm, pointing a single finger toward the lone figure standing at the center of the arena, and roared with a thunderous voice.
"THE WINNER, AND THE NEW RANK 1 OF THE STORMVEIL ACADEMY’S INNER PALACE — RHAIN VOSS!"
The eruption was deafening.
RHAIN! RHAIN! RHAIN!"
A hundred thousand voices screamed his name simultaneously, the sound crashing against the grand stage like a tidal wave.
Beyond the Academy gates, the millions of ordinary citizens and wandering cultivators watching the projection arrays across Stormveil City erupted into an even greater frenzy.
They had just witnessed history.
A newly recruited disciple, who had arrived barely a month ago, had completely dismantled the highest echelon of the Academy’s geniuses, becoming the new king of the Inner Palace.
On the grand stage, the reactions of the most powerful figures in the Stormveil City told the true story of what they had just witnessed.
Patriarch Thorian Thunderwood leaned back heavily in his seat, letting out a long exhale, "Stormveil Academy has truly birthed a dragon this time!"
Beside him, Patriarch Caelan’s mind was spinning out of control.
"This boy cannot be allowed to become our enemy," Caelan murmured to his chief advisor in a voice so low only the man beside him could hear. "Whatever it takes. Begin preparations the moment this ceremony ends."
Alliances, marriage proposals, resource investment.
Whatever could pull this monster on their side, he was ready.
Seraphine’s sharp, beautiful features held an expression that was both contemplative and deeply unsettled.
But perhaps the most stunned person on the stage was Vice Dean Myrielle.
Her sapphire eyes stared blankly at Rhain.
When Rhain had first arrived on the academy, and declared to win the Inner Palace Contest to become the Core Palace disciple, she had dismissed it as the arrogance of a young boy.
She had never thought that he possessed the power to do it.
And Rhain had just shown her doing exactly that.
"I was wrong," Myrielle whispered, "I was utterly wrong about him."
Seris, sitting beside her master, heard the soft admission.
A proud smile bloomed across her face.
Her pale purple eyes glistened as she watched Rhain standing alone in the center of the arena, the thunderous chanting of his name reaching her ears.
"My husband is the best," Seris muttered proudly.
Lucius’s eyes had turned cold and sharp, like the edge of a dagger hidden beneath silk.
If Rhain could neutralize an attack containing embryonic Law comprehension with a bare fist at the Spirit Manifestation Realm, then his true ceiling was unfathomable.
Given enough time and resources, this youth could grow into an existence that even the Royal Court would struggle to suppress.
’Talent of this magnitude,’ Lucius calculated behind his smile, ’combined with his mysterious connection to the Grandmaster Korryn and his wife’s True Heavenly Physique... This boy is either the greatest asset I will ever acquire, or the greatest threat I have ever faced. There is no middle ground.’
Far across the plaza, in the Outer Palace spectator section, Liana stood with her hands pressed against her chest, her lips slightly parted in surprise.
There was joy in her eyes, but also a trace of complex emotion.
Rhain was already so dazzling, that she looked so ordinary now that he won’t even care looking at her.
How could she hope that he would ever like her?
_______
Down in the arena, the deafening cheers continued to rain down.
Zane slowly pushed himself up from the ground, wiping the blood from his chin.
He looked at Rhain.
"You defeated me," Zane spoke, his voice carried no resentment despite his defeat, "but can you defeat her?"
Rhain’s dark grey eyes remained placid.
"Do you have any doubt?" Rhain replied, his voice carrying an absolute confidence, and unshakeable certainty.
Hearing the sheer arrogance, behind those words, Zane stared at Rhain for a second before bursting into loud laughter.
"Hahaha! Good! Excellent!" Zane laughed, coughing up a bit of blood but ignoring it entirely. "If you can defeat her and shatter her arrogant pedestal... then I don’t mind losing my chance at the Core Palace to you. It would be an honor."
With a respectful nod, Zane turned and stepped down from the arena, accepting his defeat with the utmost grace.
As Zane departed, Rhain stood alone in the center of the ring.
But then he felt a fiery piercing gaze locking onto him.
He slowly turned around.
Standing at the very edge of the elevated stage, looking down at him like an empress preparing to execute a rebel, was Lyra Emberford.
Without waiting for the High Preceptors or the Dean to speak, Lyra stepped off the grand stage, and landing gracefully on the arena floor.
The hundred thousand spectators immediately locked their eyes on her.
Lyra walked toward Rhain, she looked at him with challenge in her eyes, "You have claimed your crown among the ordinary geniuses, Rhain Voss. Congratulations!"
She stopped merely thirty feet away from Rhain.
She slowly drew a slender, crimson-bladed rapier from her spatial ring, the weapon radiating an oppressive, top-tier Epic-Grade might.
"But now," Lyra said, pointing the blazing tip of her rapier directly at his face, "it is time for our battle."