The air in the Imperial Colosseum was so thick with killing intent it was practically suffocating.
On one side of the shattered, Qi-absorbing sand stood the Top Five First-Years. They were battered, exhausted, and currently acting as the living batteries for the infant beasts clinging to their sides.
On the other side stood the Second-Year elites. They were five apex predators who had spent the last twelve months surviving the deep zones. They didn't rely on symbiotic pets. Their Cultivation was pure, refined, and hovering right on the edge of the Tier 2 realm—the point where a Liquid Core begins to crystallize into a solid, virtually indestructible state.
Prince Zhao Long stood at the exact center of the veteran formation. He held an elegant, beautifully crafted straight-sword that hummed with Wind Qi, the standard armament for royal duelists. But as his violet eyes locked onto Kai, a dark, ugly sneer twisted his aristocratic features.
"You think because you punched a pampered idiot like Vane, you're ready for the Vanguard?" Zhao Long's voice echoed across the silent arena.
High above on the observation deck, Vice-Dean Kael raised his hand. "No rules. No restrictions. Begin!"
The Colosseum instantly erupted into absolute chaos.
The four Second-Year veterans flanking the Prince blurred into motion, launching a coordinated, lethal assault designed to wipe out the commoners in the first three seconds.
"Wall!" Kai roared over the deafening boom of displaced air.
Maya didn't hesitate. She slammed her Tier-2 Deep-Earth Shale shield into the sand. Crag, the Iron-Plate Basilisk on her shoulder, roared, dumping its Earth Dragon density into her bones. Two veteran Strikers slammed their heavy sabers into her shield simultaneously. The impact generated a shockwave that kicked up a localized sandstorm, but Maya didn't give a single inch. Her boots gouged deep trenches into the bedrock beneath the sand, her teeth bared in a feral grin.
"Eat them, Null!" Robert yelled, ducking behind Maya's wall. The tiny Void-snake on his wrist opened its jaws, and a terrifying pocket of black null-space ripped open in the air, instantly swallowing a barrage of lethal Fire Qi launched by the enemy's rear-guard mage.
Princess Yan and the dual-axe commoner, Jax, immediately flanked, using the chaos of the Sphinx cub's stabilization field to weave deadly alchemical poisons into the veterans' breathing space.
The squad combat was a violent, perfectly balanced meat-grinder.
But Kai didn't look at the squad fight.
He was staring directly at Prince Zhao Long, who hadn't moved a single muscle.
Zhao Long looked at the beautifully crafted Wind-sword in his hand. Then, to the absolute shock of the nobility in the upper tiers, he casually tossed the priceless imperial heirloom into the dirt.
"The Imperial Court loves its illusions," Zhao Long said, his voice dropping to a terrifying, guttural baseline that didn't match his slender frame. "They like their Princes to be elegant. They want us to wield the Wind. They want us to look like gods floating above the mud."
He unclasped his crimson Vanguard Captain's cloak, letting it fall to the sand.
"But you and I both know the truth of this universe, Hart. The Exarchs don't care about elegance."
Zhao Long cracked his neck. Suddenly, the ambient Qi in the Colosseum violently shifted. It wasn't the sharp, slicing pressure of Wind Qi. The atmospheric pressure skyrocketed. The Qi-absorbing sand around the Prince's boots began to physically melt, turning into a glowing, sluggish pool of dark orange slag.
Kai's Transmigrator System flared a blinding, urgent, blood-red warning across his retinas.
[CRITICAL THREAT DETECTED]
[Target: Prince Zhao Long]
[Cultivation: Tier 2 (Pseudo-Solid Core)]
[Scanning Base Foundation...]
[Warning! Anomaly Detected! Target possesses a Rank 10 Special Grade Foundation.]
[Foundation Identity: 'Earthly Fiend']
[Description: The brutal, unyielding strength of the planet's core. Generates extreme tectonic gravity and hyper-dense magma-blood.]
"A Rank 10 Foundation," Kai breathed, his molten-gold eyes widening.
"When I challenged you on your awakening day, I wasn't trying to bully a peasant," Zhao Long growled, his skin turning a dark, hardened shade of obsidian as glowing, magma-like veins pulsed up his neck. "I sensed the density in your marrow. I recognized another monster. But don't ever mistake yourself for my equal."
Zhao Long didn't use a movement technique. He simply stomped his foot.
The entire Colosseum physically shook. The tectonic force of his Earthly Fiend foundation propelled him forward like an erupting volcano. He crossed the fifty yards between them in a fraction of a second, his fist pulled back, radiating a heat so intense it distorted the air.
Kai didn't retreat. His Stage 2 Titan-Pulse vessel roared to life. He planted his back foot, the 2x gravity cuffs acting as his anchor, and threw a massive, intercepting right hook fueled by his [Strength: 32].
BOOM!
Fist met fist.
The kinetic collision sounded like a cannon firing inside a closed vault. The sand beneath them instantly vaporized into a massive crater, the shockwave physically knocking the other eight combatants off their feet.
Kai grunted, his teeth grinding together. For the first time since the Minor Cleansing, he felt the bones in his forearm groan under external pressure. The Earthly Fiend foundation was overwhelmingly heavy. It felt like trying to punch the literal core of the planet.
Zhao Long's eyes burned with chaotic, subterranean fire. "You block well for a mule!"
The Prince twisted his wrist, bypassing Kai's guard, and slammed his left knee directly into Kai's sternum. The blow carried the weight of a collapsing mountain.
Kai was launched backward, the air exploding from his lungs. He hit the sand hard, skidding for twenty yards before he dug his fingers into the bedrock to arrest his momentum.
"System..." Kai coughed, tasting copper. "Damage report."
[Endurance check passed. Minor micro-fractures detected in the ribcage. Titan-Pulse Stage 2 mitigating 40% of concussive force.]
Kai slowly stood up, wiping the blood from his chin. If he hadn't upgraded to the Stage 2 Titan-Pulse last night, that single knee strike would have turned his chest cavity into dust.
Anvil, the Qilin-pup, let out a vicious, barking growl, the golden Soul-Link tether on Kai's chest flaring as the beast tried to pump more raw feedback Qi into Kai's core to heal him.
"Hold on, Anvil," Kai whispered, his golden eyes locking onto the magma-veined Prince. "We can't out-punch the planet's core."
Zhao Long marched forward, the sand turning to glass beneath his burning boots. "What's wrong, commoner? Did the physical superiority of the royal bloodline finally shatter your delusions?"
"Your bloodline is impressive," Kai admitted, his voice returning to that terrifying, absolute calm.
He reached down to his hip. His hand wrapped tightly around the charcoal-grey hilt of his weapon.
"But I didn't come here to punch you."
SHING.
Kai drew the Sovereign's Edge.
The heavy, Tier-2 O-Katana emerged from its scabbard with a sharp, beautiful metallic ring. The charcoal meteor-steel, marbled with striking silver veins of Cloud-Iron, looked like a piece of the night sky forged into a killing tool.
The moment the blade was drawn, the atmosphere around Kai completely changed. He wasn't just a brawler anymore. He was an Apprentice Forgemaster holding his masterpiece.
"System," Kai commanded silently. "Allocate all ambient Qi into Agility and Resonance."
"Sovereign's Breath: Five-Element Cycle... Maximum Overdrive."
Kai flooded his Tier 1 (Peak) Liquid Core directly into the five elemental conduits carved into the center of the blade. The grooves ignited with blinding Crimson, Emerald, Gold, Azure, and Silver light.
"A sword?" Zhao Long laughed, his obsidian-like skin completely invulnerable to standard steel. "I possess the Earthly Fiend foundation! My skin is harder than diamond and hotter than a forge! Your blade will melt before it even touches me!"
Zhao Long lunged, bringing both of his magma-infused fists down in a devastating, double-handed hammer strike designed to crush Kai and his sword into the bedrock.
Kai didn't block. He exhaled, his mind perfectly empty, perfectly aligned.
He didn't use Fire Qi. He used Metal and Water. He pumped Water Qi into the Cloud-Iron spine of the blade to drastically lower its temperature and prevent it from melting against the Prince's magma aura. Simultaneously, he funneled all of his hyper-compressed Metal Qi into the razor edge.
The blade didn't just vibrate. It shrieked. It reached a frequency so high it completely muted the sound of the cheering crowd.
Kai stepped inside the Prince's guard, his [Agility: 30] allowing him to perfectly dodge the descending hammer strike by a fraction of an inch. He pivoted on his heel, the 2x gravity cuffs adding terrifying rotational torque to his swing, and brought the screaming Sovereign's Edge upward in a flawless diagonal arc.
SCREEEEECH!
The high-frequency blade met Zhao Long's "invulnerable" obsidian skin.
To the absolute horror of the royal elites in the balconies, the blade didn't melt. It didn't bounce off. The microscopic, high-frequency resonance of Kai's Tier-2 masterpiece acted like a molecular saw, violently tearing through the Rank 10 foundation's dense armor.
A fountain of blinding, superheated orange blood sprayed across the arena as Kai's sword cleanly sliced through the hardened skin and deep into the muscle of Zhao Long's right pectoral.
Zhao Long let out a roar of absolute agony and shock, violently twisting away before the blade could cleave his collarbone in half. He stumbled backward, clutching his bleeding chest, his violet eyes wide with disbelief.
His invulnerable foundation had been breached.
Kai stood in the center of the ring, the Sovereign's Edge held at a perfect downward angle. The superheated magma-blood of the Prince hissed and immediately vaporized off the freezing, Water-Qi infused spine of the sword, leaving the dark steel perfectly clean.
"Your foundation is the planet's core," Kai said coldly, his molten-gold eyes burning through the rising steam. "But I'm the Forgemaster. And everything that comes out of the earth eventually ends up on my anvil."