Before Xue Kui even reached him, the ice spear arrived first.
Morax watched the spear streak toward him and—for a fleeting moment—remembered the very first time they met, when this brat had plastered an ice spear right across his face. His eyelid twitched.
But this time, the spear never reached him.
A golden barrier shimmered into place, blocking it with ease. Morax did not move an inch.
Geo light rippled across his form.
More stone spears took shape—far more than before.
Xue Kui's gaze locked onto every spark of gold.
Ice surged from his body, and for every stone spear Morax formed, Xue Kui answered with an ice spear of his own.
His control had grown—astonishingly so.
Even without launching them himself, the ice spears hovered in air and fired automatically, moving as naturally as if guided by instinct.
The golden light vanished.
The stone spears rained down.
Xue Kui's ice spears shattered immediately upon impact—he could not match their weight nor density—but each collision forced a spear off-course. One by one, they slammed into the ground instead.
A cloud of dust exploded.
Through the haze, Xue Kui burst out unharmed—
Only to face a massive descending stone pillar, carved with sharp, symmetrical patterns.
His pupils shrank.
That kind of pillar—he must not be touched.
He dropped low and narrowly slipped past it.
But before his feet even hit the ground—
Boom.
Two more pillars landed, sealing both sides.
The fourth descended.
The memory of being trapped in a stone array flashed through his mind, and Xue Kui reacted instantly.
He fed every ounce of power into his spear.
Ice overloaded to its limit—it trembled, then roared.
He drove the spearpoint into the ground beneath the falling pillar.
BOOM.
The elemental force detonated.
The pillar lurched upward, and Xue Kui broke free of the forming cage.
He looked up—and his breath caught.
A new stone spear hovered before Morax.
Not crudely shaped like the others—
this one was sculpted with deliberate precision, the same sacred geometric markings as the pillars…
And beneath those patterns pulsed a faint aura.
"The power of 'Law'…"
Xue Kui froze for half a heartbeat.
Defend? Retreat? Press forward?
His mind was already made.
The spear flashed.
Morax unleashed not one—but a storm of stone spears.
From the sidelines, the adepti flinched. Someone even reached for their mask.
He's trying to kill him!
A severed arm flew out of the dust.
Several beast-adepti jolted in alarm.
That's too ruthless!
He's going to cripple the kid!
But the yaksha watching in silence didn't even blink.
Severed limbs?
For yaksha, that was Tuesday.
Only one of them frowned—Fei Nan.
"Why hasn't he used his Yaksha mask?"
An adeptus bird blinked, confused.
"Right… why doesn't he?"
Fushe spoke at last, voice low.
"I heard something strange. They say—the white-haired one… doesn't know how."
The group froze.
"…What?"
"Impossible. A yaksha born without the instinct to don a mask?"
"That would mean…"
"…he might not be a yaksha at all."
"And then—he'll live with the pain of that lost arm forever."
Fushe sighed.
The dust faded.
Only the arm lay on the ground.
The crowd scanned the battlefield.
Where—
Morax's gaze lifted.
A silhouette—feet braced on something—dropped out of the sky.
One yaksha saw it first and nearly choked.
The kid's sleeve was torn off…
but his arm was whole.
He regenerated it.
In moments.
Even yaksha self-healing required time.
But this boy—
He simply grew a new arm.
Of course he did.
He was a healer.
And injuries that weren't fatal?
Not worth worrying about.
The "something" he was standing on unfurled its wings—
An ice crane.
Translucent like carved jade.
Alive.
Morax's eyes widened.
This wasn't just shaping.
This was creation.
The little yaksha combined shaping with life force—
creating a living construct.
The crane shattered on impact.
Xue Kui slammed into Morax's barrier like a falling star. The shield cracked—just a sliver.
A thin stream of ice-aspected elemental energy drove through that opening, brushing past Morax.
A single golden scale fell.
All the adepti leaned back.
Again.
Ping was immediately stared at.
This was the kid she said was weaker than her?
Ping rolled her eyes.
"Two months ago his spearwork was clumsy. He'd never used creation before. And his elemental intensity was nowhere near this."
Silence.
They all looked at Xue Kui like he was a walking legend.
Even Morax was stunned.
If he had personally taught the boy…
Would Xue Kui have reached this height?
Probably not.
He smiled—quiet, genuine.
He had been narrow-minded.
The boy found his own path.
Interference would only dull that brilliance.
This bet—
Xue Kui had won.
The fallen scale was acknowledgment.
And a reward.
But the trial wasn't finished yet.
Xue Kui landed, steady despite the recoil.
A sudden flare of gold lit the sky.
He looked up—and froze.
The heavens turned gold.
Stone spears—an entire sky of them—filled the firmament.
Patterns carved into each one.
Majestic. Overwhelming. Absolute.
The sky itself had become Morax's weapon.
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