Chapter 103 : Chapter 103

Chapter 103. Spark Team vs. Thunder Team

Morning light illuminated half the arena. As the match began, the audience could not help but beat their drums and shout, creating an unexpectedly electric atmosphere.

The Thunder Team and the Spark Team walked onto the battle platform from opposite sides. Sharp eyes met sharp eyes, each pair fixed on the other, the air thick with hostility.

“Captain Lei, long time no see,” Zhu He, the Thunder Team’s new captain, said with a smile.

Lei Zhen pulled off the glove on his right hand, revealing a metallic palm crackling with arcs of electricity, and spoke coldly.

“Zhu He, back then, the Boss spent a huge sum to stabilize your mother’s condition so you could stay with the team and train in peace.”

“And now, for the sake of more money, you’ve turned against the Boss, the very man who helped you. You’re utterly ungrateful!”

The smile on Zhu He’s face slowly faded, and he clenched his fists. “Lei Zhen, I admit that Young Master Jiang helped me.”

“But my mother’s illness needs a lot of money. What choice did I have?”

“In order to give the Yanhuang Team better resources, Young Master Jiang poured all his money into it. By the end, even paying salaries for our Thunder Team became a problem.”

“Did you expect me to stand there and watch my mother die in a hospital bed?!”

Lei Zhen frowned and said sternly, “There are many ways to make money, but that is not an excuse for repaying kindness with betrayal.”

“Heh.” Zhu He laughed. “Lei Zhen, you’re a soldier, so you believe in all that righteous glory. But I’m just an ordinary man trying to survive. As far as I know, there is only one kind of illness in this world, and that’s poverty!”

“Enough talk. I have to win this match!”

He stepped forward with his right foot, and the aura of a peak sixth-realm expert exploded outward in a powerful wave. In an instant, the ground sank into darkness.

This was his S-rank talent, Dark Erosion. Anyone caught within the darkness would have their speed cut in half, and their minds would even be eroded, causing them to sink into the darkness.

The four teammates behind him immediately took up formation: defense in front, vanguards on the left and right, and damage dealers in the rear.

Their arrangement was disciplined and orderly, showing none of the carelessness the Phoenix Team once had.

Lei Zhen’s eyes sharpened. He suddenly clenched his mechanical hand, and violent lightning surged around his body with a crackling roar.

“Zhu He, today I’m going to teach you a lesson on the Boss’s behalf.”

Zhu He smiled. “Without Ninth-rank Magical Artifacts, your strength is nothing but wishful thinking.”

Before the match, he had watched every single one of Spark Team’s previous battles and studied them in meticulous detail.

They had practically crushed every match through the overwhelming power of Ninth-rank Magical Artifacts, making it impossible to tell how much real strength they actually had.

The only one he was truly wary of was Lei Zhen, the strongest member of the Spark Team.

“Then try it and see.” Lei Zhen’s eyes flickered with electric light as lightning intertwined within the darkness.

Behind him, Su Linyu spread out crimson Radiant Flame and said with a smile, “Uncle Lei, we’ll support you in this round and help Brother Yichen deal with him properly.”

“Uncle Lei, beat the hell out of him.” Tang Long activated the Primordial Vajra Barrier, his whole body covered in golden light.

Chu Xingchen said nothing. With a sharp sound, the sword at his waist left its sheath. Standing on the battle platform shrouded in darkness, his robes stirred even without wind.

“Uh... do your best. When I’m awake, I can’t beat any of them. I’ll be in charge of cheering for you.”

The Sleep God scratched at his bird’s nest of hair, his eyes still heavy with drowsiness.

None of the four had any objections to that.

The moment the Sleep God fell asleep, this battle would be over immediately.

“Three Thousand Thunder Movement · Awakening of Insects.”

Lei Zhen’s figure turned into lightning, flashing across the battle platform like a phantom. Around the five members of Thunder Team, dense points of lightning suddenly rose into the air, each one shining like a steel needle tempered in starlight.

Within the dark domain, Zhu He sensed the terrifying energy contained in those sparks and immediately shouted, “Activate the formation!”

The formation master at the front of the five-man team rapidly formed hand seals. With booming sounds, several defensive formations rose up and enveloped all five of them.

At that very moment, the dense lightning points exploded with a thunderous blast, transforming into countless bolts of rushing lightning that slammed into the defensive formations.

Crack! Crack!

Under the relentless bombardment of the lightning points, cracks gradually began to spread across the barrier of light.

Sweat beaded on the formation master’s forehead as he desperately controlled the formation plate. “Captain, I can’t hold on much longer. The energy in these lightning points is too strong.”

Zhu He frowned slightly. Knowing they could not remain on the defensive like this, he slowly raised a hand.

“Absorb.”

As soon as he spoke, a whirlpool-like black hole slowly appeared on the battle platform. A terrifying force of suction drained away all the energy contained in the lightning points.

“Stick to the plan,” Zhu He ordered.

The other four nodded. The two vanguards on either side launched an attack toward Spark Team’s flanks.

At the rear, the female team member drew her longbow to a full moon. “Falling Star!”

Whoosh!

The arrow shot into the sky, instantly splitting into countless rays of starlight that came crashing down toward the Spark Team.

“I’ll take the one on the right.” Chu Xingchen spun the sword in his hand halfway around, and several arcs of the sword qi slashed forward in an instant.

His opponent dodged nimbly and charged straight toward Su Linyu, who was positioned in the rear as an attacker.

Chu Xingchen swung his sword, and the sword qi cut off the path forward.

Su Linyu released Radiant Flame, dispersing the darkness around them.

Tang Long, meanwhile, grinned as he looked at the falling starlight overhead, then smashed his fist into the ground.

“Barrier!”

Dong!

A deafening bell chime rang out as the five members of the Spark Team were shielded within the enormous golden barrier Tang Long had condensed.

Dong! Dong! Dong!

The starlight crashed against the golden barrier, producing a series of bell-like booms, yet there was no possibility whatsoever of breaking through it.

The audience was stunned.

Even without Ninth-rank Magical Artifacts, the Spark Team was fighting the Thunder Team on equal footing, and even seemed to be gaining the upper hand.

“Holy shit! Didn’t people online say Spark Team had no real strength beyond crushing people with equipment? You call this no strength?!”

“Damn it, those clickbait accounts really can’t be trusted. Spark Team started suppressing Thunder Team from the very beginning, and now even Thunder Team’s offense hasn’t achieved anything at all.”

“So what, were the Ninth-rank Magical Artifacts actually limiting Spark Team’s true strength?”

“...”

Shock appeared on the faces of the surrounding spectators. They had originally assumed that, once Spark Team could no longer use Ninth-rank Magical Artifacts, they would definitely be crushed by Thunder Team, last year’s third-place powerhouse.

But now the opposite was happening.

Seeing this, Jiang Feng in the stands also revealed an expression of disbelief.

“Two in the sixth realm and three in the fifth realm are actually suppressing the Thunder Team, whose entire roster is in the sixth realm? That’s impossible!”

He carefully examined Tang Long, Chu Xingchen, and Su Linyu, and found that the cultivation arts they were using were somewhat strange.

Thunder Team’s cultivation arts were basically all high-grade Profound-rank or low-grade Earth-rank, yet the power of those three’s cultivation arts was even more terrifying than high-grade Earth-rank ones.

Could it be...

Jiang Feng’s pupils trembled as he turned to stare at Jiang Yichen on the opposite side. “He gave Spark Team Heaven-rank Cultivation Arts?”

Among the direct descendants of great families, high-grade Earth-rank cultivation arts were already standard. A Heaven-rank Cultivation Art would be treated like a family treasure in any clan.

Unless someone had made a major contribution to the family, they simply would not be qualified to cultivate one.

But even if Jiang Zhentian had given Jiang Yichen Heaven-rank Cultivation Arts, there was no way the Spark Team could have mastered them in such a short time.

The difficulty of cultivating a Heaven-rank Cultivation Art was more than ten times greater than that of an Earth-rank one.

Jiang Feng clenched his fists. “My plan was supposed to be perfect. Without my permission, how dare things go wrong every single time?!”

His chest rose and fell violently. He was furious beyond measure.