Three days passed, and the air within the Sect grounds grew thick with anticipation.
Inside the Celestial Arena, all inner and outer disciples gathered, murmuring among themselves, unable to hide their curiosity and nervousness. Elders took their seats in the high pavilions, and the Imperial Envoy, dressed in royal robes adorned with the crest of the Heavenly Ocean Empire, sat in solemn silence on a gilded platform.
One might wonder why the Envoy was here.
Well, he was here on the orders of the Emperor to spectate the battle in order to confirm that the Sect Head won’t be holding back against Mark for those five minutes of battle. And this is not a false battle.
If Mark could withstand five minutes against a third-stage Transcendant, then the Envoy would invite Mark to the imperial palace to bury any grudges the prince had with him. If not, the Envoy must ensure that Mark gets expelled from the Sect.
Back in the Arena, Mark stood alone, clad in black attire without any armor. Opposite him stood Lan Yujian, Mark’s great-grandfather — his silver-white robe rippling as the cold wind circled him.
As the tension reached its peak, Lan Yujian spoke with calm authority.
"This is your last chance, Lan Zhen. The Imperial Envoy is also here. You can offer an earnest apology, and we can end this with dignity."
Mark looked around the arena once, locking eyes with Lan Xia and then the envoy. Then he turned to his great-grandfather and smirked. "The mont I offer an apology, it will end with losing my dignity, Great Grandfather."
Taking a pause, he continued. "I have a counteroffer. If I win this battle, I want the right to beco Sect Head imdiately. No stupid trials. No council. No vote. Just your full power and leadership transferred to ."
The crowd broke into shocked gasps.
Lan Yujian raised a brow, more amused than offended.
"You’re a newly ascended transcendent. Defeating soone at the first stage is one thing, but you do realize I’m three stages above you. Forget about winning this battle, you can’t even hurt a single strand of my hair. Don’t be arrogant, boy."
Mark shrugged, as though he wasn’t just challenging the patriarch of one of the greatest sects in the empire in front of the imperial envoy. "Then what’s the harm in accepting the challenge..." He widened his lips, curling into a smirk. "Unless you think there is a chance that you might lose."
Lan Yujian narrowed his eyes, the glint of ice forming in them. "Fine. Let’s change the terms of the fight. I will not attack you. For the next minutes, I’ll protect myself with a barrier. Break that barrier and reach . If you can do that, I will announce your succession imdiately. But if you can’t..." The aura of a 14-circle realm exploded from his body; it was thick and dense, twisting the very air in the surroundings. "You will be expelled right away, and you shall give up on Lan Xia as well."
Lan Xia furrowed his brows in the audience section. But her displeasure only lasted a mont before she went back to the expressionless person she always was.
Soon, the grand elders, one by one, activated a massive protective barrier over the arena, shielding the audience from the devastation to co.
Lan Yujian then raised his palm. A translucent icy do burst from the ground and encapsulated him in the center of the battlefield, the frost shimred with formation lines, looking like the ice was alive.
"Begin," the grand elder Qiao Wei announced.
The Duel Begins
Mark imdiately pulled out his Adamantine Desert Eagle. The mont it appeared in his hand, he aid and fired.
BOOM!
The bullet struck the icy do and... tink. Not even a crack.
He fired again. And again. Each ti, the bullet bounced off harmlessly.
Murmurs filled the arena.
Mark’s eyes narrowed. "What kind of barrier is this? Adamantine has the greatest piercing power. Ark, analyse the barrier."
*Ding! Analysis complete.
*Ding! The Barrier is created from the life force of the caster, has almost instant self-repairing features, and is capable of blocking any attack that has less than 14.7 stat equivalent.
*Ding! Calculating the energy release: You need an attack that releases the energy of 29 Yotta Joules at impact to shatter the domain.
"Yotta joule?" Mark’s eyes widened instantly. "That’s too high. I don’t think I can achieve that speed without unknown. Let’s use Antimatter instead. Regardless of how strong it is, in the end, it is Matter. I can use anti-matter to cause annihilation."
He dismissed the Adamantine gun and summoned the Antimatter Gun this ti, hoping to shatter the icy block. As he pulled the trigger, a glowing bullet of void energy surged forward.
ZZZZZZ-BOOOM!
The impact disintegrated a portion of the barrier into dust just as he expected, but only a tiny crater was ford before the do began to regenerate.
He fired again.
And again.
Every shot left a scar, but none deep enough to penetrate. The do healed rapidly, undoing his progress each ti.
The Sect Head remained motionless, seated inside the do like an emperor atop a frozen throne.
Mark stood silently for a mont, breathing steadily. "Alright. I can see that it is ridiculously strong. Let’s achieve the required energy release."
Then, without a word, he dismissed both guns.
Instead, he pulled out a small jewelry-like brocade box, so plain and ordinary in appearance that it confused the crowd. It gave off no aura, no energy signature, nothing.
"What is that?"
"A hidden treasure?"
"No, I can’t sense anything from it..."
Only the grand elders looked alard, sensing sothing they couldn’t understand.
Mark walked to the edge of the battlefield.
And then...
"Activate, Skill, Gravity Do. Set at max. 200 ters radius,"
"Activate skill, Density manipulation. Set at max"
*Ding! Increasing the gravitational force in the surroundings by 50,000 tis."
*Ding! Increasing the Density of the object by 50,000 tis.
BOOM— the ground cracked under his feet as he applied his skill. Sitting inside the barrier, Lan Yujian instantly felt the effects of the new gravitational force, but he looked only slightly pressured. His expression didn’t change much except for a twitch.
anwhile, the box, made from Void Stone, an indestructible cosmic material, has already weighed over 5.2 billion kilograms on this planet, as this one has 4 tis the gravitational force of its ho planet. Now, with 50,000 tis more density multiplied by 50,000 gravity, its weight pushes into 13 quintillion kg.
However, due to the fact that it is soul-bound to him, it weighed as light as a feather in Mark’s hands. He once destroyed Leviathan with this box. Now, he took it out again to defeat his great-grandfather.
"Ark, calculate the required speed."
*Ding! 2112.3 ters per second. That’s the speed the object needs to achieve before the impact.
"Mach 6, huh..."
Mark beca serious. As he tightened his grip, his veins popped up, his muscles tensed, and he gripped it with both hands, spun in place once like a hamr thrower, and with a savage roar, hurled the box forward at full velocity.
The projectile scread through the air like a teor. A split second later...
KAAAAAA-THOOOOOOM!
The entire icy do shattered like fragile glass on the impact, exploding outward with force that sent shockwaves across the entire arena. Lan Yujian’s body was flung into the air like a ragdoll, blasted dozens of ters away. He crashed hard into the ground, leaving a crater beneath him.
It was the sa for Mark, too. His Blizzard Wings were quick to erupt out of his body and shield him like a wall,l but the force struck him, blasting him away for a few ters, the wings getting damaged in the process.
A single breath passed. Mark got up and stood straight.
Then Lan Yujian coughed, blood dripping from his lips as he struggled to sit up, visibly shaken for the first ti in years.
Mark walked slowly toward the center, not saying a word.
The Imperial Envoy stood up from his seat, stunned, as whispers and gasps filled the crowd.
"The hell."
"The unthinkable had happened."
"He had broken through."
"Young Master Lan has won the battle?"
"What was that box?"
"This..."
As the dust settled in the shattered arena, the air turned deathly silent while gasps and murmurs filled all over the arena.
The elders, disciples, and the envoy from the Imperial Palace all stared in stunned disbelief.
Lan Yujian, the revered Sect Head of the Ancient Lan Sect/Azure Frost Sect, what the Empire calls it, a Third Stage Transcendent who is widely respected all over the Empire, lay on the ground, coughing blood. His immaculate robes were torn, his hair disheveled, and his barrier had been utterly annihilated, not through any skill or energy but through brute force.
And standing in the center of it all was Mark.
He didn’t say anything at first. He rely walked toward the crater, each step echoing like thunder across the hushed battlefield. In his hand, the brocade box had returned to normal before it disappeared.
Lan Yujian looked up with narrowed eyes. "You... actually broke through it."
Mark didn’t respond imdiately. Instead, he opened his mouth just enough to say in a low voice, "Great Grandfather, you gave your word. Honor it."
The envoy of the Imperial Palace stepped forward, his expression unreadable. His gaze darted between the fallen Lan Yujian and the composed Mark.
Yujian let out a hoarse chuckle, brushing blood from his lips. "I did. I thought you could only co as far as destroying a chunk of the barrier, let alone..." He forced himself up. "I accept it. From this day forward... You are the Patriarch of the Ancient Lan Sect."
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