Chapter 92 – Techniques Gradually Getting More Violent

It was a feast.

A feast of Spirit Arts.

On one end of the horizon surged a tide of Phantom Demons like a beast horde.

The Professionals gathered at the forefront of the defense line, shielding the camp behind them like an embankment bracing against an incoming flood. Yet from behind them, countless streaks of light shot out like meteor showers, crashing toward the oncoming wave of Phantom Demons.

“Twenty-Fifth Form: Hundredfold Light!”

“Thirty-Sixth Form: Virulent Poison Burst!”

“Forty-First Form: Bubble Mine!”

“Fifty-Ninth Form: Scorched Inferno!”

One area-attack Spirit Art after another was unleashed by the Sorcerers, causing circular arrays to materialize successively on their wrists, presenting a dazzling and magnificent spectacle.

For a time, the incoming Phantom Demon horde was ravaged.

Hundreds of lightning bolts descended like lasers from the sky, wreaking havoc among the Phantom Demons, bombarding them repeatedly and stirring up roaring explosions.

The ground transformed into violent toxic explosions, drenching everything in a downpour of poisonous liquid.

Bubbles drifted down gently, spreading across the entire battlefield, instantly turning into terrifying shockwaves upon contact, exploding one after another.

Magma fountains erupted throughout the battlefield, bringing scorching flames that turned everything into a sea of fire.

Faced with these varied assaults, the Phantom Demons were utterly reduced to pitiful creatures subjected to brutal punishment.

“Thirtieth Form: Scorching Sparrow Song!”

Even An Zijin, at this moment, spared no Spirit Power as she unleashed her strongest Spirit Art, conjuring waves of intense heat and fiery rain. While friction with the air produced sounds akin to a hundred sparrows chirping, the technique swept forth violently, crashing into the battlefield ahead.

Under this astonishing offensive, only a small portion of the incoming Phantom Demon horde managed to respond; the rest were utterly annihilated before they could even react.

Thunder and flames erupted amid roaring explosions, while the curtain of toxic rain caused Phantom Demons to emit acrid smoke as if doused in sulfuric acid.

The ferocious roars of the Phantom Demons were, in an instant, replaced by screams and wails of agony.

Yet the Phantom Demon horde continued to charge forward relentlessly, their eyes gleaming with malice, faces contorted in savagery. Their frenzied appearance was like that of starved beasts who, after years of deprivation, had finally spotted prey and were now throwing all caution to the wind, descending into madness.

“Twenty-Fifth Form: Hundredfold Light!”

Amid the group of Sorcerers, Su Ming, seeing the situation, did not hold back his Spirit Power output, just like An Zijin and the other Sorcerers beside him.

However, he was only using the Twenty-Fifth Form, a low-level Spirit Art. Even with such extravagance, his Spirit Power seemed to flow endlessly without diminishing much, leaving Su Ming with a sense of dissatisfaction.

He wanted to unleash his full power without restraint.

He even considered using the only Advanced Spirit Art he had mastered—the Eighty-Eighth Form: Fate Heaven Earth Shift—a technique with the power to overturn heaven and earth.

If he were to employ this technique, which surpassed many Spirit Arts, approached the pinnacle of Advanced Spirit Arts, and possessed power nearing that of forbidden techniques ranked beyond 90 in the sequence, Su Ming was confident that all the Phantom Demons before him would be instantly annihilated.But if he did that, Su Ming would exhaust his Spirit Power, collapse completely, become an ant to be trampled at will, and expose all his secrets.

This forced Su Ming to suppress the impulse in his heart, patiently continuing to use the twenty-fifth form to “scrape” at the Phantom Demon army ahead.

Yet the more he restrained himself, the more a restless feeling grew within him, as if his entire body was bound by something, causing the Spirit Power fluctuations around him to become somewhat chaotic.

The flow of Spirit Power within him grew increasingly violent.

His heartbeat kept accelerating, making Su Ming feel his entire body heating up.

“What’s going on?”

Su Ming noticed his own abnormality, feeling both startled and increasingly irritable.

“Brother Su Ming?”

An Zijin beside him seemed to detect Su Ming’s unusual state and couldn’t help but turn to look at him.

At that glance, An Zijin’s heart skipped a beat.

Because she saw it.

She saw that Su Ming’s expression had unexpectedly turned ferocious.

“B-Brother Su Ming? What’s wrong with you…!?”

An Zijin spoke with a mix of fear and anxiety.

“Me?” Su Ming seemed startled awake, wiping nonexistent sweat from his forehead as he shook his head. “I’m fine.”

An Zijin didn’t believe it at all.

Su Ming’s appearance was anything but fine.

But just as An Zijin prepared to move closer to Su Ming, she suddenly noticed something unusual.

On Su Ming’s forehead, some pattern seemed to suddenly appear and then vanish, leaving An Zijin frozen in place.

“What was that?”

An Zijin thought this but found herself unable to speak for some reason.

Because she too felt her heartbeat quickening, her inner restlessness growing, giving her an overwhelming urge to vent.

If An Zijin could see her own appearance at that moment, she would have discovered that patterns were similarly appearing and disappearing all over her body, flickering like illusions.

The difference was that An Zijin’s patterns appeared almost everywhere on her body, while Su Ming’s only appeared on his forehead – clearly different in scale.

Of course, neither Su Ming nor An Zijin noticed this.

The two simply remained silent, restless, continuing to cast Spirit Arts toward the battlefield ahead as if trying to vent something, their techniques gradually becoming more violent.

In this state, Su Ming and An Zijin also failed to notice that with this venting, this release, not only were their Spirit Power fluctuations becoming increasingly chaotic, but the Spirit Power within them was wildly surging.

Such abnormality naturally couldn’t escape the notice of those around them.

“Hey, look at those two…”

“How many times have they cast Spirit Arts now?”

“Area-effect Offensive Spirit Arts already consume more Spirit Power than regular Spirit Arts. Even if they’re using low-level ones, casting continuously like this should have drained their Spirit Power dry by now.”

“Who are they? Veteran Three-Star Sorcerers from somewhere? Or hidden Four-Star Sorcerers?”

“Wait, look at their uniforms.”

“Those are clearly two students!”

“You’re kidding?”

“Just students? How can they have so much Spirit Power?”

“This is insane…”

The surrounding Sorcerers began to stare in stunned disbelief.Even the few Three-Star Sorcerers regarded as trump cards by this defense line were exchanging uneasy glances, their expressions turning peculiar as they watched Su Ming and An Zijin.

Yet Su Ming and An Zijin, lost in their abnormal state, remained completely unaware of this, continuing to unleash Spirit Arts as if venting their emotions.

Just as the Spirit Power fluctuations around them grew so chaotic they stirred up air currents, pushing back the surrounding sorcerers, an anomaly occurred.

“Ah!”

A sorcerer screamed without warning, blood spurting from his body as he collapsed to the ground, his condition unknown.

“Swish!”

A dark shadow emerged from behind the fallen sorcerer, its hands sharp as blades. After withdrawing one hand from the fallen sorcerer’s body, it immediately bathed in the blood and pounced on him.

“Crunch!”

Amid tearing sounds, the shadow bit through the sorcerer’s neck with a single chomp, trembling as it began sucking his blood.

“Damn!”

“Shadow Demons!”

“Everyone, watch your shadows!”

Shouts and roars erupted, jolting the sorcerers whose attention had been diverted by Su Ming and An Zijin, and snapping Su Ming and An Zijin back to awareness.

“Shadow Demons!”

Su Ming’s expression instantly shifted dramatically.

Shadow Demons—Phantom Demons capable of moving within shadows, silent and ghost-like.

They couldn’t appear during daylight, but once night fell, they transformed into the most terrifying assassins, launching merciless hunts.

While everyone’s focus was on the Phantom Demon army ahead, these silent ghosts had infiltrated and appeared within the sorcerers’ ranks.

“Woo~~”

“Woo~~”

Like howling dark winds, Shadow Demons emerged one after another from the shadows of various sorcerers, attacking everyone present.

“Slash!””Slash!””Slash!”…

Blades cut through sorcerers’ bodies, instantly making them scream as their flesh split open.

“Counterattack!”

“Quick, counterattack!”

Someone shouted frantically amidst the chaos, forcing the sorcerers to halt their prepared area-effect Offensive Spirit Arts and switch to other Spell Formulas to engage the Shadow Demons.

“Damn it!”

“Go support the sorcerers!”

The Hunters at the front noticed the situation and paled in alarm.

But they had no time to turn back and assist. The Phantom Demon army, now free from the suppression of the sorcerers’ area-effect Offensive Spirit Arts, roared with glee and charged forward at increased speed.

The situation descended into chaos instantly.

“Zijin!”

“Little Zijin!”

Jiang Wanyu and Yao Beibei shouted, but they couldn’t return, trapped by several bizarrely shaped Phantom Demons.

“Get lost!”

Lei Hao charged toward Jiang Wanyu and Yao Beibei, his greatsword whirling fiercely as he protected the flustered pair.

Xu Qianqian, having drawn her dagger to face the enemy, saw that Su Ming in the sorcerer ranks was also targeted by Shadow Demons. For a moment, she instinctively turned, wanting to rush over.

“Qianqian! Watch out!”

Li Wei, beside her, noticed Xu Qianqian’s distraction and urgently called out.

“You really do care about that Su Ming, don’t you, my dear sister.”

Xu Yanyan, leading the Xu Family Hunters against a group of Blade Demons, happened to witness Xu Qianqian’s situation and curled her lips into a cold smirk.

Xu Qianqian quickly snapped back to attention, suppressing the urge to rush to the rear, and turned to face two Screaming Demons diving from mid-air.All the Professionals began to slay enemies amidst the chaotic formation, causing blood, severed limbs, corpses, and the glint of Sabers and Swords to appear continuously.

At this moment, Su Ming was indeed entangled.

“Woo”

A Shadow Demon leaped out from the shadow behind him, thrusting a claw straight toward Su Ming’s back.

“Brother Su Ming!”

An Zijin, witnessing this scene, couldn’t help but cry out.

“————!”

Su Ming felt a sudden throb in his temples as his own spirit wildly warned him.

“Twenty-Eighth Form: Spiral Fire!”

Without a second thought, Su Ming turned around and unleashed a vast expanse of blazing flames.

On his forehead, eerie patterns finally emerged completely, reflecting the firelight with an exceptionally ferocious appearance.

(End of Chapter)