Chapter 163: The Art of Space and Time

Having awakened the fourfold seals, Heiyu's physical strength had been enhanced to a degree that surpassed ordinary mortals—a power completely unimaginable to everyday people.

"Let this be the price you pay for Reyue's wrongdoing that day!" Heiyu said in a cold voice.

At the same time, his other hand struck straight up from below toward Renault's elbow. The sound of a dislocated joint echoed through the air. As Renault's body lunged forward empty from momentum, Heiyu had already flashed behind him, pinned his broken wrist behind his back, and shoved him forward. The lightning gathered in Heiyu's palm struck his own back, causing Renault to stumble forward in agonizing pain.

"Ah!" he shrieked. Falling to the ground, he spun back around and gritted his teeth, shouting, "You... you, what kind of bizarre trick is this?!"

"You cannot win against me."

Heiyu stated it coldly, as if uttering an absolute fact.

A chill crept into Renault's heart, but his pride would never allow such contempt.

Frantic and furious, he scrambled up from the ground. With his right arm hanging limply at his side due to the fracture, he grabbed his wand with his left hand. "You're dead, kid!" he yelled, raising the staff to summon a bolt of lightning.

Heiyu did not give him the slightest opening, suddenly flashing right before his eyes.

The gap in their strength was far too vast. Even without using "Spacetime Shift," the sheer speed of Heiyu's natural movement was enough to leave Renault dumbfounded.

Heiyu extended his right hand forward. Just as Renault caught sight of a flower-like pattern in the center of his palm, the hand instantly clenched into a fist.

"Spacetime Blast!"

Suddenly, a violent and prolonged explosion erupted simultaneously from all directions around Renault. His ears instantly filled with a ringing sound, blood leaking from them as he clutched his head and howled, dodging blindly.

"Boom! Boom! Boom!"

The explosions echoed back-to-back. To Renault, it felt as though the heavens and earth were collapsing and shattering apart.

After a moment, the surrounding noise ceased. He slowly opened his eyes and looked around, only to find that seemingly nothing had happened. He patted his body and realized he was not really injured, aside from the blood flowing from his ears and nose due to the recent shockwave.

"What... what kind of sorcery did you use?!"

Trembling, he glared at Heiyu while raising his wand once more to attack.

"If that last attack had landed directly on you, not even a whole corpse would have been left behind. Still want to fight?"

Heiyu had merely issued a warning just then, which was why the Spacetime Blast had detonated at a distance from him. Seeing that Renault still refused to give up, just a fraction of a second before Renault took a step forward to counterattack, Heiyu swung his palm and unleashed another technique:

"Spacetime Sever."

The wand Renault had just raised suddenly sheared apart into two separate pieces, and the spell he was attempting to cast was abruptly terminated.

"What? H-How is this possible?!" Renault cried out, retreating two steps. "Are you a monster?!"

Heiyu clenched his fist again. Recognizing that he was about to use the "Spacetime Blast" from before, Renault immediately hugged his head tightly and screamed, "No, I surrender! No more fighting!"

All his confidence was swept away, washed over as if by a bucket of cold water poured straight over his head. The terror of the unknown shattered everything within him.

Down by the arena, Yixin experienced a complex mix of emotions as he watched the skills Heiyu employed. He recalled that moonlit night atop the high tower, where Yifeng had stood so proudly. The spell Yifeng had used back then to deflect the flames was identical to the one Heiyu was using now.

No sooner had Renault spoken those words than, catching a moment when Heiyu let down his guard, he once again raised his hand, desperate to trigger a lightning spell.

Noticing this breach of word, Heiyu immediately executed two more Spacetime Blasts—one to Renault's front-left and one to his front-right—forcing him to stagger back two steps. Heiyu said, "You chose the wrong opponent. If you don't want to get hurt, it's not too late to forfeit right now."

"H-How can this be!" Renault shrieked. He suddenly realized that, up until this very moment, Heiyu hadn't even materialized his wand.

"Are you looking down on me?! Bring out your wand! I want a fair fight with you!"

Heiyu offered a faint smile.

"If you feel losing to me like this is too humiliating, I suppose I can grant your wish."

With that, he directly materialized his trident. The weapon emerged from beneath his right sleeve amidst a wisp of black smoke, light gleaming brightly off the razor-sharp black tip.

Heiyu's figure rushed forward like an encroaching night. As he brushed past Renault and touched down once more, fresh blood was already dripping from the tip of the trident.

An arc-shaped wound stretched across Renault's chest to his flank. He dropped to both knees, and blood dripped steadily through his garments.

"It's impossible for me to lose to you... I haven't even unleashed my peak performance, yet I'm losing to a colorless attribute mage!..."

Even without any mana infused into it, the trident already possessed such lethal striking power.

Heiyu did not answer him. Upon tasting blood, a faint wispy tendril within the dark power inside him began to slither down along the trident, eager to lick the blood from the blade.

Sensing this, Heiyu immediately suppressed it, and the black mist instantly retreated back into his sleeve. His arm trembled slightly, and the trident vibrated in response, though fortunately, no one noticed this subtle detail.

The host announced: "The fifth match! Heiyu wins!"

Yixin welcomed him as he stepped down from the arena, landing a light punch on Heiyu's chest. "Where did you learn those crooked tricks? Getting quite skilled, aren't you?"

"How dare I? I can't compare to our great class monitor."

"This is the last match. We've had three people eliminated, and they've lost two. Whether we can turn the tables depends entirely on Ling Xiaolei."

Ling Xiaolei had already prepared for battle, having materialized her wand and magic book. Her match was of paramount importance:

If she won, it would be a three-to-three tie. If she lost, Holy City would face a desperate two-versus-four disadvantage in the second half of the finals.

Feeling the heavy pressure weighing down on her shoulders, she took continuous deep breaths to alleviate the tension.

Since Bai Shengye had already been eliminated, there were no potions left to drink. Fortunately, the effects of the concentrated strengthening potion Bai Shengye had prepared early that morning were still lingering, giving her a bit of confidence.

Heiyu understood Ling Xiaolei better than anyone else. Though she appeared delicate on the outside and was short in stature, easily overlooked, once her true potential erupted, the power hidden within her was immense.

He encouraged her, saying, "You'll definitely be fine."

In Ling Xiaolei's memory, Heiyu rarely wore such a serious expression. This simple, straightforward sentence sent a warm current flowing through her heart, instilling her with tremendous courage.

"Don't worry, I'll give this match my absolute all—if nothing else, just to win some dignity for us dark elf mages!"

The host delivered an elaborate introduction:

"In the historical records of the Magic Duel Tournament, no dark elf mage has ever advanced to the finals! How thrilling this is—let us all focus our attention on the upcoming match! The final duel of the first half: Water-attribute mage versus—the dark elf mage!"

Ling Xiaolei stepped onto the arena platform. The opposing water-attribute mage was a slender, older-looking young man. Swirling mists of water and strings of drifting droplets encircled his feet, while the wand in his hand transformed into an irregular sphere of water that bounced back and forth between his palms.