Boom!

The moment Gong Shenjun accepted, lightning resonant power burst out of Liang Kui's body, flying up into the sky. Dark clouds began to form out of nowhere, and lightning bolts leaped like fish between them.

One mighty bolt of lightning crashed suddenly down, but it was not aimed at Gong Shenjun. It landed on Liang Kui instead.

BOOM!

Struck by lightning, Liang Kui's six heavenly pearls were agitated, becoming even brighter than before. They now formed a large lightning snake that hissed and coiled.

Liang Kui took a deep breath, screwing his face up in complete concentration as his eyes sparked with power. 

The little threads of electricity were now joining up into thick, roiling tendrils as they flowed in full strength towards the black spear. The six heavenly pearls entered the black spear as well, and the air around it was distorted from the concentrated energy.

It was all too plain to see that Liang Kui was charging up for the ultimate attack of the century.

On the other hand, Gong Shenjun stood his ground, not interfering. He was happy to give Liang Kui the time he needed to prepare. One could see it as weak and passive, or absolute confidence.

If Gong Shenjun won in the end, he would not only win the battle, but also the hearts and praise of everyone present. Even the Blue Abyss Sage College would have nothing to say.

The fact that Gong Shenjun was aiming for that outcome spoke volumes of his ambition.

Rumble!

In a short time, Liang Kui had charged up an epic attack. He was funneling every last bit of lightning he could into his weapon. He was at the limits of his control, and bits of electricity escaped from him and leaped away to the ground.

Even the other Seven Astral Pillars members shuddered at the lethality of the attack that was incoming, while the normal students could not even begin to imagine what would happen to them. 

This attack would eviscerate them into a puff of smoke.

“Pssh!”

A lazy wisp of white gas escaped Liang Kui's gritted teeth. His spear was heavy with power, criss-crossed with lightning and a figure of lightning appearing behind him in the air.

The figure was several dozen meters wide and had four arms. Although its features were hidden in shadowy darknesses, the savage aura it radiated was undoubtedly demonic.

"This attack... I call it the Storm Demon's Spear.

"But I know that even this amount of power is not enough to deal much damage to you," Liang Kui rasped.

"And so..."

The hand that gripped the black spear suddenly exploded, his fingers disappearing into a mist of bone and blood. It was sucked into the spear too, making it suddenly change colors from black to dark red.

The lightning on it had also changed from blue-white to a demonic red.

The aura around the spear doubled sinisterly.

Things had taken a sudden and wicked turn, and the level of fear among the spectators rose as well. The Seven Astral Pillars were looking worried.

After he sacrificed his fingers, the storm demon behind Liang Kui reached out one monstrous limb to grip the spear, keeping it upright. And then it gradually drew back its hand in a pitching motion.

Time and space itself seemed to freeze.

BOOM!

A thunderous sizzling sound filled the air as the bolt of blood lightning zipped through the air.

It moved at blistering speeds, and few of the spectators could actually track its movement. A streak of red was all most of them could see.

The soot-covered battlefield was divided into two by the attack zipping forward.

Of course, the lightning bolt destroyed everything in its path. This was the one shot that Liang Kui had mustered, even sacrificing his hand for it.

Gong Shenjun stood his ground. He watched the blood spear streak through the air towards him, and he nodded with approval as he noted the energy aura around the bolt. "Truly the strongest spear of the Blue Abyss Sage College," he said softly to himself.

"Still...

"Not enough."

Gong Shenjun's own eyes gleamed with silver power, and his irises contracted into the serpentine eyes of a scaled-dragon. In his hands, his silver spear seemed to melt into liquid power, reforming as a mini silver scaled-dragon that coiled itself around his arm before finally sinking under his skin as a spear tattoo.

The tip of the spear was at his finger.

Gong Shenjun lifted that finger, which gleamed with silver light.

"Dragon Soul Claw."

“Roar!”

A dragon's defiant roar accompanied a burst of silver light from Gong Shenjun's finger, and a scaled-dragon burst out of his fingertip, swimming forward with scales shimmering and fangs bared. 

The soul of the dragon met the blood spear square on.

BOOM!

The impact was colossal. The already tattered battlefield was ravaged anew, with deep gouges cutting through fallen trees and broken rocks alike. The aftershock radiated outwards like a spider's web, leaving symmetrical, radial gouges on the ground.

So strong was the aftershock that it would have reached the spectator stands, but the Violet Vibrance mentors were on hand to negate the shock before that happened.

All of them watched the field anxiously.

As silver and red energy burned out against each other, it was the silver dragon soul that gave out first.

The Astral Sage College students gasped in dismay.

Had Gong Shenjun failed to defend against this attack?

After bursting past the silver dragon soul, the blood spear continued forward, aimed straight at Gong Shenjun. The man in white watched it come with a faint smile on his face.

He stood his ground quietly, arms loosely at his sides.

As the spear neared him, its energy was also being depleted, and when it was within a few meters of Gong Shenjun, the red tint was completely gone. The spear was now black again.

Even so, it was a powerful attack that was on track to punch into Gong Shenjun's brow.

Clang!

A faint, white spot appeared on Gong Shenjun's brow, and the black spear clattered downwards.

Gong Shenjun reached out to grab it, then he casually flicked it with a finger. It flew through the air to land in front of Liang Kui, buried point-down in the ground. He bowed his head slightly.

"I admit defeat."