Kyrian knew the instant Yun Hao’s strike came.
If he tried to face it head-on using his spear and his own body, he would certainly lose. There would be no margin. There would be no time for correction.
Yun Hao’s sword descended, carrying too much power, too condensed, further reinforced by his physique that surpassed the ordinary.
Kyrian would suffer severe injuries upon that contact. That certainty was clear.
And, at the very instant that certainty arose, something changed.
It was a rational decision. The best way to defend took over Kyrian’s mind.
The cold was born within Kyrian.
It was not a common cold. It did not come from the air. It did not come from the environment. It was a cold that emerged from the inside out, spreading outward.
The air around the arena trembled.
Kyrian’s crimson eyes changed.
The deep red dissolved, giving way to an absolute sky blue. At the center of each eye, the pupils reorganized, taking the shape of perfectly geometric, symmetrical, and extremely precise snowflakes.
A shiver ran through the hall.
"What is this...?" Someone murmured, voice low.
Kyrian did not think twice. The ground in front of him froze. Not slowly, not in layers.
The ice simply exploded outward like a solid tide. In a single instant, the arena was flooded by thick plates of ice, which rose, overlapped, and compacted in front of Kyrian, forming an irregular, dense, living wall.
Yun Hao’s sword struck the ice.
The impact was brutal.
The ice shattered in multiple directions, splintering into hundreds of crystalline fragments. Sharp shards flew through the air, ricocheting off the arena’s barriers, some embedding themselves in the ground with dry sounds.
But the strike did not pass through.
The energy was dissipated before reaching Kyrian.
The shock pushed Yun Hao several steps back, and he planted his feet on the ground to keep his balance.
His eyes widened for a brief instant.
Before he could react, Kyrian focused his gaze.
The change was immediate. Ice appeared at Yun Hao’s feet.
It did not form slowly. It did not climb. It simply appeared, wrapping around his ankles, climbing up his legs, advancing over his arms and torso, until it reached his neck.
The ice was translucent, but it pulsed with a pale blue light, far too cold to be ignored.
Yun Hao’s body began to stiffen.
His expression turned into pure horror.
The cold pierced defenses. It ignored physical resistance. It attacked the circulation of Qi directly, freezing the flows.
"Impossible...!" He tried to speak, but his voice failed.
Then he screamed.
A loud, raw scream, laden with pain and shock.
Qi exploded around his body.
Not only his internal Qi. But the Qi of the environment.
The light-blue marks on his skin shone with maximum intensity. The air around the arena was forcibly pulled in, converging toward Yun Hao like an unviable storm.
Yun Hao’s special physique reached its apex. He was able to use a portion of the ambient Qi as his own strength.
The Qi from within and the Qi from without. His body became a core of absolute attraction. The energy of heaven and earth was forced to align, crushing the ice that bound him.
The frozen layers began to crack. First, slowly. Then, one by one, in cascade.
Then they shattered.
The ice exploded into pieces, crashing onto the ground like heavy white snow, covering the arena in frozen fragments.
Yun Hao fell to his knees for an instant, breathing with difficulty.
His chest rose and fell irregularly. White vapor escaped from his mouth with each breath.
He raised his head. He looked at Kyrian with extreme caution.
He knew.
That attack he had made earlier... was not something someone at the sixth stage of the Qi Liberation realm should be able to stop.
And yet, Kyrian not only defended but counterattacked, with a single move, he had almost lost the fight.
’What kind of terrifying physique is this?’ Yun Hao thought, his heart still racing.
’Is it a celestial-level physique?!’
The same thought echoed in other minds around the arena.
"What an aberration... if it weren’t for the difference in cultivation, I’d say the fight would already be over... with just a single look." Luo Feng, who had been acting discreetly until now, said loudly enough for many to hear.
Kyrian was now at the center of the arena.
His body emanated an extremely cold energy. The air around him seemed heavier. Even outside the arena, some spectators began to feel their skin prickle.
The ground beneath his feet was completely frozen.
He let out a sigh.
The air that left his mouth was thick and white, like mist.
Within his eyes, within his dantians, the energy began to move again.
Yun Hao sensed the danger.
Kyrian was going to attack again.
This time, he did not hold back anymore.
The ambient Qi responded immediately. Invisible currents of energy converged toward Yun Hao. The light-blue marks on his skin flared with even greater intensity.
Then, an armor formed.
It was not solid like metal. It was made entirely of condensed blue energy, covering his torso, shoulders, arms, and part of his legs.
The pressure emanating from him tripled.
Some in the hall frowned. Others felt an instinctive urge to retreat, even while seated.
"If I were in front of him... I think I’d lose the will to fight..." murmured a younger noble.
But Kyrian remained unfazed.
In fact, Kyrian found the chance to finally face someone from the Core Formation realm interesting.
The cold around him intensified. His eyes gleamed.
A great amount of Qi was used.
The temperature of the arena dropped countless degrees. The ice on the ground deepened, thickened, and became absolute.
Yun Hao advanced. His speed was even greater now. There was no longer a sword in his hands. Only his body, reinforced to the limit by two sources of Qi.
He threw a direct punch toward Kyrian’s chest.
A simple strike. Pure. Destructive.
Kyrian merely raised one hand. A casual gesture.
From the ground, the ice responded.
A giant spike of ice violently emerged from the arena, thick as a tower, sharp as a spear. It rose in a straight line and met Yun Hao’s fist head-on.