Chapter 339 - Inextinguishable Black Flames

How can he possibly block this?

Han Wu’s teacher thought, clearly panicking. He had seen how strong the Dragon Shield was, but Han Wu wasn’t defending against a cudgel this time, but an entire explosion! How could a single shield possibly stop it?

However, it was already too late for him to call for the announcer or referee to stop the match, as the referee had already activated the arena’s barriers to protect the crowd from the compressed Fireball.

“I’ll blow both you and that flimsy shield away!” roared the opposing team’s leader maniacally. He wanted to see Han Wu’s team and the Dragon Shield blown to pieces by his Fireball.

The Fireball smashed into the Dragon Shield, but much to the crowd’s shock, instead of exploding, it was reflected! The Shield remained unharmed, and the compressed Fireball shot back at the caster at an increased speed.

Boom!

The leader barely had time to recover from his shock before the compressed Fireball flew towards them and exploded, engulfing the three in a blast of intense light and heat. The powerful explosion destroyed the arena, but Han Wu’s half remained intact thanks to the Dragon Shield’s protection.

Amidst the ruins of the arena where the three Holy Blue representatives had stood, a plume of black flames still burned. Miraculously, Da Shan was still alive after being hit by the explosion, though on the verge of death, as most of his body was being consumed by the black flames.

After his Iron Tower Shield shattered and his three layers of armor were destroyed, Da Shan, writhing and screaming in agony, clung on to his last shred of consciousness with his final Skill, Hard Qigong. If he were to release the Skill, his body would be instantly consumed by the black flames. However, the pain was so intense that death by black flames seemed like a welcome release.

The crowd also noticed the Holy Blue Academy’s team leader, standing fifty meters away from the arena. While black flames still burned on his body, he was in relatively good condition. The moment the compressed Fireball exploded, he had disappeared and reappeared outside the arena. The barrier had contained the explosion, so he was in a much better condition than Da Shan.

However, the third Holy Blue representative was unfortunately standing in the direct center of the explosion and was unable to escape or block it, reducing him to nothing. His death caused the Fire’s Blessing to disappear from the other two, and without it, the leader finally felt the burning pain of the black flames on his muscles.

The leader jumped into the crowd like a maniac and snatched a bottle of water to douse the fire, but it was futile—the black flames continued to burn. Thinking it was due to insufficient water, he desperately pleaded to the audience for help. “Anyone with powerful water Skills? Hurry up and douse the flames!”

There were indeed quite a few in the audience who specialized in water manipulation. They quickly activated low-damage, high-output water Skills in an attempt to douse the flames. A huge amount of water poured down and submerged the leader, but to his dismay, even that wasn’t enough. The black flames remained unaffected and continued to burn his skin and flesh.

“

Ahh!

Let me go! Let me go!” the leader howled in agony. He began rolling on the ground in a desperate attempt to snuff out the flames, but his efforts were futile.

The crowd watched in shock as the black flames refused to be extinguished and continued to torment the leader. His fate was clearly worse than being killed outright.

Even the announcer couldn’t bear to watch any longer. He gestured to Han Wu and pleaded, “Han Wu, the match is over—you’ve clearly won. Can you please extinguish the black flames?”

“Alright.”

With a snap of Han Wu’s fingers, the black flames tormenting Da Shan and the leader vanished. The two instantly fell unconscious, finally freed from their misery. Medics quickly rushed forward and used their healing Skills, but they could only heal their skin. Their deep tissue burns required professional care, and they were immediately sent to the hospital.

The audience looked at Han Wu in terrified shock. The shattered arena and the unextinguished black flames cemented the rise of his legend, and in that instant, he received tens of thousands of Assists from the crowd.

Han Wu’s Skills were rising at an incredible rate. His Dragon Fireball reached Level 40, and he finally achieved the rank of Intermediate Elite. He even unlocked a powerful new Skill, Dragonfall, which could be used to attack multiple targets at once.

The new Skill was exactly what Han Wu had needed. Satisfied, he used all of his Assist Points to upgrade the powerful offensive Skill to Level 10, a Skill he had been lamenting he hadn’t had before. Although Leng Ning and Meng Qi received some Assists, their total was barely a tenth of what Han Wu had received. The audience had single-handedly determined that Han Wu was the leader of the trio.

Soon, their teacher joyfully rushed to the bottom of the arena and excitedly welcomed the three students, carefully assessing each of them for any conspicuous injuries.

“Han Wu, you never told me you had such a powerful defensive Skill! Why didn’t you tell me before? I was worried sick about you brats!

“I’m so pleased to see how much you’ve all improved. Don’t you worry, I will be sure to report your success today to the principal. I will stake my reputation as a teacher to persuade the principal to get you three spots at a top-ranking college!”

Han Wu chuckled, having heard this familiar speech before. “Thank you. We will be sure to follow your guidance, Teacher.”

A smile spread across Bai’s face when Han Wu called him

Teacher

. The feeling was as refreshing as a can of cold juice on a hot summer day. He had to hold back an overwhelming urge to point at the three and proudly announce to everyone that they were his students!

However, as they were going to head back to rest, two referees stopped them. One stepped forward and stated, “Mr. Bai, I apologize for this, but we’ve just received a complaint from the Holy Blue Academy. They claim that Han Wu used a restricted drug to temporarily boost his strength, which is against the rules. We would like you to cooperate with our investigation to clear this up.”

“What? This is preposterous!” Meng Qi furiously retorted. “If they had won, no one would have batted an eye, yet because

we

defeated them, we are accused of using drugs? Why on earth should we cooperate with this?”

“We are acting based on the information submitted by the Holy Blue Academy,” the referee simply stated. “Han Wu’s performance was indeed different from what was previously known. We are simply doing our job, and I ask for your understanding.”

Before Han Wu could even get a chance to reply, the second referee impatiently shouted, “We are just giving you face by asking you to cooperate with the investigation! Do you really want us to publicly announce that you’ve used illegal drugs?”

The referee’s loud voice reached the audience, and they stared at Han Wu in disbelief. The impossible victory suddenly made sense—the weak and relatively unknown Azure Sea Academy had only managed to defeat the fourth-ranked Holy Blue Academy because they had used drugs!

Bai was visibly upset by how they were being treated.

“Sir, you’re supposed to be a referee in charge of fairness of the competition,” he said, bristling with barely contained fury. “How can you accuse us without any evidence? Your suspicion doesn’t make my students guilty. Do you think you can take responsibility for your accusations? I will report you to your superior!”

Ignoring Bai, the second referee yelled even louder, trying to turn the crowd against them. “Illegal is illegal! You use drugs, but we’re not allowed to accuse you? Do you think your Azure Sea Academy is so great? How could you, a team always in the bottom ten, suddenly defeat Holy Blue Sea Academy and reach the top thirty-two? Do you think that’s even possible?”

He continued, “In fact, I will be investigating not only you, Han Wu, but also Leng Ning and Meng Qi. I am officially declaring that your last two matches were also extremely suspicious. I refuse to allow you to tarnish the sanctity of this inter-academy competition!”

Mr. Bai was visibly enraged by the referees’ clear abuse of power and was about to fight them for it. “You—!”

Seeing his teacher’s fury, Han Wu pulled him aside. “Calm down, Teacher. We haven’t done anything wrong, so there’s nothing to worry about. Let them do as they wish.”

Turning to the referee, he said, “I don’t care who you are or who is backing you. You’ve publicly accused us of something we did not do. We

will

report this to your superior.”

“

Hmph

. Useless cheating bastards like you have no right to even submit a complaint,” the referee scoffed without a trace of fear, as if he already held the evidence in his hands.