Chapter Forty-Two: The Gateway to a New World

Fifteen-win streak!
Twenty-win streak!
Twenty-five-win streak!
Rank 4,000!
Rank 3,000!
Murong Xun’s consecutive victories kept piling up, and his ranking soared rapidly, breaking into the top 1,000 in no time.
With his rapid ascent, the popularity of his dueling room began to catch the attention of many.
The duel arena featured a daily popularity ranking, allowing spectators with no specific targets to filter and find matches that interested them.
Since Murong Xun boasted a high winning streak, a massive audience, and a flurry of tips, he naturally attracted a huge crowd of onlookers.
This in turn boosted his popularity even further, making him an even greater magnet for viewers.
However, this time, Murong Xun met his match.
This was his thirty-sixth battle. His opponent was ranked 927th, while he was 952nd. The gap between their rankings was quite small, meaning he could no longer leapfrog massive rank gaps with high-tier challenges as he had in the beginning.
The further ahead he went, the narrower the gap between competitors became.
His opponent was an arcane master, appearing to be a fresh and clean-looking young woman wearing glasses. Yet, once combat began, she was fiercely wild.
She never once used basic attacks like arcane missiles.
Arcane cannons, arcane shockwaves, and all sorts of bizarre moves dazzled the eyes. Not only were these attacks immensely powerful, but more importantly, they came with a variety of special effects.
Among them, two types gave Murong Xun the most headaches.
One was the mechanical spider, whose bite caused immediate paralysis, leaving the victim unable to move for a full second.
The other was the arcane dandelion. Countless light specks, drifting like scattered dandelion seeds, filled the air in massive quantities. The moment one touched even a speck of it, petrification would set in.
At first glance, it seemed minor since the crowd control duration was extremely short. However, she followed up one control effect with endless chained cc, never giving him a single moment to breathe.
Upon seeing this, the audience mostly sighed.
Murong Xun’s crowd control resistance was simply too low. They had never witnessed such bizarre techniques when facing an arcane master, but they recognized this particular arcane master.
Freya!
One of the strongest arcane masters in the Tier Zero Eastern District.
She was someone who played tricks with arcane arts to the absolute extreme. Fighting her was pure torture.
Unlike the Dwarf Rat, though fighting Freya was painful and her chained crowd control was nearly impossible to guard against, she relied on raw, genuine strength rather than being repulsive like the Dwarf Rat.
Facing such an opponent, Murong Xun was helpless.
He was utterly unable to move.
Her surroundings were densely packed with mechanical spiders and dandelion light specks, making it impossible for him to even get close.
Furthermore, major duel arena equipment skills only refreshed once a day—meaning those ultimate abilities that could only be used after long cooldowns.
Having used the Wrath of the Deep Blue once already, he could not use it again for the rest of the day, leaving him without his critical breakthrough skill.
His body could finally move!
Before Murong Xun could even take a step, a thumb-sized mechanical spider scuttled over and pricked his foot, instantly stiffening his body and rendering him immobile once again.
Even though Freya’s attacks suffered heavy damage reduction against Murong Xun, the actual damage dealt to him still accumulated effectively.
The moment he regained mobility, instead of trying to move, Murong Xun activated a shield right away.
This was his first time using this item, and he had no idea whether it could nullify these crowd control effects.
Return-Breath Shield!
A shield formed based on accumulated Return-Breath points.
Murong Xun flexed his body—it actually worked!
A flash of surprise crossed his face. Seeing his Return-Breath points depleting rapidly, he quickly utilized Aurora Flash to close the distance toward Freya.
Though slightly startled that he could move, Freya reacted instantly. Several shields materialized around her body, and she flickered, instantly changing her position.
She had mastered an immense variety of minor skills, all independently developed and applied in different ways. Because they were minor skills, their consumption was extremely low.
Moreover, as an arcane master who had already secured her class, the growth rate of her mana and divine attributes was no longer a simple one-to-one-hundred ratio; her growth multiplier was much higher.
In addition, mage equipment typically carried attribute bonuses for mana alongside massive mana regeneration effects.
Therefore, Freya had zero need to worry about her mana pool.
Despite casting so many minor skills, her mana reserves barely looked depleted at all.
Noticing his Return-Breath points draining rapidly from contacting the surrounding light specks, Murong Xun did not press the pursuit. Instead, he retreated to an area free of light specks, putting distance between himself and Freya.
The spectators were baffled.
As a melee fighter going up against a mage, instead of closing in, you retreat to create distance? What on earth are you trying to do?
Though they knew his win rate against Freya was abysmal, a low win rate was one thing, but such passive coping was entirely another.
Murong Xun fired an Aurora Ray, but Freya nimbly dodged it.
Yet, the very next moment, an unexpected turn of events unfolded.
Just moments ago, Murong Xun had not only fired the laser ray but had simultaneously slashed out a blade aura.
The two attacks were aimed in completely different directions.
When Freya dodged the laser ray and performed an arcane blink to shift her position, she landed directly into the predetermined trajectory of the blade aura.
"What?"
Freya’s brows twitched in genuine astonishment. She was utterly shocked that someone had actually calculated her landing spot.
Still, she wasn't overly concerned, as she remained extremely confident in her own defenses.
To her utter dismay, however, the moment the blade aura met her shields, they shattered instantly without the slightest resistance, as if made of paper.
This was the sharp armor-piercing attribute taking effect.
Armor-piercing was specifically designed to shatter shields.
Although Freya initiated another arcane blink the moment her primary magic shield shattered, it was already too late!
The blade aura moved too fast. While its power was heavily mitigated layer by layer through multiple defenses and ultimately absorbed by her magical robe, leaving her with no heavy injuries, Murong Xun's numerous passive traits began to trigger.
The situation instantly reversed. The one who became crowd-controlled was now Freya.
Seizing the golden opportunity, Murong Xun ignored the surrounding light specks with his Return-Breath Shield and relied on Aurora Flash to close in on Freya.
With one strike, he pierced the natural defense of her magical robe; with the second, he severed Freya’s head.
The flying head wore a dazed expression, seemingly unable to believe that anyone would treat her this way.
Not just Freya, but the entire audience gasped in uproar.
This was a live enactment of ruthlessly destroying a flower!
Freya was immensely popular, yet she had been decapitated right before their eyes. No matter how one looked at it, it was an infuriating sight.
Yet, in the end, no one voiced any complaints; instead, quite a few spectators sent monetary tips.
This battle was undoubtedly Murong Xun’s most arduous since he began dueling.
Yet, it had to be said that it benefited him the most as well.
The combat style of the arcane master also opened his eyes.
That style of layered crowd control, trapping an opponent with nowhere to run, inexplicably reminded him of the Four Holy Knight Brothers—those four fellows employed the exact same tactic.
However, they only knew a single trick and required four people to take turns applying crowd control, making it viable only against a single target. Arcane masters were different; if they wished, a designated area around them became a control zone capable of affecting multiple individuals.
Had it not been for the fact that Return-Breath points were immune to crowd control, Murong Xun would have had no way to break out of his predicament in the end.
Even so, this made him fully realize the true power of Return-Breath points. He knew he had to accumulate a certain amount of them from now on.
The greatest utility of Return-Breath points was neither mitigating damage nor restoring health and energy, but rather completely ignoring crowd control when facing enemy restraints.
This point was genuinely terrifying.
It meant that as long as he retained Return-Breath points, no one's crowd control could ever take effect on him.
Just how terrifying was someone who was immune to crowd control, possessed close-quarters skills, and wielded devastating explosive power?
The battle concluded, and the spectators suddenly realized that Murong Xun had already departed.
This was only natural. After all, he had fought thirty-six consecutive matches. Even though he emerged victorious in all of them, his condition was no longer at its peak and he needed to return to rest.
Quite a few viewers hit the follow button so that the next time Murong Xun fought, they would be notified instantly and could enter the viewing seats right away.
They were burning to know just how many consecutive wins Murong Xun could rack up and where his final ranking would land.
Meanwhile, Shocks let out a regretful sigh.
In the beginning, he had approached with high hopes, extending an olive branch in the belief that the opponent would likely join them.
Yet, as he watched the battles unfold, he realized this person was far too solitary—the classic path of a lone wolf.
He only trusted himself, and the only person he could rely on was himself.
Such a person was unsuited for teamwork. Furthermore, given the opponent's formidable strength, their guild was merely a small temple that could not house a great Buddha.
Therefore, later on, he deleted every single recruitment message he had drafted, acting as though it had never happened.
Let bygones be bygones. Spending a little pocket change to watch so many spectacular battles was already more than enough.
With that thought, he glanced at the excited Shi Jie, shook his head, and left the viewing stand.
As a guild master, he was a very busy man. Unbeknownst to him, a long time had already passed.
Shi Jie remained completely oblivious to Shocks's departure.
At that moment, he was still reliving the battle that had just ended.
Freya’s combat style had delivered too much of a shock to him, feeling as though the doors to a brand new world had been flung wide open.
He had never imagined that mages could fight in such a manner.
Although there were differences between the skills of mages and arcane masters, many aspects intersected, meaning he could draw inspiration from this combat style.
After all, elemental mages mastered multiple elements, and each attribute had its own crowd control skills. If he utilized all those crowd control skills effectively, the results wouldn't fall far behind Freya's arcane arts.
The only drawback might be the somewhat heavy mana consumption, unlike Freya's pitifully low resource usage.