Soon, on the snow-covered clearing, dozens more “snowmen” poked their heads out of the snow. In an instant, one squad of snowmen turned into an entire army.

All of them charged at Ling Yu. Left with no choice, Ling Yu couldn’t worry about anything else now. He could only grit his teeth and face them head-on.

Wave after wave of “snowmen” rushed straight at him, but Ling Yu quickly broke them apart, turning them into piles of scattered snowflakes. Even so, his swords were frozen over again and again in the process.

Ling Yu could knock his twin swords against each other to break the ice on them. But under such a dense assault, he barely had any time to do even that.

A few of the “snowmen” even managed to touch his body. The already heavy clothes he wore became even heavier where ice formed on them, affecting his performance and making his movements sluggish.

“Hold on! Hold on! It’s still not enough!”

Ling Yu kept swinging at the “snowmen” around him, never letting himself stop for even a moment. As more and more “snowmen” were shattered—

the snowflakes falling around him piled up into a surprisingly thick layer.

“Student Ling Yu, there’s no way you can keep dragging this out. If you want to break free from this situation, your only choice is to strike the king before the pawns. Defeat me first!”

“Otherwise, turning into a giant ice sculpture is only a matter of time!” Wu Jie teased in a playful tone.

Off to the side, Tongxi watched Ling Yu fall into trouble and started to worry too. Ling Yu had no free hand at all, let alone any chance to break through the encirclement and deal with Wu Jie.

Gradually, as more and more snowflakes filled the air, Ling Yu’s figure was slowly swallowed by the swirling snow. Tongxi could barely see him anymore.

Tongxi was worried, but she couldn’t say a word.

“In a place like this, all ice and snow, this is already the strongest possible battlefield for an ice-element priest like me.”

“Even the academy’s teachers might not be able to escape this predicament right away.”

“Much less a new student like you!” Wu Jie said with complete confidence. “With your little tricks, there’s no way you can deal with—”

“Fist-to-Blade Technique: Earthshatter Fist!”

Before Wu Jie could finish, a loud shout suddenly rang out from the spot buried beneath the surging snow mist.

In the snow-filled clearing, especially at the very center where the snowstorm was thickest, Ling Yu merged his twin swords back into one, forming a heavy blade.

He gripped the hilt with both hands. He completely ignored the “snowmen” touching him and the ice forming on his body. Resolutely, he raised the sword straight up. Hidden inside the snow mist, no one outside could see what he was doing.

The instant his voice fell, a violent blizzard suddenly erupted from Ling Yu’s position. All the “snowmen” attacking him, along with the snowflakes drifting around him, were thrown into wild chaos.

A layer of golden phantom gauntlets had formed over Ling Yu’s hands. He brought his sword down onto the ground with one slash, as if he were about to flip the entire earth over.

The “snowmen” surrounding him were even more fragile than paper before that direct strike. Under the shockwave, every single one of them instantly burst apart into salt-like powder.

The entire clearing shook. Even Wu Jie, dozens of meters away, could feel the tremor under his feet.

The fierce blizzard spread outward across the clearing. White snow mist rushed straight at Wu Jie’s face, and before long, he was completely swallowed by a haze where he couldn’t see anything at all, not even direction.

Even the sun in the sky was blocked out by the snow mist that had been kicked up. Wu Jie completely lost his sense of direction and had no idea where he even was.

“You lost!”

A voice suddenly came from behind him. Only then did Wu Jie react. The moment he turned around, a flashing streak of blade-light shot through the dim snow curtain like lightning.

All he could see was a speeding “light-serpent.” It dragged a few snowflakes with its sharp momentum and struck Wu Jie’s cheek. He was so shocked by the scene before him that he didn’t dare move.

Wu Jie’s eyes widened. The snow mist surrounding him quickly began to settle, and his vision gradually returned. Only then did he finally see what that “speeding light-serpent” really was.

And when he got his answer, even he couldn’t believe it. In less than a few dozen seconds, with only one blizzard rushing at him, Ling Yu had already appeared behind him and was pointing a sword at his neck.

If this had been a real life-and-death duel, Wu Jie might already have been dead.

“That’s impossible. Why? How did you even…” Shocked by the fact that he had lost, Wu Jie could barely speak coherently.

“Heh.” Ling Yu smiled, lowered the sword pointed at Wu Jie, and said with polite composure, “Once you lose sight of your opponent and their position, the last thing you should do is stand still.”

He explained it from the basic common sense of being a knight, an Arcanist Warrior class focused on close combat and movement.

Originally, Ling Yu had only planned to use Fist-to-Sword Earthshatter Punch to break out of the “snowmen’s” encirclement. But he hadn’t expected Wu Jie to stay in the same place during that brief moment after losing his bearings.

Ling Yu had been planning to head toward where Wu Jie had been standing before and find him as quickly as possible within the blizzard he created. But now, it had practically fallen into his lap.

Looking at Wu Jie’s eyes, Ling Yu could tell the man had been hit hard by the shock of losing. Wu Jie’s mind seemed blank, and soon he slumped weakly onto the ground.

He replayed the battle in his mind. He couldn’t help sighing at the fact that he had completely failed to predict Ling Yu’s actions.

Ling Yu had never advanced. Instead, he chose to stay where he was and keep shattering “snowmen,” creating enough snowflakes until they filled the sky and blocked his own vision.

At that point, Wu Jie had already completely lost sight of Ling Yu. Using the snow as cover, Ling Yu unleashed Fist-to-Sword Earthshatter Punch while Wu Jie was totally unprepared.

He used that powerful sword technique to destroy all the “snowmen,” and at the same time created a “snow curtain” as cover to approach him.

As a teacher, he should’ve been able to tell at a glance what the other side was trying to do. And yet, during the fight, he hadn’t noticed it at all.

“I lost. I actually… I actually…” Wu Jie fiercely grabbed a handful of snow from the ground and clenched it tight in his palm.

I actually focused only on defeating him, and ignored something so obvious…

Wu Jie smacked his forehead in frustration. He regretted that he had been so fixated on beating Ling Yu that not only had he failed to see through his plan, he had even kept summoning more “snowmen” and handed Ling Yu the perfect opportunity.

“Priests aren’t the lowliest among Arcanist Warriors! No—you people don’t understand! None of you understand how hard we priests work!”

Priests, by nature, weren’t good at offensive spells. That was why they had branched off from mages, focusing only on mastering healing and support magic to a level even stronger than ordinary mages.

That was why every priest worked incredibly hard.

But how many people ever understood the pain behind a priest’s efforts?

“Get up.” Ling Yu reached out a hand to him. “Priests may be humble, but… as a teacher, you should understand the barrel principle, right?”

At those words, Wu Jie’s eyes suddenly lit up.

“How much water a barrel can hold doesn’t depend on its tallest plank. What matters more is the shortest one.”

“As a priest, what you become is a crucial support point for the whole team. So many Arcanist Warriors who died in battle—how many of them didn’t achieve victory and glory with a priest’s help?”

“No matter how humble the role may seem, priests are still the most indispensable class among Arcanist Warriors. It’s precisely because they exist that humanity has won so many battles against the demon race.”

Wu Jie’s brightened gaze slowly shifted toward Ling Yu as he listened. Staring at him, he found that another figure in his memory unexpectedly overlapped with Ling Yu.

“Teacher…”

Wu Jie gradually recovered from his daze and disappointment, and a smile slowly returned to his face. Looking at Ling Yu, it was as if he saw the priest teacher who had once guided him.

Back then, when he had been at his most disappointed in the priest class and was ready to give up, that teacher had also reached out a hand and explained the importance of priests to him.

Many of those words were strikingly similar to what Ling Yu had just said.

“I see… After all these years, I actually forgot something this important. I really did lose my head for a moment. Heh…”

Wu Jie pulled himself together. He grabbed Ling Yu’s hand, then let Ling Yu help pull him up from the ground.

After standing up, Wu Jie patted the snow off his body, then turned and started to leave.

Seeing him go, Ling Yu quickly chased after him a few steps and asked, “Teacher Wu, um, look—I already held back, so does that mean…”

“Thank you.”

“?”

After thanking him, Wu Jie continued, “If it weren’t for you, I might’ve completely forgotten such an important truth. I really am an unqualified teacher.”

Then he said the words Ling Yu most wanted to hear.

“Tomorrow, for the trial between you and me, you can pass directly.”

“Yes! Awesome!” Ling Yu was so happy he almost jumped.

“Can I ask you a question?” Wu Jie asked.

“What question, Teacher Wu? If I know it, I can tell you,” Ling Yu said confidently.

“The sword art you used just now—Fist-to-Blade Technique—what exactly is it?”

“Huh? Uh, well…” Ling Yu suddenly turned awkward, his mind going blank.

Ahhh! Why the hell did I shout the name of that move out loud? Am I an idiot? Damn it!

“Forget it. If you don’t want to answer, that’s fine. I won’t press further.” As Wu Jie was leaving, he added one last thing. “Student Ling Yu, if Huangfeng Academy can gain a student like you, it will surely go down in history.”

“However, in your next trial, your opponent will be a mage—Teacher Mo Feng, who commands earth-element magic!”

“What?! It’s really him?!” The moment Ling Yu heard the name Mo Feng, his jaw nearly dropped.

“Oh? You know him?” Wu Jie asked in confusion.

“No, no, no! I don’t know that stingy jerk!”