Chapter 291: Inferno Prison!

Tony Clark walked along the high mountain paths of the inner campus, his steps slow and casual under the afternoon sun.

He had spent the entire morning mass-producing seventy-five high-tier Blazing Nova Talismans, and his body was feeling the absolute strain of the grueling process. His muscles were slightly stiff, and a faint layer of fatigue hung over his eyes, but his posture still maintained its signature, lazy confidence.

He was heading straight toward the grand palace of the Academy Grand Elder to report for his very first official disciple meeting.

The Grand Elder’s palace was an immense structure built from white spiritual jade, floating majestically over a sea of soft clouds. Tony walked through the towering entrance gates, where the Grand Elder was sitting quietly on a woven mat, a smoking incense burner releasing a calming fragrance.

The moment Tony stepped into the central hall, the Grand Elder’s wise, ancient eyes snapped open, instantly locking onto his direct disciple’s face.

The Grand Elder blinked in surprise, a shocked look appearing on his wrinkled features as his powerful perception scanned Tony’s physical condition. He could easily see the intense exhaustion hiding beneath his lazy exterior, his internal energy pathways temporarily drained of their usual vibrant force.

"What in the world have you been doing to yourself, Tony?" the Grand Elder asked, his deep voice filled with a mix of surprise and genuine concern.

"You just completed a massive, exhausting tournament yesterday, yet your meridians look as though you have been fighting a continuous battle all night long. Go back to your Cloud-Mist Pavilion and take an absolute rest for today! We will start your training from tomorrow morning."

Tony let out a soft, lazy chuckle and politely bowed his head, his dark eyes gleaming with an unyielding, villainous determination.

"I am sorry to disappoint you, Master, but a little bit of physical fatigue is nothing more than a passing breeze to my spirit. My enemies in this city are not resting, so I cannot afford to waste a single second sleeping in a comfortable room. Please give me your task for today; my mind is perfectly ready to learn."

A wide, highly proud smile spread across the Grand Elder’s face as he listened to the young man’s sharp, unbending words. He reached into his long embroidered sleeve and pulled out an ancient, dark-gold jade scroll that radiated a thick, thundering wave of pure fire-attribute laws.

"An extraordinarily magnificent drive for power, junior," the Grand Elder said encouragingly, placing the heavy scroll directly into Tony’s open hands.

"This is the Inferno Prison Arrow Spell Technique, a premier masterpiece of our institution that contains exactly seven separate stages of destruction. Your singular task for today is to thoroughly memorize the absolute contents and runic structures written inside this jade.

Do not attempt to force a breakthrough on your own, as the fire laws inside are far too volatile. Memorize it, keep good care of it, and I will personally help you master the first stage tomorrow morning."

Tony thanked his new master repeatedly, bowing low with a respectful touch of acting skills before turning on his heel to leave the floating palace. He returned to the Cloud-Mist Pavilion with steady steps, his hands tightly gripping the ancient scroll as his strategic mind rapidly calculated how to use this new weapon to completely shatter the plots of the Faith Family.

The dark hours of the midnight settled over the highest peaks of the academy, plunging the valley of the inner campus into a deep, heavy stillness.

Tony Clark sat cross-legged on the luxurious jade-carved bed inside his private chamber, his eyes closed as his Truth Eye easily absorbed and memorized every single complex runic line of the Inferno Prison technique.

Rustle. Rustle.

A sharp, almost imperceptible sound suddenly cut through the quiet night air outside his courtyard, followed by the faint fluctuation of lethal killing intent. Tony’s physical eyes snapped open in the darkness, a slow, ruthlessly brilliant grin curling the corners of his lips.

Through his supreme vision, he could clearly perceive six high-level, dark-armored hidden elders from the Faith Family crouching on the tiled roof of his pavilion, their weapons coated in silent poison as they prepared to execute a total, merciless assassination strike.

The bedroom windows violently shattered into a thousand tiny glass pieces as three assassins lunged inside like striking vipers, their daggers cutting through the air straight toward Tony’s chest.

But Tony didn’t even attempt to utilize his standard physical blocking. With a brief thought, he activated the newly synchronized second form of the Phantom Arrow Technique: Phantom Illusion, which he had successfully claimed from his previous system quest rewards.

His real physical body instantly dissolved into thin air, switching positions with a flawless, illusory shadow afterimage. The assassins’ daggers stabbed deeply into the empty air of the illusion, their eyes widening to the size of saucers in absolute, unadulterated shock as they realized their absolute strike had hit absolutely nothing.

Before they could even attempt to flash backward or sound an alarm, Tony materialized out of the shadows right at the rear flank of the room. He reached behind his back, his fingers tightly wrapping around the grip of the magnificent Void Dragon’s Shadow Bow, and drew the void-spider silk string back until it was completely taut.

He didn’t use a physical arrow; his peak Elder Disciple magus energy directly formed three glowing, invisible arrows of pure wind and shadow attribute on the string.

Thwack! Thwack! Thwack!

The bowstring snapped with a quiet, ghostly resonance, releasing three invisible shadow shots that sliced through the dark room with zero atmospheric resistance.

The three roof assassins didn’t even realize they were being targeted; the invisible arrows pierced cleanly through their shoulder joints, the absolute kinetic force violently throwing their bodies off the tiles and smashing them down onto the central courtyard floor, completely crippled and bleeding.

The remaining three hidden elders inside the room tried to execute a frantic, desperate retreat toward the doorway, but Tony’s eyes flashed with an unnatural, terrifyingly sharp brilliance. He had spent the last several hours perfectly memorizing the internal laws of the Grand Elder’s jade scroll, and his villainous ambition drove him to test the premier spell right now on these live targets.

He channeled the volatile fire-attribute energy from his spiritual sea directly into the dragon-bone frame of his bow, his posture turning entirely still as he executed the very first stage of the Inferno Prison Technique.

With a sudden, powerful release of the string, a massive, brilliant streak of pure gold solar fire violently erupted from his weapon, shooting straight into the center of the courtyard.

BOOM!

An absolute explosion of white-hot heat shattered the quiet midnight atmosphere of the inner peaks. The gold fire didn’t expand into a standard blast; it instantly twisted into a massive, towering, and inescapable ring of burning spiritual flames that completely trapped all six assassins inside an absolute prison of fire.

The intense heat waves were so incredibly thick that the stones beneath their boots began to turn into liquid lava, and the assassins could only scream in agonizing terror as the bright burning ring completely paralyzed their movements, preventing them from escaping or committing suicide.

The massive, world-shaking explosion violently rattled the entire inner campus, causing the protective spiritual arrays of the surrounding peaks to hum at maximum capacity. Within minutes, thousands of nearby disciples, elders, and guards woke up from their sleep, frantically running toward the source of the blazing light with weapons in their hands, believing a total enemy invasion had breached the academy gates.

The space directly above the Cloud-Mist Pavilion violently rippled, and the Academy Grand Elder personally materialized from the air, his gold-and-white robes fluttering as his profound cultivation pressure descended onto the courtyard.

He had rushed to the scene the moment his personal key array signaled a disturbance, fully expecting to see his new disciple being overwhelmed by an elite assassination force.

However, the exact moment the Grand Elder stepped into the middle of the gathering crowd and looked down at the courtyard, his entire ancient face completely froze in absolute, jaw-dropping shock.

He stood paralyzed in mid-air, his wise eyes widening to the size of saucers as he took in the surreal spectacle before him. His direct disciple, Tony Clark, was casually leaning his shoulder against a stone pillar with his standard, lazy posture perfectly intact, entirely unbothered by the chaos.

Meanwhile, six high-level hidden elders of the powerful Faith Family were weeping inside a perfect, bright burning fire ring of the Inferno Prison spell—a premier technique that Tony was supposed to have only started memorizing just a few-hours ago.