In the spectator's stand, a certain old man chewing on a chicken leg lazily stared at the team of youngsters.
Every single person who was watching the tournament from the spectator's stand was a teacher at Shrek Academy, yet nobody had even dared to approach this old man, much less question him.
Wang Yan respectfully walked over to the sloppily dressed old man and whispered, "Xuan Lao, you've come."
"Yeah, yeah." The old man simply snorted before he continued eating and drinking.
Wang Yan pointed towards the stage below and said, "The three youngsters that I talked about are over there. Yesterday..."
When he got to this point, Xuan Lao impatiently waved his fried chicken leg around and said, "Bah! Who do you think I am? Just stand back, I'll take a look for myself."
"Yes." Wang Yan stepped to the side, as he didn't dare to say anything else.
"Hmph." Xuan Lao turned to look down, his gaze analyzing the two teams that were about to fight each other. He especially gazed at the handsome young man with white tips to his hair.
It was Huo Yuhao, a person or recent interest in the inner circles of the academy.
On the surface, the boy looked quite dashing. With a cold expression, he exuded an air of confidence and composure. His silver-tipped hair added to his allure, making him stand out among the crowd. Xuan Lao couldn't help but feel intrigued by this young man.
He was even more interested in the young man when he noticed a obscure and strange energy surrounding him.
It took him a moment to realize what he was sensing and almost burst out laughing, settling only for a chuckle.
'This boy, with such an abnormal amount of spiritual power...how interesting.'
Huo Yuhao furrowed his brows, with his senses, he quickly sensed someone intently staring at him with interest.
At first he thought Wu Feng or Ning Tian came to see their fight and was staring at him, but he felt the overwhelming power in that person's gaze.
This was the first time he'd ever felt this much power from someone before, aside from Ancestor.
Curious, he raised his head and looked up at the wasted looking old man sitting on the railings of the spectator's stand.
"Huh?" He was stunned, who is that old man?
Xuan Lao, obviously noticed him looking, winked back at the stunned Huo Yuhao before closing his eyes and taking a swig on his gourd.
"Both sides, introduce yourselves. Prepare for the match to begin." The proctor said in a deep voice, and the two teams stepped forward to introduce themselves.
Huo Yuhao took off his gaze from the old man and finally analyzed his opponents.
Standing in front of him was a tall, fat boy. He was at least 1.7 meters tall, with a belly as wide as his height. His face was round and chubby, and his eyes were small and squinty. His entire demeanor gave off a lazy and carefree vibe.
On the other hand, the two people standing next to him seemed like sprouts in comparison to him. Not only were they shorter than him by a head, they were even slightly emaciated. The two of them seemed somewhat similar, as if they were brothers. However, they weren't twins.
The fatty was the first to introduce himself, saying, "I'm Xie Huanyue from Class 2."
"Class 2, Luo Tianlong."
"Class 2, Luo Tianba."
Huo Yuhao indifferently said, "Huo Yuhao, Class 1."
"Class 1, Wang Dong."
"Class 1, Xiao Xiao."
"Alright, the match begins!" The proctor exclaimed as he hurriedly went to the side.
"Yuhao?" Wang Dong looked on in confusion, as instead of their leader usually hiding behind them, he had instead took the initiative and stepped forward to their opponents with a composed expression.
Huo Yuhao's eyes gleamed with a cold glint as his Spiritual Sharing transmitted his words to his team,
'You two hold back the fatty for a bit, I'll deal with the brothers.'
His eyes flashed, opening his Sharingan, and his white soul ring lit up as he raised both his hands, clasped them together into a hand-seal, and his figure disappeared in a flash.
Before Xie Huanyue's team could react, Huo Yuhao arrived right before the brothers, who were hurriedly hiding behind the former's large body.
They had done some reconnaissance on the boy before, and although they were skeptical of it at first, since he only had a white soul ring, but anyone who reached this far wouldn't be anyone ordinary. So they were vigilant against him.
However, they didn't expect Huo Yuhao to have such lightning fast speed. Before they could even react, he had already reached them.
Huo Yuhao's hands, now glowing with a faint blue light, swiftly struck out towards Luo Tianlong and Luo Tianba's pressure points. His strikes were precise and deadly, aiming to immobilize his opponents instantly.
Luo Tianlong and Luo Tianba tried their best to evade his attacks and activate their martial souls, but they were no match for Huo Yuhao's speed. They felt a sudden numbness and loss of control in their bodies as Huo Yuhao's strikes landed on their pressure points.
'Weak, much weaker than I give them credit for their cultivation.' Huo Yuhao frowned in disappointment as he quickly kicked them off the stage.
In that instant, Xie Huanyue, who was still reeling from his shock at Huo Yuhao's disappearance, saw his teammates freeze in place and were quickly thrown out with a swift kick.
'Shit!'
His mind raced, trying to figure out what the boy did, but instinctively made the decision to get back from the boy by jumping up high in the air and finally use his martial soul, he curled his body to resemble a human meatball as three optimal soul rings appeared around his body.
Just as his first soul ring lit up however, a huge and dark object hit him straight at him, he violently smashed into the ground, embedding his entire body into a hole he created from the impact.
Xiao Xiao smirked as she controlled her Threelives Soulcrush Cauldron to smash itself back at Xie Huanyue but the latter quickly activated both his first and second soul skills.
Xie Huanyue's martial soul is the Rubber Elephant, a beast soul type, as the name states, it gives the soul master the constitution of a human rubber with the strength of an elephant. His first soul skill is the Elephant Transformation; it expands his body, making him sturdier and larger. His second soul skill is Elephant's Nose; causes his arm to grow longer and wider, bolstering its strength along the process.
As the Threelives Soulcrush Cauldron collided with Xie Huanyue, it was met with a massive force. The rubber-like fist of Xie Huanyue absorbed the impact, causing the cauldron to bounce off and fly backwards.
Xiao Xiao's eyes widened in surprise. She had not expected Xie Huanyue to do that! She quickly calmed down however and readjusted her martial soul in the air and split it into three smaller versions of it back towards the latter, surrounding him.
"Screw off!" Xie Huanyue roared, extending his right arm out, it inflated into a comical size, before swatting the three cauldrons away.
Just as he done that however, he felt undulations of soul power from above him and he looked up to see Wang Dong in the air, his beautiful pairs of butterfly wings spread out, the lower right part of his Radiant Butterfly Goddess wing shone with a brilliant golden glow.
As a Soul Elder, Xie Huanyue wouldn't be easily harmed by Wang Dong's first soul skill but the latter had been accumulating the maximum soul power into the skill that even a Soul Ancestor would be severely injured by it.
'Crap!' Xie Huanyue's eyes widened, he felt a great sense of danger coming from it, and he quickly curled his body once more and hurriedly rolled to the side, dodging the attack on time.
But Xie Huanyue didn't have the time to get any reprieve as he was soon bombarded with three cauldrons from all sides and Wang Dong coming straight at him as his left upper wing glowed.
"You bastards!" Xie Huanyue let out a annoyed roar as after batting off a cauldron, his first soul ring lit, and he then launched himself at Wang Dong like some sort of cannon ball.
"Crap," Wang Dong's eyes widened, although he had foreseen the attack due to Huo Yuhao's Spiritual Detection, his body had reacted too slow. No, it was just that he gotten too close to Xie Huanyue.
In a split-second decision, he fired off his Guillotine Wing at Xie Huanyue before shielding himself completely with his wings, blocking the latter from reaching him. The Guillotine Wing sliced through the air with a sharp whistle, hitting straight at the latter but it only briefly halted him.
However, in that brief moment, something had whistled through the air and arrived before the human meatball.
*Boom!*
An explosion occurred that caused both Xie Huanyue and Wang Dong fly back, both figures thrown off balance by the impact.
Out of the two, Wang Dong seemed to be the most fortunate as after he was thrown back into the ground and sustained minor injuries.
Xie Huanyue however, coughed out a mouthful of blood as his body was violently smashed into the ground. He was the who took most of the blast at point blank, his innards had shifted and a few of his bones had been broken.
"Eh?" Xiao Xiao looked on, stunned, before turning towards her leader. "Huo Yuhao, you..."
Huo Yuhao indifferently stared at them, a kunai with a white tag on its back end that had a strange symbol written on it, in his right hand while his left was raised.
He had long since activated his Spiritual Detection Sharing skill and has been leading and instructing Wang Dong and Xiao Xiao to flank Xie Huanyue since the beginning.
'Incredible durability, strength and agility despite his size. Can a single kunai bomb be enough to cause some damage to him?' Huo Yuhao inwardly thought as he smirked.
'It is. Well, it is inscribed with a complete rank 3 soul array explosive. It's enough to blow up a normal Soul Elder, and as I calculated, Xie Huanyue's martial soul enhancements and soul skills mitigated most of the damage but it had left him severely injured.'
He had been taken under Fan Yu's wing after he had achieved 100 meters radius of his Spiritual Detection, that was two months ago.
In that amount of time, he had absorbed every knowledge of being Soul Engineer and Soul Tools Fan Yu imparted to him like a sponge; learning them in a day, achieving Rank 1 Soul Engineer in two days, becoming a Rank 2 Soul Engineer in four days, and Rank 3 in two weeks! He would've become a Rank 4 but was limited by his soul power.
He could have done all that in a day but he didn't want to further shock everyone in the Soul Engineering Institute to death!
After all, becoming a Rank 1 Soul Engineer would at least take a month, a few weeks if they were a genius, and a few months to become Rank 2.
But then, why would he ask Fang Yu to make some weight bracelets? Simple really, because this shit was much more complex and soul power consuming than it's looked to be believed!
From Huo Yuhao's own analysis and Fan Yu's words, it needed a Rank 6 Soul Engineer to create the thousands of soul arrays and a Soul Emperor's soul power to keep the numerous parts arrays together and to power it. Hence, the latter, a Soul Douluo, and his colleagues were the only ones who are capable of creating and recalibrating it.
Huo Yuhao had done the impossible and became a unprecedented genius of the century in Soul Engineering. Which is why he became the most important person in the entire institution! The Dean and Vice Dean had even met up with him and told him straight up that they would give him everything he wanted if he stayed as a disciple of their institution until his graduation.
That was way he didn't give a shit if the Martial Soul Institution would want to recruit him.
But then, why had he entered the competition? Wasn't it for further backing?
Yes. But he wasn't just satisfied with the Soul Engineering Institute, he wanted to be the most irreplaceable person in the academy that they would do almost everything for him! Even if they want to go to war with an empire!
But if they won't? Well, this was just one of many plans he had. Wasn't there two other empires? The Heaven Spirit Empire and the Dou Ling Empire?
While Huo Yuhao pondering about life, Xie Huanyue slowly stood up, holding his right arm, he glared at the former before yelling towards the proctor,
"Ref, isn't he using a Soul Tool?! That's cheating!"
The proctor frowned and said, "Yes, soul tools aren't allowed in this competition. However, hidden weapons are the sole exception. And from the looks of it, it's mostly a hidden weapon than a soul tool. Now, continue on!"
Xie Huanyue was agape, a popping vein appeared on his forehead.
He got infuriated by what the proctor had said, after all, this was the first time in his entire life that he had gotten this injured with his extremely durable body. Moreover, he was injured by an obsolete item like a hidden weapon!
"What the–?!" Lost in thought, Xie Huanyue couldn't react on time to a sudden pleasant and melodious sound that entered his ears. Unfortunately however, the moment he heard it, he felt his body becoming sluggish.
He turned his head to find Xiao Xiao, not with a big and a few small cauldrons, but a jade green bamboo flute with phoenix designs in her dainty hands and her small cute mouth blowing into it. This was her second martial soul, the Nine Phoenix Dancing Flute.
'Twin Martial Souls?!' Xie Huanyue widened his eyes.
"Where are you looking at?" Huo Yuhao's voice transmitted into his ears, surprising him further.
Because of that he couldn't react on time to a sudden wave of heat, he turned around to see a great wave of fiery flames, engulfing him entirely.
"Tsk, troublesome." Fortunately however, Xie Huanyue's defenses were tyrannical. After clicking his tongue, he stomped hard on the ground before launching himself into the air, like some fiery meatball.
If he were any other Soul Elder and didn't possess his Rubber Elephant Martial Soul, they would've been burnt severely and be defeated already.
But his Rubber Elephant's defense is among the top tier level defense type martial souls in tbe world, it's one of the reasons why he was a recommended student for the inner courtyard already. Because if you want to break that rubber ball-like defense of his, normal attacks definitely won't work. There are only two ways: a peak-level elemental attack, such as an extremely hot fire-type skill or an extremely cold ice-type skill, or an extremely sharp skill.
Even so, Huo Yuhao's Great Fireball Technique was fiercely strong. It had still left his entire body covered by mostly second degree burns.
"That wasn't enough huh," Huo Yuhao muttered as his hands went through the motions, his soul power surge with great heat, as he took in a deep breath before expelling a large fireball at his direction.
However, something was different about this one.
"Fire Release: Phoenix Sage Fire Technique!"
Xie Huanyue's and everyone else widened their eyes as the one big fireball suddenly burst into many smaller ones and wildly moved towards his direction.
"Hmph." He coldy snorted and wildly spun around, creating a tornado with his rubber-like body. The small fireballs collided with the tornado, creating a spectacle of flames and gusts of wind.
"...How the fuck does he do that?" Even Huo Yuhao couldn't help but be impressed by the fatty's spinning skills.
"Yuhao! Wang Dong!"
Huo Yuhao snapped his attention towards Xiao Xiao's direction, his eyes widened in horror.
Xiao Xiao was holding onto her Nine Phoenix Dancing Flute, her figure, frozen in place like a statue as only her eyes and lips could move. It obvious to see what was going on, as a purple halo surrounded her body, like some sort of restraining spell.
Although Xie Huanyue wanted to get a hold of Huo Yuhao, for some reason however, he couldn't get his third soul skill to activate on the latter. So he just settled for the one next to him instead, he would've gone after Wang Dong but that fellow was out of his range.
Huo Yuhao, with his Spiritual Detection, then saw Xie Huanyue moving with great speed and strength towards Xiao Xiao, his third and thousand year soul ring lit up, he was like a literal cannonball as he flew!
"Wang Dong!" Huo Yuhao called out as he went after Xie Huanyue.
"Got it!"
Wang Dong replied as he finally reappeared and flew towards Xie Huanyue, he got in front of him, his wings spread out, and finally activated his second Soul Skill: Light of the Butterfly Goddess.
"Sss–" Xie Huanyue hissed, as a strong, brilliant golden light engulfed his vision, making him momentarily blind.
That was enough time for Huo Yuhao to throw and attach numerous wire strings all over Xie Huanyue's body, then a familiar large black cauldron appeared over the latter's top before smashing him down to the ground.
Although she was greatly restrained, Xiao Xiao still manages to switch and use her main martial soul.
Huo Yuhao didn't hesitate to tighten the wire strings around Xie Huanyue and his hands once more blurred with numerous hand-seals, "Fire Release: Dragon Fire Technique!" before he inhaled and shot out a powerful wave of fire that completely engulfed Xie Huanyue once more.
"Aaaah!!" Xie Huanyue's thick body started moving around to escape, unfortunately however, the steel wire that Huo Yuhao used were made by a hard component that only someone with at least five rings could break it.
Even for Xie Huanyue's impressive thick bod, although his body could handle the flames, he still needed to breathe.
It didn't take long before the proctor decided to finally intervene and save Xie Huanyue, thus disqualifying him.
Expectedly, when Xie Huanyue was saved, he became unconscious and was given to awaiting medics.
After making sure the boy was alright, the proctor turned and announced,
"Teamm Huo Yuhao, are the winners of this match!"
....
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AN: I am completely exhausted right now. So if you notice any mistakes, I apologize, I'll edit it later on when I wake up after a deep sleep and feel great. Oh and btw, Happy Halloween! Well, in my time zone anyway but nonetheless!
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