It was the next day and the round-robin tournament was about to start.
The round-robin tournament today was only the first part of the tournament and four of the eight groups would make an appearance today. And all sixty-seven teams who qualified from the knockout round were sitting within the rest area with no exceptions.
They were here to spectate the tournament. More accurately, they wanted to once again experience the shock that occurred on the first day of the tournament.
They wanted to see the youth who came from Shrek Academy and witness his prowess once more.
When the dark-green clad team from Shrek appeared in the participants' entrance tunnel, the atmosphere of the entire Star Luo Plaza started boiling. Loud cheers for Shrek began ringing out from the areas closest to the entrance tunnel.
Huo Yuhao walked expressionlessly at the very front of the team, his blazer left unbuttoned and fluttered on his shoulders while leaving his white shirt that clearly showed his tone body to all.
The many ladies who saw him immediately began to fluster and screamed.
"Shrek! Shrek! Shrek! Shrek! Shrek!"
As they walked passed the other participants, Huo Yuhao smirked. A condescending glint appeared in his eyes, and he let out a cold breath, the frosty mist curling in the air.
His aura, laced with the chilling power of Ultimate Ice, was palpable, causing a noticeable drop in temperature around him, causing everyone, but him and his team, to uncontrollably shiver.
The other participants couldn't help but feel a mix of awe and intimidation as they watched him pass by. Whispers filled the air, all eyes were on them.
Since they wanted to keep assuming an air of power to terrify their opponents, they would naturally have to go all-out.
Ma Xiaotao, Ling Luochen, and Xi Xi stride behind him in a triangle formation with cool and confident demeanors, giving the other participants indifferent looks as they loyally followed Huo Yuhao.
Tang Ya, Bei Bei, Xu Sanshi and the others followed behind them acting either cold or arrogant. Xu Sanshi especially was acting with an exaggerated swagger, his broad shoulders and confident grin adding to the intimidating presence of the team.
They moved as one, a unified force that radiated of power and authority.
'....They're acting more like a gang than academy students.' Some of the spectators thought, their expressions a mix of admiration and apprehension.
The reputation of Shrek Academy's strength and dominance was well-known, and their entrance only reinforced it.
This was Shrek! Everyone stared at them in awe and fear.
At this moment, the host was already building up the tension in the arena. He first announced the names of the academies that had already passed through the first round of the tournament and then proceeded to introduce each team in more detail.
It was just as Wang Yan had predicted, the group that Shrek belonged to only had a total of eight participating teams. Shrek Academy was naturally the most popular team in the entire tournament, overshadowing any and all other teams in the same group.
After spouting a load of bullshit that stirred the emotions of the crowd, the announcer used his most impassioned voice to cry out, "Now, let us have the continent's number one academy, the representative team from Shrek Academy, in addition to their opponents, the representative team from the Star Luo Empire's Cloud Luo Soul Engineering Academy, enter the waiting area."
"May the leaders from both teams please step onto the stage to confirm the mode of battle!"
'Star Luo Empire's Soul Engineering Academy, huh... I wonder if they got any good soul tools?' Huo Yuhao absentmindedly thought, opening one eye.
Out of the four empires, the empire that has the strongest soul engineering academy is certainly the Sun Moon Empire.
However, the soul engineering academies of the other three empires don't lag behind by much...at least, they hoped so.
Even so, it wasn't bad to check things out with their inventory. Huo Yuhao's lips slightly curled into a faint, sly smile. His eyes momentarily flashed gold and red, but no one saw it.
He sat cross-legged on his bench with his chin resting on his hand, appearing completely relaxed and bored.
He wasn't even faking it, since he won't be able to participate for most of the matches in the competition. By his estimation, the Sun Moon Imperial Soul Engineering Academy would probably be the ones who could be his opponents since they might use top level soul tools that he never seen before.
"So, who wants to go in my stead?" Huo Yuhao asked.
"I'll do it, junior brother." Bei Bei said, stepping forward with a confident smile. "Let's show them what we're made of."
Huo Yuhao nodded, a faint smile playing on his lips. "Alright, senior brother. Give them a good show."
Bei Bei adjusted his robes and strode toward the stage, exuding a calm yet powerful presence. The spectators were initially confused, since it wasn't the mysterious youth that they had expected.
"Huh? What's going on? Why is that handsome guy going on stage and not the Ice King?"
"Yeah, it doesn't make any sense."
"Hm. Is it because the Ice King finds the Star Luo Empire's Cloud Luo Soul Engineering Academy unworthy, so he's sending out his other teammates out first to deal with them?"
"Judging by the look of his face, you might be right!"
"But who is this guy that the Ice King is sending out?"
The identities of the participants in the competition is mostly kept confidential and only those with high ranking status or connections would know the details. So almost all of the audience didn't know about the youth who brought such an overwhelming surprise to them in the first day of the competition.
So, they called him—Ice King, for his five-ringed cultivation and his powerful ice prowess with the terrifying skeleton that most of them thought of it as his martial soul.
Bei Bei strode confidently towards the stage. The leader of the Cloud Luo Advanced Soul Engineering Academy's team was a buff Adonis who was practically no different from He Caitou.
He had a head full of short, golden hair, and the outlines of his thick muscles could be seen below his white school uniform.
The two walked up to the stage together, both glaring at each other.
The lot-drawing process was very simple; the referee took a cylindrical lot-drawing tube and allowed the leaders of both teams to inspect it. The lot-drawing tube was transparent to prevent any possible cheating. One of the tube's sides had a small, round hole in it.
The referee took three small balls that represented the three modes of combat and shoved them into the small hole, then turned the entire thing upside down. After that, he allowed each one of them to hold a side of the large sphere.
The referee shouted, "Three, two, one.... begin!"
Bei Bei and the opposing team leader simultaneously exerted force, throwing the large sphere into the air.
If no small balls dropped out from the larger ball during this process, the referee would turn it over after catching it. The ball which dropped out then would be their mode of combat. If a small ball dropped out while the larger ball was in the air, that would represent their mode of combat.
This was the round-robin tournament's first lot-drawing, and it was extremely successful. When the two leaders threw the large ball twenty meters into the air, a small ball dropped out.
There were three small balls, each with their own distinctive color. They were red, yellow, and blue respectively.
Red represented the team fight, yellow represented the 1v1 fight, and blue represented the 2-2-3 fight. This time around, a small yellow ball dropped out of the large ball.
The referee caught the small ball as he retrieved the larger ball, which was falling back to the ground. After allowing both leaders to take a look at the smaller ball, he looked towards the Star Luo Emperor, who was seated at the top of the city walls. The latter gave a signal, and the announcer used the soul loudspeaker to make an announcement.
"Shrek Academy's fight against Cloud Luo Academy will be conducted via the 1v1 knockout mode! May both parties please send out a single member to take part in the competition."
1v1? The audience's eyes lit up. Every single member of the audience cast their gazes towards Huo Yuhao. They all hoped that Huo Yuhao would be the first person to come out and would complete a 1v7.
Wouldn't that be the most satisfying outcome they could watch!? Who wouldn't want to feel the excitement and thrill that came from the appearance of a hundred thousand year old soul ring?
Bei Bei hurriedly returned to the waiting area, then cast an inquisitive gaze towards Wang Yan. "Teacher Wang, I'll go."
Wang Yan shook his head. "No, we should have a certain amount of assurance in this match. This Cloud Luo Advanced Soul Engineering Academy comes from the Star Luo Empire, not the Sun Moon Empire."
"As a whole, I'm certain they won't be too strong. Furthermore, since they're soul engineers, I guarantee that they won't have any Soul King-ranked students. I'm suspecting that they won't even have too many Soul Ancestors."
"Assault-type soul masters will be put at a disadvantage against soul engineers, and we don't have any substitutes. Thus, we need to guarantee that none of you suffer any injuries. Otherwise, we run the risk of you not being able to recover during the one day of rest that we have."
"Then, who do you suggest?" Bei Bei asked.
"We need someone with the endurance and strength that can take them on. A defense-type soul master is most suited to restrain a soul engineer, especially a low-ranked one." He and some of the others turned their heads.
"Xu Sanshi, you're up for the first round."
Xu Sanshi blinked and then grinned.
He immediately stood up excitedly, rolling his shoulders, he flexed his muscles and he curled his lips to his teammates, "I got this," With that, he took large strides towards the stage.
Tang Ya snorted and turned towards Bei Bei, and said. "He's so full of himself."
Bei Bei shrugged, spreading his hands apart with a helpless smile. "He's just that thickheaded."
Jiang Nannan snorted and added, "More like shameless."
Xu Sanshi, who hadn't walked far, stumbled and nearly fell down, but he clenched his teeth and walked up to the stage.
The first student sent out by the Cloud Luo Academy wasn't tall, but his shoulders were very wide and he was somewhat fat. His nervousness was visible on his face as he faced the tall Xu Sanshi, beads of sweat could already be seen on his forehead.
Any academy would be nervous while facing Shrek Academy, this was to be expected.
At such a young age, Huo Yuhao had revealed such a prodigal amount of strength. Wouldn't the somewhat older person in front of him be stronger than his junior? This seemed especially true when he looked at Xu Sanshi's fierce appearance.
'M-Mommy!' He inwardly cried, if he was a lesser man he would've peed his pants on the spot.
Huo Yuhao not coming up to the stage had disappointed a large number of people. But this was still one of Shrek Academy's matches and they quickly got excited again, prepared and curious to see how strong Xu Sanshi, who was decent-looking in terms of power, was.
The referee called the two of them to him and said in a low voice, "The rules of the 1v1 knockout round state that the loser has to immediately step down from the stage, while the winner can choose to either continue fighting or switch out."
"Each party has seven people, and the competition will go on until all seven people from one side are defeated. Understand?"
"Yup." Xu Sanshi replied in a very straightforward manner. However, his opponent was stammering. "Un-understood."
The referee frowned and said, "Okay. Both parties, return to your sides. The match will begin with my call. You're not allowed to use stationary soul tools or any soul tools that have a high degree of killing power."
As he spoke, the referee began to step back. However, the student from the Cloud Luo Academy squeezed out a smile and said to Xu Sanshi, "I-I'm called Ma Yingjun1. Senior, please go easy on me."
Xu Sanshi slightly raised his eyebrows and smiled, "Are you as handsome as me?"
Ma Yingjun hurriedly shook his head. "No, no."
Satisfied, Xu Sanshi nodded. "Fine. I'll go a little easy on you."
"Oh!" Ma Yingjun retreated with a delighted expression on his face. It almost seemed as if he had received the biggest gift of his life.
...
AN: Special Chapter is coming up tomorrow. Don't forget, leave a comment, review, and power stones to help me for free. Get this story to 200 power stones milestone within 24 hours, I'll post an extra chapter. Also, August 3!
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