Ma Xiaotao turned to her friends and asked, "Anyone wanna take a bet on how long little Xu would win this match? The winner gets... hm, how about the losers' help when they hunt for the winner or winners next soul ring?"
They exchanged a look with each other and Ling Luochen was the first to say, "Five minutes."
"Three minutes." Wang Dong'er said.
"...One minute." Bei Bei said after a moment.
The others began adding their own predictions. And it went like this: Ling Luochen and Xi Xi were both on five minutes; Wang Dong'er, Xiao Xiao, Wu Feng and Ning Tian were on three minutes, while Bei Bei, Tang Ya, Jiang Nannan, He Caitou and Ma Xiaotao were on one minute.
Ma Xiaotao turned towards Huo Yuhao and asked. "Yuhao, what's your bet on?"
Huo Yuhao leaned back slightly, his eyes twinkling with a knowing look. "I'll go with... ten seconds."
The group looked at him in surprise. "That's awfully bold," Tang Ya said, raising an eyebrow. "Do you really think Xu Sanshi will win that quickly?"
Huo Yuhao just shrugged, a confident smile on his lips. "You'll see. I have a feeling he'll wrap this up faster than anyone expects."
Ma Xiaotao chuckled, clearly intrigued by Huo Yuhao's confidence. "Alright, let's see if you're right. Ten seconds it is."
Xu Sanshi arrived in front of the platform and put a thin cigar in his mouth. Afterward, he used a small lighter-type soul tool to light the cigar and started to smoke, holding it crookedly in his mouth.
From his appearance, he didn't really seem like a good person.
Even the audience went into an uproar after seeing his behavior. Cloud Luo Academy was also angered. This guy was just too arrogant. He even pulled out a cigar just as the match was about to start. Was Shrek Academy so lax when it came to their students?
The referee also furrowed his brows. Nevertheless, he didn't take action. First, there wasn't a rule that forbade a student to smoke. Second, he didn't want to offend Shrek Academy.
"Begin!" The referee shouted as he retreated to the edge of the platform.
Cloud Luo Academy's Ma Yingjun gulped. When the referee gave the signal, his short and stout body quickly reacted. He lifted his arms, and three metal pipes as thick as thumbs came out of them. Two metal pipes as thick as his arms came out of each shoulder.
The wings on his back also quickly unfurled, and his two stout legs also produced six metal pipes. On his chest was a soul tool that resembled a heart-protective mirror. It was obviously a shield-type soul tool.
It wasn't an exaggeration to say that he was armed to the teeth right now.
Xu Sanshi huffed a puff of smoke as a somewhat unremarkable black tortoise shell appeared in his right hand. At the same time, four soul rings, two yellow and two purple, started to shine.
The spectators were quite disappointed. He had only four rings! Many of them were looking forward to seeing some hundred thousand year old soul rings.
Among the spectators, the ratio of soul masters was less than 1:1000! Most of them were only there for fun. Very few knew just how precious a hundred thousand year soul ring was.
The difference between Xu Sanshi's martial soul release and Huo Yuhao's incredible performance from yesterday was the same as heaven and earth. Therefore, it was no wonder that the spectators were disappointed.
However, at that moment, Xu Sanshi did something unexpected.
He started to run.
Was he running towards his opponent? No! It was the complete opposite, he turned around and started running toward the edge of the platform.
Everyone's eyes were wide with confusion and disbelief. Xu Sanshi, one of Shrek Academy's strongest, was running away? The spectacle was so unusual that the audience couldn't believe their eyes.
Even his own teammates stared at him with disbelief and concern.
No one knew what Xu Sanshi was thinking. Only his good friend Bei Bei, who quarreled with him every day, and Huo Yuhao who had an inkling of his abilities for a while now.
Bei Bei sighed and facepalmed, muttering, "Is he really gonna...? Of course he would."
As soon as he finished speaking, Xu Sanshi arrived at the edge of the platform and jumped!
It goes without saying, the audience immediately called out in alarm. Even the emperor of the Star Luo Empire was shocked.
According to the rules of the competition, if your feet were to land outside the platform, you would be disqualified!
Why is he doing this? Was this part of some sort of grand plan?! The audience watched in stunned silence as Xu Sanshi leaped off the platform.
The gasp that went through the crowd was almost audible. The disqualification rule was clear—anyone who stepped outside the platform would lose the match immediately.
Xu Sanshi smirked and the fourth soul ring on his body lit up.
The radiance of his purple thousand year soul ring covered the arena. The spectators were still calling out in alarm when a strange scene played out in front of their eyes.
Xu Sanshi's black tortoise shell emitted a pale purple radiance.
Soon after that, the one that was jumping outside the ring and was about to collide with the defensive barrier wasn't him anymore, but Ma Yingjun.
In other words, Xu Sanshi and Ma Yingjun had swapped places!
Ma Yingjun, who had been looking at Xu Sanshi jumping outside the platform with a stupid expression on his face, suddenly found himself in midair. He started to fall on the ground soon after, while Xu Sanshi was now standing in his previous position with a cheeky grin.
'Ah crap!' Ma Yingjun almost let out a pitiful scream, instead, he held it in and calmed himself.
He was still an elite student chosen by Cloud Luo Academy to participate in the tournament! He wasn't going down this easily!
Just as he was about to use his flying-type soul tool on his back to rise up into the air...
Xu Sanshi, who was still standing at his previous position, took the cigar out of his mouth and shouted, "Come forth, hundred thousand year soul ring!"
"GAAAAAH!"
Ma Yingjun was just too pitiful.
Just as he was about to activate his soul tool, he was scared to death by Xu Sanshi's sudden yell that he let out a horrified scream. He directly fell to the ground with a loud thud, his body hitting the defensive barrier with a jarring impact.
Ma Xiaotao, Ling Luochen, Xi Xi, Tang Ya and the rest watched in stunned silence. They looked at each other and said almost at the same time, "What just happened?"
When Ma Yingjun crashed to the ground, the spectators suddenly went very quiet. All of them had their mouths wide open. Even the Emperor was no exception.
Although Huo Yuhao had expected Xu Sanshi to use his fourth soul skill to win, he didn't expect it'd end up like this!
The referee was also at a loss. It had been less than three seconds since he had shouted "begin". And now, it was already over.
Xu Sanshi held the black tortoise shell in his right hand and used the left one to stuff the thin cigar back into his mouth. Afterward, he calmly said in a deep serious voice, "Next."
The purpose of this cool pose was to imitate Huo Yuhao, but the effect he obtained was completely different.
After that short time of silence, the audience went into an uproar once again.
"What? This is a win?!"
"What the fuck? I feel somehow cheated!"
"What's going on?! Isn't this supposed to be a match?!"
"What the hell happened?!"
'That's what I like to know as well,' The referee's face twitched but he could only say, "The winner of the first match of the 1v1 elimination phase is Shrek Academy!"
Xu Sanshi smiled and waved at the audience, "Thank you, thank you! Everybody, thank you for your wonderful support!"
Ma Yingjun climbed back with a look of confusion, "Eh? What just happened?"
Xu Sanshi smirked and spoke while still holding the cigar in his mouth, "Little brother, are you alright?"
Ma Yingjun subconsciously replied, "I feel pain everywhere after falling. How did I even end up here?"
"Didn't I say I would go easy on you?" Xu Sanshi said with a stern expression, "Therefore, I used the easiest way to make you fall from the platform. Anyway, no need to thank me. You can go now." With that, he waved his hand to Ma Yingjun.
"Oh, uh, alright?"
Ma Yingjun also unconsciously waved his hand and went toward his team's waiting area.
Standing beside the platform, Bei Bei explained what had happened to his teammates, "Sanshi's fourth soul skill is called Mysterious Underworld Replacement. With this skill, he can instantaneously swap positions with people in a certain range."
"This skill is quite good, and amongst defense-type soul masters, it can be considered almost godly."
Wang Dong'er tilted her head, "So, it's just like Yuhao's Absolute Domain skill of space manipulation?"
Huo Yuhao interjected and said, "Eh, not really. My Absolute Domain skill is space manipulation whereas Xu Sanshi's Mysterious Underworld Replacement is more about direct positional swapping. Brother Sanshi's skill is instantaneous and focused solely on swapping positions with a target, while Absolute Domain is complete spacial manipulation, meaning I can do what brother Sanshi can and more, but it has a smaller range."
Wang Dong'er blinked and said, "You can do more than just teleporting?"
"Of course!"
"Then why haven't we seen you do anything else?"
"Because it costs a lot of energy to do more. Until, I don't know, reach six rings I would show off more spatial abilities."
While the two were chatting, Bei Bei shook his head and sighed. "Also, the way Xu Sanshi uses his Mysterious Underworld Replacement leaves me speechless. I almost feel like crying."
Everyone was snickered and He Caitou said, "Brother Sanshi really is shameless."
The next match quickly came and this time, it was a slender young girl with a fierce scowl on her face.
Xu Sanshi's eyes lit up as he stared at the military-looking girl in front of him.
Chang Yue, who stood opposite him, was a 1.7 meter-tall lady who appeared to be about eighteen or nineteen years old. Even though she wasn't a peerless beauty, she still had an extremely slender figure; this was especially so for her long pair of legs, which stood out.
Her form-fitting robes further served to accentuate her exceptionally beautiful figure.
A pervert such as Xu Sanshi quickly observed the lady in front of him from the bottom upwards. Thus, the first thing he saw was her slender, round thighs. When his sight reached her perky chest, his pupils instantly widened.
He gulped, 'Dayum!'
Fortunately, he knew that Jiang Nannan was still looking at him. Thus, he forced his perverted gaze away from Chang Yue's chest and wipe any saliva on his mouth.
Chang Yue wasn't much older than Xu Sanshi, but she did have a boyfriend.
She had clearly seen Xu Sanshi's 'performance' just now, thus she immediately raised her eyebrows and asked, "What the hell are you looking at?"
Xu Sanshi almost subconsciously replied, "Steamed buns."
"You...!" Chang Yue immediately flew into a rage, then shot straight towards him.
Thus the match started.
Chang Yue had a pair of long blades sheathed on her back, which she proceeded to unsheathe the moment that her body shot forwards. As she held one blade in each hand, the two four foot-long blades immediately lit up with a brilliant white light. Afterwards, two three foot-long beams of sword-light shot straight towards Xu Sanshi.
Looking at the blades Xu Sanshi's opponents were using caused Huo Yuhao to thought about Frostbane and the first ever soul he had—White Tiger Dagger.
He should probably do something with the White Tiger Dagger.
At that moment, Chang Yue were pressing on Xu Sanshi with a flurry of attacks with her blades. Her soul rings were on full display right now as well, three yellow and one purple.
Furthermore, her martial soul was somewhat strange, as her head was the most affected by her martial soul; her originally golden hair had begun to turn gray, she'd grown much taller, and her muscles were now so big that they were bulging. Her eyes had also turned a crystalline yellow. Her lips were jutting out slightly, revealing what seemed to be canine teeth.
"Huh? So you were a bitch?" Xu Sanshi said in surprise.
"Raaaa!" Chang Yue's anger was palpable as she advanced on Xu Sanshi, her blade attacks fierce and swift. The atmosphere around them crackled with intensity as her soul rings flared to life.
But Xu Sanshi's use of the Black Tortoise Shield was extremely clever.
No matter what way she tried to attack him, he was always able to block it in time. More importantly, whenever she tried to attack him from another direction, the retreating Xu Sanshi would instead steady his footsteps, then retreat in another direction.
This way, Chang Yue subconsciously chose to attack him in a frontal manner.
Due to the over exhaustion of her soul power, Chang Yue's blades began to slow down.
At that moment, the corner of Xu Sanshi's mouth curled into a smile.
"Ah, ah... Big sis, you're so strong! C'mon, be more forceful! Hm. Yeah, yeah. I like a woman who can kill me~"
"Gaaaah! You perverted bastard!" Chang Yue's large eyes went round, then she fiercely inhaled a large mouthful of air. She forcefully gathered the soul power in her body, then re-intensified the power of the blades she was holding as she once again forced Xu Sanshi to retreat backwards.
Ten meters, nine meters, eight meters... five meters, three meters, one meter...
Finally, under Chang Yue's unrelenting assault, Xu Sanshi was finally forced to the edge of the stage. Currently, he would fall off if he took just a single step backwards.
'Yes! Just one more push!' She grinned and her last two soul rings simultaneously lit up, while her twin blades that had previously emitted white light now had a faint, green luster to them.
The strong soul power undulations they were emitting caused even the surrounding air to distort. Her blades then flashed forwards towards Xu Sanshi with an all-out attack.
'I've won!' When Chang Yue struck towards Xu Sanshi with her two swords, every single student from Cloud Luo Academy, including her, thought this exact phrase.
However, right when these thoughts of victory popped into their minds, their eyes snapped open.
Just before Chang Yue's blades struck Xu Sanshi's Black Tortoise Shield, Xu Sanshi's body suddenly flickered to the side. At the same time, he slanted the angle of his shield, which caused Chang Yue's twin blades to practically slide across the surface of his shield.
It was true that Xu Sanshi had been forced into the corner of the arena, but at the same time, Chang Yue herself had also been forced into that corner as well! When she felt her swords strike essentially thin air, the momentum carrying her immediately caused her to fly off the stage!
'Shit!' The moment that she passed Xu Sanshi, Chang Yue immediately came to her senses.
As she tried to save herself, Xu Sanshi nimbly turned the Black Tortoise Shield in his hand around, then lightly smacked the flat of it against Chang Yue's protruding buttocks.
A crisp 'pa' rang out, followed by a soft cry.
"Kyaaa!"
"...."
'He really is a bastard.' Huo Yuhao and the others had the most deadpanned expressions. Some of them, especially Bei Bei, covered their faces with their hand, feeling second hand embarrassment.
'You shameless tortoise!'
Jiang Nannan on the other hand, grabbed a banana and started snipping it in half.
Xu Sanshi felt a cold shiver run down his spine.
.....
AN: Welp, the poll has officially finished with "Dragons in the Future" the winner. That'll be the next special storyline after "Future Possibility".
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