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In the blink of an eye, the first round of preliminary elimination matches ended.
However, before the remaining winners entered the second round, there was one more event—a resurrection match.
That is, Shrek Academy, defeated by the Tian Dou Royal Academy in the first round, the Elephant Academy annihilated by the Star Luo Royal Academy, and the Star Crown Academy, which narrowly lost to the Martial Soul Hall Academy.
Teams defeated by the three finalists were to participate in the resurrection match to qualify for the second round.
Likewise, in the second round, teams defeated by those three finalists also had to participate in a resurrection match to advance to the third round.
Shrek Academy, Elephant Academy, Star Crown Academy.
Among these three academies, Shrek naturally left the worst impression on the audience, mainly because Oscar's martial soul and skills were too obscene.
Although battles between soul masters were not meant for highbrow audiences, they shouldn't be so vulgar, practically tearing off fig leaves and trampling them underfoot.
Everyone thought Shrek Academy would be the first to be eliminated.
For no other reason.
Because Shrek Academy didn't have any outstanding features.
Before the final resurrection match began, Yu Xiaogang also approached Bibi Dong, hoping she could change the corresponding rules.
"Why?" Bibi Dong looked at the man she once admired, her tone extremely calm, devoid of any emotion.
Sensing that distant attitude, Yu Xiaogang felt uneasy, but he still said, "This is unfair to Shrek, Elephant, and Star Crown academies."
Although Shrek's strength might not win them the championship, they shouldn't be eliminated in the first round.
However, Yu Xiaogang also understood that he couldn't only consider Shrek; he needed to take the other two academies into account as well.
"Why don't they send someone to propose changes? Or can you represent all three academies at once?" Bibi Dong questioned.
"Of course not," Yu Xiaogang sighed, "but for these three academies, it's unfair. Their strength shouldn't end in the first round."
"Is there a difference? When facing other strong teams, they'll still be eliminated," Bibi Dong insisted, "Besides, different arenas can showcase different people's performances. You don't necessarily have to rank high to demonstrate your strength and wisdom."
"They just had bad luck..." Yu Xiaogang trailed off, feeling somewhat helpless, but he still pressed on, "You always say luck is also a part of strength, don't you?"
For some reason, facing Yu Xiaogang's somewhat overbearing attitude, Bibi Dong compared him to Tang San, suddenly feeling that he wasn't that special after all. Was it because too much time had passed?
"And also, the rules of the competition were negotiated by me and the emperors of the two great empires. You only came to me alone; it's useless."
"I can chat with you this much only because of our past relationship."
"Let's go. If you really want to prove yourself, do it like Tang San. Review the information you once wrote down and try to summarize something useful. That's also a way to prove yourself."
Hearing the words "Tang San," Yu Xiaogang couldn't help but clench his fists—
It's him again!
That guy took everything from him!
After a moment of silence, Yu Xiaogang left without saying a word. Just before leaving, he casually said, "Bibi Dong, we may not meet again in the future, but I've loved you at least once."
With that, Yu Xiaogang strode out of the Pope's Hall, his departing figure exceptionally graceful.
Bibi Dong clenched the scepter in her hand, a surge of anger rising within her, not because of the words "we may not meet again," but because of "I've loved you at least once"—
This is the world of the strong!
The weak don't deserve to say such things!
Compared to the original story where Bibi Dong always had a lingering affection for Yu Xiaogang, the current Bibi Dong, having read many theories written by Tang San, couldn't help but draw comparisons with Yu Xiaogang.
In the past, she could still plead for Yu Xiaogang in her heart.
But now, Yu Xiaogang's attitude made her understand completely why the title of Master was a joke to him.
The weak could also have pride, but at least they needed the confidence to become strong.
Yu Xiaogang's ten theories were not confidence, just a joke...
Resurrection matches adopted a free-for-all format, meaning three teams competed simultaneously on one stage.
This was also to save time.
The victory condition was simple: either two sides surrendered, or all members of two sides lost their combat capabilities. It didn't differ much from the usual one-on-one team soul fights.
After the three teams entered the arena, Chrysanthemum Douluo began to draw the venue—
Ice and snow.
As the ice and snow arena rose, Tang San, among the spectators, finally understood how the ice and snow arena was created.
In the four corners of the arena were four icebergs, each containing cylindrical soul guides with numerous small holes on top, releasing white cold air.
The cold air emitted from the holes on the top of the ice pillars could merge with each other, forming an artificial cloud that could produce ice and snow, blowing cold winds.
"It seems I guessed right. Ice and snow arenas are indeed made with soul guides." Tang San looked at the four ice pillars, pondering, "And the emitted cold air can condense together, obviously similar to the circulation routes of soul power in soul rings."
"I must say, Tang Brother, the civilization development in the world you're in might have been more advanced long ago compared to the Continent of Douluo. Maybe it experienced some catastrophe and declined." Electrolux, through the soul guide that could release ice and snow, discerned something, "That thing is much more sophisticated than the soul guides you and Guangling researched, and the circulation routes of soul power are extremely complex."
"Who can say for sure about ancient matters?" Tang San's gaze was inexplicable. Then he asked Electrolux another question, "If gods need belief, Electrolux, do you think it's better for mortals to be ignorant or wise?"
"Obviously, ignorance." Electrolux blurted out, then paused, realizing, "So it's because of gods? After all, mortals' wisdom is not inferior to gods; the difference lies in power... Ignorance gives birth to faith."
"This is just a speculation; the specifics are yet to be known, and we shouldn't be too hasty in making judgments." Tang San changed the subject, looking towards the arena where the resurrection match had already begun.
Among the three teams, Elephant Academy was the most suited for the ice and snow terrain, as mammoths naturally lived in icy areas. The Diamond Mammoth, with its resistance to cold, was even better.
As for the other two teams, no one from Shrek Academy was accustomed to the cold climate, and even Zhu Zhuqing, upon learning that the competition ground was icy, put on an extra layer of thick cotton.
As a support-type, she needed to be prepared to heal her teammates at any time, and she couldn't afford to waste extra soul power resisting the frost; she needed to conserve it.
Similarly, on the side of the Star Crown Academy, there weren't many people who could withstand the cold, and they were all wearing thick clothes.
At Chrysanthemum Douluo's command, all three sides activated their martial souls.
The captain of the Elephant Academy, Hu Yanzhuo, didn't take the Shrek team seriously at all. He just instructed his three teammates to be vigilant against their sneak attacks while he led the remaining three to directly charge at the Star Crown Academy team.
After all, the performance of the Star Crown Academy was too dazzling. Xue Xing, after receiving the starlight from other teammates, reached the rank of Soul Saint and even possessed a domain-type skill. Even the fusion technique of the Spirit Hall team's Spirit Douluo level martial soul was difficult to integrate.
If it weren't for Xue Xing exhausting his soul power in the end, the Spirit Hall team would have been eliminated.
Therefore, Hu Yanzhuo's first target was Xu Xing.
After all, this guy wasn't strong on his own. Leading his three companions, he aimed to scatter their team, preventing them from using the Seven-in-One Martial Soul Fusion Technique.
The Star Crown Team indeed hesitated to engage in direct confrontation with the Elephant Academy. In terms of sheer strength, the members of the Star Crown Team all possess weapon martial souls, but their physical prowess is not as formidable as the muscle-bound men of the Elephant Team.
Moreover, the mammoth's charging speed is not slow. Consequently, in a 4 vs. 7 scenario, the Star Crown Team was quickly dispersed. Hu Yanzhuo, in particular, pressed Xu xing without paying attention to other attacks, relying on his Diamond Mammoth martial soul to resist and swiftly reach Xu xing's side.
A punch was thrown! Xu xing immediately bent over, his eyes bulging. As a disciple of the Star Crown Sect, he naturally had some martial arts skills, but compared to the thick-skinned and muscular Hu Yanzhuo, he was considerably weaker, and Hu Yanzhuo's soul power was higher. Strong physique, high soul power, and fast straight-line speed.
In addition, the icy terrain did not weaken the Diamond Mammoth martial soul. In terms of individual strength, Xu xing only had an advantage in agility over Hu Yanzhuo. However, wearing warm clothing reduced his agility, weakening this advantage.
After being hit by Hu Yanzhuo's punch, Xu xing was unable to retaliate.
"Hmph, I thought you were formidable, turns out you're just a wax candle in the wind, useless," Hu Yanzhuo taunted. "Forcing the Martial Soul Hall Team to that extent was their own fault, giving you time to use soul fusion skills, which I won't allow."
Grabbing Xu xing's hair, Hu Yanzhuo lifted him up with one hand and punched him in the abdomen with the other, then let go of his hair.
Immediately, Xu xing flew back more than thirty meters, incapacitated.
"Having a good martial soul is one thing, but it's just that, a good martial soul," Tang San silently shook his head. "His combat ability is too poor. Real battles aren't turn-based games of soul skills... Speaking of which, the Star Crown Sect focuses on attack assistance and control. Perhaps the sect doesn't have any particularly powerful attack-type self-created soul skills, which is in line with the current era's concept of prioritizing the main function of martial souls."
"However, even though the Star Crown Sect is defeated, the Elephant Sect may not necessarily qualify for 'resurrection'..."
This was because three of the Elephant Academy team members tasked with watching out for the Shrek Team had already been defeated. One of them was defeated by Dai Mubai, who was a Soul Ancestor with higher soul power. Even though the Diamond Mammoth had tough skin and thick flesh, there was still a gap in soul power between him and Dai Mubai.
However, Dai Mubai also felt somewhat breathless after breaking through his defense.
As for the remaining two, they were defeated by Mu Tian and Oscar together. Oscar was the main attacker, as he possessed the Eight Spider Spear and the poison of the Man-faced Demon Spider. While the Diamond Mammoth had strong vitality, its resistance to poison was not very high.
As for how the poison was administered?
As long as they touched the Eight Spider Spear, Oscar didn't need to deliberately control it; the venom of the Eight Spider Lances could infiltrate their skin.
Seeing this, Huo Yanzhuo disregarded the remaining Star Crown Team members and charged directly at the Shrek side, ignoring Ma Hongjun's Phoenix Fire Line and aiming directly at Oscar.
However, with the Eight Spider Spear, Oscar's agility far surpassed Xuxing's. He dodged Huo Yanzhuo's punch in an instant and quickly retreated. As he passed by Ma Hongjun, he even handed him a recovery sausage.
However, Ma Hongjun wasn't very interested at the moment—after experiencing being cocooned by Oscar's third soul skill, he felt that Oscar's first soul skill was quite ridiculous.
Although it wasn't much different from his usual antics...
In the end, Ma Hongjun still swallowed it down.
After all, the troublesome Star Crown Team had already lost momentum, so the next step was to deal with the Elephant Team.
These tough guys were extremely difficult to deal with.
Especially Hu Yanzhuo, even Dai Mubai might find it hard to handle him. To win, they could only rely on Oscar's poison.
"Roar!"
Under Mu Tian's control, the Moonlight charged towards Hu Yanzhuo and spewed flames at him.
Hu Yanzhuo chose to tough it out.
Boom! A punch landed on one of Haoyue's heads, while the other two heads began biting and gnawing at his shoulder.
"Argh! You jerk!"
Haoyue's teeth were extremely sharp, piercing through the Diamond Mammoth's defense and piercing his flesh. Hu Yanzhuo roared in pain and was about to raise his arms to grab Haoyue's neck.
However, at that moment, Oscar, with the speed of the Eight Spider Spear, came up behind Hu Yanzhuo. Two lances pierced his skin, injecting poison.
"Hmm? It's really tough, it only pierced the skin!" Oscar felt the shock transmitted through the Eight Spider Spear, amazed at Hu Yanzhuo's defense, but he immediately retreated.
Although it only pierced the skin and penetrated the muscles, the venom had entered. It was only a matter of time before Huo Yanzhuo fell.
However, in order to restrain Hu Yanzhuo's movements, Oscar used his third soul skill: "I've got a mushroom sausage!"
When not using the second soul skill, the third soul skill was to directly produce a "ZWB sausage," which was not as exaggerated in length as the one shown in the first match.
However—
Still unbearable to watch.
"Spray it!"
With the support of soul power, the sausage that was created began to expand, then jetted out clusters of white threads, resembling a spider's hunting method, securely binding Hu Yanzhuo.
Mu Tian controlled Moonlight to spew fire, while Ma Hongjun also seized the opportunity to use the Phoenix Fire Line against him.
Accompanied by the burning flames, Hu Yanzhuo felt the pain, and the threads from Oscar's third soul skill were also poisoned. In the flames, they turned into smoke, which Hu Yanzhuo inhaled, intensifying the outbreak of toxins in his body.
"Ah!" Hu Yanzhuo yelled and fell into the snow and ice.
However, the alternation between heat and cold made him even more dizzy.
"Captain!"
The remaining three members of the Elephant Team were shocked and wanted to check on him, but they were entangled by the six members of the Star Crown Team.
It wasn't that the Star Crown Team and the Shrek Team had any tacit understanding; rather, they both knew that with Xu xing incapacitated, the Elephant Team was the most troublesome and had to be dealt with first.
After dealing with Hu Yanzhuo, except for Ma Hongjun and Huang Yuan staying behind to protect Jing Zhu, the rest of the Shrek Team launched indiscriminate attacks on the remaining three members of the Elephant Team and the six members of the Star Crown Team.
"Fourth Soul Skill: White Tiger Meteor Shower!" Dai Mubai used his fourth soul skill to initiate long-range firepower, carpet bombing the nine individuals.
This move proved effective; the dense bombardment caused another member of the Elephant Team to drop out, while three members of the Star Crown Team either couldn't evade in time or were incapacitated by the shockwaves of the explosions.
After all, this was an icy terrain, with ice and snow.
The energy attacks from the White Tiger Meteor Shower could be avoided, but the secondary attacks caused by these attacks hitting the ice and snow—splintered ice spraying out—were not so easy to dodge (similar to a hand grenade, the main area of effect is not the explosion itself but the splintered fragments caused by the explosion).
At this moment, the entire Shrek Team was present, while the Elephant Armor Team and the Star Crown Team together only had four members.
Therefore, these four individuals joined forces and attacked Shrek together...
"The outcome is decided." Huo Wu knew that there was no suspense in this resurrection match; Shrek would "resurrect" and enter the second round of the preliminary elimination.
To be honest, Huo Wu found this resurrection match quite ridiculous.
The Star Crown Team was targeted by the Elephant Sect from the beginning, causing Xu xing to be unable to borrow his teammates' soul power to enhance himself, and he was the first to lose combat capability—his Star Crown martial soul should have undergone some kind of mutation, making it extremely powerful, but its actual combat ability was weak.
Without the seven-in-one martial soul fusion skill, the Star Crown Team had already lost the possibility of winning.
As for Shrek's victory, it was entirely due to Oscar; the Eight Spider Spear were too bizarre. Not only could they move flexibly with him, but they could also inject poison.
The Elephant Team had no means to counter the poison, so they were extremely passive.
Moreover, Shrek's coordination in the end, with Mu Tian restraining Hu Yanzhuo while Oscar launched a sneak attack, poisoned him, and bound him, followed by Ma Hongjun and Mu Tian using fire attacks together, was almost seamless, obviously discussed in advance.
Apart from this, Dai Mubai's move, the White Tiger Meteor Shower, caught both the Star Crown Team and the Elephant Team off guard, giving Shrek the opportunity to win.
"These people from Shrek cooperate quite well. As long as they don't encounter the Four Elemental Academies, the Canghui Academy, and the three main teams in the second round, they can basically advance to the third round." Yu Tianheng also began to analyze, then looked at Tang San, "After the first round ends, there will be a day of rest, and the competition will start tomorrow. What do you think, which team will we be matched against?"
"How would I know?" Tang San shrugged, indifferent. "Don't think of me as some kind of oracle; I don't have the power of foresight."
"However, the arrangement of the opposing teams is definitely not a completely fair and just draw."
Yu Tianheng nodded. "Makes sense. Backroom dealings are also to be expected; it's a common problem among major powers... But we are powerful, and no matter what kind of opponent we encounter, we can win!"
(End of this chapter)