Douluo Dalu II: The Peerless Tang Sect

Chapter 204 Dream of the Mortal World: How can a clumsy imitator be worthy of being called a noble Soul Master?

"They're nothing but a bunch of clumsy imitators, how could they possibly understand the essence of the Soul Guidance System?" Meng Hongchen said disdainfully upon hearing Ma Rulong's words. "However, Jiang Nannan is indeed a formidable opponent, someone we need to take seriously, right, brother?"

Xiao Hongchen's expression was grave. He said, "Although Soul Masters are at a disadvantage against Agility-type Soul Masters, the essence of the 'Turret Tactics' lies in using dense ammunition to create area-of-effect bombardment. In this way, Agility-type Soul Masters don't necessarily have an advantage. However, this strategy is only effective against ordinary Agility-type Soul Masters. That Jiang Nannan, if I'm not mistaken, her fourth Soul Skill is a movement Soul Skill. Movement—that's the fatal flaw of the 'Turret Tactics'!"

"Ha! Xiao Hongchen, you actually said something like that. Looks like you're not such an arrogant and ignorant young master after all!" one of the regular team members teased.

"What did you say?" Upon hearing this, Xiao Hongchen's expression immediately changed. He stared coldly at the student and said, "Who do you think you are? How dare you speak ill of me?"

"I..." The student felt flustered under Xiao Hongchen's cold gaze, and involuntarily took a few steps back, his face pale. He wanted to say something, but didn't know what to say.

"Enough, Xiao Hongchen, it's none of your business to lecture my team members!" Ma Rulong stood in front of the student, somewhat annoyed, and said.

"Hmph!" Xiao Hongchen snorted coldly and said nothing more.

On the other side, Jiang Nannan stepped off the stage and was immediately greeted by the crowd.

"Valkyrie, please sign your name for me!" Tang Ya said with a grin as she approached Jiang Nannan.

"Okay, I'll sign it on your forehead. It's a waste not to sign it since your forehead is so shiny." Jiang Nannan said with a smile, pointing her finger at Tang Ya's forehead as she listened to Tang Ya's teasing.

"Uh! I'd better not!" Tang Ya immediately raised her hand to protect her head, took a few steps back, and said with an embarrassed smile.

"Nannan, well done!" Zhu Ziyang said with a smile.

"That's right, the battle was clean and efficient. No wonder you're Elder Song's personal disciple!" Wang Yan exclaimed. "However, Nan Nan, you revealed too many of your abilities. You'll probably be targeted from now on!"

"Hehe! It's alright, I still have my most important trump card to play!" Jiang Nannan said with a grin, completely unconcerned. The true effect of her third soul skill hadn't been revealed, so no one knew.

"What's next?" Ma Xiaotao asked. "Should we go back to the hotel, or stay and watch the game?"

"This one?" Wang Yan looked troubled and hesitated.

"In my opinion, we should stay," Zhu Ziyang suggested. "What Teacher Wang Yan is worried about is that knowing the strength of the opponents beforehand will affect the mentality of the preliminary team members, but I think it's unnecessary. If the mental state of the preliminary team members is so poor, then they wouldn't have been selected in the first place, am I right, Beibei, Yuhao?"

"Ziyang is right!" Beibei nodded and said, "No matter how powerful the enemy is, I will crush them with my own fists!"

"Teacher Wang Yan, have you forgotten how Wang Dong, Xiao Xiao, and I won the freshman competition?" Huo Yuhao said.

"Yes, it seems I was being too attached to appearances. In that case, let's stay and watch the match," Wang Yan said with a smile, relieved. "It'll also give you a heads-up about our next opponent."

With the plan set, the Shrek Academy team sat in the luxurious lounge area, waiting for the second match to begin.

The overall arrangement for the round-robin tournament is that four groups will compete each day, with each group playing four matches. Odd-numbered matches will be played in the morning, and even-numbered matches in the afternoon. This will complete the first round of the round-robin tournament in two days. Based on the number of teams in each group, the round-robin tournament will consist of seven rounds, so the second stage will last at least fourteen days.

Shrek Academy's second match is the day after tomorrow, but that doesn't stop them from staying to watch the game.

The second match of the first group started quickly, with the two sides being Zhengtian Academy of the Heavenly Soul Empire and Qianling Academy of the Douling Empire. Both academies are traditional soul master academies and will also be Shrek Academy's opponents in the next two matches. Among them, Zhengtian Academy is the one that Zhu Ziyang and others should pay attention to.

This is a long-established powerhouse team, and one of the top eight teams in the previous competition. The team boasts three Soul Kings, and the other four members are all Soul Masters. Wang Yan's tone was particularly solemn when he introduced them. If all seven members of the main team were present, he naturally wouldn't take Zheng Tian Academy seriously. But right now, they only have three main team members. If Gongyang Mo and Ling Luochen haven't arrived in five days, Wang Yan will truly be in a real bind.

The individual elimination tournament is underway on the stage. That's right, this match was also an individual event, and the audience was absolutely thrilled.

The first contestant sent by Qianling Academy was their captain, Shen Ce, a Soul King with the Thousand Strike Spear Martial Soul, and the absolute core of the Qianling Academy team.

The contestant sent by Zheng Tian Academy was a woman named Yu Mengdi. Her martial soul surprised the Shrek Academy members: the Angel Martial Soul!

The connection between the Angelic Martial Soul and Shrek Academy is long-standing. The members of the preliminary team may not know this, but Zhu Ziyang, Ma Xiaotao, Wang Yan, Bei Bei, and Tang Ya Ke are all very familiar with that history. Therefore, their eyes fell on Yu Mengdi without prior arrangement.

Zhu Ziyang narrowed his eyes slightly as he sized up Yu Mengdi. This Yu Mengdi might be a descendant of the Qian family, but she could also be from another angel family. After all, while families with angelic martial souls are rare on the continent, they do exist.

For some reason, Zhu Ziyang suddenly remembered the grandmother and granddaughter he had met in Tianhui Grand Canyon a few years ago. They were clearly more like descendants of the Qian family than Yu Mengdi.

On the arena, the battle between Yu Mengdi and Shen Ce had begun. Although both were Soul Kings, Yu Mengdi, who possessed a ten-thousand-year Soul Ring, was clearly superior. Moreover, one had the top-tier Martial Soul Angel, while the other had the Thousand-Strike Spear, which could barely be considered a top-tier Martial Soul. The difference in their abilities was immediately apparent.

Although Shen Ce tried his best to fight against Yu Mengdi, the overwhelming pressure of the Angelic Martial Soul forced him to retreat steadily, and he simply couldn't withstand it. In the end, after about five minutes of stalemate, Shen Ce was defeated in frustration, while Yu Mengdi remained in good condition.

Shen Ce, the strongest player and captain, has already been defeated, making the outcome of the match quite clear. However, Qianling Academy has no intention of conceding defeat; not every academy can be as composed as Yunluo Academy. Besides, Yunluo Academy is conceding to Shrek Academy, so no one will gossip.

Next, Qianling Academy surprisingly sent out four defensive-type Soul Masters in a row, all of whom possessed the same Martial Soul, the Spirit Rhinoceros Shield. Relying on the advantage of defensive-type Soul Masters' high defense and high health, they finally exhausted Yu Mengdi's Soul Power and won a victory shortly after the fifth student entered the arena.

However, the second contestant sent by Zhengtian Academy was also a Soul King, and a powerful attack-type Soul King with ranged attack capabilities: Tang Xiaolei, whose martial soul was the Purple Flower Bow.

The Purple Blossom Bow spirit reminded Zhu Ziyang of Senior Luo Wei from the Inner Court. Luo Wei's Heavenly Feather Bow was quite similar to Tang Xiaolei's Purple Blossom Bow, but the Heavenly Feather Bow was of superior quality. The Purple Blossom Bow, on the other hand, had a fatal flaw: it used spirit rings as arrows. It could shoot as many arrows as it had spirit rings. Although it was very powerful, once the spirit rings were used up and the opponent could not be defeated, then the opponent would only be left to die.

Therefore, after defeating the last Spirit Shield Soul Master with two arrows and then defeating a Control-type Soul Master with three arrows, Tang Xiaolei chose to leave the scene.

The last contestant from Qianling Academy was a girl with the Fiery Tiger Martial Soul and the Soul Master cultivation level. Her opponent was Ye Wuqing, the captain of Zhengtian Academy and a level 58 Soul King. The result was easy to see: Ye Wuqing won easily.

In the second match, Zhengtian Academy won, making them the team with the best chance of securing the second qualifying spot in the first group.

With the second match over, the Shrek Academy students lost interest in staying to watch the game. Of the eight teams in the first group, only Thousand Spirits Academy and Zheng Tian Academy had Soul Kings who deserved some attention. The other five teams were at the level of Yunluo Academy and were not worth watching.

Shrek Academy's departure immediately attracted the attention of Sun Moon Academy, and their gazes turned towards them. Xiao Hongchen's eyes never left Huo Yuhao; his curiosity about Huo Yuhao grew stronger, his suspicions only increasing. Unfortunately, their intelligence gathering was too slow; they hadn't obtained any information about Huo Yuhao other than his name and age.

To be precise, apart from Jiang Nannan who had already played, all the other members of the Shrek Academy team were known by name and age, and nothing else.

It must be said that Shrek Academy's anti-espionage work is quite effective, at least in terms of defending against the Sun Moon Empire.

"Zitong, let's go too!" After seeing the Shrek Academy members leave, Emperor Xu Jiawei of the Star Luo Empire turned around, took the Empress's hand, and left the imperial city tower.

(End of this chapter)