When the students of the Tianxing Advanced Soul Master Academy saw that the Sun Moon Imperial Soul Engineering Academy had fielded such a young lineup, everyone froze in unison. Was this Sun Moon Imperial Soul Engineering Academy, famously known as the perennial runner-up, truly this arrogant? Even Shrek had fielded two regular team members to anchor their lineup, yet they had gone ahead and sent out a team consisting entirely of reserves who were exceptionally young.
Four Soul Elders and three Great Soul Masters.
Although one of them possessed a thousand-year ring as their second soul ring, they were up against four Soul Ancestors and three Soul Elders. That was a gap of a whole soul ring rank. Did they not fear being eliminated?
The same question arose in the minds of everyone spectating the match, which included all the competing academies. Even the regular members of the Sun Moon Imperial Soul Engineering Academy were utterly dumbfounded.
Ma Rulong, the captain of the Sun Moon regular team, frowned and said, "Feng Piaoling, although the director mentioned that all matches prior to the finals would be handled by your reserve team, letting these seven take the stage is being a bit too overconfident, isn't it?"
Feng Piaoling smiled faintly. "I believe in my brothers."
"You..." Just as Ma Rulong was about to lose his temper, Teacher Ma stopped him with a sharp look. He had personally witnessed the strength of the members of the Hall of Souls; otherwise, even with the director's orders, he would never have allowed Feng Piaoling to act so boldly.
A match was a match, and regardless of how many people harbored doubts, the competition had to proceed.
"Let the match begin!"
As soon as the referee gave the command, the seven members of the Hall of Souls focused their energy into their eyes, activating the Heaven-Reaching Demon Eye. Executing the Shadow Clone movement technique and accelerated by Class 5 Cloud-Treading Boots, they vanished from their positions like ghosts.
The seven individuals had clear targets: Soul Elders against Soul Ancestors, and Great Soul Masters against Soul Elders. By the time they reappeared, they were already standing directly in front of their respective opponents.
The first soul ring on Nanmen Yun'er's body lit up. Boosted by Class 5 soul tool gauntlets, her Jasper Blades extended into three-foot-long jade-green blades of light. She slashed toward the captain of the Tianxing Advanced Soul Master Academy—a Soul Ancestor whose strength exceeded Level 45.
This Soul Ancestor did not even have time to unleash a soul skill before letting out a miserable shriek. Striked squarely in a weak point of his soul power by the jade-green blade of light, his protective soul tool shattered, and his body was sent flying backward, slamming heavily into the barrier formed by the one hundred and eight soul tool pillars surrounding the tournament stage.
Cui Yajie's opponent was a Level 43 Defense System Soul Ancestor with the Ironclad Rhinoceros martial soul. The first and second soul rings on his body lit up. However, under the combination of her Heaven-Reaching Demon Eyes and her first soul skill, the Level 43 Defense System Soul Ancestor's eyes instantly went vacant, rendering him unable to gather his soul power immediately. He was then struck precisely in a defensive blind spot by Cui Yajie's second soul skill, Fox Needles, collapsing straight to the ground like a deflated balloon.
The opponents facing Lan Susu and Lan Luolo were a pair of twins just like them, possessing the Earth Demon Bear martial soul. The second soul rings of the sisters lit up, and countless sharp hair needles similarly struck their opponents' soul power weak points with absolute precision.
The battles for Zhu Lu, Huang Chutian, and Wang Gang were even more straightforward.
The first soul rings on their bodies flashed. Zhu Lu unleashed a Hell Thrust. Her hand, equipped with Class 5 soul tool claw-gloves, bypassed any vital organs but struck directly at her opponent's chest from behind.
Huang Chutian, wearing Class 5 soul tool boxing gloves, delivered a Mighty Vajra Punch straight to his opponent's jaw. With a sharp crack accompanied by the sound of a fracturing mandible, his opponent was sent soaring through the air.
As for Wang Gang, after donning his Class 5 soul tool claw-gloves, his first soul skill, Tiger Claw, gained the ability to hurl flying claw-crests. The three-foot-long energy claws instantly tore through the defenses of the final Soul Elder.
In the blink of an eye, the only people left standing on the tournament stage were the seven members of the Hall of Souls.
Silence. The entire venue fell into a deathly hush once again.
If the Shrek Academy lineup had previously delivered disgust and shock to the spectators through that sickeningly frustrating martial soul fusion skill, then the seven members of the Hall of Souls had delivered sheer terror.
One had to realize that the seven members of the Tianxing Academy hadn't been paralyzed by fear; their minds had been completely sharp and clear. Yet, even in such a state, they were instantly taken down by the Hall of Souls members who had closed the distance abruptly, before they could even unleash a single soul skill. Perhaps until the very moment they lost the match, they failed to see clearly how the seven members of the Hall of Souls had approached them or how they had released their soul skills.
Without a doubt, this was an overwhelming victory.
Looking at the seven members of the Hall of Souls standing on the tournament stage like war gods incarnate, the expressions on the faces of the Shrek group turned incredibly grim. Though they were loath to admit it internally, at this very moment, the Sun Moon Imperial Soul Engineering Academy had completely stolen Shrek's thunder.
"Your Majesty, if I am not mistaken, the boots those little fellows are wearing are all soul tools, correct? When did the Sun Moon Empire develop soul tools so perfectly suited for battle soul masters?" the Empress of the Star Luo Empire asked in astonishment.
Xu Jiawei replied with equal shock, "It is not just the boots; there are also the gloves, boxing gloves, and claw-gloves. If you look closely, almost every member of the Sun Moon Imperial Soul Engineering Academy's reserve team is wearing the exact same model of soul tool boots, while the regular team members are not. I am afraid this was not developed by the Sun Moon Empire at all. Rather, it is..."
Xu Jiawei did not finish his sentence, but both his gaze and the Empress's fell upon Feng Piaoling. A twelve-year-old Class 5 Soul Engineer? Truly terrifying. If the higher-ups of Shrek ever found out they had driven such a genius out of the academy, they would likely be beside themselves with rage.
Before the first wave of shock could settle, another arose.
After defeating Tianxing Academy, the seven members of the Hall of Souls on stage did not hurry to step down. Instead, after exchanging a glance with Feng Piaoling and receiving a slight nod of approval from him, they faced the crowded Star Luo Plaza to the south and shouted in unison, "Please remember, we are from the Hall of Souls!"
This was also a declaration of their sect, but compared to Huo Yuhao's hollow bravado earlier, the words of the seven Hall of Souls members were undeniably far more convincing. One Hall of Souls, one Tang Sect. For a moment, the crowd could not help but begin comparing the two sects.
Meanwhile, the high nobility led by the Emperor of the Star Luo Empire caught the underlying implication within the words of the Hall of Souls members. They claimed they were from the Hall of Souls, rather than from the Sun Moon Imperial Soul Engineering Academy. From the looks of it, these individuals had not pledged allegiance to the Sun Moon Empire; instead, they had joined the Sun Moon Imperial Soul Engineering Academy to participate in the tournament solely to exact revenge upon Shrek Academy.
Such an outcome was undoubtedly what they wished to see.
Although Shrek had made monumental contributions to the three empires of Douluo in resisting the Sun Moon Empire, they had also monopolized the vast majority of resources within the soul master world because of it, becoming more powerful than any individual nation. This resulted in quite a few factions present harboring deep wariness toward Shrek Academy. If someone could step forward to rival Shrek Academy on equal footing, they would certainly be delighted to witness it.
Of course, all of this would still depend on whether the Hall of Souls could defeat Shrek in this Soul Duel Tournament.
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