After the Empire Team entered the Heaven Dou Great Soul Arena, they were guided by staff members to the resting area for participating academies.
At this time, several other academies had already arrived. Although the Empire Team garnered some attention due to the handsome men and beautiful women in their ranks, their uniforms and academy badges were too unfamiliar. Since they clearly weren't one of the traditional powerhouses, their arrival did not cause much of a stir.
After Yun Ming led the Empire group to find seats, he began to close his eyes and rest, waiting for the opening ceremony of the competition to begin.
Before long, the representative team from Blue Tyrant Academy also arrived at the resting area. Tang San glanced at Yun Ming, but immediately looked away. Fearing that he might lash out if he stared too long, he found a seat far away from the Empire Team, lowered his head, and sat there sulking with his eyes closed.
As more teams arrived at the resting area, the entire venue became noisy and boisterous.
"Captain!"
Hearing this call from very close by, Yun Ming opened his eyes. Before him stood seven men in green robes and masks. Green robes were common, but to be masked so uniformly—across all the academies on the continent, only Shenfeng Team did that.
The one who spoke, the new captain of Shenfeng, felt his heart tighten when he saw Yun Ming looking at him. He hadn't forgotten the time Yun Ming descended like a god to take on five people at once! Furthermore, he had been one of the victims.
The new Shenfeng captain then greeted him with a hint of sycophancy.
"Greetings, Captain Yun!"
"Apologies for disturbing your rest. I just saw our former captain and couldn't help myself!"
Seeing that the other party seemed somewhat afraid of him, Yun Ming smiled and nodded, saying, "No matter, please carry on."
Seeing that Yun Ming didn't seem angry at being disturbed, the captain secretly breathed a sigh of relief.
At this moment, Feng Xiaotian saw the cowardly behavior of his former vice-captain and laughed as he spoke up.
"Lao Yan, it's fine."
"Our captain has a very good temper; you're too nervous."
Afterward, Feng Xiaotian went over to his old Shenfeng teammates to chat and exchange pleasantries.
The brief exchange between the new Shenfeng captain and Yun Ming was short in duration but heavy in content.
For the academy teams that didn't know about Feng Xiaotian or Yun Ming, seeing the captain of the Shenfeng representative team—the head of the famous Five Elemental Academies of Heaven Dou—be so respectful to Yun Ming left them shocked and curious about the background of the Empire group.
As for those who knew about the events from over a year ago involving Feng Xiaotian and Yun Ming, as well as the Empire Glory Plan, they wore expressions of "so it's them," mentally marking the Empire Team and Yun Ming as formidable rivals for this Soul Master Competition. After all, setting everything else aside, the combat power Yun Ming displayed a year ago combined with Feng Xiaotian was enough to make them a powerhouse, even if their teammates were only at the level of Soul Elder.
In particular, academies with broader connections that were well-informed about the events of a year ago and Feng Xiaotian viewed the Empire Team as their greatest threat—the other four Elemental Academies, for instance.
At this moment, Yu Tianxin of Thunder Academy and Hu Yanli of Elephant Armored Academy were curious about Feng Xiaotian's current strength, and even more curious about Yun Ming, who could suppress Feng Xiaotian. Yu Tianxin and Hu Yanli shared a silent understanding: Feng Xiaotian, Yun Ming, I hope you don't disappoint me!
Meanwhile, Shui Binger of Tianshui Academy, who had been personally invited by Yun Ming back then, was also staring at him.
Shui Yue'er, who was beautiful and charming, noticed her older sister staring at Yun Ming and teased her.
"Is he handsome?"
Shui Binger was deep in thought and didn't react immediately, subconsciously replying, "Handsome."
The moment the words left her lips, she realized something was wrong, but it was too late. Shui Yue'er and the other Tianshui members nearby had already heard her, and they all began to look at her with playful expressions.
Shui Yue'er spoke up even more boldly.
"As expected of my sister, we have the same taste in handsome men."
"Although I really like that handsome guy, if it's for you, sister, I can give him up."
"Go for it! Big sister, I support you!"
The other members of Tianshui couldn't hold back their laughter upon hearing Shui Yue'er's words. Shui Binger's face turned cold as she heard her younger sister teasing her like this; ignoring the girl's resistance, she forcefully suppressed her.
Aside from the suppressed Shui Yue'er, this little interlude had its beneficiaries, such as the students from other academies near Tianshui. When they saw the beauties of Tianshui laughing together, they felt as if they were in a blissful heaven, completely intoxicated.
Except for these three, Blazing Fire Academy hadn't arrived yet, so they had no part in the scene. Otherwise, that veteran "dog" Feng Xiaotian wouldn't have been able to sit still and would have gone over to fawn over them long ago.
With the new Shenfeng captain acting as the fuse, information about Yun Ming and the Empire Team was quickly passed from insiders to those in the dark. Everyone realized that a potential powerhouse had appeared in the Heaven Dou division this year, and they all increased their focus and vigilance toward the Empire Team.
Hearing the people around him discussing how great Yun Ming was and how impressive the Empire Team was, Tang San felt incredibly annoyed. Seeing Yun Ming become famous was even more painful to him than being humiliated. Tang San could only warn himself internally that the more famous Yun Ming became now, the more miserable he would fall once he brutally crushed him.
That's right; in Tang San's mind, he was stronger than Yun Ming. Although Yun Ming had injured him once in Heaven Dou, Tang San believed it was only an accident caused by Yun Ming's sneak attack and his own momentary lapse in judgment. How could a mere local like Yun Ming withstand the exquisite Mysterious Heaven Treasure Record?
After another period of time, once the last of the remaining academy representative teams arrived just in time, the competition staff entered the resting area to organize the students for entry.
Under the organization of the staff, team after team was arranged to enter, and the Empire Team was the very last one, making their grand entrance as the finale. This was specifically arranged by Qian Renxue; for her people, this was the level of prestige she demanded!
(In the original work, Shrek Academy made the final entrance, but they seemed to have some issues, feeling slighted by being the finale, which is hard to understand.)
Yun Ming signaled to everyone, followed the staff, and entered the entrance tunnel.
After passing through a tunnel about several dozen meters long, the Empire Team entered the arena, greeted by the shouts and cheers of countless spectators.
As their field of vision opened up, Yun Ming saw the scene inside.
Walking out of the tunnel, he saw a huge, open plaza. Directly in front of the central field was a rostrum with a gold background, and behind the rostrum was the renovated VIP area.
The wide field was over 150 meters in diameter, and the academies that had entered earlier were already lined up in neat formations in the center. As each academy entered, a dedicated announcer on the rostrum introduced them.
"The final team to enter is the representative team from Empire Academy. Empire Academy is a new advanced soul master academy established by the Crown Prince to cultivate soul master talent for the empire. It is not yet officially in operation, but after this competition, it will officially begin recruiting students from across the empire. We do not look at background, only ability, and we select the best."
"There are nine students from the Empire Team participating in this competition. They come from all over the empire and various factions, gathering in the Empire Team for one purpose: to win an unprecedented championship for the soul master world of the Heaven Dou Empire. Their slogan is."
The announcer paused, raised his voice, and shouted the Empire Team's slogan with heroic spirit.
"Star Luo, Martial Soul, all are in the past; to fight for the glory of the Empire, it is here and now!"
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Translated by: randomtranslator.com
Proofread by: DaoistReader