"I might be a special case. I'll need to fight separately," Gu You said calmly.
A separate match?
The middle-aged man laughed and gave a few hearty nods.
"What kind of opponent do you want?"
Gu You looked straight into his eyes. "A Soul Douluo-level Soul Master."
In an instant, the entire Sun Moon Royal Soul Master Academy was set into motion. In less than an hour, every corner of Mingdu and even the entire Federation was swept up in the tide of news about the coming battle.
The cross-Federation Sun Moon Television Station announced a live broadcast of the match just thirty minutes after Shrek Academy's arrival. They even gave the battle a name—The Peak Showdown of Youths in the Soul Master World.
On the street, Wu Zhangkong watched the big screen on a building wall as the loud broadcast echoed down every street. His eyes narrowed slightly.
At that moment, his soul communicator buzzed.
"What is going on?" Shen Yi's voice was filled with shock.
Wu Zhangkong answered with a blank expression, "Nothing major. They came to challenge the Sun Moon Royal Soul Master Academy, so I added a bit of fuel to the fire."
Shen Yi's voice dropped low, "This is going too far, Senior Brother. Why didn't you inform us beforehand? The Academy might be put in a tough position. The Sun Moon side is hyping this up like crazy—Mingdu and its surrounding cities all know about it now. The Federation's major channels are reporting it. If we lose, the impact on Shrek's reputation will be massive. Did you consider that?"
"Do you think we'll lose?"
Shen Yi fell silent for a moment. "Make sure they win—and win beautifully." Then she ended the call.
Five minutes later, the communicator rang again.
"The higher-ups know now. Just go ahead. The Academy is behind you."
"Good."
---
Inside the Sun Moon Royal Soul Master Academy's conference room, Gu You opened his eyes and glanced at the clock on the wall. Two hours had passed, but no one had come to notify them of the match.
Through meditation, he'd reached peak condition. This next opponent wouldn't be easy.
The others finished meditating one after another.
"No news yet? Should we go check?" Xie Xie asked Gu You.
"Let's wait a bit longer. Since they invited us here, they won't leave us hanging. If they do, it'll be a scandal."
As he spoke, the door opened, and the same middle-aged man from earlier walked in.
"The arena is ready. The match will be held in our Academy's Grand Soul Arena. Any last preparations?"
"We're ready," Gu Yue replied, standing up.
"Then I wish you victory," Gu You smiled. He was the final match of the day.
"Follow me," the man said, still never bothering to introduce himself.
They followed him to an elevator that took them up to the thirty-sixth floor. Then, they transferred to another elevator that moved horizontally before descending. The trip lasted two minutes.
When the elevator doors opened, the metallic ambiance vanished, replaced by a vast stone chamber. The walls and floor were made of stone, emitting a faint and unusual energy that stirred the soul power in their bodies.
Without saying a word, the middle-aged man led the way through the wide stone hall. Soon, they entered a five-hundred-square-meter space with ancient murals on the ceiling.
Looking up, they saw the mural told a story. A lone youth in a Shrek uniform sat in the center of a plaza, surrounded by people wearing the traditional uniforms of the Sun Moon Royal Soul Master Academy. The Shrek youth looked oddly familiar.
…Who was he? Though they couldn't recall exactly, the six felt a strange sense of recognition.
To one side of the stone hall stood an enormous arched gate—fifteen meters high and thirty meters wide, big enough for mechas to pass through with ease.
"This is the waiting area of the Grand Soul Arena," the middle-aged man said. "You'll be notified when it's time."
Even the waiting area was this large?
Outside, the noise grew steadily louder.
The man turned and walked toward a side door. Just then, the distant murmuring exploded into raucous shouting.
"Shrek Academy has come to challenge us. Can we tolerate this? Students of the Sun Moon Royal Soul Master Academy, stand united and support our warriors! Let us send them crawling back and show the continent who the real number one Academy is!"
That… was the match announcer?
Stirred by the passionate call, the arena erupted with roars of approval, chants, and even curses.
"Seems like we now have every reason to win," Gu Yue said coldly.
Who could stomach this kind of provocation?
Gu Yue lifted her hands. A ring of icy-blue light rose beneath her feet, expanding into a dome of ice that enveloped the six of them. It was completely soundproof and isolated them from the outside world.
Ten minutes later—
"The match is about to begin. Please prepare for entry." An emotionless voice called out.
Instead of shattering, the ice dome began melting from the top down. The resulting water evaporated into mist.
The middle-aged man paused for a moment, watching the process with a flicker of surprise. Such precise control—impressive.
Ahead, the twin stone doors of the arched gate slowly opened, unleashing a torrent of deafening noise. The cheers and chants hit like a wave.
Outside, the world was blindingly bright, making it hard to see clearly at first.
The middle-aged man led the way through the gates.
Only upon stepping out of the waiting area and into the Grand Soul Arena could one truly grasp its sheer scale. Not even Shrek Academy had a structure of this magnitude.
The arena was modeled after an ancient coliseum. The circular field alone had a diameter of over 1,500 meters. The surrounding spectator stands could seat more than 150,000 people.
It was likely the largest stadium on the entire continent, and it occupied the heart of the Sun Moon Royal Soul Master Academy, surrounded by its towering buildings.
Though not every seat was filled, the stands were at least sixty to seventy percent occupied. Clearly, not all of them were students—an Academy with over ten thousand students would already be extraordinary. So where had all these people come from?
(End of Chapter)
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