Entering the arena, all the teams participating in the preliminary round of the Tian Dou settle into their seats.
Everyone looks towards the VIP stand with eyes full of admiration.
On the VIP stand, sit three people. The one in the middle wears a golden robe, a golden crown on his head, looking slightly older than Xue Xing, with a somewhat similar appearance, but their auras are completely different. The man appears extremely amiable.
This person is the Emperor of the Tian Dou Empire, Xue Ye.
The person to Xue Ye's left is an elder, wearing a bright red robe, a platinum crown on his head, with a lean but straight-as-a-javelin figure.
The person to his right, Ye Yu recognizes, is Ning Fengzhi.
As their eyes meet, Ning Fengzhi nods and smiles slightly.
At this moment, the emcee loudly announces: "Please welcome His Majesty, the Emperor of the Tian Dou Empire, to announce the opening of this tournament!"
Xue Ye stands up to thunderous applause, which quickly quiets.
Xue Ye's voice booms: "I, Emperor Xue Ye of the Tian Dou Empire, on behalf of the Tian Dou Empire, declare the fourth Advanced Soul Master Academy Elite Tournament open now!"
Applause rises again, and Xue Ye smiles, though the smile is a bit strained. Because, in the last three tournaments, Tian Dou never won. Xingluo won once, Martial Soul Hall twice, and Martial Soul Hall does not belong to Tian Dou or Xingluo.
Whether or not they can win the championship concerns their respective honors.
The emcee asks: "Sect Leader Ning, do you have a favored team this time?"
Ning Fengzhi stands and says: "Besides the seed team from Tian Dou Royal Academy, indeed, there is a team I have high hopes for this time. I believe this team has a very likely chance of winning this tournament!"
Upon hearing this, even Xue Ye is a bit surprised. For Ning Fengzhi to say such words means he is very optimistic.
"Could it be…"
Xue Ye can't help but think of the Shrek Team which did not enter Tian Dou Royal Academy due to Xue Xing.
Though he had never heard of them, after Meng Shenji told him, he was extremely shocked by how outstanding all the team members were, especially Ye Yu.
The emcee asks curiously: "I wonder which team it is to earn Sect Leader Ning's favor?"
"That, I won't say, but I believe this champion certainly belongs to Tian Dou."
The emcee sighs lightly: "Unfortunately, I didn't manage to coax it out of you. Now, please welcome Salas, the Platinum Bishop and master of Martial Soul Hall in Tian Dou City, to speak and conduct the draw for the preliminary round. After the draw, the matches will proceed according to the opponents drawn."
Salas slowly stands, saying: "Though I don't know which team Sect Leader Ning refers to, I also have a favored team, and that is the seed team of Martial Soul Hall. They will definitely be the champions."
Salas is extremely confident.
The emcee says: "It seems both have their favored teams. We look forward to seeing them face off then."
Salas starts the drawing, following which the emcee announces the matchups.
"Preliminary round, first match: Oakland Academy versus Flame Brilliance Academy."
"Preliminary round, first match: Tian Dou Royal Academy versus Shrek Academy."
...
At this moment, Oscar says: "What a coincidence."
Ma Hongjun cracks his knuckles audibly.
"It's their bad luck for not accepting us. We're going to beat them for sure."
"Beating them also means embarrassing Xue Xing once more."
After the announcement, Salas scans the entire field and says lightly: "I hereby declare that any team able to reach the finals will have the privilege of directly joining Martial Soul Holy Hall!"
Upon hearing this, there is an uproar; Martial Soul Holy Hall is where many desire to enter. It is the pinnacle of Martial Soul Hall, second only to Pope Hall and Douluo Hall.
There is one in the capital of each of the Two Great Empires, hence only two in the entire continent.
After Salas's words, Xue Ye's expression darkens slightly, as it seems like an open attempt to poach talents, disregarding the Tian Dou Royal Family.
Though feeling uncomfortable inside, he has no choice but to endure it.
The emcee says: "Let the competition begin, and may all the teams do their best."
With the opening concluded, Xue Ye, Ning Fengzhi, and Salas leave. They will only watch the finals.
Each team moves to their respective resting rooms to wait and plan their battle strategies.
For the first match, Tang San, Xiao Wu, Dai Mubai, Jing Ling, Huang Yuan, Jiang Zhu, and Talon prepare.
Tang San says: "We need to defeat them within a minute! Although it's not their fault we left, Tian Dou Royal Academy is managed by Xue Xing, so having Tian Dou Royal Academy lose the match will be a huge embarrassment to him."
The match quickly starts as Tang San's team enters the stage.
The arena is huge, with a two-hundred-meter diameter.
Now, the Tian Dou competition arena hosts twenty-eight teams, with Tian Dou Empire having a total of three arenas, each providing five qualifying slots.
Each team will fight twenty-seven times, earning one point per win, and zero for a loss. The top five in points advance to the qualifying round.
Tang San's team goes up, as does Huang Dou Academy's team—not the Huang Dou Team, but the second-strongest team of Huang Dou Academy. The Huang Dou Team is directly seeded to the finals.
Upon hearing their opponent is Shrek, Huang Dou's team mocks: "We've heard they wanted to join Tian Dou Royal Academy before but didn't get in."
"Never heard of Shrek. Where did these country bumpkins think they could join our academy?"
"Surely too trashy to get in."
The incident wasn't spread around Tian Dou, fearing it would affect the confidence of Tian Dou students. The real reason why Ye Yu and others didn't enter Tian Dou Royal Academy was not disclosed, so they assumed Shrek wasn't qualified.
As the second team of Tian Dou Royal Academy, they were extremely prideful, believing they could get a top-five ranking in this tournament.
They reckoned the top three would be between the two empires' seed teams and Martial Soul Hall's seed team.
The captain of the second team is a frail-looking boy, with fair skin, and quite a delicate and pretty face, resembling a young lady, his speech is effeminate.
"Let's show them the strength of our Tian Dou Royal Academy, which these bumpkins can't hope to enter."
A nearby woman, dressed flamboyantly with a heavy sense of worldliness, coyly says: "Captain Lu Han, we're quite unlucky drawing such a no-name team. I was hoping to defeat a strong team like Blazing Fire or Huo Wu's famous academy, but it's Shrek. Defeating them brings no sense of accomplishment."
Lu Han nods: "Yes, so let's finish the match quickly."
Hearing their words, Xiao Wu is incensed, mockingly responding: "One looks like a sissy, and one like a whore; how did we end up with these opponents?"
Upon hearing this, both are instantly enraged.
"Dare call me a sissy? I'm refined!"
Xiao Wu retorts: "Don't insult refinement; wearing lipstick for a match, do you do this regularly?"
Lu Han is angry, as he does indeed wear lipstick and blush regularly, thinking it makes him prettier.
The alluring woman is also furious: "Calling me a whore? I've changed my mind about ending this match soon. We'll make them suffer first!"
Before the battle starts, both sides are already at each other's throats, with tension escalating.
"The match begins!"
As the referee announces, both sides activate their Martial Souls.
At this moment, Ye Yu heads to the restroom and suddenly sees a youth dressed in luxury attire ahead of him. The youth looks around briefly before trying to enter the women's restroom quickly.
Ye Yu realizes the youth resembles Xue Ye and assumes from the attire he is a prince but is unsure which one.
"Could it be…"
Ye Yu wonders, shouting: "Hey, you're going the wrong way, that's the women's restroom."
Immediately, the youth halts and is startled: "Someone's here? I was completely unnoticed before."
Ye Yu approaches, the youth looks up and thanks: "I almost walked in by mistake, thanks for the reminder."
Ye Yu responds: "Yeah, go ahead."
Youth: "…"