Chapter 124 The Sea God Pavilion's defenses are breached! Poison Undying begins to attack Xuanzi!
As the last embers of the evil fire were extinguished on Ma Xiaotao, the entire Xingluo Square, after a brief period of deathly silence, was greeted by an unprecedented wave of sound.
The chief referee took a deep breath to calm his turbulent emotions.
As a seasoned referee who has presided over several competitions, his voice, though still loud, carried a tremor that even he himself was unaware of.
He slowly raised his right hand, pointed in the direction of the Heavenly Soul Royal Academy team, and announced loudly:
"The final results of the Continental Advanced Soul Master Academy Battle Tournament are in!"
"The Heavenly Soul Royal Academy has won this match!"
"Congratulations to Tianhun Royal Academy on winning the championship!"
At that moment, cheers erupted like a tsunami, and countless voices of congratulations rang out from all directions.
This is not just a celebration of a victorious team, but also a testament to the end of an era.
In the center of the arena, Liu Yuan, Long Aotian, Vina, Chen Lu, and the other two embraced each other tightly.
"We are the champions!"
Chen Lu's voice was choked with emotion.
Although at the beginning of the competition, most of them came with the mindset of just giving it a try and trying not to embarrass themselves.
But as the competition progressed, and as Liu Yuan and Long Aotian repeatedly demonstrated their dominance, their desire for that trophy swelled to its extreme.
Now that their dream has become a reality, the immense sense of accomplishment has elevated the bond between this team to an unprecedented level.
Liu Yuan let his teammates embrace him. His double pupils had now lost their purplish-gold brilliance and returned to their usual deep gaze.
Looking at his teammates' joyful faces, he felt a sense of peace and satisfaction welling up inside him.
This victory was a bombshell he dropped on this era.
...
Meanwhile, the discussions in the audience not only did not stop, but intensified.
"I never expected that the students of the Heavenly Soul Royal Academy would actually win in the end. I always thought that the situation was settled after Shrek Academy's main force returned."
"Shrek Academy's millennia-long dominance has come to a complete end in this competition. That boy named Liu Yuan has single-handedly rewritten the landscape of the Soul Master world."
"However, according to the current narrative, from now on, Shrek Academy probably can no longer be taken for granted as the number one Soul Master Academy on the entire continent, right?"
These comments were like steel needles, piercing Xuanzi's ears.
Xuanzi sat in the team leader's seat, his face ashen as if he had swallowed a dead fly.
His calloused hands were clenched tightly together, his knuckles pale from excessive force.
"Damn it..."
Xuanzi cursed under his breath, but he did not stand up to refute.
Because he understood the principle of "the victor is king, the loser is villain" better than anyone else.
Under the watchful eyes of everyone, and with the live broadcast from sixteen level-seven panoramic soul tools, Shrek Academy's crushing defeat had spread throughout the continent.
Now, anything he says will only make Shrek appear more pathetic and ridiculous.
What made Xuanzi even more uneasy was that a more fatal detail kept swirling in his mind—the bet.
That was a promise he made to Du Busi in person at the beginning of the competition at Xingluo Square.
If the Shrek team loses to the Heavenly Soul team, Xuanzi will have to publicly kowtow to Du Busi and Liu Yuan to apologize.
But Xuanzi lived for over a hundred years. As a level 98 Super Douluo of the Power Attack type, his name Taotie was renowned throughout the world. What he valued most was his old face.
Asking him to kneel and kowtow in front of hundreds of thousands of people would be a hundred times more painful than killing him on the spot.
"We're going to default! We absolutely have to default!"
Xuanzi was roaring wildly inside.
As long as we can find a suitable opportunity, we can take advantage of the chaos before the awards ceremony to run away with our people. Once we return to Shrek Academy, even if Poison Undy is rampant, we can't exactly storm the Sea God Pavilion guarded by Moon and force him to kneel down, can we?
Damn it, why aren't those idiots stepping down yet?
Xuanzi looked at Ma Xiaotao, who was still slumped in the pit on the arena, and Huo Yuhao and the others who had been thrown to the ground by Liu Yuan, and his heart was extremely anxious.
In his view, these players who lost the game were simply shameful targets.
"Why aren't you leaving? Are you waiting here to become a laughingstock for the whole continent?"
Xuanzi cursed under his breath, no longer caring about his status, and furtively stood up from the leader's seat.
He used his soul power and flashed to the edge of the arena. With extremely stiff movements, he began to pull at the unconscious team members, trying to get them out of there as quickly as possible.
Meanwhile, thousands of miles away, inside the Sea God Pavilion.
The highest-level council chamber, originally prepared to celebrate victory, was now shrouded in a deathly silence.
All the elders had terribly gloomy faces.
The murmurs of the audience, transmitted through the panoramic soul guide, echoed clearly throughout the council hall via amplification.
"Shrek Academy is no longer the number one academy..."
These words were like a resounding slap across the face of every senior member.
They were used to looking down on all living beings from the clouds, used to enjoying the pinnacle of glory for millennia. Now, the dissipation of that glory is something they simply cannot accept.
Yan Shaozhe's breathing became extremely heavy. He looked at Ma Xiaotao, who was being pulled up by Xuanzi in the light screen, and then at Liu Yuan, who was beaming with pride. He was so angry that he couldn't say a word. His clenched fists made a crisp cracking sound due to extreme anger.
At the same time, Emperor Xu Jiawei of Xingluo had already stood up from his seat.
His eyes were filled with undisguised envy as he looked at Liu Yuan and Long Aotian.
With these two young men, the Heavenly Soul Empire is well-positioned to secure its national destiny for the next hundred years.
"The Heavenly Soul Empire is blessed..."
Xu Jiawei sighed.
He then straightened his dragon robe, a warm smile on his face, and prepared to personally step onto the arena to present the trophy symbolizing the highest honor to the team that had made history, witnessed by the entire continent.
However, at this solemn moment, the Poison Undying operation, which had been observing from the sidelines, was launched.
Poison Immortal's eyes were extremely sharp; he had already locked onto Xuanzi's furtive actions.
Seeing that Xuanzi was about to pull Ma Xiaotao and the others away, Du Busi sneered and his abyss-like soul power erupted instantly.
"Buzz—!"
A terrifying sense of oppression immediately pinpointed Xuanzi's location.
Instead of avoiding the situation, Du Busi deliberately used his soul power to spread his voice throughout the entire Xingluo Square.
"What? Xuanzi, you're already thinking of leaving?"
Poison Undying's tone was undisguised mockery. His burly body rose into the air, looking down at the Shrek group who were preparing to run away.
"You can't accept defeat, can you? I remember clearly that it was you who made the bet with me back at the gate of Xingluo City."
"You said that if your Shrek Academy loses to our Heavenly Soul Team in this competition, you, the Taotie Douluo who leads the team, should kowtow to me and Liu Yuan in public to apologize."
These words brought the celebratory atmosphere at Xingluo Square to a standstill once again.
All the spectators, including the sixteen panoramic soul guides, instantly shifted their focus from Liu Yuan to Xuan Zi, who was hunched over and pulling his teammates along.
Poison Undying's laughter echoed across the square, filled with smug satisfaction.
"What? Now that the competition is over and Shrek Academy has lost cleanly, are your words, Xuanzi, just empty talk? Where did that arrogant attitude go? Does it no longer count?"
Xuanzi's body suddenly stiffened at that moment. He felt countless gazes shining on his back like spotlights, causing a burning pain.
(End of chapter)