The moment Tang Wutong looked away, three slender hands simultaneously reached out toward Xu Tianhao's waist and gave him a fierce pinch in unison.
Beside him, Ye Guyi narrowed her eyes slightly, her gaze filled with a mix of reproach and scrutiny.
She leaned in and whispered to him, her tone tinged with a hint of jealousy, "Is that girl pretty? You're looking at her so intently."
Meng Hongchen's expression was equally unfriendly. She curled her lip and spoke with a tone of mockery and dissatisfaction:
"What's this? Has our Sixth Highness set his sights on a new favorite prey? Your taste isn't bad at all."
Even Nana, who was usually the most well-behaved, gentle, and obedient, joined in now, borrowing the others' momentum to act tough.
Nana mumbled softly, "Look at him, his eyes are practically glued to her. He's completely ignoring us."
With Xu Tianhao's physical constitution, those pinches didn't count as pain at all and couldn't hurt him in the slightest.
But unfortunately, these three by his side were all difficult characters to deal with.
He had tigresses at home—two and a half of them, to be precise.
Xu Tianhao naturally didn't dare to be negligent. Softening his tone, he whispered sweet words to coax the three girls with gentle patience.
Standing behind Xu Tianhao, Xu Tianzhen took in the entire scene and couldn't help but curse him in her heart for being so spineless.
Meanwhile, Long Aotian and Xiao Hongchen couldn't help but laugh as they watched Xu Tianhao's predicament.
Xu Tianhao finally managed to placate Ye Guyi, Meng Hongchen, and Nana, but his gaze unconsciously drifted upward again.
He slowly locked onto a figure in the VIP stands that was as steady and heavy as a mountain.
Just moments ago, the host had loudly introduced this powerhouse; it was the Second Elder of the Clear Sky Sect, Tang Zhen.
Xu Tianhao pondered to himself. Because the plot had already changed, he had originally thought that the Sky Azure Bull Python and Titan Giant Ape might show their faces during this competition.
But looking at it now, he had completely overthought it.
On second thought, he felt relieved.
Those two idiots only managed to sneak into the Lower Realm and come to the Douluo Continent because of Tang San's secret manipulation in the God Realm.
Being able to hide peacefully within the Clear Sky Sect and live out their days was already the best outcome.
If they dared to appear grandly before the public on the continent and expose their whereabouts, it would inevitably attract the attention of the God Realm.
At that time, even with Tang San's protection, he might not be able to save them.
After all, the rules of the God Realm were not something that could be easily touched.
The current God Realm was not Tang San's personal domain.
Leaving aside the God King of Destruction, whose ideology clashed with Tang San's, even the first-class god Rong Nianbing in the original story dared to snatch Huo Yuhao right in front of Tang San.
...
Glancing past Tang Zhen, Xu Tianhao calmly turned his head and happened to meet Jing Hongchen's gaze in the VIP stands.
Their eyes met, and without any verbal exchange, they simply nodded to each other in tacit understanding before withdrawing their gazes.
The long but essential speeches and other clichéd procedures on the stage finally drew to a close amidst everyone's anticipation.
The host's high-pitched voice rang out again, announcing the official end of the opening ceremony.
The first match of the All-Continent Elite Soul Master Combat Competition was finally about to officially begin.
The emotions of all the spectators were instantly ignited, and earth-shaking cheers and applause once again swept through the entire Star Luo Plaza.
Everyone's eyes were tightly focused on the center of the arena, waiting for the start of the first duel.
This year's All-Continent Elite Soul Master Combat Competition gathered all the top young Spirit Master forces from across the entire continent.
A total of one hundred and eighty teams had registered, setting a new record for the scale of the competition.
According to rough statistics, there were over two thousand five hundred young Spirit Masters stepping onto the field to compete.
Each one was a Genius Disciple carefully selected by their respective Sects and academies, the elite standing at the pinnacle of the current younger generation.
Every single one of them harbored the ambition to make a name for themselves and become famous throughout the continent, gathering here to engage in fierce competition.
One must realize that the young Spirit Masters capable of standing on this stage were all one-in-a-ten-thousand existence.
These two thousand five hundred-plus young Spirit Masters were undoubtedly the core strength of the younger generation across the entire Douluo Continent.
Their strength and potential were directly related to the future landscape of the Spirit Master's world.
The first round of the competition was still an elimination format, which left no room for error and no second chances.
This meant that out of the one hundred and eighty teams, exactly half would be eliminated immediately after the first round, bidding a complete farewell to the stage of this competition.
Such cruel rules ensured that every team and every participating Spirit Master did not dare to be the slightest bit negligent.
Everyone put forth their full effort, devoting themselves entirely to pre-match preparations.
Even those teams with weaker strength, who knew they had a high probability of losing to their opponents, did not have a single person harbor thoughts of retreat, nor would they easily give up the match.
Because they all knew in their hearts that such a high-specification All-Continent Elite Soul Master Combat Competition was only held once every five years.
And the golden cultivation period for young Spirit Masters was inherently short; for the vast majority of people, they might only have one or two chances in their entire lives to step onto this stage.
This was not only a stage to prove one's own strength but also a golden opportunity to be noticed by the continent's top forces and change the fate of oneself or even one's Sect.
Even if they were destined to lose, they had to give their all to display their full strength, leaving no regrets behind.
The opening ceremony of the competition concluded, and the long-awaited official schedule finally began.
And the very first match of this competition's opening immediately ignited the atmosphere of the entire venue.
According to the competition's tradition, the first match featured the champion team from the previous tournament.
As the top Soul Engineer academy of the Sun Moon Empire, the Sun Moon Royal Soul Engineer Academy had secured the championship last time with crushing strength and was the biggest favorite to win this year.
Their appearance instantly caused the spectators in the stands to erupt into deafening cheers.
The pre-match drawing phase had settled, and the Sun Moon Royal Soul Engineer Academy's opponent in the first round was a Sect force from the original Three Great Empires of the Douluo Continent—the Giant Axe Sect.
Although the Giant Axe Sect couldn't be considered a top-tier Sect on the continent, it held considerable prestige within the borders of the Three Great Empires.
The Sect's cultivation style had always been known for being fierce and overbearing; the participating members all had robust physiques, and their practical combat abilities were not to be underestimated.
The overall strength of the Giant Axe Sect's battle team firmly occupied the upper-middle tier among the one hundred and eighty participating teams.
The strongest member of the team had reached the level of a Rank 51 Spirit King.
The rest of the team's official members had all reached the level of Four-Ring Soul Ancestors.
Originally, they were full of expectations for this competition, thinking they could advance quite far.
They never expected to run into the unfathomably powerful Sun Moon Royal Soul Engineer Academy in the first round, making them arguably the unluckiest team in this tournament.
Even though the Giant Axe Sect possessed decent combat power, when facing the champion team that was the Sun Moon Royal Soul Engineer Academy, the gap in strength between the two sides was still like a celestial chasm.
On the side of the Sun Moon Royal Soul Engineer Academy, Xu Tianhao and the others naturally wouldn't easily take the field in such a suspense-free first-round elimination match.
After all, the opponent's strength was far from enough to warrant their action; therefore, this opening match featured the official team lineup led by Ma Rulong.
With Ma Rulong at the head, the lineup configuration could be described as luxurious, consisting of one Spirit Emperor and six Spirit Kings.
Such strength, placed in the first round of elimination, was a total case of dimensional reduction strike.
Furthermore, Ma Rulong and the others had previously spent three years studying at Shrek Academy.
Although Shrek Academy's core secrets and top-tier cultivation methods wouldn't be easily shared with outsiders,
three years of immersion, combined with Shrek's rigorous practical combat training and teaching on Spirit utilization,
had given them a solid, qualitative improvement in their control over their own Spirit abilities.
To deal with the Giant Axe Sect, which had only one Spirit King while the rest were Soul Ancestors,
they didn't even need to use their trump card spirit tools.
Relying solely on pure Spirit strength, they could easily control the situation of the match.
The two teams stepped into the preparation area in the center of the arena one after another, instantly becoming the focus of everyone's attention.