When the room was finally quiet again, Huo Yuhao"s eyes were already filled with fatigue.
w.a.n.g Dong"er carried him to his bed and gave him a simple ma.s.sage.
"I"d rather compete and face a strong opponent than negotiate with them," w.a.n.g Dong"er sighed. "You must be very tired, Yuhao."
Huo Yuhao nodded lightly and said, "This is what the Tang Sect has to go through in order to develop. Not only have we received our most important order, but we have also developed a greater understanding of the management of both empires at the highest level."
w.a.n.g Dong"er lowered her voice and said, "Do you know what Princess Jiujiu referred to when she mentioned the strength of the Sun Moon Empire?"
Huo Yuhao lowered slightly and said, "I can roughly guess. It should be the advanced-level soul engineers and soul tools. Truly strong soul tools will not be given to the soul engineering teams. Although Xu Jiujiu didn"t mention it, I can tell from her expression that it"s something scary."
w.a.n.g Dong"er nodded and revealed a lost look. She said, "Yuhao, do you think a war is really coming? What should we do then?"
Huo Yuhao squinted and said, "We can"t avoid a war. I only want to protect the people around me. If my body has recovered by the time the war starts, then I will…"
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To every empire, the tournament was very prestigious. It was held once every five years, and the host would alternate between the four empires. It wasn"t easy to host the tournament.
Although the Sun Moon Empire"s proposed change to the tournament regulations received resistance from many sects and academies on the continent, it eventually still pa.s.sed. There was a simple reason why the Sun Moon Empire didn"t restrict the difficulty of the tournament.
As soul tools continued to develop, future battles would be a challenge of soul masters and soul engineers" control of soul tools. If one couldn"t excel in this area, how could he be called an elite?
Although this was an advantage for the Sun Moon Empire, every rational person had to admit it was true. The Sun Moon Empire wasn"t wrong.
Finally, the tournament was about to begin.
No matter what games were played between the Sun Moon Empire and the various parties involved in the tournament, the empire decided to hold the tournament in a vast plain at the outskirts. This was a good thing for the empire. They could accommodate more spectators in this way.
The lot-drawing ceremony was held on the eve of the tournament. Xu Sans.h.i.+ was the one who represented the Tang Sect for the lot-drawing ceremony. There were a total of one hundred and sixty-seven competing teams. The fortunate team that drew an empty lot didn"t have to compete in the first round of the tournament. Xu Sans.h.i.+"s luck wasn"t so good, and thus Tang Sect still had to compete in the first round. The empire decided to give the empty lot to Shrek Academy, and thus w.a.n.g Qiu"er"s team managed to proceed to the next round. They were awarded twelve full points.
No one raised any objections to this preferential treatment. After all, Shrek Academy was an established academy in this tournament. This was what they deserved.
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Morning...
As the first ray of sunlight shone from the east, the streets of Radiant City were already greeted with a weird scene.
Soldiers clad in silver armor stood in two long parallel rows. They extended from the doors of the Ming Yue Hotel all the way to an unknown destination. The path they formed was also restricted from public access, and everyone was asked to stay thirty meters away from this path.
Radiant City could hold more people than Star Luo City, so the empire had activated a large portion of its military to maintain order. This arrangement alone required more than twenty thousand soldiers! There was a very austere aura in the air of the streets.
---
Everyone from the Tang Sect had already prepared in the morning. Bei Bei was in better shape, but he still couldn"t walk. He didn"t have too many instructions regarding today"s compet.i.tion. However, Huo Yuhao still went to his room in the early morning.
"Eldest senior, are you feeling better?" Huo Yuhao asked the pale-looking Bei Bei.
"Oh, I"m much better. With my healing speed, I should be able to compete in ten days." Bei Bei smiled as he spoke. He had already regained his elegant composure.
Huo Yuhao said, "We are going to compete. Eldest senior, do you have any instructions for us?"
Bei Bei shook his head and said, "What"s there to instruct? I believe in all of you. Go! This time, we are fighting for the Tang Sect"s glory and ourselves! While we are still young, it"s time for us to s.h.i.+ne. I"m waiting for all of you to return victorious!"
"Definitely!" Huo Yuhao nodded forcefully.
With w.a.n.g Dong"er"s help, everyone from Tang Sect put on some light makeup. This didn"t change their appearance too much. However, there were slight changes to everyone"s facial features, even on closer observation. Along with their own development, it was difficult for others to tell that they were the Shrek"s Seven Monsters that had once created miracles in the last tournament. Of course, this would only last until they demonstrated their powers in this tournament. After all, they couldn"t conceal their martial souls.
Huo Yuhao still wanted Ji Juechen, Jing Ziyan, and Na Na to stay and take care of Bei Bei. However, Bei Bei didn"t let him do so. No one wanted to miss such a great event!
As Ji Juechen and Jing Ziyan were already more than twenty, they could only tag along as "teachers". Everyone from the Tang Sect changed into the same warrior robes.
Their warrior robes were specially designed. There were silver embroidered lines on their white warrior robes, and these lines eventually gathered at the back, forming the words Tang Sect.
---
Although there was a thirty meters restriction on the public, there were still many people who gathered to watch the competing teams as they exited the hotel.
When the Tang Sect team appeared, they immediately caused a huge uproar.
"Eh, look at this. This team is so weird! Why is there someone in a wheelchair? Is he allowed to compete in a wheelchair?"
"Tang Sect? It seems like a sect. Has anyone heard of them before?"
"They seem to be an ancient sect. However, I heard that they"ve already collapsed. They"ve even sent a team with a cripple. Haha, this is funny! Can a cripple also be considered an elite?"
No one from the Tang Sect bothered with the commotion. Since Huo Yuhao dared to come in a wheelchair, he of course expected all this to happen. His abilities were the best way he could shut their mouths.
Huo Yuhao shut his eyes as he sat in the wheelchair. However, his spiritual power followed the path and extended forward into the distance. He was sensing the conditions of all the teams that had come to compete in this tournament, and sent this information to his teammates.
Huo Yuhao was already getting used to his disability. He had also discovered that this wasn"t really a bad thing for him. While his abilities were restricted, being disabled also made him more reliant on his spiritual power. Over this short period of time, Huo Yuhao had already begun to grasp many concepts that helped him to evolve his Purple Demon Eyes and the spiritual level of his concrete-immaterial realm. He was starting to use his spiritual-type abilities more and more efficiently.
There were more than two thousand people from the one hundred and sixty-seven teams. All of them left Radiant City.
---
The tournament venue was on the outskirts of the city. Once they pa.s.sed the buildings in the city, they could see it from afar.
Right now, the area was crowded with people, with more than thirty thousand soldiers maintaining order. The crowd was divided into different regions, segregated from the grandeur of the main arena. To the north, there was a high platform made that looked like it could accommodate a thousand people.
The platform was more than ten meters high, and more than a hundred meters across. The wide platform shone with a silvery-white glow, and appeared to be made from metal. Even though it was just a platform, it was an extremely huge one! There weren"t any seams or breaks in it at all.
The weird thing was that there seemed to be a groove around the platform. There was a transparent barrier stained with dim yellow that rose into the sky coming out of that groove. The ends of the barrier couldn"t be seen. How high did one"s soul power have to be to support this barrier!?
Furthermore, it was possible to tell this was different from the last tournament. At least, no one could be struck off the stage and end up as a loser so easily. One had to completely defeat their opponent to win.
Beside the platform, there were huge soul screens extending a hundred meters from the center of the tournament stage. These soul screens were held in the air by tall scaffolding, and every screen was more than twenty square meters in size. Only the Sun Moon Empire possessed such soul tool techniques!
There were more than a hundred such screens set up around the tournament stage!