The Star Luo Empire values personal heroism.
Even though the reward for the two-on-two championship was a soul bone from the Demon Chapter King Soul Spirit, the number of participants in the one-on-one competition still reached over four thousand.
With such a large pool of contestants, the likelihood of strong competitors facing each other in the first round was generally low.
But low probability did not mean impossible.
If it happened, one could only consider themselves unlucky.
Yuanen Yehui and Ye Xinglan found themselves in just such a situation.
Xia Yi had originally planned to watch their match, but just as they started fighting, he received his own match notification.
However, if he finished quickly, he might still make it in time.
His opponent came from an obscure sect and probably wasn't too strong.
With so many participants, today's competition at Star Luo Stadium had to conduct over two thousand matches.
There were a total of one hundred arenas, each needing to host at least twenty matches.
The Star Luo Empire had already released basic information about each contestant online.
However, only names and affiliations were disclosed—details that wouldn't affect the matches.
If someone wanted to watch a specific match, they just had to buy a ticket.
Each arena also had a live broadcast, available nationwide.
For those who didn't buy tickets, they could still watch online by paying a small fee.
Xia Yi was contestant number 666, assigned to Arena 66, and his opponent was contestant number 33.
Xia Yi chuckled to himself.
He had to admit—his luck today was pretty good.
Not long after he stepped onto Arena 66, his opponent, contestant number 33, lightly leaped onto the stage.
Contestant 33 was a young man who looked about fifteen or sixteen years old. He was tall and only slightly shorter than Xia Yi.
He had decent looks, too.
But compared to Xia Yi, he was somewhat overshadowed.
His name was Wu Xinghua, not even sixteen yet, and he came from an ordinary sect in the Star Luo Empire.
Looking at him, Xia Yi shook his head.
With his current Spirit Abyss-level mental power, Xia Yi could easily sense Wu Xinghua's strength.
A two-ringed Soul Grandmaster.
Xia Yi didn't even feel the urge to make a move.
But Wu Xinghua, on the other hand, was quite excited.
When he saw online that Xia Yi was an exchange student from the Spirit Pagoda's main headquarters on Douluo Continent, he had been shocked.
He had joined the All-Continent Advanced Soul Master Elite Tournament just for the experience. Even if he got eliminated in the first round, it didn't matter to him.
If he put in more effort, he might have a chance to enter the top 1,000 in the next tournament.
Even though he was just here for the experience, winning a match or two would still make him very happy.
What's more, Xia Yi was from Douluo Continent and the Spirit Pagoda's main headquarters.
Beating Xia Yi would be equivalent to, in some way, defeating Douluo Continent and the Spirit Pagoda itself.
His sect would surely reward him handsomely for that.
With the sect's rewards, he might even make it into the top 500 next time.
Xia Yi's background was undoubtedly impressive, but he looked younger than Wu Xinghua.
Maybe he had a fighting chance.
The more Wu Xinghua thought about it, the more excited he became.
Seeing Xia Yi sighing and shaking his head, he thought Xia Yi was afraid of him.
"Let's finish this quickly so I can go watch the other matches," Xia Yi muttered to himself.
As the arena's protective barrier slowly rose, an electronic voice announced:
"Elimination Round, Match 1: Contestant 666 vs. Contestant 33. Get ready. Countdown: Five, four, three, two, one—begin!"
Just as Wu Xinghua was about to release his martial soul, he suddenly found himself lifted off the ground, flying straight out of the arena.
"F-Four rings?"
Seeing the four spirit rings surrounding Xia Yi, Wu Xinghua felt like crying.
They were both just fifteen or sixteen years old—how was this fair? Why was Xia Yi so much stronger?
Xia Yi shrugged and turned to leave.
By the time he made his way back to Arena 78, where Yuanen Yehui and Ye Xinglan were fighting, their battle had already reached a critical point.
Compared to Xia Yi's match against Wu Xinghua, the duel between these two Shrek Academy geniuses was far more exciting.
Yuanen Yehui had not used her Titan Giant Ape martial soul.
From start to finish, she only used her Fallen Angel martial soul.
The dark sky curtain and the terrifying sword aura of the Star God Sword clashed repeatedly on the stage, making it seem like neither could overpower the other.
Suddenly, Xia Yi felt a gaze land on him.
He looked up and saw a young girl in the audience smiling playfully at him.
Xia Yi was sure he didn't know her.
But she gave him an inexplicable sense of familiarity.
"I must have met her before, but I just don't remember… Is she in disguise?" Xia Yi wondered.
As Xia Yi stared in confusion, the girl smiled at him again and pointed at her chest.
"One of the Four Heavenly Kings of the Holy Spirit Cult—Dark Bell, Nanalie."
At that moment, Xia Yi immediately understood.
Nanalie had once tried to control him using resentful spirits and had given him a Silver Dragon Girl's dragon scale.
It was placed right on his chest.
"Looks like the sea's tragedy is about to happen again," Xia Yi thought, narrowing his eyes.
Besides the Demon Emperor, another Heavenly King of the Holy Spirit Cult had shown up.
There could be more powerful enemies hiding in the shadows.
This All-Continent Advanced Soul Master Elite Tournament in the Star Luo Empire was likely far from peaceful.
Just as Chen Xinjie had predicted—the Star Luo Empire was beginning to descend into chaos.
While Xia Yi was lost in thought, the battle on the arena had reached its climax.
Both Yuanen Yehui and Ye Xinglan released their battle armor.
"One-word battle armor! Fully completed one-word battle armor, made from spirit-forged alloy! As expected from Shrek Academy's geniuses!"
The audience was in shock.
After all, both Ye Xinglan and Yuanen Yehui were only at the Soul Ancestor level.
Yet, they both had fully completed one-word battle armor.
This meant that, whether in physical strength or mental power, they were on par with Soul Kings.
With the appearance of their full battle armor, the previously even match quickly became one-sided.
Yuanen Yehui's Dark Demon Sword soon overpowered Ye Xinglan's Star God Sword, bringing the match to an end.
Ye Xinglan didn't say anything. She lowered her head silently and turned back to the Shrek Academy camp.
From beginning to end, her expression remained ice-cold, and her beautiful eyes carried not even the slightest trace of emotion.
"Yuanen Yehui only won because her battle armor is of higher quality than yours. Otherwise, if she wanted to defeat you, she would at least have to use her Titan Giant Ape Martial Soul," Yali comforted her gently.
Ye Xinglan had always been cold by nature. But after Xu Lizhi was killed by Demon Shark Fang and Ye Wuqing was slain by Lan Muzi on the Star Luo, she became even colder.
Now, she could go days without saying a single word.
Every day, all she did was train and eat.
She refused to let herself have even a moment of rest.
Yali saw this and felt pain in her heart.
She knew that Ye Xinglan was using training to numb herself.
But what had happened had already happened. No matter how much she wished otherwise, she couldn't bring them back.
Watching Ye Xinglan lose to Yuanen Yehui, who had only used a single martial soul, she feared that Ye Xinglan wouldn't be able to handle it, so she quickly offered words of comfort.
"When the time comes for you to have a two-word battle armor, I'll ask Xia Yi to forge it for you," Yali promised.
Leng Yulai's medical skills were extremely precious—so rare that Yali believed they were just as secretive as the Mysterious Heaven Skill of the Tang Sect.
She wasn't confident that she could convince Xia Yi to let Leng Yulai teach her medicine.
But a set of battle armor?
That, she was certain she could persuade Xia Yi to forge.
Xia Yi was not a petty person.
Let alone a two-word battle armor—
Even if Xia Yi became a Divine Craftsman one day, she was confident she could convince him to forge a four-word battle armor.
"Xia Yi?" A faint ripple of emotion flickered through Ye Xinglan's ice-cold gaze.
Just as Yali had said, if it hadn't been for the difference in battle armor quality, Yuanen Yehui could never have defeated her using just a single martial soul.