Chapter 174: The Top Five of the Tiandou Competition Zone Revealed, Nan Feihuang's Request

The next day, a piece of news spread throughout all of Tiandou City.

Shi Nian of Canghui Academy took advantage of the Shrek student Tang San being out to commit an assassination.

Fortunately, Crown Prince Xue Qinghe and the Flying General Nan Feihuang happened to be passing by and had already brought Shi Nian to justice on the spot.

Canghui Academy has had its right to compete revoked; considering they did not participate in this matter and there is no evidence to suggest they were aware of it, they will not be severely punished, but they are expelled from this tournament, and Canghui Academy will not be allowed to compete in the next two tournaments either.

Canghui Academy did not offer any defense; in the original story, they were very unconvinced, but now, with the Crown Prince and the Flying General as eyewitnesses, who would dare to harbor any doubts?

It can be said that the reputation of Canghui Academy is completely ruined this time.

And so, Shrek won by default in the twenty-fifth round, successfully locking in the final qualifying spot for the Tiandou Competition Zone.

In the final match, the twenty-sixth round, Shrek's opponent was a pushover that didn't even have a Soul Ancestor; after an easy crushing victory, their final record was twenty-two wins and four losses, exactly fifth place.

Flender was grinning from ear to ear.

Because this generation of Shrek was far less strong than in the original story, his conscience was quite clear; although he still said he wanted to win the championship, in his heart, he was satisfied as long as they qualified and could make it into the finals.

Most of the people here were of noble birth to begin with, so they didn't care, but people like Ma Hongjun and Oscar were incredibly excited upon hearing this; they never expected that they, coming from commoner backgrounds, would become genuine nobles so quickly.

"Your Majesty, is this appropriate?" Salas, standing to the side, said with an ugly expression; those who could participate in the Promotion Tournament were considered excellent Spirit Masters, and he still wanted to recruit them for the Spirit Hall, "There has been no precedent for rewarding titles in the past."

Just like in the original story, the Great Emperor Xue Ye issued a shocking decree, conferring titles upon everyone so easily.

Inside the great hall, the five teams that advanced stood in rows, but the divide was clear; the Four Elements Academy stood on one side, and Shrek stood alone on the other, clearly isolated.

It would also cause Shrek to truly fall into a place of no return.

Of course, they would not defect to the Heaven Dou Empire just because of a title; in the future, they would definitely continue to stick with Dai Mubai and Tang San.

Oscar even thought that this might give him the qualifications to pursue Ning Rongrong.

Participating for the first time, and mostly being teenagers around fourteen years old, achieving such good results could be considered an advertisement for Shrek.

It is a pity that he does not yet know that, before long, his most trusted friend and the student he considers the most outstanding will cause him such great trouble on the final stage he dreams of—trouble far more serious than the exposure of the Hundred Thousand Year Soul Beast in the original story.

In the future, Shrek will surely be able to attract many students; it doesn't matter if they don't win the championship in this tournament, the results of the next tournament will inevitably be better, and then he will be able to get a lot of sponsorships.

At this moment, the Great Emperor Xue Ye stepped forward and said, "Contestants of the advancing teams, you are all talents of our empire. Today, I personally confer the title of Empire Viscount upon the captains and vice-captains of each team, and the title of Baron upon the remaining members; after you graduate, fiefs will be distributed."

Flender was thinking beautifully, as if he were swimming in an ocean of Gold Soul Coins.

"Furthermore, even if you want to give them, isn't giving them the rank of Viscount directly a bit too high?"

Xue Ye glanced at him and said, "Your Excellency Platinum Bishop, the conferring of titles is an internal affair of my empire; it seems to have nothing to do with the Spirit Hall, right?"

"I promise here that if the Heaven Dou Empire can produce a final champion team, then the titles of all members of this team can be raised by one level, and I will also provide Spirit Rings for the champion team members to advance; you may choose any Spirit Beast under twenty thousand years."

The Great Emperor Xue Ye was very annoyed; he was the Emperor, and did he need Salas's approval to reward someone? The more you try to stop me, the higher I will confer the titles.

He even provided a guarantee for Spirit Rings, which, for a Spirit Master, was more substantial than a title.

"By the way, I have one more decree. That Shi Nian assassinated the elite student of my Heaven Dou Empire, Tang San; fortunately, my son-in-law Nan Feihuang brought him to justice. For his meritorious service in saving a life, I hereby bestow ten sets of imperial silk, gold pearls, and jade ware as a reward."

Xue Ye still liked his son-in-law Nan Feihuang very much, but since Nan Feihuang was affiliated with the Gu Lei Kingdom, it was of course impossible to bestow upon him titles of the Heaven Dou Empire or the like, so he could only give some substantial rewards.

The most useful things for a Spirit Master were naturally Spirit Rings and soul bones. Now that Nan Feihuang had not reached the time to advance, he could not absorb a Spirit Ring. As for soul bones, in Xue Ye's heart, Tang San's life was not as valuable as a soul bone; even if he was a genius, firstly, he had not joined the Heaven Dou Imperial Court and was just a student within the borders of Heaven Dou, and secondly, before talent is transformed into strength, a genius is not necessarily a true powerhouse; many die young along the way.

So at this time, rewarding Nan Feihuang with some flashy but useless treasures was the most appropriate thing to do.

"Many thanks, Your Majesty." Nan Feihuang bowed to express his gratitude, "Your Majesty, the true victim of this incident is actually Brother Tang. I would like to transfer these rewards to Brother Tang; I ask for Your Majesty's permission."

Xue Ye nodded with satisfaction, "Hmm, it seems that following Qing He all these years, you have become more and more like him. Feihuang, although you are the Crown Prince of the Gu Lei Kingdom, you are also the son-in-law of my Heaven Dou Empire. You care for the people, and I am very gratified. I grant your request."

"Brother Nan, you must not!" Tang San said hurriedly, "You have saved my life twice; I have no way to repay you, how can I take your rewards? Please, Your Majesty, retract the order."

"Brother Tang, actually, you don't need to take these two life-saving favors to heart. I don't ask for any repayment from you. If you always feel like you owe me, it will affect your state of mind for cultivation. How about this? I saw that those little gadgets you used to fire flying needles when you sparred with me last time were very interesting. If you teach me how to make them as a return gift, let's consider it settled between us, how about that?" Nan Feihuang patted Tang San on the shoulder and smiled.

"What a great demeanor; is this the legendary Flying General?" People from other academies looked over, admiring Nan Feihuang in their hearts.

They did not know the use of the Hidden Weapons and only thought that Nan Feihuang was thinking of Tang San, wanting to offset the two life-saving favors with two toys so that he could cultivate with peace of mind in the future.

In all fairness, they could not do it.

This Tang San could be called a genius; at only fourteen, he was about to step into the Soul Ancestor realm. If they had saved his life twice, they would definitely hold it tightly in their hands to continue using him in the future.

"Idiot!" Salas cursed directly in his heart. Trading a life-saving favor for toys—he only felt that Nan Feihuang was too much of a pushover.

Nan Feihuang, however, did not care, because he knew that this so-called favor was only useful now, because Tang San's strength was weak, and he would still acknowledge it.

Once he became strong, he would probably forget it to the ends of the earth.

Therefore, it was better to use it while he could.

"This... Brother Nan, I know you have good intentions, but those little gadgets are just things I made casually; how could they be presentable? When I fought you last time, weren't they easily broken by you?" Tang San hesitated. He also thought that Nan Feihuang did not actually understand the value of the Hidden Weapons and only wanted these things to make him stop feeling like he owed him anything, thinking that he was looking out for him.

But the problem was that, in reality, these things were the secret, non-transferable techniques of his Tang Sect. Even Ning Fengzhi had spent a full five million Gold Soul Coins to obtain them, and that was just the labor fee for asking him to make them.

And what Nan Feihuang wanted was to be taught how to make them, which was equivalent to being given the blueprints.

(End of chapter)