Chapter 177: Digging One's Own Grave

"After the match ended, you saw your son was injured and you're blaming the opponent?"

Tang San crossed his arms over his chest and sneered, "In the Soul Master World, everything is decided by strength. If he truly had the strength, how could he have been injured by us?"

"You should be grateful that this is a competition. If this were the Soul Master World, your son would already be dead!"

"You!" This mother was furious, looking very much like she was about to lash out.

Flender pulled her back, trying to persuade her with kind words.

At the same time, he was cursing Yu Xiaogang in his heart.

Yu Xiaogang caused the trouble and wouldn't handle it properly himself; it was one thing for him to have to clean up the mess, but the other party was also coming to cause trouble.

Does Yu Xiaogang really not know the current situation of Shrek Academy? Does he want the academy to go bankrupt?

And the Shrek Seven Devils are following along and acting recklessly too.

Is there any benefit to them in offending all the nobles in Tiandou City?

Flender's persuasion was ultimately a drop in the bucket; after being repeatedly slandered by Yu Xiaogang and his disciple, the emotions of these parents completely exploded.

Just as a conflict was about to break out between the two sides, the City Guard appeared in time and dispersed the troublemaking parents.

Seeing this, Yu Xiaogang held his head high and said with a cold, indifferent face, "Hah, just a bunch of shrews, and they dare to come to Shrek Academy to stir up trouble!"

The captain of the guard glanced at him and said flatly, "You had better watch yourselves."

That he appeared here so punctually was naturally at the behest of Prince Xue Xing.

Letting this group of parents make a scene with Shrek Academy could indeed be used to punish Shrek Academy, or even revoke their qualification for the tournament.

But this level of punishment was too light; it clearly wouldn't make it impossible for Shrek Academy to recover.

For the sake of the grand plan, after Prince Xue Xing received the news, he had people lie in wait on the periphery, and when the situation was about to become uncontrollable, they dispersed the crowd.

Of course, he also wanted to take the opportunity to let these parents see the true face of Shrek Academy, to facilitate future cooperation.

From a god's-eye view, Yu Xiaogang was personally blocking the last path to survival for Shrek Academy, and they would inevitably suffer fierce retaliation in the future.

Offending the nobles is not a matter that can be easily brushed aside.

……

The next day, the Spirit Master Tournament officially began.

As the various teams entered, they cast hostile gazes toward Shrek Academy one after another.

The Shrek Seven Devils, however, didn't care about this at all; they didn't even take the hostility of a bunch of weaklings seriously.

Yesterday's opening match counted as the first match of the first round.

Therefore, Shrek Academy had no match today and could take a short rest.

Yu Xiaogang reminded them, "Once the official matches begin, each team will reveal their tactical arrangements. From today on, during rest periods, everyone should try to stay at the arena to watch the Spirit Fighting."

"Know yourself and know your enemy, and you will never be defeated."

Today's first match was the Seven Treasure Academy versus the Otto Battle Team.

The Otto Battle Team was a team consisting of six Soul Elders and one Soul Ancestor; in terms of strength, they wouldn't be at the bottom of the tournament, but they weren't enough to force out the full strength of the Seven Treasure Academy.

Yu Xiaogang felt a little regretful, "The Otto Battle Team's strength isn't high; if it were a veteran academy, we could see the Seven Treasure Academy's tactical system clearly. Although it's a pity, everyone should still watch carefully and try to figure out each of their tactical habits."

On the other side, in the Seven Treasure Academy lounge.

Wu Qi made the personnel arrangements: "All substitutes will play this match, and then Chen Ping, Xiaotian, and Changkong will go up."

He paused and looked at Feng Xiaotian, "You will be the anchor for this match; try to give everyone a chance to perform."

Ning Tianyu had a certain sense of the big picture, and he suggested, "The Otto Battle Team's strength is indeed not high; why not make the Spirit Fighting a one-on-one format? It will save us from exposing our tactics."

Wu Qi smiled slightly without committing, "Since you are the ones playing, you can decide the arrangements for this match yourselves."

About an incense stick's time later, after the various academy teams and the audience were seated, and under the loud announcement of the emcee, the two teams stepped onto the ring.

In the rest area, looking at the Seven Treasure Academy's lineup, Yu Xiaogang couldn't help but frown, "They put in four substitutes; it seems they are also trying to find ways to conserve their strength."

As he spoke, he dismissed it with disdain.

With the Seven Treasure Academy's tactical literacy, what is the use of hiding their skills?

After the match began, the Seven Treasure Academy continued to use the one-on-one tactic. Because the opponent's strength was too weak, the match ended before Feng Xiaotian even activated his martial soul.

Compared to the brutality of Shrek Academy, the Seven Treasure Academy went easy on them; the members of the Otto Battle Team only suffered minor injuries.

After the match, many in the audience were discussing this.

"Although Shrek Academy's performance yesterday was criticized, their strength is beyond doubt. I wonder, between this dark horse and the Seven Treasure Academy, the hot favorite to win the championship, who is stronger and who is weaker?"

The local audience already had an answer, "You must be from out of town, brother. You don't know, but before the tournament started, the Seven Treasure Academy and the Shrek Team had already competed at the Spirit Arena."

"The Shrek Team used every dirty trick in the book and was still eliminated zero to seven. If they compete again, is there any need to ask about the result?"

The audience's discussion finally reached the ears of the Shrek group.

Tang San sneered at this, "Hah, I didn't expect there to be such short-sighted fools."

Yu Xiaogang scoffed, "Xiao San, no need to get angry with them; the Seven Treasure Academy is just a ragtag group."

Seeing the opponent's tactics just now, he was already certain that the Seven Treasure Academy had no tactical coordination at all.

They only rely on the strong strength of their members to win in a one-on-one fashion.

Yu Xiaogang smiled and said confidently, "According to my formation, if they dare to come up and challenge us one-on-one, they will face two of our people at the same time. With their coordination, they won't be able to break our formation at all."

Speaking of this, the Shrek Seven Devils were full of confidence.

Dai Mubai even confidently stated, "I hope we can meet the Seven Treasure Academy tomorrow, so we can trample them underfoot sooner and prove our strength sooner."

"This..." Yu Xiaogang hesitated, "Let's forget about it for the Preliminary Tournament; we cannot expose our trump card tactics too early."

Defeating the Seven Treasure Academy now would indeed be satisfying, but if the tactics were exposed, they wouldn't work next time.

Don't forget, there are still many capable people in the Seven Treasure Academy; breaking their tactics wouldn't be a problem.

Tang San, however, did not think so, "Teacher, if we don't dampen their arrogance, the margin for error will be too low for us when we reach the final stage."

"Even if we lose to them in the Preliminary Tournament, it won't affect our final qualification results. Moreover, we can use this to check for gaps and make up for deficiencies, which will be convenient for improving our tactics in the finals."

"Teacher, they don't know our final tactics; even if we expose a portion of our tactics beforehand, what does it matter?"

Yu Tianheng chimed in, "That's right, Uncle Yu Xiaogang, morale is what matters most. If we can strike at their morale, perhaps we can even make them dissatisfied with Wu Qi, leading to infighting, which would be to our advantage."

Unable to withstand the group's repeated persuasion, Yu Xiaogang finally agreed, though he still had to modify some details of the tactics.

(End of this chapter)