Chapter 105

A few days later, Star Net City.

In recent days, the already prosperous Star Net City became even more crowded than before, with almost all hotels fully booked; the Star Net Empire had to temporarily requisition part of civilian homes and open some official residences as temporary lodging for visitors, and the number of soldiers maintaining order in the city also increased significantly.

The reason for this change in Star Net City is simple: the new session of the Continental Advanced Soul Master Academy Elite Competition is about to be held in this city.

There are four empires on the continent, so the competition rotates among the four countries; in other words, the last time this nationwide grand event was held in Star Net City was twenty years ago, naturally attracting a large number of outsiders.

This competition is being held at Star Net Square; not far to the east of the square stands a seven-story high hotel called the Star Imperial, which belongs to the Star Net royal family and has been specially vacated to receive participants from the various countries' advanced soul master academies or soul engineer academies.

As the holder of the ten-thousand-year championship record and the continent's top soul master academy, Shilake Academy's competing team members were arranged in the topmost luxurious rooms, each with their own bedroom, not to mention a dedicated meeting room for their use.

At this moment, all nine team members plus the supervising teacher Wang Yan were sitting in the meeting room, holding a pre-competition mobilization meeting.

Their expressions were mostly very solemn.

Without Xuanzi flying them, their travel speed slowed considerably; to reach Star Net City before the competition began, Dai Yaoheng and Ling Luochen exerted great effort, with the result that their injuries, instead of improving compared to a few days ago, actually worsened.

The time needed for their injuries to heal enough to participate in the competition was extended once again.

Wang Yan asked the two starting team members:

"Dai Yaoheng, Ling Luochen, when will you two recover enough to be able to take the field?"

Dai Yaoheng and Ling Luochen exchanged a glance, then each said:

"If I devote myself fully to recovery, I need seventeen days."

"My injuries are lighter than Dai Yaoheng's; ten days will suffice."

Upon hearing the first statement, Wang Yan's mood remained somewhat heavy; upon hearing the second, his expression finally relaxed a bit.

Currently, the highest cultivation level among Shilake's available competitors is only four rings; although Huo Yutong and Tang Wulin are two oddities, together they amount only to the strength of a Soul Emperor and a Soul King, which cannot compare to the peak strength of the starting team.

Now is a time of urgent manpower shortage; hearing that Ling Luochen said she only needs ten days to return to battle eased his mind considerably.

He glanced around the reserve team members, then spoke seriously:

"Tomorrow's first match is an elimination round; as long as we get through this match, we can advance to the less brutal round-robin stage, so be sure not to harbor any thoughts of hiding your abilities. Remember, when the round-robin reaches its midpoint, Ling Luochen will be able to join you, at which point your situation will be much easier than now; therefore, for us, the most important thing is tomorrow's match, which we must take seriously—use whatever means you have, and I will not investigate."

His words were mainly directed at Bei Bei, Xu San Shi, Tang Wulin, and Huo Yutong.

As Xuanzi's grand-disciple, Wang Yan naturally knows the academy's rules; Shilake Academy selects a few students each generation for genuine core cultivation, without a doubt these four are the chosen ones.

For these few youngsters, he would not believe they have no ultimate trump card, especially Huo Yutong, who was able to counter-kill the God of Death's emissary in such an extremely dangerous environment, which shows she definitely has a hidden move.

Wang Yan doesn't care what trump cards they have; he respects their privacy, but as Shilake Academy, the number-one academy for ten thousand years, losing is acceptable, but being eliminated in the first round is absolutely not.

Bei Bei and the others nodded together.

They also felt the seriousness in Wang Yan's words and naturally understood the importance of tomorrow's first match. Wang Yan breathed a sigh of relief and said, "Alright, you all go rest; I'll go check which academy our first opponent is after a while. Right now, the most important thing for you is to replenish your energy."

This unprecedented mishap occurred on his first time leading the team, leaving him feeling very heavy-hearted.

In contrast to him, the participants from the Sun Moon Royal Soul Engineer Academy are now filled with doubt.

Inside the meeting room, an elder spoke in a low voice: "According to our observations, aside from the supervising teacher, Shilake Academy actually sent only nine people this time, of whom only two are old faces who participated in the previous competition. Moreover, we have infiltrated people inside the Star Net Empire and learned that among them, only those two familiar faces are nineteen years old, while the remaining seven are all under fifteen, even the youngest is only ten; do you know what this signifies?"

The members seated around the conference table shook their heads together.

The elder slammed the table hard and spoke angrily:

"This shows they look down on us! They think they don't even need to dispatch the starting team; using only the reserves is enough to beat us! This is an insult to us! Ma Rulong!"

"Present!"

Upon hearing the elder's words, the student who led the Sun Moon Royal Soul Engineer Academy rose to his feet; his face resembled the speaking elder by about seventy percent.

The elder narrowed his eyes and said: "According to the competition rules, registration ends today, so their current members are our opponents this time; if you can lose even this, you can get out of Ming De Hall."

"Yes!"

The youth named Ma Rulong responded loudly, his eyes sharp.

At this moment, the reserve team captain sitting opposite Ma Rulong spoke up.

"Old Ma, don't rush; this matter couldn't possibly be so simple—Shilake surely knows that relying only on reserves and two starting team members cannot possibly defeat us; I suspect they must have encountered some mishap."

Old Ma's expression instantly stiffened; he actually thought the same, his earlier words were mainly meant to encourage the students.

Ma Rulong's face darkened.

"Xiao Hongchen, behave yourself."

Xiao Hongchen gave a hehe laugh.

"Don't get so angry, Big Brother Ma; I just went with Meng to take a look—although the Shilake students coming to compete are all young, their spirit is quite good; if we're too careless, we might end up capsizing in a gutter, you know. By then you'd have to quit Ming De Hall, how painful would that be, right?"

"You..."

Ma Rulong was about to erupt when Old Ma shouted: "Enough, Ma Rulong! We're now arranging the participants for the first match."

Ma Rulong could only sit down unwillingly.

Xiao Hongchen wore a smile; despite his young age, the two supervising elders' gazes toward him were clearly filled with apprehension, while the white-haired girl sitting beside him rested her chin on her hands, as if recalling someone.

What she was thinking of was that handsome youth walking at the rear of the Shilake team.

(End of chapter)