Chapter 151: Mingdu Soul Master Academy

The next day, when Tang Wulin came again to Huo Yutong's room to find her, he saw at a glance that Huo Yutong had collapsed on the floor.

Tang Wulin was startled, and hurried to her side, gently shaking her body.

"Yutong, what's wrong?"

"Mmm..." Huo Yutong frowned slightly, let out a groan, then blearily opened her eyes, "Wulin?"

Seeing her come to, Tang Wulin finally breathed a sigh of relief.

"It's me. Why are you sleeping on the floor?"

"... Ah."

Only then did Huo Yutong realize her situation, and she coughed embarrassedly.

"Last night I tried using that Soul-Devouring Ferocious Blade, but I didn't expect its consumption to be so great; I unknowingly lost consciousness."

Tang Wulin said, dumbfounded:

"Is this Soul-Devouring Ferocious Blade that vicious? Then you must be careful when you use it next time."

"Mm."

Huo Yutong nodded obediently, then changed the subject: "By the way, why did you come to see me so early? Is something up?"

She glanced at her watch and realized it was still early morning; based on her understanding of Tang Wulin, he normally wouldn't come to see her at this time unless there was something.

Tang Wulin nodded, his face somewhat solemn.

"Mm, the opponents for the quarterfinals have been decided, and Teacher Wang told us to go discuss strategy."

"Understood."

Huo Yutong quickly gathered her composure, tidied herself up a bit, and then went to the meeting room together with Tang Wulin.

By then the meeting room only lacked the two of them; seeing them enter and close the door, Wang Yan asked in a low voice:

"Wulin, did you tell Yutong the name of our opponent?"

Tang Wulin shook his head; Wang Yan took a deep breath and said, "Our opponent this time is the Mingdu Soul Master Academy."

Saying that, he stood up and handed each of them a copy of the documents.

Upon seeing the documents, Huo Yutong finally understood why Wang Yan's expression was so grave.

This time the opponent turned out to be a full Soul King team.

You should know that even the main teams of Shilake Academy and the Sun Moon Royal Soul Master Academy have only their captains as Soul Emperors; thus this team's composition is already very close to those two academies.

Wang Yan said:

"As far as I know, the strength of this year's Mingdu Soul Master Academy is the strongest in the past thirty years, and their goal is very clear: to make it into the top four."

Generally speaking, the top four spots in the Continental Advanced Soul Master Academy Elite Competition are quite fixed: Shilake Academy, the Sun Moon Royal Soul Master Academy, the Star Luo National Academy, and the two remaining imperial academies' flagship schools compete for them.

Among these five academies, the quotas for Shilake Academy and the Sun Moon Royal Soul Master Academy are very fixed; these two have consistently held first and second place since they began participating in the competition, without change. Among the remaining three, the Star Luo National Academy has the highest win rate, followed by the Imperial Star Academy and the Dou Ling Royal High Soul Master Academy, whose win rates are roughly similar.

The Mingdu Soul Master Academy has made it to the top four before, but such occasions are extremely rare—only once in a century.

Dai Yaoheng said coldly, "It looks like their goal cannot be achieved; they will be defeated by us."

Wang Yan nodded gently.

"Mm, I believe in you, but we must also not be careless; they are absolutely the strongest opponent we have encountered in this tournament, and we must rise to the challenge. Even without mentioning that, fighting them can serve as a prelude rehearsal for our match against the Sun Moon Royal Soul Master Academy."

For some reason, this year's Sun Moon Royal Soul Master Academy always gives Wang Yan a sense of great danger; he feels that this team is hiding something crucial that has not yet been revealed.

It's normal to hide things; aside from that, even now Wang Yan still doesn't know what Xu San Shi's so-called trump card actually is.

The problem is that what the Sun Moon Royal Soul Master Academy is hiding is clearly not ordinary; it is of a caliber worthy of being called a trump card, capable of single-handedly turning the tide of battle.

Moreover, this year Shilake Academy is, due to the absence of its main team, arguably its weakest in decades; the contrast makes this tournament seem even more perilous.

That the preliminary team's kids have managed to hold on this far already far exceeds Wang Yan's expectations; he naturally hopes to win the championship, and even if not for Shilake Academy's glory, nor for that superb Ice Jade Scorpion left arm bone, he wants to do right by these lovable kids' hard work.

Wang Yan sighed silently in his heart; frankly, he's been under tremendous pressure lately, and after returning he will definitely need to apply to the academy for a leave of absence.

"All members of the Mingdu Soul Master Academy's main team are fifth-rank soul engineers; having come this far in the competition, they will certainly not hold back, and will surely field all their main force. So you mainly need to look at the main team's data; you can just glance at the reserves." Saying that, Wang Yan began to analyze the documents in his hand for the competing team members.

In the blink of an eye a morning passed, and soon it was noon; Wang Yan took a sip of water and said to everyone:

"All right, you can go get lunch and relax; we'll reconvene in this meeting room at three this afternoon."

"Yes."

After everyone answered in the affirmative, they all filed out of the meeting room.

And while they were going downstairs, they unexpectedly ran into a group of people.

Seeing the uniforms on the other side, everyone's expressions turned solemn.

These people heading upstairs were precisely the participants from this year's Sun Moon Royal Soul Master Academy.

The Shilake group had intended to ignore them and go to the first floor to eat, but unexpectedly the boy standing second in the Sun Moon Royal Soul Master Academy line suddenly spoke to them:

"Yo, Shilake guys, do you have confidence in this match?"

A flash of cold light appeared in Dai Yaoheng's eyes as he asked coldly:

"What are you? Whether we have a chance to win is none of your business."

The boy chuckled and said:

"It's fine if you don't know me; my name is Xiao Hongchen, captain of the Sun Moon Royal Soul Master Academy's reserve team, and I will definitely trample Shilake under my feet in five years. You don't know me now, but you will surely remember my name then."

"Hah." Dai Yaoheng snorted derisively, "Just you?"

If Xiao Hongchen were talking about this year's tournament, it would still be debatable, but saying he will defeat Shilake in next year's tournament seems, in Dai Yaoheng's view, pure fantasy.

Even if we ignore that Shilake's main team won't face the same situation next time, just given that next year's tournament will have Tang Wulin and Huo Yutong, these two geniuses, Dai Yaoheng has no idea where Xiao Hongchen gets the nerve to say such things.

To the arrogant Dai Yaoheng, Xiao Hongchen was not annoyed.

"That's right, just me; if you don't believe me, I can show you a couple of tricks in this tournament."

Saying that, he smiled and looked toward Huo Yutong standing at the rear of the group, extended his thumb toward her, then flipped it downward and pointed it down.

"???"

Huo Yutong looked completely bewildered.

Why did he keep gesturing at her all of a sudden? Who is this white-haired guy? Since Xiao Hongchen hadn't appeared much before, Huo Yutong didn't know him at all.

Tang Wulin frowned.

"Keep your fingers to yourself, or I might break them in the next match."

Xiao Hongchen laughed, a dangerous light flashing in his eyes.

"Just forget it, you have no right to talk to me like that. If you annoy me, I can't guarantee you'll be able to walk onto the competition stage."

Evidently, he didn't take Tang Wulin seriously at all.

However, at that moment, his sleeve was tugged, and Meng Hongchen leaned close to his ear, dissatisfiedly saying:

"Brother, you're being too harsh."

"???"

This time it was Xiao Hongchen who was bewildered; he stared in shock at his own younger sister.

"Meng, you..."

Dai Yaoheng didn't know what Meng Hongchen had said to Xiao Hongchen; seeing that the two had no intention of continuing their argument, he let out a cold snort.

"Hmph, what a farce."

As he spoke, he led the Shrek team around the Sun Moon Royal Soul Engineer Academy's contingent and continued toward the first floor.

Wang Yan in the team glanced back at the Hongchen siblings, thoughtful.

(End of chapter)