Chapter 163: Shi Quan's Expectations

On the other side, so as not to appear too abnormal, Shi Quan still returned to the hotel at dusk as usual.

Since he knew Tang Hao had already returned, Shi Quan prepared to stay at the hotel for another two days before returning to the academy.

Hotel room.

Shi Quan toyed with the white diamond-shaped crystal in his hand; this diamond-shaped crystal was the Enhancement Crystal created by the Blue Silver King.

According to what the Blue Silver King said, while maintaining its strength without being affected, by continuously injecting energy, he could use the Enhancement Modifier to create two such Enhancement Crystals every day.

If he injected energy at full power, he could produce more of these Enhancement Crystals. But he would need time to recover his soul power, which would create a window of vulnerability, and then he would be unable to guarantee his own safety.

Shi Quan roughly sensed the Enhancement Crystal in his hand; this Enhancement Crystal belonged to the basic type, containing pure energy, and could only increase the age of a soul bone.

According to Shi Quan's estimation, this one Enhancement Crystal could increase the age by approximately two hundred to three hundred years.

Two a day would be four hundred to six hundred years.

But this was obviously impossible; according to the nature of games, this kind of basic Enhancement Crystal should not be able to be stacked without limit.

In the current battles, the Elephant Armored Academy had also lost consecutively to the other two Great Elemental Academies.

The Preliminary Round held no interest for Shi Quan, as the soul bone was already in his hands anyway.

Just like that, after two days of experimentation, this kind of basic Enhancement Crystal was ineffective for the hundred-thousand-year-level Blue Silver Emperor Soul Bone, but it was effective for the ten-thousand-year-level Phantom Heart Left Arm Bone, capable of increasing the soul bone's age to a certain extent.

To make a soul bone undergo a transformation, it would inevitably require a higher-grade Enhancement Crystal; the effect of this kind of Enhancement Crystal made purely with soul power was limited.

Shi Quan did a simple calculation: if he led the Heaven Dou Team to snatch first place in the tournament from the Shrek Team and obtained the three soul bone rewards, the system would certainly trigger a Plunder Treasure Chest first.

Unknowingly, one-third of the tournament's Preliminary Round had already passed.

The aura of the Phantom Heart Left Arm Bone had also increased by at least thirty percent compared to before.

The Shrek Team, where Tang San was, had not yet encountered any relatively powerful Spirit Master academies so far, and they hadn't met a single one of the Five Elements Academies, maintaining a winning streak all the way.

Calculating like this for a month, that would be twelve thousand to eighteen thousand years.

In the Heaven Dou Empire competition zone, for the contention of the five spots, the Shrek Academy's biggest opponents were the Five Elements Academies; if they wanted to advance to the Promotion Tournament, they had to defeat any one of the Five Elements Academies and maintain a perfect record against the other academies.

You don't know until you calculate it, and this calculation was startling.

Therefore, the goal Yu Xiaogang set for everyone was: the Elephant Armored Academy would go all out, and after obtaining victory, they would minimize consumption against the subsequent elemental academies, or giving up directly would not be out of the question.

Tang San and the others were discussing countermeasures for the Preliminary Round in a tense atmosphere, while Shi Quan had already returned to the academy.

Then there was the Destiny Treasure Chest; once he reached Wuhun City, he would be able to see Bibi Dong, and Qian Renxue had already triggered a Destiny Treasure Chest—as the "strongest villain" in the novel, Bibi Dong would certainly be able to trigger a Destiny Treasure Chest as well.

This was also Yu Xiaogang's strategy, because they were currently maintaining a perfect record, and at present, one-third of the Preliminary Round had passed, so Yu Xiaogang and the others had already grasped the general situation regarding the strength of all the academy teams.

Besides the Enhancement Crystal made by the Blue Silver King injecting soul power, in these two days, Shi Quan had also used an Immortal Herb named Phantom Heart Poppy to make another special Enhancement Crystal, which he used to enhance the Phantom Heart Left Arm Bone.

Among the Five Great Elemental Academies, except for the Elephant Armored Academy which still maintained the Extreme Flow team composition, the other four Great Elemental Academies had already begun to use the Balanced Flow method to execute the Extreme Flow, and their combat effectiveness had changed drastically compared to previous years.

And finally, the Prestige Treasure Chest; once the title of champion of the Continental Advanced Spirit Master Elite Academy Tournament was spread, wouldn't this Prestige Treasure Chest be as good as in his pocket?

The purpose of Shi Quan's decision to participate in the tournament in the first place was for this Prestige Treasure Chest.

After all, this was only the Preliminary Round, and as long as they could ensure they qualified, it was fine, especially in their current situation where they might encounter the teams of the Five Great Elemental Academies consecutively within a few short days, so they had to be even better prepared.

The days ahead would be for proper cultivation, preparing for the upcoming Grand Finals.

Regarding the subsequent Grand Finals, Shi Quan also became exceptionally expectant.

The gaze returned to the Heaven Dou Great Soul Arena.

On the central Soul Fighting Platform, a faint white cold mist shrouded the ring, snowflakes drifted, revealing the figures of Tang San and the others.

"Seventeenth round of the Preliminary Round, Heaven Dou Imperial Academy's Shrek Team versus Tianshui Academy's Tianshui Team, Tianshui Team wins!"

As the host's words fell, Flender and the others hurriedly went onto the stage to rescue them, breaking the ice and carrying the group, who were already frozen purple, off the ring.

In the hotel where they were resting, the group slowly woke up; facing one of the Five Elements Academies, the Tianshui Academy, for the first time, Shrek's journey ended in defeat.

"Those lasses from Tianshui Academy are still kind-hearted; they didn't strike too heavily. Little San and the others only had a simple case of cold energy entering their bodies, and their injuries aren't serious. If they rest well for a day, there shouldn't be any problems by the second day." After Flender finished checking everyone's bodies, he let out a long breath.

The continuous victories had made everyone high-spirited, and the sudden defeat was somewhat of a blow to them.

The awakened group couldn't help but be somewhat silent; although Yu Xiaogang had said before the fight that they could give up this match, they only had one goal when they went on stage, which was to win, but the result was that the opponent's Martial Soul Fusion Skill crushed them directly.

"Brother, are you awake?" Xiao Wu looked at the awakened Tang San with red-rimmed eyes.

Tang San only felt his hands and feet go numb, and he smiled and nodded at Xiao Wu, comforting her, "It's nothing."

Deep down, however, he couldn't help but feel heartache, "What a pity, if my Devour energy were stronger and my physical fitness were stronger, I could have completely crushed the opponent's Ice Phoenix in one go. That way the team wouldn't have lost, I wouldn't have been injured, and Xiao Wu wouldn't have to worry. It looks like it's time to go obtain my Fourth Spirit Ring."

"It's just right to use the opponent's Martial Soul Fusion Skill this time as a reason."

"Brother, wait a moment." Xiao Wu hurriedly got up and went outside, "Little Ao, Little San is awake, come quickly with a few more Recovery Sausages."

"Coming right up!" Oscar immediately summoned his martial soul to make sausages.

In the battle against the Tianshui Team, because Tang San helped them share the attacks, his injuries were the most severe, and even his Soul-Devouring Eight Spider Lances were shattered again, so upon hearing that Tang San had woken up, Oscar sent the sausages over immediately.

With the sausage in his stomach, a wave of warmth spread from his body, and his stiff, numb limbs quickly regained sensation.

"Little San, do you feel better?" Yu Xiaogang also walked in from outside at this moment.

Tang San raised his head and revealed an excited expression, "Teacher, it's not a big problem, and there's another piece of good news."

"Good news?" Yu Xiaogang looked curious, "What good news?"

The others also crowded around.

"I've reached a Breakthrough to Level 40."

As Tang San's words fell, everyone was suddenly taken aback, and Yu Xiaogang also looked surprised.

Tang San had only just reached Level 39 less than two months ago, and he had broken through again?

Tang San then explained: "It should be related to the Martial Soul Fusion Skill of Shui Bing'er and the other girl. Teacher, you also know that my Blue Silver Grass martial soul possesses the ability to Devour, and coupled with the Devouring of the Soul-Devouring Eight Spider Lances, today during the battle, in order to break their Martial Soul Fusion Skill, I devoured a large amount of energy, and this energy greatly impacted and expanded my meridians, which also allowed my soul power to break through to Level 40 in one go."

"Does that mean you ate too much and directly stretched your stomach?" Ma Hongjun couldn't help but click his tongue.

"Teacher, let's just say, can our meridians be stretched and expanded like this?" Ma Hongjun looked at Flender with a cheeky expression.

Flender couldn't help but roll his eyes at Ma Hongjun, "Can your small frame handle that?"

"The energy of a Soul Ancestor-level Martial Soul Fusion Skill—with that much energy, I'm afraid even a Soul King would be stretched to the limit."

"Such a vast amount of energy is not something just anyone can withstand; one careless move and they would be blown apart."

"Moreover, forcing it like this damages one's foundation. For ordinary people, this kind of operation is like pulling on seedlings to help them grow; it will damage their foundation."

"Tang San's body has been transformed by his External Spirit Bone, and with his Twin Spirits, his physical constitution far exceeds that of ordinary people, which is why he has such an opportunity."

"Sigh..." Ma Hongjun could not help but sigh upon hearing this.

Yu Xiaogang said indifferently: "A Martial Soul Fusion Skill is not impossible to replicate. I have recently been researching a special soul skill called the Seven-in-One Fusion Skill. It involves merging the soul power of seven people into one and channeling it into a single person's body, thereby erupting with a powerful ability comparable to a Martial Soul Fusion Skill. Originally, I was worried about not being able to withstand the impact of the soul power, but judging from Tang San's situation, the Seven-in-One Fusion Skill is not impossible."

"Seven-in-One Fusion Skill? What is that?" Everyone looked at Yu Xiaogang in unison.

"You will know when the time comes." Yu Xiaogang looked at Tang San, "Tang San, your External Spirit Bone has shattered again; about how long will it take to recover this time?"

"Because I absorbed quite a bit of energy during the battle, this energy can help my Eight Spider Lances recover quickly. Plus, with the recovery and healing from Oscar and the others, it should be mostly recovered in one night."

Yu Xiaogang nodded, then looked at Flender, "Since that is the case, Flender, you call Zhao Wuji, and tomorrow we will take Tang San to obtain his Soul Ring. Tomorrow's opponent is not strong, so after the match ends, we can directly take a carriage to the Sunset Forest. At that time, with your flight ability, we can greatly shorten the time spent searching for a Spirit Beast."

"No problem." Flender nodded.

"Qin Ming, I cannot say for sure exactly how long it will take for Tang San to obtain his Soul Ring, so you will preside over the upcoming matches."

"As for the matches, with Tianheng and Mu Bai as the core, there shouldn't be much of a problem."

"Very well." Qin Ming nodded in agreement.