National Advanced Spirit Master Douluo Competition
As time passed, the Continental Advanced Spirit Master Academy Elite Tournament was approaching, and the continent was once again ablaze with excitement.
Now that the continental empire is unified, the "All-Continent Advanced Spirit Master Academy Elite Tournament" has been renamed the "National Advanced Spirit Master Douluo Competition".
In addition to all advanced Soul Master Academy, elite disciples from sects across the entire continent are eligible to participate.
The requirement for the younger generation remains under 25 years old. This year, with the addition of major sects, it is the strongest competition in history.
Furthermore, the rewards offered by the Empire are extremely generous. The top three teams will receive incredibly rich rewards, and the teams that make it into the top thirty will also receive very generous rewards.
Among the rewards were numerous Spirit Bones and various Heavenly Material and Earthly Treasure. Besides the Spirit Bone, the most enticing reward was the Spirit Abilities Sausage, the First Martial Soul Supreme Sausage of the Eternal Great Emperor; just hearing about its effects drove countless people into a frenzy...
With hundreds of teams from advanced Soul Master Academy and major sects across the continent participating, the competition was extremely fierce.
Because of the unification of the mainland, perhaps due to some divine blessing, various Hermit Sect emerged, and many ancient relics were discovered.
Today's young generation of Soul Master are even more outstanding than before. It is rumored that some academies or sects even have Spirit King Soul Emperor among their members.
Within the official academies of the Spirit Hall Empire alone, there are quite a few powerful individuals.
Currently, the Spirit Hall Empire has two official academies: one is Shrek Royal Advanced Academy, and the other is the newly established Spirit Empire Royal Academy.
The Spirit Empire Royal Academy not only teaches Martial Soul cultivation, but also introduces new Soul Engineer.
However, Soul Tool are just emerging in the Douluo Continent and do not yet have a great reputation. Traditional Soul Master are still more popular, so the current level of Soul Engineer is relatively low.
However, with the empire's vigorous development of Soul Tool, the prestige of the Spirit Empire Royal Academy will naturally increase infinitely in the future.
Soul Engineer have an absolute advantage before the seventh ring. Although they are slightly inferior to traditional Soul Master after the seventh ring, if Soul Engineer is a powerful Soul Master, their abilities will naturally be more diverse and powerful.
Besides the Spirit Empire Royal Academy, the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect is the second major force that focuses on attacking Soul Engineer, since their inherited Martial Soul, the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Pagoda, does not have offensive capabilities.
If the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect's Soul Tool develop, and are combined with the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Pagoda, the continent's premier support item, a wondrous collision is bound to occur.
However, although the empire is vigorously developing Soul Tool, there are some sects that are very disdainful of them, among which the Clear Sky Sect and the Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon Clan are the leaders.
Their inherited Martial Soul is so powerful that they don't need to waste time cultivating external objects like Soul Tool.
Oscar, of course, didn't care about this. After all, what he wanted was for a diverse range of ideas and a vibrant community, with each Soul Master faction having its own area of expertise.
However, the arrival of the Soul Tool era made the Tang Sect feel somewhat powerless.
Their Hidden Weapon originally had an enormous audience, but now that Soul Tool have appeared, the effectiveness of Hidden Weapon has naturally decreased significantly.
Fortunately, Tang Hao, Tai Tan, and others made selfless contributions to building the Spirit Pagoda, and Oscar did not treat them unfairly, giving them some ingenious ideas, such as the combination of Hidden Weapon and Soul Tool.
After discussion, the members of the Tang Sect felt that this was indeed a good direction for development. As long as the foundation of the Tang Sect remained unshaken, the reputation of the sect could still be maintained.
The competition was held in the capital Spirit City. There were 224 advanced Soul Master Academy and many sect teams from across the continent, with nearly 3,000 Soul Master including their prodigies, teachers, and substitutes.
This group of people alone could form a powerful sect.
In the lead-up to the competition, the Empire had already pushed this grand event in the Spirit Master World to its climax, with countless people from all over the continent flocking to witness the brilliance of the younger generation of Spirit Master World.
Although the capital city has been expanded, the daily flow of people exceeds 20 million. With the support of this booming situation, the floating population in the capital city has surged to more than 50 million, and the number is still rising.
The income from entering the city alone, plus the revenue from the Soul Fighting Tournament tickets, amounts to an astronomical sum.
There were even instances where the imperial finance department secretly ran betting operations, placing bets on the Soul Master teams they favored, which was similar to the ball games of the previous life.
The National Advanced Spirit Master Douluo Competition alone is enough to bring considerable revenue to the Empire's treasury.
For this National Advanced Spirit Master Douluo Competition, the Empire specially expanded the original Heaven Dou Great Spirit Arena, which is now renamed "Spirit Hall Empire Advanced Elite Soul Master Spirit Arena".
Not only is the interior luxurious and sophisticated, but it also provides accommodation and entertainment facilities for nearly three thousand elite Soul Master teams. Furthermore, all participating teams will have their expenses covered during the competition.
The main stadium is large enough to accommodate 500,000 spectators at the same time without feeling crowded.
In addition, four huge Soul Tool were set up outside the venue for real-time screen sharing, so that those who did not manage to get an admission ticket could also have the opportunity to witness the talent of these young Soul Master.
The competition format remains the same, consisting of three rounds.
The first round is an elimination round, which eliminates half of the Soul Master teams. The remaining half of the Soul Master teams will advance to the second round of the Promotion Match.
The Promotion Match adopted the original format of the Star Luo Empire National Tournament, with three Promotion Match: one-on-one, two-on-three, and Team Battle.
Furthermore, there is a chance of elimination in the Promotion Match. Only 99 teams are needed for the Grand Finals, so teams ranked outside the top 99 in total points Promotion Match will still be eliminated.
The top 99 teams from the Promotion Match will advance to the finals, which will also be a completely knockout tournament.
Before entering the Grand Finals, the top three teams in the Promotion Match will have an enormous advantage.
In the first round of the finals, the team ranked first in the overall points of the qualifying rounds received a bye, while the remaining 98 teams competed in a team battle, with the loser being directly eliminated.
The second round left 49 teams, plus the teams that received a bye in the first round, bringing the total to 50 teams. Of these 50 teams, the second and third place teams from the Promotion Match received a bye, leaving 48 teams to compete for the top 24 spots.
The third round consists of the top 24 teams plus the two teams that received a bye, leaving a total of 26 teams. These 26 teams will not receive a bye and will compete in the third round to determine the top 13.
All of these thirteen teams will receive incredibly generous rewards based on their final rankings, from top to bottom.
In the fourth round, the top three teams from the Promotion Match received a bye, leaving ten teams to compete for the top five spots.
The five losing teams are ranked from the bottom 13th up, mainly based on their ranking in the Promotion Match. If a team performs exceptionally well in the Promotion Match, its ranking may be raised accordingly.
In the fifth round, the top five teams plus the three teams that received byes make up the remaining eight. After the top eight, there are no more byes, and the teams are drawn into four-on-four matches to determine the final four. The four losing teams are ranked the same as the previous five teams, mainly based on their points in the Promotion Match, starting from eighth place.
In the sixth round, the top two teams were decided among the four remaining teams. The two losing teams then played another match to determine the third-place winner.
The final two teams will compete in the seventh round to determine the champion and runner-up.
This is the general structure of the competition format today.
The most crucial factor is the performance during the Promotion Match. The top three teams will receive three byes in the Grand Finals. Basically, if you finish in the top three of the Promotion Match, you've secured a good chance in the Grand Finals.
After all, so many matches would be extremely taxing on the Soul Master themselves. Even the strongest teams couldn't withstand the continuous high-intensity matches.
Having a bye undoubtedly provides ample time to rest and recover.
There are no restrictions on the competition format. As long as it is the Soul Master's own ability, whether it is Soul Spirit, Hidden Weapon, Soul Tool, or any other weapon, it can be used.
However, they cannot use external items like Oscar's Sausage that can instantly boost their combat power many times over, and Food System Soul Master cannot use pre-stored Soul Skill on the field. But there are no restrictions after they leave the field.
In short, countless people who specialize in studying the competition schedule have already developed very comprehensive and detailed rules, but as with any rule, there will always be loopholes.
Even if someone deliberately tries to exploit loopholes, as long as the problem isn't too serious, it's generally okay to turn a blind eye, since that's how the world works.
Nothing in this world is perfect.
In the Douluo Continent, a year has twelve months, divided into two semesters: the first semester lasts from February to June, and the second semester lasts from August to December.
The National Advanced Spirit Master Douluo Competition, held every five years, will take place a month after the start of the next semester. Most students will spend the semester participating in the tournament, as the entire competition will take about three months.
Even those teams that were eliminated in the first round were willing to stay and watch the battles of other Soul Master Academy, which was a way to accumulate experience and observe the various abilities of students from other academies and sects.
This also allows for a five-year plan five years from now, aiming to achieve even better results.
So this semester of the competition was a bittersweet experience. Since the competition is held every five years, its impact is not significant.
According to the established plan, the Sect Competition on the mainland will be held in June of the following year after the competition, and even the higher-ups of the academy can participate to win a good reputation for the academy.
Now that the empire is unified, the Seven Great Sects hold a grand competition every five years, and advanced Soul Master Academy on the continent can also participate to compete for a spot in the Seven Great Sects.
After all, the benefits of the Seven Great Sects are very generous, and as long as there are enough benefits, countless people will flock to them.
Furthermore, on the distant Sun Moon Continent, the Spirit Hall Empire also has the same system as the Douluo Continent, with everything exactly the same, which can be considered as preparing for the merger of the two continents in advance.
As long as the Sun Moon Continent adapts to the rules and rhythm of the Douluo Continent in advance, there will be no sense of division after the two continents merge in the future.
On October 1st, after the Eternal Great Emperor personally announced the opening ceremony, the competition was held as scheduled.
Over the course of the previous month, a total of 224 teams participated in the elimination rounds, showcasing the exceptional talent of countless powerful young Soul Master.
Among them, the Shrek Royal Advanced Soul Master Academy is mainly composed of Yang Pojun, Niu Li, Bai Chenxiang, Tai Long, Jing Ling, Huang Yuan, and Jiang Zhu. With the cultivation of countless resources, they have all become Spirit King level experts.
Even the seven members of the preliminary team all possessed at least the cultivation level of a low-level Soul Ancestor.
The Spirit Empire Royal Academy is mainly composed of Shui Bing'er, Ye Lingling, Shui Yue'er, and others.
Shui Bing'er and Shui Yue'er naturally transferred from Shrek Academy. The Heaven Dou Imperial Academy, which the Empire vigorously supported, naturally used a lot of resources to provide them with education.
Furthermore, because the Xuan Ming Sect was wiped out by Bibi Dong and the King of Slaughter, Skywater Academy lost its backing and simply joined the Spirit Empire Royal Academy.
With so many beautiful women joining, the Imperial Academy became incredibly popular for a time. Countless male students knelt in gratitude to the Eternal Great Emperor for giving them the opportunity to have priority in choosing their spouses.
Sword Sect, Angel Sanctuary, Clear Sky Sect, Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon Clan, Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect, Divine Fire Gate, Wind God Valley...
Each sect and academy also has its own young prodigies leading the competition. Most of them are still Soul Elder, with the main force being Soul Master at the Soul Ancestor level. Stronger teams are basically led by Spirit King level experts.
However, a very small number of teams possess super geniuses at the Soul Emperor level, such as Shui Bing'er and Ye Lingling...
Actually, considering the age of participants in the competition, people like Oscar, Dugu Yan, Ma Hongjun, Ning Rongrong, Tang San, Xiao Wu, Dai Mubai, and Zhu Zhuqing could still participate.
However, they naturally have no interest in competing with a group of children these days; that would be too beneath them.
The Eternal Great Emperor is only twenty-one years old. Would he really participate in the Grand Tournament? Putting aside the absolute difference in strength, who would dare to make a move against the Emperor? Even if the Emperor had no objection, Oscar's countless die-hard fans would be enough to overwhelm these people.
The competition was in full swing, and the month-long elimination rounds soon came to an end, leaving 112 teams out of 224 to advance to the Promotion Match.
The second round of Promotion Match began, with the top 99 teams advancing to Grand Finals Promotion Match. The top three teams were the Spirit Empire Royal Academy, Shrek Royal Academy, and the Sword Sect's Soul Master team.
This was actually expected, after all, the two Heaven Dou Imperial Academy are directly supported by the empire, and the Sword Sect is the sect from which the Eternal Great Emperor originated, so the resources they receive are naturally unmatched by other academies and sects.
As the finals began, countless prodigies fought their way through the competition, showcasing their absolute strength and individual talents.
With millions of people watching, the outstanding talents in the competition became famous throughout the continent, enjoying immense popularity for a time.
By the end of the third round of the Grand Finals, thirteen teams had advanced to the top. The remaining teams were: Spirit Empire Royal Academy, Sword Sect Shrek Royal Academy, Sword Sect, Angel Sanctuary Academy (formerly Spirit Hall Academy), Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon Clan, Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect Divine Fire Gate (merged with the Blazing Academy), Wind God Valley (merged with the Godwind Academy), Clear Sky Sect, Thunderclap Academy (equivalent to the outer academy of the Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon Clan, not actually merged), Tang Sect ...
These teams were basically closely related to the Spirit Hall Empire from the very beginning, had interactions with the Eternal Great Emperor, and received many valuable items from him.
Or they are like the Divine Fire Gate and the Wind God Valley, which possess Divine Inheritance.
Or perhaps they were already quite powerful, just like the Clear Sky Sect.
The Tang Sect's advancement was indeed surprising. Their strongest member was only Soul Ancestor, but Tang Hao, Tai Tan, and others combined Hidden Weapon with Soul Tool, which allowed them to demonstrate remarkable strength.
P. S.: Typos will be corrected first and then fixed later.