The Tournament Begins
The two days that Zhou Huan and Zhang Lexuan spent showing off their affection at the hotel passed quickly.
Today, the once-every-five-years All Continent Youth Soul Master Elite Competition has finally arrived.
At dawn, with the Sun Moon Empire's army maintaining order, the participating teams began to depart from the Mingyue Hotel one after another, heading to the Mingdu East Suburb.
That's right, the competition venue is set Mingdu City, instead of Star Luo City as it was in the previous Star Luo Empire.
Clearly, this was out of consideration for the Sun Moon Empire's own security.
It should be noted that this gathering brought together almost all the young, talented Soul Master from across the continent.
Of course, the focus isn't on the young, talented Soul Master, but rather on the Titled Douluo, or even Super Douluo, behind them.
If any uncontrollable major event were to occur during the competition, resulting in a battle between Titled Douluo within the city, no matter how powerful the Sun Moon Empire, the losses would be absolutely incalculable.
Furthermore, setting up the competition venue in the Mingdu East Suburb can accommodate more spectators.
When it comes to making money, the Sun Moon Empire will certainly not lag behind.
Because Xu Tianran wants to unify Douluo, he needs to wage war. And what does it take to fight a war?
Besides high-end combat capabilities, the most important factor is, of course, money.
Therefore, Zhou Huan easily understood the Sun Moon Empire's arrangement of the competition venue.
When he brought the Shrek Team to the Mingdu East Suburb, he was also stunned for several seconds by the huge, technologically advanced arena.
The competition platform is ten meters high and approximately 120 meters in diameter.
At first glance, the entire surface of the arena appears to be a huge and complete piece of metal.
It's quite impressive to be able to use Soul Tool to create a completely seamless connection between the arena.
Furthermore, pale yellow soul-guided light curtains were set up around the arena, which appeared to be large defensive soul-guided energy walls.
It's worth mentioning that these defensive light barriers are emitted close to the edge of the arena.
Therefore, it is impossible for a situation like Xu Sanshi's in the previous competition, where he used the Mysterious Nether Swap to trick someone out of the competition and thus win the match, to happen again.
When Zhou Huan, Zhang Lexuan, and Ma Xiaotao led their team to the VIP area of the arena, the entire eastern suburbs venue was already packed with people, even more so than the previous Star Luo Soul Master Competition.
As for Huo Gua and the others, they fared much worse. Because Tang Sect was a newly participating sect, they could only be placed in an inconspicuous corner.
Then, after Zhou Huan and the others sat down, it wasn't long before a Dragon Carriage procession of imperial carriages, escorted by the army, appeared.
"Your Regent King, Your Regent Princess Consort has arrived!"
After a seemingly soft yet steady voice rang out, loud enough for hundreds of thousands of people present to hear, the majority of the crowd chanted in unison, "Long live the Regent! Long live the Regent King! Long live the Regent!"
Of course, the teams from the Original Three Great Empires of Douluo would definitely not show any enthusiasm for the Crown Prince of the Sun Moon Empire.
Zhou Huan naturally saw the young man sitting on the Dragon Carriage and the woman in Court Dress standing beside him.
This was Zhou Huan's first time meeting Xu Tianran, as well as the Empress War God Ju Zi!
It has to be said, these two are both ruthless!
Long Xiaoyao and Ye Xishui, both Limit Douluo, were incredibly powerful, but in the end, they still died at their hands, weren't they?
Although Ye Xishui deliberately courted death and walked into the trap, she never expected that she would actually die from it.
Judging solely from the outcome, Zhou Huan would call this seemingly harmonious but actually estranged couple the strongest CP in Douluo!
Especially Ju Zi, who not only gave Xu Tianran a pre-arranged cuckold's horns, but also betrayed him by making a deal with Huo Gua to kill Xu Tianran.
This is practically a case of colluding with one's cheating partner to ruin the Original Husband!
Although Zhou Huan didn't think Xu Tianran was a good person either, after all, due to his physical defects, this Sun Moon Crown Prince was somewhat psychologically twisted, Xu Tianran could still be considered a ruthless and ambitious figure.
To die at the hands of one's own wife's lover is truly a humiliating end.
However, Zhou Huan did not feel sorry for Xu Tianran's death, because his greatest contribution was to stabilize the Sun Moon Empire and then unify the Douluo Continent. But if it weren't for a certain God King disregarding the rules and forcibly intervening, Ju Zi would have been able to achieve that later.
Just as Zhou Huan was pondering the future fate of this fake couple, Xu Tianran and Ju Zi had already arrived at the Main Platform on the north side of the competition platform.
At this moment, the entire scene was still chaotic!
"Quiet!"
Suddenly, a calm yet profound voice rang out, accompanied by an unparalleled sense of awe!
Zhou Huan narrowed his eyes, and three words immediately popped into his mind— Long Xiaoyao!
As expected, on the first day, it was still this strongest sycophant from Douluo who suppressed the entire scene, serving as a warning to the Daqiang who had secretly arrived.
Zhou Huan and Zhang Lexuan exchanged a glance, both understanding the meaning in each other's eyes.
Soon, the hundreds of thousands of people at the scene quieted down.
Next, Ju Zi, on behalf of Xu Tianran, gave a brief Opening Ceremony speech. "First of all, welcome everyone! On behalf of..."
After a brief official statement, the All Continent Youth Soul Master Elite Competition officially began!
First, the referee reads out the rules of the game.
The rules are basically consistent with those previously introduced by Xuanzi, with the only slight change being a minor discrepancy in the points calculation for the Individual Elimination Tournament.
The team that ultimately wins the Individual Elimination Tournament will not receive any additional points; in other words, the winning team will only receive seven points.
As for the losing teams, it depends on how many points they get in the Individual Elimination Tournament.
If they can't even get two points, then there's no point in playing the team competition, since there are only five points in the team competition.
Therefore, if a team loses in the Individual Elimination Tournament and only gets one or zero points, even if they win the team competition, they will only get six or five points, and the result is still a loss.
Conversely, if you get three points in the Individual Elimination Tournament, you can concede defeat and then start a Team Battle to decide the winner. Of course, this depends on the team's own strength, and not all teams have an advantage in Team Battle.
The competition officially began only after the referee read out the competition rules!
"The All Continent Youth Soul Master Elite Competition, Match 1, Individual Elimination Tournament: Sun Moon Royal Soul Master Academy versus Dragon Slaying Sect! Please welcome both teams to the stage!"
After the referee's announcement, Meng Hongchen from the Sun Moon Team stepped forward.
The one who took the stage from the Dragon Slaying Sect was a very strong-looking young man.
Zhou Huan knew the outcome of the match without even watching; the Sun Moon Team would win without a doubt.
Zhou Huan's eyelids twitched slightly when he saw the Preliminary Round One Matchup Schedule in his hand.
The match between the Sun Moon Royal Soul Master Academy and Dragon Slaying Sect remains unchanged, but... Tang Sect Team's opponent has changed!
This year's Soul Master Competition has a total of 167 participating teams.
The preliminary rounds consisted of three rounds of direct Elimination Match. Since the number of participating teams was odd, and the Shrek Team was Reigning Champion, Shrek did not need to participate in the first round of Elimination Match.
Following the original trajectory, Shrek's first match in the second round of Elimination Match was against the Heavenly Armor Sect.
But what Zhou Huan saw now was that the Tang Sect was directly facing the Heavenly Armor Sect in the first round of the Elimination Match!
In other words, the Shrek Team has no chance of encountering the Heavenly Armor Sect, since Huo Gua and his team are unlikely to lose to the Heavenly Armor Sect.
Therefore, Shrek Team's next opponent is most likely not what Zhou Huan had predicted.
However, that doesn't matter. Although the opponent has changed, it doesn't really make a difference to Zhou Huan.
This butterfly effect ultimately led to some changes, though still within acceptable limits.
Of course, what Zhou Huan was more concerned about now was that the Holy Spirit Cult had not attended the opening ceremony of the first day of the competition.
However, the Holy Spirit Sect's name is already on the match list.
Although their first match isn't until tomorrow, they haven't even shown up for the opening ceremony of the tournament.
Are you trying to be mysterious?
But Zhou Huan had already spotted the old man in black robes standing next to Xu Tianran. If he wasn't mistaken, he should be Zhongli Wubenwu, the Imperial Preceptor of the Sun Moon Empire and the Holy Spirit Cult Leader!
Long Xiaoyao never showed his face from beginning to end; he only used his voice to dominate the scene at the beginning. He probably had no interest in staying here to watch these weaklings fight.
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