The match was not over yet, but beneath the Arena, Qin Yuan stretched with an easy, contented look on his face.
He even told the people beside him, "The match has entered garbage time. No need to watch the rest. Prepare something nourishing for the kids and let them get a good night's rest."
"Huh?" Teacher Jiang, who handled logistics, looked baffled.
The match had only just begun. How could anyone tell how it would end?
Of course, Qin Yuan was not talking nonsense. Others might not know what the Imperial Fighting Team was capable of, but he did.
The Climbing Ivy Martial Soul excelled at adhesion and growth. Once it wrapped around an enemy, it clung fast and multiplied rapidly, bundling its target up like a rice dumpling.
The Blue Tyrant Team's place in the finals, and its victory in the first round, owed no small part to the extraordinary performance of its Climbing Ivy control-type Soul Master.
Today, their luck had run out!
Plant-type Martial Souls were easily countered. The Imperial Fighting Team had no fire-type Soul Master, but it did have Dugu Yan, a poison-type Soul Master.
After absorbing an Immortal Herb and forming a Poison Core, Dugu Yan's poison was no longer what it once had been. If she caught someone off guard, it could even threaten a Soul King.
As the Climbing Ivy Martial Soul crept across nearly half the Arena, a smile touched Dugu Yan's lips. She directed her Jade Phosphorous Serpent Martial Soul to spew a cloud of emerald-green poison mist.
In an instant, the poison mist engulfed the Arena.
Dugu Yan's poison did not distinguish friend from foe. Before, she would never have dared do this without Dugu Bo present.
But since forming her Poison Core, her control over poison had become extraordinarily precise. She could keep the mist from affecting her teammates.
Jade Phosphorous Serpent Poison was fiercely corrosive. The moment the ivy vines entered it, they shriveled, withered, and lost their ability to restrain anyone.
Lei Meng's eyes lit up.
Before the match, he had thought they would have to rely on his lightning to counter the Climbing Ivy Martial Soul. He had not expected Dugu Yan's poison to work just as well.
That made things easy. With nothing left to worry about, he held nothing back.
He charged into the opposing formation with his blade, moving as though no one stood in his way. The Blue Tyrant captain, still recovering from serious injuries, could not withstand his attack and was the first to be eliminated!
"The Heaven Dou Royal Academy Team wins!" the Referee announced loudly.
Since the academy's second team had not reached the finals, there was no need to distinguish between the two teams from here on.
Lei Meng leaped up in excitement and struck a victor's pose.
Winning the first match sent their confidence soaring. As long as they did not run into the Spirit Hall Team, they had every hope of reaching the grand final!
While the victors celebrated, the losers looked dejected.
Even with two substitutes on the field, the Imperial Fighting Team had eliminated the Blue Tyrant Team without a single casualty. Such a lopsided result proved that Blue Tyrant had been crushed on every front.
Liu Erlong simmered with resentment, but as the loser, she did not dare let it show. She could not risk being called a sore loser and hurting the academy's recruitment next year.
In the Imperial Fighting Team's rest area,
Dugu Yan and Ye Lingling were beaming.
As substitutes, the two had only one chance to take the field, but both had played crucial roles in this match.
Dugu Yan's poison had neutralized the troublesome Climbing Ivy, while Ye Lingling's healing Soul Skill had kept the team healthy throughout. By the end of the match, not one of them was injured.
"Well done. Keep it up." Qin Yuan laughed and praised them without reservation.
Their sweeping victory in the first match had given them an excellent start.
Everyone was brimming with confidence for the matches ahead, and their chances would only improve. As long as they did not meet the Spirit Hall Team too early, the task Meng Shenji had entrusted to Qin Yuan would be complete.
If Lei Meng could break through to the next level of his Blade Technique during the tournament, Qin Yuan might even claim his mission reward once the Soul Master Tournament ended.
A Hundred Thousand Year Soul Ring! How could he not want it? How could he not be impatient?
He and the Imperial Fighting Team were each getting what they needed. A bright future awaited them all!
In the spectator stands,
Hu Liena and the other two had been seated in the front row. They had seen everything that happened in the arena.
"The Imperial Fighting Team is strong. Their captain is a level forty-seven Soul Ancestor. If the Spirit Hall Team didn't have a Soul King, it would be hard to say who'd win this tournament."
The three spoke quietly among themselves, too softly for anyone else to hear.
Xie Yue said thoughtfully, "If the draw goes their way, the Imperial Fighting Team can at least make the top three. And did you notice Lei Meng's Blade Technique? It's far too sharp for someone his age!"
Xie Yue's Martial Soul was the Moon Blade, which was, at its core, also a Blade Martial Soul.
Unfortunately, he was still too young to have made any progress in cultivating the deeper principles of the Blade Technique.
It was not for lack of talent. For one thing, he had no suitable teacher; for another, mastery took time.
Yet Lei Meng's Blade Technique was refined and sharp, each stroke flowing like drifting clouds and running water, without the slightest hesitation. By rights, someone his age should not have been capable of that.
"If Teacher Qin trained him, then I think Teacher Qin is the mentor His Holiness the Pope spoke of," Xie Yue said, holding to his view.
Yan objected once more. "Come on. According to the records, Lei Meng comes from a Duke's Family. With a background like that, his family could have hired a renowned master for him. He might have been training with a blade since childhood."
Unless someone shared his passion, it was hard to understand how Xie Yue felt at that moment.
He did not accept Yan's explanation, but he did not argue further.
The Imperial Fighting Team's opponent tomorrow was a team from the Star Luo Empire.
In Qin Yuan's view, this Battle Team was little stronger than the Blue Tyrant Battle Team. If the two faced each other, the match could go either way.
After all, this was not ten thousand years later. Most Soul Masters only reached the Soul Elder or Soul Ancestor level in their twenties.
Even in the next tournament, not every Battle Team would be strong. Battle Teams such as Godwind and Blazing Fire were remembered mainly because their captains stood out.
To be honest, even on the Shrek Team back then, Qin Yuan thought that apart from Tang San, the others' performances were nothing special. Some were far less impressive than Feng Xiaotian and his peers.
Of course, he was judging them from the perspective of an experienced Soul Master, so his standards were higher.
To him, the Soul Master Tournament was little more than child's play. Throw its contestants into an arena of life-and-death combat, and few would make it out alive.
That night,
Under the Heaven Dou Empire's rules, members of Battle Teams competing in the tournament received extra food from the logistics staff.
Only active contestants qualified for it. Once a team was eliminated, the allowance ended.
Good food was important to a Soul Master's cultivation.
They needed to eat well to have the strength to compete and achieve better results.
But the moment that night's late snack came through the door, Qin Yuan intercepted it.
He accepted the food without betraying anything and asked with a smile, "Teacher Jiang, what kept you so late?"
Teacher Jiang wiped a smudge of soot from his nose and said awkwardly, "I don't know why, but I've been sleepy today. After delivering the other Battle Teams' snacks, I dozed off and burned a batch. I had to make it again. Sorry about that, Teacher Qin."
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