The Grand Competition Begins

Three days later, the Advanced Soul Master Academy Competition arrived as scheduled.

As a top event renowned across the continent, this competition gathered the most outstanding young soul masters under the age of twenty-five.

New talents emerge in succession, with each generation replacing the old.

Perhaps the strength of these young soul masters might seem a bit immature in the eyes of the upper echelons.

But as time passes, these young soul masters will eventually grow into towering trees, stirring up storms across the continent.

Therefore, this competition is, in essence, a political stage for various forces to flex their muscles, recruit talent, and engage in covert rivalries.

The outcome of each match could potentially affect the prestige of empires, the reputation of sects, and the redistribution of resources.

Thus, beneath the surface of prosperity and harmony, countless undercurrents lie hidden.

But these are matters for the adults to consider. For the vast majority of people in Heaven Dou City, this competition is merely a lively grand event.

Long before the opening ceremony, the area around the Heaven Dou Great Soul Arena, chosen as the venue, was already overcrowded. Hotels in Heaven Dou City were fully booked, and some people even set up tents outside the city in anticipation of the competition's start.

And on this day, the day of the opening ceremony, everyone gathered in Heaven Dou City, whether inside or outside the city, poured into the city streets, heading towards the Heaven Dou Great Soul Arena.

Inside the Heaven Dou Great Soul Arena, in the entry preparation area.

All participating academy teams were gathered here, preparing for the upcoming introduction ceremony.

Among the many academy teams, one team's attire stood out, drawing the attention of teachers and students from surrounding academies, who turned to look and let out bursts of laughter.

This team was, of course, the members of Shrek Academy. After meticulous design by Dean Flender, all participating students were wearing poop-green uniforms, which looked extraordinarily ugly.

Yu Xiaogang had advised Flender to change the color, but Flender was adamant. He chose the current poop-green color specifically to make Shrek Academy stand out among the numerous participating academies.

Once they achieved good results, they could promote the name of Shrek Academy, which would be beneficial for the academy's future development.

However, while they had indeed stood out, it was likely to have more of a negative effect on the academy's development.

Yu Xiaogang turned to look at Flender beside him and, seeing his constipated expression, couldn't help but shake his head.

There was still some time before the ceremony began, and some academy teams that had arrived later were also entering the preparation area.

Just then, a team that had just entered the preparation area suddenly clashed with the students of Shrek Academy.

Yu Xiaogang immediately looked over and saw that the opposing team was wearing white uniforms, with silver edges outlining the clothing. Judging solely by appearance, they looked much better than the Shrek Academy team.

"Blue Sunshine Academy."

The two characters "Cāng Huī" embroidered on the shoulders of the opposing team caught Yu Xiaogang's eye. He immediately began scanning the Blue Sunshine Academy team for targets.

As expected, he found an old man, about sixty years old, at the back of the Blue Sunshine Academy team. He was wearing a moon-white long robe embroidered with golden patterns.

"Shi Nian..."

Yu Xiaogang looked at the person, his mind beginning to recall past events.

Speaking of which, this person was an old acquaintance. Back when he, Flender, and Liu Erlong formed the Golden Iron Triangle and roamed the continent, they had some dealings with this person.

That was in a market town on the edge of the Star Dou Great Forest. Because it was located on the fringes of the Heaven Dou Empire, it was a blind spot in the empire's management. Therefore, the underground black market in that town was larger and much darker, even involving the sale of people.

In order to enter a certain ruin, Yu Xiaogang and the other two entered the black market together to gather information, and the seller of the information was precisely Shi Nian.

Shi Nian had set two conditions for the exchange.

The first was to pay a price of ten thousand Gold Soul Coins, and the second was to answer his cultivation-related confusion.

Because Yu Xiaogang and the other two did not have enough Gold Soul Coins, and Yu Xiaogang was confident in his knowledge of martial souls, they chose the second condition: to answer Shi Nian's cultivation confusion.

Shi Nian described the characteristics of the Remnant Dream Martial Soul in detail and explained the problems he encountered during his cultivation.

That is, during his Meditation Cultivation, Shi Nian would sometimes be affected by the Remnant Dream Martial Soul and fall into the illusion realm woven by the martial soul.

In the illusion realm, Shi Nian possessed the powerful strength of a Titled Douluo. Once this happened, his meditation cultivation would be interrupted, and it would also rapidly consume his soul power.

He would only wake up from the illusion realm after his soul power was completely depleted, thus consuming a large amount of time to re-condense his soul power. This would cause his cultivation progress to stagnate.

After hearing the description, Yu Xiaogang immediately recognized Shi Nian's identity.

At that time, Yu Xiaogang had only recently left the Martial Soul Hall and still remembered some of the secrets of the Martial Soul Hall quite clearly.

He had heard Klay mention that an attendant of the Martial Soul Hall, unable to resolve his martial soul cultivation problems, had left the Martial Soul Hall without permission and disappeared without a trace.

Klay had described the problem encountered by that attendant in detail at the time, which was exactly the same as what Shi Nian had said. Yu Xiaogang had been very interested in this problem back then and had been pondering it privately ever since.

Coincidentally, he met the person himself at that time, so he naturally shared the method he had been pondering for many years.

Yu Xiaogang's method was relatively simple: establish a goal on someone else and continuously reinforce it.

Yu Xiaogang analyzed that the reason Shi Nian fell into an illusion during meditation cultivation was because Shi Nian's own strong desire to become a Titled Douluo had caused it.

This thought was related to himself, and coupled with the concentration of his spirit during meditation cultivation, it stimulated the characteristics of the Remnant Dream Martial Soul, causing him to fall into the illusion realm of a Titled Douluo.

To solve this problem, one only needed to destroy the subject of the thought, that is, replace the imagined object in his mind with someone else.

In short, don't fantasize about yourself; fantasize about others.

Once the goal was achieved for someone else, it would also stimulate the characteristics of the Remnant Dream Martial Soul, which would then have a positive effect on one's own cultivation.

With this thought, Yu Xiaogang looked up at Shi Nian, a few more realizations dawning in his heart.

"It seems my method was indeed effective. Back then, he was only a Soul Emperor in his sixties, but now he has reached the Soul Saint realm."

"Moreover, this time, by becoming the leading teacher for Blue Sunshine Academy, the target should have been set on this batch of participating students."

"Is it to get this batch of students into the finals? According to the plot, Blue Sunshine Academy will meet Shrek Academy in the final round of the preliminaries, which is why that old fellow Shi Nian made a move against Tang San."

Yu Xiaogang watched Shi Nian's departing back, a cold glint flashing in his eyes.

The information Shi Nian sold back then was actually a trap, specifically designed to lure Soul Masters below the Soul Emperor level. Then, relying on the mental attacks of the Remnant Dream Martial Soul, he would directly slaughter the Soul Masters in the ruins to plunder their wealth.

Yu Xiaogang and the other two fell into the trap at that time, but they managed to repel Shi Nian by relying on a Martial Soul Fusion Skill.

"It's time to settle this score."