Shrek Academy's Top 8 and Top 16?

Chapter: Will Shrek Really End Up in the Round of Sixteen or Eight?

After a brief rest, Elder Ma led the group to the Jingyang Mountain Range to pick up the others.

Under the protection of another Level 9 Soul Engineer, Xiao Hongchen and Meng Hongchen were unharmed, and both appeared to have successfully obtained their fifth soul rings, which were perfectly suited to them.

The only mishap was that when Xiao Hongchen emerged from the mountains, he scratched the back of his hand on a tree branch. This top genius of the Sun Moon Imperial Soul Engineer Academy, who had never cried out in pain despite being beaten since childhood, was actually clutching his hand in a panic, rushing into the group to ask for a bandage, only to be met with eye-rolls from both Ma Rulong and Xiao Xiafeng.

Huo Yuhao patted his storage soul tool, but he truly didn't have any bandages on him. Chi Qiu also shook her head; she possessed an extremely strong self-healing ability, so she never carried such things.

Wang Dong couldn't help but retort with a sarcastic edge: "Such a severe injury. If you waited any longer to put on a bandage, it would have healed on its own."

"My hands are treasures; they cannot have scars, what would you know?" Xiao Hongchen straightened his back, waving his hand in front of Wang Dong, speaking with righteous indignation.

After some fuss, the teachers gathered herbs from the edge of the Jingyang Mountain Range for Xiao Hongchen to apply, finally ensuring that no scars would remain on his beautiful hands. After leaving Mingdu, Elder Ma deployed a massive Level 9 flight soul tool, whisking everyone away toward Star Luo City at high speed.

On the road, Yu Rufeng fished something out of his storage soul tool and handed it to Huo Yuhao:

"The Hall Master wanted you to have this, but he has been dizzy with work lately and didn't have time to find you personally."

"This is?" Huo Yuhao recognized at a glance that this was a soul tool, and of a high grade at that.

Yu Rufeng leaned close to Huo Yuhao's ear and whispered: "A Level 9 defensive soul tool, Hongchen Protection."

"This..." Huo Yuhao suddenly felt the soul tool in his hand become exceptionally heavy. "Why would the Hall Master give me such a precious soul tool?"

"You don't know this," Yu Rufeng said solemnly. "Every year in this Soul Fighting Tournament, a few students die, and Shrek is particularly heavy-handed. We have also lost several students from the Sun Moon Imperial Soul Engineer Academy to the tournament."

"Therefore, in recent years, our teams have always been equipped with a certain number of invincible barriers. Even so, accidents have still occurred."

"Yuhao, after these two months, you should understand your weight in the Hall Master's heart. You absolutely cannot afford to have anything happen to you."

Huo Yuhao looked down, stroking the Level 9 soul tool in his hand, feeling the exquisite craftsmanship of the Hall Master's work. "I didn't expect that the Soul Fighting Tournament, as a competition, would actually result in deaths."

"Intentional killing is forbidden, but if my strength is too great, who can tell if I did it on purpose or by accident?" Yu Rufeng said with a wry smile. "Everyone hides their trump cards, and the referees can't be sure if someone will die in the next second. To put it bluntly, such rules are basically useless when the participants are too powerful."

"That's true." Huo Yuhao nodded. "Do the others have protective soul tools as well?"

"They do, but we couldn't produce so many Level 9 soul tools on such short notice. Xiao and Meng each have a Level 8, and the others have been provided with a sufficient number of Level 7 defensive soul tools. Besides that, Mingde Hall has approved a significant budget, allowing us to purchase soul tools for replenishment at any time during the tournament. You could say that this time, the Hall Master expects us to at least secure the runner-up spot, and requires every single member to return safely."

"I understand," Huo Yuhao said. "When I enter the arena, I will do my best to use Spiritual Detection Sharing to help everyone and avoid danger."

At this moment, Star Luo City was a scene of prosperity.

As the capital of the Star Luo Empire, Star Luo City was the undisputed largest city in the empire, as well as its political, cultural, and economic center, bearing the title of the "Imperial Capital That Never Falls."

Yet, this largest city in the Star Luo Empire had become extremely crowded in recent days. Hotels and inns were packed to capacity, discussions about the tournament could be heard everywhere in entertainment venues, young newspaper sellers on the streets were shrilly shouting the latest tournament intelligence, and the number of patrolling soldiers on the streets had doubled compared to usual.

The All-Continent Advanced Soul Master Academy Soul Fighting Tournament, the highest-level event in the soul master world held every five years, was hosted by the four great empires in rotation, meaning it had been twenty years since the Star Luo Empire last hosted it. With such a grand event approaching, the entire Star Luo City had been completely ignited.

Among these, the place with the highest spirits was naturally the underground gambling dens.

"I bet one hundred Gold Soul Coins on Shrek to take the championship."

"Buddy, don't you have any ambition? Don't bet on the champion, bet on something else, like how far they'll get in the two-two-three format of the finals. What's the point of just betting on the champion? Who doesn't know the champion is Shrek?"

"Oh, 'who doesn't know the champion is Shrek'? I actually think Star Luo's lineup is pretty good this year. I'm betting twenty Gold Soul Coins on Star Luo."

"Give it a rest. Every year Star Luo says the future is promising, and every year they go home in the round of eight. Oh, wait, it's being held in Star Luo City this year, so it's convenient to go home, huh?"

"Are you even from Star Luo? What kind of talk is that? If Shrek ever ended up in the round of eight or sixteen, let's see if you'd still be talking."

"You're full of it. Shrek in the round of eight or sixteen?"

"Sigh, why are you arguing over such a small thing? In my opinion, it would be best if Star Luo faced the Sun Moon Imperial Soul Engineer Academy first, to force out some of their secrets. That way, if Shrek wins the championship in the end, Star Luo can take a third of the credit. As for Heavenly Soul and Dou Spirit, they're just there to make up the numbers."

"Move aside, I'm betting one thousand Gold Soul Coins on Sun Moon!"

"Heh, one VIP seat on the rooftop for you."

"I don't know what you people who like watching Sun Moon matches are thinking. Do you like being the eternal runner-up? They're just Shrek's captives."

Having just arrived in Star Luo City to familiarize themselves with the environment, Huo Yuhao and his group heard this conversation and didn't know what expression to put on.

"You are not allowed to participate in such activities, do you hear me?" Elder Ma sternly warned the team members outside the door.

"Is it not allowed even if we bet on ourselves?" Xiao Hongchen still looked curious, but he immediately retracted his head after Elder Ma shouted a firm "No."

"However, it's understandable why people bet on Shrek in these activities." Huo Yuhao glanced inside again. Those men were still shouting in a circle, and it seemed someone had lit a low-quality cigarette, with a choking gray smoke swirling around them.

"This year, we'll make them lose everything and realize the dangers of gambling," Ma Rulong said. The captain of the main team saying this made everyone's spirits lift.

"However," another question popped into Huo Yuhao's mind, "over the past few thousand years, has our academy only faced Shrek in the finals?"

He remembered that when he watched the promotional videos at Shrek, they were basically all footage from the finals.

"That's right, why?"

"I remember the schedule after the round of eight is determined by a draw, right?"

"Yes." Chi Qiu was the first to understand the implication behind Huo Yuhao's words. "With so many matches, it actually requires luck to be drawn into different halves every single year."

When she said the word "luck," she slightly emphasized her tone.

"If Shrek really met us in the round of eight, would their tickets for the later rounds still sell?" Ma Rulong said.

"But it's hard to say if Shrek will meet us early this year, right?" Huo Yuhao said. Everyone knew he was referring to the injuries sustained by Shrek's main team, news of which had already spread throughout the Sun Moon Empire.

"Maybe we really will draw them early. That would actually be a good thing for Shrek and the three Douluo nations."