The Team Battle Defeat

Two days passed in the blink of an eye, and now it was Huo Yuhao's turn to compete.

Each team had ten people, with at least one Support System member and no more than three members of any one discipline. Everyone knew how powerful the Power Attack System was at this level. With too many of them, victory was practically guaranteed.

The ten of them had barely gotten to know one another—just enough to tell their teammates apart—when they were sent onto the field. Huo Yuhao felt a little nervous. Many of his skills were meant for self-preservation, so they weren't suitable to use here. They could easily hurt someone, or even kill them. The rules also negated the Tang Sect's advantage by prohibiting weapons.

The Hundred Treasure Pouch Teacher Xiao Ya had given him was full of Hidden Weapons, so he could only practice with them on his own. The rules left no room for Support System members to survive. At this stage, support-type Martial Souls were all useless. How could they earn high scores? They had to rely entirely on extra points for special abilities. That meant the slots went straight to those with special abilities, and there were always a few students with connections who got the Support System positions. Then the other support students were eliminated. What would they do if they needed more support members in the future?

Too bad! Change the rules? No. Why not? Because the old ways couldn't be changed. It had taken the Soul Guidance Department decades of effort just to make this tiny adjustment to the tournament format. In theory, it would make things fairer; they only needed more Support System members to get into the academy.

Once there were more support students, the Soul Guidance Department would naturally have more recruits. Support Soul Masters needed Soul Tools for protection more than anyone else, and they were naturally well suited to using them. Soul Tools greatly improved support members' ability to survive and widened the range of abilities they could use. More importantly, they gave them offensive power comparable to that of Soul Masters in other departments. That naturally raised a question: what use would the others be? If I could handle offense, defense, and support by myself, wouldn't I be invincible? Of course, that wasn't possible in reality. No one could master everything. It was impossible for one person to learn every branch of the Soul Guidance Department and put it all into practice. There wasn't enough time, and Soul Power cultivation was the foundation of everything. You couldn't get your priorities mixed up. Especially when you were young, you couldn't afford to let yourself get distracted by too many things. Without a solid foundation, everything else would crumble.

That was why the Soul Guidance Department, despite being superior to the Martial Soul Department, couldn't gain the upper hand. Once this problem was solved, the rise of the Soul Guidance Department would be unstoppable. There was too much to learn, so they needed to simplify things—but what could they simplify? They'd have to wait for a genius to solve that problem.

Still indignant, Huo Yuhao stepped onto the arena. It had been built to the specifications of the Continental Soul Master Tournament, with a floor made of an unknown but exceptionally tough material and a pale yellow energy barrier. The barrier rose once everyone had entered. Huo Yuhao had never experienced one from inside before and found it fascinating. He wanted to reach out and touch it, but wasn't sure if he was allowed. He hadn't seen anyone else do it. No one had been knocked off the stage yet, and the fragile ones were usually pulled out by the examiners as soon as they got hit.

Unable to resist his curiosity, but too afraid to move, he sent out a little hand of spiritual power to feel the barrier. The instant it touched, a stabbing pain shot through him. It felt like grinding an already injured knee hard against the ground. The sensation made Huo Yuhao suck in a sharp breath and look up at the sky. Tears welled in his eyes despite himself. The examiner glanced at him in confusion but said nothing. Every year brought a steady stream of eccentrics and unusual Martial Souls. No one knew what to make of this sort of performance art.

The fluctuations in his Sea of Spirit startled the Sky Dream Ice Silkworm. He thought an enemy had arrived and was ready to flee. It was an instinct rooted in his genes: run away. Since he couldn't run, Tian Meng quickly realized that nothing was wrong and breathed a sigh of relief. Once he figured out what had happened, he was astonished by Huo Yuhao's behavior.

"Isn't there a detection function in my Soul Ring? Why put yourself through that?"

"I was just curious. Besides, we're not allowed to release our Martial Souls right now."

Tian Meng sighed and explained, "Spiritual power is a very special force. It's powerful, but dangerous, too. A clash of spiritual power is the purest kind of contest, and the gap between the strong and the weak is especially clear."

"The strong are strong, and the weak are weak. The strong crush the weak. But it's a method that injures the enemy a thousand times while harming yourself eight hundred times. Don't use it unless you have no other choice, or unless you have absolute control."

"Then why did it hurt so much when my spiritual power touched the barrier?" Huo Yuhao could endure even worse pain, but he hadn't been mentally prepared for it. Having suffered so much without warning, he couldn't quite accept it. His tone was a little petulant.

"That depends on your method of forcibly increasing your Soul Power. Soul Power and spiritual power are connected. They can promote each other's growth, so naturally they can also attack each other."

"What you just did was like banging your own head against the ground. Fortunately, the barrier had no attack power at all. If the Soul Power had been more violent, it would have badly damaged your Sea of Spirit. The moment you released your spiritual power, you opened a gap in your own Sea of Spirit. At that moment, your defenses were down, making it easy for anything to get in."

"The Spiritual Detection I gave you uses Soul Power infused with spiritual power to detect things. With the Soul Ring transforming it, it's like the transformation performed by the laws of the world. Your spiritual power is protected by Soul Power."

"Do you understand? Don't do anything so dangerous again."

"Oh, okay." Tian Meng's knowledge impressed Huo Yuhao, and he couldn't help admiring him a little.

"Hahaha, I'm going to sleep now. Just do your best, and don't push yourself too hard." Satisfied with his performance, Tian Meng went happily off to sleep. How could an uneducated Ice Silkworm know all this? When he broke through the million-year limit, he reached the very edge of the world's laws. The world had sentenced him to death, but at the same time, it had let him learn some of how those laws worked.

Their conversation seemed long, but communication on a spiritual level was very fast. In reality, only a brief moment had passed, and the examiner was still explaining the rules. It took quite a while before he finally finished.

Then he announced, "The exam begins!"

Everyone released their Martial Souls, and dazzling lights flashed across the arena as Soul Rings rose around them. Most had two rings, while a small number had one. Among them, one white Soul Ring stood out like a duck among swans.

But none of that mattered now. The Power Attack System members charged at the opposing team first, with everyone else following close behind. Huo Yuhao stuck to his principles and hurriedly retreated, wanting no part in the fight.

In the blink of an eye, the two sides had clashed. Huo Yuhao had used Ghost Shadow Perplexing Track to put plenty of distance between himself and the others, so no one bothered him. He released his Soul Skill to assess the situation. One of his team's members was a huge, round man who was charging through the enemy ranks as if no one could stop him. The first few people he encountered couldn't withstand even one blow. Only when he faced someone with a Bear Martial Soul did he finally meet his match. The big man's Martial Soul seemed to be an elephant, setting up a battle between bear and elephant.

Huo Yuhao figured that the two of them were probably the strongest members of their teams. He decided to use his powerful support skills to help the elephant Martial Soul user win.

His First Soul Ring lit up. Spiritual Detection and Sharing activated!

The elephant Martial Soul user, who had been trading blows with his opponent, suddenly gained a clear view of everything around him. For a moment, he was flustered and didn't know what to do. The other man's fist was about to hit him, but in his field of vision, it seemed to move very slowly. That gave him confidence that he could dodge and counterattack.

Bang! The massive fist smashed into his face, leaving him seeing stars and feeling dizzy. Another attack came right after it, forcing him to counter. He had completely lost the initiative. On top of that, a huge amount of information flooded his mind, leaving his already limited capacity for thought with no room to spare. Staring at the view from Spiritual Detection for too long made him feel sick, weakening him even further. All of this happened while he was being beaten. Fortunately, his thick skin let him withstand a few mistakes.

Once he got used to the new field of vision, he suddenly seized an opening and went from defense to offense. Just as he started to feel on top of the world, Spiritual Detection and Sharing disappeared. He abruptly lost his bearings, and his opponent seized the opening to suppress him again. By then, he must have hated Huo Yuhao.

Why had the ability disappeared? Because Huo Yuhao was in trouble.

After the initial clash, neither side seemed able to deal with the opponent in front of them. Then the instructions from their elders at home came to mind: take out the support member. Both sides independently set their sights on the opposing team's support member. The best target was someone without offense, defense, or speed.

The teams were evenly matched, so how could they earn high scores? By eliminating more people. That made the support member the obvious target.

Neither side made it obvious at first. As they clashed again and again, they gradually shifted positions. Then the first person stopped pretending and charged straight at his target. At that point, everyone dropped the act and rushed in.

As for their own support member, what was that supposed to be? What did it have to do with them? They were charging toward a higher score.

Before long, they were right in Huo Yuhao's face. He hurriedly cut off Mental Sharing and focused on dodging. Pale patterns appeared in his Spirit Eyes as his First Soul Skill, Soul Shock, and Purple Demon Eye activated. The first person to reach him was naturally the Speed Attack System member, who was the fastest. A sudden, needle-like pain stabbed through her mind, causing her to release her Martial Soul and collapse. Then she got right back up. Huo Yuhao had run too far away, so there was no one nearby to finish her off. He could barely manage to run away himself, let alone attack.

On top of that, he still couldn't control his Mental Attack very well. Adding the power of the Purple Demon Eye made it even harder to control. Just like now, his own head was killing him, while his opponent was still capable of fighting. The payoff was nowhere near worth the input.

He had lost a huge amount of spiritual power. It wasn't just that he had a lot of room to improve; he had no foundation at all, so there was nothing but room to improve.

None of that mattered as much as what was happening now. His second and third opponents were almost upon him. Huo Yuhao had nowhere left to retreat. The barrier was right behind him.

Huo Yuhao steeled himself. If that's how it is, then bring it on. Let's see what I've accomplished with my training these past few days.

He unleashed Spiritual Detection at full power and activated the Mental Interference Domain.

The attackers' minds all faltered for a moment, and Huo Yuhao blurred in their eyes. But the toughest of them, a small handful, quickly recovered and continued charging.

Huo Yuhao steadied his breathing and took in every detail of the attackers. From his perspective, some of them seemed to glow, bright enough to be a little dazzling. But that didn't affect the overall situation. They weren't coordinating well, and he soon found a way out.

He used Ghost Shadow Perplexing Track to its fullest and dodged the first attacker by a hair's breadth. Then he entered the enemy formation. Thanks to the attackers' good coordination, he easily avoided a direct hit from the second person. But the attackers weren't united. They all wanted to claim the kill for themselves, eliminate their opponent, and earn a higher score.

Just as Huo Yuhao was about to escape the enemy formation, something unexpected happened.

"National treasure, Cauldron Ripple." A massive, ancient-looking cauldron came flying toward him. Huo Yuhao easily dodged the slow attack, but this was a Control System skill!

The vibrating sound of the cauldron rang out, and the Spirit Eyes kid stiffened at once. The mental attack that came with the Soul Skill barely affected Huo Yuhao. Someone his age couldn't possibly have stronger spiritual power than him. Even someone who focused on cultivating spiritual power wouldn't have a chance.

The most dangerous part was the paralysis of his body. His spiritual power might be strong, but his body was weak. How could his frail body, one of the weakest among his peers, break free after taking a full Control System skill? There were enemies watching him all around, and the Soul Master who had used the skill wasn't about to stop, either.

As expected, the cauldron Martial Soul slammed right into Huo Yuhao's face. But before the attack could fully land, the examiner pulled him away. The examiner should have intervened right away to protect the fragile ones. He had hesitated because Huo Yuhao was so nimble. He'd wondered if Huo Yuhao might have a way to deal with the attack. As it turned out, he'd given him too much credit.

Performing too well could get you in trouble, too. Those who never had a chance to do anything at all could land without a scratch. What an amusing difference.

Huo Yuhao landed and clutched his face in pain as he watched the chaotic fight on the arena, searching for the person who had eliminated him. It was easy to spot the little girl with the cauldron Martial Soul, weaving through the crowd like a fish and releasing Control System skills. While coordinating with others, she was eliminated by a sneak attack from an enemy Speed Attack System member.

Seeing her eliminated made Huo Yuhao feel a little better. The girl had real talent. Her timing and control skills were both excellent, but she had gotten carried away at the end. As a Control System member, her ability to protect herself was just about the second-worst among all the fragile types, better only than the Support System. How had she dared to use her skills in the middle of a crowd? The Speed Attack System was only in danger while attacking, but Control System members were the second most likely to get taken out when enemies got in their faces.

All things considered, she had performed very well. The examiner standing nearby made that obvious. Quite a few teachers stole glances at the disappointed student who had been eliminated.

There wasn't much else to see after that. Huo Yuhao obediently let himself be led to a healing Soul Master, who treated his injured face.

The teacher was upset and concerned as she used her healing Soul Skill. "These damn exams don't care at all about how hard it is for us support Soul Masters. How are we supposed to protect ourselves at a low level?"

Huo Yuhao quickly agreed with the teacher, then heard her boasting. "Your opponent hit you pretty hard. If you hadn't come to me, you might have been disfigured. What was the examiner thinking? Didn't they order them to keep a close eye on the support Soul Masters?"

That was unfair to the examiner. Huo Yuhao's performance had made him think he was an expert. He hadn't expected Xiao Xiao to put him in his place with a single Control System skill.

Besides, even if Huo Yuhao had been disfigured and couldn't be restored here, the Green Aura would slowly heal him.

After saying goodbye to the kind medical teacher, he went to fill out his information. This was an important part of his personal record and introduction, and it directly affected his team battle score and special ability score.

The examinees had to record their Martial Souls and Soul Skills, then write down what they had done in the team battle based on their recollections, along with their reasons and what they could improve.

This was the examinees' chance to come clean to Shrek Academy. The academy respected everyone's free will. If you didn't want to say anything, they didn't want to know. If they investigated everything, they were bound to uncover something. Everyone had secrets, big or small. What if someone had a really big secret?

Mutual respect between Shrek and its students was the best outcome. Even if both sides knew the truth about something, they couldn't bring it up. It wouldn't be good for either side.

A little nervous, Huo Yuhao wrote down his abilities. He used the explanation Wang Yi had given him. He hadn't lied many times, so he couldn't keep a straight face. As he wrote, he couldn't help thinking that the Tang Sect Secret Techniques explanation Wang Yi had given him really suited him. Of his four Soul Skills, he only needed to conceal the Mental Interference Domain, the least conspicuous one.

The rest was much easier. He only had to write down what he remembered. As for reflecting on his performance, there wasn't much to say. He was a support member who hadn't been taken out the moment the others charged him and had even managed to keep moving for a while. That was already his limit. You couldn't ask for more.

After finishing, he followed the teacher's instructions, left the exam area, and went to meet up with Bei Bei and the others.