Team Battle Defeat

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

There were 10 people on each side, with at least one support-type, and no more than three of any single profession. The dominance of Power Attack System soul masters at this level was plain for all to see; having too many of them guaranteed a win.

The 10 participants had barely interacted, and they were sent onto the stage just as they were beginning to distinguish their teammates. Huo Yuhao felt a bit nervous; many of his skills were for self-preservation and were not well-suited for this environment. It was easy to accidentally hurt others, or even cause a death. The advantages of the Tang Sect were also nullified by the rules, which prohibited the use of weapons.

The Hundred Treasure Pouch filled with hidden weapons given by Teacher Xiao Ya could only be practiced in private; this setup left no path for the Support System to survive. At this stage, support-type martial souls were considered trash, so how could they get a high score? They had to pin all their hopes on the high subsidies provided for special abilities, which was essentially just handing out spots. There were always well-connected individuals who could occupy a support role, only for them to be weeded out later. What would happen if there was a shortage of support-types in the future?

Too bad! Should they change it? No. If you asked why, the answer was that the traditions of the ancestors could not be altered. The changes to this competition process were only achieved after the Soul Guidance Department had spent decades of effort to make such minor adjustments. Theoretically, this could be fairer, allowing more support-type students to enter the academy.

As long as the number of support-type students increased, the source of students for the Soul Guidance Department would naturally increase as well. Support-type soul masters were the group that most needed the protection of Soul Tools, possessing a natural compatibility. This would greatly improve the survival environment and the range of ability application for support-types, and more importantly, give them offensive capabilities not inferior to other types of soul masters. Naturally, a question arose: what use would they have then? If one person could handle offense, defense, and support, wouldn't they be invincible? Of course, in reality, it was impossible to master everything. It was impossible for one person to master all the branches of the Soul Guidance Department and apply them. There wasn't enough time; soul power cultivation was the foundation of everything, and one could not mistake the primary for the secondary. Especially in one's youth, one could not be too distracted; if the foundation was not solid, the whole structure would shake.

This was the internal reason why the Soul Guidance Department, despite being superior to the Martial Soul Department, could not gain the upper hand. Once this problem was solved, the rise of the Soul Guidance Department would be unstoppable. If there was too much knowledge, then simplify it, but where to simplify? Let the geniuses solve this problem.

He stepped onto the competition stage with resentment. This stage was built entirely to the specifications of the Continental Soul Master Tournament, featuring a floor made of an unknown, exceptionally hard material and a pale yellow energy barrier. Once everyone entered, the barrier rose. Huo Yuhao, feeling it from the inside for the first time, found it quite novel. He wanted to reach out and touch it, but he didn't know if he was allowed to. He hadn't seen anyone else do it before, and those who hadn't been knocked off the stage—the "glass cannons"—were basically plucked out by the proctor the moment they were hit.

Unable to resist but afraid to move, he sent out a small probe of spiritual power to feel it. The moment it made contact, a sharp pain flared up. It was like the sensation of a knee that already had a wound being rubbed hard against the ground. This stinging sensation made Huo Yuhao take a deep breath and look up at the sky, tears welling up involuntarily. The proctor glanced at Huo Yuhao with some confusion but didn't say anything. After all, every year brought an endless stream of oddballs and unique martial souls. No one could quite figure out this kind of performance art.

The fluctuations in his Sea of Spirit startled the Sky Dream Ice Silkworm, who was terrified that an enemy had arrived. This was a survival instinct ingrained in his genes: run away. Realizing he couldn't run, Tian Meng calmed down and breathed a sigh of relief. After investigating the situation, he was shocked by Huo Yuhao's behavior.

"Doesn't your soul ring have a detection function? Why are you looking for trouble?"

"I was just curious, and we aren't allowed to release our martial souls at this moment."

A speechless Tian Meng lectured Huo Yuhao: "Spiritual power is a very special force. It is very powerful but also very dangerous. A confrontation of spiritual power is the purest and most hierarchical."

"Strong is strong, weak is weak; the strong will crush the weak. But this is a method of 'killing a thousand enemies while losing eight hundred.' Unless it is a last resort or you have absolute dominance, try not to do it."

"Then why does it hurt so much when my spiritual power touches the barrier?" Huo Yuhao, who had endured worse pain, was just a bit unable to accept suffering such a blow without any mental preparation; he was acting a bit spoiled.

"That depends specifically 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 attack each other."

"Your action was like banging your own head against the ground. Fortunately, it was a barrier with no offensive properties. If it were a more intense soul power barrier, your Sea of Spirit would have been severely damaged. By releasing your spiritual power, you opened a gap in your own Sea of Spirit, and at that moment, your self-defense was gone, making it very easy to penetrate."

"The Spiritual Detection I gave you is a detection where soul power is added to spiritual power. With the conversion of the soul ring, it is equivalent to the conversion of world rules, so the spiritual power is protected by the soul power."

"Do you understand? Don't do such dangerous things in the future."

"Oh, oh." Feeling Tian Meng's erudition, he felt a bit of admiration for him.

"Hahaha, I'm going to sleep. Just do your best and don't push yourself too hard." Having finished his posturing, Tian Meng went to sleep, satisfied. Where would this ignorant Ice Silkworm know such knowledge? It was just that when he broke through the million-year limit and touched the apex of the world's rules, the world's constraints made him face death while simultaneously revealing to him a portion of how the world's rules operated.

This conversation seemed long, but because it was a communication on the spiritual level, it was very efficient and only took a short moment in reality. The examiner was still announcing the exam rules. It took a while before he finished.

Then he announced: "The exam begins!"

Everyone released their martial souls. For a moment, the arena shimmered with strange lights and colors, and numerous soul rings rose—most were two-ring, a small portion were one-ring. Among them, one white soul ring was exceptionally conspicuous, standing out like a duck that had wandered into a flock of swans.

However, none of that mattered now. The Power Attack System soul masters took the lead and charged toward the other side, with the other systems following closely behind. Huo Yuhao kept to his principles and quickly retreated, avoiding any involvement.

In the blink of an eye, the two sides were clashing. Because Huo Yuhao had used Ghost Shadow Perplexing Track to move a great distance away at the first opportunity, he wasn't targeted. He released his soul skill to detect the situation. His side had a burly man, the tall and round kind, who moved as if there were no one else around. The first few people he encountered were no match for him. It wasn't until a person with a bear-type martial soul barely managed to stop him that the momentum shifted. The burly man's martial soul seemed to be an elephant; this was a duel between a bear and an elephant.

Huo Yuhao speculated that these two were likely the strongest on their respective sides, so he decided to use his powerful support skill to help the elephant martial soul user win.

His first soul ring shone brightly. Spiritual Detection and Sharing activated!

The elephant martial soul user, who was in the middle of a heated brawl, suddenly gained a vast field of vision. For a moment, he was flustered and at a loss; the opponent's fist was about to smash into him, but in his vision, it looked very slow. This gave him the confidence to dodge and then counterattack.

Bang! A massive fist hit him in the face, making him see stars and feel dizzy. Then the opponent's next attack came, and he was forced to counterattack, completely losing the initiative. Furthermore, a massive amount of information flooded his brain, leaving no room for the already limited thinking capacity he had. The view from the Spiritual Detection made him feel nauseous, and his condition dropped even further. All of this happened while he was passively taking hits; fortunately, he was thick-skinned enough to absorb some mistakes.

When he finally adapted to this vision, he suddenly erupted and seized an opening in the opponent, turning defense into offense. Just as his mood brightened, the Spiritual Detection and Sharing vanished. The sudden loss left him unadapted, and the opponent seized this opening to suppress him. At this moment, this person probably hated Huo Yuhao to death.

Why did the ability disappear? Because Huo Yuhao was struggling to save himself.

After the initial collision, everyone seemed unable to deal with the opponent in front of them. At this moment, the instructions of their elders surfaced in their minds: kill the support. Both sides simultaneously set their targets on the opposing support; with no offense, defense, or speed, they were the easiest to kill.

The gap between the two sides wasn't large, so how could they get a higher score? Eliminating one more person meant a higher score, so they went for the support.

However, both sides didn't make it obvious. In the repeated collisions, they slowly shifted positions until the first person stopped acting and charged directly. Then, everyone stopped acting and rushed over.

As for their own support? What was that? What did it have to do with me? Charge for the points.

In no time, they were right in front of Huo Yuhao. Huo Yuhao hurriedly cut off the spiritual sharing and focused his mind, preparing to dodge. Pale white patterns emerged in his Spirit Eye, and his first soul skill, Soul Shock + Purple Demon Eye, activated. The first to rush over was naturally the speed-oriented Agility Attack System soul master. She suddenly felt a sharp pain in her brain, like being pricked by a needle, causing her to lose control of her martial soul and collapse to the ground. Then she stood up again. Huo Yuhao had run too far away, so naturally, no one was around to finish her off, and he himself was too busy running to attack.

At the same time, he couldn't quite master the Soul Shock skill yet, and adding the power of the Purple Demon Eye made it even harder to control. Just like now, his own head was aching like crazy, and the opponent hadn't lost her combat ability. The ratio of input to output was simply not worth it.

A huge portion of his spiritual power was wasted. It couldn't be said that there was much room for improvement; rather, there was no foundation at all—everything was room for improvement.

These weren't the most urgent matters; the second and third enemies were about to arrive. Huo Yuhao had nowhere left to retreat; behind him was the protective barrier.

Huo Yuhao hardened his heart. If that was the case, then come on. Let's see the results of my training over the past few days.

Spiritual Detection activated at full power, Mental Interference Domain activated.

The minds of the attacking group all went blank for a moment, and Huo Yuhao looked blurry in their eyes. However, the top-tier few with strong mental fortitude immediately recovered and continued their charge.

Huo Yuhao steadied his breathing, grasping every detail of the attacking group. From Huo Yuhao's perspective, he could even see some of them glowing, which was somewhat blinding. However, it didn't affect the big picture. These people had little coordination, and he quickly found a path to survival.

Ghost Shadow Perplexing Track activated at full power, dodging the first person's attack by a hair's breadth. He entered the enemy formation directly. Thanks to the enemies' lack of coordination, he easily avoided being directly attacked by the second person; the attackers were not united, each wanting to steal the kill to eliminate the opponent and get a high score.

Just as Huo Yuhao was about to escape the enemy formation easily, an accident occurred.

"A heavy weapon of the state, Cauldron Ripple." A primitive, heavy cauldron came rushing toward him. Huo Yuhao dodged this slow attack as expected, but this was a Control System skill.

The vibrating sound of the cauldron arrived, and the Spirit Eye boy stood at attention. The spiritual attack attached to this soul skill had almost no effect on Huo Yuhao; no one of the same age could surpass him in spiritual power, not even those who specialized in it.

The most fatal part was the paralysis of the body. Your spiritual power might be strong, but your body was too weak. Having taken a control skill head-on, how could he, with one of the weakest bodies for his age, break free? Not to mention the enemies lurking around, the soul master who released this skill wouldn't just stop there.

As expected, the cauldron martial soul slammed directly into Huo Yuhao's face, but before he took the full hit, he was carried away by the proctor. Actually, he should have acted immediately to ensure the safety of these "glass cannons." The teacher had hesitated because he saw how agile Huo Yuhao was, wondering if he might have a way out. In fact, he had thought too much.

Performing too well can also be a source of suffering; having no room to maneuver resulted in a direct, painful landing. It was a humorous contrast.

Huo Yuhao landed, clutching his face in pain as he watched the chaotic battle on the field, searching for the person who had eliminated him. He easily spotted the little girl with the Cauldron Martial Soul, moving through the crowd like a fish, unleashing control skills. While coordinating with others, she was eliminated by an enemy Agility System Soul Master who snuck up from behind.

Seeing her eliminated made Huo Yuhao feel much better. This little girl was indeed very talented; her timing and the release of her control skills were excellent, but she had gotten carried away in the end. As a Control System Soul Master whose survivability was only slightly better than an Agility System Soul Master—making them the second most fragile—how could she dare to release skills right in the middle of the crowd? Agility types were only dangerous when attacking, but as a controller, you were the second most likely to be rushed and killed.

Overall, her performance was still very good; one could tell just by looking at the eyes of the proctoring teachers nearby. Quite a few teachers were secretly glancing at this student who looked a bit dejected after being eliminated.

There wasn't much left to see after that, so Huo Yuhao obediently allowed himself to be led to a Healing System Soul Master to treat his bruised face.

The teacher looked quite unhappy and distressed while casting a healing Soul Skill, saying, "These damn exams don't care at all about the hardships we Support System Soul Masters face. How are we supposed to protect ourselves at low levels?"

Huo Yuhao hurriedly agreed with the teacher's words, then heard the teacher boast, "The other side hit pretty hard. If it weren't for me, you might have been disfigured. What are the proctors doing? Didn't they give orders to keep a close eye on the Support System Soul Masters?"

That was actually blaming the proctors unfairly; it was just that Huo Yuhao's performance had made them think he was an expert. They hadn't expected him to be neutralized by a single control skill from Xiao Xiao.

Moreover, even if Huo Yuhao had been disfigured and couldn't be healed here, he would have slowly recovered with the help of the Green Aura.

After bidding farewell to the kind medical teacher, he went to fill out his information. This was a crucial part of self-recording and introduction, directly affecting the team battle score and special ability rating.

Examinees had to record their Martial Soul and Soul Skills, and based on their memory, write down what they had done during the team battle, as well as the reasons and room for improvement.

This was the examinee's disclosure to Shrek Academy. The academy respected everyone's free will; if you didn't want to say it, they didn't want to know. If they investigated everything, they would always find something, as everyone had secrets, whether big or small. What if someone had a major secret?

Mutual respect between Shrek and its students was the best outcome; even if some things were understood, they shouldn't be brought to light, as it wouldn't be good for either side.

Huo Yuhao felt a bit nervous as he wrote down his abilities, using the narrative Wang Yi had given him. He hadn't lied many times, so he couldn't do it without changing his expression. As he wrote, he couldn't help but sigh that the Tang Sect Secret Techniques were truly perfect for his narrative. Out of his four Soul Skills, he only needed to hide the Mental Interference Domain, the one with the least presence.

The rest were much easier; he just had to write according to the memorized path. As for the reflection, it went without saying: for a support type like him, not being rushed and eliminated immediately and managing to jump around for a while was already his limit. You couldn't ask for more.

After finishing, he followed the teacher's instructions to leave the examination hall and reunite with Bei Bei and the others.