The Royal Hunting Grounds

Time slipped by, bit by bit. In the blink of an eye, a month had passed.

The Promotion Tournament of the Soul Master Tournament had begun. Like the preliminaries, it was divided into two divisions: the Heaven Dou Division and the Star Luo Division.

Unlike the Preliminary Tournament, though, the Heaven Dou Division's matches were held not at the Great Soul Arena but at the Royal Hunting Grounds. For reasons of privacy, no spectators were allowed. Old Jack, Dean Ye, and Old Man Tai were not there either.

They had already gone ahead to Spirit City.

The Royal Hunting Grounds lay fifty kilometers southwest of Heaven Dou City. Ordinarily, the grounds were where members of the imperial family hunted and trained their troops. Apart from the Soul Master Tournament, no outsiders were allowed near them.

The Royal Knights also patrolled and guarded the grounds.

The Royal Knights were an elite force the Heaven Dou Imperial Family had spared no effort to build. But after the last war with Spirit Hall, funds were short. Maintaining the force cost a fortune—it practically burned money. As a result, the Royal Knights now numbered only five hundred.

Once, they had numbered fifty thousand!

Now only five hundred remained, a hundredfold decrease. It was easy to imagine how far the Heaven Dou Empire had declined.

Of course, the Heaven Dou Empire had not been left without an answer. The ranks of its Royal Knights had shrunk drastically, but it now had a state religion!

Large numbers of Sea Soul Masters were stationed throughout the Royal Hunting Grounds, under the command of the Five Sacred Pillars.

This was also part of Bo Saixi's compensation to the Heaven Dou Empire.

After all, Ao Zhan had previously come knocking to extort them because the Sea Soul Masters under