Another day had passed, and the news that Yu Tianheng was challenging Xia Yan had completely exploded, spreading like wildfire all the way to Heaven Dou City.
If Royal Heaven Dou Academy had not forbidden outsiders from entering, the entire academy would probably have been packed to bursting.
Morning.
9:15 a.m., with fifteen minutes remaining until the challenge.
The Soul Fighting Plaza was oval-shaped, with a fifty-meter-diameter soul fighting platform at its center.
Viewed from above,
it resembled a dark brown eye gazing up at the sky, cold and utterly emotionless.
At this moment, that eye was already packed solid with people. Students, teachers, and academy administrators filled the place in a dark mass. There was no foothold left in the stands or atop the giant trees, and even the rooftops of distant pavilions were crowded with people.
Across the once-open grounds,
temporary elevated platforms created by plant-, ice-, earth-, and other elemental Soul Masters surrounded the plaza like a Roman arena.
Young men and women stood upon them,
while a sea of heads surged and every kind of noisy chatter boiled over.
This was huge news. Xia Yan and Yu Tianheng were both strong enough to serve as teachers. It was a battle between the academy's former strongest and its current strongest.
How could anyone not look forward to it?
The pavilion stood near the due north side of the soul fighting platform. North and south were the narrow ends of the oval.
The remaining members of the Imperial Heaven Dou Battle Team, without Osler, sat by the windows on the third floor of the pavilion. No one spoke.
Like everyone else in the plaza,
they watched the blue-violet figure at the center of the soul fighting platform.
The figure stood tall and straight, eyes closed and hands clasped