The Tianhai Alliance Grand Competition

Seeing the three men on the field looking especially battered, while Lan Kai stood apart from them, Wu Zhangkong nodded, acknowledging Lan Kai's strength as he considered how best to give Tang Wulin and Gu Yue targeted corrective guidance.

Xie Xie, on the other hand, didn't need that kind of correction. He had already done well enough. His opponent was simply far too strong—not only much stronger than Xie Xie, but faster and more responsive than him, even though Xie Xie was an agility-type Soul Master.

Facing Lan Kai, Xie Xie would have had few chances even if he managed to develop a Self Martial Soul Fusion Skill.

His awkward showing wasn't his fault. It was a shared weakness among agility-type Soul Masters.

That weakness wasn't impossible to overcome, but it was something Soul Masters at the One-Word Battle Armor Master level and above needed to consider and study.

As for Tang Wulin and Gu Yue...

Making full use of their strengths wasn't wrong. But failing to notice the problems in how they did so was unacceptable.

Tang Wulin had impressive strength, but his close-quarters fighting technique was still too rough. Though he could make up for that shortcoming to some extent with Blue Silver Grass, and the Golden Dragon Claw's properties could also let him ignore the gap in technique to a degree,

he shouldn't have lacked even the most basic ability to respond. Lan Kai had struck every part of his right arm joint, yet Tang Wulin hadn't considered that his strength might have been weakened as a result.

Perhaps this problem was unlikely to recur as Tang Wulin's bloodline awakened further. But since Wu Zhangkong had noticed it, he wouldn't let Tang Wulin keep making the same mistake.

As for Gu Yue... she seemed to have even less idea what teamwork meant.

She had used Tang Wulin and Xie Xie to set up a scheme that would have worked in her favor, but Lan Kai simply hadn't taken the bait. That had turned the battle from a one-on-three into a one-on-two and a one-on-one.

If Gu Yue had coordinated better with Tang Wulin and Xie Xie, attacking and controlling the field in tandem with their moves, the three of them might still have been soundly defeated—but they wouldn't have looked this wretched.

Last semester, Gu Yue had still been able to work with Tang Wulin. Why had she become even more of a lone wolf after returning from the break?

Did she only want to team up with Lan Kai? That didn't make sense, either. Their relationship wasn't good at all. Gu Yue seemed to have always wanted to defeat Lan Kai, and Lan Kai had no particular feelings for her. He hadn't held back much during the battle, either.

If Lan Kai hadn't still been able to coordinate with the others, Wu Zhangkong wouldn't have known whether he should let them participate in the upcoming Tianhai Alliance Grand Competition.

The individual events might not be an issue, but in the team events—especially the seven-person team event—could these eight students from Class Zero really coordinate properly on the field?

Eastsea Academy hoped Class Zero would make a strong showing at the Tianhai Alliance Grand Competition. But if they couldn't perform in the most important team event, Wu Zhangkong himself would feel he'd let the academy down.

As for the individual events, Wu Zhangkong wasn't shameless enough to claim any results Lan Kai might achieve as his own educational achievement.

"The Tianhai Alliance Grand Competition? Teacher Juggler, you're not expecting me to go up against those people from Shrek Academy, are you?"

When Lan Kai heard Juggler tell him to participate in the Tianhai Alliance Grand Competition, he immediately looked incredulous.

The Tianhai Alliance Grand Competition was a tournament held by the eastern region so it could make a good showing at the All-Federation Grand Competition. In terms of prestige, it was only average.

After all, though the eastern region was economically advanced, for historical and geographical reasons, it still couldn't match the other regions in the depth of its Soul Master heritage.

As for the other competitors, Lan Kai wasn't bragging when he said that even if he entered the youth division for fifteen-to-twenty-year-olds, he could still steamroll them.

Neither Lan Kai nor Juggler thought much of the prizes at the Tianhai Alliance Grand Competition, either.

Given Juggler's standing in the Spirit Pagoda, aside from being unable to print as much cash as the Tianhai Alliance could offer, he could easily get anything else the alliance had to give.

As for the Special Airborne Armors that Juggler and Lan Kai wanted to recreate in this world—the ones used by the Storage Facility—even the Tianhai Alliance's resources would hardly be enough to make them.

"Exactly. The people from Shrek Academy.

"This best academy under heaven is something else. They're awfully full of themselves. It's time someone knocked them down a peg and showed them how real Soul Masters should fight and conduct themselves."

Juggler nodded, casually throwing back at Shrek Academy the words someone had once used to dismiss him.

After all, ninety-nine out of every hundred people who came out of Shrek Academy were domineering and reckless.

Juggler himself had once been caught up in that way of doing things. If there hadn't been a few truly decent people in the Sea God Pavilion, he would have wanted to repeat what he'd done back then and chop down Shrek Academy's Golden Ancient Tree, too.

So he was more than happy to make trouble for Shrek Academy's students—especially to make things difficult for the disciple of that Silver Moon Dog Donkey who had once provoked him, only to be felled by his blade.

"So, basically, you want me to find a way to get them to compete in the Tianhai Alliance Grand Competition, then beat them head-on, right?

"If Shrek Academy cared about the All-Federation Grand Competition, this wouldn't have to be so complicated."

Lan Kai immediately understood what he needed to do and couldn't help feeling exhausted.

If this had happened ten thousand years ago, it would have been easy. He could've joined any decent team and sent Shrek Academy's representatives crashing to their knees during the tournament.

But now, Shrek Academy was unquestionably the best academy in the world by a mile. No other academy dared to claim it could rival them. Aside from sending a team to exhibition matches to show off their strength, Shrek Academy had no interest in most competitions.

So if they wanted a chance to give Shrek Academy's people a reasonable amount of trouble, the Tianhai Alliance Grand Competition was indeed a decent opportunity.

"Don't worry. Given the way Shrek Academy operates, you and your classmates can easily get them to enter on their own.

"However, since Belial's card has already formed ahead of schedule, we'll have to adjust your training, too.

"You wouldn't want to transform and lose control of your power, then do something you'd regret for the rest of your life, would you?"

"Teacher Juggler, don't you think that coming from you, that sounds like one hell of a dark joke?"

Remembering how Juggler had once tormented Kurenai Gai using the Ultraman Belial card, Lan Kai felt that what Juggler was saying now was some pretty dark humor.

He wasn't wrong, though. The power of Ultraman Belial wasn't easy to borrow. Both Kurenai Gai and Natsukawa Haruki had suffered plenty for it.

What, you say Asakura Riku? He was Belial's own son. How could that be the same?