Blazing Fire Ascends

Tang San continued asking, "Teacher, why didn't Blazing Academy ever consider changing and recruiting other Soul Masters to make up for its shortcomings?"

Yu Xiaogang thought for a moment before saying, "The academy is built against a volcano, and supposedly supported by the Fire Leopard Sect of the Lower Four Sects. Its history stretches back a long way, probably over a thousand years, and its research into the Fire Element is extraordinarily deep. Even Spirit Hall Academy should be slightly inferior in that regard. Other Soul Masters wouldn't gain as much from cultivating around the volcano. You could say Blazing Academy understands flames better than any other academy. An academy like that could never abandon its own advantage."

Tang San continued asking, "Teacher, do we have any way to defeat Blazing Academy?"

Yu Xiaogang thought for a moment before saying, "Blazing Academy's weakness is also very obvious. To defeat them, you have to endure. As long as you can withstand their attacks again and again, their Soul Power will eventually run low. By the way, your old classmate from Nuoding Academy, Wang Xiaofei, seems to be at Blazing Academy too?"

Tang San said, "Yes. I think I saw him. On the first day, when we took the arena, he was walking at the front with Huo Wushuang and Huo Wu."

Yu Xiaogang sighed. "Wang Xiaofei is also a monster. Back then, I wanted to bring him to Shrek Academy. I even wanted to take him as my disciple, but that kid had his own ideas and rejected my invitation."

Flender interrupted at this point. "Xiao Gang, tell us about this Wang Xiaofei. What kind of monster is he? Why wouldn't he come to our Shrek Academy?"

Yu Xiaogang thought for a moment before saying, "Wang Xiaofei is one of the most talented students I've ever seen. He's the same age as Tang San, and his Innate Soul Power was rank eight. His Martial Soul is the Fire Phoenix. But he trained extremely hard. Back then, he studied at school in the morning, went to the Blacksmith Shop to forge metal in the afternoon, and meditated directly at the Blacksmith Shop at night. After finishing fifth grade, he applied for graduation immediately. At the time, Little San's Soul Power Level was rank 25, while Xiaofei's Soul Power had already reached rank 26. In particular, he had an extremely deep understanding of Martial Souls and cultivation. He consulted me about Martial Soul knowledge many times, and I gained a great deal from those discussions as well."

Flender sighed. "You should have told me about such a little monster earlier. I would have gone to talk to him myself."

Yu Xiaogang shook his head. "It would have been useless. Wang Xiaofei had many choices back then, but the only three academies he truly wanted to attend were Spirit Hall Academy, Heaven Dou Royal Academy, and Blazing Academy. It was clear that he had a very precise goal. This academy was excellent in both resources and instructors, while Blazing Academy was indeed the most suitable for him."

After hearing Yu Xiaogang's words, everyone around them fell silent. This was a true monster.

Tang San thought for a moment before saying, "Teacher, do you think Xiaofei has reached Soul Ancestor by now?"

Yu Xiaogang shook his head. "I don't know. However, he took the field with Huo Wushuang and Huo Wu back then, so I think he must have reached Soul Ancestor as well. We concealed our trump card, and I estimate Blazing Academy concealed their Soul Ancestor too."

Everyone was speechless for a moment. Finally, Tang San said, "Although Blazing Academy is stronger right now, we're all younger. I believe we'll become stronger in the future."

Only then did everyone regain their confidence.

Over the next period of time, Blazing Academy achieved a seventeen-match winning streak. It ranked first among all the teams and defeated quite a few veteran powerhouses, including Elephant Academy, Skywater Academy, and Godwind Academy. The only strong team it had yet to defeat was Thunder Academy.

Relying on his memories from his previous life, Xiaofei repeatedly placed bets on Shrek's matches, as well as on several key matches. By now, he had earned nearly a million Gold Soul Coins and could be considered a minor tycoon.

Many people evaluated the academies and students participating in the tournament. Without a doubt, Blazing Academy was universally recognized as the number one team in the Heaven Dou division. The biggest dark horse was Shrek Academy. Shrek Academy now ranked fifth, tied with Elephant Academy, hovering around the qualification line. The current rankings were: Blazing Academy, Godwind Academy, Skywater Academy, Thunder Academy, Elephant Academy, Shrek Academy, and Canghui Academy. Shrek Academy and Elephant Academy had identical records.

Huo Wu was also named the number-one genius of Heaven Dou, with the potential to become a Soul King before the age of twenty. At eighteen, Huo Wu had already reached rank 47. Even if she slowed down, she could still gain three ranks in two years. One had to know that anyone who reached Soul King before the age of twenty was basically a seed for becoming a Titled Douluo. Blazing Academy also had two promising talents, including Huo Wushuang. As a result, Huo Wu had recently been walking with the wind at her back, chin held high, calling out "Xiaofeizi" every chance she got.

As for the dean, Huo Tianchen, he had recently been grinning whenever he met some old friends, as though he were about to experience a second spring. After all, his granddaughter was the apple of his eye.

Next was Huo Wushuang, known as the number-one young genius expert of the Heaven Dou Empire. He had just turned twenty and had already reached rank 48. He would probably become a Soul King at twenty-two, placing him on par with several geniuses from Spirit Hall.

Shrek was the biggest dark horse. It had won every match against weaker teams, and, unexpectedly, had even defeated the powerful Elephant Academy team. Zhu Zhuqing and Xiao Wu received considerable attention. For some unknown reason, Xiao Wu could actually compete publicly, and even Sword Douluo failed to discover that she was a Hundred-Thousand-Year Soul Beast. Perhaps Tang Hao had used some treasure to conceal her aura.

To this day, the Soul Masters openly revealed by Blazing Academy were all four Soul Ancestors. Xiaofei and the other two Soul Ancestors had continued sitting on the sidelines without appearing.

The next match was Blazing Academy against Shrek Academy. After changing its uniforms, Shrek Academy had become the biggest dark horse in the Heaven Dou Region. Its popularity was decent, but it still lagged far behind Blazing Academy.

With her tremendous Soul Power, flawless performances, and beautiful appearance, Huo Wu had become the dream lover of countless people. Every time she appeared, the entire arena erupted in screams. She had become the undisputed queen of popularity in the Heaven Dou Region.

Shrek fielded its strongest lineup this time. Aside from Ning Rongrong, everyone else took the field. Tailong replaced Ning Rongrong.

Blazing Academy still used a lineup of four Soul Ancestors and employed the Spearhead Formation. Huo Wushuang charged at the very front, leading the others into Shrek's formation. Dai Mubai immediately activated his first and third Soul Skills, White Tiger Barrier and White Tiger Vajra Transformation, just as in the original story. Dai Mubai clearly looked as though he was struggling. Fatty and Xiao Wu decisively moved to support Dai Mubai, but were blocked by their respective Soul Ancestor opponents. Tang San continued using the Meteor Man-Hammer Tactic, yet he felt noticeably more pressured than before. Every member of Blazing Academy was a Fire Element Soul Master. Whenever the Blue Silver Grass touched one of Blazing Fire's members, it burned away extremely quickly, forcing Tang San to use even more Soul Power to maintain it.

Blazing Academy's greatest characteristic now was speed. After undergoing rock-climbing and weighted training, everyone had excellent physical coordination. Aside from Huo Wu and Huo Wushuang, the rest were all agility-attack-type Soul Masters, and their strength was not lacking either. It could be said that every member of Blazing Fire now possessed the advantages of both agility-attack and power-attack Soul Masters. Their opponents found this extremely difficult to deal with.

In the end, Oscar was the first to be eliminated, followed by Xiao Wu and Tailong. Although both were power-attack-type Soul Masters, Tailong could not keep up in speed, while Xiao Wu lacked sufficient strength. After Xiao Wu was eliminated, Tang San erupted, but Blazing Academy's advantage in numbers was simply too great. Ma Hongjun and Zhu Zhuqing were eliminated next. Against an entire team of fire-type Soul Masters, Ma Hongjun's flames offered little advantage, and Zhu Zhuqing's speed advantage was not very apparent either. Moreover, Blazing Academy had two Soul Ancestors with Fire Crane Martial Souls, both of whom somewhat countered them. Finally, the entire Blazing Academy team surrounded Tang San and Dai Mubai. The two struggled to hold on, but were ultimately eliminated. It could be said that Blazing Academy was the team that countered Shrek the most.