Taking On All of Them Alone

This era had battle armor and mechas.

Therefore, the power a Soul Master could unleash far exceeded their own base stats.

For example, a Six-Ring Attack-Type Soul Emperor possessed roughly ten thousand jin of pure strength.

But with a mecha, that strength could instantly soar to forty or fifty thousand jin.

With battle armor, the boost would only be greater.

Seen that way, Han Li's hundred thousand jin did not seem particularly outrageous.

But there was one crucial difference.

Battle armor and mechas were equipment.

Han Li's strength came purely from his own body.

While other Soul Masters relied on equipment to stack up those numbers, Han Li achieved them with his flesh and blood alone.

That was roughly equivalent to Han Li being able to engage a Seven-Ring Soul Saint in close combat through sheer strength alone.

And not just any Seven-Ring Soul Saint, but one with an attack-type beast Martial Soul.

Yet a ten-year-old child, barehanded, could trade blows evenly with a Soul Saint in battle armor...

Who would believe something like that if they heard it?

And how had such a monster...

Appeared in Eastsea City?

Administrator Xia took several deep breaths before he barely managed to get his thoughts moving again.

He slowly closed the file, carefully looked once more at Han Li's young yet composed face, then rose to his feet and gave Han Li a solemn bow.

"Student Han, I'll leave everything to you."

His tone was more serious than ever, carrying the gravity of placing all his hopes in Han Li's hands.

With someone like Han Li on his side, he felt far more confident about dealing with the Shrek students.

The opening ceremony of the Sky Sea Alliance Grand Competition was held at Sky Sea Stadium.

It was a massive stadium that could accommodate eighty thousand people at once, and the largest stadium among all the cities in the Skysea Alliance.

The stadium was circular, its stands divided into three tiers that rose layer upon layer like a gigantic bowl set upon the ground.

A translucent soul-conducting dome covered the top, gleaming pale blue beneath the sunlight. It shielded spectators from sun and rain without affecting the lighting.

Early in the morning, delegations representing the various cities had already entered the stadium to wait.

Colorful team flags fluttered in the wind in the area before the stands, while the contestants chatted within their respective sections.

The enormous stadium was packed as far as the eye could see.

The stands had long been filled, a sea of black-clad heads amid a deafening roar of voices.

Soul-conducting cameras from every media outlet had been set up from all angles, while staff hurried back and forth across the center of the field, busy with the final preparations.

Next would come the draws for the different competition formats.

The teachers handled those. Ye Yingluo and Wu Changkong had gone to the drawing area, leaving the members of Zero Class with nothing much to do.

Tang Wulin, Xie Xie, Gu Yue, and Xu Xiaoyan sat in the delegation seating area, watching the busy crowd in the center of the field as they waited for the opening ceremony to begin.

By now, the stadium had become a sea of celebration. Spectators in the stands waved colorful flags and banners, and cheers rose and fell without end.

A raised platform was rapidly being constructed in the center. Metal frameworks were assembled at high speed with the assistance of soul-conducting machinery, and it soon rose several meters above the ground.

"What are they doing?"

Tang Wulin asked Xie Xie beside him.

He pointed at the platform being built, his curiosity evident.

Xie Xie glanced at it, wearing an expression that said, You don't even know that? Then he began to explain.

"You don't know?"

"There'll be an exhibition match later."

"I heard they specially invited experts from Shrek Academy this time, and paid a huge price for it."

"Their opponents are the previous generation's seven-person team champions from our Skysea Alliance."

"And the Alliance is mainly doing this to show us the gap between ourselves and the top-tier powerhouses."

"Still, I don't think this is the right choice."

He shrugged, looking rather unconvinced.

Gu Yue, seated beside Xie Xie, heard that and a hint of confusion flashed through his eyes as he asked.

"Why?"

Xie Xie shrugged.

"Isn't it obvious?"

"If the gap is within a certain range, then it can be called a gap, and it can motivate people."

"But once the gap reaches a certain level, it's no longer a gap. It becomes a chasm."

"An insurmountable chasm will only make people feel discouraged."

"Look, most of us contestants are children between ten and fifteen. If you make us watch a group of adult powerhouses get crushed by Shrek's experts, what kind of motivation do you think we'll get from that?"

"We'll only think that working hard is useless."

"Hehe, you're pretty good with words."

Xu Xiaoyan sat on Gu Yue's other side, tilting her head at Xie Xie with a teasing smile.

"If something even a child like you can think of, do you really think the Alliance's higher-ups wouldn't have thought of it?"

"I think the Alliance must have its own way of handling this."

"Since they dared invite people from Shrek for an exhibition match, they must have made corresponding arrangements."

Xie Xie curled his lips.

"Let's hope so."

At that moment, Tang Wulin looked around, his gaze sweeping over Zero Class's seats, and noticed that one person was missing.

His brows furrowed slightly as he asked curiously.

"Strange. Have any of you seen Han Li?"

Hearing that, the others turned and looked around as well, then each shook their heads.

"No."

Xie Xie said.

"I don't think I saw him at all this morning."

"I didn't notice him earlier either," Xu Xiaoyan said.

Tang Wulin glanced at the distant stands, then at his teammates' varied expressions. He did not press the matter further, though he found it strange.

Just then, an announcement rang throughout the stadium.

"Today marks the beginning of the Sky Sea Alliance Grand Competition. We have specially invited a team from Shrek Academy to exchange pointers with our Skysea Alliance's genius youth, Han Li."

"Now, please welcome both sides onto the stage."

The announcement ended.

The entire stadium was stunned.

One person against Shrek's entire youth division?

The eighty-thousand-seat stadium...

Fell into an eerie silence at that moment.

The spectators in the stands looked at one another. Many even thought they had misheard, instinctively straining their ears to confirm whether they had truly heard words like "one person" and "the entire youth division."

But the announcement was not repeated. The voice over the loudspeakers had already moved on to the next item of the program, leaving only the faint hum of machinery operating in the stadium.

And after that brief silence...

Came an explosion of discussion.

In the stands, around the field, and in the rest areas, incredulous conversations and startled cries erupted everywhere.

Some people widened their eyes, some covered their mouths, and some laughed while shaking their heads, convinced it had to be a joke by the organizers.

The voices of eighty thousand people merged together, echoing through the stadium like a tsunami.