Fated Duel, Victory Rewritten

As the host's words fell, Qian Jue smiled and helped the unconscious Yu Xiaogang off the stage.

The entire venue fell silent, followed by a wave of hushed discussion.

"Damn, did any of you see what just happened?"

"I have no idea. Didn't that Shrek student say he'd give the Eastsea Academy guy three moves? He walked over and suddenly passed out on his own."

Not to mention the spectators—even many students and teachers from the Soul Master Academies failed to spot anything unusual. It looked as though Yu Xiaogang had simply fainted by himself.

Among those present, aside from the Eastsea Academy side, only Cai Yue'er had the faintest understanding of what had happened.

"This is Martial Soul suppression... I knew back then that his Twin Martial Souls could suppress dragon-type attributes, but I never expected even a top-tier dragon Martial Soul like the Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon wouldn't be exempt."

Cai Yue'er's expression darkened somewhat. The primary reason she had sent Yu Xiaogang to lead the team was to test the extent of Qian Jue's suppression over dragon Martial Soul Soul Masters.

If Qian Jue had truly entered the match, then even if the Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon suffered suppression, it should not have been too severe.

After all, even Sister Yue's Twin Sacred Dragons Martial Soul might not have been able to reliably suppress the Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon.

Yet she had never expected Qian Jue's Martial Soul to be of such high quality.

Sure enough, the Dragon Rising Pillar was a god-level Martial Soul, and there had to be a deity watching over him.

Such an exceptional talent had to belong to Shrek Academy!

If not...

A flash of icy light passed through Cai Yue'er's eyes.

She did not reveal the killing intent in her heart. After all, the Spirit Pagoda stood behind him, a colossal force in its own right.

Unless matters developed to the worst possible point, they would not make such a choice.

After all, Qian Jue carried part of the Heavenly Favored Douluo's bloodline. It did not belong solely to the Qiangu family.

After that brief interlude, the competition continued.

The academies from Eastsea's five cities took the stage one after another, but when faced with students from Shrek Academy and Eastsea Academy, they were basically routed in crushing defeat.

An academy that had once ranked at the bottom among Eastsea's five cities had actually fought its way to this point, with nearly all seven of its members advancing.

Due to the number of participants, the duration of the matches, and the injuries sustained by students from the various academies, the organizers rescheduled the team competition from tomorrow afternoon to the afternoon after next, giving the academies aiming for the team event a chance to catch their breath.

The individual matches continued as usual.

Xie Xie, Gu Yue, Na'er, and the others advanced first, entering the top fourteen.

Xu Xiaoyan was the second-to-last to take the stage.

Her opponent saw that she was a delicate-looking girl with only one soul ring, apparently even a control-type auxiliary Soul Master.

How could a two-ring assault-type Soul Master like him possibly lose?

"H-Hello, my name is Xu Xiaoyan. I'm a control-type battle Soul Master. Please go easy on me."

Xu Xiaoyan jogged onto the stage and bowed respectfully. Her gentle appearance, paired with her delicate and adorable face, made people reluctant to hit her.

"My name is Huang San, an assault-type battle Soul Master. Little sister, I advise you to—"

At the referee's command, before Huang San could finish persuading Xu Xiaoyan to voluntarily concede, he suddenly felt as though a massive cloud had rammed him in the face, sending his entire body flying backward through the air.

However, he did not hit the ground. Instead, he froze midair in that backward-flying posture, golden starlight Soul Power surging around his body.

First Soul Skill, Starwheel Chains. Using a starwheel as the trigger, it immobilized a person. The speed at which it could be broken depended on the opponent's cultivation, but its absolute effect could immobilize an opponent for at least one second.

After Martial Soul Evolution, the Soul Skill itself had not changed; only its duration had changed.

Its one-second absolute hard control had been strengthened to one and a half seconds.

Moreover, without the Starwheel Ice Staff, the startup and recovery time for casting Soul Skills had been drastically reduced. As long as she wanted to, Xu Xiaoyan could attach starlight to her fist, control someone with each punch, then keep punching them while they were controlled.

It was just that doing so consumed a great deal of Soul Power.

But when fighting an opponent one ring above her, combined with the physical enhancement brought by the Myriad Abyss Star Dragon, even that high consumption was enough to utterly crush her opponent.

Without giving Huang San time to react, Xu Xiaoyan landed on the ground and strode straight over to him. The light of her First Soul Skill blazed behind her, and then she drove a fierce punch into his abdomen.

Frozen.

A punch to the chin.

Frozen again.

Then a kick to both legs.

Frozen once more.

Finally, avoiding the vulnerable area between his legs, Xu Xiaoyan lightly tapped her opponent's forehead and revealed a sweet smile.

"Will you surrender?"

The instant the restraint was released, the unlucky fellow, already beaten black and blue, dropped to his knees, clutched his crotch, and cried out in tears, "I surrender! I surrender!"

The spectators in the stands were dumbfounded as well.

Sure enough, Soul Masters were all ruthless. You absolutely could not be fooled by their appearances.

The referee declared Xu Xiaoyan the victor. Now Eastsea Academy had only one person left who had yet to advance.

"By my reckoning, Wulin should be here soon."

Qian Jue glanced at the time and estimated that Tang Wulin had already preliminarily finished his competition over there.

After all, with his arrival, Wulin's strength had risen to another level compared to the original story, and he was especially adept at forging.

Sure enough, a figure hurried into the competition grounds and looked around. It was Tang Wulin, who had just finished the preliminary round of the blacksmith competition.

Upon entering the venue, Tang Wulin quickly checked the current match progress. To his surprise, there was only one match left before his turn.

Looks like everyone's strong. Of course, so are the opponents.

Tang Wulin looked toward Shrek Academy's area in the distance. Aside from Yu Xiaogang, who was still unconscious, the others were all staring this way, battle intent blazing in their eyes.

Before long, he arrived at the academy's area. Qian Jue and Gu Yue were standing together, both watching the ongoing matches. Tang Wulin quickly walked over to them.

"Finished the forging competition? How did it go?" Qian Jue asked.

Tang Wulin said, "Advancing won't be a problem. It all comes down to tomorrow's final showdown."

Blacksmith competitions had never received much attention. For the youth division, three days were enough to determine the winner.

"Have you competed yet?" Tang Wulin asked.

Qian Jue nodded. "I was in the first match. I won."

"As expected of the captain," Tang Wulin said. "Are there any remaining opponents I should be especially wary of?"

Gu Yue said coolly from the side, "Quite a few. We've already seen Soul Masters with three rings take the field."

"In terms of cultivation, you're the second weakest among us. If you lose in the first round, you'll be embarrassing Xiao Qian, understand?"

Tang Wulin paid Gu Yue's pressure no mind at all.

That awful woman never had anything nice to say all day.

He had cultivated so hard until now just so he could stand by Qian Jue's side. How could he possibly lose?

"Next match: Tang Wulin of Eastsea Academy versus Ye Xinglan of Shrek Academy. Both contestants, please prepare to take the field."

As the host's voice rang out, Qian Jue stepped forward and patted Wulin on the shoulder, encouraging him, "Go on. Just do your best."

In the original story, Tang Wulin had lost to Ye Xinglan here.

But now, he had a reason he could not afford to lose.

Let the tide be turned.