There was no suspense in the advancement matches.
On the day the Heaven Dou Empire's ranking tournament schedule was announced, the captains of every qualified team all did the same thing without prior arrangement.
They went to the tournament committee and withdrew their applications for individual matchups.
Would going up there count as competing, or getting beaten up?
The tournament committee officials stared at the thick stack of withdrawal declarations, their expressions difficult to describe.
But no one could say anything. The rules allowed withdrawals.
After hearing the schedule, the leaders of several academies immediately stated their positions.
"The ranking tournament is for exchanging skills and learning from one another. Fighting him isn't learning—it's getting beaten up."
Thus, before the ranking tournament had even begun, Li Hanche had already been placed first in the individual matches by default.
He was happy to have it easy, training with his spear under eightfold gravity in the villa every day, occasionally getting dragged out shopping by Ning Rongrong.
Half a month later, the Heaven Dou Empire delegation officially set out for Spirit City.
The sheer splendor of the lineup left the generals guarding checkpoints along the way dumbfounded.
The three Soul Douluo-level education committee members of Heaven Dou Royal Academy.
Bai Baoshan, Zhilin, and Meng Shenji each oversaw one of the three main carriages.
Poison Douluo Dugu Bo had been personally invited by Xue Ye and given the title of "Special Advisor to the Heaven Dou Delegation."
Before departure, Xue Ye met with Dugu Bo alone and made his intentions crystal clear.
"Li Hanche is a once-in-a-century genius of the Heaven Dou Empire, a future Titled Douluo. We absolutely cannot let anything happen to him in Spirit City. Dugu Qing, I entrust this child to you."
Dugu Bo nodded solemnly.
On the