"Group one, the qualifying teams-the Sun Moon Imperial Academy and the Spirit Taming Sect!"
"Group two, the qualifying teams-Di'ao Academy..."
"Group three, the qualifying teams-the Clear Sky Sect and the Heavenly Dragon Sect!"
"..."
"Group seven, the qualifying teams-Mingdu Soul Engineer Academy and Shrek Academy!"
"Group eight, the qualifying teams-the Snow Demon Sect and the Proud Sword Sect!"
One name after another appeared on the giant screen.
The week-long group stage finally drew to a close.
Several more dark horses had emerged: Mingdu Soul Engineer Academy, the Proud Sword Sect, and the Heavenly Dragon Sect, which had gone unheard of for ages.
Mingdu Soul Engineer Academy had been unlucky enough to land in the same group as Shrek Academy, but it had nonetheless demonstrated considerable strength. Its captain, Xu Tianzhen, in particular, had reached the Soul Saint realm at just seventeen. Even the weakest main team members under her were Soul Kings and Level 5 Soul Engineers, matching the standard the audience had originally expected of the Sun Moon Imperial Academy.
They had even nearly sent the initially arrogant, careless Shrek Academy crashing down.
After all, Shrek naturally paid little attention to an obscure team ranked below the Sun Moon Imperial Academy. Besides, this was the group stage, where they had room for error, so they had handed the match to their reserve team for practice.
But when their opponents revealed Xu Tianzhen's strength as a Level 7 Soul Engineer, along with the Martial Soul Avatar of her pure-blooded sun martial soul, they were utterly dumbfounded.
Each team played seven matches in the group stage, earning two points for a win and none for a loss.
Each match used one of three formats: a team battle, an individual elimination round, or two-two-three.
Mingdu Soul Engineer Academy had been lucky enough