The Class Promotion Tournament Arrives

Gu Yue had not fallen behind either.

During their collaboration, the three bottles of Moonlight Dew each month had likewise allowed Gu Yue to achieve twice the results with half the effort in her cultivation. Her Soul Power cultivation had broken through to two rings and reached rank twenty-three.

She had also grown increasingly proficient with her Second Soul Skill, Elemental Control. The six elements were like living things in her hands.

Wind fed fire, water and earth became mud, and light and wind dazzled the eyes. All sorts of elemental combinations came readily to her. Her long-range attacks blanketed the sky and earth, covering wide areas with great power and countless variations.

Compared with just over two months ago, the four of them were practically different people in terms of strength.

Yet relations among the four had hardly eased.

Hu Fangyuan had always maintained an attitude of "no, thank you" toward Xie Xie and Tang Wulin. During their usual training, he never said a word more than necessary.

As a young prodigy, Xie Xie naturally was not intimidated by Hu Fangyuan either.

Both openly and covertly, he expressed his dissatisfaction with Hu Fangyuan, always hoping to find an opportunity for another match and wash away his previous humiliation.

Tang Wulin did want to get along with Hu Fangyuan, but whenever he approached him, Hu Fangyuan rebuffed him with lukewarm indifference. Over time, he stopped approaching him so often.

Wu Changkong, however, was not worried that the four would suffer defeat in the upcoming Class Promotion Tournament.

There was no other reason: Wu Changkong had already fully stirred up their competitive spirit.

Rather than having all four practice teamwork together, he had simply divided them into two groups.

Tang Wulin and Xie Xie formed one group, while Hu Fangyuan and Gu Yue formed the other.

They practiced teamwork in pairs. This thoroughly avoided the conflicts among them while still accounting for their teams' combat strength and tactics.

More than half of their special training every evening consisted of matches between the two groups.

On one side, Hu Fangyuan held the line head-on while Gu Yue provided long-range attacks, combining offense and defense with endless variations.

On the other, Xie Xie roamed and launched sneak attacks while Tang Wulin battered away on the front line. One was powerful, the other swift, and their coordination was seamless.

Every time the two groups fought, sparks flew.

Their sense of competition was pushed straight to the limit.

All four had a fire bottled up inside them, each wanting to beat the other side.

Naturally, they gave training everything they had, and their progress was naturally swift.

On the afternoon before the Class Promotion Tournament, their special training ended.

The four stood in the center of the training grounds, all drenched in sweat, yet their eyes shone.

Wu Changkong stood before them with his hands behind his back, his white clothes untouched by a speck of dust.

"Tomorrow, the Class Promotion Tournament officially begins."

Wu Changkong spoke, his voice calm but powerful. "In the first round, you'll face Class Four."

"Teacher, who will Class Four send out against us? Do you have any information on them?" Xie Xie asked eagerly. His confidence was overflowing now, and he was just waiting to show his stuff in the Class Promotion Tournament.

Wu Changkong said coldly, "A mere Class Four. If you need information to defeat them, are you still worthy of being my students? In next week's matches, you have only one task: crush them! Do you understand?"

"Yes!" all four answered at once, their voices ringing out.

Wu Changkong said, "The Class Promotion Tournament is about to begin. There will be one match each day until all the matches are over. I'll give you a target: fight your way up to the fourth year."

At those words, Xie Xie and Tang Wulin both froze for a moment.

Fight their way up to the fourth year? They were First-Year Class Five!

The Class Promotion Tournament began with the five first-year classes, who kept fighting their way upward.

Fight all the way up to the fourth year? Wasn't that far too outrageous?

After all, some talented students had already reached the two-ring level by their fourth year. There were even Two-Ring Soul Grandmaster students in the third year.

In other words, once they reached the third year, there would be Two-Ring Soul Grandmaster opponents among the five classes for them to face.

Not to mention the Soul Elders who might appear in the fourth year.

They were only first-years. Fighting their way up to the fourth year was easier said than done.

Hu Fangyuan and Gu Yue, however, remained perfectly calm, as though they had expected this all along.

To Hu Fangyuan, never mind the fourth year-even fighting their way up to the sixth year did not seem impossible. With the strength of the four of them, there were simply no opponents for them in the first year. Fighting their way higher was only a matter of time.

Wu Changkong swept his gaze over the four, taking in all their reactions.

Wu Changkong said mildly, "I mean fourth-year Class One. Defeat fourth-year Class One, and you can receive all the rewards. Otherwise, everything will be confiscated for class funds."

Xie Xie protested, "Teacher, isn't that too harsh?"

Wu Changkong said, "If you think it's harsh, you can withdraw. The three of them can compete instead."

"Great! We didn't want this deadweight anyway," Gu Yue said lightly, playing with her fingers.

"You!" Xie Xie turned and glared at her.

Because Gu Yue had consistently overshadowed him in strength, Xie Xie had always been hostile toward her.

Gu Yue was the same. She had previously asked Hu Fangyuan why he had such a strong objection to Xie Xie.

But Hu Fangyuan had told her that he had no particular objection to Xie Xie. He simply had no interest in someone who squandered his talent.

Over these two months, Gu Yue had discovered that this was indeed the case. Whether compared with Tang Wulin, whose talent was lower than his, or Hu Fangyuan, whose talent far surpassed his in every respect, Xie Xie could not measure up in perseverance or hard work.

To take just one example, among Tool Martial Souls, dagger-type Martial Souls were inherently disadvantaged in direct exchanges of attacks. Therefore, most Soul Masters chose to study dagger attack techniques taught in the military or by private instructors.

Yet Gu Yue had not seen Xie Xie put effort into that. By all appearances, Xie Xie had the most privileged family background in all of Freshman Class Five, yet he was also the most immature.

For Eastsea Academy, the Class Promotion Tournament was an annual grand occasion. This was because only the Class Promotion Tournament involved every year and the entire academy.

The Advanced Department had its own Class Promotion Tournament, and so did the Intermediate Division.

Students who performed exceptionally in the Class Promotion Tournament would have their achievements recorded and entered into their files. These served as very important recommendations for future admission to higher-level institutions.

The material rewards were also quite generous. Classes that achieved outstanding results in the Class Promotion Tournament would not only see their rankings change, but their homeroom teachers would also receive commendations.

Thus, after so many years of development, the Class Promotion Tournament had become a symbol of honor at Eastsea Academy. Being defeated by a lower-ranked class was a disgrace, while defeating a higher-ranked class was a glory.

The reason the Class Promotion Tournament was held three months after the start of term was to give each class ample time to select students and arrange tactics.

Today, the breeze was gentle and the sun bright, with not a cloud in the vast blue sky. A Competition Platform had already been set up in the center of the Intermediate Division's sports field. Though called a Competition Platform, it was actually a circular stretch of ground a hundred meters in diameter, paved with metal plates ten centimeters thick. It occupied a large portion of the field. Dedicated Soul Tool Shield generators surrounded the Competition Platform to prevent accidents during matches.

Today was the first day of the tournament. To avoid disrupting the students' studies, the matches were held after school. By now, the dismissal bell had rung, and students poured out of the teaching buildings, but very few headed toward the Competition Platform.

First-year freshmen, Class Five against Class Four-what was there to see in a match like that?

The upper-year classes did not spare it a glance. Only a few first-year classes came in full to watch the match, especially Class Three, which would be competing tomorrow.

Scattered snippets of discussion drifted over, and everyone on Class Five's side heard them clearly.