Back at the hotel, Xu Zhengyang examined the Ice Jade Scorpion's Right Arm Soul Bone alone in his room.
It has to be said that this Soul Bone is indeed the best I have ever seen, and it is extremely rare in the entire Douluo Continent. Unfortunately, it does not match my attributes at all. I have always absorbed tiger-type Soul Ring, pursuing the ultimate fierce Yang attribute. No matter what, I cannot absorb ice attribute Soul Bone. If I force it to absorb, it may cause a backlash to my body.
This night was destined to be anything but peaceful. According to Teacher Ma Rufeng, various forces were stirring up trouble, and many powerful forces were even gathering here. The Hundred-Thousand-Year Soul Beast Embryo in the hands of the Star Luo Imperial Family was too tempting.
Not to mention that the auction this time fetched such astronomical prices, prompting various parties to sell their treasures at rock-bottom prices in order to raise funds. Many forces are unwilling to give up, and conflicts have even begun to emerge.
Even so, the Soul Master Tournament remained unaffected. It seemed that all forces were in sync on this point. If the Soul Master Tournament were truly disrupted, it wouldn't just offend one or two people, but all the forces in the world.
The entire qualifiers were a breeze for the Sun Moon Team. They won all eight round-robin Sun Moon Team, a dominant performance that drew widespread attention.
In contrast, Xu Zhengyang, as the Control Department Soul Master in the team, played in every match. Especially after consecutive battles, he became more adept at using Soul Tool, and the team's synergy was also very good.
Xiao Hongchen's performance was exceptionally outstanding. Regardless of the combat method he drew in the competition, his use of the Soul Tool was flawless, allowing him to...
It's impossible to guard against everything by human intervention.
Despite their stumbling and faltering journey, Shrek Academy finally began to demonstrate its formidable strength. In the fifth match of the round-robin tournament, Ling Luozhen, a regular member, took to the field as their first Soul Hand to appear.
With Ling Luochеn's appearance, his exceptional ice-attribute control abilities astonished everyone. In particular, the combined power of Ling Luochеn and Huo Yuhao, both ice-attribute Soul Master, greatly amplified the power of their Soul Skill.
Throughout the round-robin tournament, Shrek Academy was first in Group A, Zhengtian Academy was second in Group A, and Sun Moon Team was first in Group B. A total of sixteen teams advanced to the knockout stage.
After the round-robin tournament, all teams are re-drawn, with the first-place teams from each group matched with the second-place teams from each group, all randomly.
Everyone knows that the real excitement is just beginning, because it's all knockout stage from now on. Any team that loses a single match will be eliminated. So even if teams want to conserve their strength, they have to be careful about whether they will be eliminated.
After entering the knockout stage, when Ma Rulong presented the draw results, everyone was stunned. In the round of 16 to 8, the Sun Moon Team drew the Zhengtian Academy Team, while the Shrek Team drew the Dou Ling Royal Academy. Other strong teams included the Star Luo Royal Academy Team, but the strong teams were generally drawn against each other.
Xu Zhengyang and Xiao Hongchen exchanged glances. They had already been secretly trying to win over Zhengtian Academy, and Jing Hongchen had even secretly communicated with them. They were just waiting for the Soul Master Tournament to end so that Zhengtian Academy could quietly move away. They never expected to run into them at this time.
In the third round of the true knockout stage, each pair of teams will play three matches: one-on-one, two-on-two, and seven-on-seven team battles. The best two out of three matches will be played, with the winner advancing and the loser being eliminated. In the knockout stage, all team battles will be played first, with some breaks in between. After all teams have finished, the individual battles will begin. The team that wins two consecutive matches will advance, and if a team wins one and loses one, a final showdown will be held.
Of course, the rules changed again for the final, with all three matches played on the same day, making the competition even more rigorous.
The Shrek Team was the first to perform, facing the Dou Ling Royal Academy Team, one of the top four teams from the previous competition.
This battle attracted a great deal of attention, with many believing it essentially represented the level of the top four.
Shrek ultimately displayed its full strength in the team battle, fielding a lineup of Ma Xiaotao, Dai Yueheng, Huo Yuhao, Ling Luochеn, Bei Bei, Wang Dong, and Xu Sanshi, which could be considered their theoretically strongest lineup.
This is also the first time Ma Xiaotao and Dai Yueheng have appeared. Both of them are already at the Soul Emperor level. Dai Yueheng, in particular, was a substitute in the previous Soul Master Tournament. Ma Xiaotao did not participate in the last Soul Master Tournament, so no one knows Ma Xiaotao's true strength.
The Dou Ling Team is relatively weaker. Their captain Lone Bamboo Sword, Martial Soul Purple Emperor Bamboo, a level 57 Power Attack System Battle Soul King. The team has a total of five Soul King and two Soul Ancestor. In terms of overall strength, they should be slightly stronger than Zhengtian Academy, but their attack power is definitely lower than the team that Ye Wuqing and Yu Mengdi are in.
This team battle was extremely intense, especially between Dai Yueheng and Ma Xiaotao, who had never played before. As the captain and vice-captain, they hadn't appeared yet and seemed eager to prove themselves.
The Shrek Team made the first move, with Ma Xiaotao and Dai Yueheng at the forefront, and everyone surrounding Xu Sanshi, forming a special circular formation.
Before the Dou Ling Team could react, Xu Sanshi used his Fourth Soul Skill, Xuanming Displacement, to instantly swap positions with the opposing captain, Lone Bamboo Sword. Lone Bamboo Sword was immediately surrounded by six people, and of course, Xu Sanshi was also surrounded by the opposing team. But exchanging Xu Sanshi for the opposing captain was worthwhile from any perspective.
Just as Lone Bamboo Sword was being besieged by six people, especially with the presence of two Soul Emperor, Ma Xiaotao and Dai Yueheng, he displayed an extremely terrifying combat power. A golden light flashed on Lone Bamboo Sword's chest, and a golden light shield covered his body. It was the Soul Tool Invincible Shield. However, with his Soul King cultivation, this Invincible Shield could only last for three seconds.
In contrast, Xu Sanshi was in much better condition. At least he caught everyone off guard, using Xuanming Quake immediately and then Xuanming Displacement to switch places with Ma Xiaotao.
This resulted in Ma Xiaotao being surrounded by the six opponents in the center, while Xu Sanshi returned to his original group and joined them in attacking Lone Bamboo Sword.
From beginning to end, Shrek's tactics were extremely successful, not only restricting the opposing captain Lone Bamboo Sword, but also allowing Ma Xiaotao to penetrate deep into their territory.
Just as everyone in the Dou Ling Team was wondering, Ma Xiaotao launched a fierce attack. The powerful Fire Phoenix erupted instantly, attacking all six opponents at the same time. However, these six opponents, like Lone Bamboo Sword, all had a one-time Soul Tool: the Invincible Shield.
Seeing that the Dou Ling Team was at a disadvantage, all the team members also acted quickly. Lone Bamboo Sword's Martial Soul, Purple Emperor Bamboo, is both a control-type Martial Soul and has very strong attack power. He directly activated the Ten-Thousand-Year Soul Skill, and the entire arena was instantly transformed into a huge bamboo forest.
The originally extremely powerful Ma Xiaotao was suddenly blocked by several members of the Dou Ling Team using a Soul Tool.
The members of the Dou Ling Team all seemed to be holding a huge black iron block, which looked somewhat like a component of a Soul Tool.
Taking advantage of the time difference while using his Fifth Soul Skill, Lone Bamboo Sword reunited with the other six people. In particular, the huge iron blocks on their bodies quickly assembled into an extremely terrifying cannon, which was Level 7 Soul Tool Thunder Giant Cannon.
Unfortunately, at the most crucial moment, Ma Xiaotao unleashed terrifying power, actually breaking free from the combined control of several opponents over the Soul Tool and destroying the Thunder Giant Cannon.
At this moment, all the audience members were stunned. They never expected that the Dou Ling Team's trump card was actually the Level 7 Soul Tool, the Thunder Giant Cannon. They never expected that Ma Xiaotao could destroy the Thunder Giant Cannon all by herself.
In this battle, Shrek achieved a complete victory from every perspective. Whether in terms of tactics or individual strength, they completely overwhelmed the Dou Ling Team. In particular, when Ma Xiaotao displayed her Level 67 Soul Emperor strength, coupled with her top-grade Beast Martial Soul Fire Phoenix, it was an absolute crushing victory.
Even Xu Zhengyang seemed extremely wary. If it were just Dai Yueheng at level 64, he was absolutely confident of winning. But if it were Ma Xiaotao, he probably wouldn't have such a high chance of winning. Even if he used all his trump cards, his chances of winning were probably no more than 40%.
However, looking at the whole match, although Huo Yuhao and Wang Dong were at the very back of the team and seemed not to have made a move from beginning to end, Xu Zhengyang could clearly feel that the Shrek Seven seemed to have eyes in the back of their heads. Not only were their movements fluid and seamless during the battle, but for a team battle, this meant that not a single bit of Soul Power was wasted, which was terrifying.
Not to mention, at the last moment, it was Huo Yuhao who discovered that the Dou Ling Team intended to build the Level 7 Soul Tool Thunder Giant Cannon, and thus called out to the trapped Ma Xiaotao with all his might. This allowed Ma Xiaotao to do everything in her power to destroy the Soul Tool and destroy the Thunder Giant Cannon at the last moment. Otherwise, if the Dou Ling Team had successfully built the Thunder Giant Cannon, the outcome would have been unpredictable.
Compared to Xu Zhengyang, the others were more interested in the Thunder Giant Cannon of the Dou Ling Team. This Thunder Giant Cannon seemed to be a copy of the Sun Moon Empire's Level 7 Soul Tool, but due to the huge difference in manufacturing process, it required seven people to work together to use it, and the charging process was relatively slow, which was the biggest drawback of the Dou Ling Team.
Both Xiao Hongchen and the others were dismissive of this, as Ma Rulong could assemble such Level 7 Soul Tool by himself, and each of them even carried more than eight level six Soul Cannon.
Although Shrek won this battle almost perfectly, the only shortcoming was that Ma Xiaotao had to unleash her full potential by using her Fifth Soul Skill to break free from the control Soul Tool and destroy the Thunder Giant Cannon.