"Spirit Hall Academy Second Team versus Skywater Academy Team."
"Both sides, please enter the arena and take your positions!"
The team Xu Zi belonged to had only just taken their places in the arena.
A thin, pale mist suddenly began spreading from the opposite side.
"A smokescreen?" Xu Zi blinked, and his pupils immediately turned bright purple.
In his vision, that thin, pale, cold mist became countless tiny floating ice crystals, and seven graceful figures stepped onto the platform, maintaining a steady formation.
They were seven young women.
They had beautiful faces and lovely figures, dressed in blue silk and white satin that perfectly matched the colors of icy white and watery blue.
The woman at the front of the seven had a thick fall of water-blue hair draped down her back. She stood around 1.65 meters tall, with fair skin and delicate features.
At first glance, although her looks were not breathtaking, her beauty had a hazy quality.
She was, naturally, Skywater's captain: Shui Bing'er.
The team's absolute core, she could guide the other six members with every frown, smile, and gesture.
The woman beside Shui Bing'er had short hair that reached past her ears, and her makeup and attire were exceptionally neat and crisp.
She was, naturally, Skywater's vice-captain: Xue Wu, the daughter of a prince of the Heaven Dou Empire.
After getting a clear look at their lineup, Xu Zi immediately rested his hand on the shoulder of the person in front of him-the eldest of the three brothers-and pointed ahead. "When you charge in, remember to form the staff formation immediately and enclose those two. You don't need to worry about anything else."
"Even if cold rain falls from the sky and ice forms on your bodies, I have a way to remove it for you." These words were addressed to everyone.
A trace of hesitation appeared on the faces of the five in the front row, but they immediately chose to trust him.
After all, they had seen with their own eyes that Xu Zi possessed the combat strength of a Soul King.
Since he said he would serve as support, he surely had a few tricks in that regard.
Every member of both teams entered the arena and took their positions.
With matches always flying the banner of friendship first, the referee first signaled for the captains to exchange friendly greetings.
Shui Bing'er stepped forward three paces and looked toward the tall, thin, black-haired young man opposite her-Li Qin, the Second Team's vice-captain.
Spreading her hands beside her hips like a royal princess, she dipped her head slightly in greeting. "Captain Shui Bing'er, level 43 Control System Soul Ancestor. Martial Soul: Condensed Water Flying Luan."
This was a Heaven Dou court greeting her close friend Princess Xue Wu had taught her, suitable for use outside the empire.
But what happened next was beyond Shui Bing'er's expectations-
The person in the middle of the five at the front suddenly stepped back twice, and a purple-haired youth emerged from the rear of the formation. He walked unhurriedly up to her and returned her greeting with a Church salute. "Captain Xu Zi."
"Level 37 Soul Elder, serving as Support System for this match. Martial Soul: Purple Sun."
"Huh?!"
Seven startled exclamations rang out across the arena.
Even over at the judges' stand, quite a few people leaned forward in their seats.
"What the hell? A level 37 Soul Elder as captain? And a Support System one at that?"
Those words rose in almost everyone's mind.
In the Heaven Dou section of the contestants' rest area.
Outside one of the detached villas hung a green flag bearing Shrek's monster face.
There were fourteen people in the lounge, standing, sitting, or half-reclining in various postures.
Yet every one of them was watching through the large floor-to-ceiling window, looking at the young man and woman exchanging their pre-match greetings fifty or sixty meters away.
"Xiao Gang, am I seeing things? That youth standing at the back, who clearly needs protection, is actually the captain of the Spirit Hall Second Team?"
The first to break the silence was a woman with a defiant edge to her voice.
A cloth band held her black hair tightly in place. Her brows and eyes were like a painting on her slightly pale face, and her clear eyes brimmed with spirit.
Though she looked close to thirty, her coarse blue-green dress could not conceal the sweeping curves of her figure.
"No."
Beside her, a somewhat unkempt man with a roguish handsomeness said, "You aren't seeing things, because I can hear what they're saying clearly."
As he spoke, he pointed at his ears, then adjusted his glasses and continued, "That purple-haired youth also said he's serving as Support System in this match, and he's currently level 37."
At those words, eleven people in the room exclaimed:
"A level 37 Support System?!"
Only two remained calm, their expressions turning thoughtful.
The younger of the two had short blue-black hair covering his ears. His looks were ordinary, all childishness had faded from his face, and he even looked somewhat lean.
The way he held his chin in thought revealed a maturity beyond his youth.
That sense of maturity came from his blue-purple eyes, which held a depth that did not belong to his age, as though a past lay buried within them-one too painful to look back on.
He looked to his side and asked humbly, "Teacher, could they be doing this to conceal that Power Attack System member off the platform?"
As soon as he spoke, the overlapping chatter of the ten people around his age gradually died away.
Everyone followed his gaze to the person beside him.
A middle-aged man stood there, neither broad nor thin, with slightly sunken cheeks and hair parted three-to-seven. He was clearly over forty.
He cradled his chin and, after a moment's thought, shook his head and concluded, "That shouldn't be the case, because most teams' information is already semi-public. Prince Xue Qinghe has it, so..."
"This may be the Spirit Hall Second Team deliberately throwing up a fog of uncertainty, but they're ultimately only the second team. What else could they be hiding?"
At this, the ordinary-looking youth with the deep gaze spoke again. "I heard their past rankings were only around fifteenth. If they hold back in this Soul Fighting match, they definitely won't stand a chance against the Skywater Team's Ice Phoenix."
Following his words, everyone in the room once again cast their gazes toward the arena fifty or sixty meters ahead.
By now, after the Skywater Team's initial shock and a second stir at the judges' stand, both captains had returned to their positions.
The referee wasted no time either, giving the order, "Members of both sides, release your Martial Souls."
The Skywater Team's side became a sea of icy white and azure:
A luan bird, silk, a dolphin, a crocodile, a sailfish, and a bass.
Seven Martial Souls drifted within a curtain of blue-and-white light.
Looking back at the Spirit Hall Second Team, the assembled colors of their various attributes appeared tangled and chaotic.
A black panther carried the darkness attribute, three Dragon Pattern Staffs formed a triangle, a white earth dragon brought forth the earth attribute, and a Golden Crocodile brought forth a colorless strength attribute...
All these things shared neither a common source nor complementary qualities, as though they were a great hodgepodge stew.
What caught the eye, however, was-
Behind these six Martial Souls, a Purple Sun slowly rose.
Brilliant purple radiance shone down, forcibly tinting the other six Martial Souls with a faint layer of purple light.
"What is that?"
"What Martial Soul is that?"
Everyone on Skywater's side, at the judges' stand, and in the contestants' rest area.
Countless pairs of eyes were drawn to this Purple Sun.
Only Shui Bing'er raised her head and murmured, "So this is... the Purple Sun Martial Soul?"
Under the purple sun's light, even the referee froze for a few seconds before recovering in time.
He chopped his hand downward and called out loudly, "This match... begins!"
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