"Fourth Soul Skill, Cloud's Wrathful Thunder!"
In the arena of the Continental Advanced Soul Master Tournament, as Su Ning's fourth Soul Ring lit up, a bolt of lightning struck the opposing Soul King directly, instantly breaking through his defenses and defeating him.
Watching Su Ning's performance, the teacher leading the Sun Moon Royal Soul Engineer Academy's team nodded in satisfaction.
But while the people from the Sun Moon Royal Soul Engineer Academy were satisfied, those from Shrek were not.
As the reigning champions of the Continental Advanced Soul Master Tournament, they paid attention to few academies, but the Sun Moon Royal Soul Engineer Academy, the perennial runner-up, was one they did watch.
Especially since Su Yun had put up one hundred million Gold Soul Coins to bet on the Sun Moon Royal Soul Engineer Academy's victory right at the start of this tournament.
Since the Sun Moon Royal Soul Engineer Academy had never won the championship, the Dou Ling Empire's Imperial Family had accepted the money quite happily, merely waiting for the Continental Advanced Soul Master Tournament to end so they could pocket a clean profit of one hundred million.
But it was precisely because of that hundred million that the Dou Ling Empire took an extra precaution.
Now, compared to a Shrek Academy victory, they were more afraid of a Sun Moon Royal Soul Engineer Academy victory, so that very night, they handed Shrek the Sun Moon Royal Soul Engineer Academy's roster of competing students.
The roster did not contain much information, but it did record everyone's Soul Power and identity, and the one who drew Shrek Academy's attention most was the Soul King, Su Qingxue.
The Su Clan was not royalty, yet Su Qingxue, a Five-Ring Soul King, had become captain above Six-Ring Soul Emperors. That already said a great deal.
Although they had Zhang Lexuan this time, who was at rank sixty-nine and about to reach rank seventy, and nothing too serious should happen in theory, Du Weilun still came to inspect the Sun Moon Royal Soul Engineer Academy out of caution.
After all, he was already an Eight-Ring Soul Douluo now, and all he lacked to become the dean of Shrek Academy's Outer Academy was a single achievement.
He had expended considerable effort and spent quite a lot of money to secure the connection that made him Shrek Academy's team leader for this Continental Advanced Soul Master Tournament.
He was counting on that connection to become the dean of Shrek Academy's Outer Academy, so he could not afford the slightest carelessness in this Continental Advanced Soul Master Tournament.
When the Dou Ling Empire handed him the Sun Moon Royal Soul Engineer Academy's roster, Du Weilun did not hesitate at all. He immediately took the initiative, hoping to uncover their trump cards through their performance in this Continental Advanced Soul Master Tournament.
Unfortunately, they had already reached the quarterfinals, yet the Sun Moon Royal Soul Engineer Academy's captain and vice-captain had never made a move.
From beginning to end, they had relied on Su Ning to lead the team all the way to the current quarterfinals.
Merely reaching the quarterfinals would have been one thing, but the fighting strength the Sun Moon Royal Soul Engineer Academy had displayed so far was far too overwhelming.
Or rather, Su Ning's abilities were far too overwhelming.
Although his fourth Soul Skill came from only a Thousand-Year Soul Ring, as a veteran teacher of the Shrek Outer Court, Du Weilun could indeed tell that the Soul Ring was by no means a normal fourth Soul Ring.
The normal absorption limit for a fourth Soul Ring was only five thousand years. Even Whale Rubber could not raise the age limit for Soul Ring absorption by much. Generally speaking, someone who could absorb a six-thousand-year ring as their fourth Soul Ring already counted as a genius.
But Du Weilun could see clearly that the power of that Soul Skill had absolutely reached the ten-thousand-year level.
Du Weilun knew that possessing a ten-thousand-year-level fourth Soul Skill was unlikely over in the Sun Moon Empire. At the very least, someone who truly possessed a ten-thousand-year fourth Soul Skill should not be someone who could not even secure the vice-captain's position.
That made the remaining conclusion easy to guess. Su Ning's fourth Soul Ring had come from a being at least eight thousand five hundred years old, and that Soul Beast had produced a Soul Bone for him, which he had already absorbed.
When a Soul Master absorbed both a Soul Beast's Soul Ring and its Soul Bone, both his Soul Ring Skill and his Soul Bone Skill would receive a boost.
In other words, Su Ning also had a Soul Bone Skill whose power could reach that of a Ten-Thousand-Year Soul Skill.
With one Soul Skill whose power reached the ten-thousand-year level and one Soul Bone Skill whose power reached the ten-thousand-year level, coupled with the physical improvements brought by absorbing a Soul Ring beyond the normal age limit and by that Soul Bone, Du Weilun was almost certain that Su Ning's fifth Soul Skill would absolutely be no younger than twenty thousand years.
In terms of actual strength, a Soul King with three Ten-Thousand-Year Soul Skills might not necessarily be any worse than a Six-Ring Soul Emperor.
At the very least, Du Weilun could be certain that even Shrek Academy's Soul Kings probably would not have much chance of beating Su Ning.
Even a relatively ordinary Six-Ring Soul Emperor from Shrek would not find fighting Su Ning particularly easy.
Two Soul Skills with ten-thousand-year-level power and one twenty-thousand-year-level Soul Skill. Moreover, to achieve this, Su Ning's earlier preparations could not have involved Whale Rubber alone. There was even a strong likelihood that he had fused with a Soul Bone before obtaining his fourth Soul Ring, perhaps more than one.
Even a relatively ordinary Soul Bone meant a Thousand-Year Soul Skill. Two Soul Bones meant two Soul Skills. When neither the quality nor the quantity of his Soul Skills fell short of a Soul Emperor's, it would be difficult for a Soul Emperor to defeat him.
"Damn it! Those bastards from the Sun Moon Empire really have sunk a fortune into beating our Shrek!"
"A fourth Soul Ring no younger than eight thousand five hundred years. To achieve that, Whale Rubber is one part, and Soul Bones are the other. At least two-no, there should be three."
"When obtaining the fourth Soul Ring, an ordinary-quality Soul Bone can raise the Soul Ring absorption limit by roughly some years. Add a little Whale Rubber, and the absorption limit would reach over eight thousand five hundred years."
"And he just had to be lucky enough to obtain the Soul Bone produced by the Soul Beast that gave him his fourth Soul Ring. Damn it!"
When Du Weilun tallied it up and realized that Su Ning very likely had another three Thousand-Year Soul Skills, he nearly ground his teeth to pieces in fury.
It was not just because of Su Ning. What he was thinking now was that if the Sun Moon Empire could invest so heavily in Su Ning, who had not even secured a captain or vice-captain position, then what would the Sun Moon Royal Soul Engineer Academy's captain and vice-captain be like?
How many Soul Bones did they have? What were their Soul Ring configurations?
The more Du Weilun thought about it, the more alarmed he became. He suddenly realized that this Continental Advanced Soul Master Tournament might not be so easy after all.
But that thought appeared only briefly before Du Weilun cast it out of his mind.
He had immense confidence in Shrek Academy, especially since they also had the rank-sixty-nine Zhang Lexuan in this Continental Advanced Soul Master Tournament.
Thinking of Zhang Lexuan's strength, Du Weilun felt somewhat reassured. He even began thinking of retaliating and making the Sun Moon Empire lose its entire investment.
"Hmph, you dare scheme against our Shrek? Then don't blame me for showing you what a price paid in blood means this time!"
With that, Du Weilun headed straight to Shrek Academy's team without another word.
He looked at the Shrek Academy students.
"Everyone, for Shrek's honor, please kill as many Sun Moon Royal Soul Engineer Academy students as possible in this Continental Advanced Soul Master Tournament!"