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Back on the competition stage, seeing the five spirit rings on Dugu Yan, the seven members of Canghui Academy wavered but quickly formed their pre-arranged formation, with six members forming a hexagon around their captain.
"Don't move."
The five matches started simultaneously. The other four had already begun fighting. Dugu Yan was about to let Xiao Wu and Gu Yuena go up to test them, but Xuan Ming stopped them.
"What's wrong?" Dugu Yan asked, puzzled.
In terms of spirit rings and spirit power levels, they had an absolute advantage. Wouldn't it be over if they just pushed forward?
"Step back." Xuan Ming walked forward.
Dugu Yan was slightly stunned but didn't ask further. Gu Yuena and the others in the front row quickly retreated behind Xuan Ming.
Seeing this, the seven members of Canghui Academy's expressions changed slightly, not expecting their opponents to be so cautious.
However, before they could change their tactics, Xuan Ming walked forward without any hesitation.
"Don't waste time. If you're going to act, then act."
As soon as Xuan Ming said this, the faces of the Canghui Academy members instantly turned grim. They had thought their carefully arranged tactics would have some deterrent effect, but they didn't expect Xuan Ming to provoke them so directly.
But they didn't hesitate either. All seven team members simultaneously released their Gem Spirits, and seven colorful lights erupted, completely enveloping their bodies.
"Xuan Ming, you shouldn't be so arrogant, nor should you be so ignorant of the times." The captain of Canghui Academy said coldly.
"If you had hidden until the finals, we might not have faced you, but you chose to come to the preliminaries and even ran into us. Your good luck has run out!"
As he finished speaking, seven colorful lights shot into the sky almost simultaneously, forming a gigantic colored light pillar that enveloped the entire central arena.
"What's going on?"
In the VIP section, Emperor Xue Ye was greatly startled by this sight.
"Is it a Seven-in-One Spirit Fusion Ability?"
"No, it's not." Ning Fengzhi's expression was somewhat solemn, but he still shook his head.
"This should just be a unique Spirit Ability fusion, not a true Spirit Fusion Ability. However, the power of this move is likely extremely strong."
He had just received news that someone intended to directly target Xuan Ming in the competition to reduce his influence. He had originally thought that the Five Element Academies would do this, as they had connections to the Seven Great Families, but he didn't expect it to be Canghui Academy.
"Illusion ability?" Gu Rong frowned tightly.
"Fengzhi, Xuan Ming doesn't seem to have the ability to counter illusions."
Mental attacks have always been the most troublesome and difficult to deal with!
Spirit Masters with mental attributes are extremely rare, and each one has extremely strong dominance within their rank!
Most Spirit Masters can only endure those unpredictable mental attacks. Even if they can barely block them, they will still suffer great damage!
Especially for low-level Spirit Masters, once they suffer too strong a mental attack, they will be directly crippled!
"Should we interrupt the match?" Gu Rong asked.
"Even if Xuan Ming can withstand it, Rongrong is also up there."
Ning Fengzhi hesitated, but before he could make a decision, a sudden white light shot out from the seven-colored light pillar, forming a peculiar passage. All six people except Xuan Ming walked out of it, then jumped off the arena one by one.
"This…" Gu Rong was stunned.
The central arena was still enveloped by the seven-colored light pillar, and Xuan Ming stood quietly in place.
Seeing the white light that broke through their fusion ability, the seven members of Canghui Academy were shocked, but looking at Xuan Ming, who remained in place, they became somewhat enraged.
"Xuan Ming, you are indeed arrogant! In that case, you should experience our Seven Asura Illusion! Endure the most sordid World of your inner self until you go mad!"
Xuan Ming still made no move, just standing quietly, not even putting up any defense, allowing the illusion to invade his mind, because he was very curious about what he would see.
Sordid? Filthy? Painful?
Amidst the seven-colored light, a powerful mental shock surged into Xuan Ming's mind. With Xuan Ming's anticipation, the scene before him began to change.
But the next moment, an evil, cold aura instinctively erupted from Xuan Ming.
Evil God Protection!
The violent, cold aura burst open, instantly shattering the seven-colored light pillar.
The seven members of Canghui Academy only felt an irresistibly powerful force rushing towards them. Under the impact of this force, their bodies flew backward like kites with broken strings, crashing heavily onto the arena, spitting out mouthfuls of blood.
The audience around the arena was stunned by this sudden turn of events. The originally noisy arena instantly became silent enough to hear a pin drop.
Xuan Ming opened his eyes, silent.
He wasn't skilled in controlling evil attributes. Just now, to try and experience this illusion, he had voluntarily opened his mind. As a result, Evil God Protection was passively triggered directly by the mental shock that surged into his body!
But he hadn't planned to defend!
... Under the bewildered gaze of countless spectators, the Royal Fighting Team's second round of preliminaries ended inexplicably again.
In the first preliminary match, Shrek Academy directly conceded. In the second match, everyone could barely say they saw anything. Although some people suggested that the seven-colored dazzling light was the legendary Seven-in-One Spirit Fusion Ability, Xuan Ming didn't even release his Spirit or spirit rings, which easily led to speculation. Many people even suspected that the Royal Fighting Team was throwing the match.
However, after the competition committee inspected the participating members of Canghui Academy, the results they gave surprised everyone.
"Mental breakdown?"
In the lounge, Dugu Yan and the others were somewhat slow to react upon hearing this news.
"They say it's a mental breakdown, but it actually means they've become idiots." Xue Qinghe said.
"According to the competition committee's tests, they suffered a backlash from their own Spirit Ability, and a very special cold aura remained on their bodies, which overlapped with the cold, special aura on Xuan Ming. This has attracted the attention of the competition committee, and now many people are demanding an inspection of him."
"Inspection? Inspection of what?" Ning Rongrong frowned slightly.
"Who wants to inspect? Spirit Hall?"
"It's not just Spirit Hall; many academies and the Spirit Master families that make up the competition committee are also demanding an inspection, saying that such dangerous things cannot appear in the Soul Master Competition arena, as it is irresponsible to the participants." Xue Qinghe said.
Evil attribute, the uniqueness of this attribute is like that of the sacred attribute. The sacred attribute evolved from the light attribute, and the evil attribute evolved from the dark attribute. The former is extremely rare, almost nonexistent except for the Sacred Angel Family.
The latter, however, has never appeared on human Spirit Masters, and is even a legendary existence among Spirit Beasts.
Most people simply don't know about the existence of the evil attribute. They only know that Xuan Ming has an extremely dangerous aura, and the participating members of Canghui Academy who became idiots also have this aura. This just happens to give those who want to target Xuan Ming an excuse.
"Who will conduct the inspection?" Xuan Ming asked.
"From the Imperial Family, my teacher will come forward. He is, after all, the Imperial Advisor of the Heaven Dou Empire. As for Spirit Hall, Platinum Bishop Salas of the Spirit Hall will come forward." Xue Qinghe said.
"The investigation team should be here soon. Have you thought about how to explain it?"
"Explain?" Xuan Ming looked puzzled.
"Explain to whom?"
"To…" Xue Qinghe was momentarily speechless.
Right, explain to whom?
Does Ning Fengzhi need to explain? Or would Salas dare to demand an explanation from Xuan Ming?
"But there must be an explanation to the public." Xue Qinghe said.
"After all, all the participating members of Canghui Academy have become idiots, which virtually means they're out of the competition. Now, many academies are seizing the opportunity to make trouble; they don't want their students to encounter you in the arena."
A large part of the reason for this incident now is everyone's concern about Xuan Ming's strength. They don't even know Xuan Ming's specific cultivation level, and coupled with Xuan Ming's terrifying performance in the Great Spirit Arena in the past, many people hope to use this opportunity to kick him out.
The Seven Great Families are similar. After all, if Xuan Ming could be kicked out of the competition in this way, it would be a huge blow to his image. Once his image collapses, Xuan Ming's influence would rapidly decline, which would also minimize everyone's losses.
Originally, Xuan Ming had been out of contact for half a year, not even appearing in the public Spirit duels of the Great Spirit Arena, which had already caused his influence to drop significantly.
However, after Xuan Ming chose to give up his seed team spot and start from the preliminaries, his popularity even surpassed when he previously received the Diamond Spirit Duel Badge.
While Xuan Ming's prestige in the Great Spirit Arena was immense, it was ultimately limited to the aristocratic circles, as the tickets for his Spirit duels were not something ordinary people could afford.
But now, in this All-Continent Advanced Soul Master Academy Elite Tournament, not only Spirit Masters but also more common people have joined in, and as more and more people participate, discussions about Xuan Ming are increasing!
Strength, status, and prestige—when Xuan Ming possesses all three of these things simultaneously, every word he says and every action he takes has a huge impact!
If Xuan Ming were to truly expose the events that transpired at the Auction House on the competition stage, in front of so many people, and bring the issue of slave trade into the open, the reputation of the Seven Great Families would suffer an unimaginable blow!
Even the nobles who are aware of this matter would, for the sake of self-preservation and to get a share from the Seven Great Families, heavily criticize them!
As for the Heaven Dou Imperial Family, there's no need to mention it; they must have been unaware!