Chapter 89: A Year of Progress
One couldn't help but notice that Liu Erlong was really concerned about Yu Xiaogang. Knowing that the Shrek battle team's substitutes were lacking in ability, she directly introduced the best students from Blue Tyrant Academy, Tailong and Jiangzhu, to Flender.
Yang Xiong didn't know what had happened among them, but eventually, Titan met Tang San. Tang San revealed his second martial soul, the Haotian Hammer, and from then on, Tailong became Tang San's little follower.
Even Yang Xiong couldn't help but feel that life was full of unexpected twists—who would have thought the story would return to the original course?
A year passed quickly, and the Soul Master Competition was drawing near, or rather, the time for Yang Xiong's graduation in his mind was also approaching.
After a year and a half of hard training, Yang Xiong had raised his level by six, now reaching level 38, the highest increase among everyone.
In comparison, the others also made significant improvements.
Dai Mubai broke through to level 42, the only Soul Lord among them, but he was already 17 years old.
Tang San's soul power had reached level 39, just one level higher than Yang Xiong, while Xiao Wu was also at level 38, the same as Yang Xiong.
Oscar, who had been training hard with Yang Xiong for the past year, had reached level 36, a four-level improvement in just one year.
Ning Rongrong was also at level 36, though she had just broken through.
Zhu Zhuqing and Qin Shuang were both at level 34. These two girls trained extremely hard, but their innate soul power was relatively low, so they might not be able to improve much in the short term.
Especially Qin Shuang, who loved training in the gravity simulated environment. Her training time was even longer than Yang Xiong's, and she even fought against Zhao Wuji every day like Yang Xiong. The gravity environment seemed to be specially tailored for her.
In contrast, Ma Hongjun only reached level 33, the lowest among them. Qin Shuang and Zhu Zhuqing had even surpassed him, which made Flender feel embarrassed, especially since Ma Hongjun was his direct disciple.
Based on Shrek's training progress, even if they reached the finals, only four of them would likely be Soul Lords, with only Yang Xiong, Tang San, and Xiao Wu having a chance to break through again. The others were too far behind.
Without spirit herbs, Shrek's group wasn't as outstanding as in the original story, but in terms of talent and training speed, they had already surpassed their peers by far. By the time of the next Soul Master Competition, having all of them reach Soul Lords, and even a few Soul Kings, wouldn't be a problem.
However, for this upcoming Soul Master Competition, they could only aim to get by—winning the championship was out of the question.
The day before the competition, all the teachers and students of the Shrek Battle Team gathered once more at Tianshou Royal Academy. Yu Xiaogang and Flender detailed the rules of the competition, including the preliminaries and qualifiers.
It was clear that Yu Xiaogang and the other teachers were quite confident. While they didn't expect to win the championship, they were confident about securing a spot in the top five in the preliminaries. Usually, a top Soul Master Academy would have only one or two Soul Lords, but with their second team having just one, Yang Xiong, Tang San, and even Xiao Wu had Soul Lord-level combat power. The others were highly coordinated.
Additionally, compared to other teams, Shrek's group had recently been through training in the Sunset Forest, so they had much more battle experience, even seeing a fair amount of blood. They were far beyond what ordinary teams could compare to.
Now, the Shrek Battle Team couldn't afford to hold back like in the original story, and the main team lineup was quickly confirmed.
The seven main players were Dai Mubai, Tang San, Yang Xiong, Xiao Wu, Ning Rongrong, Tailong, and Oscar, while the substitutes were Qin Shuang, Zhu Zhuqing, Ma Hongjun, and Jiangzhu.
Tailong had reached level 38, the same as Yang Xiong, and was included in the main lineup. After all, he was the captain of Blue Tyrant Academy's team.
Though Yang Xiong had tried everything over the past year, even asking Lin Gong to help him create pressure, he still couldn't completely fuse his Exploding Dragon Claws with his body. Yang Xiong now realized that this dragon claw was becoming more extraordinary, and fusing it might not be so simple. The dragon's bloodline in the claws might be too powerful to fully absorb.
Yu Xiaogang, however, continued with his own plan, having Tang San take charge of the team's formation and tactical arrangements since he was the team's only control-type Soul Master.
Yang Xiong didn't care much about it. After all, he didn't treat this competition as too serious. He was satisfied with exerting seventy percent of his strength during the competition, and didn't focus too much on anything else.
In contrast to Yang Xiong's calm demeanor, Yu Xiaogang and Tang San were much more nervous, as they both wanted to show off.
Over the past year, Yang Xiong's soul power had increasingly approached Tang San's, which put a lot of pressure on Tang San.
Originally, Tang San thought his talent was unmatched and that he trained hard enough, but if they kept training at this pace, Yang Xiong might surpass him. At that point, his innate full soul power would become a joke.
As the team leader, and especially as Tang San's teacher, Yu Xiaogang thought that Tang San, under his guidance, should be unbeatable, but now his disciple seemed likely to be surpassed by a teammate. That would make his individual training efforts seem like a joke.
However, Yang Xiong had never revealed his soul techniques. They had no idea what soul rings and skills Yang Xiong had, and even though they had analyzed him several times, they still didn't understand.
Yu Xiaogang had even tried to give Yang Xiong some hints, but Yang Xiong just pretended not to notice, as the man didn't have the strength to force him.
Of course, there were also rumors circulating that if the two teams of Tianshou Royal Academy merged, their overall strength would become stronger. Even the leader of the first team, Qin Ming, had expressed this sentiment.
Unfortunately, this news ultimately went nowhere. The first team in Tianshou Royal Academy was already complex internally, with everyone having their own background. If the two teams merged, their cooperation might not be as smooth as it was now. The three main educators were more concerned with the second team's potential rather than their current strength.
Finally, the Soul Master Competition began. The once basic Soul Fighting Arena in Tianshou City had been upgraded, and there were now more than ten small arenas inside.
The entire city was crowded with people, and especially outside the arena, there were huge crowds.
The Shrek group walked through the crowd in their silver battle robes.
The first team from Tianshou Royal Academy took the stage, followed by the Shrek Battle Team, which, despite technically being the second team, had been renamed out of respect by the three main educators and Prince Xue Qinghe.
If the outside of the Soul Fighting Arena was crowded, inside, it was even more packed, with cheers and excitement ringing through the air.
At the VIP seats at the center sat Emperor Xueye, with Ning Fengzhi and a high-ranking figure from Spirit Hall, likely the Platinum Bishop of Spirit Hall's Tianshou region, Sarath, who was also the true host of the competition.
Although Yang Xiong had participated in several Soul Master battles before, he had never taken part in one that garnered such attention from the entire continent. No wonder Yu Xiaogang and the others were taking this competition so seriously.
After the draw, it turned out that Shrek's opponent was Blue Tyrant Academy, which left Yang Xiong speechless.
Originally, Blue Tyrant Academy was at the bottom of the rankings in Tianshou Region, and now their captain had even been recruited by Shrek. Their combat strength was abysmally low.
When the match began, Shrek's team immediately overwhelmed them, and within half a minute, the entire Blue Tyrant Academy team was knocked out. Yang Xiong didn't even have to exert much effort, as the opponents were all defeated before he had a chance to act.
According to Tang San's arrangement, although Yang Xiong had entered the arena, he stayed near the back of the formation, mainly acting as a defensive Soul Master to protect Oscar and Ning Rongrong, two support-type members, while being ready to act as a surprise attack force when necessary. After all, with Yang Xiong's speed, he could easily pass as a (Fast Attack System Battle Soul Master).
Yang Xiong didn't mind taking it easy. There was no way he was going to take the lead in such a fight—showing seventy percent of his power was already enough.
However, Yang Xiong kept an eye on Liu Erlong. Even though Blue Tyrant Academy was thoroughly defeated, she, as the dean, seemed completely uninterested, her mind entirely focused on Yu Xiaogang. Yang Xiong couldn't help but feel speechless—Douluo Continent truly deserved its title of the "Love Continent." How could these women prioritize love over their careers?
But Yang Xiong also found a strange issue. Normally, Xiao Wu shouldn't be participating in the Soul Master Competition, especially since there were Title Douluo experts like Sword Douluo present in the stands, and possibly other high-level Title Douluos as well. But Xiao Wu seemed fearless, even joining the competition, making Yang Xiong wonder.
In the following days, Shrek's team continued to win one after another. Several battle Soul Masters were particularly impressive, while Yang Xiong, standing at the back of the team, performed relatively modestly.
Though Yang Xiong wasn't particularly interested in the event, everyone around him was discussing it, and he couldn't help but watch the battles of other teams.
Five Element Academy, a renowned powerhouse, had exceptional teams, especially the captains of each team, all of whom had reached Soul Lord rank. Their soul ring skills were also impressive, showing that their foundation was far superior to Shrek's.
Yang Xiong even saw his older brother, Yang Wei, take the stage. Although he was only a substitute at Purple Star Academy, he had reached level 35, and his Iron Sword martial soul had formidable attack power. He was one of the rare Weapon Soul Masters in the Soul Fighting Competition.
Everyone knew that training a Weapon Soul Master was far more difficult in the early stages than training a Beast Martial Soul, and although Yang Wei's soul power was ordinary, he had received a lot of resources from the sect and had excellent physical fitness, especially with the sect's swordsmanship inheritance, which no ordinary Soul Master could compare to.
Yang Xiong thought to himself that he should pay more attention to his older brother, who was the closest person to him in this world. Maybe he should plan for his future, especially since his brother had treated him well when he was young. However, his brother had his own training methods and was receiving guidance from his father, so they hadn't communicated much about cultivation.
(END CHAPTER)
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