A few days later.
After a period of rest and reorganization, the Heaven Dou Empire's fifteen advancing teams had successively arrived at Heaven Dou City.
The Royal Hunting Ground, located fifty kilometers southwest of Heaven Dou City, was the venue for the advanced rounds.
At Camp One of the Royal Hunting Ground, Dean Su of Peach Garden Academy was explaining the rules of the advanced rounds to his seven students.
Tickets for the Soul Fighting Competition were no longer sold for the advanced rounds; only personnel from academies that had successfully advanced were permitted to spectate.
The advanced rounds would not eliminate any team; they merely served to rank teams to determine the order of appearance in the finals. Furthermore, the battles would no longer be team-based, but rather 1v1 single combat, where victory was declared once all seven members of the opposing team were defeated. This format placed a greater emphasis on the individual strength of the Spirit Master and their understanding of Spirit and attribute counter systems.
Having already agreed upon the competition rewards with their teacher, the six main female students of Peach Garden Academy looked refreshed and vibrant, exuding even more vitality and fighting Spirit.
"You achieved first place in your division in the preliminary rounds. The Heaven Dou City division is the most competitive division in the Heaven Dou Empire, which means your team combat ability is undoubtedly the best in the Heaven Dou Empire. Here, I want to specifically commend Rongrong."
"Compared to your performance at the Soto City Grand Soul Arena a year ago, you are much more composed and rational on the battlefield now. You have learned to consider the situation of your teammates and have a general estimation of their strength and characteristics. The amplification efficiency of your Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Pagoda has reached 80%."
"I am quite satisfied with your team's performance."
"Although the upcoming advanced rounds will not eliminate teams, they present an excellent opportunity to assess your individual strength."
"Therefore, in the advanced rounds, you may use your basic unique skills in battle. Effectively utilizing basic unique skills to defeat opponents will be a key factor in my individual scoring for you."
"Our first advanced round match is against Plant Academy. I will decide your 出場 order when the competition begins. You all prepare yourselves first."
As Dean Su finished speaking, Ning Rongrong and Xiao Wu were already itching for action.
"Finally, we can use our unique skills! I was almost bursting during the preliminary rounds. If we could have used our basic unique skills, it would have been much easier to defeat the Four Elemental Academies."
"I hope our advanced rounds go smoothly. After all, our goal is first place."
Dugu Yan and Ye Lingling also showed anticipation in their eyes. The upcoming matches not only concerned their annual assessment scores but also whether they would get to see their teacher's true face. After their teacher revealed his heart to them, they became even more eager for the moment he would remove his mask for them.
In the preliminary rounds, only the Four Elemental Academies put pressure on the students of Peach Garden Academy, with Tianshui Academy and Divine Wind Academy being the most troublesome.
Tianshui Academy's Ice Seal and the fusion Spirit Ability, Ice and Snow Falling, possessed hard control and large-scale offensive capabilities, giving Peach Garden Academy some trouble. Ultimately, by relying on Meng Yiran's third and fourth Spirit Abilities to summon two thousand-year Spirit Beasts and one ten-thousand-year-old Spirit Beast to break the ice and absorb damage, and Dugu Yan and Xiao Wu's ice immunity to evade the ice element's cold, they used poison gas to force a retreat and provide cover, allowing Xiao Wu to successfully get close and defeat Water Binger and Snow Dance.
Divine Wind Academy's captain, Feng Xiaotian's self-created Spirit Ability, Thirty-Six Consecutive Slashes of Gale, was essentially a basic unique skill with fused Spirit characteristics. Each slash was stronger than the last, and its extreme speed made it difficult to lock onto. If not for the cooperation of Wang Sheng, Dugu Yan, and Meng Yiran, who created an opportunity for Zhu Zhuqing to successfully apply her Spirit Ability—Nine Nether Cross Slash—on Feng Xiaotian, temporarily locking him down and breaking the situation, they might have been forced to use the power of their unique skills to fight.
In contrast, the more aggressively offensive Le霆 Academy and Blazing Academy were easier for the Peach Garden Academy girls to defeat. The reason was simple: they had been undergoing their teacher's precious herbal medicinal baths for over a year and possessed ten-thousand-year spirit rings. Coupled with Captain Rongrong's amplification of over fifty percent in spirit power, speed, and strength, they were the most ferocious team when going all out!
Wang Sheng's fourth spirit ring came from a ten-thousand-year Storm Star-Patterned Lion personally hunted for him by his teacher, granting him a powerful ten-thousand-year Spirit Ability: he could transform the areas his third Spirit Ability's axe teeth passed through and tornados into a storm restricted zone, confining enemies within an arc and subjecting them to multiple storm slashes. Its name was: Storm Nebula Split!
His formidable strength directly beat the likes of Yu Tianxin of Le霆 Academy and Fire Wushuang of Blazing Academy until their own mothers wouldn't recognize them.
As for Xiao Chenyu, the novice, after learning Hungry Wolf Fist and cultivation techniques from Dean Su during this period, he had made some progress under Wang Sheng's sparring and could now practice individually, compensating for his shortcomings with diligence.
To help him progress faster, Dean Su had already sent Xiao Chenyu back to Soto City's Peach Garden Academy with his personal letter and a peach blossom token to find Dugu Bo.
The letter contained recommendations for medicinal bath combinations suitable for Xiao Chenyu's practice, as well as superior rare flower and herb body refinement. After completing this stage, he would be able to hunt for his second spirit ring.
Xiao Chenyu's apprenticeship began much later than Wang Sheng's, and his first spirit ring was merely a white ten-year spirit ring, making it very difficult to directly elevate his second spirit ring to a thousand years.
Therefore, Dean Su set Xiao Chenyu's second spirit ring's age limit to match the optimal spirit ring configuration, aiming for a second spirit ring of around 700 years. This would give him a chance to absorb a spirit ring of two thousand years or more for his third spirit ring, just like Rongrong and the others.
...
"Congratulations, Dean Su. The students of Peach Garden Academy have truly performed astonishingly in this competition, which fully demonstrates that Dean Su's guidance is truly unparalleled on the continent."
Just as the advanced rounds were in their preparatory stage, an elegant figure approached with a young man in a cyan-gold robe and greeted Dean Su.
Seeing Ning Fengzhi show such respect to this young man wearing a peach-patterned mask, a fleeting look of surprise crossed the eyes of the young man in the cyan robe.
It seemed that the Peach Garden Academy team's achievement of first place in the preliminary rounds was closely related to this teacher from Peach Garden Academy.
"Qinghe, this is the Dean of Peach Garden Academy — Su Ran."
"Dean Su, this is the Crown Prince of the Heaven Dou Empire, Xue Qinghe."
"Peach Garden Academy's outstanding performance in the preliminary rounds, especially when your academy's students displayed an almost entirely fourth ten-thousand-year spirit ring configuration, had already prompted His Majesty to ask me to introduce you. I know Dean Su has a detached nature and was also in the midst of the competition, so I never dared to bring it up."
"With the preliminary rounds over, Qinghe urged me to come and meet the students of Peach Garden Academy, which is why we've come to bother you. Also, to see Rongrong. I'm sure that girl has given Dean Su plenty to worry about, hasn't she?"
Ning Fengzhi introduced the young man's background to Dean Su.
Dean Su merely glanced at Xue Qinghe indifferently, gave a slight nod, and said nothing more.
But a system identification had already flashed through Dean Su's eyes, a bit surprised, yet also within expectation.
This Crown Prince's innate talent and aptitude had actually reached the highest level seen so far.
[Qian Renxue, God-bestowed Spirit Seraphim, Innate Level 20 full spirit power]
[Recommended advantages: Sacred attribute, high talent, strong background, extremely easy to cultivate into a prodigy, five-star appearance]
[Defects: Deeply cunning, enjoys role-playing, complex family relationships, pathological thinking, missed optimal cultivation age due to undercover work in the Tian Dou Royal Family, taking her as a disciple easily entangles one in the whirlpool of imperial succession and power struggles.]
[Innate Talent Rating: SSS-rank]
[Due to delayed optimal cultivation age, cultivation aptitude downgraded to: SS-rank.]
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