As soon as Salas finished speaking, Emperor Xue Ye's expression visibly darkened.
Fortunately, he noticed that among the five elemental academies and the Heaven Dou Imperial Academy's second team, only the Elephant Armored Academy team, backed by the Elephant Armored Clan, showed signs of being tempted. The others displayed no reaction—especially Mu Yang, Huo Wushuang, Huo Wu, Shui Bing'er, Shui Yue'er, and Feng Xiaotian, who all remained indifferent. This slightly eased Emperor Xue Ye's mood.
Then, with an indifferent expression, Emperor Xue Ye cast a cold glance at Salas before signaling the emcee with a wave of his hand.
Previously, when the teachers of the three academies registered Mu Yang and the others for the competition, they had also submitted the martial souls and soul power levels of their team members.
As the host nation of the Soul Master Tournament, Heaven Dou Empire had long received reports about the exceptional geniuses emerging from Blazing, Skywater, and Divine Wind Academies.
Although Mu Yang and the others had only reported their levels as five-ring Soul Kings without specifying their exact soul power ranks—and Mu Yang's age had been exaggerated by a few years—it was still enough.
Six five-ring Soul Kings, with five of them under the age of twenty. It was foreseeable that in the future, the Heaven Dou Empire would have six new Title Douluos.
In Emperor Xue Ye's eyes, even if all the other participants were swayed by the Spirit Temple, it wouldn't matter as long as these six remained.
After all, when the quality gap is too large, mere quantity cannot compensate for the difference.
Receiving the Emperor's signal, the emcee promptly announced, "Up next, the first match of the preliminary round: Heaven Dou Imperial Academy versus Shrek Academy. All other participating academies, please leave the field. The competing teams should prepare themselves—the match will begin in half an hour."
On the stands designated for the competitors, the thirty members of Blazing, Skywater, and Divine Wind Academy gathered together.
Mu Yang and Shui Bing'er were a couple, and since both were team captains, their teammates naturally followed where they went.
As for Divine Wind Academy—well, wherever Huo Wu went, Feng Xiaotian brought the whole team along.
Divine Wind Academy Team Members:Our captain is leading us to be simps…
Huo Wushuang turned to Mu Yang and asked, "Xiao Yang, who do you think will win the first match?"
Mu Yang glanced at him, smirked playfully, and replied, "Teammate Huo Wushuang, during the Soul Master Tournament, please address me as Captain or Brother Yang."
Huo Wushuang: "…"
His fists clenched—then relaxed.
He had taken too much from his little cousin. Besides, he really wasn't confident in winning a fight against him.
"Haha~ Come on, bro, we're cousins! I was just joking, don't take it seriously~"
Mu Yang patted Huo Wushuang's shoulder with a smile before addressing the group, "Alright, if anyone wants to make some extra pocket money, you should bet on Shrek's victory."
Just like how people placed bets on the World Cup in his past life, the Soul Master Tournament had its own betting system.
Mu Yang could assess both teams' strengths, but not every soul master could do the same.
Moreover, there were tens of thousands of spectators, most of whom were ordinary people without soul power. They had no ability to discern the true capabilities of either team.
And the Heaven Dou Imperial Academy's second team came from the prestigious Heaven Dou Royal Academy. How could Shrek Academy, an unknown institution, possibly compare? There were bound to be many bettors who wagered based on reputation alone.
The next moment, Huo Yun asked, "Are you serious? Captain, don't trick me—I'm broke."
"Guaranteed win! Shrek has three four-ring Soul Ancestors, while the Heaven Dou second team doesn't even have one. Unless they throw the match, Shrek is bound to win."
Mu Yang spoke with absolute confidence.
"Let's go make some money!"
Huo Wushuang waved his hand and led the way toward the betting stands.
Seeing this, aside from Mu Yang and Shui Bing'er, the rest quickly followed. That dazzling little Golden cutie—who wouldn't love it? Even the girls from the Skywater Team were no exception.
Huo Yu: "Brother, how much are you planning to bet?"
Huo Yun: "Just a casual twenty thousand gold soul coins~"
Hearing the conversation between the two brothers, Mu Yang couldn't help but look speechless. A 'casual' twenty thousand gold soul coins—this is what they call being poor?
It could only be said that soul masters were a profession deeply tied to inheritance. Those who could enroll in the elemental academies, barring cases of martial soul mutations, mostly came from soul master families. The only real difference was the strength of their respective backgrounds, but very few were actually struggling financially.
"Mu Yang, aren't you going?" Shui Bing'er asked.
Mu Yang shook his head. "I can't make the big money, and I don't care for the small money. Forget it."
Mu Yang: Mere material wealth? This Mu has no interest in such things.
In the world of Douluo Dalu, there was no internet, and betting on the Soul Master Tournament was limited to on-site spectators. The betting scale was naturally restricted.
If he wanted to place a large wager in the Great Soul Arena to make a real fortune, that would be nearly impossible. And as for smaller bets—he simply didn't care about such trivial amounts.
In fact, on a continent where strength reigns supreme, the fastest way to make money wasn't gambling or doing business—it was brute force.
As long as one's fists were strong enough, even collecting "protection fees" from the two empires and the Upper Three Clans was possible.
Take the soul master subsidies issued by the two great empires, for example. Though the funds came from the empires, it was the Spirit Hall that distributed them. This wasn't because the empires were particularly benevolent—it was because the Spirit Hall had once used its fists to force them into providing the funds.
Otherwise, even if the empires suddenly became charitable, why would they let the Spirit Hall handle the goodwill?
Many soul masters on the continent subconsciously believed that these subsidies had nothing to do with the two great empires and that they were funded directly by the Spirit Hall's own coffers!
Since all one had to do was register to receive money, soul masters who benefited naturally viewed the Spirit Hall favorably. After enjoying such benefits for a long time, their goodwill toward the organization grew. Given that the Spirit Hall was already the dominant force in the soul master world, it became the logical choice for those without powerful backgrounds to join.
No doubt, this was a brilliant move by the Spirit Hall—an undermining strategy at its finest. It directly cut off the majority of the two empires' grassroots soul master forces while simultaneously building up enormous goodwill. As a result, nearly seventy to eighty percent of all talented soul masters from the civilian population ended up becoming part of the Spirit Hall.
Half an hour later, under the illumination of the soul-powered lamps, the Heaven Dou Battle Team's second squad and Shrek Academy took the stage.
By now, the competition grounds had undergone a transformation.
In just this brief half-hour, a fully prepared battle arena had been set up.
The arena stood ten meters tall, circular in shape, with a diameter of over thirty meters. Though not particularly spacious, it was more than enough for the two teams to showcase their skills.
Of course, at this stage, only one arena had been set up for the match. However, by tomorrow, when the preliminary round officially began, there would be five arenas in place simultaneously.
The twenty-eight participating teams would go through twenty-seven rounds of preliminaries. Each team had to face all twenty-seven opponents, earning one point for a victory and none for a loss.
For additional chapters....
Versatile mage {40 chapters}
Douluo Dalu:This Soul Master is to Weird {30 Chapters}
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