"Fourth Soul Skill, White Tiger Meteor Shower!"
Dai Mubai shouted loudly. As his soul power surged, his fourth soul ring lit up, and countless golden orbs, each the size of a fist, materialized and rained down upon the last two remaining members of the Heaven Dou Battle Second team.
"Boom! Boom! Boom—!"
The golden orbs crashed down, bursting with dazzling light. The deafening explosions resembled a carpet-bombing attack, forcefully blasting the vice team's agility-type and defense-type soul masters off the competition stage.
Thus, in less than two minutes—precisely a minute and a half—the Second team of the Heaven Dou Royal Academy was completely eliminated by the fully committed Shrek Team.
"Dai Boss, that was awesome!"
As victory was secured, Ma Hongjun, who had been hovering in midair, landed and gave Dai Mubai a big thumbs-up.
"Of course! That so-called Heaven Dou Battle Second team is nothing more than a bunch of weaklings!"
Having washed away the shame of being expelled from the Heaven Dou Imperial Academy, Dai Mubai waved dismissively, casually belittling their opponents.
To be fair, the Heaven Dou Battle Second team was indeed weak. Compared to the Second team of Star Luo Empire's Royal Academy, which Dai Mubai was familiar with, they were a whole tier below in strength.
At the very least, no matter how lacking the Star Luo Second team was, every Soul Master Tournament, they would have at least one member above level 40 or a three-ringed Soul Elder capable of unleashing the Netherworld White Tiger.
Soon, the referee stepped back onto the stage and announced the match result:
"Preliminary Round, First Battle: Heaven Dou Imperial Academy versus Shrek Academy—Shrek Academy wins!"
Instantly, the spectator stands erupted into a frenzy.
Astonished intellectuals: "Holy crap! Heaven Dou Imperial Academy actually lost?!"
Disappointed nationalists: "Pathetic! Is the Imperial Academy training nothing but useless trash?! They couldn't even beat some unknown Shrek Academy!"
Furious gamblers:"Refund my money!"
In less than two minutes, the Shrek Team had decisively crushed the Heaven Dou Battle Second team. Some were skeptical, some were amazed, but most were utterly shocked.
Even though the Second team consisted of the main team's leftover members, they were still from the renowned Heaven Dou Imperial Academy, which was considered the strongest in the empire. Their strength shouldn't have been weak, and in past tournaments, they were generally ranked just below the Five Elemental Academies.
Yet, unexpectedly, they suffered an instant defeat. It was almost as if they had run straight into an immovable wall.
Could it be that in this year's preliminary round of the Heaven Dou division, the Shrek Academy team was the dark horse?
Up in the spectator stands, Huo Wushuang grinned. "Not bad, a little dark horse indeed!"
Of course, he wasn't pleased because of Shrek Team's underdog status, but rather because their victory over the Heaven Dou Battle Second team meant that his earlier bet on Shrek's victory at the Great Spirit Arena's betting house was about to pay off several times over.
Since Heaven Dou Imperial Academy had a far greater reputation than Shrek Academy, the amount of money wagered on the Heaven Dou Battle Second team's victory was significantly higher than that placed on Shrek's win. The odds were several times greater in favor of Shrek's victory.
The Great Spirit Arena only provided the betting platform and did not directly participate in gambling, instead making a profit by taking a 10% commission.
Of course, the original wager was not included in the commission; only the winnings were subject to the deduction. Otherwise, if even the principal amount were taxed, then for bets with odds of 1:1.11 or lower, gamblers could find themselves losing money even when they won.
For example, if Huo Yun had bet 20,000 gold soul coins on Shrek Team's victory and the odds were 1:5, his total payout would be 100,000 gold soul coins.
Out of this 100,000, 20,000 belonged to the initial wager and wasn't subject to the commission. The remaining 80,000 was profit, and the Great Spirit Arena would take 10%—meaning 8,000 gold soul coins. In the end, Huo Yun would receive 92,000 gold soul coins, making a net profit of 72,000 gold soul coins.
"Let's go, everyone! Time to cash in! Lunch is on me today!"
Huo Wushuang, who had emptied his pockets to place a heavy 40,000-gold-soul-coin bet, waved his hand and led the way to the betting counter.
Two years ago, he wouldn't have been able to come up with 40,000 gold soul coins no matter how hard he tried. After all, he was just a young academy student with no special skills, and relying on red envelopes from his elders during holidays wasn't nearly enough.
But times had changed. Before Mu Yang returned to Blazing Academy, the Blazing Team hadn't been idle. Much like the original Heaven Dou Battle Team, they had been traveling to major cities' Great Spirit Arenas, challenging local teams.
Part of it was to make money, but the other part was to gain real combat experience.
It was worth mentioning that in the entire "arena-challenging" campaign, the Blazing Team itself only received a meager share of the earnings—just the competition prize money and the profits from their own bets.
Betting on one's own matches was forbidden? Easy—just give the money to a third party to place the bet on their behalf.
As for the bulk of the winnings? That, of course, went to Blazing Academy.
If it weren't for the academy backing them, a few young soul masters daring to challenge major arenas would've ended up being strung up on flagpoles the next day.
Take the original Shrek Seven Devils in Soto City, for example. If not for Flender and Zhao Wuji, two Soul Sages, protecting them, someone would have come knocking on their door long ago.
And if that happened, it wouldn't necessarily be to eliminate them. More likely, they'd be coerced into match-fixing.
Competition prize money was just pocket change—rigging matches and throwing fights was the real way to make money.
With the first match over, the audience in the Great Spirit Arena began to disperse.
At the entrance, watching the Shrek Team walk away, Ning Fengzhi's expression was unreadable.
"Sigh~"
After a long pause, he shook his head with a sigh.
Among the Shrek Team members, the ones Ning Fengzhi valued the most were undoubtedly Tang San, Xiao Wu, and Oscar, who all possessed innate full soul power.
He could see clearly that Oscar was his daughter Ning Rongrong's devoted admirer. Recruiting him into the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect would be all too easy.
Unfortunately, while Oscar had the necessary talent and potential, his drawback was that he was a food-type soul master with no combat ability.
The Ning family had an ancestral rule: all direct descendants who awakened the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Pagoda martial soul must have partners with combat capabilities.
Some sect members might resent this rule, but Ning Fengzhi understood that behind it lay a history of blood-soaked lessons.
Of course, he wasn't outright opposed to the idea. He simply wanted to observe further. If Oscar remained steadfast and Ning Rongrong had no objections in the future, then it wouldn't be impossible.
Food-type soul masters lacked combat ability? That was only because they had no offensive or defensive soul skills. But who said only offensive and defensive soul masters could be powerful?
If there was one thing Ning Fengzhi excelled at, it was investing in power.
With the right resources—say, a set of ten-thousand-year soul bones and at least six ten-thousand-year soul skills—even if the soul bones weren't top-tier inherited treasures, if they were refined for a food-type Title Douluo, just the sheer level advantage and soul bone abilities alone would be enough to crush any Battle Soul Master below rank 90.
For additional chapters....
Versatile mage {40 chapters}
Douluo Dalu:This Soul Master is to Weird {30 Chapters}
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From Every Review from now on i will release 3 Extra Chapter