Aicao's martial soul was the Chains of Space-Time—a rare, space-attribute control-type tool martial soul.
The moment the match began, vortices appeared in every direction across the arena. From each vortex extended countless chains, which, under Aicao's control, moved as if they had eyes, snaking toward Ling Luochen and the others to ensnare them.
Although Jiang Qingtong's Spirit Detection Sharing allowed Ling Luochen and Jiang Nannan to anticipate the chains' movements and evade in advance, the more chains Aicao unleashed, the less space there was for them to dodge.
With Jiang Qingtong's support, Ling Luochen temporarily elevated her ice-attribute martial soul to the Ultimate Ice level. She immediately activated her Ice and Snow Domain, covering the entire arena and restricting Jiang Shengyu's team's movements.
However, this temporary Ultimate Ice enhancement was clearly useless against Jiang Shengyu. With the Twilight Sword in hand, he strode through the frozen world effortlessly, without the slightest pressure.
Na Na's mobility was somewhat slowed, but in her Ghost Shadow state, she easily nullified this debuff.
As an agility-attack–type Soul King, she went straight for Jiang Nannan—their opponents' own agility-attack–type Soul Ancestor.
Meanwhile, both Aicao and Jiang Shengyu charged at Ling Luochen. She was the key to this match; as long as she was taken out, victory would be within reach.
Seeing the two rush toward her, Ling Luochen pressed her palms together, condensing an ice-crystal staff in her hands. She swung it, summoning countless ice blades to slash at them.
Jiang Shengyu swung the Twilight Sword to block the ice blades, while Aicao whipped her chains to shatter them.
Realizing her attacks had little effect, Ling Luochen tried to retreat with Jiang Qingtong—but Aicao had already manipulated the Chains of Space-Time to seal every possible escape route nearby.
Then, Aicao thrust both hands forward. The chains wrapped around her arms shot out, skipping across space itself, and bound tightly around Ling Luochen's body.
Using the pull of the space-time chains, Aicao yanked herself toward Ling Luochen at high speed.
In that instant, she also flicked another chain toward Jiang Shengyu, latching onto his arm and pulling him in as well.
Though a soul engineer, Aicao's combat strength as a soul master was in no way inferior to Shrek Academy's Soul Kings—especially when fully exploiting her martial soul's advantage.
Thanks to its space attribute, her chains could appear anywhere she willed, bypassing most control-type martial soul barriers entirely—greatly enhancing the Chains of Space-Time's battlefield control.
Once Ling Luochen was engaged in close combat, the effectiveness of her domain plummeted. Forced into melee, she now faced two opponents who were both formidable in close-quarters fighting.
Leveraging his high-quality spirit rings and Ultimate Ice power, Jiang Shengyu, despite being a four-ring Soul Ancestor, pressed Ling Luochen so hard that she was almost completely on the defensive. Even Aicao had no opening to assist, instead using her chains to bind Jiang Qingtong behind Ling Luochen.
The Chains of Space-Time were not truly metallic, so even with the Evil Fire Phoenix martial soul released, Jiang Qingtong couldn't burn them apart. Not that she needed to—this match was unwinnable anyway.
Compared to the one-sided battle on this side, the agility-attack duel on the other side was far more exciting.
Both Na Na and Jiang Nannan possessed excellent mobility. Even though Jiang Nannan was one rank lower in cultivation, her Soft Bone Rabbit's superb agility allowed her to keep pace with Na Na.
Their figures flashed rapidly across the stage, the icy domain having no effect on the intensity of their duel.
However, Na Na's soul power was ultimately higher. As time passed, Jiang Nannan found it harder to maintain her high-speed maneuvering against her.
She gradually began to fall behind.
Na Na instantly sensed this weakness. Seizing the opportunity, she used a soul tool to force Jiang Nannan's Invincible Golden Body. Then, timing perfectly for the moment it ended, she struck again, knocking Jiang Nannan out of the ring.
"Jiang Nannan!"
Ling Luochen frowned as she saw Jiang Nannan fall, but her own situation was already critical.
With Jiang Qingtong firmly restrained by Aicao, Ling Luochen lost her soul power support. Her martial soul's ice attribute quickly dropped from Ultimate Ice levels.
Now facing the oppressive aura of Jiang Shengyu's Ultimate Ice, she even felt her own martial soul trembling. Against an Ultimate attribute, an ordinary ice martial soul simply couldn't bridge such a terrifying gap.
Finally, when Jiang Shengyu shattered the ice-crystal staff in Ling Luochen's hands with a single strike, her martial soul was completely crushed. She dropped to her knees, her body trembling.
The match was over.
Referee Huang Jinxu stepped onto the stage, his expression complicated.
When he'd accepted the job of host, he had assumed Shrek Academy would, as always, take the championship. Yet reality had just played a cruel joke on him.
Shrek Academy had lost—to the Sun Moon Royal Soul Engineering Academy. How could this have happened?
But no matter how hard it was to accept, the result was undeniable.
Huang Jinxu could only declare:
"The All-Continent Advanced Soul Master Academy Elite Tournament has come to an end! The final champions are—the Sun Moon Royal Soul Engineering Academy team!"
The entire venue fell silent. The audience, at a loss for words, could only sit in stunned quiet.
Jiang Qingtong helped Ling Luochen and Jiang Nannan back to the rest area. Wang Yan looked at the three of them for a long time before finally saying:
"You've all done very well. Don't be discouraged. Next time, you'll be the official members—and you'll win."
But He Caitou and Bei Bei still seemed unable to recover from the loss. Dai Yueheng leaned against the wall, his gaze vacant.
Jiang Shengyu swept his eyes over the audience, who refused to cheer or applaud, and slowly raised one finger to the sky. The rest of the team, led by their instructors, rushed onto the stage to embrace them.
"We won! We're champions! Hahaha! We've beaten all of the most 'proud' academies on the original Douluo Continent's Three Kingdoms territory—and took the title!" Ma Rulong laughed loudly.
His words were harsh, but no less true.
Dai Hao stepped onto the stage, looked at Jiang Shengyu's group, and said:
"As for the champion's prize, it will be delivered to your hotel later. Thank you for traveling such a long way to Star Luo City to present such a spectacular competition to the entire continent."
Though Dai Hao had not wanted to see the Sun Moon Royal Soul Engineering Academy take the crown, as a duke and noble, he still had to say what decorum demanded.
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