Soto City Great Spirit Arena.
This was the largest Spirit Master competition platform in Soto City, primarily featuring three types of competitions: 7v7 team battles, 2v2 duo battles, and 1v1 solo duels. Winning teams received substantial rewards.
And this month, the Soto City Great Spirit Arena was even more bustling and clamorous than usual. It was all because three powerful teams had emerged one after another, making the spirit fights incredibly exciting.
At the beginning of the month, a team called the Mad Battle Team, with all its members ranked above 35, had dominated the newcomer bracket, achieving a seven-win streak.
Just as the Mad Battle Team was aiming for a ten-win streak to be directly promoted to a Copper-ranked team, the Shrek Team appeared out of nowhere and defeated them. For the next half-month, the entire Soto City Great Spirit Arena became the exclusive stage for Shrek Academy.
Team names like the Shrek Team in team battles, the Three-Five Combination and the Avenger Tiger-Phoenix Duo in 2v2s, and the Thousand Hands Asura and Evil Eye White Tiger in 1v1s became the biggest attractions in Soto City.
With an incredibly dominant display, they treated the arena as their personal hunting ground, perfecting their dueling techniques. At a nearly freakish pace, in less than a month, they had transformed from an Iron-ranked team to a Silver-ranked one.
Just when everyone regarded the Shrek Team as the one with the most potential and the strongest at their rank in Soto City, a Royal Battle Team, whose members were also Spirit Elders, showed their prowess, proving to be unmatched in the Spirit Elder bracket.
At the invitation of Supervisor Ao of the Soto City Great Spirit Arena, the Royal Battle Team and the Shrek Team were set to face off today.
The battle was incredibly fierce, with both sides locked in a continuous struggle for over half an hour. But in the end, the result was a narrow victory for the Shrek Team.
"Spectacular! That was absolutely spectacular! I never thought a team of Spirit Elders could put on such a show."
"The people from the Royal Battle Team are really strong. That Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon Martial Soul is so awesome! I got zapped by his lightning even from the audience seats. I almost wet myself."
"You hussy, I don't think you almost wet yourself from the electricity. You were probably getting wet for that Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon School guy, weren't you?"
"Pah! As if you weren't! You were screaming even louder than me just now!"
"That wasn't for the Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon! I prefer the Thousand Hands Asura. Didn't you see those purple spider lances that burst from his back at the end? Just like his name, a Hell Asura. He's so charismatic! He took out several members of the Royal Battle Team all by himself. I really want to see what he looks like under that mask. He must be so handsome!"
"I'm really looking forward to the Shrek Team's battles in the Gold-ranked arena! It's sure to be incredibly exciting!"
"I heard the Shrek Team has another special match tomorrow. I can't wait!"
"Look, there's a notice here! Shrek Team PK Taoyuan Team."
"I wonder what kind of team this Taoyuan Team is?"
Just after the Silver-ranked team battle, as the crowd in the Soto City Great Spirit Arena was buzzing with discussion about the performance of the Royal Battle Team and the Shrek Team, with many girls fawning over the fighters, a different scene was unfolding in the VIP room.
"What? A teacher from the Heaven Dou Royal Academy actually came from our Shrek!"
Upon hearing that Qin Ming was a former student of Shrek and that the captain of the Royal Battle Team, Yu Tianheng, was Grandmaster's nephew, the students of Shrek were all astonished.
Qin Ming smiled faintly. "Hello, junior brothers and sisters."
"How has the academy been lately?"
"Sigh, don't mention it," Flender said with a dejected sigh. "The academy was on the verge of closing down. These few students are our last batch. We were hoping to train them up, make a name for ourselves, and see if we could revive the academy. But at this critical juncture, a Taoyuan Academy popped up next door and snatched away several of our little monsters."
Although the Shrek Team had been almost undefeated in the arena this month, he was still worried.
"Taoyuan Academy? I've never heard of it. How dare this academy open right next to Shrek? With Teacher Zhao's temper, he should have torn it down on the first day, shouldn't he?" Qin Ming looked at the Immovable Bright King, Zhao Wuji. This teacher of his was notoriously fierce. Forget someone opening an academy next door; if anyone even dared to say something about poaching Shrek's students, he would beat them half to death.
Feeling Qin Ming's gaze, Zhao Wuji scratched his head awkwardly. "That was my old temper. I was young and hot-headed. I'm not so impulsive anymore. Everyone should be reasonable," he mumbled.
"You're reasonable with people you can't beat and use force on those you can," Xiao Wu muttered from a corner, pouting.
At this moment, Flender let out another heavy sigh. "Sigh... it's true. I won't hide it from you. If it were an ordinary Spirit Master, let alone Old Zhao, I wouldn't let anyone who dared to steal students from us get away with it."
"Then why does this Taoyuan Academy still dare to poach students from Shrek?"
"There's nothing we can do. The teacher at that Taoyuan Academy has some real skills, and his own strength is no less than mine or Old Zhao's. We can't afford to have a complete falling out."
"Before the match today, I passed by the main gate of Soto City and seemed to see a promotional banner saying our Shrek has another match tomorrow against a team called Taoyuan. They even made a special promotional display for it. That must be this Taoyuan Academy's team, right?" As expected of someone who could become a teacher at the Heaven Dou Royal Academy at such a young age, Qin Ming immediately understood the situation after hearing their words.
"That's right. It's Taoyuan Academy," Grandmaster finally said, turning around slowly.
"This is all because of the incompetence of you two."
"Since the academy is doomed to close anyway, we might as well take a gamble."
"So, I made a bet with the teacher of Taoyuan Academy, Su Ran. Tomorrow, the Shrek Team will fight a battle for survival against their academy. If they win, Shrek will likely cease to exist. But if we win, not only will the academy be revived, but we will also gain three or four little monsters to complete our team, and receive a large sum of gold spirit coins."
"It's not just the ten thousand Gold Spirit CoinsTaoyuan Academy will have to pay us. For this special duel event that I had Supervisor Ao help plan, if we win, we'll also get a 20% cut of the ticket sales, which will be a considerable income."
Having said this, Grandmaster stood with his hands behind his back, his chest puffed out, ready to receive everyone's admiration.
As expected, Tang San was deep in thought. "So, Teacher, the reason you had us make a name for ourselves this month, winning our solo and 2v2 matches in as flashy a manner as possible, was to build up our team's popularity so we could earn a big sum from this scheduled team battle with Taoyuan Academy?"
"Xiaogang, you're truly something else! You're so good at making money!" Hearing about the large sum of money, Flender's eyes lit up.
But his mood quickly sank again. "But we have to win first. Xiaogang, are you really certain we can win?"
"Dean Flender, your Shrek Team was able to defeat my Royal Battle Team. How can you still be afraid of this Taoyuan Academy's team?" Qin Ming was incredulous. The team he led was by no means weak, its members were all hidden talents, yet they had still narrowly lost to Shrek.
"Qin Ming, you don't understand. The students at that Taoyuan Academy have been taught to be incredibly strong. You'll see tomorrow," Flender said.
"Hmph." Yu Xiaogang snorted coldly. "Individual strength is individual strength. So what if a couple of his students are well-taught? A support-type who doesn't properly play support and learns defense instead might do well in a solo duel, but in a team battle, that's putting the cart before the horse, penny wise and pound foolish."
"Team battles are about cooperation and chemistry. That is their Taoyuan Academy's weakness."
"What's more, our advantage has now grown even larger."
"Grown larger? What do you mean?" The members of Shrek were puzzled, even Tang San was confused.
"Originally, because we only had five little monsters, we had to spend a lot of money to hire two older Spirit Elders to join us and build chemistry. But they ultimately didn't meet the 'monster' standard and weren't officially recognized students of the academy. They were holding our team back. Our chances of winning were only about fifty percent."
"But now, our chances of winning have risen to seventy, or even eighty percent!"
Yu Xiaogang looked at Qin Ming. "This is a heaven-sent opportunity."
"Qin Ming, you are also a student of Shrek, are you not?"
"Qin Ming, the time has come for you to repay the academy for your education. We need you to help the Shrek Team."
Qin Ming was taken aback. "Huh? Me?"
(End of Chapter)