Chapter 253: First Round Opponent, Holy Dragon Academy
The Grand Finals began as scheduled. Early in the morning, all the participating teams arrived at the competition venue.
Spirit Hall was truly wealthy and powerful. The arena for the Grand Finals was a massive platform with a diameter of 100 meters. The entire arena was built from granite, and numerous Spirit Tools had been used to reinforce it, preventing it from being easily damaged during battle.
The exact details were unclear, but according to the information released by Spirit Hall, this arena could perfectly withstand attacks from a Spirit Emperor without suffering damage.
However, Yu Tianlin was somewhat skeptical of that claim.
Although there were no true Spirit Emperors participating in this year's tournament, there were definitely contestants capable of unleashing Spirit Emperor-level power, or even beyond it. He really wanted to see whether this arena could actually hold up.
On one side of the arena were the designated resting areas for the participating teams, while the other side held the VIP section, where representatives from the two great empires and the high-ranking officials of Spirit Hall would observe the matches.
After all the teams had taken their positions, Spirit Hall summoned the representatives of each team to draw lots. For Thunder Academy, it was naturally Vice Dean who went forward to do so.
Yu Tianlin sat in the resting area with his eyes closed, resting quietly.
In the first round of the Grand Finals, the 3 seeded teams all had byes, so there was no chance of drawing them. Among the remaining teams, only God Wind Academy was worth paying some attention to. The others were not a concern at all.
There were 28 teams participating in the first-round draw, so the odds of meeting Divine Wind Academy were not high. Because of that, Yu Tianlin was not worried in the slightest.
It did not take long for Vice Dean to return with the results of the draw.
Sensing Vice Dean's approach, Yu Tianlin immediately opened his eyes and asked, "Uncle Lei, what's the result?"
"It's not a very good draw, though it shouldn't be a problem for you." Vice Dean's expression remained calm, without either joy or worry. "Your opponent in the first round is Holy Dragon Academy."
"Holy Dragon Academy?" Before Yu Tianlin and Shui Bing'er, the captain and vice-captain, could speak, Lei Tian raised an eyebrow and interjected, "Isn't that a team that advanced from the Star Luo Empire? Calling themselves Holy Dragon is pretty arrogant."
Everyone knew the 13 teams from the Heaven Dou Empire. Now that a Holy Dragon Academy no one had heard of had suddenly appeared, it was naturally an academy that had advanced from the Star Luo Empire.
"Indeed, very arrogant." The moment he heard the name Holy Dragon, combined with the fact that it was a team from the Star Luo Empire, Yu Tianlin immediately guessed the situation. "They should be an academy backed by the Sacred Dragon Clan."
Vice Dean nodded, confirming Yu Tianlin's guess. "That's right. Holy Dragon Academy's backing is the Sacred Dragon Clan, the fourth-ranked among the Seven Great Clans and the leader of the Four Lower Sects."
"As far as I know, Holy Dragon Academy took 1st place in the Star Luo Empire's qualifying rounds."
"The Sacred Dragon Clan, huh..." Hearing Vice Dean's explanation, Yu Tianlin could not help shaking his head.
He was certain Spirit Hall had pulled some strings behind the scenes. Otherwise, how could the 1st-place teams from the qualifying rounds of the two great empires meet in the very first round? A coincidence? There was no such thing.
It should be known that the Four Lower Clans had always been firm supporters of Spirit Hall. As the head of the Four Lower Clans, the Sacred Dragon Clan was even more so, practically wagging its tail for them. Later, when Spirit Hall established the Spirit Empire, the Four Lower Clans even sent their disciples to form part of the army.
Still, even if the opponent had the Sacred Dragon Clan as its backing and was the 1st-place team from the Star Luo Empire's qualifying rounds, Yu Tianlin was not afraid.
Thinking of this, Yu Tianlin suddenly asked, "Uncle Lei, what is Holy Dragon Academy's team composition? How many Spirit Elders do they have?"
In response to Yu Tianlin's question, Vice Dean regretfully shook his head. "Their exact lineup is impossible to determine. The number of Spirit Elders is unknown. But based on previous years, all 7 members should be direct disciples of the Sacred Dragon Clan and owners of the White Armor Earth Dragon Martial Soul."
All of them had the White Armor Earth Dragon Martial Soul? It seemed Holy Dragon Academy was very similar to Elephant Armor Academy, with the Clans influence being far too strong.
As for Vice Dean being unable to investigate their exact lineup, that was normal. For example, in the original story, after Divine Wind Academy and Blazing Academy joined forces, the moment they revealed their Spirit Rings, they shocked their opponents. When Shrek Academy later encountered Star Luo Royal Academy, Dai Weisi's Spirit Ring configuration had also surprised everyone.
In this era, apart from the special black technology possessed by certain major powers, the transmission of information was extremely inconvenient. As long as some confidentiality measures were taken, it was relatively easy to prevent others from prying into the details.
Still, even though he did not know Holy Dragon Academy's exact lineup, Yu Tianlin figured it was unlikely to be a full Spirit Elder team, so there was nothing to worry about.
And as for the White Armor Earth Dragon Martial Soul...
"Heh." Yu Tianlin could not help but laugh. "Since they all have the White Armor Earth Dragon Martial Soul, then things are simple."
During his trip to Dragon Valley, Yu Tianlin had wiped out a huge number of Dragon Souls, including quite a few White Armor Earth Dragons, so he was extremely familiar with every aspect of that dragon type.
"Let me tell you, the White Armor Earth Dragon's advantage lies in..."
Before the first round of matches began, Yu Tianlin explained to his teammates in detail the specific traits of the White Armor Earth Dragon Martial Soul, as well as the best ways to deal with it, ensuring that everyone was fully prepared.
Everyone simply assumed that Yu Tianlin, as a member of the Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon Clan, had a deep family background and extensive knowledge about all kinds of dragons. None of them knew that Yu Tianlin had personally fought White Armor Earth Dragons many times.
Not long after, the Grand Finals officially began. There was no grand opening ceremony as people might have imagined. A Cardinal from Spirit Hall merely stepped onto the arena, briefly announced the start of the competition, the match order for each academy, and the bye slots, and then called for the referee and the two teams of the first match to enter the field.
The pace was astonishingly fast, to the point that Lei Tian and the others could not help whispering among themselves.
Vice Dean explained, "As you all know, there are 14 matches in the first round alone. It is only natural for Spirit Hall to arrange things this efficiently."
Yu Tianlin also spoke up, "There are no commoners watching here, and everyone present is a Spirit Master, so there's no need for useless formalities. Being straightforward is actually better."
Aside from the earliest preliminary rounds, there had been no commoner spectators in either the later qualifying rounds or the Grand Finals.
As for that, the organizing parties, Spirit Hall and the two great empires, explained it as a measure to protect the privacy of the participating Spirit Masters.
The first battle on the arena quickly produced a winner. In Yu Tianlin's eyes, both sides were very average. It did not matter if the losers were eliminated. Even the winners who advanced to the next round posed no threat at all. They would only serve as cannon fodder in the second round.
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Transmigrated into The Legendary Mechanic
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