The prices were completely benchmarked against the Star Luo Empire's Soul Fighting Tournament, but the service was worlds apart.
This move was a hard slap to the Star Luo Empire's face.
Even spectators from the Star Luo Empire couldn't help but complain that their own country was indeed too backward in this aspect.
Making spectators stand to watch matches—did they really treat the audience as human beings?
It was too bizarre.
They didn't notice it back then, but now, suddenly being treated like humans, they realized how miserable their past lives had been.
And that wasn't the only point.
The awakened Star Luo Empire populace, comparing their experiences in Sun Moon Imperial Capital, found they truly weren't treated as humans in Star Luo but rather as livestock.
Without comparison, it was fine. But once compared, they directly questioned their previous way of life.
The people of the other two empires weren't much better off either, also sensing the difference.
Due to the inclusion of sect teams, the number of participating teams in this Spirit Master Grand Competition was unprecedentedly high.
Over four hundred teams registered in total.
Su Ming didn't remember how many teams there were in the original story, only knowing the current number far surpassed it.
Because the Blacksmith Association also invested in this Spirit Master Grand Competition.
Along with the news that the competition allowed sect participation came the announcement of the Blacksmith Association's investment.
"Any team that achieves an outstanding ranking in the competition will receive a Spirit Metal as part of their reward. The difference lies in the quality and quantity of the Spirit Metal."
"Rare metals vary greatly with different characteristics. During this Spirit Master Grand Competition, the Association will seek to establish cooperative relationships with the sects that perform best in various fields."
The first point encouraged powerful sects to participate, showcase themselves, and compete for rankings.
The second point encouraged ordinary sects to participate. As long as they had their own distinctive features and showcased them, and if there was a corresponding rare metal compatible with them, their sect would become a cooperation point for the Blacksmith Association's research on that particular rare metal.
Su Ming also participated in this competition, representing the Body Sect.
The Blacksmith Association, as a neutral force, would not organize a team to compete.
"Tch, it's just to spite us."
Upon learning this news, Xu Sanshi cursed outright.
"Isn't this taking a dig at our Shrek Academy?"
Huo Yuhao and the others fell silent.
Indeed. The Blacksmith Association not participating was clearly saying that Shrek Academy's so-called neutrality was utterly shameless, wasn't it?
As for the Body Sect being the core of the Blacksmith Association, they couldn't use that against them either because the Body Sect's disciple recruitment criteria clearly had a threshold: Spirit Masters with Body-type Martial Souls.
The Blacksmith Association represented a neutral force gathering talents from all sides, but it wouldn't use talents collected this way to compete and bully the subordinate factions that had been stripped of their talents.
In contrast, Shrek poached talents from the Douluo Three Nations, selected the strongest batch of geniuses, and then used that batch to suppress the academies of the Douluo Three Nations.
When they bullied the Star Luo Royal Team, the Di'ao Team, and the Douling Team, they really didn't hold back at all.
"Also, isn't Su Ming participating even more excessive?" Xu Sanshi clamored. "Doesn't that clearly tell everyone not to fight for the championship? The Body Sect has claimed it?"
Two and a half years ago, Su Ming went to Shrek and single-handedly challenged the entire Inner Court. In a gauntlet format, the three representative powerhouses of the Inner Court all lost: the strong assault-type Wu Ming, the control-type Han Ruoruo, and the Inner Court's senior sister Zhang Lexuan. All were easily defeated by Su Ming.
This matter still left a deep mark on the hearts of the Shrek Seven Monsters.
Who could possibly defeat Su Ming?
Even Huo Yuhao, possessing four Martial Soul Fusion Skills, felt despair.
They lost the championship in the last Soul Fighting Tournament. This time, they couldn't take it back either.
Shrek, in their generation, had truly fallen to an extreme point.
As the captain, Huo Yuhao felt a sliver of despair.
Why did he have to encounter such an era?
"I have tried extremely hard."
Five years ago, he was only a two-ring Grand Spirit Master. Now, he had even cultivated to five rings!
Not only that, thanks to his own foundation, he had sparred with many sixth-ring Spirit Emperor seniors and seniors in the Inner Court, confirming he was invincible among Spirit Emperors.
Even Spirit Sages would find it hard to defeat him if they didn't use their Martial Soul True Bodies.
He had tried very hard.
Yet, he still couldn't catch up to Su Ming's footsteps.
Resign to fate.
Huo Yuhao felt the grip on his hand and looked at Wang Dong'er beside him.
"Dong'er, I..."
Wang Dong'er began comforting Huo Yuhao.
"Yuhao, you have done your best. It's not your fault."
"Head Senior Brother, I'll just be listed for this competition; I won't actually participate in the specific fights. You and Senior Sister Wei Na won't have any issues, right?"
Long Aotian patted his chest.
"Your head senior brother is already a seven-ring Spirit Sage. In this competition, I'm invincible."
Su Ming was speechless.
"Don't get overconfident."
Although a seven-ring Spirit Sage was theoretically invincible, wouldn't he be wrecked against a Spirit Emperor like Su Ming?
"If I get overconfident, isn't there still your senior sister?"
During that Spirit hunting trip in the Star Dou Great Forest, Wei Na gained five ten-thousand-year Spirit Rings. Her Brain Martial Soul, stimulated by the five soul tremors, finally underwent a second awakening. Her Spirit Power also smoothly broke through level 60, and she directly hunted a sixth Spirit Ring.
A twin Martial Soul, Brain Martial Soul second-awakened Spirit Emperor—a kind of invincible in its own right.
Su Ming shook his head.
Fortunately, he had taken out insurance in advance.
Every Body Sect disciple participating in this competition was equipped with a set of Battle Armor from him.
Long Aotian's improvement compared to the original story wasn't minor—he had crafted two-word Battle Armor for him. Wei Na also had a set of two-word Battle Armor.
Other Body Sect members all had one-word Battle Armor made of Spirit Alloy.
None would have issues with wearing them.
A Spirit Sage equipped with two-word Battle Armor, with basic stats directly elevated to Titled Douluo levels—who could possibly defeat that?
"Good thing I'm the steady one."
The competition proceeded as scheduled.
Su Ming did not participate.
He was in seclusion, digesting the gains from repeatedly nurturing Zhen Hua.
Teacher Zhen Hua didn't disappoint him. Every time Su Ming invested his all in nurturing him, it resulted in success.
Meaning, every time he invested, Zhen Hua triggered the elemental heavenly tribulation.
Of course, Su Ming also used his authority as Lord of the Plane to increase his success rate.
There were failures too.
But, as the saying goes, triggering the elemental tribulation counted as success.
This meant the techniques used in that forging session were on point.
What Su Ming was digesting now were these techniques, contemplating how to forge a more excellent embryo, increasing the probability of withstanding the tribulation from the material perspective.
Then, as he researched, he realized something was off.
"Wait, that's not right. I'm not Teacher Zhen Hua. My strength is so high; I can directly tank it."
Su Ming scratched his head, discovering the truth.
"Teacher Zhen Hua is still too weak."
That seemed to be the case.
Battle Armor materials had an instinctive fear of the elemental heavenly tribulation. That meant Zhen Hua couldn't use four-word Battle Armor to withstand the tribulation.
"I'm different. Even without Battle Armor, my strength is close to the Limit Douluo level."
***
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(End of Chapter)