Chapter 229: The Preliminary Rounds End, Qualifying Spots and Rewards
After defeating everyone from Godwind Academy, including Feng Xiaotian, Shui Bing'er and Xue Wu finally exhausted their Spirit Power and withdrew from their Martial Soul Fusion state. They lost the ability to keep fighting and were forced to leave the stage.
However, compared to Godwind Academy, whose entire team had been knocked off the arena, Skywater Academy still had 3 teammates standing on the stage. Therefore, Skywater Academy was declared the winner. Their qualification spot was essentially secured.
In the following rounds of the preliminary stage, Thunder Academy no longer encountered any top tier opponents, so Lei Tian and the others were able to handle the matches themselves. Yu Tianlin also no longer needed to remain in seclusion to break through a bottleneck, so he did not stay shut in his room. Instead, he went to the Heaven Dou Grand Battle Arena from time to time to watch the fights.
Day by day, time passed. Soon, the final day of the preliminaries arrived, and the 26th round was about to begin.
Thunder Academy's last opponent was still a weak team, not worth Yu Tianlin's attention. The only match that truly deserved his focus was this one.
Elephant Armor Academy vs. Blue Tyrant Academy.
It had to be said that the Heaven Dou Empire only had 5 qualification slots in the preliminary stage. The top 4 were already decided, but the 5th slot was still not officially settled.
Elephant Armor Academy and Blue Tyrant Academy had the same record. Both had lost to the Four Elemental Academies, but won every match against the other academies. That meant they were tied for fifth place.
Even a tie did not help. Only 1 of them could advance. Now, in the final round, they finally clashed head on, making the outcome crucial to both sides.
During the preliminaries, Yu Tianlin's terrifying strength had made the Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon Clan famous. However, because Yu Tianlin was overwhelmingly strong and his dragon transformation exceeded normal standards, he could not represent the clan's "true" level. In this final preliminary match between Blue Tyrant Academy and Elephant Armor Academy, Yu Tianlin showed everyone the real combat power of the Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon Martial Soul.
Dai Mubai had been beaten badly by Shi Nian, and his mental state was still in poor condition. He had only recovered halfway and still needed time to recuperate, so he could not fight. Because of that, in this battle, Blue Tyrant Academy only had Yu Tianxin, a Spirit Ancestor, to hold the line, while Elephant Armor Academy had 3 Spirit Ancestors, including Hu Yanli, who also possessed a Spirit Bone.
Since this match decided qualification, Hu Yanli could no longer hide his abilities. In full view of everyone, he once again unleashed his head Spirit Bone at full power, displaying an extremely shocking level of strength.
Fortunately, Blue Tyrant Academy's 2 support type members were exceptionally strong, and their combined support was powerful enough to keep the team afloat. Although Blue Tyrant Academy was weaker in raw combat power, they managed to stabilize. On top of that, every member of Elephant Armor Academy had a Diamond Mammoth Martial Soul. Their fighting style was straightforward, and their weaknesses were clear. After an extremely difficult battle, Yu Tianxin finally crushed through with a ferocious offensive and trampled Hu Yanli beneath her feet.
Thus, the qualification slots were officially decided.
1st place: Thunder Academy, 25 wins and 1 loss.
2nd place: Skywater Academy, 25 wins and 1 loss.
3rd place: Blazing Academy, 24 wins and 2 losses.
4th place: Godwind Academy, 24 wins and 2 losses.
5th place: Blue Tyrant Academy, 22 wins and 4 losses.
As for Elephant Armor Academy, after losing to the Four Elemental Academies and Blue Tyrant Academy, they were unfortunately eliminated and lost the chance to participate in the next stage and the finals. This undoubtedly made Huyanzhen's expression turn ugly.
The preliminaries officially ended. According to the procedures of the Heaven Dou Division, the next step was the awards ceremony. The captains and vice captains of the top 5 teams walked onto the platform.
After the battle with Skywater Academy, Yu Tianlin had suddenly disappeared. He did not even appear in the match against Godwind Academy. Although he returned later, he never fought again and only watched from the sidelines. So when Yu Tianlin stepped onto the platform, he immediately drew countless gazes. Most of those gazes were filled with fighting spirit, like Huo Wu, Feng Xiaotian, and Yu Tianxin. Only Shui Bing'er looked at him with gentle eyes.
"It seems that the 'mutual destruction' Martial Soul Fusion battle with Skywater Academy lit a fire under them," Yu Tianlin understood at once. After witnessing that fight, they must have realized they were not invincible.
"But do you know what?" Yu Tianlin thought quietly. "I'm completely different now than I was before."
Back when he was at level 49, if a team cooperated perfectly, they might have had a chance. But now it was different. After Yu Tianlin became a Spirit King, they had no chance at all.
No matter what the representatives of the 5 academies were thinking, the awards ceremony began.
The ceremony was simple. Each team received a qualification certificate and prize money for the upcoming qualifying rounds. The certificate was a handbook, and the prize money was 10,000 gold Spirit coins per team, regardless of ranking.
10,000 gold Spirit coins sounded like a lot, but split among 14 teammates, each person would get less than 1,000 on average. It was not much at all. After all, Spirit Ancestors received 100 gold Spirit coins each month as a basic subsidy.
After the awards, Emperor Xueye delivered a speech. In it, he offered additional rewards to attract talented young Spirit Masters.
The 10 captains and vice captains were directly granted the title of viscount, while the other team members were granted the title of baron. Moreover, their fiefdoms would be allocated immediately after the competition ended.
After that came encouragement. In order to motivate the participating teams to fight harder and bring glory to the Heaven Dou Empire, Emperor Xueye made a promise.
During the qualifying rounds, the top 3 students with the most wins would be provided, by the Heaven Dou Empire, with the Spirit Beasts needed for their next breakthrough. As long as the Spirit Beast was under 30,000 years old, any type could be guaranteed.
The moment Emperor Xueye spoke those words, everyone's breathing visibly quickened. Clearly, they were tempted.
However, none of it moved Yu Tianlin.
Titles? Fiefdoms? Yu Tianlin was the young master of the Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon Clan. Did he need such things?
As for Spirit Beasts, could any type really be acceptable? Would a true dragon count? And it was limited to those under 30,000 years old. Yu Tianlin no longer needed Spirit Beasts under 30,000 years.
Everything that needed to be said was said. Finally, the time and location of the qualifying rounds were announced.
The qualifying rounds would be held in the Royal Enclosure of the Heaven Dou Empire 1 month from now.
That timing was perfect. It gave every team a full month to rest and recover, letting them relax after the exhausting preliminary stage.
.....
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