The long-awaited exhibition match was about to begin.
The announcement echoed throughout the stadium: "Today marks the opening of the Skysea Alliance Grand Tournament. We have specially invited a team from Shrek Academy to engage in a friendly exchange with our reigning champions."
"Given Shrek Academy's formidable strength, this friendly match will be a cross-age-division challenge. Our Skysea Alliance youth division seven-person champion team will take on Shrek Academy's junior seven-person team. Please welcome both sides to the stage!"
As the announcement concluded, the entry corridors on both sides of the Spirit Fighting Stage lit up simultaneously. The Shrek seven took the field first, their matching green uniforms catching the light and standing out sharply against the arena.
The crowd erupted in cheers.
Yu Henglong led the way, a girl at his side. The tall, lean boy from before and two others followed close behind. The members at the front all looked to be in their mid-teens.
Ye Xinglan and Xu Lizhi, clearly the youngest of the group, brought up the rear.
Their formation was loose and casual. It was obvious they weren't taking the match particularly seriously.
Representing the Skysea Alliance were the previous youth division champions from Skysea Academy, seven students all over the age of twenty and on the verge of competing in the adult division.
What struck the crowd as odd was that Skysea Academy's lineup consisted of only four young men and two young women, dressed in sleek silver uniforms and moving in crisp unison.
Trailing behind them was one conspicuous little tuft of yellow hair.
The strangeness wasn't simply that no one recognized him. It was mainly that the kid looked absurdly young, even younger than the Shrek Academy students across from him. He stuck out like a sore thumb among teammates who were all at least twenty.
"Who is that? How did Skysea Academy let a little kid in?" Murmurs rippled through the stands. Someone pointed at that jarring patch of yellow hair, complete with a little cowlick bouncing around.
"He looks ten at most," someone said, baffled.
In the stands, Xie Xie was jumping up and down, shouting, "Go, bro Arthur! Wreck Shrek!"
Na'er refused to be outdone and cheered just as loudly.
Xu Xiaoyan pressed her palms together, eyes shining with anticipation.
On the stage, both sides exchanged greetings and introductions.
The Shrek contingent had their eyes fixed on Arthur, the boy who had clashed with them moments ago.
Yu Henglong spoke up. "I don't recall you being on Skysea Academy's roster."
He had, after all, glanced through their profiles. Even if he looked down on the opposition, their opponents were all Spirit Ancestors over the age of twenty, so he'd given it at least a passing look.
Arthur tilted his head, and that little cowlick swayed with the motion. A careless smile played at the corner of his mouth.
"The starter had something come up. I'm the sub."
Up on the high platform, the Eastsea City governor quickly followed up, raising his voice to explain to the referee and the entire crowd: "A member of the Skysea Academy team has taken suddenly ill. Arthur from Eastsea Academy will be stepping in as a substitute to ensure the match proceeds smoothly!"
The moment those words landed, the whole stadium erupted. "A substitute? Who is this kid?"
"He looks younger than the Shrek juniors. Can he actually hold his own?"
Arthur introduced himself in turn: "Eastsea Academy. Arthur."
Long Hengxu, the Eastsea Academy supervising teacher, had reached a level of excitement that could barely be contained. Arthur was being far too good to them. This single moment alone was enough to put Eastsea Academy on the map.
The Shrek members were momentarily taken aback, and then contemptuous looks spread across their faces. The tall, lean boy let out a scoffing laugh. "A substitute? Has the Skysea Alliance really run out of people? Sending some little brat to make up the numbers? That's a pretty blatant lack of respect for Shrek."
The girl beside him frowned, her tone dismissive. "Kid, you should step down now, before you end up crying for your mom."
Ye Xinglan's gaze was sharp as a blade. "We still have unfinished business from earlier. Since you insist on being up here, don't blame me for not holding back."
"Shrek's honor is not something you get to trample on."
The Skysea Academy teammates beside Arthur said nothing in his defense. They had their own grievances with the organizers for pulling a long-time teammate and replacing him with some child.
Off to the side, Shen Yi and Wu Zhangkong were watching together from a corner.
"That child is..." Shen Yi recognized Arthur immediately. She had only just seen him moments ago.
Her brow furrowed. "What on earth is the Skysea Alliance thinking, putting someone this young on the stage?"
"That's Arthur. The boy who got into it with your student just now." Wu Zhangkong's voice was as cool as ever, but his gaze was locked on that little patch of yellow hair on the Spirit Fighting Stage.
"He is my..." Wu Zhangkong let out a quiet, resigned sigh. "My friend."
He did not say student.
But that distinction told Shen Yi everything she needed to know about just how extraordinary this was.
This is bad.
Her expression shifted in an instant. "He's up there because of what happened earlier?"
"Can he actually beat Yu Henglong and the others?"
Wu Zhangkong gave a single nod. "Without much effort."
Shen Yi's pupils contracted sharply. She stared at that small patch of yellow hair on the Spirit Fighting Stage, her voice thick with disbelief. "Without much effort? Yu Henglong is already a four-ring Spirit Ancestor, with Ningxin's Seven Treasure Glazed Pagoda backing him up. No matter how gifted this child is, his age alone..."
Before she could finish, the referee on the Spirit Fighting Stage raised a hand, and a clear, resonant voice rang out across the arena: "Begin!"
The words had barely left the referee's mouth before Shrek Academy's seven moved as one, launching their assault.
The first to act was Xu Lizhi. Two yellow soul rings lit up beneath his feet. He swung his right hand, and several round objects resembling steamed buns sailed toward his teammates, who caught them and popped them straight into their mouths.
Right on his heels, the girl beside Yu Henglong called forth two yellow and one purple rings beneath her feet, and a seven-tiered pagoda materialized in her right hand.
The Seven Treasure Glazed Pagoda.
The bottom three tiers lit up simultaneously, and three beams of light descended onto Yu Henglong.
Yu Henglong released a long, sweeping dragon's roar. His body swelled abruptly, his arms becoming enormously thick, and beneath his feet rose four soul rings: two yellow, one purple, one black.
That distribution was clearly off. Some of those rings had come from hunting spirit beasts rather than spirit souls.
Spirit souls held such an overwhelming advantage over spirit beasts, and could even be upgraded. Why would anyone go to the trouble of hunting spirit beasts for soul rings?
Arthur narrowed his eyes slightly. The answer was straightforward: Yu Henglong's Spiritual Power was too weak. He couldn't yet sustain a spirit soul of sufficient age.
Yu Henglong let out a roar, and in the next instant, a surge of intense blue light detonated at the center of the stage. The arena was not especially large, less than fifty meters in diameter. Massive bolts of lightning instantly engulfed the entire field.
The Skysea Academy teammates felt a numbing current sweep through their bodies, rooting them to the spot.
The violent arcs of lightning spread like a web across the arena. The six Skysea Academy members strained to channel their soul power in resistance, and their support soul master worked through skill after skill, but nothing made a difference.
The Shrek members were charging straight at them. Bound by the lightning, the Skysea six could only watch helplessly, breaking into cold sweats.
If not for Arthur, they would have been wiped out this easily.
"You're all pretty hopeless, aren't you." Arthur muttered, unable to help himself. It looked like he really was going to have to take on all seven by himself.
The Skysea Academy members stared wide-eyed, faces flushed red, too paralyzed by the electricity to say a word.
Arthur stomped one foot on the ground. Three black soul rings rose behind him, the second ring pulsing with light.
A domain skill. The Sword Domain expanded outward.
The dark radiance of those black rings erupted and surged, like ink dropped into clear water, spreading in an instant to fill the entire fifty-meter stage.
An invisible sword pressure swept across the arena. The rampaging lightning, which had been tearing through everything moments before, met something that stopped it cold. It was forced back, compressed, and driven straight into Yu Henglong's body.