Chapter 274 The match begins, and the kill is instantaneous!
"Boom--!"
The moment the referee's resounding whistle fell, a tremendous cheer erupted from the hundreds of thousands of spectators in the main square on the outskirts of Mingdu, surpassing even the loudest cheers from any previous match.
The sound waves vibrated violently in the air like a physical entity, causing the several enormous soul-guided screens suspended high in the sky to tremble slightly. Countless independent cultivators, civilians, and soul masters from various empires who had been waiting anxiously in the stands for nearly an hour all stood up at this moment, their eyes fixed on the central entrance passage with fervent and tense eyes.
Heavenly Soul Royal Academy vs. Shrek Academy.
This epic battle, dubbed by countless people as a "preview of the finals," has finally begun.
On the south side of the training ground, Bei Bei took the lead, striding forward. His expression instantly turned extremely serious, his fists hanging naturally but clenching slightly as he walked. Behind him, Wang Dong, Xiao Xiao, Xu Sanshi, He Caitou, and others lined up, their faces solemn. Huo Yuhao silently followed beside Bei Bei, his bright eyes maintaining an almost deathly calm as they moved.
Under the watchful eyes of hundreds of thousands of people, the seven members of the Shrek team walked step by step up the solid steps through the south passage to the wide arena.
On the west side of the main square, in the exclusive passage of the Heavenly Soul Royal Academy, that iconic white-clad figure once again appeared in everyone's sight.
Liu Yuan remained dressed in spotless white robes, his hands resting comfortably behind his back, his steps unhurried. His heightened senses, honed after his Golden Awakening, allowed him to perceive every detail of the entire arena, even the chaotic soul energy in the air caused by the fighting spirit of the various factions, without even opening his eyes.
Behind Liu Yuan, Long Aotian, Chen Lu, Wang Yanfeng, Gu Tong, Vina, and Mu Xue, exuding the calm aura unique to the core disciples of the Body Sect, stood guard on either side like six iron towers, and followed Liu Yuan steadily into the west side of the arena.
At this delicate moment, the two teams stood facing each other across the kilometer-wide platform.
Below the competition stage, in the exclusive viewing area where the two sides' leaders were located, two extremely powerful gazes collided briefly in the void.
Poison Undying sat on a large stone chair, his dark green outfit fluttering in the morning breeze of Mingdu. He turned his head slightly, and his aged eyes, gleaming with an emerald light, traversed space, slowly landing on Xuanzi, who was standing not far away in front of Shrek Academy's preparation area.
At this moment, Poison Undying's eyes revealed an undisguised, intense mockery.
As the sect leader of the Body Sect, no one knew better than him just how terrifying his disciple's true strength had reached.
After undergoing extensive refinement of secret techniques and several awakenings of his martial soul during this period, Liu Yuan's true combat strength has completely surpassed the level of a Title Douluo.
A monster who could easily suppress and defeat even a long-established Title Douluo is now facing a group of young juniors from Shrek Academy who are only at the level of Soul King and Soul Emperor on the stage of the Youth Elite Competition.
Poison Undying leaned back in his chair, a cold smile playing on his lips.
He knew better than anyone else that the outcome of this match, which was seen by the world as a fateful duel, would be a foregone conclusion, destined to become an absolute massacre by Liu Yuan alone.
Within Shrek's territory, Xuanzi also sensed the sarcastic gaze of Du Busi.
He gritted his teeth and turned his head away, refusing to linger in Du Bu Si's gaze.
At this moment, his narrowed eyes remained fixed on Liu Yuan, who remained expressionless on the stage. Although Liu Yuan's mental attack yesterday had demonstrated a strange penetrating power on Tianjia Academy, Xuanzi stubbornly believed that it was because the entire Tianjia Academy was caught off guard that Liu Yuan was able to exploit the opening.
Xuanzi's right hand, hidden beneath the long sleeves of his gray robe, clenched into a tight fist. Deep down, he was frantically and anxiously cheering on Beibei and Huo Yuhao.
"You little brats, prove me wrong! Use the defensive tactics I taught you yesterday right from the start! As long as you protect your spiritual sea with your soul power, Liu Yuan's sneak attack will be useless. Use the foundation you've built up over these five years of hard training to reclaim the dignity and reputation of the First Academy for me, right in front of that old monster, Du Bu Si!"
At this moment, in the center of the arena, the chief referee had already raised his right hand high. Due to the special nature and enormous influence of this match, the referee's face was extremely tense, and a fine layer of sweat even appeared on his forehead.
He first glanced at the Shrek Academy team's fully prepared defensive stance. The instant they stepped onto the stage, Bei Bei and Xu Sanshi had already secretly communicated through their soul power, ensuring everyone was fully prepared. Not only were the ultimate ice and thunder soul powers coursing through their meridians, but each person's will, as instructed by Xuanzi, was also tightly sealing their spiritual sea with layers upon layers of pure soul power, leaving no gaps.
Then, the referee glanced at the west side again. Liu Yuan, dressed in white as snow, remained calmly with his hands behind his back, his expression composed, showing no sign whatsoever of releasing his martial spirit or spirit rings.
The chief referee took a deep breath, his raised right hand casting a cold, afterimage in the morning sunlight before falling heavily to the ground.
That resounding command, imbued with the power of the entire soul, instantly exploded in everyone's ears:
"Both sides prepare, the first match of the first round of the round-robin tournament begins!"
However, just as the referee's right hand was halfway down, and before the sound wave bearing the word "Start" had even fully spread through the air of the square in the next microsecond...
Standing at the forefront of the Heavenly Soul Royal Academy, Liu Yuan exerted his strength once again.
He didn't even flinch, remaining calm and composed as he stood with his hands behind his back. However, after completing the complete transformation of his martial soul, his spiritual sea, which had reached an indescribable level, suddenly boiled over in that instant.
Buzz—!
A deep, resonant sound, far exceeding the limits of human hearing, instantly enveloped the entire kilometer-long competition platform.
Immediately following, Liu Yuan's immense, vast, and condensed pure spiritual energy, almost to the point of being tangible, surged forth like a dam bursting in a vast ocean, flowing straight and violently through the void before him, transcending all worldly rules of speed.
Even though Bei Bei, Wang Dong, Xu Sanshi, Xiao Xiao and others on the other side had already built up countless defenses in their hearts before going on stage, using all their soul power to protect their brains and sea of spirit.
But in the face of Liu Yuan's overwhelming spiritual tsunami, which had surpassed the level of a Title Douluo and possessed the absolute dominance characteristic of golden double pupils, it was overwhelming.
Their so-called defenses and soul power sealing were like snowflakes falling into boiling water the moment they came into contact with Liu Yuan's attack. They couldn't even withstand a fraction of a second of resistance before being mercilessly melted and shattered.
There was no sound of soul power colliding, nor any dazzling light intertwining.
The referee's voice had just faded with the last syllable.
Captain Bei Bei, who was leading the Shrek Academy and preparing to unleash his Blue Lightning Tyrannosaurus Spirit to charge, suddenly froze. His eyes lost all their luster in an instant, his eyeballs rolling upwards in a terrifying, overwhelming sense of mental exhaustion draining his entire consciousness.
thump.
Before Beibei could even utter a muffled groan, her body went limp due to the instantaneous loss of consciousness, and she collapsed heavily to her knees, sprawling onto the hard tabletop.
It's not just Beibei.
Behind him stood Wang Dong, who had already spread the wings of the Goddess of Light Butterfly; Xu Sanshi, who was preparing to raise the Xuanming Shield; and Xiao Xiao, He Caitou, and the other five main team members. As that invisible yet vast spiritual impact swept over them, everyone's body trembled violently.
A deafening roar resounded in their minds in an instant. The dizziness and vertigo caused their mental defenses to collapse completely in a fraction of a second, and large swaths of black light spread before their eyes.
Snap, snap, snap...
A series of dull thuds of flesh falling to the ground echoed continuously within Shrek's territory.
In the span of a single glance, witnessed by hundreds of thousands of people across the continent, and under Xuanzi's almost urgent gaze.
Apart from Huo Yuhao, who was in a wheelchair, the rest of the Shrek team rolled their eyes back and completely fainted on the competition stage in that instant, falling into a lifeless silence.
(End of chapter)