Chapter 163: The Top Five Revealed — The Conflict Between the Empire and Spirit Hall

Words : 1451 Updated : Oct 2nd, 2025

The next day, Tianlin woke from his dreams. He had been unable to calm his mind yesterday, so he didn't continue meditating or cultivating, lest he risk going astray. In his dreams, he saw that strange scene once again. "Is it true that what you think about during the day, you dream about at night?" Tianlin rubbed his forehead and, with a flip, jumped out of bed. "Forget it, I'll deal with future matters when they come. After all, I've left myself a backup plan. And from the looks of things, even if something happens, the unluckiest person would be Tang San anyway." He decided not to dwell on things he couldn't figure out. No matter what the future held, as long as Tianlin was strong enough to face it, there'd be no problem. Right now, focusing on cultivation is the best course of action. After a simple wash, Tianlin gathered with the rest of the Emperor Battle Team and headed to the competition arena. In the fight against Purple Star, neither Tianlin nor Gu Ran took the stage—they were simply too weak. Instead, the two Shi brothers, using a tactical advance strategy devised by Qin Ming, easily broke through the opponent's formation. This match went very smoothly and didn't stir up any excitement. After all, no one believed Purple Star had even a one percent chance to defeat the Emperor Battle Team. However, the next match between Shrek and Blue Sunshine attracted much attention. Shrek was the dark horse of this tournament, with a high win rate so far. Their current performance was on par with the Five Element Academies. Most notably, yesterday, Tang San from Shrek sent three Emperor Battle Team members flying out of the arena. Blue Sunshine, on the other hand, was considered ordinary by most, but to everyone's surprise, they unleashed a seven-in-one fusion technique called the Seven Asura Dreamland. Among all academies, aside from Tianlin's external soul bone and Spirit Hall's fusion technique, Demon Charm, probably no other academy could withstand such a move. But they still lost today—because of Tang San's Purple Demon Eye. "Huh, Tang San's Purple Demon Eye has reached the third level, and he even saw through the Seven Asura Dreamland," Tianlin thought to himself. "Tang San's luck is truly extraordinary. Looks like he used the spiritual power I transferred to him and benefited from that misfortune." Both Blue Sunshine and Shrek fought ruthlessly. Shi Nian went missing, and on Blue Sunshine's side, they thought Shrek was responsible because they knew Shi Nian left at the end to deal with Tang San. Meanwhile, the Shrek side believed Shi Nian had taken Tang San's soul bone and was afraid of being hunted down by Flender and Zhao Wuji, both Soul Sages, or even being reported to the tournament committee, so he fled to avoid punishment. To them, this was a done deal. The only lingering question was why Shi Nian didn't kill Tang San—perhaps, having become a teacher, he had changed over the years and learned to show mercy to the young. Unable to understand, they simply blamed the other side, so both teams fought without holding back this time. Just like in the original story, the Seven Asura Dreamland was broken by Tang San's spiritual attack, and Blue Sunshine's seven members suffered mental backlash from their technique and were rendered idiots. However, this time Salas didn't make trouble for Shrek because he didn't take Shrek Academy seriously at all. Tang San's ordinary Blue Silver Grass, without a ten-thousand-year soul ring, was not worth his attention. The tournament rules only forbade death, and all of Blue Sunshine Academy was still alive. As for whether living was good or not, that wasn't his concern. Therefore, Shrek did not need to feign weakness, and Tang San and the others continued to participate in the remaining matches. Very soon, the preliminaries of the tournament reached their final day, and the top five qualifying teams were finally confirmed. First, of course, was the Emperor Battle Team, undefeated in all 26 matches. Next was Thunderclap. They were lucky not to meet Emperor Battle Team, winning 25 out of 26 matches, losing only to Godwind. Third place was Godwind, who defeated Thunderclap. They won 24 out of 26 matches, losing to Emperor Battle and Blazing Fire. Losing to Emperor Battle was due to inferior strength, but everyone knew the loss to Blazing Fire was because a certain simp kept sabotaging their own team! Then came Skywater, with 23 wins out of 26 matches. Their losses were to Emperor Battle, Godwind, and, due to elemental disadvantage, Thunderclap. This time, they also defeated Shrek. Without the Blue Silver Prison and with Tang San distracted, they couldn't withstand Shui Bing'er and Xue Wu's martial soul fusion technique, Falling Snow. Finally, there was Shrek and Blazing Fire, each with 22 wins out of 26. Shrek lost one match each to Emperor Battle, Blazing Fire, Skywater, and Thunderclap. As for Blazing Fire, while they defeated Godwind and Shrek, they had bad luck and also faced Skywater, Thunderclap, Elephant Armored, and Emperor Battle. Blazing Fire was slightly weaker than Skywater and Thunderclap, so losing to them was understandable. The loss to Elephant Armored was sheer bad luck. They faced Thunderclap the day before and used up all their soul power, so in the back-to-back matches, they lost to the well-rested Elephant Armored team. Finally, facing Emperor Battle, Tianlin's Ultimate Fire came out, and the entire Blazing Fire Academy was wiped out, barely able to use a single spirit skill—a most bitter defeat. Since only five teams could advance, the organizing committee, seeking fairness, had no choice but to let Shrek and Blazing Fire fight one more match, with the winner advancing. This time, unexpectedly, Blazing Fire lost. With elimination on the line, the Grandmaster had no choice but to send in their trump card—Ning Rongrong. The Nine Treasure Glazed Tile Pagoda at level 45 could boost Shrek's entire team by a tier. The pitch-black fourth soul ring shocked everyone. Everyone had only one thought: was the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Clan a gathering place for monsters? The two Soul Kings were one thing, but now there was a Ning Rongrong with a ten-thousand-year fourth ring—were they trying to scare people to death? Relying on Ning Rongrong's powerful support, Shrek barely managed to stay in the competition. But Blazing Fire was unhappy about losing, and after the match, Huo Wu approached Godwind's captain Feng Xiaotian, seemingly to plot something. Tianlin guessed that the New Godwind Team from the original story was still going to appear. Inside the grand hall, the five qualifying teams stood in a row. Ning Rongrong winked cutely at Tianlin, clearly asking for praise for her performance in the last match. Tianlin quietly gave her a thumbs up. As for the affectionate glances between the two, the other members of Emperor Battle and Shrek pretended not to notice, while Ning Fengzhi just smiled. He had watched both children grow up, and the better their relationship, the happier he was. At this moment, Emperor Xue Ye stepped forward and said, "All contestants from the qualifying teams are the talents of our empire. I now personally confer the title of viscount to each team's captain and vice-captain, and baron to the rest of the members, with estates to be granted upon your graduation." Just like in the original, Emperor Xue Ye issued a stunning decree, conferring noble titles to everyone so easily. Tianlin hadn't expected that, as someone born a commoner, he'd become a genuine noble so quickly, though he wasn't particularly interested in the title. "Your Majesty, isn't this a bit inappropriate?" Salas said with an unpleasant expression. Anyone who could make it to the finals was an outstanding soul master, and Spirit Hall wanted to recruit them too. "There's never been a precedent for awarding noble titles before. Besides, isn't it a bit much to grant viscount directly?" Xue Ye glanced at him and said, "Platinum Bishop, the conferral of noble titles is an internal matter of our empire and has nothing to do with Spirit Hall, does it?" "I also promise that if the Heaven Dou Empire produces the final champion team, then all members of that team will be promoted by one more rank." Emperor Xue Ye was displeased. He was the emperor—why should he need Salas's approval to grant titles? The more Salas objected, the higher he'd confer them.

Chapter 163: The Top Five Revealed — The Conflict Between the Empire and Spirit Hall

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