Chapter 125: Winning
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The advancement matches weren't like the preliminaries, with multiple stages happening simultaneously. There was only one venue: the Royal Knights' Grand Training Field.
The battle arena was a circle with a diameter of one hundred meters, much wider than the space in the preliminaries, making it more conducive to maneuvering and entanglement.
On the north side of the Grand Training Field, a VIP seating area was temporarily erected, the location for the observing VIPs and referees, surrounded by members of the Royal Knights.
The rules of the advancement matches differed from the preliminaries, primarily testing the individual strength of the soul masters. Each side sent seven team members to participate. Each time, one member would take the stage. The loser would be eliminated, and the winner would continue until all seven members of one side had been defeated.
The Northern Academy group arrived at the training field yawning. They had made a ruckus for most of the night yesterday, and now they were all listless, except for Amon, who remained the same as ever.
He switched to a different Worm of Time as an external carrier, while the original special Worm of Time returned to its worm form, hibernating within his body at this moment.
Their arrival drew glares from Shrek and several other academies, all of whom had been disturbed by the noise.
Northern Academy's first opponent was Fabia Academy, which wasn't very well-known. Bing Lan defeated all seven of them single-handedly, eliciting a wave of amazement from the participating contestants from the kingdoms and duchies.
The contestants from the Heaven Dou District weren't too surprised by her performance. They had already been shocked numb by the Beidi team in the preliminaries.
Defeating seven in a row, wasn't that to be expected? It wouldn't be surprising to fight seven at once!
Returning to the team, Bing Lan was a little out of breath. Without Amon's soul power support, it was a bit strenuous for her to achieve this level on her own.
Although Amon could also help her cheat by providing her with soul power using the Worm of Time, it wasn't necessary.
Helping her arrange opponents conveniently was fine, but he wouldn't risk being discovered and disqualified from the competition just for her sake, even if the risk was close to zero.
Amon snapped his fingers, considerately conjuring eleven seats with soul power for the eleven members of Northern Academy to sit down and rest.
He said softly, "If you're sleepy, you can go back first. It's just the advancement matches. There's no need to pay too much attention to them."
Yan Jin plopped down on a chair, half-lying down, and said vaguely, "I'll watch a little longer."
Amon's actions attracted the attention of many people. This was the first time he had used a skill since the start of the competition.
"Without revealing his martial soul, could it be a soul bone?"
Many people looked at Amon with a bit more envy or greed.
Salas's expression slightly froze, then he revealed a relieved smile:
"Heh heh, what a boisterous bunch. Using soul power to make chairs again? Could it be that everyone on their team knows this trick?"
Seeing this scene, Tang San speculated in his heart: Is this the ability that Shi Nian's soul bone gave him? It's a bit like that purple-haired guy's martial soul.
As far as Yan Jin was concerned, there didn't seem to be anything in the advancement matches that could make her eyes light up, and she soon fell into a deep sleep.
Xiao Wu, with dark circles under her eyes, gnashed her teeth in hatred: "Ah, it's infuriating. Those bastards didn't sleep themselves last night, causing us to be unable to sleep either, and now they're sleeping soundly here."
Tang San showed a slightly helpless smile on his face, "There's no rule in the competition that says contestants can't take their horses for a walk late at night."
He said in a gentle tone, "If you're sleepy, you can go back to the camp to rest. I'll watch here. I'll take note of any noteworthy methods from the other academies."
Xiao Wu shook her head, "Brother, I'll keep you company."
The day's competition quickly came to an end. Amon observed quite carefully. He needed to remember the more powerful opponents from the other academies, as well as their respective fighting styles, to pave the way for Bing Lan to win continuously.
The next day, Northern Academy faced Blazing Fire Academy. The first to take the stage for Blazing Fire Academy was Huo Wushuang.
At this moment, his face was full of solemnity. When he saw that it was Yan Jin who had stepped onto the stage, the corner of his mouth twitched, and he shrugged helplessly at his teammates.
Being defeated by one person is a very embarrassing thing. Their goal today was only to try to defeat one or two members of Northern Academy, and they didn't expect to win at all.
But the other side sent Yan Jin as soon as they came up, and it seemed that even defeating one person was a luxury, because in the preliminaries, Blazing Fire Academy was defeated by her single-handedly.
The team representing the fire element being defeated by someone who was also a fire-type was a very embarrassing thing for Blazing Fire Academy.
Those who had the same experience were Thunderclap Academy, defeated by Lei Yin, and Tianshui Academy, defeated by Bing Lan.
So these three teams also hated Northern Academy with a passion. This was definitely intentional!
Such a result was, of course, Amon's deliberate arrangement. As for the purpose... for fun.
Sometimes, he didn't necessarily have a very clear profit motive for doing things. Life occasionally needs some fun.
Of course, the premise was that it couldn't affect other things with profit goals.
The battle process didn't have too many twists and turns. Huo Wushuang was forced to the edge of the arena by Yan Jin, took a kick, and lost the match.
Yan Jin beckoned to Huo Wu, who had a fiery temper and was easily provoked. The latter immediately stepped onto the arena in a fit of anger.
Blazing Fire Academy's reported order of appearance was that she was the second person.
"You bunch of bastards!" Huo Wu cursed in a low voice.
"Tsk, I can only say you're too weak." Yan Jin crossed her arms, raised her head slightly, and cast a contemptuous look. At this moment, she seemed to be possessed by Romier.
Huo Wu rushed up, Huo Wu flew back, Huo Wu lost the match.
Just as Blazing Fire Academy wanted to surrender directly, Yan Jin left the arena on her own, "Too weak, boring, you guys play."
Bing Lan took the stage, and after defeating three members of Blazing Fire Academy, she was defeated by the opponent's last member due to insufficient soul power.
Huo Yu, who had defeated Bing Lan, stood blankly in the arena, looked at his hands, his eyes full of confusion.
"Did I, win?"
Although Blazing Fire Academy had defeated Tianshui Academy in the preliminaries, they won very difficultly, but Bing Lan easily defeated Tianshui Academy alone.
Huo Yu took the stage with a scalp-tingling feeling, but unexpectedly found that Bing Lan didn't seem as strong as he had imagined.
Although she had lost to him after fighting three consecutive matches, on the whole, she was about the same level as Huo Wu, and completely different from the power she had shown in the previous preliminaries.
This performance also allowed other academies to see through some of Northern Academy's true strength.
In the preliminaries, there was definitely something fishy!
Yu Xiaogang was even more certain of his guess: "As expected, Northern Academy's ordinary members are not actually that strong. The one really worth noting is their captain."
Dai Mubai said with a face full of admiration: "Master is worthy of being a master, he deduced the truth before."
"But it seems we still can't win. Although they aren't as strong as they were in the preliminaries, they aren't weak either..." Ma Hongjun muttered.
"Don't be discouraged!" Yu Xiaogang said seriously, "Your mentality has been a bit off lately. Think carefully, what was your goal before the competition started?"
Tang San took a deep breath and said firmly, "The championship!"
"That's right, it's the championship. Do you look like you want to win the championship now? Are you still the proud Shrek? If you're still in this decadent state later, you might as well pack your bags and go home early."
"You are still young, even if you can't get it this year, there is still next time, even if you lose temporarily, it doesn't matter, just win it back next time. But the competition can be lost, but the spirit cannot be lost."
Looking at the disappointment in Yu Xiaogang's eyes, Tang San's heart felt like it had been pricked by something, "I understand, teacher, I will adjust my mentality."
Ma Hongjun scratched his head, met Flender's stern gaze, and said fiercely, "I know, teacher, I will not lose Shrek's pride, I am a phoenix!"
After Huo Yu defeated Bing Lan, Amon stood up and said softly, "We concede."
Blazing Fire Academy cooperated very well with his behavior of helping Bing Lan "farm wins", even if they were unintentional, Amon didn't mind selling a small favor.
The results of the advancement matches will affect the grouping of the finals. Teams with good results can gain the upper hand.
Amon didn't care about such an advantage. Anyway, whichever group Northern Academy was in, that group was the group of death, but for other academies, this advantage was still quite important.
His words caused an uproar, and the Blazing Fire Academy side was even more confused.
Huo Wu ran to Amon and questioned with an unhappy expression: "What do you mean by this? Is it an act of charity towards us?"
"No, it's a thank you," Amon said with a warm smile on his face.
"Ah?" Huo Wu looked puzzled.
On the third day, Northern Academy's opponent was the Exotic Beast Academy, where Meng Yiran was located.
Through the first two days of competition, Amon had also basically understood the situation of the Exotic Beast Academy. Apart from Meng Yiran, the rest of the people were not very strong. Bing Lan could defeat six in a row, but it was unlikely that she could defeat seven in a row.
The first to take the stage was Yan Jin. Her opponent was not Meng Yiran, so she simply conceded.
Bing Lan took the stage, and after winning three matches, she finally met Meng Yiran. Without forcing it, she conceded directly after a brief exchange, feeling that she was not sure.
Then Romier took the stage and easily defeated Meng Yiran, along with the rest of the contestants.
Yu Xiaogang also came to his senses at this time. He said to the people of Shrek Academy: "If I'm not mistaken, Northern Academy is farming wins."
"Huh?" The rest of the people were still a little puzzled.
"Do you still remember Emperor Xue Ye's promise of a 30,000-year soul ring?"
After he reminded them, the people of Shrek suddenly realized.
"The reward promised by Emperor Xue Ye is for the top three people with the most wins. Does Northern Academy want to concentrate all the wins on that girl?"
"But isn't this cheating?" Ning Rongrong asked in confusion.
"No, this is called rationally using the rules," Yu Xiaogang said with a smile on his face.
"We can't let those annoying guys succeed," Xiao Wu said.
Tang San looked at Yu Xiaogang and asked, "Teacher, do you have a way?"
Yu Xiaogang smiled and said: "We only need to block Bing Lan. I think the other academies should also understand. Those who don't want the reward to be taken away by Northern Academy will make targeted adjustments to the order of appearance."
The conversation of the Shrek group was not concealed, and the teachers and students of the other academies also knew the intentions of Northern Academy.
The ten teams from the duchies and kingdoms all showed knowing expressions after inquiring about the situation from the people around them.
"So, the thank you that the captain of Northern Academy said, is that what he meant?" Huo Wu murmured to herself.
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