"Senior Brother?!"
Early the next morning, Huo Yuhao, who had woken up from his cultivation and was heading to the hotel restaurant for breakfast, spotted a familiar back and exclaimed in surprise.
"Junior Brother!" Bei Bei turned his head, waved to Huo Yuhao, and showed his characteristic gentle smile.
Beside Bei Bei, Xu Sanshi was also shoveling food into his mouth.
These two were the reinforcements brought to Star Luo City by Xian Lin'er. Of course, while they were called reinforcements, in reality, Mu En had simply sent them to gain experience.
Naturally, this couldn't be stated so directly, or it would hurt their confidence.
Huo Yuhao was undoubtedly happy to see familiar faces.
"Senior Brother, why are you and Senior Xu here?" Huo Yuhao asked curiously after sitting beside Bei Bei.
"Dean Xian brought us. Aren't the main team members short on combat power? We're here as reinforcements." At this, Bei Bei's expression became a bit helpless.
He wasn't truly foolish. Even if Xian Lin'er didn't tell him, wouldn't he guess the academy's intentions?
Xu Sanshi was much the same. Don't let his seemingly foolish demeanor on the surface fool you into thinking his brain was made of tofu. If you excluded his almost perverted obsession with Jiang Nan Nan, Xu Sanshi's mind was actually quite usable.
It was just...
The fact that they were eliminated but then put into the competition team for experience was something these two buddies found hard to talk about. The scent of having connections was simply too strong.
Huo Yuhao, however, didn't grasp the intricacies of the situation. He was simply happy about Bei Bei and Xu Sanshi's arrival.
Even though he had lived in Star Luo City for over ten years, Star Luo City didn't feel as much like home as Shrek Academy, where he had only lived for a year.
The others also arrived at the restaurant one after another and greeted Bei Bei and Xu Sanshi.
As for Xian Lin'er.
She was merely a hidden trump card, protecting the competing team in secret, and wouldn't appear directly, so she didn't come out to meet them.
But even though Xian Lin'er didn't appear, after the Death God's Messenger incident, they had become somewhat like startled birds, and they felt a little more at ease.
Finally, they had powerful protectors!
Xian Lin'er couldn't possibly be as unreliable as that Supreme Elder of the Holy Spirit Church, could she?
Lin Yun didn't comment much on the arrival of these two buddies; it had nothing to do with him anyway. He was happy to have two more 'Pals' to exert themselves, making things easier for him.
After showing off a wave of "Shift and Exchange" yesterday, Lin Yun's strong desire to show off had calmed down considerably. Now he had returned to his 'slacker' state. He felt like a madman, occasionally having impulsive thoughts.
And he would directly act on them, allowing his thoughts to flow freely.
Never mind, it's not a big deal.
Anyway, Lin Yun wasn't some nobody without a background who had to be cautious with every step. The most important thing was for him to enjoy himself.
Thinking of this, Lin Yun immediately dismissed his self-reflection on his impulsive actions yesterday. After all, wasn't Shrek's excellent tradition that it was mediocre not to stir up trouble?
He had to find a way to stir up more trouble for Shrek.
For the next two days, Lin Yun followed the main group to the Soul Dueling Arena to watch other teams' matches. With Lin Yun and the recovered Ma Xiaotao, these two diamond-tier powerhouses, Wang Yan didn't resort to tricking them into staying at the hotel for fear that seeing other teams' matches would shatter their confidence.
They hardly missed a single knockout match during these three days.
Out of a total of one hundred and thirty-three teams, each team had to draw lots to compete, except for the team that drew a bye and directly advanced.
One hundred and thirty-two teams required a total of sixty-six matches. This couldn't be completed in a single day, so the knockout stage was divided into three days, with an average of twenty-two matches per day.
By the end of the knockout stage, half the participating teams had been eliminated, and a large portion of the previously packed Star Emperor Hotel was empty.
Lin Yun also watched the matches these two days with great interest.
Besides the romance plot, wasn't the most classic storyline in Douluo Dalu the competitions?
From the very first Douluo, almost every Douluo Dalu installment was filled with numerous competition segments. Almost any plot could be resolved through soul dueling matches.
When reading the books, the competition parts were quite dull, but when he witnessed them firsthand, watching others fight became interesting. Even if these fights seemed like toddlers squabbling in Lin Yun's eyes, the sheer number of beautiful women was undeniable!
Lin Yun: I love watching women fight the most!
In addition, three consecutive days of spectating also gave Lin Yun a deeper understanding of the martial souls in Douluo Dalu. Understanding from books was ultimately one-sided; only by seeing these martial souls firsthand could he truly feel the diverse and varied nature of the Douluo Dalu martial soul system.
If Lin Yun remembered correctly, there was a girl named Yu Mengdi in this competition whose martial soul was an angel.
He just didn't know if she was a descendant of a member of the Martial Soul Hall's Angel Legion from ten thousand years ago.
However, she didn't appear in the knockout rounds. A Soul King level combat power was considered a trump card for most academies, so they would naturally hide it for as long as possible.
This wasn't the next Mingdu Competition, where Huo Yuhao's protagonist halo would intensify the difficulty to a hellish level; a Soul King was still very competitive.
Thinking about the next competition, there would be four Soul Sages alone: Xiao Hongchen, Long Aotian, Tang Ya, and Yan Feng, and countless Soul Emperors. Compared to the next competition, this one felt a bit like a small-time skirmish.
One could only say that it truly was the protagonist's halo; not only was he strong himself, but wherever he went, he could empower even minor characters to an utterly unreasonable degree.
The three-day knockout stage concluded, and everyone gathered again in the conference room.
Meeting, meeting, still meeting.
What's there to meet about...
Lin Yun sprawled idly on the sofa, while Xiao Xiao nestled against him like a small bird, resting her head on his shoulder.
Wang Yan had absolutely no way to deal with Lin Yun's laziness. After all, the guy truly had the strength to beat up even a Soul Emperor with ultimate attributes and would basically have no opponents at the Soul Sage level.
He could single-handedly clear the entire competition. Even if he lost in the end, it could only be said that his teammates were not strong enough, and it had nothing to do with him.
How could Wang Yan say anything more?
"The knockout stage has concluded. Tomorrow, the next stage, the round-robin tournament, will begin," Wang Yan cleared his throat and announced.
"The round-robin tournament is different from the knockout stage. After the first round of knockouts, the remaining sixty-seven teams will be re-grouped."
(End of Chapter)
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