Star Luo Empire, Star Luo City.
As the capital of the Star Luo Empire, Star Luo City was the undisputed number one great city of the empire, and also the political, cultural, and economic center of the Star Luo Empire, holding the title of the imperial capital that never falls.
The city walls of Star Luo City were a hundred meters high, and the thickness of the walls was even more terrifying at a hundred meters, completely built of hard granite. It occupied an area of over a thousand square kilometers, spanning over a hundred li both vertically and horizontally. The widest main road could accommodate sixteen carriages traveling in both directions at the same time, and this was just the outer city.
The core of the city was in the center of Star Luo City, which was the inner city. The inner city was nine hundred and sixty meters long and seven hundred and fifty meters wide. The city walls were twenty meters high. It was truly a city within a city. When the White Tiger Duke's lineage was still the imperial family, this palace had already been completed. After many renovations, its scale had also become larger and larger, and the architecture was extremely magnificent.
The permanent population of Star Luo City exceeded eight million. Adding in the outsiders, the maximum population it could accommodate was a massive twenty million.
But even such a super great city had seemed a bit crowded recently.
The number of tourists had increased explosively in just half a month. All the hotels were almost fully booked, forcing the officials to requisition some private residences and open up some official mansions as temporary residences for the tourists. And the number of soldiers maintaining order in the city had also increased significantly.
There was only one reason for such a great change. The once-every-five-years grand event—the Continental Advanced Soul Master Academy Soul Dueling Tournament—was about to be held in Star Luo City.
The continent had four great empires. For thousands of years, the Continental Advanced Soul Master Academy Soul Dueling Tournament had been held in the imperial capitals of various countries in turn. For Star Luo City to have a turn, it had to wait a full twenty years. With such a grand occasion, how could it not attract a large number of people from the Star Luo Empire to come and watch?
The venue for the tournament was on Star Luo Plaza in front of the Star Luo imperial city. Star Luo Plaza had a huge area and could also accommodate the largest number of spectators. It was said that for this tournament, just to maintain order, the city had mobilized thirty thousand soldiers, of which ten thousand were responsible for being on duty at Star Luo Plaza.
Not far to the east of Star Luo Plaza was a large, seven-story hotel. This hotel, named Star Emperor, was owned by the imperial family. This time, it had been specially cleared out to receive the contestants from the advanced soul master academies or soul tool master academies of various countries.
As the reigning champion of ten thousand years, and also the continent's number one soul master academy, the contestants from Shrek Academy were arranged in the deluxe rooms on the top floor. Not only did each person have a bedroom, but there was also a dedicated conference room for their use.
At this time, all thirteen team members, plus their leading teacher Wang Yan, as well as the various elders of the Sea God Pavilion and several other unknown experts, were all sitting in the conference room, holding a pre-match mobilization meeting for the contestants.
Yes, they had safely arrived in Star Luo City yesterday, relatively late among the participating academies. But in the eyes of others, as the reigning champion and the continent's number one academy, this was just because of Shrek Academy's pride.
Wang Yan, covered in wounds, stood at the head. On both sides were the two Shrek participating teams with extremely pale faces. They had gone through many twists and turns and had escaped from the jaws of death, but there was no more news of Elder Xuan.
And the ones who had saved them from the hands of a group of Titled Douluo evil soul masters were surprisingly people from the Body Sect.
It turned out that as the successor of the contemporary sect master of the Body Sect, Cao Jinxuan also had many Body Sect experts secretly protecting him. It was only after Elder Xuan had sacrificed himself by burning his life force to send them out of the perilous land that these Titled Douluo experts from the Body Sect had finally rushed over at the first moment they received Cao Jinxuan's rescue signal.
And the Body Sect experts had also lost two Titled Douluo in that heaven-and-earth-shaking, ghost-and-god-wailing death-match. The remaining people, relying on their powerful physical bodies, had barely managed to break out of the evil soul masters' encirclement with the group of Shrek students, and had then held on until the arrival of these Sea God Pavilion elders who had come to support them.
Now, every participating member of Shrek was injured, with not even a tenth of their combat power remaining. It would be strange if their faces looked good.
The most seriously injured, Dai Yueheng, had injured his internal organs. Although he had undergone drug treatment and self-recuperation, the rushed journey and traveling by flying soul tool had instead caused his injuries to have a tendency to worsen. The time he would need to recuperate in the future might even be longer than expected.
"Elder Xuan... really, stayed behind alone?" Yan Shaozhe sat in the main seat, one hand supporting his forehead, his face also haggard. As the main leader of the rescue team, after rushing without stopping and then fighting several battles with the evil soul masters, his consumption was also extremely great. What was even more terrifying were the war-type soul tools deployed by the Holy Ghost Cult, which had caught them completely off guard.
Wang Yan's face was sorrowful. He fell to his knees powerlessly with a thud. In a sense, Elder Xuan was also his elder.
"This time it was my dereliction of duty! I did not consider things thoroughly! Not only did I harm Elder Xuan, but I also implicated the students of Shrek! I only ask the dean for punishment!"
Beside Yan Shaozhe, Xian Lin'er's breathing was rapid, the armor on her body tattered. Her eyes were as if about to spit fire. "You said Ma Xiaotao really left with them?"
"Dean Xian, it's absolutely true." Dai Yueheng, who was already unhappy that Ma Xiaotao had taken his position as the captain of the official participating team, now took the opportunity to throw stones at someone who had fallen into a well. "At that time, after she sent a signal to the Holy Ghost Cult, she attracted those evil soul masters. After being exposed by us, she immediately turned her coat and defected to the Holy Ghost Cult."
Bang!
"Enough!" Yan Shaozhe slammed the table fiercely, his eyes filled with regret. Ma Xiaotao had been regarded by him as his future successor. Now she had betrayed Shrek just like that. How could he not be angry? How could he not regret?
"Your most urgent task now is to adjust your state as soon as possible and participate in the upcoming competition. Elder Zhuang has also come. The old man will treat your injuries overnight."
Among the Sea God Pavilion rescue team, an old man with a kind face stood out. "There's no time to lose. I will first treat the contestants with lighter injuries to ensure that you can display your peak combat power in tomorrow's first match."
As he spoke, several students with less serious injuries immediately stood up. Now was not the time to be modest. For the glory of Shrek, they had to first let the team members who could recover to their peak state the fastest receive treatment.
Among the two participating teams, the ones with lighter injuries were Wang Dong, Cao Jinxuan, Xu Sanshi, Jiang Nannan, He Caitou, Gongyang Mo, and Yao Haoxuan, seven people. The other official members of the inner court, because they had protected their juniors, all had relatively serious injuries. Only the two auxiliary types, Gongyang Mo and Yao Haoxuan, did not have too serious injuries.
In this regard, although Yan Shaozhe was helpless, his heart was quite gratified. At least these inner court disciples who bore the glory of Shrek had led the charge and protected their juniors, not failing his cultivation of the Shrek spirit.
Likewise, he had also left a backup plan. There was already another batch of support teams on their way, all of whom were core disciples of the Shrek outer court, namely Dai Huabin, Zhu Lu, the Lan sisters, Zhou Sichen, Ye Linlin, and a disciple from the inner court's soul tool department who had previously been eliminated by Ma Xiaotao.
As long as Dai Yueheng and the other official members could recover in three to five days, the champion's throne would still belong to their Shrek.
Admittedly, the ones Yan Shaozhe most hoped could come for support were naturally the six from Huo Yuhao's team. It was just that when he had sent the order back to the academy, there was already no trace of them...
———
In the Spacetime Turbulence, Huo Yuhao and Shi Xing faced each other from afar. In Shi Xing's view, an original mere four-ring Soul Ancestor was simply not worthy of his move. It wasn't until Zhongli Yu's appearance that he had no choice but to directly use his strongest soul skill, the Spacetime Turbulence.
As a divine skill that manipulated time and space, Shi Xing had used it to defeat countless experts whose soul power levels surpassed his own. The meaning of his title, Time Douluo, actually had to be broken down into the two characters of "time" and "interval" to be savored. Not only could he construct a space that belonged solely to him, but in this space, he could also make any object imprisoned here undergo time regression.
Huo Yuhao's ghostly Kamui was of no use here. There was no life aura in this place, so the profound meaning of his second martial soul naturally couldn't be displayed.
Although many of his abilities could not be displayed, his powerful spiritual power had greatly given him a chance to struggle.
One must know, Huo Yuhao's physical fitness, after fusing with the Ten Thousand Demon King, his Immortal Physique already possessed Soul Sage-level combat power. Plus the strange ability of his Spirit Eyes, it made the Time Douluo, who was maintaining the Spacetime Turbulence while fighting him, complain endlessly.
"It just so happens, I also have some techniques that I want to try on you," Huo Yuhao said with his hands clasped, a calm and composed look on his face, which made the long-famous Time Douluo extremely annoyed.
———
Author's Note: The late third update is served! Ahem, everyone thinks the protagonist is always getting beaten down? Let's go back to the normal timeline and look at Huo Gua at the same period. Two martial souls, one with two rings and one with one ring, and one torso bone. Compared to the protagonist with a four-ring main martial soul, he is already far behind. The original Huo Gua was fighting his peers at this time. The protagonist written by this author is fighting Titled Douluo and ferocious beasts every day. But looking back carefully, he is still just a four-ring. Even with more cheats, one needs a foundation that can maximize the cheats. It's not that the author is suppressing his strength. You must know, the skills from his past life that he had the Pontiff replicate for him are also used according to the release level of his spiritual power. It's like how Nagato and Madara both used a pair of Rinnegan but achieved different battle results. There is a difference.