"Wulin, are you sure you won't reconsider it?" Flander asked once more, hoping to get him to change his mind.
"All of you will win the championships with ease if you stick together!"
However, Wulin was adamant in his decision and shook his head, "It has already been decided, we are leaving tomorrow."
"Besides, even without my group, the others would still have a good chance of winning."
Flander sighed as he wasn't convinced by his answer but there was nothing he could do to change Wulin's mind.
"Fine, but you may as well gather together for today. Xiao Gang will explain the rules and proceedings of the tournament." He relented.
Wulin nodded his head and gathered together with the other group once Yu Xiao Gang called for them.
Besides Tang San's group of six, there was another four young Spirit Masters, Tai Long being one of them.
Wulin deduced them to be the substitution members for Tang San's team.
Once everyone was gathered, Yu Xiao Gang began by introducing the new members.
Rank thirty eight power attack system Spirit Elder, Tai Long, Male, Spirit: Vigorous Orangutan. Spirit Rings: Two yellow one purple.
Rank thirty five power attack system Battle Spirit Elder, Huang Yuan, Male, Spirit: Lone Wolf. Spirit Rings: Two yellow one purple.
Rank thirty five agility attack system Battle Spirit Elder, Jing Ling, Male, Spirit: Skeleton. Spirit Rings: Two yellow one purple
Rank thirty five healing system Tool Spirit Master, Jiang Zhu, Female, Spirit: Healing Scepter. Spirit Rings: Two yellow one purple
Since Wulin's group is not going to join Shrek Academy, Flander was forced to find some replacements.
The only one who could be considered useful enough would be Tai Long, but even he is of a lower Spirit Rank than Xiao Wu.
Not to mention, he and the other substitute members were all many years older than the main group.
However, this didn't stop the lustful Little Fatty and the lonely Oscar from staring at the young and beautiful Jiang Zhu.
Sadly, Jiang Zhu already knew about their reputations and knew not to get involved with the vigorous Little Fatty and the extremely vulgar Oscar.
On the other hand, she seemed to be more attracted to the prince charming, Dai Mubai.
After allowing the four of them to give a small introduction of themselves, Yu Xiao Gang directly went into explaining the rules of the tournament.
From Yu Xiao Gang's explanation, the Spirit Master Tournament is hosted by three main powers.
These powers are the Heaven Dou Empire and the Star Luo Empire's royal families, as well as Spirit Hall.
For the rules, the most important ones to note is that killing is not allowed, and if done then the team will be disqualified.
Other than that, contestants are not allowed to use external help, such as food made from another Food Spirit Master.
This rule is tough on half of the group here, since it also bars the use of Hidden Weapons.
Rong Rong and Xue Mei were especially unhappy once Yu Xiao Gang spoke of this rule, but Oscar had his nose pointing to the sky as he bragged about his Spirit Bone.
Since Spirit Bones are considered internal, they are still allowed to be used in the tournament.
Tai Long, Jiang Zhu and the other two substitute members were especially shocked to hear that Oscar had a Spirit Bone.
After all, Spirit Bones aren't things you can get just by wishing for it.
They would surely be shocked silly if they found out that not only Oscar, but half of the group also had Spirit Bones, with a couple even having External Spirit Bones.
After explaining the rules, Yu Xiao Gang moved onto the proceedings of the Spirit Master Tournament.
The tournament is broken up into many different stages, the first being the qualifying phase.
The preliminaries are broken up into areas, all that do not belong to a dukedom or kingdom within Heaven Dou Empire's bounds are made to come to the Imperial City to compete.
In total, there are six areas in Heaven Dou Empire fighting for 15 spots in the finals.
Heaven Dou Imperial City, being the Imperial City and where the most battles will be held, holds five places within those 15, while the rest of the areas only have two places.
Star Luo Empire is essentially the same, mirroring the Heaven Dou Empire in size, so there will be a total of 30 teams qualifying in the finals besides the three seeded teams.
The qualifying phase is a round robin event, the team with the most victories wins a spot in the finals.
The battles are seven-member team battles, designed to allow academies to show their coordination and combat prowess as a team.
After the thirty teams have been identified, they will participate in the finals. But before that, a special promotional round will take place.
The promotional battles still consist of seven members, but they are individual battles instead of team battles.
In these battles, the victorious team member can stay on the stage and fight against the next member of the other team.
Although it doesn't decide the winners of the tournament, the promotional round is important in deciding the rankings in the finals.
If the preliminary phase showcases the teams combat prowess, then the promotional round is solely about showing off one's own individual strength.
The finals format is a single-round elimination, with the battles being the same as the qualifying phase, seven-member team battles.
The groups will be slowly whittled down to the final three where they undergo both a group battle and individual battle.
The winner of the individual battle will get a straight path to the grand finals while the other two teams fight for the second place.
After the second team is decided, the grand final takes place, crowning the champions of the Spirit Master Tournament.
Finishing his explanation, Yu Xiao Gang then spoke to Tang San's team, "For this qualifying phase, only three of you are allowed to fight at one time."
Seeing that they are going to be discussing their game plan, Wulin decided to leave with his girls.
"Brother Wulin, what are we going to do now?" Rong Rong hopped forward and held Wulin's arm intimately.
"Most of the teams competing in Heaven Dou City will arrive tomorrow, so we will spend today preparing." Wulin answered as he hugged her slim waist.
Although Tang San's team no longer had Rong Rong, they were all overall stronger than in the original, so they should still be fine with a substitute member.
Wulin took his girls to the training field and fought with them all day, making sure their teamwork was seamless.
Although they often fight together, they are usually directed by Tang San, so the Spirit Master Tournament will be the first stage that the six of them fight together.
…
"Excuse me! Where did you get those cloaks? The quality is phenomenal! Do you mind selling one to me!?" Atop a carriage, a pot-bellied man quickly stopped the passing-by group of cloaked figures.
It was a group of six, all of them wearing identically patterned cloaks that hid the skin of their bodies.
Not only that, but they wore strange straw hats with long strips of paper circling most of the hat.
Although they were not as fascinating as the cloaks, it was easy to tell that they were of high quality and used the best materials
The only part of their body that wasn't covered was a small part of their face above the mouth and under the eyes.
The sizes of the group were quite similar, except for two outliers, one at least a head taller than the others, and the other at least a head shorter than the next smallest, quite obviously a child.
It was also quite easy to tell the genders apart, as four of them had two mounds bulging from their chest area.
The tall figure was bulky and had broad shoulders, which indicated a male figure, while the small figure was much more difficult to tell.
However, the strange thing about the child-like figure was that there was a pair of animal ears attached sticking out from the straw hat, and what seemed to be long white tails swaying behind the child's body.
The pot-bellied merchant was instantly drawn to the otherworldly beauty of the cloaks, its almost light deprivating darkness seemed to force his eyes to look at it.
But this wasn't the only thing adorning the cloak, no. The real beauty of the cloak was the ethereal looking buddha's lotus flowers.
Many small lotus flowers were beautifully patterned into the pitch-black cloak, the craftmanship was unlike anything the merchant had ever seen before, they looked so lifelike.
The lotus flowers had a strange blue outline which seemed to make it look as if it was floating in front of the cloak.
Not only that, but every movement of the cloak caused the buddha's lotuses to swivel, seemingly coming to life as they rotated and swayed, but it was simply an illusion.
The group stopped at the merchant's words and looked towards him lightly, "They aren't for sale, nor can you find them anywhere else."
Wulin didn't bother with the merchant and immediately left after a succinct answer.
The pot-bellied merchant had a strange feeling as he watched them leave but didn't make any effort to stop them.
He was not a reckless idiot and understood that anyone wearing clothing of that quality had significant background.
The pot-bellied merchant regretfully sighed and decided it was not worth risking offending someone with great status and resumed his journey to Heaven Dou Imperial City.
Wulin's group was led by Rong Rong over five kilometres and across many roads before coming to a stop.
Rong Rong twirled around as she lifted the hat off her face, revealing a face filled with excitement and malice.
"Brother Wulin, if we wait here, we will definitely come across an Advanced Spirit Master Academy!" She said with certainty.
Wulin took her hat and propped it back onto her head, "Don't take your hat off, and why are you so sure about that?"
Although he couldn't see it, he could tell that she was pouting from the sound of her voice, "Hmph! I know that the Brave Sword Advanced Spirit Master Academy will have to go through this road to reach Heaven Dou Imperial City."
Knowing that they were going to use this method to sneak into the Spirit Master Tournament, Rong Rong gathered information about the travel routes of attending Advanced Spirit Master Academies.
Of course, she was secretive in her ways, and asked round about questions to her clansman, making sure her father didn't catch wind of their dealings.
Wulin carefully caressed her exposed cheek and thanked her, "Good Rong Rong, my darling is the best."
The other girls weren't jealous when Wulin said this, they already knew that he loves and cares for them greatly.
Instead, they also played along as they teased Rong Rong, except for Little Jing who was genuinely excited.
The group sat together in the tree branches as they waited for the Brave Sword Advanced Spirit Master Academy to pass through.
Luckily for them, they only needed to wait an hour until Wulin's sensitive ears picked up the sound of multiple footsteps.
Wulin cautioned his girls to get ready as they dropped from the branches, agilely landing on the ground.
Of course, this sound also alerted the headmaster of Brave Sword Academy, causing him to pause a bit before proceeding forward.
As a Spirit Saint, he was not afraid of much, and he didn't have many enemies, certainly not any that would ambush him at this time.
Soon the two leaders were able to see the group as they exchanged gazes.
Wulin smiled lightly as he spoke, "It's them…"
Jiang Jiannan stared at the group of six cautiously, feeling the obvious malicious intent emanating from their bodies.
His instincts as a Spirit Saint warned him of the dangers the tallest cloaked figure presented, which caused him to believe their leader was also a Spirit Saint.
Wulin smiled as he used his Observation Ability on their headmaster.
==
Name: Jiang Jiannan
Spirit Rank: 72 Spirit Saint
Spirit: Sword Spirit
==
Jiang Jiannan was the only teacher in his group, with the other ten being part of the competing students.
After using his observation ability on the students, he found that none of them were very strong, with their strongest only being a rank 37 Spirit Elder.
Even though they are ten and Wulin's girls are five, he believed that the teamwork between the five of them was much better than the teamwork between the ten of them.
Not to mention that all of his girls had their fourth Spirit Rings and were higher quality Spirit Masters overall.
"Why do you block our way?" Jiang Jiannan had a somber face as he asked Wulin, stopping his group from moving forward at the same time.
Wulin stepped forward as he spoke calmly, "Naturally, we won't tell you our reasons unless you can beat us."
Jiang Jiannan didn't back down in the least as he stepped forward and released his Spirit, an elegant looking longsword.
"Then, it looks like I will never hear it since you will not live past this battle." He sent a deathly glare at Wulin.
Wulin only smirked in response, "Are you sure you want to fight here? All your precious little students might die from our battle."
This caused Jiang Jiannan to pause as he thought about the wellbeing of his students.
If he and Wulin fought here, there was no doubt that they would die. Wulin could even use them as hostages to force him into a disadvantage.
However, he also knew from Wulin's words that he was confident in his own people's strength since he was allowing them to fight against twice the enemies.
Jiang Jiannan was hoping that Wulin was simply overconfident and the numbers advantage his student held would let them win.
"Follow me, we will fight further away." He said as he flickered away, making sure Wulin followed.
What Jiang Jiannan didn't know was that Wulin was instead worried about his battle affecting his girls.
Feeling relieved, Wulin gave a glance at his women before following Jiang Jiannan through the forest.
Swish—
The two of them travelled a short distance to make sure their battle wouldn't disturb the others when something suddenly occurred.
Jiang Jiannan, who was leading the way, landed on one foot and bent his knee, coming to a short stop.
Then, like a spring, he shot backwards with all his speed as he summoned his Spirit and struck at Wulin's heart.
A good attempt, but Wulin never let his gaze leave Jiang Jiannan's body and was ready for his retaliation.
He knew that Jiang Jiannan would want to finish the battle as quickly as possible, so he could return to his students.
The Primal Chaos Staff was already in Wulin's hand as he deflected the sword tip to the side and smacked Jiang Jiannan's chest with force.
Jiang Jiannan was sullen that his surprise attack didn't work but didn't dwell on it as he once more charged at Wulin while activating his Spirit Ring.
Under Wulin's straw hat, ash grey hair slivered through the gaps of the paper strips and a bangle of grey fur was slightly exposed from the cuffs of his cloak.
This was Wulin's Monkey Emperor Transformation, increasing his capabilities by a couple times.
Wulin calmly pointed the tip of his staff at the incoming sword strike and allowed it to get close before making his move.
Once the sword came close, Wulin flicked his spear gently, smacking the face of the sword and causing it to veer from its target.
Jiang Jiannan was shocked senseless at this move, he had used a striking Spirit Ability, yet it was nullified by his opponent's strange movements.
Jiang Jiannan tried a couple more times but Wulin deflected each stab before giving a couple counters of his own.
The force of his attacks caused Jiang Jiannan's body to ache as he retreated.
"If you keep holding back, then you will lose before you know it…" Wulin spoke with certainty as he finally began his counter attack.
Wulin had scoped out Jiang Jiannan's powers enough and figured that without his Spirit Avatar, he didn't stand a chance against Wulin.
Making full use of his Monkey God's Steps and Ghost Shadow Perplexing Track, Wulin charged at Jiang Jiannan in an unpredictable and profound manner.
Whenever Jiang Jiannan thought Wulin was charging at him, he was actually retreating, and when he thought he was retreating, he was suddenly struck by Wulin's staff.
Sweat was beading on Jiang Jiannan's forehead as he struggled to keep up with Wulin's strength, using his Spirit Abilities to give him some breathing space.
Sadly, as a Power Attack System Spirit Master, he didn't have any defensive Spirit Abilities and could only attack Wulin but his attacks were controlled at every step.
Suddenly, a black Spirit Ring rose from Jiang Jiannan's sword as it glowed brightly.
Jiang Jiannan swept his blade at Wulin and created a destructive sword wave. Wulin had no choice but to dodge the attack and stop his chain attack.
With this small breathing room, another black Spirit Ring rose from Jiang Jiannan as it glowed brightly.
A giant illusory sword appeared behind Jiang Jiannan's back. Looking exactly like the one in Jiang Jiannan's hand, the sword was large enough for its tip to pierce the sky.
"Spirit Avatar…" Wulin muttered as a smirk uncontrollably found its way onto his face.
He likes it when he can go all out in a fight. At the academy, he could only fight the teachers, and they couldn't go all out on each other without causing some problems in the academy.
Jiang Jiannan was different though, he treated the battle with the intent of life and death, if he didn't die, then his opponent certainly wouldn't live.
Jiang Jiannan's blade glowed once more as he swept out, shooting a blade wave towards Wulin.
However, unlike the previous one, this one was three times larger and faster, giving Wulin barely any time to dodge.
The sword wave shot over Wulin's shoulder and sliced through tens of trees before running out of Spirit Power and dissipating.
Not giving him the time to recover, Jiang Jiannan flickered in front of Wulin and slashed violently, "Die!"
Wulin had his head down, in the perfect position to get decapitated as he had no chance to dodge.
The blade quickly made its way towards Wulin's neck, bringing elation to Jiang Jiannan, 'Serves you right, underestimating me and not using your Spirit Avatar! Now, you will die, and I will also kill your goons.'
However, before Jiang Jiannan could rejoice, a light flashed from Wulin's back and his blade was blocked.
With wide eyes, Jiang Jiannan saw an ash grey tail sprouting from Wulin's sacrum and blocking his Spirit, his Spirit!
'This, it must be a Spirit Bone. However, it doesn't follow the conventional six areas… wait! It must be an External Spirit Bone!'
Jiang Jiannan couldn't believe his own thoughts as it was simply too ridiculous, but greed soon took over.
After all, any normal Spirit Bone could make many high-ranking Spirit Masters go crazy, let alone an External Spirit Bone like this.
However, Jiang Jiannan was in no position to get greedy. Under his hat, Wulin smiled as he said, "Got you!"
Taking a forceful step forward, Wulin arrived right under Jiang Jiannan and stabbed his staff into Jiang Jiannan's sternum.
"Kugh—" Jiang Jiannan was winded and coughed up water from the force of Wulin's attack as he quickly tried to retreat.
However, Wulin wouldn't let him have another chance and chased him with incredible speed and stuck him multiple times.
Wulin slammed his Primal Energy Staff onto the face of Jiang Jiannan's blade, sending him flying a couple meters.
Jiang Jiannan was glad that Wulin made such a move since it will give him a chance to breathe.
However, he went aghast as he saw a giant Staff glowing and piercing the heavens above Wulin's head.
The giant Staff began to tilt towards the ground as it parted the clouds and made a loud whistling noise.
Jiang Jiannan stood stiffly as he helplessly watched the giant staff plummet towards him, no matter where he ran, he would still be in range of the Staff.
Only a single thought ran through Jiang Jiannan's mind, 'I am going to die. Hahh… at least I forced him to use his Spirit Avatar. I am sorry, my students.'
Jiang Jiannan raised his Sword and used all his powers to try and defend against the gigantic Staff, but it proved to be fruitless.
Jiang Jiannan was crushed by the weight and power of the Staff as he was knocked unconscious in an instant with large injuries covering his body.
Wulin retracted the Giant Staff and approached Jiang Jiannan's unconscious body.
Quickly inspecting him, Wulin made sure that Jiang Jiannan didn't have any injuries that would hurt his foundation.
It is after all Wulin's fault for picking a fight with this group, Jiang Jiannan is only an innocent man trying to protect himself.
So Wulin didn't wish to bring unnecessary harm to them, but he has to keep them unconscious at least for the start of the tournament to take their place.
Wulin picked Jiang Jiannan up and looked in the direction he came from, wondering if the girls had already finished their battles yet.
.
.
"Daddy!"
Seeing the cloaked figure casually returning while carrying the Spirit Saint with his ash grey tail, Little Jing immediately leapt into his embrace.
Wulin caught her tiny body with ease and massaged her little fleshy legs as he looked around the area.
There were a couple trees broken and patches of burnt and frozen ground all around the place.
The ten students from Brave Sword Academy were all unconscious and tied up in a bundle, their clothes were all patchy and destroyed.
But it could be seen that they went considerably easier on the females since their clothes were much better than the male students.
Little Yue, Feng Feng, Rong Rong and Xue Mei were sitting on a couple tree stumps, keeping and eye on the unconscious students while chatting happily.
Seeing them acting so casually made Wulin unsure of how to feel, "You girls, what if I had lost? You didn't even come to check on me!"
Rong Rong stuck her little tongue out as she replied, "We knew that Brother Wulin would definitely win!"
Wulin was happy that they were that confident in his abilities, but there are no certainties in battle, and he could get killed randomly.
"Master, we only finished our fight a little while ago. We were going to join you, but when we saw your Raging Monkey God's Slam, we knew you had already won."
Perhaps seeing his helpless face, Xue Mei tried to explain their reasoning as she quickly reached his side.
Wulin nodded his head and accepted their excuse, setting the unconscious Jiang Jiannan down with the rest of the students.
"Let's take a little break before we find a place to keep these people, we don't want others finding them before the start of the tournament."
Luckily, Wulin had asked Tang San for some sedatives in advance, prompting Tang San to give him some of his strongest stuff.
Even Jiang Jiannan won't be able to wake up for a couple days once he takes a whiff of the poison.
"You are too late, we have already found you…"
A bone-chilling voice appeared out of nowhere, causing Wulin to become startled as he went on full alert.
However, he felt like the voice was quite familiar. He didn't have to wait long before it was confirmed.
"Grandpa Bone?!" Rong Rong stood up and looked around as she called for her grandpa.
Sure enough, a black portal opened near where Wulin was standing and two figures walked out.
The first obviously being the gigantic frame of Grandpa Bone, while the other was of course the leader of the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Clan and Wulin's Father-in-law, Ning Fengzhi.
Hello guys, I have finished all my exams and I am pretty sure I passed them all, so hurray for me!
These three chapters are what I owe, so I dug into the stockpile to post them and will try to build it back up in my own time.
We will try to go back to the weekly posting, but I am having a little mind break on the current raw chapter.
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