Dawn broke, and Star Luo City was exceptionally lively today because it was the opening day of the Soul Master Academy Competition.
The Soul Master Academy Competition is held every five years, with the four countries taking turns hosting it.
The last time it was held in Star Luo City was twenty years ago.
Because it only happens in Star Luo City once in a long while, the common people are particularly enthusiastic about this competition.
Tickets for the first day of the competition were snapped up early, and many people even paid high prices to buy them.
The matches on the opening day might not be the most exciting, but they are definitely the most significant.
By less than ten o'clock, Star Luo Plaza was already packed with people. Fortunately, the Star Luo Empire had made sufficient preparations to ensure the order at the scene was relatively good; there were many people, but it wasn't chaotic.
Participating Academy members also arrived one after another; they had dedicated rest areas.
"The Shrek Academy people are here," many people started paying attention to a team walking over.
Seeing that there were only a few people, and they were all very young, these people were inwardly delighted. It seemed the news was true; something had indeed happened to the Shrek Academy's participating team.
There were only six people from Shrek Academy who came to the scene: Shi Yu, Jiang Nannan, Huo Yuhao, Wang Dong, Xiao Xiao, and Xuan Lao.
Xuan Lao should have been recuperating at home; his physical condition wasn't very good.
However, he wasn't at ease letting Shi Yu and the others come to the scene alone and insisted on coming along.
Having Senior there could also deter many petty individuals, and ensuring the safety of Shi Yu and the others was very important.
"This time, Shrek Academy is probably going to lose a lot of face," over at Sun Moon Royal Academy, Xiao Hongchen chuckled mockingly.
"It's a shame. I still wanted to compete against the Shrek Academy's participating team in their full strength. Winning like this doesn't mean much."
Ma Rulong, the captain of the main team of Sun Moon Royal Academy, shook his head and sighed.
"It does feel a bit like an unfair victory, but winning against Shrek Academy like this is still quite meaningful," another person said.
No matter what Shrek Academy went through, as long as they could defeat them, that was enough.
Even if winning this way was a bit less satisfying, they still defeated Shrek Academy in the end.
"I wonder which Academy will get the honor of being the first to defeat Shrek Academy." Their Sun Moon Royal Academy would meet Shrek Academy at least in the knockout rounds.
In the previous Soul Master Competition, Shrek Academy was the champion, and their Sun Moon Royal Academy was the runner-up. The two Academies could not be placed in the same group.
Shi Yu felt many strange gazes, scrutinizing and disdainful. These people were probably waiting to see Shrek Academy become a laughingstock.
Shi Yu didn't mind; let them underestimate them if they wanted to.
They arrived at Shrek Academy's exclusive rest area, close to Sun Moon Royal Academy.
He was quite interested in Sun Moon Royal Academy and subconsciously looked for the siblings Xiao Hongchen and Meng Hongchen.
It wasn't because he had any intentions towards them, but simply because they had relatively more screen time in the original story, which led to a bit more attention.
He spotted two relatively young men and women in the Sun Moon Royal Academy team and guessed they might be the two siblings.
The temperament of these two was somewhat different from the others, possibly due to their prominent family backgrounds.
The Sun Moon Royal Academy side was also paying close attention to them, with a slight smile on their lips, clearly wanting to see Shrek Academy make a fool of themselves.
They arrived at the rest area and waited. It wasn't until more than twenty minutes later that the Star Luo Emperor appeared.
After some official-sounding words, this session of the Soul Master Academy Competition officially kicked off.
The opening match was Shrek Academy versus Tianling Academy, which was consistent with Shi Yu's expectations.
The format of this opening match was a team battle. Subsequent matches might see individual battles or two-two-three battle strategies.
The members of both Academies walked onto the stage from two opposing passages.
"Shrek! Shrek!" At first, the audience's shouts for Shrek Academy were very loud. In terms of popularity among the more than one hundred participating Academies, Shrek Academy was definitely far ahead.
Even the Star Luo Royal Academy, playing on home ground, was far less popular than Shrek Academy.
On the Continent, there were two types of Soul Master Academies: Shrek Academy and others.
However, when they saw that only five people from Shrek Academy were on stage, the audience's cheering gradually weakened, and many people had question marks in their minds. What was going on?
The news of something happening to Shrek Academy's participating team was known to many, but it wasn't common knowledge.
Therefore, there were still many people on site who didn't know the specifics and were unclear why only five people from Shrek Academy were on stage.
"What does Shrek Academy mean by this? Although this Tianling Academy is very weak, it's not so weak that they only send five people to compete, right?"
"And these five people look relatively young. The oldest is probably only fifteen, I'd guess."
"How strong can someone at that age be? Aren't they afraid of messing up and losing this opening match?" Many people discussed in surprise and uncertainty, not understanding the situation.
"I heard that something happened to the Shrek Academy's participating team, and they suffered heavy losses. It's not that they want to send such a lineup, but that they can only send such a lineup," explained someone in the know. Some felt it was unfair to Shrek Academy.
Competing like this was very unfair to Shrek Academy; this was not their true strength.
Others were gloating, perhaps about to witness a huge joke today.
"Go Tianling Academy!" Some people who wanted to see Shrek Academy make a fool of themselves cheered for Tianling Academy.
The Academy members in the Academy rest areas looked enviously at the people from Tianling Academy, really wanting to replace them and become the first team to face Shrek Academy.
Before, they were all afraid of meeting Shrek Academy because the outcome was always fixed: a loss.
There was a saying circulating: the achievement a Academy could get in the Soul Master Competition depended on when they met Shrek Academy.
Meeting them earlier meant being eliminated earlier, and meeting them later meant a slightly better result.
The overall strength of Sun Moon Royal Academy was second only to Shrek Academy, but they also had instances of reaching the top four, top eight, and top sixteen.
The reason was that sometimes they had bad luck and met Shrek Academy early.
Meeting Shrek Academy in the group stage didn't necessarily mean being eliminated, but meeting them in the knockout stage meant certain elimination; there had never been an exception.
But this time, a different situation might appear. The people from Tianling Academy walked onto the competition stage with their heads held high, as if it wasn't a competition stage but a podium for awards.
They looked at Shi Yu and the others, who also walked onto the stage, with a smirk, looking completely confident of victory.
Facing the true main team of Shrek Academy, they might have trembling legs.
But facing this weakened Shrek Academy team, everyone was full of confidence.
Shi Yu was speechless seeing these people so confident of victory. Were they really that confident?
Jiang Nannan, Huo Yuhao, and the others felt a bit stifled and resentful; the way the other side looked at them made them very uncomfortable.
"Are you really not going to use my method?" Huo Yuhao said softly, coming up to Shi Yu.
He wanted to use his simulation skill to intimidate these people. Attacking while they were stunned would also make winning relatively easier.
"Save your method for later; there's no need to rush," Shi Yu said.
Huo Yuhao wanted to simulate his Soul Rings as several hundred-thousand-year Soul Rings to intimidate the opponent.
This method was good, but there was no need to rush using it. Saving it for relatively stronger opponents would be more valuable.
Huo Yuhao nodded and didn't insist.