Douluo: A Century-old Legend I Am the Second Uncle Chenxin

Chapter 1497 Thunder Academy of the Five Dragons and Six Souls King
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……

The following four days of competition proceeded smoothly, with all the strong teams advancing as expected. Chang'an Academy was no exception, steadily securing victory in every match.

Today is the seventh day of the competition, marking the final battle of the first round-robin tournament.

The tournament rules stipulate that teams will play against one of the seven representative teams from each of the seven regions in turn, forming a complete round-robin.

For Chang'an Academy, their first two opponents were the Elephant Armor Academy from Tosk Province and the Divine Wind Academy from Laghhamma Province.

Next, they faced off against the Winter War Soul Academy from Tianshui Province, known for its combat skills (especially its background in cooperating with the Bingge Alliance), the Tulip Academy from Osway Province, which specializes in plant-type martial souls, and the slightly weaker Hoshino Academy from the Central Left District.

When facing Yue Si Academy, which is also in the province of Fasno, both sides tacitly sent out their reserve teams and completed the match without further ado.

Faced with these relatively weak opponents, Chang'an Academy continued their usual strategy—mentoring newcomers with experienced players.

Thanks to the high proportion of veteran players and the large number of Soul Kings in the team, their personnel rotation is highly flexible, and their tactical arrangements are also very easy to make.

This allowed key support characters like Xiao Yi to get valuable rest opportunities with Gu Wuyan's support, resulting in a significant reduction in their playing frequency.

This careful rotation and sufficient rest are crucial for coping with the intensity of the national semi-finals, which far exceeds that of the provincial finals.

Even so, the tournament still takes a huge toll on Soul Masters, causing them to suffer minor injuries.

The four medical team teachers that Chang'an Academy brought with them—Pu Shui Rou, Bao Yi Ling, Wen Shou Ren, and Mu Zi Lian—were already stretched thin, so they had to borrow two more healing-type Soul Masters from the Chen family to join the medical support team.

Unlike Chang'an Academy, the teams that are under pressure to achieve results and have a more tense atmosphere, although the competition started relatively easily, still put considerable pressure on their main players, especially the core players at the Soul King level, due to the depth of their roster and the continuous wear and tear on them.

In this regard, top academies such as Tiandou, Chang'an, Yuehua, and Bingfeng have a significant advantage.

The overall upward momentum shown by the entire Fasno province in this semi-final is quite remarkable.

Among these, the role of Canghui College in "sending warmth" to talent after its students are eliminated cannot be ignored.

To uphold the reputation of their alma mater, these former Canghui students worked even harder, eager to wash away the shame of being eliminated, which greatly strengthened the backbone of the various colleges of Fasnow.

Benefiting from this, not only did Chang'an Academy achieve great success, but even Xuanhuang Academy, which was at the bottom of the rankings, achieved a respectable record of four wins and three losses, successfully entering the upper-middle ranks.

All five teams from the Fasno Province—Chang'an, Wushan, Yuesi, Qinglin, and Xuanhuang—made it into the top half of the standings among the 36 participating teams, achieving a historic best.

Each college demonstrated flexible adaptability based on the "Canghui-style exchange".

For example, Qinglin Academy, which is skilled in spear formations, introduced Shen Li, who has the "Crimson Magic Crystal" martial soul, and Chu Xishuang, who has the "Eternal Frozen Amethyst" (Frost Vein Ice Spear) martial soul, from Canghui, enriching their tactical system and lineup depth.

However, this trend of "exchange students" is not limited to Canghui No. 1 School.

People are very clever. The various academies of Fasno have all shown their shrewdness. They won't just target Canghui Academy to take advantage of the limited spots.

They drew inferences from this experience and actively recruited external aid from a wider range of channels to strengthen their capabilities.

For example, in a minor battle against the formidable Moon Bay Academy of Tosk Province, Wushan Academy employed its newly introduced fifth Soul King—Wei Yelin, the former captain from Tianlang Academy.

This powerful offensive Soul Master, who was originally at the peak of level 49 at the end of the provincial competition, successfully broke through the bottleneck and advanced to level 51 Soul King after his grandfather, Wei Xinzhi, gritted his teeth and bought two seventh-grade spiritual herbs from the Chen family.

It was precisely because of the average level advantage represented by the five Soul Kings that Five Mountains Academy was able to defeat the well-established Moon Bay Academy after a fierce battle.

Yue Si Academy's strategy is even more ingenious.

While core team members Yue Pan and Yue Que had not yet fully recovered from their severe physical injuries (their injuries were similar to those of Chen Shurui and Chen Bin, with a significant amount of flesh and blood being shattered, resulting in relatively slow and fragile regeneration), they "borrowed" Shen Yuan and Lu Kun from Tianfeng Academy, who possessed the martial soul fusion skill "Mudslide".

Led by Captain Zhong Weifeng, Yue Si Academy, which incorporated foreign aid, successfully defeated Han Hai Academy, whose core captain Zhang Hongtao had recovered from his injury.

It is worth noting that both Moon Bay College and Hanhai College are among the "Five Provincial Colleges" with profound historical backgrounds, ranking alongside colleges such as Chang'an, Tianshui, and Oasis.

However, at the end of this first round of the tournament, they were defeated by the teams ranked third (Wushan) and fourth (Yuesi) in the Fasno province.

This result undoubtedly dropped a bombshell on the minds of many observers.

Thanks to their excellent tactical integration and talent recruitment strategies, the academies of Fasno Province have suddenly gained momentum on the stage of the elite competition, making a name for themselves and becoming famous overnight.

Of course, they have also attracted real attention from all parties.

……

The fan viewing area, exclusively for Chang'an Academy, was packed with people, and the air was filled with the buzz of enthusiastic anticipation and discussion.

Before the match officially started, the audience's attention was naturally focused on the players who were about to take the field.

"Who will the captain and the others arrange to play in today's match against Thunder Academy?" A young female Soul Master with neat short hair asked her companion, holding a schedule in her hand.

A young man with a relaxed smile casually chimed in, "Who cares who they field? With our two pillars, seven heroes, nine elites, and three foreign players, who can we not face? We'll definitely win."

No sooner had the words been spoken than a middle-aged male Soul Master wearing glasses and with a somewhat composed demeanor pushed up his glasses and interjected in a low but clear voice: "You can't just say that so simply."

He seemed to be better informed, flipping through his notebook. "It's said that this year's Thunder Academy is quite extraordinary. Don't be fooled by their second-place ranking in the Central Right District; Nine Heavens Academy is ahead of them." "But reliable sources say that not only are their lightning-type martial souls powerful, but the Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon Clan has also gone all out this time, sending several soul masters with dragon-type martial souls... Their strength is probably not much weaker than the top academies in each province."

"Huh? You play it like that?" A young Soul Master wearing a support outfit next to him widened his eyes upon hearing this.

“Thunder Academy was originally supported by the Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon Clan, so it’s perfectly normal for them to send people there.” A burly man crossed his arms and explained, but his brows furrowed almost imperceptibly.

The atmosphere seemed to settle down a bit because of these words, and the previous relaxed confidence was now infused with a sense of uncertainty.

After a brief silence, a mother leaning against the railing, holding her child in her arms, murmured softly, "We'll have to see how Xiao Hongchen arranges his troops."

All eyes turned toward the entrance to the Soul Battle Passage, but the young figure who would decide the outcome of the battle had not yet appeared.

……

In the solemn preparation room of Chang'an Academy, covered with tactical blueprints, you could hear a pin drop.

All eyes were focused on Chen Xiaojun, who stood in the center.

The young captain's usual smile vanished, replaced by an unusual solemnity.

"Everyone is aware of how difficult this match will be, right?"

He didn't need to say anything more; he went straight to the heart of the opponent's problem:
"Thunder Academy is led by Captain Yu Zhijun (elder brother of Tian Dou Yu Zhengjun)."

"A direct descendant of the Yu family, with the martial soul Blue Lightning Tyrannosaurus Rex, a level 55 offensive type battle soul king, ranked 25th on the Prodigy Ranking."

The name itself represents the overwhelming power of top-tier talent and bloodline.

He traced the list of opponents with his fingertips:
"Yu Jingzhe, a direct descendant of the Yu family, possesses the martial soul Purple Lightning Thunder Dragon, and is a level 56 powerful attack-type soul king."

"Although its martial soul is not a pure-blooded Blue Lightning Tyrannosaurus Rex, it possesses some dragon might and a powerful physique. The Purple Heaven Divine Lightning it controls has an extremely wide range and comes with a powerful paralyzing effect."

Chen Xiaojun paused, his gaze sweeping over his teammates, "His threat lies not in single-target bursts, but in controlling the field and sustained pressure."

"Ao Lie, a level 54 offensive Soul King, possesses a mutated Crimson Flame Tyrannosaurus Martial Soul, primarily fire-attribute with secondary lightning-attribute, whose attacks have a strong explosive burning effect."

He emphasized the word "explosive".

"Raine, a level 51 agility-attack type Soul King, with a mutated martial soul, Storm Thunder Dragon, possessing the ability to fly and extreme speed. His attacks are accompanied by tearing whirlwinds and extremely penetrating lightning."

This is undoubtedly a huge threat to our own back row.

Chen Xiaojun's tone was solemn: "This is the opponent's core—the four Dragon-type Soul Kings. Each of them, taken individually, is enough to serve as a main force in a top-tier academy. Furthermore,"

His voice remained unwavering: "There are also three support characters: the defensive dragon spirit Rock Thunder Dragon Turtle, and the level 52 Long Qi, who is the team's strongest shield."

"Lei Dong, a level 53 control-type Soul King (given the same name as the one in later generations), whose Martial Soul is Thunder Spider, will be our binding chain with his spider web control."

"Finally, there's Lei Jiuzhong, a level 48 support-type Thunder Umbrella Soul Master, who provides movement buffs and some defensive reinforcements."

The summary was insightful: "The Thunder's current roster has distinct core characteristics."

"Six Soul Kings and one high-level Soul Master. Apart from Lei Jiuzhong, who has a sixth-grade martial soul, and Yu Zhijun, who has a ninth-grade martial soul, the other five are all top-grade seventh-grade martial souls."

"Their most outstanding advantage is that they have pushed instantaneous explosive power to the extreme."

"The entire tactical system revolves around the core chain of 'controlling the field - suppressing - Yu Zhijun finishing off'."

"They have many combination techniques, and they are good at being destructive. They combine the might of the dragon and the thunder. Once they are unleashed, their offensive is like a raging wave, and they are extremely domineering."

After a brief pause, Chen Xiaojun's gaze sharpened: "But the fatal weakness is also equally obvious."

"Their soul power consumption is enormous, and the key to 'ending the ace opponent' of the entire system almost entirely rests on Yu Zhijun alone."

"The entire team lacks professional treatment, and their recovery ability is a weakness."

"The attribute composition is also too simple, almost all of them are lightning-type."

He slowly uttered his conclusion, "This is a typical team that is 'a heavy sword with no edge, and extremely strong but easily broken'."

"They will either destroy us swiftly like a thunderbolt, or they will quickly exhaust themselves after we slow down their pace and seize their weaknesses, leaving them with no strength left."

As Chen Xiaojun finished speaking, a tense silence filled the room; the head-on confrontation was about to begin.

This is their first real hurdle!

The only thing to do is to break the edge of this thunderous greatsword before it cuts down our own side!

(End of this chapter)