Douluo Continent: My Martial Soul is the Black Dragon, I am the Lord of the Gods

Chapter 243 Absolutely No Cooperation
……

As the rousing bugle call sounded, the previously noisy atmosphere in the Heavenly Battle Arena was instantly ignited. The audience's enthusiasm surged like a tidal wave, with cheers and shouts intertwining, causing the entire arena to tremble slightly.

With the qualifiers at this stage, it's pretty much clear which teams will advance.

Currently, the Royal Fighting Team has won all nine of their matches. In addition, the Five Elements Academy, except for the Elephant Armor Academy, also maintains a perfect record.

Elephant Armor Academy was very unlucky because they encountered Divine Wind Academy in the first round and were unilaterally crushed. In the second round, they encountered Heavenly Water Academy and were crushed again.

In the third round against Shrek Academy, due to injuries sustained in the previous two rounds and Shrek Academy's reputation for surrendering directly at the opening ceremony, Elephant Armor Academy only fielded their reserve players, thinking that this would be enough to win the match. As a result, they suffered a defeat.

After that, Elephant Armor Academy continued to suffer bad luck, encountering Royal Fighting Team, Thunder Academy, and Blazing Fire Academy in succession. To everyone's disbelief, Elephant Armor Academy suffered an astonishing six-game losing streak, essentially ruling them out of the finals.

VIP seats.

The atmosphere here is somewhat unusual today because of the arrival of a special person: the Pope of the Spirit Hall.

Surrounded by Yue Guan Gui Mei and Salas, Bibi Dong slowly walked up to the VIP area. Hu Liena was arranged to sit in the second row of the VIP area. Whether by coincidence or design, she sat next to Xue Qinghe.

Ning Fengzhi stood up, cupped his hands in a salute, and said, "I never expected His Holiness the Pope to be interested in such a small qualifying tournament."

Bibi Dong smiled slightly, "Sect Leader Ning is too kind. This preliminary round is full of hidden talents, and there are quite a few promising individuals. It is only natural that I have come to take a look."

A promising talent?
Upon hearing this, the expressions on the faces of the Heavenly Dou royal family members changed slightly.

Is this another attempt to poach someone?

Ning Fengzhi also had some doubts, but his expression remained calm. "His Holiness the Pope is absolutely right. This competition has indeed produced many outstanding young soul masters."

Bibi Dong's gaze swept across the arena, finally settling on the direction of the Royal Fighting Team's rest area. "I am quite looking forward to the Royal Fighting Team's performance next, especially Xuanming."

Ning Fengzhi's heart tightened. He didn't know what Bibi Dong was thinking about Xuan Ming, so he could only cautiously reply, "Xuan Ming is indeed a rare genius. His talent and strength are among the best of the younger generation."

Bibi Dong's lips curled up slightly, revealing a meaningful smile. "Geniuses always attract attention."

On the field, the members of the Royal Fighting Team and the Blazing Academy have begun to take the stage. Their battle area is still the main arena in the center. Both teams are on high alert, and the atmosphere is extremely tense.

Seeing Xuanming step back onto the field, Blazing Fire Academy felt rather heavy-hearted. After all, although Xuanming had been suspended for a week, the investigation into him had confirmed an astonishing fact: he had reached the Soul King level!
In previous matches, they also witnessed the Royal Fighting Team's performance. As the team's offensive-type Soul Master, Gu Yuena had never revealed her Soul Rings, but her overwhelming combat power against Soul Masters confirmed that she was at least a Soul Grandmaster.

In other words, the Royal Fighting Team has two Soul Kings and four Soul Masters!
There is a huge gap between them in terms of soul power level alone. Even though the flames they control have a certain restraining effect on Dugu Yan, they only restrain Dugu Yan alone.

"Fire Dance, are we really going to fight?" Fire Dance Academy team captain Huo Wushuang suddenly felt a little panicked.

Xuanming hasn't officially made a move since the start of the competition, so everyone is completely unaware of his true strength. Their current battle against the Royal Fighting Team can actually be seen as them testing the waters for others!

This is not worth it!

He initially advocated forfeiting the match to avoid pointless waste, but after learning that Xuanming had returned to the arena, Huowu objected to forfeiting and insisted on fighting!
"Brother, are you scared?" Huo Wu asked.

Huo Wushuang looked helpless. "If I said I wasn't afraid, would you believe me?"

Although he hadn't personally witnessed Xuanming's matches at the Great Soul Arena, he had heard quite a bit about the guy's fearsome reputation during this period.

If it's the finals, he definitely won't back down. Even if he can't win, he'll still give it his all.

But this is the qualifiers. If they fight the Royal Fighting Team and are severely injured, how will they compete in the later qualifiers?
"No matter what, I have to fight him. I want to see if he's as powerful as the rumors say," Huo Wu said.

Huo Wushuang sighed, "Alright."

"But let me make this clear first: if there is any danger, I will forfeit the match. We can't let this one game cause us to lose the rest of the games."

"I can abstain, but only after I've used my fourth soul skill," Huo Wu said.

"Yes, yes, my dear sister." Huo Wushuang turned around and walked to the front of the group.

The Royal Fighting Team members also stepped onto the arena under Xuanming's leadership.

The host walked around to the center of the venue and said, "Both sides line up and bow."

The fourteen team members from both sides stood in two rows, but neither side tacitly refrained from bowing.

The referee was used to this. Etiquette is etiquette, but there are plenty of people who don't follow it, especially in a match between two strong teams that are evenly matched. There is basically no politeness before the game.

Huo Wushuang, also a team captain, stood opposite Xuanming. He originally wanted to say a few provocative words as was customary before the battle, but after facing the infamous Netherworld Dragon Emperor, he truly felt the pressure he was under!
Sis! We can't beat them!
Huo Wushuang was already regretting his impulsive decision to follow Huo Wu's lead and fight against the Royal Fighting Team.

However, now that he's on the stage, he can't do something like Shrek who surrenders before even making a move; he has to at least show a clear disadvantage before abstaining.

"Aren't you going to start yet?"

Noticing that the other arenas had already started, Xuanming turned his gaze to the host beside him. Although the preliminary rounds consisted of multiple matches held simultaneously, the matches in the main arena were often the most anticipated. To create a lively atmosphere, in addition to the referees, the main arena would also have a host providing commentary.

The host, DouDou, suddenly snapped back to reality, lowered her head with a shifty look in her eyes, and said, "You can release your martial spirits now."

Ning Rongrong and Ye Lingling exchanged a glance, then stepped forward one on each side, grabbed Xuan Ming, and ran towards the back of the group.

Both teams began to revert to their original formations and simultaneously unleash their martial spirits.

"Aren't you going to make a move yet?"

Seeing that Xuanming still hadn't even released his martial spirit, Huowu was getting angry.

"Game start!"

At the host DouDou's command, both teams started moving at the same time.

Dugu Yan let out a low shout, and the eerie green poisonous mist suddenly dispersed. Gu Yuena, holding the Silver Dragon Spear, rushed out of the poisonous mist, followed closely by Xiao Wu and Zhu Zhuqing. The three of them had the same goal: Huo Wushuang, the captain of the Blazing Fire Academy team.

Ning Rongrong also applied a buff to the three of them at the same time.

Their tactics have always been simple and brutal: since their own team coordination is problematic, they won't give the opponent a chance to coordinate!
Once the opponent's offensive units are eliminated, no one else will be able to break through Dugu Yan's defenses.

boom--!
Just as Huo Wushuang was about to be surrounded and attacked by the three, Huo Wu's third spirit ring lit up, and a golden-red fire ring burst out and spread instantly.

Just as Gu Yuena and her two companions were about to attack Huo Wushuang, they suddenly felt a powerful force strike them. They were then thrown off in different directions. Although the attack did not cause any damage, it instantly disrupted their pre-planned tactical formation.

"Now!" Huo Wushuang shouted, and the rest of the Blazing Fire Academy team seized the opportunity to launch their attacks.

The Royal Fighting Team was in disarray due to significant problems with teamwork. Although Dugu Yan wanted to release poison mist to resist the flames, the Blazing Fire Academy's flames were highly effective against her poison mist. As soon as the poison mist was released, it was burned through by the flames. Although it could not be completely burned away, it still burned a path that could allow them to advance.

With three main forces suddenly gone, Dugu Yan, who was controlling the field in the center of the team, was exposed. Huo Wushuang, as the main force on the front, rushed towards Dugu Yan immediately. His third soul ring flashed, and Tyrannosaurus Fury was activated. Huo Wushuang transformed into a one-horned fire dragon, and his charge became even more terrifying.

But Dugu Yan stood still, showing no intention of dodging, as if she was waiting for Huo Wushuang to knock her down. Seeing this, Huo Wushuang instinctively felt something was wrong and subconsciously withdrew his strength.

Sure enough, just as his attack was about to reach Dugu Yan, an invisible and colorless wall suddenly appeared, and Huo Wushuang crashed into this colorless wall, unable to advance an inch.

"What is this thing?" Huo Wushuang was dumbfounded.

Whose defensive soul skill is this?

Similarly, on the other side, the two agility-type Soul Masters of the Blazing Fire Team both targeted Xiao Wu, intending to eliminate her by force.

However, just as they were about to reach Xiao Wu, they encountered the same situation as Huo Wushuang: a colorless and invisible wall appeared in front of Xiao Wu, perfectly blocking their attack.

"It's you?" Huo Wu looked at Xuan Ming, who had raised his right hand, his palm shimmering with a dim white light.

According to information from the Great Soul Arena, Xuanming's white light domain can condense a colorless and invisible wall, which has extremely strong defensive capabilities.

When will this guy unleash his domain?

"Your teamwork is so good..." Xuanming hesitated, then stopped.

"There was absolutely no cooperation whatsoever."

Pure brute force!
"This doesn't require any cooperation," Ning Rongrong said, a little embarrassed.

Gu Yuena launched a strong attack, Dugu Yan controlled the field, Xiao Wu provided secondary attacks, and Zhu Zhuqing finished off the remaining enemies. She would find opportunities to use buffs, and Ye Lingling would apply healing as needed. They could easily overwhelm the opponent every time, so what need was there for any tactical coordination?

“We call this adapting to changing circumstances,” Ye Lingling whispered.

Xuanming was speechless. "If you can block, you don't block; if you can dodge, you don't dodge. You just wait for me to save you. Is that what you call being adaptable?"

Dugu Yan's fourth soul skill, Azure Phosphorus Poison Armor, can condense highly toxic soul power into a dark green energy armor on the surface of her body. It has both defensive and counter-damage effects, and enemies who attack the poison armor will be tainted with highly toxic venom.

Although the potency of this poison would be greatly reduced when exposed to high temperatures, if it had been released just now, it would have been enough to block Huo Wushuang's attack. But what was Dugu Yan doing? She was just standing there!

And then there's Xiao Wu, who clearly has the ability to teleport and escape, but she just doesn't use it!

"Isn't it because we trust you?" Ye Lingling asked strangely.

"And shouldn't you feel a sense of involvement?"

"..." Xuanming.

Why are you talking in the same tone as Ning Rongrong?

(End of this chapter)