Douluo Continent: I, Huo Yuhao, am the Master of Spirit.

Chapter 479 Quarterfinals: Xilu City vs. Sun Moon, Tang Ya: "You guys are too extreme." (Seeking monthly votes)

"Ilya, be careful, don't rush."

"Miyu, remember to keep an eye on her."

Outside the Mingdu competition area, a young man with short, reddish-brown hair, carrying shopping bags, watched two girls walking together.

Illya lightly touched the ground with her toes, turned around, and waved excitedly at Shirou Emiya.

Her delicate face appeared even whiter under the dazzling sunlight, and her sweet smile had a soothing magic.

"Don't worry, brother!"

"By the way, wasn't Mom supposed to be coming to take us today? Where did she go?"

Illya tilted her head, a look of confusion flashing in her red eyes. Upon hearing this, Shirou Emiya's face immediately showed a helpless expression.

"My mom was speeding in the suburbs of Mingdu yesterday, pushing the accelerator to the maximum, which scared the residents there. They thought the Sea God family had attacked."

"I was taken away by Mingdu soldiers for investigation early this morning. I have to go and bring my mother out soon."

Ilya chuckled and said, "Mom is still the same as always. She's a regular at the law enforcement bureau in Xiru City. I heard she's almost become good friends with Xing."

"Well, anyway, I'll have to trouble you, brother."

"Well, I wish you both the best of luck in the match. Kiritsugu has prepared a feast, waiting for you to bring back the championship trophy."

Shirou Emiya watched the two girls enter the arena, his smile gradually fading before he turned and left.

The implementation of the plan is not far off, and he needs to take the root team to the vicinity of Ming Kwong Road to make preparations and rehearsals in advance.

This plan must succeed on the first try. If it fails, Otto will have to resort to the backup plan and directly use the Holy Spirit Cult and the Root to carry out a great purge.

His backup plan was far from ideal and would lead to the deaths of many people.

As Shirou Emiya's figure gradually disappeared into the shadows that resembled a malevolent demon baring its fangs in the distant alley, beautiful fireworks suddenly burst forth in the sky above the competition area.

Fireworks left brilliant colors and exquisite patterns on the azure canvas of the sky, while cheers soared into the heavens like a tidal wave.

On the field, the host's passionate voice echoed throughout the area through the amplified sound system, reaching the ears of every spectator watching the match.

"Good morning, good afternoon, and good evening everyone! This is Douluo Voice broadcasting the news of this tournament!"

"First of all, I would like to thank Snow King Ice City and other merchants for their support and patronage."

"After a fierce elimination round and a crazy round-robin tournament, the top eight teams have been officially determined!"

"These are Shrek Academy, Xilu City Research Academy, Body Sect, and Tianlong Gate, all of which qualified as the top teams in their respective groups."

"Then there are the Star Luo National Academy, Holy Spirit Sect, Haotian Sect, and Sun Moon Royal Soul Master Academy, which qualified as the second-place teams from each group."

"The competition in this event is unprecedentedly fierce! All the colleges are giving it their all to vie for that ultimate honor!"

"Thanks to the organizers of the tournament, I will now announce the rules for the quarterfinals."

"To ensure fairness, the draw system for the quarterfinals is somewhat different from previous years."

The draw follows the principle of alternating, non-repeating matchups!

"Cross-no-overlap means that the team with the highest score in each group will play against the team with the second highest score in other groups."

There will be no matchups between the first and second place teams in the same group, ensuring the matches are highly entertaining.

"Now, let's give a round of applause to the captains of the quarterfinal teams as they come to the stage to draw the lots!"

In an instant, thunderous cheers erupted from the stands, with everyone shouting for their favorite team.

Of these calls, those from Shrek Academy and the West City Research Academy were the most vehement, as the two academies had shown the most outstanding performance.

As Gu Qiuji stepped onto the competition stage, he couldn't help but recall the scene when he first came to compete, when no one cheered him on. Humans are indeed fickle creatures.

Soon, Bai E, Gu Qiu'er, Yu Tianlong, and Long Aotian, the captains of the teams with the highest points, stood on one side of the arena.

Wang Xiao, Zhang Lei, Tang Ya, and Xiao Hongchen stood opposite them.

When Bai E saw Tang Ya, his eyes flickered, as if he wanted to say something, but Tang Ya gently placed her finger on his lips to keep him silent.

Since Tang Ya left the academy a few years ago, she has lost contact with many people, and only Bei Bei can still barely keep in touch with her.

Beibei actually knew where Tang Ya had gone. Long Xiaoyao had told him about the Holy Spirit Cult before, and seeing his anxiety, he promised to have the old guys inside help take care of her.

Tang Ya couldn't help but feel a little emotional when she saw Bai E. Two years ago, she left the academy and began to frantically develop the devouring attribute of the Blue Silver Grass, causing it to awaken into Dark Blue Silver Grass.

In Tiandou City, she slaughtered everyone in the Iron Blood Sect, but unfortunately, she couldn't defeat the sect leader, who was a Soul Emperor.

During her exile, she encountered a group of black-robed men wearing animal masks. These men helped her stabilize her martial spirit and then disappeared, leaving behind only a feeling of being watched from behind.

It was only in the last year that they recruited her into their team, and finally learned that she was a member of a branch group of the Xilu City assassination squad.

As a gift for joining, the captain of the second group of the Root captured the sect leader of the Iron Blood Sect and left her to deal with as she saw fit.

Without saying a word, Tang Ya cruelly tortured and killed the other party. She thought the Root Group would stop her, but the other party said that her methods were too merciful.

The real torture would be to rub the entire body with the sap of the Dragon Blood Golden Bark Tree and constantly feed the patient mental stabilizers and physical restorers.

Then, they would apply a sensitizing agent and continue to torture the body with the "Niangniquan" (a type of herbal medicine), subjecting the body and mind to comprehensive torment.

After undergoing root training, she was transferred to the Holy Spirit Cult, and she was quite nervous about this evil soul master sect at first.

Once inside, I discovered that there were quite a few of our own people here, and the way to tell if someone is one of our own is quite simple.

If you suddenly startle someone while they are walking by making a "hehehe" sound, and they are so frightened that they kneel down and beg the ghost messenger for mercy, then you are definitely a pure evil spirit master.

The evil spirit masters of the Holy Spirit Cult were terrified by the ghost messengers. These guys appeared and disappeared unpredictably, and many evil spirit masters felt like they were being watched even when they slept.

Tang Ya sometimes felt a strange sense of being stared at, a feeling that was truly unpleasant, like a rabbit facing a lion that hadn't eaten for a week.

Actually, it's pretty much the same. In the eyes of the ghost messengers, these evil spirit masters are walking achievements.

The higher-ups of the Holy Spirit Cult, like the elders, lived in constant fear and sorrow, secretly worshipping the statue of the Grim Reaper and begging for forgiveness.

Even Zhongli Wu was secretly worshipping the statue of the God of Death. The higher-ups all knew exactly what the Holy God was; that thing had no control over death.

Death is the domain of those ghost messengers, and nobody wants to end up in a fate of eternal damnation.

The entire Holy Spirit Cult is now resembling a large-scale online gathering of people suffering from depression.

After a brief exchange of glances between Bai E and Tang Ya, Zheng Zhan arrived at the arena, glanced around, and said, "You should have heard the rules of the competition."

"Let's begin the lottery."

"Shrek Academy, you go first."

Bai E jogged up to Zheng Zhan with a bright smile on his face, a smile that also carried a hint of silliness.

After randomly drawing a lot, he returned to his original position. The lot in his hand had the number 2 written on it.

Next, Gu Qiu'er and the others took turns drawing lots. Only after the team with the highest score had finished drawing did it come to the team with the second highest score.

During this period, if the team with the second-highest score is drawn against another team in the same group, a re-draw will be conducted.

The draw ended quickly. Zheng Zhan glanced at the results, nodded towards the sky, and signaled the host to display the results on the big screen.

"Oh my gosh!"

The results of the quarterfinals are in!

"The first match is between Xilu City Research Academy and Sun Moon Royal Soul Master Academy! The second match is between Shrek Academy and Clear Sky Sect!"

The third match is between Tianlong Sect and Xingluo National Academy! The fourth match is between Body Sect and Holy Spirit Sect!

"It's really exciting to see which colleges will advance to the semifinals! Without further ado, let's start the first match!"

The biggest dark horse of this competition, the Xilu City Research Academy, clashes with the veteran powerhouse, the Sun Moon Royal Soul Master Academy!

"Sun Moon Royal Soul Master Academy is a super strong team that has consistently ranked second in the competition. This year, they are playing on home soil. I wonder how they will perform?"

After the results of the battles were announced, the captains of the eight teams stepped down from the competition stage, while the Xilu City Research Academy and the Sun Moon Royal Soul Master Academy went to the waiting area.

Xiao Hongchen looked at the confident Gu Qiu'er opposite him with a serious expression, and said to his teammates behind him, "I plan to give up the individual battle directly."

"It's not hard to see from what we've seen that the West City Research Academy's one-on-one combat ability is incredibly strong. Our Soul Masters are the least skilled at one-on-one duels."

"Instead of wasting time and soul power, let's just end the game with a team battle."

"Don't worry about whether you win or lose this competition; just show your best."

O

In the group, a handsome young man with an aristocratic air agreed with Xiao Hongchen's opinion.

"I agree with the captain's point of view. Soul Masters can only show their full strength in team battles."

;

"However, Captain, normally you can only request a team battle after an individual match is over, and it depends on whether the other side agrees. Will Xilu City agree?"

Xiao Hongchen and Gu Qiu'er across from him exchanged a glance, and Xiao Hongchen said with a slight smile, "Lan Xiu, they will definitely agree."

"Their captain is very confident, which reminds me of myself in the past."

In the audience, Huo Yuhao looked down at Xiao Hongchen with a hint of admiration in his eyes. This nemesis from another timeline had grown considerably in this one.

Compared to the other timeline, he was much less arrogant and valued knowledge more than power. Huo Yuhao had read many of the papers he wrote.

This guy is a proponent of the Ironblood spaceship faction, fully supporting propellantless propulsion and anti-gravity systems, and believing that rocket-type spacecraft are simply a waste of time and resources.

He felt that researchers who insisted on following the rocket theory should be assigned as close observers for level 9 fixed-position soul-guided projectiles.

If it were just empty talk, it wouldn't have won Huo Yuhao's appreciation. He did indeed propose many theoretical conjectures and formulas for propellantless propulsion in his paper.

The proposed model for the imaginary pulse engine was once widely cited by federal researchers, but it has now been overturned by Xuan Ziwen because it is not applicable to the high-speed space domain.

"What are you thinking about, buddy?"

"Why is Na'er so quiet today?"

Xi Lian poked Huo Yuhao's cheek with her slender fingers, her fair and tender legs swaying in the air, the bright sun draping them in a white cloak, so white it was almost dazzling.

In the past, seeing her so close to Huo Yuhao, Na'er should have been jealous and immediately followed suit, but today she was unusually silent.

Huo Yuhao smiled and said, "I've spotted a very promising young man."

"Na'er is probably thinking about something; I'll handle it."

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