Douluo Continent: Martial Soul Thunder Dragon, A Century of Glory

Chapter 86 The Prestige of the Spirit Hall

The auction in Tiandou City was merely a minor episode before the start of the Continental Advanced Soul Master Academy Elite Tournament.

As time passed, the grand ceremony of the Continental Advanced Soul Master Academy Elite Soul Master Competition finally arrived. This grand event in the soul master world, jointly hosted by the royal families of the Heaven Dou Empire and the Star Luo Empire, with the assistance of the Spirit Hall, was not only grand in scale, but also brought together the most outstanding young soul master talents from across the continent.

Although the Spirit Hall is nominally only assisting in the organization, its growing power has made it practically the organizer of the tournament. The fact that the final stages of the competition are held in Spirit City further underscores the Spirit Hall's status in the world of spirit masters.

Students from participating academies must be under 25 years old, and each competition must have at least seven participants. This not only tests the academy's teaching staff and the overall strength of its students, but also ensures the diversity and entertainment value of the competition.

Meanwhile, the competition emphasizes friendly sparring, avoiding injury to opponents as much as possible. This not only reflects the martial arts spirit of the Soul Master community but also demonstrates the tournament's humanistic care. In the fierce competition, Soul Masters must not only showcase their strength and skills but also learn to respect their opponents and cherish every opportunity for exchange and practice.

The competition rules are strict and fair, ensuring a certain degree of fairness and complete security.

The fundamental purpose of the Elite Soul Master Competition, jointly organized by the two great empires and the Spirit Hall, is not to determine a winner, but to discover and select outstanding soul master talents through this platform. These talents are not only the pride of each academy, but also the future and hope of the soul master world. Therefore, protecting their growth and development is the primary task of holding the competition.

Cultivating a Soul Master is indeed no easy task. It requires not only a significant investment of time and energy but also exceptional talent and opportunity. Given the limited number of Soul Masters across the continent, each one is a precious resource. Therefore, the rule prohibiting the killing of opponents is, in effect, a form of protection for Soul Masters, preventing them from suffering unnecessary harm during matches.

In addition to prohibiting death and strict rules, the competition has also established a number of standardized rules.

For example, the use of medicines or food made by non-food and non-healing Soul Masters is prohibited. This rule prevents teams from gaining an advantage through unfair means. At the same time, it also emphasizes the important role of food and healing Soul Masters in the competition; they must occupy one spot on the field to provide necessary supplies and support.

During the competition, Soul Masters need to fully utilize their individual strength and wisdom, while also learning to cooperate with teammates to overcome challenges together. This experience not only hones their individual abilities but also cultivates their teamwork spirit and competitive awareness.

The rule prohibiting the use of any weapons other than those of a Martial Soul is based on the premise that battles between Soul Masters are a contest of Martial Souls and Soul Power. Using weapons other than those of a Martial Soul would undoubtedly disrupt this balance and render the competition meaningless. Therefore, this rule has gained widespread recognition and support.

Although there are quite a few advanced soul master academies in the two great empires, each academy has one quota for the competition.

Furthermore, the official advanced soul master academies of both empires occupied two slots, demonstrating both respect for the imperial families of the two empires and recognition of the strength of these two academies. The rule that the home team directly advances to the finals further highlights the imperial family's emphasis on and expectations for these two academies.

However, the arrangement of the vice-team is somewhat intriguing. Although they also occupy a share of the competition, they seem more like a decorative element set up to give face to the elites. Compared to the main team, the vice-team is often significantly weaker, and they participate more in the preliminaries to add some excitement and interest to the official matches.

The preliminary rounds are held in separate zones to make it easier to organize and conduct the competition.

In the Heaven Dou Empire, with Heaven Dou City as the center, all advanced Soul Master academies not belonging to other kingdoms or duchies will hold preliminary rounds in their respective districts within Heaven Dou City. This arrangement saves both time and resources, and also facilitates participation from various academies and viewing for spectators.

The advanced Soul Master academies of each kingdom and duchy compete in preliminary rounds according to their respective national boundaries. This arrangement not only reflects the distinction between nations but also ensures that each nation has the opportunity to showcase the strength of its Soul Masters. The Heaven Dou Empire has four kingdoms and one duchy, plus the Heaven Dou City division, making a total of six preliminary round divisions.

Each division has a certain number of qualifying spots, ensuring that outstanding Soul Master teams from each region have the opportunity to enter the next stage of the competition.

The Heaven Dou City division has a relatively large number of qualifying slots due to its numerous advanced Soul Master academies and its direct imperial control. This is primarily to highlight the status of the Heaven Dou royal family.

Through the preliminary rounds, thirty Soul Master teams will ultimately advance to the finals. Before that, a qualifying round awaits them. The purpose of the qualifying round is to hold a ranking competition among the teams that have already entered the finals to determine their order of appearance in the finals.

The qualifying rounds and the promotion rounds have different formats. The qualifying rounds are team battles using a single round-robin format, with the team with the highest winning points from each qualifying region advancing to the promotion rounds. This format tests the overall strength and teamwork of the teams while ensuring fairness and impartiality. The promotion rounds, on the other hand, will be conducted in a special way, which undoubtedly adds a touch of mystery and anticipation to the competition.

Although each team still sends seven students from their respective academies, the competition is now a one-on-one duel. The winning team's Soul Master remains on the field, while the losing team continues to send Soul Masters to the field, until one team's entire field of students is defeated.

Therefore, the qualifiers can be considered the best way to showcase team strength, while the knockout stage is a stage for individual performance.

The purpose of the qualifying rounds is to allow the higher-ups of the two empires and the Spirit Hall to better identify and recruit exceptionally talented young spirit masters from among the participants.

The finals of the Advanced Soul Master Academy Elite Tournament will feature 33 teams, who will be drawn into a brutal elimination round.

This extra team is the Spirit Academy team, and like the main teams of the two official advanced spirit master academies, they will directly participate in the final competition. And this is the prestige of the Spirit Hall.

The Spirit Hall's team can be considered the most competitive. Although the Spirit Hall is not an advanced spirit master academy, it does have its own dedicated educational institution for training spirit masters, the Spirit Advanced Academy.

(End of this chapter)