Douluo Continent: Long Live the Spirit Hall

Yan paused slightly before continuing, "You can learn about the new rules for the finals from the deacons of the Spirit Hall, or you are welcome to come to me in person to learn more."

Furthermore, to help you better and more quickly understand and master the new rules, the Spirit Hall will be providing you with intensive training over the next few days. I will be your instructor. I look forward to seeing you all again. Goodbye.”

After saying these words, Yan nodded to Emperor Xueye, then smiled and greeted the students of the academy before stepping back from the podium.

After Yan left the podium, Prince Xuexing and Ning Fengzhi, among others, went on stage to give encouraging speeches to the students. Finally, the emcee brought the event to a close, and the Tian Dou Division of the Elite Competition came to an end.

"Your Majesty, and His Highness the Crown Prince, goodbye."

After the awards ceremony at the Great Soul Arena ended, Yan bid farewell to Emperor Xue Ye and his son Xue Qinghe. After he left, the father and son walked and talked slowly in a corridor of the Great Soul Arena.

"Father, why did you stop me just now?"

Xue Qinghe was in his early twenties, a time of youthful vigor and ambition. Moreover, having always been valued and nurtured by Emperor Xue Ye, his inner 'spirit' had already been cultivated. Being stopped just now naturally made him feel extremely frustrated.

Emperor Xueye replied calmly, "What were you about to say? Was it that important that you needed to interrupt the Holy Son of the Spirit Hall?"

“Father, that Holy Son of the Spirit Hall is obviously trying to win people’s hearts. What’s with the promise of helping people obtain their fifth spirit ring? It’s just a way to win over the spirit masters of the empire.”

Xue Qinghe said, somewhat indignantly, "The Spirit Hall already has such a great influence in the Soul Master world. We must stop this. The Spirit Hall is just a mere force. How can it compare to the Empire in terms of intelligence on these Soul Beasts?"

He can make a promise, and so can we. It's just a fifth spirit ring; what's so difficult about that?

Emperor Xueye stopped in his tracks, sighed, and said in a deep voice, "So you're just going to say something like this on the spot, make similar promises, and take on such a costly matter? This isn't winning people over; it's just showing off."

While some of the Soul Masters at the Soul Master Academy are talented, not all of them have the resources for us to court them like this. "Spending a fortune to buy a horse's bones" isn't used this way. Besides, sometimes, the second person to suggest something is just following the trend, and the effect is far less than the first.

After hearing this, Xue Qinghe calmed down a little, and then asked, "Then, are we just going to ignore this matter?"

Chapter 194 Beauty Team

Outside the Sunset Forest outside Tiandou City, in a valley that is usually deserted, things are bustling with activity today.

The Five Elements Team and the Heaven Dou Royal Academy Team, these six students who were preparing to go to Wuhun City to participate in the finals, received a notice from the Wuhun Hall that a practice match would be held in this canyon to familiarize them with the new rules of the finals.

This canyon, located outside the Sunset Forest, is a wide-open area that was originally inhabited by some low-level spirit beasts. However, after the arrival of the Spirit Hall's experts, even the birds no longer left this place.

Today, outside this canyon, not only have people from the Spirit Hall and the six teams selected for the finals arrived, but also the royal family. Emperor Xue Ye, Prince Xue Xing, and Crown Prince Xue Qinghe have all come, indicating that they take this matter quite seriously.

"Your Highness, I wonder how you plan to guide these students?"

Yan was naturally accompanied by extraordinary people, but this time it was not Emperor Xue Ye, but Crown Prince Xue Qinghe. At this moment, this guy was looking at Yan with a smile, seemingly only concerned about the Elite Competition.

"It's just a small special training session. Your Highness, please continue to accompany His Majesty and do your best."

Yan responded with a calm smile, then his gaze fell on the six teams in front of him. The Heaven Dou Royal Team looked to have a similar configuration to the Spirit Hall Team, with a balanced teamwork approach.

The Blue Lightning Tyrannosaurus Rex launched a powerful attack, supported by the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Pagoda. The remaining Soul Masters were no pushovers either; the entire lineup of Soul Masters looked no weaker than the main force of the Spirit Hall team. Meanwhile, the five Extreme Style teams of the Five Elements Team each possessed their own unique characteristics.

Elephant Armor Academy is the only one among the five elemental academies whose name does not reflect the element it represents. They are all dressed in black, and all are tall and strong. The shortest one is over two meters tall, and the tallest one is even over two and a half meters tall.

These students' martial souls are mostly earth-attribute spirit beasts, probably a special secret technique of the academy. They are all incredibly heavy, with the lightest weighing over 300 jin (150 kg) and the tallest probably weighing at least 500 jin (250 kg).

Clumsy and heavy—that's the first impression the students of Elephant Armor Academy give. But if you underestimate them because of this, you might be the one who suffers.

Behind Elephant Armor Academy is Elephant Armor Sect, one of the seven major sects. Elephant Armor Sect is known for its defense. The Diamond Mammoth is known as the number one defensive martial soul in the world. The sect leader, Hu Yanzhen, is a veteran Soul Douluo who is not afraid to face ordinary Title Douluo head-on.

Aside from Elephant Armor Academy, which is entirely male, the three academies of Divine Wind, Blazing Fire, and Thunder each wear clothing of corresponding colors. The members are both male and female, but mostly male, and their clothing is quite distinctive, representing their respective elements.

The team members from Tianshui Academy were all beauties. Their outfits were more like team skirts than team uniforms; the long blue skirts were extremely exquisite and beautiful, making these lovely women even more stunning.

Each of the five elemental academies has its own specific requirements for admission. For example, the Elephant Armor Academy requires its members to weigh over 300 jin (approximately 150 kg) first, and secondly, their martial spirit must be of the earth attribute.

This is why Elephant Armor Academy is all male. There are female soul masters with earth-attribute martial souls, but it is really rare for a female soul master to have both an earth-attribute martial soul and a weight of over 300 pounds.

The Elephant Armor Sect has no female Soul Masters because of its special weight requirements, while the other four elemental academies do not have such requirements. Therefore, the team members of the Divine Wind, Blazing Fire, and Thunder academies are basically both male and female. As for Tianshui, it is a different story.

Among the five elemental academies, Tianshui Academy has the most stringent application requirements. Besides requiring a water-attribute martial soul, they have several additional requirements. First, Tianshui Academy only accepts female students. Second, only beautiful women are accepted.

These two conditions are even more stringent than the 300-pound weight requirement of Elephant Armor Academy. While Elephant Armor Academy may occasionally have female students, Tianshui Academy truly has no males; even the mosquitoes are female.

However, compared to the other four advanced academies, they also have a humane side. Tianshui Academy is the only one of the five elemental academies that is open to commoners and can be applied for without a noble recommendation letter.

Even the Spirit Hall can't compare to this. For ordinary people to apply to the Spirit Hall's advanced academy, they must sign an agreement with the Spirit Hall and become its members after graduation.

This condition is actually not too harsh, and it is considered good compared to some other aristocratic academies. Some advanced academies that require aristocratic recommendation letters for admission mean that commoner students are practically signing indentured servitude agreements.

These conditions were agreed upon after negotiations between the Spirit Hall and those major powers. Originally, according to the ideas of those great spirit master families and nobles, commoners should not have the qualifications to attend advanced academies.

Therefore, academies like the Spirit Hall and Tianshui Academy can be considered beacons of hope for ordinary people in this era. As for Shrek Academy, forget it, it's just a lousy academy. It may teach some things, but without connections, post-graduation development is entirely up to chance.

Just look at Shrek Academy in the original novel. Of the 62 students admitted, 14 graduated, and only Qin Ming was willing to come back. All the remaining students who were admitted but did not graduate died, resulting in a mortality rate of over 70%. Is this what an academy is supposed to be?

It should be noted that the students admitted to Shrek Academy are basically all second-ring Soul Masters under the age of twelve, and most of them come from commoner backgrounds. These are true geniuses among commoners, and even if they cannot graduate from Shrek Academy, they will not be unknown in the future.

But because they entered Shrek Academy, more than half of them died. Not to mention those who died while trying to break through cultivation barriers, those who died while hunting soul beasts to obtain soul rings are simply a joke. A group of Soul Emperor teachers helping them hunt soul beasts and still so many died is terrifying to think about.

……

In the canyon outside Sunset Forest outside Tiandou City, Yan walked up to the group of students from the six academy teams after talking with Xue Qinghe for a while, his gaze sweeping over them one by one.

"Everyone, I'm going to hold a training match and I'll be coaching one of your teams. Anyone want to volunteer?"

Yan spoke in a relaxed tone, which made the group in front of him relax a little. Although Yan was a generation younger than most of them, no one, including their respective captains, dared to underestimate this Holy Son of the Spirit Hall.

"Feng Xiaotian, your cultivation level is so low. Is it because your self-created soul skill has slowed down your cultivation speed?"

Yan's gaze was particularly focused on one of the candidates for the Shenfeng Academy team. With a soul power of level 35, he could only be considered at the bottom among all the academy candidates, but Yan knew that this person's innate talent was definitely the best among everyone present.

Feng Xiaotian, the captain of the Shenfeng Academy team five years later, possesses the mutated martial soul Gale Two-Headed Wolf and innate full soul power. Such innate talent is truly somewhat mismatched with his current cultivation level.

However, Yan knew that Feng Xiaotian was simply influenced by other things and had not yet discovered his true potential.

During this period, he should still be trying to create his own unique soul skill. Once he completes this feat, it will be like establishing a new school of thought, and his future path will be clear, with limitless potential.

This can be seen from his subsequent progress in cultivation. At the age of nineteen, he was at level thirty-five, which was barely considered a genius among his peers. But five years later, at the age of twenty-four, he reached level forty-four and became the strongest member of the Divine Wind Academy team.

At twenty-four years old, Feng Xiaotian was at level forty-four. He could only be considered a genius among his peers. Compared to Soul Masters under twenty years old like Huo Wu and Shui Bing'er, his performance was still quite lacking.

But if we push the timeline forward another five or six years, after the Tian Dou Palace Incident in the original story, Feng Xiaotian and Huo Wu join forces to fight against Tang San.

Five years have passed. Tang San broke through to Soul Emperor by sacrificing Xiao Wu, while Huo Wu reached level 54 Soul King through normal cultivation.

As for Feng Xiaotian, at the age of twenty-four, he was at a similar level to Huo Wu. However, five years later, his cultivation caught up with the Golden Generation and the overpowered Tang San, reaching level sixty-one soul power. He was promoted to vice dean of Shenfeng Academy, making him a legendary figure.

Yan's gaze lingered on Feng Xiaotian for a moment, then he deliberately walked through the crowd to the Shenfeng Academy team and asked, "You are Feng Xiaotian."

"Feng Xiaotian greets the Holy Son."

Feng Xiaotian was a handsome young man with a tall and strong build. He seemed flattered when he saw Yan approaching and bowed respectfully.

Yan's gaze swept over the young man before him, and he smiled faintly, "I remember the Spirit Hall extended an invitation to you a few years ago, why did you refuse?"

Feng Xiaotian replied neither humbly nor arrogantly, "At that time, Feng Xiaotian had already been accepted as a disciple by the Dean, so I could only decline the Spirit Hall's offer."

A look of realization crossed Yan's face. "Is that so? This is the first time I've been rejected when I invited someone. Interesting. I'd like to see you tomorrow. Do you have time?"

"Back then, it was the Holy Son."

A hint of surprise flashed across Feng Xiaotian's face, but he quickly regained his composure and said to Yan with a slightly respectful tone, "It is Feng Xiaotian's honor."

“Great, I look forward to seeing you tomorrow.”

Yan nodded with a smile, then his gaze fell on the group of beautiful girls from Tianshui Academy. Tianshui Academy's team was not very strong among the five elements, not at the bottom, but not in the top three either, similar to Elephant Armor Academy.

The main problem is that these two academies are the extremes of the extreme styles. One has weight requirements, and the other restricts women to it, making their weaknesses more obvious. Elephant Armor Academy doesn't have any strong agility attackers at all, while Tianshui's strong attacks are also quite average.

This year's Tianshui Academy has three Soul Masters. The captain, Shui Qingluan, and the vice-captain, Shui Lingchen, are twin siblings with completely different martial souls, though they are somewhat related. One is an ice sprite and the other is a water sprite, both pure elemental martial souls, which are very rare.

The remaining Soul Sect beauty is named Xue Yuan, and her Martial Soul is her name—an ice-attribute spirit bird. As for the other four main female members, they didn't attract much attention from the Holy Son, mainly because their cultivation levels were too low, making them somewhat inconspicuous in this setting.

If it were a different setting, like a disco, and if he remembers correctly that Tianshui Academy members also perform dances in addition to their team, then the Holy Son's memory is always excellent, and he wouldn't be unable to recall the names afterward.

"Tianshui Academy and I will have a practice match, is that alright?"

Because Yan interrupted and asked Feng Xiaotian, the teams from the six academies didn't reach a conclusion during their discussion. So Yan directly designated a particular academy, as he had already planned to do so.

Why choose Tianshui Academy? Is there even a need to ask this question? On one side is a team of rough-and-tumble men, and on the other side are all female students, and all of them are beautiful. This is written into the entry standards of Tianshui Academy, and there is a beauty certification.

Most contestants would find these beautiful female students overwhelming and unable to handle them, but for Yan, it's no big deal. This isn't a freebie.

When guiding combat, it's inevitable to exchange blows; minor bumps and scuffles are quite normal. No one can accuse someone of taking advantage of another.

Moreover, Yan was confident in his looks. After he chose his team, all the girls from Tianshui Academy showed a shy demeanor, clearly captivated by his charm.

"Big sister, look, look! His Highness the Holy Son chose us for the practice match. He's so handsome! Although those annoying guys from Blazing Academy are also fire-attribute, they're worlds apart from His Highness the Holy Son. He seems so manly!"

"Exactly, exactly. Although they all have red hair and red eyes, these colors are clearly not something that ordinary people can handle. Those people from Blazing Fire Academy look like turkeys, while His Highness the Holy Son is like a fire god. Ah, my heart is melting."

"His Highness is really too stylish. I saw him talking to Emperor Xueye and Sect Master Ning on the VIP stage before, and he was not at a disadvantage. Not to mention his peers, even our teachers' generation can't compare to him."

The academy students of the Tianshui team were all flushed and whispering among themselves, whether they were from the official teams or not.

"But don't you guys think that the way His Highness looked at Feng Xiaotian just now made me suspect there's something between them, like they're a couple. And judging from their conversation, His Highness personally invited Feng Xiaotian to the Spirit Hall, isn't that unprecedented..."

"Shut up! Xiao Liu, that's enough. Don't tarnish our male god."

"Exactly, exactly. My idol is just admiring that guy surnamed Feng. He definitely likes girls."

"If you keep talking like that, don't blame us for joining forces to punish you."

The dissenting voices were immediately resisted by the other girls. Girls who like to form couples are not the mainstream at present; most of them fantasize about being the princess pursued by their prince charming.

Chapter 195 Two People Defeated First

What is this?

In the outer canyon of Sunset Forest, a group of beautiful women from the Tianshui team, who were preparing, watched with great curiosity as the experts from the Spirit Hall were adjusting a strange device.

"This is a mirror image, a soul tool successfully replicated by the Spirit Hall. Through the mirror image stones scattered throughout the venue, it can transmit some on-site projected images in real time."

As Yan spoke, he slightly adjusted the power, and soon after, an image went from blurry to clear, finally appearing clearly on the screen. The images on the screen flickered, showing various scenes within the canyon.

As Yan spoke, she took out another object that resembled a jade pendant. "This is the Mirror Stone. If you carry it with you, it will record and transmit the scenes around you. This way, if there is any danger or problem, the powerful figures on the outside can react immediately."

"That's really interesting. Look, I'm up there now."

"It's so clear, it's so interesting to watch."

"This thing is like a mirror, no wonder it's called a mirror image."

The girls from the Tianshui team were quite curious, taking the mirror stones and putting them on each other. The images on the mirror soul tools kept flashing, sometimes showing smiling faces, sometimes showing playful fights, and the youthful laughter made people's hearts itch.

Yan looked at the beauties, clapped his hands with a smile, and said, "Alright, ladies, get ready, it's about to begin. Next, a senior from the Spirit Hall will deliver a token into the canyon, and you and I will enter from two different directions."