Douluo Continent: The Book of Witness and Peerless Tang Sect

Chapter 189 Unexpected Attack Strength

The Thousand Spirits Academy is renowned within the Douling Empire, ranking among the top three academies and providing a significant number of talented individuals to the empire each year.

It's easy to see from the footage Wang Yan and Zhang Lexuan filmed together that the Thousand Spirits Academy team is much stronger than the Yunluo Advanced Soul Master Academy that Shrek Academy faced in their first match of the round-robin tournament.

However, let's compare the top combat strength of the two academies. On the Yunluo Advanced Soul Master Academy side, the strongest captain, Situ Yu, is only a Soul Master, but on the other hand, the captain of Qianling Academy, Shen Ce, is a Soul King with a Soul Power level of over 53.

Since the start of the competition, each academy has played a maximum of two matches. In addition, the videos have been edited, so Shrek Academy did not spend much time understanding their opponents.

"As everyone has seen, Qianling Academy is a very strong opponent in the round-robin tournament. Although we cannot know whether Qianling Academy is still adhering to the tradition of a Soul Master Academy due to insufficient sample size, even without using Soul Guidance Devices, the strength of this team should not be underestimated based solely on their own Soul Master abilities."

I've carefully studied the recordings of these two matches. If this Thousand Spirits Academy team has any weakness, it's probably their relatively weak attack power. Their attacks basically rely on Shen Ce with his Thousand Strike Spear; the others are more support-oriented.

"If that's the case, once the team battle mode comes up in this match, can we take the decapitation route? If we eliminate Shen Ce right from the start, the fighting strength of Qianling Academy should be greatly reduced, right?"

Upon hearing Wang Yan's words, every Shrek Academy student who hadn't slacked off in the tactics classes taught by the academy professors immediately thought of the decapitation tactic.

"Yes, if you do get a team battle later, you can try the decapitation tactic. However, I noticed that the two control-type beauties from the Thousand Spirits team seem to have some feelings for their captain. If you use the decapitation tactic right from the start, you need to be careful that you might face a berserk control-type lady."

Although the Thousand Spirits team is strong, it is obvious that Shrek Academy is stronger, so Wang Yan is not worried and casually made a joke.

The other Shrek Academy students laughed off Wang Yan's joke, but Long You raised an eyebrow slightly as new images appeared in his mind.

Wang Yan's observation of the two female control-type soul masters from Qianling Academy was not accurate. The two of them were not love-struck and had no intention of competing for Captain Shen Ce's affections.

Furthermore, Shen Ce himself is a gentleman, and he had already established a romantic relationship with An Lengye, who possesses an ice-type martial soul, so there was no possibility of two women vying for his affections. The reason Wang Yan had the misunderstanding that both of them had feelings for Shen Ce was simply because the two of them were competing for the position of vice-captain.

The two of them would occasionally, either openly or subtly, compare their individual contributions to the team, whether passively or actively. Considering the team's dependence on their captain, Shen Ce, it wasn't too difficult to understand why their contributions were seen as a gesture of goodwill towards Shen Ce personally.

However, none of this matters. This small misunderstanding will not have much impact on the outcome of the battle. What really concerns Long You is that An Lengye has a soul bone.

Hmm, I really can't remember the name of the Soul Bone skill, but I do remember the form—it's a blizzard. Maybe Senior Ling Luochen can control and weaken it a bit, then let Yuhao show off?

Having made up his mind, Long You pretended to flip through the Book of Witness and began to give Shrek a hint about the questions.

Wang Yan's observation of the female control-type Soul Masters at Qianling Academy wasn't very accurate, but Bei Bei's prediction of the competition methods he would throw out later was quite accurate, so it wouldn't be wrong to arrange a little more content.

As the sun rose high in the sky, His Majesty the Emperor of the Star Luo Empire once again appeared on the city wall of the Starfall Imperial City on time. On the competition stage, the chief referee of this match also walked to the center of the stage and announced loudly through the megaphone: "Now, please have Shrek Academy and Thousand Soul Master Academy enter the waiting area. The captains of both sides, please come to the stage and prepare to draw the battle method."

Since Dai Yueheng did not plan to play at this stage, the Shrek Academy team would still draw Bei Bei for the spot, while the Thousand Spirits Academy team would, unsurprisingly, draw Shen Ce, who had a cold and hard face, a slender figure, and looked like a real javelin.

After the draw, cheers erupted as the balls rolled out of the draw bucket, and Shrek Academy was quite satisfied. Earlier, thanks to Long You's deliberate guidance, everyone had discussed team battle tactics at length, and seeing that a team battle was indeed about to take place, everyone was very pleased.

In fact, the most exciting part of the entire round-robin stage was the team battles. For the audience, team battles were the most intense and comprehensive competition, with a wide variety of soul skills and soul tool effects creating ample audio-visual effects to satisfy their viewing needs. For the academy teams, team battles, which are said to be the most demanding test of overall strength, were actually the best way to avoid their weaknesses or to make a name for themselves in one battle.

"Both teams enter the field."

Now that the format of the match had been determined, the referee did not delay any longer and allowed both teams to take the field immediately.

Stepping onto the competition stage, Shrek Academy and Thousand Spirits Academy each occupied a corner and began arranging their formations. On Shrek's side, Xu Sanshi and Bei Bei led the way, with Long You, Ling Luochen, and He Caitou standing in the back row, and Tang Ya and Huo Yuhao in the very last row.

Compared to the knockout stage, Shrek Academy's situation has changed. However, the formation of Thousand Spirits Academy is nothing to worry about. The four Spirit Shield Soul Masters lined up in a row, followed by the Ice and Fire dual controllers, plus Thousand Strike Spear captain Shen Ce, are positioned exactly the same as in the knockout stage.

Seeing the opponent's unchanging stance, everyone on Shrek's side couldn't help but smile.

"The situation is as expected. When the competition starts, Cai Tou and I will be in charge of making the opening moves, while Senior Brother Bei Bei and Senior Brother San Shi will be in charge of the assaults. As long as we can cripple Shen Ce, the pressure on us when dealing with the others will be much less."

"The match begins."

After both sides set up their formations, the referee immediately announced the start of the match. In an instant, strong fluctuations of soul power surged across the entire arena, and the light of the soul rings became the most dazzling decoration on the arena.

On the Thousand Spirits Academy side, the four Spirit Rhinoceros Shield Soul Masters standing at the forefront had their soul rings flash simultaneously, and a wide shield wall instantly appeared on the arena. Leaving aside the safety of the shield wall, its effect of blocking the line of sight was truly exceptional.

Unfortunately, someone on Shrek Academy had the ability to see the map, and they knew exactly what was happening behind the shield wall.

"rush!"

With their opponents trapped in a siege, Shrek Academy certainly wouldn't let this opportunity slip by. While Thousand Spirits Academy possesses considerable strength, its team composition, formation, and tactics all have fatal flaws. Shrek Academy will exploit this major weakness in Thousand Spirits Academy's tactical setup—its excessive conservatism and resulting loss of initiative.

Shrek Academy wasn't entirely sure why Thousand Spirits Academy had adopted such a clearly defensive and counter-attacking formation, but since their opponents had so easily given up the first-strike opportunity, Shrek Academy would certainly not be polite.

Within the space where the spirit rings were released, each student on the Shrek Academy side had a lit cigar in their mouth. After the Thousand Spirits Academy's shield wall was released, an anti-gravity spirit-guided skateboard appeared beneath the feet of each student on the Shrek Academy side.

The shield wall was completed in the next moment, while the seven people from Shrek Academy rushed forward rapidly under the dual effects of the anti-gravity soul-guided skateboard and the propulsion soul-guided device.

In a single second, the seven members of Shrek Academy crossed the halfway point. Upon reaching the halfway point, Long You and He Caitou took a second to scatter to the sides and land. The rest continued to charge forward, but their formation changed, splitting into two halves with a very noticeable gap in the middle.

In another second, He Caitou and Long You, who had landed, were reunited. No, it should be said that the soul-guided turret formed around He Caitou and Long You had reunited. Actually, describing their current state as a turret is no longer accurate; a more accurate description would be a war fortress.

As they completed the transformation of the soul-guided cannons, the more than one hundred cannons on Long You and He Caitou's bodies began to condense soul power light, clearly indicating that these cannons were already in an activated state.

At this moment, the remaining five members of Shrek Academy were about to rush to the shield wall set up by Thousand Spirits Academy. Without any communication between the two groups, the five Shrek Academy members who rushed to the shield wall adjusted the flight angle of their anti-gravity soul-guided skateboards and began to climb. Meanwhile, Long You and He Caitou, who were at the rear, grinned and fully activated the soul-guided turrets that were ready to go.

"Buzz—Boom—"

The violent airflow caused ripples to form around the soul-guided shields that surrounded the arena, and the Spirit Shield Wall, which blocked the path of the turret's attack, naturally fared poorly.

What exactly happened was unclear to Long You because the mental detection sharing had been briefly interrupted just now. All Long You knew was that after the soul power light from the soul-guided turret dissipated, there was no sign of the shield wall in front of them. All they saw was the shockwave generated by the attack, with Shen Ce firmly pressed against the soul-guided shield surrounding the arena.

[This is too violent, far too violent. This is the first time I've realized that fluctuations in physical attack power can actually affect my shared mental detection soul skill.]

Because they had never tried launching an attack together (simultaneously and with the same force) before, Long You and He Caitou were somewhat bewildered. They were awakened by the reactivation of their shared mental detection in their minds and also heard Huo Yuhao's mutterings.

"Stop muttering. Shen Ce does have some good stuff on him. The attack was a bit scattered earlier. Let's finish him off quickly. What about the others?"

Because the attack was so ferocious, even with the amplification of their soul power, Long You and He Caitou were now in a period of depleted soul power. The immobile War Fortress head restricted their field of vision, and coupled with the inability to activate their detection soul tools, Long You felt somewhat uneasy.

[Don't worry, there's not much left. Besides Shen Ce, the rest of the Thousand Spirits Academy students are below the arena. Your attacks were too intense; the referee intervened.]

"Uh?"

Following Huo Yuhao's guidance through his shared spiritual detection skill, Long You shifted his attention to the area below the arena, and sure enough, the remaining six members of Thousand Spirits Academy were all down there!

The two Ice and Fire Control users were alright; although their faces were a bit pale, they didn't have any obvious external injuries. However, the four members of the Spirit Shield were in much worse condition. These four were practically blood gourds; even with healing-type Soul Masters casting healing Soul Skills, small spurts of blood were still oozing from their bodies from time to time.

"Um, does anyone know what happened? When Senior Brother Cai Tou and I launched our attack together, the intensity of the attack seemed to exceed our expectations, so we're not entirely sure what happened."

Looking at the four members of Lingxi Shield below the competition stage, who were clearly seriously injured, Long You frowned. This was just a competition; he had no intention of hurting them so badly.

Once it was confirmed that only Shen Ce remained on the entire arena, and that Bei Bei and Xu Sanshi had already surrounded him, Long You and He Caitou took the opportunity to deactivate their Soul Guidance Cannon mode and began to learn about the previous situation from Huo Yuhao, who was descending from the sky.

In truth, both Long You and He Caitou had guesses about the attack's intensity, which far exceeded their expectations. However, neither of them could be certain, or rather, dared to believe their own guesses; they needed another observer to confirm their suspicions.

"Uh, that..."

However, reality disappointed Long You and his companion. The attack was too intense, affecting even Huo Yuhao's shared mental detection. The other five members of Shrek Academy, though not significantly affected because they had already ascended into the air and, at Huo Yuhao's prompting, had suddenly increased their altitude, genuinely failed to see what had happened.

"Don't worry, Teacher Wang Yan has a recording. You'll understand once you're offstage. Don't forget to explain to us that while we've seen your soul-guided cannons before, we've never seen such power before."

Ling Luochen noticed the disappointment that flashed across Long You's eyes. This usually aloof senior student spoke at length.