The Yuhao Chronicles - Volume 1 Chapter 48

As they arrived, they saw thirty or so academy teachers and proctors, including their own teacher, Zhou Yi, standing in a line outside the assessment arena. Zhou Yi upon noticing them sent them a small encouraging smile, that Yuhao was sure none of the other teachers noticed as they didn’t react to this astonishing display of behaviour.

There were almost fifty students who had already arrived out of the one hundred and ninety-one students participating, however with registration not starting for another thirty minutes, they were all either huddled in small groups, be they comprised of their classes or their assessment teams, or alternatively sitting down cross-legged and meditating. With Wang Dong still feeling a little sore from yesterday, the two roommates decided to follow this example and also cultivate, choosing to sit down in a more isolated area rather than out in the open.

After thirty minutes had passed, one of the teachers named Du Weilun, stood up with a role and began listing off names. Hearing their own name halfway through class one’s list, they both sat up and made their way over to the gathering of their fellow class one’s students. The registration went on for another twenty minutes before they finished. At this time, according to the lots drawn by the teachers previously, the sixty-four teams involved in the knock-out tournament were divided into thirty-two areas where they would fight each other.

The rules of the knock-out tournament were very simple; there would be one match in the morning and one match in the afternoon every day, and eliminated teams would have to return to class, while victorious teams would continue to compete. After three days, the top three teams would be decided.

This time, Huo Yuhao and Wang Dong were sent to the 15th area and as such, their proctor had been changed as well. This time, the proctor in charge of them was a thirty-or-so-year-old female teacher who looked extremely good-natured. As all lots drawn by the teachers were randomised, they didn’t even know who they’d be facing. Once they arrived, however, they were somewhat speechless. Their opponents in the first match were actually a few of their classmates and by the looks on their faces, they were not happy with who they were up against.

The battle was not even worth mentioning. Within two minutes, Yuhao and Wang Dong had managed to straight-up knock out all three of their classmates. At first, they didn’t want to do so, however, the strong willpower that these students developed during their time so far in Class One worked against Yuhao and Wang Dong this time, as their opponents refused to give up until the very end. Thus, after another unsatisfied battle, the duo had successfully entered into the top thirty-two.

Four hours later, when the afternoon bell rang, the freshmen assessment’s knock-out tournament’s second round, the round of sixteen officially began. The layout of the area hadn’t changed, as this match was being held on the same day as the previous match. However, only the first 16 battlefields were used for the matches. This time around they were assigned to the eighth arena.

When they arrived, they noticed that their competitors had already arrived and were waiting on the opposite side waiting for them. For this battle, they were not up against anyone from their class which caused Yuhao to let out a happy sigh as he would rather his class excel over others.

On the spectator’s stage, which overlooked all of the sixteen arenas simultaneously, the teacher for the three girls, Mu Jin, was currently trying to provoke Zhou Yi. With Zhou Yi having taught the largest number of inner-court students before they were promoted from the outer-court, Mu Jin was always trying to find ways to show off her superiority. In this instance, it was a very dumb idea.

Barely acknowledging her colleague, she steadily riled her up before proposing a bet on who the winner would be, with a spirit bone as a reward. Even though the teachers in the outer court were aware that her students had been given special treatment to allow them to only have two in their group, they were not privy as to the detailed reason why this was allowed. If they did, Mu Jin would definitely not be acting the way she is right now.

In her overconfidence, she believed that she was being given a free spirit bone and thus, hastily accepted the bet. Hearing what just happened, Fan Yu, Zhou Yi’s husband, walked up to the two teachers with a smirk on his face as he was well aware of who Mu Jin had just bet against.

While this conversation was going on, Huo Yuhao and Wang Dong were currently studying their opponents. While all three girls were very pretty, compared to Ma Xiaotao and Wang Dong’s true form, it was like comparing a third-rate stripper to a supermodel. With both sides ready, the proctor announced, “Both parties, enter the arena and introduce yourselves.”

The five people from both teams simultaneously entered the wide arena and stood by their respective sides. Huo Yuhao stood in front, with Wang Dong just a little behind him, while the girls entered into a triangle formation, with two of them protecting the girl at the back.

The girls announced themselves, even going so far to say their spirit ranks, “Class 9, Wu Feng. I’m a Rank 25 Assault System Spirit Grandmaster.”

“Class 9, Nanmen Yun’er. I’m a Rank 24 Agility System Spirit Grandmaster.”

“Class 9, Ning Tian. I’m a Rank 31 Auxiliary System Spirit Elder.”

The final girl had a confident smile on her face as she looked on, waiting for Yuhao’s team of two to be shocked. Contrary to her team’s belief, rather than be in shock, Yuhao and Wang Dong happily smiled at this news as they shared a secret ‘low-five’ behind Yuhao’s back. They both introduced themselves, following the same format as their competitors at the proctor’s instruction.

“Class 1, Huo Yuhao. I’m a Rank 36 Control System Spirit Elder.”

“Class 1, Wang Dong. I’m a Rank 28 Assault System Spirit Grandmaster.”

Just as the three girls were expecting Yuhao and Wang Dong to react, they were shocked, with each of them taking a sharp intake of breath. They believed, with only two opponents, it would be a very easy match, however now they were slightly cautious.

Right in the next moment, the proctor loudly shouted, “Match, start!”

Following the game plan from their first battle, Wang Dong and Yuhao released their respective martial spirits before charging straight towards their opponents. Wu Feng, let out a soft cry before jumping into the air and activated her Red Dragon spirit, rapidly transforming herself into a seventeen-year-old version of herself. As she grew older, her clothes tore, exposing the skin-tight clothes she had prepared underneath.

Red scales began appearing from her head and travelled all the way down her arms at the same time as two yellow spirit rings appeared beneath her feet. Her body flickered and she appeared in the charging path of Yuhao. She swept her arm sideways in an attempt to whip at his body, only for Yuhao to mysteriously suck in her arm, capturing it in a tight hold. With his grip on her arm secure thanks to the Capturing Dragon Tang Sect technique, Yuhao swung her body around in the air, in a semi-circle and in the path of Wang Dong who kneed her in the face.

At the contact, a muffled ‘bang’ was heard, which was closely followed by another ‘thump’ as Yuhao tossed Wu Feng back towards her teammates. Even though she wasn’t knocked out, she was still very disoriented from the sudden direction changes and the blow to the head.

Seeing her teammate temporarily down, the next girl, Nanmen Yun’er made her move, using her Jasper Bluebird to materialize a pair of dark-green wings on her back. She instantly used her first yellow spirit ring, causing her arms to turn into green glowing blades before charging forwards. Yuhao in turn, used his first spirit ring, shell guardian, to create the black turtle shield in front of him.

Nanmen Yun’er was quite fast and quickly moved towards Yuhao. Just before they clashed, the distant Ning Tian extended her hand and released her spirit, the Seven Treasures Glazed Pagoda, a renowned auxiliary type spirit rated among the top auxiliary and overall spirits. She simultaneously used all three of her spirit rings, two yellow and one purple spirit ring respectively.

Following this, three dazzling rays of light shot out of her pagoda, two travelling towards Nanmen Yun’er and the last travelling towards the kneeling Wu Feng. These light rays had two visible effects, one increased Nanmen Yun’er’s speed, while the other allowed Wu Feng to quickly get back up on her feet ready to battle again. The second ray of light that Nanmen Yun’er received while still unknown, was easily guessable to be either a strength or defence attribute boost.

At last, Yuhao and Nanmen Yun’er clashed, with her green blade arms solidly hitting Yuhao’s Black Turtle shield. The impact sent out a small shockwave which Yuhao absorbed, halting his momentum. Wang Dong, on the other hand, was not affected and sprung up from behind Yuhao to continuing flying towards Wu Feng.

Yuhao began fighting Nanmen Yun’er in close combat, with him easily controlling the fight. Every time she used either of her rings, he blocked the attack with his shield which helped him to steadily exhaust her physically and spiritually. He was only using his shield skill currently to avoid dominating the fight instantly with his portal and damage resistance skills.

While Yuhao was fighting one of their opponents, Wang Dong was fighting Wu Feng once again. Both parties had top quality beast spirits and were evenly matched, with Wang Dong having a greater cultivation and battle experience while Wu Feng was being supported by Ning Tian. Despite this, Wang Dong’s one-thousand-year ring was slowly allowing himself to gain an edge.

Whenever his opponent used her first spirit ring to release dense dragon fire around her, Wang Dong simply backed up and used his greater range skill to launch a bombardment of powerful light blasts in every direction. While this was not as successful as being up close and personal when using it, these light blasts still hurt Wu Feng as they moved too fast for her to dodge completely.

After a couple more minutes, Nanmen Yun’er had finally collapsed and gave up from exhaustion, prompting Yuhao to leave her laying on the floor and head to Ning Tian. Seeing this Ning Tian had a worried look in her eyes as she tried to make her way over to Wu Feng for support. Wu Feng similarly saw this however Wang Dong continuously got in her way every time she tried to leave him to support her teammate.

When Yuhao arrived in front of her, with her only having an auxiliary type spirit, he was able to incapacitate her in little under fifteen seconds. In doing so, he broke the attribute buffs that Wu Feng was receiving, allowing Wang Dong to immediately take control over the fight. After a further thirty seconds, Wu Feng, like the rest of her team, fell to the floor exhausted.

The proctor had a wide look in his eye seeing one of the seeded teams being thrashed so quickly. Yuhao audibly cleared his throat, prompting the proctor to announce that they had won the match. On the spectator’s platform, Zhou Yi couldn’t help but grin seeing Mu Jin’s gobsmacked face as she saw her precious seeded students get smacked around again and again. She just couldn’t fathom that her team containing a rank thirty spirit master with the renowned Seven Treasured Glazed Pagoda could lose in the second round of the knockout tournament.

She looked in Zhou Yi’s direction, only to see her getting up to leave. As she got to the stairs, Zhou Yi shot her a cold look which she could only reply with a sour scowl and a nod, knowing that she now has to cough up a spirit bone. Disregarding that thought for the time being, Mu Jin jumped off the platform to go assist her students in getting to an infirmary.