As for the other two Heavenly Kings of Monster Academy who did not participate in the two-against-two competition, they were both agility system soul masters. Why they did not take part, nobody knew.
If Tang Wulin were to go ask Long Yue about this, Long Yue would tell him that only the prizes of the top three were worthy. For Monster Academy, it was enough for them to secure the final three. On the other hand, the one-on-one competition was a display of individual strength. Naturally, everyone who could participate had done so.
Hua Lantang squinted slightly as he looked at Tang Wulin. His personality was calm and collected. He had seen Tang Wulin’s previous matches before this and had also discussed with Su Mu regarding the abilities of this young contestant.
He had partnered with Ye Zhi for many years now, and the two of them cooperated wonderfully with an unspoken connection. They were known as the golden combo in Monster Academy.
‘Su Mu, allow me to avenge you today.’
Ye Zhi’s attention was drawn to something else. Unlike Hua Lantang, her gaze fell on Gu Yue. Compared to their understanding of Tang Wulin, and even what they knew of the other Shrek Academy students, this young girl who stood shoulder to shoulder with Tang Wulin was almost a blank sheet of paper to them.
She had only entered the two-against-two competition, but in the previous matches, she was more of an extra. Tang Wulin seemed to have taken care of their opponents all by himself, leading them to victory.
However, Ye Zhi believed that Shrek Academy would not send anyone out recklessly, more so if that person was supposed to cooperate with Tang Wulin. From the information they had received before, Tang Wulin was the captain of this Shrek Academy fighting team. To be able to be paired with the captain, her strength must be extraordinary.
On the rostrum, Fang’er wore a long white dress as she sat at the sidelines. There were a few soul screens in front of her. She wore a soul loudspeaker on her head and stared at the screen with keen, sparkling eyes.
“Hello everyone, I’m Fang’er!” Her voice was broadcast throughout the coliseum via the soul loudspeaker.
“I think everyone is eager to see the upcoming match. Today, I’ll be providing live commentary throughout the battle. Monster Academy’s Hua Lantang and Ye Zhi against Shrek Academy’s Tang Wulin and Gu Yue.”
“Regarding Hua Lantang and Ye Zhi, I believe everyone knows their strengths well. They are both members of Monster Academy’s Eight Heavenly Kings. Hua Lantang is known as the Wolf King. His martial soul is the most powerful of the wolf-kind, the Dragonwolf. It’s a formidable breed that possesses the traits of both dragon and wolf. According to legend, the giant dragon was promiscuous by nature, and it mated with a Moon-howling Wolf. Hence, the Dragonwolf species was born. This martial soul was passed down in a single bloodline. It’s unique on the Star Luo Continent. Back in the day, Hua Lantang’s ancestor was one of the rulers of the Star Luo Continent’s aboriginal people. His inner strength is unimaginable.”
“Ye Zhi, among the Eight Heavenly Kings, is known as the Pagoda King. She possesses the legendary martial soul Seven Treasures Glazed Pagoda. As early as twenty thousand years ago, an ancient martial soul such as this was already known as the king of utility martial souls. It can greatly enhance the bearer’s comrades in battle. The two of them cooperated well in the last competition, and they managed to place second in the two-against-two category.”
“Then what about their opponents? Regarding Tang Wulin, I think we’ve already discussed him a little too much these few days. On strength alone, he is still some leagues away from the Wolf King, but we still have no idea as to what his mysterious martial soul really is. Hence, I cannot tell how this match will go based on the information that I currently have.”
“What intrigues me even more is Tang Wulin’s partner. This young lady by the name of Gu Yue has been accompanying Tang Wulin in the two-against-two competition. If we look at the previous matches, her martial soul must be Elemental Control—a fire type, considering she only used a fireball in one single match. As for her specialty, I’m very sorry, the information we have regarding her is incomplete.”
“To sum it all up, I hope that in this match, the two Monster Academy contestants can learn from the experience of contestant Su Mu before this, and not underestimate their opponents and fight for the win with all their might.”
Fang’er’s commentary could no longer be heard within the closed competition stage barrier. Currently, Tang Wulin’s eyes could only see his opponents.
After the referee gave both pairs the signal, he announced for the countdown to begin.
“Three, two, one! Begin!”
With the announcement of the start of the match, Tang Wulin and Hua Lantang rushed forward almost at the same time.
With a flash of golden light, two golden soul rings rose from beneath Tang Wulin’s feet. Meanwhile, his Domineering Golden Dragon Body was released.
As Hua Lantang dashed forth, his body was also changing. Five soul rings, four purple and one black, ascended from below him. He possessed a ten-thousand-year soul ring. His body was rapidly transforming as he ran forward. From looking like a normal human, his physique bulked up instantly. His head took on a wolf’s shape, with a protruding muzzle revealing his eerily white fangs. Strangely, he did not grow fur. Instead, clumps of purple scales emerged.
These scales were all strange oval shapes and covered his entire body. Having already grown to more than two meters in height, the scales made him even more fearsome.
A pair of sharp claws jutted out, and his speed increased tremendously all at once.
He was not only an assault system soul master, but also an agility system master. His Dragonwolf martial soul, when its speed was unleashed, could certainly rival any agility system martial soul.
From a distance, Ye Zhi and Gu Yue also advanced.
Gu Yue waved her right arm and a huge fireball with a diameter of more than a foot shot into the sky. It had turned into a parabola and shot straight toward the faraway Ye Zhi.
But Ye Zhi’s reaction took everyone by surprise. Her eyes lit up suddenly, and she flung both her hands outward. Beams of light shot out and expanded in midair. They then flew back into her body.
Those were pieces of armor that flickered with seven-colored light. After covering her body, they swiftly connected with each other, armoring her from head to toe. At the same time, a layer of seven-colored light burst forth from her body and shielded her within itself.
Battle armor! One-word battle armor!
The competition had only just started, and Ye Zhi had taken the unusual step of immediately utilizing her one-word battle armor.
The fireball struck the barrier, gave off a strong glow, then quickly shattered and disappeared. On the other hand, the seven-colored barrier only rippled slightly.
Ye Zhi stretched out her right arm and her five purple soul rings rose from under her feet. An exquisite, one-foot tall, seven-layered pagoda appeared on her palm.
The legends regarding the Seven Treasures Glazed Pagoda were spread very widely on both the Star Luo Continent and the Douluo Continent. Twenty thousand years ago, among the first generation of Shrek Academy’s Shrek Seven Monsters, not including the most famous, Sea God Tang San, and his wife, Flesh Bone Douluo Xiaowu, the martial soul of the main support system soul master on their team was the Seven Treasures Glazed Pagoda. The bearer eventually elevated the Seven Treasures Glazed Pagoda into the Nine Treasures Glazed Pagoda and finally became a god.
That was a powerful martial soul that had once produced a god! Even on the Douluo Continent, martial souls like these were already lost. Nobody had expected it to appear on the Star Luo Continent.
“The seven magical treasures, the first is called strength, the second is called speed.” On that seven-layered pagoda, two beams of flowing light shot out from the two lowest layers and instantly landed on Hua Lantang.
Everyone could only see that Hua Lantang’s body had grown again, and he was accelerating rapidly. He left behind a series of afterimages as he ran and appeared in front of Tang Wulin almost instantly. A pair of wolf claws slashed outward as fast as lightning.
The most concerning property of the Seven Treasures Glazed Pagoda was the extent of its enhancement. Using the Seven Treasures Glazed Pagoda with a single soul ring, its soul skill could enhance one attribute by as much as twenty percent. For example, Ye Zhi’s first soul ring was strength enhancement, so she could increase a person’s strength by twenty percent.
When the Seven Treasures Glazed Pagoda was raised to two rings, other than obtaining the second soul skill, the amount of enhancement of the two soul skills was, alarmingly, also raised to thirty percent. After that, with every ring added to the cultivation base, the rate of enhancement would increase by ten percent.
In other words, the enhancement which Ye Zhi, who was currently at a five-ringed base, gave Hua Lantang was sixty percent.