Chapter 118: Blazing Fire Academy Is Eliminated Early

The Continental Advanced Spirit Master Academy Elite Tournament is the grandest event in the spirit master world, co-organized by the Heaven Dou and Star Luo Empires and assisted by the Spirit Hall. It is divided into three stages: the preliminaries, the promotion round, and the finals.

The preliminaries are team-based, held in regional round-robin formats based on the academies' registered locations. All teams face off against one another, earning points for victories, with the final rankings determined by these points. The Kingdom of Sylvia is allotted two qualification spots, as are the other three kingdoms and duchies affiliated with the Heaven Dou Empire. The Heaven Dou Empire’s direct administrative zone holds five spots, bringing the total number of qualifying teams to fifteen.

Following the preliminaries is the promotion round, contested by the fifteen teams that qualified. This stage consists of individual matches. While this format is not particularly favorable to support-type spirit masters, the spirit master world has always revered raw power—which is the fundamental reason why the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile School has never been able to surpass the Clear Sky School. No teams are eliminated during the promotion round; it serves solely to rank the teams, which determines the bye-slots for the first round of the grand finals.

The grand finals utilize a knockout format. Before the final three, teams compete in team matches where a single loss results in immediate elimination. Once the top three are determined, the tournament shifts to the individual format used in the promotion round. The two teams that lose in the individual matches then compete in a team match that afternoon to decide the third-place winner. Finally, on the following day, the remaining two teams face off in a team match, with the victor crowned the champion of the Advanced Spirit Master Academy Elite Tournament.

Knowing that "to know your enemy is to know yourself," Xiao Yu had begun organizing people to gather intelligence on the various advanced spirit master academies within the Kingdom of Sylvia long before the preliminaries started. The final results led Xiao Yu to lament why the Kingdom of Sylvia consistently ranked at the bottom of the four great kingdoms of the Heaven Dou Empire: among more than a dozen participating teams, only two featured spirit ancestors, and their spirit power had only just surpassed the fortieth rank.

Xiao Yu could hardly be bothered to take such opponents seriously. After perfunctorily attending the opening ceremony, he chose to return to seclusion. As for the participants, he assigned Meng Yiran, Yang Guan, Niu Quan, and Bai Ningxin to compete, just to make an appearance so that Meng Shu, Yang Wudi, Niu Gao, and Bai He would have something to show for it.

A team match requires seven students. In addition to the four "slackers," Xiao Yu dispatched three spirit ancestors—Mi Yimei, Iao, and Xie Wu—to anchor the team. They swept through the preliminaries with ease, even crushing the team that boasted two spirit ancestors with overwhelming force.

A month later, the preliminaries concluded. The Nine Star Academy, having secured a qualification spot, set off for Heaven Dou City alongside the Night Radiance Academy—the other team with two spirit ancestors—as the promotion round was to be held at the Royal Hunting Grounds outside the city. The journey from Sylvia City to Heaven Dou City was neither long nor short, but they could not afford to miss the other teams. By hurrying, they arrived just as the Heaven Dou preliminaries were ending.

Upon their arrival at the hunting grounds, the Nine Star team was warmly welcomed by the Heaven Dou Royal Knights, who were responsible for maintaining order and security. After all, Qian Renxue’s public identity was the Crown Prince of the Heaven Dou Empire; with his word, no one dared to be negligent. Although the Kingdom of Sylvia ranked last among the four affiliated kingdoms, the Nine Star team was assigned the best accommodation within the hunting grounds, superior even to those given to the teams from the Heaven Dou zone.

Once settled, Huo Wu immediately asked Xiao Yu for leave to visit her family. Over the past two years, as those around her had broken through to the Spirit King realm one after another—and Xiao Yu had even advanced to the Spirit Emperor realm—Huo Wu had felt the pressure and practiced desperately, resulting in fewer and fewer visits home. Now that she was practically at her doorstep, she had every reason to go.

To his surprise, upon her return, the usually cheerful Huo Wu was sighing and dejected. Xiao Yu pulled the visibly unhappy Huo Wu into his arms and asked softly, "Huo Wu, why are you so down after your trip?"

Huo Wu looked at him with a hint of resentment. "Our Blazing Fire Academy only ranked sixth in the preliminaries this year and failed to qualify from the Heaven Dou zone. This is the fourth time the tournament has been held, and it’s the first time we’ve ever failed to qualify. My father, grandfather, and brother are absolutely devastated!"

"What?" Xiao Yu was shocked. In the original story, he remembered that it was the Elephant Armored Academy that failed to qualify from the Heaven Dou zone, not the Blazing Fire Academy. Reflecting on it, he realized that since he had taken Huo Wu—the control-type spirit master and arguably the strongest member of the Blazing Fire team—the team’s strength had been cut at least in half. Losing to the Elephant Armored Academy was, therefore, logical.

Seeing Huo Wu pouting so hard one could hang a soy sauce bottle from her lip, Xiao Yu couldn't help but smile. He reached out and gently tapped her nose to comfort her. "Don't sulk. Even though the Blazing Fire Academy lost, you still have me. When we win the championship together, I guarantee your grandfather and father will be so happy they won't even know what to say!"

"It's a deal, then!"