Soul Land IV (Douluo Dalu) : Ultimate Fighting-Novel

Chapter 458 – Dares To Think And Act

TL : GoldenLung

Lan Xuanyu said, “What we can be sure of now is that our third-year opponent should be senior Tang Yuge, whom we’ve faced before. I’ve also asked around and found out that mechas are not allowed in this tournament, but Teacher Xiao said that Battle Armors are allowed. This means that our opponents, starting from the second years, are at least One-Word Battle Armor Masters. For the fifth or sixth years, they might even be Two-Word Battle Armor Masters.”

“Which student in our class is more familiar with the seniors and wants to lead this investigation?” Lan Xuanyu looked at his classmates.

“I’ll do it!”

“Let me do it!”

Two students raised their hands at the same time. One was Yuanen Huihui and the other was Ding Zhuohan.

Lan Xuanyu looked at the two of them and didn’t ask too much. “Both of you can go together. The date of the match hasn’t been decided yet. I will keep an eye on this, and both of you must bring back the information as soon as possible. You must investigate at least two to three people from each year. Next, I will come up with a plan to send out different students to fight against different opponents. Any soul master isn’t omnipotent and has their own flaws. We will target their flaws and use our advantage in numbers to secure a win. We will definitely be able to defeat the enemy.”

For the entire afternoon, Lan Xuanyu and his classmates were planning for this match and no one left. Even the students who knew that they wouldn’t be able to go on stage were excited because this match wasn’t about a single person or a small team, but the entire first years.

***

The Outer Court Dean’s office.

“These little guys really dare to dream!” Ying Luohong looked at the name list in her hand and didn’t know whether to laugh or cry.

Xiao Qi laughed. “This is a good thing. I’m liking Xuanyu more and more now. He’s daring and can act, smart, and hardworking. He’s definitely a rare seedling. If not for his low soul power, I think he would definitely leave behind a strong mark in Shrek Academy’s future.”

“I will report this matter to the Sea God Pavilion,” Yin Luohong said. “I personally support them. Putting everything else aside, these children having such courage and being so united is worth encouraging.”

Xiao Qi laughed. “I think so too. To be able to lead such a class, I already feel blessed.”

Ying Luohong said, “Don’t be too happy too soon. This is just the beginning. Graduating from the second-year is a watershed for the Outer Court. The quality of a One-Word Battle Armor will widen the gap between students. The end of the fourth-year is another watershed. At that time, we will be able to see which students will be able to get into the Inner Court or have a chance to get into. You still have a lot of work to do.”

Xiao Qi said, “Don’t worry, I will work hard to take care of them. Since the students are working so hard, I will definitely not slack off as a teacher.”

Ying Luohong said, “Actually, what you should be thinking about right now is how to console them after they fail and let them maintain that urge to move forward.”

“Why should we consider failure?” Xiao Qi looked at Ying Luohong. “Even if I don’t think that they will be able to reach the end, as their main teacher, I will only consider victory. I believe in my students. No matter how far they can go, they will fight with all their passion. Furthermore, the meaning of a miracle is to turn the impossible into possible, isn’t that so?”

“Very good.” Ying Luohong laughed. “Then I’ll wait and see them create a miracle.”

“Thank you for your support, Dean.”

After watching Xiao Qi leave, Ying Luohong shook her head helplessly. She then looked at the name list in her hand and a figure suddenly appeared in her mind.

“The sixth year... a record sixth year. Haha, I didn’t expect another batch of interesting first years.”

***

The time for the match was announced the next day. Firstly, it was the internal preliminaries. They were arranged by the various classes and could be done through actual combat or in the virtual Douluo World. In order to deal with the year-skipping challenges later, most classes chose to do virtual battles.

At this time, the academy’s rule was that they had to complete the qualifiers for each class within a week. Then, the year-skipping challenge would begin with the first-years. As it was a real battle, after every battle, they would rest for a day. The victor could choose to continue, and each grade would have to challenge someone of a higher rank at least once. The prerequisite was that they were not defeated.

The internal preliminaries of the other years had already begun, but the first years were calm, at least on the surface.

In the blink of an eye, a week had passed. The various years had finished competing, and the years-skipping challenge would officially begin.

Shrek Academy’s Exchange Center had been quite lively recently, especially for items regarding the persons who might participate in the tournament.

The participants in the exchange were mostly candidates from the various Outer Court years who could participate in the year-skipping challenge.

There were also some Heaven and Earth treasures that could temporarily increase one’s battle power. As soul devices were not allowed, they were not very popular at the moment.

Shrek City’s Gambling Center had even opened up a betting pool for this competition. As it was an internal event within the academy and not open to the public, its scale was not considered big. Furthermore, it was only open within the academy and targeted the teachers and students.

There were a few benefits to doing so. Firstly, they could earn the students’ Shrek emblems. They would only accept the emblems. Secondly, they could use the odds to let everyone have a better judgment.

There were individual bets for every year-skipping challenge, as well as for winning streaks.

The Outer Court became lively once again. The students who were usually cultivating were all focused on the year-skipping challenge this time. There were only five matches in total, but they were undoubtedly peak matches for the Outer Court students. It was quite interesting, especially since there was a disparity in numbers between the different years. It was considered relatively fair.

At this very moment, nobody knew that Lan Xuanyu was sweating profusely in the Blacksmith’s Association and there were a few people standing in his forging room.

This included the senior who had led Lan Xuanyu into the world of forging, Yang Yingming. Other than him, there were three others.

These three people were all dressed in red school uniforms and were obviously Inner Court students. And these three people had even more important identities in Shrek Academy—they were the president and vice president of Shrek Blacksmith’s Association.

All the presidents of the various associations in the academy were held by students.

The three people in front of him were naturally the same, and they were all Inner Court disciples. The one in the lead looked to be around 26 or 27 years old. He had an unsophisticated appearance and wasn’t tall; everything looked ordinary. However, his arms were slightly longer than an ordinary person’s, and his palms were slightly bigger and were extremely thick.

The other three people, including Yang Yingming, stood behind him.

At this moment, Lan Xuanyu was focused on forging the metal in front of him. It was a piece of mithril. Among the rare metals, it was one of the most valuable. It was also brought back by Lan Xuanyu’s team during the last semester’s final exam.

His body spun and he dropped the hammer. Everything seemed simple and neat. Every rumble was stable and sustained. More importantly, he was focused.

At this moment, Lan Xuanyu seemed to have merged into one with his forging hammers. The rumbling sounds echoed in the forging room. If it was an ordinary person, they would have been annoyed by the deafening noise. But to the few blacksmiths, they were used to it.

Yang Yingming counted in his heart, 34, 35, 36, 37 strikes. 38, 39, 40, 41...

Just as he was counting, there was a low rumble and a silver light suddenly shot into the sky. Lan Xuanyu spun on the spot and retracted his forging hammer.