Douluo Dalu: Three-Headed Dragon King

At the center of Heaven Dou City's Great Spirit Arena.

Shortly after the opening ceremony of the Soul Master Tournament concluded, the first match of the Heaven Dou division began—Blue Tyrant Academy versus Heaven Dou Royal Academy's second team.

"Both sides, salute. Non-participants, please step down from the stage."

After the participants bowed to each other, the substitute members from both teams left the stage.

For this match, Blue Tyrant Academy sent Tang San, Dai Mubai, Ma Hongjun, Xiao Wu, Jing Ling, Huang Yuan, and Jiang Zhu into battle. Ning Rongrong, Oscar, and Zhu Zhuqing returned to the stands to spectate.

"First round of the preliminary match, officially begins."

With the referee's signal, the first match of this year's All-Continent Advanced Soul Master Academy Elite Tournament officially kicked off, and a wave of thunderous cheers surged from the audience.

The Soul Master Tournament, born from the arena's battle spirit competitions, granted all participants one minute to activate their martial souls before combat officially began.

"Brothers, martial soul activate." Tang San said coldly at the referee's command. A bloodthirsty gleam flickered in his eyes, as if those from the Heaven Dou Royal Academy weren't opponents but delicacies waiting to be devoured.

When both teams released their martial souls and entered martial soul possession, a wave of astonishment rippled through the stands.

Standing at the front of Heaven Dou Royal Academy's second team were five power-attack type soul masters with beast martial souls: lion, bear, tiger, leopard, and wolf—ferocious and intimidating, their lineup exuded overwhelming strength.

By contrast, Blue Tyrant Academy had wolf, bird, rabbit, and bone—none of which looked remotely as fierce. To make matters worse, Ma Hongjun wasn't even at level 30 yet, and without a flying spirit ring, he couldn't fly. His stubby wings flapped helplessly while he scuttled along the ground. Though a speed-type soul master by classification, he moved more clumsily than a defense-type. His fiery mohawk hairstyle made him look more like a grounded chicken than a phoenix, drawing a burst of laughter from the audience.

Even though Heaven Dou's second team tried to maintain decorum, the festive atmosphere proved too much—some of them couldn't help but chuckle.

Ma Hongjun, despite his usual bravado, froze under the scrutiny of thousands. If not for some remaining sanity, he'd have fled the stage in shame.

Tang San shot a glance at the awkward Ma Hongjun and said coldly, "Mubai, Huang Yuan, go."

Realizing the gap between himself and Tang San, Dai Mubai had already dropped the "Boss Dai" act and obediently activated his boosting skills, then charged forward with Huang Yuan.

Originally just a backup in the Shrek team, Huang Yuan hadn't benefited from the Immortal Herbs, but he still wasn't much weaker than the others. Like Su Yuntao, his martial soul was the lone wolf. After transformation, his muscular frame stood nearly equal to Dai Mubai's.

A tiger and a wolf charged forward with fierce momentum.

Heaven Dou's second team didn't hold back either, charging in aggressively. With numbers on their side—five soul masters all above level 35—they aimed to quickly take down Blue Tyrant's power-attack duo and secure the win.

But five versus two was still five versus two. Despite similar spirit power levels, Dai Mubai and Huang Yuan were quickly overwhelmed.

Tang San, now addicted to absorbing life force, remained cold and commanding. He signaled his team not to intervene, and they could only watch as the two were beaten.

Thankfully, Jiang Zhu, the support-type soul master of Blue Tyrant, had already activated her healing staff. Though she couldn't match the Nine Heart Begonia, her healing bought the frontline duo precious seconds.

Moments later, just as Dai Mubai and Huang Yuan were on the brink of collapse, the Blue Silver Grass covering half the arena suddenly surged toward the Royal Academy team like a tidal wave.

Blue Silver Grass wasn't fast, but it had spread across a large area. With numbers and Tang San's Controlling Crane Catching Dragon and Purple Demon Eye, the grasses behaved almost sentiently—easily ensnaring several enemy soul masters whose skills were on cooldown.

The Royal Academy team hadn't expected to lose not just the match—but their qualification for the tournament—because of these damn vines.

"Blue Silver Bind! Blue Silver Bind! Blue Silver Bind!"

With deft control, Tang San unleashed his first soul skill repeatedly. Under the soul skill's enhancement, the vines became like worms, entangling their targets. Countless tiny barbs burrowed into their flesh.

The true horror came after. With each bind, the blackish-red Blue Silver Grass spiraled counterclockwise around its victims, tearing open flesh, slicing through muscle, wrapping deeper into their bodies.

"Soul Power Drain."

With Tang San's chilling command, the Blue Silver Grass began sucking spirit power and life force from the Heaven Dou team. Streams of vitality flowed along the vines into Tang San, who sighed contentedly and slowly closed his eyes.

Severely wounded opponents, toxins from the vines, and the Soul Power Drain masked what Tang San was really doing—no one would suspect he was feeding on their life force.

"Stop! We surrender!" The opposing team's teacher threw in a white flag and dashed onto the platform to stop the carnage.

The entire fight had lasted less than a minute. Tang San reluctantly deactivated his martial soul, revealing seven mangled bodies on the stage.

Because only Dai Mubai and Huang Yuan took hits while the rest of Blue Tyrant stood aside, it appeared to the crowd that Tang San had defeated the entire enemy team solo. The stage had become his stage, showcasing terrifying strength that both awed and disturbed the audience.

Tang San swept his cold gaze over the audience, as if telling them—this is true power.

"Referee! I object! This wasn't a match, it was slaughter! They violated the rules! I demand they be disqualified!" The Royal Academy's teacher roared in protest.

The referee, now fully alert, glared sharply at the Shrek students.

But Tang San smiled calmly. "Respected referee, let me ask—are they dead?"

The referee blinked, turned, and saw that while the seven were badly hurt, they were still breathing. Not dead.

Tang San pointed to Jiang Zhu, "Our support soul master's ability is healing. She activated her martial soul at the start of the battle—not to heal us, but to heal them. If we really wanted to kill, would we heal the enemy? Seems they don't need it anymore. Jiang Zhu, stop."

His voice, amplified by soul power, echoed throughout the arena.

To heal the enemy from the start—what greater insult could there be? But Blue Tyrant had indeed earned the right to be arrogant.

The referee looked left, then right, unsure how to proceed. At that moment, two more referees arrived. After a brief discussion, the lead referee raised his voice:

"Preliminaries, Round One, Match One—Blue Tyrant Academy wins!"

The entire match had lasted less than three minutes—a total, crushing victory.

In the front row of the VIP section, Emperor Xue Ye whispered to a large man beside him, who then hurried off toward the contestant stands.

"You must be Grandmaster Yu Xiaogang, author of the theory on Martial Soul Core Competitiveness, yes?" As Yu Xiaogang celebrated excitedly, the large man respectfully approached.

Yu Xiaogang turned around, eyeing the richly dressed, rotund man whose robe bore the swan emblem of the royal family.

"I am Yu Xiaogang, but most call me Grandmaster. What do you need?" Yu Xiaogang clasped his hands behind his back, chin slightly raised.

With Yu confirming his identity, the man grew even more respectful. "Master, that powerful soul master on stage must be your disciple. To cultivate such a student, your research on martial souls must be unparalleled!"

Yu Xiaogang tilted his chin even higher, full of pride. 'After raising Little San for so long, the world finally sees the value of my theories. At last, recognition.'

The fat noble continued, "So his martial soul evolved from Blue Silver Grass? That aligns with your new theory in 'The Eleventh Core Competitiveness of Martial Souls,' correct?"

Yu Xiaogang's eyes lit up. He hadn't expected the royal family to take notice so quickly. Dropping all pretense, he replied, "Indeed, the martial soul evolution theory is my work. Evolution depends partly on a soul master's potential and partly on the soul beasts they absorb. All of this is based on my many years of research…"

He then launched into a lengthy lecture on his theories.

It was said that the Xue royal family's ancestral martial soul was the Emerald Swan—once one of the strongest beast-type souls. But over the millennia, its bloodline had degraded into a mere swan soul.

Yu Xiaogang's newly published theory, "The Eleventh Core Competitiveness of Martial Souls," featured his disciple Tang San. But because of Grandmaster's reputation as a joke in the soul master world, Emperor Xue Ye hadn't taken it seriously—until he saw Tang San's terrifying performance.

As Yu Xiaogang lectured passionately, he failed to notice Zhao Wuji nearby.

Listening to Yu's "theories," Zhao Wuji's face twisted. 'Did Yu Xiaogang come up with this theory? Wasn't it TianMing who first proposed it? I summarized and organized it, and now Yu is claiming it's his years of research? He stole my academic work!'

The more he thought about it, the angrier he became. Zhao Wuji scratched the scar on his forehead—left by Yu TianMing—barely holding back his rage.

Zhao Wuji glanced at Flender, hesitated, then sighed heavily. Ultimately, he chose not to confront Yu Xiaogang just yet. With a dark expression, he headed for the exit.

But waiting at the door, Yu TianMing called out, "I heard what Grandmaster said just now. Isn't he stealing your research? Zhao Wuji, you're the Unmovable King! Yu Xiaogang is just a level 29 Soul Grandmaster—what are you afraid of? Are you really going to back down?"

Zhao Wuji said nothing, but immediately turned around and headed back into the arena, making his stance clear.

Ning Rongrong, still leaning on Yu TianMing's shoulder, had her own grudge against Yu Xiaogang—ever since his hellish running drills. Seeing Zhao Wuji storm back in, she couldn't resist adding fuel:

"Teacher Zhao, show your might. Don't let the Unmovable King's name be tarnished."

Zhao Wuji, already fuming, had his mind thrown into chaos. Provoked further, he instantly released his Soul Sage aura—drawing countless eyes from the audience.

(End of Chapter)

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