Chapter 100: "Children, I am a Ranged Mage, Come and Fight Me in Melee"
In the end, everyone agreed to Lin Xuan's plan; after all, such a plan sounded truly difficult to refuse.
The meeting ended, and the group gradually dispersed.
As Lin Xuan stood up, he caught sight of Ning Tian out of the corner of his eye. She had stood up at the same time, her gaze seemingly lingering on him.
The two walked out of the meeting room one after the other. The soft lighting of the corridor spilled onto the dark red carpet, stretching their shadows long.
"Want to go eat together?" Ning Tian turned her head and asked softly.
"Mm."
Lin Xuan nodded and slowed his pace to walk side-by-side with her.
The corridor was quiet, with only the sound of their footsteps echoing softly. Ning Tian lowered her eyes, her fingertips unconsciously fiddling with her cuffs, several times appearing as if she wanted to say something but held back.
Lin Xuan didn't speak, simply walking at a leisurely pace.
"Lin Xuan..." Ning Tian finally spoke softly.
"Mm?"
"What you said in the meeting just now..." She paused. "Are you really confident?"
Lin Xuan tilted his head to glance at her, the corners of his mouth curling slightly.
"Which part do you mean? Winning the match, or what to do if things go wrong?"
Ning Tian felt a bit helpless at his nonchalant tone, yet she couldn't help but let out a soft laugh.
"Both, I suppose."
"Regarding winning the match, if I said I'll take action, then I will."
Lin Xuan retracted his gaze, his tone remaining flat. "As for things going wrong..."
He paused, then suddenly turned slightly, lowering his head to lean in closer.
Caught off guard, Ning Tian met those black eyes so close to her own. Her heart skipped a beat, and her cheeks flushed slightly.
"Aren't you still here?" Lin Xuan chuckled.
"The enhancement of the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Pagoda surely won't hold me back, will it?"
"Of course not..."
Ning Tian lowered her head and answered softly, the tips of her ears turning a faint red. But by the time she looked up again, Lin Xuan had already straightened up and continued walking, as if the previous moment had just been her imagination.
Ning Tian pursed her lips and followed, walking beside him. Just as they reached the staircase, they ran into two people head-on.
It was a white-haired boy and a white-haired girl.
The boy had a deep blue left eye and a green right eye, his features handsome. The girl possessed a face so exquisite it seemed almost ethereal, her fair skin delicate as porcelain, her features refined and soft. Most striking were those clear, limpid ice-blue eyes, currently shining as she gazed at Lin Xuan, the corners of her mouth turned up high.
It was the Hongchen siblings.
"What a coincidence, handsome~"
Meng Hongchen waved enthusiastically, her voice crisp. "I can't believe I ran into you here!"
Ning Tian's footsteps halted. She looked at Meng Hongchen's bright, smiling face, then at the girl's undisguised gaze fixed on Lin Xuan, and her brow furrowed slightly.
She didn't say anything, but her footsteps quietly shifted half an inch toward Lin Xuan, her shoulder almost brushing against his arm.
Then, she looked slightly sideways, catching Lin Xuan's expression out of the corner of her eye. Lin Xuan's expression hadn't changed; he simply smiled faintly and nodded slightly.
"Hello."
Xiao Hongchen stood to the side, his eyelid twitching slightly as he watched his sister's completely undisguised fangirl behavior.
What 'chance encounter'? It was pure nonsense.
This girl had clearly dragged him here to wait at this staircase for nearly half an hour just for the sake of 'running into' Lin Xuan.
However, Xiao Hongchen himself also very much wanted to meet Lin Xuan. He took a deep breath, a smile appearing on his face as he proactively extended his hand to Lin Xuan.
"Sun Moon Imperial Soul Engineer Academy, Xiao Hongchen."
Lin Xuan glanced at Xiao Hongchen's extended hand, then at the other's heterochromatic eyes. Without hesitation, he reached out and grasped Xiao Hongchen's right hand.
"Lin Xuan."
The moment their hands met, Xiao Hongchen's knuckles tightened slightly.
Thirty percent strength.
Fifty percent strength.
Eighty percent strength.
Yet Lin Xuan's expression didn't change at all.
Those black eyes remained calm, and his mouth held a smile, as if what Xiao Hongchen was gripping wasn't his hand, but a piece of wood without sensation.
A flash of surprise crossed Xiao Hongchen's eyes. He had already used eighty percent of his strength; with his power, an ordinary Soul Sect should have been baring their teeth in pain by now.
But the person before him hadn't even blinked.
A few seconds later, Xiao Hongchen proactively released his hand, calmly pulling back his slightly numb right hand and secretly flexing his knuckles at his side.
"Lin Xuan, is it?" Xiao Hongchen looked at Lin Xuan again, battle intent rising in his eyes, his whole being sharp and imposing.
"I have a hobby in this life."
He paused, saying each word deliberately, "I love to personally shatter the pride of every genius."
Lin Xuan looked at him, his face unchanged. He didn't speak, simply turning slightly to bypass Xiao Hongchen with Ning Tian and head downstairs.
As they passed each other, his voice drifted over airily.
"Genius? Heh."
"A so-called genius is merely the threshold to see me."
As the words fell, that dark green figure had already disappeared around the corner of the stairs, leaving only Ning Tian's slender silhouette following closely at his side.
Xiao Hongchen stood in place, stunned for a few seconds.
Then, he laughed.
There was no anger or ridicule in that smile, only an increasingly intense interest.
"Interesting..."
Meng Hongchen looked in the direction Lin Xuan had disappeared, then at her brother's expression as if he'd found a treasure, and couldn't help but curl her lip.
"Brother, that expression of yours is disgusting."
Xiao Hongchen didn't bother with her, simply staring at the staircase, the smile on his face deepening.
"It seems this Soul Master Competition won't be boring after all."
...
Two days later, the knockout stage of the Continental Advanced Soul Master Academy Soul Fighting Competition officially ended. Compared to Shrek Academy's crushing victory over Qianling Advanced Soul Master Academy to advance,
most other academies fought closely contested matches. After one round of competition, there were over a hundred injured, and even a dozen students who shed blood on the field. The battle situation could only be described as tragic.
With the knockout stage over, the next phase was the round-robin tournament, where the sixty-seven winning teams were divided into eight groups.
The round-robin used a point system: winners earned one point while losers remained unchanged. The top two teams from each of the eight groups would advance to the round of sixteen.
Although the round-robin wasn't as intense as the knockout stage, and tactical concessions might occur to preserve strength, the round-robin had its own advantages. The three competition modes were each exciting in their own way, giving the audience different viewing experiences.
As the defending champion, Shrek Academy naturally fired the first shot of the round-robin tournament.
"Strange, it's already the round-robin, why is Shrek Academy still using these few youngsters? Where are their regular team members?" some sharp-eyed spectators questioned.
"What else? It's just the round-robin; why would Shrek need the regular members?" a Shrek fan said dismissively.
Although these words were arrogant, they immediately gained the approval of the majority. In their eyes, the winner of this year's Soul Master Competition was already a foregone conclusion.
It was only because watching the Soul Master Competition provided great benefits to every Soul Master; otherwise, with Shrek Academy monopolizing all the championships, any other competition would have long lost public interest.
After the host finished the usual routine of meaningless filler talk, the referee finally announced the two teams for the first match of the round-robin.
"I announce that the first match of the round-robin officially begins! Let us give our warmest applause to welcome Shrek Academy! And their opponent for this match, Double Star Academy from the Heaven Dou Empire!"
"Will both teams please enter the waiting area, and will both captains please come onto the stage to jointly determine their match format."
The group stood up and walked toward the waiting area, while Lin Xuan took a step ahead to the Soul Fighting Platform to prepare to draw the format for this match.
The referee held a hollow sphere in his hand, which contained three small balls: red, yellow, and blue.
In a moment, Lin Xuan and the captain of Double Star Academy would exert force together to toss the hollow sphere upward, and one of the small balls inside would fall out through a circular hole.
Red represented a team battle, yellow was an individual battle, and blue represented the 2-2-3 format.
The referee handed the hollow sphere to Lin Xuan and the Double Star Academy captain, and then both exerted force simultaneously to toss the sphere up.
The solid small balls rattled and spun inside, and finally, a small yellow ball dropped out.
The referee used Soul Power with his left hand to guide it into his palm while retrieving the hollow sphere with his right. He then held his left hand high, displaying the small yellow ball to everyone present.
Then, after nodding to the Star Luo Empire's Emperor Xu Jiawei, he used a voice infused with Soul Power to project across the entire venue.
"The first match of the round-robin, Shrek Academy versus Double Star Academy, will be conducted using the individual elimination format. Will each side please send one student to the stage."
Lin Xuan glanced at the visibly nervous Double Star Academy captain and returned to the waiting area. As soon as he arrived, Wang Yan began introducing Double Star Academy to everyone at a rapid pace.
"Double Star Academy is one of the top teams in the Heaven Dou Empire and has been a dark horse in several competitions, even reaching the top eight eight consecutive times. However, the strange thing is that the top eight seems to be their limit; no matter how much their strength improves, they just can't take that further step."
"I focused on this team yesterday. Their captain is named Zheng Xun, a Soul King. His Martial Soul is an iron ball. From the Martial Soul Abilities he's shown, this iron ball can provide a shield and has direct attack capabilities."
"The other members consist of three Soul Sects and three Soul Elders. Their strength is similar to ours. We were lucky to draw the individual match this time; if it were a Two-Two-Three, it would be very dangerous."
Hearing Wang Yan's words, Bei Bei, Xu Sanshi, and the others couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief. This Double Star Team was almost evenly matched with them in their current state. If they had drawn a Two-Two-Three and failed to arrange their personnel properly, they might have lost.
"Alright, I've finished. Lin Xuan, how do you think we should fight next?" Wang Yan looked at Lin Xuan and asked.
"Let's go with Plan One as we agreed at the start. I'll go up first. If I encounter their captain, I'll just win directly and then leave the following matches to you all, with Bei Bei as the anchor at the end."
"If I don't encounter him, I'll fight for three rounds, take out three of their people, and then let you guys take over."
Lin Xuan slowly stood up. As he walked out of the waiting area, the atmosphere of the entire Star Luo Square surged once again, becoming incredibly heated.
"Shrek!! Lin Xuan!!"
"Shrek!! Lin Xuan!!"
"Shrek!! Lin Xuan!!"
In just two short days, all of Lin Xuan's searchable information had been dug up. His name, height, weight, and even his personal hobbies had been bought from some Shrek Academy students.
Amidst the gaze and cheers of everyone present, Lin Xuan's expression remained calm as he walked onto the Soul Fighting Platform at a steady pace.
On the other side, the student sent by Double Star Academy was a short young man, appearing to be only about 1.5 meters tall. He wore glasses and had a distressed expression, though he was quite good-looking.
The referee presiding over the match came to the center of the platform and stood still, announcing loudly.
"The rules for the individual elimination match are: the losing side leaves the stage, and the winning side can choose to continue the match or withdraw and swap out, until all seven members of one side are eliminated. Additionally, the use of fixed-mount spirit tools or similar spirit tools that possess extreme lethality due to special materials is prohibited."
"Next, please state your names."
The student representing the Double Star Academy team took a deep breath and spoke.
"Double Star Academy, Xu Xiu."
"Shrek Academy, Lin Xuan."
According to the rules passed down for tens of thousands of years on the Douluo Continent, when Soul Masters engage in a formal one-on-one duel, they generally announce their Martial Soul and rank to show respect for their opponent.
But in this Continental Advanced Soul Master Academy Soul Fighting Competition, these procedures had been simplified significantly.
On the other hand, not announcing one's Martial Soul was also to maintain a strong sense of anticipation for the audience and to keep a sense of mystery before the other competing academy teams who might become potential opponents.
"Match, begin!"
Before the words had even faded, Xu Xiu released his Martial Soul almost immediately.
He slammed his hands together, and four Soul Rings—yellow, yellow, purple, purple—rose one by one beneath his feet. Then, he spread his hands, and Cards glowing with three different lights flew out one after another, circling around him.
At the same time, his fourth soul ring lit up, but even though the Soul skills had been activated, no visible change could be seen. This unusual situation immediately drew everyone's attention, as they speculated on what the effect of his fourth Soul skills actually was.
Lin Xuan remained the same as before; only his Soul Rings appeared, and the form of his Martial Soul was completely invisible from the outside.
Quite interesting. A Card Martial Soul?
Lin Xuan narrowed his eyes and smiled with interest. Then, his first Soul Ring lit up.
"As expected!"
Seeing this, Xu Xiu was startled but also delighted! Because he had long been prepared for this!
The moment the shadow beneath his feet turned into a quagmire, his short figure suddenly vanished from the spot. Even looking across the entire Soul Fighting Platform, he was nowhere to be seen.
Then, a sharp-eyed spectator spotted Xu Xiu's figure.
"Look! He's gone into the sky!"
"His fourth soul ring is actually a Teleportation skill?!"
"..."
The moment Xu Xiu disappeared, Lin Xuan's gaze had already locked onto the space above his head. There, Xu Xiu happened to emerge. However, he wasn't levitating in mid-air but had begun to fall downward.
Using Teleportation into the air to avoid being swallowed by the shadow... Lin Xuan wasn't surprised at all. After all, anyone with a bit of a brain would know they had to counter his First Soul Skill this way.
In the gap while falling, Xu Xiu's hands moved rapidly. His second Soul Ring flashed, and the Cards circling him immediately spun at high speed, making a crisp "clattering" sound.
He didn't attack immediately, instead waiting for a breath before suddenly pointing his right hand.
A Card glowing with red light broke rank and shot straight toward Lin Xuan's face like an arrow from a bow!
Shadows surged beneath Lin Xuan's feet, and two figures—one black and one white—leapt out.
The black Divine Dog took the lead, its massive body shielding Lin Xuan. The red Card hit it right in the shoulder.
"Poof."
The power wasn't strong; it only made the black dog bared its teeth, its figure stalling slightly.
But Lin Xuan's brow twitched slightly. The black dog's movements after landing were noticeably a bit slower than usual... A deceleration effect?
Meanwhile, Xu Xiu was less than three meters from the ground. Disappointment showed in his eyes; there was no helping it, Lin Xuan's reactions were simply too fast.
But he didn't give up. In the last second before landing, his first Soul Ring suddenly lit up!
Three red Cards flew out in a fan shape at tricky angles, blocking Lin Xuan's space to dodge to the left or right.
Two of them directly hit the black dog, causing its speed to drop even further. Its limbs felt as heavy as if they were stuck in a swamp.
The white dog, however, nimbly dodged the attack and lunged straight at Xu Xiu!
The moment Xu Xiu landed, he gritted his teeth hard. His second, third, and fourth soul rings all lit up simultaneously!
Blood suddenly gushed from his nose and mouth, staining his collar, but his eyes were startlingly bright.
He pointed his right hand like a knife!
A Card glowing with an eerie yellow light shot out from the rotating Card queue, hitting the pouncing white dog right between the eyes!
The white dog's body suddenly froze, as if fixed by a binding spell, remaining in its pouncing posture, motionless.
Meanwhile, the shadow beneath Xu Xiu's feet had already turned into a quagmire and begun to swallow his legs.
Just an instant before he was submerged by the shadow, his fourth soul ring flashed again.
His figure vanished, and in the next instant, he appeared in mid-air less than a meter in front of Lin Xuan! Then, he threw a punch!
That punch didn't have much power, and its speed wasn't exactly rapid, but the angle was tricky, aimed straight for Lin Xuan's throat!
Lin Xuan frowned slightly, not because the attack was strong, but because it was too weak.
It was so weak that he could even clearly see every vein tensing on Xu Xiu's fist from the effort, so weak that he could have sent him flying with a single punch.
But he didn't. He simply tilted his body slightly to avoid the fist, his right hand darting out like lightning to accurately grab Xu Xiu's wrist. With a twist, his left hand pressed down on the shoulder while his foot lightly tripped him.
With a series of fluid grappling moves, he firmly pinned Xu Xiu to the ground.
Xu Xiu struggled for a moment before shouting cleanly.
"I surrender."
The referee immediately announced, "The first match of the individual elimination round, Shrek Academy's Lin Xuan wins!"
The cheers of the entire crowd boiled over once again.
The members of the Double Star Academy team rushed onto the stage, hurriedly helping Xu Xiu down. As Xu Xiu was being supported, he suddenly turned his head and grinned at the captain, Zheng Xun, his voice kept extremely low.
"Captain, I've tested him out. This Lin Xuan's strength isn't that great. Just now, I was even afraid I'd use too much force and break free from his hands directly."
Zheng Xun nodded stiffly, his gaze somewhat vacant.
Xu Xiu's expression froze, and he hurriedly pulled hard on his sleeve.
"Captain! Don't drop the ball at a time like this! Last time we lost and stopped at the top eight, it was because you messed up at the critical moment! This time, no matter what, don't let that happen again!"
Being pulled like that, Zheng Xun finally snapped out of it. He took a deep breath, forced a smile onto his face, and patted Xu Xiu's shoulder.
"Don't worry, you know my strength. I can definitely take him down."
Xu Xiu stared at his face for a few seconds, but he was still very uneasy.
There was no other way; the strongest and most talented person in their team was Zheng Xun. Back home, he alone could sweep through the vast majority of teams.
However, once he reached the national competition and the Continental Soul Master Competition, it was as if he were under a curse. Forget about overperforming; it was lucky if he could even show half of his usual strength.
Especially in the last top eight match, it was because he failed at the final moment that their efforts came to naught.
Lin Xuan stood on the Soul Fighting Platform, watching their departing figures with a meaningful smile on his face.
The "weak strength" was all an act, intended to give Double Star Academy the illusion that "I'm a long-range mage, come and fight me in close combat."
The referee looked at Lin Xuan and asked.
"Player Lin Xuan, do you choose to continue defending the stage, or swap out?"
Lin Xuan looked up at Double Star Academy's waiting area. There, Zheng Xun was warming up his wrists, their gazes meeting across the distance.
"Continue."