The Tournament Begins

Returning to reality, Ye Qin and Wang Tao logged off the game after getting enough fighting done. The next morning they woke up and found out who the remaining two that would be participating along with them would be.

After a decisive battle between all the students yesterday, Jia Yazhu came out on top with her humanoid monster, the Knight of Divinity. The last participating member is the quiet dorm mate who sat outside on his own and appeared like a ninja at any given time.

From what the two girls said, his monster was also a powerful humanoid type monster which explained how he could come out on top of everyone who participated in yesterday's matches.

After breakfast, their homeroom teacher was right outside the door of their dorm. The group quietly followed behind her as they all headed for the assembly hall.

There, the headmaster; as well as the teachers of each year, along with the representatives were all waiting for their arrival.

"Now that everyone is here, we shall head off immediately." the headmaster said his single line as everyone in the hall was instantly enveloped in a huge amount of spatial energy.

In an instant, they appeared at a large stage filled with students, teachers as well as the headmasters of each of the top ten academies of New China.

Ye Qin and Wang Tao looked over to the side as they noticed Sun Zhan who had also noticed their arrival. Sun Zhan had known that Wang Tao had lost weight since the three of them kept in touch with each other even while in different universities.

They looked behind Sun Zhan to see another familiar figure with a beautiful face and long white hair.

"It's her." Wang Tao said.

Ye Qin nodded as he was interrupted by the headmaster. "Now, I will join the other headmasters, teacher Yang please."

Yang Xinyi nodded. "Take a seat, it will begin soon."

The five of them nodded and took a seat, they had long noticed that only they were in the seats while the other year students weren't around. It was obvious that the headmaster had sent each year to a separate stage within that brief moment, it was easy to tell that the headmaster's partner was an extremely powerful Space element monster with just that little display of power.

Looking ahead, the headmaster of the War God Academy spoke. "Welcome to this year's annual competition between the schools. As the headmaster of the War God Academy, I am pleased to start today."

"For those who had just joined their respective academies just last year, let me explain. While each year is on a different stage, you will all be able to see the matches that take place on any stage through your smartwatch or the displayed monitors."

"As for the five seeded schools, they do not need to participate in the preliminary rounds and will only begin on the second preliminary round today," he said.

"Now, let the friendly competition officially begin!" he finished off.

Everyone in each stadium clapped as the headmaster sat down in his seat. For the five academies, they didn't need to move, as for the other five, the preliminary round would begin for them immediately.

Looking below the stage, the first match will be a five on five between the Black Cloud University and the University of Dixuan immediately.

Looking at the monitors, it seemed the same schools will battle each other at the same time on the other stages. Ye Qin and Wang Tao sat down relaxed and waited to observe all of the battles at once.

On each side of the field, five members from each team stood facing each other. At the same time, they all summoned their monsters as the battle between them began.

On the stage, ten different monsters appeared below them. It was the same for the other monitors that they were looking through.

In front of Black Cloud, all five of the monsters were all battle types while the University of Dixuan had two support types and three battle type monsters.

Judging from the formation alone, it was obvious that Dixuan's side had a higher chance of winning. Looking at the monsters individual stats, the monsters were all slightly over level 30, it was a far cry from Ye Qin and Wang Tao's monsters which were already close to the door of level 40.

Just on their own, they could easily wipe out both sides even if they worked together. As for the second and third years, their monsters weren't much higher level with the difference only being two or three levels.

It was only a big difference for the fourth years who stayed behind in the academy instead of graduating who all had monsters at lv 38 at the very least. Not only that, but their monsters were also much more powerful than the years below them.

It seemed like the past few years was quite a disappointment for the academies. Ye Qin and Wang Tao both thought.

As the battle began, Black Cloud's side took the first move. As for Dixuan's side, the two brothers noticed that they had already moved even before the match had officially started.

Under the stage, small roots were being spread beneath the feet of the opposing side, ready to strike at any time.

"It seems Dixuan will win even faster than we thought." Wang Tao commented.

"What do you mean?" Jia Yazhu asked as she didn't notice anything.

"Look at the big flower." Yang Chen suddenly said.

Jia Yazhu nodded and observed the large flower monster on Dixuan's side, it took her a bit before she realized what they meant.

"I see what you mean now, I didn't even notice until just then," she said.

"Maybe you didn't eat enough carrots when you were younger." Wang Tao teased.

"Hmph," she replied as she watched.

On Black Cloud's side, the five monsters moved at the same time to attack. Dixuan's team didn't move an inch as if they were scared of the opposing team.

Just as the Dixuan team was about to take a hit, the ground erupted as the roots that were spread under the ground were all unleashed at the same time.

In an instant, the Black Cloud team was caught up in roots and was unable to move an inch. It only took an instant for the Dixuan team to defeat the Black Cloud team even with similar strength.

It was a clear display of strategy which can instantly turn the tide of the battle in your favor. The battle of the first year ended immediately while the other battles of the other years were ongoing.

**************

After thirty minutes, the battle between both academies ended. Dixuan won 3-2 which meant they would proceed to the second round, while Black Cloud University was eliminated. After the next two schools battle, Black Cloud would battle against the team that lost in order to decide ninth and tenth place between the ten universities.

Another thirty minutes later, another team had lost and would soon battle against Black Cloud university. Thirty minutes later, Black Cloud university had lost again and placed tenth out of every university.

As for how fifth place and sixth place will be determined, it would be a battle against the top of the five non-seeded universities and the lowest-ranked of the top five seeds.

Now that the first round is over, the second round would soon begin. Since the War God Academy, Heaven's Gate, and Nine Peaks Academy were in the top three, their battles would be towards the end of the second round, which meant Ye Qin and Wang Tao would need to wait a while before it was their turn to show off.

The two other top-five academies that hadn't been introduced yet are the Battle Temple in fourth place and the fifth place is the Monster Haven university. The Battle temple focused mostly on military and battles just as the War God academy did and have been aiming to be the number one battle focused university in New China for years.

As for the Monster Haven university, it was a university where the top breeders around the country all go to. Despite focusing almost solely on monster breeding and being the most wealthy of the five academies, they were still strong enough to rank fifth out of all the universities in all of China.

This meant that Nine Peaks Academy would battle against the Battle Temple in the second round, while the Monster Haven team will face the top of the lesser five academies.

**************

Two hours later, it was noon and everyone was provided lunch along with a short ten-minute break. Sun Zhan took this chance to come over to chat with Ye Qin and Wang Tao during the break.

"It's been a while." Ye Qin told him.

"It has been indeed, I can tell that you must be stronger than last year. It will be a while before I can see you two show off." Sun Zhan replied.

"How's the sage?" Wang Tao couldn't help but ask.

It had already been over a year since their first venture into the Abandoned Lands. There, they went on a journey meeting the Great Sage as well as a battle between powerhouses during their short trip. Now, the Great Sage should be much stronger than in the past since it had followed Sun Zhan for the entire year.

"He's doing great, he can't wait to see the two of you again." Sun Zhan smiled bitterly.

"Who is this gentlemen?" Jia Yazhu behind them asked.

"This is our friend Sun Zhan." Wang Tao answered.

"Hello there, I am Sun Zhan from the War God Academy." Sun Zhan introduced himself. Jia Yazhu took his hand and introduced herself as well.

Sun Zhan then noticed the two others who didn't say anything but only looked at him. "Hahaha, I guess you two have some unfriendly teammates, it must be hard on you," he told them.

"Well, it can't be as hard as having 'her' on your team." Ye Qin replied.

"So you two did know her, that's good. She's the leader of our team this time." Sun Zhan said.

"En, it's quite obvious, if you were the leader with your strength then the sun must have rose from the west." Wang Tao nodded.

"..."

"..."

"I'll see you guys later, I'll return to my team now." Sun Zhan said as he turned around. When he got back to his seat, it was already time for the rest of the first round to begin.

After two hours, eighth and seventh place was determined. Now, the second round would officially begin with the battle for 6th and 5th place.