125 The Finals Await!

The next few days of the competition continued normally. Sheng Feilong didn't have to face much trouble as all of his opponents were still below the Soul King rank; though continuously growing stronger with each round, they couldn't match up to him and faced the same fate as their predecessors.

By the fourth day, Sheng Feilong created a reputation for himself among the competitors. Not only did all of his opponents start mumbling weird things about cauliflowers, they were also seen jumping around on the competition stage like idiots before being knocked out cold.

Word about Sheng Feilong clashing with Monster Academy's leader, Long Yue, on the second day also spread fast, further increasing Sheng Feilong's infamy. It was unknown who started it, but near the end of the preliminaries, people started calling Sheng Feilong the 'Veggie Devil'.

Sheng Feilong himself did his best to ignore this nickname and remain indifferent about it, but Tang Wulin and the others didn't let the opportunity slide, constantly teasing him about it. Although they exaggerated the facts in their teasing, there was nothing Sheng Feilong could say.

They themselves were doing good as well. Everyone from Shrek Academy managed to get through the preliminaries without much trouble as all of them were strong despite being younger than most other competitors.

The strongest opponents they faces were at most low ranked Soul Kings without Battle Armours, so they were able to beat them with a reasonable amount of trouble. Even Tang Wulin's bad luck seemed to have faded after the second round and he actually got the weakest opponents out of their group for the rest of the preliminaries.

On the tenth and final day of the preliminaries, Sheng Feilong faced a rank 49 Soul Ancestor with a powerful Beast type Spirit Essence. Unlike many people before him, he went on the defensive instead of attacking Sheng Feilong head-on.

Sheng Feilong waited for a while to see how his opponent would react, only to ultimately fake a few attacks against him to force him to defend and reveal a weak spot to the real Sheng Feilong. Unsurprisingly, the fight ended, once again, with a brutal kick to the neck and Sheng Feilong advanced to the elimination rounds of the solo competition!

What followed next was a two days pause of the solo competition during which the focus of the tournament was placed on the two-versus-two competition. This meant that Sheng Feilong would have a full two days to lean back, while Tang Wulin and the other Shrek students would participate in the two-versus-two matches.

The matches were fought in a round robin fashion and the participating duos were divided into eight groups. The top two teams of each group would then advance to the two-versus-two competition's final elimination round and fight for the prizes.

All of Shrek Academy's eight students took part as duo's and only one group had two of their teams in them: Gu Yue, who built a team with Tang Wulin, and Yuanen Yehui, who build a team with Xie Xie. Those four had another strong team from Monster Academy in their group, so they would have the hardest time fighting, while the others were lucky and didn't have a single Monster Academy team in their group; They were nearly certain to gain one of the top two spots in their groups.

After winning a few matches, Tang Wulin and Gu Yue were up against the team from Monster Academy. Their opponents were Hua Lantang and Ye Zhi, both of which were mid ranked Soul Kings with strong Spirit Essences and surprisingly a couple.

Ye Zhi's Spirit Essence was the one hailed as the strongest support type Spirit Essence of the world since ancient times; The Seven Treasures Glazed Pagoda. It was one of the rare Spirit Essences in the world that had produced a God in the past and the one who became a God was a member of Shrek's Seven Monsters of the same generation as the Thousand Hands Douluo Tang San.

Compared to her, Hua Lantang's Spirit Essence was just as strong, though not as famous: The Dragonwolf, a powerful Assault type Spirit Essence that gave it's bearer incredible speed and power due to the Dragon bloodline in it. However, when faced with Tang Wulin, the very Dragon bloodline became Hua Lantang's demise.

Tang Wulin's bloodline ruthlessly suppressed Hua Lantang's strength, making it impossible for him to put up a fight against Tang Wulin. Although Ye Zhi's support was incredibly powerful, it couldn't match up to the suppression and both she and Hua Lantang were ultimately taken down.

This created another uproar in the Star Luo Empire as Tang Wulin had once again bested a powerful Soul Master from the Monster Academy, even though he was five years younger then them.

The others weren't doing any worse; They defeated their opponents with ease and seemingly unstoppable force. In front of Shrek Academy's students, the masters of the Star Luo Empire's younger generation were powerless and only the students of their continent's pride, Monster Academy, were able to put up a fight!

It wasn't known whether it was intentional or a coincidence, but the commentator of the competition made sure to always give a detailed review of Shrek Academy's student's matches, even going so far as to explain their battle tactics, showing everyone in the audience just how grandiose their battles were.

In the two days until the solo competition continued, all four teams of Shrek Academy managed to advance to the final, elimination rounds, while Monster Academy only had two of their original three teams remaining.

Today, the second round of the solo competition would begin and all competitors eagerly looked at the match-ups. Just like with the two-versus-two competition, the solo competition's second round was divided into groups that would fight round robin matches. The top four of those groups would later advance to the finals of the solo competition.

A total of 16 groups were presented and Sheng Feilong and the others were quite glad to see there own names in individual groups, meaning they wouldn't have to fight each other until the finals. However, there was one match-up that left them frowning; Yue Zhengyu as in the same group and Monster Academy's leader, Long Yue, and would have to fight him later.

Their mood was rather solemn, but Yue Zhengyu assured them he would do his best. Even if he wasn't able to defeat Long Yue, he would use himself as the measure to force the former to show all of his strength!

However, the result of this resolve was rather tragic. A few days passed by with everyone advancing in their groups rather smoothly until the match for Yue Zhengyu and Long Yue came. As it turn out, they had severely underestimated Long Yue's strength; He wasn't just powerful, he was ridiculously powerful.

Long Yue was actually not a Soul King as they had thought before, but already a Soul Emperor; A 20 years old Soul Emperor was a kind of talent that didn't exist on the Douluo Continent, not even in Shrek Academy! Moreover, he was sure to be a Battle Armour Master on top of that, but still crushed Yue Zhengyu without the use of his Battle Armour!

Yue Zhengyu's injuries after the fight were so severe, that he had to drop out of the solo competition to focus on his recovery; He wouldn't have any lasting injuries, but if he wanted to compete in the two-versus-two and team competitions, he needed all the rest he could get.

This time, Sheng Feilong chose to keep out of their affairs. He didn't give his own input on the fight, nor any future fights, because, honestly, he couldn't see any of his friends defeating Long Yue. The only one who had a chance was Tang Wulin, and even that only if Tang Wulin's bloodline was able to suppress Long Yue's like he did with Su Mu.

Another few days passed by and everyone aside from Yue Zhengyu passed the round robin competition. Xu Lizhi and Ye Xinglan chose to resign from the competition after Yue Zhengyu's defeat and the two of them instead focused on forging Battle Armour for the others; The pressure Long Yue put on them obviously affected this decision, but Ye Xinglan persisted on doing this, even when the others tried to persuade her otherwise.

Two of Shrek Academy's students resigning from the competition came to a shock for many, especially with Ye Xinglan being one of the strongest of their combatants; Her display in the solo and two-versus-two competitions were truly dazzling, only second to Tang Wulin.

The round robin matches continued and, just as expected, everyone made their ways to the top without problems. Sheng Feilong came out as the first place holder of his group, still fighting in the same manner as before and by now, the nickname 'Veggie Devil' had even been repeated by the commentator so that the whole audience now knew about it.

Due to this, Sheng Feilong was seriously contemplating whether to drop out of the tournament as well, but under the constant persuasion of Tang Wulin and the others, he ultimately decided to stay and just become the first 'Veggie Devil' to win the tournament.

Soon, the finals of the solo competition began. Sheng Feilong, Tang Wulin and the others passed the first round without problem, but then discovered an interesting little twist On the second day of the finals, the match-ups had been changed. The students of Shrek Academy would face Monster Academy students again and again in the next few rounds and even Sheng Feilong wasn't spared.

But upon seeing who his next opponent would be, Sheng Feilong mockingly sneered before a devious plan hatched in his head. After all, his next opponent is Dai Yun'er...