78 Who were that bandits?

The competition ended, undoubtedly with another impassioned boost and encouragement for emperor Xue Ye. Next, the finals would start very soon. That was the true battle to decide which academy was the most powerful on the Continent.

As regent, emperor Xue Ye naturally couldn't leave Heaven Dou City unattended. After the end of his speech, emperor Xue Ye declared that crown prince Xue Qinghe would represent him as Heaven Dou Empire's envoy, to take the task of judging the tournament. And Heaven Dou Empire's fifteen teams would accompany him personally on the way to a city on the common border of the two great empires where the finals would take place. The finals would be arranged by Spirit Hall.

There would only be three days for all the teams to rest. After three days, the altogether fifteen teams plus teachers and an escort of five hundred imperial household knights, a party of more than a thousand people, would leave for where the finals would be held. Spirit City. In these three days, Ryu made the Spirit Hall's conspiracy to be failed.

Originally the finals weren't at all arranged by Spirit Hall, but for some reason, Spirit Hall suddenly issued an alteration. This tournament's ultimate finals would be held in the main city of Spirit Hall. This city practically entirely belonged to Spirit Hall. Situated on the border of the two great empires, the empires had no authority over it. Most importantly, one of the two great palaces that symbolized Spirit Hall, Supreme Pontiff Palace, was located in Spirit City.

This recently constructed Supreme Pontiff Palace was reputed to be the grandest building in all the Douluo Continent. Spirit City had also become the holy land of all Spirit Masters due to the construction of this Supreme Pontiff Palace, making it like a capital city Spirit Hall had established for itself.

From Heaven Dou City to Spirit City was almost twenty days on the road. The finals wouldn't last for very long, as it was a knock-out competition. Altogether thirty-three teams could settle the outcome in less than ten days.

In order to let the competing team members rest even better, Heaven Dou Empire had arranged altogether fifteen enormous luxurious carriages, especially for the team members to ride in and rest.

These carriages even used some spirit tool technology as the foundation, giving them extraordinary shock absorption. Riding them was unusually steady. Of course, the entire Douluo Continent's spirit tool technology circulation was only clear here.

En route to Spirit City, suddenly, a cold aura suddenly arrived from not far away.

Their procession, for the most part, traveled on the official road, and could only rarely take shortcuts via some remote small roads. And right now was just when they were taking a shortcut. They were between two low hills, and reportedly they could save several dozen li by passing through here. Moreover, even though the road between the hills was a bit narrow, it was still flat, allowing the carriages to pass without a problem.

The cold aura came from the hills on either side of the small road. The imperial household knights leading captain shouted loudly,

"Everyone, be on your guard, there's trouble!"

The imperial household knights guarding by the Spirit Masters immediately raised the lances in their hands. Those Spirit Master academy competing team members had relaxed expressions. With so many talented Spirit Masters here, what would they need to worry about? Even though these students were a lot fewer than the imperial household knights, in a fight, their strength wouldn't be proportional to their numbers.Even more when the academy coaching teachers included powers of at least ten Spirit Masters of the sixtieth or seventieth rank. This kind of procession was enough to confront a large army of more than ten thousand troops.

Just at this moment, countless falling stones came tumbling down from the hills like rain. These stones didn't only appear extremely suddenly, but also extremely orderly. Swiftly falling towards the ground.

The terrain before them was extremely unfavorable to the entire procession. That imperial household knight captain immediately passed down the order to speed up their advance and also leaving those falling stones to the five hundred imperial household knights.

This moment demonstrated the intrinsic quality of the imperial household knights. Even though they weren't Spirit Masters, their physical strength was extremely powerful. The hills on either side weren't too high, and this also made the impact of the stones something that really wasn't impossible to deal with. The imperial household knights retreated a few steps, leaving a passage in the center, raising their lances high and meeting the falling stones.

Lances met stones, and they made use of their lances to constantly send rock after rock sideways. Five hundred knights' lances formed a steel wall, and in such unfavorable terrain, for the moment unexpectedly not letting a single rock past them.

Watching this scene, the fifteen Spirit Master academies' coaching teachers swiftly led the way outside the hills. In order to move even faster, they abandoned the carriages, all students hurrying along on foot. As long as they could leave this terrain, there wasn't anything to fear.

Right now everyone wanted to know just what kind of person dared attack the imperial household knights regiment. This was Heaven Dou Empire's domain. Could there really be bandits? Were they blind?

Liu Erlong was basically of a mind to rush into the hills and slaughter everything, but was stopped by Flender.

"Boss Fu, what are you doing blocking me? It's better to just let me kill blind vermin like these."

Liu Erlong said resentfully.

Flender sternly said:

"It isn't that simple. Don't tell me you don't feel it's strange? Even if Heaven Dou Empire has some large gangs of robbers, they're also very effective at gathering information. Someone dares attack a procession like ours, what would they rely on?

Look at the stones, they were clearly prepared long ago. It really isn't random. Whatever they want to do, it's most important to first protect the children. Xiao Gang isn't here so we can't display our peak fighting strength, it's most important to guard next to the children.

Hearing Flender's words, even though Liu Erlong was inwardly a bit dissatisfied, she also didn't argue.

The imperial household knights were gradually becoming unable to endure, some especially enormous rocks smashing into their ranks.

This kind of moment displayed the strength of Spirit Masters. These Heaven Dou Empire advanced Spirit Master academy elites basically didn't show any confusion, each releasing their spirits. Auxiliary system Spirit Masters guarded inside, power attack system and defensive system pushed outside. The rocks that flew over were immediately smashed to pieces, to the extent that it didn't even influence their pace forward.

Soon, this stretch of road between the two hills was about to end. Behind the imperial household, knights were also already starting to break off and retreat.

At this moment, a whistle sounded from somewhere. On the hills on either side suddenly appeared thousands of black clothes people, charging down with astonishing speed. Right now the imperial household knights were still in the process of retreating, and the Spirit Masters of the fifteen academies could only rely on their own strength for their protection.

All kinds of dazzlingly beautiful light began to appear over the Spirit Masters, spirits releasing, spirit rings shining. They were already prepared for battle.

Even though there couldn't be said to be any cooperation between the academies, each academy formed a small group, the appearance of enemies, on the contrary, stimulating their bloodlust. Not retreating but on the contrary, advancing didn't require anyone's coordination. They swiftly faced the enemies and charged.

However, circumstances that the young Spirit Masters hadn't expected appeared. When they thought they could easily smash the opponents, the opponents struck the first blow.

The teachers and students of the fifteen academies altogether numbered more than two hundred, and the number of bandits coming down the hills numbered approximately one thousand five hundred or so. The moment both sides clashed, these bandits unexpectedly displayed astonishing teamwork. Often there were three or four people besieging one, their attacks accurate and powerful, immediately catching the Spirit Masters unprepared. After all, their combat experience was still based on small-scale fights, it was the first time for this kind of large-scale battle.

Dazzlingly beautiful spirit ring abilities began to appear, but those black clothed people were extremely crafty, relying on fairly good speed and teamwork, it was unexpectedly very difficult for first or second rank spirit abilities to do anything to them. Moreover, there was unexpectedly also Spirit Masters among these black clothed people, at least thirty formidable Spirit Masters over the fiftieth rank. As soon as spirit abilities appeared, they would immediately go up to push back. There were on average two Spirit Masters to deal with each academy. Like this, the bandits' wolf pack tactics displayed a fairly large effect, and the scene completely sunk into a stalemate.

The appearance of the opponent Spirit Masters made Flender even more certain of his conjecture. This was an organized attack. Thirty-fiftieths ranked Spirit Masters, this was a formidable strength, not just any power could dispatch. How many Spirit Masters did this world have? The total sum wouldn't surpass a hundred thousand. Spirit Masters above the fiftieth rank, even more, wouldn't surpass five thousand. Five thousand sounded like a lot, but when distributed across the entire Continent, it was a pitiful number. A group of bandits that could launch such an organized attack, and moreover possess this many high-level Spirit Masters, this was practically impossible to imagine.

What did fiftieth rank signify? Not only would their titles change to Spirit King, but it also meant they could obtain the first ten thousand year spirit ring.

"Conserve spirit power, defeat the opponents."

Flender immediately passed down these orders.

"Yes, the principal"

Flender looked at Ryu and said "We need your help too"