Chapter 81.1. Hidden Strength…

“You guys…” Wang Dong looked at everyone in shock as he placed Huo Yuhao on the roof.

Bei Bei put the telescopic soul tool down and replied, “Teacher Wang may be unmatched when it comes to researching martial souls, however he’s very inexperienced when it comes to concealing his emotions. ”

“Then why didn’t you guys call us?” Wang Dong said resentfully.

“That’s because junior brother clearly saw through it! You guys have to remember not to be too expressive. Otherwise, anyone with a shred of intelligence would be able to discern your thoughts. ” said Bei Bei.

Wang Dong felt gloomy as he said, “Aren’t you only implying that I’m dumber than you guys?”

Xiao Xiao weakly raised her hand and said, “Me too. Senior brother told me there’s a good show going on and brought me up here.”

Those who could be a part of the Shrek’s Seven Monsters were prodigies in their own right. Huo Yuhao wasn’t the only one who recognised Wang Yan’s problem. Bei Bei, Xu Sanshi and He Caitou were also aware of it. Jiang Nannan and Xiao Xiao were the only ones that had been called up.

“Nannan, can I take a look?” Xu Sanshi inched over to Jiang Nannan’s side, fawning all over her. Where had the powerful aura he had possessed during the tournament gone to?

He Caitou had brought two telescopic soul tools along with him. He’d given one to Bei Bei and handed the other over to Xu Sanshi. For appearance’s sake, Xu Sanshi had immediately handed it to Jiang Nannan.

Jiang Nannan ignored him and said, “The tournament’s starting.”

The Grand Imperial Star Hotel and Star Luo Plaza were separated by a few kilometers, which was extremely far for the eye to see. From this distance, the massive tournament plaza was but a very small square. It was more or less impossible for one to observe the ongoings clearly. Even He Caitou with the telescopic soul tool couldn’t see what was going on too clearly.

Huo Yuhao said, “Senior brother, let me test out that telescopic soul tool.”

Bei Bei handed the telescopic soul tool that looked like a metal box over to Huo Yuhao.

Huo Yuhao took the telescopic soul tool and peered through the transparent convex-shaped crystal, looking into the distance through the enlargement device installed within. One only had to pour a bit of their soul power into the telescopic soul tool to use it. It was a very simple auxiliary soul tool. Since there weren’t many soul tool masters willing to put much effort into this aspect, they were only Rank 1 soul tools. Naturally, it couldn’t enlarge the image in the distance by a large amount.

However, Huo Yuhao’s eyesight was exceptionally shocking. His eyes were his martial soul, and he’d also been cultivating the Purple Demon Eyes all along. Naturally, everything would be much clearer to Bei Bei if he could use the Purple Demon Eyes too. Even without the help of this telescopic soul tool, he would only need to use a bit of soul power if he wanted to clearly see what was going on a few kilometers away on a good day.

Huo Yuhao expanded his Spiritual Sharing as he watched what was going on on the tournament stage. It wasn’t that he couldn’t use his Spiritual Sharing only when he used his Spiritual Detection. He could use it on a normal basis too, just like what he was doing now. Huo Yuhao shared what he could see with his friends through his Spiritual Sharing. The four soul skills the Skydream Iceworm gave him didn’t seem to be very powerful at first glance, but all of them were incomparably mystical in their own right.

The reserve team of Shrek’s Seven Monsters only had to close their eyes for the scenes Huo Yuhao saw to appear in their minds.

The match held in Star Luo Plaza wasn’t the first match held since they left, but rather a 1-vs-1 showdown.

He’d just clearly seen what was happening on the tournament stage when a shiver ran down Huo Yuhao’s spine. The others also trembled once they became aware of what was happening on the stage under the conditions of his Spiritual Sharing. They atmosphere suddenly became very tense.

The reason for this was because the two individuals currently competing actually had five soul rings each. Moreover, they were a combination of two yellow soul rings and three purple soul rings. Even if these two Soul Kings didn’t have the best ratio of ten-thousand-year soul rings between them, the words ‘Soul King’ pressed heavily like mountains in everyone’s hearts.

Soul Kings had actually appeared after their match.

The two Soul Kings were both soul masters who didn’t use any soul tools either. Their battle was extremely intense, causing strong rays of light to explode from the tournament stage from time to time. Since they were very far from the plaza, it was impossible for Huo Yuhao to see every minute detail regardless of how good his eyesight was.

Moreover, he couldn’t clearly see the specific details on the stage when the rays of light flickered from the intense soul power.

“It looks like Teacher Wang was right. He really was afraid of cracking down on our confidence in the tournament.” Bei Bei said with slight difficulty.

Xu Sanshi snorted and said, “So what if they’re Soul Kings? Bei Bei, you’re disheartened just like that?”

After the scene she saw through Huo Yuhao’s Spiritual Sharing, Jiang Nannan put the telescopic soul tool down. She seldom spoke, but now she continued with, “It’s normal for Soul Kings to appear in the earlier parts of the knockout tournament. The academies that can pass the first cycle of the knockout tournament can’t be especially weak in any way. Perhaps the Cloud Luo Advanced Soul Engineering Academy we faced off against today was the one with the weakest constitution. Even though these two academies sent out Soul Kings for the present match, it might very well stem from the reasoning of letting the Soul Kings emerge victorious in a few matches to deplete the opponent’s strength as best as they can.”

“Even though you put it that way, what do you think is implied with them having Soul Kings as their commanding officers?” Bei Bei asked.

Huo Yuhao subconsciously answered, “It means there’s a very high possibility that their team is made up entirely of Soul Ancestors.”

Bei Bei nodded and said, “Junior brother is right. I’m afraid we have an arduous battle ahead of us from now on. We also definitely have to reveal our true strength. With team members composed of Soul Ancestors with a Soul King as their leader, their strength surpasses ours completely as a whole. We definitely can’t duplicate what happened in the first match. Everyone must be mentally prepared. Our victory in the first two matches was due to our opponents being weak along with a small bit of luck. The latter matches will be more difficult. I’m afraid Teacher Wang only lied to us a little. There really are quite a number of twenty-year-old Soul Kings this time around.”

Xu Sanshi shrugged and said, “It doesn’t matter, Bei Bei. After all, we can have Soul Kings in our team in the next two matches. Senior Sister Ling is a Control-type Soul King. With her deployed in battle, we won’t have a problem anymore.”

Bei Bei glared at him and said, “Stop talking nonsense! Don’t think I don’t know what you’re hiding. We’re competing in this tournament, which means that we’re representing Shrek Academy’s honor. At the very least, we’re enjoying the treatment of being core disciples in the academy. Now it’s time for us to protect the academy’s honor. Even if we use the last shred of our energy, I will not permit myself to lose on stage. Xu Sanshi, you better get your act together. We must definitely win the next two matches. We have to give it everything we’ve got before our senior brothers and sisters return.”

Bei Bei hit the nail on the head with this one, exuding a mighty power that he’d never had before along with his words.

His martial soul was the Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon. By nature, he had the tyrannnical aura of a king but the only difference was that he normally hid it extremely well. Unless it was under the conditions of a fight, no one could feel that aura around him.

This was the first time Huo Yuhao had seen Bei Bei look so serious. He immediately felt a shiver run down his spine.

Xu Sanshi frowned. “Bei Bei, isn’t it too early? You ought to know that this tournament doesn’t actually belong to us. If we reveal our true abilities too early, our opponents are sure to pursue countermeasures against us in five years.”

Bei Bei lowered his voice and said, “But we can’t wait. Sanshi, do you have such little faith in what’s to come in five years? Five years is a very long time to us.”

Xu Sanshi gazed deeply at Bei Bei and said, “If you want to go all in, I’ll go along with you.”

Bei Bei said in an unhappy tone, “Can you not say it in such a sexual way? I don’t have the slightest bit of interest in you at all. I understand your concerns. Our abilities are basically fixed. Once we reveal our true strength, our foundations won’t change, although they’ll continue to increase over the next five years. But you’ve forgotten something. Even though our abilities are fixed, Yuhao, Wang Dong and Xiao Xiao are at the stage where their abilities haven’t been fixed yet. Yuhao in particular. His Imitation ability is very effective at confusing his opponents. We need to support the team now. Also, they are the true core disciples come five years’ time.”

“Wait a moment. Senior brother, Senior Xu, are you guys saying that you’ve always been hiding your strength all this while?” Huo Yuhao interrupted.

“Uh… You can put it that way.” Bei Bei gave a slight nod as he replied.

The other five exchanged glances with puzzled looks on their faces.

Bei Bei looked at Xu Sanshi, who immediately had a look on his face that said “It’s none of my business”. The meaning behind his look was very clear – if you bring up a topic, you’ll naturally have to resolve any question that arise along with it.

Bei Bei felt helpless as he looked at the curiosity in their eyes. “The truth is… Well, since you guys are now part of the reserve team, it’s no big deal if we tell you guys. Not long after Sanshi and I entered the academy, we became core disciples like you guys. As our cultivation increased, we gradually gained the approval of the academy. We then unofficially got chosen to be the next generation of Shrek’s Seven Monsters. We were the only two who got chosen from the outer courtyard. To put it simply, we are slightly more valuable compared to the core disciples. The academy is slightly more biased towards us in terms of nurturing us and providing us with the necessary resources. However, that was on the precondition that we would have to sit for the inner courtyard examination after we graduated from the outer courtyard. Furthermore, we have to become Shrek Guardians for at least five years.”

“Generally speaking, unofficially declaring someone to be a part of Shrek’s Seven Monsters is a very rare occurrence. For example, no one was unofficially declared as a member of Shrek’s Seven Monsters in Senior sister Ma’s generation. The academy only thinks highly of us because Sanshi and I have rather unusual abilities. Naturally, there’s someone amongst you guys who also has that qualification, and that is Yuhao. This matter has been delayed because the tournament came too soon, and also because Yuhao is now cultivating in both the Martial Soul Department and Soul Tool Department. However, both departments are nurturing him to the best of their abilities, making his treatment equal to ours.”