51 Preparations

Having announced the match, it would take one hour before it started, needing to prepare the arena and letting the teams organize.

While the audience was waiting, they talked about the teams and the opening ceremony, the VIPs not being any different.

"So it is against Shrek" Xue Ye mumbled over his throne "I did not hear of them before but they seem to be..." he focused on Shrek's advertisements "...peculiar."

"They took over the Blue Tyrant Academy. And while I would not reject that they are peculiar indeed, they should not be underestimated, your majesty." Fengzhi said "They could show you a great surprise."

"Oh?" Xue Ye said surprised "Are you interested in them?" He asked. If the Seven Treasure Clan's head was interested in them is was clear that they couldn't be weak, if it was so, recruit them was extremely important, becoming a future power of the empire.

"My daughter is part of Shrek, so I had observed them, assessing their strength

"Your daughter?" Xue Ye mumbled "So it would become a battle between some of your clan members."

Xue Ye could be ignorant about Shrek but there was no way for him to not know the Heaven Dou Academy's team, especially this so talented generation that had recently joined the Seven Treasure Clan and about their immense talent and strength that seemed to grow at an incredible speed. He had even heard about their little dispute with Dugu Bo and regretted not having taken under his wing before everything escalated.

While the Seven Treasure Clan was an important strength of the Heaven Dou Empire and it was better for talented people to join them rather than Spirit Hall or Star Dou Empire, it would have been better for them to directly join under the empire.

"It seems that it would become more interesting than what I thought. What do you think of this battle?" Xue Ye asked Fengzhi.

Fengzhi made a thoughtful face before answering "I do not expect much of it."

"How is it?" Xue Ye was confused "After favoring them so much."

"If both teams fought with their full strength, I am sure that it would be very interesting" Fengzhi explained "but I doubt that's the case. Keeping their strength hidden."

Xue Ye made a thoughtful face "Is that so?"

...

Over Heaven Dou Academy's waiting room, Haotian and his girls plus the other members of the Prince Team laid comfortably on sofas.

"Shrek!" Sun Jiezhi laughed "Had you seen their uniform?! Looking for advertisers?! What a joke!"

"They must be some weak country bumpkins. It seems that they make it easy for our first match, we will be able to easily show off while quickly defeating them" Meigu giggled.

"Yes, it must be a gift! We will smash them like insects. Hahah!" Jiezhi laughed followed by the others of the team with Haotian's group as the exemption.

"Could you please shut up?" Haotian said coldly, the temperature of the room seeming to lower with his words. This caused everyone to quickly shut up, not daring to even breathe.

They of course were aware that Haotian's group was far stronger than them, being showed every time they spared, however, it had clearly changed over these last months. Before, they knew that he was stronger but that wouldn't stop them to try to fight and defend themselves, but now? They didn't even dream about it.

In this time, Haotian's aura and presence had completely changed, becoming incredibly dominant and majestic. If before he was a dangerous beast now he was an immortal monster impossible to fight against it, following all his orders not daring to face the consequences.

"Shrek is not as weak as you thought," Haotian said, retreating his intimidating aura.

Haotian knew that if it all went as the novel, Shrek could had swept over the Heaven Dou secondary team, defeating them in less than 3 minutes.

"For Tian to be wary of them" Chenxiang smiled "I'm looking forward to fighting them." As the most battle junkie, Chenxiang showed her desire for strong opponents.

"What strategy we should take, big brother?" Biyun asked.

Haotian thought about it. In the novel, Shrek finished the combat with Tang San's crowd control 4th skill, caging all Heaven Dou's members, before defeating them with an AOE attack of Mubai's 4th skill. However, he doubted that they would try the same.

"Xiangxiang" Haotian turned to her "I will let you go crazy. Go alone, we will act later if necessary."

That caused Chenxiang to make a big smile, thinking about what could she do in her 1vs7.

"Are you sure, Tian?" Meijing asked concerned "I don't really know Shrek's strength, but with cousin Rong's support, I doubt that Chenxiang would be fine against all of them."

"True" Haotian nodded "That would be if she actually participated."

...

Over Shrek's room, they were discussing about the opening.

"What a disgrace!" Hongjung blamed pointing at Flender "How could you force us to wear such uniform?!" Flender simply ignored him, thinking about the future money that they could win "I'll roast those stuck-up nobles to pent my anger!"

"Yeah, let's show those arrogant nobles a lesson!" Oscar shouted "I'm sure that they had never put any effort in training, having grown like flowers in a greenhouse. Once we defeat them, they would surely go running while crying to their mums!" Oscar laughed.

"Shut up, Oscar!" Rongrong jumped angrily, shouting at him, causing the merry atmosphere to cool, Oscar freezing in his place shocked by Rongrong's answer.

"Sorry" Rongrong apologized for shouting aloud and sat again. For a moment, she had seen Oscar as the people that over her childhood discredit all her efforts, attributing all her growth to her family's money and influence, not being able to control her temper. Moreover, she couldn't let them insult like that at Haotian and Meijing, knowing how strong they were and the effort they put over their training.

"You shouldn't underestimate them. They are very strong" Rongrong said.

"We had already won against the Emperor Team, how strong could they be?" Hongjung waved his hand telling it was nothing.

"Rongrong is right" Xiaogang finally stepped over "This year Heaven Dou's secondary team is certainly different. I certainly can't understand why some of them aren't part of the Emperor Team."

"Those would be their main 7" Xiaogang said "I wouldn't worry much about Sun Jianzhi and Li Meigu. While they aren't weak, their strength is average and we have information about them, but the other 5..." Xiaogang frowned.

"All of them had joined relatively recently, less than a year and the information about them is lacking, being difficult to assess their strength. But their strength shouldn't be much lower than the ones of the Emperor Team." Xiaogang explained as he threw some papers over the table containing information about the team.

"Dugu Yan. You already know her as part of the Emperor Team. Somehow, she changed his team, joining the secondary for an unknown reason" Xiaogang said "You should already be familiar with her potent poison."

"She wasn't able to do anything thanks to brother San, so not much of a problem" Oscar said pointing at Tang San.

Tang San shook his head "It was only thanks to the vinegar that I was able to stop her poison. As we can't use external objects in this tournament, it would be difficult to stop her, we must be extremely wary." This caused Shrek's faces to turn a little paler.

"Bai Chenxiang." Xiaogang said pointing at her information "She should be the most dangerous based on our information. She is part of the Speed Clan and was able to awaken the mythical Golden Roc, considered the top beast spirit in speed and strength, having full control over wind. She most probably is participating to show off her power and increase the Speed Clan's standing, making know that they had returned after so many years hiding."

"What about the other three?" Mubai asked as he really couldn't find much information on the papers.

"They had rarely shown their strength in public so it is unknown, we are only aware of their spirits."

"Chen Meijing with the famous Seven Kill Sword, the top attack power tool spirit" Everyone nodded, clearly knowing about the Sword Douluo, they were aware of the power hidden in the spirit.

"Ma Biyun with Frost Fire Phoenix. A top phoenix spirit that wouldn't fall lower to even yours, Hongjun"

"Finally, the captain of the team, Hu Haotian. His spirit is the Frost Sword. An elemental sword spirit that had a similar element of the Frost Fire Phoenix."

"Be aware of Bai Chenxiang, but don't ignore the others" Xiaogang advised.

"Teacher, I think that we should be aware of him" Tang San said pointing at Haotian. He could remember how he was able to draw a punch with Tai Tan "I don't know about his spirit, but his physical strength is extraordinary, at least as a Spirit Sage."

"What should we do?" Zhuqing asked.

"This match can't be won going halfheartedly" Xiaogang made a thoughtful face, thinking about the plan. Finally, he shook his head "It's not worth" He turned to the children "Rather than showing our full strength, we will keep it a secret, throwing this match."

"What?!" Mubai, Hongjung and Oscar jumped shocked "We are going to surrender without fighting?"

"You should understand teacher's words" Tang San said calmly "We will need to use our full strength to be able to win. Is not worth exhausting ourselves and showing all of our cards here at the first round, it would be better to keep our strength."

Xiaogang nodded "Tang San, Mubai, Xiao wu, Tai Long, Huang Yuan, Jing Ling and Jiang Zhu. You will be the ones to fight." Xiaogang turned to Tang San "San try to make them show their strength, learning more about them." Tang San nodded, clearly knowing that the important about this match wasn't winning, it was obtaining the maximum information about the rivals.

"Clonk" A bell sounded, indicating that it was time for the teams to enter the arena.

"You are forbidden to use your 4th skill" Xiaogang warned "That also goes for your external spirit bone, San. Good luck."