Douluo Dalu - Volume 01-48
Page 161
“Grandmaster, this one might not be appropriate.”
Dai Mubai rose his hand to interrupt Grandmaster.
“Spirit abilities have no eyes, what if we accidentally kill people? If the two sides are of similar strength, fighting all out will inevitably cause incidents.”
Grandmaster looked towards Dai Mubai and said solemnly:
“What you say is correct. But, you need to know that the reason the two empires are hosting this tournament is not to let all the schools fight for a victory, but to find the best talented people to recruit. Including Spirit Palace and the kingdoms within the two empires, they all have similar thoughts. Those that can represent Advanced Spirit Master Academies are all people of outstanding talent as well as the future of the Spirit Master World. Nurturing a spirit master is very difficult, and the amount of spirit masters in the entire continent was never more than a million. Prohibiting killing might be a restriction, but it is also protection for you kids. From my perspective, this rule is very correct.”
Dai Mubai still disapproved of the rule. Though he didn’t like killing, he hated a sense of restriction when fighting even more.
Grandmaster continued:
“Other than these two strict rules, the others are standard. Everything is based on fairness. For example: During the match, no using food or medicine created by non participating spirit masters. Only Food or Healing System Spirit Masters on the stage can replenish their teammates. In other words, if you want to obtain supplements on the stage, then a Support Type Spirit Master must take up one stop. This is to prevent teams with Food System Spirit Masters from cheating. Also, you can’t use weapons other than your own spirit. Because of this, Tang San, the hidden weapons you make can’t be used in this tournament. You must remember this, or else we will be disqualified instantly.”
Getting to there, Grandmaster paused.
“The main rules are these. If anything else needs to be mentioned, I will tell you during the tournament. Now, lets talk about the system of this tournament.”
While he was talking, Grandmaster took a wooden stick he prepared and drew two connecting circles in the ground.
“These two circles represent the two empires.” He then drew a small circle that touched both large circles. “This one represents the Spirit Palace.”
“Within the two empires, there are almost a hundred Advanced Spirit Master Academies. Every academy has a chance to participate, and the two empires’ official Advanced Spirit Master Academies will have two slotsl. For example, Heaven Dou Empire has Heaven Dou Imperial Academy. These two official teams will be split into a main team and a secondary team. The main team will be advanced to the finals phase instantly, which is a guarantee for the two royal families. The secondary team will be with everyone else, participating in the preliminaries.”
Grandmaster then drew a few circles inside the two large circles.
“The preliminaries are split into areas. Within, with Heaven Dou City as the center, within Heaven Dou Empire’s bounds, all that do not belong to a kingdom or dukedom will come to this area for the preliminaries. All the academies of the kingdoms and dukedoms will be matched based on their areas. Heaven Dou Empire has four kingdoms and one dukedom. In other words, counting the Heaven Dou Area, there will be six preliminary areas. Other than the one team that is in the finals already, these six areas will be fighting over fifteen spots. Because our area has a lot of academies and is also directly subordinate to the empire, there will be five spots to fight over. Every other area has two spots. Star Luo Empire is almost identical to Heaven Dou Empire.”
“Which means, through the preliminaries, the amount of teams that go to the next stage will be thirty. These thirty teams will all participate in the finals. But before participating, there will be a promotion stage. This promotion stage is a ranking of the thirty teams to decide the order of matches in the finals.”
[1] RAW here is seventy thousand, but let’s take that as a typo.
[2] Idiom: New side issues arising.
[3] (蓝银囚笼) “Blue Silver Prisoner Cage”
[4] (黄远) “Yellow Distance”
[5] (京灵) “Capital Spirit”
[6] (绛珠) “Purple-Red Pearl”
Chapter 090: Continental Advanced Spirit Master Academy Elite Tournament
Part 1 (TL by Organicity)
“The qualifying phase of the tournament has a different format from the promotional phase. The combat format of the qualifying phase is what you are all most familiar with: seven member team battles. It is a round robin competition where the five teams with the most victories will proceed to the promotional phase. The format of the promotional phase of the tournament is special. The competing teams are still limited to seven members but the battles are now one-on-one singles with the victorious team member staying on the field to face successive members of the opposing team, until the students on one side have all lost.”
“As a result, the qualifying phase can be said to demonstrate the combat prowess of the team as a whole while the promotional phase is used as a stage to demonstrate each member’s individual prowess. As to the reason for having a promotional phase; it’s for the two empires and the Spirit Hall to more easily recognize spectacular talents within the competing teams.”
“The finals phase has thirty three teams competing, and the format is random draw bracket single-round elimination.”
“Grandmaster, please wait a moment”
Oscar interrupted, as he asked with some confusion,
“Grandmaster, did you not just say that the two empires both have one seeded team and fifteen normal teams that advances through the qualifying and promotional phases? If so, that adds up to thirty two teams competing in the finals, where does the 33rd comes from?”
Grandmaster smiled slightly, “I had forgotten to mention it; the finals doesn’t have two seeded teams but three. The third seed comes from the Spirit Hall’s own personal team, and this team can be said to have the highest potential for victory. Although the Spirit Hall isn’t an advanced Spirit Master academy, it most definitely has its own organization that trains their younger spirit masters. In the previous three advanced spirit master championships, other than Star Luo Empire winning once, the other two victories were all taken by the Spirit Hall teams. They will also be your most powerful competitors in this tournament. From my experiences, the team Spirit Hall is sending out this time will definitely be stronger than the Emperor Team you met before.”
The Shrek Seven Devils looked at each other, but what they saw in each other’s eyes was not worry but burning curiosity and excitement.
After experiencing so much combat in the Spirit Area and even becoming a never-before-seen rank thirty gold spirit fighting team, what they wanted most now was exactly a powerful opponent. Without a powerful opponent, how else would they be able to better hone their abilities?
“The Promotional Phase will decide the ranking of each empire’s teams separately, from rank one to fifteen. The benefits of this ranking will become apparent in the finals phase. The finals phase’s format is single-round elimination. Each round, there will be a few teams that draw empty brackets. The first round, the teams with empty brackets will be the three seeds; the other thirty teams will face off against one another with the fifteen winning teams attending the next round of battles. In the second round, including the three seed teams, there will be eighteen teams left. This time, from the remaining teams, the two teams that ranked first in the promotional phase will face an empty bracket. The other sixteen teams will face off with the eight winning ones progressing to the third round. The third round will have ten teams in total with again, the two highest ranking ones drawing blank brackets. Those that have already drawn blank brackets will not get another chance. After the third round, the remaining teams should be the six strongest teams of the championship. This time, there will be no empty brackets. The fourth round will still rely on blind ballot to decide the opposing teams with the winning o
nes being the final three teams. In order to ensure fairness in the placement of the last three teams, the teams must undergo both group and individual elimination battles.”
“First of all is the individual elimination contest, similar to the format of the promotional phase. The three teams will proceed in alternating order. Each team will send out one member, the first two will face off against each other with the winner facing the member from the third team, until the two of the teams run out of members. The team of the winner will direct head to the finals. The two losing team will then face off in group combat to compete for the chance at the finals. The last two teams at the finals will then compete for the champion title in the final fight of the championship.”
After listening to Grandmaster’s long explanation, Ma Hongjun was unable to hold back,
“Grandmaster, why is this competition so complicated? Just listening is making me dizzy.”
Dai Mubai snapped,
“What’s there to be confused about? It doesn’t matter what kind of rules there are, as long as we win every single battle, at the end won’t we be the champions?”
Grandmaster slighted nodded,
“Mubai’s right. You should become familiar with the different phases of the championship, but in the face of absolute strength, it’s not the most important. During the tournament, I will remind you of the specific rules and help you analyze your opponents. Now everyone stand up. For these last couple of days, what you need to do is to practise mock combat. Oh, right. There’s something I must remind you, for the Heaven Dou division qualifying phase, you seven little monster can only have three people participating in battles at any one time. Furthermore, Rongrong will absolutely never appear during the qualifying phase. I will have a special training regimen for her during this time.”
“Ah? Only three?”
Even Tang San couldn’t help but be shocked.
Grandmaster replied with a stern look,
“What? You have something to complain about? During the qualifying phase, the team will consist of Tai Long, Huang Yuan[1], Jing Ling[2] and Jiang Zhu[3] four people. The remaining three will be for you to decide amongst yourselves with Rongrong being the exception.”
Tang San probed:
“Teacher, is this to hide our power? But, what if we lose?”
Grandmaster calmly said:
“What? Do you not even have this much confidence? Your true opponents are in the promotional and Finals phases, the qualifying phase will definitely not pose any problem. If you were to expose the entirety of your strengths now for everyone to see, then won’t it be much harder for you to achieve victory later?”
Tang San thought deeply about Grandmaster’s words and only after exchanging a glance with Dai Mubai, nodded his head,
“Teacher, I understand.”
Grandmaster clapped the shoulder of disciple he was proud of and said,
“I knew you would understand. The actual combat tactics on the field will be for you to decide. The team members that will participate is also up to you. All I can advise you is that, during the qualifying phase, the less you Shrek Seven Devils show yourselves, the better. In the finals phase, the opponents you will face will be even stronger than what you can imagine. You have only one goal. For this goal, give it your all.”
In the following few days, the Shrek Academy’s team members participating in this championship underwent combat training under the directions of Grandmaster. Especially for the four new additions, each day was passed under Grandmaster’s millstone.
Trying to create a coherent team of Spirit Masters was not an easy goal to reach, but if in this team, there was an exceptional control system spirit master, then everything would become much simpler. Tang San doubtlessly could take on such a role, and under his deployment and leadership, the four new members slowly became familiar with the Shrek Seven Devils’ fighting methods. At the same time, Tang San also confirmed the members that will participate in the qualifying phase. The main force would consist of four of the Shrek Seven Monsters.
Although the qualifying phase was not very important, they still needed to guarantee a spot for advancement. Therefore Tang San decided that the roster would be, including himself who had to appear, Evil Eye White Tiger Dai Mubai, who possessed the strongest spirit power, food system Spirit Master Big Sausage Uncle Oscar, as well as close quarters power attack system Spirit Master Xiao Wu. Fatty, Zhu Zhuqing and Ning Rongrong would stay hidden. All preparation had been finished.
Three days later, Heaven Dou Empire capital, Heaven Dou City.
Continental Advanced Spirit Master Academy Elite Tournament, Heaven Dou division opening commemoration was being hosted by Heaven Dou City in a magnificent ceremony.
Being the largest spirit master competition within the spirit master world, this championship did not only attract the attention of Spirit Masters. From the imperial families, nobilities to the commoners, every single citizen in Heaven Dou City saw this competition as their biggest festival. The opening ceremony would be held in the Heaven Dou Grand Spirit Arena. As early as a month ago, the tickets to the ceremony had already been completely sold out. The price for these tickets was the same as the ones to enter the central arena ring of the Spirit Arena.
As the main competition arena of the Heaven Dou Division, the Heaven Dou Grand Spirit Arena had already stopped all arena battles a month beforehand to undergo interior remodelling. All sub arenas within the Spirit Arena had been merged with the central arena ring to form a massive stadium for the competition.
Excluding the VIP section which remained in the entire north side of the area, the remodelled Spirit Area could now hold eighty thousand spectators at the same time. The revenue from the ticket sales was large, but so was the amount the Spirit Arena had spent.
For the next period of time, all matches of the qualifying phase in the Heaven Dou Division would take place here.
In the early twilight before the sun had yet to rise from the east, the newly remodelled Heaven Dou Spirit Arena had already attracted an enormous crowd of spectators. Having arrived so early, these audience members would obviously not be given early access to the arena, because each ticket had its own designated seating. What these people were here for on the first day of the opening ceremony, was to have a closer look at the young spirit masters attending this competition.
Among the crowd, there were numerous young maidens with hopeful gazes. It was just as Grandmaster had said before, the number of Spirit Masters on the entire continent added together was less than six figures. The students that could represent their advanced academies and attend this important competition were even more the cream of the crop. Furthermore, with the age restriction of twenty five, they were without a doubt the best targets for these girls with romance in their hearts. If they were able to marry a powerful spirit master, fame and fortune would doubtlessly follow.
Even some of nobles who had bought tickets for the VIP area were also gathered outside. For the nobility, scouting spirit masters was always exciting, never boring.
The Continental Advanced Spirit Master Academy Elite Tournament was by its nature a cradle for talented people. Let alone those that achieved favourable results in this competition, even the students that were just participating would become objects of desire for nobles and powerful clans.
Part 2 (TL by Bagelson)
Right now, with Heaven Dou Great Arena as its heart, practically a third of Heaven Dou City was a scene of an unbroken sea of people. Starting from several days ago, every level inn in Heaven Dou City was filled. The population of the city had gone up by practically fifty percent. This showed the attraction the Continental Advanced Spirit Master Academy Elite Tournament had on people.
For the sake of this tournament, Heaven Dou City had been transferred a whole five thousand city guardsmen to keep order, to as far as possible prevent disturbances.
“Wah, so much people!”
Ning Rongrong couldn’t keep from crying out in surprise. L
ooking east or looking west, this was the first time she had seen such an amount of people.
Oscar served as flower guarding emissary, guarding at Ning Rongrong’s side, as far as possible keeping his head down, not letting other people see his appearance.
It wasn’t just Oscar, besides a few dazzled girls, whether it was the Shrek Seven Devils or the several substitutes, right now they all kept their heads down. Because, the clothing they wore really made them blush from shame.
The official Shrek Academy uniform wasn’t any common green, but rather a color somewhere between yellow and green. Using Dai Mubai’s words to describe it: snot green.
For the sake of this Academy tournament, dean Flender had these uniforms specially made according to his strange sense of aesthetics. The fabric was actually pretty good, and it was also comfortable. But besides the snot green, each person’s chest was also practically covered by a large Shrek monster design, and the color of this design was a bright emerald green.
This still wasn’t much; most out of the ordinary was on each person’s back, several big words embroidered in red silk: Looking for advertisers.
Below these big words was still a row of smaller ones: For advertising fees please call on Shrek Academy’s dean, mister Flender, for a personal meeting.
Because of this competition uniform, the Shrek Seven Devils had once resisted violently, but in the end they were still suppressed by Flender’s abuse of authority. In front of everyone’s supreme efforts, Flender just expressed reluctance. If they truly had sponsors, then out of the whole advertisement income they could take out one third to pay for their competing team members, and the rest set apart for the Academy’s construction funds.