"I have heard about it, Teacher."
"Mm. The preliminaries this time will be held within Polaris Empire territory. The preliminaries should take about half a month, the promotion round about a week, and the finals roughly another week."
"Adding the time needed for the competitors from Polaris and Star Stripe to travel by carriage to Spirit City, the entire tournament process takes about two months from start to finish."
Wu Ling listened carefully and nodded. Then he asked, "Then, Teacher, is there something you need me to do?"
Bibi Dong froze slightly. "Need Ling'er... to do something?"
In the next moment, Bibi Dong reacted and said, "I came to ask whether you had any intention of watching the matches."
Wu Ling blinked twice. That blank, adorable expression deserved at least an A-rank beautiful-boy rating, or else it would be an insult to his face.
"But Teacher, did we not agree before that I only needed to watch the finals?"
"Is that so? I have been busy recently, so my memory is a little unclear. I came to confirm it. You are certain you only want to watch the finals?"
After that, Bibi Dong casually asked Wu Ling a few more questions, then left with Yue Guan.
Wu Ling watched Bibi Dong's departing back, still puzzled. Can a Titled Sage forget things too?
But then he thought about it again. On Soul Land, hidden weapons could kill gods, and Titled Sages could be poisoned to death. If that was true, then a Titled Sage forgetting something suddenly became easier to accept... like hell it did.
Wu Ling might not know what other Titled Sages were like, but he was far too familiar with Bibi Dong. Even if Lucius Cross developed senility and Tang San suffered infantile paralysis, Bibi Dong would never simply forget something.
For a moment, Wu Ling considered several possibilities, but rejected them one by one. He even suspected Rose's potions for Bibi Dong, but Rose was recalled and her memories were digested every half month. There were no suspicious points at all, so that possibility could also be ruled out.
"Could I really be overthinking it?"
Unable to reach a conclusion, Wu Ling gave up thinking about it and returned to his grand cultivation plan.
"Almost there. Almost. I am just one step away from level thirty-four. With the cultivation method and Rose's potions, I feel like my cultivation speed as a Spirit Elite is even faster than when I was a Spirit Adept. I may reach Spirit Meister in less than two years."
And so, another two months passed.
"Polaris! Polaris! Polaris!"
"Spirit Hall! Spirit Hall! Spirit Hall!"
In Spirit City's tournament arena, Team Polaris One and Spirit Hall's team were fighting for the final championship of the Continental Advanced Spirit Master Academy Elite Tournament. Around the arena, the stands were packed with a sea of spectators.
Wu Ling sat somewhere in the front row. It was clearly an inconspicuous seat, yet from there, he could see everything happening on the field at a glance.
Bibi Dong had originally planned to have Wu Ling sit with her on the high platform, but for the same old reason, he did not want to be that conspicuous yet. So Bibi Dong had found him this excellent seat instead.
On the field, Polaris Empire's team was led by a direct descendant of the Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon Clan at the Spirit Meister rank. Aside from their support member, every team member was also a Spirit Meister.
Their support member was only a level-thirty-something Spirit Elite, but his Martial Soul was the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Pagoda, known as the world's number one auxiliary Martial Soul.
This rare cooperation between the upper three sects, the Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon Clan and Seven Treasure Glazed Tile line, truly gave the world a small shock with its strength.
As for Spirit Hall, its team consisted of seven Spirit Meisters. Their captain was a man whose Martial Soul was the White-Armored Earth Dragon.
In Wu Ling's eyes, the chance of victory between Polaris and Spirit Hall was roughly fifty-fifty.
Spirit Hall had one more Spirit Meister than Polaris, but a Spirit Master with the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Pagoda was far more useful than an ordinary Spirit Meister.
In addition, the Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon bloodline was inherently far above the White-Armored Earth Dragon. That erased the Spirit Hall captain's advantage in Spirit Power level.
So from overall strength alone, both sides had nearly equal odds of victory.
But if one spoke of Spirit Hall's hope of winning, it still lay with their main force, the White-Armored Earth Dragon. Through aura alone, Wu Ling could tell that the Spirit Master had blood on his hands.
If the fight truly turned into a life-or-death struggle, the White-Armored Earth Dragon Spirit Master should be able to suppress the Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon across from him.
And since the Star Stripe main team was absent from these finals, Wu Ling could roughly confirm from the original story's description that the final winner would still be Spirit Hall.
Of course, just in case, Wu Ling had asked Bibi Dong to give the basic cultivation method to that Spirit Master. It would be made public soon anyway. Letting one person see it a few days early was not a big deal.
After nearly twenty minutes of fighting, only the core fighters from both sides remained on the field: the Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon Spirit Master and the White-Armored Earth Dragon Spirit Master.
By this stage, both sides were nearly drained of Spirit Power. What they competed with now was willpower.
During the battle, Wu Ling had already judged from their decision-making and reaction speed that the Spirit Hall fighter was indeed better.
The scales of victory had originally been even with only a slight tilt. But with Wu Ling's added weight, they now fell completely toward Spirit Hall.
When the Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon Spirit Master used up the last trace of his Spirit Power, he could only release his first hundred-year Spirit Skill. The White-Armored Earth Dragon Spirit Master across from him, however, used his fourth thousand-year Spirit Skill.
The Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon Spirit Master immediately shouted in disbelief, "Impossible! Your Spirit Power level is higher than mine, but with support from the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Pagoda, our total Spirit Power should be about the same. Why can you still use your fourth Spirit Skill?"
But when he looked toward the referee, the referee only shook his head, indicating that the other side had not swallowed any medicine to recover Spirit Power.
After learning the truth, that Spirit Master was filled with grief and anger. In the end, amid helpless roars, he was blasted off the stage by the White-Armored Earth Dragon Spirit Master's fourth Spirit Skill.
In an instant, the crowd supporting Spirit Hall burst into excited cheers. The words 'Spirit Hall' echoed across the entire arena.
Amid the crowd's shouts, the tournament held once every five years officially came to an end.
Wu Ling did not spare another glance for the scene on the field. After all, regardless of which team it was, he could challenge them alone. They could not stir even the slightest interest in him.
"The only regret this time is that I did not get to see Star Stripe's Netherworld White Tiger."
"But forget it. I do not care that much anyway. The urgent matter now is preparing for the publicity campaign."