Chapter 270 The entire audience was shocked by Liu Yuan's terrifying strength
Liu Yuan's flat, monotone voice echoed across the deathly silent competition stage.
The referee was still somewhat taken aback.
He stood frozen in place, his raised right hand trembling slightly, yet unable to bring it down.
He glanced at the spotless white-clad youth standing with his hands behind his back, then at the seven Tianjia Academy main force members lying haphazardly on the ground, completely unconscious. Two unpleasant swallowing sounds escaped his somewhat withered throat.
What exactly happened?
The referee kept asking himself these questions.
There were no aftershocks from the clash of soul power, no intense light released by martial souls, and not even the slightest clash of the most basic soul skills.
How did the entire offensive and defensive team, who were so aggressive and trying to advance with their armored defenses just a second ago, suddenly collapse and become unconscious the next second?
After a brief silence, a huge commotion, even greater than yesterday's, erupted from the stands around the square, like a volcanic eruption.
"What...what happened? Why did those seven people lie down on their own?"
In the middle row of the stands, a rogue Soul Master suddenly stood up from his seat. His face was flushed with shock, and he gripped the stone railing in front of him tightly with both hands.
"Is this an act? Tianjia Academy is a top-tier team in the Douling Empire, how could they have been completely defeated without even touching their opponents?"
"No! It's not acting! Look at the face of that captain from Tianjia Academy, he's turned deathly pale, and even his lips are twitching. This is definitely not faked!"
"What exactly happened just now? Liu Yuan clearly didn't do anything, he didn't even release his martial spirit or spirit rings, so how did he manage to knock the person unconscious?"
A dense cacophony of voices mingled together, creating a thick, viscous soundscape that piled up wildly in the skies above the outskirts of Mingdu. Hundreds of thousands of civilians and soul masters from various sects whispered amongst themselves, their eyes filled with utter bewilderment and shock.
This bizarre battle, which completely defied conventional understanding, left viewers who expected a fierce and epic clash utterly bewildered.
Amidst the overwhelming doubts and clamor, the atmosphere in the Shrek Academy area on the south side of the preparation bench instantly plummeted to freezing point.
Bei Bei, Wang Dong, Xiao Xiao, and the others froze almost simultaneously.
Xu Sanshi's relaxed smile froze completely. He stared intently at the seven heavily armored bodies lying on the ground on the big screen, and stammered, "Big...Senior Brother, Yuhao, did you see it clearly? What kind of sorcery did that kid use?"
Beibei did not answer; his fists were clenched tightly without him noticing, and his eyes were filled with a heavy expression.
Sitting in his wheelchair, Huo Yuhao's face was even more ashen. His deep, spiritual eyes shimmered with a frantic, turbulent light. As one of the very few Soul Masters present with a Spiritual Attribute Martial Soul, he felt a profound sense of dread in that instant.
"It's mental energy…" Huo Yuhao said slowly, his voice low and hoarse, with a tremor he himself didn't even realize, "It's definitely an extremely terrifying pure mental energy impact."
"What? Mental energy?" Wang Dong turned his head in disbelief to look at Huo Yuhao. "But we were sitting in the audience just now, and we didn't sense any fluctuations of mental energy at all! Yuhao, didn't your spiritual eyes detect it either?"
Huo Yuhao shook his head bitterly, gripping the armrests of his wheelchair tightly with both hands: "That's the most terrifying part. Just now, in that instant, I only vaguely sensed a very faint tremor the moment the captain of Tianjia Academy fell to the ground. This shows that Liu Yuan's control over his mental power has reached a point of perfect internal restraint, without leaking out even a trace. His attack was completely concentrated into a single line, and all the power was precisely smashed into the minds of those seven people, without wasting a single bit. We were sitting below the stage, so naturally we couldn't sense anything."
Upon hearing Huo Yuhao's almost terrifying explanation, the spirits that the Shrek Academy members had finally managed to lift thanks to Xuanzi were instantly doused with ice water once again.
In the center of the Shrek team, Xuanzi, who had been confident of victory and full of arrogance, was now completely speechless.
Snap.
Xuanzi dropped the wine gourd in his hand onto the table. The rich wine flowed out of the spout, wetting the rag, but he didn't care at all.
His usually somewhat cloudy, squinty eyes were wide open at this moment, and the arrogant, earthy-yellow glint in them was completely replaced by intense shock and fear.
Xuanzi stared intently at the white-robed youth on the stage, his heart filled with turbulent emotions.
He never expected that Liu Yuan's control over his mental power had reached such a level that it was almost imperceptible. Although he was already a level 99 Limit Douluo, far surpassing his opponent in terms of realm, even he, a Limit Douluo, would have missed that attack if he hadn't carefully observed the changes in the mental fluctuations of the Heavenly Armor Academy.
Xuanzi's old face twitched slightly. Although he still didn't know the true extent of Liu Yuan's spiritual power, the fact that he could instantly kill a Soul Emperor with six Soul Rings and six high-level defensive Soul Masters with just a pure outpouring of spiritual will, without even releasing his Soul Rings, led Xuanzi to make a somewhat appalling conjecture:
This kid named Liu Yuan's current true mental strength has reached at least the terrifying level of a Soul Saint, or even a Soul Douluo!
A young man who was only twenty years old actually possessed a pure spiritual sea that rivaled that of a high-level expert.
At this moment, Xuanzi sat in his chair, a fine layer of cold sweat seeping down his back without him realizing it. The arrogance in his heart, the unwavering logic that "Liu Yuan dared not make a move because he was guilty and afraid," was completely shattered by Liu Yuan in an extremely cruel and direct way in front of this row of unconscious armored trainees lying on the ground.
This is not out of fear or apprehension.
This kid genuinely felt that his opponent wasn't worthy of making him open his eyes.
Looking at the white-clad figure still standing with his hands behind his back, Xuanzi's hands, hidden in the long sleeves of his gray robe, began to tremble slightly, unable to be contained.
A profound sense of dread, unlike anything he had ever felt from the younger generation in his hundred years of life, began to spread wildly through his heart.
At the same time, the silence on the competition stage was finally broken.
The referee, who had been frozen in mid-air, finally regained his senses. Facing Liu Yuan's calm urging, he took a deep breath, forcibly suppressing his inner shock, turned his head, waved towards the medical soul master area below the golden platform, and shouted, "Medical team, go up on stage immediately! Check the physical condition of the Tianjia Academy students!"
At his command, three healing-type Soul Masters, dressed in white robes and radiating gentle life-attribute Soul Power fluctuations, hurriedly stepped onto the competition stage.
The three healing soul masters didn't dare to delay and immediately spread out, crouching beside the captain of Tianjia Academy and several main force members. Their soul rings—two yellow, two purple, and one black—intertwined and flickered, and a soft green healing aura instantly covered the bodies of the unconscious individuals.
However, as the healing soul power penetrated deeper, the expressions of the three healing soul masters, who had initially remained relatively calm, underwent a drastic change at the same time.
The medical team leader at the forefront—a six-ring Soul Emperor over fifty years old—was placing his hands on the forehead of the Heavenly Armor Academy captain. The moment his hands touched the other's skin, he recoiled as if electrocuted.
His forehead was instantly covered in a dense layer of cold sweat, and his eyes were filled with utter disbelief.
"How are they? How badly are they injured? Have they suffered serious internal injuries to their soul power?" The referee stepped forward anxiously and asked in a low voice.
The medical team leader slowly stood up, his voice trembling uncontrollably. He turned to look at Liu Yuan, who remained expressionless not far away, swallowed hard, and then said to the referee, "Report...reporting to the head referee. The seven students from Tianjia Academy have intact bones, meridians, and even their soul power. There are no signs of physical or external soul power attacks."
"No injuries? Then why did they faint?" The referee frowned.
"It's because of their spiritual sea..." The medical team leader wiped the cold sweat from his forehead, his voice filled with undisguised terror.
"After careful observation by the three of us, we found that the mental energy of these seven students... was subjected to a devastating external force in that instant, and is now completely exhausted. In particular, their captain's mental essence was violently shaken, resulting in large-scale fractures. He was indeed directly knocked unconscious by a pure and high-intensity mental attack. If he does not recover in time, he will likely suffer permanent mental trauma."
boom--!
Although the medical team leader's words were addressed to the referee, they were still clearly transmitted throughout the entire plaza thanks to the miniature amplification devices around the competition stage.
Having received confirmation from the chief healing soul master, the hundreds of thousands of people and various sects in the audience who had been wondering if it was all an act or if something was wrong with Tianjia Academy itself fell silent in that instant.
It was definitely a mental attack.
Without even releasing their martial souls or soul rings, they wiped out an entire elite defensive academy team, all composed of Soul Masters or higher, solely through their mental power. This godlike feat completely shattered their imagination of the younger generation's fighting abilities.
After hearing the definitive answer, the referee's eyes, which were fixed on Liu Yuan, were filled with indescribable awe and horror.
He turned around, facing the entire audience, forcefully using his soul power to suppress his trembling voice, and finally brought his raised right hand down heavily at that moment:
"After confirmation by the medical team, the entire Tianjia Advanced Soul Master Academy team has lost their combat ability. I hereby announce—the winner of the third match of the second round of the first stage elimination tournament is the Tianhun Royal Academy team!"
As the referee's resounding voice faded, the long-silent plaza erupted once again into a new wave of even more fervent and awe-inspiring clamor. Countless people stared at the young man in white, whose hands had never been lowered from behind his back, their eyes filled with profound reverence.
(End of chapter)