As Dugu Yan whispered those comforting words into her ear, the little cat girl Jiang Jing gradually realized that her initial panic had indeed caused her to overreact. After all, even though that mysterious man had been furious with her, he had only torn her old rags to pieces and thoroughly spanked her bare bottom as a correction. He hadn't forced himself on her sexually, and he had even provided her with a brand-new set of high-quality clothes afterward.
"Mm... Sister Yan'er, I'll make sure to apologize to Master tomorrow morning," Jiang Jing murmured softly, her ears twitching.
"Pfft, you don't even need to call that bad guy 'Master,'" Dugu Yan chuckled, rolling her eyes. "Let me tell you a secret: all you need to do here is enjoy your life to the fullest, play with your new sisters every day, and occasionally act cute or act spoiled around him when he's nearby."
Dugu Yan leaned in even closer, her warm breath tickling Jiang Jing's furry ear. "After all, that bad guy isn't some depraved pervert who loses his mind the moment he sees a girl. If you don't open that door yourself, he won't ever force you into his bed."
Hearing Dugu Yan speak so casually about such intimate matters, Jiang Jing's face instantly burned with a deep scarlet blush.
"Sister Yan'er..."
Jiang Jing looked at her with wide, star-struck eyes. In her mind, a girl as spectacularly beautiful and immensely powerful as Dugu Yan shouldn't know about these things so vividly. Unless...
"Shh~ You've only just arrived, so knowing too much right off the bat isn't good for you. Let's just cuddle up and go to sleep."
Ultimately, Dugu Yan found herself completely addicted to the supreme joy of petting a real cat girl. From that night onward, Jiang Jing officially joined Xue Ke and Doudou as the third sacred mascot of the Tianshui harem. After all, who could possibly refuse a adorable, fluffy-eared cat girl personally serving them freshly squeezed fruit juices and perfectly tempered medicinal baths every single day?
The next morning, a brand-new day began.
Inside Fu Ye's spacious private quarters, the battle lines had finally settled. Xiao Wu, Liu Ruyan, and Liu Erlong—the three formidable generals of his inner circle—lay completely defeated and scattered across the wide, disheveled bedsheets.
The three women had initially formed an alliance, attempting to use a tag-team strategy to drain Fu Ye's energy. Unfortunately for them, their physical endurance completely collapsed against Fu Ye's terrifying, god-tier stamina. After a full night of riding the battlefield, Fu Ye stood victorious, while his wives could barely lift a finger to protest. For a man of his ungodly physical stats, a wild night like this was nothing more than a light warm-up.
A flash of time passed, and two months vanished in the blink of an eye.
The grandest event on the continent was finally about to open its curtains: The Continental Advanced Spirit Master Tournament.
This prestigious tournament was jointly organized and hosted by the imperial families of the Heaven Dou and Star Roar Empires, with the Spirit Hall acting as the official co-organizer. It stood as the most massive and influential competition in the entire Spirit Master world, with a level of competition second only to Spirit Hall's internal elite selection trials.
To maintain fairness, several strict regulations had to be followed by every participating institution:
Age Restriction: All participating academy students must be strictly under the age of 25.
Team Capacity: Every academy must field a consistent roster of exactly 7 active players for every single match.
Safety Protocols: The matches were strictly for friendly exchange and martial growth. Competitors were expected to minimize permanent disabling injuries, and causing the death of an opponent was strictly forbidden. Any team guilty of a lethal strike would not only face massive financial and legal retributions but would also be instantly disqualified and expelled from the tournament.
Inside the Tianshui Academy briefing room, Fu Ye stood before his large group of beautiful girls, breaking down the structural format of the upcoming tournament.
"Before we reach the main stage, we will have to go through several rounds of qualifiers, which are split by regional divisions. On our side, the Heaven Dou Empire uses the capital, Heaven Dou City, as its primary central division. Every advanced academy within the imperial territory that doesn't belong to a vassal kingdom or duchy will compete right here in the capital division."
Fu Ye traced a finger along the map on the wall. "The various vassal kingdoms and duchies will run their own independent qualifiers. The Heaven Dou Empire rules over four kingdoms and one duchy. This means that including our capital division, there are a total of six independent qualifier divisions across the empire."
He turned back to the girls, ensuring they understood the stakes. "Excluding the single imperial team that has already been granted a direct seed position into the grand finals, these six regional divisions will fiercely battle over a total of fifteen qualifying spots. Because the capital division boasts the largest concentration of elite advanced academies and is directly governed by the imperial throne, we have been allocated five qualifying spots. The other four kingdoms and one duchy will only receive two qualifying spots each. The Star Roar Empire operates under an almost identical structure."
Tournament Progression Breakdown
StageStructure & LogisticsQualifiers6 Imperial Divisions compete to secure one of the 15 available spots for the next stage.Promotion StageThe 30 qualifying teams (15 from Heaven Dou, 15 from Star Roar) face each other in a pure ranking tournament to determine seeding and match order for the final bracket.Grand FinalsThe ultimate knockout bracket hosted at the heart of the continent to crown the absolute champion.
Hearing Fu Ye's detailed breakdown, Xiao Wu's big brown eyes suddenly flashed with an excited, mischievous light.
"Under twenty-five years old? Brother Fu Ye! Does that mean Xiao Wu can actually go up there and join the fun too?!"
Even though she was officially a respected teacher at Tianshui Academy, her actual physical age was well within the legal limits. Calculating by human standards, she was currently only around twenty-three or twenty-four years old! She was completely eligible to play!
Shui Bing'er and the rest of the Tianshui team froze, their jaws dropping in unison. "Huh?!"
The entire room of young girls went completely numb. Teacher Xiao Wu wants to play on the student team?!
"Ahem! Xiao Wu, stop talking nonsense," Fu Ye coughed dryly, rubbing his temples in utter exasperation. "Our Tianshui battle team already has a long waiting list of members eager to get some stage time. You're literally a teacher here, you can't just go out there and rob your own students of their spotlight."
Fu Ye felt incredibly helpless. What was this crazy rabbit thinking? Right now, the lowest-ranked member of their active student roster was already a Level 45 Spirit Ancestor, with the vast majority sitting comfortably at the Spirit King level or higher. Their team was already an unstoppable, reality-breaking cheat code. If they unleashed a Level 98 Peak Hyper Douluo into a student tournament, the entire continent would probably cry foul.
Down in the seats, the girls immediately began whispering among themselves.
"Sister Bing'er, what is Teacher Xiao Wu's actual cultivation level anyway?" Dugu Yan asked in a hushed whisper. Having joined the academy later than the others, she had never actually seen Xiao Wu unleash her spirit rings in battle.
"Uh... Teacher Xiao Wu is a Level 98 Peak Hyper Douluo," Shui Bing'er replied blankly, her eyes staring into space. "If she actually walks onto that stage..."
Shui Bing'er stopped talking and completely gave up on thinking. Forget it, sisters. We are already completely invincible. Let's just lie down and coast to victory. A Hyper Douluo playing in a student tournament? If they somehow managed to lose a single match, it would be the biggest conspiracy in human history!
Three minutes later...
"Aww~ Is that so? Fine..." Xiao Wu pouted, her long, fluffy rabbit ears drooping sadly against her head as she slumped dejectedly against Fu Ye's shoulder.
Seeing her look so defeated, Shui Bing'er and the other girls couldn't help but chuckle, though a small part of them felt a bit dramatic.
Tianshui Team: "Damn, our ultimate, official server-breaking cheat code just got banned by the admin."
Fu Ye: ("▔□▔)
Honestly, if he didn't ban Xiao Wu from entering, the tournament wouldn't even be a game anymore. A Hyper Douluo going out of her way to bully young Spirit Ancestors and Spirit Kings was a bit too visually offensive.
"There is exactly one week left before the opening ceremony of the tournament," Fu Ye announced, clapping his hands to regain their attention. "During this period, I want everyone to rest well, eat properly, and build up your peak condition. As for our starting lineups, we will continue to use our classic method: picking names out of a hat for a completely randomized rotation."
The current Tianshui battle roster had grown to a massive eleven active members. If someone had terrible luck during the random drawings, they might not even get a chance to step onto the dirt before the grand finals arrived.
Meanwhile, inside the campus of the Heaven Dou Royal Academy...
"According to my top-secret insider information, the grand prize for the champions of this Continental Tournament will very likely be three exceptionally high-grade, ten-thousand-year spirit bones! We must seize them at all costs!"
Tang Chuan—the current vice-captain of the Heaven Dou Royal Academy's second tier team—declared with burning, impassioned intensity. Hearing his words, Yu Tianheng and the rest of the elite members gasped, their eyes flashing with immediate greed and excitement. A three-piece set of ten-thousand-year spirit bones was considered a supreme national treasure!
"Little Chuan, are you absolutely certain your source is accurate?!" Yu Tianheng asked, his voice trembling with excitement. However, a small seed of doubt remained; an intelligence report of this magnitude shouldn't be something a regular student like Tang Chuan could intercept ahead of time.
"Of course I am certain!" Tang Chuan nodded, puffing out his chest with absolute confidence.
As a supreme God King who had deliberately chosen to reincarnate and rebuild his foundation, absolutely nothing on this mortal continent could escape his vastly superior, omniscient intellect. He was, after all, the true God of Wisdom—Tang San!