Rules and Preparation.

The four of them are all students that previous Blue Tyrant Academy cultivated.

"Because of the tournament pattern, it will be quite troublesome for each of you to play in every single match. So you all will continue to rotate team mates with substitute team members."

The Grandmaster explained.

Although there is Oscar's sausages which can help restore lost spirit power, it will also place a burden on him to continuously provide for all of them.

"Master, will Ming'ge also participate in the battles with us?" Xiao Wu asked curiously which also made everyone look at Grandmaster.

"Xiao Ming..."

The master pondered for a moment, "He will also participate but will serve as a substitute. He will only play when your opponents will be very strong or if he wants to."

Hearing this everyone nodded their head while also sighing in relief. As long as Tang Ming is there, no one will be able to defeat them. Except the four substitute members who were looking at Tang Ming with curiousity.

They had seen Shrek Seven Devils strength and had also fought against them but had never seen Tang Ming strength. Though they all can feel that Tang Ming is quite powerful as even Grandmaster praised him.

"Next, I will tell you all about the rules of the tournament."

Everyone immediately became attentive and looked at Grandmaster. Even Tang Ming also listened carefully.

Even though he has knowledge about the rules from his previous life, he can't be sure if anything changed because of his presence. So it was better to listen to all the rules carefully.

"To participate in Continental Advance Spirit Master Academy tournament, the basic requirement is to be under 25 years old. The number of person in a team that can play actively in the battles is seven. Killing is also forbidden as Spirit Master are very rare among normal human beings and since all the participants in the tournaments will be elites, killing even a single one of them can be a great loss for empires."

"In addition there are other rules that forbids the use of external weapons like Xiao San hidden weapons. You can only use your martial spirits, martial arts and spirit ring abilities during battles and any other methods of attack are banned. If found, the team will be immediately disqualified."

"In the two empires, there are hundreds of Advance Spirit Master Academy combined. Each academy has the right to participate in the tournament. While the official/royal academy of the two empires have been given one quotas each that enables them to directly enters finals. Spirit Hall also has a place reserved in the finals."

"There are hundreds of academies in the two empires but only 33 can participate in the finals. From which three places have been reserved for the two empires and Spirit Hall which leaves only 30 places, for which all of the academies will contend for. The competition is going to be quite intense to get a place in the remaining 30 left."

"Though I have no doubt that you all will be able to secure and win a place." The Grandmaster glanced at all of them who nodded their head in approval.

"After the 30 academies that have been determined through qualifiers, the promotion ranking competition will be conducted to determine the order in which academies will be ranked and will appear in the finals."

"The Qualifiers are team battles that you all have played countless times in Great Spirit Fighting Arena while the promotion ranking matches will be one on one until ones academy all students have been defeated."

Grandmaster continued as everyone listened carefully.

"In the finals there is a 'bye' rule, which made the academy that has it to advance directly without playing. In the first round of finals, the three seeded team from the two empires and Spirit Hall will automatically get a bye. While the remaining 30 teams will battle each other, the winner will continue to advance forward while the loser is directly eliminated."

"In the second round, the fifteen teams that won the first round and the the three seeded team forms a total of eighteen teams. The two top ranked team in the promotion matches will get to 'bye', while the remaining sixteen team will participate and battles each other. Same as before the winning teams will move forward while the losing teaming is eliminated."

"Next, in the third round, the eight teams that won in the second round and the two teams that get to have the 'bye' will form a total of ten teams. That is the top ten. In the third round again, the two teams that have the highest ranking will get 'bye'. But those that have already got byes in previous rounds will not get another chances. After the third round there will remain a total of six teams. This time though there will be no 'byes' but will rely on the blind ballet to decide the opposing teams, with the winning ones being final three teams. In order to ensure fairness in the placement of the last three teams, the three teams must undergo both group and individual elimination battles."

"First of all is the individual elimination contest, similar to the format of the promotion ranking phase. The three team will proceed in an alternating order. Each team will send out one member, the first two will face against each other with the winner facing the member of the third team, until the two of the teams run out of members. The team of the winner directly head to finale. The two losing team will then face off in team battles to compete for the chance at finale. The last two team at the finale will then compete for the title of champions in the final fight of championship."

After listening to Grandmaster's long explanation, Ma Hongjun was unable to hold back :

"Grandmaster, why is this competition so complicated? Just listening to the rules are making my head hurt and 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 champion?"

Grandmaster slightly 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'll remind you of the specific rules and will help you analyze your opponents. Now everyone stand up, for these last couple of days, what you need to do is to practice mock battles. Oh, also there's something I must rind you, for the Heaven Dou division qualifying phase, only three of the Shrek Seven Devil can participate in battles at any one time. Rongrong and Tang Ming will absolutely never appear during the qualifying phase. I have some special training regime for her and as for Tang Ming, I have something for him too."

"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, Jing Ling and Jiang Zhu four people. The remaining three will be for you to decide amongst yourselves with Rongrong being the exception."

Tang San still looked a little bit sceptical and probed :

"Teacher is this to hide our strength? But what if we lose?"

Only to see Grandmaster smiling as he calmly said.

"You're being too cautious, Xiao San. What? Do you not have even this much confidence? Your true opponents will be at the promotion and finals phase, the qualifying phase will definitely not pose any problems for all of you. Most of the teams at the qualifying phase will not have more than one Spirit Ancestor in their team and will mostly be consisted of Spirit Elders, and you will have three people in your group at Spirit Ancestor stage. Do you still fear that you'll lose? It's better to conceal our strength as much as we can before promotion and finals phase. If you reveal all your strength at the beginning, won't it be much harder for you to win the later battles?"

Tang San thought deeply about this matter and only after exchanging a quick glance with his brother and Dai Mubai, nodded his head.

"Teacher, I understand."

"Don't worry, Xiao San. As an assurance, I promise you that I'll allow Tang Ming to play a single battle in qualifying phase if you found that any team is really hard for you to defeat with only three of you. But he is not allowed to use any spirit ring abilities during the battle."

Grandmaster suddenly said as everyone's expression immediately relaxed. Tang San too visibly relaxed after hearing this. He didn't have any doubts regarding his brother's strength. Even without his spirit ring abilities he can say with guarantee that even a Spirit Emperor can only beg mercy from his brother.

After the battle yesterday, he had contemplated about their loss seriously but found no mistakes in their co-ordination or anything. At last he came to a single conclusion that Ming'ge is too strong.

Grandmaster clapped the shoulder of the disciple he was most proud of and said, "I knew you would understand. The actual battle tactics on the field will be for you and Dai Mubai to decide. You can also ask Xiao Ming for help. The team members that will participate is also for you to decide. All I can advise you is that, during the qualifying phase, the less you Shrek Seven Devils show yourselves, the better it will be. In the finals phase, the opponents you will face will stronger than what you can imagine. For this goal, give it your all."

In the following few days, the Shrek Academy's team members participating in this championship underwent strict combat training under Grandmaster and Tang Ming guidance. Especially the four new members, each day was passed fighting against Tang Ming and Grandmaster's millstone.

Trying to create a coherent team of spirit master is not an easy task. But because of Tang San who is an exceptional control system spirit master, everything became much simpler and easier.

Even Tang Ming was impressed with the way Tang San can easily handle every situation and his leadership qualities are also very good which Tang Ming had to admit that he lacks.

Under Tang San deployment, the four new members slowly became familiar with the Shrek Seven Devils fighting methods. Tang San also confirmed the members who will participate in qualifying phase.

Although the qualifying phase is not very important, they still needed to guarantee a spot for advancement.

Tang San decided that the three members that will be participating are Evil Eye White Tiger Dai Mubai, who possessed the strongest spirit power at 46, food system spirit master Big Sausage Uncle Oscar, as well as assault system spirit master Xiao Wu. Fatty, Rongrong and Zhu Zhuqing will stay hidden. Now all preparation have been finished.

"Umm. I should consult Dean Flender regarding the uniform otherwise he'll again choose those lame costume as in original."

Tang Ming mused as he walked toward the dean's office.