Skysea Alliance Tournament, Part 2

The next day at the academy, Gloxinia walked over to his class while rubbing his sore neck, he had slept in a weird position.

Arriving in the class, he entered to the scene of the students talking while waiting for Wu Zhangkong.

Walking over, Gloxinia leaned in a bit and heard their conversation. Xie Xie was explaining about the Skysea Alliance tournament.

"That's amazing! There are eighteen first-class cities in our federation and they're divided into the five regions—the north, the east, the south, the west, and the center. Each region has a few major cities, but the center region only has two: Heaven Dou City and Shrek City. Even though that's less than the other regions, these two cities make up for it with their influence. Our eastern region actually has five first-class coastal cities that form the Skysea Alliance. Eastsea City is ranked second among the five."

"The Skysea Alliance Tournament is held every three years to scout excellent geniuses and check out the strength and development of all the cities. Naturally, those who show the most talent are practically guaranteed to shine brilliantly in the future. The most outstanding people may even be chosen to represent the Skysea Alliance in the federation-wide tournament that's held every five years! That's a grand tournament that involves the entire continent! Have you seriously never heard of this before?"

Tang Wulin awkwardly scratched his head. It seemed like Tang Wulin had asked Xie Xie about the tournament beefore Gloxinia arrived.

"Isn't the federal tournament usually held in Shrek City?" Xu Xiaoyan asked, staring at Xie Xie in shock, he just knew so much information!

"That's right! It's held in Shrek City. Fortunately, Shrek Academy doesn't participate in that tournament, otherwise, the results wouldn't be suspenseful. It's been the number one academy on the continent for the past ten thousand years after all."

Xu Xiaoyan grew excited. "Doesn't that mean we have a chance, then?"

Her words made Xie Xie dispirited. "What chance? We're still too young. I looked it up a long time ago. The federal tournament is being held next year, and we'll only be eleven years old then. According to our age, we would be put into the ten-to-fifteen division. Considering that we'll only be eleven years old, we would be at a severe disadvantage. We would be facing the continent's greatest geniuses after all! And that's assuming we even qualify to enter. In order to qualify, we would need to participate in this year's Skysea Alliance Tournament and place in the top six of our age group. Next time the federal tournament is held, we'll be sixteen years old and get bumped up to the fifteen-to-twenty division. It would be strange if we did well in that tournament. We really were born at the wrong time."

Tang Wulin continued to motivate himself as he said, "Don't worry about rankings. It'll be fine as long as we gain some experience and knowledge. You don't have to be so determined to win."

Gu Yue said, "Who cares if we'll be eleven? Who said that an eleven-year-old can't be the champion? If you don't have believe in yourself, who will believe in you? If you want to do it, then do it."

Finishing her speech, Gu Yue stood up to move to another chair.

Xie Xie's mouth curled in disdain as she left. "She's talking as if we're actually going to win in Skysea Alliance Tournament."

At this, Gloxinia finally cut in and talked while standing up, "That's the mindset weaklings have."

Done talking, Gloxinia went to his seat as class started.

Night fell soon after they finished dinner.

The five classmates were walking toward a grove in the corner of the fields.

Earlier that day after class, Xu Xiaoyan had come up to all of them to show her prowess during the night.

Regardless of whether it was Tang Wulin, Xie Xie, or Gu Yue, all of them were curious about what change Xu Xiaoyan would experience at night. Even Gloxinia was curious as to how it looked like in real life.

Inside the gloomy grove, Gu Yue raised her hand and summoned a resplendent golden light, illuminating their surroundings.

Anticipation welled up in Xie Xie. It was only natural since they were quietly doing mysterious things in a forest at night.

Xu Xiaoyan stepped forward and looked toward the stars. This grove's canopy was nowhere near as lush as the one in the spirit ascension platform, so starlight easily pierced through it.

Specks of starlight twinkled in the sky. She nodded once. "I'm starting."

She raised a hand toward the sky while a yellow soul ring rose from beneath her feet and a slender ice staff appeared in her hand.

The golden light from Gu Yue's hand struck the ice staff, giving it a holy aura with a golden glow.

Xu Xiaoyan's expression turned grave. She raised the staff higher as light burst from her eyes.

"The stars in the heavens that shine forever tranquil, grant me strength! My starwheel!" Summoned by her gentle call, the tip of her staff suddenly began to shine, and a golden beam of light descended from the heavens!

An orb of light instantly appeared at the tip of the staff. It gradually changed to become a six-pointed star of golden light.

Xu Xiaoyan's aura transformed the moment the starwheel appeared, changing from weak and delicate to confident and bold. She seemed more refined and pure under the sparkling starlight.

Specks of starlight even found their way onto her soul ring, and a golden star adorned her forehead.

With a wave of her staff, the starwheel shot out and embedded itself at Xie Xie's feet.

In that moment, Xie Xie felt his body seize up as a chill permeated his body, stealing away his mobility.

The starwheel grew bright, then exploded into icy shackles around his body.

Xie Xie quickly circulated his soul power in a bid to resist, but he was shocked to discover that there seemed to be some sort of mysterious seal on him that slowed his circulation.

This…

Xu Xiaoyan's complexion paled and she looked toward Tang Wulin. "I can draw upon the starwheel's strength at night, so my martial soul is called the Starwheel Ice Staff. It's different from my big brother's ice staff. The Starwheel Ice Staff is a special variant martial soul that has been passed down through my clan since ancient times. It's been several hundred years since someone last awakened it. The power of the starwheel will grow with me, so whatever spirit soul I fuse with will influence the starwheel. However, I can only display its full strength at night. I'm just an ordinary Soul Master with an ice staff during the day, but at night, I am blessed by starlight."

"The starwheel is separate from my ice attribute and is actually an astrological attribute that lets me draw power from the stars. The strongest aspect of the astrological attribute is how absolute it is. With my current strength, I can use the starwheel to seal one person for a minimum of one second, but it also depends on my target's strength."

How terrifyingly absolute.

Watching from the side lines, Gloxinia couldn't help but wonder what would happen if a fairy formed from Xu Xiaoyan's heart or core would be like.

Would it be a star fairy with the power to control the stars or be similar to Xu Xiaoyan and simply restrict the opponent? It's too exciting to think about!

Unfortunately, even if he wanted to turn Xu Xiaoyan into plant fertilizer and use her core as a fairy, she was far too weak as she was now and wouldn't be able to handle the Sacred Tree's aura.

Perhaps in the future he might just do it and see what happens.

--------------------------------------

Words: 1342

Author's Note: My wifi is legit like breaking down rn. It disconnects every 5 minutes and it's super annoying.. Does anyone know any fixes?

Thank you for so many collections and powerstones!