Long Yue was wearing a set of grey activewear, and musclebound body seemed to be filled with explosive power. After the pa.s.sage of so many years, he didn"t appear to have changed at all, aside from the fact that he now looked more mature and steadfast.
Shrek"s Seven Monsters were very familiar with Long Yue as he had once been to Shrek"s Seven Monsters with Dai Yun"er. However, due to their past differences, they had barely interacted with one another at all.
Standing beside Long Yue wasn"t the vastly renowned Tiger King Dai Yueyan. Instead, it was a beautiful woman wearing the same style of activewear as Long Yue. Her long hair had been arranged into a ponytail, and her bright and piercing eyes were filled with excitement.
At this point, Shrek"s Six Monsters had already gotten onto the platform, and when the woman saw them, she instantly sprang onto the platform before rus.h.i.+ng toward them as quickly as she could.
Her actions immediately drew a collective cry of surprise.
Was she going to attack even before the match had commenced?
However, Shrek"s Six Monsters weren"t alarmed by this at all. They all strode forward to meet her, and their eyes were filled with excitement as well.
"I"m so glad you"re all still alive!" The woman threw her arms around Xu Xiaoyan and immediately began to sob uncontrollably.
"Senior Disciple Sister!" the six of them yelled in unison.
Indeed, this beauty was none other than Xu Mi"er, a past inner court disciple of Shrek Academy, and she and Long Yue had come together during the Sea G.o.d Fate Match-making Convention. [Sigh, so this is another ma.s.sive brain fade from the author where he forgets that Xu Mi"er is still supposed to be back in the Douluo Federation. It"s kinda hard for me to iron out this plot hole, so please just bear with it and pretend as if Xu Mi"er has always been in the Star Luo Empire (◔_◔)]
As Long Yue was returning to the Star Luo Empire with Dai Yun"er, Xu Mi"er had immediately made the decision to follow him. [LMAO, pretty sure there"s a part where she said something along the lines of "no man can ever make me leave behind my continent" or something like that, turns out she a hoe!] The two of them had already established their relations.h.i.+p, but it was too difficult for Xu Mi"er"s family to come all the way here, so no wedding had been held. However, everyone in Monster Academy already knew Xu Mi"er as Long Yue"s wife.
She was currently also a teacher in Monster Academy who was teaching mecha piloting cla.s.ses. Ever since she had heard about the Shrek Academy bombing, she hadn"t smiled in a very long time. She really wanted to go back, but she couldn"t bear to leave Long Yue behind.
Long Yue had originally promised her to return to the Douluo Continent with her, but the federation then began to prepare to instigate a war, so it clearly wasn"t a good time to go back, and everything had been delayed.
As such, Xu Mi"er had been ecstatic when she had heard that Shrek"s Seven Monsters were all alive and well, and had come to the Star Luo Empire. She had a million questions she wanted to ask them, but this was not an appropriate place to have a conversation.
Xu Xiaoyan, Ye Xinglan, and Yuanen Yehui approached Xu Mi"er one after another to hug her. Back in the inner court, they had all been close friends.
"Is there anyone else..." Xu Mi"er sobbed.
"There are a lot of people who are still alive aside from us, including all of our senior disciple brothers and sisters from the inner court. It"s just that the teachers..." Tears began to well up in the eyes of Shrek"s Six Monsters as well at the mention of this topic.
As they were conversing with one another, the Monster Eight Kings had already stepped onto the compet.i.tion platform.
Standing behind Long Yue was naturally none other than Tiger King Dai Yueyan, followed by Fox King Su Mu, then Wolf King Hua Lantang, Wind King Lin San, PaG.o.da King Lin Zhi, and Shadow King Teng Teng. The one bringing up the rear was naturally none other than Spirit King Dai Yun"er.
The eight of them had parted ways following graduation, but they still regularly met up and dined together. However, it was the first time in many years that they had gathered together for a sparring match.
They were clearly far more popular with the spectators than Xu Mi"er, so after a brief moment of shock in response to Xu Mi"er"s actions, the raucous cheers rang out once again.
The Monster Eight Kings all raised their hands to acknowledge the crowd, and soon, all of their voices combined to form a single chant. "Legends, legends, legends!"
That"s right, they were the legends of Monster Academy; the most powerful team that Monster Academy had ever a.s.sembled.
Even though this was the Tang Sect and many of the spectators hadn"t come from Monster Academy, they still all joined in on the chants.
Teng Teng was starting to become rather emotional. "Do you guys hear that? They still remember us!"
"That"s right, so we"d better not disappoint them," Hua Lantang said as he clenched his fists tightly.
Fox King Su Mu closed his eyes and basked in the raucous cheers. All of the blood within his body was churning and burning.
Ye Zhi gripped onto Hua Lantang"s hand with her lips tightly pursed. "We have to win! We have to win for everyone!"
Long Yue held up his hands, and the cheers gradually died down. His deep voice then rang out across the entire venue. "Thank you for your support, everyone, and we are even more grateful that you still remember us. You should also thank our opponents today for reuniting us. Shrek"s Seven Monsters have always been opponents that we greatly respect, and we hope to be able to put on a spectacular match for everyone. During the match, I would like to request for everyone to remain silent in order to create a fair environment, thank you."
He then extended a slight bow before striding directly toward Shrek"s Six Monsters. Applause instantly filled the entire venue, and Long Yue seemed to be even more imposing, as if he had been boosted by the support from the spectators.
The rest of the Monster Eight Kings followed closely behind him, and Dai Yun"er"s eyes were constantly searching through the crowd, but she was quite disappointed upon realizing that the one she was searching for wasn"t anywhere to be seen.
She wasn"t here to compete today; she only wanted to see him. Even though he had rejected her, and she wanted to skin him alive, she wanted even more to be with him.
Tang Wulin was indeed absent; he was preparing for the upcoming Trial of Five G.o.ds. At the thought of the Trial of Five G.o.ds, Dai Yun"er couldn"t help but be concerned for Tang Wulin, but at the same time, she was very proud of him. As expected of the man of her dreams; he refused to give up or cower no matter what hards.h.i.+ps were thrown his way.
In the eyes of the infatuated Dai Yun"er, Tang Wulin had already won in the instant he had agreed to the Trial of Five G.o.ds.
"Just ignore him; he"s always acting so serious and uptight," Xu Mi"er said with a smile, but her eyes were filled with pride as her gaze lingered on Long Yue.
Only after coming to the Star Luo Empire did she truly come to understand just how influential he was in this empire; he had even been referred to as the future of the empire"s Soul Master world.
He had many close friends, he was affiliated with the immensely powerful Monster Academy, and he had a Limit Douluo as a teacher; he was perfect in every way.
He appeared to be quite rough and insensitive on the outside, but he was actually a very thoughtful man. Xu Mi"er had a fiery temper, so she would often erupt over some trivial matters, but Long Yue never fought fire with fire; he would always bear her fury in silence. He was like a safe haven for her, and she had grown accustomed to having him by her side, which was why she hadn"t insisted on returning to the Douluo Federation. With the important status he held in this empire, it was simply unfeasible for him to travel to the Douluo Federation. Despite her headstrong personality, she was actually quite gentle on the inside [HA! Just laughed myself to the point of asphyxiation], and she decided to stay with him out of consideration for his situation.
Yue Zhengyu strode forward to greet the Monster Eight King"s first. "Long time no see."
Long Yue shook hands with him, and replied, "Indeed, it"s been a long time; we"re very glad to see that you"re all still alive and well. My apologies for this "welcome", but we really couldn"t wait any longer for this rematch."