Spirit City, located at the crossroads of the two great empires, was the headquarters of the Spirit Hall. Neither the Heaven Dou Empire nor the Star Luo Empire held jurisdiction over it.
Standing within this city was one of Spirit Hall's two most revered structures—the Pope's Palace.
This newly built Pope's Palace was said to be the most magnificent structure on the entire continent. Not only was it constructed with overwhelming grandeur and opulence, but its symbolic meaning was unparalleled. To spirit masters across the land, it was regarded as the one true sacred place.
Riding atop the Seven Kill Sword, Chen Feng and Sword Douluo soared through the sky, gazing down at the sprawling city. Its size and prosperity were on par with the imperial capitals of both the Heaven Dou and Star Luo Empires.
As they approached the outskirts of Spirit City, the two descended to the ground and proceeded on foot. Since this was Spirit Hall's territory, and countless powerful eyes could be watching them, they had to move discreetly.
Spirit Hall had placed great importance on this year's tournament. Even before the various teams had arrived in the city, a special arena had already been designated as the venue for the Grand Finals of the Continental Advanced Spirit Master Academy Elite Tournament.
In addition, Spirit City had issued a special decree: no non-spirit masters were allowed to watch the tournament during its duration.
This only added an extra layer of mystery and tension to the final stage.
At a luxurious hotel near the finals venue, the Heaven Dou Empire had booked the entire property to ensure their spirit masters had a proper place to rest.
Furthermore, they had installed specialized soul tools on every door to block out all external noise, ensuring that every contestant could rest well between matches.
The Seven Treasure Team was assigned to a grand suite on the hotel's second floor. It contained six smaller rooms, a spacious living area, a dining room, a gym, and even a private pool.
With deliberate stealth, Sword Douluo brought Chen Feng into the hotel undetected. A Title Douluo who wanted to avoid notice could vanish from public perception with ease.
Pushing open the suite's door, Chen Feng caught sight of his teammates. They were all seated around the living room's sofas, deeply engaged in discussion, completely unaware of his quiet entry.
Chen Feng scanned the room. He didn't see Ning Fengzhi or Bone Douluo.
Understandably, as one of the tournament's organizing committee members, Ning Fengzhi was likely avoiding any unnecessary associations for the sake of propriety.
Sword Douluo leaned in and whispered:
"Chen Feng, now that you're back from Slaughter City, I can sense your strength has grown significantly.
But keep it restrained. Don't let it show until the match—it'll be a surprise the enemy won't see coming."
"Understood, Grandpa Sword." Chen Feng nodded.
With that, Sword Douluo's figure flickered and vanished without a trace.
Chen Feng smiled, pushed the door open further, and stepped inside.
All eyes turned toward him in an instant.
"What's this? You don't recognize me anymore?"
Chen Feng grinned as he glanced around, but his smile faded when he noticed something that made his expression darken.
Among his seven teammates, everyone except Oscar and Ning Rongrong was injured.
And... Niu Zhen was missing.
"Chen Feng!"
"Master!"
"You're finally back...!"
The team leapt to their feet, visibly relieved and excited.
Chen Feng walked in slowly, frowning.
"Can someone tell me what happened here? Why is everyone injured?"
Ning Rongrong took a deep breath and stepped forward.
"Brother Feng... it was Spirit Hall."
"Spirit Hall?" Chen Feng's eyes turned ice-cold.
A chilling white aura burst out from him.
Everyone in the room felt like they'd been hit by a frigid winter wind, shivering uncontrollably.
But it wasn't just the air—it felt like their very souls were being weighed down, as if they were standing before a mountain of corpses and a sea of blood.
Chen Feng quickly realized his error and reined in the killing intent.
"Tell me everything. What's going on with the tournament? Rongrong—you explain."
Ning Rongrong nodded and said:
"Brother Feng, we've already made it to the Grand Finals.
Just this morning, we defeated Shrek Academy and secured a spot in the championship match.
In two days, we'll face Spirit Hall's seeded team to decide the winner."
Chen Feng nodded slowly.
"Then what about these injuries? What does this have to do with Spirit Hall?
Are you saying they made a move outside of the matches?"
"No," Ning Rongrong shook her head.
"This is Spirit City, after all. Spirit Hall wouldn't dare make an obvious move.
But they've been playing dirty behind the scenes."
She then began to explain Spirit Hall's despicable tactics.
Once the fifteen finalist teams arrived in Spirit City, the organizing committee—led by Spirit Hall—suddenly changed the tournament rules.
Originally, teams were to have three days between each match to recover.
But the new rule reduced that to one match per day.
In high-stakes spirit battles, contestants gave everything they had—and often ended up injured.
Such an intense schedule gave them no time to recover.
As the representative of the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect, Ning Fengzhi cast a firm vote of opposition.
Both empires also opposed the change.
But Spirit Hall held the majority of votes.
With four Platinum Bishops and Pope Bibi Dong, they had five total votes—
And Bibi Dong even possessed a veto right.
No matter how hard Ning Fengzhi protested, it was useless.
The matches went on under the new rules.
At first, everyone thought it was just a matter of higher match frequency. But then Spirit Hall's real sabotage began.
The Seven Treasure Team's luck turned inexplicably bad.
Every single draw paired them against the strongest teams:
Thunderclap Academy
Blazing Academy
Star Luo Royal Academy
Shrek Academy...
Aside from the two seeded teams—Heaven Dou and Spirit Hall—the Seven Treasure Team fought against every top-tier team.
If that wasn't match-fixing, what was?
Unfortunately, even though Ning Fengzhi was part of the organizing committee, he had no solid proof to expose Spirit Hall's manipulation.
And with just one final match left...
Was there any point in dwelling on it now?
"The only reason we made it this far," Rongrong continued,
"It was thanks to Yang Dianfeng and Yu Tianlong.
In nearly every match, the two of them fought two-on-one, sometimes even three-on-one,
dragging us forward, step by step."
She emphasized their contributions—rightfully so.
Besides Chen Feng, those two had become the team's most powerful individuals.
In the past year, every team member has improved significantly.
Yu Tianlong had advanced from Rank 42 to Rank 45.
Yang Dianfeng had gone from Rank 46 to Rank 48.
Their combat abilities were now comparable to those of Spirit Kings (Rank 50+).