"Thanks for letting us win."
Li Yu gave a faint smile, then turned and left with Zhu Zhuqing and the others.
At this moment, the entire place was still silent.
There was no other reason.
The strength that Li Yu had displayed was simply terrifying.
Unlike Sword Douluo Chen Xin and the others, the audience did not have his assessment of Li Yu power.
Thus, they were even more shocked at this moment.
They had been following Skywater Academy's continuous winning streak almost from the start of the preliminaries.
Aside from their losses to Shrek and Godwind Academy, this was their third defeat.
And it was the fastest and most incomprehensible loss.
However—
They didn't even know how to react for a while.
The reason they had been paying so much attention to Skywater Academy, besides their powerful strength and team coordination...
Naturally, there was another more important reason.
The appearance of the Skywater Academy team members...
If they had lost to another team, the audience might already be cursing them by now.
Saying things like, "Don't know how to cherish beauty" or "Acting all tough for no reason"—those remarks had long been prepared.
Unfortunately...
They lost to Qianyu Academy instead...
Here's where it gets interesting.
This was something Li Yu hadn't paid attention to before.
Except for Wang Changzhi, all other six members of the Qianyu Academy team had also been female...
After Wang Changzhi left and she joined the team,
Qianyu Academy had effectively become the second Skywater—also "all" female.
Moreover,
Zhu Zhuqing and Xiao Wu, along with Li Yu own looks, were in no way inferior to those of the Skywater Academy team—in fact, even surpassing them.
And the reason for this—
Besides the individual charm of Zhu Zhuqing and Xiao Wu—
Was because Qianyu Academy, under Li Yu philosophy, did not dress in those identical and glaringly uniform team outfits like other academies.
Each had their own unique style.
Naturally, they appeared more pleasing to the eye than the one-style approach of Skywater Academy.
Once Li Yu and his group had left,
The venue suddenly exploded into a frenzy.
"Holy crap…"
"So strong!"
"Seven people—that was seven people from Skywater Academy, all taken out in one move?"
"How strong must this Crown Princess be!"
"Terrifying!"
"…"
The spectators only saw the overwhelming strength displayed by Li Yu.
But for the other academy teams, there was much more to consider.
Godwind, Blazing, and Thunder Elemental Academies had yet to face Qianyu Academy.
Originally—
After the battle between Qianyu Academy and the Elephant Armored Sect, with Wang Changzhi's decline, the team had been relying almost entirely on Zhu Zhuqing and Xiao Wu.
And there were no substitute members in Qianyu Academy.
Given that, they had stopped treating Qianyu as a serious competitor.
After all, as powerful as Zhu Zhuqing and Xiao Wu were, it was impossible for just the two of them to carry the team into the finals.
Especially considering the tournament draw…
Initially, they had complaints that Qianyu Academy hadn't faced many strong teams besides the Elephant Armored Sect.
But as the matches went on, they stopped caring.
Having to face all the strongest teams near the end—could Qianyu Academy's members even physically endure that?
It was hard to say whether that was a good thing.
In contrast, their own paths had been relatively easy.
Only Qianyu Academy remained as a strong opponent, and even then, the difficulty wasn't high.
But—
After today's match between Qianyu Academy and Skywater Academy, once Li Yu took the stage, their thoughts changed instantly.
Li Yu hadn't shown his full power!
That was the unanimous realization in their minds.
According to intelligence, Li Yu had control over three elements: water, fire, and wood.
Originally, the data indicated that Li Yu's strongest element was wood, and water was the weakest.
But now?
He had taken down Skywater Academy with just water!
Then what about his fire element? And wood element?
As a result—
Among the three elemental academies, Blazing Academy and Godwind Academy were the most worried; Thunder Academy was slightly less concerned.
Fire, naturally, matched Blazing Academy.
And remember, Skywater Academy had defeated Blazing Academy!
Although Godwind Academy used wind element, which Li Yu seemed not to possess, where does wind arise from?
Naturally, from the flow of "Qi."
And the flow of "Qi" is related to temperature.
Thus—
In their opinion, if Li Yu could manipulate the elements skillfully, he could replicate the effects of the wind element.
Moreover—
Wood inherently restrains wind!
Given that, how could they not be worried?
However—
After some thought, they weren't overly concerned either.
Because it was already the twenty-third round of the preliminaries, and the current standings were:
Qianyu Academy: 23 matches, 23 wins, 23 pointsShrek Academy: 23 matches, 23 wins, 23 pointsGodwind Academy: 23 matches, 23 wins, 23 pointsSkywater Academy: 23 matches, 20 wins, 20 pointsBlazing Academy: 23 matches, 19 wins, 19 pointsThunder Academy: 23 matches, 18 wins, 18 pointsElephant Armored Academy: 23 matches, 17 wins, 17 points
…
These seven academies were the only ones with a shot at making the top five.
Only four rounds of the preliminaries remained.
That meant—
The Elephant Armored Academy could almost be declared out.
Even if they won all four of their remaining matches (which weren't strong opponents), they would only reach 21 points.
Thunder Academy had already faced every other top team except Qianyu Academy.
If they somehow beat Qianyu, they'd end with 22 points—but that was unlikely, and they'd likely end with 21.
Blazing Academy had already lost to Skywater. Given today's outcome, they'd likely lose to Qianyu as well, and maybe pick up only 3 more points, ending at 22.
Skywater Academy, no longer facing strong opponents, and especially after Li Yu clearly held back today—not injuring any of them—should get 4 more points, reaching 24.
Shrek and Godwind were securely in the top three.
Even if they each lost to Qianyu and each other, they'd still get to 25 points.
As for Qianyu Academy—
Their last four matches were all against top-tier teams: Shrek, Godwind, Blazing, Thunder.
Even if they lost all four, they would still end with 23 points.
If that happened, everything shifts.
Shrek and Godwind would be first and second with 26 and 25 points respectively.
Skywater would rank third with 24.
Blazingand Qianyu would tie at 23 points for fourth and fifth.
Thunder, even if they miraculously beat Qianyu and won all four, would only get to 22 points and still miss the top five.
In other words, the variables were few—but not nonexistent.
Having sorted through all this, both Godwind Academy and Shrek Academy made the same silent decision…