The villainous young master just wants to live a Buddhist-like life.

　At this point, Dark suddenly had a premonition, thinking to himself, "Could it be...?"

　Just then, he saw Ms. Marilyn's hand reach for the nameplate—the one that read "Haley Saint Meredith"!

　Moreover, this time, Ms. Marilyn did not deliberately create suspense; she simply pulled out the name tag!

　When the audience saw the name that was supposed to be skipped again, they couldn't help but murmur loudly.

　Ms. Marilyn's expression also looked rather strange.

　It would be strange if viewers didn't consider it cheating if he drew "Bloody Saintess" Hayley twice after receiving a bye.

　Sure enough, upon closer listening, the entire room was filled with shouts of "cheating," "using connections," and "shamelessness." Even with the "Bloody Saintess" as the target, the excited shouts couldn't be stopped.

　But the "Bloody Saintess" herself just smiled happily, as if she had become much younger.

　Hailey, a seasoned veteran, was naturally unaffected by the audience's opinions.

　Her reason for participating in this World Cup was very pragmatic; she considered it a success if she could receive a "gift from God".

　As for fame and ranking, they are all irrelevant to her.

　Given the precedent of the academy championship, the contestants all knew that the "Gift of God" had been bestowed upon twelve people. Therefore, they set their bottom line at the number "twelve" in their hearts.

　The first round of the competition divided the contest into winners' and losers' brackets. In the second round, the eight members of the losers' bracket fought each other, and the losers were eliminated. These four eliminated members were the ones outside of the "twelve".

　Hailey's placement in Sloan in the first round essentially secured her a top-twelve finish. However, she wasn't entirely at ease yet.

　Sloan is very strong; he would rank among the top even among these sixteen contestants.

　If Sloan arrives before the start of the first match, she will be in danger.

　"Now that we've come this far, let's pray to the 'Holy' for the rest."

　Hailey cupped her hands to her heart and said quietly.

　Marilyn didn't stop despite the audience's dissatisfaction. She continued drawing name tags and quickly finished all sixteen.

　The schedule for today's matches has now been finalized.

　Everyone knew their first-round opponent and immediately took out the relevant information to prepare.

　The first round had sixteen participants, divided into eight groups.

　Darkdemon is in the fourth group, and his opponent is Abagon Molière, the Archbishop of the Holy Church, a powerful mage who possesses the forbidden card "Isaac's Priest"!

　"Apagoon Molière, ranked ninth in the preliminary rounds, defeated 'Winter Sage' and Stivemart in the qualifiers. His preferred deck is the 'Angel' series."

　Harpagon Mauriat is a powerful archbishop of the Holy See. He is forty-seven years old, physically strong, and possesses spiritual energy. He has six chakras open, but is about to reach the seventh. He has the physique of a high-level warrior, but his skills are lacking.

　While the "Angel" series of decks has fixed attributes and races, its vast reserves result in diverse styles that are not easy to fully master.

　However, based on Dark's understanding of the Holy Church, Abagon Molière's deck must not contain any "God Cards". His biggest trump card is the Angelic type from the fifth tier of the twelve-star deck, plus the forbidden card "Isaac's Priest".

　However, in the first round of the competition where there is no elimination pressure, the probability of Abagon breaking the taboo and using "Isaac's Sacrifice" is not high.

　As far as the first-round players are concerned, he is undoubtedly a very good opponent. The moment Dark saw his name, he felt his luck was on his side for the day.

　"In the first round of the main tournament, I need to secure a spot in the winners' bracket to maximize my chances of obtaining 'God's Gift'... Let's use that deck!"

　Dark quickly determined a solution and then mentally pre-planned duel scenarios to develop tactics for various situations, ensuring that he could think of and act on them immediately during the battle.

　And at the same time.

　He was also slightly distracted by the game.

　With the schedule finalized, the first round of matches began, and the contestants for the first duel prepared to enter the arena.

　"Bloody Saintess" Haley Saint Meredith stepped onto the dueling platform as soon as the preparation time was up.

　According to the competition rules, there is a three-minute grace period starting from the end of the preparation time. If the competitor can arrive at the competition venue before these three minutes expire, they can continue the competition.

　But Hayley was quite certain of this, because the magical guardian elder Edmund Lori was still in the underworld!

　Please wait for three minutes.

　The audience grew increasingly tense as time went on. Not all of them supported Sloan.

　But that's the allure of a countdown. Time ticks by, second by second.

　Hailey stood on the dueling platform, her initial composure gradually giving way to an unconscious leg-shaking motion.

　Finally, the time came to the last second.

　"Three minutes are up, Sloan is declared the loser!" The referee suddenly blew his whistle.

　A relaxed smile finally appeared on Hailey's face. She made it in!

　From the third round of the qualifiers to the first round of the main tournament.

　After receiving two consecutive byes, Hailey finally made it into the top twelve of this World Cup.

　All fame and rewards were meaningless to her; she only wanted to obtain the "gift from God" as soon as possible to repair her depleted body.

　The applause from the audience was sparse.

　But she didn't care.

　But as she turned and walked toward the rising platform, about to leave the dueling arena, a loud shout suddenly rang out from the audience's contestant section: "Go, Saintess!"

　Immediately afterwards, even more cheers suddenly erupted.

Chapter 1592 Professor Jones is truly comprehensive (2)

　The stadium was immediately filled with shouts of "Go, Saintess!", "Go, Hailey!", and "Go, Grandma!"

　This first duel in the first round seemed to be imbued with a different meaning.

　The first duel has ended, with the winner being "Bloody Saintess" Hayley Saint Meredith and the loser being "Lich of the Underworld" Sloan.

　Sloan is not completely out of the game; he still has a chance.

　If he can arrive before the first match of the first round of the losers' bracket, he can continue to compete as a loser's bracket player.

　But everyone felt that the probability of him appearing in time was extremely small.

　“The Lich Sloan… I guess he did something good.” Dark looked away and continued preparing.

　The second duel followed immediately thereafter.

　Since the first duel ended without a bye, the contestants for the second duel immediately took to the stage. The two duelists for this match were Lily Laplace and Pava Jones.

　These two professors from St. Marian College unfortunately met in the first round of the competition.

　Before the two players took the stage, the commentator introduced them in a conversational manner.

　Both are not only professors at the academy, but also deans of their respective departments. Therefore, this duel can be described as a clash of titans, and as the de facto opening duel of today's competition, it is bound to be spectacular.

　Meanwhile, at St. Marian College, students and professors gathered in the open-air dueling arena to watch the match.

　The students from the Magic Academy and the Noble Academy, clearly supporting their respective academy deans, had already begun their off-field confrontation even before the two contestants...

　Back inside the Alliance Duel Arena.

　Today's commentators are still two professional commentators poached from the professional dueling scene.

　But one of the guests was the legendary player who made it to the third round of the World Cup qualifiers – "Moon Elf" Alva Artemis!

　There's no need to elaborate on Alva's posing and fidgeting in the commentary booth.

　The two contestants emerged from different passages and arrived one after the other below the dueling platform. They then stepped onto the rising platform, bathed in the applause of the audience, and gradually ascended.

　On the popularity rankings, Professor Pava Jones' popularity suddenly began to soar, showing a strong momentum to climb to the top and overtake Lily.

　But after a short while, Professor Lily's popularity also began to soar, and the gap between her and the second-place student widened...

　"So rich!"

　Even Dak couldn't help but sigh.

　Between Professor Lily and Professor Pava Jones, he decisively chose to support Lily.

　But deep down, he didn't believe Professor Lily could win the duel.

　First of all, it is daytime now, and there is no moonlight. Although Professor Lily's invisibility technique is still working, it is not completely without leaving a trace and cannot be detected.

　Secondly, Professor Jones is a true dueling master. She possesses countless magical cards, and with a well-planned strategy, it's difficult for her not to counter Lily.

　After all, the professors know each other too well.

　If the old Professor Jones might have been defeatable, then the current Professor Jones, who has inherited the original legacy of the "Mountain Giant," is truly too comprehensive.

　His "King of the Mountain Giants" in particular has an absurdly large advantage when facing small fairy species.

　To confront the "King of Mountain Giants," one must avoid direct confrontation and use special methods to seal it away.

　Pure numerical combat can only be achieved by summoning a super behemoth comparable in size to the "King of Mountain Giants".

　But Professor Lily's card collection doesn't contain anything like that. She can summon large magical spirits, but they are nowhere near as powerful as "King of the Mountain Giants," and their strength levels are relatively low.

　Furthermore, Professor Jones is not just a brute with brute force. It will be very difficult for Professor Lily to "win by trickery." But of course, she cannot simply admit defeat.

　This match is all about how Professor Lily will respond. Darke temporarily put aside his own thoughts and watched intently. A full-force duel between professors—every single one is precious. He couldn't miss it!

　Game start.

　The two fighters each set up their own dueling domains. Dark keenly noticed that their dueling domains had changed!

　The idea that emerged from Dulles's dueling field was put into practice by Professor Lily and Professor Jones today!

　Professor Lily's Duel Field was a dreamy pink, like layers of gauze floating in the air. Multicolored bubbles rose from the edges of the Duel Field, and tiny fairy phantoms, no bigger than a palm, danced within them, creating a mesmerizing and enchanting scene. The fairy aura was clearly felt within that Duel Field, indicating its ability to enhance Fairy-type Magical Spirits or Fairy-type special moves.

　The dueling area that Professor Jones set out exuded a unique desolate atmosphere, with its edges resembling towering mountains connected by city walls, like the Great Wall, undulating and winding.

　From that duel area, one could also sense some enhancement effect on the "Mountain Giant".

　"They truly are worthy professors," Dark exclaimed again.

　Although the arena effects of the duel area are not particularly significant yet, they are clearly already taking shape.

　As it continues to improve through practical application, we may see a field with complete field effects today.

　This area, which includes a venue, is essentially equipped with its own venue, giving it a huge advantage.

　However, the duel fields connect along the center line, dividing the arena into two sides. If both duel fields have arena effects, those effects will only be visible within their respective arenas for the time being.

　In any case, the duel continued. It quickly entered the battle phase. Professor Lily still had a playful smile on her face.

　Professor Jones understood, but his expression remained quite serious.

　It is evident that the two professors differed greatly simply in their attitudes toward dueling.

　Looking at Professor Lily's grinning face from afar, Darke suddenly felt a strong urge to make her lose.

　"emmm..."

　Putting that thought aside, Dark continued to watch. The first three rounds passed quickly.

　Professor Jones showed no mercy and summoned the twelve-star magical spirit, "King of the Mountain Giants," at an extremely fast speed!

　The "King of Mountain Giants" should be at the fifth tier, not yet at the level of the "Card of God".

　However, it was forged using materials from the original giant as its core, and it is already very close to being a "God Card".

　Furthermore, the core special move of "Mountain Giant King", "Giant King", allows him to gain a coefficient increase in both offense and defense when facing opponents much smaller than himself.

　The greater the size difference between the two sides, the larger this coefficient becomes. This clearly crosses the line of what's allowed.

　Currently, Dark has not yet seen the limit of the passive bonus of this ultimate skill.

　When facing a small, much smaller fairy-like magical spirit, the "King of Mountain Giants" would likely have an attack and defense multiplier of tenfold.

　The "Mountain Giant King" already has ridiculously high base attack and defense stats, and with a tenfold increase, it's truly a case of instant death upon being touched, with no one escaping unscathed.

　So what Professor Lily had to do was prevent the "King of the Mountain Giants" from even scratching her.

　Based on this, she built a new deck that allowed the Magical Spirit to fly and move around the entire duel arena, truly making it impossible for the "Mountain Giant King" to even get close.

　Professor Lily also possesses the special ability to "penetrate barriers," making her completely untouchable by pure physical attacks.

　But if that's all there is to it, Professor Lily can only remain undefeated for the time being, and has no chance of retaliating at all.

　The match then lasted for three rounds.

　The two professors traded blows, constantly making moves and resolving conflicts, demonstrating a close contest.

　But in the fourth round, Professor Jones suddenly revealed his true intentions!