Several days later, at the Great Soul Arena in Suotuo City.
The clamor of a vast crowd mingled with dazzling colored lights. This was the liveliest place on the Douluo Continent, where vast sums of money changed hands every day.
"Ladies and gentlemen! Our next match pits the newly promoted Soul Elder Blue Silver against the veteran Soul Elder Xiong Sanbang!"
A middle-aged man in a suit, neatly turned out, stood on the stage and continued his introduction to the audience:
"The former holds a Silver Soul Badge, having achieved twenty consecutive victories while still a Soul Grandmaster. But his opponent this time has reached level thirty-six in Soul Power. Will Soul Elder Blue Silver's winning streak meet an early end? Let's wait and see!"
As the host finished speaking, the masked Tang San and his opponent entered through passages on opposite sides of the Soul Fighting platform.
Tang San examined his opponent. From his name, he had expected some burly giant, but the man was actually well-proportioned, much like himself, only considerably taller, standing a little over 1.8 meters.
"Level thirty-six Power Attack System Battle Soul Elder. Martial Soul: Great Bear Iron Staff."
Seeing Xiong Sanbang introduce himself first, Tang San, who knew his manners, cupped his fists and replied:
"Level thirty-one Control System Battle Soul Elder. Martial Soul: Blue Silver Grass."
In team battles, he registered as Support System; when fighting alone, he was Control System.
"Hello, Brother Lan. I saw you fight once before. It's truly impressive that you've cultivated Blue Silver Grass to this level." He looked at Tang San with a note of admiration in his voice, then summoned his Martial Soul and said sincerely, "My Martial Soul strikes with tremendous force and isn't easy to withstand. Let's stop before anyone gets hurt."
Tang San smiled. "Sure." In that case, he should take care to leave the man some face. It was also a good chance to try that move.
The battle began!
"First Soul Skill, Air-Breaking!" Strength increased by 30%.
"Second Soul Skill, Qian Jun!" Weight increased by 50%.
Ghost Shadow Perplexing Track! Mysterious Jade Hand!
Tang San's figure flickered like a ghost, leaving Xiong Sanbang unable to see him clearly. Xiong Sanbang swept his staff at Tang San's lower body, but still failed to touch him and instead took two palm strikes himself.
Watching his opponent's two Yellow Soul Rings as he dodged, Tang San thought that the man didn't look like an independent cultivator. His first two Soul Rings were both hundred-year rings, and his Soul Skills were well matched.
The theories on Soul Skills that Xiang Yang had worked out with Tang San and his master mentioned that a person's strength couldn't be judged by the power of any one Soul Skill. The right approach was to make Soul Skills work together, even forming a complete, coherent combat system. By that reasoning, his next Soul Skill should be...
"Third Soul Skill, Fearless Advance!" A lock-on charge.
Xiong Sanbang had wanted to close the distance. He hadn't expected footwork that hadn't seemed so impressive from the stands to be this miraculous. He had no choice but to use his thousand-year Soul Skill early, or at this rate of expenditure, he would only be able to use it once.
As the saying went, the stronger a Soul Skill's effect, the more Soul Power it consumed. (Cheating didn't count.)
"Too late. Third Soul Skill, Iron Bamboo Flower!"
Tang San's Thousand-Year Soul Ring lit up, and what followed was a finger-sized spray of flowers... flowers? No, it looked more like a few leaves with a head of wheat, but these really were flowers—bamboo flowers, blossoms that only bloomed at the end of a bamboo plant's life!
As Xiong Sanbang charged, the spray of black flowers fell to the ground, and Tang San finished his sentence.
"Modified—Blue Silver Bamboo Net Formation!"
In an instant, the formerly flat ground became a forest of black bamboo, each stalk as thick as an adult's fist. Centered on the spot where the Iron Bamboo Flower had landed, it spread over a radius of more than ten meters in less than two seconds, reaching roughly six meters at its tallest. From a distance, it looked like a monstrous dark beast crouching there.
In truth, the Soul Skill hadn't been cast as quickly as it appeared.
Tang San hadn't just been dodging attacks; he had also laid Blue Silver Grass across the ground in advance. Xiong Sanbang had noticed it and even gone out of his way to chop it to pieces.
But that had actually been Tang San's smokescreen. He had deliberately put down only Blue Silver Grass rather than seeds. You thought I was on the first layer, but I was actually on the third.
Instead, Xiong Sanbang's actions had helped spread Tang San's Blue Silver Grass seeds over a wider area, effectively saving him some effort.
To break this move in advance, a fire-attribute Soul Master was needed. And judging by the current strength and resistance of the Blue Silver Grass Martial Soul, that Soul Master would have to be at least one rank above Tang San and expend Soul Power without restraint to wipe it all out in a short time.
Guided by his Soul Skill, Xiong Sanbang knew clearly that Tang San was two meters ahead, out of sight and unmoving. But all he could do was dodge the black bamboo stabbing up from underground while swinging his Great Bear Iron Staff at the bamboo forest moving toward him, intent on trapping him. He couldn't advance a single step.
"What kind of Soul Beast did he absorb? Is there a bamboo-type Soul Beast that's this hard?"
Looking at the bamboo stalks before him, which had merely bent under his blows, he struggled to fight back while searching his memory. But time gave him no chance to plan further. Feeling the Soul Power in his body draining rapidly, he gave a great shout and struck the bamboo wall ahead with the Soul Power he had accumulated in his iron staff.
Bang!
The blow was indeed powerful, breaking through three intertwined bamboo walls pressed close together. But that only made him more desperate, because together they didn't even amount to half a meter.
Xiong Sanbang took a deep breath and shouted, "I surrender! I admit defeat!"
Hearing the shout, Tang San immediately withdrew the bamboo formation. The enormous beast vanished like smoke and mist scattered by the wind, leaving no trace.
Xiong Sanbang felt as though he had finally seen daylight again. The place he had just been in had been like a cage, like a gloomy realm of ghosts.
The host looked at Xiong Sanbang, whose clothes were in tatters and whose face was ashen, and announced, "The winner of this match is Soul Elder Blue Silver! Let's congratulate him!"
"Oh!" "Yeah!" "Great, I knew I was right about him!" "We made a fortune!"
When Tang San returned to the team's private lounge upstairs, the clamor outside seemed to recede in an instant, and his mood brightened a little without his realizing it.
Xiao Wu rushed to the front and said something very familiar to him: "Third Brother, we made a fortune!"
"Mm-hm." He responded as he found an empty seat and sat down.
Xiao Wu hugged his arm, her excitement written all over her face. "You have no idea how high the odds were just now. This time we made..."
"All right, all right, let your Third Brother get some rest." Watching the two of them from the side, Xiang Yang teased her with a smile. "Besides, there's no point earning more. You can't use it right now anyway."
"Hmph, Little Yang, you've got some nerve, daring to bully Sister Xiao Wu. Take my Eight-Stage Throw!" She released Tang San and raised her hand to strike. Xiang Yang naturally wouldn't sit still and let himself be caught. Using the Ghost Shadow Perplexing Track he had only recently learned, he dodged every blow.
Watching them circle around him, Tang San began to smile without realizing it. This was one of the regrets of his previous life. He had been an orphan adopted as a child, with no real family. He could only make the Tang Sect his home, but the sect's rules had been strict, and there had been little interaction among its members...
Hm? Oh! That might be one of the reasons those top Hidden Weapon techniques were lost.
Tang San shook his head without thinking. Forget it, that was all in the past. He looked up and said with a smile, "All right, Xiao Wu, you two should stop. You're making me dizzy. A Yang, stop teasing her all the time."
"Hmph." Xiao Wu had been unable to catch up with him or lay a hand on him. Hearing Third Brother speak, she stopped at once and glared fiercely at Xiang Yang.
"All right, all right, all right." Xiang Yang agreed, then looked at Tang San and asked, "How much did that move just now consume?"