Joint Training Event Arena Battles

The week-long Five Elements Academy Joint Training Event had already gone on for six days.

Over those six days, Yu Tianlin had gotten to know Shui Bing'er, the genius student from Skywater Academy.

Amid this lively academy exchange, neither Yu Tianlin nor Shui Bing'er had taken part. Like outsiders, they had simply trained quietly on their own.

For the first two days, Yu Tianlin had practiced treading water, while Shui Bing'er had controlled her cold energy and drawn it inward. For the middle two days, Yu Tianlin had developed Chidori, while Shui Bing'er had completed the water-treading exercise. As for the final two days, Yu Tianlin had practiced Chidori nonstop and had barely adapted to high-speed movement, while Shui Bing'er had completed the last stage of Tree Climbing Training.

Tomorrow would be the final day of the Five Elements Academy Joint Training Event, and their outsider status was inevitably broken.

At dinnertime, Shui Bing'er only ate a little casually, then quietly watched Yu Tianlin and said, "Sorry, Yu Tianlin. I'm afraid I can't train with you tomorrow."

Yu Tianlin had spent the entire day using Chidori for thrust attacks, consuming a great deal of stamina, so he was currently sweeping through the food on the table at high speed. Hearing Shui Bing'er's words so suddenly, his movements came to an abrupt stop.

After wiping the corner of his mouth with a napkin, Yu Tianlin looked up at Shui Bing'er and said, "It's all right. The only training methods for improving Soul Power control were Tree Climbing Training and water treading in the first place, and you've just finished both now. Even if you still wanted to train with me tomorrow, I wouldn't have any other—"

But Shui Bing'er directly cut Yu Tianlin off. "That's not what I mean!"

"Oh?" Yu Tianlin frowned. "Then what is it?"

"It's the academy's issue, obviously," Shui Bing'er said, sounding a little helpless. "I came with the academy to participate in this Five Elements Academy Joint Training Event, but six days have passed, and I haven't gone onstage to spar with anyone from the other academies. That's hard to justify."

Yu Tianlin immediately understood what she meant. "You mean you're going to the arena on the training field tomorrow to fight students from the other academies?"

Ahem. Yu Tianlin guiltily shifted his gaze away. After all that, it turned out he had misunderstood...

"That's right!" Shui Bing'er nodded with a bright, charming smile. "If it weren't for the teachers' request, I wouldn't want to go fight other people at all."

"It's good to see more of other Soul Masters' methods," Yu Tianlin said. "My Self-Created Soul Skill has just been developed, and I was just thinking of testing it in actual combat. I'll go to the sparring arena tomorrow too."

"Really? It'd be great if we could go together!"

Hearing Yu Tianlin's words, Shui Bing'er immediately showed a pleasantly surprised expression.

Yu Tianlin had previously buried himself entirely in developing Chidori and had not paid any attention to this Five Elements Academy Joint Training Event, so he only knew that the academy had prepared five arenas on the training field. As for the specific rules and procedures, he did not know them, so he asked, "Are there any rules for the sparring exchanges between students? They can't just fight however they want, right?"

Shui Bing'er had clearly done her homework on this and explained to Yu Tianlin, "Of course they don't just fight however they want!"

"All the students from our Five Elements Academy have been divided into four tiers. The first tier is Level Twenty-One to Level Twenty-Five, the second tier is Level Twenty-Six to Level Thirty, the third tier is above Level Thirty, and the fourth tier is for the students selected by each academy to participate in next year's Continental Advanced Soul Master Academy Elite Tournament."

"Your Thunderbolt Academy prepared a total of five arenas on the training field. The first three tiers each take one arena, and the remaining two arenas are both for the tournament participants."

After hearing Shui Bing'er's explanation, Yu Tianlin smiled. "You're Level Twenty-Five now, right at the upper limit of the first tier, so that means we'll be on the same arena."

"That's right," Shui Bing'er said with a slight nod. "The rules for the sparring arena are simple too. Only one-on-one battles are allowed on it. The loser naturally leaves the stage, while the winner can choose to defend the arena and keep fighting. If they don't want to fight anymore, they can also choose to step down."

"There won't be any safety issues. Even for battles in the first and second tiers, a Soul King-level teacher will serve as the referee. If there's an attack someone can't block, he'll naturally help stop it."

Indeed, a Soul King teacher would naturally have plenty of leeway in battles below Level Thirty.

Yu Tianlin suddenly thought of something, and his eyes lit up as he asked, "Are there any students who are especially strong and can keep standing on the arena, winning multiple matches in a row?"

"Of course there are, but Consecutive Battles consume Soul Power very quickly. In the end, once their Soul Power is exhausted, they can only choose to step down," Shui Bing'er said. "The current highest record should be four consecutive victories, set by Huo Wushuang of Blazing Fire Academy."

"The highest record is Huo Wushuang? Four consecutive victories?" Yu Tianlin asked in confusion. "What about Feng Xiaotian, Huo Wu, Huyan Li, and Yu Tianxin? Are they not even better than Huo Wushuang?"

"You actually know them?" Shui Bing'er was also a little surprised, but then she thought that those people were indeed rather famous, so it was only normal for Yu Tianlin to know them. She nodded in understanding and explained, "Feng Xiaotian is Level Thirty-One now and has only just reached the threshold of the third tier. His opponents are all at higher levels than him, so the fights are very difficult."

"Huo Wu is Level Twenty-Nine, at the top of the second tier. I heard from my classmates that her control is indeed quite troublesome, but she belongs to the ranged category, and her close-combat ability is average. After she was worn down by Consecutive Battles, an Elephant Armor Academy Student forced his way through her attacks, got close, and drove her off the arena."

"Huyan Li is Level Twenty-Eight. Although his defense and strength are very powerful, his weaknesses are equally obvious. After Consecutive Battles, he was defeated by a Divine Wind Academy Student relying on the advantage of flight."

"You should know Yu Tianxin. Like you, he's a member of the Blue Lightning Tyrant Sect. He's Level Twenty-Eight now and can't use Dragon Transformation, and lightning-attribute Soul Power is consumed very quickly, so at most, he defeated three people before he ran out of steam."

Yu Tianlin immediately understood. After a student went onto the arena, students from the other four elemental academies would naturally take turns fighting him. After one round, there would always be someone who countered the arena defender, and the defender's Soul Power would also have been heavily consumed, so defeat was unavoidable.

But Yu Tianlin was still a little puzzled. Why had Huo Wushuang been the one to achieve four consecutive victories? Didn't that mean he had endured one full round of attacks?

Huo Wushuang didn't seem that impressive.

As if sensing Yu Tianlin's confusion, Shui Bing'er explained, "Huo Wushuang is now the same as his younger sister Huo Wu, Level Twenty-Nine, at the very top of the second tier, so he has a certain level advantage in arena battles. His martial soul is the Unicorn Blazing Dragon. After Martial Soul Possession, the amplification to his own body is quite large. His First Soul Skill is Dragon Claw, which is very strong in close-range attacks, and his Second Soul Skill is Fire Breath, so his ranged attacks aren't bad either. You could say he doesn't have any real weaknesses. That's why he was able to defeat four people and last through one full round before stepping down due to insufficient Soul Power."

So that was it. If it were truly one-on-one, Huo Wushuang might not necessarily be stronger than Yu Tianxin and the others, but Huo Wushuang's current abilities were the most balanced and had no obvious weaknesses, which was why his record defending the arena was relatively better.

Huo Wushuang's strength should have been quite strong. It was just that he had always fought Tang San, and Tang San was immune to fire, countering him terribly, so he only seemed average.

There were fifteen rounds in total in the Soul Master Tournament qualifiers, and by the time the Shrek Seven Devils ran into Blazing Fire Academy, it was already the eleventh round. At that time, Huo Wushuang was publicly recognized as the strongest head-on fighter.