An Unexpected Martial Soul

To be fair, Fatty had really gotten the living daylights beaten out of him.

Not only were his clothes torn in several places and his face covered in dust, but his round, chubby face had swollen up by an entire size. Dark purple bruises ringed his eyes, and dried blood still clung to the corner of his mouth.

Tang San took Fatty by the arm and carried him to the cafeteria.

As it happened, Oscar and Dai Mubai were both there. Without a word, Oscar summoned his Recovery Sausage and handed it over.

Ma Hongjun did not stand on ceremony. He wolfed down the sausage in a few bites, and only then did he look a little better.

"Damn, Fatty, what happened to you?"

Dai Mubai jumped in surprise at Ma Hongjun's bedraggled state.

His temper was far more explosive than Tang San's. He shot to his feet, fury blazing from his evil eyes.

Ma Hongjun pulled a long face. "Boss Dai, you've got to stand up for your brother.

Look at what they did to me—they even twisted my handsome face out of shape.

How am I supposed to pick up girls from now on?!"

Bai Ge glanced at him. "If you put even half the effort you spend chasing girls into cultivation, you wouldn't have gotten beaten into this sorry state.

In a world where the biggest fist makes the rules, your mind is still full of that stuff.

I really don't know what you learned from Flender. Like master, like disciple.

Back when I stood up for Rongrong, did you see Flender dare say a single word against it?"

Ma Hongjun lowered his head and trembled, having been scolded into a quail.

Oscar stepped in to smooth things over. "Brother Xiao Bai, if Fatty needs a scolding, that's our own business. It's not for outsiders to interfere with.

Tell us what happened first."

Ma Hongjun pulled over a chair and sat down, then finally explained what had happened.

"I left this morning and went to Suotuo City to properly deal with my Evil Fire problem.

When I got there, I actually found a golden phoenix among the weeds.

Just as I was about to ask that little girl to help me solve my problem, some sleazy uncle suddenly showed up.

The guy looked to be in his forties, with short hair. One of his hands was even wrapped in bandages, but he still insisted on competing with me for that girl.

I asked him then, 'Uncle, your hand's already like that, and you still came out?'

Guess what he said? He actually said, 'I don't use my hands anyway.' I've seen sleazy people before, but never one this sleazy."

Bai Ge could not hold it in anymore. Damn, that guy was a real talent.

Dai Mubai said, "So then you fought him?"

Fatty puffed out his chest. "Of course! He was bullying me right in front of my face—was I supposed to just take it?

At first, I only wanted to drive him away.

Who knew that guy was a soul master too, and a four-ring Soul Ancestor at that.

He beat me up in no time and threw me out of that establishment.

What I can't stand most is that he actually flicked... that part of me."

By the time he said the last sentence, Fatty's face had turned purple.

Bai Ge fell silent.

They were all out there having fun. Beating Fatty up would have been one thing, but flicking him there—wasn't that the same as making Fatty practice the Evil Exorcising Swordplay Manual or the Sunflower Manual?

Bai Ge quietly scanned Fatty's heartbeat and breathing with his Spiritual Power. He really was not lying.

This time, Ma Hongjun had clearly been beaten badly, especially in terms of the psychological blow.

He poured out his grievances through tears and snot, making the four of them frown.

Tang San asked, "What was that person called?"

Ma Hongjun wiped his face with his sleeve. "I heard the madam there call him Bu Le or something. It probably wasn't his real name."

"Bu Le? A mere Soul Ancestor dared bully my brother?

Come on, Fatty, lead the way. Let's go take a look right now.

Little San, Little Ao, Xiao Bai, are you three coming?"

Dai Mubai could understand Fatty's feelings very well. He had gotten into plenty of fights over women himself in the past, only settling down after Zhu Zhuqing came along.

Besides, Fatty had been beaten this badly. Though it did not look like he had suffered any broken bones, he had lost plenty of face.

Tang San nodded. "Let's go take a look together."

Oscar chuckled. "Of course I'm going. I want to see who could possibly be sleazier than our Fatty."

The moment Ma Hongjun heard that the four were willing to stand up for him, he was overjoyed. "Good brothers! Let's go now. Maybe we can still catch him there."

With that, he immediately jumped to his feet and ran outside, as though his injuries no longer hurt at all.

Dai Mubai grabbed Ma Hongjun. "What's the rush? If we're going, we should eat first. That way we'll have the strength for it."

"While you're at it, tell us what that guy's martial soul is like. As they say, know yourself and know your enemy, and you'll win every battle."

Although Fatty looked anxious, his stomach was indeed empty, so he sat back down. As everyone ate dinner, Ma Hongjun recounted how he had been beaten up.

"That guy wasn't tall, only around 1.6 meters. His face was dark, like he'd just crawled out of a coal mine. His martial soul was strange. It wasn't attack, defense, or agility type. It felt like... felt like..."

Fatty's gaze drifted toward Tang San. "It seemed to serve a similar purpose to Third Brother's martial soul, just with a different appearance."

Tang San and Dai Mubai exchanged a glance and spoke almost in unison. "A control-type Soul Master?"

Fatty nodded. "It should be control type. On the surface, his martial soul looked like two pink semicircular covers. As soon as that guy summoned it, he wore them on his head. It was disgusting beyond words. He used two Soul Skills when he fought me. The first enlarged those two covers and blocked my Phoenix Fire Line. The second trapped my body between the two covers, one in front and one behind. I don't know what those covers were made of—even my phoenix flames couldn't damage them. They bound me up and wrapped me like a rice dumpling, then I became his punching bag."

Two pink covers? What kind of martial soul was that?

Even Tang San, who had studied under Grandmaster for years and could be considered highly knowledgeable, couldn't figure it out.

Bai Ge's eyes widened, and he blurted out instinctively, "Good lord, that thing exists? And it actually appeared on a man?"

After so many years, he could no longer remember Douluo's details very clearly, but...

Curious, Tang San quietly used Sound Transmission into the Secret. "Xiao Bai, you know?"

Bai Ge answered helplessly through Sound Transmission, "Uh, Little San, I told you before, didn't I? The era I lived in was several hundred years later than the Da Ming you lived in. In our era, that thing was a close-fitting garment for girls. Its purpose... was similar to the bellybands from your era..."

"Pfft!" After hearing that, Tang San sprayed a mouthful of water all over Fatty.

His delicate face flushed crimson, and he nearly suffered an internal energy deviation.

There was no helping it. Tang San, who had grown up in an era that emphasized "men and women should not touch hands when giving or receiving things," simply could not compare to Bai Ge, an old hand who had devoured countless teachers' works.

For Tang San, the shock was simply too great.