Tree Climbing and Water Walking (Thank You, Everyone)

Although there had been a few twists and turns, everyone ultimately spent quite a bit of effort before finally catching Kurama.

"This is really strange! What kind of Soul Beast is this?" Ma Hongjun panted heavily, plopping down on the ground as he complained, "How can it run so fast?"

Xiao Wu and Zhu Zhuqing, both agility-type Soul Masters, were also breathing unevenly, their cheeks flushed red. They were clearly having a hard time as well.

Kurama was a Hundred-Thousand-Year Soul Beast. Although he had lost his strength, he was still not someone a group of children who had yet to reach three rings could handle.

At first, the Shrek group had nearly been run to death by Kurama. Later, however, they changed their strategy. Taking turns chasing him, they wore down all of Kurama's stamina through a relay battle before managing to catch him.

After being toyed with like that, Kurama became much more obedient. He lay there listlessly now, looking thoroughly worn out.

So they did have some brains after all?

Madara was somewhat surprised by their ability to adapt. At least they knew how to be flexible instead of being bookworms trapped in an ivory tower.

"Don't forget what you promised!" Ma Hongjun clearly coveted Madara's strength. Even though he was nearly exhausted, he still rolled over and stuck out his tongue as he spoke.

"Come here. I'll teach you," Madara said, raising his chin to signal everyone to follow before leading them toward the riverbank.

"Are we training here? There's nothing special about this place, is there?" Ning Rongrong looked around. Aside from the extra river, it seemed no different from the surrounding area.

"Rongrong, stop talking! I believe Big Brother Madara must have his reasons for doing this!" Xiao Wu had great confidence in Madara. After all, she had known him since their days at the Junior Soul Master Academy and had even acknowledged him as her big brother.

"Fine. I suppose this is our only option," Ning Rongrong said dejectedly.

"Now, it's time for me to teach you a few tricks." After stopping, Madara turned around and looked at the Shrek group with interest. "If you can't even learn these little tricks, then don't call yourselves monsters!"

"Hmph! If you have the ability, then teach us! We haven't learned it yet, so of course we can't do it!" Ning Rongrong snorted, clearly unconvinced.

"I hope you can still be this confident once training begins." Madara raised an eyebrow and mocked her.

Without caring whether they could keep up, Madara strode directly onto the stream. To everyone's astonishment, he stood atop it as if it were flat ground and walked across with ease, as though the flowing water beneath his feet were not water at all, but blocks of blue stone.

"Am I seeing things? Zhuqing, pinch me!" Ma Hongjun blinked hard, sounding as though he was questioning his entire life.

"Ah! So it's not a dream!" Zhu Zhuqing showed no mercy as she gave Ma Hongjun a hard pinch, making him yelp in pain.

"How did you do that?" Zhu Zhuqing could no longer maintain her usual cool expression. Staring straight at Madara, she asked in a slightly trembling voice.

"It's simple. Just attach Soul Power to the soles of your feet." Madara quickly walked back as he explained, "Use Soul Power to distribute your weight across the water's surface, then counteract the movement of the water."

Simple? You called that simple?

Dai Mubai was currently recovering from his injuries, while Ma Hongjun and Oscar were already close to breaking down. How the hell were they supposed to learn this?

"You can't even do something this simple?" Madara began sprinting and leaping over the water's surface. His tone was cold, but to their ears, it sounded incomparably mocking. "I overestimated you."

"Brother! Say a little less!" Seeing that everyone's expressions had turned ugly, Tang San hurriedly stepped in to smooth things over.

Of the people Madara mentioned, Tang San's younger brother certainly would not be included. Tang San had the mysterious Mysterious Heaven Skill, unknown to others, as well as Ghost Shadow Perplexing Track. His movement techniques could not possibly be too weak.

"Don't look down on us! We'll definitely do it!" Ning Rongrong was the proudest of them all. Her face reddened with anger as she shouted at Madara.

"Big Brother Madara, we'll prove it!" Xiao Wu clenched her fists, encouraging herself.

Zhu Zhuqing was even more direct. Without another word, she walked to the side of the stream and began training.

Seeing that the girls were not complaining, Ma Hongjun and Oscar felt too embarrassed to protest and followed along as well.

But simplicity was relative. For a clan genius of the Shinobi World like Uchiha Itachi, tree climbing and water walking were effortless; even Fire Release ninjutsu could be mastered after seeing it once.

At that moment, Zhao Wuji and Flender were still hiding nearby and watching. They even began discussing it.

Zhao Wuji scratched his head and sighed. "This control over Soul Power is damn unbelievable!"

"It truly is a secret method for training," Flender agreed repeatedly, looking as though he had learned something.

To be honest, people on the Douluo Continent generally focused on cultivation and treated everything else as insignificant details.

Yet they did not realize that such things could make up for weaknesses and allow the same Soul Skills to display even greater power.

Perhaps some highly knowledgeable people paid more attention to such foundations, such as Yu Xiaogang, the renowned Grandmaster of the Spirit Master world.

The people training beside the stream naturally did not notice any of this. They could only begin fumbling through it, stumbling and falling, every one of them in a miserable state.

Only Tang San, due to practicing the Mysterious Heaven Skill, managed to remain standing on the water's surface overall, though he still stumbled a little.

Madara sneered disdainfully. "You can't even do this much? And you want to catch up to me?"

"So he's that terrifying?"

"This is only the beginning. Next, I'll teach you tree climbing," Madara continued slowly.

"Tree climbing? Who doesn't know how to do that?!" Ma Hongjun muttered indifferently.

With Madara's hearing, he naturally caught Ma Hongjun's quiet complaint. He shot him a sideways glance. "Then climb one for me."

"I'll climb if you want me to!" After hearing Madara's words, Ma Hongjun casually picked a tree, wrapped his arms around the trunk, and slowly shimmied upward.

His plump body and bizarre movements looked incredibly comical, making the girls training alongside him burst into laughter.

"Hahaha! I'm dying!" Ning Rongrong pointed at the fat man climbing the tree, laughing so hard her body shook.

"Hey, hey, hey! What's so funny?" The fat man turned his head and shouted down at them with an unhappy expression.

Fatty continued climbing upward with his head lowered, sweat covering his chubby face. Then he noticed that the laughter below gradually faded. Everyone had widened their eyes and was staring beside him, as though they had seen something unbelievable.

"Holy shit! What the hell is that?" Ma Hongjun followed everyone's gaze in confusion and nearly fell from the tree in shock.

"Now this is tree climbing!" Madara walked step by step up the tree trunk as though gravity did not exist. He even had the leisure to shoot Ma Hongjun a sideways glance and say coldly, "This is tree climbing!"