After Tang San successfully mastered the use of the Eight Chysanthemum Spear, Xiao Wu, just like in the original story, used the Sky Azure Bull Python as an excuse to tell everyone how she had escaped from the Titan Giant Ape and obtained her third Soul Ring.
Since Shen He did not expose her, the Shrek group naturally believed Xiao Wu's nonsense. After all, hardly any normal person would think in the direction of Xiao Wu being a soul beast.
Seeing that the mission to obtain Soul Rings had ended successfully, Zhao Wuji also breathed a sigh of relief. To prevent any further accidents, he immediately led everyone back to Shrek Academy, and their special training was about to begin.
"Special training?"
After hearing Flender's arrangement, the four newcomers naturally looked utterly bewildered.
"Basically, you're going to the Great Soul Arena in Suotuo City to fight!"
Seeing that the four of them did not understand, Oscar immediately explained it to Ning Rongrong and the others.
"But teacher, isn't it a little early to send them into the arena? They've only just broken through to Soul Elder!"
Dai Mubai's expression changed when he saw Flender's arrangement.
"You're all monsters, not ordinary people. And since you're monsters, naturally you need a monster's method of cultivation."
Although Flender clearly wanted to take the opportunity to make some money for his private stash, he still put on a speech as if he were doing it for everyone's sake.
"Your Martial Souls are all different, and so are your cultivation methods. The academy can teach you only how to make better use of your Martial Souls, help you obtain Soul Rings, and unearth as much of your soul skills' potential as possible. Beyond that, there's only various knowledge about Martial Souls and the situation of soul masters across the continent. As for the most important thing for a soul master—practical combat experience—that naturally can't increase much at the academy."
The moment Shen He heard Flender begin speaking, he knew exactly what scheme he was plotting. He merely smiled at Flender. When Flender saw that his little scheme was about to be exposed, he cleverly used his eyes to signal that Shen He would have a share, then shamelessly continued.
"Among people of the same level, the amount of practical combat experience is the key to determining victory or defeat. Only through constant battles can you improve your ability to adapt during combat as much as possible. Therefore, the Great Soul Arena is the best place for you to train your strength. Besides, having just obtained your Soul Rings, you can also quickly familiarize yourselves with your new abilities."
Of course, those words could only fool the few newcomers. Dai Mubai and the others, who were all veteran students, naturally did not agree.
Training one's practical combat ability was indeed effective, but the chances of getting beaten were also extremely high. Dai Mubai, who was already close to level forty, had only about a fifty-fifty win rate. How could people who had just reached Soul Elder possibly defeat opponents at levels thirty-eight or thirty-nine?
One had to know that the Great Soul Arena grouped people according to the number of their Soul Rings. Soul masters who made a living from it would never go fight right after breaking through. Wouldn't that just be going there to get beaten and challenge their limits for no reason?
After briefly explaining the Great Soul Arena to the four rookies, Ning Rongrong had initially wanted to cling to Shen He's coattails as an auxiliary soul master. However, Shen He rejected her with a look that said he was staring at an idiot.
"Come on! I'm the dean of Shrek Academy now! How could I lower myself to fight? This is your special training! Of course I'll be watching your performances from the audience seats."
Shen He raised an eyebrow and adopted the air of an elder.
In truth, among soul masters of the same cultivation level, there were now almost no opponents he considered worthy of attention.
If he participated in the fights, he could only battle Soul Elder–level soul masters. However, his current strength had already far surpassed the Soul Elder level, so there was no challenge in fighting them.
"You'd better fight properly. The battles are yours, not mine. If you don't work hard now, you'll suffer greatly in the future. You don't want to get killed in a life-or-death battle later just because you failed to gain enough experience by fighting properly, do you?"
After saying that, Shen He ignored the group and went ahead to the Great Soul Arena to watch the matches. The others then formed a team, just as in the original story, and headed to the Great Soul Arena.
After going through a series of registration procedures and waiting, Tang San and Xiao Wu's Three-Five Combination finally reached the time for their debut.
"...The fifth two-on-two match: the Dali Combination versus the Three-Five Combination."
As the host announced the match, two sturdy young men in their twenties walked onto the platform. Their muscular upper bodies were bare, and every inch of muscle displayed their strength.
When the two saw Tang San and Xiao Wu step onto the stage, they rubbed their eyes in disbelief. Even the host was stunned for a moment. Anyone who could stand here clearly possessed the corresponding Martial Soul rank—in other words, these two masked children really were Soul Elders.
"It seems our Three-Five Combination is truly young and promising, having reached the strength of Soul Elders at such a tender age. I believe the audience is also eager to see what kind of surprises they can bring everyone! Will the young Three-Five Combination emerge victorious and prove that heroes come from the youth, or will the Dali Combination continue defending their winning streak? With that, I declare the match begun!"
Although the Dali Combination was surprised that Tang San and Xiao Wu had reached the strength of Soul Elders at such a young age, the battle-hardened pair did not hesitate for long before releasing their Martial Souls.
As their Rhinoceros Martial Souls possessed them, the two immediately entered battle mode.
So what if they were geniuses? No matter how quickly they cultivated, their ages were right there. How much combat experience could they have? As long as they did not kill them, who would care about this during a normal soul fight, even if they had a faction backing them?
The two brawny men roared at the same time. Their first yellow Soul Rings lit up, and they charged toward Tang San and Xiao Wu with nearly identical steps and overwhelming force.
"First Soul Skill: Savage Bull Charge!"
Seeing the pair's imposing momentum, Tang San hurriedly released his Martial Soul, Blue Silver Pig. He then grabbed Xiao Wu beside him and flung her upward with all his strength, sending her out of the opponents' attack range.
The moment Blue Silver Pig was summoned, it saw two bull-like brutes charging toward it with unstoppable momentum. It immediately turned its round, chubby rear toward the two men and used its third soul skill, Web Restraint.
With a "pfft," a spiderweb made from Blue Silver Grass shot out from Blue Silver Pig's rear and stuck to the feet of the two charging brutes.
A soul skill from a Thousand Year Soul Ring naturally had a better effect than one from a Hundred Year Soul Ring. Under Blue Silver Pig's master-level control, it was even impossible for the web to be broken through. Once their feet were restrained, the two men immediately fell flat on their faces several meters in front of Tang San.
A Control System Soul Elder!
Once the two were restrained, this term immediately appeared in their minds.
Power Attack System soul masters had an extremely hard time fighting Control System soul masters. Moreover, this was only one person, and he had already done this much. As expected of a genius from a major faction! Though it was somewhat strange that his Martial Soul was a pig.
Seeing that Blue Silver Pig had interrupted their soul-skill charge, Tang San naturally would not miss such a good opportunity. He immediately used Ghost Shadow Perplexing Track and moved forward to finish them off.
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