Zhang Yang's opponent in this soul fight had a pair of scissors as his Martial Soul and three Hundred-Year Soul Rings.
For a scissors-type Martial Soul to reach level 39, his opponent could be considered a genius. Though he was already getting on in years, breaking through level 50 and reaching the Soul King Level in his lifetime should not have been much of a problem.
Facing such an uncommon Weapon Martial Soul, Zhang Yang naturally did not end the battle too quickly. Instead, he tangled with his opponent for quite a while using the Navy Six Styles, encountering danger several times before finally ending the fight with a Finger Gun from a blind spot.
Losing was impossible. After all, he had bet his entire fortune on himself to win. Wouldn't losing mean taking a massive loss?
After the match, he registered his points. Four wins, zero losses, four points. He also received a reward of ten Gold Soul Coins.
But Zhang Yang's attention was not on that at all. He was more eager to find Ning Rongrong and claim the winnings with the betting slip.
After Zhang Yang's battle ended, Ning Rongrong left the spectator stand and headed for the Betting Counter to meet him. However, the route from the stands to the counter was quite long, and Ning Rongrong was unfamiliar with the Great Soul Arena. By the time she arrived, Zhang Yang had already been waiting for quite some time.
Taking the betting slip Ning Rongrong handed over, Zhang Yang ignored her thief-like grin and eagerly sought out a staff member to collect his prize.
The slip was valid, and the staff member efficiently paid out his winnings. "This is your principal and prize money. Please keep it safe."
"Huh? That's all?" Taking the 550 Gold Soul Coins, Zhang Yang subtracted the principal he had given Ning Rongrong and realized he had only earned fifty Gold Soul Coins.
"Huh? Were my odds that low?"
As Zhang Yang pondered this, he saw Ning Rongrong receive a Gold Card from the counter.
"You bet on me winning too?" Seeing Ning Rongrong's radiant smile, Zhang Yang seemed to understand something.
"You bet your entire fortune on yourself. Of course I wouldn't be stupid enough to miss such a good opportunity." Ning Rongrong grinned slyly.
"You made quite a bit, didn't you? Shouldn't you treat me to something?" Zhang Yang rolled his eyes.
"Not much, not much. I only made thirty-two thousand. That's nothing." Ning Rongrong deliberately sighed helplessly. "Sigh, it's all because I bet too much and made the Great Soul Arena lower your odds. I'm really sorry."
Zhang Yang sighed. He had found the culprit. And Ning Rongrong truly deserved to be called the little princess of the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect. She had brought more than ten thousand Gold Soul Coins just to attend school. She really was rich.
After leaving the Great Soul Arena, Ning Rongrong saw that Zhang Yang still seemed a little upset and could not help feeling nervous, afraid that he truly loved money as much as his life and that her prank had gone too far.
Ning Rongrong cautiously probed his mood. "Zhang Yang, are you okay?"
It was certainly regrettable to miss out on such a large sum of money, but Zhang Yang quickly pulled himself together. After all, Ning Rongrong had earned the big money, so it was still theirs in the end.
"I'm fine. Let's head back." Zhang Yang shook his head and reached out to take Ning Rongrong's hand.
Ning Rongrong's pretty face flushed. She lowered her head to look at Zhang Yang's hand but did not stop him.
The two of them walked back to Shrek Academy hand in hand.
Not far behind them, two men were bent over notebooks, writing something down. Several bandits who had been tempted by money were tied up at their feet.
The next day, Master began his long-prepared training program with his First Lesson.
First came combat training. Every day, Master set aside one or two hours to arrange random combat tests among Shrek's eight students.
One against one, two against two, one against two, three against three, three against four, four against four—restrictions on Soul Skills, restrictions on tactics, all sorts of variations.
As the most bug-like member of the team, Zhang Yang received Master's harshest arrangements. He was forbidden from using Soul Ring skills and could only rely on the physical fitness gained after Martial Soul Possession and the Navy Six Styles to deal with battles.
With his Soul Ring skills banned, Zhang Yang was merely an Assault Type Battle Soul Master with decent strength among those at the same Soul Power level. He handled one-on-one fights with ease, but against Tang San, a Control System Soul Master, he lost more often than he won.
But once it became one against two or one against three, his record became rather miserable. Not to mention that Tang San appeared far too often among his opponents.
Zhang Yang knew Master was training him on how to deal with Control System Soul Masters, so he learned humbly, corrected his mistakes actively, and worked hard to improve his practical combat ability.
Of course, even with Tang San as an opponent, there were times when Zhang Yang got to hold his head high.
It was a one-against-seven battle. Zhang Yang faced the original Shrek Seven Devils.
Facing the Shrek Seven Devils, enhanced by Ning Rongrong and supported by Oscar's Mushroom Sausages, Zhang Yang seemed to be under some pressure and accidentally lit up all three Soul Rings on his body.
According to Master, a satisfying battle helped build the students' confidence and could also prevent conflicts from arising between them.
The Shrek Seven Devils cursed inwardly. To boost Zhang Yang's confidence, Master, you've really sacrificed us.
Next came physical fitness training: long-distance running with weights, ten round trips from the academy to Suotuo City.
Master truly deserved to be called Theoretically invincible in the Soul Master world. His grasp of everyone's physical limits alone had reached an extreme level.
An eighty-kilometer weighted run without being allowed to use Soul Power—although Zhang Yang, Tang San, Dai Mubai, and the others were strong, after helping Ning Rongrong and Oscar bear part of the weight, they still ended up collapsing from exhaustion.
Of course, if they were going to faint, they would all faint together. Ning Rongrong had passed out right at the beginning of the tenth lap. Zhang Yang carried her on his back, with both of their weights hanging from his chest.
By then, Zhang Yang's vision was already blurry, and he could barely make out the road beneath his feet.
Tang San carried Oscar, Dai Mubai carried Zhu Zhuqing, Xiao Wu took on part of their loads, while Ma Hongjun carried both Oscar's and Zhu Zhuqing's weights.
Like eight people in their nineties, they completed the final round trip while supporting one another. Then, with the obsession in their hearts finally gone, they all collapsed directly at the finish line.
Then the Teachers who had been waiting for a long time stripped them down like plucked chickens and threw them into Bath Barrels for Medicinal Baths.
Everyone underwent this kind of training every day. Every day, they were exhausted to the point of unconsciousness, then woke up in the Bath Barrels.
However, what shocked everyone was that Zhang Yang's physical fitness improved at an astonishing rate. Starting from the second month, in order to force out Zhang Yang's physical limits, Master had him wear a three-hundred-jin Cast Iron Vest in addition to carrying a bamboo basket.
In just three months, Zhang Yang's height shot up from over 1.7 meters to 1.95 meters. He grew twenty-five centimeters in three months, and after Martial Soul Possession, his height surged directly to 2.5 meters. Zhang Yang had even thought his growth spurt had come early.
Now, even Dai Mubai, the tallest among them, had to tilt his head up slightly when facing Zhang Yang. It was incredibly awkward.
Everyone guessed that Zhang Yang's rapid physical changes might have been influenced by his Martial Soul. After all, his Martial Soul Borsalino was three meters tall, so growing to 1.95 meters was not unreasonable.
On Douluo Continent, the influence of Beast Martial Souls on Soul Masters truly existed. For example, Bone Douluo Gu Rong's Martial Soul was a Bone Dragon, and he himself was all skin and bones, looking like a Skeleton.
Without the influence of his Martial Soul, a Titled Douluo should not have looked like that no matter what.
Zhang Yang felt that explanation made a lot of sense. His physical fitness should have been influenced by Borsalino.
Thinking back on the training intensity and physical fitness of the strong in the One Piece world, Zhang Yang's current physical fitness became easier to explain.
The first stage of training lasted a full three months. When they heard Master announce its end, everyone felt as though they had escaped hell and returned to the human world.
After the training ended, Master gave everyone a week off to relax their nerves and adjust their condition.
On the evening training ended, Ma Hongjun slipped off to Suotuo City to solve his problem.
Zhang Yang wanted to go with Ma Hongjun because he needed to buy some clothes that fit. But when Ning Rongrong heard this, she immediately volunteered to go along, saying she could help Zhang Yang match his outfits.
Zhang Yang thought it would be good to have a woman along when buying clothes, so he nodded in agreement.
Ning Rongrong wanted to return to the dormitory to change clothes, but everyone knew how long girls took to change. By the time Ning Rongrong walked beautifully out of the dormitory an hour had passed, and the fatty had long since left.
Zhang Yang was now 1.95 meters tall, while Ning Rongrong was just over 1.6 meters. The two differed by a full thirty centimeters. If Zhang Yang raised his arm, Ning Rongrong could practically fit beneath his armpit.
As they set out on the road to Suotuo City, Zhang Yang and Ning Rongrong tacitly held hands.
Zhang Yang and Ning Rongrong had not taken a walk together like this for three months. Neither of them wanted to say anything. Just having his large hand wrapped around her small one was already enough.
But men were creatures who never knew satisfaction. Before long, the large hand released the small one and instead wrapped around Ning Rongrong's waist.
The distance between them grew a little smaller.
This road, which they had run back and forth along countless times and soaked with endless sweat, became interesting under their leisurely footsteps.
When they arrived at a men's clothing store, Ning Rongrong quickly selected many outfits for Zhang Yang according to her own preferences.
The outfits Ning Rongrong chose differed slightly from Zhang Yang's preferred style, but the fabric was indeed comfortable, so Zhang Yang paid for them.
After accompanying Zhang Yang through the clothing store, Ning Rongrong nodded in satisfaction, as though she had completed a great undertaking. To reward herself, she spent the entire afternoon shopping and bought herself clothes worth more than a hundred Gold Soul Coins.
One Gold Soul Coin was enough to cover the ordinary expenses of a normal family of three for several months. More than a hundred Gold Soul Coins was no small sum.
Zhang Yang sighed. She truly was the little princess of the Top Three Sects. She really was rich.
After finding somewhere to eat dinner, Zhang Yang and Ning Rongrong were preparing to visit the Great Soul Arena when they suddenly noticed a familiar-looking fatty staggering along the roadside.
Although the fatty's face had swollen into a pig's head, blood hung from the corner of his mouth, and his clothes were filthy beyond recognition, Zhang Yang still recognized him. After all, they were companions who had endured three months of hellish training together.
Zhang Yang stopped him, frowned, and said angrily, "Fatty, who beat you into this state?"
This person was Ma Hongjun.
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