"Qu Hun, go!"
With Li Feiyu holding back Nanmen Yun'er, the one who posed the greatest threat to him, Han Li secretly breathed a sigh of relief and immediately adjusted his tactics. He ordered Qu Hun, who had already activated his Martial Soul Possession, to attack.
Qu Hun's Martial Soul was a pair of heavy, iron-colored gauntlets. Five sharp spikes glinted coldly along each knuckle, making them useful for both offense and defense.
It was a fairly decent Tool Martial Soul. However, like Li Feiyu, Qu Hun was a Soul Master with only one Hundred-Year Soul Ring.
Against Bai Yi, who had two Soul Rings, he couldn't exactly win. The best he could do was hold him off for a while.
The only thing that piqued Mo Yuan and Bai Yi's interest was that Han Li was also a Two-Ring Soul Grandmaster.
Han Li's Martial Soul was a Tool Martial Soul as well: a small, translucent blue-green bottle with two unidentified plant branches inside.
Just looking at this strange Martial Soul, it was hard to figure out how he was supposed to use it to control his opponents.
At Han Li's command, Qu Hun immediately strode forward and charged straight at Bai Yi. At the same time, his First Soul Ring lit up.
His heavy, sturdy gauntlets suddenly swelled in size, while small flames sprang up around their ends. Before long, they had engulfed both of Qu Hun's muscular arms.
At first, they hadn't known what Bai Yi's Martial Soul was, so they'd decided to have Li Feiyu engage him in close combat. But now that they'd seen it, it seemed that Qu Hun, as a Strong Attack System Soul Master, was better suited to fight Bai Yi.
After all, the greatest advantage of a Bow Martial Soul was its long-range attacks. The arena was so small that unless Bai Yi kept dodging, Qu Hun might be able to get close and land a hit. If so, the three of them might even manage to take Bai Yi down with them.
"First Soul Skill, Explosive Fist Flame!"
Qu Hun let out a low growl and stamped hard on the ground. The floor shattered, and he shot straight toward Bai Yi at incredible speed.
His flaming fists slammed forward with a forceful whoosh that put immense pressure on his opponent.
Han Li didn't just stand by and watch, either. His First Soul Ring lit up, and the dark green branch inside the blue-green bottle swayed slightly.
"First Soul Skill, Snake Vine Entanglement!"
Before he had finished speaking, several floor tiles a short distance in front of Bai Yi broke apart. More than a dozen green vines, each as thick as an adult's forearm, burst out wildly and lunged straight at Bai Yi, seeking to wrap around him.
Mo Yuan, who had remained motionless behind them, watched Han Li release his Martial Soul and had more or less figured out how it worked.
If his guess was right, whenever Han Li obtained a Soul Ring from a plant-type Soul Beast, a branch of that creature appeared inside the bottle.
By releasing the corresponding Soul Skill, he could use that plant Soul Beast to entangle and control his opponents.
It was quite ingenious. If developed properly, he could use one Martial Soul as though it were nine.
Tsk... If he got a Blue Silver Grass Soul Ring, could he use Mom... no, Blue Silver Entanglement?
Unlike Mo Yuan, whose thoughts were full of mischief, Han Li stared fixedly at Bai Yi, who was about to be ensnared by the Snake Vines and hit head-on by Qu Hun.
In his eyes, their attack on Bai Yi was nearly flawless. He used a control Soul Skill to restrict Bai Yi's movements, then had Qu Hun close in and attack head-on.
That perfectly limited the powerful ranged attacks of a Bow Martial Soul. As long as Bai Yi wasn't a berserker dressed up as an archer, nothing should go wrong.
Of course, this all depended on Mo Yuan continuing to stay out of it. Otherwise, Qu Hun wouldn't be going in to attack; he'd be going in to take a beating.
But just as the Snake Vines were about to ensnare Bai Yi, Han Li grew more and more uneasy. The reason was simple: Mo Yuan and Bai Yi both looked far too calm, as if dodging this attack would be easy.
That unease was finally confirmed when Bai Yi's Second Soul Ring lit up.
"Second Soul Skill, Light Feather Wings!"
As Bai Yi's quiet voice rang out, the Forest White Cold Qi around him erupted. At the same time, a pair of enormous ice-feathered wings appeared behind him!
Han Li felt a surge of alarm at the sight. The moment the ice wings appeared, Bai Yi vanished from where he stood.
The Snake Vines and Qu Hun's fists, which had been about to hit their target, both struck empty air. With no time to be astonished, Han Li immediately looked up.
The moment he saw Bai Yi flying overhead, aiming the Light Feather Ice Bow at him, he despaired. He couldn't help exclaiming,
"It's a flight Soul Skill!"
"Correct. Unfortunately, there's no prize."
Bai Yi smiled calmly. Archers were indeed at a disadvantage in a small arena against Strong Attack System Soul Masters skilled in close combat. But once they could fly—
They could leave the arena and enter the boundless sky. Then all those supposed counters became meaningless.
Han Li understood that as well and had already given up resisting. What was the point of fighting an archer who could fly?
"First Soul Skill, Frost Feather!"
Bai Yi drew the Light Feather Ice Bow into a perfect arc. The Ice Arrow resting on the bowstring grew sharper and colder.
He made no unnecessary movements. After taking aim at Han Li and Qu Hun, who were frantically running around below, he gently released the arrow with his right hand.
"Whoosh!"
The sound of the arrow tearing through the air rang out. Han Li looked up to check its trajectory, but the sight left him rooted to the spot.
The moment the arrow, radiating bone-deep cold, left the Light Feather Ice Bow, it shattered in midair. The countless fragments of ice transformed into countless arrows identical to the original.
A rain of arrows blanketed more than half the arena, leaving Han Li and Qu Hun nowhere to dodge.
The moment Bai Yi loosed that arrow, the outcome was decided.
The three of them were already at an overwhelming disadvantage in cultivation, and their Martial Souls weren't even on the same level. Even if Han Li and Qu Hun somehow endured the rain of arrows, they would have little strength left to continue fighting.
Knowing they couldn't win, Han Li immediately pulled Qu Hun up beside him and shouted with his hands raised, "We surrender!"
At the same time, all the arrows shattered under Bai Yi's control, turning into a flurry of snow that drifted down.
The clash between Nanmen Yun'er and Li Feiyu had ended even earlier.
The Golden Eater Insect was indeed an exceptionally rare Martial Soul that combined speed and defense. But Nanmen Yun'er's Martial Soul, the Jade Green Bird, was just as good—and far stronger.
Even setting aside the difference in Martial Soul strength, there was a full nine-level gap in their Soul Power Levels, and Nanmen Yun'er had one more Soul Ring.
If Li Feiyu's defenses hadn't been so strong, Nanmen Yun'er would have won the moment they clashed. After all, Agile Attack System Soul Masters specialized in ending fights quickly, with a single decisive strike.
The male teacher standing outside the arena, ready to step in and rescue anyone at a moment's notice, watched Bai Yi and Nanmen Yun'er put their Martial Souls away, looking thoughtful.
He had seen the fight clearly. Compared to Han Li's side, which had used every trick and fought with all its might, Mo Yuan's group had made it look far too easy.
They hadn't used any tactics at all. They had simply overwhelmed their opponents with sheer strength.
The other four teams watching from the sidelines looked grim after seeing the match. When they looked at Mo Yuan and the others, their eyes held a trace of fear.
In an instant, the entire Thirty-Six Zone fell silent.
With Han Li, a Soul Grandmaster, leading his team, and with Qu Hun and Li Feiyu both fairly capable, they had still been crushed by Bai Yi and Nanmen Yun'er in just two exchanges.
What chance did the rest of them have, when their teams weren't even as strong as Han Li's? Would they fail to last even two exchanges?
The author's health has been giving him trouble lately, and his mental state hasn't been great either, so the quality of his writing over the past few days may have declined. If any of you readers aren't satisfied, feel free to drop the book.
And a word about the readers who've been cursing me: if you think there's a problem with how I wrote a chapter, you can point it out. I haven't deleted any comments from people who kept their language clean.
But some readers are just like I wrote in my book: there are still plenty of idiots in this world. They're like rats living in a gutter, venting online whenever life doesn't go their way.
You're the sort of trash who'd sell your own parents to a brothel, and the first thing you do is attack me personally. What, did your parents never teach you how to speak?
I've banned you, and you just keep switching accounts to come curse me out. What, nobody in the world cares about you anymore? Do you have to come here to feel noticed? Nobody gives a damn about you.
My protagonist is an orphan because that's an easy background to write. If you're orphans, then you must deserve it—you're the kind of people everyone hates, even dogs and cats.