Sparring

"Please."

Chen Ming held a wooden sword in his right hand, signaling his opponent to make the first move. Seeing this, Lan Mengqin did not stand on ceremony and immediately released her first soul skill, a yellow soul ring appearing around her.

"Then I won't hold back. First soul skill, Blizzard!"

A heavy snowstorm began to fall across the arena. Logically, an enemy would be slowed down by this, but unfortunately for her, Chen Ming was immune to ice!

Could the Silver Dragon King ever be harmed by the very elements he mastered? Don't make me laugh!

This soul skill acted like a crowd-control ability, buffing the ice element for herself and her allies while slowing down her enemies.

"Let me see the strength of the top-ranked student in your grade!"

Lan Mengqin raised her hand, and several ice cones swept toward him. Chen Ming moved forward unhurriedly, swatting away the incoming ice cones with his wooden sword.

"Useless...?"

Seeing Chen Ming looking so calm and composed, Lan Mengqin felt the pressure. Did the opponent not feel the cold at all? It was over forty degrees below zero.

A normal one-ring soul master would be frozen to the point of being unable to move and would have surrendered by now... Could it be that he was also an ice-attribute user?

Lan Mengqin searched her mind for a countermeasure, then raised her hand again and shouted:

"Try this! Ice Spike!"

Many ice spikes rose from the ground in front of Lan Mengqin, rushing toward her opponent. Chen Ming still handled them casually, jumping up on the spot and stepping on two layers of earth to successfully avoid the spikes.

"The cold wind howls, the ice and snow are heartless; testing the sword with snow, sharpening the edge with ice."

Chen Ming stepped on the ice spikes as if walking on flat ground, reciting a string of words that Lan Mengqin found completely baffling.

"Damn it... how can you be so pretentious! Again! Ice Shard Blade!"

This time, Lan Mengqin decided to win with sheer numbers, wanting to see how he could possibly block them all. Dozens of Ice Shard Blades flew toward him.

Chen Ming continued to walk forward slowly. Just as the blades arrived, his wooden sword danced in his hands, spinning in a blur to block every single one of them.

Lan Mengqin was deeply shocked. How is this even playable? Can you not nerf yourself? While she was stunned, Chen Ming spun around, a fishing rod appeared in his left hand, and he whipped it out violently.

Looking at the incoming hook, Lan Mengqin was even more confused. What is this now? Aren't we fighting? Why are you pulling out a fishing rod?

But the next moment, the hook landed on Lan Mengqin, and she immediately understood what Chen Ming wanted to do, but it was already too late.

"Wait! I surren—!"

Just as she was about to surrender, she felt a massive force strike her, and her entire body was yanked forward, causing her to let out a sharp, piercing shriek.

Lan Mengqin was fished through the air by Chen Ming, flapping about like a fish, while a wooden sword pressed against her fair neck.

"You lost."

"...Put me down!"

Suspended in mid-air, Lan Mengqin felt a sense of humiliation. Who treats a girl like this? This is so embarrassing!

After being put down, Lan Mengqin ran crying to Dong Qianqiu to seek comfort.

"Qianqiu, he bullied me! Help me get revenge!"

Watching beautiful girls cuddling was indeed easy on the eyes, but Chen Ming was busy looking at his own Skill panel.

A single battle had added quite a lot of experience to his Skill levels, and suddenly, Chen Ming looked at Lan Mengqin and Dong Qianqiu as if they were just tools for grinding points.

"Can I have a match with you?"

Dong Qianqiu also challenged Chen Ming. Seeing the battle between the two, her hands were itching for a fight.

"Of course, please."

Chen Ming raised his hand to signal her to step onto the stage. After putting down Di Qiu'er, who was fast asleep on her legs, Dong Qianqiu stepped onto the Soul Fighting Platform.

"Go for it, Qianqiu! Beat this bad guy!"

Lan Mengqin cheered for Dong Qianqiu from below the stage. The two stood facing each other, and soon Dong Qianqiu raised her hand, condensing an ice spear in her palm.

Immediately after, Dong Qianqiu charged directly at him, while several ice cones flew toward Chen Ming.

"A spear? I know a little about that too."

Chen Ming slammed his wooden sword onto the ground. As it bounced back up, he caught it with a casual flick and put it away, replacing it with a wooden spear he now held in his hand.

At the same time, his left hand flicked the fishing hook, snagging one of the ice cones. Chen Ming shattered a few others and dodged the one he had hooked, just as Dong Qianqiu's ice spear thrust forward violently.

Chen Ming dodged to the side, and she followed up with a horizontal sweep. He immediately retracted the hook and leaned back to avoid it, just as Dong Qianqiu prepared to bring her spear down in a vertical strike.

She saw the ice cone flying back and was momentarily stunned—it was the one Chen Ming had hooked earlier.

With no time to think, Dong Qianqiu had to dodge to the side to avoid the cone, and Chen Ming rose to attack with his spear.

Dong Qianqiu blocked with her ice spear but was knocked back by the force of Chen Ming's strike, her hands feeling numb. She looked over and realized the fishing hook had snagged onto her ice spear.

"When?!"

She was stunned, and as Chen Ming gave a sharp tug, the ice spear was ripped from her grip and flew toward him.

"Remember to hold your weapon tight next time. Catch!"

Chen Ming gave a reminder, then spun around and tossed the ice spear back. Watching the incoming weapon, Dong Qianqiu had no choice but to condense another ice spear to block it.

Bang!

Two Ice Spears collided, and the Ice Spear on the fishing hook instantly shattered into ice shards, plastering Dong Qianqiu's face. The very moment her vision was obscured, the hook had already silently snagged onto her.

"Qianqiu, watch out! The hook!"

"What?!"

Dong Qianqiu looked down and turned her head, only to discover the hook was snagged directly onto the back of her collar. Just as she reached out to grab it, she was yanked away by Chen Ming.

"Caught a little shark, quite a bountiful harvest."

Chen Ming chuckled as he watched Dong Qianqiu flailing in the air. Dong Qianqiu's face flushed red; the feeling of being reeled in like this was far from pleasant, and she felt a deep sense of humiliation.

"Put Qianqiu down quickly, you'll be hated by girls if you act like this."

Lan Mengqin hadn't expected this fishing hook to be so troublesome; even her own sister had fallen for it.

"I'm not being hated."

Chen Ming corrected her after setting Dong Qianqiu down. Di Qiu'er, who had finished her nap, also woke up—or rather, she had been woken up by the sounds of everyone fighting.

"Are you alright, Qianqiu?"

Lan Mengqin stepped forward, concerned. Dong Qianqiu shook her head slightly and said:

"I'm fine, Sister Mengqin, look, I'm perfectly alright."

Chen Ming, meanwhile, put away his fishing rod. It had been such a long time since he'd had a real fight; he hadn't sparred with anyone in ages, having spent his time mostly killing Zombies and Skeletons.

After this round of combat, the two girls were even more curious about Chen Ming. After all, he hadn't even summoned his Martial Soul, defeating them entirely with a fishing hook, a wooden sword, and a wooden spear.

"You bad guy, what exactly is your Martial Soul? How come we've never seen you use it?"

To this point, the two still weren't sure what his Martial Soul was. Hearing this, Chen Ming raised his hand and brandished a clod of dirt:

"This is my Martial Soul, a clod of dirt."

"This is your Martial Soul?!"

The two were instantly stunned. They hadn't expected his Martial Soul to actually be a clod of dirt... it was completely different from what they had imagined...

"Don't believe me? Watch."

Seeing their disbelief, Chen Ming waved his hand, and in an instant, he constructed a wall of dirt, and he could even retract the dirt with a single thought.

"Uh... what a... unique Martial Soul..."

"Earth-attribute Martial Souls are quite powerful too..."

After a moment of silence, the two forced a smile. It was just that this clod of dirt Martial Soul... was truly too abstract; it was really hard to imagine.

PS: The third update for February 24th, totaling six thousand words.