Sure to Be Useful Next Time

Wang Dong and Huang Chutian, both Assault Type Soul Masters, charged at each other the moment they completed their Martial Soul Possession.

Huo Yuhao ignored Huang Chutian, whose Martial Soul was the Mighty Ape, and instead observed Lan Susu and Lan Luoluo at the rear of their team through the Eye of Truth.

"Xiao Xiao, use the Three Lives Soul Suppressing Cauldron to support Wang Dong. Don't let Wang Dong get tangled up by those sisters' Martial Souls. I'll look for an opening to break through."

Lan Susu and Lan Luoluo's long blue hair drifted elegantly through the air before rapidly blooming and growing into blue strands over ten meters long. Stimulated by Soul Power, the hair danced through the air under the sisters' control.

Interesting. Aside from their Martial Soul activation, Lan Susu and Lan Luoluo seem to have some faint connection even before Martial Soul Possession. Telepathy between twins?

Telepathy sounded mystical, but in this world, which was hardly scientific to begin with, it was not difficult to explain. Before birth, twins intertwined with one another, and the Spiritual Power they possessed upon being born came from the same source.

Though they became two separate individuals, they still retained an inseverable connection. To a certain degree, they could share their thoughts and intentions.

However, unless it was deliberately cultivated or awakened, as time passed and the twins grew older, the Spiritual Power born from the same source would gradually drift apart until there was no longer any connection.

But because they both possessed hair Martial Souls and had cultivated a Martial Soul Fusion Skill, Lan Susu and Lan Luoluo's Telepathy had not faded with age. Instead, it had grown even closer.

The composition of this Spiritual Power is rather interesting. Is this also a prerequisite for a Martial Soul Fusion Skill?

First, their minds synchronize, then their Soul Power fuses, and finally, their Martial Souls connect and merge into one?

I'll observe it once they actually use the Martial Soul Fusion Skill. First, I'll help Wang Dong take care of Huang Chutian and force the sisters to reveal it.

Meanwhile, the instant Wang Dong and Huang Chutian clashed, Huang Chutian was immediately put at a disadvantage.

Although the Mighty Ape Martial Soul was also an excellent Beast Martial Soul, Huang Chutian's physical abilities were still far inferior to Wang Dong's.

Huang Chutian brought both fists together and smashed downward. Wang Dong raised her wings before her and blocked the blow directly, then used the force to retreat, suffering little damage.

The Three Lives Soul Suppressing Cauldron that followed, however, caught Huang Chutian off guard. After his exchange with Wang Dong, the three cauldrons had already surrounded him.

First Soul Skill—Cauldron's Quake!

Three thunderous booms erupted. As sound waves surged outward, the three cauldrons resonated as one, shaking Huang Chutian, trapped between them, so badly that he was left utterly disoriented.

At that moment, Huang Chutian's legs gave out. Before he could recover from the dizziness, he felt his body fall uncontrollably to the ground.

Only after a while did he feel the numbness in his feet. Hidden weapons—Huo Yuhao's hidden weapons.

After using the Eye of Truth to confirm Lan Susu and Lan Luoluo's Martial Souls, Huo Yuhao had flicked out several flying needles toward the weak points around Huang Chutian's ankles.

With the insight granted by the Eye of Truth and Spiritual Detection, the needles pierced precisely into the acupoints near the tendons in Huang Chutian's feet. As the acupoints were sealed, Huang Chutian temporarily lost the use of his legs.

Though the Mighty Ape Martial Soul granted him skin of bronze and bones of iron, he was not truly made of metal. As merely a Soul Grandmaster, Huang Chutian was incapable of relying on his body alone to resist hidden weapons, especially needles that broke through a surface with a single point.

The sealed acupoints were not a serious matter and would not affect Huang Chutian's future cultivation, but in battle, they undoubtedly robbed him of a large part of his combat strength.

"Ah! My legs! Why can't my legs move?" Huang Chutian cried in panic.

Seeing this, Wang Yan was startled as well. But after quickly assessing the situation, he did not intervene, because he could tell that Huang Chutian had not suffered any serious injury.

Huo Yuhao spoke directly. "Concede. If you concede and leave the arena now, you'll be fine. If you drag this battle out, I can't guarantee anything."

For a moment, the battle reached a stalemate. Huang Chutian was fierce, but he could not understand what had happened to him. At a loss, he looked down at Wang Yan.

Lan Susu and Lan Luoluo behind him did not dare act rashly either. Their hair had already woven itself into a Hair Net through the combined use of their First Soul Skills, leaving them unable to advance or retreat.

Wang Yan said, "Since Huang Chutian has lost his ability to fight, come down for now. The match is temporarily suspended."

Thus, the battle was paused. After Wang Yan helped Huang Chutian off the arena, Huo Yuhao removed the flying needles from his feet. Huang Chutian froze for a moment, then discovered that his feet could move again.

Only then did he realize that Huo Yuhao had fooled him. Yet he had not dared gamble on whether Huo Yuhao's methods might truly cripple his feet.

"You... you..." For a moment, Huang Chutian did not know what to say.

Wang Yan waved a hand, signaling Huo Yuhao to return to the arena, then announced, "The battle resumes!"

Huo Yuhao carefully observed the Martial Soul Combination Skill between Lan Susu and Lan Luoluo.

Telepathy really is convenient. With their identical First Soul Skills, their proficiency in using this Martial Soul Combination Skill is far greater than Wang Dong's own combination of her First and Second Soul Skills.

Of course, it may also be because they are only combining First Soul Skills, both ordinary hundred-year Soul Skills. The Soul Power consumption is low, and Body Martial Souls are easier to control.

Still, this combination of identical Soul Skills shares similarities with the layered arrangement of Soul Power Circuits. The effect after combining them comes infinitely close to one plus one equaling two. The reason it cannot fully reach that point is because they are ultimately not one entity.

Soul Power is lost during the combination process. But if I constructed Soul Power Circuits from identical Soul Skills myself... that might be worth learning from.

His thoughts raced, while Huo Yuhao repeatedly called out instructions and directed Wang Dong and Xiao Xiao's movements.

Under their coordination, the Hair Net, which had initially been densely woven without a single blind spot or flaw, was repeatedly opened with gaps, allowing Wang Dong to gradually approach Lan Susu and Lan Luoluo.

When Wang Dong drew close to the sisters, she stopped concealing her strength and suddenly launched a fierce assault. She used First Soul Skill—Wing Scythe to carve a path forward, shredding the Hair Net in her way as she closed in on them.

The sisters' expressions changed drastically. At this distance, it was no longer suitable for them to use their Second Soul Skill, while Wang Dong was about to rush into close combat. Once an Assault Type Soul Master got close, the outcome spoke for itself.

Lan Susu and Lan Luoluo no longer hesitated. They decisively embraced each other, and their Soul Rings vanished at the same time. In the next instant, a powerful wave of Soul Power burst forth.

A deep-blue radiance covered their hair, dyeing their blue locks crystal-clear and translucent. At the same time, Huo Yuhao observed through the Eye of Truth that the structure of their hair Martial Souls had become far more complex than either sister's individual Martial Soul had been.

So this is a Martial Soul Fusion Skill? Interesting. It fundamentally changes the arrangement and combination of the internal Martial Soul structure, yet the transformation still revolves around the original structures of the two Martial Souls.

In that case, could I try constructing Martial Souls myself, then combining and layering them? No, that probably wouldn't be useful. Still, the process of Martial Soul fusion is indeed close to what I envisioned before.

That must also be why Huo Yuhao in the original story could fuse four completely unrelated Martial Souls with Wang Dong.

After all, even if their minds were incompatible, that Rune in Wang Dong's Spiritual Sea should have been a contingency left behind by Ancestor Tang.

With a Deity's Divine Sense suppressing them, any mental incompatibility could simply be forcibly suppressed into compatibility, then adjusted afterward.

After all, if a Deity can directly manipulate Soul Power and Soul Rings, altering Martial Souls should not be difficult either.

If that's the case, my estimate of Ancestor Tang's strength may need to rise again. At the very least, it indirectly proves that while his skill at dismantling and stitching things together may not be perfect, it really is bizarre.

However, Wang Dong, who was facing the Martial Soul Fusion Skill head-on, looked anything but well. The two little white rabbits that had seemed ready for slaughter had suddenly become hunters.

Wang Dong herself had become prey caught by a spider, and in an instant, she was swallowed by the net.

The Martial Soul Fusion Skill, Heavenly Net and Earthly Web, did not slow after engulfing Wang Dong and continued toward Xiao Xiao.

Xiao Xiao controlled the Three Lives Soul Suppressing Cauldron with all her strength to block it from the front, but even after using Cauldron's Quake and Cauldron's Sway in succession, she could not stop Heavenly Net and Earthly Web from advancing.

Though it slowed somewhat and the Hair Net scattered, it immediately reformed. It was already too late for Xiao Xiao to withdraw. Looking at the hair about to engulf her, Xiao Xiao gave a bitter smile. "So this is a Martial Soul Fusion Skill?"

But just as the crisis reached its peak, the fiercely aggressive Hair Net suddenly stopped without warning. Then it collapsed and scattered across the ground.

As Heavenly Net and Earthly Web disintegrated, Lan Susu and Lan Luoluo appeared, both lying unconscious on the ground.

Wang Dong's face was pale, and she barely managed to keep herself from collapsing. She gasped for breath. Though she had tried to break through the Hair Net earlier—

Against a Martial Soul Fusion Skill, even her Wing Scythe had been powerless. In the end, her Soul Power had been almost completely drained.

"What happened?" Xiao Xiao asked in disbelief.

She could not understand why Heavenly Net and Earthly Web, which had seemed invincible moments ago, had suddenly fallen apart. Had Lan Susu and Lan Luoluo run out of Soul Power? It did not seem like it.

Huo Yuhao frowned, his own face somewhat pale. Naturally, he was the one who had broken Heavenly Net and Earthly Web.

After all, Huo Yuhao in the original story had been able to interrupt Lan Susu and Lan Luoluo's Martial Soul Fusion Skill with Soul Shock. There was no reason he could not do the same.

What dissatisfied him, however, was the amount of Spiritual Power he had consumed.

Unlike the Huo Yuhao from the original story, who had gone all out and spent a massive amount of Spiritual Power on a single desperate strike—

The Spiritual Power Huo Yuhao had expended this time amounted to only thirty percent of his current total, and that thirty percent had been spent across several uses of Soul Shock.

In truth, the final Soul Shock that had actually caused Heavenly Net and Earthly Web to collapse had consumed only fifteen percent of his Spiritual Power.

After all, a Soul Master with a Spiritual Attribute developed Spiritual Power on a level entirely different from other Soul Masters.

Furthermore, Sky Dream Ice Silkworm was constantly helping Huo Yuhao expand and stabilize his Spiritual Sea while strengthening his brain.

Yet even so, Huo Yuhao was dissatisfied. The reason he had been able to interrupt Lan Susu and Lan Luoluo's Martial Soul Fusion Skill with such limited Spiritual Power was mainly because he had used the Eye of Truth to identify the weak point where their Martial Soul Fusion Skill overlapped.

He had pried it apart and dismantled it with Soul Shock, ultimately causing their Martial Soul Fusion Skill to lose balance and subjecting them both to backlash, knocking them unconscious.

Yet the Martial Soul Fusion Skill, which he had initially estimated would take only five percent of his Spiritual Power to break, had required Huo Yuhao to use Soul Shock three times in practice.

The first had consumed five percent of his Spiritual Power, the second ten percent, and the third fifteen percent.

Is my understanding of Martial Soul Fusion Skills still not thorough enough? Or is their composition not as simple as I originally thought?

...Still, I'll treat this as a lesson and keep it in mind. It'll surely be useful next time.

Wang Yan stepped forward to examine Lan Susu and Lan Luoluo, then sighed in relief. They had merely fainted and were not seriously hurt.

He then announced, "Victory goes to Wang Dong's team."

However, Wang Yan was thinking about the earlier battle.

How strange. Did the Martial Soul Fusion Skill release itself? I had thought Wang Dong's team would lose here. Was Lan Susu and Lan Luoluo's Martial Soul Fusion Skill simply not refined enough?

No. If that were the case, they could not have competed as a seeded team.

Did something happen in the arena that I failed to see? It doesn't seem to have been Wang Dong or Xiao Xiao. Could it have been that kid Huo Yuhao?

Watching Huo Yuhao following behind Wang Dong and Xiao Xiao, the doubts in Wang Yan's heart only grew. Besides hidden weapons and a Body Martial Soul, Huo Yuhao, what else are you hiding?

"Rest well. The next match won't be long. Wang Dong, don't fight this time. Leave it to Xiao Xiao and me."

In the resting area, Huo Yuhao did not meditate to restore his Soul Power like the others. After all, he had barely consumed any Soul Power. Instead, he lay back in a chair with his eyes closed, resting and recovering his Spiritual Power.

"Mm, alright." Wang Dong nodded and let out a long breath. She had been brimming with confidence at first, yet she had nearly stumbled against Lan Susu and Lan Luoluo's Martial Soul Fusion Skill.

Did you make the final move? Had you predicted even that in advance? Wang Dong pondered inwardly as she meditated.