"Since this is a team battle, shouldn't command temporarily fall to me?"
"Or are you afraid?"
Faced with Tang Wu's provocation, Gangzi could only comply, however displeased he was.
Reluctantly, he handed command of Zhu Zhuqing and the others over to Tang Wu.
Watching Tang Wu's smug figure, Yu Xiaogang gritted his teeth and said,
"Enjoy your triumph while you can. Sooner or later, I'll be the one laughing last!"
After leaving, Tang Wu returned to the Back Mountain.
By the time he arrived, Dai Mubai and the others had already been waiting there for quite a while.
When they heard Tang Wu had gone to negotiate with Gangzi, they had gathered together and abandoned their old training ground without a second thought.
As for who Grandmaster was?
Sorry, they didn't know him.
They'd better not meet again. They were afraid Brother Wu might get the wrong idea...
When Tang Wu returned, Oscar and Ma Hongjun, the two jokers, immediately came over with ingratiating smiles.
"Hey, Brother Wu's back..."
"Um, you came up with a Self-Created Soul Skill for Rongrong. Could you come up with one for us too?"
Tang Wu gave them a strange look.
"Oh, I didn't realize you two were so well-informed. You heard about it that quickly."
"Sure, no problem!"
Tang Wu's gaze swept over the faces behind them. From left to right, there were Tang San, Xiao Wu, Zhu Zhuqing, and Ning Rongrong.
Then he declared boldly,
"Don't worry, everyone. There's a Self-Created Soul Skill for each of you!"
To win the bet, Tang Wu had to strengthen the team's fighting ability. That would improve their chances of victory.
And the quickest way to boost their strength was through Self-Created Soul Skills.
Next...
Tang Wu followed the example of the manga version of Yu Xiaogang, explaining the principles behind Self-Created Soul Skills based on each person's abilities.
That brought up an important point.
The manga version of Yu Xiaogang truly deserved the title of Grandmaster. Gangzi, how could you even compare?
"Xiao Wu, you're good at controlling Soul Power. If you concentrate it into a single point and then fire it, it'll have quite a bit of force."
That's right.
The Self-Created Soul Skill Tang Wu assigned Xiao Wu was the Mi-Tu Shockwave from the manga.
As for the others, Dai Mubai trained his control, while Zhu Zhuqing worked on concealment.
Oscar tried to see whether he could combine the effects of different Soul Skills in a single piece of food.
Of course...
It was extremely difficult. He wouldn't succeed in a day or two.
"What about me? Brother Wu, what about me? What kind of Self-Created Soul Skill would suit me?"
Ma Hongjun gazed at Tang Wu with eager anticipation.
"Well..."
"I haven't thought of one yet, but don't worry. I'll come up with something eventually."
Tang Wu scratched his head sheepishly and reassured him.
Ma Hongjun was a little disappointed, but he knew there was no point rushing it.
All he could do was mumble, "All right, then."
"Wait, Fatty. There's something I need your help with."
Just then, Tang Wu reached out to stop him.
At Tang Wu's request, Ma Hongjun patted his chest and agreed without hesitation.
"Just tell me what you need, Brother Wu..."
"Forget one thing. You asked personally. Ten things, a hundred things—no problem!"
"Great, that's the spirit!" Tang Wu got straight to the point.
"Use your Phoenix Flame and see if you can burn up my Blue Silver Grass."
After evolving into the Blue Silver Emperor, his Blue Silver Grass had gained an absurd regenerative ability: even wildfires couldn't burn it away, and it sprang back to life with the spring breeze.
He wanted to see just how long it could hold out against the Evil Fire.
What a strange request!
Could Blue Silver Grass really survive inside the Evil Fire?
Though Ma Hongjun found Tang Wu's request odd, he didn't dwell on it.
Soon, the experiment began.
"Careful, Brother Wu. My Evil Fire is dangerous."
Ma Hongjun summoned his Evil Fire Phoenix Martial Soul, and two Yellow Soul Rings rose beneath his feet.
He made sure to warn Tang Wu before they started.
"Come on, then. Let's see whether the fire burns the grass away or the grass drowns out the fire."
Tang Wu remained calm. Beneath his feet hovered a Soul Ring Configuration that far exceeded the usual age limits: yellow, purple, and purple.
Then the Evil Fire and the vines spread from their respective starting points, crashing into each other at the center.
Just as expected, the moment they met, the intense heat quickly dried the moisture inside the Blue Silver Grass and set it ablaze.
Not only did it fail to stop the fire from spreading, it became fuel for the roaring flames.
But as time passed, the Blue Silver Grass multiplied, while the Evil Fire dwindled in turn.
Overwhelmed by sheer numbers, even the highly persistent Evil Fire was extinguished.
The Blue Silver Grass burned and grew, grew and burned. Before one wave had even finished burning, the next had already arrived.
After that, Tang Wu even switched his Martial Soul form.
He transformed into the Strangling Banyan!
The Strangling Banyan's roots and stems spread out, forming a vast net.
Fruits about twenty centimeters in diameter grew along every strand of the net, then shot toward the other side in a dense barrage.
This move...
Tang Wu had created it by combining Tang San's first Soul Skill, the Blue Silver Iron Peak Needle, with the fruit plants grew during their reproductive cycle.
He had turned it into an offensive ability with real killing power.
"Take this! The Emerald Splash, covering a massive thirty-meter radius!"
Tang Wu shouted excitedly.
Good grief, he wasn't even trying to disguise it anymore, was he?
The dying flames were snuffed out by the forceful splash.
"Incredible! What was that just now? Was that another Self-Created Soul Skill?"
Seeing his prized Evil Fire extinguished, the chubby boy wasn't discouraged at all. Instead, he stared at Tang Wu with shining eyes.
That move had been so cool!
Combined with that unique standing pose, it had made his blood boil.
Tang Wu thoroughly enjoyed the admiring looks.
"This move is called Emerald Splash. You could say it's a kind of Self-Created Soul Skill."
"I have a question. It's clearly blue, so why is it called Emerald Splash?"
Oscar raised his hand, asking with great curiosity.
"Congratulations, Mangsheng. You've noticed the key detail."
Tang Wu couldn't very well say he'd learned it from JoJo's Bizarre Adventure in his previous life, so he simply started talking nonsense.
"But I think spaghetti should be mixed with No. 24 concrete..."
Oscar: "..."
Oscar and the others exchanged glances. All they saw in each other's eyes was confusion.
Ning Rongrong turned to Xiao Wu and asked,
"What's Tang Wu talking about? Why can't I understand him?"
Xiao Wu shrugged, just as baffled.
"Don't ask me. Brother Wu gets like this sometimes. When he runs into a question he won't answer, he just stops talking."
"And even when he does explain, it's always with things we can't understand."
In the end, since he clearly didn't want to explain, no one pressed him further.
Tang Wu had managed to gloss over the whole thing with ease.
Another week passed, and the bet with Gangzi drew closer.
Over the course of the new week, some of them had worked together long enough for their teamwork to improve considerably.
However, until they had tested themselves in an actual battle, no one knew how the team would perform.
So, to assess their teamwork and prepare for the bet, Dai Mubai, the oldest of the eight, led them into their first team battle. Their opponents were the famous Berserk Team.