Single Saber Enters the Spear? Dodge King!

It is often said that beast spirits are stronger than tool spirits in the early stages, but looking at the two-meter-long staff opposite him, Jiang Jiu found himself wishing he could get his hands on a four-meter-long spear in the future.

An extra inch of length is an extra inch of power; fighting someone armed while empty-handed is simply too much of a disadvantage.

"Why is it a little girl? I'll go easy on you."

Despite saying this, Liu Long took a large stride forward as he spoke, his long staff crashing straight down toward the top of Jiang Jiu's head.

Jiang Jiu was not distracted by the words; he remained focused, watching every move Liu Long made with intense concentration.

For some reason, he felt that Liu Long's movements were somewhat slow.

It was no illusion. He easily dodged the downward strike by shifting his body to the side, even finding the spare energy to use his arm to strike the side of the staff at a subtle angle.

Whether it was the movement of Liu Long's hands or the landing point of his strikes, there was a clear sense of clumsiness.

"I think I might have overestimated them," Xiao Wu muttered, scratching her head.

The speed she used when she ambushed Jiang Jiu was much faster than this.

During their training sessions, even when she gradually increased her speed, Jiang Jiu's eyes could always keep up; his main disadvantage was simply that his body couldn't keep pace.

By training the coordination between his body and brain, moving as his intent dictated, and utilizing his full-body flexibility, he could perform many incredible evasive maneuvers.

"Is he an agility type?"

Liu Long gripped his staff tighter, feeling somewhat annoyed.

Among Xiao Chenyu's group, he ranked third in strength, with the second being the fastest of them all, Ling Feng.

He hated sparring with that guy the most.

Both of them were at level nine, and there was a reason one was ranked second and the other third.

What Liu Long enjoyed most was one-on-one duels with Wang Sheng.

Who doesn't like spinning a top? Especially since Wang Sheng never dodged his staff strikes and was very durable.

In the current situation, he had no choice but to increase the speed of his downward strikes and add sweeping motions; furthermore, he kept a little trick up his sleeve.

Swish—

The long staff swept past the tip of Jiang Jiu's nose, carrying a sharp gust of wind.

Liu Long had very deliberately swept low, but Jiang Jiu still calmly bent his waist to dodge it.

If he hadn't wanted to continue testing his full-body coordination, Jiang Jiu could have easily lifted his leg to catch up with the staff as its momentum exhausted, hooking it to use as a pivot for a spinning side-flip.

However, there was no need; he would just play with him for a while.

Besides, what Liu Long held was a tool spirit after all; it was better to be steady and not treat it like an ordinary weapon.

"If you're only going to dodge, why even bother with a duel?" Liu Long chose to attack verbally, his face flushing with heat.

When he fought Ling Feng, he accepted being crushed by speed.

But this guy in front of him seemed to be deliberately teasing him, dodging his attacks in a pattern where he was always just a hair's breadth away from being hit, yet never actually getting touched.

This kind of frustration was even more disgusting than being crushed.

"Your staff technique is trash," Jiang Jiu retorted.

A war of words only requires maintaining aggression.

What Jiang Jiu said was indeed the truth.

Spending every day trading blows with Wang Sheng, what kind of good staff technique could he possibly develop?

Wang Sheng was just a living target who took hits head-on.

Strike, strike, strike—there was no finesse to it.

It was a classic case of having plenty of brute force but a lack of versatility.

Liu Long's expression grew increasingly dark, and he stopped talking, swinging his staff with renewed, desperate force.

Among the onlookers, Wang Sheng felt a bit ashamed.

Isn't a fight supposed to be you throwing a punch, me blocking it, then me returning a move for you to block?

Although he had been defeated by Tang San earlier and had witnessed Xiao Wu throw Tang San, his inherent perception remained unchanged.

In his heart, he lost to Tang San only because his soul power was lower.

If they were both soul masters, he, Wang Sheng, could easily crush Tang San.

But watching Liu Long, who used to be able to suppress him, being toyed with as if he were a plaything—his swinging speed dropping and his momentum nearing exhaustion—he began to doubt his own reality.

One had to remember, Jiang Jiu was only level eight and hadn't even used his full strength.

In the crowd of work-study students, another person had appeared at some point: Tang San, who had just returned from hunting for a soul ring.

Tang San watched the scene in the arena, murmuring to himself, "Has he improved this quickly?"

He had seen Jiang Jiu's performance on the day of enrollment clearly.

"Xiao Jiu, haven't you played enough?" Xiao Wu felt that continuing this would provide no further training value.

"Don't joke around!" Liu Long's face turned beet red as he brought his staff down in another overhead strike aimed straight at Jiang Jiu's head.

However, the speed was so slow that even Wang Sheng could have easily caught it.

But Jiang Jiu still chose to dodge to the side, appearing relaxed and effortless.

The long staff slammed into the ground, and Liu Long's momentum vanished, his defense completely shattered.

"Why didn't you catch it?!"

According to his plan, as long as Jiang Jiu used his hand to grab the long staff, he could have utilized the properties of his martial soul to make the part of the staff being held disappear, allowing him to launch a surprise combo during that moment of confusion.

Given that Jiang Jiu was an agility-type soul master, he wouldn't be able to withstand more than a few of his strikes.

He had used this trick to defeat Ling Feng before, and using it against Wang Sheng was even more of a sure thing.

"Why would I need to catch it?" Jiang Jiu remained unmoved.

"Bad luck!"

Liu Long threw the long staff in his hand onto the ground, and then his staff martial soul vanished. Without another word, and ignoring Xiao Chenyu entirely, he strode out of the small woods.

"Hey! Liu Long! Liu Long!" his companions shouted his name from behind, but Liu Long acted as if he hadn't heard them at all and stormed off.

"Hey, we won this round, right?" Xiao Wu said, holding her head high.

The smile on Xiao Chenyu's face became difficult to maintain.

So what if he couldn't land a hit? Running off like that was a huge blow to his reputation as Boss Xiao!

"Fine, fine, fine, consider yourselves lucky to have won one round. Ling Feng, get in there and finish her off for me, quickly!"

Xiao Chenyu directly sent out his ace. Speed against speed—his subordinate Ling Feng was the fastest person in Nuoding Academy!

On the work-study students' side.

"Xiao Jiu, should I go?" Xiao Wu asked.

This time, Wang Sheng didn't say a word.

He might have had a slim chance against Liu Long, perhaps if he got lucky, he could have won.

But against Ling Feng, he would only be toyed with.

There was no way to win.

"I'll continue; I still want to test things out," Jiang Jiu shook his head.

It was no wonder some people enjoyed boxing and fighting; battling others was endlessly entertaining.

"Alright then." Xiao Wu nodded.

She had finally realized that those upperclassmen who were generally bursting with confidence weren't actually strong; it was just that the people around them were quite mediocre.

Xiao Wu had been worried about Jiang Jiu getting hurt earlier, but that was only because she hadn't faced the academy's teachers yet.

When it came to fighting techniques, even the Great Soul Masters in the academy would be left in the dust by Xiao Wu.

"By the way, why didn't you take the initiative to attack just now?" Xiao Wu asked, voicing her question.

There were simply too many openings on that Liu Long. Even with the long staff, Xiao Wu estimated that Jiang Jiu had several opportunities to close the distance.

Once they were in close quarters, it would be the domain of their beast martial souls, where tool martial souls would have no way to fight back.

"Probably because I've always been the one on the receiving end?"

"My bad." Xiao Wu covered her mouth.