Eat Alone!

When Bas saw that he did not answer, he stopped wasting words. His hands crossed, and the Iron Axe Ape martial soul possessed him in an instant.

Both his arms visibly thickened by a full size, veins bulging as his soul power surged with a deep, solid force.

He lifted his battle-axe, stamping two deep pits into the ground, and charged at Lan Tian like a tank. His axe swept horizontally, aiming straight for Lan Tian's waist and abdomen.

The strike came with ferocious momentum, wrapped in a howling gust of wind.

Lan Tian did not dodge. Instead, he took a step forward.

He turned sideways to let the axe blade pass, his left hand following the motion to clamp down on Bas's axe-wielding wrist. His right palm, wrapped in dense force, shot out like lightning and struck precisely against the inside of Bas's elbow joint.

The blow carried tremendous strength. Bas gave a muffled grunt, and the battle-axe flew from his hand, smashing into the sand and kicking up a cloud of dust.

An uproar erupted in the stands.

Bas's eyes widened. Once he reacted, he let out an angry low growl, his right fist wrapped in soul power as it blasted toward Lan Tian's face.

Lan Tian neither dodged nor retreated. As he raised his left arm to block, his right leg had already swept out silently, landing squarely on Bas's ankle.

Caught off guard, Bas lost his center of gravity and toppled forward.

Lan Tian did not follow up. He took two steps back and stood still, arms slightly spread, signaling that his opponent could come again.

Bas climbed up from the sand, his face shifting between green and pale. He shook his right elbow, which had been slapped numb, and the look he gave Lan Tian completely changed, carrying a few traces of wariness now.

He did not charge recklessly again. Instead, he lowered his center of gravity, guarded his front with both fists, and slowly circled Lan Tian, trying to find an opening.

Lan Tian watched his footwork and already had a sense of him.

This man's strength and explosiveness were decent, but his close-combat technique was extremely crude. He fought entirely on instinct. Against ordinary soul masters, perhaps that was enough, but before Lan Tian, who had survived countless bloody battles against hundred-year soul beasts, this fighting style riddled with flaws posed no threat at all.

He took the initiative and stepped forward, making a feinting motion with his left fist.

Bas instinctively raised his arm to block, but Lan Tian's left foot had already slid soundlessly along the ground and cut in, precisely wedging itself between Bas's legs before suddenly exerting force and hooking him off balance.

Immediately afterward, his right elbow smashed out with the momentum of his turning body, its power condensed at the sharp point of the elbow, striking the rear side of Bas's shoulder squarely.

A dull impact rang out. Bas was smashed sideways, staggering three or four steps and nearly falling again. After relying on brute force to steady himself, his arm was clearly unable to lift. His pupils trembled as he looked at Lan Tian in disbelief.

The entire arena fell briefly silent for an instant, then erupted into an even louder wave of noise.

"What's going on?"

"A healing-type soul master beat Bas senseless?"

"That guy really isn't a strength-type?"

After Bas's few moves were neutralized so casually by Lan Tian, the noise around the soul fighting stage completely rose, and the discussions in the stands surged like a tide.

But Bas himself was no longer being dragged along by impulse. He guarded his front with both fists, his breathing gradually smoothing out from its earlier urgency, and his gaze grew steady. He had clearly begun to take this seriously.

"Warm-up's over."

Bas spoke in a muffled voice, a low grunt rumbling in his throat.

His palms suddenly clapped together, and the Iron Axe Ape martial soul burst out with an even denser radiance. A yellow soul ring rose from beneath his feet, its rolling light pouring into his limbs and bones.

The phantom of the Iron Axe Ape martial soul appeared behind him. His arms swelled another size, and dense iron-gray fur grew wildly from the surface of his skin, covering his arms and front chest. Even the fluctuation of his soul power climbed a level higher than before.

First soul skill: Iron Axe Crosses the River.

Bas shouted loudly and stomped down hard, the tremendous force crushing two deep pits into the sand beneath his feet. Abandoning his previous rough, straight-line charge, his footwork changed three times in succession as he advanced toward Lan Tian's flank from a tricky angle.

His right fist drew a full arc, wrapped in iron-gray soul power, and smashed horizontally toward Lan Tian's ribs.

This time, his speed was more than twice as fast as the axe strike from before.

Lan Tian's pupils contracted. He made his judgment: he could not dodge all of it.

He slightly turned his body and dipped his left shoulder, avoiding the core of the force head-on, but Bas's fist still grazed his side ribs. A savage impact pierced into his body, numbing his ribs and shaking his organs. A warm, metallic sweetness surged up from his throat.

He retreated three steps in a row and steadied himself. He did not forcibly suppress the injury. Instead, he directly activated his first soul skill, Endless Life.

The yellow soul ring flashed, and pale-green life light spread from his palm to his ribs. The shock injury was almost completely repaired within three or four breaths, and his breathing returned to calm.

Bas saw that his soul skill had only forced the other party back half a step before he stabilized himself, and his brows furrowed. But he did not pause. His feet exerted force again, pressing forward.

This time, Lan Tian did not hold back anymore.

With a flick of his thumb, a scalpel slid from the hidden pouch at his waist into his palm. The blade was cold and silver-bright, and the numbing herb juice coating its edge gave off a faint, ghostly glow under the light.

Immediately after, blue vines exploded out from beneath his feet. His second soul ring rose, and Blue Silver Grass shot out from all directions like living snakes, sealing off Bas's front, back, left, and right.

The binding force of the coiling vines was extremely strong. Every strand was infused with dense soul power. Caught off guard, Bas had his left leg and right arm entangled, his steps halted, and the momentum of his pursuit was forcibly strangled.

He growled and tried to burst the vines apart, but Lan Tian's Blue Silver Grass, nourished by a soul ring of the same root and origin, was exceptionally tough. Amid the pulling and tearing, he actually could not break free for a moment.

Lan Tian seized this instant of deadlock, lowered his body, and shot forward close to the ground like an arrow.

The scalpel flipped in his hand and sliced precisely toward the tendon area of Bas's forearm, the blade tip drawing out a thin line of blood.

The numbing herb seeped into the wound along the liquid on the blade. The muscles of Bas's right forearm visibly twitched twice, and most of the force in his clenched fist abruptly scattered.

Bas's expression changed slightly, but he was, after all, a gladiator who had spent a long time in the Great Soul Arena, and his on-the-spot reaction was not slow.

He let out a low roar, his knees suddenly bending and then snapping straight as the second yellow soul ring on his body lit up in response.

"Second soul skill—Iron Ape Quakes the Earth."

Bas slammed both arms down at the ground. With a thunderous boom and a spray of sand and stone, a ring of iron-gray shockwaves spread outward from the point of impact.

The shockwave carried tremendous force. Lan Tian's Blue Silver Grass vines were shaken apart inch by inch and sent flying, and even he himself was swept up by the aftershock, hurled backward through the air. He flipped halfway over before landing steadily on the ground.

The impact had not been weak. His organs were shaken again, and a thread of blood spilled from the corner of his mouth.

But after landing, he once again activated Endless Life. Green life-light flowed through his body, rapidly mending his injuries once more, and his complexion returned to normal. In just a few breaths, he was back at his peak condition.

Using two soul skills in a row had drained nearly half of Bas's soul power. Though his arms were tough, the numbness in his right arm had already begun to spread, making even clenching his fist less nimble than before.

He panted heavily as he glared at Lan Tian. Seeing that the other man did not have even a single injury left on him, his expression finally darkened completely, and he muttered some crude curse under his breath.

Lan Tian did not take advantage of Bas's depleted soul power to press the attack, nor did he show off or mock him. He simply stood quietly at the center of the spirit arena, letting all the clamor and discussion from the stands fall behind him.

He felt he could still fight a few more matches. At the very least, he had to earn enough for his travel expenses.