Martial Soul and Poké Ball

Douluo Continent.

Heaven Dou Empire, Fasinuo Province.

Notting City Junior Soul Master Academy, Academic Affairs Office, morning.

"Hello, I'm Ash from Pallet Town... ah no, my name is Lu Shi."

Lu Shi handed over the Spirit Hall certificate and twitched the corner of his mouth.

He had a slip of the tongue...

He had heard those words countless times in his past life, never expecting he would say them himself one day.

He really came from a remote town, Pallet Town, and even awakened a Poké Ball as his Martial Soul.

That's right, it was that red and white ball.

He had transmigrated over for six years and had already prepared himself to awaken a waste martial soul, but he never expected to awaken a Poké Ball, and an Innate Full Soul Power one at that!

He became the only soul master prospect in Pallet Town in twenty years.

It was a pity that his foster parents had both passed away, otherwise they would have been very happy.

The middle-aged man across the brown wooden table skillfully took the certificate, confirmed it was correct, and gave him a set of blue academy uniforms: "Work-study students all live in Dorm Seven."

An orphan from a remote township, how could he possibly afford tuition?

Being a work-study student was already very good.

Making his way to Dorm Seven by taking a few turns,

even with mental preparation, Lu Shi was still shocked.

Th... this was way too dilapidated?!

The broken wooden door that couldn't close properly stood wide open, the walls leaked wind, and inside were large connected kangs, with about fifty beds placed disorderly and the sound of brawling endless.

Walking in, he saw a classic scene:

A bright-eyed and white-toothed little girl, wearing a pink dress, with a delicate face white with a hint of red, tender as a peach that made people want to take a bite at first sight, and a long scorpion braid hanging down to her hips, was currently lecturing a boy lying on the ground. The boy wore a painful expression, wailed miserably, and kept shouting Sister Xiao Wu.

Xiao Wu was lecturing Wang Sheng.

A crowd around was hooting. Seeing Lu Shi approach, they quieted down a lot and consciously dispersed, leaving space for the two of them.

Seeing this, it was obviously a newcomer's arrival, so he had to have a spar with the new boss.

Xiao Wu walked over and saw the boy standing at the entrance, dressed plainly yet cleanly, with a slender build, black hair and black eyes, fair skin, and quite handsome, completely different from the rough-looking guys around. Immediately, her favorable impression surged, and she waved her small pink fist: "My name is Xiao Wu, Wu as in dancing, and my martial soul is a rabbit. Either you beat me to become the boss of Dorm Seven, or you acknowledge me as boss!"

Wang Sheng on the ground seized the opportunity to crawl up and hide to the side.

Lu Shi shook his head: "No, I can't beat you."

A hundred-thousand-year rabbit...

He felt a bit regretful. What a great opportunity, but unfortunately he could currently only tame hundred-year soul beasts, otherwise a brainwashing ball... Poké Ball down, taming Xiao Wu, and he would start out with a hundred-thousand-year soul beast. Then he would go find Ah Yin, trick the Titan Giant Ape and the Sky Azure Bull Python, and take off right on the spot.

Becoming a god at age twenty was not a dream.

What a pity.

Fortunately, the soul beasts he tamed could continue cultivating, and their age limits could still increase.

At most, he could just feel a little regretful.

Xiao Wu shrugged in disappointment. How boring, she thought she'd be able to move around a bit longer.

She turned around and announced that from now on, she was the boss of Dorm Seven, everyone had to call her Sister Xiao Wu, and anyone who was bullied could go to Sister Xiao Wu to seek revenge.

No one was allowed to bully work-study students, and commoner students and noble students were no exception.

All the students cheered; finally a boss had come who could stand up for them.

Previously Wang Sheng was the boss and had the willingness to help them exact revenge, but with one flaw: compared to commoner and noble students, his own strength was also not quite up to par.

Lu Shi ignored them and went ahead to pick a window bed. After tidying it up,

he left immediately.

Time was tight; today Tang St would take Yu Xiaogang as his master, and in a couple of days they would go to the Soul Hunting Forest to kill a Mandala Snake.

And Lu Shi's target was also the Mandala Snake.

He had analyzed that any martial soul would have at least one attribute—mental, wind, power, life, poison, fire, ice... His own martial soul, however, was extremely special and had no attributes whatsoever.

Without any attribute advantages, it also had no disadvantages or restrictions.

Since he could develop anything, why not develop all-around?

The Mandala Snake definitely couldn't be considered a top-tier soul beast, incomparable to the Jade Phosphorous Serpent or the Nine-Section Jade, but it had an incomparable advantage—

it was the soul beast with the best cultivability that Lu Shi could currently encounter.

Lu Shi was a Super Ball User; he didn't need to fight until the soul beast was weak, as hitting it with a Poké Ball would tame it. But he was too weak right now—he definitely couldn't go to the Star Dou Forest, and the Soul Hunting Forest mostly had hundred-year soul beasts, with most of those being extremely common types. Thinking it over and over, the Mandala Snake was still the best.

Besides, why must it be cultivated toward toxicity? As long as resources were sufficient, evolving into a dragon was completely fine. As for the Dragon King bloodline, there was Luo Sanpao; that was the Golden Holy Dragon.

He would find a chance to swallow the martial soul-fusing state Golden Holy Dragon, eat a few Immortal Herbs, and he wouldn't have to worry about evolution.

As for how he would get Immortal Herbs, he had already thought of a plan.

Lu Shi first went to Spirit Hall to complete his test and obtain a soul-hunting permit, then spent all his savings on a bow and a sword. Once he succeeded, he would be a soul master and receive a monthly subsidy of one gold coin, so he wouldn't have to worry about making a living.

The outer perimeter of the Soul Hunting Forest.

The century-old trees stood far apart, sunlight piercing the canopy to form mottled patches of light that shone on the weeds, vines, and ten-odd-year-old saplings growing in between.

Avian soul beasts flew across the sky while Lu Shi held a sword and carried a bow on his back, weaving through the forest as fallen leaves piled up beneath his feet.

The forest was silent save for the chirping of insects and birds.

The Soul Hunting Forest was a place where the Heaven Dou Empire kept and raised soul beasts artificially. Compared to the Star Dou Forest, the danger level was much lower, with only low-tier ordinary soul beasts of around ten years old in the outer perimeter. Centurial ones only appeared in the middle layers, and very few Thousand-Year Soul Beasts inhabited the core zone.

Along the way, he only ran into weak soul beasts like ten-year Solitary Bamboos, willows, and caterpillars.

After searching for a long time, Lu Shi saw a large patch of grass suddenly appear ahead.

On a large tree in the middle of the grassland, three dark green giant pythons were intertwined in an aggressive posture, exuding extreme oppression with their ferocious faces deterring any soul beasts that dared approach.

On the bodies and even the heads of the several giant pythons grew exceptionally vibrant, FireRed flowers.

Snake Vine Flowers were extremely weak plant-type soul beasts.

They would disguise themselves as the poisonous sword demon Mandala Snake to drive away intruders.

Probably no one would have imagined.

That the real deal could be clever enough to disguise itself as a fake.

Lu Shi took aim at one of the vines and drew his bow to shoot.

The bodies of the Snake Vine Flowers could not withstand a bow and arrow and would be pierced through, whereas snake scales would not.

With a whoosh, the arrow burst forth, plunging deeply into the centermost Snake Vine Flower before shooting onward to pierce the leftmost Snake Vine Flower, and the final strike—

Clang!

The iron arrowhead split the air, striking a faint spark against the dark green scales before being directly deflected.

That was it!

Lu Shi did not hesitate. He summoned a Poké Ball—the texture was unexpectedly good, round and smooth. With a forceful throw, the Poké Ball seemed to grow eyes as it flew straight over, hitting the Mandala Snake squarely before rebounding into midair.

The next second, the Poké Ball opened, and a powerful, surging suction force poured out, giving the Mandala Snake no time to react and pulling it directly inside.

It then dropped back onto the grass, wobbled four times, and with a ding, vanished on the spot.

He didn't panic at all. This meant the Poké Ball had returned to his spiritual world; in the future, he wouldn't need the Poké Ball and could summon the soul beast directly.

The moment the capture succeeded,

he found that he had established a mental connection with the Mandala Snake, clearly sensing its current state—weak, filled with soul power, and about to shed its skin...

At the same time, his soul power rose to level twelve, his sensory abilities grew stronger, and even... Lu Shi's physical constitution improved along with it.

Was the effect really this good?!

Sinking his consciousness, Lu Shi saw in a small forest world within his spiritual world that the Mandala Snake was coiled around the largest banyan tree, extremely relaxed and cultivating leisurely.

There were trickling streams, gentle sunlight, and grass in the small world...

This was... a Mimicry Cultivation Field!

Any faction needed to spend a huge sum of money to build one, yet he got one just by subduing a soul beast!

Lu Shi smiled slightly, imitating a super Pallet Town rookie as he raised a hand to flick an imaginary hat on his head, summoned a Poké Ball, and threw it out forcefully:

"Come out, Mandala Snake!"

The Poké Ball, tracing a parabola in the air, shot out a beam of red light. Then, the four-meter-long, ferocious, dark green giant snake on the grass—as if understanding Lu Shi's thoughts—very cooperatively opened its huge mouth to reveal snow-white fangs—

Huff!

Hiss!!!

Too bad its cry wasn't manda, manda.