Speed and Defense Theory

"Healing?" Flender asked cautiously. He had never seen an agility-attack Martial Soul with healing abilities. In fact, Martial Souls geared toward one role generally couldn't gain abilities from another. Even if they did, the abilities were a poor fit and usually had little effect.

And don't ask why Tang the God King had a Blue Silver Overlord Spear. If he could make a skill like Binding his First Spirit Ability, who was going to stop him? A Blue Silver Overlord Crossbow wouldn't have been surprising either. The man had never intended to develop his Martial Soul properly. Granted, making Binding a Spirit Skill did simplify combat, but the drawbacks outweighed the benefits.

"Crazy Diamond can repair incomplete or damaged objects. With training, perhaps..." Jodio paused to think before explaining.

"Which Spirit Ring would give you that ability? And wouldn't it affect your future development?" The possibility excited Flender, but he didn't want a good student sacrificing his own prospects to save another. He already had an idea about Little Ma's problem. It might work. After all, whenever Little Ma had an episode, he raised his "flag." Perhaps...

"Teacher, my Martial Soul manifests outside my body." Jodio summoned Silver Chariot again. It appeared beside him and effortlessly sliced through the weeds with its rapier, showing Flender a burst of incredible speed.

"These manifested stands each have their own abilities. Repairing incomplete objects is just a secondary ability; it doesn't interfere with their use in battle. In other words, even if every Spirit Skill I chose was for healing, I could still summon these stands to fight. I'd still have combat strength."

"But that would still weaken your fighting ability, wouldn't it?" Flender said, still troubled.

"No, no, no, teacher. You still don't understand what my healing can do. I might be able to repair an incomplete Martial Soul, or even an incomplete body. You follow me so far?" Jodio wagged a raised index finger.

"I do. Are you planning to repair other people's Martial Souls for money, then hire a bunch of bodyguards? Little Jo, you have a good heart, but only your own strength is truly yours. No matter how strong someone else is, their strength isn't yours," Flender explained.

"What if I punched the ground? What if I told you I could repair it into any shape I wanted?" Jodio said helplessly, revealing another possibility.

Honestly, talking to people from this primitive era of the Douluo Continent was exhausting. He hadn't even planned on solving Little Ma's Martial Soul problem. Damn it, if these Seven Monsters wouldn't cause trouble in the future unless they were on his side, he would have gone straight to Spirit Hall. Weren't its resources a hundred times better? Wouldn't leveling up be ridiculously fast? By the time Tang San reached the finals at level forty, Jodio might already be level eighty.

"Owl, you're getting senile. Even I understood what Little Jo meant. Stop asking and let him do it his way," Zhao Wuji said, arms folded and face lined with dramatic intensity as he displayed a rare flash of astonishing wisdom.

"You're an owl. You wouldn't understand how important the battlefield is to Soul Masters like us who can only fight on the ground. Go with Little Jo's idea. Do you really think you know his Martial Soul better than Jodio does?" Zhao Wuji continued.

"Then let's do it." Flender finally made up his mind and nodded.

"But shouldn't we adjust Hongjun's Spirit Rings too?" Flender asked Zhao Wuji.

"Teacher, I know someone named Ye Lingyun," Jodio said.

"He's formidable, practically unbeatable by anyone at his level. His Spirit Skills and focus are simple: defense and speed," Jodio explained.

"Then what about attack power?" Flender frowned. There was a reason assault, agility-attack, and control Soul Masters didn't generally develop toward defense: they had no way to make up for the lost attack power. Fighters in those three paths paired attack with a secondary attribute. Assault types had it easier, since taking hits meant they usually had at least one defensive Spirit Skill. But adding speed as well? That would be a mess.

"At the same level, if an enemy can't kill you in one move, few can match your speed. Those who can catch you can't kill you, and those who can kill you can't catch you. Little Ma already has the attack power expected at his level. If someone can also provide strong support to keep him going..." Jodio pointed at Oscar.

"Invincible," Flender murmured. Put that way, a speed-and-defense build really did sound viable. Unless an opponent was both faster and more powerful, they couldn't kill you. It sounded like an unbeatable direction for a Martial Soul.

"Is Ye Lingyun that master you mentioned? Is he family, Little Jo?" Zhao Wuji asked with a smile.

"Titled Cloud Bat. Cloud Bat Douluo," Jodio answered with a grin.

"I thought so." Flender and Zhao Wuji exchanged a glance and nodded.

Jodio wasn't fooling Little Ma. A speed-and-defense build really was that effective. What was the key to Time Erasure? During those moments, you couldn't hurt King Crimson, while King Crimson could move freely. That already met the two requirements: defense and speed.

Besides, Ye Lingyun was a living example. If anything was overpowered, it was that. Damn it, opponents at his level who could kill him couldn't catch him, while those who could catch him usually couldn't kill him. If someone could do both, they were already among the world's strongest. There was no shame in losing to that.

Just look at how Ye Lingyun trounced Huo Linfei and the others in The Unmatched Warriors. Could an agility-attack Soul Master catch him while retaining enough attack power? Of all the agility-attack Soul Masters out there, had anyone ever seen one hit harder than an assault type? If Tiga's Sky Type packed the power of his Strong Type, he would have stuck with the even more broken Sky Type long ago.

But that raised another question: could Ma Hongjun's Martial Soul handle developing in both directions?

If it can't, then forget it. Give him an assault-type Spirit Ring for his Ninth Spirit Ability and have him fight like an assassin. A high-grade Martial Soul can take the strain. An ordinary one should stick to a single attribute. That was Jodio's thinking.

For one thing, old Owl's sixth Spirit Ring was defensive too. And unlike people on the Douluo Continent, Jodio had spent years immersed in MOBA games. He knew there were plenty of ways to develop a build. Different equipment was like different Spirit Rings: there were always new combinations to try. Wasn't Old Poison's approach inventive? Wasn't that a technique in its own right?

No tactic was beneath consideration, and no path to victory was unworthy. Just try not to cause too many innocent casualties.

"It's worth a try, but what does Hongjun think?" Flender turned to Ma Hongjun.

"No need to ask. I'm going with Boss Jo." Ma Hongjun suddenly struck a pose, hands on his hips, chin raised, and legs crossed.

"Holy crap, where did that Rohan execution music come from?" Jodio's mouth twitched. Was the JoJo virus somehow contagious, like the magnetic-field virus? Yes. It had to be.

"Boss Jo wouldn't give me bad advice about something like this. He offered to help me right after we met. I don't think he'd talk nonsense about it," Ma Hongjun said proudly.

"Besides, Boss Jo must come from an extraordinary family. To them, my Martial Soul probably isn't all that rare. Dean, you said yourself that Innate Soul Power largely depends on the strength of one's Martial Soul. Mine was only level nine. I don't see why Boss Jo would need to trick me," Ma Hongjun continued.

"Well, Little Ma, look at you," Zhao Wuji said with admiration.

"How touching. But your teacher still gets the final say on what we choose." Smiling, Flender pressed his fists against both sides of Ma Hongjun's head and ground his knuckles in.

"Let's make his First Spirit Ability defensive. If it doesn't suit him, it can still protect him as an assault-type skill. That gives us some room for error," Flender said after a moment's thought.

A deep, thunderous crash came from nearby. Flender spread his wings, cut himself off, and flew up to look. Zhao Wuji moved protectively in front of the three students, ready for a fight. Something that loud was unlikely to be ordinary.

"It's a century-old Great Rock Python. Probably hunting," Flender explained, landing again a moment later.

The Great Rock Python—not a rock-type Pokémon, despite how it sounded—was a serpentine, defense-oriented Spirit Beast. It was enormous, commonly growing over ten meters long, with tough skin. It was about as sturdy as a creature could get.

Unlike the Mandala Snake Tang San had encountered, the Great Rock Python relied on piling on armor and strength. It strangled far more victims than it bit to death. It would certainly suit Ma Hongjun, though its attributes were a much poorer match.

"We'll take it," Jodio said at once.

"Teacher, once I absorb the Great Rock Python's Spirit Ring, you'll understand what my Martial Soul is like." Jodio waved a hand. He knew Flender's sharp little head was full of questions, but that was fine. The answers would become clear soon enough.

Flender beat his wings and took off again. His fourth Spirit Ring erupted with power, sending dozens of wind blades from his wings straight toward the python's vital points. The rock-skinned beast was gravely wounded before it could even put up a fight. A three- or four-hundred-year-old Spirit Beast facing a Soul Sage was bound to get demolished. It had no chance to strike back.

"Oh-ho. Silver Chariot." Jodio walked over contentedly and summoned Silver Chariot. Its blade pierced the vital point with precision, delivering the final blow. The Great Rock Python died without a doubt. Flender and Zhao Wuji exchanged a glance, but both took this as the pride and confidence of a child from a great family. Neither pressed the matter.

Shrek had no shortage of monsters, nor of students from prominent families. Most children from such families simply chose not to attend. And many Shrek graduates had found decent positions. Who knew whether one of them had recommended the academy?

Perhaps this class will be different, Flender thought, stroking his beard.

A four-hundred-year-old Great Rock Python. Don't worry, I'll give you a dignified end. Someday, I'll even build a shrine to remember you. Jodio sat down and closed his eyes.

Now comes the crucial test of the theory!

To be continued.