6-Speed Defense Theory

"Treatment?" Flender asked cautiously. He had never seen an agility-type Martial Soul with healing abilities. Martial Souls focused on one path generally couldn't gain abilities from another. Even if they did, those abilities rarely suited them or amounted to much.

And don't ask why the great Tang the God King had come up with a Blue Silver Overlord Spear. If he could make something as basic as Bind his first Spirit Skill, why wouldn't you go along with it? Even a Blue Silver Crossbow wouldn't have been surprising. The guy had never planned to cultivate his Martial Soul properly. Granted, using Bind directly as 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, then explained.

"Which soul skill would grant that ability? And wouldn't it affect your future path?" Flender was excited by the possibility, but he didn't want one good student sacrificing his own prospects to save another. He already had an idea about Hongjun's problem. Perhaps it could work. After all, every time Hongjun had an episode, he would pitch a tent. Maybe...

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"Teacher, my martial soul manifests outside my body." Jodio summoned Silver Chariot again. It appeared beside him and effortlessly sliced through the nearby weeds with its rapier, giving Flender a lightning-fast demonstration.

"These manifested stands each have their own abilities. Repairing incomplete objects is just one of them, and it doesn't interfere with their combat use. In other words, even if every Spirit Skill I took focused on healing, I could still summon these stands to fight. I'd still have combat power."

"But that would still weaken you in battle, wouldn't it?" Flender said, still troubled.

"No, no, no, Teacher. You still don't understand my healing ability. A damaged martial soul might be repairable, and so might a damaged body. You follow me so far?" Jodio raised an index finger and wagged it.

"I do. Are you planning to repair other people's martial souls for money, then hire a bunch of bodyguards? Jodio, you have a good heart, but real strength is strength you possess yourself. No matter how strong other people are, 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 had no choice but to reveal a little more of what might be possible.

Honestly, talking to these cavemen from the early days of Douluo Continent was exhausting. Besides, he hadn't actually intended to fix Hongjun's martial soul. Damn it, if these Seven Monsters weren't going to cause trouble in the future unless they ended up on his side, he would have gone straight to Spirit Hall. Weren't the resources there a hundred times better? Wouldn't leveling up be a breeze? By the time Tang San reached level forty and made it to the finals, Jodio might already be level eighty.

"Owl, you really are getting senile. Even I understood what Jodio meant. Stop asking and let him do it his way." In a rare flash of astonishing insight, Zhao Wuji folded his arms, his face etched with dramatic lines.

"You're an owl. You'll never understand how important the battlefield is to soul masters like us who can only fight on the ground. Go with Jodio's plan. Do you really think you know his martial soul better than he does?" Zhao Wuji continued.

"Then let's do it," Flender said, finally making up his mind.

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

"Teacher, I know someone called Ye Lingyun," Jodio spoke up again.

"He's incredibly strong, almost unbeatable against anyone at his level. His soul skills and main focus are actually simple: defense and speed," Jodio explained.

"Then what about attack power?" Flender frowned. There was a reason assault, agility, and control Soul Masters didn't develop toward defense: they had no way to make up for the lost attack power. Offensive Soul Masters in all three branches paired attack with a secondary attribute. Assault types had it a little easier, since they needed to withstand hits and usually had at least one defensive Spirit Skill. But adding speed on top of that? They'd end up neither one thing nor the other.

"Against someone at the same level, one hit won't kill him, and few can match his speed. Those who can catch him can't kill him; those who can kill him can't catch him. Hongjun already has the attack power expected at his level. If someone else can give him strong, sustained support..." Jodio pointed at Oscar.

"Invincible." Flender couldn't help marveling. Put that way, a speed-and-defense build really did make sense. Unless an opponent was both faster and more powerful, they simply couldn't kill you. It sounded like an invincible direction for a Martial Soul.

"Is Ye Lingyun a master? Is he family, Jodio?" Zhao Wuji asked with a smile.

"His title is Cloud Bat. Cloud Bat Douluo," Jodio replied with a grin.

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

Jodio hadn't been feeding Hongjun nonsense. A speed-and-defense build really was that effective. What was the core of King Crimson's time erasure? During that interval, you couldn't hurt King Crimson, while King Crimson could move freely. That already covered both essential elements: defense and speed.

Besides, Ye Lingyun was a living example. What did it mean to be overpowered? This was it. Damn it, at the same level, anyone who could kill him couldn't match his speed, while anyone who could match his speed usually couldn't kill him. If someone could both catch and kill him, they were already among the strongest in the world. There would be no shame in dying to them.

Just look at how Ye Lingyun thrashed Huo Linfei and the others in The Unmatched Warriors. Never mind whether an agility type could catch him without sacrificing attack power. Of all the agility-type Soul Masters out there, had anyone seen one hit harder than an assault type? If Tiga's Sky Type had the power of his Strong Type, Tiga would have stuck with the even more broken Sky Type long ago.

But that raised another question: could Ma Hongjun's Martial Soul support both paths?

If it can't, forget it. Give his ninth soul skill an assault-type ring and have him fight like an assassin. His martial soul is high-grade enough to take the strain. If it were an ordinary martial soul, he'd be better off sticking to a single attribute. That was Jodio's thinking.

For one thing, the old owl's sixth soul ring was defensive too. For another, Jodio saw build planning differently from the people of Douluo Continent. Years of MOBA games had taught him how many directions a build could take. Different soul rings were like different pieces of equipment; there were always new combinations and playstyles to discover. Wasn't Old Poison's approach unusual too? Wasn't that a skill in its own right?

No tactic was beneath consideration, and no path to victory was off-limits. Of course, needless innocent casualties were another matter.

"We can try it. But Hongjun, what do you think?" Flender turned to Ma Hongjun.

"No need to ask. I'm going with Boss Jodio." Ma Hongjun suddenly planted his hands on his hips, lifted his chin, and stood with his legs crossed.

"What the hell? Where did Rohan's theme music come from?" Jodio's mouth twitched. Was the JoJo virus like the magnetic-field virus, spreading for no apparent reason? Yes. That had to be it.

"Boss Jodio 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 now," Ma Hongjun said proudly.

"Besides, Boss Jodio must come from an extraordinary family. My martial soul probably isn't even that rare to them. Dean, you said yourself that Innate Soul Power depends heavily on the strength of your martial soul. Mine was only level nine. I don't see why Boss Jodio would need to trick me," Ma Hongjun continued.

"Well, look at you, Hongjun. You've grown up," Zhao Wuji said with a sigh of admiration.

"How touching. But I'm your teacher, and I still get the final say." Smiling, Flender pressed his fists against both sides of Ma Hongjun's head and ground his knuckles in.

"Let's use his first Spirit Skill to strengthen his defense. If it turns out not to suit him, it can still serve as a protective skill for an assault build. That gives us some room for error," Flender said after some thought.

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A deep, thunderous rumble came from nearby. Flender cut himself off, spread his wings, and flew up to see what had caused it. Zhao Wuji moved protectively in front of the three students, ready to fight. A disturbance that loud was unlikely to be ordinary.

"It's a century-old Great Rock Python. Probably hunting," Flender explained as he dropped back down moments later.

The Great Rock Python was a snake-shaped, defense-type Spirit Beast. It had an enormous body, often more than ten meters long, and skin as tough as stone. In short, it was about as durable as a creature could get.

Unlike the Mandala Snake Tang San had encountered, the Great Rock Python relied on piling up armor and strength. It strangled at least ten times as many victims as it killed with its bite. That did make it suitable for Ma Hongjun, though its attributes were a much poorer match.

"I'll take it," Jodio answered at once.

"Teacher, once I've absorbed the Great Rock Python's soul ring, you'll understand what my martial soul is like." Jodio waved a hand. He knew Flender's pointed head was full of questions, but that was fine. He would soon understand the secret.

Flender beat his wings and rose into the air again. His fourth Spirit Ring flared, and dozens of wind blades shot from his wings toward the Great Rock Python's vital spots. The python's hide looked like stone, but it was badly wounded in an instant. A three- or four-hundred-year-old Spirit Beast stood no chance against a Soul Sage. It couldn't even fight back.

"Heh. Silver Chariot." Jodio walked over, satisfied, and summoned Silver Chariot. Its rapier pierced a vital spot with precision, delivering the final blow and killing the Great Rock Python. Flender and Zhao Wuji exchanged a glance, but both took his confidence for the pride of a child from a powerful family and said nothing more.

Shrek had no shortage of monsters, nor of students with influential backgrounds. Most children from such families simply chose not to come; that didn't mean none ever did. Plenty of Shrek's former students had found good positions, too. Who was to say one of them hadn't sent Jodio here?

Perhaps this year's students will be different, Flender thought, stroking his beard.

A four-hundred-year-old Great Rock Python. Don't worry, I'll give you a proper tribute. Sooner or later, I'll build a shrine in your memory. Jodio sat down and closed his eyes.

Now comes the crucial test of my theory!

...To be continued