Choosing a Soul Beast, Facing a Difficult Problem

With the fight going so smoothly, Mo An grew more comfortable by the moment. He swung the Ink Jade Divine Bamboo so fast it left afterimages.

After being struck thirty or forty times, Xiong Feng's arms had swollen a full size. He finally realized he might not be able to beat Mo An.

Once Xiong Feng thought of retreating, his blows lost much of their force and speed. If his underlings had not been cheering behind him, he would have surrendered long ago.

Xiong Feng's underlings had yet to notice, but Mo An, who was fighting him, clearly sensed that he wanted to stop.

He no longer attacked first, his punches slowed, and he even backed away several steps. Xiong Feng plainly did not want to fight anymore.

Mo An noticed. He glanced at Xiong Feng's flushed face, then at the underlings cheering behind him, and withdrew his Martial Soul. "I can't keep going. I'm hungry and out of strength. Xiong Feng, let's call this a draw. How about we fight again after I've eaten my fill?"

Continuing to fight the city lord's son would do Mo An no good. Better to stop here, each take a step back, and let Xiong Feng save face.

"Fine. I won't take advantage of you, either. Next time, I'll show you what I can do."

At Mo An's words, Xiong Feng, who had wanted to stop anyway, immediately released his Martial Soul Possession and waved his underlings away.

Not all of them accepted their boss's sudden order to retreat without question. Xiong Feng answered their doubts with his fists.

Mo An watched the children of the Noble Faction leave. The exercise had sharpened his appetite, and he enjoyed a hearty meal in the cafeteria.

Once word spread that he and Xiong Feng had fought to a draw, life at North Sea Junior Soul Master Academy settled down completely for Mo An. No matter how the Noble Faction, Commoner Faction, and Work-Study Faction fought openly or schemed in secret, none of it touched him.

To the other children, Mo An seemed pitiful. Hardly anyone played with him.

To Mo An, having no one interrupt his studies felt wonderful.

As Mo An learned more about Soul Masters on the Douluo Continent and came to understand his own Martial Soul better, he finally settled on a target Soul Beast for his First Soul Ring: the Wishful Vine.

The Wishful Vine was an exceptionally unusual and rare plant Soul Beast. It was the Golden-Core Vine in its hundred-year juvenile stage, but its abilities differed so greatly that it had been classified separately and given a new name.

The Wishful Vine had just one core ability: controlling its size, expanding and contracting at will.

The Green Bamboo Compendium recorded a predecessor who had obtained a Wishful Vine Soul Ring. That person's Soul Skill allowed them to change the size of their Spirit Bamboo at will.

Among the records Mo An could find, Plant-type Soul Masters who had obtained Wishful Vine Soul Rings had almost invariably gained Soul Skills that controlled the size of their plant Martial Souls. The result was remarkably consistent.

Among the many hundred-year plant Soul Beasts with limited abilities, the Wishful Vine was the most commonly found one capable of granting a Soul Master control over the size of their Martial Soul.

The Ink Jade Divine Bamboo combined strength with flexibility. Add a Soul Skill that could change its size at will, and the combination would be perfect.

Most importantly, a Soul Skill that controlled the Ink Jade Divine Bamboo's size would not become obsolete as Mo An rose in rank. He could still use it even as a Titled Douluo.

After confirming his target Soul Beast, Mo An ran into three problems.

First, the Wishful Vine grew in warm, humid places rich in mineral veins. On the entire Douluo Continent, only the Star Dou Great Forest and the smaller Soul Beast forests around it met those conditions. Mo An would have to leave North Sea City and cross half the continent to obtain his Soul Ring.

Second, entry to the Star Dou Great Forest and the smaller Soul Beast forests around it required a token. Mo An could understand needing one to enter a small forest where the empire raised Soul Beasts, but the Star Dou Great Forest was a natural, primeval forest, raised by no faction. Requiring a token there was absurd.

Last, and most importantly, Mo An would have to spend Gold Soul Coins to hire another team of Soul Masters to help him obtain his First Soul Ring. That had not originally been a problem, but his change of plans had made it one.

After confirming that Whale Rubber really could improve a Soul Master's constitution, Mo An set his sights on the same Soul Ring Configuration Wang Dong'er and Tang Wutong had in Douluo II: a First Soul Ring close to a thousand years old and a Second Soul Ring at least a thousand years old.

Douluo II explicitly stated that Wang Dong'er had been able to absorb a Thousand-Year Soul Ring at level twenty because she had taken thousand-year Whale Rubber since childhood. If someone could achieve that by taking Whale Rubber from a young age, then Mo An could do it too.

Because of that "greed," something that had not been a problem became one he had to face and solve. On the Douluo Continent, the accepted limit for a First Soul Ring was under 423 years. If he asked strangers to help him hunt one close to a thousand years old, anyone would see that something was amiss.

It was not that he could never reveal Whale Rubber's effects, but he had to wait until he no longer needed it. Revealing them too early would only make Whale Rubber harder for him to obtain.

"Ahhh... What a headache!"

In the library, Mo An listed the problems he faced in his notebook. Then he propped his head on one hand, looked out at the beautiful sunset, and let out a long sigh.

Ideas came to him one after another, and he discarded them one after another.

Urged out by the librarian, Mo An left for the cafeteria. As he passed the spot where he had fought Xiong Feng last time, a tall, sturdy figure rushed out from behind a roadside tree and blocked his path.

Seeing that Xiong Feng had come alone this time, Mo An asked, "Xiong Feng, what do you want?"

"In a couple of days, I'm going to obtain my First Soul Ring and become a full-fledged Soul Master. Come on, Mo An. Let's fight again and settle who wins this time."

Xiong Feng stated his purpose without wasting words. Mo An was the only person who had beaten him without a Soul Ring. Before obtaining his own, Xiong Feng wanted to defeat Mo An head-on, so he could go after his First Soul Ring without regrets.

To achieve that, Xiong Feng had recently hired a Two-Ring Soul Grandmaster whose Martial Soul was bamboo for an intensive burst of training.

He had hired a Two-Ring Soul Grandmaster because the bamboo Martial Soul of the One-Ring Soul Master he had first brought in was not hard enough. It had felt wrong when it struck his arms.

He had left his underlings behind because he did not want to end up in the same awkward position as last time, unable to surrender even when he wanted to.

"All right. No problem."

Mo An was feeling frustrated, so he welcomed the sparring partner who had come to him for free. When he had told Xiong Feng to come back another time, he had partly hoped for just that.

"Follow me. We'll fight in the academy's back garden. It wouldn't look good if someone saw us fighting here."

When Mo An agreed to spar, Xiong Feng glanced around cautiously. After making sure no one was nearby, he led Mo An along secluded paths to the academy's back garden.