Soto Great Soul Arena

Six years passed in the blink of an eye.

Suotuo City.

People of every description filled the streets, and Su Bai hardly stood out among them.

At 175 centimeters tall, he blended neatly into the crowd. His build was not particularly lean, and the contours of his muscles were faintly visible beneath his fitted clothes.

Although Su Bai had only just turned thirteen, his handsome face was already beginning to show its charm, drawing sidelong glances from many of the girls on the street.

Ignoring the gazes around him, Su Bai headed toward an enormous building ahead. Cheers and curses poured continuously from inside, making it a lively place indeed.

The building's stone outer walls looked to be seventy or eighty feet high, carved with reliefs of all manner of martial souls. Torches hung from the stone pillars lining both sides of the path to its entrance. It was daytime, and plenty of people were coming and going.

This was Suotuo City's Great Soul Arena.

The Soto Great Soul Arena was oval in shape and reached a height of 120 meters. Inside, it was divided into one main arena and twenty-four subsidiary arenas, with room for sixty thousand spectators at once.

That included one hundred VIP boxes. This was not only a place for Soul Masters to spar and exchange knowledge, but also a stage where the various factions displayed their strength.

There were countless Soul Fighting Arenas, large and small, across the Douluo Continent, but Suotuo City's Great Soul Arena could be counted among the most renowned.

After all, it stood near the border, where people from every walk of life mingled. Any kind of Soul Master might turn up inside.

After entering, Su Bai blended unobtrusively into the crowd. Backstage, he took out a black-and-white mask, put it on, and stepped back out.

He had, after all, formed a contract with Tang San's own mother. Haozi had probably driven himself mad searching for her.

That was why Su Bai acted with extreme caution. Throughout his years of traveling, he had never revealed his identity lightly.

Seeing the masked Su Bai appear, the attendant at the entrance counter looked up with a smile.

"Oh, Faceless, you're early again today! I'll get an opponent ready for your next match right away."

Over those six years, Su Bai's soul power had risen rapidly. After Ah Yin entered the Spirit Pagoda, her soul had been nurtured, gradually restoring her strength as a hundred-thousand-year soul beast and feeding power back to Su Bai as well.

Six years later, he was now a rank-thirty-five Soul Elder. Though he had only recently arrived in Suotuo City, he had already earned a modest reputation.

Su Bai nodded in response, then sat to one side and waited patiently. Before long, the attendant spoke again.

"All right, we've found your opponent."

"Zhu Zhuqing, rank-twenty-seven Soul Grandmaster, agility attack type, nicknamed Hell Spirit Cat. The match can begin right away."

Su Bai raised an eyebrow at those words.

"A Soul Grandmaster? Are you sure?"

It was not Zhu Zhuqing's name that surprised him. Judging by the timing, Tang San and Xiao Wu should have already joined Shrek Academy, so there was nothing strange about Zhu Zhuqing appearing here.

What puzzled Su Bai was why the Soto Great Soul Arena would let a Soul Grandmaster fight a Soul Elder like him.

"There's not much we can do." The attendant sighed. "She's been winning match after match lately, to the point that the other Soul Grandmasters don't dare face her. Besides, Zhu Zhuqing herself is willing to fight above her rank."

There was something else the attendant left unsaid: whether Soul Masters lived or died was none of their concern anyway.

Both Su Bai and Zhu Zhuqing were newly risen Soul Masters who had recently emerged from nowhere, and both enjoyed considerable popularity. A match between them would surely earn the arena a tidy sum. Why not take advantage of it?

Su Bai raised no objection after hearing that.

As long as there was money to be made, he did not care who his opponent was.

"Since Zhu Zhuqing is here, it's about time I went to see Xiao Wu..."

After murmuring those words, Su Bai set off. Now that he had reached rank thirty-five, he could form a contract with a second Soul Spirit.

Xiao Wu had arrived at just the right time. He made up his mind to find her after this match.

As he emerged from the deep, dark passage, the raucous shouts from the stands surged over him like wave after wave of heat.

"Go, Faceless! Your martial soul might only be Blue Silver Grass, but I believe in you!"

"Hell Spirit Cat, don't let me down! I put all my money on you!"

"Faceless, beat her hard!"

"Don't make me laugh! How long has this Faceless even been in Suotuo City? With a trash martial soul like Blue Silver Grass, he only won those last few matches through luck!"

Even though it was a Soul Elder fighting a Soul Grandmaster, there was no particularly large gap between their betting odds.

That was because Su Bai had not displayed his true strength in his previous matches, while Zhu Zhuqing had won one victory after another.

Moreover, everyone had only ever seen Su Bai use his Blue Silver Grass martial soul. With all those factors combined, quite a few people supported Zhu Zhuqing.

Amid the clamoring voices, Su Bai leaped onto the platform. A beautiful girl with a cold air about her was already standing there.

It was Zhu Zhuqing.

Zhu Zhuqing lifted her exquisite face slightly, her icy gaze settling on Su Bai.

"You're Faceless?"

"Let's begin."

As she spoke, two yellow soul rings immediately appeared beneath her feet.

At only twelve years old, she had already reached rank twenty-seven. Her talent was nothing short of terrifying.

That was also why Zhu Zhuqing dared to challenge someone above her rank.

In fact, Zhu Zhuqing had requested today's match. She had deliberately chosen a Soul Elder whose martial soul was not particularly strong, hoping to hone herself through the fight.

Unfortunately...

The one she faced was Su Bai.

Su Bai's expression did not change in the slightest as three soul rings likewise rose beneath his feet.

Yellow, yellow, purple.

Like Zhu Zhuqing, he had a perfect soul ring configuration.

However, this was not Su Bai's limit.

As Ah Yin's strength increased, the ages of his three soul rings had long since become capable of surpassing their absorption limits. All they needed was a trigger.

Once Su Bai formed a contract with his second Soul Spirit, those three soul rings would evolve again.

"You first."

Su Bai extended a hand, showing no sign that he took Zhu Zhuqing seriously.

Seeing him act so arrogantly, even Zhu Zhuqing could not help growing a little angry, and she gave a cold snort.

Before the match, Zhu Zhuqing had looked into Su Bai's background and learned that he was a control-type Soul Master with a Blue Silver Grass martial soul.

A control-type Soul Master facing an agility attack-type Soul Master had actually chosen to let his opponent attack first, rather than seize the initiative and force her into position?

Even if this Faceless was a Soul Elder, that was far too presumptuous. He simply did not regard her as a threat at all!

"It's only Blue Silver Grass. What gives you the right to be so arrogant?"

Murmuring those words, Zhu Zhuqing's eyes changed color at the same time, the left turning dark green and the right clear blue. A pair of cute cat ears perked up slightly, and with a light flick of her ten fingers, sharp, spike-like claws sprang from her hands.

Lowering her body, she stared coldly at Su Bai as though eyeing her prey. Her icy, razor-sharp aura carried an almost suffocating pressure.

Zhu Zhuqing's graceful body suddenly sprang forward, trailing a string of afterimages as she lunged straight at Su Bai.

Su Bai stood where he was with his hands behind his back. Watching Zhu Zhuqing charge straight toward him, he showed no trace of panic and did not move.

"That's it?"