While Tang Ya absorbed her soul ring, Lu Yu did not sit idle either. He began using Blue Silver Grass to scout for and monitor dangers around them.
"Yutong, let your teacher quiz you. What did you learn from that battle just now?"
"Huh? Yes!"
The Spirit Eyes girl stood at attention.
"It was intelligence, right? The reason Master could instantly kill the Nine-Headed Snake so easily was that you had figured out its abilities beforehand."
"The Nine-Headed Snake couldn't even use its cloning skill before it died."
"Correct."
Lu Yu nodded. The essence of PvP in "Douluo Continent" was the information gap. In a game that allowed unlimited trial and error, players' martial soul builds had gone through four stages in total.
The brainless stacking approach, which took only skills with raw numbers.
The truck-kun approach, which combined status skills with high-ring attack skills.
The mechanics approach, which cranked technique and nasty tricks to the limit.
And finally, the all-rounder approach, which combined status effects, mechanics, and high-ring attacks.
Douluo had far too many nasty mechanics. Going all in on raw numbers made it easy to get countered to death.
A classic example was the Soft Bone Rabbit's teleportation plus Soft Bone Golden Lock.
It would suddenly blink right into your face and seal all your soul power, then hit you point-blank with hidden weapons or fire a fixed-charge soul tool the instant Soft Bone Golden Lock made contact.
Because of its soul skills, the Soft Bone Rabbit would definitely recover faster than you. Then Invincible Golden Body would make it immune to damage, while you had to take a bomb with your bare flesh.
Or a single buff-sealing skill would leave you with only a few attack soul skills, while your opponent had their full kit.
The mechanics approach was much the same. Against an all-rounder, its insufficient numbers made it easy to get brushed aside.
Even in the all-rounder stage, players would still hide as much information about themselves as possible during a PvP match, lest their opponents counter them with high-tier soul rings.
"You need to keep your own information hidden. Don't tell anyone else without my permission."
"Also, even a lion uses its full strength to catch a rabbit. That Nine-Headed Snake was banking on luck, thinking our damage output wasn't enough. Otherwise, if it had split up at the start, it would still have had a chance to escape."
"I understand, Teacher."
Huo Yutong decided to keep all of this firmly in mind.
She had once heard her mother say that the White Tiger Martial Soul's greatest strength lay in being one of the few martial souls with three physical enhancement soul skills.
Even the physical enhancement soul skills of other martial souls often did not provide stat boosts as high as those of the White Tiger Martial Soul.
In the future, she had to equip herself with a soul skill that sealed enhancement abilities. That way, she would definitely be able to get her revenge.
"Wait, someone's coming! Hide first. If things really go south, we'll ditch Tang Ya."
Lu Yu sensed movement from people approaching in the distance. Absorbing soul rings out in the wild was still far too dangerous. He needed to find someone to develop the Soul Ring Storage Device soon.
Although Lu Yu had played soul tool builds, in the game, a single click to confirm would start a progress bar. He only knew how to use them, not how to make them.
Huo Yutong nodded and hid.
Keeping an eye on the distance, Lu Yu tapped the Gold of Life.
"Teacher, sorry for the trouble. My friend is at a critical point in absorbing her soul ring and can't be disturbed from outside. A group of unknown people has just arrived."
"Don't worry. If anything happens, your teacher will back you up."
Hearing that the big shot had his back, Lu Yu immediately relaxed. Still, if he could handle it himself, he preferred to do so.
Before the other party arrived, he secretly activated his second soul skill, scattering Blue Silver Grass's parasitic seeds throughout the surrounding area.
As the bushes ahead rustled, a group of figures appeared.
"Young fellow, no need to be nervous. We're just passing through... huh? Grandmaster Lu!"
A group of three green-haired men emerged from the woods.
"You are...? The Xiao Family. What a coincidence, running into you here."
"Yes, Grandmaster Lu. What a coincidence."
One of the middle-aged men spoke.
"Thanks to the soul ring you chose for my son, I've been entrusted with important responsibilities in the clan. The soul ring Grandmaster Lu selected has also become a standard configuration for our family."
"I even recommended you to the clan head, Grandmaster Lu, but I hadn't expected your shop to have already closed."
"Clan Head, this is the Grandmaster Lu I told you about."
"Grandmaster Lu, this is the head of our Xiao Family Merchant Association."
The middle-aged man introduced the two.
"Grandmaster Lu, a pleasure to meet you. I'd wanted to seek your guidance on my daughter's soul rings, but unfortunately, you'd closed your shop. This unexpected meeting here truly must be heaven's will."
"Why don't you give my daughter some guidance, Grandmaster Lu? I can pay the highest consultation fee."
Xiao Clan Chief cupped his hands toward Lu Yu as he spoke.
"No problem, but where is your daughter? I don't see her."
Lu Yu scanned their surroundings. There were only five people here.
"Ahaha, my daughter is right here. Xiao Xiao, come on out."
A petite girl with a large green ponytail stepped out from behind Xiao Clan Chief.
"Hello, Grandmaster Lu. I'm Xiao Xiao."
Good grief, she's so short!
No wonder I couldn't see her just now.
Xiao Xiao only came up to Xiao Clan Chief's stomach. Hidden behind three grown men, she was impossible to spot.
People like this were the most vicious with assassin builds. They would sneak right up beside you and jump up to hit your knee, hurting you so badly that you could only crouch down and stand shoulder to shoulder with them.
"Hello, little girl."
"I'm not a little girl! I just graduated from a junior soul master academy this year, and I'm about to enroll in Shrek Academy."
Seeing Lu Yu's strange look, Xiao Xiao puffed out both cheeks like a hamster, wishing she could jump up and knock him on the knees.
"Xiao Xiao, don't be rude. My apologies, Grandmaster Lu. My daughter is the most talented in our family, and I've spoiled her."
"The most talented?"
Lu Yu found that a little odd. In his perception, Xiao Xiao's soul power was only at rank 19. Being rank 19 at her age hardly qualified her as a genius. Perhaps this small merchant group simply had limited horizons.
"Rank 6 innate soul power? That's not bad. Work hard, and you still have a chance of graduating from Shrek Academy."
"Rank 6? You guessed wrong. I have innate full soul power!"
Xiao Xiao folded her arms over her flat-as-a-runway chest and proudly flicked her ponytail.
"Innate full soul power! And you're only rank 19 now?!"
Lu Yu was genuinely stunned. What an earth-shatteringly lazy slacker. According to the information he had gathered, in this era, someone with innate full soul power would gain at least three ranks a year. No matter how lazy they were, they should still be a high-ranking Soul Grandmaster. Those who pushed harder would already be Soul Elders. How could someone her age not even have reached Soul Grandmaster yet?!
No way. Surely no one with innate full soul power could cultivate for so many years and only reach around rank 20!
"Y-you! You!" The girl's flushed face said it all.
"Ahem, ahem, ahem. Grandmaster Lu, here's the situation." Xiao Clan Chief coughed twice, then said with a slightly guilty air, "Although my daughter has innate full soul power, no matter how she cultivates, her cultivation speed simply won't improve. We don't know why either."
"Now that Shrek Academy's term is about to begin, my daughter's strength really is stretched thin. To keep her from being expelled from Shrek, we discussed it and decided to add a soul ring to her second martial soul."
After some thought, Xiao Clan Chief decided to tell Grandmaster Lu the truth. The other party only had a Soul Grandmaster and a Soul Elder, while they had three Soul Ancestors here. Even if the other party harbored ill intentions, they would not be able to do anything.
Besides, Xiao Xiao would be enrolling in Shrek Academy soon. Once she was at the academy, surely nothing could happen to her?
"Wait, what do you mean?!"
Even though he had already sensed Xiao Xiao's two martial souls through the martial soul fragments, this wanton squandering of a heaven-sent gift still made Lu Yu flush a little with anger.
"If I understand correctly, Xiao Xiao has twin martial souls, and because you're afraid she'll be expelled from Shrek, you're going to put a hundred-year soul ring on her second martial soul. Is that right?"
Before you continue