Soul Fighting

Tang San looked down at his hands, then brimmed with confidence once more.

"I still have the Clear Sky Hammer. I have twin martial souls. How can Jiang Che possibly compare to me in that?"

Some of the things Jiang Che had done had triggered a series of butterfly effects, causing Tang San to learn ahead of time that his father was a Titled Douluo and that they had a deep blood feud with Spirit Hall.

After leaving, Jiang Che first rented a house, then went to the Soto Great Soul Arena.

Having just arrived, he had to experience the local specialties.

The Great Soul Arena in Suotuo City was divided into one main Soul Fighting Arena and twenty-four subsidiary Soul Fighting Arenas. It also had around a hundred VIP boxes, and its spectator stands could accommodate as many as sixty thousand people. Some small cities, after all, only had around a hundred thousand residents.

Each subsidiary Soul Fighting Arena had several fighting platforms, while the main Soul Fighting Arena had the largest platform.

Matches at the Great Soul Arena fell into three categories: sparring matches, death matches, and wager matches.

Sparring matches were soul fighting contests held for practice. Death matches, as the name suggested, required participants to sign a life-and-death waiver, with no restrictions on whether they lived or died.

Wager matches were games for nobles, and every participant was a star fighter of the Great Soul Arena. Nobles on both sides placed enormous wagers.

All wager matches took place in the main Soul Fighting Arena.

In addition, matches at the Great Soul Arena came in three formats: one-on-one, two-on-two, and seven-on-seven.

After listening to the maid's introduction, Jiang Che went to the place where the Great Soul Arena registered soul masters' information.

After briefly filling in his name, age, martial soul, and rank, Jiang Che completed his soul power test: rank twenty-eight.

Once registration was complete, the maid explained the Great Soul Arena's advancement rules to Jiang Che: there were eight tiers-iron, bronze, silver, gold, purple gold, sapphire, ruby, and diamond.

An Iron Soul Fighter needed 100 points to advance to bronze, and a Bronze Soul Fighter needed 1,000 points to advance to silver. Each subsequent requirement increased tenfold.

For every match an Iron Soul Fighter fought, a victory earned one point, while a loss deducted one point. After five consecutive victories, the points earned per match increased tenfold, and after ten consecutive victories, they increased another tenfold.

Once a fighter had enough points to advance, the winning-streak bonus rules reset.

In addition, each tier had a different base point value: it was 1 point at iron and 10 points at bronze.

Each victory also awarded gold soul coins equal to ten times the corresponding points.

After hearing the maid's explanation of soul fighting, Jiang Che instantly worked out the Great Soul Arena's simplified advancement rules: without a five-match winning streak, advancing through any tier required a net total of 100 victories.

With an unbroken winning streak, eleven consecutive victories would secure advancement through each tier.

Eleven consecutive victories at iron meant advancement to bronze, eleven at bronze meant advancement to silver, and so on.

Jiang Che really could not muster any interest in the Great Soul Arena's eight-tier advancement system.

With the rigid rules of one match a day and opponents of equal rank, anyone who endured long enough to reach gold was already one in ten thousand. At that level, even finding an opponent willing to step onto the platform became an extravagant hope, let alone making a push for purple gold.

As for anything beyond purple gold, one probably could not even catch the shadow of a sapphire-tier fighter-it was questionable whether the entire continent could scrape together even one such match.

He also silently ran the numbers: each victory earned one point, exchangeable for ten gold soul coins. By the time he accumulated enough to reach purple gold, he could have exchanged them for a total of ten million gold coins. That was probably the upper limit of the Soul Fighting Arena's prize pool; it could not go much higher.

The maid finally finished reciting the rules and led him around a corner into the registration area. The staff member behind the counter glanced at the iron badge on his chest and quoted the price expressionlessly. "Registration fee: ten gold soul coins."

Jiang Che readily handed over the coins. Without counting them, the staff member merely weighed them in his hand with practiced ease, then raised his eyelids. "Want to choose a title?"

Jiang Che pondered for a moment. He certainly could not use the name Xuebi, lest someone guess that he was the same Xuebi who had once commanded the winds and clouds at the Black Kui Duel Arena!

"Cola!" Jiang Che said.

"Cola?" A slight ripple finally disturbed the staff member's flat tone as he muttered, "What a strange name."

The staff member only made that one remark. He had already seen far too many bizarre names: World-Destroying Dragon Emperor! Supermarket XX! My Hemorrhoids Got Pounded Apart Last Night! Compared with those outlandish names, Cola was merely rather novel.

Jiang Che said nothing and could not be bothered to explain.

Turning his head, he noticed that the maid beside him had talked until her lips and tongue were dry, so he took out five silver soul coins and handed them over. "Thanks for your hard work. Take these and get something to drink."

The maid froze at first, then her eyes lit up, and she thanked him repeatedly in excitement. "Thank you so much, Lord Soul Master! I'll take you to the soul fighting lounge right away." As she spoke, even her steps grew lighter.

What Jiang Che had not expected was to encounter one of the Shrek Seven Devils in his very first battle at the Soto Great Soul Arena.

In the main Soul Fighting Zone, the stands were packed.

Jiang Che stood on the eastern side of the platform, wearing a short black shirt and a white mask.

The announcer's voice carried throughout the venue. "The tenth soul fighting match, a singles bout. On the red side, a rank twenty-seven Power Attack System Battle Soul Master-Evil Fire Phoenix!"

Ma Hongjun emerged from the western passage in a close-fitting red outfit.

The spectators cheered. "Evil Fire Phoenix! Burn him!"

"Evil Fire Phoenix, I've put quite a few silver soul coins on you today! Don't you let me down!"

"Evil Fire Phoenix..."

Ma Hongjun raised a hand in acknowledgment, the corners of his mouth lifting slightly, full of imposing presence.

"On the blue side, a newcomer to our Soto Great Soul Arena, a rank twenty-eight Support System Battle Soul Master-Cola!"

When that alias was announced, the spectators in the stands all paused, suspecting they had misheard.

"What the hell? Did I hear that wrong? A support type entering a singles match?"

"Could the announcer have read it wrong?"

But after waiting a long time without hearing the announcer speak again, the entire venue erupted!

"No way, no way! He really is a Support System soul master!"

"Hahaha! I bet a whole five gold soul coins on Evil Fire Phoenix! I'm going to make a killing, a killing!"

After learning that the person before him was a Support System soul master, a measure of disdain also entered Ma Hongjun's eyes.

Jiang Che was also sizing Ma Hongjun up. He was quite interested in the future Phoenix God.

At present, Ma Hongjun was only 1.6 meters tall, who knew how much shorter than Jiang Che was now, but he probably already weighed over a hundred kilograms.

Among Soul Grandmasters, Ma Hongjun was on the short side. Who knew whether all his growth had gone sideways?

After all, Tang San and Dai Mubai, who were also Soul Grandmasters, were already around 1.7 meters tall.

"Begin!"

The instant the referee announced the start of the match, Ma Hongjun released his martial soul, and two yellow hundred-year soul rings appeared beneath his feet!

"First soul skill-Phoenix Fire Line!"

The fiery-red soul power stretched into a long, thin line of fire the instant it gathered, sweeping toward Jiang Che's position.

The line of fire was not particularly hot, but it was extremely fast and carried a strange adhesiveness.