"Hm?"
Lu Qian looked at Ma Hongjun in confusion. What had gotten into this guy?
But Ma Hongjun soon gave a perfectly reasonable explanation.
If Lu Qian, a Soul Elder, teamed up with Ning Rongrong, a Soul Grandmaster, their opponents would be a pair of Soul Elders.
"Oh, so that's how it works."
Lu Qian nodded. He had forgotten that rule.
Although taking on two Soul Elders alone would pose no problem for Lu Qian, he really did not want to reveal too much of his strength.
Besides, this was the Soto Great Soul Arena, with spectators numbering in the thousands. With so many people and prying eyes, he might as well keep as low a profile as possible.
Seeing Lu Qian's predicament, Zhu Zhuqing actually volunteered to help him out by teaming up with Ning Rongrong, while Ma Hongjun also said he could do it.
Lu Qian then looked at Ning Rongrong. This time, it was her turn to choose a teammate. Unsurprisingly, Ning Rongrong chose Zhu Zhuqing.
Lu Qian felt a little worried. These two girls constantly getting tangled up with each other certainly could not be a good thing.
But there was nothing Lu Qian could change now. He could only let the two go register together.
Soon, Tang San's and Xiao Wu's individual Soul Fighting matches began. Their opponents also seemed to be the same ones from the original plot, and without question, both matches were crushing victories.
The same went for the Three-Five Combination's subsequent opponents, the Iron-Blood Combination, Tie Long and Tie Hu.
But Lu Qian was most concerned about Ning Rongrong and Zhu Zhuqing's team. To be honest, he would be very unhappy if either girl got hurt.
So before Tang San and Xiao Wu had even finished fighting, he arrived early at the arena where Ning Rongrong and Zhu Zhuqing would soon fight.
Their team's name did have a touch of originality. Taking something from each of their Martial Souls, they called themselves Glazed Cat. One could pretty much tell at a glance that it was a team of two young girls.
Their matchup this time was actually quite favorable to them, because their opponents were two long-range attacking Soul Grandmasters.
For Zhu Zhuqing, these were already the easiest enemies to deal with. In this match, Ning Rongrong really only needed to keep repositioning and wait for Zhu Zhuqing to take out their two opponents.
As Lu Qian waited, the announcer finally declared the start of the Soul Fighting match.
"Seven treasures turn forth, revealing colored glaze!"
Ning Rongrong spun lightly in place, and dazzling seven-colored light immediately burst from her body. Where that light gathered, a Seven-Colored Treasure Pagoda over a foot tall appeared in her right palm.
Then two yellow Soul Rings rose from beneath her feet, quietly circling her body.
"Seven Treasures Have Names. The first: strength. The second: speed."
Two brilliant rays of light enveloped Zhu Zhuqing, who stood in front of Ning Rongrong.
At the same time, Zhu Zhuqing completed her Hell Spirit Cat Martial Soul Possession. With Ning Rongrong's strength and speed enhancements added on, she shot forward almost instantly!
Although the two Soul Grandmasters opposite them reacted fairly quickly, unfortunately, they had no control-type skills at all. Their consecutive Soul Skill attacks also failed to hit the rapidly moving Zhu Zhuqing.
The final result was obvious. The moment Zhu Zhuqing successfully closed in on the two Soul Grandmasters was the moment the match was decided.
"Glazed Cat Combination wins!"
With Zhu Zhuqing and Ning Rongrong's victory, Lu Qian finally felt considerably more at ease.
But this match did little to improve the two of them, because the opposing Soul Grandmasters were probably novices with little combat experience. They did not even know the basic principle of restraining the support-type Soul Master first.
So the two girls could be said to have won very easily. This did not serve as combat training at all.
Before Lu Qian could finish that thought, he heard his name. Since Lu Qian was a Soul Elder, his Soul Fighting match was the last of the group.
Lu Qian's match could be called the "focus of every eye," because everyone else had already finished their matches, all with victories. Naturally, the pressure fell on Lu Qian.
Yet the utterly composed Lu Qian looked at everyone with a frown and said:
"What's with those expressions?"
"Brother Qian, aren't you nervous?"
Ma Hongjun asked in some confusion. Wasn't Lu Qian a little too calm?
"Nervous, my ass!"
"Have you participated in Soul Fighting before?"
Ning Rongrong asked, her eyes wide.
After all, she had just participated in her first Soul Fighting match. It had been both exciting and thrilling!
But Lu Qian said to Ning Rongrong:
"Have you forgotten getting kidnapped before? Wasn't that more thrilling than this?"
"Ah!"
Ning Rongrong exclaimed, but thinking it over, it really did seem to be just as Lu Qian said.
"You were kidnapped?"
Ma Hongjun and Xiao Wu asked in unison.
"Uh, well, let's just watch the match!"
Ning Rongrong hurriedly changed the subject.
By then, Lu Qian had also strolled onto the Soul Fighting platform. His opponent was a strength-type Soul Elder.
But no matter who his opponent was, Lu Qian's fighting style was always the same: wear them down until they dropped!
That was even more true this time. Lu Qian opened by throwing five casts of his third Soul Skill, Spider Web Restraint, right in his opponent's face.
Lu Qian's opponent had no time to react and was caught immediately.
Fortunately, the guy was a strength-type fighter, and his Martial Soul seemed to be a hammer. After using two Soul Skills, he finally broke through Lu Qian's Spider Web Restraint.
But in the next second, the unlucky fellow who had just broken free of Spider Web Restraint heard Lu Qian shout:
"Second Soul Skill, Parasitism, activate!"
Almost instantly, Lu Qian's opponent was pinned in place by the pressure of more than a dozen stalks of Blue Silver Grass.
"Damn you!"
Lu Qian's opponent roared and activated his third Soul Skill, breaking through Lu Qian's Blue Silver Grass once more.
Before he could make any move, Lu Qian's first Soul Skill, Blue Silver Entanglement, followed right on its heels.
Another dozen or so Blue Silver vines held him firmly in place. Lu Qian's opponent was furious, but his Soul Power had been depleted so quickly that breaking through these Blue Silver vines again would be difficult.
"You! Mmph, mmph!"
Seeing that the guy had a foul mouth, Lu Qian simply controlled his Blue Silver vines and sent them into his mouth.
Lu Qian suddenly felt as though some part of him had turned wicked.
He could even clearly hear Ma Hongjun's extremely sleazy laughter from the spectator seats nearby!
Under Lu Qian's overwhelming control, his opponent had absolutely no power to fight back and soon conceded.
Although Lu Qian had won, his fight was even less entertaining to watch than Zhu Zhuqing and Ning Rongrong's match.
At least those two had moved around a little. Throughout his entire fight, Lu Qian had done nothing but move his mouth. It could be called extremely boring.
"What were we looking forward to?"
Xiao Wu could not help asking.
Before you continue