A wager with Tang San

After all, comparing Soul Master levels against Soul Beast ages, a normal level twenty-nine Soul Grandmaster was a match for an eight- to nine-hundred-year-old Soul Beast.

But Yu Xiaogang...

Sigh...

With such a shambles of a performance in actual combat, on what grounds could he promise to chart someone else a path to Titled Douluo?

And then there was the Soul Skill Entanglement. Just as a sword could cut and a spear could stab, shouldn't that be an instinct? Why waste a skill slot on it?

Of course, Su Lin had no intention of telling Tang San any of this. This fellow transmigrator, a young man in ancient garb, had traditional sect values carved into his very bones. The belief that a teacher for a day was a father for life was deeply rooted in his heart. If Su Lin really laid it all out, it would be a blatant insult to his master and lineage, and there was a strong chance he would turn hostile and attack on the spot.

Frankly, even with Pikachu beside him, Su Lin did not think he could emerge unscathed if Tang San went all out.

The Tang Sect's hidden weapons, poison arts, and close-quarters grappling techniques were all vicious and tricky, impossible to guard against completely.

He himself was merely a six-year-old Pokémon Trainer, physically only a little stronger than an ordinary child, with neither a constitution immune to all poisons nor an indestructible defense.

Until he acquired a sufficiently powerful physique and poison immunity, he had no intention of entering any direct conflict with Tang San unless absolutely necessary.

As thoughts raced through Su Lin's mind, Tang San saw that he remained unmoved, and the urgency in his eyes deepened.

For the past three months, he had trained with Yu Xiaogang every day. He had personally watched his teacher stay up late into the night poring over information on the Poké Ball, comb through every Soul Beast reference in the academy to work out combinations, and frequently heave long sighs over blank sheets of calculations.

He saw his teacher's difficulties and fretted over them. As the saying went, the exhaustion was in the other's body, but the pain was in his own heart. It felt worse than suffering himself.

After turning it over in his mind, he gritted his teeth and steeled his resolve, looking up at Su Lin as he said in a low voice, "How about we make a wager?"

"Oh?" Su Lin raised his eyebrows, interested. "What kind of wager?"

Tang San wasted no words. His footwork suddenly changed, and his figure swayed, his whole body like willow fluff drifting on the wind. His feet followed a mysterious, indescribable trajectory. Though he was clearly only a few steps away, it was impossible to pin down his exact position. Within a few steps, he left several faint afterimages where he stood, then came to a steady halt an instant later, without so much as a flutter of his hem.

"This is called Ghost Shadow Perplexing Track. It's a top-tier lightness footwork technique." Once he stood still, Tang San looked straight at Su Lin and said solemnly, "Let's have a fight. If I win, you become my teacher's disciple and train with us. If you win, I'll teach you this entire footwork technique. How about it?"

After saying this, he carefully watched Su Lin's reaction. Seeing that his expression seemed to soften a little, Tang San rejoiced inwardly and pressed his advantage, deliberately adding a little crude provocation:

"Don't worry. I won't attack you directly. I'll only fight your Soul Beast. Your Lightning Rat is a three-hundred-year-old mutated Soul Beast. Surely you aren't afraid even of that?"

"If you defeat me, this footwork technique is yours. For a beast tamer like you, whose combat strength rests entirely with his Soul Beast, I shouldn't need to remind you how important it is to master footwork that can save your life."

"All right."

Su Lin nodded in agreement almost without hesitation.

Tang San was right about that. His greatest weakness now was his own fragility. Once Pikachu was entangled or held in check, he was nothing more than a living target.

Ghost Shadow Perplexing Track was one of the Tang Sect's basic movement techniques. Although Tang San might not impart its entire internal method without reservation, learning even thirty or forty percent of its rudiments would give him several times more room to survive in battle.

Tang San rejoiced inwardly, feeling that the matter was already more than halfway settled.

He had already worked it out in his mind. According to his teacher's Soul Beast food-chain theory, small, agility-oriented Soul Beasts like Lightning Rats occupied the lower-middle rungs of the food chain among beasts of the same age, serving as prey for many carnivorous Soul Beasts.

Even before obtaining a Soul Ring, he had been able to take down a four-hundred-year-old Mandala Snake. There was no reason he could not handle a three-hundred-year-old Lightning Rat, especially now that he had his First Soul Ring.

He could practically say victory in this wager was already in his grasp.

As for Su Lin...

[Su Lin]

[Level: 11 (149/500)]

[Skill slot: Electric Arc (lv0: 94/100)]

[Pokémon slot: Lightning Rat (lv23: 1000/10000)]

[Lightning Rat]

[Skills: Energy-Charging Thunder Shock, Lightning Sucker Punch, Electric Halo]

Over the past three months, through battles with Xiao Wu and special training inside the Poké Ball, Pikachu had developed an extremely strong combat sense.

Su Lin's own improvements were also considerable. The increases in Soul Power and his Pokémon's level were secondary; the true core gains of these three months lay in integrating his knowledge of meridians with the development of his Electric Arc skill.

Thanks to Xiao Wu's unreserved guidance, he had long since engraved the complete pathways of the human body's twelve primary meridians and the conception and governing vessels into his bones. He could readily recite the meridian affiliations and standard locations of all 361 acupuncture points throughout the body, truly achieving the ability to "know the meridian from the point, and know the pathway from the meridian."

He had also filled in, one by one, the incorrect or omitted acupuncture points and missing minute branches in the medical books available on the market. His understanding of his own body already far exceeded that of ordinary Soul Masters.

With this solid foundation, his control over Electric Arc naturally grew ever more precise and minute.

At first, he could only crudely send electric arcs coursing through his meridians, relying entirely on Soul Power as a safeguard against injuring himself. Now, however, he could precisely wrap fine strands of golden current in Soul Power and guide them along the meridian pathways, thereby stimulating his meridians and acupuncture points, strengthening his blood and Qi, widening his meridians, and increasing the rate of his Soul Power growth.

Now, the experience points he gained through meditation had risen from the original 0.0001 per second to 0.0002, a full doubling. And this was despite his having developed this skill only recently. He reckoned he could raise it even further in the future; calling it a cause for celebration would be no exaggeration.

At his current pace, he was very confident he could reach level fifteen or even sixteen before the end of this semester, and upgrade Electric Arc to level two.

Under these circumstances, once he obtained an orthodox cultivation manual, he would more or less be able to deconstruct a basic method for circulating Soul Power.

Of course, all that could wait. His most pressing task was to get his hands on Ghost Shadow Perplexing Track first.

He set Pikachu down from his arms and patted his back.

Sensing the seriousness he conveyed, the little fellow pricked up his formerly languid ears. His four short legs planted firmly on the withered grass, and a bright gleam flashed through his amber eyes.

Tang San had already taken his position a short distance away. Seeing Pikachu bound over to stand before him, he confidently extended one hand and asked, "Ready?"

"Let's begin." Su Lin nodded firmly.