Seeing Lu Yu hesitate, Manager Huang held up five fingers. "As long as you take the stage, I'll pay you fifty thousand Gold Soul Coins as an appearance fee, win or lose."
Manager Huang still very much hoped Lu Yu would win. If he did, he could not only deal a blow to the Narvis Soul Fighting Arena but also keep his undefeated winning streak alive, bringing the Soto Soul Fighting Arena enormous renown.
As he spoke, Manager Huang extended his senses, wanting to see what Lu Yu's Soul Power Level was after a month and a half apart. One look left him stunned.
"You... you're level twenty?"
"I have to thank you for the Gold Soul Coins you gave me, Manager Huang. Without that money to buy cultivation resources, I couldn't have cultivated this fast!"
Lu Yu smiled and nodded, giving Manager Huang all the credit for his rapid progress to level twenty.
"Good, good, good!" Manager Huang laughed, saying "good" three times in a row.
He couldn't keep the excitement off his face. Before, he had hoped Lu Yu could beat Lin Tian, but now, if he helped Lu Yu find a suitable high-year Soul Ring, he might well be able to take Lin Tian on.
"Equal to Heaven, I'll arrange for someone to take you hunting for your Second Soul Ring right away. Once you break through level twenty, your chances of winning will be greater!" Manager Huang stared at Lu Yu, his eyes shining. He was even more excited than when he had broken through level twenty himself.
Lu Yu raised an eyebrow and waved a hand. "Manager Huang, there's no need for that. If one ring fights two, even if I lose, people will only say Lin Tian used his strength to bully the weak. Besides, don't you think one ring against two is a bigger draw?"
Manager Huang stroked his chin and pondered his words, nodding slightly. He thought Lu Yu had a point; there really wasn't much difference between level twenty and level twenty-one.
After a long moment's thought, Manager Huang pushed the document on the table toward Lu Yu and spoke seriously. "Take a look at this before you decide whether to absorb a Soul Ring!"
Lu Yu took it curiously and realized that what Manager Huang had been holding was Lin Tian's contestant information.
Name: Lin Tian. Gender: male. Martial Soul: Thunder Pattern Staff. Alias: ...
Lu Yu read down the entries one by one. When he reached Lin Tian's alias at the Soul Fighting Arena, his mouth fell slightly open, and a trace of surprise appeared on his previously unconcerned face.
There, written plainly on Lin Tian's contestant information, was "Alias: Great Sage Who Surpasses Heaven."
Lu Yu looked up at Manager Huang in bafflement, his young face full of confusion.
"Don't look at me. The contestants choose their own aliases!" Manager Huang spread his hands, the corners of his mouth turning up.
"Wait! Manager Huang, are you sure he came to challenge the arena and not to target me?" Lu Yu slapped Lin Tian's information down on the table.
Lu Yu's alias at the Soul Fighting Arena was "Great Sage Equal to Heaven," while this Lin Tian had come up with "Great Sage Who Surpasses Heaven." He might as well have written the word "provocation" on Lu Yu's forehead.
Seeing Manager Huang's look that said, "Don't look at me, this has nothing to do with me," Lu Yu was so angry he laughed. If he didn't beat this Lin Tian into the ground, he'd lose all face as a transmigrator.
"Manager Huang, arrange the match! I want to see what this Lin Tian can do." Lu Yu took a deep breath and looked at Manager Huang resolutely.
"Good! That's what I was waiting to hear. I'll go make the arrangements right now!"
"Ladies and gentlemen, tonight's Soul Fighting matchup is one you absolutely, absolutely, absolutely could never have imagined."
"Now, please welcome our first contestant! He's the second rising star since the Great Sage Equal to Heaven, with a terrifying record of forty-eight wins and seven losses. He is-the Great Sage Who Surpasses Heaven!"
The Soul Fighting Arena's host shouted passionately from the raised platform! When the crowd heard that the contestant was the Great Sage Who Surpasses Heaven, the entire arena erupted.
Lin Tian walked slowly out of the contestants' passage. He was a youth of fifteen, sixteen, or seventeen, with a confident smile on his face and his Martial Soul, the Thunder Pattern Staff, resting on his shoulder!
"Next, please welcome the man who disappeared for a month-the Great Sage Equal to Heaven!"
The instant the host finished speaking, the entire Soul Fighting Arena fell silent. But after only two seconds, an even greater roar of cheers followed!
"Great Sage Equal to Heaven! Great Sage Equal to Heaven! Great Sage Equal to Heaven!"
A disdainful smile curled Lin Tian's lips as he murmured, "Finally here? He's just a One-Ring Soul Master, and he can get you all this excited?"
Hearing the host call his alias, Lu Yu carried his pitch-black iron staff out of the contestants' passage and locked eyes with Lin Tian on the other side of the arena!
"As you all know without me having to say it, the Great Sage Equal to Heaven has achieved the feat of thirty-eight consecutive victories in the Soul Fighting Arena. In the coming battle, will the Great Sage Equal to Heaven continue his astonishing winning streak, or will an up-and-coming talent pull him down from his pedestal?"
"Let's wait and see!"
"I declare the Soul Fight-begin!!!"
As the host announced the start of the match, the two men's casual expressions vanished in an instant. They immediately assumed fighting stances, watching each other warily!
Two hundred-year Yellow Soul Rings slowly descended from above Lin Tian's head, and a faint blue light rippled along the shaft of the previously unremarkable Thunder Pattern Staff in his hand.
With a thought, Lu Yu summoned his Soul Ring as well, but compared to Lin Tian's, his fell far short. A single, lonely white Ten-Year Soul Ring hovered beneath his feet.
It looked so comical, so ridiculous!
The spectators didn't jeer or hurl insults. Instead, they grew even more excited. They didn't support Lu Yu because of how well he could fight.
It was because Lu Yu was like most of them: he had "poor talent," and his First Soul Ring was a white Ten-Year Soul Ring. That struck a chord with them.
"Equal to Heaven, beat him! Show him who the real Great Sage of Suotuo City is!"
"Yeah! Beat him! Beat him!..."
"Looks like you've made quite a name for yourself here!" Lin Tian glanced at the spectators cheering and shouting for Lu Yu; an inexplicable sense of frustration rose in his heart.
"Ah, what can I do? I've never lost a match! That's the presence a strong man carries with him!" Lu Yu grinned, baring a mouthful of big white teeth.
"Oh? Is that so? Then I'm afraid you're going to be disappointed. Your winning streak ends here!"
With that, Lin Tian struck first. He drove off with both legs and charged straight at Lu Yu, the light on his Thunder Pattern Staff growing brighter.
Lu Yu didn't charge forward to meet him head-on. Instead, he spun his staff in place. On the surface, that was indeed what he was doing.
But it was only a trick to fool the eye. After mastering the complete Flowing Cloud Seven Tremors, Lu Yu had incorporated the staff technique for building up the first tremor's power into the spin.
Anyone unfamiliar with it would only think the spin looked a little odd, but they wouldn't pay it much attention. They would simply think he was a fool: his opponent had already made a move, yet he was standing there spinning his staff.
Lin Tian charged in close, gripping his staff in both hands. Just as he was about to strike Lu Yu with a backhanded staff blow, Lu Yu moved, sweeping the fully charged first tremor upward from below.
Bang-hum-
The two staffs collided with a thunderous crash. Lu Yu gritted his teeth and held firm with the body strengthened by Whale Rubber.
Lin Tian, however, did not fare so well. The force of the tremor traveled along the staff into the hands gripping his Thunder Pattern Staff. The sudden vibration numbed the webs between his thumbs and forefingers, and the staff nearly flew from his grasp.
Lin Tian inwardly cursed himself for being careless. He then withdrew his strength, flipped backward, and landed steadily on the ground. Raising his head, he looked at Lu Yu gravely.
His staff technique is no worse than mine!