"That's probably because he's a substitute," Yang Yue said teasingly, his arms folded across his chest. "Oh, unlike me, an official team member."
Niu Heng looked miserable and gave an angry grunt.
"I was just unlucky enough to run into those brothers from the Black Tortoise Sect."
The brothers from the Black Tortoise Sect Niu Heng referred to were Shi Mo and Shi Mo. Both had Black Tortoise Martial Souls, and although their Soul Power Levels were lower than Niu Heng's, they were of one mind and could work together to produce an effect greater than the sum of its parts. They were never going to be split up.
With three Defense System Soul Masters on a seven-person Soul Fighting team, the lineup would be unbalanced, so Niu Heng could only end up as a substitute.
And the kind of substitute who was unlikely to get a chance to fight. In team Soul Fighting, it was hard for a Defense System Soul Master to be beaten badly enough to be unable to take the field.
That was why Niu Heng was so conflicted.
Fang Lin offered Niu Heng no words of comfort. In his view, being a substitute was pretty good: he would get every Gold Soul Coin and subsidy he was owed, and he'd have more time to cultivate. A water-cooler champion was still a champion.
But Yang Yue and Niu Heng had both received invitations, while he hadn't heard a thing. That wasn't right...
As Fang Lin wondered about it, Niu Heng seemed to reach a decision. His brows relaxed, and he slapped his thigh.
"Forget it. Grandpa Niu isn't going. After I graduate, I'll put together my own team and travel the continent in search of adventure."
Once Soul Masters passed the age of twenty, they were past the golden age for cultivating Soul Power. At that point, fighting was more conducive to breaking through levels than cultivating diligently, which was why so many Soul Masters traveled the continent. Niu Heng was nineteen this year, so he would be about twenty when he graduated.
"That's a good idea." Yang Yue chuckled. "We'll go together, then. We'll rope someone in from each of the other two clans, form a group, and roam the continent unchallenged."
Soul Masters had different attributes and their own strengths and weaknesses, so few were lone wolves. Auxiliary System and Control System Soul Masters in particular generally went adventuring with a team.
From what Yang Yue said, it seemed he also intended to turn Qin Ming down. In that case, the Imperial Fighting Team's eventual members would probably still be the ones Fang Lin remembered. The two also wanted to invite Fang Lin to join them on their adventures, but he politely declined:
"I expect I'll stay until I graduate normally and try to cultivate to Soul Ancestor. After that, I'll go straight back to Soto City."
When Fang Lin had gone home last year, Mother Fang had already picked out several prospective daughters-in-law for him and was eagerly awaiting his return to bring the family prosperity. Considering that the Heaven Dou Empire and Spirit Hall would be going to war around then, and Soto City wasn't an important stronghold, Fang Lin thought hiding out there would be pretty good.
Once those who were supposed to become gods had become gods, and those who were supposed to kick the bucket had kicked it, the continent would be safe. It wouldn't be too late to come out and seek adventure then.
Dusk closed in on all sides, and night gradually enveloped the dormitory district as lights came on one after another.
As Fang Lin passed Dugu Yan's dormitory, he deliberately glanced at it. The door and windows were shut tight, and not a sliver of light showed through.
The next day, Fang Lin woke on time. He glanced around and saw that Yu Feng's bed was empty.
"That kid's up pretty early?"
Dawn was just breaking. Fang Lin went to an open space in front of the dormitory district, put on his weighted gear piece by piece, and began practicing with his blade as usual.
Because of the preliminaries, the public training ground had been commandeered and had yet to be converted back. It was temporarily closed to students, so Fang Lin had moved his daily workouts to the area in front of the dormitories.
A tall tree rose above the open space, its lush branches and leaves spreading like an umbrella. Its huge leaves were a tender, almost dripping green, covered with beads of morning dew that weighed them down and made them tremble slightly. The dew slowly gathered along the green veins at the tips of the leaves before suddenly falling.
But before it could reach the ground, a flash of silver from a blade shattered it in midair.
Fang Lin drew back his long blade, caught his breath, and began running laps around the woods. On his third lap, Yu Feng emerged from a path, and the two passed each other.
"Brother Lin, when it comes to diligence in cultivation, nobody in the whole academy can match you."
Yu Feng clicked his tongue in admiration. The training itself wasn't difficult; what was remarkable was sticking with it day after day. Fang Lin even had a semifinal match today, yet he had still begun his routine as unfailingly as ever.
When Fang Lin finished a lap, Yu Feng was still there, as if waiting for him.
"Brother Lin, someone's taking bets at the academy on who'll win the Heaven Dou Tournament. Your odds are five to one!"
"Five to one?"
Fang Lin looked startled at first, then eyed Yu Feng suspiciously. He suspected Yu Feng still held a grudge over the last time Fang Lin had taken bets and fleeced him.
"You're not the bookie, are you? Trying to trick me with a scheme I've used myself? You've got some nerve!"
"Why would I lie to you? Ask Brother Niu if you don't believe me." Yu Feng looked hurt at being suspected, his gaze resentful. "You're the only one who'd do something so heartless. I really was a fool to believe you..."
"Let's not talk about that." Seeing that Yu Feng was about to dredge up the past again, Fang Lin hurriedly changed the subject. "What are the odds on the others?"
"They're also five to one. Yu Tianheng's are one to one."
When a bookie set odds, they were usually calculated as the rake divided by the probability. If the bookie took no rake, that meant whoever set the odds thought the other three each had about a twenty percent chance of winning, while Yu Tianheng's chance was as high as ninety-five percent.
The difference between five-to-one and one-to-one odds was hard to resist, even for Yu Feng, who had sworn never to gamble again after being cheated once.
He looked hopefully at Fang Lin. "Brother Lin, how confident are you that you can beat Yu Tianheng?"
Judging by that, Yu Feng had probably placed a bet.
Fang Lin shot him an annoyed glance. "Didn't your grandpa say a gambling bird comes to no good end?"
"Come on, a little gambling is good fun. I only put down twenty Gold Soul Coins. It's not much, not much..."
Though anyone with eyes could see that Yu Tianheng had the better chance of winning, the five-to-one odds still tempted many hopeful people into placing bets. Like Yu Feng, they put in small stakes for a shot at winning, and as those bets added up, the bookie ended up profiting instead.
In running a book like this, the bookie was gambling too, betting on human greed.
It was only because Yu Tianheng wouldn't throw a match that Fang Lin didn't want to work with him for a mutually beneficial outcome.
The morning mist dispersed, and the sun climbed higher.
The Heaven Dou Tournament semifinals began on the mountaintop as scheduled.
Fang Lin's opponent was Gong Qing, a level twenty-nine Control System Soul Grandmaster whose Martial Soul was the Thorny Green Vine.
For Control System Soul Masters, an arena was advantageous terrain, especially for Plant System Soul Masters. A sufficiently powerful Soul Master could even cover the entire arena with their Martial Soul.
Gong Qing's First Soul Ring came from a Jade Spirit Vine, famed for its vitality. It had greatly strengthened the vitality of his Thorny Green Vine. Once his Tool Martial Soul was unleashed, although it couldn't quite seal off the entire arena, it could cover more than half of it.
At the referee's command, Fang Lin and Gong Qing moved almost simultaneously.
Long blade in hand, Fang Lin charged straight at Gong Qing, an explosive crack sounding beneath his feet.
Gong Qing jogged backward as blue-green tendrils drooped from the Thorny Green Vine Martial Soul in his hand and began growing wildly across the ground. In an instant, they densely covered the area before him. Every tendril twisted like a living thing, all of them lashing toward Fang Lin to entangle him.
"First Soul Skill, Entanglement!"
Fang Lin didn't slow down. He dodged some of them by weaving between them, only slashing with his long blade when he couldn't avoid them. He wanted to get close to Gong Qing as quickly as possible and avoid being worn down by his First Soul Skill.
After cutting through several incoming vines in succession, Fang Lin pressed forward step by step and, in the blink of an eye, closed to within a foot of Gong Qing. But the number of vines he faced suddenly doubled, and two soon wrapped around his lower leg and arm, stopping his advance.
If he didn't break free, the rest of the vines would follow in the next instant and wrap him up like a zongzi.
"First Soul Skill, Hell Power."
Fang Lin let out a low shout. The muscles in both places bulged at once, and he forcibly tore free through sheer physical strength. As for the remaining vines descending upon him from every direction, he whirled his long blade in an impenetrable screen, cutting them all apart. For a moment, severed tendrils writhed beneath his feet.
With both his strength and speed surging, Fang Lin broke through to Gong Qing in almost an instant and brought his long blade chopping straight down at him.
Gong Qing hadn't expected Fang Lin to break through so quickly. His tactic of keeping his opponent at bay had lost its effect, and he was now in danger himself.
"Second Soul Skill, Hardening and Thorn Growth!"
At the critical moment, Gong Qing's Second Soul Ring suddenly lit up. The vines between him and Fang Lin instantly turned dark and hard, and foot-long spikes thrust out from between the joints on the side facing Fang Lin.
Gong Qing's Second Soul Skill could harden his vines and make them grow spikes, allowing him to catch an opponent off guard and seriously injure them. But after hardening, he couldn't freely control them for a short time and could only use them as a fixed barrier.
At such close range, the wooden spikes were like a cluster of short spears thrusting out at Fang Lin in an instant.
Fang Lin gave a low shout, his arm muscles tensing as he swung his long blade. Like a dragonfly skimming the water, he chopped off all the wooden spikes in an instant. Without losing momentum, he brought the blade down on the iron fence before him in a mighty, mountain-splitting chop.
The tremendous force split the hardened vines outright and even shattered the tendrils curling toward him from the sides. Finally, the blade came to a steady stop in front of Gong Qing's face.
A freezing chill pressed against his skin. Gong Qing swallowed instinctively, and the Thorny Green Vine beneath his feet also stopped moving.
"Fang Lin wins!"
The referee announced the result. Fang Lin drew back his long blade, a smile in his eyes.
"Thank you for the match, senior."
Of all his matches since the Heaven Dou Tournament began, his fight with Gong Qing had been the most satisfying to hack his way through. He had finally gotten a taste of overwhelming someone with sheer strength.
At the same time, a considerable chorus of startled cries rose from the students watching below the arena. In most of Fang Lin's previous victories, he had relied on practical combat skills, seizing an opportunity to defeat his opponent in a single move. This time, he had crushed his opponent with almost pure speed and strength, using his First Soul Skill only once from start to finish.
It was a clean, decisive victory, almost straight out of a textbook.
"Is that guy's Martial Soul really an ordinary Iron Saber? With that strength and speed, it doesn't look like it. Even if his attributes countered Gong Qing's, he won way too easily."
"Like hell it does. My Martial Soul's an Iron Saber too. I'm not even sure my Second Soul Skill could break through Gong Qing's Second Soul Skill, but that guy cut through it like he was chopping a watermelon."
"And when he broke through Gong Qing's defenses earlier, if it were me, I'd probably have been tied up like a zongzi before I even got close."