Promotion to Silver Soul Fighter
The next day, Ning Buhui arrived even earlier than he had the day before.
The appearance and Soul Ring Configuration maintained by the Thousand-Transformation Illusory Mask were still in place. As before, he took the contestants' passage and sat down in the backstage waiting area. There were quite a few more people than yesterday, and the schedule was packed with Soul Elder matches. He glanced at the schedule and saw that his name, "A Hui," had been assigned to the third, fifth, seventh, and ninth matches, with only one or two matches between each for rest. That meant he would be fighting from the afternoon until evening, with hardly a break.
His first opponent was a Control System Soul Elder whose Martial Soul was spider silk. As soon as they stepped onto the stage, the man struck first, flinging three clumps of silvery-white spider silk over Ning Buhui's head. Ning Buhui was in no hurry to use Vine Locks the Nine Nether Regions. He thrust the pagoda forward and used Mountain Suppressing Falling Strike. The pagoda grew to half a person's height and slammed into the incoming silk. The silk stuck to it, and Ning Buhui flicked his wrist, sending the pagoda spinning at high speed. Spinning Pagoda Strangulation shredded the silk into wisps. His opponent froze, and Ning Buhui's second soul ring lit up. Pitch-black chains shot from the pagoda, but instead of wrapping around the man's ankles, they slithered along the ground, circled behind him, and bound both his arms from behind.
The chains tightened, pinning the Soul Elder's arms behind his back and pulling him backward. He struggled a couple of times, but the more he fought, the tighter they became. The chains had wound around him three full times from shoulders to wrists, trussing him up as tightly as a bundle of firewood. When the referee stopped the match, the Soul Elder was still writhing on the ground, his face flushed red.
His second opponent was a Power Attack System Soul Elder whose Martial Soul was a pair of hammers. He was fiercer than any of yesterday's opponents, swinging his hammers wildly as soon as he came onstage. Ning Buhui didn't meet him head-on. When the first hammer swept toward him, Ning Buhui slipped aside, and a chain shot from the pagoda and wrapped directly around the man's waist. It tightened, jerking the Soul Elder off balance and nearly making him lose his grip on both hammers. Ning Buhui seized the opening and fired another chain around his right wrist. The two chains tightened at once, one to the left and one to the right, pulling the Soul Elder's limbs apart in the shape of the character "大." His strength alone wasn't enough to break Ning Buhui's chains, so Ning Buhui won another match without suspense.
"Stop!" the referee called.
His third opponent was an Agility Attack System Soul Elder, fast and fond of circling his opponent. Ning Buhui didn't hesitate. His third soul ring lit up at once: Thunder Prison Imprisons Wind. Six pillars of lightning rose, stripping away most of the Soul Elder's speed advantage. Inside the cage, even taking a single step was difficult. Ning Buhui fired three chains at once: one around his waist, one around his legs, and one around his neck. Of course, he held back the force on the one around the man's neck, letting it rest loosely there and relying mainly on the other two to hold him in place. The Soul Elder couldn't move at all, and the referee stopped the match instantly.
In the fourth match, his opponent was a Defense System Soul Elder whose Martial Soul was the Iron Armored Rhinoceros. The man was covered from head to toe in a gray, iron-colored carapace. Ning Buhui first tried Vine Locks the Nine Nether Regions, but when the chains wrapped around him, the ridges on the carapace's surface caused them to slip aside. Ning Buhui wasn't in a hurry. He circled his opponent twice, but the Soul Elder stood as steady as a rock, waiting where he was for Ning Buhui to attack. After a moment's thought, Ning Buhui's first soul ring lit up: Butterfly Suppresses the Nether Spring. A black butterfly landed on the back of the Iron Armored Rhinoceros Soul Elder's neck.
The Soul Elder was gathering strength to use his third soul skill, Iron Armor Charge. He drew on his Soul Power and poured it into his Martial Soul as usual, only to discover that it suddenly consumed thirty percent more than normal. He didn't have enough Soul Power, and the charge failed to come out. He froze for an instant, and Ning Buhui took advantage of it. Nine chains shot out at once, surrounding his opponent before tightening. Every chain drained his opponent's Soul Power every second, and before long, it had all been sucked dry. Ning Buhui released him, and the man, left without the strength to continue, had no choice but to admit defeat.
"Blue side wins!"
Four consecutive victories. A good start. The opponents he had faced today were all fairly ordinary, and none had been particularly troublesome.
Ning Buhui came down from the stage and returned backstage for a drink of water. The deacon came over again and handed him a new schedule. "There are more Soul Elder matches tomorrow. You can sign up again." Ning Buhui acknowledged him and put the schedule away.
On his way out, he passed the spectator stands and overheard several spectators talking.
"That gray-haired one won all four matches today. Altogether, he fought for less than half a shichen."
"A Control System Soul Master is that fierce? Once his chains wrapped around his opponents, they couldn't even move."
"I wonder what those chains of his are made of. They're so hard."
Ning Buhui didn't stop. He walked straight out of the Soul Fighting Arena.
The next day, he signed up for two extra matches, hoping to reach 100 points and advance to Bronze Soul Fighter.
His opponents were about the same level as the day before, and none were too troublesome. One Water System Battle Soul Elder, however, left a deep impression on him. The man fought using a water clone while hiding in the surrounding puddles himself. His water clone looked exactly like a real person, and Ning Buhui hadn't seen through it at first. Only after his chains wrapped around it and failed to draw any Soul Power did he gradually notice something amiss. In the end, he covered the entire arena with Thunder Prison Imprisons Wind and used the lightning to conduct electricity through the water, forcing his opponent out and winning the match.
This also taught Ning Buhui a lesson: he couldn't underestimate any Soul Master. There would always be some unexpected Soul Skills.
Over the following days, he fought three to six matches a day. When his schedule was full, he fought six; when it wasn't, he fought two fewer. His opponents varied in strength, some strong and some weak, but without exception, none could withstand his full chain of control. He grew increasingly adept at using Vine Locks the Nine Nether Regions. Sometimes he wrapped one chain around an opponent's waist, sometimes he used two to bind their arms behind their back, and sometimes he used three to lock their limbs and neck at once, tying them up like a zongzi. He also tried splitting the chains into finer strands and threading them through the gaps in an opponent's carapace to bind the joints underneath. This use consumed an immense amount of mental strength, but it was remarkably effective and almost impossible to counter.
The only opponent who gave him some trouble was a level thirty-nine Soul Elder, one step away from breaking through to Soul Ancestor. The man had an exceptionally strong physique and two yellow soul rings and one purple soul ring. His third soul skill was Overlord Body Charge, which made him immune to control for a short time. The first time Ning Buhui wrapped Vine Locks the Nine Nether Regions around him, he forcibly snapped the chains. Ning Buhui immediately changed tactics. Instead of confronting him head-on, he used only Butterfly Suppresses the Nether Spring to disrupt the rhythm of his Soul Power. The Soul Elder tried to use his Soul Skills several times, but none came out. When he gathered strength again, the black butterfly interrupted him, and his Overlord Body happened to expire at that very moment. Ning Buhui took advantage of the gap in his Soul Power and fired three chains at once, dragging him from the center of the arena all the way out of bounds to win.
"Stop! Blue side wins!"
After that match, Ning Buhui silently thought to himself, That was close. If his opponent's Soul Power had been a little higher and his Overlord Body had lasted a little longer, Ning Buhui might not have won without using other means. It also showed him what he lacked: against an opponent immune to control, he had no advantage at all. That made him change some of his plans for acquiring soul rings in the future.
Nine days later, Ning Buhui's winning streak had reached thirty matches. He was awarded 1,000 points outright and advanced to Silver Soul Fighter. He was no longer the unknown he had been when he first arrived at the Soul Fighting Arena; many spectators had noticed this dark horse that had suddenly appeared. It had been a long time since anyone had achieved thirty consecutive wins in matches against opponents of the same rank.
The deacon called him over to the counter and handed him a silver badge engraved with a small pagoda and a crescent moon. "Silver Soul Fighter," the deacon said. "You can now challenge opponents above your rank in the Soul Ancestor group. There aren't many Soul Ancestor matches each day, but a win is worth double points. Do you want to sign up?"
"Yes." Ning Buhui pinned the silver badge to his chest.
It was already dark when he came out of the Soul Fighting Arena. He stood on the steps by the entrance, watching the stream of people coming and going along the street. Advancing from Silver Soul Fighter to Gold Soul Fighting required 2,000 points. Each win in the Soul Ancestor group was worth roughly twenty points, not counting winning-streak bonuses. If he could fight three matches a day, he would have over 600 points in ten days and could reach the total in a little over a month. But he didn't plan to stay in Star Luo City that long. After another half month of fighting, once he had adapted to battles against Soul Ancestors, he planned to set out for the Star Dou Great Forest to temper himself. Only true battles between life and death could bring out a person's potential.
He went down the steps and turned into a small restaurant on the corner, where he ordered a bowl of hot noodle soup. While waiting, he took a map from his robes and drew a circle near the inner edge of the Star Dou Great Forest's outer region. According to the materials he had read in the Spirit Hall's library, Soul Beasts between 5,000 and 10,000 years old were commonly found in this area, making it just right for tempering his combat ability. If he ran into anything he couldn't defeat, he could still use the Wind Thunder Wings to escape.
The noodles arrived. Ning Buhui put away the map and bent over his bowl. He hoped tomorrow's Soul Ancestor matches would put him under some pressure, so he could grow stronger more quickly.