The Grand Colosseum – 14:10
The afternoon sun baked the Colosseum floor. The murmurs of the crowd settled down as the one-hour lunch break officially came to an end.
Director Meng Shenji stepped toward the central podium.
"I hope everyone has recovered from lunch!" His voice, amplified by a soul tool, carried across the entire Colosseum. "The afternoon matches will now continue. Without further delay, let us begin the sixth match!"
He reached into the glowing lottery box.
Clack.
His fingers closed around two wooden tokens.
Meng Shenji lifted them.
"Match Six! Ye Lingling of Heaven Dou Royal Academy versus Lan Su'su of Tianshui Academy!"
The announcement was met with a wave of surprised murmurs.
Down in the Royal Team dugout, every head turned toward Ye Lingling.
She had been sitting quietly with her hands folded in her lap. For a moment, she simply stared toward the arena.
Then she took a slow breath and stood.
"Whoa, wait," Osler said, immediately catching her sleeve. "Lingling, you don't actually have to do this."
She looked at him.
"What do you mean?"
"I mean..." Osler lowered his voice. "You're a pure Support-type. She's an Agility/Attack Soul Master. This matchup is practically designed to make your life miserable."
Dugu Yan crossed her arms.
"Osler, you're making it sound worse than it is."
"Because it is worse!"
Lingling smiled faintly.
"I'm aware of the disadvantage."
"Then withdraw."
"No."
Her answer came so calmly that Osler stopped.
Lingling looked toward the arena.
"I want to fight."
Dugu Yan's expression softened into a proud smile.
"That's more like it."
She leaned slightly closer.
"Besides, don't forget your Third Soul Skill. She can absorb your opponent's soul power and replenish your own. It won't magically turn you into an assault-type Soul Master, but you aren't completely helpless."
Yu Feng frowned.
"Still, Lan Su'su is fast. If Lingling can't create an opening, she could spend the entire match chasing her shadows."
Shi Mo gave Lingling's shoulder an encouraging pat.
"Then she doesn't chase her."
Everyone looked at him. Shi Mo shrugged.
"Make the other girl come to her."
Osler blinked.
"...That was actually surprisingly smart."
Shi Mo grinned.
"I have moments."
Ye Lingling couldn't help but laugh. "Thank you."
Yu Tianheng looked at her seriously.
"Don't force anything. If the situation becomes dangerous, surrender. This isn't about proving something."
Lingling nodded. "I know."
She looked around at her teammates.
"But I also want to know how far I can go."
The team fell silent for a moment.
"All right," she said softly. "I'm going."
"Good luck, Lingling!" Osler called after her.
"Don't get hit!" Yu Feng added.
"That's not exactly how fighting works," Dugu Yan muttered.
"Just win," Shi Mo said.
Lingling smiled over her shoulder.
"I'll try."
As she walked up the tunnel steps, Arthev simply caught her eye and gave her a single, confident nod. She gripped her hands into fists, her resolve hardening.
Out on the arena floor, the atmosphere was slightly awkward.
-----
The opposite tunnel opened.
Lan Su'su stepped onto the arena floor.
She was an elegant young woman with a slender figure and light movements that barely seemed to make a sound against the stone. Her gaze settled on Lingling, and the confidence in her expression gradually gave way to uncertainty.
She knew exactly who Ye Lingling was, the sole inheritor of the legendary Nine Heart Begonia. The ultimate, pure Support spirit. A spirit with absolutely zero combat capabilities.
Lan Su'su frowned slightly.
This felt wrong.
She had watched the morning matches. She had seen Yu Tianheng stop Hu Yan Li's punch with his bare hands. She had seen Shi Mo turn an opponent's speed against him.
The Royal Team had clearly changed. But Lingling? Could a pure Support Soul Master really have changed that much?
The two girls stopped roughly ten meters apart.
Lan Su'su hesitated before speaking.
"Ye Lingling."
Lingling looked at her. "Yes?"
"You don't have to do this."
Lingling blinked.
Lan Su'su rubbed the back of her neck awkwardly.
"I mean it. I'm an Agility/Attack Soul Master. You're a Support-type. If I attack seriously, you could get hurt before you even have a chance to respond."
Hearing this, Lingling didn't show any dissatisfaction. Instead, she offered the
Tianshui girl a warm, polite smile, knowing the advice came from a good place.
"I understand."
Lan Su'su looked surprised.
"You aren't angry?"
"Why would I be?"
Lingling gently shook her head.
"You're concerned because you don't want to hurt me. That's not something I should be offended by."
She paused, then looked toward the Royal Team dugout.
"However..."
Her gaze returned to Lan Su'su.
"You've probably heard that our team has undergone some changes recently."
Lan Su'su's expression became more serious.
"I have."
"And those changes weren't limited to our front-line fighters."
A faint breeze passed through the arena. Lingling slowly raised her hand.
The familiar Nine Heart Begonia appeared above her palm, its delicate petals glowing with a soft radiance.
The sight immediately drew murmurs from the stands. Lan Su'su watched the flower carefully.
Lingling lowered her hand.
"I'm still a Support Soul Master. But that doesn't mean I have no way to fight."
Lan Su'su's eyes narrowed with renewed interest.
"So you really have something prepared?"
Lingling smiled.
"I wouldn't want to disappoint you."
A few students in the stands laughed.
Lan Su'su's earlier hesitation disappeared. She straightened her posture.
"All right."
She raised her hand and summoned her own Martial Soul.
"Then show me."
Lingling nodded.
"I will."
Lan Su'su stepped into position, her eyes sharpening as her soul power began to rise.
"Then I'm all yours!"
The referee stepped back, raising his hand. "Are you both ready? Then... Start!"
Lan Su'su didn't hold back.
"Martial Soul: Water Arrow!"
SWISH!
Two yellow rings flashed beneath her feet as her figure blurred into motion. She zigzagged across the arena, changing direction so quickly that her movements became difficult to follow.
"She's fast!" Osler from the dugout.
Yu Feng narrowed his eyes. "She's testing Lingling's footwork first."
Fwip! Fwip!
Two condensed arrows of water shot toward Lingling's shoulders.
The crowd gasped. But lingling didn't panic. She shifted her weight, bent her knees, and pivoted sharply.
Whoosh!
The arrows skimmed past her sleeves and burst against the arena wall.
Lan Su'su's eyes widened. "She dodged them?"
Lan Su'su was already moving again.
SWISH!
She swept around Lingling's left side and threw a quick kick toward her ribs.
Lingling raised her forearm to defend.
THUD!
The impact knocked her several steps sideways.
"Ugh!"
She caught herself before falling, rubbing her arm.
Lan Su'su immediately followed.
"First Soul Skill: Water Serpent!"
A twisting stream of water erupted from her palm and snapped toward Lingling like a whip.
FWOOSH!
Lingling ducked barely dodging. The water serpent smashed into the ground where her head had been.
BOOM!
Stone fragments scattered across the arena.
"Come on!" Lan Su'su called, pressing forward. "You can't keep running forever!"
Lingling clenched her teeth.
'She's not giving me enough room.'
She retreated several more steps, but Lan Su'su stayed on her. Every time Lingling tried to change direction, another water arrow or sweeping kick forced her back.
Fwip!
A water arrow grazed her shoulder.
"Ah!"
Another kick came immediately afterward.
Lingling twisted away, but the heel still caught her side.
THUD!
She staggered.
The Tianshui students began cheering.
"Keep pressing!"
"Don't let her breathe!"
Lan Su'su moved in for the finishing strike.
"Got you!"
She lunged forward, her right hand coated in swirling water.
Lingling suddenly stopped retreating.
Lan Su'su's expression changed.
'Wait...'
Lingling lowered her stance. Instead of meeting the attack, she slipped half a step to the side.
Lan Su'su's strike passed beside her.
"Now!"
Lingling drove her shoulder into Lan Su'su's chest.
THUMP!
It wasn't enough to injure her, but it disrupted her balance.
Lan Su'su stumbled backward.
Lingling didn't attack. She retreated several meters and finally raised both hands.
"Martial Soul: Nine Heart Begonia!"
A brilliant pink-white flower appeared between her palms.
Two yellow rings and one deep-purple ring rose beneath her feet.
The crowd immediately recognized the legendary Nine Heart Begonia.
"Third Soul Skill: Reflective Petal Rain!"
WHOOSH!
The Begonia burst apart.
Hubdreds of pink petals erupted into the air, spinning around Lingling in a violent spiral. They weren't gentle healing petals anymore. They moved like countless tiny blades carried by a storm.
Lan Su'su's eyes widened.
"What the...?"
SWISH! SWISH! SWISH!
She raised both arms and retreated, but the petals still followed.
"Ah!"
Several struck her shoulders and legs.
Two glowing petals stuck firmly to her skin.
Lan Su'su suddenly felt something was wrong. Her breath caught.
'My soul power...'
A steady stream of her soul power was being drawn away through the petals, flowing back toward the Nine Heart Begonia in Lingling's hands.
"Get off!"
Lan Su'su hurriedly gathered her soul power and knocked the petals away.
Pah! Pah!
They fell to the ground and dissolved into faint pink light.
Lan Su'su jumped backward, breathing hard. She stared at Lingling with a completely different expression now.
"That... was unexpected."
Lingling remained still, the Begonia glowing softly in her hands.
Lan Su'su tightened her fists.
"I won't make that mistake twice."
"Second Soul Skill: Riptide Dash!"
Lan Su'su's body vanished beneath a swirling current of compressed water. She shot forward with explosive speed, using the current to propel herself straight toward Lingling.
"She's going all in!" Yu Feng shouted from the dugout.
Lingling's eyes widened.
Dash!
Lan Su'su was already in front of her, fist drawn back and aimed directly at her chest.
There was no time to dodge.
'I'm too slow!'
Lingling's instincts took over.
She didn't summon the Nine Heart Begonia. Instead, she thrust out her bare right palm and desperately gathered the soul power flowing through her body.
Arthev's voice flashed through her mind.
'Don't force the power outward. Compress it. Rotate it. Hold the shape.'
Vrrrrrrrrr...
A faint sphere of pink-white soul power formed in her palm. It trembled violently.
Lingling gritted her teeth.
"Stay together!"
The sphere suddenly tightened.
SHREEEEEEEE!
A piercing shriek tore through the air as the condensed soul power began spinning at tremendous speed. The surrounding air warped around it, creating a violent current that made Lingling's sleeve flutter.
Lan Su'su's expression changed instantly.
"What is that?!"
Her instincts screamed at her to dodge, but she was mid-dash. She was too close.
'Too late!'
"Take this!"
BAM!
Lingling struck the sphere directly into Lan Su'su's abdomen.
The raw, rotational force ground violently against flesh and fabric. Thespinning streams of energy acted like a localized vortex, shredding through theprotective mesh of the Tianshui uniform.
"AAAAAAAH!" Lan Su'su screamed.
The friction scorched her skin, tearing deep, agonizing spiral-patterned grooves
into her abdominal muscles. The sheer kinetic repulsion of the spinning sphereacted like a cannon blast, violently flinging the Agility master off her feet.
Lan Su'su flew backward through the air, crashing completely out of the arena
bounds.
THUD!
She rolled several meters before finally coming to a stop.
Silence.
The entire Colosseum fell death silent, completely utterly paralyzed by
shock.
Did... did a pure Support system just blast an Agility/Attack system Soul Master out of the ring ? What the hell just happened?
Up in the VIP section, Ning Fengzhi slowly lowered the cup in his hand.
Crack.
The porcelain slipped from his fingers and shattered against the floor. His eyes remained fixed on Lingling.
"Impossible..."
Xue Xing stared at the arena in disbelief. "What in the world was that?"
Ning Fengzhi didn't answer immediately. His expression had become unusually serious.
"The Nine Heart Begonia possesses no offensive soul skills," he said quietly. "Yet that attack came entirely from her own soul power."
Sword Douluo's gaze narrowed.
"Not a soul skill granted by her martial soul," Chen Xin said. "She created the technique herself?"
Xue Qinghe's calm expression remained intact, but even he couldn't completely hide the surprise in his eyes.
"Apparently," he murmured. "The Royal Academy has been keeping more secrets than we thought."
Down in the arena, Lingling stared at her trembling palm. Then she looked toward the grass outside the boundary.
"Oh my gosh!"
Her face went pale. She immediately ran toward Lan Su'su.
"Are you okay?! I'm sorry! I didn't mean to hit you that hard! I was just scared and...."
She dropped beside the fallen Tianshui student and hurriedly summoned her Nine Heart Begonia.
"Heal!"
Warm pink light spread across Lan Su'su's injured abdomen, rapidly soothing the damage.
Back in the Royal Team dugout, everyone was staring.
"What?!" Yu Feng shouted, his jaw dropping. "Did Lingling really just master that skill?!"
"Yeah, that was completely unexpected!" Osler cheered.
"Hmph," Dugu Yan smirked proudly. "I told you guys Lingling is incredibly talented."
Yu Tianheng, however, frowned, crossing his arms. "Hold on. The effect of the skill was different from when Arthev uses it. It didn't repel properly, it ground into the target. I don't think it's completed yet, right?"
Tianheng turned to look at Arthev.
"Exactly," Arthev confirmed. "It is an incomplete version."
Shi Mo blinked. "Incomplete?!"
Arthev finally glanced toward the arena.
Since Lingling was a pure Support type, making her do the extreme physical weight training of the frontline fighters was incompatible with her physiology.
Instead, Arthev had trained her rigorously in absolute soul power control. The 'Rasengan' was the ultimate test of form and rotation.
"Facing immediate danger, she instinctively activated the technique to protect
herself, even though she cannot yet stabilize the outer shell," Arthev explained. "The rotational drag caused the tearing effect."
"Heee!" Shi Mo gasped, looking at Lingling with newfound respect.
"Even though it's incomplete, it is still so powerful! To think it can throw an Attack-type
like that and injure them so badly!"
---------
Out on the grass, Lan Su'su slowly managed to sit up while Lingling continued healing her.
"Cough... cough."
"Sorry," Lingling said anxiously. "Are you hurt anywhere else?"
Lan Su'su looked at her for several seconds before giving a weak smile.
"Don't worry," Lan Su'su coughed, managing a weak smile.
"I... I was careless. You really surprised me."
Lingling let out a shaky breath.
"Thank the heavens."
The referee finally seemed to recover from his shock. He hurried to the edge of the arena, raised his flag high, and his amplified voice rang across the silent Colosseum.
"Ring-Out! The winner is... Ye Lingling of the Heaven Dou Royal Academy!"
To be continued.....