The sudden roar of the audience erupted like a tsunami, sweeping through the entire venue. The sound waves carried the fervent fighting spirit of the young soul masters, resonating beneath the dome.
The moment sixteen floating arenas descended from the clouds, their sunlit metallic surfaces shimmered with faint blue light patterns. The Tianhai Alliance's crest, resembling ocean waves, appeared and disappeared amidst the mist—like the watchful eyes of a deity gazing upon the mortal realm.
In cities near the sea, there was no shortage of Sea God believers. The arenas, modeled after the legendary Sea God Island, were a testament to the Sea God's influence.
Gu Yue looked up at the giant arenas descending from the clouds. This was humanity's creativity—pushing lifeless metal to its limits.
The metallic chains scraped against the clouds, emitting thunderous booms. Gu Yue stared at the Sea God statue in the square, her skin beneath her sleeves faintly glowing with scale-like energy patterns.
As the lights in the stands dimmed suddenly, Gu Yue stopped her thoughts and gently brushed away Xu Xiaoyan's trembling fingers.
"It's time to enter."
Hearing this, Gu La waved his hand. "See you later."
His strength far exceeded the competition level, so he was heading to participate in individual spirit battles.
Tang Wulin and the others watched him leave, while Wu Zhangkong headed toward the audience seats. From afar, Tang Wulin spotted his master—Zhuo Shi sitting on the judges' platform.
Tang Wulin took a deep breath, his breathing quickened as oxygen rushed into his body, accelerating the flow of his bloodline power.
"Let's go. We need to give it our all to secure a good ranking. We can't let Teacher Wu's efforts go to waste."
Compared to Tang Wulin's seriousness, Gu La was much more relaxed. Even in a competition restricted to those under fifteen, the strongest participants were only three-ring Soul Masters. For him, this was simply an opportunity to unwind.
Toying with the failed spirit-forged metal fragment, Gu La stepped into the designated passage, his right hand continuously rubbing the piece.
Crimson scales spread along his wrist to his fingertips, then receded back to normal skin tone in an instant.
Just as the metal fragment was about to collide with the ceiling, it suddenly halted mid-air. Its molten lava-like patterns flickered three times before landing precisely in Gu La's outstretched palm.
After continuous perception, Gu La had roughly figured out the reason for the forging failure.
It was Groudon's power. When forging, he often used his Groudon martial soul. During spirit-forging, the interaction between the blacksmith and the metal could be likened to the blacksmith imbuing the metal with spiritual essence.
Others progressed step by step—from hundred-refinements to sky-refinements—but Gu La directly wielded Groudon's divine power. Even when shared with his main body, where the divine power dissipated into lower-level soul power, it still retained traces of its divine nature.
Coincidentally, perhaps the divine power on the forging hammer had accumulated to its limit, resulting in a rare failure.
"Failure doesn't mean perpetual failure. If I borrow Groudon's power, could I forge metals at the heavenly refinement level—or even beyond?"
Gu La's thoughts raced. Even if he ultimately failed, he could still share the forging experience with Groudon's clone. He hadn't forgotten that the clone had plans to challenge Kyogre and Arceus—enhanced battle armor would undoubtedly be essential then.
"Previously, using the essence of divine beasts to modify my blood, I forged a soul-refined hammer. There should be a chance to succeed at sky-refinement."
"But heavenly tribulation is an issue. I can't keep borrowing the clone's power indefinitely. To ensure the completion of a forging session, I'll need… to wait until I reach Soul King level and attempt to condense a soul core to sustainably borrow the clone's power."
Gu La organized his plans. Now that he had some basic self-defense capabilities, it was time to start thinking about the future.
He ascended to Arena Seven. Gu La loosened two buttons on his collar, allowing the damp sea breeze to rush in and cool his excitement.
Individual spirit battles were held in a separate area from team battles, and the audience turnout wasn't as high. After all, these were just kids, most of them with only three rings at best—their fights wouldn't be as thrilling as the team battles.
Universities placed more importance on team battles than individual ones, as they served as proof of their teaching abilities.
"Both sides ready!" The mechanical referee's electronic voice pierced through the rain.
"Individual Spirit Battle, Arena Seven: Gu La from Donghai Academy versus Ci Lin from Tianhai Academy. The match begins!"
After the announcement, the referee stepped aside.
On the other side of the arena, a boy wearing navy-blue school uniform stepped onto the stage. He sneered arrogantly at Gu La. "Donghai City? Flashy outfit. Running into me is your misfortune."
Tianhai City was known for having the strongest soul masters in the alliance. Otherwise, Donghai Academy wouldn't have invested heavily in training Class Zero.
Gu La yawned, letting the wind blow open his collar, revealing his well-toned muscles. "Oh."
A vein bulged on Ci Lin's forehead, but he forced himself to stay calm. "Acting tough, huh? Porcupinefish martial soul, fusion!"
Behind Ci Lin, the shadow of a Porcupinefish began to solidify. Its gray-brown skin oozed sticky venom, and every spike pulsed with a dark green glow at its base.
The moment Ci Lin completed the fusion with his Porcupinefish martial soul, his previously slender body swelled dramatically. As the buttons of his uniform burst off, his exposed skin bristled with venomous spikes, and his pupils contracted into vertical slits.
Gu La lazily shifted his gaze. The emerald eye patterns of Celebi flashed briefly deep within his pupils.
This allowed him to see the subtle fluctuations of soul power in the opponent's third soul ring—clearly, it was recently broken through and still unstable.
"Not bad for a little genius, but too bad you've run into me, the big villain."
Gu La's interest piqued slightly. Porcupinefish martial souls? He knew a thing or two about them.
He paused for a moment. Since Groudon's clone existed, he barely needed practice to master the Groudon martial soul perfectly. So, he decided to showcase his Celebi martial soul instead—it would be better for training purposes.
"How dare you ignore me! Down you go!"
Seeing Gu La distracted, Ci Lin was enraged. Arching his back, his third soul ring lit up first, and the moisture around him vaporized into toxic fog within a three-meter radius. "Go lie down in the medical ward!"
Gu La finally raised his right hand—but not to release his martial soul.
"It's too late to beg for mercy…" Ci Lin's voice dripped with slimy arrogance. He deliberately stabbed his venomous spikes into the cloud-patterned steel arena floor, creating an ear-piercing scraping sound that elicited a few boos from the audience. "Our Tianhai Academy's individual win rate is…"
"Celebi, fusion."
Gu La's yawn interrupted Ci Lin's boasting. Casually slipping the spirit-forged metal back into his pocket, a faint emerald light pattern appeared in his left palm.
Behind him, a pair of delicate, translucent green wings unfurled, sprinkling glittering specks of light like early spring willow fluff.
"Leech Seed."
Rarely did he encounter such a foul-mouthed opponent, so Gu La decided to practice his grass-type moves. In his opinion, Leech Seed was one of the most potent variable techniques among grass-type skills, effective against many enemies.
Especially on Doulu Continent, where powerful plant-type soul masters were scarce. Even against flesh-and-blood soul masters, Leech Seed could take root.
As Gu La scattered green seeds, Ci Lin sneered. His venom was highly effective against plant-type soul masters.
Suddenly, venomous spikes shot out from his body, spraying dark green liquid—actually condensed black soul power. In mid-air, the liquid coalesced into countless sharp cones, raining down on Gu La like a storm.
But Gu La merely fluttered his wings lightly, dancing with the wind, dodging effortlessly like a sprite performing a deadly dance.
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