Enjoying the story? Support the translation and get early access to future chapters here: www.patr eon.com/c/FanficTranslator
Thanks for reading!
I have 100+ advanced chapter now on Patreon. I will post 5 advanced chapter on Patreon everyday except Sunday
**
Just as the pressure on Sun Chuantao vanished and his mind began to relax, he suddenly heard a cry of alarm from Zhao Pan behind him. Before he could react, a golden ring descended from the sky, binding him instantly.
A massive amount of golden light overflowed from the ring, flowing throughout his entire body. Sun Chuantao suddenly realized he could no longer move freely; he was completely trapped by the golden radiance emitted by the ring.
"What is this?" Sun Chuantao was shocked.
He had fought Li Kai many times, and this was definitely not Li Kai's ability. Was it Xu Yu's power? But wasn't an auxiliary Soul Master supposed to support their partners? Why was this golden ring directed at him instead?
With a look of confusion in his eyes, this thought flashed through Sun Chuantao's mind.
However, before he could figure it out, he saw Li Kai standing up not far ahead.
During that brief window of time, under the recovery effects of Xu Yu's first soul skill, Li Kai's injuries had already improved. Seizing the opportunity, Li Kai stomped his foot heavily, lunging toward Sun Chuantao with explosive speed.
With a fierce roar, he threw a full-strength punch.
Although Sun Chuantao did his best to control his martial soul—the Great Ring Blade—to block in mid-air during the crisis, without his own physical coordination, the flying blade alone could not repel Li Kai.
After the blade was knocked aside, Sun Chuantao was struck head-on by Li Kai. He felt a sharp pain in his chest. Even though he was still under the protection of Zhao Pan's defense buff and hadn't suffered a heavy injury, the pain still made his mouth twitch.
He was sent flying by Li Kai's blow, landing outside the arena.
On the stage, Zhao Pan stared blankly at the scene. Had they really lost?
Below the arena, the golden light on Sun Chuantao's body began to slowly dissipate, and eventually, even the golden ring vanished. He stood up, clutching his chest and coughing a few times to steady his breathing.
He looked up at Li Kai, his eyes revealing a hint of disbelief.
He had actually lost—and to an opponent he used to defeat easily.
"That golden ring just now... what exactly was it?" Sun Chuantao asked with a complex expression, suppressing the frustration in his heart.
"That is my third soul skill, Saint's Ring," Xu Yu explained as he and Li Kai walked down toward Sun Chuantao.
"As you saw, this soul skill can restrict an enemy's movement. It's somewhat similar to the methods used by Curse-system auxiliary Soul Masters."
"What a magnificent Golden Scepter. Before, I only knew it was an Elemental-system auxiliary martial soul that worked best for Light-attribute Soul Masters and was slightly less effective for others."
"I didn't expect the Magnificent Golden Scepter to be so unique. Its martial soul origin not only possesses the power of the Augmentation and Healing systems but can even tap into the power of the Curse system."
Sun Chuantao looked at Xu Yu and spoke with genuine admiration.
However, he was still somewhat dissatisfied about losing to Li Kai.
"Li Kai, I didn't lose to you in this battle. I lost to Xu Yu."
"Heh, it doesn't matter if you say that. In any case, this was a two-on-two battle, and your side lost. I finally beat you for once."
Li Kai released his martial soul possession state, revealing his somewhat chubby appearance. Dressed in wide blue robes, he wasn't very tall, but he was broad-shouldered and thick-set, with a rather honest-looking face.
Hearing Sun Chuantao's words, he wasn't angry and replied with a chuckle.
"Sun Chuantao! What, are you a sore loser?"
A rather cold voice rang out as a girl in a silver-white school uniform walked over from nearby.
Her silver-gray medium-length hair matched her female-style uniform perfectly. She was beautiful, but she carried an aura of coldness that made her seem difficult to approach. She was a girl from the same grade as Li Kai and Sun Chuantao named Sun Feiyan.
Her martial soul was the Golden-Waisted Swift. Her innate soul power was impressive; like Sun Chuantao and Li Kai, she was one of the most outstanding students in their year, second only to Xie Yue and Yan.
She was also a Soul Elder with a three-ring cultivation, and in terms of specific soul power rank, she was actually slightly higher than both Li Kai and Sun Chuantao.
Hearing Sun Feiyan's voice, Sun Chuantao froze.
His lips parted as if to say something, but the words died in his throat.
"I..."
"Xu Yu, your support this time was very good. If it weren't for you, I'm afraid Li Kai would have lost again," Sun Feiyan said to Xu Yu, ignoring Sun Chuantao.
Her tone softened slightly, the coldness in her eyes faded, and a faint smile appeared on her face.
"Senior, you overpraise me. I only did my best to fulfill my role. Besides, Senior Li Kai is also very strong. If his own strength wasn't sufficient, my support wouldn't have mattered."
Xu Yu spoke with a smile, feeling a bit embarrassed by the girl's praise.
This wasn't actually the first time they had met.
A year ago, after he promoted to the three-ring level, he had moved up to the higher grades. In the Spirit Hall Academy, the teaching model for high-level Soul Masters emphasized actual combat. As an auxiliary Soul Master, his training was naturally specialized.
Initially, under the teacher's arrangements, he was paired with a high-level combat Soul Master as a fixed duo to spar against other auxiliary-combat combinations.
This was meant to hone auxiliary techniques and gain experience.
In the next stage of learning, they would constantly rotate teammates to simulate supporting different types of partners.
Sun Feiyan had been his very first partner.
However, her personality was quite cold and she spoke very little. Xu Yu was also not much of a talker, so the two of them barely exchanged a few words a day at the start. Only after quite some time did they become familiar with each other and become friends.
"Hmph, there are more of you, I can't win this argument!"
Seeing the scene before him, Sun Chuantao felt inexplicably irritated.
He threw out that sentence and turned to leave. Beside him, Zhao Pan gave a bitter smile, nodded to the three of them in greeting, and hurried after him.
"Sigh, he's still as competitive as ever," Sun Feiyan said with a sigh.
Although she wasn't in the same class as Sun Chuantao, they had interacted several times as the top students of the grade and knew each other fairly well.
"Xu Yu, thank you so much this time. I finally got to enjoy the feeling of defeating him. This feeling is just too good, hahaha!"
Li Kai, being straightforward, didn't think too much about it.
He only felt pure joy and laughed as he spoke to Xu Yu.
Xu Yu simply shook his head with a smile, indicating it was no trouble at all.
While Xu Yu was still honing his auxiliary skills within the academy, in a massive Soul Hunting Forest to the east of Spirit City, Ling Xiao and the others were also undergoing their own trials.
Over a year ago, after Ling Xiao and Hu Liena promoted to the higher grades, they also began receiving practical combat training, sparring with various opponents of the same grade to simulate the enemies they might encounter after entering the world of Soul Masters.
However, there were far too few people in the same grade who could compare to the two of them. Combined with the cultivation speed granted by their Innate Full Soul Power, they eventually began facing opponents from higher grades, placing them in the same tier as Xie Yue and Yan.
Now, as the top performers of their year, the four of them had received recognition and moved a step ahead into the next phase of their training and trials.
After learning wilderness survival for a period of time, they were brought to a Soul Hunting Forest by the academy teachers to be tempered. After all, sparring between classmates was ultimately too gentle.
While a Soul Hunting Forest could not compare to a true large-scale wild soul beast habitat—and under the supervision of Spirit Hall, there were essentially no one hundred thousand year or even ten thousand year soul beasts—
High-level thousand year soul beasts and packs of hundred year soul beasts were certainly present. Every year, many Soul Masters seeking soul rings lost their lives there, ending up as food for the soul beasts.
**
Enjoying the story? Support the translation and get early access to future chapters here: www.patr eon.com/c/FanficTranslator
Thanks for reading!
I have 100+ advanced chapter now on Patreon. I will post 5 advanced chapter on Patreon everyday except Sunday