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
**
Upon breaking through to become a three-ring Soul Elder, students are eligible to join the senior ranks of the Spirit Hall Academy.
They must move to the purple teaching buildings to study more advanced subjects, ranging from combat techniques to lessons on traversing the continent and surviving various dangerous lands. For these students, theory was only one piece of the puzzle.
Far more important was the study of actual combat.
As a Soul Master, the ability to truly master one's own strength always took top priority. The Spirit Hall Academy not only boasted a vast student body, but its pupils hailed from every corner of the continent, possessing a diverse array of Martial Souls.
This diversity served as the perfect foundation to hone a student's combat adaptability.
Under the supervision of academy teachers, senior students would spar with peers of different types to simulate the various opponents they might encounter in the future. Their instructors would guide them from the sidelines, pointing out flaws and areas for improvement.
Unlike the junior years, once a student entered the senior level, the ratio of teachers to students for combat instruction improved. While one teacher still taught multiple students, the groups were much smaller.
After all, providing guidance on the nuances of combat for each individual was a complex and detailed task; if the class size were too large, the teacher would inevitably lack the energy to cover everything.
At Spirit Hall Academy, senior-level training didn't stop there. Sparring within the academy, while helpful for building experience, was ultimately a polite affair. To a certain extent, it lacked the true bloodiness and pressure of a real crisis.
Once senior students received the recognition of their teachers and the academy's upper management, they had to undergo one final trial. Formed into small groups, they would be led into a Hunting Soul Forest controlled by Spirit Hall to undergo the ordeal of true danger.
Although there were essentially no hundred thousand year soul beasts within these managed forests—and the weakest students reaching this stage were at least at the three-ring Soul Elder realm, with elites reaching the four-ring Soul Ancestor level or even higher.
The danger was by no means non-existent.
In reality, though the Hunting Soul Forests were not "wild" soul beast habitats in the truest sense—being regulated by Spirit Hall and the two Great Empires and periodically swept by Spirit Hall to cull any soul beasts whose cultivation had reached ten thousand years—they were still teeming with soul beasts.
When human Soul Masters entered, the beasts didn't care for rules or balanced matchmaking. It was purely the law of the jungle. It was common for a small group to be suddenly ambushed by over a dozen soul beasts at once.
Even more frequent was the "out of the frying pan and into the fire" scenario, where a group fleeing a pack of beasts would accidentally intrude upon the territory of another, leading to an even more desperate pursuit.
Furthermore, even after painstakingly repelling one wave of beasts, a fresh predator might already be stalking you.
Thus, training in the wild was nothing like the orderly duels of the academy. Soul beasts would swarm you, ambush you, and there would always be existences with cultivation far exceeding your own seeking to take your life.
Although Ling Xiao had long since reached the rank of Soul Elder, he was nowhere to be seen in the Arena District today. In fact, it wasn't just Ling Xiao; Xie Yue, Yan, and even Hu Liena were missing as well.
At this moment, on a stage situated toward the center-left of the Arena District, a fierce battle was underway. Two figures—one large, one lean—clashed repeatedly in the center of the ring. Both sides utilized powerful, rigid offensive styles with very little dodging.
As their attacks collided, they generated waves of wind and vibrations, the constant "thud-thud" of impact echoing through the air. One student wore the silver-white standard school uniform. He had a slender build and wielded a massive, bladed ring.
This was clearly his Tool Martial Soul: the Great Ring Blade.
It was a quite formidable Martial Soul, capable of both slashing and bludgeoning. While the ring was flexible in its rotations, the sharp blades on either side made it difficult to master; one clumsy move could easily result in self-injury.
The other student was clearly in a state of Martial Soul Possession.
His Martial Soul belonged to the large or medium-sized Beast Martial Soul category. This was evident because small Beast Martial Souls, even after initial materialization during possession, generally cannot fully cover the user's body.
However, his Martial Soul was somewhat surprising. Following the transformation, the student appeared broad-shouldered and stout, his body radiating a black luster. With his large ears and thick features, he had actually turned into a boar.
Of course, this was no ordinary domestic pig. Two sharp tusks protruded from the corners of his mouth, and a massive black horn sat atop his snout—all clear indicators of a highly aggressive porcine soul beast. He looked quite menacing indeed.
It was a soul beast of considerable strength among mid-tier species: the Black-Horned Mountain Boar. With the Martial Soul Possession active, he looked like a giant wild boar standing upright. If he were handed a nine-toothed rake, he could have easily played the role of Zhu Bajie.
Because of the transformation, his specific facial features were obscured, but given the physical changes and the typical influence of a Beast Martial Soul on its master, he likely possessed a large frame and significant weight even in his base form.
These two were senior students of Spirit Hall Academy: the user of the Great Ring Blade, Sun Chuantao, and the user of the Black-Horned Mountain Boar, Li Kai.
The two were close in age.
Though not in the same class, they were in the same grade.
They were slightly older than Ling Xiao but possessed slightly less talent. Nevertheless, they were considered geniuses within the Spirit Hall Academy, both possessing an Innate Soul Power of Rank 7 or higher.
While their Martial Souls weren't particularly top-tier, this was normal. The Douluo Continent was vast, and Top-Tier Martial Souls were rare; most masters possessed Mid-to-High Tier Martial Souls.
Furthermore, while Sun Chuantao's father, Sun Mingyuan, was a teacher at the Spirit Hall Academy and a powerful Soul Saint, Li Kai came from a commoner background.
His father and the ancestors before him all possessed ordinary Domestic Pig Martial Souls, with Innate Soul Power that rarely reached even Rank 0.5.
For generations, they had made a living raising pigs.
Interestingly, while their low aptitude made it impossible to pursue cultivation, their Domestic Pig Martial Souls made pigs feel naturally close to them, making their livestock easy to manage. In Li Kai's generation, luck had finally struck.
A positive Martial Soul mutation occurred, transforming the pig into a Black-Horned Mountain Boar. Although it was still a pig and not particularly handsome, it was a Beast Martial Soul of the soul beast category.
Its strength and defense were quite impressive, and such mutations often resulted in high Innate Soul Power. His talent could truly be called high.
"Second Soul Skill: Great Ring Defense!"
Sun Chuantao barked the command and flung the Great Ring Blade.
The silver-bladed ring shot forward with a piercing whistle toward Li Kai.
Mid-flight, it erupted with silver light, doubling in size as the massive ring smashed down toward his opponent.
**
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