Chapter 96.3: A Battle Between Titled Douluos
“Caitou simmered the porridge himself. After simmering it for half a night, he only scooped up the rice oil on the surface, which was the essence of the porridge. I didn’t know that he’s actually so meticulous underneath that cloddish appearance of his.” Teacher Wang Yan commented after he appeared behind Huo Yuhao and Wang Dong suddenly.
“Brother Caitou is such a nice person!” Wang Dong complimented.
Wang Yan chuckled and said, “When all of you returned, all of you conked out, so you didn’t see what Caitou was like. He muttered one sentence repeatedly. He said that no matter what happens in the future, he wouldn’t let Xiao Xiao be hurt because of him. He swore to protect her. Let’s go, it’s fine since Caitou is here to take care of Xiao Xiao. Xiao Xiao has also just awoken, so let’s not disturb her.” As he said that, he gently shut the door and dragged both Huo Yuhao and Wang Dong to his own room. He had many doubts in his mind, and needed to interrogate both of them.
After they arrived in Wang Yan’s room, Wang Yan gestured for both of them to take a seat on the sofa. Following that, he stared at them with a serious expression on his face without opening his mouth for a whole minute.
Huo Yuhao and Wang Dong began to develop chills on their skin after being eyeballed by Wang Yan. Wang Dong got tot point where he could no longer bear it, and asked, “Teacher Wang, why are you staring at us?”
Wang Yan sighed slightly before replying, “I have been cultivating since my youth. Only when I reached 20 did I realize that I’m not innately talented. Then, I turned my attention to the research of martial souls. I toiled, and eventually cemented my place in Shrek Academy today. I am 41 years old this year, and I’ve been studying martial souls for a good 35 years now. In Shrek Academy, there’s never a lack of talents. However, my understanding of what a ‘talent’ constitutes has been redefined repeatedly when it comes to your batch. I have even seen the occurrence of many situations that have until now only appeared in myths and legends.”
“Initially, I believed that Dai Huabin was the most outstanding among your batch of students. Although he’s only 13 years old, he possesses soul power up to Rank 37. It’s almost conceivable that he can reach the cultivation of Soul Emperor when he’s 20 years old, under the meticulous guidance of the academy.”
“Maybe the both of you are unaware, but we’ve something known as ‘seeds’ in the academy. They refer to students whose cultivation can reach 6 rings even before they’re 20 years old. Right now, there are only 4 ‘seedling’ students remaining in the entire academy. They include Ma Xiaotao and Dai Yaoheng, whom the two of you have seen before. Achieving 6 rings before the age of 20 is also publicly recognized in the continent as the criteria to be called an unrivaled talent.
“I used to think like that in the past too. However, after I got to know the both of you better, I have been reminded through your actions that this theory is fallacious. The class of one’s soul power is not everything. There are even more crucial components and situations apart from the class of one’s soul power. Let me explain to the both of you. Yuhao, I shall talk about you first.”
“You are the one who surprises me the most. In terms of diligence, you are among the top 3 of all the students that I’ve seen. As for your talent, you are the only one with an ultimate martial soul that I have ever seen. What’s even more unbelievable is that it’s a twin martial soul. Your second martial soul awakened after the first. These few conditions of yours are all suitable to be the subject of my research. Even till now, I have not grasped some of your mysteries. As for your will and resilience, you are without a doubt the toughest person I have seen among those in your same age bracket. I am certain that your achievements will be above Dai Huabin’s in the future. In the competition yesterday, you displayed two abilities at the end. Don’t tell me that they were skills derived from your first soul ring. If I am not recalling wrongly, your first soul skill was your soul bone skill, which is a powerful soul skill that resembles the power of a domain. Logically speaking, with your condition, you shouldn’t have been able to possess such a skill. And when you displayed that skill at the end which forced Ye Wuqing off the arena, I could feel the frightening aura of that soul skill even though I wasn’t even in the arena. Furthermore, Ye Wuqing had already freed himself from the restraint of the Golden road. With his cultivation as a Soul King, you couldn’t have beaten him simply by consolidating your soul power. At that point in time, I felt that your control of soul power became much greater. Can you explain to me how you were able to do that?”
In the face of Wang Yan’s doubts, Huo Yuhao groaned inwardly. Teacher Wang was indeed very astute in his observations, as his questions were all on point.
However, Wang Yan did not press him to answer immediately. Rather, he turned to Wang Dong, “What about you then? Your situation is even more interesting. Twin martial souls, am I right? If I’m correct, that black light of yours that was shaped as a hammer should belong in the strength-type category. That means that your body contains a second martial soul that’s in the strength-type category. You have concealed it quite well! Although I’m shocked, I can still accept it. However, I am interested to know the method that you used that led to Shangguan Can’s fourth soul skill losing effectiveness and even triggering such an intense backlash. Your victory was not determined by that last hammerstroke of yours, but through the instantaneous backfiring mechanism that you initiated. You actually repelled the soul skill that even Bei Bei was controlled by. How did you do that?”
“Err…”
Wang Dong was similarly speechless. Just like Huo Yuhao, he had his own secrets, and more than just a few!
As he looked at the both of them, Wang Yan chortled. “Alright, I won’t put the two of you on the spot. I’m just pointing out the mysterious conditions both of you have. Everyone has their own secrets, especially for soul masters like us. Honestly speaking, I have developed a sense of surrealism towards the word of soul masters because of your appearances. Since when did twin martial soul become so readily available, such that there are three of them now? Moreover, each one of them is greater than the preceding one. All of you are indeed phenomenal! However, I remember a phrase shared by the dean that I concur with. If things go wrong, there must be something strange. Our academy is blessed with three twin martial souls at the same time. Perhaps a heavy responsibility will land upon the shoulders of the few of you. Hence, I hope that the few of you won’t waste this gift that you have been blessed with. Putting effort into your cultivation to achieve the special abilities that the few of you were meant to have will be the best choice that the few of you can make.”
“As your Teacher, I won’t question your commitments. But my purpose in calling the both of you here today was to tell the both of you that you can feel free to approach me if you have any doubts. After all, I am more experienced, and I know more than the both of you. With the ten thousand years of heritage that Shrek Academy has, my knowledge is bound to be richer than the both of you. I can aid you in skipping some unnecessary bends along the way. If it involves your secrets, I can guarantee with my character that I will preserve them.”
As they saw the sincere expression on Wang Yan’s face, both Huo Yuhao and Wang Dong appeared much more relaxed.
Huo Yuhao said, “Teacher Wang, I do have some questions that I would like to ask you.”
“Shoot.” Wang Yan nodded his head towards Huo Yuhao.
Huo Yuhao said, “Teacher Wang, you have seen both our martial souls, which are vastly different from each other. My first martial soul is the spiritual-type Spirit Eyes, whereas my second martial soul is the ultimate ice martial soul, the Ice Jade Scorpion. As for Wang Dong, his first martial soul is the light-type Radiant Butterfly Goddess, and his second martial soul is of a strength type. I can fairly say that these four martial souls that we possess are completely dissimilar. However, how are our martial souls so compatible with one another, such that we were even able to exhibit a martial soul fusion skill?”
“I remember that you taught us before that compatibility between martial souls happens very rarely. It’s even rarer to witness a high degree of compatibility between martial souls. Generally speaking, compatibility between martial souls is achieved if they are of the same type, or if their carriers were of the same species. For example, Lan Susu and Lan Luoluo managed to achieve martial soul fusion through overlapping their entirely similar martial souls before achieving compatibility through their identities as twins. The same goes for the fusion between Dai Huabin & Zhu Lu, the White Tiger and the Netherworld Civet. At least their martial souls both belong to the Felidae family. Furthermore, one represents positive energy, while the other represents negative energy. This means that it makes sense that they are compatible. But between the both of us, where does the compatibility originate from?”
This problem had been bugging Huo Yuhao for some time. In the past, he had not known what Wang Dong’s second martial soul was. He even assumed that their second martial souls had some form of connection. But now, he realized that the second martial souls the two of them possessed were completely unconnected. Despite this, there was still a high degree of compatibility between their martial souls, to the point where they had even obtained the Haodong Power. which was a force that could be used to cultivate and improve together.
Wang Yan laughed bitterly. “It’s indeed tough for me to answer your question. I have been pondering it too. Regarding this, I’ve pored over a lot of materials in the academy. However, I’m still unable to give you a precise answer.”
“The fusion of twin martial souls has never appeared before in the records of the academy over the past ten thousand years. I can even say that there’s no relevant information regarding this in the entire history of the continent. Thus, no one can be sure about what’s going on with the fusion of both of your martial souls. We can only guess.”
“I thought about it last night, and came up with a few possibilities. The first possibility relates to the quantity of martial souls. While it’s true that both your martial souls are different, it’s also crucial to understand that your martial souls are both twin martial souls. Twin martial souls are very rare. For two to appear, and even achieve compatibility like the both of yours, is even rarer. Your two twin martial souls represent one similarity between the both of you.”
“The both of you must be wondering why Xiao Xiao can’t fuse with you. This relates to my second possibility, which is also the most probable reason. The two of you are complement each other.”
“For two martial souls to fuse together even though they are unconnected to each other has happened before. The reason why they can fuse together is due to their complementary existence. As both martial souls complement each other, they will fuse together, just like Yin and Yang, developing a martial soul fusion skill in the process.”
“Huo Yuhao’s two martial souls of the spiritual type and ice type. As for Wang Dong, your martial souls belong to the light-type and strength-type categories. All four of your martial souls are different, but no one can be sure whether they are complementary to one another. Maybe, for some reason, your martial souls fused together because they are complementary.”