Douluo Dalu: 1st Cycle: Dancing Panda

Mo Qing sighed out loud. This couple of kids were truly one of a kind. The girl was calm and had a talent of knowing what to do in tight situations. But she became a reckless idiot when her friend was injured, and had a tad too high sense of pride.

The boy on the other hand had equally high potential, however he was much less experienced. Yet he couldn't say why. They both received the same education. He also tended to either overthink situations or simplify them in tense circumstances. Like how he overlooked the potential of spiritual shock when they fought Raging Buffalo Duke.

He was also much more passive whether it be in battle or outside of it. Yet despite being the passive one, he knew how to get Siduo on his side. Not that she didn't regularly do the same to him, maybe even more.

This showed their biggest differences. Despite her having less spiritual power, her mind was much more stable than his. He could say that Siduo would be able to stay calm in a matter of life and death even now, but not so for Karni. He'd probably get his mind together only if Siduo managed to get his head straight. The Yellow Leaf Fox was a big show of that last week.

Unfortunately it wasn't something that he could just fix, he could only be glad that the two made up for each other's differences. Karni tended to be much more analytical than her under normal circumstances, while she tended to be carefree.

"Alright then you two. Both you will get 95 points for your test. The Raging Buffalo horde was an anomaly." While they were fighting the horde, the Spirit Pagoda was panicking a little. They usually guarded a special location, but this time they roamed. It was something that they usually monitored, the horde was roaming earlier than usual. They were still investigating why.

"Next time such an anomaly appears I expect the two of you to react better. Mistakes can be acceptable, but not fixing them is unforgivable when it comes to battle."

Karni was on the right track with his decision to go into the horde, they wouldn't have been able to outrun them, at least not together. However they should've just stayed on the outskirts and ran towards the back of the horde, not towards the Raging Buffalo Duke.

It would've become a game of cat and mouse, but their survivability would skyrocket. Karni's decision came from being overwhelmed by the sheer amount of the Raging Buffalos. After all, even if one can think of that in retrospect, when you see a seemingly endless sea of soul beasts, what exactly can you do in that moment?

"Tomorrow, come to this address after school." Mo Qing gave them a simple note. They seemed to remember this was in the old part of Star Luo City.

"Now then let us leave, we have more to talk with regards to the analysis of the battle."

The two came back to school. Tomorrow will be friday, yet it looks like it was going to be a long one. Poor Little Jian will be disappointed that his sister will be late. They would have to hop over to Siduo's family to inform them. They needed to watch out for Little Jian's escape attempts.

"Now then, Wu Siduo, do you mind telling us what that last attack was?" Mo Qing was looking at her.

Siduo answered without hesitation. "I was trying to fuse my martial souls."

All of them were surprised, it was only Karni who was deep in thought. The reason for that was: Why did it fail?

"Self-fusion. Why didn't it work?" Karni finally wondered out loud. Karni wasn't really outstandingly smart, however in terms of general knowledge about the world, he might be even better than Teacher Ye and Mo Qing. He had meta knowledge after all. It was why he was the only one to even think of this.

"How would that even be possible?" Mo Qing then presented a question to Karni. This was the first occurrence in the world.

Siduo answered instead. "Well I was thinking much like Karni here. I have two martial souls which are perhaps one of the most known general soul fusions outside of the Spirit Ice Douluo and Dragon Butterfly Douluo. The White Tiger and Hell Cat."

Mo Qing quieted down. In theory it should work. But it was clear that it didn't, yet the explosion was proof that eventually, it might.

"You probably don't even have enough soul power to do it. Soul Fusions are already known to put the user under huge pressure, yet you are a single person trying to achieve the work of two." Karni looked toward Siduo.

"I think there's more to it. I should've at least been able to get a semblance of the fusion, even with my meagre soul power, yet I couldn't."

"Describe what you felt." Mo Qing ordered.

"The beginning went well. I could feel my two martial souls becoming one as I urged them to come forth at the same time. But to keep my White Tiger martial soul strong enough I had to infuse more soul power into it. Even then, they weren't balanced. The scale tipped heavily toward the Hell Cat martial soul and by then I couldn't control it anymore and the two clashed instead."

All of them thought of the same thing, including Siduo, now that she said it out loud. "I'm guessing I won't be able to do much before I get at least one Spirit Soul to my White Tiger. The two should be controllable then."

Mo Qing, Teacher Ye and Karni all nodded at the same time. They came to a similar conclusion.

"Don't try to repeat what you did, especially not outside of the platform. First, prioritise evolving your martial souls to thousand years old. Then we can look for a suitable spirit soul for you. We'll have to be careful so your body can withstand it."

"Ugh."

"Patience Siduo, it's only a matter of time. Before that, you two need more training anyway. You still have much to do. Especially in terms of your state of mind." Mo Qing calmly patted the two on the shoulders.

"Now on you go and don't forget to come tomorrow after school."

… … …

"Hey Sisi, you sure you're okay? You were quite worse off than me."

"Well I'm okay, though I'd be lying if I didn't feel like my stomach is surprisingly empty."

"And you called me a jokester before the Raging Buffalos."

"That's not what I meant. You yourself are a joke, you know? Look at you."

"Come here." Karni dashed, wanting to bonk her, but she sped up ahead. He had now way to catch her.

"Hey Kiki, how's your martial soul looking?"

Karni was out of breath, they ran all the way to the dormitories. "I think it's now above the 300 year level, it started as a 200 something."

"Mine too." she sighed. "This feels like such a slow process." If anyone else heard what they just said they'd want to slap the two of them. They could be said to have a very fast increase in power. In two sessions, they increased their spirit soul's cultivation by 100 years. They had enough luck to encounter beasts that would offer big amounts. One was a pack of wolves, while another was about 2000 year Yellow Leaf Fox. The wolves still gave them less energy than the fox however. It was only about 30, while the Yellow Leaf Fox was more than 50.

"I swear I'll get revenge on that Raging Buffalo Duke, he'll have a taste of my power after I get my White Tiger some soul rings."

"You do you, just don't drag me into your petty revenge."

"What do you mean Kiki, you really think I'd be dumb enough to do this on my own? Don't you want to stomp on them like they stepped on you?"

"Dream on."

"How about this? Whatever they throw at us tomorrow, whoever performs better wins."

"I don't get anything from this though. It's just whether I can be neutral or not in your petty revenge."

"I'll owe you a favour then, any kind."

"Eh? That's a different kind of unfair though."

"So?"

"Ugh. Fiiiiine."

… … …

Karni and Siduo were at the address. Both of them had weird looks on their faces.

"A museum?" Siduo wondered out loud. "We have a field trip today or something?"

"I guess." Karni answered. His reason for being weirded out included her thoughts and an added bonus. He's been here before. They were at the Tang Sect History Museum. His thoughts were currently going wild with possibilities.

"Could it be?"

"Karni, Siduo, you're right on time. Come in." Mo Qing walked out of the museum with another middle aged man.

"It seems the boy I saw a few years ago has grown up splendidly." The middle aged man next to Mo Qing said.

Karni didn't really remember him, it was probably a staff member he met when he visited this place before. Memories of that time had faded, as they do with children growing up. His mind might be developed, but his brain wasn't. His personality was more childish than that of his previous life. It wasn't something he could avoid either.

Mo Qing led them inside and entered the staff area with them. Instead of a staff area, Karni and Siduo were greeted with an elevator. Mo Qing took out a card and swiped it over the screen that showed the number of the floor they were on.

"Star Luo's Little Qing, welcome." An electronic voice sounded.

Karni and Siduo made weird faces. Little Qing? Karni however also had glowy eyes. He remembered such a scene. This was indeed the entrance to the Tang Sect. Who would've thought his teacher was a member of the sect? Well it wasn't really a coincidence. It was more like he was scouted since he first visited this place.

They arrived in a big metallic room. They noticed a myriad of soul circuits in it, it was like they were inside a giant machine. Mo Qing brought them forward before he swiped a card in front of a door.

The door opened and he entered. "Now then, good luck." Mo Qing smiled and the door closed.

"Identity confirmed: Star Luo City's Little Qing"

"Test Difficulty: Medium; Participants: two; Test beginning in 10, 9"

"Eh?" Karni turned toward Siduo, only to find she wasn't there.

"3, 2, 1, begin."

His mind then blanked out for a second and when he opened his eyes, he was surrounded by forest and he was in a small clearing.

"Welcome to the Hall of Heroes. First Trial, medium difficulty. Name: Val Karni."

"Test objective for the first round: survive for 30 seconds.

He quickly pulled out his Bo Staff and without a second thought activated his first soul ring.

Soon, he saw another person enter the clearing. It was a youth who looked about the same age as him. His presence felt incredibly steady and his eyes and hair were deep black.

"Start!"

Karni wasn't taking any risks. The test said to survive, not to win. He immediately backed away.

The handsome youth quickly started running towards him, moving in an extremely unusual way. If Karni's movements were focused in the upper body and a strong core, then this youth's movement was focused purely on the feet.

It felt like he was looking at an illusion, however he could still follow them thanks to his first soul ring ability, Golden Insight. It was only now that he found out just how good his first soul ring ability was in terms of comprehending the surroundings.

Despite the movements looking elusive, his predictions didn't fail him one bit. The golden shape stopped before him and released a shockwave, so Karni reacted. When the actual youth fulfilled the golden prediction, Karni was already out of the shockwave area. A single soul ring lit up. It was yellow. And in the youth's hands was a black shield that looked like a tortoise shell.

He gulped a bit, he'll have to watch out for this. He could tell it wouldn't be good if he was hit with this.

The youth quickly reacted. He wasn't gonna let Karni create a big distance between them.

The youth moved his hands in a weird way and Karni could feel a sort of suction force on him that slowed him down. The black haired boy reached him and his hands turned icy blue.

"Not good!" Karni thought as he blocked the hands with half of his staff. There was quite a bit of force behind it. He lost balance. If that would've hit him, who knew how many bones would have broken.

He managed to recover quickly since his balance was trained to be steady thanks to his self invented movement. He activated his second soul ring quickly.

Karni's eyes shone golden yellow, while the opponents glowed purple. Karni reacted sooner. A soft beam of spiritual energy shot past Karni as he drew a sigh of relief. He was fast enough.

He started backing off. The youth followed him again. This time Karni started putting Stacks on his staff. Yet again, Karni felt a suction force on him and the youth reached him. The single yellow soul ring lit up again.

Karni managed to dodge this shockwave again but his staff was intentionally slower. It hit his martial soul. Karni noticed that the Stacks on his staff directly increased by three instead of one as he expected.

Karni would've shown great shock if he wasn't in the middle of a battle. It seemed like a shockwave was better suited for building Stacks than physical force.

Karni decided to check. He approached the boy and attacked with the staff. It was easily blocked by the shield. He saw a palm attack would follow.

Karni split his staff in two and blocked an icy cold, strong palm with the other half and used it to back off with this Drunken Movement. Karni has begrudgingly begun calling it that, because of Siduo. He even forgot the Dancing part in the middle because it didn't roll off the tongue as well.

"Yep, that's a single Stack alright." Karni thought to himself.

He couldn't do anything to his opponent at the moment, yet the opponent couldn't really touch him either. This was where the strength of his predictions truly shined.

Karni was about to reapply the second soul ring ability, but before he could a voice sounded.

"First trial is over, 30 seconds have passed."

Karni breathed a sigh of relief. It wasn't the shockwave that scared him, but that palm. He could only sigh in relief at the sturdiness of his Bo Staff.

"Second trial begins. Defeat your opponent or survive for another 30 seconds."

"Shit." Karni immediately activated his second soul ring. But this time he was too slow. When he applied the Vision Bestowal on his opponent a purple spiritual beam hit his head.

"Shit!" But it wasn't nearly as bad as the shock he received yesterday when he attacked the Raging Buffalo Duke, it was more of a daze than anything else, but his first soul ring was interrupted. When he looked what's happening an icy palm was upon him.

He barely managed to dodge it, and then a shockwave hit. He managed to barely react and mostly block it with his staff, but he was still thrown far back.

Quickly catching his balance he noticed that the stacks increased even more than before. It was now at a total of 15. Quickly reapplying his Golden Insight the opponent was already upon him.

Now that his first soul ring was activated, he could follow him again.

The opponent went all out. Karni felt his body being pulled much harder than before as the icy palm tried to hit his chest. Karni managed to dodge it again before another shockwave followed.

It hasn't even been 10 seconds yet the situation immediately became tense.

Karni's Bo Staff immediately jumped to 20 and a low hum started in the area. That shockwave pushed him away and made him feel numb, but this was good. He could now clearly see the opponent approaching. Their eyes glew again.

Karni was faster. His golden eyes activated as the opponent missed. Too many golden shapes to choose from appeared in the youth's vision and he couldn't lock on to Karni. Then Karni appeared from the sea of golden shadows.

The youth put up a shield, but this time it was Karni who attacked. His right staff attacked the shield while the left aimed at the youth.

The youth attempted to retaliate with the icy palm, but Karni predicted it. All of the Stacks were moved in his left drumstick and they hit the head of the youth. He got blown away. The cold palm didn't reach Karni in time.

"Second trial completed, opponent defeated in 19 seconds."

Karni heaved a sigh of relief.

But he soon remembered something. He quickly rebalanced himself and started applying stacks on his staff. If he remembers correctly, there should be an advance-

"Advanced test. First trial. Get ready."

"Yup."

Karni immediately prepared his second soul ring.

As soon as he saw the youth he activated it, but as he did, the purple light was shot out.

"Shit!" Karni barely managed to dodge, this was much faster than before. If Siduo was here, she'd comment on his lack of vocabulary when cursing.

Before he looked back up, the youth was already upon him, his palm clearly wasn't completely on target, but it wasn't off either.

Karni blocked the attack with hismartial soul, he couldn't dodge.

His martial soul showed cracks. "Just how powerful is this fucking ability?"

New Stacks applied, but his martial soul was damaged. Hence, he was too.

A shockwave blasted him away and at the same time the youth followed him again.

Karni already had 11 stacks now, the shockwave was more powerful. So that the guy couldn't attack him midair, he swung back at him.

The youth now had two soul rings, his second lit up. His shield split up into many palm sized ones and blocked Karni's retaliation. Karni managed to push himself even farther away, while damaging the single small shield.

The deep hum that the small shield released was very loud, it even stopped the youth for a second, but there was no damage on the person himself.

Karni now lost his Stacks since he released them all into the shield. He started running away, but the youth followed with much greater speed than Karni's.

Karni wanted to curse at the Tang Sect's techniques and the way they recreated these abilities. This guy shouldn't know these techniques at this age, especially not to such a level.

But he was also silently happy that the person only had a shield. He wondered how he would fare against someone else with all of the Tang Sect techniques. He'd probably lose very quickly.

Karni was barely keeping up with this defence type soul master. An assault-type soul master would have immediately overwhelmed him.

Karni was only slowly biding for his time with his combination of Drunken Dancing Movement and prediction. Slowly building his Stacks for another possible attack.

"Advanced test, first trial passed." The electronic voice suddenly sounded.

Karni breathed in a bit of air, before readying himself.

"Second trial, defeat the opponent or survive for 30 seconds."

"Begin!"