Douluo Dalu: 1st Cycle: Dancing Panda

Karni and Siduo were resting in the shade, waiting for Tie Tiao to arrive. They were discussing the best way to pay back the debt since they were guessing it was quite big. Based on the fact they had 2 years of time.

They'll go visit the sect properly on friday. It's then that they'll find out just how much debt they had. At least in terms of numbers.

Siduo also stopped being bitter about the debt. They both knew that with the little bonus they got from Mo Qing they got to learn Tang Sect techniques much sooner than they would otherwise. All things considered, it should be worth it.

Karni gets to learn Ghost Shadow Perplexing Track much sooner than he would otherwise and the same goes for Siduo and the Mysterious Jade Hands.

They were excited about the new knowledge that the Hidden Weapon Hundred Separation would give them and how it will change the way they design soul tools.

Just as they were going deeper into it, Tie Tiao arrived.

"Hey Tie Tiao there will be a small change in the way you will train. For a few weeks." Karni greets him.

"What kind of change?"

"We'll be playing tag."

Karni and Siduo showed Tie Tiao the thing they've been training most during the week together. They start to move in a way where Tie Tiao can't quite keep up with his eyes as they looked like illusions every now and then.

"So. We haven't quite mastered this technique. And we want you to try and catch us while we try to dodge."

"So I'm going to be a training dummy for you two?"

"And you get to train, so it's a win win." Siduo gave him a smile.

"Fine." Tie Tiao sighed. He was thinking that he might be able to get a little bit of revenge. At least before they master this technique.

It's good to imagine yourself winning. It builds your confidence. At least if you can be realistic about it. But reality is often disappointing.

… … …

Tie Tiao dashed towards the two for what seemed like the hundredth time. Since the very start, he hadn't been able to touch them. He got close a few times at the start, but both of them had their own ways to dodge outside of this technique.

Siduo has speed much greater than Tie Tiao in general, while Karni has his Drunken Movement technique which is compatible with the Ghost Shadow Perplexing Track. Since the Drunken Dancing Movement is focused on the core of the upper body. He could switch between them fluidly. The two didn't overlap in their movements.

Tie Tiao thought he had grown a bit since the two started training him, but he just noticed that until now, they let themselves be hit most of the time. Now however, they were purely focusing on dodging while he had to chase.

After training for a few hours, Siduo has figured out how to combine her speed with the Ghost Shadow Perplexing Track. Though to become more efficient in combining the two, she'll have to understand the technique better.

Karni wasn't really trying to combine his speed with the foot technique, but instead trying to combine Drunken Dancing Movement with the Ghost Shadow Perplexing Track. The thing Siduo noted first was that while he was trying to do that, he looked like an exotic dancer. Much to Karni's displeasure.

After another hour of training, Mo Qing arrived asking where they've been.

They had Mecha Engineering lessons, but they got caught up with the new technique. This feeling of comprehending something made both of them feel quite magical. It made them forget their original assignment for today.

Tie Tiao could be said to have the opposite reaction. He was simply tired. He spent the whole training session today chasing air. To say he was a training dummy was very accurate.

Mo Qing took Karni and Siduo away.

Mo Qing was quite annoyed at them, so they knew that the rest of the day would be, for the lack of a better word, bad.

Of course he would be mad, he pulled quite a few strings so that he can teach the two of them Hidden Weapon Hundred Separation, and here they were not learning it.

The main thing with the Tang Sect Mecha Engineering was the fact that they use a lot of mechanisms. The amount of options in how to design a single soul tool would skyrocket compared to before. Everything would become more flexible.

Before,they would make simple mechanisms that could fill the space for a soul array. These soul arrays could then have near endless options.

Karni's job was to learn how to actually design these things. Much to his sadness, there was a lot of physics involved. On the other hand Siduo's job was to learn how to create them. She was learning mostly about precision, creation of tiny pieces that had to be created just right for everything to work.

Though with their plan of being able to help each other, both of them learned the other as well. Just not as well as their main role.

They learned that a lot of the soul arrays previously used, could simply be switched with a mechanism. This would allow for soul arrays of different kinds to replace the previously used up space.

The first thing Karni did when he got to his dorm was pull out his designs for the two daggers he planned to make for Tie Tiao. The two daggers were already mostly finished in terms of design, but he decided to completely scratch some of the parts.

"I can add the sharpness element through the soul power shaping array instead, and now I could add the combination array to fuse the cold energies with sharpness. Though it will take some tweaking to get the ratio correct… I can also-"

He was awake the whole night, excited to use the new knowledge to practical use. Physics? He already forgot about that. Physics were fun! At least when you applied them in such a way.

Mo Qing gave both of them the book on the Hidden Weapon Hundred Separation as well. Karni studied it while redesigning the daggers as his proof of concept.

They spend the whole week training in such a way. Training with Tie Tiao during and after school, while using the rest of the afternoon in learning Mecha Engineering the Tang Sect way.

The new training dummies in the school were useful as well. At least that's what Siduo called the whole of Green Tiger Academy. There were quite a few people that disliked that. First was Ma Fai, then there were the presidents, and lastly was Karni. Everytime she voiced out her inner thoughts, he used it as an excuse to hit Siduo on the head.

He has also started waking up in early mornings, since he spent cultivating the Purple Demon Eyes. Something he really wasn't used to. He was more of a 'go to sleep at 4am and wake up at 1pm' kind of guy. Yet, he found the morning surprisingly serene. Everything was quiet and the sunrise was beautiful.

Soon came another visit to the Spirit Ascension Platform. The once a week, Thursday event.

Karni was in the forest. He decided against using his Golden Insight this time around and wanted to get used to the Purple Demon Eyes.

The biggest difference he noticed between the two skills would probably be clarity. There were many differences between using his eyes normally and the Purple Demon Eyes. He could see farther than before and he could even see leaves of the trees in good detail despite being quite far away.

He decided to quietly move. The first order of things was reconvening with Siduo. They would be safer together.

He activated his soul ring. The first thing he experienced was shock. The surroundings felt clearer than before, the passive 6th sense didn't feel completely like a 6th sense anymore. There was too much detail, especially in front of him.

But it came at a cost. Because he could perceive so much now, his soul power consumption was vast as well. The eyes and his mind combined to a degree to produce a great amplification of one another.

Just putting the two together would limit him to a total of 30 minutes of usage, his soul power would be drained in such a short time, it wasn't useful as a passive thing right now. He vowed to himself that he'd master this combination.

Usually his two soul skills, Golden Insight and Vision Bestowal would be passive elements. On its own, Golden Insight was practically endlessly in use. He could last 6 hours with it without much problems. Vision Bestowal would cut that time by a third if he shared it with Siduo, making it 4 hours.

Based on his experimentation, if he shared it with one more person that would change to 2 hours and then less than 30 minutes if it was shared with any more people. This was under the assumption they weren't fighting Vision Bestowal. If they cut off Vision Bestowal, his consumption would stop as well.

Because Purple Demon Eyes made Golden Insight work overtime when combined, especially when it came to predictive power with this clarity in the eyes, the time he could spend using it was only about 30 minutes. He could see almost everything in golden colour, even the leaves had their future predicted.

He would guess that he could use Purple Demon Eyes for about 2 hours on their own right now. This was mostly because he wasn't quite used to using the technique yet. It should become better when he can circulate the Purple Demon Eyes without thinking much.

He deactivated his first soul ring. He wanted to get used to the Purple Demon Eyes. He should start training with the technique in the afternoons more often as well. It wouldn't help in cultivating it, but he'd be better at using it.

He travelled about 20 minutes when suddenly his heart clenched and then he woke up.

He felt like he couldn't breathe. His head felt like it was cut off. What happened?

What he saw was Siduo looking at him with a bitter expression. She was out as well?

"A Shadow Tiger got us." Siduo said defeated.

"A Shadow Tiger?" Karni thought about it.

They have discussed this beast before. It excelled at speed and lethality. But its most dangerous property was that it could fuse into the shadows. The forest was its perfect hunting grounds.

"Well after two solid performances it had to end at some point." Mo Qing smiled.

"Siduo gets 40 points. You should've noticed it. You surprised it by waking up next to it and it wasn't calm at all next to you. Not to mention you died 5 minutes into it."

"Karni gets 70. There was nothing that you could've really done, but experimenting with the Purple Demon Eyes in there was a major mistake. If you would've had your first soul ring activated you could've seen it coming."

"You'll both have extra punishment tomorrow. Let's leave."

… … …

Karni and Siduo were sitting in her room at the moment. They just got over some of Karni's revised plans for Tie Tiao's daggers. Siduo had a few additions to make as well. Her idea was to add a surprise extension to the dagger.

The dagger would become longer in a split second. This could massively change the lethal element of it and the best part? It could be done with only Tang Sect mechanisms. A classic hidden weapon.

Karni decided to make a design for it some other time, right now they needed to discuss something else.

"We should really find a way to find each other in there." Karni commented.

"Based on the fact that I also got killed by the Shadow Tiger, we should have been close to each other at the time." Karni continued. "By the way, how come you didn't notice the tiger?"

"I got too used to the benefits you give with your Vision Bestowal and wasn't careful." Siduo answered, a bit embarrassed. "I agree with what you said though, we need some way to find each other."

They wrecked their heads a bit. "I don't think the teacher will let us have soul tools as help in there will he?"

"I doubt it, what with his personality? Maybe once we get good results on a regular basis? It wouldn't matter anymore at that point… It wouldn't add to his fun." Siduo answered.

"Still salty about the debt huh?"

"Shut it."

Karni did think of something.

"How about this? We mark the spot where we wake up with something recognizable. Then we run 5 minutes to the north and start making a circle around our starting point, leaving marks as we circle around, if our two circles go through each other we can then find each other."

"Sounds convoluted, but it should work. What if we're too far away?"

"Just look for the highest visible spot within a few kilometres, something that's recognisable and both of us would consider a small landmark."

"Wouldn't this be better than the first method anyway?" Siduo asked, feeling a bit weird since the second option sounds just better overall.

"Right… In that case we just go with the first method if there's no landmarks close by. Otherwise, we just use landmarks. How about that?"

"I can go with that. Sounds much better than the other way round."

Karni ignored Siduo's extra comments. "Alright then. We have that deal. I'll go make a prototype design for the new daggers then. We can go over them during the weekend."

"Don't stay up too late, we'll be extra tired tomorrow as it is."

"Right. 40 points and all that."

… … …

"Alright then you two. Today we'll be having some extra training. Teacher Ye and I have discussed that this will become just normal training from now on due to your horrendous performance yesterday." Mo Qing gave the two of them a 'kind' smile.

This smile seemed disgusting to both of the kids. The combination of that face with the words didn't fit together at all.

Teacher Ye came from a distance. She was bringing along chains and weights.

Neither Karni and Siduo minded that too much. This should actually be beneficial to their bodies.

"Put them on." Said Teacher Ye as she put them on the ground.

Karni and Siduo put on the weights. Then they were ordered to run in circles.

"How many?" Karni asked.

Instead of giving him an answer Mo Qing just smiled.

Karni started running with Siduo, both of them felt a bit defeated. From the start it could be seen that Siduo would have an easier time. She had two beast martial souls after all. Even if it was only the agility-system martial soul that had soul rings, it was still better than Karni having soul rings on a tool martial soul.

"Now then, if you will, Ye'er." Mo Qing said to her.

Teacher Ye nodded. She summoned her martial soul. It was a Black Bear of the earth element.

Her soul rings rose behind her. There were six of them. Two Yellow, three Purple and one Black!

Her last soul ring was actually black. This was exceedingly rare in this day and age. There existed Purple Artificial Spirit Souls, but not black ones. Ten thousand year old Spirit Souls were still not capable of being produced at the moment.

Karni and Siduo wondered just how strong Mo Qing was. If the elite teacher, his niece, was this strong, then how strong was the vice-headmaster?

They saw Teacher Ye's fifth soul ring light up as she centred herself in the middle of their running course.

Suddenly Karni and Siduo felt additional weight on themselves. Everything felt much heavier, including their own bodies.

"Was that gravity control?" Karni wondered silently.

"This will be your 'normal' training from now on." Teacher Ye told them. "But since this is a punishment, more is required today." She smiled. It was similar to Mo Qing's when he was sending mixed messages. The blood connection was definitely there.

Her third soul ring lit up as well. The earth below her formed a shield in her left hand, it was strengthened by metal around it. On her right hand appeared a giant Earthen Axe. Its edges were outlined by metal as well, making it much sharper than an axe made of pure earth.

Karni and Siduo realised what was about to happen.

Teacher Ye dashed towards them like a berserk bear.

The kids reacted immediately.

Karni instantly activated his two soul rings and empowered Siduo with them.

However he saw a purple beam going at him. His first thought was that he couldn't dodge it, then he remembered his new foot technique. Ghost Shadow Perplexing Track was a bit forcefully combined with his Drunken Dancing Movement, but he managed to dodge. Almost falling afterwards.

Siduo immediately charged towards Teacher Ye, but she was burdened by the weights they put on previously. Not to mention the Gravity Field Teacher Ye summoned.

She soon changed direction from charging at the teacher to circling around, she utilised the Ghost Shadow Perplexing Track as well.

"Well, done, both of you have already learned the Ghost Shadow Perplexing Track to a decent degree." Mo Qing complimented from the side.

Karni decided to utilise his Purple Demon Eyes as well, it would only last 30 minutes but it was perfectly viable for combat like now.

But Karni forgot to account to the fact he was sharing with Siduo right now. The time he could keep this up just decreased by a third. It originally decreased by a third, so the combination with the Purple Demon Eyes made the original time limit of 30 minutes to 20 minutes.

And even more than that, to keep his body functioning under the Gravity Field he had to use up more soul power. He could at most keep this up for 10 minutes all together.

Teacher Ye swung with her Earth Axe at Siduo, while Siduo used her Hundred Hell Slash. She tried to combine it with the Mysterious Jade Hands. Her ability seemed to have iciness on top of it and it felt more sturdy.

But with all of that she only managed to push the axe to the side so that it missed her, her counter attack was also easily blocked with the Earth Shield. Her two abilities fell apart, she couldn't keep it up. She had yet to truly master this combination.

Black Bear was an all rounder when it came to attack and defence. It was a distant descendant of the Gold Dusk Dreadclaw Bear. Despite it being quite impure in terms of bloodline relation, the strength it released at the level of Soul Emperor was terrifying.

The two finally understood why she taught in the advanced academy. Her abilities were very suitable for teaching older students.

They were in for quite a bit of suffering, their only hope was that she'd go easy on them.

… … …

She didn't go easy on them. They put up a fight for 10 minutes before a fight for survival began that lasted 2 hours.

"Alright that's it for today. The next time any one of you gets below 50 points in the Spirit Ascension Platform you'll face me." Mo Qing seemed satisfied.

"Whenever you get below 90, what you just experienced will happen. Today was a taste test. Since it was the first punishment, I hope you look forward to your next time." Mo Qing ended with his typical Smile of Kindness.