Douluo Dalu: 1st Cycle: Dancing Panda

Karni was laying on the ground, unmoving, in a shade next to Siduo. He had bruises all over and so did Siduo. A friendly man in his 30s was currently crouched over them and filling them with healing energy, he was a heal type soul master.

Their wounds were disappearing quite fast, but they were still really tired. They were also missing a lot of their soul power reserves. Those couldn't simply be fixed with the powers of a soul master.

"Teacher Mo, can we use a milk bottle?" Karni asked with a heavy voice.

"No, refill your soul power slowly, it will be more beneficial."

Milk Bottles were an extremely convenient soul tool which stored soul power, and the soul masters could take that stored soul power to fill themselves up.

Karni and Siduo weren't high enough level yet where they could create them, despite there existing rank 3 sealed milk bottles, and Karni and Siduo being rank 3 in their professions, the sealed milk bottles usually required one to be at least rank four in their profession.

Originally invented ten thousand years ago, they are still used today, called the same thing, though their inner workings have been greatly updated over time. They were better compared to soul power batteries that one could suck power out of with a straw today. Though in terms of appearance, they reminded Karni of energy drinks.

They could only quietly obey Mo Qing at the moment. Both were circulating the Mysterious Heaven Method and were surprised to find that it felt more effective now that their bodies were completely out of commission. Karni's gold and green energies were both active in his body.

After about 10 minutes, the healing soul master left, their bruises healed.

"Rest for 2 hours, then come to the Tang Sect so we can give you a proper introduction of the Star Luo City Tang Sect branch. When you reach the elevator, just go to the first floor."

Mo Qing gave them badges and the two quickly noticed that this was an intricately crafted soul tool. Likely of the third rank.

"This is your proof of identity to the Tang Sect. Don't let anybody steal it from you as the badge will stop functioning and you'll have to pay a good amount of contribution points to get a new one. Something you can't afford since your contribution points aren't exactly positive at the moment." Mo Qing warned with a smile.

Karni and Siduo begrudgingly nodded as they practically simultaneously put the badges into their storage bracelets.

These bracelets were something that Mo Qing made personally for the two of them, they had a space of a big room, a square to be exact. 4 metres in width, height and depth which gave them 64 cubic metres to work with. They've had it for about a year, but they didn't really have a lot of things in them yet.

Most of the things in Karni's storage ring were blueprints of different soul tools or specific circuit formations. In a similar manner, Siduo had quite a few different metals saved up with which she liked to practise her carving on.

Because all of their muscles were hurting, when Mo Qing left, they simply stayed behind in the shade. They didn't speak a word to each other and both of them actually looked to be asleep.

About an hour passed in simple silence before a surprised voice sounded out from not too far away.

"There you are! I've knocked at your dorms but never found any of you, why didn't you guys message me?"

Siduo opened her eyes lazily. "Tie Tiao please go back, today you can have a break from training."

Tie Tiao gave both of them a weird look. "Just what happened that the two of you are so tired."

"Punishment because Siduo failed to see a soul beast in the Spirit Ascension Platform today."

"Like you noticed it."

Tie Tiao was all smiles. "Well this just makes me want to practise more, I might actually have a chance today."

As if the two read each other's minds both of them immediately pulled out their soul rings and started activating all of the abilities.

"Alright, alright. You two can rest, I won't bug you." Tie Tiao sat down next to them.

"How does the Spirit Ascension Platform look?" The boy wondered. His family, despite being merchants, don't have enough money to get him into the Spirit Ascension Platform, nor do most soul masters in the world.

"Well, it looks real, even though it's all virtual." Karni started. "The trees, the forest, even the feeling and its vitality can be actually felt. Those energies are real, just presented through technology in such a way. Or at least that's my guess."

"What kind of soul beasts have you encountered?" Tie Tiao was completely immersed in their descriptions.

Siduo answered. "All sorts of them. From wolves, foxes to angry buffaloes. When you defeat them, you get their energy. It's quite great."

They spent the rest of the hour going in detail of their few adventures, as well as their most recently short lived one.

"So why were the two of you punished so hard?"

"Sisi should've done better."

"You could've done better."

"But then who would suffer through the punishment with you?"

"What was the punishment?" Tie Tiao interrupted their banter.

"We had to fight a Soul Emperor who only slightly held back."

"Oh."

"OH!" Tie Tiao realised what Karni just said.

"Which Soul Emperor did you two fight?"

"Teacher Ye is a Soul Emperor." Siduo said.

"She is?" Tie Tiao just realised how lucky he was to be trained by a Soul Emperor. Through the years it has become harder and harder for soul masters to reach great heights due to the decline of the soul beasts.

"Anyway, it's about time we finally go." Karni stood up with a bit of difficulty.

It was at this point that he realised just how good the Mysterious Heaven Method is. In just two hours he replenished his soul power from completely empty to 50 percent. This would've been impossible before.

The two said goodbye to Tie Tiao and went towards the Tang Sect museum.

They walked for about 20 minutes before reaching it. Entering inside and going towards the back section, they were stopped by a staff member.

"I'm sorry, but only people employed by the museum can enter past this point, you'll have to leave." Karni found the staff familiar, and he could only put it to being here before.

Karni and Siduo just showed the badges that Mo Qing gave them and the clerk welcomed them and let them in.

When they reached the elevator they scanned their badges in the same palace that Mo Qing scanned his a week ago.

"Welcome, Little Siduo and Little Karni of Star Luo City, to the Tang Sect."

Karni and Siduo looked at each other weirdly before pressing the first floor button.

When they stepped out of the elevator they were greeted by a futuristic looking room which had multiple terminals labelled with words. For the contribution points shop, accepting missions, personal checks and so on.

Another thing greeted the two of them, a familiar face that they saw all too often today. Mo Qing.

"Welcome to the main hall of this branch. You should familiarise yourself with the structure as it should be similar in all the branches of the sect. Now then, let me show you around."

First, he led them to the terminal for missions.

"This will be your main source of income in the Tang Sect. Many people request someone to make designs, or to create a soul tool based on their specifications. If you ever come up with an original design of a soul tool or create something new, you can also try and exchange it with the sect. Look through it yourself for now."

Karni opened up the terminal and saw a place for his badge. As soon as he put it in he saw a bunch of missions pop up and his information.

"Val Karni: Rank 27, 3-star Mecha Designer. Debt: 5000 contribution points, time to clear: 2 years."

When Karni first read this he was a bit annoyed, but at least he knew how much debt he had. Taking his attention away from that, he looked through the missions.

He was quickly disappointed, most of the rank 3 missions for designing gave somewhere above 200 contribution points, and the missions didn't look that simple either.

Each of these missions would take about a month to complete if one put their full attention to it. When taking the average time he spent on Mecha Designing, he'd likely make it in two years, but he would have to focus on it a bit more.

Out of curiosity, he searched for 4-star missions as well. Before he can start taking them, his spiritual power will need to go past the 250s. Meanwhile his soul power will need to break into the 30s. The good thing was that he could get more than 500 points for these requests. His spiritual power wasn't far off either.

He logged out of the terminal and gave Siduo space so that she can have a look as well. Her reaction was quite similar to his when it came to the debt. She even gave the teacher a side eye which was met with a smile.

They moved on to the contribution points shop. The first thing Karni noticed was the other big Tang Sect techniques. The ones he was given weren't even listed anymore, so he only saw the Mysterious Jade Hands and Controlling Crane, Capturing Dragon, they both cost 3000 contribution points.

Karni realised why the sect accepted Mo Qing's proposal for their advantage. They were just skilled enough where they could get back the contribution points in a year and the sect seemed to give them this limit as well. It was a sort of a way to temper them as well. Mo Qing must be quite influential in this branch.

Then he saw something else which caught his eye. Disorder Splitting Wind Hammer technique of the Clear Sky Sect. This was an ancient technique which allowed one to store the physical force into the hammer to then reuse it in the next round.

Much like his Stacks of vibrations, they could stack on top of each other to bring about great force, yet Karni knew that the two were different. After fighting with virtual Xu Sanshi, he found out that his stacks were mostly sound based with some form of invisible energy. The Clear Sky technique was only about manipulating physical force to build one's own.

He wondered what would happen if he combined the two. Could he even combine a hammer technique with a Bo Staff? He clicked on the technique to see its price. It was 4000 contribution points. 30 percent more than the five big techniques.

"I wouldn't recommend the technique unless you plan to use hammers or become a blacksmith." Mo Qing said from the side.

"Even if you want to apply it to something else, I suggest you first learn Controlling Crane, Capturing Dragon as it focuses on redistributing physical forces over your body and teaches you to grapple people and items. You can do it even from afar with mastery."

Karni closed the projection and nodded. Even if he directly saved points after gaining 4th rank in Designing he would need a lot of time. He needed to start buying blueprints as well, and those weren't cheap by any means. This was the only way he could truly progress as a designer.

Every profession has a specialisation. Perhaps the only exception was that those at higher level would all be proficient in crafting Battle Armour, something that under Mo Qing's tutelage they haven't yet learned, even though they could've.

Mo Qing wanted them to be rank 4 in their professions so that they can craft better armour once they come to it. Battle Armour and Mechas crafted by rank 3 professions were of the lowest level, something that Mo Qing didn't approve of for these two monsters.

Both of them will probably specialise in something else as well. Most Mecha Engineers did. Karni and Siduo simply haven't found that thing yet.

Mo Qing took them to a few other terminals where they could sign up for a mimicry cultivation space, put in requests to the sect and so on. Two important points were the fact that the mimicry cultivation space is better than the Star Luo City Academy ones and the other was that they should watch out for the metal prices, since they are the foundation of soul tools and battle armour.

The two were eventually left to their own devices. The first thing the two did was accept a couple of missions to start clearing that debt of 3000 contribution points.

... ... ...

They decided to leave and go grab some food to replenish themselves. They were still feeling the consequences to their training. Karni decided to buy some of the more expensive and nutritious food to fill himself up and Siduo did the same.

They took a whole hour to eat everything, and they decided to stay for a bit more as their bellies were full.

Just as they were about to leave however, they heard an angry and hysterical shout. "Nobody move!" In the next moment a loud sound exploded that sounded like a shooting laser.

Karni and Siduo both freezed. The shout they heard was from a guy inside the shop, he was pointing some sort of a gun at the clerk who was about to cry.

"I-If you don't load the money into this bag, I'll hurt the people here. Hurry!" The man with a mask seemed like he himself was afraid. Perhaps jittery would be more correct.

The restaurant was indeed one of the more well known ones which was praised to be run by normal people and offered food for even soul masters. But to get robbed? It was unusual.

Karni and Siduo were silent. He noticed the gun in the assailant's hands. It was a railgun. His heart dropped, he suddenly remembered the vision he had. The vision he tried to forget about.

He whispered to Siduo who seemed to be ready to pounce at the guy with a moment's notice.

"Si… Sisi. That's a railgun. It… It can hurt us, we're just kids."

"SILENCE!" The guy with the railgun shot at the table on which they sat. The table didn't even move. Only a burning hole appeared on it. It then slowly fell apart, not being able to support its own weight.

"Y-You two! Don't do anything stupid!" The thief was hysterical.

Siduo gave Karni an angry look. This guy was clearly unstable. She saw the fear in Karni's eyes and connected two and two together. This was the same guy from the vision Karni described to her at that time.

She relaxed and sat back down. There were too many people here anyway. Someone could get hurt if Karni's going to be like this as well. The two will need to have a talk after the guy leaves.

When Karni saw Siduo relax, so did he. Looks like the vision won't be coming true after all. His heart was still beating incredibly hard, he was scared. This wasn't virtual reality like the Spirit Ascension Platform. He has SEEN what Siduo would end up like if she attacked.

"Money! Now!" The thief yelled, his hand was shaky. It felt like he could attack anyone without a warning.

Karni felt bad, but he was selfish. This was a restaurant. If the guy left, no one would be hurt. Even if it was wrong. Even if he knew he should help, he didn't dare do it. He didn't want to. This man was wild, and he'd rather have it his way than to risk Siduo's life. He couldn't risk her life. He refused to. He was a coward, but he'd rather be a coward than to risk the life of the only person that truly matters to him in this world.

The clerk started putting in money. Meanwhile the other few people who were about to charge like Siduo before, stopped thinking about it as well. This guy almost hurt children, and there was clearly something wrong with him in the mental department.

The man turned around while the cashier was putting in money and started threatening the civilians with the railgun. Silently looking at anyone who'd make a suspicious move.

A middle aged man was giving him angry looks, he was going to charge before the bastard almost shot a kid dead. He himself was a two ringed cultivator.

"W-What are you looking at?! You think I won't shoot?!" He aggressively stepped forward towards the middle aged man, but because he was shaky his arm hit the bag which was being filled by the frightened clerk.

"Shit." Siduo muttered. The thief's eyes turned frightened as soon as the money hit the ground. He was about to shoot the clerk, but Siduo managed to move the guy's arm.

"Sisi!" Karni shouted as he started running towards her. The thief pointed the railgun at him and yelled back. "Don't come closer."

Siduo was collapsed on the ground next to him, she had a giant gaping hole on the left side of her chest. Karni's heart began beating faster. It might have hit the heart. "Please! She's bleeding."

"I told you not to move! I didn't want this!" The man's eyes seemed bloodshot, but he was clearly ready to shoot at Karni if needed, despite the hysteria.

At this point, the middle aged man from the other side started running towards them, his martial soul activated as two soul rings appeared. One white and one yellow.

But before he could get close the thief who now had crazy looking eyes turned around. "I SAID DON'T MOVE!" He hit the charging man directly in his stomach as the guy dropped and couldn't charge anymore.

Karni however was only looking at Siduo. There was so much blood. He could see some of her organs from the hole. But there was still breath. What can he do? What can he do? He started moving towards her, while the guy was shouting. He couldn't even hear what he was saying, he just knew it was loud.

At that point, the man aimed the railgun at him again. He has completely lost it. Even through the mask, the face was clearly distorted in fear, anger and madness.

Karni didn't even have his martial soul out, but at that moment the railgun started charging in gold. He panicked and called out his martial soul. He can't die. He has to save her. He has to go back. He has to get rid of this guy.

He moved like a shadow, and despite his panicked state of mind he could see everything clearly. Ghost Shadow Perplexing Track and Purple Demon Eyes were activated at the same time as his martial soul was called out.

Karni used his second soul ring, and the thief missed. He could feel the heat of the laser the railgun shot out. He got goosebumps, if he were to get hit in the head, he's gonna die. He didn't have defences that could cover that.

Karni realised just how bad Siduo might've been hurt. "No!" He reached the crazed man. The hit on the head was direct. The man couldn't even keep his balance and fell down, no attempt to defend himself, it was like he didn't even see Karni coming.

Then Karni hit the head again. The thief looked at him with bloodshot eyes, barely conscious, and aimed the railgun at Karni.

Karni couldn't hear anything. His mind was muddled. All he could see was the railgun aimed at him. He hit the man's head again. And again. Again!

He subconsciously started applying Stacks while hitting the head. And then he hit again. The railgun didn't go off, but Karni didn't notice.

Again. 5 stacks.

Again. 6 stacks.

Again. 7 stacks.

Again. 8, 9.

10! The sound changed. He swung again.

"Kiki!" A familiar hand suddenly hugged him from behind. Stopping his swing midway.

"It's over." The soft voice muttered.