Douluo Dalu: 1st Cycle: Dancing Panda

He moved onto the second symbol and muttered immediately. "Tang San." The symbol was made of a vertical golden trident, its three points pointed upward. Crossing the trident was a sword, its colour was of light silver. Tang San was known as the God of Sea and as someone who read the original novels he knew that he had a second God position: Asura. The sword belonged to the god position.

The next symbol featured an eye. It was a beautiful eye made of gold, with golden butterfly wings behind it. They seemed even more beautiful than the eye. Karni sighed and immediately guessed that this represented the Spirit Ice Douluo Huo Yuhao and the Dragon Butterfly Douluo Tang Wutong, Huo Yuhao's wife.

The last symbol was the easiest to recognise. It was Earth. Drawn in a little circle. The continents were the colour of gold, while the ocean was that of silver.

Three of these symbols represented one of the novels, their characters. The time period he was in now belonged to the story, in which the two dragons would make their appearance. The two dragons were also the only one with any additional colour, those of the eyes.

The red and blue eyes of the golden dragon signified the Golden Dragon King, Tang Wulin. The blue was the colour of Tang Wulin's eyes, while red was the colour of the Golden Dragon King. Purple coloured eyes were the colour of Gu Yuena, Wulin's future wife, the Silver Dragon King.

He couldn't quite guess what the middle two symbols signified, outside of the character representation of Tang San, Huo Yuhao and Tang Wutong. But something that confused him even more, was the fourth symbol. Earth. Why was Earth on the Bo Staff? He would perhaps accept something that represented Douluo Dalu 4, not Earth.

It showed that the symbols weren't just a nod to the books, but then what exactly was their purpose? He stared at his martial soul for a while more, before giving up. He had no idea. He remembered that there should be more symbols on it though. He had a quick glance when his martial soul was awakened.

Looking for the other symbols he instead noticed something else. A long, thin black snake had been added as part of the design of the Bo Staff. It coiled around the whole martial soul. Among its black scales, what stood out most were the few stripes, and the eyes. They were gold, just like Hope.

This also added a bit of a contrast to the gold and silver Bo Staff. The snake fit well with the already existing design of the martial soul. 

Finally seeing the other side of the Bo Staff, he noticed another set of four symbols.

These four, however, he couldn't recognise. At the very least, he couldn't tell what they meant. The first symbol was a cat. A simple cat which was coloured gold and silver. The second symbol looked like a silver fox with a single giant tail. The third symbol was a flame with wings in gold. Looking closer it resembled a phoenix.

The last symbol was that of two crossed blades, one coloured gold and the other was that of silver. 

He guessed that these presented some sort of marital souls, much like the other symbols. But there were many people in the series with these martial souls. All except for the last one that is. He couldn't remember a person that had two blades, gold or silver. Not those kinds of blades at least. There was a person with a Moon Blade martial soul in the first story, but he didn't remember one that would have two blades. Daggers perhaps, but not blades.

Another thing he noticed was that the symbols were connected to each other through the details. A symbol from one side of the Bo Staff, to symbols on the other side. The cat and the dragons, the trident and the sword with the fox, the phoenix-like flame with the eye and the twin blades with the Earth. The whole Bo seemed to be of only gold and silver with the exceptions of the dragons' eyes and the black snake.

He remembered a side character with a fox martial soul from the first series, which had Tang San as the protagonist. He also knew someone with a phoenix martial soul from Soul Land 2. On the other hand the cat didn't really say much of anything. He was curious whether he'd meet someone with a cat-like martial soul in the near future. As for the blades, he didn't have a clue.

He put the Staff of Predictions away, and summoned the Fluffy Bamboo Panda. He heaved a sigh of relief when he noticed that the panda didn't have any intricate symbols and designs. It was simply a cute panda, which was overly fluffy compared to normal bears and pandas. As if it weren't cute enough, it was nibbling on a small bamboo stick. Well, Karni was nibbling on it through the martial soul, but it was still cute!

Unlike when releasing the Staff of Predictions, the panda filled him with a feeling of strength and he felt much more athletic in general. He also felt like he could hear in greater detail. 

He could also feel a certain element being gently connected with the panda. It felt like it originated from the bamboo the panda was nibbling on. Bamboo element? Wood element? Karni wasn't quite sure.

He put the Fluffy Bamboo Panda back into himself and decided to walk out of the door. His temporary host was still there. Yi Lan was still carefully watching out for him. Stepping out of the room, the academy teacher looked relieved. "How did it go with the fusion?"

Karni decided to show him with actions as he summoned the Bo Staff Martial Soul and called out to Hope as it slowly slithered out of the staff. It looked questioningly at Karni.

Yi Lan laughed. "It seems that the little snake has already warmed up to you. Your fusion was successful. Have you found out what your first soul ring does?" His eyes were filled with curiosity as he asked the question.

Karni nodded. "It seems to be a form of amplification of the innate bo staff abilities, though I haven't tried it out yet. I don't know how much the amplification is."

"An ability good for a solid foundation then!" Smiled Yi Lan. "Most of the first soul ring abilities are like that, and it's a good thing as well. If you get a specific soul skill at the start, the martial soul might eventually become unbalanced. Of course there are some exceptions, but usually those exceptions are very well thought out or have a different sort of foundation formed beforehand." Yi Lan decided to go into a little lecture for Karni to reaffirm the boy's decision.

"Come with me, let's test the extent of your ability, instead of simply discussing the pros and the cons." He led the way outside.

They came to a small field and the teacher stopped, then pointed to Karni. "Summon your martial soul and activate your ability. Pay attention to your soul power consumption and how much it changes the base form of your bo staff. I will try to simply swing at you, you try to dodge the swings."

Karni got nervous. He's never been in a real fight before, not even as a spar. He was studying computer science before he came here. He didn't have time for any sort of hobbies like martial arts along with the ones he already had. Since he had no choice, he summoned his Bo and the world around him seemed to change into a shade of gold.

Yi Lan seemed to move very simply, but he was fast! Karni almost subconsciously activated the first soul ring. His vision changed yet again. In front of Yi Lan there seemed to be a golden shape. It resembled the man charging at him, while the very man was behind the golden shape.

This shape was much clearer than before. It also seemed to show the predictions sooner than before. Intricate details like face muscles and what not weren't seen on it, however, one could tell where the eyes were looking. More accurately, one could feel where the gaze was.

Before, there would be a shape about half a metre before the person. It now seemed to be 2 to 3 metres in front. This meant that it was predicting farther into the future! With that, the simple swing was dodged very easily.

This surprised Yi Lan. He went with the speed that someone who just became a soul master should have some trouble with. Karni seemed to dodge him with ease. He decided to swing again.

The dodge was easy to execute yet again. Karni felt delighted. He really could predict the future! And he seemed to be keenly aware of Yi Lan's movements as well, like a sort of sixth sense.

Yi Lan suddenly stopped and smiled. *If you know where and how I swing, I won't decide my move until you move.* He yet again dashed towards Karni with this mindset.

Karni was shocked at this moment. There seemed to be multiple shadows in front of the teacher. As if there were multiple possibilities. This overwhelmed him quite a bit. Thankfully, he was still keenly aware of the teacher's movements. He barely managed to dodge. Unlike the previous two times, it was a clear struggle for him this time around.

At this point Yi Lan stopped. "If my guess is correct, you saw multiple possibilities of my attack correct?"

Karni's eyes went wide for a second. Yes, this was exactly what happened just now. "Mister, doesn't this make my ability a bit… useless? It gives me more options than I can process!"

"If it gives you too many options you simply have to limit them! You said you wanted to become a control system soul master. The control system is the one that controls others, they don't wait for the enemies to make a move. If it's still too hard for you to tell… well you will simply have to learn to take in all the possibilities. They shouldn't give you wrong answers, but all of them. You have to be aware of the predictions that you see." He not only answered his current questions, but even gave him some guidance for the future.

He continued. "Besides that, you should also start training in wielding your bo staff. You need at least some form of defence and your staff can still be used as a weapon after all. When you dodge someone's strike, you should also whack them on the head." At this point he grinned at the young boy.

"Looks like I have to learn a lot then." Said Karni. Yi Lan's eyes seemed to shine as the kid said that. "You can get formal training as a soul master in the Star Luo City Academy, I can get you in there with a scholarship so you shouldn't have to worry about money either."

Wow. Talk about advertisements. He couldn't deny that he needed the education. The teacher said it would be with a scholarship as well. At the end of the day, he didn't even have a roof above his head. He got lucky with this teacher, he even offered him to stay at his place in the town.

"I'm willing to study. I want to become stronger. I would be thankful if you can enrol me into the Star Luo City Academy." Yi Lan's face was all smiles. He managed to get this talented child into the academy. There would definitely be an award for this.

"Well then, let's go back and pack up. We should go immediately. The school year starts next week and we need to find you a dorm room when we get there."

Karni nodded excitedly, a new life was about to begin. One that was vastly different from a life he led before. They went back to their temporary residence to pack up. 

On the way back teacher Yi Lan asked. "Oh yeah, I do wonder, what is your first soul skill called?"

Karni fell into thought. He does need to call it something, doesn't he? *Hmm, Visions of Movement? No, too on the nose. Well the shapes appear golden so maybe Golden Gaze? Hmm sounds cool. But… it doesn't have anything to do with a gaze does it? I can feel the predictions as well, not just see them. Though looking is most effective.*

After some time thinking he finally came to an answer. "I think I'll call it Golden Insight. It gives me insight on the future and it's through golden shapes.

"A solid choice" They continued walking towards the residence they were about to leave behind. "So how were the amplification abilities? Especially the soul power consumption."

Karni answered "The amplification is quite great, my predictive abilities are amplified by at least 3 times. I also get a sort of sixth sense about the surrounding area. A sort of awareness of everything around me if you will. The best part is that the consumption wasn't big at all, I should be able to last for about 30 minutes with the skill activated."

Yi Lan was shocked hearing the news. He mumbled to himself. "The All-Seeing Rattlesnake shouldn't give such strong amplification. Is it because of the mutated martial soul? Or is it that they are strangely compatible? It can be compared to a thousand year support ability."

Yi Lan continued mumbling to himself to which Karni could only shake his head. He heard what the teacher was saying, but the teacher was now in his own world, so Karni wasn't able to ask any questions.

*Looks like you really are my Hope.* Thought Karni warmly of the snake. In his mind, he felt a soft prick reacting to his thoughts. 

They soon arrived at their apartment. The packing was finished quickly, as Karni had no personal belongings with him. The only thing he had was some clothes given by Yi Lan. As soon as they finished packing, they went straight for the train station.

Karni stepped onto the train that led to Star Luo City. He took one last look at the town he arrived in on the first day. So much seemed to have happened in the last week. It was now time to start a new life in the Star Luo City Academy.