Chapter 161: with translation of chapter title

This was Tang San's first one‑on‑one clash with Huo Wu; he kept pondering how a Control‑type Soul Master like her would attack, so he stayed still, planning to strike after her.

At the moment the referee announced the start, Huo Wu gave her answer: she would run.

Huo Wu's attack was straightforward and simple: her long, powerful legs began to pump rapidly, charging straight at Tang San.

Although her speed could not compare to that of an Agility‑type Soul Master, once she reached rank forty, a Soul Master's body, enhanced by the attributes from her soul rings and her own soul power, far surpassed that of an ordinary person.

The speed of her full‑force charge was astonishing, and the distance between them shrank rapidly.

Tang San's eyes flickered; he instantly released his first soul skill, raising his hand to shoot out a strand of Blue Silver Grass aimed at Huo Wu's slender yet powerful waist.

Gu Xuan watched this scene, inwardly speechless: 'Mom's entanglement?'

Tang San now chose a steady‑defend‑counter strategy, because his Blue Silver Grass was severely restrained by fire.

Still, he wanted to test whether he could win even when his martial soul was countered; if so, it would prove his Blue Silver Grass was not utterly useless.

Faced with the sweeping Blue Silver Grass, Huo Wu did not dodge but increased her speed a bit more; the thirty‑meter gap between them closed to ten meters in the blink of an eye.

At this moment, Huo Wu's eyes lit up; her bright, large eyes shone as her third soul ring on her body began to glow simultaneously, a purple halo from a thousand‑year ring spreading out, adding to her allure.

Suddenly, a flash of insight crossed Tang San's mind; he seemed to understand Huo Wu's attack pattern, the Blue Silver Grass sweep unchanged, and his body moved swiftly.

Tang San neither advanced nor retreated, but shifted laterally, moving sideways at high speed.

Huo Wu seemed to have anticipated Tang San's reaction; her originally straight charge instantly turned into a diagonal rush, still heading toward him.

Just as the Blue Silver Grass was about to reach her body, Huo Wu activated her third soul skill: Resist Fire Ring.

A blinding orange‑red halo burst forth instantly; this soul skill, which carries no attack power, flung the nearby Blue Silver Grass aside in an instant, and even more, the Blue Silver Grass Tang San extended was instantly scorched and withered by the Resist Fire Ring's high temperature.

If Tang San's soul power had not already reached rank forty‑nine, his Blue Silver Grass would have been gone.

Moreover, the area covered by Huo Wu's third soul skill reached a terrifying diameter of sixty meters—that is, a thirty‑meter radius centered on her—while the distance between her and Tang San was only ten meters.

The thirty‑meter radius Resist Fire Ring, while blocking the Blue Silver Grass, also flung Tang San's body far away.

The competition arena is one hundred meters in diameter; Huo Wu's Resist Fire Ring spans sixty meters, covering most of the arena, and from the start she took the initiative to attack, compressing Tang San's room to move.

At that moment, under the push of the Resist Fire Ring, Tang San nearly instantly reached the edge of the competition arena.

Stepping out of the arena counts as a loss, according to the rules; at this moment Huo Wu intended to use that rule to force Tang San out of the field.

The most terrifying aspect of Huo Wu's Resist Fire Ring is that it ignores any skill or defense; all skills within its range are temporarily expelled, including people and objects.

Of course, this comes with a precondition: the opponent's soul power or attack skill must not exceed her own by more than ten ranks; this is also the greatest limitation of the Resist Fire Ring.

Huo Wu's figure showed no pause; just as Tang San was driven to the edge, another Resist Fire Ring lit up, the skills linking seamlessly—this requires absolute mastery of her own soul power and martial soul.

At this moment Tang San silently sighed; Huo Wu looks hot‑tempered, but she is actually quite clever.

Furthermore, being able to wield the Fire Shadow martial soul as a Control‑type Soul Master is certainly extraordinary; Huo Wu from the outset exploited the trait of Resist Fire Ring, instantly putting herself in a difficult position.

However, the Resist Fire Ring is not absolute; otherwise, this promotion tournament would be unnecessary—just relying on this skill, Huo Wu could sweep all opponents.

Besides the soul‑power gap, the limitation of the Resist Fire Ring lies in its height: its effective range is a sixty‑meter diameter, but only three meters tall.

In other words, the space above three meters is beyond the Resist Fire Ring's reach, unless Huo Wu directs the ring straight upward.

Under these circumstances, even if Tang San's Ghost Shadow Perplex Track were marvelous, he could not dodge the Resist Fire Ring's attack; his only option was to leap into the air.

Seeing Huo Wu's second Resist Fire Ring about to erupt, Tang San leapt up, floating over the ring.

Witnessing this, Huo Wu's face showed a faint cold smile; although casting two Resist Fire Rings in succession cost her considerable soul power, her goal of forcing Tang San into the air had been achieved.

At that very moment, a strange scene appeared: the four soul rings on Huo Wu's body flashed simultaneously as Tang San leapt, and the fire shadow behind her instantly turned white‑hot.

"Fusion Ring?" Outside the arena, Ning Fengzhi, who was watching the match, had his eyes brighten slightly.

Gu Xuan also smiled at this sight; without fire immunity, if Tang San were hit by Huo Wu's strike, even with his soul power as high as rank forty‑nine he would surely suffer greatly, and even if he didn't die it would be a serious injury.

Of course, this is assuming he does not use his Clear Sky Hammer martial soul.

Fusion Ring is not a technique, but a talent, or rather a special ability that varies from person to person; only some exceptionally rare Soul Masters could possibly possess it.

Fusion Ring means releasing all the soul power that could be output from several soul rings at the instant they are activated—essentially a massive burst of soul power in an instant, then using only a single soul skill.

The greatest advantage of Fusion Ring is its burst power; simply put, if a pond has only one outlet, water can flow out only through that one, and though it will eventually drain, it can never match the speed of four outlets flowing simultaneously.

Under Fusion Ring, one's soul power output is maximized, so the power of any soul skill used then will undoubtedly be doubled.

White‑hot flames condensed in her palm, the temperature already affecting people outside the hundred‑meter‑diameter arena; this time, Huo Wu released not mere scorching fire, but the concentrated core power of flame—explosion.

"Huo Wu Radiant Sun!" Huo Wu shouted delicately.

A white light sphere one meter in diameter drifted out, flying straight toward Tang San in midair; upon releasing this white sphere, Huo Wu's face turned deathly pale. Although Fusion Ring is powerful, its soul‑power consumption is enormous; Huo Wu now has no strength left to fight, but what about Tang San?

Even if his soul power had inexplicably reached rank forty‑nine, Blue Silver Grass is still just Blue Silver Grass; it cannot even resist ordinary fire, let alone a strike that gathers all the soul power of Huo Wu, a rank forty‑six Soul Ancestor.

The instant Huo Wu's white light sphere left her hand, Tang San felt his body become sluggish, as if that seemingly small sphere possessed infinite attractive force.

Being airborne, Tang San could not dodge; seeing the white sphere hurtle toward him at speed, all he could do was to block it head‑on.

There are many ways to block head‑on, but Tang San chose the most ostentatious—straight‑on hard clash.

In fact, it isn't really a block, because at the very moment Huo Wu's incandescent white sphere left her hand, Tang San retracted his Blue Silver Grass martial soul and replaced it with a pitch‑black great hammer in his left hand.

The hammer is entirely black, its total length reaching two meters; the hammer head's diameter is half a meter, and the thick‑bowl‑sized handle is 1.5 meters long.

Compared to Tang San, this hammer is considerably larger—he himself is only 1.8 meters tall—yet in his hand the hammer feels virtually weightless.

At the instant this hammer appeared, the entire arena seemed to freeze; in that split second, every Soul Master present with soul power over rank sixty and over forty years of experience showed an expression of disbelief.

This is not a weapon, at least not one brought from outside, nor a Soul Tool hidden on the body; the grand competition strictly forbids any weapons, and violators would see their entire academy expelled.

Thus, even if the competing Soul Masters chose to forfeit, they would not use weapons for offense or defense.

And yet the hammer in Tang San's hand is not a weapon—so what is it?

It is a martial soul, a true martial soul that has created countless glorious martial souls in the Soul Master world; at the pinnacle of tool‑type martial souls, it represents a sect, countless experts, and the utmost strength and attack.

Clear Sky Hammer.

Known as the continent's foremost tool‑type martial soul, it stands equal to the Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon martial soul.

Yet Blue Silver Grass and Clear Sky Hammer are as different as heaven and earth, yet at this moment both martial souls appear simultaneously on one person.

No one knows why this happened, but at this moment the only term that comes to mind is 'twin martial souls'.

What are twin martial souls? They exist like myths across the entire continent; almost no one has actually seen them—people have only heard of them—and those who have seen them are extremely rare.

And now everyone present has seen them, and one of those twin martial souls is even the Clear Sky Hammer; even though Blue Silver Grass is regarded as a worthless martial soul, having the Clear Sky Hammer makes Tang San's status different.

Because only the direct descendants of the Clear Sky Sect possess this martial soul, since martial souls are inherited from one's parents.

Snow Night Emperor and Salas also confirmed that Ning Fengzhi's words were true, and their expressions were equally splendid.

Besides this Clear Sky Hammer, Tang San's body also bears four Soul Rings that are shocking to behold.

Purple, purple, purple, black—four gorgeous Soul Rings shone on Tang San's body; such a configuration that defies common sense was something they had never seen before, and the shock it gave them was even greater than that of the twin martial souls.

However, the brief moment gave no time for thought; only Tang San's purple third Soul Ring on his body instantly lit up, and that already imposing Clear Sky Hammer swelled a bit more.

「Third Soul Skill: Brilliant Explosion! 」

Tang San's Clear Sky Hammer's third Soul Ring was taken from a nine-thousand-year-old Earth Cave Magic Spider; due to its age, the bestowed Soul Skill's power far exceeds that of a typical Soul Master's third Soul Skill.

「Boom—」

The massive Clear Sky Hammer and Huo Wu's fused ring's full-force strike collided, emitting a terrifying explosive roar; a wave of scorching heat surged and instantly spread across the entire arena.

The referee of the promotion match was a Soul Saint, and he had never anticipated this scene before, because the power of Tang San and Huo Wu's strike had already exceeded that of a typical Soul King's fifth Soul Skill.

However, this referee's reaction was also extremely quick; he instantly released his fifth Soul Skill to block the surging heat wave, so as not to affect the Snow Night Emperor in the VIP seats.

Tang San withstood Huo Wu's full-force strike in midair; although he was uninjured, because he had nothing to push off against in the air, he was directly flung backward, falling outside the arena.

But his expression showed no panic at all; even a glint of brilliance flashed in his eyes.

Is this the Clear Sky Hammer? Just a single unit of soul power is enough to match Huo Wu's full-force strike as a genius; although my third Soul Ring has reached the terrifying age of nine thousand years, this also suffices to prove the terror of the Clear Sky Hammer.

Tang San wondered, what if I had cultivated the Clear Sky Hammer from the start?

It's a pity there are no 'what ifs,' and he is also fortunate that he began cultivating Blue Silver Grass, a worthless martial soul; otherwise, he would have no chance to attach to the Clear Sky Hammer four Soul Rings each at least five thousand years old. Having fallen from midair, Tang San had already retracted his Clear Sky Hammer martial soul, replacing it with the Blue Silver Grass in his right hand; seeing that, the Soul Rings on his body reverted to two yellow and two purple, the first of those four Soul Rings lighting up as he flicked the Blue Silver Grass, which lodged into the edge of the competition platform; with just a light pull, his whole body returned to the platform.

Tang San stood again on the competition platform, his eyes filled with immense confidence and arrogance, calmly gazing at the already exhausted Huo Wu.

At this moment, Tang San seemed to understand what Gu Dage meant by confidence—that it indeed could give a Soul Master an unstoppable drive, and even made him feel an unprecedented attention and aura.

At this moment, Tang San comprehended.

ps: Correct the typos first, then revise later.

A chapter of nearly four thousand characters, originally meant to be split, but after thinking I decided to combine them; reading it this way feels a bit more satisfying.

Today is Qixi Festival; those without a partner spending it with me also counts as an extra update, right!

How handsome Tang San is now, how miserable he will be later! The tree that stands out in the forest will be destroyed by the wind.

Hehe. Finally, I ask the readers for a monthly ticket and recommendation votes! (End of chapter)