Chapter 148: Martial Soul Fusion Technique—Heavenly Net
Hearing Furina's invitation, Lan Susu and Lan Luoluo exchanged a glance on the field.
The elder sister, Lan Susu, spoke up: "The Church of the Water God—our sister pair has indeed heard of it. However, if you want us to join, Miss Pope, you must first demonstrate strength sufficient to earn our conviction, surely?" Her tone was gentle, yet carried a hint of challenge.
The younger sister, Lan Luoluo, nodded in agreement and winked playfully. "Sister is right~ We're not the same as those opponents you've met before, you know. I hear you're merely a support-type soul master? We won't surrender so easily. You'd best be careful!"
Sensing that his presence was being somewhat overlooked, Huang Chutian hastily puffed out his chest and added in a booming voice: "Exactly! Though our team has no three-ring Soul Elder, our strength is absolutely not inferior to any of the advancing teams! Our teacher told us that in this assessment, whoever manages to defeat you will receive an additional, substantial reward from the academy! So, no matter what, we will give this everything we have."
"Besides, if your Church of the Water God wants to recruit people, surely you'd want to recruit warriors who dare to fight with everything they have and who do not fear formidable foes—not cowards who merely surrender at the first sight of the enemy, right?" His fighting spirit blazed. He clearly viewed this match as a rare challenge and opportunity.
Hearing their words, Furina was not the least bit annoyed. Instead, she laughed even more heartily—her mirth even taking on a shade of theatrical flamboyance.
She tilted her chin up slightly, spread her arms wide, and in a tone that was three parts maniacal arrogance and seven parts playful mockery—a style almost akin to a villain's grand entrance—she declared in a ringing voice: "Well said! Now that's more like it! In that case, I must ask the three of you to give it your absolute all and defeat me to the best of your ability! Show me what you've got! HAHAHAHA!"
This sudden "villainous" laughter and posturing made Xiao Xiao and Wang Dong, watching from below the stage, glance sideways involuntarily.
Xiao Xiao muttered under her breath: "Furina... is she always like this? Feels a bit... unhinged?"
Wang Dong also pursed his lips. "Yeah, she suddenly started putting on a whole act."
Huo Yuhao scratched his head somewhat helplessly and spoke in Furina's defense: "Well... Sister Furina does lean toward the... unconventional and free-spirited at times. Maybe she thinks it's more fun this way, or she just wants to liven up the match a bit."
Truthfully, even he wasn't entirely sure.
"..."
On the field, though Huang Chutian's trio were mildly taken aback by Furina's sudden shift in style, they were far from intimidated. Instead, it stoked their fighting spirit even higher. The three rapidly exchanged looks, then simultaneously let out a low cry and released their respective martial souls and soul rings!
In an instant, six bright yellow soul rings simultaneously blazed into existence—two yellow, two yellow, two yellow—the standard optimal hundred-year configuration.
Huang Chutian, Lan Susu, and Lan Luoluo—all three were two-ring Soul Grandmasters, and their soul power was dense and solid, clearly indicating a robust foundation. They were far beyond those earlier teams with mixed one- and two-ring members. Their strength was second only to Jiang Xueqing's squad, which Furina had faced in her very first match.
Huang Chutian's body instantly swelled in size. A layer of faint gray fur surfaced over his skin, and his muscles bulged with clear, defined striations, brimming with explosive, forceful power. His martial soul was none other than the "Mighty Orangutan," renowned for its sheer physical strength.
As for the sisters Lan Susu and Lan Luoluo, their waist-length blue hair began to move on its own, without any wind. In a flash, it lengthened dramatically—each strand becoming crystalline and lustrous, gleaming with the gloss of sapphire. Supple and pliant, yet radiating a keen-edged sharpness—this was their Body Martial Soul: Hair!
Seeing this, Furina put away her playful expression. Five soul rings rose from beneath her feet in sequence—two purple, three black—and the magnificent configuration once more drew a collective gasp of awe. However, she did not immediately activate her fifth soul skill, Nut Cake, with its astonishing defensive power.
Based on her knowledge of the original plot, the Lan sisters' martial soul fusion technique, Heavenly Net, was not a direct, powerful offensive skill, but rather a large-area, high-control restraining-type skill.
She therefore chose to first consume the "Blueberry Cake" produced by her second soul skill, dramatically boosting her movement speed. Her intention was, relying on her speed advantage, to attempt to evade that all-encompassing net of hair.
Her prediction was dead on. Lan Susu and Lan Luoluo had placed themselves with deliberate intent from the very start, standing in a half-sideways, facing-each-other posture. The moment they released their martial souls and their soul rings blazed, the sisters, without the slightest hesitation, each took a step toward the other and embraced tightly!
A colossal wave of soul power fluctuations—far exceeding the sum of their individual soul powers—erupted abruptly from the embracing sisters! A deep-blue halo of light rippled outward like waves, enveloping their forms in a dreamlike, ethereal glow.
At the same time, the crystalline, translucent blue hair behind them—now grown to a length of over a dozen meters—seemed to take on independent life. It writhed and intertwined madly, weaving together in the blink of an eye into an immense net, gleaming with a ghostly blue luminescence. With the force to blot out the very sky, it descended toward the area where Furina stood.
The strands of the net were fine and dense, and the blue light flowed ominously across its surface. It sealed off nearly every avenue of evasion. This was precisely their martial soul fusion technique—Heavenly Net.
The Lan sisters' tactical intent was blatantly obvious: exploit the rapid activation, wide range, and powerful control of their martial soul fusion technique to bind Furina in a single decisive stroke—before she could consume more strengthening cakes, especially that monstrous defensive cake—and thereby lock in their victory. They had even calculated Furina's likely reaction speed.
However, Furina's movements were a shade faster than they had anticipated! Under the speed enhancement of the "Blueberry Cake," her silhouette enacted an evasive maneuver practically the very instant the hair net took shape. With the narrowest of margins, she slipped out through a gap at the net's edge just before it fully sealed shut. The first wave of envelopment had missed its mark!
But "Heavenly Net," as a martial soul fusion technique, was hardly something one could completely evade so easily.
Having missed its first strike, the massive blue hair net, as if possessed of living sentience, flexibly pivoted and expanded in midair. Bearing intense soul power pressure and binding force, it once again coiled and snaked toward Furina. The arena was suffused with blue light, the strands of hair writhing like serpents. For a moment, the scene was one of breathtaking peril.
Seeing the sisters' fusion technique successfully deployed and relentlessly pursuing their target, Huang Chutian's heart settled firmly. He let out a low roar, and his first soul ring blazed. His already towering frame swelled even further, and the muscles of his arms bulged, now bearing a metallic gray sheen. He was fully primed to deliver the finishing, decisive blow at a moment's notice.
In his view, no matter how fast Furina was, in the confined space of the arena, once locked onto by a sustained, tracking control skill like "Heavenly Net," defeat was only a matter of time. The moment she was ensnared by the hair net—even for a fleeting instant—his crushing fist would decide the match.
Lan Susu and Lan Luoluo, though astonished by Furina's agility, kept their eyes resolute. They maintained the fusion technique with all their strength, manipulating the hair net to intercept and cut off her escape from every angle. Meanwhile, they themselves also moved slowly, constricting Furina's space to maneuver.
In the hearts of the three, the same thought rose unbidden: Victory is all but assured! As long as we can contain this support-type Soul King and deny her the chance to calmly layer her buffs, the scales of victory have already tipped!