Douluo Dalu: 1st Cycle: Dancing Panda

Li Tai tried to hide as much as possible behind Yu Tian's shield, ready to surprise attack at a moment's notice. Their martial souls were incredibly profound and well known in the city. It was a shame that they hadn't yet been able to utilise their properties. They weren't yet soul masters.

Karni didn't mind their tactic. Ever since he got his first spirit soul, his abilities have been enhanced. Not only were the predictions more concrete, his sixth sense has also become better after yesterday. Siduo really knew how to mentally destabilise someone.

Even without activating his abilities the awareness of the environment around him was still immense. Only, it was at a much lesser level than when activating his soul ring.

When the first soul ring was activated, the awareness came from the bo staff itself, it was like it was relaying rows of information into his head. And his subconsciousness didn't need to do any work at all. But this didn't help right now.

Karni stepped forward, and glanced towards Siduo. He greeted the charging shield. He pointed the staff forward as if it were a spear and hit the shield right in the middle, stopping both himself and the shield completely.

He was waiting for the person behind to strike, waiting for the half a second prediction to appear. While half a second did not sound like a lot, it gave more than double of a normal human reaction time to act. The passive effect of the Staff of Predictions was in itself already incredible.

Even if he didn't have the passive ability to see the predictions while the staff is out, he would still expect a person to jump from behind. This would still give him enough time to react to it in some way.

With this extra time to react, as soon as Karni saw the golden cloud-like sword shape appearing, he went into action.

Karni did a simple redirection of the bo staff. He let the staff slide to the side of the shield toward the legs of the golden shape.

With this action he imbalanced the boy holding the shield, Yu Tian, he sent him staggering to the right. With this Karni had a bit of room before Yu Tian could block him again.

Just as Yu Tian slid to the side, the person behind him came out. Li Tai didn't notice a bo staff waiting at his legs. As soon as he wanted to slash with the sword, he stumbled with the staff placed perfectly between his legs.

Li Tai stumbled without being able to catch his balance, he was on the ground immediately.

As this happened Yu Tian just caught his balance again and tried to push Karni to the ground from the side. 

A speedy figure came from his side instead and jumped at his head, knocking him over. This figure was of course Wu Siduo who was waiting for Karni to make his move.

The spar was over just like that. It didn't even last 20 seconds, the other two didn't even have time to showcase their combat abilities. Karni made perfect use of his base abilities while Siduo used her speed timely as a surprise attack. The win was just too easy.

Everyone was shocked. They wanted to see more. No one thought that it would end with the very first clash.

Karni was a bit confused himself. *Wasn't this too easy?* In reality, it really wasn't. The day before, he was training with an opponent much better than him. He was used to the speed of someone with a soul ring, and this Siduo was adept at using sudden attacks to win. He was forced to make split second decisions facing someone like her. If anything grew yesterday, it was his decision making ability.

On the other hand, the opponents had zero rings. Even if Karni and Siduo didn't use soul skills, the difference in quality was massive. The two also didn't specialise in speed. This meant that Karni could process all of the information slowly and at a steady pace. At least when compared to what he got used to yesterday.

Siduo was always fast, incredibly fast. The predictions he saw were shorter as well, his reaction time had to be faster.

It was like playing a game on hardest difficulty and then switching to easy. Even if you were getting mercilessly beaten before, suddenly you are an overpowered character.

A voice threw Karni out of the trance. "Hey Karni, is the ground so interesting? We won." He saw Siduo looking at him with a happy face.

"Y- Yeah… we won." He suddenly realised. He became ecstatic. He was used to long and hard fights after yesterday's sparring session. Now however he made two moves in total and won. He had a smile that spanned from ear to ear on his face.

"Alright the spar is over, everyone disperse." Yi Lan's voice could be heard coming from the sidelines. 

Everyone was a bit disappointed that the spar ended so quickly. At the same time, they were also amazed at the ease with which Karni and Siduo won. The crowd disappeared and Yi Lan gave a simple congratulations as he left with another, more sturdy looking older man.

"We really won, haha." Karni laughed again after everyone left. Siduo simply gave him a look. "What. Did you expect not to win?" One could easily take such a statement as arrogance, but the only thing coming out of Siduo was pure, unadulterated confidence.

"I expected it to last longer at least!" He expected to win, just not so easily. This win really felt cathartic after how much confidence Siduo crushed out of him yesterday. If he'd lose as a one ringed soul master against someone with no ring, he'd probably give up on everything.

The qualitative change that comes with getting a soul ring is simply too enormous to lose to someone without one. A Soul Scholar is someone who can be considered equal with strong adults who don't have soul power when they reach rank 10. A Soul Master was simply in another league. Even the best athletes couldn't compare anymore.

Not to mention, he fought against 6 year olds. In the grand scheme of things, this might be at the top of: 'why he thought he would win'.

… … …

"So what do you think of them, senior?" Yi Lan asked inquisitively.

"They are quite good at using their strengths, especially so for someone who just had their martial soul awakened. She comes from a noble family so that is not as completely unusual, however she seemed very familiar with what he was going to do. A look was enough for her to make decisive actions." Answered the older senior to Yi Lan.

"The boy only had his martial soul awakened and already knows some of his strengths and weaknesses, it is quite impressive indeed."

"Senior, are you thinking of…" Yi Lan started with a bit of a trace of annoyance in his voice.

"To join the sect the most important thing is the values they hold, talent is secondary, I will observe them and decide afterwards, I can take it slowly." Answered the older gentleman with a small smile on his face.

Yi Lan was a bit surprised at the answer and said cheekily. "They both have twin martial souls, I have also reported this to the Spirit Pagoda. We'll snatch them up first. After all, I awakened Karni myself."

"But the boy already expressed his wish to join our sect. He even happened to go to one of our branches. In some way, he seemed to be aware of our presence on the continent." The man started to laugh out loud.

The only way to join the sect was to join through a recommendation, indeed the Tang Sect made no exceptions. However this didn't put Yi Lan at ease at all.

"As for the girl, I'm familiar with her parents, I'd like to see you snatch them away from me." Said the senior back cheekily to Yi Lan. Yi Lan simply shook his head.

"We'll see about that." Yi Lan decided to storm off, leaving a smiling middle-aged man behind.

… … …

Karni had no idea of what sort of bargaining just occurred. He was casually chatting with Siduo all this while. He couldn't think of when he was as happy as now after coming to this place.

He was happy when he fought to a draw against Siduo in that last match, but the mood changed soon after and he couldn't really enjoy the happiness he felt.

Both him and Siduo were all smiles as she was constantly teasing him about the fact he didn't expect any of this. He didn't mind it this time. It only made him laugh more. He praised her perfect timing as well.

But this good mood made Karni feel like a crack was forming somewhere. *... Am I allowed to feel so happy for this? While I'm here wasting time, my mom might be worrying sick of where I am. I might have gone missing, what if I actually died of something? I shouldn't be doing this.*

He turned at Siduo with a determined look. "Siduo, let's go train."

Siduo immediately noticed the shift in his mood. "No, we were sparring too much yesterday, rest is just as important. Cultivate instead." 

Karni felt annoyance rising up inside him again, the same one he felt last time he couldn't do anything against her. "But the only way to get strong is to do it steadily with practice, and I can't get experience without practice."

There was now a frown upon Siduo's face. "And I'm telling you that reflection with cultivation is important to getting strong. You can't just-" 

"That's not good enough! I need real life combat experience to deal with actual situations, not meditation!" Now the previously subtle annoyance turned into anger. Anger which has been repressed yesterday.

The usually cheeky girl gave him a cold look. "I'm not helping you train when you can't even see ahead of you, you can be stubborn alone. I'm leaving." She turned around and started to leave.

"You…" Karni was angry, *One minute she forces me to spar, the next she forbids it? Who's the stubborn asshole here! If she won't help me voluntarily she'll help me with defending herself.* He released his martial soul.

Siduo simply released an exasperated sigh and turned around. Karni's first soul ring was already shining.

She did not release her martial soul, she simply waited for Karni to come to her. He wasn't calm and he wasn't thinking straight. He dashed towards her.

As he was dashing, he suddenly saw an impossible scene. It was something he couldn't comprehend.

Tens of golden shapes, all of them predictions. There had to be at least 50 of them. He couldn't even see Siduo's original position.

His brain was overflowing with all sorts of information; it was overwhelming, like a split second headache. He only blinked and he was already on the ground. His chest was hurting, she didn't really hold back when hitting him.

She glanced at him, then turned around and left.

She didn't use any soul skills, she didn't even release a martial soul. Just… How was she capable of doing that? He didn't even see what she did due to the amount of predictive shadows he saw.

*My Martial Soul can be countered this way as well?*

He slowly stood up. Siduo was already gone, he couldn't see her anymore.

Begrudgingly Karni slowly went back toward his room. He stopped outside and went behind the dorm building. Setting up a stance, he started to swing his bo staff in various ways.

He did not look graceful at all while doing it. He tried to figure out what could be best, but his mind just kept returning to his mom. *I don't have time to be happy.* Returning to Siduo. *Just how did she do that? How is that even possible?!* Then a constant reminder of: *I have to get stronger, I have to get home!*

He swung his bo staff mercilessly, without seeing the end, nor a goal. Without much cause, it was more like he was venting out his frustration.

*Two weeks have passed already. Nothing I've done will help me become stronger!* He continued to drown in his frustrations. It became a rabbit hole, he himself created.

He was wrong of course, what he did could be considered more than what most of his peers did. A week in the world of cultivation was frighteningly short. Not a lot can be done in such a short time.

A small red-haired head peeked from the side of the building far away. She was simply silently watching.

Karni continued to swing his bo staff until he passed out. He could only keep on telling himself: *I can't waste more time.* He lost consciousness. Last half an hour his swings were done in an almost unconscious state.

Wu Siduo finally approached in silence. A mixture of emotions were visible on her face.

"I was too pushy. He doesn't know why I approached him, why I did what I did. This pettiness of mine got him here."

She sighed to herself. Then softly picked him up.

… … …

"Seriously Karni you're so disgusting, can you just like, shut up already." A young male voice could be heard.

"Wha… I'm sorry I guess?" Another young voice answered.

"Seriously dude, your interests are creepy. Can't you be normal? Just be like you were." The young male voice could be heard again, as one looked at him, the boy seemed to be around 14 years old.

"What? So I can't even enjoy something I like?" A young Karni answered. Genuinely bewildered and confused.

"Ugh… Just go away, I don't care." The 14 year old answered.

… … …

"Seriously, Karni got super weird this year. He doesn't even want to hang out with us anymore." A whisper could be heard from afar.

Small footsteps stopped as they listened.

"Not only that but he tries to constantly make excuses for himself. We get it dude, you like this, we don't give a shit." Another voice said.

"He never said much back before, but now he constantly argues with us. He could just stay quiet and enjoy it himself. Why do we have to know about it?" A third voice said again.

"Is it that bad that I want to tell my friends about my interests? They didn't even give me a chance to explain." A tad of frustration appeared.

"So now that I think on my own, and don't agree with everything, they just throw me away?" Anger built up, before dying down, being replaced with sadness.

… … …

"So what if they don't care about your interests? Enjoy them on your own. You are your own person. People who are truly your friends accept you as you are, it's not like you did anything wrong." A woman was holding her teenage son in an embrace.

"Always think of your own happiness first. Sometimes you find that your own friends aren't actually your friends. But when you do find actual friends, those are that more precious."

"True friends have disagreements, Karni. They have different interests, yet they are still friends. And accept one another as they are." The two figures' hug lasted for a while longer.

… … …

"So what if they don't accept that you like him? It's not like you did anything wrong. He is his own person as well. They can't dictate his feelings. Your own happiness first, remember mom?" A boy's voice could be heard, it was Karni of 15 years.

"I… I get it sweetie. I just worry that we won't be friends anymore." A woman's voice could be heard, sitting next to Karni, it was his mom.

"If they can't support you in this, are they really your friends?" Karni smiled reminding her of a talk just like this one, a year prior.

"Well I still don't want to lose them. Ahh fine, I'll call him." Mom gave in.

Karni simply gave her a smile.

… … …

Karni was teary eyed, sitting alone in his former room. He felt extremely lonely at the moment. His mum was the happiest she has ever been, and he loved seeing her this way, so why was he feeling like this, why was he feeling jealous?

A knock could be heard on the door. And the door was opened. A woman walked in with a worried look.

"I knew something wasn't right with you the past couple of weeks. Please tell me what's going on." The woman said to Karni.

"Mom." Karni said softly as he looked at her. "I'm sorry, I don't know why I'm like this, I just have trouble getting along with him and it's all just so weird and… I don't know…"He muttered.

His mom just sat down next to him and gave him a hug. "You know, if you really can't accept him and it's making you suffer, I can stop being with him." She said with a sincere look.

"No!" Said Karni immediately. "Mom, I love seeing you happy, I just, I don't know why I can't accept him! You've been so happy these days, I don't want to take that away from you! He didn't do anything wrong either… I just…" Tears were falling down his face.

"Thanks." She said back and hugged him harder. "No need to rush. Tell me everything at your own pace. Don't bottle all this into yourself."

"First it was my friends who stopped hanging out with me, and now I feel like I'm losing you as well, you look so happy, and I'm happy that you're happy but it just… hurts." Before he could say more, his mom interrupted him.

"I will never leave you Karni, whenever you need me, I will be there. I won't stop being your mom just because I found myself a partner. Besides you were the one that brought us together, remember?" She gave him a soft smile.

He simply said "Yes…" his eyes were still watery." The things he felt when he looked at her and her partner, the fact that despite all, he does enjoy the company of his step-sister, that he hates the fact that he only hides in his room without even trying to talk to anyone.

The last thing his mother said to him was, "It matters to me that you are happy, sweetie. Even when you're older, when you live on your own and I'm a grandma, I'll only be a call away."

… … …

Karni was crying. "What a shitty dream." He said to himself. It was a dream of his past, one of the more turbulent times in his life, when he was just about to start high school, when his hormones were unstable and his puberty was at its peak.

They were small moments, nothing that could compare to his current circumstances. But they were embedded deep in his heart. It was these kinds of moments that he remembered and cherished the most. Thinking back, his worries then were quite childish in nature, but they were part of him nonetheless.

These small moments changed him for the better in the future.

In high school, he made great friends, and even as he was in university they still constantly hung out together. He cherished them as well, because he knew what true friends meant after experiencing an unfortunate friendship with people who were simply more of the mob mentality.

His relationship with his step-dad improved as well, the two even played games together every now and again, yelling at each other with stupid insults as true gamers do.

A small smile then appeared on his face as he remembered what his mother said. It was a bittersweet one, as the words she said were of no comfort at the moment.

He got up, and realised that he was in bed. His heart grew warm when he noticed another person in his room. She was all but embedded into his mind by now. The annoying child.

He sighed to himself, *Why is she so nice to me, yet so incredibly frustrating at the same time. We only know each other for a week.* It looked like he made another friend. One a tad bit younger than he expected.

She fell asleep while putting him to bed. A helpless look made onto Karni's face.

This child was extremely weird. She didn't sound like a six year old, at times feeling more mature than even him. Occasionally though, she did act according to her age.

Karni too, appeared six every now and then, he couldn't avoid it. His body's hormones were that of a six year old, even if he did have the mind of a 20 year old person inside. No matter how old, one's body couldn't be completely subdued.

"This weirdo." He muttered, and softly lifted her up while putting her on the bed.

He grabbed the blanket with which he slept and put it on her. He went to take a shower. He was filthy, and the stubbornness of a young girl the previous day, made him scrub himself clean.