Douluo Dalu: 1st Cycle: Dancing Panda

Karni already knew about spiritual power and the spiritual sea. Both of them were crucial in the second and the third novel. During the time of the third novel, this was basic knowledge for soul masters across the world.

But he had to admit he was surprised their spiritual powers were going to be assessed. It had to be said that they were kids. Most of the kids have only awakened their martial souls. Their spiritual power wasn't going to differ much at all, nor was it going to be high.

Spiritual power represented the mental prowess of a person and was located inside of the spiritual sea. Spiritual sea could be said to store this power, though it stored many other things as well. Having the spiritual sea destroyed meant dying or becoming a person in a vegetative like state; it was interconnected with the brain after all.

Since spiritual power was the mental prowess of people, children obviously haven't developed them yet, even if they were to have different martial souls. It looked like Yi Lan had a different reason for this test.

"In the last few thousand years, the world has developed a way to measure one's own mental power. Now I know some of you already know this, since you were taught from a young age, however not all of the kids here were born noble, so you will have to sit through this."

It was probably meant to mainly comfort Karni. The teacher didn't know that Karni also already knew the basics of spiritual power. This might be an attempt to get Karni on the same level of education as other noble children.

Spiritual power was divided into six realms. The lowest was Spirit Origin Realm, all living creatures belong here when they are born. Second lowest is the Spirit Connection Realm, followed by the Spirit Sea realm, Spirit Abyss Realm, Spirit Domain Realm and lastly the Divine Origin Realm.

"The last time there was a person in the Divine Origin Realm was ten thousand years ago, and I don't think I need to mention who that was?" Yi Lan asked the class.

The whole class could be heard whispering the name of the Spirit Ice Douluo, Huo Yuhao. He was the last person known to have become a god, and Divine Origin Realm represented one's spiritual prowess reaching godhood.

"However what is most important for you right now is the Spirit Origin Realm, which is the level at which you kids are at. Li Tai. Tell me, do you know how the Spirit Origin Realm is divided?" Yi Lan looked at one of the kids who previously made fun of Siduo and Karni.

The kid stood up. "Yes, teacher. The Spirit Origin Realm is divided into four levels: the Elementary, Intermediate, Advanced and the Peak."

Yi Lan nodded. "Correct. And for easier understanding, the world decided to evaluate this with numbers. Tell me, Yu Tian, what are the ranges of points that represent each of the smaller realms?" Yi Lan looked at the friend of Li Tai.

Yu Tian stood up just like Li Tai. "The elementary realm is up to 30 points, intermediate is up to 60. Advanced is up to 90 and up to 100 is the peak realm." He quickly sat down without waiting for the teacher's confirmation. This was basic knowledge to all the kids here.

"You're right. Following the Spirit Origin Realm, the Spirit Connection Realm lasts from 100 points to 500. In a similar fashion the next realm, the Spirit Sea Realm, is up to 5000 points of spiritual power. As you can see the increase in this is exponential, and it is closely connected to your soul power, which also raises 10 percent every level. Both of them are exponential increases. The Spirit Abyss Realm is said to even go up to 20000 points and is known as one of the hardest thresholds to reach. The points in higher realms are much harder to improve on than in the lower ones. Again, like soul power." Yi Lan grew quiet for a split second for everyone to take this in.

"Most soul masters have a hard time reaching the Spirit Sea Realm and those who do, almost never break through the next barrier. If any of you do… Well you can think of yourself as having limitless potential…"

"Despite all that, you should always take your path of cultivation one step at a time. There are no shortcuts in cultivation, and if they are, they can be damaging instead of useful. Your goal for now is to reach the intermediate level of Spirit Origin Realm as by then, you can fuse with a stronger 100 year spirit souls." 

There were many stories when people used some sort of treasures to fasten their cultivation, however those people then had to seclude themself to reestablish their foundation. Those who didn't eventually met their end.

"Remember that your spiritual power is stored inside your spiritual sea, and that is where your spirit souls reside. Their very existence is dependent on your spiritual sea." Yi Lan continued with the lesson. Partly repeating some of his words so they were truly imprinted in the children's minds.

Spiritual power was also used to control a person's soul ring's ability. The better spiritual power one had, the more control one had. The more efficient one is, the less mental strain there will be on the spirit master.

But despite all that, training one's control of spiritual power and training the control of soul power was like night and day. If soul power was like controlling one's hands, the spiritual power was trying to control your ears. One was usually done on a subconscious level.

Yi Lan brought the students to the spiritual power testing area. There was a machine there to test one's mental prowess. They borrowed this from the Spirit Pagoda.

Usually children such as them wouldn't be tested for such things, but this was a prestigious academy after all.

"Okay everyone step to the machine in alphabetical order by name. The machine will only measure your current spiritual power and nothing else." Yi Lan smiled and proceeded to explain how to use the measuring machine.

"First up…"

… … …

"Next up, Val Karni."

Karni took a deep breath and stepped toward the machine. Following the teacher's instructions, the machine started to measure his spiritual power.

A ping could be heard. The machine finished measuring. Everyone looked at the result.

"51. Intermediate rank." Said teacher Yi Lan, surprised. Everyone else was also surprised.

To be at the intermediate rank at age 6 was incredibly rare and could be considered genius. Everyone started looking at Karni with different looks in their eyes. Li Tai and Yu Tian seemed to have been shocked the most. They had to spar with this guy?

However Yi Lanwas surprised for a different reason. Didn't Karni have Spiritual Power of 43 just two weeks ago? How was it possible to increase so much in a couple of weeks?

Spiritual Power was incredibly hard to increase without special cultivation methods. Unless… Martial Souls of the spiritual variety were the exception.

Karni was also surprised. For the same reason. He also remembered his previous score. *Was it because of those golden strings, when I was cultivating? Time did seem to pass unnaturally fast.* This was the only way he could explain it to himself.

In fact both were right. What Karni experienced was comprehension in cultivation, and his Martial Soul was also of the spiritual variety. This combined made his Spiritual power quickly rise in a short amount of time.

The process of evaluating spiritual power continued and most of them were in the lower elementary rank of Spirit Origin. Some of them reached close to 20s and some were even in their lower 20s, however none of them was in the intermediate rank. If they were, it would be incredibly odd.

It was now Wu Siduo's turn. She held her head high as she walked towards the machine. She didn't look like the mischievous girl that Karni knew, but a proud and confident one, the one he was familiar with in the novels.

The machine finished measuring her spiritual power and even teacher Yi Lan fell silent. "Ra- Rank 63! Advanced Rank!" Karni was equally shocked, he knew that she seemed mysterious even if he knew the character of the books. But now he was sure some of his thoughts were confirmed. Information from the book had been left untold or was simply wrong, he was betting on the latter. Something was different! She shouldn't have been so powerful at this point.

She calmly and proudly walked back as her eyes met Karni's. She broke her facade for a second and gave him a wink.

Next, she looked over Li Tai and Yu Tain, her eyes turned proud again and she seemed to be mocking them. She could be perfectly described as the arrogant young miss at this moment. 

Li Tai and Yu Tian wore a frustrated and worried expression. They really regretted accepting that challenge. At such an age, the advantage of high spiritual power was immense.

They didn't have time to regret their decisions. It was their turn to measure spiritual power next.

Both of them measured in low 20s, Li Tai was measured at 23 while Yu Tian was at 21. They would be one of the strongest people in class if not for Karni and Siduo.

Li Tai and Yu Tian slowly approached the duo. "Umm. Is it possible to take back what we said before? We'll apologise as well."

Just as Karni was about to say that it's okay, Siduo overtook him. "What, are you scared? If you want to become soul masters you should at least try to overcome the odds, no?"

Li Tai and Yu Tian simply shared a look of regret, they couldn't say anything against that. The only thing leaving their mouths was a sigh.

"Don't worry, since you're cowards, me and Karni won't use our soul rings." 

Silence. Not only were they not mad at her for calling them cowards, they were only shocked. *Did she just say soul rings?*

Karni was the only one who nudged her about her choice of words.

A sudden chatter began among the class as well. Most of the people who saw them spar yesterday didn't see the start, they only saw the latter part. At that point they have long since stopped using their soul rings.

Yu Tian tried to speak up. "You… You're just bullying us!"

"I wouldn't be doing this if someone could've kept their mouth shut in the class." Siduo bit back. Siduo had a simple concept in terms of things like this. An eye for an eye. Even if they were children.

No one could refute her. They were indeed the ones that started the whole thing. They also accepted the challenge. Li Tai and Yu Tian could only hope they wouldn't suffer too much humiliation.

A voice interrupted everyone. "Now, now. Remember that it's only a spar, you can't hurt each other." Yi Lan decided that it was time he should step in before the spar goes out of hand. He wasn't used to 6 year olds being so violentč Especially Siduo's level of aggressiveness.

"We haven't finished all the evaluations, so everyone please settle down." Yi Lan called out the next student.

In such fashion, everyone was evaluated. Most of the children were in their 10s of spiritual power points. Some were below 10s, and 6 of the children were in the low 20s. The only exceptions were Siduo and Karni.

Karni was still baffled about Siduo's spiritual power. He knew that in the novel she was hailed as one of the geniuses of her generation, especially so in Star Luo City, however her power seemed much stronger than it should've been. She could definitely compete with a main character of the novels. 

And this wasn't the only problem with her. Why was she sticking so close to him? Did he really reincarnate into someone else's body, and she knew that boy? But the way she acted was like she was talking to someone she has known for multiple years. And that someone being specifically him.

She also seemed a bit different from how the novel described her. She still appeared smart and proud, but the way she acted with him was completely different. Is this simply how she was as a child? But if so, she didn't act like a six year old child either, it was more like someone pretending to be a child, just like him. The things he questioned before, became clearer, but they also offered more questions.

His train of thought was interrupted. "Hellooo! Douluo to Karni! What are you thinking so intently about?"

Karni looked at her. "You." Yeah. He knew how that sounded.

"Oh you, since when are you such a flirt? You'll make me blush." She said as she pretended to be bashful. Of course he wouldn't have the chance to tease her, if anything she seemed to enjoy the banter.

Karni tried to change the topic. "Well, would you enlighten me just how your spiritual power is so high?"

"Nope, a secret." She gave him a sweet smile.

"Bah, of course. What was I expecting?" He had a feeling this was going to happen. They soon returned to the classroom.

Their lessons switched back to more basic subjects. Discussing soul beasts, subjects from his previous world like mathematics and language and how to utilise soul power in various ways.

When the classes came to an end everyone became loud. The topic of discussion was of course the spar that was about to happen between. Yu Tian and Li Tai vs Wu Siduo and Val Karni. Watching a fight which included two oddballs was building expectations in everyone.

All four of them met and decided to head toward the sparring arena. They walked out of the school and there seemed to be more students than just their class. Apparently the news of a spar happening even spread to some of the other classes. Of course the news stayed within the first year. Older years wouldn't be interested in a couple of brats fighting.

In the arena, two were on one side and two on the other. Karni could even notice a certain teacher from the side looking at them. It was Yi Lan, and next to him seemed to be another man in his 40s, though his position appeared higher if Yi Lan's face was anything to go by.

Siduo was the first to speak. "The rules are simple. Whoever falls on the ground is out. If you're not sure what that means? It means, if your ass gets dirty you lose."

She could definitely be a mid tier shit talker. Though the kids watching found it very amusing. This is exactly what they wanted, a fun show.

Both Li Tai and Yu Tian could only nod, they weren't angry they just didn't want to humiliate themselves in combat.

Everyone summoned their martial souls. A person with a Bo Staff and a Cat like person on one side, and a sword and a shield on the other. The formation of Li Tai and Yu Tian looked much more organised and it was obvious that it wasn't their first time fighting together.

They were both nobles and their families had close ties, the families were known in the Star Luo City as the families of Sword and Shield. 

When they started, both Li Tai and Yu Tian dashed, Yu Tian at the front with a shield that had a coiling dragon inscribed on it, and Li Tai at the back with a sword that had clouds appearing on the blade.

The particular combo had another name. Dragon in the Clouds. Coiling Dragon Shield and Cloud Sword.