Karni opened his eyes. He recognised the ceiling. It was the hospital wing of the Star Luo City Tang Sect branch. He visited it often whenever he helped the injured members get a prosthetic or similar technology.
"You're awake!" He recognised the voice. Siduo. He looked at her. She was just eating a meal on a table nearby.
She came to him, she didn't seem to worry much. She also forgot to wipe a piece of food off of her cheek. "How are you feeling?"
"Refreshed, but tired. How's the situation?"
"That's been solved days ago."
"Days?" Karni chuckled nervously.
Siduo nodded with a smile. "You've been a sleepy boy. You were apparently stable since they brought you in, but you just didn't wanna wake up. The only thing they couldn't really help with was the arm." She pointed at it.
Karni looked to his arm. Corroded. He felt strength in it, and the wounds of mercury have healed but…
"They said that the scars will stay, but that you should be fine. It shouldn't affect your ability to fight."
"Well, that's a relief." Karni relaxed on the hospital bed.
Siduo nodded. "So, did you get it?"
"Yep." Karni smiled. "Tempest, wanna introduce yourself?"
Tempest appeared out of his body as an old lady. She sat on the bed.
"Tempest, this is Wu Siduo, my girlfriend. Sisi, this is Tempest."
"Ah, the human who was with you. Greetings. I am the Mercury Cyclone Flower. You can call me Tempest."
"Quite an intense name." Siduo smiled. "A suitable one."
"I will have you know that I did not have much control over that cyclone."
"Still suitable, since it was your power that caused it. I'm a bit jealous that Karni will be able to control that in the future."
"Hm. Unlikely." Karni said. "I only got one Soul Ring. Though it is a very good defensive one. My Martial Soul is not exactly compatible with Tempest."
"Hm. With that Panda, maybe not, but with that bamboo attached to it, it is. It's why your Soul Ring became what it is."
"Bamboo?" Karni was a bit surprised.
"Mm. Except it doesn't seem to be dominant. It looks to be dormant. My powers are mostly attached to it. It's why I only gave you a single Soul Ring. Though while it is separate, it also seems to be completely intertwined with the Panda."
Karni subconsciously summoned his Royal Bamboo Panda. The first thing he noticed was that the fur on his right arm does not flow as nicely with the rest of the fur. It did not move in the same flowing rhythm, but its own erratic one.
Then he took out the bamboo stick out of his mouth. Usually, he just ignored it, it simply came out just as the Royal Bamboo Panda did. This time he took a closer look. There was a slight change to the Bamboo. The green wasn't purely green anymore. There was slight golden striations flowing on the edges. But that wasn't the biggest change.
The bamboo had bloomed. A small silver flower was on it now, very much resembling the way Mercury Cyclone Flower looked like in its Soul Beast form.
Karni was reminded of when his Fluffy Bamboo Panda became the Royal Bamboo Panda. The Bamboo Stick was not meant to be part of the Royal Panda bloodline. Hu Jie said so himself.
Lily also gave confirmation. Most of what Tang Sect knew about Royal Pandas came from the Brown Lotus Pandas, since they were distant descendants. There were no records of a Bamboo being connected to the Royal Panda line. Only some of its descendants. But those were far removed, while Karni's Bloodline had been proven to be of a Royal line.
So, what exactly was his Bamboo? Why was it attached to the Royal Panda? Was it really something external, as Hu Jie once told him?
… … …
Karni and Siduo were in the office of the Headmaster of Star Luo City Academy. They've known him for a long time by now.
"This is incredible." He looked at the report of how the students performed.
"They did us proud." Siduo smiled.
"And from what I've heard, you've already prepared two kids for the next generation of Special Class. Your brother and his friend, am I correct?"
Siduo chuckled. "We just prepared the environment. Since they weren't in the Special Class officially, they didn't get the resources."
The Headmaster chuckled. "But you have helped them. Tell you what. What do you think about staying after your three-year term? I can promise to give you high wages. We could really use someone like you two."
Karni and Siduo looked at each other and shook their heads. "We like it here, but it's not Shrek. I don't think you'd want to hear from our teachers in Shrek. They're the Pavilion Master and Vice-Pavilion Master."
The Headmaster coughed. Yes, that would be quite… a problem. He didn't want to offend someone like the Atlas Douluo. Sometimes he forgot who these monstrous teenagers had for masters. Shrek really did breed monsters.
"In that case, I hope you can get a few good talents for our next generation in the next two years, so Teacher Ye has an easier time."
"Will do." Karni and Siduo smiled.
… … …
The holidays had started. Though their life as a teacher didn't give much time for holidays. Sure, they were going to have a month of free time, but the kids had two months. They on the other hand had quite a lot of paperwork to go through. They also had to prepare the next year's curriculum for the Special Class.
This year they mostly improvised. They found out what worked and what didn't. Next year the training would be more planned, especially so because they were familiar with the first two members that would enter the new Special Class. Jianyu and Wang Chao.
After the paperwork for the day was completed, the two went into the Tang Sect. Particularly in the Battle Hall rooms that increased the flow of time. Karni had regularly been staying both inside and just outside the rooms.
Inside, he was currently working on the Guardian. Outside, he was training his Spiritual Power be attuning himself to different time. But he'd been attuning himself for years now. It was regularly scheduled cultivation for him now.
He had begun a new little project on the Guardian. It was time for him to figure out what the fuck was actually up with his bamboo and the panda. He had known about the problem for so long now but had no clue what could be causing it. He would have never in a million years expected that it might be the bamboo.
He had multiple theories on how to figure out his Martial Soul. One was to treat the bamboo and the panda as two separate Martial Souls. However, that was only meant to close in on the problem, he knew that wouldn't work. At the end of the day, it was a single Martial Soul.
… … …
Or not. Karni sat and watched the changes happening on a plank of metal that he was testing his Martial Soul on. It just… didn't make sense.
The plank was made to handle two Martial Souls. It didn't fully activate, but it activated too much for it be a single Martial Soul.
Karni's Martial Soul was activated. He grabbed the Bamboo Stick and shouted at it with frustration. "What are you!"
He'd been at this for a whole week! It clearly wasn't a separate Martial Soul, but it wasn't fully part of the Martial Soul either! What was it?!
He bonked his head on the table full of blueprints and sighed. "Fine. The brute forcing method it is."
… … …
"Heh. Hehe. Ahahahahahahaha!" Karni laughed like a maniac. He raised a metal plank as if holding a trophy.
"I gotchu." He grinned with frenzy in his eyes.
He had been working on this for the better part of a month now, trying to figure out what his Martial Soul was. He was finally getting close to the truth.
The Bamboo was a pseudo-Martial Soul, though even that wasn't exactly the correct classification. It was an entity that attached itself to his Royal Panda, not exactly a Martial Soul. It could not function without the Panda.
Karni's guess was that due to the laws of the Douluo Plane, there was a good chance that should the Bamboo had been strong enough, it would have likely manifested itself as a Martial Soul. But that was his understanding of the planar laws speaking. Knowledge, he had due to the books he read back on Earth. If one were to talk about the laws of the world, Karni likely knew more than anyone else on the entire planet.
He finally understood why he had so many problems in using the Panda through the Guardian. He never accounted for an extra foreign entity.
The good news was, he knew how to move forward.
The bad news was… he would need to make a lot of adaptations to the Guardian. Each Soul Ring would need a special little calibration around it that would separate the Royal Panda and the Bamboo. Except for the fourth Soul Ring, the new one. That one would need an adaptation that would make sure all of the aspects are joint instead.
Unfortunately, for this to be viable, because he already had two Martial Souls on the guardian, he would need to make use of round space. He would need to study up on Ziwen Geometries and break through to 7-Star Designer. Otherwise, one of two things would happen: the Soul Arrays would be easily breakable, or the weapon would be put under too much burden. Even with a balanced option, there would be weak spots on the Guardian that Karni would have to watch out for. It would not be a practical weapon.
However, Ziwen Geometry and the science correlating to it was a giant sea of knowledge he would have to fill.
Karni had been putting off learning about Ziwen Geometry. Until now, Karni liked to have a project that he would work on, which would require him researching certain aspects of the new field thoroughly. Those aspects would then give way to him getting a solid foundation in the next realm of designing. It was a process that gave him non-stop motivation.
It was like this when he was researching the AR Glasses, focusing on compacting everything into small spaces. It forced him to instinctively understand the Hexagonal Array Theorem. It happened yet again with the Guardian and its later aspects. Once he reached the Spirit Abyss Realm, the knowledge he built up through experimenting made it easy for him to fully understand the Icosahedron Array Theorem. Everything came together.
However, since then, the tools he made for Siduo, the things he was researching in the Mecha Augmentation Division, everything was new geometry, sure, but none of it required or even touched the aspects of the 7-Star Designer. It was just side field of different focused research.
There was a reason why jumping from 6-Star Designer to 7-Star Designer took the most time. It was not truly possible to be a 7-Star Designer if one didn't fully understand Ziwen Geometry.
Mechanics also needed to learn them; however, they only needed to be familiar with them through a practical aspect. The 7-Star level was where the three professions of Mecha Engineers truly started differentiating from one another. Until this level, Mechanics sort of dabbled into both aspects, after this, not so much anymore.
Mecha Manufacturers only had to learn to carve out Soul Arrays on objects where Ziwen Geometry would be used on. On the other hand, Mechanics had to understand certain key aspects of how all of it worked together, but they did not have to know all Ziwen Geometry theory.
Designers, and hence, Karni, would have to thoroughly study Ziwen Geometry theory. A process that was going to take him years, because Ziwen Geometries had books upon books upon books about it. It would be like going back to college. Proper studying would be needed.
Besides studying, every little advancement he would make would need to be tested as well. It was why he had been procrastinating a bit with it. Of all things, it was his own Martial Soul that gave him motivation to study up on Ziwen Geometries.
He placed the bamboo stick into his mouth. It felt natural to have it there. He stepped out of the Battle Hall prematurely, with still a few hours left and went to the in-sect library.
He left the library thirty minutes later, already looking tired. In his storage ring, he now had twenty books, all thick and firm. They included books from general introductions to materials for study to books that made a collage of multiple research papers regarding Ziwen Geometry Theory to books on cross referencing Ziwen Geometry with former knowledge to application and how to go about practical testing and so much more.
He went back into the Battle Hall room and sat down, opening up the introductory book. It was time to read.
… … …
Another month had passed. The new school year was about to start. This year, Karni and Siduo would have more free time. Most of their first year, they were in charge of all the combat classes due to Teacher Ye being in closed-door cultivation, but now that she was back, they would have less burden on themselves.
After a very long speech from the Headmaster, one that sounded almost exactly like the one the previous year, except with a few added excerpts here and there, the classes started.
They would definitely not miss these long-winded speeches of the Headmaster after they leave. However, they would need to go through one more. They still had another year after this one after all. Two years left all together.
Karni stepped into the classroom. The first class today was the new first year of advanced class. Since Karni was teaching it, it was obviously a combat class. His role in this academy did not change. Just because it was his second year, he would not be in charge of a whole class. They were only here temporary, so the academy would never assign them students permanently.
The students quietened down as he entered. There were some confused faces, and some similar to the ones from last year when he started.
"You're the teacher?" An unknown voice asked. Karni looked at the student. He didn't recognise him. Since these were the first years of the Advanced Academy, many of them didn't recognise him. At the intermediate level and at the advanced level, the academy took in people from outside of the academy. All of the talents of Star Luo City gathered in Star Luo City Advanced Academy. Those who weren't in the intermediate academy and bloomed their talents later on often ended up in Star Luo City Advanced Academy.
This kid seemed like one of those people. An arrogant one as well. He was definitely a top talent in his academy, likely nurtured by that academy as well. Though those were Karni's assumptions rather than facts; but they were well founded assumptions.
"You know what?" Karni said. "I don't have time to deal with people like you again this year."
Cosmic Instrument appeared in his hands, his Soul Rings appeared, his fifth ring shone. Quivering Silver Feathers. Before the student who complained could say anything, the window was opened up with Karni's careful control of space, then the teen was lifted up and thrown out of the window.
The class looked in shock. One kid who had been in this academy since the Junior Academy started laughing.
"Chi Gongli, shut up. Teacher Wu mentioned you at the start of the year last year. You said the exact same thing to her that that brat did to me."
Chi Gongli quickly quieted down. He blushed a little bit.
"Alright, enough of that. This is a combat class. Introductions will be on the field. Everyone, follow me through the window." Karni walked to the window and jumped out. It was the second floor. Every Soul Master could easily jump through here.
Karni saw the new student he threw out looking at him. He was avoiding Karni's gaze. "I'm sorry."
"Good." Karni said, then watched the window. One by one, the teens jumped through it, but he counted five short.
Not a minute later, those five came through the door. All of them were new students at the academy.
"Go back up and jump through the window." Karni said.
"You serio---." The teen who questioned Karni lost his voice. Karni had a shushing finger on.
"Do it." Karni said. Another one tried to voice a complaint, but no voice came out.
The kids took it like a challenge. They would not be pushed around by their new teachers so easily. Karni sensed Soul Power brewing within them. All of them Soul Elders. But despite the Soul Power usage, they still couldn't voice anything.
It was only then that something clicked for them. This new teacher of theirs did not have his Soul Rings out anymore. He had control over their voices without any use of Soul Power. Pure comprehension quietened them down.
They went back inside and after a minute, they jumped through the window.
"Good. Now we can begin." Karni was aware he was being unreasonable, but this was the most efficient way. It was time to get to actual teaching.
… … …
Karni arrived in the next class. They were already on the field. They knew their teacher's wants by now. It was Ma Fai's—now Tie Fai—and Tie Tiao's class.
"Alright, you've had two months of growth without me. You all know I demanded practice of you, so we will test this out now. We'll do it similarly to our usual flow last year. Assault and speed systems will attack, defence systems will defend, and support systems will show their power by supporting someone else and seeing the difference. However, all the testing will be done by me today."
The students, instead of growling, got excited. They rarely got to truly test themselves against Karni and Siduo, but whenever they did, they got a lot out of it.
"I've grown the last two months as well." Karni said, his Royal Bamboo Panda appeared. Four Soul Rings circulated around him. "Agility and Assault systems will get to test my new skill. It is a defensive skill. If any of you can break it, you will get bonus points on the year-end test. You are allowed to charge up your skills beforehand."
The students got even more excited now.
Karni stepped forward. His fourth Soul Ring shone. He wanted to test this skill today. What would it be able to take if Karni simply let himself be hit?
Bamboo started appeared on Karni. One by one, but at incredible speed. Head, body, arms, legs. Karni was covered in two seconds in bamboo armour. For whatever reason, based on Tempest's information due to his own imagination, the armour resembled samurai armour.
It was a skill that did not resemble anything Tempest threw at him in the world of mercury and wind. Tempest said it was due to her having to connect to his Bamboo Stick, as well as the abilities not being very compatible with his Martial Soul, causing quite a mutation of the skill.
"I call it the Samurai Bamboo Armour." Karni told his students.
"Teacher Val," Tie Tiao raised his hand. He called him in a formal way when in class. "What does samurai mean?"
Karni scratched his head. Right. This world did not have a concept of samurais. That was strictly an Earth thing. Maybe he should change the appearance of the armour, since it resembled what his imagination thought of? But then again, when he thought of bamboo armour, his first thought was samurai armour. Sure, he knew some ancient folk in his world used bamboo armour that didn't look anything like a samurai, but he struggled to imagine it. He'd just let it stay as it was.
"Samurai were honourable warriors where I was born." Karni answered simply. He was a Slav, not even remotely connected to the Japanese, but these guys didn't know that. No need to complicate things.
"Now then, we're not here for questioning." Karni said as soon as he saw some more students getting curious. "Start."
Three kids lined up. For some reason they looked confident. Karni raised his eyebrow. Was it because the armour was of bamboo? That was a dangerous assumption. It looked like he would have to devote a school hour to judging people's skills and not to look down on unassuming abilities.
Karni was not aware of the power of his skill, but he knew one thing. Panda Cushion was a mostly defensive skill, with a focus on enforcing the flexible constitution of the Royal Bamboo Panda. That was why it also increased some of his strength, yet that one already made him hard to injure by his peers. But this skill was purely defensive. It did not enhance any other power. It purely served to protect him.
The first student attacked. He was a Strength type. He put on two enhancements and used an attack skill at an optimum moment. The attack was a powerful punch.
Karni stood there and did not move. The punch landed. A creak was heard, but nothing else. Karni felt nothing.
He looked at Karni, as if asking if he could try again.
"Next." Karni said, crushing the student's hopes. But the student wasn't surprised, he expected it by now.
The next student prepared. An assault type. Her body turned into pure energy. A few energy balls appeared around her, then fused together and attacked Karni. He smiled. She was a diligent student. The girl progressed a lot last year, especially so in synergising her skills.
She struck at Karni, covering his entire torso with pure energy.
The sight cleared and Karni stretched and checked his armour. There was still no scratch. He also felt the effects of the Armour clearer now. Many of the nearby pieces shared the burden with the pieces that got hit, much like Battle Armours did. That was a fantastic ability of the skill, though it obviously had a limit. The whole armour did not share the burden during the hit; it did not function as well as Battle Armour.
"Next." Karni said.
The first "boss" showed himself. Tie Tiao. Right now, he was actually about the same skill level as the energy girl, but his specialty was completely different. Daggers. Fast, powerful and focused.
Tie Tiao went into a starting pose; the daggers Karni had redesigned for him in his hands. Three Soul Rings shone. The Little Swallow flew toward him with terrifying speed, becoming smaller and smaller, more and more focused, and a flow of wind supported him as the third Soul Ring Shone. Little Swallow Flies, Little Swallow Dives and Little Swallow Flows done at the same time. All three abilities reached their apex. Then the daggers struck at a single point.
The dagger went in deeply into the bamboo but was then pushed back intensely. Tie Tiao watched surprised. Karni was even more surprised. He was genuinely expecting that that piece of Samurai Bamboo Armour would give. He thought wrong. This was the power of a skill that was one step into the Hundred-Thousand-Year realm!
From the cut of the dagger blew intense wind. Pressurised wind. That was the reason that the dagger could not go deeper, and why it was pushed back. After the first layer of the bamboo, the armour was filled with pressurised wind. And in that moment, it was let free to push back against the dagger. It was even whistling due to the intensity.
Karni sent Soul Power into the piece of Samurai Bamboo Armour. The cut started to heal up with quite the decent speed, but nothing Karni could rely on actively during battle. He already found out a few interesting things about his new Soul Ring.
"Next!" He nodded to Tie Tiao who moved to the side.
Tie Fai came up, already aflame. Claws at her hands. Yet another weapon that Karni designed. This one had elements of Soul Ring fusion into the weapons. Two of her skills per her request.
Tie Fai lit up, four wings appearing behind her. Pheonix Wings. She flew toward him and halfway through, the second Soul Ring shone. Burning Hawk Rush. An instant dash directly into Karni.
Just before she hit, her first and third ring activated as well, fusing into her claws. The tips of the claws glowed brightly, the first Soul Ring fusing into it. Fiery Hawk Gaze. The backs of the claws were filled with tornadoes, before they enveloped the whole claws. She struck a single point of the armour as well, just a different one from Tie Tiao. The timing was immaculate.
Karni felt the part of the armour cracking, being enveloped by flame, pierced by the claws. It reached through. Karni prepared himself for some pain.
But instead of pain, Tie Fai was suddenly pushed back like a ragdoll. She lost control of her body and rolled on the ground a few times.
Karni was surprised. A shockwave. As the armour broke, an intense shockwave of wind was released. A shockwave of that same intensely pressurised wind that knocked back Tie Tiao's dagger. Now that the armour piece was fully broken, all of that wind was let loose at once.
He jogged up to Tie Fai. "You okay?"
"Yep, yep. Ptui." She spit out the dirt that got in her mouth. "Just got knocked back is all."
Karni smiled. His new skill really was incredible. Not only was the limit of head-on confrontation incredible, Tie Fai only managed to crack a single bamboo piece, and that revealed a safety mechanic that allowed him to gain distance at smallest of loses.
It was more than worthy of its Spirit Soul's power.
"Next."