Douluo: Yu Hao is reborn, this Tang San is different

Chapter 133 Practicing Combat Techniques
The sunset in the forest dyed the sky amber. Xiao Yan stood with his hands behind his back on the top of a dead tree, the Xuan Heavy Ruler casting a dark golden shadow in his palm.

A hundred meters below, Huo Yuhao knelt on one knee, sweat dripping from his forehead, smashing small craters into the grass in front of him. His Dou Qi armor was cracked, and the rough wooden ruler in his hand was covered with scorch marks—the price he paid for taking 30% of Xiao Yan's Fire Lotus.

"Remember, the essence of the Six Harmonies Swimming Ruler lies not in strength, but in momentum."

Xiao Yan's voice mingled with the sound of the wind as it fell, "Like the wind in this Sunset Forest, seemingly gentle, yet capable of swirling fallen leaves and cutting rocks." He flicked his finger, and a withered leaf suddenly burst forth with Dou Qi light, slicing the giant tree beside it into three pieces like a sharp blade.

Huo Yuhao looked up, his pupils reflecting the swirling wood chips.

"Teacher, your disciple is dull-witted and has never been able to grasp the essentials of swimming."

He wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth. "Every time I activate my battle qi, the wooden ruler weighs over a thousand pounds, making it impossible to use it continuously."

Xiao Yan leaped down, and the Xuan Heavy Ruler gently tapped Huo Yuhao's shoulder: "That's because you're still using force to control your fighting technique, instead of using your will to guide your fighting energy."

Blue light flashed at his fingertips, and a ruler materialized from his battle aura appeared in his palm.
"Watch closely, the Six Harmonies refers to the four directions of heaven and earth. Every move must take into account the front, back, left, right, up, and down, leaving the opponent nowhere to escape."

Before he could finish speaking, Xiao Yan's figure suddenly vanished.

Huo Yuhao only felt a flash of golden light before his eyes, and his teacher's figure appeared in six different directions. Every time he swung the ruler, it left afterimages, as if six people were attacking him at the same time.

As the sixth ruler-shaped shadow fell, the ground suddenly cracked open with spiderweb-like patterns, and Xiao Yan had already returned to his original position, his aura as steady as ever.

"This is... spatial fluctuation?" Huo Yuhao stared in shock at the cracks.

Xiao Yan smiled slightly, flames flickering at his fingertips: "Yes, but for you, understanding the true meaning of the Wandering Body is more important now."

He waved his hand and summoned three puppets. "This is the Earth-rank low-grade combat skill, the Three Yin Puppet Technique. They can simulate attacks of three different attributes. You must use the Six Harmonies Wandering Ruler to engrave their attack trajectories into your very bones without making contact."

The puppet moved.

The first blade spewed corrosive black flames, the second swung icy claws, and the third unleashed a whirlwind of blades. Huo Yuhao gritted his teeth and leaped up, drawing an arc in front of his chest with the wooden ruler.

The Blue Silver Grass martial soul instinctively wanted to break through the ground, but he forcibly suppressed it.

"No!" Xiao Yan's shout was like thunder. "You're afraid! Afraid of the puppet's attack, afraid of the wooden ruler breaking, even afraid of failure!"

Purple flames suddenly burst forth from his sleeve, igniting Huo Yuhao's wooden ruler. "Remember, a true master of combat has neither a ruler in hand nor in mind!"

Looking at the burning wooden ruler, Huo Yuhao suddenly recalled the desperate situation he faced in the Star Dou Great Forest when he was hunted by a million-year-old soul beast. Back then, he too had nowhere to retreat and could only rely on instinct to wield his Spirit Eye Martial Soul. Now, the burning wooden ruler suddenly became light in his hand, and the attack trajectories of those puppets were as clear as if they were etched onto his retina.

"Six Harmonies Breaking the Momentum!"

Huo Yuhao roared, his body spinning like a top, the burning wooden ruler creating a ring of fire. The attacks of the three puppets crumbled in the fire, the black flames, ice, and gale were melted into a chaotic energy that rebounded and blasted back at the puppet's main body.

Approval flashed in Xiao Yan's eyes, and the purple flame from his sleeve promptly shot out, shattering the energy ball.

“Interesting.” Xiao Yan tossed over a new wooden ruler. “But I still have a long way to go before I’ve mastered it. See that mountain peak over there? Before midnight tonight, use the Six Harmonies Swimming Ruler to carve 360 ​​marks on the mountain. The intervals between each mark must be as precise as the markings on a clock.”

Huo Yuhao gazed at the towering mountain peak that pierced the clouds, his Adam's apple bobbing.
"Disciple obeys."

As night fell, the roars of the soul beasts echoed throughout Sunset Forest.

Huo Yuhao stood at the foot of the mountain, the wooden ruler burning in his palm.

He took a deep breath, recalling every detail of Xiao Yan's demonstration, and then leaped into the air. The first foot landed, sending stone chips flying, tracing a silvery arc in the moonlight.

After an unknown amount of time, as the first rays of dawn illuminated the mountain peak, Huo Yuhao finally finished carving the last ruler mark. Looking at the three hundred and sixty neatly arranged marks on the mountainside, he suddenly had a flash of inspiration—the distribution of those marks subtly corresponded to the positions of the Big Dipper and the Twenty-Eight Mansions!

"Not bad, to be able to comprehend the Dao of Direction overnight." Xiao Yan's voice came from behind, holding a jade box in his hands. "This is Body Tempering Milk, which can help you consolidate your Dou Qi. But remember, the highest level of Dou Technique is not precision, but doing whatever you want."

A few hours later.

As dusk stained the sky like blood, Huo Yuhao knelt on one knee on the scorched rock, the lingering heat of the Eight Extremes Collapse still present in his palm. Twenty meters in front of him, a third-tier Ironback Bear crashed to the ground, the bowl-sized dent in its skull a testament to the power of the nine layers of the Eight Extremes Collapse.

“The Eight Extremes Collapse emphasizes the explosive power of a single inch, penetrating three levels of force.” Xiao Yan’s voice came from behind, the Xuan Heavy Ruler leaning against his shoulder. “But you released three-tenths of your seventh level of force just now, otherwise the Ironback Bear’s internal organs should have been shattered even more completely.”

Huo Yuhao wiped the sweat from his forehead and circulated his soul power to calm his breathing. He stretched out his right hand, and blue-purple battle qi condensed into a spiral vortex in his palm.

This was his third attempt to fuse his fighting spirit with the Eight Extremes Collapse technique. Each time he exerted force, his bones would emit a faint cracking sound.

"Teacher, the fierce power of Baji Beng and the gentle strength of Xuan Yu Shou are always difficult to match."

Xiao Yan raised his hand and flicked out a burst of purple flame, precisely igniting the withered branches in the rock crevice: "The balance of strength and gentleness isn't just a simple addition. Watch closely—"

He approached like a ghost, his Xuan Heavy Ruler seemingly swung casually, but the moment it touched the flames, it suddenly changed its move, the ruler transforming into countless phantoms, compressing the flames into a single, leaping fireball. "Controlling fire with softness, breaking through defenses with hardness, this is the true essence of fusion."

Huo Yuhao's pupils contracted sharply, and he finally understood why his fighting spirit always formed a wasteful wave of energy on his body surface every time he used the Eight Extremes Collapse.

He took a deep breath and charged at the other loitering Gale Wolf again. This time, he deliberately slowed down his punching speed, and just as his fist was about to touch the wolf's head, his Xuan Tian Gong suddenly reversed, the soft force like silk wrapping around the fierce Bajiquan, precisely sending it into the wolf's Qihai acupoint.

The Swift Wolf collapsed, whimpering. Not a drop of blood flowed from its seven orifices, but its body had been torn to shreds.

Huo Yuhao looked at his slightly reddened fist and finally understood the sense of control that allowed him to kill without leaving a trace.

The practice of the Absorbing Palm technique was full of setbacks.

When Huo Yuhao first tried to use his suction palm to pull a rock thirty meters away, the suction force in his palm not only failed to pull the rock closer, but also caused him to stumble forward a few steps. Seeing this, Xiao Yan casually broke off a tree branch, infused it with his Dou Qi, and threw it towards an ancient tree a hundred meters away. The branch suddenly changed direction in mid-air, precisely hooking a falling leaf and slowly flying back.

"The suction palm isn't about brute force pulling; it's about using battle qi to create a gravitational field." Xiao Yan placed the leaf in Huo Yuhao's palm.
Imagine your palm is the center of a vortex, and the surrounding air is your tentacles.

Huo Yuhao closed his eyes, recalling the feeling when he used his Spirit Eye Martial Soul to perform mental detection. When he opened his eyes again, the battle qi in his palm began to spin strangely, and the withered leaves on the ground moved without wind, gradually condensing into a vortex in front of him.

As the suction intensified, the distant boulder began to tremble, eventually crashing off the ground, arcing through the air, and landing precisely in his open embrace.

The practice of the Fire-Blowing Palm coincided with a torrential downpour. Huo Yuhao stood under the waterfall, letting the water wash over his body, while continuously exhaling flames of battle qi into the rain.

At first, the flames were always extinguished instantly by the rain, until he remembered what Xiao Yan had said: "Qi follows the will of the heart, and fire arises from the heart."

He calmed himself, channeling his spiritual energy into his battle qi, imagining himself as magma erupting from the Earth's core. When he opened his mouth again, a crimson dragon of fire burst through the rain curtain, scorching the distant cliffs with blackened marks.

The training of the Brute Step was the most dangerous. Huo Yuhao moved back and forth through the thicket of thorns, calculating the exact footing for each step.

Xiao Yan kept throwing burning stones at him, forcing him to dodge at an even faster speed. Once, he was accidentally cut on the calf by a sharp thorn, and blood stained the thorns red, but he gritted his teeth and continued running until he could complete three sudden changes of direction before the flames hit the ground.

The cultivation of the Three Thousand Thunderclaps was filled with the roar of thunder. Huo Yuhao stood at the edge of the thunderstorm zone, watching Xiao Yan transform into a streak of purple lightning, weaving through the clouds. When he first tried to use it, he was struck by lightning after only running ten meters, his entire body paralyzed and he collapsed to the ground.

But he didn't give up. After each lightning strike, he carefully sensed the flow of electricity through his meridians. Finally, on his seventh attempt, a pale blue electric light appeared on his body, and with one step, he covered a distance of twenty meters.

The cultivation of the Flame Dividing Wave Ruler caused the lakes of Sunset Forest to boil. Huo Yuhao held the specially made black iron ruler, continuously cleaving waves of battle qi on the water's surface.

Xiao Yan required him to create a complete whirlpool with each swing of the ruler, capable of shredding floating giant logs into pieces.

After hundreds of attempts, when Huo Yuhao finally managed to make the three waves converge in the air to form a tornado that devoured everything, Xiao Yan's eyes showed a relieved smile for the first time.

When Xiao Yan was practicing the Six Harmonies Body Ruler, he brought Huo Yuhao to a natural stone forest. "Every stone here is your enemy."

After Xiao Yan finished speaking, his figure flashed and disappeared into the stone forest.

Huo Yuhao took a deep breath, the wooden ruler spinning in his palm. He took his first step, and the first move of the Six Harmonies Swimming Ruler was instantly unleashed, the fighting spirit ruler beams precisely striking the weak points of the three stones.

As he moved about, he unleashed a series of moves, including "Earthfall," "Left Thrust," and "Right Charge," turning the entire stone forest into his battlefield.

When he unleashed his final move, all the stones that were struck exploded simultaneously, and the fragments formed a perfect six-pointed star pattern in the air.

Huo Yuhao knelt on one knee, breathing heavily. The wooden ruler in his hand was covered with cracks, but his eyes shone with an unprecedented light.

“From today onwards, these fighting techniques will be your claws and fangs.” Xiao Yan stepped forward and tossed over a new ruler made of fine steel. “But remember, a true strongman is not defined by how many fighting techniques he has mastered, but by the ability to perfect each and every one of them.”

Under the wisteria-covered corridor of Blue Tyrant Academy, Yu Xiaogang's cane struck the bluestone slabs heavily, producing a dull sound.

Thirty-seven students stood in neat rows. Tang San noticed that there were three more patches on his teacher's gray robe, and the collar was still stained with unwashed herbal juice—the traces left by him staying up all night to prepare the soul skill potion.

"The Continental Elite Advanced Soul Master Tournament will begin in Heaven Dou City in three months." The Grandmaster's voice was hoarse but powerful as his gaze swept over every young face. "This is your stage to prove yourselves, and also an opportunity for Blue Tyrant Academy to rebuild its glory."

Dai Mubai subconsciously touched the scar on his forehead, where the burn mark from his last battle with the Royal Fighting Team still remained. "Teacher, I heard that there are over two hundred teams participating this time, including many from the Spirit Hall's directly affiliated academies and the Imperial Royal Team."

His voice carried a hint of seriousness, "Can we really do this?"

The master suddenly coughed violently, and Tang San quickly offered him a throat lozenge. The old man waved his hand in refusal and took out a roll of yellowed parchment from his pocket. It was densely marked with the spirit configurations of various academies: "The Spirit Hall Academy is good at group battles, the Heaven Dou Royal Academy relies on the explosive power of beast spirits, and the Star Luo Empire White Tiger Academy is famous for its spirit fusion techniques - but they all have a fatal weakness: they rely too much on their inherent tactics."

Oscar peeked out, his sausage-shaped martial spirit faintly visible in his palm: "Teacher, are you saying we can use the characteristics of our martial spirits to differentiate ourselves?"

"Brilliant." The master pointed his cane at Tang San. "The restraining ability of the Blue Silver Grass, the attack of the Evil Eye White Tiger, the amplification of the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Pagoda, plus the logistical support of the Sausage Specialty Store—this combination of all elements is unique on the continent."

He suddenly ripped open his collar, revealing a gruesome claw mark on his chest.

"Do you know why I insist that you cultivate your own soul skills? Because only by breaking the rules can you stand out from the crowd of monotonous teams."

Xiao Wu's rabbit ears suddenly perked up; she sensed a fluctuation of soul power in the distance. But Grandmaster's voice struck everyone's hearts like a heavy hammer: "You think this is just a match? No, this is a rehearsal for the battlefield! The Spirit Hall's ambition for expansion has never been extinguished, the covert war between Heaven Dou and Star Luo is intensifying, and you—" His gaze fell on Tang San,
"It could very well become a key piece in changing the landscape."

Ma Hongjun clenched his fist quietly, his Phoenix Martial Soul stirring within him.

Three months ago, he was a fat phoenix who was ridiculed, but under the master's special training, he can now control the changes in the shape of flames.

"Teacher, how should we prepare?"

“Starting tomorrow, we will conduct extreme soul power training every morning at dawn. In the morning, we will study team tactics, in the afternoon, we will conduct combat simulations, and at night—” Grandmaster paused, “Tang San will lead you in synergistic martial soul training.”

The students gasped softly, and Tang San felt dozens of eyes focused on him. He recalled Grandmaster's instructions in the study last night: "Remember, your task is not only to win the competition, but also to prove to everyone that Blue Silver Grass is not a useless martial soul, but a core that can dominate the battle."

"I know there are dissenting voices among you," the Grandmaster suddenly raised his voice, "but I swear in the name of thirty years of martial soul research: as long as you train strictly according to the plan, three months later, the entire continent will remember the name of Blue Tyrant Academy!"

As dusk deepened, the wisteria blossoms swayed gently in the breeze. When the students dispersed, Tang San stayed behind. He watched as Master sat wearily on a stone bench, his white hair tinged gold by the setting sun, and suddenly remembered their first meeting—the spirited mentor from Notting Academy.

"Teacher, why are you so persistent?"

Yu Xiaogang looked up, the reflection from his glasses obscuring his eyes: "Because I lost once, and lost completely." He stroked the blue silver grass carving on his cane, "But you won't, because you have something I didn't have back then—unity, talent, and the courage to change the world."

(End of this chapter)