Two Words

"Don't worry. Even without Ye Xinglan, you have Val Karni and Wu Siduo." Elder Cai just informed Tang Wulin of his situation on the scheduled battle against second year students.

Tang Wulin scratched his head. "Actually… the two said they wouldn't fight."

Elder Cai broke her neutral face for the first time in front of Tang Wulin. She didn't particularly care about those two students, but the Pavilion did. Did she really have two more troublemakers that she wasn't aware of in the class?

"They really said that?"

Tang Wulin nodded.

She sighed. "For fucks sake. Do they really think that they have a sa-" She went silent before finishing the statement. "Actually, forget it. They can stay out of it if they wish to."

"Then… Can I have Ye Xinglan on the team?"

Elder Cai waved him off. "Yes you can. Get out of here. You better not lose."

Tang Wulin nodded cheerfully as he left the office. As soon as he closed the door, another figure appeared in the room.

"Elder Long, are you sure?"

Long Yeyue nodded. "We're still thinking of a plan, but this kind of pressure won't do them any good. They need to feel some sort of pressure or at the very least a sense of urgency. Just forcing them into that won't give them that. If anything, it might just annoy them. They have incredibly high potential, but they are a bit overconfident, yet at the same time don't have a good enough challenge to face that confidence at the moment."

Elder Cai thought about it for a moment. She never realised how talented the two kids were until yesterday. "Don't they have a permanent rival in each other and Tang Wulin's group?"

Long Yeyue nodded. "They do, but it only seems competitive. I can see it in their eyes. The others look at those rivalries differently than they do. They seem… too relaxed. They might be pushing each other further at the moment due to wanting to become stronger, but this might turn into conceit. We can't let that happen to such talents."

Elder Cai nodded in understanding. "Tang Wulin's group doesn't have such problems. They didn't start off talented. While the only person that seems to have been that way has been snatched by the Spirit Pagoda." The old woman seemed furious as she said it out loud.

"Yue'er, let it go. Some people just aren't meant to come under our wings. Be thankful that talents like Tang Wulin, Val Karni and Wu Siduo decided to stay here. We should focus on them first and foremost."

"I know." Elder Cai calmed down. "If I think of anything that would suit your requirements, I'll inform you."

"Thank you." Elder Long disappeared with those words.

… … …

The day of the first vs second years came. Karni and Siduo came together and walked to the first year's side in the arena. Meanwhile the rest of the genius youth ranking people were all in the stands. Neither of them got invited to Tang Wulin's team when they won. They also had some bad blood between them even before Siduo became the leader. They were filled with regrets, but at least they learned a lesson.

Only 8 people sat on the competition side for the first class. The stands were rowdy and excited, except for a few voices. Because this was an event between two generations, it was led by a proper announcer and student entertainer.

Karni and Siduo didn't really care, nor did they listen. First would be the profession competition, only afterwards would the combat section start. In fact, Karni's turn would come second, after the blacksmithing competition.

Karni put himself in a meditative state and stopped the sound from the announcer from coming to him. He had plans he wanted to try out today. This past week he'd been feeling a bit competitive due to their last fight and he wanted to show dominance in the field of designing as well. He had two words he wanted to say to the audience.

The blacksmithing competition began, but Karni did not really pay attention. He knew the end result already anyway, so it didn't matter to him.

After more than half an hour of meditation however, he stopped and opened his eyes because an energy of life appeared on the stage. He could not block the feeling of this wonderful energy. He witnessed Tang Wulin bring life to metal in front of everyone. An elder that Karni wasn't familiar with, but knew was Feng Wuyu, was also on the stage.

The stage was silent as they heard a small argument ensue between Tang Wulin and the elder. Tang Wulin twisted the offer in his favour, before returning to their group. He just cheated an elder. Xu Lizhi threw a bun at Tang Wulin and he ate it whole.

The second year students started off with a loss. Next was Karni's turn. He stood up and looked at Tang Wulin. "You think I'd also be allowed to extend my time for the sake of a better product?"

Tang Wulin looked at him a bit confused.

Karni sighed. "I didn't think so either. Well, the lesser design it is then."

He walked up to the stage, opposite of him was a girl who also walked with confidence. She smiled brightly. "Hello, I'm Bai Hanying from the second grade. Please advise me."

Karni smiled back. "Hello. I'm Val Karni. I hope you'll advise me too."

The two walked to the blacksmithing tables they would use to design on.

Shen Yi announced the rules. "This Designing match will test your reasoning and the quality of your design. You have thirty minutes to design a right gauntlet for a set of Battle Armour. You can use your old designs. Elder Cai will personally select the winner."

The students from the first grade smiled as they heard this. Karni designed not only a gauntlet but also the shoulder part before. He shouldn't have any problems with this task.

Karni on the other hand smiled cruelly. This was just perfect. He could go wild with experimenting with only these limitations.

"Begin!" Shen Yi announced.

Karni brought out his Martial Soul and used the third ring. Those who have never seen him design were taken aback. He purposefully controlled it so as to not bother the opponent. That would just be disrespectful and a cheap move.

Students watched with amazement as he only used the tools to measure, but never to draw. He drew with a free hand technique. In fact, even the teachers were surprised. It's not like they've seen him draw blueprints before. This was one of his first public displays. Only the Elders and Shen Yi were not surprised. They had either heard of his results or were there to see him design the prosthetic during the Shrek Exam.

Those who knew designing were a bit confused as well once his design started to take shape. It was definitely a first rank gauntlet but… it was weird. For starters, even Two-Word Battle Armours usually didn't involve alloy, let alone a One-Word Battle Armour. At least the first years weren't confused as they had seen Wulin's Battle Armour.

"Wait. He's drawing it differently than he did for us." Gu Yue wondered out loud.

Tang Wulin looked confused, then he was reminded of what Karni said to him. He turned to Wu Siduo who simply wore a smile. She seemed to know what Karni was doing.

Karni's design was split into more layers than usual. There were two layers to each part of the design. Outer and inner, fused together by alloy of two metals. He based the alloy on a combination of Honey Titanium as well as Meteoric Nickel.

Meteoric Nickel was an incredibly ductile metal, capable of great flexibility and bending force. Because of this, it was used in all of the high-class string instruments. However, it had a problem. It was easily cut or torn apart with the slightest bit of tension. Its most known combination in an alloy was nickel-iron combo. It even appeared naturally.

Karni had recently been working with Tang Wulin to think up of a good combination with his Honey Titanium, and this was the result they arrived at: Honey Nickel. A combo that was particularly great at transmitting sound and was sometimes used in military grade sound equipment.

However, with the split into two layers, this alloy overlaid with another one of its own, it produced an even greater transfer of sound. The problem was...

"He's making a Two-Word Battle Armour blueprint right now." Gu Yue's turned to Siduo with a mixture of shock and curiosity. 

Siduo smiled. "Yep." Siduo didn't aggravate Gu Yue though. She didn't want further bad blood with the Silver Dragon Queen.

Gu Yue took notice of Karni's design from afar. "I see. That would indeed make it… that usage is quite…" She just couldn't finish any of her sentences. Her mind was working in overdrive hoping to understand his designs.

After about 15 minutes of designing, her face turned a bit weird. "Hmmm. I can learn a lot from his design… but how do I put this. Even I can see that there's something missing from the gauntlet. Is he leaving parts of it empty on purpose? Parts of it feel too normal for him."

Before Siduo could answer, it was Tang Wulin. "It's probably because he doesn't know the properties of his second Martial Soul. He's using generic designs to fill those spaces up."

Siduo affirmed Tang Wulin's suspicion. "The only parts he fills in are those he can fully connect. While he needs to connect his second Martial Soul, those connections are very… average Soul Arrays. He's been on the lookout for a suitable Spirit Soul these past few months, but he still hasn't found anything he was satisfied with. There's the pressure of his teacher as well. His teacher had a Spirit Soul prepared for him once, back in our visit to the Star Luo Continent. If he fuses with a different one, it better be a perfect fit, otherwise he'll be in a world of trouble."

"It's good that he's picky then." Gu Yue commented. "He should use that first Spirit Soul slot on something he can completely fuse with. Though I do wonder how that Spirit Soul was prepared there."

Siduo glanced at Gu Yue and noticed something hidden in her eyes. Something… dangerous. She raised her eyebrows. "Gu Yue, I thought you only cared about Tang Wulin."

Gu Yue blushed a bit. "I care about Tang Wulin a bit differently." Even Tang Wulin blushed a bit.

Siduo wanted to question her about something else, but she felt like she'd be talking to a wall. She wondered what this Silver Dragon Queen was actually thinking.

Gu Yue had mixed feelings about the whole situation. Karni genuinely had a decent character. He might have fought a bit of a petty battle against her, but he'd also always been sincere. He also seemed to lack ambition. But she could not know how long that would last. The problem was… The guy was just too inventive. She had heard of his prosthetics during the last few months. He made the AR Glasses. Now, he was already designing Two-Word Battle Armour before he even finished his One-Word Version. He was… dangerous. If he would go against her someday… She shook. She ignored the most dangerous aspect. Karni had visions of the future.

She breathed out, shaking her head. There was no use. Who knew, he might even turn out to be an odd ally someday. She shouldn't judge him too soon. But she would keep an eye out.

Karni was about to finish. In fact, if he had had more time, he'd choose to design the Two-Word Battle Armour he'd thought up for Siduo, that one had no missing pieces. It's not like these designs were complete, but in his mind, the sooner he understands this stage, the better his One-Word Battle Armour designs would be once he fully finished them.

Half an hour was up. Karni and Bai Hanying put down their pens. Elder Cai walked up to them. First, she inspected Bai Hanying's blueprints.

"Mm. I see you've used up some high level techniques. The design seems to be suitable for a Twin Martial Soul Master, but the balance is still a bit clumsy."

She then moved to Karni's design. A mix of shock and confusion passed her face for a split second.

"You… this is for a Twin Martial Soul Master?"

Karni nodded.

"Then why is half of it at such a high level but the other… so bland." She almost sounded disappointed.

"Because I don't know the properties of the said second Martial Soul yet, so I put that in as filler."

"And you practised this on… a Two-Word design?" She raised her eyebrow.

The public was silenced when they heard this. He made a Two-Word design? For Twin Martial Souls of which he didn't know the properties of one of the Martial Souls?

"Why didn't you just design a normal Two-Word Battle Armour design then?" Elder Cai asked the question that everyone in the public had, though she had guessed the answer to a degree. She just wanted to see whether she was right or not.

"Because I want to understand the system of Two-Word Battle Armour to the best of my abilities. The better I understand them the better I can create a One-Word Battle Armour that can smoothly transition into a Two-Word Battle Armour once the person is strong enough."

Elder Cai nodded. Indeed creating a normal two-word battle armour would not give insight into the Two-Word level that would be needed for someone with Twin Martial Souls.

"I pronounce the winner: Val Karni. You two should also help each other. Bai Hanying is more familiar with Twin Martial Soul Variation Battle Armour than you, but you have better technique overall. Learn from each other."

The two nodded and Karni also went to grab a quick contact from the girl, who seemed a bit lifeless at the moment. She got completely beaten. She did cheer up a bit once she realised Karni was willing to exchange the knowledge.

He returned to his team, applauded by his class just like Tang Wulin was. Two wins in a row. It was impressive.

He looked at Tang Wulin and sighed. "I suppose I should start planning future parts with Life-Bestowed metal in mind as well."

Tang Wulin shook his head. "We'll worry about that when transitioning to Two-Word Battle Armour."

"Mm. That's exactly what I mean though. I want to prepare the designs to be easily adapted into the future designs." He sighed. "We'll be meeting up at some point to talk about this."

"How about you cheer me on first?" Siduo interrupted the conversation.

Karni raised an eyebrow. "What for? You're going to win either way, no? … Unless…" He pretended to go into thought. "You want me to?"

Siduo turned around and jumped to the stage, without turning around. The opponent that walked up the stage could notice a slight blush on the first year.

Karni shouted from behind. "Go Sisi, you can do this! Three wins in a row, you better not lose."

"Shut it you asshole!" Siduo turned around with a middle finger, only to see Karni already had a middle finger raised as well, knowing that she would do it.

Siduo fell silent, before starting to laugh in the middle of the stage.

"Ehm." Shen Yi raised her voice. This girl. She was too easy going.

Elder Cai shook her head in helplessness. She could understand now why Elder Long was so worried. Those two really didn't feel much pressure when they were together. She paused for a second.

Elder Long was sitting on the stands, hidden so as not to put unnecessary pressure on the students watching. She was thinking the very same thing, but was suddenly approached by Elder Cai with a weird smile.

"Elder Long. I have some say in who goes with me in half a year, no?"

Elder Long raised her eyebrow a bit, but nodded.

"In that case, I might have a solution."

… … …

Siduo easily won the Manufacturing competition. Ye Xinglan didn't join because she didn't feel like it, and there was no point to it to her. She was only ever focused on her own improvement, so Siduo didn't even have to compete with her for the spot.

However, Siduo did stay on the stage. She was also their representative for Mecha Mechanics. Her opponent was none other than Yuanen Yehui, who was currently dressed as a boy. This would be a bigger challenge. Siduo had yet to reach the 5-star rank in her skills as a mechanic.

The two had half an hour here as well. They were to fix a high ranking mecha to the best of their abilities. They had blueprints that they could analyse on the side, while fixing the mecha.

The two were efficient. In fact, both of them seemed to be at a high rank of 4-stars in mechanics. Siduo's achievement in this was actually more impressive than Yuanen Yehui's. Siduo was both a 5-star Manufacturer and a high rank 4-star Mechanic. Yuanen Yehui was only a 4-star Mechanic.

The two progressed smoothly, both familiar with Mechas. The Mechas were at the black level. It was something that—despite their familiarity—they were unable to fix fully no matter what. It was simply at too high a level.

After half an hour, both stopped, laying down their tools. Shen Yi looked at the thoughts of the experts on the side.

"It's a draw."

Siduo returned, and she received by far the biggest applause from the class. She fought twice in a row, and their class never lost. Sure, they drew, but this was incredible considering the fact they were three years younger.

"Finally, we'll have a six vs six. Representative teams, please approach the arena." Shen Yi called out.

Yuanen Yehui and Yue Zhengyu were the clear leaders of the second year team, but the two's expressions turned a bit sour when they noticed that Karni and Siduo weren't participating. Why? Why was that? Those two were clearly stronger than some of the other people in the current team.

Karni felt laid back. He was curious. Would the battle go as it did originally? Would something change? This was the first time he could test something like that. What would happen, when he, an abnormality compared to the original story, simply wouldn't act?

The match really did progress as he remembered it. Towards the end, Tang Wulin's team was cornered and Gu Yue and Tang Wulin hugged and formed a fusion that won them the match. Gu Yue never let go of Tang Wulin while unconscious.

Siduo had a bit of a sour face seeing the fusion. "I don't think we'd be able to defeat that even if we're at full power. That is an impossible wall for anyone to overcome. … They are quite cute though."

Karni nodded with a bit of a defeated smile. In fact, it should be practically impossible for them in their lifetime. They might both have Twin Martial Souls, but that fusion was a fusion that formed the Dragon God. It's not something they could fight. Not with the Divine Realm completely gone. Actually, even with the Divine Realm… people like Tang San would also lose when they reached that level.

Unfortunately for them, a certain Elder Long was listening in on them. "Yue'er. That plan of yours might really have to be used. Though it might be a bit cruel to them."