Every young man had a soldier dream, and a soldier who didn't want to become a general wasn't a good soldier. During their youth, every man had the dream of becoming a military general, and Tang Wulin was no exception to this. As he appraised the epaulets that were being presented to him, a hint of excitement involuntarily appeared on his face.
Blood One swapped over his epaulets for him in person, and all of the other eight Blood Gods wore faint smiles on their faces.
Blood One said, "Seeing as your military rank has exceeded lieutenant colonel, from now on, you will be promoted from a fringe member of the Blood God Battalion to a backup Blood God. Your next target is him."
He pointed at Blood Nine as he spoke before continuing, "Outside of the nine Blood Gods, the backup Blood Gods are the highest-ranking members of the Blood God Battalion, but even so, your upper limit will still only be the senior colonel rank. If you want to progress further than that, then the task ahead of you is very simple; defeat one of the Blood Gods, and you'll officially replace them, understood?"
Tang Wulin turned his gaze toward Blood Nine, and Blood Nine was also looking at him. As their eyes met, Blood Nine raised his eyebrows slightly as his smile widened.
Blood Nine came from the Battle God Hall, and it was undoubtedly the case that he was a Titled Douluo, as well as a three-word battle armor master. There was still a considerable disparity between them!
However, what Tang Wulin was currently thinking was that following his recent drastic power enhancements, what he needed the most now was a powerful opponent. Only in the face of the pressure exerted on him by powerful opponents could he continue to tap into his latent potential and maintain a fast speed of progression.
"Understood! Thank you, Superior. Superior Blood Nine, if you have some free time now, I would like to challenge you in the Star Battle Net as we'll only be able to fight at our full power in the battle net," Tang Wulin immediately said.
Blood Six couldn't help but chuckle, "Wulin, you're biting off way more than you can chew! You have to learn to walk before you try to run."
Just like Blood One, he was also from the Tang Sect, so he felt a natural connection with Tang Wulin, and he was saying this to remind Tang Wulin not to be overly ambitious.
An innocent and harmless smile appeared on Tang Wulin's face. "I just want to see how much of a gap there is between myself and Superior Blood Nine so I have a goal to strive toward."
Blood Nine smiled, and replied, "Sure! I've got some free time now, so I'm up for a sparring match."
He was taking this very seriously, and the massive difference in their cultivation ranks led him to completely believe what Tang Wulin was saying.
Only Blood One's expression changed ever so slightly. He had witnessed the entire process through which Tang Wulin had manifested his soul core.
Manifesting a soul core was the symbol of a seven-ring Soul Sage, and even though Tang Wulin wasn't a Soul Sage yet, his soul power was far denser than that of the average Soul Master. That, in addition to the fact that he now possessed a soul core meant that his current level of combat prowess was already comparable to that of a Soul Sage. On top of that, his Golden Dragon Spear, two-word battle armor, and immense bloodline power had to also be taken into account. Even though he was only a two-word battle armor master, he was definitely far more powerful than the average two-word battle armor master.
"Alright, let's all log on to the Star Battle Net and spectate this battle as well. Perhaps we can offer Wulin some guidance," Blood One proposed.
Tang Wulin reminded, "Superior, I don't think spectators are allowed for sparring matches in the battle net."
All of the Blood Gods burst into laughter upon hearing this, and Blood Three explained in a gentle voice, "Our Blood God Battalion has some special privileges, and one of them is the right to spectate any battle we want, so you don't have to worry about that."
Tang Wulin was quite surprised to hear this, but then again, it was only to be expected of the Blood God Battalion.
Blood One turned to Blood Nine, and cautioned, "Wulin won't be as easy an opponent as you think; you better be on your guard!"
Blood Nine faltered slightly before bursting into laughter. "Don't scare me like this, Boss! I'll be very sad if I have to become a backup Blood God." He hid behind Blood Eight and put on a fearful expression as he spoke, drawing another round of amused laughter from everyone.
Blood Two glowered at Blood Nine and scolded, "Big Brother is telling you not to get complacent, so listen to him! You're not a young boy anymore; start taking things more seriously!"
A peculiar look appeared on Blood Nine's face as he conceded, "Alright."
Tang Wulin glanced at Blood Nine, then turned toward Blood Two, and he suddenly discovered that they seemed to share a physical resemblance. Furthermore, Blood NIne was clearly very scared of Blood Two, and this was a genuine and innate sense of fear.
Blood Three chuckled, "They're father and son. The fact that their family has two Blood Gods across two generations is quite a feel-good story in our legion."
Tang Wulin was enlightened upon hearing this.
Within the Blood God Battalion, the Battle God Hall had the most members with a total of three, consisting of Blood Two, Blood Eight, and Blood Nine, but who would've thought that Blood Nine would be Blood Two's son? This was indeed a feel-good story! Blood Two was a Titled Douluo himself, and his son had also followed in his footsteps; that was very remarkable. However, it was quite apparent from how fearful Blood Nine was toward Blood Two that he had to have suffered a lot during his cultivation.
"Everyone has matters that need to be attended to later in the day, so let's go into the Star Battle Net now," Blood One concluded.
Tang Wulin returned to his own dormitory room, and he was feeling slightly nervous, but more so extremely excited. This was the first time that he was going to be facing a Titled Douluo in a direct battle.
Titled Douluos were beings who stood at the pinnacle of the entire Soul Master world! All he was hoping for now was that there wouldn't be too much of a disparity between himself and Blood Nine. Otherwise, there wouldn't be much point to this battle.
He logged on to the battle net in a well-rehearsed manner.
Little Tang appeared within the battle net, and Tang Wulin took a moment to compose himself, sensing all of the changes that were taking place within his body and priming himself into his peak condition.
He had always performed better under pressure, and the more powerful his opponent was, the more of his own latent potential he'd be able to tap into. As such, even though he was going to be facing the most powerful opponent he had ever encountered, he was only becoming more and more excited, and his condition was improving by the second.
After arriving at the sports stadium, he quickly found all of the Blood Gods.
The nicknames for the nine Blood Gods were quite amusing; they had replaced the "Blood" in their titles to "Red", so they were nicknamed Red One all the way through to Red Nine.
Tang Wulin was left feeling rather speechless upon seeing this, but he also had to admit that these were easy names to remember.
Red Nine strode over to Little Tang before patting him on the shoulder. "Good luck! We'll count this as a victory for you if you can force me to release my battle armor; how about that?"
"Sure!" Tang Wulin nodded in response without any hesitation.
Red Nine smiled, and said, "I heard that you earned a lot of accolades through your forging; how about we make a little bet?"
This man had to be over 30 years of age, yet he still had the personality of a little kid, and Tang Wulin was feeling rather speechless in response.
"Alright, how much do you want to bet?" he agreed without any hesitation. It wasn't a bad thing to be giving himself a bit more pressure.
Red Nine thought about this for a moment before replying, "Let's go with 10,000; it won't be very interesting if we bet any less than that."
"Oi, don't bully little kids!" Red Eight strode over before pinching Blood Nine's ear.
"Ow! Take it easy, Little Eight! I'm not bullying him! He's a two-word battle armor master with a soul core, but he only has to force me to release my battle armor to secure victory; aren't those terms already favorable enough for him? We're just having some fun anyway; I haven't done something this interesting for a long time."
"Hmph!" Blood Eight glared at him in a disappointed manner.
Blood Nine offered her a fawning smile, "If I win, I'll split you half, but you don't have to pay anything if I lose, how about that?"
Only then did a smile appear on Blood Eight's face. "Sounds good to me! Keep it down, though; we don't want Boss and the others to overhear."
Tang Wulin's lips twitched as he listened to this conversation. Just what kind of people was he dealing with?
However, he was still very grateful toward Blood Eight as she had saved his life twice! Without Blood Eight's intervention, there was no way that he would've been able to survive the attacks from those abyssal emperors.
"You can begin whenever you're ready." Blood One's voice rang out in the distance. The Blood God Battalion was tasked with surveying the entire abyssal passageway. The recent abyssal tide had just concluded, so there most likely wouldn't be any powerful abyssal being attacking anytime soon, but it was still best to end this as quickly as possible so they could return to their posts.
Blood Nine made the generous gesture of issuing the fees required to access the competition venue, and the other eight Blood Gods vanished amid flashes of light.
Tang Wulin and Blood Nine then also disappeared before appearing on the competition platform, facing one another with around 100 meters separating them.
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