Douluo Dalu: 1st Cycle: Dancing Panda

They stayed in the cave for about 30 minutes. Both of them have gained back quite a bit of energy in this short time. The fight with the Earth Wolves wasn't particularly long, but it required a lot of soul power for them to stay safe.

The cave felt a bit colder than the rest of the forest, yet luckily very safe and hidden. The sound of dropping water was oddly calming for the two of them as it was the only thing they heard.

They were miles away from their place of battle with the Earth Wolf pack. Hence, they could hardly hear anything. Most soul beasts in the area heard and smelled blood of that battle, so they went to see if there were opportunities for them to exploit.

Their hard work paid off. With such a large amount of blood spilled, the docile soul beasts ran away and the aggressive ones went to the scene of the crime.

"It is a bit dreary in this cave though isn't it?" Siduo woke up from her cultivation. Despite Karni using his second soul ring on quite a few of the hundred-year Earth Wolves, his skill wasn't meant for combat. He didn't use up much of his soul power, but used quite a great amount of his spiritual energy.

Siduo on the other hand was using her second soul ring, Hell Hundred Claws, many times during their fight. Her soul power was below 30 percent when they finished.

"I doubt you've recovered, you should cultivate some more." Karni said. In this half an hour he managed to refill his soul power already. As for Spiritual Power, he could only regain it with rest or sleep, a luxury they didn't have.

"If I cultivate till I'm full, I'm gonna need another hour. By then it might get dangerous, we should start moving." She stretched and stood up.

Karni looked outside the cave. "The pack should be eaten by now by the surrounding soul beasts." He looked back towards her. "I hate to say it, but you're right. We probably don't have much time for safety left."

"Of course I'm right."

Karni just rolled his eyes. "How much did you recover?"

"I'm at about 60 percent right now."

"You sure abou-"

"I'll be conservative"

Karni sighed. "If you say so."

He looked outside one more time. "There's no soul beasts yet. Let's move quickly."

They went in a giant circle away from the place of the Earth Wolves slaughter ground. They didn't wish to accidentally become a target of some strong soul beasts that were attracted by the scent.

They were moving for about 20 minutes before they started seeing signs of soul beasts reappearing. Most of them were ten-year old. Those that couldn't get any benefits were leaving early.

They got around safely, but by now most of the soul beasts have started roaming again.

At this point however they had a fright.

They heard heavy footsteps deep from the ground. Not only did they sound big, it was also the quantity that caused such rumbling of footsteps.

"Holy shit" How many of them are there?"

"Must be hundreds." Siduo said worryingly.

"Detour?"

"Detour."

… … …

"Hey Sisi, do you hear something?"

"Oh stop with your sarcasm. This isn't good."

"It calms me down."

Siduo ignored him as she looked back into the distance. They've been running for more than 10 minutes now. Yet the distant rumbling didn't turn any quieter. Instead it was becoming louder by the second.

"It's some type of herd nomad animal. Any guesses?"

"Well they're definitely big based on the distant sound. We can't even see them yet." Said Siduo.

"Thanks captain obvious." Karni complained, but then remembered something. "Hey, remember when we were having the lesson about the giant herd animals of the ancient times?"

"The ones that were on the Sun-Moon Continent before it collided with the Douluo Continent?"

Karni nodded. "I remember there were quite a few herds in the ancient Sun-Moon Continent."

"If that's the case, we shouldn't be in too much danger." Siduo slowed down a bit.

"Shall we take a look? It should be quite the spectacle." Karni said as he started climbing one of the taller trees.

There were many different kinds of bison in the ancient Sun-Moon Continent. They were known to be twice the size of humans even as a ten-year old soul beast.

Most of them weren't aggressive and the ones that were, usually lived in smaller groups. This didn't sound like a small group. Based on that, they were sure that they were one of the more peaceful ones. Hopefully.

… … …

Mo Qing was outside of the capsules. Looking at the monitor, he suddenly saw the horde that was approaching the two of them.

"Ye'er, record this. If they manage to survive, it should be possible to count as if they passed the highest test in the sect exam. We might be able to get some notice from the higher ups. Though they'll still have to actually do the exam."

Teacher Ye looked at Mo Qing with a tinge of surprise on her face. "Alright."

Why such a reaction? The thing approaching wasn't just a regular old herd. They were the rulers of this whole floor of the Spirit Ascension Platform!

… … …

Karni and Siduo were sitting on the trees, as the rumbling was getting louder and louder.

"Should be any minute now." Said Siduo.

Perhaps they usually weren't much like children in their actions and daily lives, however both of their eyes were shining with the light of childlike wonder right now.

Karni has, for the first time while in this new world, felt true wanderlust. The world he has seen thus far was limited to Star Luo City and bits of Green Tiger Town.

He loved these stories of fantastical lands for the feeling they gave, yet now, he was living in one. He was excited to see such a big herd of soul beasts, there existed no such thing on Earth.

Sure, there existed giant herds, but there weren't such herds the size of mammoths.

The rumbling was now all around them. The trees, the ground itself, all were shaking. Karni looked into the distance and saw a beast that must be the size of an elephant. Likely bigger.

They looked like buffalos with spiralling horns, almost as big as a human on their own. Their bodies had incredibly long fur yet one could see giant, strong muscles underneath them. But despite all of their special characteristics what Karni noticed most, was their bright red eyes that seem to burn with rage.

"Kiki RUN!"

"Huh?!"

"Fucking RUN!"

Before Karni could start moving, the trees around them started exploding from the charge of the group of buffaloes. That wasn't just something that looked like rage, it was rage. And all of these buffalos were filled with it.

Karni started running, but to where? There seemed like an endless sea of buffaloes behind them and they were quickly closing in on them.

Siduo was running full speed ahead as both Karni and Siduo activated their soul skills.

Karni finally realised. "Wait! Are those Raging Buffalos?"

"Yes! So hurry it up!"

Karni's face turned pale. Raging Buffalos were considered a disaster in the ancient Sun-Moon Continent.

There was once a disaster of the Raging Buffalo Emperor, a hundred-thousand year old soul beast. It led a pack of tens of thousands that once almost destroyed the continent. They were aggressive, large and there was a shitton of them.

Karni turned back to look at the stampede of buffaloes behind them. They won't be able to outrun them. But there was at least one piece of good news. The highest level of buffalos appeared to be hundred-years.

Even on a quick look, he could see a bulging dark brown back that looked like a giant rock sticking out like a sore thumb at the centre of the herd. It was more than twice the size of a hundred-year old member of the herd and reached about 5 metres above the backs of the hundred year old buffalos.

"Sisi! You know we can't keep running!"

"Then what can we do?" Siduo shouted back. She had a faster pace than Karni.

"You can outrun them, I'll go put up a fight with their leader to slow them down."

"Are you crazy?" Siduo shouted to Karni, but when she turned her head he was already jumping on the backs of the buffalos.

"This damn fucking… AARH!" She angrily turned around and followed Karni.

There was a peculiar relationship between the leader and the subordinates in the Raging Buffalo population. Raging Buffalo leader was an absolute monarch and was considered one of the top species of soul beasts. However his strength came at a price. The other members of the buffalo population were surprisingly average. Clumsy and large.

Because of that, Karni had no trouble traversing the backs of the Raging Buffalos. The only thing they had was strength and even that wasn't that impressive compared to other strength based soul beasts. They tried shaking him off them, but they couldn't. Their backs were like solid platforms. With so many of them, it felt like walking on solid ground.

The buffaloes sacrificed their strength constantly to fuel the strength of their leader. Their own cultivation suffered for it, but the leader was incredibly strong because of this.

This was why Siduo called Karni crazy. The leader of the buffalo herd was on a different level. Comparing the thousand year Yellow Leaf Fox they fought to this guy was like comparing a lion cub to a fully grown lion. The leaders were so different from the others of their species, they got a separate name.

A hundred-thousand year old Raging Buffalo leader was called a Raging Buffalo Emperor. It could go toe to toe with Gold-Dusk Dreadclaw Bears, one of the top existences among the Soul Beast, rulers of Soul Beasts.

A ten-thousand year old Raging Buffalo was called a Raging Buffalo King, if they were a leader of a pack. If a ten-thousand year old Raging Buffalo wasn't a leader, they would just be an average ten-thousand year old soul beast, perhaps even below average.

As for the thousand-year old leader that they saw in the distance, it was called the Raging Buffalo Duke. It could easily go toe to toe with a Man Faced Demon spider, which had some of the deadliest poisons in the world.

The leader of the pack would scale with the size of the pack. A Raging Buffalo Duke wouldn't be able to go toe to toe with a thousand year old Gold-Dusk Dreadclaw Bear. At least, not if it was a one on one.

They weren't at all confident that they could defeat such a foe, but they didn't really have a choice. Either one of them escapes or none of them do. There was no inbetween. The only thing they could do was hope they could at least handle the Raging Buffalo Duke.

But could they? The Raging Buffalo Duke could already contend with other top tier soul beasts on his own, but now he had hundreds of subordinates around him.

"You can be such an ass you know?"

"Says the ass. You could've just run!"

"Like hell I'd do that, as if you didn't know! Just make sure to not die too quickly! We wouldn't want to lose unnecessary points."

"I can just feel the love oozing from you." Karni gave her a heartwarming smile.

Siduo just rolled her eyes and sped up toward the Raging Buffalo Duke.

She came to around hundred metres close to the Raging Buffalo Duke and then dashed downwards between the legs of the other buffaloes, disappearing out of sight.

Karni on the other hand circled in front of the Raging Buffalo Duke. He wanted to at least stun the duke for a second to give Siduo a chance.

He stood on the back of one of the hundred-year old buffaloes for a second as he looked into the eyes of the leader. He activated Vision Bestowal.

He forced the skill onto the Raging Buffalo Duke to confuse him.

His mind blanked for a second as it felt like a hammer just struck his brain. He couldn't even control his body.

He immediately fell off the back of the giant buffalo. A good 5 metres. He hit the ground hard, before he felt a giant stomp on his stomach and spew out blood. He couldn't even defend himself with soul power with his mind in such a mess.

Another stomp hit him, and another. Before he knew it, tens of them had stomped him. He was barely conscious. However his mind was clear now. The problem was the pain. The beasts just kept on walking on him.

A single spiritual shock caused him to almost die. The buffaloes were large and heavy, and there were a lot of them. Who would've thought one would die because soul beasts literally walked all over him.

Before his mind was completely lost he heard a worried scream. A familiar voice, who ran close to him and immediately pressed the red button. Last thing he remembered was: "I'll get some revenge for you."

Karni opened his eyes. His body was all in pain. His mind was hurting and he saw a bunch of people gathered around him who were asking him questions.

"-ni." "-arni!" "Karni!" Mo Qing had a worried look on his face.

"Ugh… I'm fine, its just… everything fucking hurts like shit."

Mo Qing wanted to comment on his choice of words but was preoccupied with Karni's state to do so.

"How's… Sisi doing?" Karni mustered a question.

Mo Qing said. "Worry about yourself first."

Karni raised himself enough to see the screen on which Siduo was shown.

"She's taking revenge for you." Teacher Ye answered instead of Mo Qing.

"That idiot." Karni said as he laid back down, but kept on looking at the screen.

"What happened?" Mo Qing said.

"My second ring is spiritual in nature and mixes both soul power and spiritual power." Karni turned toward Mo Qing for a second. "I received a spiritual shock. The bastard is likely at the Spirit Sea level, or just below it."

Mo Qing sighed. "You couldn't have known. Raging Buffalos aren't at all known for their spiritual power, however their leaders are all-rounders that excel in strength and defence. You'll know better next time."

Mo Qing then smiled. "For the excellent performance at the start you'll get 95 points. However, this is the only time this mistake will be forgiven. It really was a bit unexpected, even for me."

Mo Qing turned towards the screen as his face turned ugly. "What is that child doing?"

"Siduo is just being Siduo."

What they saw was a shocking scene. Siduo was murdering a ton of Raging Buffalos around the Raging Buffalo Duke. She was getting some payback for Karni with a face that made her look like a villain.

It was surprisingly easy for her to clear 10 of them. They were like animals waiting for slaughter because they were so clustered together and couldn't dodge any attacks.

When she was finished with them she smiled cruelly towards the Raging Buffalo Duke, which was clearly enraged. It wasn't just enraged. This was more. The others were enraged. This, on the other hand, felt more primal. It charged towards her, but it was clear his charge wasn't completely straight.

Karni laughed, now already feeling better. "That bitch. At least my skill worked."

"Karni. Language." Mo Qing finally warned.

"Ah oops. Forgot." A few of the health workers who were checking him gave him weird looks. A 10 year old cursing wasn't a common scene after all. Not genuine cursing at least.

Siduo also noticed the duke's actions and a smile appeared. However, the Raging Buffalo Duke was incredibly fast for his enormous size of over 10 metres.

She managed to dodge the first charge of the duke and proceeded to attack his right front leg. Her second ring was shining brightly.

Contrary to Karni's beliefs however, her attack barely did any damage. The wounds looked superficial at best.

Siduo circled around the duke before she dashed in again. This was her second attack, whereas the buffalo's previous charge still hadn't ended.

This time she cut deeper, the duke clearly felt that, but it wasn't impeding his speed at all. Despite it hurting, the buffalo wasn't truly injured at all.

"Just how much defensive strength does this guy have?" Karni thought out loud, now minding his language.

"Where his fur is the thickest, it can be compared to the Gold-Dusk Dreadclaw Bear." Teacher Ye answered.

Karni's eyes went wide. But then he calmed down. Those were only certain places. The legs weren't part of that.

Siduo managed to land another hit on the leg, and while the cut was now quite deep, it still didn't seem to affect the monster's speed. If anything, it became faster. The duke's rage was growing by the second.

It wasn't that the duke wasn't injured, it's that he didn't care about the effects his raging charges would have on the injuries. It didn't even process the pain due to his rage.

As luck would have it, his next charge was perfectly locked on Siduo. Karni was silently praying that she'd dodge.

What he saw however was a horrifying scene. Not even dodging, she was directly pierced by the left giant spiral horn, directly through the stomach.

"Sisi!" Karni shouted in vain, it's not like she could hear him.

At that moment her body started to shine in both black and white, it seemed like both of her martial souls were active at once. All while she had a horn going through her stomach.

However, she couldn't control the two martial souls well at this moment, the black shine was clearly stronger than the white. The two energies became a mess before a giant explosion happened.

Everyone in the room gasped. This was the last thing they expected. An explosion due to an attempted…

"Martial Soul Fu-" Karni's mouth was silenced by Mo Qing before he could say anything more.

They saw the aftermath of the explosion. Interestingly, while Siduo was bleeding from all of her orifices, she wasn't that bad off. She was currently on the ground with a gaping hole in her stomach.

On the other hand, the bull was much worse off. His left side of the face was completely blown off, the area around the eye destroyed. The horns, one of the strongest parts of the Raging Buffaloes besides the fur, had cracks going all over it.

The enraged duke tried to charge at her again, he thought this was some weakling. The horns shined a bloody red lustre, a lustre that encompassed this whole body. The body grew in size, becoming twice as large, while the group of buffaloes seemed to have shrunken down.

The duke charged. It was upon her in an instant.

Siduo simply smiled at the charging soul beast before lightly tapping her escape button. The duke charged through one of its own, only semblance of the skin remaining, of what once was a living buffalo.

Her capsule opened up as Karni ran towards it.

"Sisi!"

"You're hurting my ears." She said weakly.

"You stupid, stupid, stupid… idiot!" Karni cursed at her.

"You insult vocabulary needs work."

Karni just stared at her, really wanting to insult her again. But he really didn't want to say 'stupid' again.

"Hey, at least my stupidity left a permanent reminder of me on the bitch. Next time we meet, we can have some tea on the left side of his face. " She smiled at Karni cheekily.