Soul Skill Connection Faces Difficulty, Character Limits Offer Clever Buffer

The moment the early morning whistle blew, Tang San was jolted awake by the clang of metal on the training grounds. Rubbing his eyes, he walked to the window and saw Zhao Wuji holding a pile of metal targets for Soul Skill testing. Dai Mubai and the others were already standing by the target range, each holding a Soul Tool for testing. "Today's morning training is 'Soul Skill Connection Limit.' Everyone must complete ten Soul Skill connections within the time it takes an incense stick to burn. Tang San, you go first, and you have to simultaneously connect 'Entangle' and 'Parasite' with your Blue Silver Grass. One mistake means ten extra repetitions!"

Tang San slowly put on his clothes, deliberately wrapping his belt around twice—connecting Soul Skills consumes Soul Power. He used "tidying up his gear" as an excuse to delay, hoping to get a little more rest. By the time he reached the target range, the others had already started testing. Dai Mubai's White Tiger Fierce Light Wave continuously hit the bullseye, his Soul Skill connections almost seamless. "What are you dawdling for? Get started!" Zhao Wuji shoved a metal target in front of Tang San, his tone impatient.

[Delaying the test under the guise of "tidying up gear to ensure smooth movements," avoiding early high-intensity connection consumption. Slacking Value +1, current total 65 points]

Tang San summoned his Blue Silver Grass, deliberately slowing down the Soul Skill connection speed by half a beat. For his first attempt at "Entangle + Parasite," the Blue Silver Grass had just wrapped around the metal target when the Parasite Soul Skill was half a second late, failing to trigger simultaneously. "Tang San! Why so slow? You can't even practice Soul Skill connections properly, and you dare come to Shrek?" Zhao Wuji's whip cracked against the metal target, emitting a harsh sound.

"Teacher, Blue Silver Grass is a plant Martial Soul. 'Entangle' requires maintaining flexibility, while 'Parasite' needs Soul Power to be injected. Synchronizing the two skills too quickly can easily cause the grass blades to break, so I have to find the connection point slowly." As Tang San spoke, he tried again. This time, although the skills triggered simultaneously, the Parasite Soul Skill only injected thirty percent of its Soul Power, leaving a faint parasitic mark on the metal target. "You see, the grass blades almost broke when they synchronized. I can only inject a little less Soul Power, otherwise, I'll have to start over."

[Reducing Soul Skill output under the guise of "avoiding Martial Soul breakage" and slowing down the connection speed to avoid excessive consumption. Slacking Value +1, current total 66 points]

By the time the incense stick burned out, Tang San had only completed five successful connections, half the required ten. "Add another incense stick for extra practice. If you still don't reach eight, you're not eating tonight!" Zhao Wuji stood with his arms crossed, staring intently at him. Tang San, however, felt a sense of relief—the extra practice would earn him more Slacking Value, and the excuse of "Martial Soul flexibility limitations" could be used continuously.

The morning training was "Team Combat Role Restriction." Zhao Wuji divided the six people into two groups and announced the rules: "Tang San's group can only use control system and support system Soul Skills, no assault system skills. Dai Mubai's group can use any Soul Skills freely, and they will have three more dummies than Tang San's group!"

"Teacher Zhao, this isn't fair! Without assault system skills, how are we supposed to defeat the dummies?" Xiao Wu couldn't help but exclaim.

"Fair? In a real battle, if your teammates were all control system, would you just give up?" Zhao Wuji glared at her and blew the starting whistle.

Dai Mubai's group immediately launched an attack. Ma Hongjun's Phoenix Fireline scorched the dummies, forcing them to retreat repeatedly. Tang San's group could only rely on Tang San's Blue Silver Grass Entangle and Oscar's sausage for support, while Xiao Wu focused on dodging the dummies' attacks. Tang San deliberately slowed down the Entangle speed, only wrapping around one leg of a dummy each time, causing it to move slowly but not restricting it completely—"Entangling too tightly makes it easy to be surrounded by other dummies. Leaving some room to move can distract the dummies," thus conserving Soul Power while buying time.

"Tang San! Why aren't you entangling them tightly? The dummies are almost breaking through!" Zhao Wuji shouted from the side.

"Teacher, there are too many dummies. If I entangle one tightly, others will sneak attack. Leaving some space allows Xiao Wu to dodge better, otherwise, we'll both be surrounded." As Tang San spoke, he deliberately released the entanglement on one dummy, giving Xiao Wu room to evade an attack. "You see, as soon as I released it, she dodged the sneak attack. Entangling too tightly is more troublesome."

[Reducing entanglement intensity and slowing the pace under the guise of "avoiding multi-target encirclement" to evade excessive consumption. Slacking Value +1, current total 67 points]

During the lunch break, Oscar handed him a sausage. "Teacher Zhao's刁难 (diaonán - difficult trials/challenges) are getting more ridiculous today. There will definitely be something tougher this afternoon." Tang San took the sausage, took only a small bite, and put it away—he was saving it for the afternoon's consumption. Eating too much now would make him drowsy.

The afternoon training was "Extreme Soul Power Sustenance." Zhao Wuji led everyone to the Soul Power testing array. "Everyone must continuously release Soul Skills within the array until their Soul Power is depleted. Tang San, you have to last half an hour longer than everyone else, and you can only use the basic Soul Skills of Blue Silver Grass!"

The Soul Power testing array accelerated Soul Power consumption. Dai Mubai hadn't been in it for long before his Soul Power dropped by thirty percent. Tang San walked into the array and deliberately released only ten percent Soul Power for "Entangle," wrapping only the stakes at the edge of the array each time without any extra movements—"Basic Soul Skills consume less Soul Power. Releasing it slowly allows for longer duration; releasing it quickly will deplete it sooner," which perfectly met the requirement of "lasting half an hour longer."

"Tang San! Why are you only releasing so little Soul Power? Are you trying to slack off?" Zhao Wuji's voice boomed from outside the array.

"Teacher, although basic Soul Skills consume less Soul Power, releasing it continuously for half an hour is not easy. Releasing too much will prevent me from lasting the required time, thus failing the objective." As Tang San spoke, he deliberately lowered his Soul Power a bit further, causing the stake he was entangling to merely tremble. "You see, after lowering the Soul Power a bit, it's more stable. This way, I can last long enough."

[Reducing Soul Power output under the guise of "ensuring endurance time" to avoid excessive consumption. Slacking Value +1, current total 68 points]

By the end of the evening training, Tang San's Soul Power had just been depleted after half an hour, lasting a quarter of an hour longer than the others. He hadn't met Zhao Wuji's requirement of "lasting half an hour longer." "Extra meditation practice tonight. You have to meditate within the Soul Power testing array. If your Soul Power recovery speed is slower than others, you'll have extra practice tomorrow!"

Everyone groaned, but Tang San quietly opened his system panel—68 Slacking Value. He was still 32 points away from the next Soul Power increase. He slowly walked back to the dormitory, calculating: meditating within the array was a perfect opportunity to use the "accelerated consumption" characteristic to deliberately slow down his recovery speed. Teacher Zhao's difficult trials were all good opportunities to accumulate points.

As night fell, Tang San entered the Soul Power testing array and began to meditate, deliberately letting his Soul Power recover at only half its normal speed—"Meditating within the array can easily cause Soul Power fluctuations. Slow recovery allows for more stable Soul Power," which fit his slacking rhythm and helped accumulate points. He thought to himself: as long as he found the right excuses, even if Teacher Zhao was relentless, he could continue on the "peak slacking path."