Off-Field Gambit

Ice crystals condensed on the bluestone slabs shattered under Su Hao's feet, emitting a faint yet piercing sound. His imposing figure paced back and forth at the edge of the training ground. The muscles beneath his black martial arts uniform tensed and relaxed with each step, like a tiger about to pounce on its prey, showcasing his strength without reservation.

Every squat, every twist of the waist and hip, every aerial punch, stirred sharp gusts of wind and visible white cold currents. He deliberately made his movements broad and powerful, with icy True Qi circulating on his body, causing the surrounding air temperature to plummet. Cheers erupted from the main family's viewing stands.

"Brother Hao is mighty!"

"Let that side branch girl see what true Cold Jade Palm is!"

"One move! Brother Hao only needs one move!"

Su Hao listened to the flattery, a grin splitting his lips, filled with undisguised arrogance and cruelty. He spun sharply, his right palm cleaving the air. A condensed, icy palm strike whistled towards a horse-tethering stone pillar, as thick as a bowl, at the edge of the field!

Crack!

The stone pillar snapped! Its broken surface was covered in thick frost!

"Good!" The cheers from the main family grew even louder.

Su Hao retracted his palm, breathing slightly heavily, his face filled with self-satisfaction. He cast a provocative gaze at Su Qingxue, who still stood motionless like an ice sculpture opposite him, as if looking at a piece of ice about to be crushed by him.

Lin Xiao hid in the shadows of the corridor, his hat brim pulled low, revealing only a pair of bloodshot yet sharp as an eagle eyes. His back was pressed against the cold corridor pillar, and every breath pulled at the withered pain from his soul, brought on by [-1.3], and the cold, dormant sensation of the Viper's Kiss residue in his right leg's core. Su Hao's arrogant warm-up, his confident gaze, were like red-hot irons searing his nerves.

He couldn't let him proceed so smoothly!

Lin Xiao's eyes instantly turned fierce and calm, like a lone wolf's. He needed a spark, an extremely tiny spark, yet one capable of igniting a prairie fire, to be planted beforehand into Su Hao's seemingly perfect state! The target—the warm-up rhythm! To create a negligible "discordance" when the opponent was most relaxed, most confident, and his muscle memory was at its peak!

His will was like a red-hot steel needle, carrying resolute ruthlessness, piercing fiercely into the azure light screen in his mind!

[Target Locked: Su Hao... Current State: Warm-up Finishing Period... Muscle Memory Activity: Peak...]
[Scanning Target Muscle Group Movement Trajectory... Locking the junction of the posterior deltoid and trapezius muscle in the right shoulder...]
[Interference Plan: Slightly adjust the muscle fatigue accumulation rate in the target area, amplify lactic acid buildup perception by 0.3 seconds (physiological level)... Source Energy Points Required: 0.1!]
[Warning! Current Source Energy Points: -1.3! Executing this operation will exacerbate core depletion risk and Viper's Kiss pollution activity!]

0.1 points! Lin Xiao stared at the glaring number, his heart clenching as if grasped by an icy hand! This insignificant 0.1 point felt as heavy as a thousand pounds right now! Every use of Source Energy Points was a drain on his precarious life!

But... he had to do it!

"Execute!" Lin Xiao's will roared silently in the abyss of depletion!

[Command Confirmed! Source Energy Points Deduction: 0.1!]
[Source Energy Points: -1.3 - 0.1 = -1.4!]
[Interference Initiated!]

Buzz—!

A soul-tearing sensation far stronger than imagined instantly swept over him! It was like a fiercely cracked porcelain being struck again with a hammer! His vision went black, and the edges of his sight were instantly covered by dense, bloody garble! A heavy, sweetish metallic taste surged up his throat, which he desperately suppressed! The emerald Viper's Kiss core deep in his right leg pulsed with a cold, greedy beat, like a startled venomous snake!

[Warning! Core Depletion Worsening! Viper's Kiss Pollution Activity Rising by 0.1%! Pollution Erosion Rate: 0.0002%...]

The cold prompt sounded like a cruel pronouncement!

In the real world, just as Su Hao completed that beautiful palm strike, subtly adjusted his breathing, and prepared to perform the final symbolic settling of his posture—a smooth, stable downward shift of his center of gravity, like a tiger returning to its mountain—

Behind his right shoulder, at the junction of the posterior deltoid and trapezius muscle that Lin Xiao had targeted, a minuscule yet incredibly clear... lag occurred without warning!

This sensation was like a tiny grain of sand suddenly getting stuck in a gear! Or like a taut bowstring experiencing a slight, unwanted stickiness at the moment of release!

0.3 seconds! Merely 0.3 seconds!

For an ordinary person, it might go unnoticed. But for a one-star peak martial artist, at the peak of their warm-up, with their bodily senses amplified to the extreme, this 0.3-second muscle feedback delay was like feeling a sudden rough spot on smooth silk!

Su Hao's originally smooth and flowing downward movement, full of powerful beauty, was affected by this minuscule lag, causing an almost imperceptible, extremely slight hesitation! The trajectory of his center of gravity's descent deviated slightly from the absolutely stable golden ratio he had envisioned!

"Hmm?" Su Hao's brow furrowed almost imperceptibly. His movement was instantly completed, and he stood firm. The faint sense of disharmony vanished like an illusion, so quickly that he couldn't catch it. He instinctively moved his right shoulder, feeling as if... it was a bit heavy? Or perhaps not?

Was it the intense warm-up? Or did he put too much force into that palm strike just now?

A trace of extremely subtle doubt and annoyance, like a pebble dropped into a calm lake, rippled across his self-satisfied state of mind. He shook his head, trying to dispel this "illusion," his gaze turning fierce and sharp again, locked firmly onto Su Qingxue.

"Putting on a show! Let's see how long you can keep it up!" he muttered, forcefully suppressing the fleeting discomfort and attributing it to the psychological interference caused by her infuriating calmness.

On the sidelines, Su Qingxue, standing still as a sculpture, had extremely subtle ripples in the depths of her ice-spring-like eyes. She clearly "saw" the almost imperceptible, minuscule hesitation in Su Hao's final settling movement! This was definitely not a flaw that a martial artist of Su Hao's caliber should possess!

Was he careless? Or...?

Her gaze, like invisible threads, swept incredibly discreetly over the bustling crowd in the viewing corridor, finally pausing for a tenth of a second in an inconspicuous corner shrouded in shadow, where a hat brim was pulled extremely low.

Lin Xiao!

An indescribable complex emotion instantly seized her. Was it relief? Worry? Or... a cold chill of fate being manipulated by an unseen hand?

Lin Xiao leaned against the cold corridor pillar, gasping for air like a fish out of water. Cold sweat soaked through his inner shirt, sticking to the hideous wounds on his back, causing a constant itchy, stinging pain. The [-1.4] in his mind flashed like a red-hot iron, each flicker searing his soul. The pulse of the emerald core deep in his right leg carried a cold mockery.

The price was heavy! But... the seed had been sown!

He raised his pale, bloodless face, his bloodshot eyes staring intently at Su Hao through the shadow of his hat brim. Su Hao, who had become even more agitated and fierce due to a fleeting "illusion," slowly pulled a cold, weary, yet wolf-like fierce curve of his lips.

Su Hao, I hope you enjoy this small "welcome gift" during our life-and-death struggle later!