Star Gallop Under Moon

Over the next few days, Ye Xinglan never missed a session. Whenever she came, they fought, and after the fight, they chatted.

Sometimes, they talked for four or five hours straight.

Yun Jingheng was still curious. Didn't she need to attend class?

Ye Xinglan's answer was: she did, but she skipped it.

"Jing Heng, how do you pull off that Mark Pursuit of yours?"

One day after they had just finished fighting, she sat by the lake and suddenly asked.

Yun Jingheng thought for a moment. "Um... wherever there's a mark, I can go there."

Ye Xinglan frowned. "I know you can go there. I'm asking how you do it."

Yun Jingheng fell silent for a moment.

That was... a very good question.

Because he really had no idea how to explain it.

"Just a feeling."

He stammered, "I can sense the mark, and then I can go there."

Ye Xinglan stared at him with her large blue eyes, the corner of her mouth twitching slightly.

"What you said... was the same as saying nothing."

Yun Jingheng thought about it.

"True..."

Ye Xinglan: ╬!!!

The next day.

She was in no hurry to fight. She simply stood blankly by the lake, looking at her martial soul.

"I have an immature idea..."

Yun Jingheng looked up. "Hm? What is it?"

Ye Xinglan looked at him very seriously. "Can I use your marks?"

?

What did she mean?

Ye Xinglan continued, "Both your first and second soul skills place a mark on the target when they hit, and then you can teleport to it."

She paused.

"What I mean is... what if I also had a way to quickly get close to that target?"

Yun Jingheng thought about it.

"Your Sword God Star is a single-target piercing skill, and Sword God Net is an area-of-effect damage skill. You don't have a movement skill."

Ye Xinglan nodded.

"I'm not an idiot. Of course I know that. That's why I'm wondering if I can borrow your marks."

Yun Jingheng said nothing. He was beginning to doubt Ye Xinglan's intelligence.

Could this thing even be borrowed?

Ye Xinglan continued, "Are you the only one who can sense your marks?"

Hey! That was something he really didn't know.

He sank into the Sea of Spirit and found Xiao Jiu.

"Xiao Jiu, am I the only one who can sense these marks?"

Xiao Jiu rubbed against his pant leg.

"Theoretically, only you can use them, but if you're willing, others can sense them too."

Yun Jingheng was stunned.

It was that amazing?

"Really?"

Xiao Jiu scratched its ear.

"Mhm. It's just that you need to actively relinquish control over the marks."

"But if you do that, it won't just be the people you designate who can sense them. Others will sense something too."

"It's a... small drawback."

"Uh... okay, I'll try."

Yun Jingheng withdrew from the Sea of Spirit and looked at Ye Xinglan.

"We can give it a try."

Ye Xinglan's large blue eyes lit up.

"Really?"

Yun Jingheng nodded. "I'm just not sure whether it'll work."

Ye Xinglan stood up, her tone slightly excited.

"We'll find out if we try!"

The two of them took their positions.

Yun Jingheng swung his sword, sending a Crescent Slash at a target thirty meters away.

The Moon Blade struck, leaving behind a silver mark that no one else could see.

He closed his eyes and tried to release his unconscious control over that mark.

Inside the Sea of Spirit, Xiao Jiu wagged its tail.

"Yes, yes, just like that. Let it radiate outward."

Yun Jingheng did as it said.

A few seconds later, Ye Xinglan suddenly stared at the target and said.

"I can sense it."

Yun Jingheng opened his eyes.

Ye Xinglan was staring at the target, and the exact direction seemed to be...

"There, it feels like there's something there."

"It's faint, but it's definitely there!"

Yun Jingheng froze.

"Seriously?"

Ye Xinglan was certain. "Seriously. It's like some kind of guidance. I can't see it with my eyes, but it's... something I can feel in my heart."

Yun Jingheng looked at her, then at the mark on the target.

"Can you walk over and point out the spot you feel?"

Ye Xinglan cautiously took a step forward.

She moved very slowly, as if confirming whether the mark truly existed.

When she reached the target, she hesitated briefly, then pointed at a spot on it and turned back toward Yun Jingheng.

"Here?"

Yun Jingheng: "..."

Holy crap!

What the hell was this principle?

She could actually sense it?!

Hiss~ Um... there was nothing wrong with her intelligence.

It just made his own understanding seem limited...

Ye Xinglan walked back, her eyes blazing with excitement.

"Again!"

They tried dozens of times.

From thirty meters to fifty, then eighty.

Ye Xinglan could follow the guidance of the mark and accurately find its location every time.

But she could only find it. She couldn't teleport there like Yun Jingheng could.

She still had to run there herself.

"That's no fun..." She frowned.

Yun Jingheng thought for a moment.

"How fast can you run?"

"Huh?"

"I mean... from over there to where we are now, how fast can you go at your limit?"

Ye Xinglan thought about it.

"For thirty meters... a little over one second."

Thirty meters in a little over a second...?

Bolt's record was 9.58 seconds for a hundred meters.

If calculated according to uniformly accelerated linear motion...

The acceleration from zero to thirty meters would be the process of going from zero to maximum speed.

Then by that calculation... the theoretical time would be over five seconds, but he remembered that the measured result was a little over three seconds.

Damn, you're even better than Bolt.

Soul Power nourishment could let a nine-year-old girl crush Bolt's record?!

Wasn't that absurd?!

Yun Jingheng's expression became extremely strange.

"Hey! What do you mean by that? With my Level 21 Soul Power erupting at full force, I might not surpass you, but I definitely wouldn't fall too far behind!"

Yun Jingheng looked away.

A full eruption of Soul Power?

Then never mind.

But his mind was still turning over that thought.

A nine-year-old girl, boosted by Soul Power, could run thirty meters in a little over one second.

What kind of concept was that?

It was equivalent to a speed of more than twenty meters per second.

In his previous life, that would have been more than twice the speed of a top-level sprinter.

And she was only nine years old, with only two soul rings.

He suddenly gained a more intuitive understanding of this world's power system.

"Hey, what are you thinking about?"

Ye Xinglan's voice pulled him back.

Yun Jingheng looked at her.

"I was thinking that you run really fast."

Ye Xinglan was stunned for a moment, then the corners of her lips could not help but rise.

"Of course I do."

Yun Jingheng thought about it.

"Then what if we add my pulling force?"

Ye Xinglan blinked.

"What do you mean?"

Yun Jingheng said.

"You run toward the mark as fast as you can, and at the same time, I use Moonlight Protection to pull or push you in that direction."

"With two forces stacked together, you should be even faster."

Ye Xinglan's eyes lit up.

"Want to try?"

Yun Jingheng nodded.

The two stood side by side.

Yun Jingheng gripped the Moonlight Sword and sent out a Crescent Slash, hitting a target thirty meters away.

He immediately released control over the mark, allowing Ye Xinglan to sense it.

Ye Xinglan took a deep breath and shot forward like an arrow.

The instant she rushed out, Yun Jingheng lit up his second soul ring.

Silver-white light spread from beneath his feet, but he kept its range to a minimum and aimed it at Ye Xinglan as she charged ahead.

A supple force pushed Ye Xinglan forward.

She was already fast, and with that pulling force... no, it was not attraction. At this moment, it was repulsion.

Seen from the opposite direction, pulling force was repulsive force. Their essence was the same; only the direction differed.

The result was this: her speed doubled. In just half a second.

She had already stabbed the target with her sword. Her momentum carried her several more steps before she barely managed to stop.

She stood there in a daze, looking at the target, then at her sword.

Then she abruptly turned back to look at Yun Jingheng.

A strange light flickered in her eyes.

"Just now..."

Yun Jingheng walked over with a smile.

"How did it feel?"

Ye Xinglan thought for a moment. "Too fast."

"I hadn't even had time to draw my sword before it hit the target."

Yun Jingheng nodded. "Then draw your sword a little earlier?"

Ye Xinglan looked at him and suddenly smiled.

"You really do everything one move at a time when you talk, huh?"

Yun Jingheng curled his lip. "What? That's how it should be."

They tried many more times.

From being awkward at first, they gradually developed a rhythm.

Ye Xinglan drew her sword faster and faster, striking the instant the pulling or repelling force reached its peak.

Speed and power overlapped perfectly.

Yun Jingheng also gradually found the most suitable method. It was not simply pushing or pulling, but applying force along her trajectory of movement.

Like the composition of forces, the addition of vectors.

From straight paths to curved paths.

From pulling force to repelling force.

By evening, the two sat by the lake to rest.

Ye Xinglan panted heavily, but her eyes shone frighteningly bright.

"This coordination feels amazing!"

Yun Jingheng said nothing, merely recovering his Soul Power in silence.

Ye Xinglan looked at him.

"Should we give it a name?"

Yun Jingheng froze for a moment.

"A name?"

"Yeah. It's a combo technique that belongs to the two of us. Shouldn't it have a name?"

Yun Jingheng thought about it. "You run, I pull, you draw your sword..."

"How about calling it..."

"Calling it what?"

"Ultimate Invincible Star-moon Push-Pull Supreme Two-Way Force Field Ultimate Dreamlike Lightspeed Instant-Kill Slash!"

Ye Xinglan: "..."

"What the hell is wrong with you? What kind of garbage name is that?!"

Yun Jingheng said irritably, "You're the crazy one. What's wrong with such a sacred name?"

Ye Xinglan gritted her teeth. "Sacred my ass! Insane is more like it!"

"You're not allowed to name it anymore! I'll do it!"

Yun Jingheng wanted to say something else, but Ye Xinglan had already stood up.

With her hands behind her back, she paced back and forth, muttering to herself.

"You're the moon, I'm the star... the star chases after the moon... no, I'm running while you push..."

She stopped and turned back to look at him.

"How about Star-moon?"

Yun Jingheng decisively shook his head. "Too ordinary. I still think it should be called Ultimate Invincible—"

"Shut up. You're not allowed to call it that. It sounds awful."

"..."

Ye Xinglan frowned and took a few more steps.

"Then... Moon Shadow Chasing Star?"

Yun Jingheng thought about it. "It sounds like I'm chasing you."

Ye Xinglan's face reddened slightly. "Who told you to chase me?!"

Yun Jingheng: ???

Yun Jingheng spread his hands. "Then keep going."

Ye Xinglan paced back and forth a few more times, then suddenly stopped.

"Star Gallop Under Moon."

She turned around and looked at Yun Jingheng.

"The star races beneath the moon's light. You push me, and I charge ahead."

She paused.

"What do you think?"

Yun Jingheng opened his mouth, wanting to say something.

But when he saw someone's slightly narrowed eyes and clenched fist...

Yun Jingheng swallowed the words at the tip of his tongue. He chose to follow his heart.

"It's pretty good."