Sword Douluo's Test

The next morning, the sunlight was bright.

Luo Yan had thought last night was already bad enough.

But when he got up in the morning, before he had even properly washed his face, Ning Rongrong arrived.

"Grandpa Sword said he wanted to see how well we work together." Ning Rongrong stood at the door, smiling somewhat unnaturally.

"Us?" Luo Yan was wiping his face with a wet cloth, while Zhu Zhuqing came out of the room as well.

"He's waiting outside the city."

Ning Rongrong said quietly, "He said we don't need to fight for real, just test ourselves."

Luo Yan flung the cloth aside with a bitter smile. "Test what? I'm a Second Ring, you're a support-type, and we've got an agility-attack cat. We're supposed to fight Sword Douluo? Did your Grandpa Sword look at the moon too long last night and mistake the three of us for three Soul Douluos?"

"Then are you going?" Ning Rongrong looked at him.

"I'm going."

Luo Yan sighed. "If I don't, he'll be standing downstairs tonight as a streetlamp again."

Outside the city, on an open patch of ground.

Chen Xin stood with his hands behind his back. The morning breeze barely stirred his robes. When he saw the three approaching, he only nodded.

"I will suppress myself to the level of the Third Ring. Attack me using the methods you are best at," he said.

Luo Yan raised a hand. "Is there an option where we don't fight?"

"No," Chen Xin said.

"To what extent does this count as finished?"

"If you cannot touch me, I will take Rongrong away," Chen Xin said.

Ning Rongrong said, "Wait, why am I the wager?!"

Zhu Zhuqing frowned at Luo Yan. Luo Yan said nothing, only grabbed each girl's hand.

Then the three of them retreated sharply. The next instant, the center of the clearing exploded with a boom.

The earth tore open from below. Three rifts burst apart at once, dirt flying everywhere as more than a dozen dragon-shaped forms twisted from soil and stone shot out of the cracks. With deep, muffled roars, they charged straight at Chen Xin.

Chen Xin tapped the ground with his toes and left his original spot. His body moved like a crane as he darted swiftly between the earthen dragons. But Luo Yan had no intention of letting him pause. The dozen-plus earth dragons lunged and bit from different directions one after another, making Chen Xin furrow his brow slightly.

"Seven Treasures have their name: first, strength; second, speed!"

"First Spirit Skill, Hell Stab!"

Zhu Zhuqing became a streak of black lightning and shot out from the flank.

The Seven Treasures Glazed Pagoda in Ning Rongrong's hand flashed repeatedly as two enhancements fell upon Luo Yan and Zhu Zhuqing at once.

Chen Xin remained where he stood, merely tilting his head slightly as the dozen-plus earth dragons reached him. He raised his foot and stomped down. A ring of Soul Power rippled from beneath his foot, sending the earthen dragons flying into the air before shattering every one of them.

Using Ning Rongrong's speed boost, Luo Yan advanced instead of retreating, pressing toward Chen Xin from the left.

Behind the Elation Mask, his eyes shone brightly as his purple ring lit up again.

Chen Xin glanced at him and swept his sleeve, sending a gust of sword wind slicing toward him.

But Luo Yan's figure suddenly blurred. The next second, behind Chen Xin, an almost transparent gray thread silently rose and curled around Zhu Zhuqing's waist, pulling her from the right side behind him.

"He's getting serious," Luo Yan said in a low voice.

Before his words had faded, Chen Xin moved.

For the first time, he took the initiative. With a horizontal sweep of one finger, sword qi pressed down on the three of them like a ruler. Luo Yan's pupils contracted sharply.

He had no time to dodge and could only force his Soul Power to its limit. Mist joined into three walls before them. The first shattered, then the second, and the third did not hold either.

The sword qi grazed Luo Yan's left shoulder, tearing his clothes as blood seeped out. The shockwave sent him sliding several steps backward.

Zhu Zhuqing had already pounced again, her Soul Power fully unleashed.

Chen Xin only extended one finger and tapped her fingertips. Zhu Zhuqing's entire body jolted as if struck heavily. Borrowing the force, she spun, her other hand already extending sharp claws straight for Chen Xin's throat.

Chen Xin gave a soft sound of surprise and leaned back half an inch. Her claw wind brushed past his neck, taking only half a wisp of morning mist.

"Not bad," Chen Xin said.

Zhu Zhuqing landed, the web between her thumb and forefinger split open. Ning Rongrong had already rushed forward and sent a thread of enhancement into Zhu Zhuqing's body.

Luo Yan got up from the ground as well. He was breathing hard, and his shoulder wound burned fiercely.

Hahahahaha—! Look at that~ Someone's getting bullied~

"Then give me some strength. What's the point of just laughing? Give me something real."

Aha laughed even more happily.

Why... don't you try becoming someone else?

Luo Yan froze.

"Isn't your Floating Life Like a Dream best at borrowing people? Borrow whoever you want, and you become like them. Since you can't win as yourself, then don't be Luo Yan."

Luo Yan's heart lurched.

He slowly raised his head. Chen Xin still stood ten paces away.

"Become someone else?" Luo Yan murmured.

He thought of someone.

Someone who used the simplest methods, from dawn to dusk, to close the gap between himself and others.

Someone who used the most inconspicuous grass to bind things that should have been impossible to bind.

Someone who always stood behind everyone else, yet had never let anyone fall.

"Tang San," Luo Yan softly spoke the name.

He had accepted his suggestion and obtained two Spirit Skills, so...

Mist surged up from beneath his feet, enveloping his whole body in an instant.

The morning breeze was thrown into disorder, and blades of grass bent to either side. Ning Rongrong instinctively took half a step back, staring unblinkingly at the thickening mass of fog.

Zhu Zhuqing did not move. She did not know what Luo Yan intended to do.

The mist suddenly bulged outward from within.

A vast expanse of Blue Silver Grass erupted beneath Luo Yan's feet like a tide.

Hundreds and thousands of blades of Blue Silver Grass grew wildly along the ground. Their leaves were thin yet tough, entwining with the mist as they spread madly in every direction.

They grew so quickly that even Chen Xin frowned.

He saw Luo Yan still standing within the mist. No, that no longer looked like Luo Yan.

That person's shoulders were flatter, his back straighter. His hair was still black, and his face still young.

He stood there without any superfluous movement. With only a raised hand, several strands of Blue Silver Grass shot from his sleeves like whips, like living ropes, precisely wrapping around the nearest three earthen dragon remnants.

The grass did not break upon touching the shattered stones. Instead, it burrowed into the cracks.

"Tang San...?" Ning Rongrong murmured.

Of course she knew Tang San. She had met him only yesterday. But the person before her was not Tang San.

That cool yet tranquil temperament, with a hidden meticulousness beneath the calm, was far too similar.

Chen Xin said nothing. He raised his hand, intending to cut down the grass with sword wind again.

But this time, the grass did not shatter at a touch like the earth dragons had. One layer was cut apart, and another grew in its place. At the severed ends, fresh shoots sprang forth as though something were urging them on, emerging even faster.

Chen Xin finally took a step back.

"Parasite." Luo Yan spoke softly, but clearly.

He stepped forward again, and the second purple ring blazed.

"Life Surge."

Those four words were like a drop of hot oil falling into a sea of grass. All the Blue Silver Grass exploded in growth at once, as though the ground itself had been lifted.

The grass leaves rose several feet like waves and swept toward Chen Xin. They no longer merely clung to the ground; they lunged at him from every direction at once, a dense and resilient green net seeking to wrap around his entire body.

Chen Xin gave a low shout, his sword fingers sweeping repeatedly. Three streaks of sword light flashed like silver threads, severing the waves of grass charging at him head-on.

But after the grass was cut, sap splattered across the ground and gave rise to new shoots. The Blue Silver Grass was inexhaustible. It relied neither on hardness nor speed, but on quantity—so much that it could not be killed, so much that even Sword Douluo found it troublesome.

"Heh." Luo Yan chuckled.

That smile was three parts like himself and seven parts like Tang San. "San'er's grass is still pretty useful."