Methods Beyond Comprehension

The test officially began!

Tang San moved first.

He turned both palms outward. More than a dozen strands of Blue Silver Grass burst from the ground and snaked along its surface, surging forward and looping around to weave a net beneath Qin Yun's feet.

At the same time, a soft, jade-like glow lit Ning Rongrong's fingertips, and the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Pagoda rose slowly from her palm.

As seven-colored light flowed around it, two beams of enhancement fell on Zhu Zhuqing and Xiao Wu—one boosting strength, the other speed.

Xiao Wu pushed off the ground and swept in from the left at tremendous speed. Her right hand opened slightly, while the Soft Bone Rabbit's explosive power gathered in her legs;

Zhu Zhuqing moved almost simultaneously. She crouched low, the Hell Spirit Cat Martial Soul trailing an almost illusory afterimage behind her. A cold glint flashed between her claws as she struck at Qin Yun's right flank.

The four worked together seamlessly.

One from the front, one from the rear; one from the left, one from the right.

Blue Silver Grass blocked his escape routes while the two attackers pressed in, and Ning Rongrong supported them from behind.

Even an ordinary rank-forty soul master might have struggled to withstand that assault.

Yet Qin Yun merely pressed his right thumb and forefinger together and snapped his fingers.

Boom!

An explosion erupted three feet ahead of Xiao Wu.

It was not powerful, but its report was sharp.

As though an invisible pocket of gas had suddenly ignited, a visible ring of white air burst outward, carrying a shock wave straight toward Xiao Wu.

Still charging forward, she slammed into it as if into a taut drumskin. The blast hurled her back, and she stumbled more than a dozen steps before stopping.

Then came a second blast.

Boom!

This explosion struck directly in Zhu Zhuqing's path.

The air churned, jolting Zhu Zhuqing's arms upward.

She crossed her claws to block, but the shock wave still sent her tumbling backward. Her boots carved a long, shallow groove in the ground before she finally regained her balance.

She dropped to one knee, her catlike eyes grave.

Tang San's Blue Silver Grass seized the chance to advance and was nearly upon Qin Yun.

But at that moment, a thread of Soul Power flowed silently between Qin Yun's fingers. He precisely separated trace amounts of White Phosphorus from the air and laid an exceedingly thin coating over the Blue Silver Grass.

White Phosphorus had a frighteningly low ignition point.

Below forty degrees Celsius, the slight warmth of direct sunlight and friction against the air was enough to set it ablaze in an instant.

Pale flames raced along the vines. In the blink of an eye, the spread of Tang San's Blue Silver Grass had become a winding dragon of fire.

Tang San's expression shifted. He hurriedly withdrew his Martial Soul, then flicked his wrist to whip out the burning vines.

In a single exchange, all three attacks had been thwarted.

Xiao Wu found her footing after the blast and brushed the dust from her skirt, her face tight.

She was still indignant, but she no longer grinned with her earlier carefree confidence.

She muttered,

"How did he make that explode? I didn't see him throw anything!"

Qin Yun had not moved half a step. A mere twitch of his fingers had broken their combined assault.

That trick of setting off explosions out of thin air baffled everyone.

Only Qin Yun knew what had really happened.

Before snapping his fingers, he had silently separated and gathered a small, concentrated pocket of oxygen and combustible gas from the air.

He had raised the oxygen density far beyond normal levels, then used a trace of Soul Power to create a trigger boundary on the verge of breaking.

The tiny vibration from his snap was enough to upset that balance and ignite a precisely placed flash fire.

The principle was simple enough: the three basic requirements for combustion.

But the four of them would not retreat after so minor a setback.

Zhu Zhuqing sprang up again. Her catlike pupils narrowed to slits, and her presence abruptly grew focused.

With the Hell Spirit Cat Martial Soul possessing her, her speed surged again. Her figure became a blurred black streak.

This time she did not charge straight in. She darted left and right in a serpentine approach, changing direction with every step so her line of attack was difficult to predict.

Xiao Wu gritted her teeth and rushed forward again, fully releasing her Soft Bone Rabbit Martial Soul. Her legs launched her into the air with astonishing force. She flipped repeatedly, then brought a high whipping kick down toward Qin Yun's shoulder.

One struck high, the other low; one relied on speed, the other on force. Together, they left Qin Yun almost no room to dodge in any direction.

Qin Yun remained where he was, neither dodging nor retreating.

He merely turned slightly, spread the fingers of his right hand, and pressed gently toward the empty air before him.

The instant Soul Power flowed from his fingertips, he seized free carbon from the air at tremendous speed, gathering and rearranging it.

Under extreme compression and the guidance of his Soul Power, the carbon atoms swiftly crystallized. Countless tiny Diamond nuclei grew together in the air before him, forming a translucent crystal shield with a faint, cool gleam in the blink of an eye.

The shield was roughly three feet square, its surface smooth as a mirror and its structure dense.

Zhu Zhuqing's claws struck at that exact moment.

Clang!

Her Hell Spirit Cat claws raked across the Diamond shield, scattering sparks. A sharp pain shot through all ten nails at once. Her fingers went numb from the impact, and a thin line of blood appeared at the base of her thumb.

She grunted and used the recoil to flip backward, landing on her feet. She looked down at her faintly trembling claws.

Tiny cracks had appeared along the edges of her nails. If she had not reacted in time and pulled back some of her strength, the blow might have shattered every one of them.

The Diamond shield did not budge. It bore not even a scratch.

"My goodness... what is that thing?"

Ning Rongrong had seen it clearly from behind and could not help drawing a sharp breath.

"Did he just conjure a diamond?"

"A diamond that big?"

As Xiao Wu's high kick came whipping toward him, Qin Yun calmly stepped aside and angled the shield left, blocking her attack as well.

The translucent crystal refracted sunlight into tiny rainbow flecks. It was beautiful.

To his opponents, though, it exerted a silent pressure.

Tang San stood a few steps away, making no move to attack.

He was watching Qin Yun's every action.

To defeat an opponent, he first had to understand how that opponent attacked.

But Qin Yun fought nothing like an ordinary soul master. So far, Tang San could not make sense of his methods at all.

Just then,

all four of them faltered.

Xiao Wu shook her head and said,

"Xiao San... why am I so dizzy?"

Ning Rongrong and Zhu Zhuqing frowned at the same time, their faces turning pale.

Both raised a hand to their temples and stumbled half a step.

Ning Rongrong said,

"I'm dizzy too... Have we been poisoned already?"

Zhu Zhuqing bit her lip without speaking, but the fine sweat on her forehead said enough.

The Carbon Monoxide Qin Yun had prepared earlier was taking effect.

The colorless, odorless gas had silently entered their bodies.