"I hadn't even struck yet, and you've already proven it for me."
Amidst the dense fog, Ling Yun's laughter drifted over. Tang San looked at the Blue Silver Grass that had all converged toward Xiao Wu, his heart sinking; he naturally understood what his reaction just now implied.
With just a single line telling Xiao Wu he was going to hit her, Little San had actively altered the formation of the entire team.
"Little San, aren't you the leader? Why is it that whoever I say I'm hitting, you move people right over there?" Ling Yun chuckled. "If I'd known it was this effective, why would I bother racking my brain for tactics? I should've just called out names directly."
Tang San did not retort, quickly signaling Dai Mubai and Zhu Zhuqing to resume their positions. Yet three water clones had already charged out of the fog toward Xiao Wu at once, forcing Tang San to redeploy the Blue Silver Grass yet again.
"Never mind the clones!"
Just as Tang San finished shouting, the real Ling Yun had already appeared behind Ma Hongjun.
Ma Hongjun felt his shoulder sink, and just as he prepared to turn around, a Pink Soul-Power Tongue Scarf had already wrapped around his ankle. Leveraging Wave Treading, Ling Yun yanked hard, causing the fat man to lose his balance entirely and sending him flying straight out of the fog zone with a single kick.
Ma Hongjun sat outside the arena, utterly bewildered.
"Didn't you say you were hitting Xiao Wu?"
Ling Yun called back from inside the fog: "You believe whatever I say? No wonder Tang San loves analyzing you lot so much; I'm starting to think commanding Shrek is pretty simple myself."
Tang San knew he had been played. Ling Yun had spoken of Xiao Wu on the surface, but his true objective was to force him to concentrate all his attention and control in a single direction.
Yu Xiaogang could not help but chime in, "Little San protecting an injured teammate was not wrong; it's simply that Ling Yun deliberately exploited that point."
"Grandmaster, you really know how to pick your words."
Ling Yun smiled. "Oscar heading to the sidelines is called a tactical loss, and Ning Rongrong heading to the sidelines is called adjusting the formation. When it's Xiao Wu's turn, it suddenly becomes an injured teammate who requires the whole team's focused protection."
Yu Xiaogang's brows locked tightly.
Yet Ling Yun did not stop. "By your logic, as long as one deliberately gets oneself hurt by acting out, you can draw an extra focused-protection card in a match?"
Xiao Wu was so angry her face turned crimson.
"Grandmaster, if you're going to be biased, just be biased-don't wrap everything up in theory," Ling Yun continued. "No matter how much you package it like tactics, it doesn't change the fact that Tang San sold out all his teammates' positions just for her a moment ago."
Tang San took a deep breath, forcing himself to calm down. "Boss Dai, Zhuqing, stop protecting Xiao Wu. Press the attack yourselves. Xiao Wu, stay with me."
Ling Yun burst out laughing upon hearing that.
"Not bad, you've learned your lesson."
"The whole team stops protecting her, upgrading to the captain personally providing close protection. Little San, you're playing the role of captain more and more like a private bodyguard."
"Shut up!"
Tang San's Blue Silver Grass instantly surged into the dense fog, while Dai Mubai and Zhu Zhuqing simultaneously attacked from the left and right flanks. This time, the coordination among the three was clearly much more decisive, and they were no longer easily redirected by a few words from Ling Yun.
Yet Oscar and Ning Rongrong had already exited the arena.
Without the amplification of the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Pagoda and without sausage resupply, the threat posed by the remaining members of Shrek had dropped by a notch.
Just as Zhu Zhuqing charged into the fog, two Ling Yuns appeared in front of her simultaneously. She did not rush to attack, relying on experience to pierce straight through the two figures in search of the true body.
"Decent judgment."
Ling Yun's voice came from overhead.
Zhu Zhuqing snapped her head up.
The real Ling Yun used the Soul Power Tongue Scarf to wrap around a pillar at the edge of the training ground, swinging his entire body across from above. Just as Zhu Zhuqing prepared to shift directions, Ling Yun had already landed behind her, gently tapping her nape with his palm.
"Zhuqing, step down."
Zhu Zhuqing paused for a moment, not entangling further as she directly withdrew from the fog zone.
She had lost fair and square.
It was not that her speed was insufficient, but rather that under conditions where she could not see her opponent's position at all, her agility-attack advantage had no way of manifesting.
Five people, down to three in the blink of an eye.
Dai Mubai, Tang San, Xiao Wu.
Ling Yun's voice rang out once more: "Little San, still analyzing? Seven people fighting until now, the support is gone, fatty is gone, and the agility-attack type is gone too. You control-type fellows are quite busy, except the control outcome isn't terribly obvious."
Tang San stared fixedly at the mist.
"Didn't Grandmaster say before that the control-type is the soul of the team?" Ling Yun chuckled. "Your soul is a bit hard on teammates, though-every time you give an order, one of them vanishes."
Yu Xiaogang said in a deep voice, "If not for Mist Veil--"
"Grandmaster, here we go again?"
Ling Yun directly cut him off. "Without Mist Veil, without Wave Treading, without clones, and by the way, without Water Shuriken, do I need to lie down on the ground myself next?"
Another wave of laughter instantly erupted from the sidelines.
"Whenever Tang San can't beat something, you just delete it from the conditions. Give it a while longer, and do I need to tuck myself in for a nap?"
Yu Xiaogang's face turned livid, yet he could no longer find a response.
Dai Mubai, however, charged into the dense fog at this moment; he had seen through it-dragging things out further would only allow Ling Yun to continue dealing with them one by one.
"White Tiger Vajra Transformation!"
A formidable surge of soul power erupted, blowing away a large swath of mist for a fraction of a second. Tang San immediately seized this opportunity, the Purple Demon Eye locking onto a rapidly moving figure.
"Left!"
Dai Mubai pounced without the slightest hesitation, while Tang San himself remained in Xiao Wu's vicinity.
Seeing this scene, Ling Yun almost laughed out loud. "Here it comes again."
Tang San's heart tightened.
"Boss Dai is fighting for his life up front, while you stay behind to keep Xiao Wu company. Little San, is the name of your tactic 'brothers take the beatings, little sister must remain safe'?"
Dai Mubai's movements noticeably faltered.
Tang San gritted his teeth. "Xiao Wu is injured!"
"So what?"
Ling Yun's voice abruptly materialized behind Dai Mubai.
"She's injured, so Dai Mubai has to take the beatings for her?"
Dai Mubai whirled around abruptly, but it was already too late. Evading the tiger claws, Ling Yun used Wave Treading to close in and cut inside, his Tongue Scarf wrapping around Dai Mubai's arm and dragging the man straight out of the training ground's sideline by utilizing the momentum of his forward charge.
After landing outside, Dai Mubai fell silent.
Ling Yun had not defeated him with sheer force.
What truly caused him to be eliminated was that Tang San had failed to follow up.
Because Tang San had stayed by Xiao Wu's side.
The sidelines fell utterly silent for a split second.
Ling Yun walked slowly out of the fog, looking at Tang San.
"Little San."
"Every time you protect her, you lose another teammate."
Tang San clenched his fists.
Ling Yun continued: "You claim you're fighting a team battle, but from beginning to end, your internal priority has never been the team."
"Xiao Wu comes first."
"Everyone else stands back."
Xiao Wu's complexion turned slightly pale.
Tang San wanted to retort, only to find that Dai Mubai, Zhu Zhuqing, and the others who had already stepped down were all watching him.
"Don't look at Little San like that."
Ling Yun suddenly smiled. "The fellow is sentimental, after all. It's just that the rest of you need to be careful from now on; if you run into danger in a match, you'd best not happen at the same time as Xiao Wu."
"Because the captain can only save one."
This sentence was more ruthless than any that had come before it.
Dai Mubai's expression visibly shifted.
Tang San finally grew angry: "Ling Yun!"
"Why are you yelling so loud?"
Ling Yun looked at him. "Did I say something wrong? Prove it to me."
The next instant, Ling Yun abruptly lunged toward Xiao Wu.
Tang San almost instinctively blocked in front of her, all his Blue Silver Grass surging toward Ling Yun.
Ling Yun's footsteps halted abruptly.
He smiled.
"Little San."
"You chose again."
Tang San's expression altered drastically.
Yet Ling Yun did not attack Xiao Wu at all; a Water Shadow Clone collided head-on with the Blue Silver Grass while the true body slipped through from the flank, a palm landing squarely against Tang San's chest. Tang San retreated in a flurry using Ghost Shadow Perplexing Track, only to have his wrist ensnared by the Soul Power Tongue Scarf.
With a fierce yank, his balance failed, and Ling Yun delivered another punch straight at him, sending Tang San flying several meters away like a dead dog.
Victory and defeat were decided.
Ling Yun released the Tongue Scarf, took a step back, and looked at him with a half-smile.
"When there were seven people, you said solo combat couldn't represent the team."
"Now that all seven have been dismantled-Little San, after taking such a huge circle, is there any difference?"
Tang San could not speak.
Ling Yun turned his gaze toward Yu Xiaogang on the sidelines, adding one final remark.
"Grandmaster, go back and make a note of today's match."
"I've even thought of the thesis title for you. Let's call it 'On How a Control-Type Soul Master Successfully Eliminates Six of His Own Teammates Under the Guidance of the Opposing Commander'."
The training ground fell silent for a fraction of a second.
Then it erupted into roaring laughter.
Yu Xiaogang's stiff face turned pitch black.
Flender looked at the two sides in the middle of the arena whose outcome had been thoroughly decided, fell silent for a moment, and finally spoke: "Enough. We stop here for today, and the position of main team captain won't need to be contested further."
He looked at Ling Yun.
"You'll take this captain's post."
The members of Shrek said nothing.
Ling Yun was not particularly surprised; he merely dispersed the Mist Veil and remarked casually, "If you'd settled it this early, wouldn't it have saved Little San from leading six people to lose all over again?"
Tang San's face darkened, and Flender glared helplessly at Ling Yun before adding, "There is one more matter. Since the students from both sides have merged, the original tournament arrangements must also be readjusted."
"Starting tomorrow, we will officially reorganize the Blue Tyrant Academy main team."
As soon as these words were uttered, the attention of the Shrek members instantly concentrated.
Flender paused.
"The seven official positions for the main team, the substitute candidates, and the preliminary lineup arrangements will be given a final review by Erlong and the rest of us."
"However, the initial roster will be proposed by the captain."
The training ground suddenly grew quiet, because everyone had reacted-who was the captain? Ling Yun.
In other words, whether the Shrek Seven Devils, who had just spent seven people jointly ganging up on Ling Yun, could all make the starting lineup tomorrow depended entirely on the first roster coming out of Ling Yun's hands.
Ling Yun himself was momentarily stunned.
Then, he slowly smiled.
"That first roster-I can propose it however I like?"
"As long as the reasoning is sound."
"That's good, then."
Ling Yun nodded, his gaze sweeping slowly across the Shrek Seven Devils.
Finally resting on Tang San and Xiao Wu.
Xiao Wu felt a creeping chill run through her heart under his gaze, and she couldn't help saying, "What are you looking at?"
"Nothing."
Ling Yun smiled quite amiably. "I just suddenly feel that today's match was well worth fighting."
Xiao Wu frowned, but Ling Yun did not explain, turning his gaze instead to Tang San.
"Little San, didn't you say just now that individual strength can't determine who is suited for a team?"
A deeply ominous premonition suddenly rose in Tang San's heart.
Ling Yun chuckled.
"What a coincidence."
"Tomorrow, I happen to want to take another look at which of you seven is actually suited for my team."
Tang San's expression finally changed.
And Ling Yun's gaze had already landed back upon Xiao Wu.
"Especially certain people who dare to fake a surrender even in a sparring match, and violate the rules out of personal emotions."
"Little San, you tell me-is a teammate like that suited for the starting lineup?"
Before you continue