The Prospects of Micro-Manipulation

Wherever there is a Hidden Dragon, there must be a Young Phoenix within a hundred paces.

"Young men are strong in their youth, standing tall with spines like mountains and rivers."

"What are you humming?" Ning Rongrong's schadenfreude was interrupted.

"No whispering!"

After locking Ning Tian in the Little Black Room, the Hall Guardian Elder returned to the testing grounds and began evaluating the next person.

Han Tao had thought Ning Tian, that Hidden Dragon, had already put on a sufficiently explosive performance. He had not expected something even more explosive. In the end, he had still underestimated the people of this world.

"Why does a support soul master need to buff their teammates? If you have to buff them, isn't it because your teammates aren't strong enough?"

Ning Rongrong even cited a real-life example.

"As long as I bring Sword Grandpa and Bone Grandpa along, we can win the battle even if I do absolutely nothing."

The Hall Guardian Elder fell silent for a moment, unexpectedly at a loss for how to refute her.

"But Sword Douluo and Bone Douluo would become even stronger with the Sect Master's support, wouldn't they?"

He questioned Ning Rongrong again.

Then Han Tao heard an even more explosive answer.

"When Father buffs Sword Grandpa and Bone Grandpa, isn't it just to give them special effects? That makes them more eye-catching, which reduces the presence of support soul masters. Then the enemy won't attack me."

Ning Rongrong spoke with complete seriousness. Perhaps, in her mind, that really was the answer.

After all, when sparring with members of the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect, who would dare attack her first? Weren't they afraid those two great gods would come looking for trouble?

The Hall Guardian Elder's expression was utterly speechless. After giving Ning Rongrong a score of 26, he led her into the Little Black Room.

"Same as always?"

Ning Rongrong pouted, but neither resisted nor shouted. She quietly walked into the Little Black Room.

"Are you surprised?"

A member beside him struck up a conversation with Han Tao again. Han Tao looked at him and nodded involuntarily.

"Those who fail the examination will be locked in the Little Black Room. That's the Sect's rule, and no one can violate it."

"But the Titled Douluo of the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect have the authority to summon Sect Disciples. That is also a Sect rule."

"If you have enough influence to call upon Sword Douluo or Bone Douluo of our Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect, they can naturally bail you out of the Little Black Room."

So that was how it was.

"So this so-called punishment of the Little Black Room is effectively useless against those two, the Hidden Dragon and Young Phoenix?"

"Meanwhile, ordinary disciples like us are the ones who suffer?"

Han Tao's doubts received an affirmative answer. What surprised Han Tao even more was that this disciple saw the matter far more clearly and deeply than he did.

"The Sect Master knows, of course, but he tacitly allows it. When your strength is weak and you have neither authority nor influence, the Sect's rules are not shackles, but protection for the weak."

"If you have the strength of a Soul Douluo, if you have an important mission to carry out, or if you possess the status of the Sect Master's daughter, you can all ignore this rule. If not, then study according to the rules and pass the examination openly and honorably."

Hearing this entirely new answer, Han Tao's expression turned solemn. He looked seriously at this obscure Sect Disciple.

"I haven't asked your name yet?"

He casually cupped his hands and smiled.

"This humble one is Xue Feng!"

After giving his name, he stepped forward, faced the Hall Guardian Elder, and began his own examination.

"60 points. Pass!"

Soon, the Hall Guardian Elder announced Xue Feng's result, causing an uproar among the members below.

"We finally have someone who passed! That really wasn't easy!"

"Xue Feng Big Brother's passing this time was all thanks to the Hall Guardian Elder's hard work!"

Han Tao's mouth twitched involuntarily when he heard this. Indeed, the entire examination had been handled by the Hall Guardian Elder, and Xue Feng's score had happened to be exactly 60. It seemed the Hall Guardian Elder had put in quite a lot of effort.

"Xue Feng. The surname Xue... He must be connected to the Heaven Dou Empire's imperial family."

The surname Xue was no ordinary surname. Aside from the imperial family of the Heaven Dou Empire, few commoners currently bore it, especially not in a place like the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect.

Before he had time to think much about it, Han Tao heard his own name.

Following the rules, Han Tao stepped forward and faced the Hall Guardian Elder.

"Han Tao, you have been in the Sect for half a year. Today, I will test what you have learned. If you fail to meet the relevant requirements, don't blame this elder for showing no mercy."

"Tell me, which fields have you mainly studied over the past six months?"

The Supplementary Study Book List covered an extremely broad range, so ordinary Sect Disciples would generally choose only certain fields to study.

"The Crowd Control branch. My main study is the book 'Muscles, Strength, and External Movements.'"

Han Tao chose a book. It mainly described how, by observing changes in human muscles, one could deduce the transmission of force through the body and the corresponding movements, attacks, and defenses that would result. It was an extremely practical field. If Han Tao could sense changes in an enemy's body, he could use the formulas in the book to calculate the enemy's next movement, allowing him to dodge or counter in advance.

Hearing Han Tao's choice, the Hall Guardian Elder nodded approvingly and asked, "When a soul master runs, how do the muscles and strength within their body operate?"

After thinking for a while, Han Tao answered slowly and methodically, word by word: "While a soul master is running, the arm and waist-abdominal muscles serve to maintain balance, so I will not elaborate on them. The leg muscles consist of the soleus and peroneus brevis. The force transmission ratio is 7:4:4:3 over time, with different force ratios appearing at different moments. The following is a force-analysis curve."

"Force from one leg drives the body forward, while both legs alternate to complete a cycle. The visible changes in the muscles are—"

The Hall Guardian Elder gave Han Tao a score of 61. Clearly, Han Tao's passing this time had not required any effort from him.

In truth, Han Tao had left out much more.

Once the patterns of the muscles were mastered, the room for maneuver within them was simply too vast.

For example, when a soul master was running, force from one leg would be transmitted to the torso. At the instant when the old force had been exhausted and the new force had yet to arise, even the tiniest amount of force could disrupt the soul master's balance and make him fall.

For example, when Tang San practiced the Disorder Splitting Wind Hammer, the moment the hammer struck and rebounded was also the beginning of the next round of the Disorder Splitting Wind Hammer. If a little extra force were added to the rebound, causing the returning force to veer off course, one could imagine what would happen.

Therefore, beneath this theory lay an endlessly high ceiling. Its strength depended entirely on the soul master.

"This is mastery over Microscopic Force, and it is also an offensive method for support soul masters."

If Han Tao possessed Ning Rongrong's Soul Power Level from the original story, cultivated the Distraction Control Method to its pinnacle, and fully understood and mastered "Buff Micro-Manipulation," then at the National Elite Soul Master Competition, even alone, even as merely a support soul master, he could effortlessly toy with the Shrek Team to death.

"Disrupt the force as it begins, and make it deviate as it ends."

This was terrifying, because under someone else's Micro-Manipulation, you could never be sure whether the force would end up attacking a teammate.

And if a teammate's defensive movement were suddenly disrupted, even once could put them in a life-or-death crisis.

Suddenness and abnormality were the essence of Microscopic Force.

It was just like the feeling of a child who practiced table tennis when facing a spinning ball for the first time.

Other soul masters who wanted to deal with this kind of force Micro-Manipulation had to undergo "Anti-Interference Training" for support Soul Skills.

Only then would they have a chance—only then might they be able to mount even the slightest counter against force on this level.