When the second week of intensive training began, Feng Xiaotian used Instructor Qin's connections to invite a team from the main campus.
They were the advanced academy's second-string team, seven members whose average level was three to four levels higher than the red team's. Their captain was called Meng Ran, a Power Attack System Soul Master with a wind-attribute wolf Martial Soul. It belonged to the same broad category as Feng Xiaotian's Gale Twin-Headed Wolf, but followed an entirely different path. Meng Ran was slower than Feng Xiaotian, but his strength in a head-on clash far exceeded others at his level. Feng Xiaotian had fought Meng Ran back at the intermediate academy. Feng Xiaotian had won, but it had not been an easy victory.
When Meng Ran led his team into the training grounds, his gaze swept over the red team before finally settling on Feng Xiaotian.
"Feng Xiaotian, you brought me here to be a sparring partner?" Meng Ran's tone was not particularly polite, but there was no hostility in it either. It sounded more like the casual manner of old acquaintances.
"Not a sparring partner," Feng Xiaotian said. "A test."
Meng Ran raised his eyebrows. "Fine."
Feng Xiaotian turned around and began assigning the lineup. The red team's starting seven were Feng Xiaotian, Feng Lingtian, Zhong Yue, Su Mei'er, Lu Hanxiao, and Ji Ning. Feng Xiaotian fielded only one person in the support slot: Bai Yu. Ye Qingyu was assigned to watch from the sidelines.
Bai Yu stood at the edge of the training grounds, her fingers clenched around the wind chime's red cord, her knuckles faintly white. With Ye Qingyu off the field, she was the red team's only remaining support.
Bai Yu understood why Feng Xiaotian had arranged things this way. He was not trying to make things difficult for her. He wanted to see whether she could hold things up alone. Throughout her years at the junior academy, Bai Yu's bell chimes had always been compared with Ye Qingyu's zither music. Area effects against single-target effects, zither music against bell chimes-however precise Bai Yu's chimes were, they could not match the support Ye Qingyu provided by covering the entire field with a single zither. Bai Yu knew perfectly well that by putting her on the field alone, Feng Xiaotian was asking her: without Ye Qingyu, could she do it?
Bai Yu wanted to ask herself that question too.
She tightened her grip on the wind chime. Her fingers were still trembling slightly, but her hold was steadier than before.
Before the match began, Ye Qingyu walked up to Bai Yu. She noticed Bai Yu's fingers clenched around the red cord.
"Don't be nervous." Ye Qingyu's voice was very soft.
Bai Yu looked up.
"Your bell chimes are more precise than my music," Ye Qingyu said. "Area amplification has its own way of fighting, and single-target amplification has its own way of fighting. You don't need to become me."
Bai Yu looked at Ye Qingyu. Ye Qingyu had already turned toward the sidelines, her steps as light as ever.
Bai Yu tightened her grip on the wind chime.
The match began. Meng Ran's team had a distinctive defensive structure. Two of its seven members were Defense System Soul Masters, one in front and one behind, forming a double defensive line. The one in front weathered the first wave of attacks, while the one behind filled gaps and provided support. The transitions between the two Defense System Soul Masters were extremely fast, leaving almost no openings. It was a typical defensive structure with a clearly defined core: the junction between those two Defense System Soul Masters. As long as that junction was not torn open, the entire defensive line would remain rock-solid.
The red team's offensive still consisted of three attack lines, Feng Xiaotian, Feng Lingtian, and Ji Ning pressing forward simultaneously. Bai Yu's bell chimes flowed between the three. The instant Feng Xiaotian launched his head-on assault, the chimes reached him. Just as Feng Lingtian's dive began accelerating, the chimes were already waiting there. In the interval when Ji Ning's Swallow Return changed direction, the chimes slipped in with perfect precision.
Three people, three rhythms. Bai Yu's bell chimes were like an invisible thread weaving through the gaps between their attacks, landing each time on the person who needed amplification most. Not early, not late-the chimes arrived precisely the instant before that person's strength erupted.
Feng Xiaotian glanced back at Bai Yu. She stood behind the red team's formation, holding the wind chime in her right hand. Its bells swayed gently with the movements of her wrist, but her eyes were not on the bells. They were on the battlefield. She was watching. Watching when Feng Xiaotian gathered strength, when Feng Lingtian dived, when Ji Ning changed direction. She was not following passively. She was anticipating.
Feng Xiaotian looked away and made a mental note.
At the sidelines, Ye Qingyu stood quietly. She was not playing her zither, merely watching Bai Yu on the field. Ye Qingyu's zither music provided area amplification. Everyone benefited at once, but the degree of amplification was the same for each person. Bai Yu's bell chimes provided single-target amplification, which she could only give to one person at a time. Yet Ye Qingyu noticed that whenever Bai Yu switched her chimes between the three, she timed each switch to the very instant Meng Ran's defensive line loosened. However tightly those two Defense System Soul Masters coordinated, there was still a gap when they alternated. Bai Yu's chimes caught precisely that gap.
Ye Qingyu's fingers moved slightly, as though plucking an invisible zither string.
On the field, Meng Ran's defensive line remained rock-solid under the impact of the red team's three attack lines. The coordination between those two Defense System Soul Masters was too tight. When Feng Xiaotian's assault struck the first, the second immediately moved in to cover, leaving no opening.
The rhythm of Bai Yu's bell chimes suddenly changed.
The instant Feng Xiaotian launched his head-on assault, Bai Yu's chimes did not land on him. Instead, they reached Ji Ning a step early. Ji Ning's Swallow Return slipped right into the gap between the two Defense System Soul Masters' transitions. The chimes remained on Ji Ning for only an instant before immediately switching back to Feng Xiaotian. Feng Xiaotian's second wave of attacks followed hard on Ji Ning's breakthrough, smashing into the same point.
The gap was torn open.
For the first time, a genuine breach appeared in Meng Ran's defensive line. Feng Lingtian's dive followed close behind, cutting through the breach and charging straight for their back line. Meng Ran was forced to act ahead of time, meeting Feng Lingtian's dive head-on. Feng Lingtian was driven back by the impact, but Meng Ran's defensive line had fallen into complete disarray.
Meng Ran steadied himself, his gaze sweeping over the rear of the red team's formation before settling on Bai Yu.
"The one holding the bells," Meng Ran said. "She's not supporting three people. She's dismantling my defensive line."
The corner of Feng Xiaotian's mouth moved slightly.
After the match ended, Meng Ran walked up to Feng Xiaotian.
"Where did you find her?" Meng Ran asked.
"The junior academy," Feng Xiaotian said.
Meng Ran fell silent for a moment, then nodded and left with his team.
Bai Yu sat alone on the stone steps at the edge of the training grounds. The wind chime hung from her wrist, a section of its red cord soaked with sweat. She looked down at the bells, their surfaces reflecting her own face.
Bai Yu remembered what Ye Qingyu had said before the match. "You don't need to become me." Then she remembered what Meng Ran had said. "She's not supporting three people. She's dismantling my defensive line."
The corner of Bai Yu's mouth moved. Very slightly, very briefly, almost imperceptibly. But her eyes felt a little hot.
Ye Qingyu came over from the sidelines and sat beside Bai Yu. She did not look at Bai Yu, only at the training posts that had yet to be removed from the grounds.
"Your bell chimes were very steady today." Ye Qingyu's voice was very soft.
Bai Yu said nothing.
Ye Qingyu paused. "I heard that boost you gave Ji Ning. You withdrew the chimes at the exact instant Feng Xiaotian's strength ebbed. Any earlier, and Feng Xiaotian's assault would have weakened. Any later, and Ji Ning's Swallow Return wouldn't have made it in time."
Bai Yu turned to look at Ye Qingyu.
Ye Qingyu was still looking at the training posts ahead. "When I play my zither, I can hear everyone's rhythm. Feng Xiaotian's rhythm is a straight line, Feng Lingtian's is the arc of a dive, and Ji Ning's is the sharp angle of a turn. Your bell chimes moved in and out of those three rhythms without the slightest disorder."
Ye Qingyu paused. "I can't do that."
Bai Yu remained silent for a long time.
"You heard it," Bai Yu said.
Ye Qingyu turned to look at Bai Yu.
"Every time my chimes slipped into Ji Ning's turn, your fingers moved," Bai Yu said. "As though you were plucking a string."
Ye Qingyu's fingers moved slightly.
Bai Yu lowered her head and looked at the wind chime on her wrist. "I always used to think your zither music spread outward, while my bell chimes only worked on a single point. I could never catch up to you. But today, I understood. Your zither music gathers everyone together, while my bell chimes amplify one person's strength to its utmost. You provide breadth, and I provide precision. Together, we make a whole net."
Bai Yu raised her head and looked at Ye Qingyu.
Ye Qingyu looked at Bai Yu. After a long while, the corner of Ye Qingyu's mouth moved. Very slightly, very briefly, almost imperceptibly.
"Mm," Ye Qingyu said.
The two sat shoulder to shoulder, looking at the training posts that had yet to be removed from the grounds. The setting sun slanted through the entrance, stretching their shadows long and overlapping them.
Night fell, and Feng Lingtian worked on medicinal bath formulas in his dormitory. Bai Yu was a Support System Soul Master, and her medicinal bath needed herbs that nourished Soul Power and kept her meridians clear. Feng Lingtian wrote the names of several herbs on a sheet of paper, then paused.
Feng Lingtian remembered the match that day. He had experienced Bai Yu's chimes flowing between the three of them firsthand. Every time he launched a dive, the chimes arrived at just the right moment. But what stayed with him most was not the moment the chimes landed on him. It was the moment they withdrew from him and landed on Ji Ning. Bai Yu was not supporting three people. She was reading the entire battle.
Feng Lingtian thought that Bai Yu had always considered herself Ye Qingyu's shadow. But Bai Yu's bell chimes had never been anyone's shadow. Ye Qingyu's zither music made everyone stronger at the same time, while Bai Yu's chimes made the person who needed strength stronger at the exact instant they needed it. One provided breadth, the other precision.
Feng Lingtian wrote Bai Yu's name beside the list of herbs and added a note: rhythm.
Feng Lingtian put down his pen and spread out a fresh sheet of paper. Su Ran was a Food System Soul Master, and his medicinal bath also needed to nourish Soul Power and keep his meridians clear. Using Bai Yu's formula as a foundation, Feng Lingtian adjusted the quantities of several herbs and wrote them down. Once he finished, he also wrote Su Ran's name beside it.
Feng Lingtian placed the two prescriptions side by side on the desk. One for Bai Yu, one for Su Ran. Looking at them, he thought, The Support System and the Food System-one amplifies teammates, and the other restores them. Bai Yu's bell chimes have found their own rhythm. Next, it's Su Ran's turn.