When intensive training entered its third week, Feng Xiaotian arranged an endurance battle to the limit.
Neither the red team nor the blue team was allowed to use any burst-type Soul Skills. They could rely only on basic coordination and support recovery, to see which team would fail to hold out first. The match was scheduled for intensive training after afternoon classes. The sun had already begun sinking westward, stretching the shadows across the training ground.
When Feng Xiaotian laid down this rule, everyone looked at Su Ran. Su Ran stood at the edge of the grounds, holding a cloth bag.
The match began. The red team's attacks remained fierce, but half an hour later, the frequency of Feng Xiaotian's frontal assaults had clearly dropped. It was not a lack of stamina; his Soul Power recovery could not keep pace with his expenditure. Feng Lingtian's dives also shifted from continuous to intermittent, the interval between each dive growing longer. Ji Ning's Swallow Return had dropped from six or seven consecutive changes of direction at the start to three or four. The blue team was hardly any better off. Shi Yan's bell-shaped phantom began to grow faint, Cheng Luo's Wind-Binding Vines emerged more than a beat slower, and Jiang Lin's Spirit Mapping range shrank from the entire training ground to half of it.
Everyone was nearing their limit.
Feng Xiaotian suddenly raised his right hand. "Stop. Everyone, resupply."
Su Ran walked onto the grounds. Instead of handing out premade dry rations as usual, he sat cross-legged and gently lifted his hands before him. His Wind Grain Martial Soul appeared in his palms, its pale green seedling swaying gently.
"Wind Grain, sprout." Su Ran recited the soul incantation. The seedling's leaves brightened slightly, and its grains shone with an extremely faint green light. Su Ran's Soul Power flowed through Wind Grain's veins, gathering and transforming within the grains. A few breaths later, a pale green ration fell from the seedling into his palm. His first Soul Skill: restoring Soul Power.
Su Ran did not stop. "Wind Grain, grow." The seedling's leaves lit up again, this time with a light warmer than before, like the tips of tender buds just emerging on branches in early spring. Another ration fell, pale yellow. His second Soul Skill: restoring stamina.
Su Ran handed the two rations to Feng Xiaotian. Feng Xiaotian took them and bit into one. As the pale green ration entered his mouth, his Soul Power, more than half depleted, began to recover little by little. After he chewed up the pale yellow ration, strength slowly returned to his aching arms as well.
Feng Xiaotian glanced at Su Ran. Su Ran had already turned to Feng Lingtian.
"Your dives were faster than usual just now," Su Ran said quietly. "You used more Soul Power and less stamina." Su Ran recited the soul incantation, and the seedling shone with pale green light. This time, the light was a shade fainter than it had been for Feng Xiaotian's ration. The ration fell into Su Ran's palm, its color an extremely faint green.
Feng Lingtian took it and bit into it. The Soul Power it restored filled the gap left by his expenditure exactly, no more and no less.
Su Ran went to each person in turn. For Ji Ning's rations, there was twice as much pale yellow as pale green; the changes of direction in Ji Ning's Swallow Return mainly consumed stamina. For Zhong Yue, both rations were pale green; his Turtle Armor Protection relied on Soul Power to sustain it. For Su Mei'er, there was one pale green ration and one pale yellow ration; a control-type Soul Master's expenditure placed a double burden on mind and body.
Everyone received rations that suited them exactly. They were not prepared in advance; Su Ran made them on the spot. Every piece contained a different amount of Soul Power. Based on each person's expenditure, Su Ran precisely controlled his Soul Power output as Wind Grain transformed it.
The match continued. An hour later, the blue team's defensive line collapsed first. It was not poor coordination; the Soul Power content of the rations Su Ran gave the blue team was lower. Before the match began, Feng Xiaotian had instructed Su Ran to give the blue team seventy percent portions. He wanted to see whether the red team could crush the blue team with superior supplies.
The red team won.
Feng Xiaotian walked to the center of the training ground. "In today's match, Su Ran gave the red team full-strength rations and the blue team seventy percent. You all saw the result. For a Food System Soul Master on the field, preparing supplies in advance isn't the end of it. You have to precisely control the amount of recovery in every portion based on each person's expenditure. Give too much, and you waste Soul Power. Give too little, and they can't hold out."
Feng Xiaotian's gaze settled on Su Ran. "When Su Ran made everyone's rations just now, his Soul Power output was different for each person. Feng Lingtian's pale green was a shade lighter than mine, and Ji Ning had twice as much pale yellow as pale green. Preparing supplies in advance can't achieve that. It takes on-the-spot judgment and precise control."
No one on the training ground spoke.
Feng Xiaotian looked at Su Ran. "Starting tomorrow, stay another half hour after intensive training every day. Practice instant casting. The ration must fall as soon as you finish the soul incantation. In a real tournament, you won't have time to transform it slowly."
Su Ran nodded once. "Understood."
After the match, Su Ran sat alone on the stone steps beside the training ground, taking the remaining rations out of his cloth bag one by one to check their color and quality. Su Mei'er came over from the other side of the grounds and sat beside him.
"My ration today was half pale green and half pale yellow," Su Mei'er said. "Did you give me extra?"
Su Ran did not look up. "Control types bear a double burden on mind and body. Pale green restores Soul Power, and pale yellow restores stamina. Half of each was just right."
Su Mei'er fell silent for a breath. "How did you know how much I'd used?"
Su Ran paused, then raised his head to look at Su Mei'er. "Every time you release Wind Lightning Chain, that fine crease between your brows gets deeper than usual. During today's match, you released Wind Lightning Chain seven times, and that crease deepened each time. On the seventh, your fingers were trembling."
Su Mei'er said nothing.
Su Ran lowered his head and continued checking the rations. "Sis, you've protected me since we were little. I'm frail, and I awakened a Food System Martial Soul. I can't fight. You never said anything, but I know you've always stood in front of me, shielding me."
Su Ran placed a pale green ration in the cloth bag. "What I can do now is help you hold out a little longer on the field."
Su Mei'er looked at Su Ran. After a long while, she reached out and ruffled his hair. His hair was left tousled, but he did not dodge.
"You've grown up," Su Mei'er said.
The corner of Su Ran's mouth moved slightly.
That evening, after Feng Xiaotian left, Su Ran remained alone on the training ground.
The setting sun shone slantwise through the entrance, stretching Su Ran's shadow long. He sat cross-legged in the center of the training ground, holding Wind Grain in both hands.
"Wind Grain, sprout." The seedling shone with pale green light. A few breaths later, the ration fell. Five breaths. From the end of the soul incantation to the moment the ration fell, Su Ran had taken five breaths. He set the ration aside and recited the soul incantation again. "Wind Grain, sprout." Another ration fell. Still five breaths.
Su Ran made them one after another, stopping only when his Soul Power was exhausted. Five breaths, without any change.
Su Ran lowered his head and looked at Wind Grain in his palms. The seedling swayed quietly, its leaves moving gently. He knew Feng Xiaotian was right. A real tournament would not give him time to transform it slowly. But he had practiced for so long, and it still took five breaths. Su Ran withdrew Wind Grain into his body, stood up, and brushed the dust from the hem of his clothes. He neither sighed nor frowned, merely packed away his cloth bag and walked out of the training ground.
Night fell. In the dormitory, Feng Lingtian was organizing the medicinal bath formulas. Su Ran's medicinal bath needed to nourish his Soul Power and keep his meridians clear. Feng Lingtian wrote the names of several medicinal ingredients on paper, then paused.
Feng Lingtian recalled the scene during today's match. When Su Ran made his ration, the pale green light shining from the seedling had been a shade fainter than for Feng Xiaotian's. That shade had not been reduced at random. Su Ran had read the rhythm of Feng Lingtian's dives and judged that his Soul Power expenditure was lower than Feng Xiaotian's. Feng Lingtian had not told Su Ran. Su Ran had seen it for himself.
Feng Lingtian also recalled what Su Mei'er had told him. She had said that Su Ran had been frail since childhood, and after awakening his Food System Martial Soul, he had gone a long time without speaking. Not because he did not want to, but because he felt useless. Then one day, Su Ran suddenly began making rations, making them every day without stopping. Su Mei'er had asked him why, and Su Ran had said, "I can't be the blade, but I can be the food that feeds the person wielding it."
Lu Qing's twin scythes cut open the enemy's defenses, Bai Yu's chimes command the rhythm of the battlefield, and Su Ran's rations sustain everyone's endurance, Feng Lingtian thought. One cuts open, one commands, and one sustains.
Feng Lingtian wrote Su Ran's name beside the list of medicinal ingredients and added a note: foundation.
Feng Lingtian put down his brush and looked at the moonlight outside the window. The blade is the cutting edge, and the foundation is the soil, he thought. Su Ran is this team's soil.