Two days later, at dawn, the entire team assembled at the training ground. Feng Xiaotian stood in the center of the field, having already removed his outer robe and wearing only a close-fitting training uniform. He looked up at the twelve people in front of him and slowly rolled up his sleeves to his elbows.
"After three months of training outside, your teamwork is indeed better than before." Feng Xiaotian glanced at the whole team, paused, and continued, "Your reactions are quick enough when playing against unfamiliar opponents. But when practicing with your own teammates, you tend to relax—you're too familiar with them, and you're less alert."
He stretched his wrists, bent down to pick up the chalk, drew a line on the stone slab, and then took out a short incense stick from his Storage Soul Tool and stuck it in the crack of the stone slab. "This line is the boundary. It will last for the time it takes for an incense stick to burn. You will split into two groups, and whoever can force me to cross the boundary wins. I will not release my Martial Soul or use Soul Skill, only physical techniques and movement techniques. In addition, this sparring session is also to let you get a preliminary feel for my footwork and see how much you can understand."
The team looked at each other, and no one raised any objections.
Feng Xiaotian quickly pointed out two groups of names. The first group consisted of seven people: Lu Qing, Zhong Yue, Feng Lingtian, Ji Ning, Su Mei'er, Ye Qingyu, and Bai Yu. The second group consisted of seven people: Shi Yan, Lu Hanxiao, Jiang Lin, Cheng Luo, Su Ran, and Bai Yu.
"Both Lu Qing's teams go. Both Bai Yu's teams go." Feng Xiaotian glanced at the two teams. "The first team focuses on a fast attack, the second team focuses on attrition. You can figure out the specific strategy yourselves."
Lu Qing untied the two sickles from his waist and twirled each one in his hand. Bai Yu clenched the Wind Chime on her wrist, and the silver piece jingled softly twice.
The two groups gathered at the sidelines, huddled together, and discussed in hushed tones for a moment. On the first group's side, Su Mei'er drew several lines on the ground with her finger, while Feng Lingtian watched from the side, nodding occasionally. Ji Ning didn't speak, but simply added an arc to one of the lines Su Mei'er had drawn with his fingertip— Su Mei'er glanced at it, and the corners of her mouth curved slightly. On the second group's side, Jiang Lin and Cheng Luo squatted down and drew a circle, while Lu Hanxiao stood beside them, looking down at them, and Shi Yan listened intently, his fists clenched.
A moment later, both groups stood up. The first group walked to the left side of the arena, with Lu Qing at the front, his double scythes already slowly spinning in his hands. Feng Xiaotian noticed that their positions were different from the Soul Fighting Arena — Feng Lingtian and Ji Ning were not positioned on the two wings, but rather stood in a single file, one in front of the other.
Feng Xiaotian lit an incense stick, and the wisps of smoke rose straight up in the morning light.
The first group went first. Lu Qing pressed forward head-on, followed closely by Feng Lingtian. Their attack routes almost overlapped— Lu Qing's right hand, wielding a sickle, swung upwards, the back of the blade aimed straight for Feng Xiaotian's chest. Feng Xiaotian shifted his left foot half a step to the side, letting the sickle graze him. Just as he was about to grab Lu Qing's wrist, Feng Lingtian's Falcon Strike had already pierced straight down from above Lu Qing's shoulder, the timing extremely precise, catching the moment Feng Xiaotian's right hand was extended and hadn't yet retracted.
Feng Xiaotian had no choice but to withdraw his hand and turn to the side, dodging both attacks. Just as he regained his balance, Ji Ning's Hummingbird Sting had already slashed out from behind Lu Qing —not from the front, but from the direction Feng Xiaotian was turning to the side, with its fingertips aimed precisely at the gap in his ribs that had been exposed after he dodged.
The three men lined up, attacking in waves, giving Feng Xiaotian no chance to adjust his rhythm. Feng Xiaotian had to retreat several steps to deflect this attack, his toes almost touching the chalk line. After regaining his footing, he glanced at Lu Qing.
Ye Qingyu's amplified attack spread out, and Su Mei'er's chains moved along the ground, blocking Feng Xiaotian's retreat route. The six pressed forward again, with Lu Qing directly blocking their line of sight, and Feng Lingtian and Ji Ning's overlapping attacks becoming increasingly fluid. Feng Xiaotian weaved between the six, his figure as fast as a shadow swept by the wind, but this time he retreated several times, at one point being less than a foot away from the chalk line.
The incense burned out. The first group failed to Feng Xiaotian out of the boundary. All seven people were forced back outside the boundary—to be precise, Feng Xiaotian was never forced out of the line. But everyone saw that he retreated to less than a foot from the boundary, his heel grinding a shallow mark in front of the chalk line.
Everyone was panting, but their faces were filled with excitement—not frustration, but the kind of excitement that anyone could see of "almost succeeding."
"The second group begins." Feng Xiaotian lit another stick of incense.
The second group consisted of seven people. Shi Yan stood at the front, his Bell Martial Soul condensing in front of him, the bronze bell phantom enveloping his entire body. Lu Hanxiao was behind him, the Snowy Owl phantom already unfolding behind him. Jiang Lin's Spirit Eyes · Lock Feng Xiaotian, Cheng Luo's Wind-Binding Vine spread silently along the ground, Su Ran had already pinched a few Wind Grain Ears in advance, and Bai Yu gripped the Wind Chime tightly.
Shi Yan went first. His task wasn't to win, but to hold on—to hold on until Lu Hanxiao found an opening, to hold on until Cheng Luo's vines blocked his movement. The bell shield took two punches from Feng Xiaotian head-on, each one making the bell vibrate, but it didn't retreat an inch. Once, when a punch struck the bell shield directly, a very subtle ripple suddenly flashed across the surface of the bell, and the force was actually deflected by half. Shi Yan himself didn't notice it, Feng Xiaotian Feng Lingtian both saw it.
Just then, Lu Hanxiao's Silent Flight cut in successfully. The angle of his feet grinding the ground was exactly the same as the Simulation he had done on the sidelines, and his movement trajectory was smoother than usual. The Snowy Owl silently darted out from the side of the bell-shaped structure of the Shi Yan, its icy feathers brushing against Feng Xiaotian's nape. Bai Yu's bell rang at that moment—not waiting for Lu Hanxiao to finish his transformation, but landing the instant he was about to change direction. Lu Hanxiao glanced back at her, and Bai Yu was also taken aback.
Cheng Luo's Wind-Binding Vine immediately wrapped around Feng Xiaotian's ankle. Jiang Lin's Spirit Eyes caught the moment the center of gravity shifted, and Cheng Luo's second vine was already waiting there. Feng Xiaotian was forced to take a step back—his shoe sole was less than half a foot away from the chalk line.
Shi Yan's eyes lit up. But Feng Xiaotian used his toes to push off, slipped through the gaps in the vines, and pulled back to the center of the boundary.
The incense burned out. The second group also failed to force Feng Xiaotian Feng Xiaotian the line, but they brought him to within half a foot of the line at one point—closer than the first group.
The two groups took turns, with Lu Qing participating in both matches. In the second round of the confrontation, Feng Xiaotian noticed that Lu Qing's double scythes were different from before—when the left-hand scythe blocked his punch, the right-hand scythe almost simultaneously slashed back from the side, without any sequence or gap. He dodged to the side, but Lu Qing's left-hand scythe was already waiting in his dodge path. The two Wind Scythe seemed to be connected by an invisible thread.
" Heart Separation Control?" Feng Xiaotian deflected the scythe in his right hand and took a step back. Lu Qing didn't answer, but his expression said it all—it wasn't something he practiced deliberately; he just got the hang of it while fighting.
After both groups finished, everyone sat on the ground catching their breath. Feng Xiaotian's breathing remained as steady as if he hadn't moved at all. His gaze lingered on Lu Hanxiao and Jiang Lin for a moment each— Lu Hanxiao's ground-gripping angle during his previous cut was exactly the same as the power logic he used when he Silent Flight; that wasn't a coincidence. And Jiang Lin — Cheng Luo's vines had precisely wrapped around the points where his center of gravity shifted twice; that was Jiang Lin using his Spirit Eyes to predict his center of gravity change, and Cheng Luo executing the move.
Feng Xiaotian's lips twitched slightly. One had grasped the essence of footwork, while the other had found his direction in eyesight. The two were on different paths, but both had started from the right point. He was eager to see how far Lu Hanxiao could go and how much Jiang Lin's eyesight could be utilized in actual combat.
Feng Xiaotian withdrew his gaze and sat back down on the sidelines to recover his strength.
At this moment, Feng Lingtian was also recording what he had just observed in his notebook.
On Bai Yu's page—Predicting the captain's dodge direction in advance during high-pressure combat, the ability to pre-land the bell's sound is further enhanced. On Shi Yan Yan's page—The bell body once again exhibits an internal humming, capable of reflecting the captain's force; the reason is unknown, but it may be related to the hollow structure of the Bell Martial Soul. On Lu Qing's page—The dual-scythe Heart Separation Control is initially formed, facilitated by high-pressure combat.
After finishing writing, Feng Lingtian closed the journal, still pondering another matter. Bai Yu's bell sound and Shi Yan's chime—one a sound wave, the other a bell sound—both related to sound. Could there be any connection between them? He had no answer, but his intuition told him that neither of these two people's Martial Soul were as simple as they appeared on the surface.
That evening, the team finished their practice and was packing up their things on the training field. Suddenly, a deep, muffled sound came from the direction of the back mountain—the sound wasn't heard through their ears, but traveled directly through the ground, as if something deep within the mountain was vibrating. Everyone stopped what they were doing and turned to look in the direction of the back mountain.
Feng Lingtian stood up. Feng Xiaotian had already walked in front of him, his gaze fixed on the direction of the back mountain, his breathing a few degrees heavier than usual. Su Ran dropped the Wind Grain Ears in her hand to the ground, and Bai Yu gripped Ye Qingyu's sleeve tightly.
Feng Xiaotian didn't say a word; he just stood there, looking at the back mountain.