Tang San left Xiao Wu in Dai Mubai's care and walked back into the arena.
Zhao Wuji watched him, his expression less casual than before.
A control-system Soul Grandmaster had just been through that fight, yet he still dared to stand up alone. He had spirit, certainly; the question was whether his abilities could keep up.
A fresh incense stick was lit.
Tang San did not attack the way he had in the previous round.
A succession of faint whistles sounded between his raised hands as things sliced through the air.
Zhao Wuji narrowed his eyes and raised an arm to shield his face, golden light shining on his skin. Several cold glints struck him and bounced off one after another, revealing their tiny shapes only when they hit the ground.
Hidden Weapons.
Lu Ye stood at the edge of the arena, neither crying out nor reaching to catch them.
Some things might look small, but that did not mean they could safely be pinched between one's fingers.
Tang San was already moving.
His steps did not follow a straight line, but even as he darted left and right, his hands never stopped. Blue Silver Grass coiled in from another direction, splitting Zhao Wuji's attention several ways.
Zhao Wuji stepped forward in pursuit, and Tang San used Entanglement and his footwork to evade him.
He was slower, and his Soul Power fell even further short.
But he did not stand still and try to compete in those two things head-on.
At the edge of the arena, Ning Rongrong watched without taking her eyes off him.
When they had fought together just now, she had been so focused on protecting her tower that she had not seen many of his movements clearly. Now, watching from a little distance, she realized that with every step Tang San took back, his hands were still at work.
He was not running around wildly with nowhere else to go.
Zhao Wuji gradually saw it too.
The boy was quiet, but the things in his hands came one after another, and from devilishly tricky angles. Some were meant only to force him to raise a hand, while others slipped specifically into the openings left by the previous attack.
He had only intended to give the students a taste of hardship, but now they had managed to stir up some anger in him.
His third Soul Ring lit up again.
The dust on the ground seemed to sink all at once, and Tang San's steps grew heavier with it.
But he gritted his teeth and refused to admit defeat immediately. Taking his last chance to get close, he sent out several slender glints he had kept hidden.
Zhao Wuji's shoulders and back jolted.
Something had burrowed into him.
"You little brat!"
He finally took a proper look at the young man before him, who had only two rings.
The next moment, Soul Power surged. Tang San flipped backward, bracing one hand against the dirt when he landed to keep from falling flat.
Zhao Wuji did not pursue him any further, either.
It hurt.
Those inconspicuous little things were far more troublesome than the Hidden Weapons that had struck his skin and bounced off.
Seeing that both men had stopped, Dai Mubai immediately stepped forward to ask about them. Panting, Tang San looked up and explained that the objects in several of Zhao Wuji's wounds could not simply be pulled out by force; he needed to deal with them himself.
Zhao Wuji looked at him and gritted his teeth, but in the end, he stopped trying to tough it out.
"First, clean out everything you put in me."
Tang San nodded, but swayed as he stood.
Lu Ye did not go over in his place. He only dragged a stool from the edge of the arena closer, so Tang San could sit steadily while he worked.
Zhao Wuji raised his eyes and glanced at him.
Throughout the fight just now, he had not intervened once.
Even when Ning Rongrong had been pressed until she could barely keep her footing, he had not called a halt.
He did not seem to be here to make trouble.
But Zhao Wuji could also tell that the young man had been watching him from beginning to end, not just those children.
Once the most troublesome Hidden Weapons had been removed, Zhao Wuji rolled his shoulders. A wave of powerful Soul Power spread from his taut muscles, sending a fragment of stone at his feet flying.
Lu Ye raised his hand at that moment.
Blue-white lightning flashed, and before the stone could reach Zhu Zhuqing, who sat not far away, a short burst of force knocked it aside into an empty patch of ground.
The movement was swift.
Tang San raised his head, and Dai Mubai's gaze also fixed on the scene.
Lu Ye, however, looked only at Zhao Wuji.
"They can't take any more in this round."
Zhao Wuji glanced at the fragment of stone, then at the edge of the arena. His expression froze for a moment.
He had been so preoccupied with the things piercing his body that he really had been a little careless when withdrawing his power.
"I don't need you to tell me that."
After saying it, he coughed and gathered up every last trace of the Soul Power spreading outward.
"Mubai, get them settled. The assessment ends here."
Ning Rongrong raised her head.
"Then we..."
Zhao Wuji looked at her, then at Tang San and the other two girls. At last, a hint of a smile returned to his face.
"Your teamwork wasn't all that practiced, but none of you lacked courage. Especially you. You didn't run around in a panic those first few times, and you knew to keep up your enhancement."
Ning Rongrong stared.
She had only felt that she had failed to hold on; she had not expected him to notice those things too.
Zhao Wuji turned to Tang San.
"That trick of yours was enough to make people remember you, too."
With that, he waved a hand at Dai Mubai.
"Take them to complete their enrollment."
At those words, although Xiao Wu was still unconscious, the other three all visibly breathed a sigh of relief.
These were not places Lu Ye had spoken up to secure for them.
Zhao Wuji had fought them and watched them, and he already had a sense of what each of the children could do.
Only then did Lu Ye take a step forward.
"Lu Ye, of the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect. Sect Master Ning asked me to come and check on Rongrong."
Dai Mubai's expression shifted slightly.
Zhao Wuji, however, looked first at Ning Rongrong before turning his gaze back.
"No wonder you kept standing there. What, are you going to settle accounts now?"
"If I meant to, I should have called a halt when she couldn't hold on just now."
Lu Ye glanced at the young girl at the edge of the arena.
"Sect Master Ning sent her here to learn, not to move somewhere else and still wait for her family to get her through every trial."
The wariness in Zhao Wuji's eyes faded a little.
That did not sound like the words of a parent who could not bear to see a child suffer the slightest hardship.
"Then what are you still watching for?"
"To see whether, if something really goes wrong for her in the future, there'll be someone here to catch her."
Lu Ye's voice was calm, but he did not look away.
Zhao Wuji fell silent for a moment as well.
He understood.
The man had not come to find Ning Rongrong a place where she would never take a beating. He wanted to know whether they knew when to stop.
"That move of yours just now wasn't weak."
Zhao Wuji lifted his chin.
"Show me."
Lu Ye did not refuse.
The Heavenly Thunder Pearl formed in his palm, and seven Soul Rings slowly rose around him.
The edge of the arena fell silent at once.
Dai Mubai had originally thought the man was just a young steward sent by Seven Treasure. Only when he saw the last, black Soul Ring did he realize just how wrong he had been.
Tang San also raised his head, his gaze settling on the pearl.
Ning Rongrong was the calmest of them all, merely sitting a little straighter without a word.
Zhao Wuji looked at the Soul Rings. Surprise flashed through his eyes, and then he actually laughed.
"No wonder. You kept it so quiet, but you're a Soul Saint too."
"I only just reached the realm. I'm still a little way behind you, Teacher Zhao."
"Whether you're just being polite, we'll know after an exchange."
Zhao Wuji did not raise his palm immediately. He first walked over to the empty patch of ground nearby.
Lu Ye did not follow him yet. Instead, he turned to look at Dai Mubai.
"They need to move farther back."
Dai Mubai understood what he meant and first helped Zhu Zhuqing, who was close to the arena, move farther away. Lu Ye moved the stool he had dragged over earlier, then kicked the already shattered stone over to the foot of the wall.
Zhao Wuji stood at the other end and watched for a moment.
"You're quite careful."
"I just moved them out of the way once. I can't go knocking things back at them myself."
Only then did Lu Ye walk over, the lightning pearl in his palm lighting up once more.
Zhao Wuji did not test him with the same degree of force he had used against the students. He planted his feet, lowered his shoulders and back, and brought a broad palm down toward him.
There was no feint.
The hand Lu Ye raised to meet it turned halfway there. An arc of lightning flashed at his fingertips, striking the side of Zhao Wuji's palm. He stepped aside with it, hoping to use that slight deflection to slip past the front of the bear's paw.
The next moment, a heavy force bore down on his arm.
The palm had barely been diverted.
Lu Ye's gaze sharpened. He shifted his feet in quick succession and yielded half a step with the force, narrowly avoiding taking it directly on his shoulder.
"Trying to deflect me?"
Zhao Wuji laughed.
He had seen Lu Ye knock the stone aside clearly enough. The man could judge the direction accurately, and his hand was steady, but a fragment of stone was one thing; the palm of the Great Strength Vajra Bear was another.
"Just trying."
Lu Ye's reply was equally straightforward.
Just because he had tried did not mean he had to pretend he had foreseen everything.
Zhao Wuji's second palm strike was already upon him.
This time, Lu Ye did not evade to the same side. He lowered the lightning pearl in his palm and pivoted a small step on his toes. Lightning coiled tightly around the pearl's surface, flaring abruptly just before their palms met.
The edge of Zhao Wuji's palm went slightly numb, and his movement faltered for an instant.
Lu Ye used that moment to move out of its direct path, but instead of retreating farther, he moved sideways across the empty ground, drawing the next collision toward the side where no one stood.
Zhao Wuji caught sight of where he landed from the corner of his eye and finally put aside the casualness with which he had regarded the young man.
His opponent was not without the desire to win, but he had never forgotten that there were still people at the edge of the arena.
Had those children divided their attention like that, Zhao Wuji would most likely have knocked them flat with a single palm strike long ago.
"One last exchange."
Zhao Wuji spoke.
Lu Ye nodded and stopped trying to evade, gathering all the blue-white lightning in front of his palm.
A muffled impact exploded across the empty ground.
Lu Ye's feet sank, and he staggered back two steps, his rear foot gouging a deep mark in the dirt. The shock drew his sleeve taut. Lightning danced along the edge of his palm several times before he pressed it back into the pearl.
His arm was numb, and even his fingertips would barely obey him.
He lowered his hand without rushing to clench it into a fist and hide his discomposure, first breathing out slowly.
He had just obtained his seventh ring and was a Soul Saint. The man before him had spent many more years in the realm and was also a Soul Saint.
The same title had not erased the gap between them.
The Great Strength Vajra Bear's strength and defense were not something he could meet with ease just by saying he had seven rings too.
Zhao Wuji's shoulder also shifted slightly, and when he lowered his hand, a trace of numbness remained in his palm.
He did not follow up.
Lu Ye also withdrew his Martial Soul.
"Far too young." Zhao Wuji looked at him and finally spoke the truth.
"You weren't as at ease as you looked just now, either."
Zhao Wuji froze, then recalled the fine needles that had just been removed from his body. His expression immediately turned somewhat ugly.
Lu Ye did not continue to tease him about it, however. He only cupped his hands.
"If Rongrong does wrong, discipline her as you should. But all of them are badly exhausted today, so let them rest first."
Zhao Wuji waved a hand, accepting that.
Dai Mubai first took Zhu Zhuqing to the living quarters, while Tang San remained by Xiao Wu's side. Having held himself up until now, Tang San relaxed, and his face grew even paler.
Ning Rongrong sat where she was, twisting the corner of her clothes between her fingers. When she saw Lu Ye approach, she instinctively held out a hand, as though she had finished training in the sect and was waiting for someone beside her to help her up.
Lu Ye took her wrist, but did not lift her into his arms.
"Can you stand?"
She tried to push herself up. Her knees trembled, but she managed to stand.
"I can."
"Then help me with something. Xiao Wu hasn't woken up yet, and Tang San's nearly out of strength too. Go bring the water over there."
Ning Rongrong looked at Tang San.
Only moments ago, she had thought he could do anything. Now she saw that the hand holding his water flask was trembling too.
She slowly let go of Lu Ye, went to fetch water, then crouched beside Xiao Wu and asked Tang San how she could help. Tang San glanced up at her and handed her a damp cloth, saying quietly that she could start by wiping the dirt from Xiao Wu's face.
It wasn't as though she had never seen anyone do these things before.
But when it was her turn, her hands were clumsy. She paused after every wipe, afraid of hurting Xiao Wu.
Lu Ye stood to one side, making no move to take over.
The thirty percent boost during the assessment had come from her. Now that it was over, she didn't have to feel that, just because she had no Soul Power left, she could only wait for others to take care of her.
Ning Rongrong brushed Xiao Wu's loose braids aside, then suddenly looked back.
Lu Ye nodded to her.
This time, there was no extravagant praise, no "you're so amazing."
Yet her grip on the cloth grew steadier than before.
When Dai Mubai came back to fetch the others, Ning Rongrong slowed as she passed Lu Ye.
"You really aren't taking me back?"
"You've already passed the assessment. If I take you back now, who's going to pay me back for the registration fee?"
She stared at him for a moment, then couldn't help laughing.
But when her laughter faded, her eyes stung a little.
"Was I pretty useless just now?"
Lu Ye looked at her.
"You're a support Soul Master. Was Teacher Zhao the one who gave those three their boosts?"
Ning Rongrong froze.
"You couldn't hold on, so remember that. But when you do something right, don't let someone else's strength make you deny what you did."
She lowered her head and thought for a while. When she looked up again, some of the disappointment had left her face.
But when she remembered how she had nearly fallen to her knees, she still pressed her lips tightly together. Next time, she refused to be in such a sorry state.
"Then I'll be going."
Lu Ye nodded and watched her catch up with the group.
This time, no one kicked every stone out of her path for her.
She walked on by herself all the same.