The Sound Changed Again Beneath the Ice

As soon as the black Fourth Soul Ring lit up, three landing points were simultaneously transmitted from beneath Dong Jian's feet.

The first lane was directly in front, the second was slightly to the left, and the third was a half-beat slower, yet it seemed to circle back from deeper underground. The feedback from all three lanes was clear enough, and even the force was about the same, but only one person could actually land on the platform.

Dong Jian did not move.

The next instant, an ice spear pierced the ground to his right, forcing him to take a step back. Shui Bing'er, standing in the Skywater Academy Formation, had already laid the first layer of thin ice under Imperial Fighting Team's feet.

"Still like this?" Yu Feng glanced at the ground from the air.

"It's more troublesome," Dong Jian replied.

In the past, Skywater Academy only used the ice and water layers to reflect vibrations, but today there are several obvious cavities under the arena. These cavities were deliberately created by Shui Bing'er after the start of the competition, using her control Soul Skill in conjunction with the ice layer, and their positions are precisely under several main ice plates.

The footstep landed on the thin ice, which sent the vibrations away; there was water below, so the direction changed again; when it hit the edge of the cavity, some of the impact circled back from another location.

Every piece of feedback Mountain Domain received was genuine.

Just because something is true doesn't mean Dong Jian can interpret it as the correct position.

"Three steps to the right front," he announced first.

Shi Mo lifted the tortoise shell as instructed.

The Skywater Academy team member who was actually charging in cut in from the right front, slightly to the outside, with his Soul Skill grazing the edge of the tortoise shell, forcing Shi Mo to take another step back. Dong Jian immediately filled in the middle, taking the second physical impact from Shi Mo's front to the side, and this time there was no problem.

The problem lies in the initial assessment.

It was off by half a zhang (approximately 1.3 meters).

After Shui Bing'er saw this, she did not continue to chase after Shi Mo. Instead, the second layer of ice expanded towards Dong Jian's feet even faster.

Yu Tianheng charged forward head-on, lightning striking the ice and shattering it in all directions. Skywater Academy's front row didn't meet his attack head-on, instead sliding to the sides. The ice beneath their feet allowed them to shift positions much faster than on normal ground.

More than a dozen new tremors immediately appeared in Dong Jianyue's domain.

Ice shards fell to the ground.

Teammate changes pace.

Skywater Academy gliding.

The water rippled.

And then there's the subtle feedback from the ice plate itself slowly compressing after it was struck and cracked by lightning.

The Divine Dragon Secret Realm doesn't directly determine which one is the real target; it simply overlaps the paths from the same time period.

"The number of repeated transmission paths has increased."

"The overlap rate of similar signals has increased."

Dong Jian narrowed down the scope of Mountain Domain.

As the distance shrank from thirty steps to twenty, the peripheral noise lessened considerably, but the feedback from the layers closest to her continued to repeat. Shui Bing'er clearly knew what would be most difficult to handle when the range decreased, so she began to focus her attacks on the vicinity of the Imperial Fighting Team Center.

A quick striker from the Skywater Academy slid in from the left.

Dong Jian first sensed the two landing points on the left front, one of which was a fraction of a second earlier than the actual movement. He moved to the left to cover, but the agile attacker used the ice to slide out half a step, and the actual cutting position was on the edge of Li Man's formation.

Li Man collected a Green Jade Bamboo herself, preventing the opponent from touching the main node.

Dong Jian was a beat too slow when he turned around.

"Don't chase them," Li Man said.

I didn't pursue her.

"Then shut down the Black Ring."

Dong Jian glanced at her.

Li Man had already refocused on her own strategy and offered no further explanation.

She's right.

The biggest difference between this time and before lies here.

Last time, when facing Skywater Academy, Dong Jian only realized that Mountain Domain would misinterpret real signals in the icy environment after too many mistakes had accumulated. Today, less than 15 minutes into the race, he has already experienced two consecutive deviations.

Continuing to calculate will only drag you back into the mess.

The black Soul Ring dimmed.

A murmur of discussion immediately arose in the stands.

"It's off?"

"How long have you been driving?"

"Is the Fourth Soul Skill countered?"

"You're not going to use your Ten-Thousand-Year Soul Skill so soon?"

Dong Jian couldn't hear the specifics, nor did he need to. After losing that wide-ranging feedback from his feet, he actually felt much lighter.

The Force Observation was only superficially developed.

Judging solely by the person.

Shoulder line.

Waist and hips.

The shift in center of gravity before the foot begins to move.

The ice surface can be deceiving; the human body always moves before it actually makes a move.

For the first few breaths after turning off Mountain Domain, Dong Jian felt a little out of place. In the past, when the Black Ring was activated, he would get some feedback from within thirty steps of his feet. Now that those sounds were suddenly gone, he could only focus his attention back on his teammates' shoulder lines and what he could actually see on the stage.

Shui Bing'er quickly tried it out. She had two team members make a starting motion on the ice at the same time, one deliberately stepping hard while the other just glided out lightly. Dong Jian kept an eye on their waists and hips, and instead of being distracted by the louder cracking sound, he moved to cover the center line where the person gliding lightly was.

The Skywater Academy team member indeed accelerated. Just as Shi Mo was about to switch to her tortoise-shell form, Dong Jian had already positioned himself, forcing her to stop her move prematurely. The first time, completely disregarding Mountain Domain's judgment did not give Imperial Fighting Team an advantage, but at least it prevented incorrect information from slowing him down even by half a step.

A Skywater Academy team member approached from the right, and several vibrations came from the ice beneath their feet. Ignoring the ground, Dong Jian watched as she first pulled her shoulders inward and then immediately moved to the side and behind Yu Tianheng.

Sure enough, the man didn't rush towards Ye Lingling next, but instead cut off Yu Tianheng's escape route from the side.

Dong Jian blocked it in advance.

The two clashed, and he deflected the impact by brushing the other's shoulder with the heel of his palm, taking the momentum outwards from the Shi Mo. The other's ice-attribute Soul Power was still present, but Dong Jian didn't touch that part, only dealing with the force of the impact.

The location is too far off.

Yu Tianheng turned around and forced his opponent to retreat with a lightning claw strike.

"That's much more accurate," Yu Feng said from above.

"Don't look down there," Dong Jian reminded him.

Just as Yu Feng looked up, an ice arrow shot from the back row of the Skywater Academy. He narrowly dodged it and immediately shut his mouth.

The situation in the Imperial Fighting Team has stabilized for the time being.

But Shui Bing'er's goals were never limited to Dong Jian.

The thin ice continued to expand outwards, and the five ground-based array points that Li Man had first planted began to have problems. The roots of the Green Jade Bamboo were attached to the arena, which should theoretically be more stable than ordinary ice, but Shui Bing'er did not freeze the bamboo directly. Instead, she made the top layer of ice slide slowly as a whole.

The first array core itself remained unmoved.

The planned route around it was cut off by the ice crevasse.

The second one was more troublesome. The ice layer below the bamboo root was pushed up at a very small angle by the water film, and the position of the array eye was only half a foot off. The backup route of the Ten Thousand Bamboos Return to the Veins had been misaligned.

Li Man made two consecutive changes. Each time she made a change, she had to rearrange the main and backup routes she had memorized. Even though she didn't lay out all nine array eyes, she could still feel the array network being gradually pulled apart by the ice layer.

Dong Jian glanced at her feet but didn't offer any advice. Only Li Man herself knew best which bamboo poles within the bamboo array could still support the weight and which routes were too off-center to be used.

Just as she was about to make the third adjustment, Shui Bing'er suddenly raised her hand.

Two Skywater Academy team members simultaneously glided across the edge of the ice net from different directions. The ice surface closed up beneath their feet, and a previously stable main path on the ground was completely pushed away from its original position.

The jade Soul Power was transferred halfway before it missed its target.

"Don't go that way, Shi Mo," Li Man immediately changed her mind.

Shi Mo had already lifted his foot, but then abruptly pulled it back, instead taking a step around the edge of Dugu Yan's poisonous area.

This step was too slow.

Skywater Academy's front line seized the opportunity and pressed Yu Tianheng head-on. The Thunder Dragon Body erupted twice in succession, and Yu Tianheng knocked back the first person, but was entangled in the left leg by the second ice control, and his advancing speed was obviously reduced.

Dong Jian saw that the front line was about to break down, so he moved forward to reinforce it.

Li Man spoke first, "The second one on the left can still walk."

Without waiting for Dong Jian's reminder, Yu Tianheng stepped directly into the short circuit left by Li Man with his right foot, avoiding the thickest part of the ice control, and pressed down again from the other side.

The striker is still playing.

The axis does not have Mountain Domain.

The website is still under construction.

However, the ground forces began to become increasingly uncooperative.

Shui Bing'er stood on the opposite side and watched for a moment. After her Third Soul Ring lit up, fine cracks appeared simultaneously on a large area of ice in the center of the arena. The cracks did not immediately explode, but instead cut the originally intact ice slab into areas of different sizes.

When the next slide begins, each ice plate moves in a different direction.

Li Man's expression finally turned serious.

The first array eye was moved to the left.

The second one is slightly to the right.

Although the third one didn't move, the ice surface connecting it had already cracked into two pieces.

She did not force the issue to continue.

As Qingyu withdrew his Soul Power, the three ground nodes extinguished one after another.

Dong Jian turned his head. "Take them all?"

"Take three first."

What happens next?

Li Man looked down at the ice crevice at her feet, which had just moved another half foot, her fingers already removed from the ground patterns.

"They might not stay later either."

Shui Bing'er clearly noticed her movement, and the ice continued to press down on Imperial Fighting Team's feet.

Li Man did not add any more bamboo to the ground.

She looked up at Yu Feng, then at the positions of Shi Mo, Yu Tianheng, and Ye Lingling.

"Next round."

"The net should not be placed on the ground."