The First Time I Lost to Tang San, I Found a Flaw in Ghost Shadow Perplexing Track
Whoosh!
In the darkness, a pebble flew at him from the left.
Dong Jian had barely turned when a sharp pain pierced his right shoulder.
Bang!
A second pebble struck his knee squarely.
His legs buckled, and before he could regain his footing, a third pebble struck his forehead.
"Again?"
Dong Jian fell backward.
The moment his back touched the ground, he rolled and scrambled to his feet.
But there was not a trace of light in the Hundred Battles Hall.
He couldn't see the pebbles.
Nor could he see the mirror image.
All he could hear was the ever-shifting sound of footsteps.
One step sounded to his left.
Then two more came from ahead.
Immediately afterward, the sound of clothing brushing through the air came from behind him at the same time.
Dong Jian raised both arms to protect his head.
Bang! Bang!
Two pebbles struck his arm and his side, respectively.
Less than ten breaths had passed on the countdown on the stone stele.
"Go without using your eyes and last for one incense stick."
Dong Jian gritted his teeth.
"How is this training?"
"This is just getting beaten up in the dark!"
The mirror image did not answer.
The footsteps suddenly vanished.
The Hundred Battles Hall fell so quiet that only Dong Jian's breathing remained.
The quieter it became, the less Dong Jian dared to relax.
When Tang San used Ghost Shadow Perplexing Track, Dong Jian could at least see the hem of his clothes and his afterimages.
But the mirror image was hidden in complete darkness.
The pebbles wouldn't warn him in advance which direction they were coming from, either.
Whoosh!
A sound cut through the air.
Dong Jian immediately shifted to the right.
The pebble grazed his cheek as it flew past.
He'd dodged it!
He had just begun to feel pleased when another pebble struck him in the chest.
Dong Jian staggered back two steps.
"The first sound was just a fake?"
The mirror image had deliberately thrown a slower pebble first.
After drawing him into moving, it launched the real attack from another direction.
It was almost identical to the way Tang San had fought during the day.
Tang San's pebbles hadn't been meant to defeat him directly.
They had been meant to make him shift his center of gravity in the direction Tang San expected.
"I can't dodge the moment I hear a sound."
"I also have to judge the distance and speed."
Dong Jian kept his eyes closed, trying to distinguish the changes around him.
A pebble made a faint sound as it cut through the air.
The closer it was, the sharper the sound.
When the mirror image moved, its feet also made the ground vibrate slightly.
But all these changes were jumbled together, far more confusing than seeing an attack.
Dong Jian made five attempts in succession.
Even on his longest attempt, he lasted only half an incense stick.
Each time he left the Hundred Battles Hall, his consciousness felt as though the pebbles had pounded it into a lump.
If he kept going, his judgment would only grow duller.
"Back to reality first."
Dong Jian opened his eyes.
Outside the window of Dorm Seven, the sky was only just beginning to brighten.
The others in the dormitory were still fast asleep.
But Tang San's bed was already empty.
Dong Jian didn't need to guess to know that he had gone to cultivate Purple Demon Eye again.
Dong Jian didn't go after him.
His defeat yesterday afternoon had already proved that simply knowing what Tang San cultivated wouldn't let him counter it outright.
What really mattered was finding a method that suited him.
After the morning classes ended.
Li Man took Dong Jian to a bamboo grove behind the academy.
Few students usually passed through here.
Green Jade Bamboo grew from her palm.
More than a dozen emerald-green bamboo leaves floated in the air.
"Let's start with three directions."
Li Man handed Dong Jian a strip of black cloth.
"Cover your eyes."
Dong Jian tied the cloth over his eyes.
His vision instantly plunged into darkness.
"I'm ready."
As soon as he spoke, a bamboo leaf flew toward him from the front.
The leaf wasn't moving very fast.
Its edge made a faint sound as it passed through the air.
Dong Jian turned his head.
The leaf flew past his ear.
A second came from the right.
He stepped back half a pace and dodged again.
But the third leaf didn't attack directly.
Li Man sent it circling through the air, only accelerating it suddenly when it neared Dong Jian's back.
Smack!
The leaf slapped his shoulder.
It didn't hurt, but it was enough to show that his judgment had failed.
"Why did it change direction at the end?"
Dong Jian pulled off the blindfold.
"Attacks in a real fight won't always travel in straight lines."
Li Man spoke calmly:
"If I only train you to dodge after hearing a sound, you'll soon develop the wrong response."
"Wouldn't it be faster to let me get used to straight-line attacks first, then increase the difficulty?"
"Correcting a bad habit after you've developed it would only take longer."
Dong Jian frowned.
"At this intensity, when will I be able to keep up with Ghost Shadow Perplexing Track?"
"Your goal shouldn't be to keep up with Ghost Shadow Perplexing Track right away."
Li Man said:
"It should be to first distinguish the sounds of footsteps, attacks, and decoys."
"If you can't tell those apart, no matter how slow the attacks are, you'll still be led around by the nose."
Dong Jian wasn't immediately convinced.
Tang San would soon follow Yu Xiaogang to hunt for a Soul Ring.
Once he became a Soul Master, the gap would only grow wider.
Dong Jian didn't have much time to adjust slowly.
"Increase the number of bamboo leaves to ten."
Li Man shook her head.
"Three."
"At least six."
"Three."
The two stared at each other for a moment.
In the end, Dong Jian tied the blindfold back on.
"I'll do it your way."
The first time, all three bamboo leaves hit him.
The second time, Dong Jian dodged one.
By the fifth time, he could already judge the general direction of all three leaves.
But when Li Man suddenly slowed one of them down, Dong Jian still moved too early and was struck by the other two at the same time.
"Sound doesn't just tell you the direction."
Li Man said:
"It also tells you the speed, distance, and trajectory."
Dong Jian didn't answer.
He was gradually beginning to understand why Li Man insisted on limiting the number.
The training in the Hundred Battles Hall was too fast.
All the sounds came at once, giving him no chance to distinguish the differences between them.
But Li Man's bamboo leaves allowed him to isolate each change.
Straight lines.
Acceleration.
Deceleration.
Circling around.
Different sounds coming from the same direction meant completely different attacks.
The training continued until evening.
Dong Jian could now dodge five bamboo leaves in succession.
"Too slow."
A voice suddenly came from above the bamboo grove.
Xiao Wu sat on a bamboo branch, her legs swinging gently.
"In a real fight, who'd tell you beforehand that only five leaves were coming?"
She leaped down from the branch.
She landed almost without a sound.
"Let me take over."
Li Man frowned.
"He's trained enough for today."
"How is just dodging leaves real combat?"
Xiao Wu walked up to Dong Jian.
"Blindfold on."
Dong Jian tied the cloth over his eyes again.
"How are you going to attack?"
"What would be the point if I told you?"
As soon as she finished speaking, footsteps sounded to his right.
Dong Jian immediately turned.
But the attack didn't come from the right.
Xiao Wu had deliberately stamped her left foot on the ground, but she had already used the bamboo to leap into the air.
The next second, two legs came down from above, wrapping toward Dong Jian's shoulders and neck.
By the time Dong Jian heard her clothes brushing through the air, the attack was already upon him.
He could only dive forward.
Xiao Wu's legs skimmed past the back of his head.
She sprang up again as soon as she landed.
There had been no succession of footsteps throughout.
Dong Jian's method of judging direction by the vibrations in the ground instantly became useless.
"An attack from the air."
He had only just realized it when Xiao Wu's toes lightly kicked his lower back.
"You lost."
Xiao Wu landed to one side.
Dong Jian pulled off the blindfold.
"Again."
The second time, he still couldn't dodge.
The third time, Xiao Wu deliberately changed direction repeatedly among the bamboo branches.
Dong Jian couldn't even tell where she would come down.
"Not hearing footsteps doesn't mean there's no sound."
Li Man reminded him from the side.
"Clothes."
"Breathing."
"The disturbance to the bamboo leaves."
Dong Jian closed his eyes again.
When Xiao Wu jumped onto a bamboo branch, the surrounding leaves swayed gently.
When she turned in midair, her scorpion-tail braid stirred the wind.
Before she attacked, her breathing also changed briefly.
These sounds were far fainter than footsteps.
But they weren't entirely absent.
The seventh time.
Xiao Wu leaped down from the upper left.
Dong Jian moved half a step to the right in advance.
Her legs brushed past his shoulder.
The eighth time.
Xiao Wu deliberately slapped the bamboo leaves to make noise, then approached from the front.
She kicked Dong Jian in the calf.
The tenth time.
The bamboo leaves all around swayed at once.
Dong Jian didn't move immediately.
He held his breath, filtering out the jumbled rustling of leaves.
One current of air was moving faster.
It was accompanied by the sound of clothing cutting through the air.
The right!
Dong Jian spun to the left.
Xiao Wu's palm swept past his chest.
Dong Jian seized her wrist in the same motion.
Circular Force Redirection!
Xiao Wu's body was pulled into a half-turn.
She landed on both feet and immediately pulled her arm back.
"You actually caught me?"
Dong Jian removed the blindfold.
His forehead was already covered in sweat.
"Just once."
"I might not manage it again."
Xiao Wu had wanted to say this one didn't count.
But when she saw how exhausted Dong Jian looked, she ultimately gave only a quiet huff.
"We'll continue tomorrow."
Li Man, however, closed her record book.
"Tomorrow, recover first."
"Recover again?"
Dong Jian frowned.
"I haven't exhausted my Soul Power."
"Your mind is already close to its limit."
Li Man said:
"If you keep training, it will only slow your judgment."
Dong Jian wanted to argue, but the Soul Power in his body suddenly began circulating on its own.
Throughout the day's training, he had remained highly focused.
The outer layer of Soul Power had circulated constantly through his meridians.
The black power sank into his bones.
The white power extended outward with his perception.
The emerald-green current slowly connected the two.
A crack suddenly appeared in the Soul Power barrier that had held him at rank seven.
Dong Jian immediately sat down cross-legged.
His Soul Power circulated faster and faster.
Green Jade Bamboo appeared beside Li Man.
A pale green light enveloped Dong Jian, helping him stabilize the fluctuations in his meridians.
Xiao Wu also put away her playful expression and stood guard at the entrance to the bamboo grove.
Half an hour later.
Dong Jian opened his eyes.
Two streams of Soul Power, one black and one white, flashed across the surface of his body.
Rank eight.
Although he still fell short of Tang San's rank ten, this at least proved that this training path was the right one.
More importantly, when he closed his eyes, the world around him was no longer completely dark.
The sound of Li Man turning the pages of her record book.
The vibrations of Xiao Wu's toes tapping lightly against the ground.
The direction in which bamboo leaves swayed in the wind ten paces away.
This information was still vague, but it could already form a rough outline in his mind.
"This ability needs a name."
Xiao Wu said.
Dong Jian thought for a moment.
"Listening to the Wind to Discern Position."
That night.
Dong Jian entered the Hundred Battles Hall again.
Darkness descended once more.
The sound of the mirror image's footsteps rang out around him.
Whoosh!
The first stone came at him from the left.
Dong Jian didn't dodge immediately.
It was moving slowly.
It was only bait.
A second sound of something cutting through the air came from behind him.
Closer.
Faster.
Dong Jian leaned to the right.
The two stones flew past either side of his body, one after the other.
A third fell from above.
He heard the faint sound of air being forced apart and ducked in advance.
The mirror image's footsteps suddenly quickened.
Dong Jian charged forward with his eyes closed.
The vibrations in the ground came from the right.
But the sound of clothing stirring the wind came from the left.
The footsteps were a feint.
Its real position is on the left!
Dong Jian spun around.
His shoulder thrust forward.
Mountain-Leaning Collision!
Bang!
The mirror image was struck head-on for the first time.
Its body flew backward and slammed heavily into the ground.
The lights in the Hundred Battles Hall came on again.
The countdown on the stone stele ended at that exact moment.
The no-vision trial was complete.
Dong Jian had just been about to breathe a sigh of relief when the fallen mirror image's body suddenly turned into two rays of black and white light.
The rays landed on opposite sides of the hall.
Two identical mirror images appeared at the same time.
The mirror image on the left assumed the starting stance of Circular Force Redirection.
The mirror image on the right crossed its feet, and afterimages resembling those of Ghost Shadow Perplexing Track appeared around its body.
Three stones fell between its fingers.
The words on the stone stele changed accordingly.
First battle of the Hundred Battles Hall · final stage.
Defeat both opponents simultaneously.
Reward for success: Kung Fu Deconstruction.
Both mirror images raised their heads at the same time.
One knew all of Dong Jian's moves.
The other specifically imitated Tang San's high-speed footwork.
Dong Jian slowly clenched his fists.
Against either one alone, he had already found a way to deal with it.
But both coming at him together-
That was the true first battle of the Hundred Battles Hall.