The First Person Tang San Dismantled Wasn't Dong Jian
When Shrek's list was delivered to the Imperial Fighting Team lounge, Dong Jian was undergoing his second examination by Ye Lingling.
Does your lower back still hurt?
"Better than yesterday."
Can you catch a series of heavy blows?
It's best not to.
Ye Lingling withdrew the healing light. "You know that's enough."
Li Man stood beside him, flipping to the last page of Holy Radiance's load record, without asking any further questions. This battle was even more difficult than the previous rounds, and Dong Jian might not even agree with saving all his physical reserves for one more push.
Qin Ming placed the two lists side by side on the table.
The Shrek Seven have been confirmed: Tang San, Xiao Wu, Dai Mubai, Oscar, Ma Hongjun, Ning Rongrong, and Zhu Zhuqing. The Imperial Fighting Team are Yu Tianheng, Dong Jian, Li Man, Dugu Yan, Ye Lingling Shi Mo, Shi Mo, and Osler.
Shi Mo and Yu Feng are taking a break this time.
"Zhu Zhuqing and Xiao Wu are on the other side, two close-range ground lanes," Qin Ming said. "We'll leave Osler on the flanks; don't expect to rely solely on the tortoise shell formation to keep everyone under control."
Osler nodded.
Yu Feng sat in the corner without complaining. He knew that his air speed might not be more useful than a stable ground interception route today.
Dong Jian picked up Tang San's page and turned to the last one.
Besides the recently revealed Soul Ring and basic performance, there is also a blank field in the information: Unknown New Response.
The old model of Suotuo City is outdated. The recent samples collected from the Divine Dragon Secret Realm only allow for a few observations from a distance, which can determine certain movement habits, but it doesn't reveal how Tang San is preparing to fight in the Imperial Fighting Team.
"Don't try to guess his first move," Dong Jian said.
Yu Tianheng looked at him. "What are you planning to do?"
"Go see the scene."
Me too.
Li Man put away the pre-designed diagram of the formation's core and replaced it with a simplified diagram showing only the main path and backup positions. She didn't want to write down all the passages before the battle, as Tang San was best at using routes that others thought were safe.
On the other side, Shrek's rest area.
After the Grandmaster finished explaining the lineup changes in the recent Imperial Fighting Team, Tang San remained silent. Dai Mubai was flexing his wrists, while Zhu Zhuqing stared at the footage of Li Man entering the arena, memorizing the landing points of the Mobile Formation Eye.
"Are you going to fight Dong Jian first?" Xiao Wu asked Tang San.
"No," Tang San said. "His strength lies in being approached. Let's prevent him from making contact first."
Ning Rongrong looked at the map. "Dismantle Yu Tianheng?"
"Disconnect him from the back row first."
Tang San placed a short wooden stick on the position representing the Imperial Fighting Team vanguard, and another outside Li Man's formation. "Yu Tianheng can attack on his own, and he can also retreat on his own. What makes him truly difficult to deal with is that after every attack, someone catches up with the next segment. Let's first lengthen that retreat distance."
The Grandmaster nodded. The two had repeatedly reviewed recent Imperial Fighting Team videos last night, and had discussed the judgment of the distance for the reinforcements several times.
Official entry.
Imperial Fighting Team and Shrek stood facing each other across the arena.
Dong Jian glanced at Tang San first, then his gaze shifted to Ning Rongrong and Oscar. They showed no trace of the Immortal Herb from the Ice and Fire Yin Yang Well, and therefore could not be considered ordinary support characters. Ning Rongrong's Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Pagoda and Oscar's replenishment abilities were enough to alter a team's continuous combat time.
Dai Mubai stood at the front of Shrek, while Yu Tianheng stood at the front of Imperial Fighting Team.
Their eyes met, but neither of them made the first move.
Tang San positioned himself slightly to the back, with Blue Silver Grass extending from between his fingers. Xiao Wu and Zhu Zhuqing stood on either side, Ma Hongjun on the right rear, and Ning Rongrong and Oscar guarding the inner side.
The referee announced the start of the match.
The Soul Ring lit up.
Yu Tianheng's Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon took the first step forward, Dong Jian remained in the midfield, and Li Man placed the first Jade Array Eye from the side and rear.
Tang San did not look at the black Fourth Soul Ring.
"Rongrong."
The Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Pagoda's light fell upon Dai Mubai and Zhu Zhuqing. After the amplification took effect, Dai Mubai charged straight at them, while Zhu Zhuqing circled around from the outside. Tang San's Blue Silver Grass bypassed the ground and first wrapped around the open space behind the Shi Mo.
"Don't step on it," Li Man said.
The Shi Mo quickly retracted its foot.
The vines didn't directly attack the Shi Mo; they merely occupied the narrow path that Yu Tianheng had originally used to retreat. Then, Xiao Wu moved to the other side, forcing Dugu Yan to clear a portion of the poisonous area to avoid blocking Osler's route as well.
Yu Tianheng has already run into Dai Mubai.
Thunderclap against Tiger Claw; in the first round, neither of them retreated too far. Just as Yu Tianheng was about to step forward a second time, Tang San sent a piece of Blue Silver Grass into the gap behind his feet.
We can fight ahead.
It's difficult to get a refund later.
"Tian Heng, retreat to the right!" Dong Jian shouted.
Yu Tianheng did indeed take a step back to the right, but that step caused him to deviate from the backup array eye that Li Man had just laid out. Taking advantage of this gap, Zhu Zhuqing approached Ye Lingling, but Osler intercepted her in time, and the two agile figures brushed past each other on the flank.
After assessing the situation, Li Man immediately changed her strategy. "Abandon the second line from the right, switch to the third line from the left."
The path that Blue Silver Grass had just encountered was cut off, and she didn't intend to leave it for Tang San to continue using. Tang San saw this but didn't give chase. Instead, he took back a section of Blue Silver Grass and spread it back in front of the Shi Mo.
This made Li Man frown.
Tang San doesn't need every blade of grass to entangle someone. He only needs to disable certain passages in the Imperial Fighting Team at crucial moments, and that will be effective enough.
"Yanzi, leave the outer edge of his grass for me," Li Man said.
Dugu Yan didn't spread the poison over a large area of Blue Silver Grass, as it would be difficult to guarantee that the poisonous mist wouldn't be carried back to her side by the wind. She only left two narrow lines along the edge of the field, allowing Osler to pass through.
Ma Hongjun's flames then pressed down on the poison belt from above.
Dugu Yan took the initiative to collect the poison. Li Man also temporarily sealed a bamboo section that might have been contaminated by the fire. When the flames hit the ground, they still burned half a leaf, but did not flow through the entire net.
"They were prepared," Shi Mo said.
Dong Jian nodded. "Tang San is the same."
The old positioning in Suotuo City is no longer sufficient to explain the current teamwork. Everyone is expanding the area that Tang San can control, and Tang San is also leaving room for his teammates to change lanes at any time.
In the next round, Yu Tianheng pressed down on Dai Mubai's right shoulder, his Thunder Dragon Body illuminating the scene. He didn't wait for Dong Jian to fill in, choosing instead to squeeze between the two opponents in the front row.
Tang San's eyes twitched.
The Blue Silver Grass tightened abruptly, but instead of wrapping around Yu Tianheng's front, it raised its vines to block the path of the Shi Mo pulling backward.
The two array points that Li Man was preparing to send forward thus lost their central support.
Dong Jian wanted to follow, but his feet were half-entangled by another strand of Blue Silver Grass. He could avoid some of the pulling by shifting his feet or turning around, but the Soul Power continuously injected into that grass was not an ordinary fist force that he could deflect.
He had to break free with his wrists, which delayed him by a fraction of a second.
In that instant, Dai Mubai confronted Yu Tianheng head-on, while Zhu Zhuqing lured Osler away. The straight-line treatment distance between Ye Lingling and Yu Tianheng was lengthened, and only one backup route remained for Li Man.
"They're dismantling the line behind the front," Dong Jian said.
Li Man had already figured it out. "Don't rush to reinforce. Stabilize the back row first."
Hearing their conversation, Yu Tianheng did not immediately retreat. He pressed down with another punch, forcing Dai Mubai to use even more force to protect his chest.
On Shrek's side, Tang San watched the Imperial Fighting Team's Fighting move and tightened his grip on the Blue Silver Grass again.
"Second paragraph."
Xiao Wu immediately returned to the center from the outside, and Ning Rongrong sent the next amplification to her. Ma Hongjun then threw a line of fire towards the center of the field, just in time forcing Li Man to temporarily shut down another array eye.
Dong Jian finally broke free from the grass at his feet, but when he looked up, he found that there was more than one cut bamboo path separating Yu Tianheng from the back row.
Tang San has not faced him in a direct confrontation since the beginning of the story.
However, this has caused a noticeable misalignment for the first time in the three positions that Imperial Fighting Team is most familiar with: the front, the axis, and the net.
On the sidelines, Flender couldn't help but lean forward. "Xiaogang, you guessed it?"
The Grandmaster shook his head. "They've practiced many responses to being disconnected; Tang San can't possibly dismantle them all in one round. Now it's just a matter of who can first maintain their most familiar rhythm."
Tang San happened to be watching Dong Jian's position as well. He didn't think that Dong Jian would admit defeat just because things were chaotic in the middle of the Imperial Fighting Team match, nor did he think that a single Blue Silver Grass could restrain Dong Jian for long. The purpose of that half-circle pull just now was only to use the moment Dong Jian spent to send Xiao Wu to a more suitable direction.
On the playing platform, Dong Jian stepped back to the side of Shi Mo and gestured to Osler not to rush back to help.
Osler was dealing with Zhu Zhuqing when he heard this, so he didn't turn around abruptly. Zhu Zhuqing was fast, and if she used her recovery move to chase into the paint, it would only make things more chaotic in the backcourt.
Li Man also began to regroup. The main node moved from behind Yu Tianheng back to Dugu Yan's side, and she did not continue to pursue an immediate connection with the forward.
Seeing the changes in the distance, Yu Tianheng said in a deep voice, "I can come back by myself."
Tang San heard this and slightly turned his gaze towards him. The first round of probing was over, and if they were to dismantle the Imperial Fighting Team again, Tang San would have to move more of his teammates into dangerous positions.