Eight Spider Lances: The One Force He Couldn't Borrow

As soon as Dong Jian approached Ye Lingling, Tang San released the Blue Silver Grass at his feet.

This made Dong Jian even more vigilant. If Tang San wanted to continue stalling him, he could at least have entangled him for a couple more breaths; now that he had suddenly let go, it was most likely that he had found a more important place to land on the other side.

Xiao Wu pounced from the right.

She didn't rush to use her Soft Skills to entangle him. Instead, she used a close-range fake kick to force Dong Jian to raise his arm, then flipped her body to the side. Dong Jian didn't grab her. He steadied Sinking Body Stance his feet and turning his shoulder slightly in her direction.

Seeing that he wasn't chasing her, Xiao Wu changed course as soon as she landed, turning around and closing in on the Shi Mo from behind.

"Don't let her go into the treatment area," Li Man warned.

The Shi Mo's tortoise shell stood upright, and Xiao Wu swept over it, landing precisely between Dong Jian and the Shi Mo. Dong Jian raised his arm to block her horizontal kick, his body already pulled into a sideways retreat. The next instant, Xiao Wu grabbed his wrist with her backhand, attempting to launch Soft Skills in the direction he had vacated.

Dong Jian did not continue turning the dial.

He released his right hand prematurely and took a half step back. Xiao Wu grabbed the edge of the wristband but didn't gain complete control. However, she used the momentum to spring up and continued to move to the other side.

"You still dare to keep this trick up your sleeve?" Xiao Wu asked.

"You didn't grasp it properly either," Dong Jian replied.

Xiao Wu didn't reply. After landing, she suddenly accelerated with the help of Ning Rongrong's boost. She didn't repeat the same action because she failed the first time. Instead, she had Dong Jian block her legs and Dai Mubai press down on the Shi Mo from the front.

This team composition is even harder to beat than the old Shrek.

Dong Jian had no choice but to shorten his pace, using the fewest turns to guard the area in front of him. The Divine Dragon Secret Realm recorded the angle of each contact, but it didn't have enough new samples to give him a "sure-win" route for the next step.

Just then, Eight Spider Lances suddenly appeared behind Tang San.

Eight Spider Spear gleamed with a cold, eerie light under the lamplight, landing with noticeable spikes for support. Gasps of surprise came from the audience, but no one in Imperial Fighting Team considered it anything new. Dong Jian had seen it before, but this time the length and rhythm of the movements were not exactly the same as the old record.

The most dangerous thing is still poison.

Tang San leaped forward, his Spider Spear not simultaneously piercing the enemy, but first pressing down on the ground to create several footholds. He used the Spider Spear to quickly change position, directly slashing towards Dong Jian's outer side.

Dong Jian saw one of the spear tips about to strike his shoulder, and his right hand instinctively tried to turn it away, but he stopped abruptly as soon as his wrist moved.

The spearhead was poisoned.

He could mitigate some of the physical impact upon reaching a safe position on the spear shaft; however, he couldn't expose his skin to the poisoned tip, nor could he expect to Circular Force Redirection to "shake off" the poison.

Dong Jian switched to the Mountain-Shifting Step," retreating his entire body backward. The Spider Spear grazed the edge of his collar but didn't pierce his skin. However, the other two Spider Spear had already landed where he had originally intended to move. Tang San was using route control, giving him no room to turn around at will.

"You made the right decision to retreat," Tang San said.

"It's not like you're not pursuing it."

Before Dong Jian could finish speaking, Tang San had a Blue Silver Grass entangle his hind leg. Unable to kick away the continuously injected Soul Power from the vine, he could only lift his leg to find an opening. Xiao Wu immediately closed in from the side, creating another layer of close-range threat.

For the first time, Dong Jian was forced to put his arm between two directions.

He caught the force of Xiao Wu's attack and used his shoulder to shift half a step to avoid it. But the Eight Spider Lances were right behind him. If he continued to spin with that force, his back would be directly in front of Tang San's spear tip.

He had no choice but to halt the Momentum Shift.

After his body came to a sudden stop, the old injury in his lower back ached. The next kick from Xiao Wu landed on his side shoulder, sending Dong Jian sliding two feet to the side. His shoulder guard tore open, leaving a noticeable red mark on his skin.

Upon seeing this, Ye Lingling immediately sent out a healing beam, but it was suppressed by Ma Hongjun's flames, forcing her to follow the short path left by Li Man.

Dong Jian has made some progress, but his lower back is still restricted.

Tang San stopped pursuing the injury itself. He suddenly leaped backward, his Eight Spider Lances retracting and extending, pushing Dong Jian further away from the midfield. At the same time, Xiao Wu returned to the flank, and Zhu Zhuqing also changed direction from in front of Osler.

Dong Jian realized that what Tang San really wanted was for him to stay away from Yu Tianheng and Li Man. If he only focused on fighting Tang San, the team would be missing someone who could handle crucial handovers.

"I'm going back to China," he called out to Li Man.

"The second path on the left is temporarily blocked."

Which line?

"Behind the Shi Mo, there was only half a millstone."

Dong Jian glanced at Tang San, but instead of forcing his way through the shortest route between the Eight Spider Lances, he circled around behind Shi Mo. Tang San, of course, was unwilling to let him go back so easily. His Blue Silver Grass followed the ground, and the Spider Spear blocked his path once again.

This time, Dong Jian didn't face the poison head-on. He lowered his stance, taking two short steps along the outer edge of the vines, then used the backward momentum from his sudden stop to shift to the side. The movement was awkward, but it allowed a spear tip to pierce the empty space.

His hand was brushed by a nearby vine, leaving a small cut on his skin, but there were no signs of poisoning. Dong Jian knew it was just a scratch from the vine and didn't take it seriously, thus avoiding contact with the spearhead, which was actually poisonous.

Tang San saw Dong Jian's actions to avoid the poison and knew that Dong Jian had a clear understanding of the properties of the Eight Spider Lances.

"You never intended to take it head-on," Tang San said.

"There's nothing to lend out regarding drugs," Dong Jian replied.

Tang San nodded, his eyes remaining calm. He didn't use the same Spider Spear to lure Dong Jian again, but instead sent the Blue Silver Grass directly towards Li Man's formation. Attacking Dong Jian was only one part of the plan; sealing off the passage back to the center was the real objective.

Li Man was forced to cut two more bamboo sections.

Her "Ten Thousand Bamboos Return to the Veins can pre-plan the main and backup routes, but it cannot conjure up safe passages out of thin air when all nodes are forced into one place. The continuous cutting off caused her mental burden to rise rapidly, and sweat began to bead on her forehead.

Upon seeing this, Dugu Yan deliberately retracted the poison belt to its innermost position, leaving Li Man a spot where she wouldn't be directly pierced by the Blue Silver Grass for the time being.

On the other side, Yu Tianheng and Dai Mubai were already fighting until their fists and arms were trembling. Dai Mubai would rather take the edge damage of Thunderclap than let Yu Tianheng easily go back to support the back row. Ning Rongrong's buffs remained stable, and Oscar's supplies also allowed Shrek's front line to continue to maintain high strength.

Dong Jian finally circled around to the vicinity of the Shi Mo, but two new Blue Silver Grass appeared in front of him, blocking his way. Tang San had already anticipated that he would choose this spot, so he left another backup plan on the path closest to the midfield.

Dong Jian looked up and saw that Tang San had already thrown a Entanglement towards Li Man. Xiao Wu rolled over from the right and chased after him, while Zhu Zhuqing also pressed towards Ye Lingling from the left.

All three places are dangerous.

He could block one part first, but not all of them.

Dong Jian looked at Li Man, wanting to ask if she could still take him over. Li Man didn't answer immediately, because a vine had just fallen beside her, dragging a main node away from its original position.

Further away, just as Yu Tianheng was about to force Dai Mubai back, another Blue Silver Grass grabbed his right foot from behind, forcing him to only retract half of his next punch.

Tang San separated the three people again.

Dong Jian glanced down at the half of the bamboo path he could walk on, then looked at Ye Lingling's location. His Fourth Soul Ring remained silent; no Soul Skill allowed him to suddenly appear in three places at the same time.

"Who should we save first?" Shi Mo asked from the side.

Dong Jian didn't answer immediately. Tang San, who was opposite him, was staring at his feet.

This time, whichever way he runs, Tang San will know where the most dangerous place in the Imperial Fighting Team is.

Shi Mo Dong Jian was still making his judgment, Shi Mo did not urge him. He first turned the tortoise shell towards Ye Lingling. Although it could not block all of Tang San's grass vines, it could at least block Zhu Zhuqing's path from the ground.

Li Man suddenly said, "Dong Jian, don't go down my main path."

Dong Jian looked up. "Are you sure?"

"Yes, I can handle it myself."

The Green Jade Bamboo receded two feet inward from her feet. She no longer tried to pull Dong Jian over, but instead connected Dugu Yan and Ye Lingling to the same short line. Doing so would put more pressure on her, but she wouldn't have to wait for Dong Jian to pass through the Blue Silver Grass before rescuing him.

Lightning crackled again on Yu Tianheng's side. One of his feet was grabbed, so he simply gave up on his original punch, protecting his chest with one arm and using Dai Mubai's next charge to retreat to the side and back. The Thunder Dragon Body could still protect his body, but it couldn't undo the pull imposed by the Blue Silver Grass.

Tang San frowned slightly when he saw that the two had made adjustments. He knew that he couldn't directly shatter the Imperial Fighting Team in this round, so he asked Ning Rongrong to transfer the amplification to Xiao Wu, and then gave Ma Hongjun a hand gesture. The offensive slowed down for the time being, but there might still be an even heavier round to come.

Dong Jian listened to the soft sound of grass and vines rubbing against the stone bricks under his feet, and clenched his injured hand. The wound on the back of his hand had stopped bleeding, but his shoulder still ached faintly.

He was about to take a step towards Ye Lingling when he stopped. The Shi Mo's shell was already in place, but Xiao Wu was looking for a narrower gap on the side. Rushing in now would only exacerbate the chaos that Tang San was best at exploiting.

"You watch over Lingling first," he said to the Shi Mo. "I'll see which way the grass comes next."