Three Breaks, None Waiting for Him

Dong Jian did not attempt to enter Li Man's formation.

This decision made Tang San hesitate slightly. He had already placed two pieces of Blue Silver Grass at a crucial point on Dong Jian's return route, waiting for Dong Jian to step on them when he was in a hurry to repair the road in the Imperial Fighting Team Central Axis.

Dong Jian stopped near the Shi Mo, guarding only the short distance between Ye Lingling and the front line.

Tang San didn't believe this meant Dong Jian had seen through all the arrangements. Instead, he had Xiao Wu stay closer, making the space Dong Jian had left even narrower.

Xiao Wu stepped onto the edge of the Shi Mo tortoise shell, using the recoil to leap to the other side. Dong Jian didn't grab her; instead, he moved half a step in front of Ye Lingling, forcing her to change her attack angle. Seeing that it wasn't easy to get close on this side, Xiao Wu immediately flipped over and changed direction, turning to support Dai Mubai.

"I'll guard this side," said Shi Mo.

Dong Jian simply nodded, then looked down to examine the few broken bricks that had been lifted up by the vines at his feet.

For a fleeting moment, the Yin-Yang Mountain Domain lit up, and he saw the real landing point overlap with the false tremor. He then deliberately narrowed his perception, preventing any more information from the entire arena from entering. He didn't need to worry about every single mark Tang San's vines left on the ground.

On the other side, Yu Tianheng and Dai Mubai fought on the left side of the stage.

Dai Mubai's tiger claw blocked three punches in succession, and his shoulder guard was scorched by the Thunderclap. Yu Tianheng's right arm also felt heavy, and the continuous burst of his Fourth Soul Skill could not be unlimited. He paused for a moment before the fourth punch, took the initiative to switch feet, and forced Dai Mubai to adjust his body accordingly.

Dai Mubai did not chase the wrong direction.

He stopped as well, and the two faced each other again from an arm's length apart, before their fists fell simultaneously once more.

At this moment, Xiao Wu approached from the side. Yu Tianheng saw her out of the corner of his eye and did not continue to fight Dai Mubai. Instead, he retreated towards the narrow path left by the Shi Mo. Dai Mubai immediately turned around and forced him to stay in place.

Seeing that his retreat was blocked, Yu Tianheng tightened the space beneath his feet.

"I can hold this place," he shouted back.

Dong Jian heard it clearly.

He didn't reply with "I'll come," because Yu Tianheng neither requested reinforcements nor lost his judgment on the situation. Yu Tianheng had already arranged his own confrontation, and the only thing Dong Jian could do to help at this point was to hold the narrowing connections behind him.

Dugu Yan and Li Man now only had a few stable array points left.

They didn't cover the poisonous area and bamboo path with mud. Dugu Yan blocked the two nearby passages, while Li Man hung the usable array points back one by one in positions visible to Shi Mo, Ye Lingling, and Dong Jian. They were guarding the movable area in the back row, not seeking to form a beautiful array with Yu Tianheng for the time being.

After observing for a moment, Tang San suddenly turned the grass vine towards Ye Lingling's left foot.

It was very close to Dugu Yan's poisonous area, and according to conventional judgment, he wouldn't actively extend his grass there. However, Li Man was prepared and directly told Ye Lingling to retreat behind the Shi Mo tortoise shell, abandoning that position.

The Tang San grass vines, though not entangled anyone, still managed to block off a small section of the passage.

Li Man looked at the blank space but didn't rush to take it back. She retrieved a temporarily sealed array eye from her hand to check it, confirming that the residual fire attribute had weakened to the point where it would not continue to spread, before reconnecting it to the outer perimeter.

"Restore one," she said.

Dong Jian didn't rush over just because he heard "there's a way." He was blocking Zhu Zhuqing's close-range attack.

Zhu Zhuqing was fast. The first time, she grabbed his shoulder from the outside, and Dong Jian dodged. The second time, she changed direction, and her sharp claws landed on the outside of his forearm, leaving three shallow bloody marks. Dong Jian couldn't completely negate the damage from the sharp claws by Circular Rotation, but he used the real force of the impact to propel himself next to the Shi Mo.

Osler followed and pounced.

The two agile attackers changed positions three times on the outside of the tortoise shell. Each time Osler caught up to Zhu Zhuqing by half a step, she would use the vines left by Tang San to cover her and leave. Osler simply stopped the pursuit and instead guarded between Dong Jian and Ye Lingling.

"If she comes again, I'll go first," Osler said.

"Good."

Seeing that Osler wasn't chasing, Zhu Zhuqing slowed her pace as well. Both she and Osler knew that if they continued to only compete in speed, someone would eventually step into the vines or poisonous area first. So the two began to use shorter, more precise movements to restrain each other, and neither of them got an easy chance to break in.

Shrek's advantage remains.

Ning Rongrong's boost improved Dai Mubai and Xiao Wu's condition for continuous combat, and Oscar's supplies also helped the team stabilize their physical strength and Soul Power. Ma Hongjun fired a line of fire every few breaths, forcing Li Man to check the array eye, while Tang San was responsible for choosing when to send the grass vines to the truly important positions.

Imperial Fighting Team managed to maintain his backline by using Ye Lingling's recovery, Dugu Yan's poison zone, and Shi Mo's positioning. This kind of attrition was far more tiring than the quick victory in the first match, and any mistake by either side could cause the entire team to collapse.

Qin Ming remained silent on the sidelines.

This battle allows any Soul Master to make a mistake, but it does not allow them to use unconventional methods to salvage the situation. Dong Jian cannot run to Yu Tianheng in one step, and Li Man cannot treat the node that was just burned by fire as a new fully-equipped array eye.

Yu Tianheng blocked two powerful attacks from Dai Mubai in succession, and his right arm tightened again. He finally took the initiative to call out, "Yanzi, how many are left on the left?"

"One can be sealed off."

Block my retreat line.

Dugu Yan didn't ask him if he was planning to retreat; she directly directed the poisonous fog towards the left edge between Yu Tianheng and Dai Mubai.

Seeing the poisonous lines extending behind his feet, Dai Mubai immediately realized that Yu Tianheng intended to use this to change his angle. Instead of stepping on the poison, he stopped and waited for Tang San to provide the vines from the other side.

Tang San did indeed give it.

Suddenly, the Blue Silver Grass wrapped around Yu Tianheng's heel, and the two seemed to have returned to the situation at the beginning. However, before his ankle was wrapped, Yu Tianheng took the opportunity to retreat, using his existing momentum to propel his body into the empty space inside the poisonous band.

The vines caught his feet, preventing him from remaining completely in place.

He sacrificed some of his balance, but in return, he gained a new perspective, standing half a step away from Dai Mubai.

Dong Jian saw it from afar and couldn't help but smile. What Yu Tianheng accomplished from the front was his own utilization of the residual momentum of the movement; he didn't need any "axis" to arrange it for him.

Tang San saw it too.

He didn't panic because of this small setback, and immediately ordered Xiao Wu to block the way in a new direction. Yu Tianheng stabilized for the time being, but he would still have to face the two of them working together in the next round.

Taking advantage of Xiao Wu leaving the back row, Li Man moved the usable main formation path forward a little.

Tang San immediately tried to seal it, but as soon as he raised his finger, Li Man deliberately severed the connection in the middle, leaving only two disconnected short circuits. The Blue Silver Grass got entangled in the empty space, but couldn't reach Ye Lingling along the way.

"You broke it again," Tang San said in a low voice.

Li Man couldn't hear, but he was also calculating where his next straw would come from. Everyone had already figured out some of their opponent's habits, and no one dared to write their choices as fixed answers.

At this moment, Dong Jian caught an elbow strike from a Shrek fighter. He turned slightly with his waist and hips, just as he was about to continue his retreat into the next step, when his injured shoulder suddenly ached. The third movement that his body could perform could not be completed as he wished.

He had no choice but to stop, putting the remaining momentum into the two steps he took.

"The loop is not closed," the Divine Dragon Secret Realm warned.

Dong Jian glanced at it and immediately looked away.

The fact that he managed to connect two more segments already helped him maintain his position. If he can't connect the third segment, no one will be there to complete the circle in the air for him. Continuing to force it will only worsen his injury.

Finally, Shrek activated simultaneously once again.

Dai Mubai pressed Yu Tianheng head-on, Xiao Wu advanced from the right, Tang San used Blue Silver Grass to block Li Man's outer path, and Zhu Zhuqing went straight for the last short gap between Ye Lingling and Shi Mo. Ma Hongjun then pressed his fire line towards the outer edge of Dugu Yan's poisonous fog.

The three breakpoints appeared almost simultaneously.

Dong Jian instinctively wanted to run towards the center, but stopped as soon as he lifted his foot.

Yu Tianheng held off Dai Mubai on his own.

Li Man voluntarily abandoned one of the array's key points, which was being approached by the fire.

Shi Mo and Osler went to see Zhu Zhuqing side by side.

No position is waiting for Dong Jian to give orders.

He only moved half a step towards Ye Lingling's direction, blocking the impact left by Zhu Zhuqing's body slamming into the Shi Mo. Zhu Zhuqing was forced to slow down, and Osler took the opportunity to close in, but she quickly withdrew.

Only after finishing this part did Dong Jian have time to look up.

Tang San was watching him, but the Blue Silver Grass in his hand no longer tightened towards the central axis. He was also adjusting his judgment for the next round.

"There's one more round," Tang San said to his Shrek teammates.

Dai Mubai, panting, still raised his hand.

Yu Tianheng also raised his right arm. Only a few short lines remained under Li Man's feet, Ye Lingling's healing light dimmed noticeably, and Dugu Yan checked the state of the poison stored in her right arm once again.

Both sides are nearing the limit of what they can offer in this match.

A pitifully narrow space was left in the center of the arena, just wide enough for a Power Attack System to take a step forward.

Yu Tianheng saw it.

Tang San saw it too.

The two began preparing their next attack almost simultaneously.