The Captain Could Give Orders Even in the Fog

Yu Tianheng's feet. He stepped aside, his Thunder Dragon Body maintaining only the necessary position between his legs and left shoulder, without re-filling his injured right arm with Soul Power for the sake of retreating.

The crimson mist obscured the side where Dong Jian and Li Man were located. Demon Charm swung her blade from the right, the blade making a short, sharp sound. Yu Tianheng first used the lightning on the outside to force her to change course, then retreated three steps towards the narrow path she had chosen.

"Can't find your team?" The merged voice came from the mist.

Yu Tianheng didn't turn around. "I know where to attack."

He punched the side of a newly erected rock ridge with his left fist. The ridge didn't shatter completely, but it deflected slightly, just enough to block the Demon Charm's next blade coming from behind. Using that slight cover, Yu Tianheng was able to truly charge towards the edge of the ground controlled by Yan.

Dong Jian received a muffled tremor on the other end and guessed that the captain might be breaking through the rock face, but he didn't dare to report the direction directly. The area beneath his feet was being disturbed by several pieces of broken brick, Mountain Domain could only give him a rough estimate of the impact direction.

Li Man tapped two short and one long sound on the bamboo joint. Shi Mo received the signal to retreat and moved to the left and back with Ye Lingling and the injured Osler. Dugu Yan did not spread poison all over the field, but only compressed the poison into a narrow boundary, forcing those who wanted to cut the healing system to go around the tortoise shell.

"Can you pick up the captain?" Osler asked, enduring the pain in his shoulder.

"We can leave him a way out," Li Man said. "Which path he's on now, we'll have to wait for him to find his way out."

On the other side, the Demon Charm suddenly changed its attack. The two Moon Blade crossed, forcing Yu Tianheng to be unable to circle around on the same side; Yan pressed down with hot stone edges from the ground, leaving only a few steps between them.

Yu Tianheng did not take both hits at the same time. He first dodged the fiery part, letting the outer edge of the Moon Blade hit the stone ridge, and then took advantage of the moment when the Demon Charm was adjusting her weapon to rush out from the other side of the stone ridge.

His right shoulder throbbed with pain from the impact. He didn't pursue, only giving a short command, "The advance team, move north!"

The sound traveled through the red mist to Dong Jian's ears, but it had become unclear. Just as Dong Jian was about to return to his original position to receive it, Li Man first placed the bamboo joint on the ground. "Don't trust directions. We're not sure which direction in the mist he sees as north."

She had the Shi Mo tap twice with the edge of its shell to confirm that the healing system was still guarding this area. Yu Tianheng heard a familiar tortoise shell sound nearby, but instead of rushing in a straight line, he slowly moved closer along the outer edge of the stone.

The Demon Charm realized they could switch positions without using distant sounds, so it immediately focused its Mental Interference on Yu Tianheng's vicinity. In an instant, two almost identical passages appeared before them, one with a relatively flat surface and the other with small pebbles.

Yu Tianheng lightly shuffled his shoe sole along the flat ground. Not finding the expected stone slab, he withdrew his foot and chose the gravel path. His heel struck a real stone, the pain momentarily fixing his direction.

"Can you close your eyes too?" the voice from the red mist asked.

"I don't need to close my eyes. I just won't follow the path you provide."

As he uttered those words, his body pressed against a nearby, tangible barrier. Yan's fire and earth protective layer was extremely solid; his left fist could only shatter a small part of the outer edge, the recoil pushing Yu Tianheng back half a step. But within that half step, the tortoise shell of the Shi Mo finally appeared to his side.

"Received it," said Shi Mo.

Yu Tianheng lightly touched the edge of the tortoise shell with his palm to confirm the position before giving the order, "The whole team move to this outer edge. Li Man, secure the retreat route."

Li Man deliberately discarded a formation eye that was about to crack from the heat. The remaining formation paths were not large enough to form the complete Ten Thousand Bamboos Return to the Veins, so the mental burden was still manageable. She left only two paths: one for Ye Lingling and one for the team to move on narrow terrain.

Dong Jian was finally able to get close to Yu Tianheng. Just as he was about to help his captain take the impact, the Demon Charm Moon Blade was already approaching. Dong Jian knew that he couldn't use Circular Rotation to block the blade, so he simply used the shoulder force from a Spirit Hall member next to him to deflect it along his waist, and used the momentum of his retreat to circle around to the side and behind his captain.

The impact was so powerful that his body bore the brunt of the force. His old back injury immediately reminded him that another round would cause serious problems. He didn't force this Momentum Shift into another attack; he simply stopped for a moment, leaning against the broken bricks.

Divine Dragon Secret Realm Log: "Movement connection interrupted. Trunk load too high."

"How's your back?" Li Man asked.

"He can still stand."

The question was whether it could be transferred again.

"Once at most."

Li Man didn't let him try again. She removed a bamboo path behind Dong Jian, forcing him to take the shortest route back to the Shi Mo to avoid subconsciously chasing into the red mist.

Qin Ming, watching from the sidelines, could see that Imperial Fighting Team was under continuous pressure near the boundary, but there was no timeout he could call for them. According to the rules of the game, he couldn't run up and pull them apart while their Soul Skill were still intertwined.

Yu Feng gripped the railing and asked, "Why not use Fusion? The Sealed Spine still has a few breaths left to use?"

Qin Ming shook his head. "If we meet here, Yan's hot stones will crush our feet in the first breath, and the Demon Charm will also block our escape route. Using a fixed formation that has already been studied to catch these three people, Dong Jian's back won't be able to support it first."

"Then they'll just keep retreating?"

"Take another look at the section of stone left at Li Man's feet."

Yu Feng followed the direction of the formation. Li Man did not place the array eye in the widest part, but instead left a narrow but sturdy section; each time the Shi Mo tortoise shell retreated, it tried to return Ye Lingling to the same reliable area. Yan kept changing the location, but it took an extra Soul Power to lift the stone that had just been stabilized by the Black Tortoise.

On stage, Yan also noticed this. He gestured towards the red mist where the Demon Charm was, hoping to use Mental Interference to force Li Man to leave. Li Man did see what appeared to be a safe, flat area beside her, but the support transmitted by the bamboo roots was completely inconsistent with her line of sight. She simply lowered her head and stared at the tips of her shoes as she walked step by step.

A member of the Spirit Hall kicked a falling rock at her from outside the fog. The rock hit her calf, causing her to wince slightly in pain, but she still didn't fully activate the main formation. This made her even more certain that if her body could be injured, the formation's core could also be broken; as long as Ye Lingling was still within the protective circle, there was no need to risk chasing every source of interference.

The Demon Charm continued their fusion, with Hu Liena and Xie Yue sharing the strain of their mental and Soul Power. The fused figures noticed that the Imperial Fighting Team was harder to break after shrinking, so they signaled Yan to increase the pressure of fire and earth from the outside. Yan's power could change the stone ground, but it couldn't raise the entire arena indefinitely. After continuous activation, his breathing was heavier than at the beginning.

Another member of the Spirit Hall seized the opportunity when Li Man finished her attack and circled around to Ye Lingling's side. Osler wanted to go to meet her, but his shoulder injury made him slow down. Dugu Yan simply blocked the passage herself, controlling the poisonous fog at the feet where the opponent had to detour.

She didn't use poison to kill her opponent. As long as she forced him to slow down, the Shi Mo would have time to reload.

Bang! The man crashed into the tortoise shell and took a half step back. Ye Lingling followed the bamboo path left by Li Man, moving from behind the Shi Mo to the other side, and delivered a second blow without stopping.

Yu Tianheng seized the opportunity of this position change and immediately ordered the whole team to move two more steps closer to the edge. The spectators outside saw them getting closer and closer to the railing and thought that Imperial Fighting Team was about to be kicked off.

Seeing the flashes of light ahead, Osler struggled to his feet, intending to block the attack, but was deflected by Shi Mo's tortoise-shell edge. "Just give me the direction," Shi Mo said. "We're not short of someone to charge forward today." Osler withdrew his raised Ghost Leopard claws and instead focused on the gap to Ye Lingling's right.

Li Man kept her eyes fixed on the remaining reliable stone surface beneath her feet. She tapped a bamboo stick to signal a stop, and after everyone had steadied themselves, she suddenly removed the outermost array eye.

"If we retreat any further, we'll hit the edge," Dong Jian said.

"I know."

"Then why demolish the road?"

Li Man looked up at the thickest part of the red fog. "We can't find everyone in the fog, and we don't have the strength to keep trying. Just leave one real path to get the wounded out, and let the captain fight from the side."

Dugu Yan had already compressed the poison mist in her hand to its narrowest point. If she released any more, the poison sac in her right arm would enter the danger zone for the next adjustment. She didn't gamble on whether Yan would be poisoned; instead, she used the existing sealing line to protect Ye Lingling.

Yu Tianheng heard this and nodded to her. The team stopped close to the edge, and no one tried to restore the neat seven-person formation they had at the start.

On the other side of the red mist, the Demon Charm suddenly sheathed her blade and instead used gestures to urge Yan to completely narrow the remaining safe ground. Dong Jian saw the tortoise shell of the Shi Mo begin to tremble as it was squeezed by the hot stones.

Yu Tianheng raised his left fist, but his eyes did not look at Demon Charm; instead, they looked at the spot where Yan would have to land next.

"Li Man, leave that last path to Ye Lingling."

He gestured inwards towards the Shi Mo.

"I'll drive the rest."