Blue Silver Entanglement, Break!
Tang San stood in the center of the training ground.
His gaze was more serious than during their last spar.
Dong Jian already had his First Soul Ring.
He had also broken straight through Blue Silver Entanglement in a two-on-two match.
But in the team battle, Li Man's Green Bamboo Binding Formation had restricted his routes.
Now he had no teammates.
Dong Jian had to face Ghost Shadow Perplexing Track, Blue Silver Grass, and Hidden Weapon techniques alone.
"Are you ready?"
Tang San asked.
"Let's begin."
Dong Jian released his Panda Martial Soul.
A Yellow Soul Ring rose.
The black-and-white astral energy had yet to appear.
He did not use his First Soul Skill at the start.
Tang San attacked first.
Blue Silver Grass rose from the ground in succession.
The first wave was not a full entanglement.
It merely probed the direction Dong Jian would move.
Dong Jian's legs grew lighter.
He dodged left.
A second strand of Blue Silver Grass had already appeared where he was about to land.
He did not continue retreating.
His right leg suddenly grew heavier.
His foot pinned the vine at its base.
He spun around his right leg as a pivot.
He slipped between the second and third strands of Blue Silver Grass.
Kung Fu Deconstruction had observed it too many times already.
The direction in which ordinary Blue Silver Grass grew was no longer difficult to predict.
Tang San approached using Ghost Shadow Perplexing Track.
His Mysterious Jade Hand struck at Dong Jian's shoulder from the side.
Dong Jian closed his eyes.
The footsteps on the left were a feint.
The real current of air came from the right.
He raised his arm.
Bang!
The Mysterious Jade Hand collided with his forearm.
Dong Jian did not use Circular Force Redirection.
Instead, he deliberately let his body tilt backward.
Tang San immediately activated Controlling Crane Capturing Dragon.
He wanted to throw Dong Jian further off balance.
But Dong Jian willingly moved forward with the pulling force.
The distance between them closed in an instant.
"You're using my strength?"
Tang San shifted his feet.
He quickly retreated.
Dong Jian's shoulder brushed past his chest, missing its target.
Blue Silver Grass rose from beneath Dong Jian's feet.
Tang San's real objective was not a close-range attack.
It was to lure Dong Jian into an entanglement zone he had set up in advance.
More than a dozen vines tightened at once.
His arms.
His waist.
His legs.
All were bound.
"First Soul Skill, Blue Silver Entanglement!"
The Yellow Soul Ring lit up.
The vines grew tougher and more poisonous at the same time.
It was completely different from the ordinary probing attacks before.
Dong Jian did not struggle immediately.
Kung Fu Deconstruction activated.
Soul Power was most concentrated at the roots.
The intersections transmitted force.
Each time before Tang San replenished the Soul Power, the vines paused for a fleeting instant.
But Tang San also knew he could find the nodes.
The intersections of the Blue Silver Grass kept shifting.
"The same method of breaking free."
"Won't work forever."
Tang San clenched his hand.
The vines began pulling Dong Jian toward the ground.
Dong Jian activated Bear Astral Energy Body Protection.
Black-and-white astral energy rose from the surface of his body.
The Blue Silver Grass was forced apart slightly.
But it did not break.
Tang San's Soul Power Level was higher.
Blue Silver Entanglement remained under his continuous control.
Simply increasing his strength still was not enough.
"Why isn't he moving yet?"
Wang Sheng asked nervously.
Li Man stood at the edge of the field.
"He's waiting."
"Waiting for what?"
"For Tang San to inject Soul Power again."
The Blue Silver Grass tightened further.
Dong Jian's right arm began to grow heavier.
Tang San immediately changed the intersection nodes.
He prevented the force from concentrating.
But the instant the vines moved.
The transmission of Soul Power paused for half a breath.
"Now."
Dong Jian did not attack near his right arm.
Instead, he suddenly reduced the weight of his entire body.
The Blue Silver Grass had been resisting the expanding force of Bear Astral Energy Body Protection.
Its target suddenly grew lighter.
The vines contracted inward uncontrollably.
All the intersections briefly converged.
The next instant.
Dong Jian's shoulders and both arms grew heavier at the same time.
The impact from the restraints absorbed by Bear Astral Energy Body Protection erupted outward.
Bang!
The first node broke.
The impact spread rapidly along the concentrated vines.
The second strand.
The third.
Tang San immediately replenished the Soul Power.
But Dong Jian had already freed his right hand.
His fist did not tear about wildly.
Instead, it struck the connection where the force converged at the roots.
"Break!"
Crack!
Blue Silver Entanglement was torn straight open.
Silence fell outside the field.
Tang San did not pause.
Three pebbles flew from his sleeve.
Dong Jian had just broken free, and had not yet recovered his balance.
The first pebble struck toward his left shoulder.
The second sealed off his right side.
The third was hidden behind them.
It was similar to their first spar.
But Dong Jian had already undergone countless sessions of stone-throwing training in the dark at the Hundred Battles Hall.
He closed his eyes.
The first pebble was slower.
A decoy.
The second was closest.
Its true target was his knee.
The third was the key to changing the final direction.
Dong Jian did not dodge completely.
He deliberately used Bear Astral Energy Body Protection to block the second pebble.
The astral energy absorbed the impact.
The third flew past the side of his face.
Tang San had already appeared using Ghost Shadow Perplexing Track.
Controlling Crane Capturing Dragon pulled at Dong Jian's right arm.
Dong Jian no longer resisted.
He charged forward with the force.
The distance between them closed rapidly.
Tang San's expression changed.
He immediately released the pull.
But Dong Jian's body grew lighter at that moment.
Inertia made him pick up even more speed.
Tang San stepped left.
Dong Jian heard the ground vibrate.
He did not chase the afterimage on the left.
Instead, he charged into the empty space ahead and to the right.
The watching students could not understand.
The next instant.
Tang San appeared in that very spot.
His Ghost Shadow Perplexing Track had not been completely seen through.
It was only the extensive record of routes left by Li Man's earlier Green Bamboo Binding Formation, combined with Dong Jian's Kung Fu Deconstruction and Listening to the Wind to Discern Position, that finally allowed him to predict one of Tang San's landing points.
Tang San crossed both hands.
He blocked with Mysterious Jade Hand.
Dong Jian's First Soul Ring lit up completely.
Bear Astral Energy Body Protection concentrated the impacts it had previously absorbed from Blue Silver Entanglement and the stones.
His shoulder grew heavier.
Mountain-Leaning Collision!
Bang!
Tang San's feet left the ground.
He flew backward.
He remained calm in midair.
Blue Silver Grass extended from his sleeve.
It wrapped around a wooden stake at the edge of the training ground.
His body was forcibly pulled back.
He didn't go straight out of bounds.
Dong Jian was already charging at him again.
The instant Tang San landed, he used Ghost Shadow Perplexing Track.
The two brushed past each other.
Mysterious Jade Hand stopped beside Dong Jian's temple.
Dong Jian's shoulder also stopped in front of Tang San's chest.
Both had an opportunity to attack.
But Tang San's left foot was already on the boundary line.
His right foot had landed half a foot beyond it.
The referee checked carefully.
"Tang San is out of bounds."
"Dong Jian wins."
A tremendous cheer erupted from Dorm Seven's direction.
Tang San withdrew his hand.
He looked at the boundary line beneath his feet.
He didn't say that the last stone or Mysterious Jade Hand could have hit Dong Jian too.
The rule was that going out of bounds meant defeat.
A loss was a loss.
"I lost."
Tang San admitted it himself.
Dong Jian withdrew Bear Astral Energy Body Protection.
His arms were still trembling slightly from the paralysis caused by Blue Silver Grass.
"I only won this once."
"You've already found a way to break Blue Silver Entanglement and counter one of my Ghost Shadow Perplexing Track landings."
Tang San said:
"Next time, I'll change my approach."
"I'll keep changing too."
Dong Jian answered.
Yu Xiaogang walked over to the broken Blue Silver Grass.
He had originally thought Dong Jian had to rely on pure strength enhancement to break free of the control.
But what Dong Jian had actually used were changes in weight, pauses in Soul Power, and the recoil from Bear Astral Energy Body Protection.
This approach didn't entirely match his expectations.
Yet it had proven effective in actual combat.
Li Man came over from the sidelines.
"You won."
"But the Blue Silver Grass poison hasn't been completely cleared yet."
She took out some medicine.
"Let's treat your arms first."
Dong Jian smiled and said:
"Aren't you going to say I avenged you?"
"I don't need someone else to prove it for me."
Li Man said:
"Next time, I'll beat Tang San myself."
This wasn't her distancing herself.
It was her determination to follow her own path.
Dong Jian had defeated Tang San.
Li Man also had to win a victory of her own.
After the annual assessment ended,
the academy announced the list of participants for the Nuoding City Junior Two-Soul-Master Tournament.
Dong Jian and Li Man were selected based on their first-place finish in the pair assessment and their performances in the individual battles.
The tournament was three months away.
Their opponents would no longer be just students from Nuoding Academy.
They would be outstanding pairs from several junior Soul Master Academies around Nuoding City.
Tang San looked at the list.
"When you come back,"
"let's compete again."
Dong Jian nodded.
The real next stage-
was to make every junior academy in Nuoding City remember their names.