Nuoding City Duo Soul Master Tournament: Formidable Foes Appear
Three months later.
The Nuoding City Junior Academy Joint Combat Tournament officially began.
This was not a commercial competition held by the Great Soul Arena.
It was a tournament for lower-year students, jointly organized by several junior Soul Master Academies in the city.
Participants could be no older than ten.
Their Soul Power could not exceed rank nineteen.
Dong Jian and Li Man stood before the registration desk.
The Soul Power testing crystal lit up for each of them in turn.
"Dong Jian."
"Rank-thirteen Battle Soul Master."
"Martial Soul: Black-and-White Iron-Eating Beast."
"Li Man."
"Rank-thirteen Control-Type Battle Spirit Master."
"Martial Soul: Green Jade Bamboo."
Both of them had broken through to rank thirteen within three months.
Tang San had already reached rank fourteen.
Xiao Wu was also at rank fourteen.
Neither of them had entered.
Yu Xiaogang believed that Tang San needed to focus on stabilizing the toxicity of Blue Silver Grass and the Mysterious Heaven Skill for now.
Xiao Wu, meanwhile, had no interest in the academy's arrangements.
"Don't come back if you don't take first place."
Those were Xiao Wu's parting words.
Li Man's answer was just as direct.
"You can start preparing for our next spar in advance."
Sixteen two-person teams were taking part in the tournament.
Their first-round opponents came from Black Rock Junior Soul Master Academy.
A rank-fourteen Iron Armored Rhinoceros Battle Soul Master.
A rank-thirteen Gale Eagle Battle Soul Master.
A standard combination of one attack-type and one agility-type.
"Take out Li Man first."
Before the match began, their opponents made no attempt to hide their strategy.
The Gale Eagle was responsible for circling around behind.
The Iron Armored Rhinoceros would hold Dong Jian off from the front.
Almost everyone who had studied the information on Nuoding Academy knew.
Green Bamboo Binding Formation was the core of the pair's teamwork.
"They're a lot like our first opponents in the academy's duo assessment."
Dong Jian spoke.
"Their ranks are higher."
Li Man gripped her Green Jade Bamboo.
"And their tactics won't be exactly the same."
The match began.
The Iron Armored Rhinoceros's First Soul Ring lit up.
A layer of gray armor covered his body.
He charged straight at Dong Jian.
The Gale Eagle, meanwhile, took directly to the air.
He did not attack Li Man immediately.
Instead, he kept circling outside the range of Green Bamboo Binding Formation.
He was waiting.
As soon as Li Man used her bamboo shadows to help Dong Jian.
He would launch a surprise attack from the air on the center of the formation.
"Bear Astral Energy Body Protection!"
Dong Jian met the Iron Armored Rhinoceros's charge head-on.
Bang!
Both of them staggered back.
The Iron Armored Rhinoceros Soul Master was rank fourteen.
His strength even surpassed Zhou Yan's in the annual assessment.
A second charge followed immediately.
Dong Jian did not continue to meet him head-on.
His feet grew lighter, and he slid to the side.
The Iron Armored Rhinoceros forced himself to turn.
The Gale Eagle finally dived.
His First Soul Ring lit up.
"First Soul Skill, Wind Feather Cutting!"
Sharp blades of wind appeared along the edges of his wings.
They aimed straight for Li Man's shoulder.
Li Man did not look up.
Her Green Jade Bamboo tapped the ground.
The first bamboo shadow rose from the side.
The Gale Eagle changed direction in advance.
He dodged it easily.
"Too slow!"
He dived again.
But Li Man's second bamboo shadow did not attack his body.
Instead, it bent swiftly beneath him.
The bamboo vine suddenly sprang back.
The airflow around the Gale Eagle's body was thrown into disarray by the bamboo vine.
His flight path shifted slightly.
Only half a foot.
But Wind Feather could no longer strike her shoulder accurately.
Li Man flicked her Green Jade Bamboo upward.
Smack!
The bamboo tip grazed his wing.
The Gale Eagle rose into the air again.
"She's using the bamboo vines to disrupt the airflow."
A teacher watching the match spotted the change.
Green Bamboo Binding Formation was not an absolute counter to flying Soul Masters.
But it could alter the environment at low altitudes.
On the other side.
Dong Jian had endured three consecutive charges.
The impact accumulated by Bear Astral Energy Body Protection was close to its limit.
The Iron Armored Rhinoceros Soul Master believed his chance had come.
He unleashed his First Soul Skill with all his strength.
He charged like a real rhinoceros.
But Dong Jian suddenly leaped backward.
Li Man's third bamboo shadow was already bent behind him.
Green Bamboo Borrowing Momentum!
The rebound did not send Dong Jian charging forward.
Instead, it launched him into the air.
The Iron Armored Rhinoceros's attack missed.
Dong Jian passed over his opponent's head.
His legs grew heavier as he landed.
He planted his feet on the Iron Armored Rhinoceros's back.
The Soul Master's body pitched forward.
Dong Jian pressed down from above with his shoulder.
At the same time, Bear Astral Energy Body Protection released its accumulated impact.
Bang!
The Iron Armored Rhinoceros Soul Master was pressed into the ground.
He was not eliminated immediately.
But his movements had stopped.
The Gale Eagle wanted to come to his aid.
Li Man's fourth bamboo shadow suddenly rose.
She stepped onto the bamboo shadow herself.
Green Bamboo Rebound!
For the first time, she leaped up to the Gale Eagle's height of her own accord.
Her Green Jade Bamboo swept sideways.
The Gale Eagle's wing was struck.
His body plummeted.
Li Man did not pursue him.
Before he landed, a bamboo vine wrapped around his waist.
Then it sprang sharply back toward the edge of the arena.
The Gale Eagle Soul Master flew straight over the boundary.
The first contestant was eliminated.
After losing his teammate.
The Iron Armored Rhinoceros Soul Master was quickly defeated by Dong Jian and Li Man's combined attack.
The second round.
Their opponents were a pair of water-attribute control Soul Masters.
Vast streams of water prevented the bamboo shadows from taking root securely.
Dong Jian's weight also made him prone to sinking into the mud.
Li Man took the initiative to shrink Green Bamboo Binding Formation.
She connected the four bamboo shadows to one another, forming a bamboo framework that floated on the water.
Dong Jian moved across the bamboo framework.
Bear Astral Energy Body Protection blocked the water arrows.
In the end, he used Green Bamboo Borrowing Momentum to cross the water and break through into close range.
The semifinals.
Their opponents were a pair of twin sisters.
Their Martial Souls were Ice Mirror and Fire Mirror, respectively.
The two could make attacks reflect between the mirrors.
Flames and frost kept changing direction.
Li Man's Green Bamboo Binding Formation was burned down twice.
Dong Jian's Bear Astral Energy Body Protection was also weakened by the alternating heat and cold.
The match lasted nearly half a shichen.
At last.
Li Man stopped watching the attacks themselves.
Instead, she judged the order in which Soul Power was transmitted by the vibrations of the mirrors.
"The second mirror on the left is a decoy."
"The real attack is coming from the rear right."
Dong Jian closed his eyes.
Listening to the Wind to Discern Position.
He took an ice spike head-on.
Bear Astral Energy Body Protection accumulated the impact.
Then he stepped on the Green Jade Bamboo and rebounded.
He cleared the wall of flames.
Mountain-Leaning Collision shattered the energy mirror formed by the Fire Mirror Martial Soul head-on.
The twins' coordination was disrupted.
Nuoding Academy advanced to the finals.
The list of their opponents in the finals was announced soon afterward.
Wind Sword Junior Academy.
The Gale Twins.
Two level-fourteen Agility Attack System Battle Spirit Masters.
Both had the Gale Short Sword as their Martial Soul.
Their First Soul Skills were identical as well.
Wind Shadow Assault.
For three consecutive tournaments,
no lower-year duo had been able to truly limit their speed.
Dong Jian's greatest initial weakness.
The opponents Li Man's bamboo formation found hardest to catch.
Both appeared in the finals.
The Gale Twins stood at the other end of the arena.
One of them raised a short sword.
"The green bamboo formation can't trap the wind."
The other looked at Dong Jian.
"Your hearing can't keep up with two people, either."
Li Man touched the Green Jade Bamboo to the ground.
"Tomorrow, in the finals,"
"you can see for yourselves."