Light-Body Bear Steps

One year later.

Twenty li southwest of Nuoding City.

A vast stretch of wheat fields had been churned into a mess.

The unripe wheat lay flattened in broad patches, and dense hoofprints marked the soil. Several Soul Beasts, nearly as large as wild boars and covered in blue-gray spikes along their backs, darted back and forth through the fields.

They ran at tremendous speed.

Each time they were about to hit a field ridge, they changed direction without warning.

"Here they come again!"

The villagers at the edge of the field cried out in alarm.

The leading Gale Pufferfish lowered its head.

The spikes on its back flattened backward.

All four limbs pushed off at once, sending it straight toward a wooden cart loaded with grain like an arrow skimming the ground.

A figure suddenly charged out from the side.

He was scarcely slower than the Gale Pufferfish.

A faint white light appeared over Dong Jian's legs.

He slid forward with his body almost against the ground.

First step.

The distance between the two closed in an instant.

Second step.

Dong Jian was already blocking the wooden cart.

The Gale Pufferfish did not stop.

Its strength was not what made it most dangerous.

It was its ability to turn suddenly while charging at high speed.

When it was only three steps from Dong Jian, the Gale Pufferfish stamped its right forehoof sharply outward.

With barely any loss of speed, it veered from straight ahead to the left.

It had no intention of meeting Dong Jian head-on.

Its real target was still the grain sacks behind the wooden cart.

"Trying to change direction again?"

Dong Jian planted his left foot.

The sole of his foot, light a moment ago, instantly grew heavy.

Bang!

The soil caved in beneath it.

Using his left leg as a pivot, he forcibly changed the direction of his charge.

Third step!

White Soul Power receded from his legs.

Black Soul Power swiftly gathered at his right foot.

Dong Jian did not continue charging straight ahead.

Instead, he planted his weighted right foot on the ground and twisted at the waist, putting his shoulder directly in the Gale Pufferfish's new path.

A Yellow Soul Ring rose.

"First Soul Skill, Bear Astral Energy Body Protection!"

Black and White Gang Qi covered his body.

Bang!

The Gale Pufferfish slammed head-on into Dong Jian's shoulder.

The powerful impact sent him sliding two steps backward.

The wooden cart, however, was unaffected.

The Gale Pufferfish's nose went numb from the collision.

Just as it tried to flee to the side, a green bamboo vine burst from the soil and wrapped around its hind leg.

"Left."

Li Man stood on the field ridge.

Her Green Jade Bamboo was planted in the ground.

A Yellow Soul Ring pulsed slowly.

Four bamboo shadows had originally been stationed at the four corners of the wheat field.

Now, however, the leftmost bamboo shadow moved slowly across the ground.

It did not suddenly vanish and reappear.

Instead, like a truly rooted stalk of bamboo, it pulled its roots from the soil and shifted forward.

It could move only half a step at a time.

It was not fast.

But it moved just in time to block the Gale Pufferfish's escape route.

The Soul Beast jerked its hind leg violently.

The bamboo vine pulled taut.

As the first vine was about to snap, the second bamboo shadow had already moved to the other side.

A fresh bamboo vine wrapped around a foreleg.

The Gale Pufferfish's legs were forced apart.

It instantly lost its balance.

Dong Jian seized the chance.

The force of the impact accumulated by Bear Astral Energy Body Protection concentrated in his right shoulder.

He did not ram the Soul Beast's body directly.

Instead, he shoved from the side against its already shifted center of gravity.

Bang!

The Gale Pufferfish tumbled into the mud.

Li Man controlled the bamboo vines, swiftly binding its four limbs.

"The first one."

She showed no sign of joy.

Her gaze had already turned farther away.

Six more remained in the wheat field.

Two of them were chasing livestock the villagers had put out to graze.

The other four kept running around the fields.

They had not attacked any humans.

They had simply been frightened and were unable to leave the area.

This mission did not require them to kill the beasts.

After the academy received the village's request for help, it had sent only students to assist in driving the Soul Beasts back into the woods.

The teacher responsible for protecting them stood at a distance.

He would not intervene unless their lives were in danger.

"They've split into two groups."

Dong Jian looked across the fields.

"Should we save the people first, or block the other four?"

"Both at once."

Li Man turned her wrist.

Two of the Green Bamboo Binding Formation's fixed formation nodes remained in place.

The other two began moving in opposite directions.

They moved very slowly.

Yet they consumed far more Soul Power than the fixed bamboo shadows.

After moving them only five steps, Li Man had a fine sheen of sweat on her forehead.

"You control the four."

"I'll chase the other two."

Dong Jian spoke.

"No."

Li Man rejected the idea at once.

"You can only use Light-Body Bear Steps three times in succession."

"The two Soul Beasts are moving in different directions."

"If you force a fourth switch, the Soul Power in your legs will go out of control."

"I know my own limits."

"You said that last time too."

Li Man pointed at Dong Jian's left leg.

"Your injury only healed seven days ago."

Dong Jian looked down.

The bruises, not yet completely faded, were still visible beneath his trouser leg.

Light-Body Bear Steps was not a Soul Skill.

It was a self-created footwork technique he had developed through a year of repeated training in Light-Heavy Conversion.

By briefly lightening his legs, he could burst forward in a straight line at tremendous speed.

By making the sole of his foot heavy the instant it landed, he could forcibly steady his body.

The greatest problem was that successive conversions put pressure on the meridians and bones in his legs.

At first, Dong Jian could take only one step.

He would lose his balance on the second.

After a year of training, he could now take three steps in succession.

It was not that he could not use a fourth step at all.

It was just that the price might be an inability to walk normally for a while.

"Then we'll take them one at a time."

Dong Jian changed his decision.

He did not keep arguing just to prove himself.

Li Man glanced at him.

"I'll get them together first."

She thrust the Green Jade Bamboo forward.

The first moving bamboo shadow slowly went right.

The second moved left from the other side.

The space between the two bamboo shadows steadily narrowed.

The bamboo vines did not directly chase the four Gale Pufferfish.

Instead, whenever a Soul Beast prepared to change direction, a vine appeared in its landing spot ahead of time.

The first went left.

A bamboo shadow moved half a step.

A bamboo vine rose from the ground.

The Gale Pufferfish immediately turned.

The second went right.

The other bamboo shadow blocked it in advance.

The Soul Beast changed course again.

The four Gale Pufferfish were gradually herded into the same area.

They were still moving very fast.

But they had fewer and fewer directions to choose from.

"She isn't chasing the Soul Beasts."

The teacher responsible for their protection spoke in a low voice:

"She's changing the area the Soul Beasts can move in."

The villagers could not make sense of the Soul Skill.

All they saw was that the Gale Pufferfish, which had been running wildly all over the wheat field, had actually been forced together by a few slowly moving bamboo shadows.

It was not easy for Li Man to control them, either.

Each Mobile Formation Eye had to be reconnected to the underground Soul Power.

With every move, she had to judge all of the following at once:

The bamboo shadow's current position.

Its next landing spot.

The directions in which the four Soul Beasts were moving.

And whether Dong Jian was ready.

"Now!"

The two moving bamboo shadows suddenly stopped.

Four Gale Pufferfish were forced into a narrow area.

White light lit up around Dong Jian's legs.

Light-Body Bear Steps!

First step.

He charged from the ridge between the fields into the wheat field.

Second step.

He dodged the first Soul Beast charging straight at him.

Third step.

His right foot grew heavier.

He forced his body to spin.

His shoulder struck the second Gale Pufferfish in the side.

He had not fully activated Bear Astral Energy Body Protection.

He merely used the strength granted by Martial Soul Possession to shove it toward its companions.

The four Soul Beasts collided.

The scene instantly descended into chaos.

Li Man's First Soul Ring shone at full brightness.

"Green Bamboo Binding Formation!"

The four bamboo shadows bent at once.

More than ten bamboo vines reached out to entangle the beasts from different directions.

They did not pursue the four Soul Beasts separately.

Instead, they first joined together into a large net.

The Gale Pufferfish charged outward.

The bamboo net kept warping.

The first spot was knocked open.

The second immediately tightened.

One Soul Beast managed to squeeze through a gap.

Dong Jian was already standing at the exit.

Bear Astral Energy Body Protection!

The Soul Beast slammed into the protective Qi.

The impact was absorbed.

Dong Jian grabbed two of its dorsal spines and used Circular Force Redirection to guide its charge toward the woods.

"Back you go!"

The Gale Pufferfish was flung out of the bamboo formation.

It did not continue attacking after it landed.

It turned and ran toward the woods.

The remaining three were drawn along by it.

They too began charging in the same direction.

Li Man did not continue trying to bind them by force.

She deliberately loosened the bamboo vines.

She left an opening in the bamboo net that led toward the woods.

The three Gale Pufferfish charged out one after another.

They did not return to the wheat field.

The remaining two that had been chasing the livestock also gradually moved closer to the woods after their companions left.

Dong Jian had intended to use Light-Body Bear Steps again.

But a slight stabbing pain suddenly came from his left leg.

He had only taken half a step forward when Li Man had already raised her Green Jade Bamboo across the way.

"Just run over normally."

"There's enough time."

Dong Jian did not object.

The two surrounded them from the left and right.

Li Man used the fixed bamboo shadows to block their way back.

Dong Jian no longer tried to close in on them in an instant.

He simply kept narrowing the distance.

At last, the two Gale Pufferfish were also driven back into the woods.

Throughout the entire operation, they had not killed a single Soul Beast.

No one else in the village had been injured, either.

The mission was complete.

Li Man released the Green Bamboo Binding Formation.

The four bamboo shadows gradually dissipated.

Her body swayed slightly.

After moving two formation anchors in succession and maintaining the wide-ranging bamboo net, she had almost exhausted her Soul Power.

Dong Jian reached out and steadied her by the arm.

Li Man did not refuse.

She simply let go as soon as she was steady.

"The Mobile Formation Eye can be maintained for at most a quarter of an hour."

"After that, the Soul Power consumption doubles."

She took out her record book.

She wrote down the data as she caught her breath.

"The movement speed is also far too slow."

"If the enemy weren't Gale Pufferfish, but Soul Masters who would actively destroy the formation anchors, it would be hard to keep both moving bamboo shadows intact."

Dong Jian sat on the ridge between the fields.

"At least they can move now."

"A year ago, you could only keep them fixed in place."

Li Man looked up at him.

"The same goes for your Light-Body Bear Steps."

"After the third step, the flow of Soul Power in your left leg noticeably slows down."

"Will you use it less when we get back?"

"No."

Dong Jian flexed his ankle.

"I'll adjust the way I train."

"Three consecutive steps are my limit for now."

"In the next stage, I won't increase the number of steps. I'll practice turning and recovery first."

Li Man added a line to her record book.

"I'll give you this one. You weren't pushing yourself too hard."

"When have I ever pushed myself too hard?"

"Seven days ago."

"That time was just a close call."

"You came close to injuring the bone."

While the two were talking, the supervising teacher had finished registering the mission.

He walked over and handed each of them a mission badge.

"The Gale Pufferfish were all between sixty and eighty years old."

"Individually, they weren't much of a threat."

"But their numbers and speed were enough to leave an ordinary fourteenth-level Soul Master scrambling."

"Your coordination was more mature than last time."

Dong Jian accepted the badge.

"Does this count as a valid battle?"

The teacher did not know about the Hundred Battles Hall.

He assumed Dong Jian was asking about the academy's combat records.

"Of course."

"You didn't rely on the supervising teacher."

"And you completed the mission objective."

Dong Jian did not explain.

Deep in his consciousness.

The number on the stone stele in the Hundred Battles Hall had already changed from twenty-two to twenty-three.

Over the past year.

He and Li Man had not continued to take part in many internal academy ranking matches.

Instead, they had followed the academy's regular teachers to complete missions:

Driving away Soul Beasts.

Escorting medicinal herbs.

Patrolling trade routes.

Helping villagers clear dangerous areas.

Twenty-three valid battles.

Each one had presented different problems.

Dong Jian's Soul Power had reached the fifteenth level.

Li Man had also broken through to the fifteenth level a month ago.

Tang San and Xiao Wu had reached the sixteenth level ahead of them.

The gap in Soul Power had not widened much.

But their paths in combat were growing increasingly different.

After returning to Nuoding Academy.

Dong Jian had just walked into the training grounds when Yu Xiaogang noticed something wrong with his left leg.

"Are you hurt?"

"A minor bruise."

Dong Jian said.

"It won't affect my cultivation."

Yu Xiaogang crouched down to examine him.

His fingers pressed along several meridians.

"Stress caused by repeatedly switching Soul Power rapidly."

"It wasn't caused by an external impact."

"Are you still practicing that footwork technique that changes the weight of your legs?"

"Light-Body Bear Steps."

"The name isn't important."

Yu Xiaogang stood up.

"Stop immediately."

Dong Jian did not argue outright.

"Why?"

"Your legs are still developing."

"Repeatedly changing the weight of your Martial Soul will cause long-term damage to your bones and meridians."

"Right now, it's only a bruise."

"Later, it could affect your ability to walk normally."

Tang San stood behind Yu Xiaogang.

He had just finished cultivating.

The fluctuations of his Soul Power were steadier than they had been a year ago.

"Teacher is right."

"More self-created techniques aren't necessarily better."

"If your body can't handle it, continuing to train is just borrowing against your future."

Dong Jian nodded.

"The risk does exist."

Yu Xiaogang's expression softened slightly.

"Since you understand, stop using it."

"I didn't say I'd stop."

Dong Jian answered.

"I've already limited consecutive uses to three steps."

"For now, I won't increase that."

"I'll also have my legs checked after training."

Yu Xiaogang frowned.

"Limiting the number of uses can't eliminate the damage."

"As long as you keep practicing, the damage will accumulate."

"Normal training accumulates fatigue too."

Dong Jian said:

"The question isn't whether there's strain."

"It's whether the strain exceeds what the body can recover from."

"You don't have enough experience in medicine and Martial Soul research to judge those limits."

"So I have an academy healing teacher examine me every seven days."

Dong Jian took a sheet of records from his clothes.

It listed the Soul Power flow in his legs, his pain levels, and his recovery times over the past month.

Li Man hadn't made the decisions for him.

The two of them had recorded the data together, then submitted it to the healing teacher for confirmation.

"After the third step, the Soul Power flow in my left leg slows by ten percent."

"It recovers after two days of rest."

"There have been no bone fractures or meridian injuries."

"If the data keeps getting worse, I'll stop."

Yu Xiaogang took the sheet.

His expression didn't soften.

"You're using your own body for trial and error."

"All self-created techniques require trial and error in the first place."

Dong Jian said:

"If I give up as soon as I find danger,"

"Then I'll only ever be able to use methods that others have already tested."

"Tested methods are at least safer."

"Safe doesn't mean suitable for everyone."

Neither of them raised his voice.

Yet the atmosphere gradually grew tense.

Their dispute over the Second Soul Ring path a year ago hadn't faded with time.

Yu Xiaogang still believed Dong Jian and Li Man placed too much faith in their own judgment.

Dong Jian still believed Yu Xiaogang was in the habit of rejecting an entire path as soon as he discovered a risk.

Li Man walked into the training ground at that moment.

She didn't immediately join the argument.

Instead, she released Green Jade Bamboo.

Her First Soul Ring lit up.

Four bamboo silhouettes rose from the training ground.

Two of them began to move slowly.

Yu Xiaogang shifted his gaze.

"You made the formation cores move?"

"Each one can move up to fifteen steps at a time."

Li Man said.

"I can only control two at once."

"Soul Power consumption is about forty percent higher than with fixed formation cores."

Yu Xiaogang watched the bamboo silhouettes' paths.

"That will reduce the formation's stability."

"Only fixed formation cores can create a complete control area."

"Once they move, gaps will appear in the connections between the bamboo vines."

"They do."

Li Man readily admitted it.

"That's why the other two remain fixed."

"The Mobile Formation Eye is only responsible for compressing the routes, not withstanding frontal impacts."

She moved one bamboo silhouette behind Dong Jian.

A bamboo vine wrapped around his waist.

The other slowly blocked his flank.

"The fixed formation cores establish the basic area."

"The Mobile Formation Eye modifies the area."

"The control hasn't weakened."

"Only the way it's used has changed."

Yu Xiaogang fell silent for a moment.

"Your current opponents are relatively weak."

"Naturally, they can't expose the problems."

"When you encounter a Control System Soul Master whose Soul Power is higher than yours, the Mobile Formation Eye might instead become a point of breakthrough."

"It's possible."

Li Man withdrew her Soul Skill.

"Then we'll test it when we encounter one."

"We won't stop now just because we might fail."

Her words matched Dong Jian's attitude exactly.

Yu Xiaogang looked at the two of them.

In the end, he returned the record sheet to Dong Jian.

"I've warned you about the risks."

"If problems arise in the future, don't say no one warned you."

"We won't."

Dong Jian put the sheet away.

"We'll take responsibility for our own training."

Tang San frowned slightly.

"Teacher is trying to help you."

"No one said he wasn't."

Li Man said:

"Warnings have value."

"The decision is still ours to make."

Tang San didn't continue the argument.

But the rift between the four of them, caused by the Soul Hunting route a year ago, hadn't healed.

It had merely been pushed beneath the surface by their daily cultivation.

Night fell.

In the Hundred Battles Hall.

The level-fifteen Agility Attack System mirror image appeared once more.

A year ago.

Dong Jian had lasted only ten moves.

Over the past year, he had challenged the mirror image eighteen times.

He had lost all seventeen previous attempts.

The mirror image vanished in an instant.

Dong Jian didn't activate Bear Astral Energy Body Protection and wait where he stood.

White light shone on his legs.

Light-Body Bear Steps!

First step.

He dodged the frontal attack.

Second step.

He caught up to the mirror image's afterimage.

The mirror image suddenly changed direction.

Dong Jian didn't force himself to take a third step.

His left foot grew heavy.

He stopped early.

The mirror image thought he would continue the pursuit and attacked from the side.

Dong Jian closed his eyes.

Listening to the Wind to Discern Position.

Footsteps came from the right.

The real airflow came from the left.

He turned and raised his arm.

Bear Astral Energy Body Protection!

Bang!

Astral Qi blocked the attack.

The impact accumulated.

The mirror image retreated swiftly.

Dong Jian finally took his third step.

He no longer chased in a straight line.

Instead, he used the weight of his foot and turned halfway around at the waist.

Though the movement was still awkward,

For the first time, he didn't charge in the false direction left by the mirror image.

His shoulder struck home.

Mountain-Leaning Collision!

Bang!

The agility-attack mirror image flew several meters.

Its body dissolved into points of light.

The number on the stone tablet changed.

Effective battles: twenty-four.

A new assessment appeared below it:

Discover the risk.

Limit the risk.

Cross the risk.

Dong Jian looked at the three lines.

Yu Xiaogang believed

That if there was a possibility of injury, he should stop.

But the Hundred Battles Hall had never guaranteed absolute safety.

It only required Dong Jian to know what he was taking on.

At that very moment.

In a forest several li from Nuoding Academy.

A hooded man crouched on the ground.

A spike cut from a Gale Pufferfish lay before him.

In the dirt beside it were the paths taken by the four bamboo silhouettes after they moved.

The hooded man opened a black booklet.

He wrote two lines.

Black-and-white sample: switching between light and heavy has grown faster; a three-step burst has taken shape.

Green bamboo sample: fixed formation cores have begun to move; control logic has changed.

He paused for a moment.

Then he added another sentence at the very bottom.

The routine observation was over.

The second phase of testing could begin.

Deeper in the woods.

Three figures emerged silently.

Their arms were all covered in black veins.

One of them raised his head.

A nonhuman vertical pupil flashed deep within his eyes.