His Martial Soul Overwhelmed His Body First

Inside the Hundred Battles Hall.

A strength-type mirror image nearly two meters tall stood at the center of the stone platform.

Its Martial Soul was a One-Horned Rock Ox.

A Yellow Soul Ring pulsed slowly beneath its feet.

The mirror image's Soul Power was only at level eighteen.

The same level as Dong Jian.

But its physical strength was clearly a cut above his.

"First Soul Skill, Rock Horn Charge!"

The Yellow Soul Ring lit up.

The mirror image lowered its head.

A rocklike horn extended forward from its forehead.

Its feet shattered the ground as it charged straight at him.

Dong Jian did not dodge.

His Panda Martial Soul appeared behind him.

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

Black and White Gang Qi covered his entire body.

The weight of his legs increased.

His shoulder dropped.

Bang!

The two forces collided head-on.

The surface of the stone platform rapidly cracked.

Dong Jian slid back six steps.

The Rock Ox mirror image retreated only three.

Bear Astral Energy Body Protection absorbed part of the impact.

But the remaining force sent an intense numbness through Dong Jian's right shoulder.

"Again."

The mirror image did not pause.

A second charge followed immediately.

Dong Jian's legs suddenly grew lighter.

He moved to the side.

Light-Body Bear Steps!

The first step took him clear of the horn.

The second brought him around to the mirror image's side.

When his right foot landed, black Soul Power rapidly gathered.

The weight of his foot increased.

He forced his body to turn.

Dong Jian aimed his shoulder at the mirror image's flank.

In the past,

Mountain-Leaning Collision would have been enough to throw his opponent off balance.

But the Rock Ox mirror image had thick, sturdy legs.

Its First Soul Skill was still strengthening its body.

When his shoulder struck it, the mirror image only swayed slightly.

It did not fall.

"Not enough strength."

Dong Jian clenched his teeth.

The weight of his right shoulder continued to increase.

One times.

One and a half times.

Two times.

Black Soul Power gathered ceaselessly in his shoulder and right leg.

The impact accumulated by Bear Astral Energy Body Protection was also compressed into a single point.

Mountain-Leaning Collision!

Bang!

The Rock Ox mirror image was finally sent flying sideways.

Its massive body slammed into a stone pillar.

Cracks appeared in its rock Martial Soul.

Dong Jian gave it no chance to recover.

He took the third step of Light-Body Bear Steps.

He increased the weight of his right leg again.

His foot landed.

His shoulder struck the same spot.

A second impact erupted.

Boom!

The Rock Ox mirror image dissolved into points of light.

The number of valid battles on the stone stele changed from forty-one to forty-two.

But Dong Jian did not smile.

A faint sound suddenly came from his right leg.

Not from the ground,

but from inside the bone.

Crack.

Pain instantly spread up his lower leg.

Dong Jian's face went deathly pale.

His body lost its support.

He dropped to one knee on the stone platform.

Bear Astral Energy Body Protection still covered his body.

No enemy was attacking him from outside.

Yet the astral Qi could do nothing to ease the pain in his leg.

He tried to stand.

The moment he put strength into his right leg, a stabbing pain shot through the bone again.

The words on the stone stele slowly changed.

Battle won.

Body failed to bear the load.

The next line stood out even more.

Strength has exceeded the vessel.

Dong Jian stared at the sentence.

Bear Astral Energy Body Protection could withstand an enemy's fists, weapons, and Soul Skills.

But it could not protect him from his own Martial Soul.

The weight added by his black Soul Power acted directly on his bones, muscles, and meridians.

To defeat the mirror image just now,

he had placed most of the weight on his right leg and shoulder twice in succession.

The Rock Ox mirror image had fallen.

His body had also reached its limit first.

The Hundred Battles Hall did not generate another opponent.

Dong Jian left the Divine Dragon Secret Realm.

In the real world,

dawn was just breaking.

When he sat up in bed, the pain in his right leg had not disappeared.

He put his foot on the floor.

The stabbing pain came again.

Dong Jian grabbed the edge of the bed.

He did not wake anyone else in Dorm Seven.

He got dressed and limped toward the academy infirmary.

After examining him, the healing teacher on night duty gradually grew serious.

"This isn't an ordinary strain."

"There are tiny cracks in your right tibia."

"Your meridians have also been compressed by your weight Soul Power."

"What have you been doing lately?"

Dong Jian hid nothing.

"Repeatedly increasing the weight of my right leg."

"How much did you increase it at most?"

"About twice its normal weight."

The healing teacher looked up at him.

"You're nine years old."

"Your bones are still growing."

"An increase in your Soul Power doesn't mean every part of your body can bear it at the same rate."

He took out an ointment and spread it evenly over Dong Jian's right leg.

A pale green light slowly seeped into his skin.

"No high-intensity leg training for at least a month."

"Stop using Light-Body Bear Steps too."

"A month?"

"That's the minimum."

The healing teacher said:

"The cracks can heal."

"But if your meridians are repeatedly compressed, they could suffer permanent damage."

Dong Jian was silent for a moment.

"What about weight training?"

"Stop that too."

"Not even my arms and shoulders?"

The healing teacher frowned.

"Do you think you'll be fine as long as you don't train your right leg?"

Dong Jian did not answer.

The teacher had already seen what he was thinking.

"Your right leg isn't the problem."

"It's that your Martial Soul's power has grown beyond what your body can bear."

"Force the weight to increase somewhere else,"

"and you'll only move the next injury to your arm or shoulder."

Dong Jian accepted the medicine.

"I understand."

When he walked out of the infirmary,

Li Man was already waiting outside.

She held Green Jade Bamboo in her hand.

At her feet lay the record book Dong Jian had left in the bamboo grove the previous night.

"A bone fracture?"

"Tiny cracks."

Dong Jian said.

"I can't use Light-Body Bear Steps for a month."

Li Man looked at his right leg.

"Weight training has to stop too."

"The healing teacher told you?"

"He was speaking very loudly just now."

Li Man turned around.

"Go back to Dorm Seven and rest."

"I can still train my upper body."

She stopped.

"You were just injured during training."

"Now you want to switch to another part and keep going?"

"I'm not going to keep adding weight."

"I'll just practice changing it faster."

"Changing it puts pressure on your meridians in itself."

Li Man's voice turned slightly cold.

"Stop everything for today."

Dong Jian frowned.

"It's my body."

"So that means you can keep training until you ruin it?"

"I know where my limit is."

"You thought you knew last night, too."

The two stood outside the infirmary.

The atmosphere gradually grew tense.

Dong Jian didn't like other people deciding how he should cultivate.

Especially when he already understood the risks.

But Li Man didn't back down either.

"At least wait until your injury stabilizes."

She spoke.

"Then test it again."

"I didn't say I'd continue high-intensity training today."

"You just said you wanted to train your upper body."

"Soul Power circulation isn't separated by body part."

"When the meridians in your right leg are damaged, adding weight anywhere else will affect the overall flow too."

Dong Jian took a deep breath.

"I'll make that judgment myself."

Li Man's gaze darkened.

"Every time you say that,"

"someone else ends up treating your injuries."

Dong Jian was about to argue back.

A muffled bang suddenly came from the bamboo grove.

Bang!

They both turned their heads.

A flash of green Soul Power passed through the bamboo grove.

Li Man's expression changed slightly.

"My formation cores!"

She didn't continue arguing.

She hurried toward the bamboo grove.

Dong Jian couldn't exert any force with his right leg, so he could only follow slowly.

By the time he arrived,

four green bamboo silhouettes were spread throughout the grove.

Two were fixed in place.

Two were moving slowly.

Besides those,

three Instant Formation Eyes that lasted only a few breaths were repeatedly appearing in different locations.

Li Man hadn't summoned her Martial Soul in advance.

The Soul Power fluctuation just now had come from the training formation she had left in the bamboo grove, which had activated on its own.

"When did you start controlling seven formation cores at once?"

Dong Jian asked.

"Three days ago."

Li Man walked into the center of the formation.

"Two fixed."

"Two moving."

"Three temporary."

"The fixed cores maintain the bamboo vines."

"The Mobile Formation Eye changes the range."

"The Instant Formation Eye handles Green Bamboo Rebound and attacks."

This was a new training method she had designed after the battle in the mine.

A complete Green Bamboo Binding Formation could easily be countered by an enemy in advance.

Although the Instant Formation Eye was unstable,

they could appear at any time.

If she used both methods at once,

Li Man could change her position at any time while maintaining control over a wide area.

"Begin."

She closed her eyes.

The first moving bamboo silhouette went left.

The second went forward.

The bamboo vines between the fixed formation cores began to contract.

The three Instant Formation Eyes appeared one after another.

The first lasted for three breaths.

It changed the direction of the bamboo vines.

The second lasted only one breath.

It provided Li Man with a foothold.

The third appeared beside Dong Jian.

It prepared to simulate Green Bamboo Borrowing Momentum.

All the bamboo silhouettes moved at once.

At first, they were perfectly stable.

But when the first Mobile Formation Eye reached its seventh step,

fine beads of sweat began to form on Li Man's forehead.

She had to sense seven Soul Power connections at once.

She had to judge the distance, direction, and consumption of every bamboo silhouette.

The fixed formation cores began to sway slightly.

The second temporary bamboo silhouette appeared half a foot off target.

"Stop."

Dong Jian spoke.

"I can keep going."

Li Man didn't open her eyes.

The Mobile Formation Eye went forward again.

The third temporary bamboo silhouette bent.

A bamboo vine wrapped around Dong Jian's waist.

In the original training exercise,

this bamboo silhouette was supposed to pull Dong Jian gently toward the center of the formation.

But Li Man's mind went blank for a moment.

It was only an instant.

She forgot that Dong Jian's right leg was injured.

She also forgot to limit the force of the rebound.

The bamboo silhouette bent to its limit.

"Li Man!"

Dong Jian sensed something was wrong.

The bamboo vine had already tightened violently.

Rebound!

Dong Jian's body was sent flying sideways.

He couldn't land steadily on his right leg.

In midair, he tried to increase the weight at his waist.

But his injured meridians slowed the flow of Soul Power by half a beat.

What lay ahead wasn't open ground.

It was a stone wall used for training.

Dong Jian could only activate Bear Astral Energy Body Protection.

Bang!

His back slammed into the stone wall.

His Astral Qi shook violently.

A sharp pain shot through his right leg again when it hit the ground.

At the same moment,

Li Man's mental control was interrupted.

All seven formation cores lost their stability.

The two fixed bamboo silhouettes shattered.

The Mobile Formation Eyes collided with each other.

All three temporary bamboo silhouettes backlashed at once.

Her face instantly turned pale.

A piercing ringing sounded in her ears.

Her vision blurred completely.

The Green Jade Bamboo slipped from her hand.

Li Man fell forward.

Dong Jian paid no heed to his right leg.

He endured the pain and rushed over.

He caught her before she hit the ground.

"Li Man!"

There was no response.

Her eyes were open.

But her gaze was unfocused.

Her breathing was rapid.

Cold sweat kept dripping from her forehead.

Dong Jian picked her up.

A stabbing pain shot through his right leg with every step.

But he didn't stop.

The two returned to the infirmary.

When the healing teacher saw them, his expression was beyond merely grim.

"Do you take the infirmary for a rest area at the training grounds?"

He examined Li Man's condition.

"She's overtaxed her mental power."

"She controlled too many targets at once in a short period, causing a lapse in consciousness."

"Fortunately, it didn't last too long."

"She'll recover after a few days of rest."

Dong Jian stood beside the bed.

A small amount of blood had already seeped through the bandages on his right leg.

When the healing teacher saw it, he couldn't help scolding him:

"You lie down too!"

"I'm fine."

"Your fractured bone took another hit, and you call that fine?"

Dong Jian was eventually settled into the bed beside hers.

Half an hour later.

Li Man's vision gradually returned.

She opened her eyes.

The first thing she saw was that Dong Jian's right leg had been bandaged again.

"How's your leg?"

"The fracture got a little bigger."

Dong Jian answered.

"It might take longer to heal."

Li Man fell silent.

If Dong Jian hadn't activated Bear Astral Energy Body Protection just now,

the collision with the stone wall would have been enough to make his injury even worse.

"I'm sorry."

She spoke softly.

Dong Jian didn't respond immediately.

Only after a moment did he say:

"Stop training the Instant Formation Eye."

Li Man looked up.

"Why?"

"You just lost consciousness."

"If you keep training, next time you might not hit a wall."

"I'll reduce the number of formation points."

"Not reduce."

Dong Jian said:

"Stop completely."

The air in the room froze once again.

Li Man stared at him.

"You can't decide for me."

"That just happened because your judgment was wrong."

"My judgment being wrong doesn't mean I have to give up the ability itself."

"The healer already said your mental strength can't take it."

"Your bones can't take the weight either."

Li Man's voice rose.

"Then are you willing to stop Light-Heavy Conversion completely?"

Dong Jian didn't answer.

"You won't."

Li Man said:

"You'll just adjust how you train."

"Lower the weight."

"Reduce the number of repetitions."

"Start again after your body recovers."

"Why do I have to stop completely when it's me?"

"It's different."

"How is it different?"

"You almost lost consciousness just now."

"You almost couldn't stand up either!"

For the first time, Li Man was truly angry.

Affected by her emotions, her Green Jade Bamboo Martial Soul appeared beside the bed.

Its bamboo leaves trembled gently.

"You can't demand that I trust your judgment"

"while refusing to trust mine."

Dong Jian was holding his emotions in check as well.

"Trusting you doesn't mean watching you train until you lose consciousness."

"I didn't ask you to watch me train until I broke my leg either."

"But you already fractured it!"

Their voices carried outside the infirmary.

Passing students stopped one after another.

The healer slammed the door shut.

"If you're going to argue, take it outside."

"But before you go out, neither of you is allowed out of bed."

Dong Jian and Li Man fell silent at the same time.

Only the sound of medicinal liquid boiling remained in the room.

After a long while.

Dong Jian spoke first.

"Those seven formation points just now."

"How many were you actively controlling?"

Li Man didn't look at him.

"All of them."

"That's the problem."

"Fixed formation points need active control too."

"Otherwise the bamboo vines will lose stability."

"Could you make them operate in a preset way?"

Li Man finally turned her head.

"What do you mean?"

"The fixed formation points would only maintain the area."

Dong Jian said:

"If an enemy hasn't entered,"

"you wouldn't need to reassess them every moment."

"The same goes for the Mobile Formation Eye."

"Set their routes in advance."

"They'd stop automatically after reaching the end."

"You'd only control the most important Instant Formation Eyes."

Li Man's brow gradually relaxed.

"Divide the formation points into different layers."

"The main formation point maintains the whole formation."

"The Mobile Formation Eyes change the area according to preset routes."

"Only the Instant Formation Eyes would be under my control on the spot."

"I'd actively handle only one layer at a time."

"The other parts would operate according to their original settings."

Dong Jian nodded.

"It's not that you can't control seven bamboo stalks."

"There's no need to control all seven at once."

Li Man was silent for a moment.

"What about your weight, then?"

"I can't keep putting all the weight on one leg."

Dong Jian said:

"It needs to pass from my shoulders, waist and knees all the way to the ground."

"No single part should bear it alone."

"That's what you used to do with Mountain-Leaning Collision."

"Before, I was only transferring external force."

"Now I have to transfer the weight of the Martial Soul itself."

The two didn't continue arguing over who was right and who was wrong.

Because the answer was already clear.

They had both just been doing what they hated most.

Because they were worried the other would get hurt,

they had demanded that the other stop growing.

What really needed to stop wasn't the abilities,

but the wrong training methods.

Li Man took out her notebook.

Her fingers were still trembling a little.

Even so, she carefully wrote down the new training restrictions.

Dong Jian:

No weight-increase training before the injury heals.

After recovery, the weight added to any single body part must not exceed the body's limit.

Shift the focus of training to distributing and transferring weight.

A healer must check him after every training session.

Li Man:

No more than three formation points under active control at once.

Fixed, Mobile, and Instant Formation Eyes operate in separate layers.

Stop immediately if ringing in the ears or blurred vision occurs.

Dong Jian has the right to dispel the formation if mental fluctuations become abnormal.

After writing the last line,

Li Man looked up.

"You also have the right to stop my training?"

"You just said I couldn't decide for you."

"Stopping one training session"

"isn't the same as making me give up this path."

Dong Jian thought for a moment.

"All right."

"You also have the right to stop me when my weight gets out of control."

"So it's not just me?"

"Of course."

This wasn't about one of them protecting the other.

They were each entrusting part of their judgment to the person who knew them best.

Three days later.

Yu Xiaogang learned that the two had been injured.

He came to the infirmary.

After examining the treatment records, he showed little surprise.

"The facts have already proven it."

"The paths you've created exceed what your bodies and minds can withstand."

"Light-Heavy Conversion must stop."

"There's no need to continue developing the moving and instant formation points either."

Dong Jian leaned against the head of the bed.

"We'll stop using our old training methods."

Yu Xiaogang thought he had finally accepted his advice.

"That's the right choice."

"But the abilities won't stop."

Dong Jian said.

"I'll learn to distribute the weight throughout my body."

Li Man spoke next:

"I'll arrange the formation cores in layers."

"That will reduce the number I have to actively control at once."

Yu Xiaogang's expression darkened again.

"You still don't understand."

"The problem isn't how to train."

"It's that these changes themselves are unnecessary."

"Dong Jian's focus should be defense and strength."

"Li Man's focus should be stable control."

"The more complicated a technique is, the more easily it can go wrong in actual combat."

Li Man looked at him.

"If we stop developing these abilities,"

"what other way do we have to deal with enemies who already know all our old tactics?"

Yu Xiaogang answered:

"Increase your Soul Power."

"Strengthen your existing Soul Skills."

"When the gap in strength is large enough, countermeasures lose their meaning."

"What if the enemy's Soul Power is always higher than ours?"

"Then avoid a head-on fight."

"There was nowhere to avoid one in the mine."

Yu Xiaogang paused.

"That mission was an intelligence failure in the first place."

"It isn't typical of your path of development."

Dong Jian said:

"Enemies won't only appear when it suits us."

Yu Xiaogang offered no new plan for actual combat.

He still believed the most stable path was the safest.

But Dong Jian and Li Man had already faced the Return to One Society's countermeasures.

They knew.

A stable plan that never changed

would only gradually become the weakness their enemies knew best.

Tang San stood behind Yu Xiaogang.

"Teacher just hopes you won't suffer permanent damage."

"We know,"

Li Man said.

"So we'll control the risks,"

"rather than pretend they don't exist."

Yu Xiaogang did not argue further.

Before leaving, he said only one thing.

"When it really starts affecting your future cultivation,"

"I hope you'll still have time to regret it."

That night.

Dong Jian's right leg had not yet recovered.

Yet he entered the Divine Dragon Secret Realm again.

The Hundred Battles Hall did not generate a mirror image.

The ground in front of the stone stele slowly split open.

A stone door rose from underground.

Beyond the door was not a battlefield.

It was a flight of black stone steps that climbed ever upward.

The end of the steps was hidden in darkness.

As soon as Dong Jian stepped onto the first step,

his body weight increased by ten percent.

The second step.

Twenty percent.

The third step.

Thirty percent.

The words on the stone stele gradually lit up.

Third Trial of the Body Refining Hall: Mountain-Bearing Walk.

You must not rely on a single part of your body to bear the weight.

Channel the force into your bones.

Transfer the weight into the earth.

Dong Jian looked at the stone steps, whose end he could not see.

This trial corresponded exactly to the problem he faced now.

It was not about gaining greater strength.

It was about making his body worthy of the strength he already possessed.

In the real world.

Li Man sat cross-legged on a bed in the infirmary.

Her Green Jade Bamboo Martial Soul emerged on its own.

The golden patterns among the bamboo leaves were clearer than before.

The map of Dragon Spine Valley appeared in her consciousness once more.

This time,

a blurred line of text had appeared beyond the map's endpoint.

Li Man concentrated.

The text gradually became complete.

After level eighteen.

The key begins to awaken.

She opened her eyes.

The golden patterns on the Green Jade Bamboo did not disappear.

Instead, they slowly spread downward along the bamboo's joints.

Until the First Soul Ring trembled gently.

Li Man reached out.

The moment she touched the golden patterns,

an extremely faint voice came from the depths of her consciousness.

It was not human.

It sounded more like countless bamboo leaves rubbing against one another.

"Come..."

"Dragon Spine Valley..."

Outside the window.

A figure in black stood atop the academy's perimeter wall.

He saw the golden light of the Green Jade Bamboo flare up.

He did not approach.

He merely wrote a sentence in his booklet.

The key has begun to respond.