The Key Fragment Hidden in the Divine Dragon Secret Realm

Nuoding Academy.

A conference room.

A complete map of Qinghe Village lay spread across the center of a long table.

Different colors marked the villagers' evacuation routes, the Soul Beasts' direction of movement, and the locations where the Fusion Soul Beast's control devices had appeared.

Several pieces of scorched metal lay on the table.

One bore the design of a slender eye.

The Return to One Society.

The vice dean sat at the head of the table.

Yan Feng, Gao Yan, and Yu Xiaogang sat on either side.

Dong Jian, Li Man, Tang San, and Xiao Wu stood behind the long table.

The four had rested for only half a day after returning from Qinghe Village.

Their wounds had only just been treated when the mission review began.

What had happened this time went far beyond an ordinary Soul Beast migration.

The vice dean picked up a fragment of a control ring.

"The metal devices inside the Fusion Soul Beast were made from the same materials found in the Black Stone Mining Area."

"We can be certain the same group was responsible."

"But all these devices were severely damaged in the explosion."

"Gao Yan, what did you find?"

Gao Yan shook his head.

"The control devices could forcibly connect the Soul Power of different Soul Beasts."

"But the way they were connected was extremely crude."

"The Fusion Soul Beast never truly formed a stable Martial Soul structure."

"It was more like three Soul Beasts forcibly stitched together."

"As soon as the control devices stopped, the three kinds of Soul Power would immediately clash."

The vice dean frowned.

"In other words, the self-destruction was no accident."

"Whoever made it knew from the start that it would inevitably lose control."

The conference room fell silent.

The Return to One Society was not cultivating Fusion Soul Beasts that could truly survive in the long term.

They were only testing.

Testing whether different kinds of Soul Power could be forcibly combined.

Testing how long the test subject could last.

And testing how Nuoding Academy would respond to a Soul Beast that had lost control.

"What about the core of the corpse?"

Yu Xiaogang suddenly asked.

Gao Yan answered:

"We didn't find an intact core."

"All that remained at the center of the explosion was some black residue that no longer gave off Soul Power fluctuations."

Dong Jian stood at the back of the group.

His expression did not change.

He knew perfectly well.

The real black crystal had not been destroyed in the explosion.

It had been taken away by the Divine Dragon Secret Realm.

Now, it was floating before the stone stele in the Hundred Battles Hall.

No one knew.

Li Man stood beside Dong Jian.

When she heard the word "core," she turned her head and glanced at him.

Dong Jian did not meet her eyes.

The vice dean tapped the table.

"Leave the matter of the Fusion Soul Beast to the academy and Spirit Hall for now."

"Next, we'll review the defense of Qinghe Village."

"Yu Xiaogang, you go first."

Yu Xiaogang stood up.

He had not taken part in the Qinghe Village mission.

But based on the accounts provided by Yan Feng, Tang San, and the villagers, he had drawn a new formation diagram.

"There was nothing wrong with the initial arrangements."

"Tang San was responsible for controlling the younger Soul Beasts."

"Li Man adjusted the overall routes."

"Xiao Wu was responsible for rescue."

"Dong Jian took on the frontal defense."

"The real problem was that the arrangements were changed without authorization several times during the mission."

His finger came down on the west side of the village.

"Tang San had already established a Blue Silver Grass defensive line."

"Li Man asked him to remove the middle section early, leaving a passage for the Soul Beasts."

"Afterward, Li Man also took it upon herself to abandon the main formation on the west side."

"Although it ultimately caused no serious consequences, it left a clear gap in the defensive line."

Li Man did not interrupt.

Yu Xiaogang continued moving his finger.

Finally, it stopped at the north of the village.

"Dong Jian's problem was even more obvious."

"Yan Feng told him to block no more than three charges."

"Yet he took it upon himself to withstand a fourth."

"That action may have saved the last carriage."

"But battlefield discipline cannot be judged by results alone."

"If he had failed to block the fourth charge,"

"Dong Jian would have been seriously injured."

"The carriage still would not have escaped."

"And anyone who went to rescue them might also have been caught up in it."

No one disputed that.

Dong Jian had indeed violated a clear order.

Yu Xiaogang looked at the four of them.

"The most important thing for a Soul Master team is unity."

"If everyone changes the plan according to their own judgment,"

"Even if they succeed this time,"

"Next time, conflicting judgments could cause the entire team to lose control."

Tang San nodded slightly.

He agreed with that.

Xiao Wu, however, looked at Yan Feng.

The man who had actually led the team had yet to speak.

Yan Feng tapped the map with a finger.

"Dong Jian disobeyed an order."

"There's no dispute about that."

"But Li Man changing the formation was not the same issue."

Yu Xiaogang frowned.

"Both changed the original plan without authorization."

"You can't put them together."

Yan Feng said:

"What I gave Dong Jian was a clear order to retreat."

"He had to withdraw after three charges."

"He heard it and agreed."

"But in the end, he didn't carry it out."

"That was disobeying an order."

"Li Man faced a different situation."

Yan Feng pointed to the west side of the village.

"When the original plan was made, a large number of villagers had yet to evacuate from the west side."

"So both the Blue Silver Grass and the main green bamboo formation had to be maintained."

"By the time she abandoned the west side, not a single villager remained there."

"What was the point of continuing to expend Soul Power to guard empty ground?"

Yu Xiaogang said:

"A gap in the defensive line could have allowed the Soul Beasts to charge back into the village."

"That's why she used the Mobile Formation Eye to redirect the exit toward the wasteland beforehand."

Yan Feng answered:

"The Soul Beasts there weren't attacking."

"They were fleeing."

"As long as there was a clear passage ahead, they wouldn't deliberately return to an empty village."

"And the facts proved that after she abandoned the west side, Soul Power was concentrated on the south side, saving the last group of villagers."

Yu Xiaogang's voice grew heavier.

"You're using a successful outcome to prove that a change made on the spot must have been right."

"No."

Yan Feng shook his head.

"I'm judging whether the change was reasonable based on how the situation on the scene had changed."

"If there had still been villagers on the west side,"

"Li Man taking it upon herself to abandon the formation would, of course, have been wrong."

"But the west side had already been cleared."

"The information had changed."

"And the mission's priority had changed too."

He raised his eyes to Yu Xiaogang.

"The original plan was made based on old information."

"When the old information is no longer valid, the plan must change."

Yu Xiaogang did not answer immediately.

Yan Feng continued:

"You're not wrong about unified command."

"But unified command doesn't mean making everyone carry out orders with their eyes shut."

"Orders on the battlefield are meant to accomplish the mission."

"Not to prove that the orders themselves are always right."

The atmosphere in the conference room gradually grew tense.

Tang San's brows drew tightly together.

"What Teacher means is probably that changes made on the spot must first be confirmed by the person leading the team."

"Teacher Yan was dealing with forest wolves on the east side at the time,"

Li Man said.

"By the time confirmation came back, the Soul Beasts would already have caught up with the villagers on the south side."

Tang San looked at her.

"You could at least have notified someone first."

"I notified you."

Li Man's tone was calm.

"And I asked you to redirect the Blue Silver Grass toward the south side."

"You did carry it out in the end."

Tang San fell silent for a moment.

That was exactly the part he found hardest to refute.

If they had continued to stick to the original formation.

His Blue Silver Grass would have continued to be used up on the empty western side.

The three forest wolves charging toward the villagers on the southern side would not have been bound in time, either.

Yu Xiaogang said:

"Tang San was able to adjust in time because he had sufficient judgment."

"If it had been another student, changing things at will would only have caused greater confusion."

Li Man raised her head.

"Then the question isn't whether things can be changed."

"It's who has the ability to judge when to change them."

"If someone lacks the ability, they can train."

"You can't demand that everyone never make a judgment just because someone might judge wrongly."

Yu Xiaogang's expression darkened slightly.

"You always treat exceptional cases as general principles."

"And you always treat general principles as the answer to every exceptional case."

Li Man did not raise her voice.

Yet her words silenced the meeting room once again.

The vice dean raised a hand.

"Enough."

"Today is for reviewing the mission, not debating theory."

He looked at Yan Feng.

"As the team leader, give us your conclusions."

Yan Feng first looked at Dong Jian.

"Dong Jian."

"Your fourth block did buy us time."

"But you disobeyed the order to retreat."

"A good outcome doesn't mean there was nothing wrong with the process."

Dong Jian nodded.

"I accept that."

"Your punishment is as follows."

There was no softening in Yan Feng's tone.

"For one month, you may not take on a Soul Beast charge alone when it clearly exceeds what you can withstand."

"The limits of your Sinking Body Stance and Bear Astral Energy Body Protection will be reassessed."

"On future missions, you must receive the team leader's permission before exceeding the predetermined number of blows you can withstand."

He paused.

He looked at Li Man.

"If the team leader cannot respond,"

"you must at least have Li Man confirm your physical condition and retreat route."

Dong Jian took no offense at the last sentence.

Li Man knew his limits better than anyone.

"Understood."

"One violation of orders will be entered in the mission record,"

Yan Feng said.

"Any objections?"

"None."

Dong Jian answered without hesitation.

Yu Xiaogang glanced at him.

"Since you admit you disobeyed orders, you should understand."

"Sinking Body Stance still gave you a false sense of confidence."

Dong Jian turned his head.

"What I admit is that I didn't carry out the order to retreat after three blocks."

"Not that Sinking Body Stance was wrong."

"Without Sinking Body Stance,"

"I might have been seriously injured by the first charge."

"But without Sinking Body Stance, you wouldn't have chosen to stay and block a fourth time, either,"

Yu Xiaogang said.

"I stayed because the carriage hadn't gotten clear,"

Dong Jian replied.

"That shows there were problems with my judgment and communication."

"It doesn't show that the ability itself shouldn't exist."

Yan Feng raised a hand to stop them from continuing.

"We've settled Dong Jian's issues."

"Next is Li Man."

Li Man stood up straight.

"I'm listening."

"Your decision to abandon the main formation on the western side was correct,"

Yan Feng said.

"But there were still two problems with how you handled it."

"First, you didn't set up an alternate route in advance in case the western formation line failed."

"When the Mobile Formation Eye was smashed, you had no choice but to recalculate on the spot."

"If your mental state had been any worse, the entire group of Soul Beasts on the western side might have gone out of control again."

"Second, you told Tang San to shift his Blue Silver Grass, but you didn't specify which section he was to take over."

"In the end, Tang San relied on his own judgment to seal off the southern side."

"But when commanding a team, you can't just say to change direction without specifying the final position."

Li Man made no excuses.

"That was my mistake."

"How do you plan to fix it?"

"I'll add alternate formation routes to the Three-Layer Bamboo Formation."

Li Man walked over to the map.

"For every main formation route, I'll set up an alternate direction in advance."

"After a main formation is destroyed or deliberately abandoned, the Mobile Formation Eye will immediately take over along the alternate route."

"When directing teammates, I won't just tell them what to abandon."

"I must also specify the position to take over, the target, and the duration."

Yan Feng nodded.

"Good."

He did not overlook Li Man's shortcomings simply because her judgment had been correct.

Nor did he dismiss her entire on-the-spot adjustment because she had shortcomings.

Yu Xiaogang looked at Yan Feng.

"Your approach will make the students rely on their own judgment too early."

"They don't have enough experience yet."

Yan Feng replied:

"Experience doesn't appear naturally when you reach a certain age."

"It's accumulated through repeated judgments, mistakes, and reviews."

"I'll point out where they went wrong."

"But I won't forbid them from thinking just because they might make mistakes."

Yu Xiaogang said nothing more.

Gao Yan, however, nodded slightly at the side.

He was a Soul Ancestor.

He had carried out more Soul Hunting and escort missions than the number of high-intensity battles Yu Xiaogang had actually taken part in.

The outcome of this argument was already plain to see.

Yu Xiaogang could analyze risks from written information.

But Yan Feng understood better.

Once they actually entered the battlefield, risks never lined up neatly according to the written information.

Tang San stood behind Yu Xiaogang.

His expression was somewhat complicated.

He still believed in his teacher.

He also knew that Yu Xiaogang's overall analysis was not without reason.

Dong Jian had indeed disobeyed orders.

Li Man's on-the-spot change to the formation had indeed contained flaws as well.

But he could not deny the distinction Yan Feng had pointed out, either.

His teacher was good at telling them which plan was safer.

But Yan Feng could distinguish-

when an order was being disobeyed.

And when a mistake was being corrected.

When the meeting ended,

the vice dean asked Yan Feng and Gao Yan to stay and continue discussing the Return to One Society fragment.

Dong Jian and the other three walked out of the meeting room.

Tang San stopped on the steps.

"Teacher isn't dismissing all of your judgments."

"He just doesn't want anyone else to get hurt."

Dong Jian looked at the bandages on his shoulder.

"Teacher Yan Feng doesn't want that either."

"The difference is that he told me exactly where I went wrong."

"Instead of saying the whole path was wrong because I got hurt."

Tang San said:

"Some paths do need to be blocked in advance."

Li Man asked:

"Then who can prove that a path is definitely wrong?"

Tang San did not answer.

Xiao Wu stood between the two sides.

She looked at Tang San.

Then she looked at Dong Jian and Li Man.

Finally, she sighed.

"Every time Grandmaster comes up, you all end up arguing."

"You were just fighting Soul Beasts together."

No one continued.

The four parted ways for the time being.

Night fell.

Dong Jian sat cross-legged on his bed.

His consciousness sank into the Divine Dragon Secret Realm.

No mirror image appeared in the Hundred Battles Hall.

The black key fragment floated in front of the stone stele.

The crystal, only the size of a thumb in the real world, had expanded into a broken stone slab the size of a palm after entering the secret realm.

On the left side of the slab was a blurred black-and-white beast pattern.

On the right was a golden bamboo leaf.

An incomplete dragon shape coiled in the center.

Around the outermost edge,

countless black markings shaped like slender eyes covered the slab.

When Dong Jian approached,

words appeared on the stone stele of their own accord.

Foreign key fragment discovered.

Completeness: unknown.

Contamination level: sixty percent.

Source of contamination: man-made Soul Power from the Return to One Society.

Dong Jian looked at the stone slab.

"Didn't it originally belong to the Return to One Society?"

New words appeared.

The Return to One Society cannot create key fragments.

It can only contaminate, exploit, and locate them.

"What does it have to do with me?"

The stone stele fell silent for a moment.

Black-and-White Earth Suppression.

Green bamboo opens the meridians.

Dual-Key Resonance can initiate purification.

Dong Jian's gaze sharpened.

Green bamboo.

It could only refer to Li Man.

"Can it be purified now?"

The black eye pattern on the surface of the stone slab suddenly opened.

A surge of chaotic Soul Power spread outward.

The stele in the Hundred Battles Hall shook.

It forced the Soul Power back down.

Current capacity insufficient.

Purification conditions:

Reach level twenty Soul Power.

Obtain the Second Soul Ring.

Complete the first Dual-Key Resonance.

Dong Jian did not move any closer.

The key fragment had been contaminated by the Return to One Society.

The information on the stele might also be incomplete.

He could not immediately confirm it.

What exactly would the so-called Dual-Key Resonance bring upon Li Man?

Still less could he let anyone else learn that the core inside the Fusion Soul Beast had entered his secret realm.

Whether the Return to One Society had spies within the academy-

No one could say for certain.

If word of the key fragment got out-

Spirit Hall, the academy, and the Return to One Society would all turn their attention to him.

More importantly-

They would also trace the golden bamboo leaf back to Li Man.

"Seal it off for now,"

Dong Jian said.

A curtain of black-and-white light descended from the surface of the stele.

It completely enveloped the broken stone slab.

But after the seal was complete-

Dong Jian felt no relief.

Not telling the academy-

There was ample reason for that.

Not telling Tang San and Xiao Wu-

That was no difficult decision either.

But Li Man was different.

Her Martial Soul was very likely the other key.

This concerned her to begin with.

When the two of them had argued about training methods before, Dong Jian had only just said-

No one could decide for someone else whether they should continue to grow, simply because they feared that person would get hurt.

Now-

Because he was worried Li Man would be drawn into danger-

He had decided to keep it from her for the time being.

"There isn't enough evidence yet,"

Dong Jian said quietly.

"Once I've confirmed the key fragment won't hurt her,

I'll tell her."

It sounded reasonable.

But he could not fully convince himself.

Dong Jian left the Divine Dragon Secret Realm.

When he pushed open the door to Dorm Seven-

Li Man was standing in the bamboo grove outside.

Moonlight fell on the Green Jade Bamboo.

The golden patterns on its nodes were brighter than they had been during the day.

She did not turn around.

"Did you go into the Divine Dragon Secret Realm?"

"Mm."

Dong Jian walked over beside her.

"After the Fusion Soul Beast exploded,

did your secret realm gain something?"

Dong Jian was silent for a moment.

"Why do you ask?"

"The Green Jade Bamboo reacted again just now."

Li Man raised her hand.

Golden patterns stretched from the top of a bamboo node all the way to the vicinity of her First Soul Ring.

"It wasn't the call from Dragon Spine Valley.

It was closer.

Right here in the academy."

Dong Jian looked at the Green Jade Bamboo.

At that same moment, the key fragment in the Divine Dragon Secret Realm trembled lightly.

Ripples spread across the black-and-white curtain of light.

It was responding to Li Man.

"The core the academy found has already broken apart,"

Dong Jian said.

That was not a lie.

The academy had found only remnants.

Li Man turned around.

She looked into his eyes.

"I wasn't asking about the academy."

Dong Jian did not answer.

The bamboo grove was utterly quiet.

After a long time-

Li Man put away the Green Jade Bamboo.

"You don't have to tell me for now."

Dong Jian looked up.

Li Man continued:

"Everyone has secrets they can't reveal right away.

I won't force you.

But-"

She paused.

"Don't wait until things have spiraled completely out of control

before letting me know that I'm involved too."

With that-

Li Man turned and left.

Dong Jian stood where he was.

He did not go after her to explain.

Because every word he could say now would only become another way of hiding the truth.

Deep in his consciousness-

The key fragment sealed within the black-and-white curtain of light trembled again.

A new notification slowly appeared on the stele.

Green bamboo key signature detected nearby.

The seal cannot block Dual-Key Sensing indefinitely.

Estimated time until first passive resonance: within thirty days.

Dong Jian looked at the line of text.

The secret could not stay hidden forever.

He would not even need to reveal it himself.

Within thirty days-

The key fragment would find Li Man on its own.