Limited Disclosure, the Level Twenty Threshold at Age Ten

Qingfeng Town.

A temporary residence.

It was late at night.

Only one oil lamp still burned in the courtyard.

Dong Jian sat beside the stone table.

Li Man stood on the other side.

The Green Jade Bamboo lay across the tabletop.

A faint trace of black markings lingered along the edge of its leaves, slowly moving under the moonlight.

That was not the Green Jade Bamboo's original power.

It was something brought out by the Key Fragment's contamination.

"Let's begin."

Li Man spoke.

"You said that after the mission was over, you would tell me the parts that concerned me."

Dong Jian did not dodge the subject.

"After the Fusion Soul Beast self-destructed."

"The Divine Dragon Secret Realm took a black crystal from the remains."

"That crystal wasn't made by the Return to One Society."

"The Return to One Society only contaminated it and used it to control the Fusion Soul Beast."

Li Man asked:

"How can you be sure?"

"The clues given by the secret realm's stone stele."

"After the crystal unfolded in the secret realm, it looked more like a broken stone slab."

"It had black-and-white beast markings, green bamboo patterns, and a dragon design on it."

"It's called a Key Fragment."

Li Man lowered her head to look at the Green Jade Bamboo.

"The green bamboo pattern has something to do with me."

"It should."

Dong Jian did not present his speculation as a conclusion.

"The words on the stele were-black and white suppress the earth, green bamboo opens the meridians."

"The two powers need to resonate before we can attempt to purify the Key Fragment."

"What are the conditions for purification?"

"Level twenty."

"A Second Soul Ring."

"And the first Dual-Key Resonance."

Li Man looked at him.

"The first resonance has already happened."

"Yes."

"Though it was forcibly triggered by a contaminated device."

Dong Jian continued:

"Normal resonance isn't necessarily dangerous."

"The real danger is the contamination inside the Key Fragment."

"The Return to One Society can use the contamination to amplify the resonance, and use it to locate us."

"So that's why you kept your distance from me before."

"You wanted to keep the resonance from happening."

"Yes."

"But it failed."

Li Man's tone was calm.

There was no sarcasm.

Nor did she immediately say the matter was behind them just because Dong Jian had admitted his mistake.

"What about Dragon Spine Valley?"

she asked.

"That voice warned us not to go."

"But both the stele and the Green Jade Bamboo map point there."

Dong Jian said:

"I saw a golden bamboo forest in the resonance."

"There was a stone gate underground."

"It needed two differently shaped keys."

"What was the black-and-white Soul Beast you saw?"

Dong Jian fell silent for a moment.

"I don't know."

He did not voice his full speculation about the "vessel" and "Number Zero."

That part had yet to be verified.

It might also involve the true origin of the Divine Dragon Secret Realm.

"It was suspended in the darkness by chains."

"Return to One Society metal was embedded in its body."

"It called me Number Zero."

"It also told me not to go to Dragon Spine Valley."

Li Man studied his expression.

"Is there anything else that concerns me?"

Dong Jian thought carefully for a moment.

"Not at present."

"What about the Divine Dragon Secret Realm itself?"

"There are some things I can't tell you."

"All right."

Li Man did not press him further.

"I don't need to know all your secrets."

"But starting today."

"Anything involving the Green Jade Bamboo, the Key Fragment, the Return to One Society locating us, or anything that might affect my Martial Soul."

"Must be shared."

"You can't hide things from me on the grounds that you're protecting me anymore."

Dong Jian nodded.

"Agreed."

"One more thing."

"If you notice anything unusual about the Key Fragment, you have to tell me immediately."

"Even if you haven't figured out the cause."

"All right."

Li Man held out her hand.

Dong Jian held out his as well.

They did not shake hands.

Instead, they placed their palms on either side of the Green Jade Bamboo.

"Let's try a normal contact."

Li Man spoke.

"Without stimulation from a contaminated device."

"Let's see whether the Key Fragment goes out of control again."

Dong Jian closed his eyes.

His consciousness entered the Divine Dragon Secret Realm.

The black Key Fragment was still wrapped in the curtain of light from the Hundred Battles Hall's stone stele.

When the Green Jade Bamboo's Soul Power drew near.

The golden bamboo leaves on the Key Fragment's surface slowly lit up.

It did not charge around wildly as it had during the day.

Only a very faint fluctuation passed from the secret realm back into reality.

The Green Jade Bamboo trembled lightly.

Golden markings flashed on Li Man's forehead.

The weight of Dong Jian's right arm increased by ten percent.

"Don't suppress it."

Li Man spoke.

Two green bamboo shadows rose on either side of the stone table.

She used only the main formation layer.

She did not activate the mobile formation eye.

Still less did she create an instantaneous formation eye.

Bamboo vines connected the stone table to the ground.

"Sinking Body Stance."

Dong Jian planted both feet on the ground.

The added weight of his right arm passed through his shoulder, waist, and legs into the stone slabs.

Li Man, meanwhile, used the two main formation eyes to stabilize the Soul Power channel.

The Key Fragment's trembling gradually weakened.

The faint black markings along the edge of the Green Jade Bamboo were also forced back to the tips of its leaves.

Ten breaths later.

The resonance stopped.

They withdrew their Martial Souls at the same time.

Dong Jian checked his body.

"Less than five percent of my Soul Power was consumed."

"The mental strain was very low too."

Li Man took out her record book.

"Using only the main formation layer."

"Together with the Sinking Body Stance, it can stabilize ordinary resonance."

"Let's give this emergency method a name."

Dong Jian asked:

"It's not even a Soul Skill."

"It'll make it easier to record."

Li Man thought for a moment.

"Meridian Suppression Formation."

"You use the Sinking Body Stance to hold down the weight."

"I use the main formation to stabilize the Soul Power channel."

Dong Jian did not object.

From that night onward.

The two of them conducted one brief test every day.

At a distance of more than fifty paces.

The Key Fragment's reaction weakened noticeably.

When neither of them released a Martial Soul, the reaction was even weaker.

If the Green Jade Bamboo and the Panda Martial Soul appeared at the same time, the resonance would accelerate.

The Key Fragment's contamination had not disappeared.

But without interference from a Return to One Society device, the Meridian Suppression Formation was enough to control the fluctuations.

Three days later.

The group returned to Nuoding Academy.

Yu Xiaogang soon learned that an abnormal Martial Soul resonance had occurred during the escort mission.

At the training ground.

Dong Jian and Li Man had just finished the examination Yan Feng had arranged.

Yu Xiaogang walked over.

Tang San followed behind him.

"Yan Feng said your Martial Souls underwent an out-of-control resonance."

Yu Xiaogang got straight to the point.

"Tell me everything that happened."

Dong Jian replied:

"Members of the Return to One Society used a black device."

"The device amplified the connection between our Martial Souls."

"The Green Bamboo Binding Formation went out of control."

"My Light-Heavy Conversion fell into disarray too."

"So the cause wasn't your own cultivation?"

Yu Xiaogang asked.

"We're not sure."

"The Return to One Society's device was only the trigger."

Yu Xiaogang looked at Li Man.

"An offensive bamboo formation, moving formation cores, and complex changes between light and heavy could destabilize the attributes of your Martial Souls in the first place."

"I suggest you train separately for now."

"Until the cause is confirmed, don't continue working together."

Li Man asked:

"Once we separate, how do we confirm it?"

"First, observe whether the abnormality continues."

"If it doesn't reappear, that will show the problem came from working together."

"If the Return to One Society's device hadn't appeared, we wouldn't have lost control in the first place."

Li Man said:

"Even if we separate, it won't prove the problem was with our Martial Souls working together."

Yu Xiaogang frowned.

"At least it can rule out some possibilities."

"It could also make us lose the chance to practice controlling the abnormality."

Dong Jian said:

"We've already found a way to stabilize the resonance temporarily."

"What way?"

"The Sinking Body Stance combined with a fixed bamboo formation."

"Only the main formation layer."

"Without using the full range of Soul Skill variations."

Yu Xiaogang's tone grew stern.

"You tried it yourselves again?"

"Teacher Yan Feng and the healing teacher supervised us."

Li Man answered.

"We did it three times in total."

"We recorded our Soul Power consumption, mental fluctuations, and physical condition."

She placed the record book on the table.

Yu Xiaogang leafed through it for a moment.

The data indeed showed no obvious abnormalities.

But he did not approve because of that.

"These records only show that nothing went wrong those three times."

"They can't prove it's safe in the long term."

"Long-term safety requires long-term records in the first place."

Li Man said.

"That's why we need to keep observing."

"You don't even know the real cause."

Yu Xiaogang looked at her.

"What do you intend to study?"

"At least we know when it appears."

"How to stabilize it."

"What conditions make it worse."

"That's more useful than stopping altogether."

Tang San spoke up:

"Teacher only hopes you won't lose control again."

"If Teacher Yan Feng hadn't been there at the time, the consequences would have been severe."

Dong Jian looked at him.

"That's why we're practicing how to stop ourselves before a teacher has to step in."

"We're not losing control all over again."

Tang San said:

"But you're clearly still hiding something."

Dong Jian did not deny it.

"Some things can't be made public."

"You can't even tell Teacher?"

"No."

Tang San's expression darkened slightly.

In his view.

Yu Xiaogang was willing to spend time studying the two of their Martial Souls.

Yet Dong Jian and Li Man kept withholding crucial information.

That was more than distrust.

It was also a denial of Teacher's ability.

Yu Xiaogang closed the record book.

"Since you aren't willing to provide complete information."

"I can't give you a reliable assessment."

"If problems arise in the future, don't blame them on insufficient theory."

Li Man took back the record book.

"We never asked you to take responsibility."

Yu Xiaogang turned and left.

Tang San did not follow immediately.

He looked at Dong Jian.

"Teacher may not be right every time."

"But he genuinely wants to help you, at least."

"We know."

Dong Jian said.

"But wanting to help doesn't mean he has to know every secret."

Tang San did not continue arguing.

He turned and hurried after Yu Xiaogang.

Time continued to pass.

One month.

Three months.

Half a year.

Daily life at Nuoding Academy had not changed much.

But Dong Jian and Li Man rarely attended ordinary lower-grade classes anymore.

Most of the time.

They followed Yan Feng on low-risk missions.

Patrolling trade routes.

Escorting medicinal herbs.

Clearing out Soul Beasts that had wandered into farmland.

The Return to One Society did not appear before them again.

But both of them knew.

The other side had not given up.

On every mission.

Dong Jian and Li Man deliberately held back some of their abilities.

They no longer exposed all their tactics at once.

Dong Jian continued the Mountain-Bearing Walk.

The thirty-third step.

The forty-fifth step.

The fifty-seventh step.

On the sixty-sixth stone step.

His body weight had already reached nearly several times its normal level.

The stone steps also randomly concentrated pressure on different areas.

Shoulders.

Arms.

Spine.

Knees.

Dong Jian no longer shifted his weight on the spot.

The Sinking Body Stance had become instinctive.

As long as both feet touched the ground.

The pressure passed through his entire structure and into the stone step.

The transition between Bear Astral Energy Body Protection and the Sinking Body Stance also became increasingly natural.

Astral Qi absorbed external impacts.

The Sinking Body Stance handled the remaining force that penetrated his body.

Li Man's three-layer bamboo formation likewise gradually improved.

The main formation layer remained stable for longer.

The moving formation cores could travel along two backup routes at the same time.

The pause when switching between the Instant Formation layer and the other layers shortened from two breaths to half a breath.

She no longer tried to control every bamboo shadow at once.

Instead, it was like flipping through a record book.

Main formation.

Moving Formation.

Instant Formation.

Whichever layer she needed.

She focused her mind on that layer.

Eight months later.

The four were approaching ten years of age.

Tang San and Xiao Wu had already broken through to level twenty ahead of them.

Led by an official Soul Hunting teacher from Nuoding Academy, Tang San obtained his Second Soul Ring according to the direction Yu Xiaogang had planned and became a level twenty-one Soul Grandmaster.

Xiao Wu, meanwhile, condensed her Second Soul Ring herself while she was away.

She still told others that an elder in her family had helped her hunt for it.

Her Soul Power likewise reached level twenty-one.

Dong Jian and Li Man remained at the peak of level nineteen.

It was not that their cultivation had suddenly slowed down.

Rather, after level eighteen, they had spent a great deal of time correcting what their bodies and minds could bear.

On this day.

Nuoding Academy organized a joint practical combat assessment.

The assessment took place in an abandoned quarry.

The students had to divide into several teams.

Through constantly changing terrain, they had to escort three flags representing ordinary people to the finish.

Dong Jian and Li Man were not assigned to the same match.

This was deliberately arranged by Yan Feng.

"You need to prove it."

"Even apart from each other, you can still fulfill your own roles."

Li Man was responsible for the first test.

She was not the only one in command.

There were also two upper-year students on the team.

After the assessment began.

The middle passage they had originally planned to take suddenly collapsed.

One of the upper-year students immediately demanded that the whole team turn left.

But Li Man saw.

On the high slope to the left, simulated enemies had already set up ranged stone-throwing weapons.

"We can't go left."

"The route on the right is longer."

"The flags won't make it in time."

"Use the backup formation route."

Li Man unleashed the Green Bamboo Binding Formation.

The main formation secured two flags.

The moving formation core laid out an arc-shaped route along the edge of the quarry.

She did not ask the whole team to follow her.

Instead, she divided the team into two groups.

One group drew the stone-throwing weapons' fire.

The other protected the flags and circled around from the right.

Along the way.

A simulated Agility Attack System Soul Master suddenly cut in.

Li Man's instantaneous formation cores appeared one after another.

They did not pursue the enemy.

They only blocked where he would land next.

The main formation, Moving Formation, and Instant Formation switched constantly.

The half-breath pause from before was gradually growing shorter under the continuous pressure.

Just as the last flag was about to reach the finish.

The other side shattered the bamboo shadows of the main formation.

Li Man did not force it back together.

The backup moving formation core immediately took over.

Bamboo vines wrapped around the flagpole.

They carried it across the finish line.

The rank-nineteen Soul Power within her changed in response.

The three layers of the formation no longer seemed like three separate parts that needed to be switched between.

Instead, they formed a true whole.

Boom!

Golden markings lit up on the surface of the Green Jade Bamboo.

Li Man broke through to rank twenty.

She withdrew her Martial Soul.

She did not immediately relax because of the breakthrough.

Only after confirming that all three flags were safe did she leave the assessment field.

The second test was Dong Jian's turn.

His task was different.

He had to push a heavy stone pillar across the finish line while a rank-twenty-two Defense System Soul Grandmaster blocked him.

He could not take a detour.

He could not damage the stone pillar.

His opponent's Martial Soul was an Iron Armored Rhinoceros.

Two Yellow Soul Rings rose.

The First Soul Skill strengthened the body.

The Second Soul Skill increased weight.

The stone pillar was already heavy.

Under the influence of the Second Soul Skill, its weight instantly increased severalfold.

Dong Jian did not use Light-Body Bear Steps.

Nor did he attempt an instantaneous burst of power.

He braced both hands against the stone pillar.

He assumed the Sinking Body Stance.

The Defense System Soul Grandmaster applied constant pressure from the other side.

With every step the stone pillar advanced.

Cracks appeared in the ground.

"Is that all the strength you have?"

His opponent shouted.

The Second Soul Skill grew stronger once more.

Dong Jian's arms trembled.

Yet he felt no pain at the site of the old injury on his right leg.

Pressure entered his shoulders through his palms.

It sank along his spine.

Through his waist, knees, and feet, it passed into the earth.

The sensation of the sixty-sixth step of the Mountain-Bearing Walk returned.

The difference was.

This time, he could not simply endure.

He also had to move forward.

Dong Jian did not keep the weight in his body.

Instead, he used the reaction force from the stone pillar and the ground.

One step.

Then another.

His opponent kept increasing the weight.

Dong Jian never overstrained any one bone.

He activated Bear Astral Energy Body Protection for the final ten steps.

Not to withstand an attack.

But to make his body a more complete weight-bearing structure.

Boom!

The stone pillar crossed the finish line.

At the same time, the barrier at the peak of rank nineteen broke.

The Panda Martial Soul appeared behind him.

Dong Jian, rank twenty.

Outside the assessment field.

Li Man watched him walk out.

Her Green Jade Bamboo and his Panda Martial Soul trembled gently at the same time.

The Key Fragment in the Divine Dragon Secret Realm lit up in response.

The first condition was fulfilled.

Soul Power had reached rank twenty.

Remaining condition: Second Soul Ring.

That evening.

Yu Xiaogang came to the training ground again.

"Since you've reached rank twenty."

"You can't put off getting your Second Soul Rings any longer."

He placed two sets of Soul Beast information on the table.

"Dong Jian should choose the Heavy Mountain Bear."

"It will continue to strengthen his defense and strength."

"Li Man should choose the Entwining Vine Wood Demon."

"It will improve the toughness and control range of her bamboo vines."

"Stay away from Dragon Spine Valley for now."

Li Man asked:

"Why?"

"It has ties to the Return to One Society."

Yu Xiaogang said:

"The resonance between your Martial Souls before has already proven that there may be arrangements targeting you in Dragon Spine Valley."

"If you go in of your own accord, you'll only walk into a trap."

"But if we don't go to Dragon Spine Valley."

Dong Jian said:

"Will the Return to One Society stop tracking our location?"

"At least you won't be approaching their core territory of your own accord."

"The Key Fragment's contamination can't be resolved anywhere else."

Li Man said.

Yu Xiaogang looked at her.

"So you do have information you haven't made public."

"That only shows that your judgment is unreliable."

"Something no one else can even verify."

"Why is it worth the risk?"

Dong Jian answered:

"Because danger won't disappear on its own just because we don't verify it."

"You're treating a deliberate risk as a solution to the problem."

Yu Xiaogang's voice deepened.

"A truly mature Soul Master should first learn to avoid risks beyond their control."

Li Man shook her head.

"Avoiding it once."

"Is not the same as resolving the risk."

The two sides reached an impasse again.

Just then.

Yan Feng entered the training ground with an injured Soul Hunter.

The Soul Hunter's clothes had been torn by branches.

A long, thin wound remained on his left arm.

He placed a newly drawn map on the table.

"The outskirts of Dragon Spine Valley."

"Traces of two kinds of Soul Beasts have been found there recently."

"One is a bear-type Soul Beast."

"The scales on its back resemble dragon patterns."

"The other is a golden plant-type Soul Beast."

"Its root system covers a large area."

Dong Jian and Li Man looked at the map at the same time.

The Dragon-Patterned Ironback Bear.

And that golden-patterned bamboo Soul Beast whose name had yet to be confirmed.

But the Soul Hunter had not finished.

"There's also someone at the valley entrance."

Yan Feng asked:

"A valley guardian?"

"Possibly."

The soul hunter's face went pale.

"He didn't ask who I was."

"But he knew I was going back to Nuoding Academy."

"He also asked me to pass on a message."

"What message?"

The soul hunter looked at Dong Jian and Li Man.

"He said-"

"Dong Jian."

"Li Man."

"You've finally reached level twenty."

The training ground fell utterly silent.

They had never been to Dragon Spine Valley.

Yet the valley guardian knew their names.

He even knew they had just broken through to level twenty.

Inside the Divine Dragon Secret Realm.

The slender eye markings on the surface of the black Key Fragment slowly opened at the same time.