Xuanheng sat on the obsidian chair, his gaze falling on the two fireballs that had been tightly locked by the restraining formation lines, slowly extinguishing as they lost their subsequent spiritual energy support.

His gaze lingered a full two breaths longer than when he had looked at Ling Shuang and Qin Yi.

"You have glimpsed the threshold."

Xuanheng's voice echoed within the great hall, carrying a rare solemnity.

"You've finally understood that an imperfect control will always be far better than a perfect failure."

Xuanheng's gaze shifted from the platform, directly meeting Luo Feng's red-rimmed eyes.

"But your formation still has a fatal flaw. You rely too heavily on your own on-the-spot reaction speed." Xuanheng's voice turned severe. "In an absolute life-or-death crisis, the battlefield changes in the blink of an eye. It will never give you half a breath to judge when to activate the restraint ring. Once the situation exceeds your expectations, if your reaction is even a single instant too slow, your formation will still blast you to pieces."

Xuanheng's finger tapped heavily on the armrest.

Luo Feng did not say another word. He simply lowered his head. "Yes, Master."

Ling Shuang's perpetually indifferent gaze, Qin Yi's warm yet expectant look, and Luo Feng's stare—at this moment, naturally yet unreservedly, they all converged onto a single person.

Everyone's gaze fell upon Su Ming.

Su Ming stood calmly in place, the wide hem of his purple robe not swaying an extra inch.

He knew it was his turn.

Without any hesitation, Su Ming steadily stepped forward from the line and walked to the center of the obsidian platform, which had been warmed by Luo Feng's explosion.

Each of his steps was as precise as if measured by a ruler. The fluctuation of his spiritual energy was perfectly contained within an inch of his body's surface, not stirring even the slightest ripple in the air.

"Eldest Senior Sister walks the path of the sword—killing to stop killing."

Su Ming stood at the center of the platform without looking at anyone, his gaze fixed on the void ahead, his voice steady without a single fluctuation. "Second Senior Brother walks the path of beast taming—nourishing all living things with vitality. Third Senior Brother walks the path of formations—seeking a breakthrough through ultimate destruction."

His hands slowly emerged from his sleeves.

"But I am different from all of them."

Su Ming raised his right hand and gently tapped the air with the tip of his index finger. "The path I walk is purely one of defense."

"Hum."

With the tap of his fingertip, a deep, pure blue water-attributed spiritual energy silently flowed out along his finger.

It was not a violent current, but a beam of light as solid as substance, exuding an aura of extreme resilience.

"Solidify."

Su Ming's lips moved slightly.

Within a single breath, a "Solidify" character, square in structure with no extraneous edges, instantly took shape in the void.

Then, without any pause, his finger traced four complex arcs at the four corners of the "Solidify" character.

"Control."

"Lead."

"Transform."

"Seep."

Five runes radiating a faint blue light, within less than three breaths, each hovered at precise coordinate points before Su Ming. The spacing between them was flawless, as if controlled by some terrifying computational power in the unseen.

"This kid's void inscription has almost drained the foundation theories I taught him," Lin Yu said within the ring, his tone still dismissive, but the luster of his soul body was blindingly bright.

Su Ming's wrist twisted sharply.

The five runes hovering in the void simultaneously erupted with a dazzling blue light. Five beams of spiritual light interwove, connected, and interlaced in midair.

There was no harsh clashing of metal and stone, nor the barrier-like sensation of a light shield forming.

When the light converged, what hovered before Su Ming was a palm-sized, completely transparent, soft-looking miniature formation.

Its edges slowly writhed in the air, and faint ripples of spiritual energy continuously undulated across its surface.

It did not look at all like a shield meant to withstand attacks. Instead, it resembled a fragile, slowly breathing, transparent jellyfish that had escaped from the deep sea and now floated in midair.

Su Ming flipped his left hand and calmly retrieved from his storage pouch a shock formation plate used for testing the strength of low-grade magical implements.

Without looking at anyone, he calmly aimed the emitter end of the shock formation plate squarely at the floating "transparent jellyfish."

Then, without hesitation, he pressed the activation groove.

"Boom!"

A pure shockwave of spiritual energy violently erupted from the testing formation plate, transforming into a visible, violent wave of qi, smashing fiercely into the "transparent jellyfish" floating in midair.

Ling Shuang's eyes narrowed almost imperceptibly, and her fingers, clasped behind her back, subconsciously pressed together.

Luo Feng even held his breath in nervousness, staring intently at the delicate formation that looked like it would break at the slightest touch.

The wave of qi slammed violently into the formation's surface.

There was no ear-splitting collision sound, nor the blinding halo of two spiritual forces clashing.

The moment the shockwave touched the formation's surface, the "jellyfish" sank inward deeply in an extremely eerie manner.

The "Seep" rune operated wildly in that instant. The sharpest spiritual energy at the forefront of the shockwave seemed to fall into a bottomless sponge, instantly absorbed into the formation's interior without even a splash of water rising.

Then, the "Lead" rune glowed faintly in the depths of the depression.

The originally solid, concentrated impact force, enough to shatter a block of fine steel into dust, was ruthlessly twisted in direction after entering the formation. It was instantly split into four faint undercurrents, sliding away along the "jellyfish's" writhing edges.

The "Transform" rune followed closely behind.

The four diverted impact forces, during their slide, encountered layer upon layer of flexible resistance rippling like water waves. Their violent nature was gradually broken down and stripped away through this continuous friction and counteraction.

By the time the impact force finally pierced through this palm-sized formation, it had completely lost all its destructive power.

All that remained was a gentle breeze, carrying a few harmless specks of faint blue spiritual light, silently dispersing from the other side of the formation and softly brushing against the hem of Su Ming's purple Daoist robe.

Throughout this brief yet immensely complex process, Su Ming stood rooted to the spot like a tree, his robes not swaying an extra inch.

He calmly put away the depleted shock formation plate in his hand. His gaze passed over the "jellyfish," which had returned to its original state and continued to writhe slowly in midair, and looked calmly at Xuanheng seated in the main seat.

"The 'Like Water Art' general outline states: 'The highest good is like water.'"

"Disciple does not possess Eldest Senior Sister's sharpness that cuts through everything, nor Third Senior Brother's ferocity that destroys everything. Disciple's path does not seek to slay the enemy, only to remain inviolable by all methods."

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