Chapter 268: Battle of Patience, Biding Time

The girl displayed judgement worthy of a student of Shrek Academy. When her initial attacks failed, she immediately switched to a more conservative style of fighting. Rather than being anxious to achieve victory, she slowly whittled away at Tang Wulin in a battle of attrition. She resembled a cheetah stalking its prey, patiently waiting for the best time to end everything with one strike.

Although both combatants were only using their first soul skills, the constant clashes quickly ate away at their soul power. Despite the fact that Tang Wulin's Bluesilver Grass only needed to cover a far smaller area, the blanket of cold steadily sapped his strength.

Even madly circulating the Mysterious Heaven Method could not make up for his deficiency in soul power, and the gap between the two soon reared its ugly head. The range of his Bluesilver Grass's defense grew smaller and smaller, and the girl's offensive slowly pushed him back. A layer of frost covered the strands of grass while icicles sprouted out of the ground. Regardless of how one looked at it, he was being forced into a corner.

The situation continued like this until the requirement to earn six points had been met. Tang Wulin persisted for ten whole minutes.

As the clock ticked on, the girl grew more and more astonished. She had never expected her opponent to be so troublesome to deal with. Like a small boat, he tenaciously endured wave after wave of her attacks, not yielding even once. Such resilience gave her a headache. However, she didn't dare to attack rashly since her opponent was a control-type soul master. If he had any tricks up his sleeve, the tables would instantly be turned.

So she just chose to engage him in this battle of attrition. Allowing her opponent to earn a passing score would be fine since it just meant she wouldn't get a reward. However, if she were defeated, the girl would have points deducted.

Seconds slowly became minutes as time passed. The power behind each combatant's attacks began to wane, a clear sign that they were approaching the limits of their soul power.

The snow in the air had thinned by this point, and the girl's figure could be seen. Tang Wulin's Bluesilver Grass, on the other hand, no longer thrashed about as violently as before, the glow along the length of its strand significantly dimmer.

Without warning, the snowflakes came at him with renewed strength. Tang Wulin's eyes flashed as he subconsciously retreated two steps, urging his Bluesilver Grass to whip at the snow.

The girl made her move at the same time.

Only thirty percent of her soul power remained after their long stalemate. Considering her own condition, she was certain Tang Wulin was like an arrow at the end of its flight. Regardless of what he did, he wouldn't have enough soul power to continue. It was time for the victor to be decided.

Hidden in the flurry of snow, the girl stealthily approached Tang Wulin like a snow leopard revealing its fangs before pouncing.

Snow assailed Tang Wulin's Bluesilver Grass, eating up the last of his soul power. Overall, he only had about forty percent of the soul power capacity that his opponent did. He wouldn't have lasted this long without the Mysterious Heaven Method.

A white figure burst through the snow cover in front of Tang Wulin, covering him in sleet and chilling him down to the bone. As his body grew rigid from the cold, a white, clawed hand seized the opportunity to reach for his shoulder.

In the blink of an eye, twenty-five minutes of battle had passed under Shen Yi's supervision. Tang Wulin had earned nine points by this point, so it would be fine if he lost now.

I guess this kid isn't that talented after all. Ignoring his golden soul ring, his martial soul is merely Bluesilver Grass. Yet... he wouldn't have gotten a near-perfect score if he weren't able to calmly come up with a strategy and execute it. He might not be a peak-level genius, but he's still quite talented!

However, in her opinion, Tang Wulin's strength still didn't make the cut. If student number ten hadn't approached the battle cautiously, Shen Yi suspected that the match would have ended in just a few minutes. Yet Tang Wulin was now being thoroughly suppressed by someone who wasn't even a control-type soul master. With the addition of the girl's power and speed, Shen Yi didn't see a way for him to overturn the tide of battle.

Despite having come to her own conclusion, Shen Yi found the composure of the rest of class zero puzzling. Not a single one of them batted an eye at what seemed to be the impending defeat of their captain.

Do these kids just have cool heads, or...

An eruption of golden light interrupted her thought.

The moment the snow-white hand touched his shoulder, Tang Wulin smiled.

It's about time!

Tang Wulin's two purple soul rings disappeared with his Bluesilver Grass, and a tyrannical aura of blood essence exploded from his body to replace them.

He hadn't eaten all those steamed buns for nothing! They had fueled a complete recovery of his blood essence.

His powerful aura immediately dispelled the chill in the surroundings. Soul power receded from his veins, and in its stead, pure, unadulterated power coursed through!

The girl struck Tang Wulin's right shoulder, but was shocked to discover that it was as hard as a block of metal. She recoiled from the impact, her white hand numb.

I only have thirty percent of my soul power left, so shouldn't he have even less? Isn't he a control-type soul master?

Yet she refused to give in. As a student of Shrek Academy, she immediately reacted to this sudden turn of events and switched from aiming for the best possible result to damage control.

The moment she raised her head to make her move, however, a pair purple eyes came into view. Her plan to retreat and put distance between them was instantly destroyed as the world began to spin around her.

Before she could flee, a large golden hand darted toward her shoulder in the same way she had tried to strike Tang Wulin's. In the next instant, it moved to her neck and closed tightly around it, squeezing down on her carotid. With her soul power sealed and her blood flow cut off, she eventually went limp.

Soon enough, the snow dispersed and the golden light died away, revealing the scene for all to see. Tang Wulin held the girl in one arm, keeping her from collapsing to the ground. She had fainted.

This...

He actually won?

Soul masters with leopard martial souls excelled at biding their time, yet in today's battle of patience, student number ten had lost!

Xie Xie smacked a hand to his forehead. "Captain is really getting sneakier and sneakier! He actually spent thirty entire minutes to lure her into his trap. In the end, that girl never realized that Captain actually excels at brute force, not control!"

In reality, Xie Xie's claims were wrong. Tang Wulin wasn't fond of such roundabout tactics. He preferred annihilating his opponents in a quick, efficient manner.

However, for Xu Xiaoyan's sake, he had to stall for time. And his opponent was a student of Shrek Academy! If an all-out attack failed, he would've put himself in a bad position.

The outcome had been decided the moment the girl decided to charge at Tang Wulin. Even more than pure strength, Tang Wulin excelled in close combat!

His skills at close range were absolute. In fact, it could even make up for a soul ring disadvantage and make people with one more ring than him weep.

"Tang Wulin... ten points."

Shen Yi's eyes were wide with disbelief as she declared the result.