Volume 2, Chapter 33: The Synchronized Pulse and The Void Motion
The victory over the Hidden Mist Academy felt… hollow.
Yuhao stood in the line of students for the traditional post-match handshake. His hand was still trembling from the recoil of the Panununtukan pulse. Every time he moved his fingers, a sharp, electric sting shot up his forearm.
The Hidden Mist captain looked pale as she shook Ma Xiaotao's hand, still clutching her stomach. But it was the student behind her that caught Yuhao's eye.
A quiet, thin boy with a vacant stare. As Yuhao reached out to shake his hand, the boy's sleeve shifted. There, right at the base of his neck, was a small, circular patch of skin that looked like it had been rubbed with charcoal. It wasn't a bruise. It was dry, cracked, and completely devoid of life.
It was the mark of the grey decay.
The boy's hand felt like a piece of cold marble. No pulse. No warmth.
"Good match," the boy whispered, but his eyes didn't move. They stayed fixed on a point somewhere behind Yuhao's shoulder.
Yuhao felt a chill go down his spine. He didn't say a word. He finished the line, walked straight past the celebrating crowds, and found Ye Guyi standing near the exit tunnel.
"Basement level. The boy in the grey robes with the notched ear," Yuhao said, his voice low and urgent. "He has the mark on his neck. It's spreading."
Guyi didn't ask questions. Her face went stone-cold. She gave a single, sharp nod and signaled to two other armored Federation guards. "I'll handle it. Go find your Professor. If Chen Feng is moving into the smaller academies, this tournament just became a hunting ground."
••••••
"I hate this room," Ma Xiaotao muttered, crossing her arms.
They were standing in the heart of the Hall of the Origin. The Chrono-Flux Chamber was a massive, circular vault lined with dark, polished obsidian. There were no windows, no furniture, and no sound. The air felt thick, as if the oxygen itself was being squeezed by an invisible hand.
"It's not supposed to be comfortable," Lakan said, walking into the center of the room. He had swapped his suit jacket for a simple black tank top and loose trousers. He looked leaner, more dangerous without the layers of a professor's "costume."
"This room uses spatial compression," Lakan explained, gesturing to the glowing blue runes on the floor. "One hour in here is roughly three hours outside. But the gravity is doubled, and the ambient movement of energy is thinned out. It forces your body to rely entirely on your internal Vessel."
"Why are we here, Professor?" Tang Ya asked, her Blue Silver Grass twitching nervously at her wrists.
"Because right now, you three are three separate engines," Lakan said. He pointed at Ma Xiaotao. "You're a jet engine that overheats." He pointed at Yuhao. "You're a high-precision sensor that keeps breaking." He looked at Tang Ya. "And you're the anchor trying to hold them both together."
Lakan smiled, but it wasn't a friendly look. It was the smile of a predator.
"If you fight the Sun-Moon team or the grey decay like that, you'll die. You need to become one single machine. Triple-Sovereign Resonance. You are going to sync your Crystalline Vessels until your heartbeats are the same."
•••••
The first hour was meditation. It was supposed to be the easy part.
Lakan made them sit in a triangle, holding hands. He forced them to match their Eight-Cycle breathing. It was agonizing. Ma Xiaotao's fire was too aggressive; it kept trying to swallow Yuhao's cool, analytical stream of soul power. Tang Ya had to act as a filter, pulling the excess heat from Ma Xiaotao and feeding it into Yuhao to keep him from freezing.
"Don't fight the connection," Lakan's voice drifted through the dark. "Feel the gaps. Fill them."
Slowly, the friction began to fade. Yuhao felt a strange sensation — like he could feel the blood pumping in Ma Xiaotao's veins, and the steady, grounding pulse of Tang Ya's roots. Their three separate flows began to swirl into a single, golden-orange-green vortex.
"Good," Lakan said.
The lights in the room turned a sharp, aggressive red.
"Now," Lakan said, his voice dropping an octave. "Try to keep that connection while I try to kill you."
Lakan didn't use a martial soul. He didn't use any flashy light shows. He simply stepped forward.
The air in the room didn't just move; it screamed.
He used the Diamond Glide, but at a speed that made him look like a streak of black lightning. He appeared instantly in front of Ma Xiaotao, his hand moving in a casual, punch strike.
"Guard!" Yuhao yelled.
Through the Resonance, Yuhao's Gaze of Openings was shared. Ma Xiaotao didn't have to see Lakan; she felt Yuhao's vision. She ducked a fraction of a second before the fist hit her.
But Lakan was already moving. He pivoted on a dime — a perfect Triangular Pivot — and aimed a kick at Tang Ya's shins.
"Brace!" Yuhao signaled.
Tang Ya didn't move her feet. She channeled the combined soul power of all three into her legs, anchoring herself into the obsidian floor. Lakan's kick hit her like a meteor striking the ground. The floor exploded outward in a spiderweb of cracks that spread for several meters, chunks of obsidian flying into the air. The entire chamber shook as if hit by an earthquake, but Tang Ya didn't budge. Her roots held firm, absorbing and distributing the insane force through the Resonance link.
"Not bad," Lakan said, his voice coming from behind them now. "But you're still thinking. If you think, you're slow."
Ma Xiaotao spun around, her face flushed with frustration and a bit of embarrassment. "Huuuh?! If we don't think, how are we supposed to move?!" she yelled, hands on her hips. "That doesn't make any sense! You want us to fight like idiots?!"
Yuhao, still catching his breath, nodded in agreement. "She's right, Professor. Without thinking, how do we plan our next move or react to danger?"
Inside Yuhao's spiritual sea, Electrolux's ghostly form floated with a curious, amused smile. 'Interesting… This Sovereign is teaching something far deeper than basic combat. Even I am curious now.'
Lakan chuckled, that familiar playful smirk appearing on his face. He stepped forward casually and, without any warning, threw a light, fast punch straight at Ma Xiaotao's face.
Thud.
The punch landed squarely on her nose. It wasn't hard enough to break anything, but it was sharp enough to sting and draw a small trickle of blood.
"Ow!" Ma Xiaotao yelped, clutching her nose with both hands. Her face turned as red as her hair. "What's the big idea, suddenly punching me like that?!"
Lakan tilted his head innocently. "Why didn't you dodge?"
Ma Xiaotao glared at him, still holding her nose. "Of course it's because you punched too suddenly!"
Lakan shook his head with a teasing grin. "Nope. I clearly formed a fist and even showed my intent. You saw it coming."
Ma Xiaotao's eyes widened in indignation. "Then it's because it was too fast!"
Lakan shook his head again, still smiling. "Nope. The speed I used was just enough for your body to react based on the level you've shown in your battles."
Ma Xiaotao opened her mouth to argue again. "I don't understand. I don't think that—"
"That's the point," Lakan interrupted gently. "You think."
He stepped back, giving them all a moment to breathe. "Overthinking is limiting your fighting speed. Messages can only travel to your nervous system so fast. When you rely on thoughts for physical action, you waste so much valuable fighting time."
Ma Xiaotao crossed her arms with a snort, still rubbing her nose. "Ha, Yuhao does overthink things."
Tang Ya sighed softly and defended him. "Xiaotao only thinks less sometimes because she's hot-headed."
"Huuuh?!" Ma Xiaotao turned on her with wide eyes. "Are you saying I'm an idiot?!"
Lakan raised his hands in mock surrender, chuckling. "Alright, alright. The point is, your end goal should be to master the ability to have each part of your body think and move independently of the others. While I admit it's exceedingly difficult ('even people I know who have reached godhood still haven't fully mastered it ') if you can overcome the learning curve, you'll be able to avoid any danger no matter how severe."
Lakan leaned against the obsidian wall, crossing his arms as he watched them. What he was teaching them was called the Void Motion Pulse, the core of the Eight Directional Flow Scripture. The basic idea was simple, separate the mind from the body. The conscious thoughts stayed calm and still, while the body moved on its own, reacting purely through instinct and muscle memory. It was like the body became its own independent fighter, while the mind watched from the center, only stepping in when it needed to.
The technique was built on several core pillars that worked with the Crystalline Vessel they were already training. First came the Eight-Cycle Breath — a precise 16-count rhythm that synchronized the heartbeat with soul power circulation. It helped overclock the nervous system and strengthened the body's ability to handle sudden bursts of energy. Second was the Center-Point Stillness — standing at the absolute balance of all eight directions so there was no telegraphing of movement. And third was the Eight Directional Flow — letting the body automatically step into the perfect blind spot using movements like the Triangular Pivot and Diamond Glide.
Lakan had used this exact technique to toy with Asura Sea God Tang San and the Asura God himself. They may had overwhelming power and divine laws on their side and he is still not use on his power with the lack of proper training, but they couldn't hit what they couldn't predict. His body moved on its own, finding gaps they didn't even know existed. That was how a mortal could stand against gods.
The inspiration had come from something called Ultra Instinct that Lakan had seen in his old world. In that system, the body moved perfectly on instinct without conscious thought. It was beautiful, but it had limits — it was mostly reactive and could be overwhelmed if the mind wasn't truly empty. The Void-Motion Pulse was different. It was proactive. The user still had full control. The mind could switch back in at any moment to make decisions, while the body handled the movement. It wasn't about becoming a mindless fighter. It was about becoming a complete one — mind and body working as partners instead of one always leading the other.
The three kids looked at each other, a mix of confusion and excitement on their faces. They still didn't completely understand what he was talking about, but the idea of moving without overthinking, of reacting faster than thought itself, made their hearts race with determination.
Inside Yuhao's spiritual sea, Electrolux's ghostly form floated with wide eyes, clearly shocked. 'If the knights from my previous world learned of such a technique, they would be unstoppable in combat. They might even defeat Divine Knights using lower cultivation…' He marveled at the idea, a rare spark of genuine admiration in his ancient gaze.
•••••
For the next two hours, the room was a whirlwind of violence. Lakan was a ghost. He struck from every one of the eight directions, testing the limits of their Center-Point Stillness.
Yuhao's nose was bleeding. Ma Xiaotao's uniform was scorched. Tang Ya was covered in bruises. But every time one of them stumbled, the other two pulled them back up through the Resonance link.
They weren't three students anymore. They were a single, six-armed organism.
"Enough," Lakan said suddenly.
He stopped mid-stride, his fist inches away from Yuhao's face. He wasn't even sweating. He looked at them — panting, bleeding, but standing firm in a perfect triangle.
"The Resonance is holding," Lakan noted, wiping a speck of dust off his shoulder. "You're starting to understand. Strength isn't about how much fire you can throw. It's about how much of the world you can carry together."
They collapsed the moment Lakan deactivated the room.
The sudden return of normal gravity and thin air made Yuhao's head spin. He lay on the cold obsidian floor, staring at the ceiling. His hand was still linked to Ma Xiaotao's.
"That was… awful," Ma Xiaotao wheezed.
"I think I left my soul in that room," Tang Ya groaned.
Lakan walked over and looked down at them. He tossed a small, cold bottle of water to each of them.
"Take the rest of the night off," he said. "The main bracket starts tomorrow. You'll be facing the Star Crown Academy's main branch. They won't use mist or tricks. They use pure, unadulterated weight. If your Resonance breaks for even a second, they'll crush you into the dirt."
Lakan turned to leave, but he paused at the door.
"And Yuhao?"
"Yes, Professor?"
"Ye Guyi found the boy you reported. He's in a containment ward. The grey skin… it wasn't a mark. It was a root. Chen Feng isn't just infecting them; he's growing something inside them."
Yuhao felt the cold return to his chest.
"What is it?"
Lakan's eyes were shadowed. "A forest, kid. He's planting a forest of silence in the middle of our noise. Stay sharp."
The heavy vault door hissed shut, leaving the three of them alone in the dark.
End of Volume 2, Chapter 33