Three Versus One

Xue Jian leaped away from the group before casting an array. An intricate boundary suddenly sprung to life.

The array was a prototype that Hualing had developed. It was designed as a defensive array that would allow you to restore anything within the barrier to its previous state.

This particular array functioned by creating a snapshot of reality from the caster's frame of reference; it would create an infinite number of dimensions, each higher and more complex than the last. A perfect copy of information would then be replicated across every dimension.

Whenever the caster had decided, they could retrieve the relevant information from any dimensions and restore whatever data they wanted.

Eventually, the idea was to expand the array into one that hosted an uncountable infinity of dimensions that advanced the scenario differently in each one; the caster could then pick and choose which one to replicate back into reality.

For instance, let's say you snapshotted the beginning of a fight or battle and as the defeated on your dying breath. You search through an uncountably infinite amount of different outcomes. Maybe in another dimension, you escaped, or perhaps you were the one who won instead.

As the caster, you would then be able to take this information and impose this series of events and overwrite the original outcome, potentially saving yourself and dooming your opponent.

There was initially some concern over paradoxes. For instance, what if someone had left the area, and afterward, you tried to restore all of the snapshotted information.

Would you then have two copies of the same person in existence, the only difference being the temporal offset?

Fortunately or perhaps, unfortunately, after experimentation, it was discovered the Supreme Dao automatically resolved such paradoxes. Living beings and specific resources such as soul crystals that were still in existence and had left the array's boundaries would simply be unrestored.

"The barrier has been initialized. So you three can start whenever you're ready."

Upon hearing those words, the three young cultivators instantly sprung into action. The two Nascent Soul cultivators took to the front while the Core Formation Cultivator hung back.

The three of them often trained together and thus were well-coordinated. Gao Liang and Xiuying would take the initiative and go on the offensive, allowing Zhongming to have some breathing space and giving him time to cast his various arrays.

As the two juniors sped towards her, Hualing took a step back, her arms held in a defensive position.

Gao Liang made first contact, his fist soaring towards his senior sister's face.

Deftly Hualing raised her right arm, parrying the overly ambitious attack.

From the other side, Xiuying quickly circled around and closed the gap. Her strike rapidly closing in on Hualing's unprotected side.

With a simple, elegant motion, Hualing parried another attack from the boy before her. This time her hand snaked past his in a circular motion, while her other hand caught the attacking limb just past the elbow.

A swift back cross-step and twist later, suddenly Gao Liang was placed between Hualing and her assailant.

Instantly Gao Liang ducked. The duo's familiarity with each other's fighting style was on full display when Xiuying immediately transitioned out of an attack and instead leaped over her teammate, a flying knee already chambered.

Gao Liang also reacted quickly by abusing the momentum from the throw by dropping to the ground, his legs closing in on her Hualing's stance. Trapping her legs would force her to take the full brunt of the flying knee.

Unfortunately for the duo, Hualing was too quick and too experienced. Leaping back, she narrowly avoided the leg trap all the while she caught Xiuying's knee neutralizing the attack, one hand on the lower thigh, the other on the calf.

Pulling back, Hualing dragged Xiuying along with her, bracing her feet against the earth. Then, an explosive force rippled throughout her body, fa jin, the force slammed into Xiuying, sending her flying back into Gao Liang.

Gao Liang caught his teammate helping her to regain her balance.

Once again, the two rushed their opponent, and once again, as they neared, she moved in to counter their attacks.

However, right before they made contact with one another, near-invisible threads sprung to life and wrapped around Hualing.

This was what Gao Liang and Xiuying had been buying time for. Zhongming as a Core Formation cultivator, on paper, lacked the ability to even contend with Nascent Soul cultivator.

Due to the conceptual nature of Nascent Soul cultivators, normally Core Formation cultivators could not interact with them in a meaningful way. However, after studying with Master Mo, Zhongming could produce arrays that could even affect Soul Integration realm cultivators.

The razor-thin threads, wrapped around their target tightly, trying to move recklessly would surely cause one to be diced to pieces.

Taking full advantage of the situation, Gao Liang and Xiuying pressed the attack. This time she wouldn't be able to move or block their attacks.

Yet, somehow they seemed to be unable to reach her?

No matter how close they got, they could not seem to touch her!

"She is manipulating distance," Zhongming warned his two teammates.

The two Nascent Soul cultivators instantly understood.

Of course, Hualing was manipulating the distance between them with her understanding of the Dao of Dimensions.

By placing an infinite distance between any attack and herself, within the Domain of Locality, no attack could ever reach her.