When Ning Rongrong had taught this technique to Tang San, she told him that mastering Split Attention Control first required an extremely strong capacity for observing the bigger picture. As a result, Tang San's introductory practice was even simpler than hers—he picked three different objects in three different directions and kept shifting his gaze between them. At the same time, he had to use his Blue Silver Grass to wrap around each of the three objects. The wrapping in all three directions had to be released and retracted at one-second intervals.
At the highest level of Split Attention Control, one should be able to perceive every minute change in the surrounding environment—not only detecting those changes, but keeping them under one's control as well.
It sounded rather complicated, but what it really boiled down to was learning how to multitask and maintaining focus across divided attention. It demanded not only a high degree of mental strength, but also excellent reaction speed.
Tang San practiced for an entire afternoon without finding any hint of a breakthrough. On the contrary, constantly fixating on three different objects in three different directions left his eyes sore and fatigued.
Since Shrek Academy's preliminary match for the next day had already been completed in advance, the entire group simply stayed behind at the academy to train rather than heading to the Heaven Dou Grand Colosseum.
Tang San rose early as usual and went through his daily routine of practicing the Purple Extreme Demon Eye. Having consumed the Eye of Insight Dew, his results while training this secret art were far superior to before.
Faint purple qi drifted in from the distant horizon as Tang San gazed at it, slowly regulating his breathing and cycling the internal energy of his Mysterious Heaven Skill. His entire being seemed bathed in that purple radiance. A purple-gold glow shimmered within his eyes, and the Purple Extreme Demon Eye advanced imperceptibly.
As the sun gradually rose in the east, the purple qi dissipated. Tang San took a deep breath and hopped down from the tree.
Should he continue practicing Split Attention Control? Tang San made his way to yesterday's training spot with a touch of resignation. He had always been gifted when it came to cultivation, yet Split Attention Control utterly eluded him. After a full afternoon of practice yesterday, he'd actually found himself getting somewhat muddled when using his Soul Skills. Now, preparing to train again, he couldn't help feeling a degree of resistance.
"Something wrong? Can't find the feel?" A familiar voice spoke up. Without turning around, Tang San knew it was the Great Master.
"Master, why are you up so early?"
The Great Master smiled faintly. "I watched you practice yesterday. Split Attention Control is genuinely difficult to cultivate. Without determination and perseverance, it's very hard to make progress. The initial stage is especially grueling. Once you find the key, however, everything after that becomes much easier. The Three Apertures Mind means the mind generates three apertures through which to command. Don't rush to control—first, you need to perceive. Perceive everything around you. Use your heart to grasp the shifts in your environment. Every living creature survives in the same environment. Feel it with your heart—the air, the scents, the colors, the sounds, the sensations. They all tell you a great deal. When you can fully comprehend what those changes represent, controlling them afterward becomes much easier. Make the use of each Soul Skill an automatic reflex. That way, even if your mind can't truly split into three, the effect produced will be virtually identical. Achieve the same result first, and then gradually cultivate the feeling of three mental apertures—it'll come more naturally."
Perceiving everything around him—that was the best guidance the Great Master could offer. Though he didn't know the specifics of Split Attention Control training, through his understanding of Martial Souls and his insight into cultivation methods, he was essentially showing Tang San an alternative path to find his way in.
After hearing the Great Master's words, Tang San seemed to catch a faint thread of understanding. He immediately closed his eyes, not wanting that thread to slip away—he needed to seize it for real.
Standing there motionless, Tang San held perfectly still while the Great Master beside him fell silent, quietly watching his disciple.
Before long, Tang San entered the state he only ever achieved during deep cultivation—inhaling in long, even streams, exhaling in barely perceptible whispers. The world around him seemed to fall away into stillness.
Air carrying the fresh scent of plants flowed in through his nostrils. His skin registered the surrounding temperature. The chirping of insects and calls of birds reached him through his ears. Tang San stood there in silence, using his heart to feel for that thread he had just grasped.
Gradually, Tang San felt a wave of disappointment—that thread of understanding seemed to be drifting further and further from him. He could sense certain changes in the outside world, but they slipped by far too quickly. Forget about mastering them; even his six senses couldn't accurately relay what was happening.
"A Martial Soul can enhance all of your attributes, including perception," the Great Master's magnetic voice spoke again.
Tang San's body shuddered, and the thread that had slipped away seemed to return. He raised his right hand, and blue-purple light surged in his palm. Centered on his body, strand after strand of black Blue Silver Grass extended outward as prolongations of his form, slowly spreading in all directions, producing a soft rustling wherever they passed.
Just as the Great Master had said—the moment he released his Martial Soul and the Mysterious Heaven Skill began circulating in tandem with it, Tang San's perception multiplied severalfold. The various sensations that had been blurry before instantly fell into sharp focus, as though a veil had been lifted. Everything around him became crystal clear.
Each strand of extended Blue Silver Grass fed information back to him, all of it converging in Tang San's mind. Though he wasn't using his eyes to see, a rough outline of the outside world had already formed in his awareness.
What could you discover by feeling with your heart? The Blue Silver Grass told Tang San. They couldn't serve as his eyes, but they allowed him to perceive the world far better than before. Among the strands stretching outward, three of them moved—one gently coiled around a small sapling, shaking loose the dewdrops left behind by the night; another swept lightly along the ground, pushing aside the surrounding shrubs; the last one curled around a blooming flower.
Three strands of Blue Silver Grass performing three different tasks. They weren't skills, strictly speaking, but in that instant, Tang San finally achieved the simplest form of tripartite attention.
And then, in that very moment, Tang San suddenly realized his Blue Silver Grass seemed to have changed. The vague outlines that had been fuzzy before snapped into crystal-clear focus. In every direction, countless threads of a peculiar energy flowed silently into his body through those Blue Silver Grass strands, then trickled back out. It was such a simple process, yet it allowed Tang San to perceive every detail within a radius of several hundred square meters around him.
How was this possible? Startled, Tang San felt his mind jolt—and with the shift in his emotions, that clarity vanished in an instant. He quickly calmed himself and resumed his tripartite attention control. The strange energy returned once more.
The peculiar energy was extremely dispersed, each wisp minuscule—an entirely different existence from the Mysterious Heaven Skill. Its power actually stemmed from an emotion. That emotion was kinship.
While maintaining his current state, Tang San carefully studied the fluctuations within this energy, searching for its source.
As his mental perception sharpened, he gradually traced the energy back to its origin. What shocked him to the core was that it came from the vast patches of Blue Silver Grass growing across the ground.
Blue Silver Grass was the most common plant in Soul Land—found practically everywhere. Apart from its tenacious vitality, it served no other purpose. It was precisely for this reason that Tang San's Blue Silver Grass Martial Soul had been labeled a textbook worthless Martial Soul.
Yet in this moment, Tang San felt the kinship radiating from every Blue Silver Grass around him. Those plants that didn't belong to him seemed to be telling him something—like homeless children who had finally found family. It was this very kinship that turned them into Tang San's eyes, ears, and nose, feeding everything they could see back into his mind. In that instant, Tang San seemed to become the center of the entire forest. His perception gradually extended outward to a full kilometer away. He could clearly sense that within the forest surrounding Shrek Academy, every last strand of Blue Silver Grass was swaying in the same gentle rhythm, its aura resonant with his own.
That ineffable feeling was indescribably moving. Tang San discovered that every strand of Blue Silver Grass he had released seemed to have gained a life of its own under the influence of the wild grass around it. The wild Blue Silver Grass kept feeding information into his mind, and those strands he had released responded by shifting lightly in turn.
What the Great Master witnessed was a wondrous sight. The Blue Silver Grass spreading out from beneath Tang San's feet had all raised their tips, swaying gently in the air with the same rhythmic cadence, radiating a sense of joy and delight. The white Soul Power glow that had been emanating from Tang San's body was gradually taking on a faint blue hue.
A mutation? That was the Great Master's first thought. He nearly stepped forward to interrupt Tang San on the spot. A mutation could indeed lead to greater power—but it could just as easily turn him into a cripple, as it had the Great Master himself. The last thing he wanted was for his disciple to follow in his footsteps.
But the Great Master forcibly restrained his impulse. Because he realized that Tang San, in this moment, seemed to have merged with the surrounding Blue Silver Grass, becoming one with the forest itself. Even his originally human aura had vanished. He was like an oversized strand of Blue Silver Grass, his body swaying gently in the same rhythm as everything around him.
(End of chapter)