Chapter 754 – Three Thousand Mirror Ruins 21

Chapter 754 – Three Thousand Mirror Ruins 21

For today’s body tempering class, Mo Lan had originally planned to “persist” until everyone else had fainted, then adopt a different pose from yesterday’s and conveniently “faint” as well.

But after all the students entered the medicinal pool, Instructor Yan Shuang suddenly announced:

“If you feel like you can’t hold on any longer and are on the verge of fainting, get out of the tempering pool on your own. Starting today, you need to learn to gauge the limits of your body tempering yourselves.

If you want to slack off and get out early, that’s up to you.

But if your body tempering level can’t keep up and you can’t defeat a one-star mirror beast after three months, don’t blame me for tossing you into another class.

I certainly won’t waste my time on students who, after three months of body tempering, can’t even hunt a single one-star mirror beast.”

Once these words were spoken, no one dared harbor any wishful thinking.

Even Wang Jingnan, Lin Yue, and the others had been reminded by their parents to perform well in class and strive to win Yan Shuang’s attention.

With their talent, getting into the Eastern China Alliance’s top institution, Eastern China Academy, in two years wouldn’t be much of a problem.

But spots for advanced study at Mirror Ruins University were extremely hard to come by.

If they could obtain a recommendation letter from her, it would add another bargaining chip for their future applications to Mirror Ruins University.

Because of Yan Shuang’s arrival, the prestige of this year’s Mirror Explorer Class One at Deer Cry Academy had risen by several tiers.

Even fifth-year students had wanted to repeat a grade just to become Yan Shuang’s students, only to be turned down by her.

Mo Lan didn’t feel much about it. After the others one by one reached what they felt was their limit—either fainting or climbing out of the medicinal pool on their own to jog around the sports field and enhance their tempering results—she too pretended to be running low on energy with wandering concentration, then climbed out of the pool. After resting by the poolside for a while, she packed up her reading stand and book and went to run laps.

Mo Lan was still the last to arrive at the sports field, but the first to finish her laps.

Only today, Su Yu was no longer thrown off by her speed and didn’t sprint to keep up with her.

Watching her race past, Su Yu maintained her own pace.

She had already tried yesterday—there was no keeping up whatsoever.

After finishing her laps, Mo Lan went to eat, then headed straight to her rest room to read. It wasn’t until just before school ended that she went to the library to return and borrow books before leaving campus to go home.

By the time she arrived at school on the third day, she heard that the previous afternoon, the other students had all mastered the method of cultivating with mind jade.

During body tempering class, Instructor Yan Shuang announced that the afternoon free period was canceled.

“From now on, afternoons will be martial arts combat class. Assemble at the martial arts training ground.”

Mo Lan lamented the loss of two hours of free reading time, then before the afternoon class, downed several bottles of “weakening potions” that acted on the body, drastically lowering her physical abilities.

This was to avoid accidentally hitting a sparring partner too hard with excessive strength and arousing suspicion.

Once she had made her preparations, she headed to the training ground and joined the other students in learning martial techniques and combat skills under Instructor Yan Shuang.

“As students of Mirror Explorer Class One, you have the privilege of freely choosing your martial arts instructor.

My specialties are the saber and dagger. Beyond general combat techniques, I’ll primarily teach you saber and dagger methods. If you want to learn something else, there are teachers at the school who specialize in other weapons.

Here is the list of the school’s martial arts instructors. Feel free to look it over.

If you already have your own instructor elsewhere, that’s no problem either.”

Not a single student reached for the list Instructor Yan Shuang held out.

“Instructor! I’ll study under you!” Wang Jingnan was the first to speak up.

Caught off guard that he had beaten her to it, Lin Yue hurried to follow: “Me too! I’ve watched recordings of your battles, Instructor, and decided long ago that I wanted to learn saber and dagger martial arts for self-defense, just like you!”

The others chimed in one after another.

In recent years, the most accomplished prodigy from the Deer Cry Mirror was Yan Shuang—what young person from the Deer Cry Mirror didn’t look up to her?

Her signature martial techniques and magic skills were well known to all. Under her influence, the saber and dagger had become the most popular weapons to study in the Deer Cry Mirror.

In fact, those in the class who had the means had already learned some saber and dagger techniques ahead of time, since rudimentary martial arts training wasn’t restricted by body tempering prerequisites.

It was just that learning after body tempering yielded better results.

“Very well!” Yan Shuang put away the list and tossed out a bundle of wooden training sabers.

“We’ll start with the Mo Lan had originally planned to “persist” until everyone else had fainted, then adopt a different pose from yesterday’s and conveniently “faint” as well.Mo Lan had originally planned to “persist” until everyone else had fainted, then adopt a different pose from yesterday’s and conveniently “faint” as well.Mo Lan had originally planned to “persist” until everyone else had fainted, then adopt a different pose from yesterday’s and conveniently “faint” as well.Mo Lan had originally planned to “persist” until everyone else had fainted, then adopt a different pose from yesterday’s and conveniently “faint” as well.《Nine Edge-Breaking Forms》.” Her voice was cold and crisp, without a single wasted word. “Watch closely!”

Before her words had even faded, the wooden saber in her hand shot out like a viper striking from its den.

“First form—Thrust!”

Yan Shuang’s movements were plain and unadorned, yet fast, precise, and ruthless to the extreme. The tip of the wooden blade pierced the air with a sharp, ear-splitting shriek.

“Second form—Parry and Counter!”

Yan Shuang’s wrist flipped, the wooden saber tracing a half-circle to deftly deflect an invisible strike before thrusting forward.

“Third form—Step Slash!”

Her footwork crisscrossed as her figure slid sideways like a phantom, the blade following her body, striking from an impossibly tricky angle.

…

All nine forms flowed together in a single breath, leaving the air thrumming with the lingering resonance of the wooden saber tearing through it.

“Now, practice.”

The training ground immediately erupted with the whooshing of wooden sabers slicing through air, mixed with the sounds of students fumbling about in every direction.

In her memories from Earth, there were some recollections related to saber arts, and in the inherited memories of her original body, there was some knowledge in this area as well—though it was nothing remarkable, far from matching the destructive power of magic.

But watching Instructor Yan Shuang’s saber technique, Mo Lan felt that the martial arts of this world were quite different from what she had imagined.

Good weapons and martial techniques, combined with body tempering, seemed to unleash formidable power as well!

This piqued her interest in learning, and she began studying in earnest.

She already had a foundation, and her learning ability was right there—naturally, she picked things up quickly.

Yan Shuang went around correcting each student’s form. When she reached Mo Lan, she noticed that with every swing of the saber, the girl’s breathing rhythm was remarkably steady, her movements showed not the slightest deformation, and her center of gravity never wavered in the least.

More importantly, the extremely subtle force-dissipation technique in her wrist during the Parry and Counter was quite well done—clearly, she had some prior training.

The Nine Edge-Breaking Forms, every move and every stance, were executed with precision, as though photocopied from the demonstration just moments ago. The only issue was that they were a bit rigid.

“You,” Yan Shuang’s wooden saber suddenly tapped Mo Lan’s rear shoulder, “spar with me and let’s see how you do!”

Before Mo Lan could respond, the wooden saber came cleaving down with a fierce gust of wind! The strike appeared simple, yet it sealed off every conventional evasion route.

Mo Lan’s pupils contracted slightly. Her body moved almost instinctively, using combat techniques and footwork she had trained before to dodge—then at the very last moment, she forcibly slammed on the brakes and hastily raised her saber to block.

Clang!

The wooden sabers clashed, and Mo Lan “staggered” back five or six steps before steadying herself. Her saber-gripping hands “trembled slightly” as she gasped, “Instructor… what incredible strength.”

It wasn’t far off from her own strength before drinking the weakening potions.

So this was the result of body tempering in this world?

“Again!” Mo Lan struck back with her newly learned form, slashing with the saber.

This time Yan Shuang held back her strength, helping her become proficient with the forms, striving to integrate her saber technique into actual combat and make it fluid.