Chapter 755 – Three Thousand Mirror Ruins 22

Chapter 755 – Three Thousand Mirror Ruins 22

Mo Lan could also feel that Instructor Yan Shuang was intentionally feeding her openings, and she seized every opportunity to refine her blade technique.

“Sink your wrist three more degrees! Power rises from the ground, flows through the arm, and concentrates at the tip!” Yan Shuang’s wooden sword tapped sharply against Mo Lan’s elbow joint with a crisp smack. “You’re not swinging the blade with your arm—you’re smashing it out with your entire body’s weight!”

Mo Lan spun with the momentum, using the rotational force to deflect the tap. Her wooden sword swept upward from below in a reverse slash—the very essence of the second form, “Parry-Counter.”

The instant the blade edge grazed Yan Shuang’s clothing, it abruptly changed direction, simulating a continuous assault after striking an enemy.

“Not bad.” Yan Shuang sidestepped, her blade tip darting like a viper’s tongue toward the opening Mo Lan had exposed. “But the transition is too deliberate! Do you think enemies on a battlefield will stand around waiting for you to finish your routine?”

The crisp clatter of wooden swords clashing rang out ceaselessly.

Mo Lan was a bit stiff at first, driven into frantic disarray by Yan Shuang several times, but she adapted extraordinarily fast. The combat instincts accumulated through countless warriors’ grueling training in her Earth memories were rapidly fusing with this world’s martial techniques, unleashing new power.

The third form, “Step-Cut,” was finally no longer just passive evasion.

Her footwork flowed like water, each sidestep and each spiraling advance landing precisely on the optimal point of force.

Her wooden sword was no longer confined to fixed forms. It began to whistle through the air with howling force—cleaving, chopping, slashing, thrusting, all executed with effortless fluidity. Though she still restrained her power within the “beginner” range, that innate brilliance born from integrating everything she’d learned could no longer be concealed.

“Stop.” Yan Shuang suddenly deflected her blade. “Now forget the forms.”

Mo Lan’s breath came in light pants as she looked up in confusion.

“Use the feeling your body has memorized.” Yan Shuang’s wooden sword pointed toward Mo Lan’s heart from a distance. “Again.”

This time, the blade Mo Lan brought down had finally shed all traces of mechanical rigidity.

No fixed opening stance, no rigid transitions—only the power mechanics forged into her bones through a thousand repetitions, and the astonishing combat intuition cultivated through battle.

The sound of the wooden sword cutting through air suddenly turned fierce! Though her strength remained restrained, her angles, timing, and fluidity made her seem like an entirely different person. Each clash sent numbing tremors through the webbing of her hands, yet her eyes grew brighter and brighter.

Yan Shuang’s blocking arm faltered for just an instant—on the final strike, Mo Lan actually used the force of Yan Shuang’s own block to complete a spin at the very moment her strength was spent. Her blade tip scraped perilously past, missing Yan Shuang’s throat by barely three inches.

The entire field fell silent.

Every student stared at the scene in utter disbelief.

Mo Lan, who just moments ago had merely been learning the forms a bit faster than them, had nearly injured Instructor Yan Shuang!

Even though Instructor Yan Shuang hadn’t been using her full strength, it was still absolutely astonishing.

Yan Shuang sheathed her blade with undisguised admiration. “Well done. You’ve already grasped the essence. Next, go help me guide the other students. Before class ends, we’ll run through it with you one more time.”

Mo Lan nodded firmly.

She had not only felt the tremendous benefits of sparring with Instructor Yan Shuang, but had also developed a genuine interest in this world’s martial techniques. She couldn’t wait to do it again!

Mo Lan possessed the collective memory of Earth’s civilization. Her combat awareness was nothing to scoff at—she understood many weapons. It was simply that Earth humans’ physical capabilities were limited and magic didn’t exist there, so the resulting power output was underwhelming.

These blade techniques might not match magic in raw power right now, but if paired with a strong physique and powerful weapons, they could very well produce effects rivaling powerful magic.

Mo Lan resolved to study this world’s martial techniques and body-tempering knowledge thoroughly. It would make her stronger while also helping her develop new cards.

In order to earn further guidance from Instructor Yan Shuang, Mo Lan diligently helped the other students correct their form and movements.

When she shifted from practitioner to observer and instructor, she found she had to step outside her body’s muscle memory and use her eyes and mind to scrutinize every single movement. She also realized that the only reason she’d learned the forms so quickly and accurately was her excellent memory, physical control, and imitation ability—she didn’t actually understand the underlying mechanics of the movements very well.

To better correct her classmates’ movements and clearly explain the proper techniques, she had to break down the forms she’d already mastered in much finer detail, figuring out exactly how the force was generated and what breathing patterns accompanied each motion.

This process forced her to refine her vague sensations into clear language and executable instructions. Her own understanding of the “Nine Edge-Breaking Forms” was hammered into something far deeper and more solid as a result.

Gradually, Mo Lan was no longer merely imitating—she was beginning to truly understand.

She could predict that a certain student would inevitably stumble during the next transition, because she had already seen through the instability in their footwork. She could also tell at a glance that another student’s strikes looked fierce but posed no real threat, because their force was scattered rather than focused on a single point.

This improvement in perception was far more valuable than mastering a move or two.

Near the end of the body-tempering class, Mo Lan sparred with Instructor Yan Shuang once more.

“This time I’ll attack, and you defend!”

Yan Shuang also used the “Nine Edge-Breaking Forms.” When she gripped the wooden sword and came at Mo Lan with the same opening form—”Thrust”—what Mo Lan saw was no longer a blurred, indistinguishable flash of the blade.

She clearly caught the instant tensing of her instructor’s shoulder muscles, the subtle adjustment in wrist angle, and even the trajectory of dust on the ground being faintly disturbed by the force of her movements.

That lightning-fast thrust, under her newly tempered perception, seemed to decompose into several connected yet distinct segments.

Then, at the most critical moment, Mo Lan raised her blade in a Parry-Counter.

She didn’t use brute force to block head-on. Instead, at the instant the two blades made contact, her wrist executed an extremely subtle rotation and dip, deftly deflecting the sharp thrust.

Simultaneously, her footwork coordinated with a slight lateral shift of her body, channeling the residual transmitted force smoothly into the ground.

Smack!

A crisp clash rang out. Yan Shuang’s wooden sword was steadily deflected aside, sliding off to one side.

She did it!

With Instructor Yan Shuang deliberately suppressing some of her own strength, Mo Lan had executed a perfect “Parry-Counter” through pinpoint timing and angles accurate to the millimeter.

Where there was a first time, there would be a second. Yan Shuang’s attacks grew increasingly fierce, her angles more and more cunning, but Mo Lan’s speed of adaptation and learning was staggeringly fast.

She was like a bone-dry sponge, ravenously absorbing every precious drop of nourishment from actual combat.

What began with traces of luck and clumsiness gradually evolved until she could actually hold her own against Yan Shuang, exchanging several moves in proper sequence.

Dead silence hung over the sidelines.

The other students had all stopped their practice, gaping in stunned disbelief at the duel unfolding before them.

They watched Mo Lan transform from a beginner who needed Yan Shuang to deliberately slow down and feed her openings, metamorphosing at a speed visible to the naked eye, until she had actually found her footing under Instructor Yan Shuang’s suffocating assault—and even managed to strike back with a few beautiful counterattack rhythms.

This was no longer mere learning. This was a performance—a performance of how raw talent and comprehension could crush the boundaries of common sense!

Finally, Yan Shuang feinted, then abruptly withdrew her blade and stepped back, ending the sparring session.