Chapter 786 – Three Thousand Mirror Ruins 53

Chapter 786 – Three Thousand Mirror Ruins 53

Early the next morning, Mo Lan arrived punctually before a gray-black building deep within Deer Cry Middle School, standing apart from the teaching district.

This was the office and training area for the Academy’s senior teachers and specially appointed instructors.

Yan Shuang’s office, rest room, cultivation chamber, and training room were all located here.

Following the instructions from yesterday’s letter, Mo Lan went directly to a heavy alloy door on the building’s underground first floor.

There was no label on the door—only a cold numerical designation: “7.”

The moment she stopped before it, the door silently slid inward, as if it had long known of her arrival.

Beyond the door lay an extraordinarily spacious training ground with astonishing ceiling height.

The floor and walls seemed to be composed of some special dark material capable of absorbing energy and impact, appearing cold and unyielding.

The facilities inside were minimalist to the point of barrenness—only a few weapon racks stood in the corners alongside some training apparatus of indeterminate purpose, flickering with faint runes.

Instructor Yan Shuang stood at the center of the arena, still dressed in her sharp black combat attire, her posture upright as a pine.

When she saw Mo Lan, she merely gave a slight nod. Without any pleasantries, she spoke directly:

“Attack me with everything you have. Use every means you currently possess—martial techniques, magic skills, no restrictions on method.”

“I need to accurately assess your current level before giving you targeted guidance.”

Mo Lan took a deep breath, without the slightest hesitation.

She knew this was a necessary step, and also the best opportunity to demonstrate and probe.

She entered combat mode instantly. The refined iron long blade left its sheath, she pushed off with her feet, and her figure shot forward like an arrow.

Just as the blade was about to reach Instructor Yan Shuang, the instructor’s figure shifted ever so slightly to one side like a phantom, effortlessly evading by a hair’s breadth.

But Mo Lan wasn’t surprised. Her martial technique level far surpassed her classmates, but compared to Instructor Yan Shuang, the gap was still too vast.

She didn’t need to think about winning or losing right now. She only needed to push her learned martial techniques and her newly extracted Lesser Mirror Image skill to their absolute limits, displaying them before Instructor Yan Shuang.

Her left hand quietly palmed a dark-attribute beast core while her right hand’s blade momentum continued unabated. Her left hand was already rising.

Another “Mo Lan” appeared instantly behind and to the side of Yan Shuang, lunging forward in an attack posture, while Mo Lan’s true body shifted her blade from a downward chop into a sweeping slash, cutting off Yan Shuang’s retreat.

However, Yan Shuang didn’t even turn her head. She merely extended two fingers and flicked them against the sweeping blade with pinpoint precision!

Clang!

A tremendous force surged through. Mo Lan—whose body strength was maintained at the level expected of a talented student her age thanks to the weakness potion she’d consumed—felt a sharp pain shoot through the webbing between her thumb and forefinger. The long blade nearly flew from her grasp as she staggered backward uncontrollably.

Mo Lan steadied herself and charged in again, her blade work becoming more cunning and unpredictable. She continuously used beast core energy to cast Lesser Mirror Image for interference. Though each attempt was easily neutralized by Yan Shuang, Mo Lan was rapidly adjusting and adapting under the extreme pressure.

Yan Shuang used only the barest minimum of force throughout, barely even shifting her position, yet she stood like an insurmountable mountain. Every block, every dodge, every effortless counterattack struck precisely at the key nodes of Mo Lan’s force circulation—making her so uncomfortable she nearly coughed blood, yet also allowing her to clearly see her own openings and deficiencies.

This one-sided “crushing” lasted a full half hour.

Mo Lan hadn’t had her fill of fighting yet, but her apparent stamina and psychic power should have been depleted by now. To avoid exposing her identity, she had no choice but to feign exhaustion, leaning on her blade and “pretending” to gasp violently for breath.

Yan Shuang tossed her a small bottle of recovery potion: “Drink it. Five minutes of rest, then we continue!”

A one-star recovery potion worth several thousand mirror coins each, and Instructor Yan Shuang just handed it to her like that.

Mo Lan felt a surge of delight. She took the potion and downed it in one gulp, feeling her strength slowly return.

She used those precious five minutes to steady her breathing and organize her thoughts.

The moment the five minutes were up, Mo Lan raised her blade again and charged fiercely at Instructor Yan Shuang!

She wanted to immediately put into practice the ideas that had just occurred to her.

And so the cycle repeated.

After Mo Lan had consumed three bottles of recovery potion in succession and gone through three rounds of all-out yet completely suppressed and continuously corrected “live combat” with Yan Shuang, the instructor finally raised her hand, signaling a stop.

“Your body tempering results far exceed your peers, your psychic power growth is also very fast, your martial technique fundamentals are solid, and your skill execution has decent stability and endurance.”

“But the problems are equally glaring.”

“Your force application is far too crude—completely unworthy of your current physical capabilities. When you throw ten-tenths of your strength, at least four-tenths is wasted, with effective lethality under six-tenths.”

“You have some awareness of skill chaining, but your intent is far too obvious. It’s too raw.”

These two assessments hit the nail on the head, striking precisely at Mo Lan’s greatest current weaknesses.

Hearing this, Mo Lan nodded deeply, thoroughly convinced.

These were indeed her critical issues—not just now, but problems that had always existed, whether for the version of her that concealed her true strength, or for her at full power.

Even in the world of Valen, as a supremely gifted Sorceress, her mana growth rate was terrifying, she had mastered countless spells, and her physical capabilities—enhanced by the Dietary Fortification Card—rivaled those of magical beasts. Yet she distinctly lacked the tempering of life-and-death combat.

This meant that while her theoretical knowledge and power reserves were extraordinarily deep, when actually facing an enemy—how to most efficiently and skillfully apply every ounce of force, how to combine different spells into lethal chains that were nearly impossible to defend against—these remained areas where her theory far outstripped her practice.

Now, these same problems manifested just as clearly in this identity that had been weakened countless times over.

After her critique, Yan Shuang immediately offered a solution: “For these two deficiencies, theorizing is utterly meaningless. Only through genuine combat training—repeated tempering in life-and-death battles—can they be improved.”

Hearing this, Mo Lan’s heart stirred. This was exactly the opening she’d been waiting for!

She immediately seized the moment, her tone carrying just the right measure of earnestness and determination: “You’re absolutely right, Instructor! I’ve felt this enormous gap as well. So I’d like to apply to enter the mirror space more often for exploration—to improve myself through real combat by hunting mirror beasts!”

Perhaps she could truly use this opportunity to experience more battles in this world under the guise of an ordinary Mirror Explorer—suppressing her true strength, forgoing any overpowered magic—and fill the gap in her most lacking area: real combat experience.

At the same time, hunting mirror beasts would provide her with a steady supply of beast cores, useful for analyzing skills and disguising her spellcasting.

“Approved!” Yan Shuang produced three small mirrors and handed them to her:

“These are specially crafted spatial passes for the Kaleidoscope Wilderness, Moss Stone Forest, and Water-Eroded Caverns. Crush them to be teleported out instantly.”

“However, passes without other restrictions like these are limited. Before your class graduates, each person can only receive a maximum of three. I suggest you only use them when your life is in danger.”

“The exits for Moss Stone Forest and Water-Eroded Caverns are at…”