Chapter 794 – Three Thousand Mirror Ruins 61

Chapter 794 – Three Thousand Mirror Ruins 61

However, those high-star beast cores had all been obtained while she was using psychic power to cast mage magic, or using mana to cast Witch Magic.

Now, without her disguise, she needed to suppress her physical capabilities back to the level expected of a fifteen-year-old prodigious middle school student’s body conditioning, and could only use martial blade techniques along with the two one-star skills she had already publicly demonstrated—Glimmer Phantom and Starlight Flash.

Under these conditions, she could at most fight a two-star mirror beast to a standstill. To independently kill a three-star mirror beast, she was still a touch short.

“Give me everything you’ve got. Come at me.” Yan Shuang stood with blade in hand. “Let me see how much your practical combat ability has grown over this past year in Gushing Spring Forest Sea—beyond just psychic power.”

Mo Lan nodded without the slightest hesitation. She shifted her footing and burst forward like a leopard, the long blade in her hand slicing through the air with fierce momentum, aimed straight at Instructor Yan Shuang’s center line.

The speed, angle, and force behind this strike were as sharp and lethal as a true warrior’s.

A barely perceptible flash of surprise crossed Yan Shuang’s eyes. With a light flick of her wrist, her blade rose to intercept with pinpoint precision.

Clang!

The two blades collided, ringing out a crisp note.

Blocked on the first strike, Mo Lan didn’t pause for an instant. She redirected her blade’s momentum into a downward slash, transitioning between moves with extraordinary speed while simultaneously sidestepping, searching for gaps in Instructor Yan Shuang’s defense.

Her attacks were not wild hacking, but carried clear purpose and continuity, as though honed through a thousand rounds of tempering.

Yan Shuang stood immovable as a mountain, her blade following her body—parrying, blocking, redirecting, deflecting—always neutralizing Mo Lan’s offensive with the smallest possible movements, perfectly measured every time.

Her defense was airtight, and all the while she carefully observed every detail of Mo Lan’s technique.

The longer they exchanged blows, the greater the surprise in Yan Shuang’s heart.

She clearly remembered that over a year ago, although Mo Lan’s talent in martial arts could only be described as monstrous, her actual combat application had been quite raw—lacking the experience and killing intent that could only be forged through real battle.

Yet now, her combat awareness and practical techniques had undergone a complete transformation! Every strike was decisive and ruthless. Her timing was extraordinarily sharp. After being blocked, her transitions flowed naturally, and she could even anticipate some of Yan Shuang’s follow-up moves and interfere with them.

This kind of composure, decisiveness, and precise grasp of distance—the sort that could only be tempered through life-and-death combat—was something no simulated training could ever bestow.

Clearly, during this past year in Gushing Spring Forest Sea, she had not merely been hiding and cultivating psychic power. She had gone through countless real battles without a moment’s slack, truly converting the pressure of life and death into nourishment for her combat ability.

“Not bad!” Yan Shuang said after deflecting a tricky diagonal slash from Mo Lan—a rare word of praise from her—but her offensive immediately intensified. “But it’s not enough!”

Her blade work instantly became a raging storm, her power and speed surging by more than a single level. Every slash contained multiple potential follow-up variations, placing enormous pressure on Mo Lan.

Mo Lan immediately felt the oppressive weight of Instructor Yan Shuang’s relentless, flowing blade work.

She pushed her body and the blade in her hand to their absolute limits, dodging and parrying with difficulty. Fine beads of sweat quickly appeared at her temples. Though she relied on her rich combat experience and instinctive sense for danger to narrowly avoid vital strikes time and again, the situation had completely turned against her.

After several minutes, Yan Shuang’s blade tip stopped with perfect precision, hovering barely an inch from Mo Lan’s throat.

“That’s enough.” Yan Shuang withdrew her blade and stepped back, looking at Mo Lan—slightly breathless yet with eyes alight—and had already formed her assessment. “Your combat awareness and reaction speed have truly been reborn compared to a year ago.” Yan Shuang first affirmed Mo Lan’s progress, then shifted tone to point out her weaknesses:

“What you lack now is further systematic cultivation of your martial techniques.

“The few martial arts you learned before are no longer sufficient for you.

“Too many of your movements come from instinct and experience—efficient, but lacking refinement. Against an opponent of equal strength, you might win through sheer experience. But against a truly skilled martial artist whose power application far exceeds yours, these unsystematic rough methods will become your vulnerabilities.”

As she spoke, Yan Shuang had already decided on the next phase of training. “Going forward, I’ll teach you several formidable blade techniques and dagger arts. I’ll also selectively teach you other martial skills as appropriate. What you need to do is thoroughly fuse the combat awareness you’ve forged in real battle with these formal techniques, achieving true freedom of execution—striking and withdrawing entirely at will.”

Mo Lan nodded with sincere conviction, her eyes filled with anticipation.

This was indeed the shortcoming she currently needed to address, and the key to another leap in her strength.

Instructor Yan Shuang’s intensive martial arts training had officially begun.

Over the next three months, Mo Lan devoted all her daytime hours to near-manic martial arts training.

When Instructor Yan Shuang had no classes scheduled, Mo Lan trained under her, learning the blade techniques and dagger arts she excelled in most.

When Instructor Yan Shuang had classes, Mo Lan didn’t idle either. She transformed into an insatiable sponge, frequenting the training grounds of every martial arts instructor at the school.

At the boxing instructor’s training ground, she learned various fist techniques for concentrating force into punches, palm strikes, finger jabs, elbow strikes, and knee attacks—mastering how to fight bare-handed when without a weapon.

At the footwork instructor’s training ground, she trained under all manner of complex and hostile simulated environments, learning methods to maintain agility, stability, and swiftness under any adverse conditions.

At the archery instructor’s training ground, she took up the longbow, training her arm strength, visual acuity, patience, focus, and comprehensive environmental judgment.

At the heavy axe instructor’s training ground, she experimented with wide, sweeping attacks that crushed through opposition with absolute force. This understanding fed back into her blade work, lending certain heavy cleaving strikes a sense of overwhelming power.

The evenings were the time Instructor Yan Shuang had set aside for body conditioning and psychic power cultivation. Mo Lan spent them on the beast cores she had brought back from Gushing Spring Forest Sea.

One by one, she analyzed the skill imprints contained within, using them as foundations to construct corresponding spell structures.

Three months of high-intensity, comprehensive training flew by.

Mo Lan’s physique had become more streamlined, brimming with explosive power. Every movement she made carried the lethal edge of someone tempered through a thousand trials.

Though she still suppressed her psychic power level to around Three-Star Second Stage, her practical combat ability—especially at the martial arts level—had been utterly transformed.

If she were to encounter a three-star mirror beast again, she now had the confidence to complete a solo frontal kill using the long blade in her hand, the dagger at her waist, and the other weapons in her storage mirror accessory.

And if she didn’t suppress her physical capabilities, she was even confident she could hunt a six-star mirror beast through martial arts alone.