Shen Yuan raised an eyebrow, amused by her hesitation. “Hurt me? You have got it all wrong. You have better chances to become immortal than to hurt me in your current state. You just need to think about how you can improve yourself rather than worrying about me. Now, come attack me.”
Wan Ling bit her lip, then took a deep breath, her eyes focusing on Shen Yuan. She got into her fighting stance, gathering her Qi and focusing it in her palms.
Her energy flared around her body as she launched a swift palm strike towards Shen Yuan.
Shen Yuan stood on the spot, looking calmly at the arriving palm strike. With a slight movement of his wrist, he effortlessly deflected the palm strike, causing Wan Ling to stumble forward.
But she quickly recovered her stance and attempted to strike his ribs from the side, which he dodged by side-stepping a bit. She didn’t relent and followed up with relentless attacks—palm strikes, kicks, and a swift punch aimed at his chest.
Each attack was easily dodged or blocked by him with minimal effort.
“Your stance is too rigid,” Shen Yuan pointed out as he continued to dodge her flurry of attacks. “You’re focusing too much on power while ignoring precision and flexibility.”
Wan Ling huffed, feeling both frustrated and determined to land at least an attack on him. She tried to incorporate his advice, adjusting her stance and toning down her aggression as she looked toward Shen Yuan more calmly. Yet her attacks still failed to connect with him.
After a few more exchanges, Shen Yun finally decided to counter her as he flicked her forehead, making her take a step back and clutch her head in pain. “See? You are leaving too many openings. Your attacks are too monotone, try to bring some unpredictability to your attacks. If you want to improve, then you need to learn how to flow between movements without pausing.”
He paused and saw that she was listening intently, nodding his head, “Again. This time, focus on the element of unpredictableness in your attacks. Don’t just throw your attacks at random, make them flow as if you are weaving a tale,”
Wan Ling wiped the sweat from her brow as she still felt some lingering pain on her forehead from that flick. But she soon resumed her stance, greatly improving it as she attacked again.
This time attempting to have more fluidity in her moves, switching between strikes and kicks more naturally. Shen Yuan smiled lightly and nodded in approval as she finally began to show progress.
However, he still handled her easily, deflecting each move without breaking a sweat.
They continued training like this for hours, with Shen Yuan patiently guiding Wan Ling, correcting her form, and advising her. Despite the intense training, Wan Ling was still energetic as she felt the improvements that she had made today.
Near the evening, Wan Ling collapsed onto the floor of the room, panting heavily and drenched in sweat, the disciple’s robes stuck closely to her body, making her enchanting form more visible.
“You’re too fast, Senior Brother…I can’t keep up…” She spoke through rugged breaths.
Shen Yuan chuckled and sat down beside her, “You did well, Wan Ling. You have improved visibly compared to when we started. If you keep this level of dedication then you will become an Inner Sect disciple in no time.”
Wan Ling smiled weakly, “Thank you, Senior Brother. But I was able to improve this much today because of you. If you weren’t guiding me then I wouldn’t have improved so much.”
Shen Yuan chuckled softly, “You don’t need to worry about that, we will train together often from now on. For now, you should go into seclusion for some time and comprehend the technique that you got today.”
Wan Ling’s eyes lit up at the mention of her new technique, “Yes! I will comprehend that technique and will try to learn it myself. But…” she hesitated at the end of her words.
Shen Yuan shook his head and stood up, extending a hand to help her to her feet, “That’s enough for today, and you don’t need to hesitate. I will help you practice that technique once you comprehend it and can use it at least.”
Wan Ling gratefully accepted his hand with a faint blush on her face, “You don’t need to waste your time on me. I will somehow manag-”
Before she could finish her sentence, Shen Yuan interjected, “No need to say more, if you like to train with me then you can come to find me in my courtyard whenever you are free.”
Wan Ling felt butterflies in her stomach as she nodded her head, “Hnm.”
With a final wave, Shen Yuan made his way back to his courtyard, enjoying the peace and quiet of the evening. “The training session was quite fun, my time would get boring in the sect without getting to tease and spar with her haa…” He spoke aloud in a lazy tone, but then thought of something else, “Should I look for another disciple to play around with for a few days or go to the inner sect?”
He hummed to himself as he opened the gates of his courtyard and entered inside, then went towards his table below the plum blossom tree and sat down.
Shen Yuan leaned back in his chair beneath the plum blossom tree, feeling the cool evening breeze. He closed his eyes and thought back to his training session with Wan Ling.
A faint smile formed on his lips as he remembered her determined face and her progress. But his thoughts quickly turned to a more important matter—how to handle his new cultivation system.
“Yue Lan,” Shen Yuan called her name, as she manifested into her cat form on his lap.
[Nyaa~ what do you want, Shen Yuan?]
She stretched as she asked lazily.
Shen Yuan didn’t open his eyes as he continued to lie down on his chair as he asked, “I’ve picked up a new cultivation technique from the sect today, but I don’t know how to start cultivating it exactly as it wasn’t made for someone with multiple dantians. Can you tell me where I can begin?”
Yue Lan comfortably lay down on his lap and spoke in a lazy tone,
[Oh? You finally remembered about your cultivation? I thought you would rather play with the disciples of the sect than cultivate. And cultivating any technique with your…unique body is going to be quite tricky…if you didn’t have me with you.]
Shen Yuan opened his eyes slightly and glanced in his lap to see Yue Lan lying peacefully, he still asked, “Tricky how?”
[Well, for starters, you have 366 dantians. And the absolute majority of people only have one, so cultivation techniques are designed with that in mind. The Radiant Lotus Cultivation Art focuses on channeling the Qi into your body and refining it into radiant Qi which will flow into a single dantian, refining it into a powerful life essence that can be used for offense and defense. You, however, have to manage the flow of Qi flowing through multiple Dantians, making sure they don’t clash with each other.]
