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.
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.]