The Art of Application Lies in the Heart

As Miejue's contemptuous voice pierced the ears of the three men, her true qi circulated. Her wide sleeves seemed to transform into ribbons of cloud descending from the heavens, gently brushing toward the nearest Third Leader.

The sleeves appeared slow, yet were swift as lightning, leaving the three with no time to react.

Almost the instant Miejue flicked her sleeve, the one-eyed Third Leader felt an incomparably strange spiraling force burst from his saber hilt.

The ruthless force of his blow, heavy enough to split mountains, was deftly guided, dispersed, and diverted by that gentle sweep, veering from its intended path like raging waves crashing into a reef whirlpool.

The heavy demon-head saber carried his entire body stumbling crookedly to the side, its momentum completely out of control.

Instead, it threw him off balance. The tendons in his right arm felt as though they were being twisted and torn apart by a giant python, and a piercing pain shot through the one-eyed Third Leader.

At almost the same instant, the Second Leader gave a low shout and swung his twin hammers down one after the other with the force to split mountains and shatter stone.

The melon-shaped hammers looked no bigger than three adult fists each, yet each weighed over forty jin.

Coupled with the force behind their swings, if they landed, the result would surely be shattered skulls and dead men.

Miejue did not even look at the massive hammers crashing down. Her left palm rose casually toward the hammer shadows.

The edge of her palm gleamed beneath the firelight with a layer of almost tangible jade-green radiance.

The instant it touched the melon-shaped hammers, they actually reversed course and flew toward the First Leader, who had just approached from the side.

Startled, he hurriedly raised a palm to strike them away.

Palm met hammer, and both men staggered back several steps, their blood and qi churning within them.

In a single exchange, Miejue had effortlessly neutralized the combined assault of all three.

Her calm, unhurried manner made it clear that she had not yet used her full strength.

Just as Gu Shao'an wondered why Miejue had suddenly changed her ways and shown mercy to the three men, her lips parted slightly, and her gentle voice, bolstered by true qi, reached his ears with perfect clarity.

"Shao'an."

Gu Shao'an immediately focused his gaze and replied, "Master."

"Watch carefully."

The words had barely reached Gu Shao'an's ears when Miejue's figure slipped like a ghost into the center of the three men as they regrouped.

What followed was Miejue's form turning into blurred jade-green afterimages. With every palm strike, she did not seek a thunderous instant kill, but precisely sealed the position one of them would inevitably need to defend.

Her twin palms whirled through the air. In Miejue's hands, the Golden Summit Cotton Palm was sometimes like gathering drifting clouds, soft and entwining; at other times, like mountains toppling and seas overturning, incomparably fierce.

At that moment, Miejue suddenly raised a hand. Using the third form of the Golden Summit Cotton Palm, Pine Breeze Sending the Moon, she spun away the force of the melon-shaped hammer before her. Then she lashed out with a backhand palm like a whip, chopping straight at the one-eyed Third Leader's ribs and forcing him to dodge frantically to the right.

Afterward, Miejue lightly raised her hand, her fingertips brushing across a vital point at the First Leader's waist.

Startled into a sudden retreat, the First Leader's sweeping palm wind passed across the Second Leader's face, forcing him to raise his hammer to block and leaving him completely exposed.

Though the three possessed tremendous strength and were vicious beyond measure, they were now led about by the ever-present palm shadows and their strangely shifting rhythm like puppets controlled by invisible threads, completely trapped within the "cage" Miejue shaped at will.

While suppressing the struggles of the three bandit chiefs, Miejue calmly explained things to Gu Shao'an.

"Shao'an, your talent is extraordinary, and your comprehension exceptional. Yet on the path of martial arts, the art of application lies in the heart."

Her figure moved calmly through saber flashes, hammer shadows, and the sharp gleam of eagle claws, her words utterly clear.

"When masters fight, victory and defeat do not depend solely on the depth of one's inner power or the strangeness of one's moves. True control lies in trapping your opponent within the net you have prepared, allowing you to anticipate every step and seize the initiative."

As she spoke, she pressed a seemingly gentle palm against the Third Leader's saber spine. He immediately felt an irresistible pull trying to drag his saber into the First Leader. Alarmed, he desperately yanked it back.

"Look. If I want his saber to veer left, then he cannot go straight."

There was a trace of cold demonstration in Miejue's voice.

She abruptly changed moves, dropping her shoulder and driving into the Second Leader's centerline. As her force issued slightly, the Second Leader immediately let out a muffled groan.

The heavy melon-shaped hammer was actually wrenched from his grasp by an overwhelming force and smashed toward the Third Leader, who had only just steadied himself.

"He cannot shift right, and escaping left is also a cage. Like marionettes, every step leads them into my snare. With neither advance nor retreat under their control, life and death rest entirely in my hands."

The three bandit chiefs, who normally tyrannized everyone around them, were now drenched in sweat and struggling to breathe beneath Miejue's palm wind.

Every breakthrough or counterattack they believed they had found only led them deeper into that invisible rhythm of death.

Nothing remained in their eyes but extreme terror as they watched the jade-green figure who controlled everything like a god or demon. For the first time, they clearly felt the gulf between them, vast as heaven and earth.

If Miejue had not wanted to use the three of them as teaching material for Gu Shao'an, how could they still be alive?

She would have killed each of them with a single palm strike long ago.

Firelight cast their faces into alternating brightness and shadow. The one-eyed Third Leader had long lost his previous rage; like the other two bandit chiefs, only fear remained on his face and in his heart.

Watching Miejue's palms whirl as her palm wind and shadows formed a cage around the three bandit chiefs, Gu Shao'an's expression was incomparably focused. In his mind, he constantly placed himself in Miejue's position.

The battle in the clearing continued, and Miejue's voice occasionally reached Gu Shao'an's ears.

As time passed, Gu Shao'an's thoughts suddenly became more active.

Ideas surged through his mind like a tide, one after another without end.

In this unique state, Gu Shao'an's thoughts became noticeably more active.

Gradually, his thoughts began to change.

At first, he considered the deeper meaning behind every one of Miejue's moves, then the transformations in her techniques whenever she acted.

In the end, Gu Shao'an even began to place himself in Miejue's position, imagining what moves the three bandit chiefs would use next and how he himself should respond with the Golden Summit Cotton Palm.

Sometimes his imagined sequence resembled Miejue's next move; sometimes it differed.

But after carefully considering and comparing them, the moves Miejue used were more suitable and required less effort than his own.

Noticing Gu Shao'an sometimes frown and sometimes relax his brow, Miejue's eyes crinkled with a smile.

Miejue had seen this reaction from Gu Shao'an many times on Emei Mountain.

It was precisely the expression he wore whenever he gained some insight during cultivation.

Seeing Gu Shao'an reveal that expression again, how could Miejue not know that he had gained some understanding from her instruction?

She immediately continued using the Golden Summit Cotton Palm to control the three bandit chiefs before her, allowing Gu Shao'an to observe.

Gu Shao'an, meanwhile, devoted himself wholeheartedly to observing Miejue's battle with the three bandit chiefs, occasionally showing a look of sudden realization.

After a long while, a notification abruptly appeared before Gu Shao'an.

Congratulations, player. Combat awareness has reached the beginner level. Achievement Points +200.