The Soaring Dragon Phantom Step

Early in the morning.

Hua Shuya finished a sword-dance routine, sheathed her sword, and walked over, a trace of puzzlement on her pretty face.

"Senior, what happened to Madam Mao? Yesterday, her face was full of sorrow, and she looked guarded and uneasy. But today, she looks so refreshed, smiling like a flower."

She even felt that Mao Ruoyu's complexion and skin seemed several shades better. She looked almost as if she had been reborn as an entirely different person.

That mature charm blooming from within left even her deeply dazzled.

"Madam Mao possesses a peculiar ability. She isn't an ordinary person."

Lin Tianlu lowered the scroll in his hands and chuckled. "Yesterday, she was restrained because she feared we would regard her as ill-omened. That was why she had been so careful at every turn, afraid of making a mistake. I spoke with her briefly last night and made it clear that Miss Hua and I aren't prejudiced people. There's no need for her to worry."

Hua Shuya suddenly understood.

"So Madam Mao really had such concerns. It seems I'll have to soften my tone a little from now on."

Lin Tianlu teased, "If you say a few more nice things, Madam Mao might even give you an extra helping at dinner."

The girl's pretty face flushed faintly. She unconsciously touched her flat stomach.

She practiced swordsmanship every day, so naturally she ate a little more than ordinary people. Madam Mao's cooking only whetted her appetite further, and she liked it immensely.

Seemingly a little embarrassed, the girl hurriedly coughed lightly.

"Senior, there are some things in martial arts that I don't understand. I hope I may ask you for guidance."

"Martial arts?"

Lin Tianlu asked curiously, "Your swordsmanship?"

"It's the Soaring Dragon Phantom Step that Senior gave me to study a few days ago."

Hua Shuya pulled a manual from her robes with a troubled expression. "Although I've practiced according to the diagrams and explanations, I still only have a vague understanding of many parts, and my movements are constrained everywhere when I perform it."

Lin Tianlu accepted the manual and flipped through it. "Why don't you demonstrate it for me, Miss Hua?"

"All right!"

Hua Shuya drew a deep breath and quickly retreated into the courtyard.

In the next instant, a wisp of cool breeze seemed to ripple beneath her feet. Her graceful figure danced lightly, and she even stepped onto a tree trunk and soared into the air, spinning before landing nimbly on the roof.

Lin Tianlu stared upward, dumbfounded.

What the heck was that...

It was flashy and beautiful.

How was it completely different from the old-man disco he had practiced back then?!

"I've made a fool of myself before Senior."

Hua Shuya leaped down, her exquisite figure landing lightly, her skirts billowing like a heavenly maiden descending to earth.

Lin Tianlu rubbed his chin with a strange expression. "Miss Hua, this movement technique... where do you think you practiced it incorrectly?"

"My inner breath seems blocked. Although my movement is much faster than before, it's also more exhausting. It runs counter to the manual's description of 'an endless cycle of inner breath.'"

Hua Shuya furrowed her delicate brows in distress. "The first stage is already this difficult. I'm afraid I don't have enough comprehension to understand the remaining four stages."

"Miss Hua, there's no need to belittle yourself. Everything must be done step by step."

Lin Tianlu looked through the manual in his hand again. Before long, his expression shifted, and he fell into thought.

A few days ago, he had only skimmed the manual, still completely lost before its obscure formulas and mental methods.

But now, studying it closely, he could already see some of its wondrous essence. It seemed to mesh rather well with the scriptures and poetry he had been studying these days, concealing a profound artistic conception.

He pondered for a while before suddenly speaking. "Miss Hua, stab at me with your sword."

Hua Shuya froze. "Senior, you're..."

"I've gained a little insight, so I might as well give it a try." Lin Tianlu kept staring at the manual in his hands, not raising his eyes even once.

Insight?!

Hua Shuya was startled. Then her pretty face turned solemn, and she immediately drew her sword and thrust.

"—Huh?"

She quickly became bewildered.

The senior who had been sitting before her had suddenly vanished without a sound, only to appear at his right side, still looking down at his book.

"Could I have seen wrong?"

The girl hurriedly rubbed her eyes, focused her gaze, and thrust her sword again.

But when the sword shot out, the figure before her dissolved like a reflection in a mirror or the moon in water, fading into an afterimage.

This strange and unfathomable scene made Hua Shuya realize what had happened, and her heart was shaken to the core.

"This is—"

The fifth stage recorded in the Soaring Dragon Phantom Step... Mirror Flowers and Water Moon, Hidden Dragon Without Trace?!

"This movement technique is rather interesting."

Lin Tianlu's voice sounded quietly.

Hua Shuya hurriedly turned around. "Senior?!"

"Miss Hua, although this movement technique is quite profound when first learned, it actually isn't difficult. It's just that its core mental method involves many different schools of thought, so you'll need to study and investigate it carefully."

Lin Tianlu turned back with a smile and casually closed the manual. "I'll give you a few scriptures to read later. If you compare the mental methods against one another, you'll certainly be able to apply what you learn."

"Sc-scripts?"

Seeing the girl's bewildered face, Lin Tianlu couldn't help joking, "Bacon once said that knowledge is power. Miss Hua, it wouldn't hurt for you to occasionally read some poetry and books."

"Senior's teachings... I'll remember them!"

Hua Shuya hurriedly sheathed her sword and clasped her hands.

Lin Tianlu shook his head with a laugh and stopped joking around.

"Miss Hua, perform the Soaring Dragon Phantom Step once more. I'll help point out every mistake."

"All right!"

Hua Shuya soon began stepping and flying through the courtyard again.

Lin Tianlu watched closely, occasionally speaking up to offer guidance and corrections.

Before long, as the girl moved across the courtyard, her figure became difficult to predict, swift and fierce. She had already achieved impressive results.

Throughout the process, Lin Tianlu also sighed inwardly.

Now that Spiritual Energy protected his body, his talent and comprehension in martial arts seemed far beyond ordinary people. The Spiritual Energy within him and the immortal mountain had indeed brought him immeasurable changes.

"Could it be... that I'm really becoming the 'great senior expert' this girl keeps talking about?"

He shook his head and smiled calmly, feeling little turbulence in his heart.

As he wandered through this world, carefree happiness was as precious as Heshibi and the Suihou pearl. Whether he was a great expert or not was merely a worldly reputation. To him, it mattered less than what delicious dishes Madam Mao would prepare for lunch.

Several incense sticks later.

Hua Shuya wiped the sweat from her forehead, feeling completely satisfied.

With Senior's many pointers and teachings, she had already mastered the first stage of the Soaring Dragon Phantom Step. Though she was still inexperienced, the sense of accomplishment nevertheless filled her with pleasure... Let alone that she had achieved it under Senior's guidance. A faint, inexplicable delight stirred in the girl's heart.

But Lin Tianlu, sitting in the pavilion, smiled and asked, "Miss Hua, let me ask you something. Why did you learn this movement technique?"

Hua Shuya pondered briefly. "To flee a thousand miles and move without form?"

Lin Tianlu let out a helpless laugh.

That was far too fancy.

"To put it simply, it's for dodging, so you can run faster when escaping. Otherwise, why learn this movement technique?"

Hua Shuya was rendered speechless, but after thinking it over, it did seem to make sense.

"Actually, this movement technique is like the swordsmanship you practice. If you cling too rigidly to precise, fixed postures, you'll only fall into the inferior path."

Lin Tianlu casually picked up an autumn fruit from the bamboo basket beside him and tossed it toward the girl.

Hua Shuya caught the fruit with a slightly blank expression. "Senior?"

"If the fruit I threw at you had been coated with poison, Miss Hua, what do you think would happen to you now?"

"..."

She tilted her head in confusion. "Would I wash my hands first?"

Lin Tianlu coughed lightly. "Let's say you were afflicted with deadly poison."

"Oh, oh..."

"But think carefully, Miss Hua. If this fruit contained deadly poison and had been thrown as fast as lightning, how would you use your movement technique to dodge it?"

Hua Shuya silently recited several of the movement's forms, then muttered uncertainly, "I'd use the third form, 'Soaring Dragon Turns Back,' to shift my body, then supplement it with the sixth form, 'Stepping Without a Trace,' to dodge the poisoned fruit?"

Lin Tianlu smiled helplessly. "Why make it so complicated? You only need to take one step to the side. Wouldn't the fruit smash into the wall?"

Hua Shuya blinked blankly.

That... did seem to make sense.

"Let's do this, Miss Hua. To master a movement technique in the shortest possible time, nothing beats actual combat."

Lin Tianlu weighed the bamboo basket beside him. "I'll wash these autumn-fruit pits clean and throw them like pebbles. You only need to use your movement technique to dodge as best you can."

Hua Shuya nodded repeatedly. "Then let me help Senior wash the pits."

Not long afterward.

Lin Tianlu carried half a basket of fruit pits and smiled at the girl standing in the courtyard, her expression somewhat tense.

"Miss Hua, there's no need to be so nervous. These skinny arms of mine don't have much strength. You only need to make a token effort to dodge."

He weighed the clean fruit pits in his hand, suddenly filled with emotion.

It was as if he had returned to elementary school, playing a game of tossing beanbags with his classmates and teachers. Back then, every throw of his had been accurate; he had been practically the elementary-school beanbag tyrant.

He had never imagined that he would now be helping the peerless female swordswoman before him train her movement technique...

"Senior, go ahead!"

Hua Shuya seemed somewhat excited, her eyes glimmering faintly.

Seeing Lin Tianlu pick up a fruit pit and prepare to throw it, she focused her gaze and circulated her inner power, ready to perform the movement technique she had just mastered.

She wouldn't lose focus or underestimate him in the slightest—

After all, this was Senior personally accompanying and guiding her in practice. She would certainly dodge with all her strength and would not let Senior down!

—Here it comes!

Hua Shuya's pupils contracted, and her body bent slightly.

Smack!

"Eek!"

She cried out at once, clutching her forehead as she staggered back a step.

Lin Tianlu was a little stunned.

The way this girl had struck her stance just now had been so proper and beautiful that he had thought she was fully prepared.

How had she ended up standing there stiff as a wooden stake, without moving at all?

Where was her Soaring Dragon Phantom Step?

"S-sorry, Senior... I-I might not have reacted in time just now. Please continue!" Hua Shuya's face reddened. After lowering her hand, she hurriedly said, "I'll definitely dodge the next one."

Lin Tianlu took out two more fruit pits and laughed awkwardly. "Miss Hua, you'll have to work harder."

As he spoke, he deliberately reduced his strength and lightly tossed the fruit pits from his hand.

Smack, smack!

Hua Shuya had only just tried to turn sideways when the two fruit pits struck her squarely on the bridge of her nose.

"Mm—"

The girl immediately covered her nose and crouched down on one knee, her eyes brimming with tears as she looked utterly pitiful.

Lin Tianlu fell silent.

Why did it feel as if he were deliberately bullying a young girl?

Or could it be... that this girl's acting rivaled that of a modern-day Best Actress?