Crooked Logic Breaks Moves, Misaligned Energy First Shows Its Edge

The sword's momentum was like lightning, aiming straight for the throat. Chen Wuya stood his ground, a surging warmth in his palm. The power hadn't fully formed, yet it made his spine tingle.

He didn't retreat.

Just as the two swords closed in, the tattered pages on his chest suddenly burned, as if seared by fire. The cold voice in his mind rang out again: "Misaligned perception superimposed, path reconstruction complete."

A torrent of true energy exploded from his dantian, surging upwards along meridians it had never traversed. The hand lesser yang triple burner meridian, the foot greater yang bladder meridian, even the belt meridian, which shouldn't have been activated at this moment, were forcefully opened by this twisted force. His arm trembled uncontrollably, his left palm pushing outwards against the inside of his right arm, the movement so bizarre it looked like a bone was dislocating.

"Clang!"

A piercing metallic shriek exploded through the forest.

The sword of the disciple on the left vibrated slightly in mid-air, its edge shifting by an inch, colliding fiercely with his companion's blade. Sparks flew, and both men froze in surprise.

The combined attack was broken.

Chen Wuya himself was taken aback. He hadn't expected this push to work, nor that the system would not only complete the energy circulation but also forcibly correct the trajectory of the moves—even if that trajectory was completely wrong to any normal observer.

But it was precisely this "wrongness" that disrupted the opponents' rhythm.

The sword-wielding disciple roared, twisting his wrist and bringing his sword tip back to seal Chen Wuya's escape route with "Breaking the Flow" from the Qingfeng Thirteen Forms. The other quickly retreated half a step, raising his compass, its needle humming as it pointed towards Chen Wuya's chest.

"Don't let him move again!"

"He's using some evil technique, quickly restrain his meridians!"

Before the words fell, the two sword shadows converged again.

Chen Wuya gritted his teeth and stomped his foot, his body flickering as he darted out diagonally using the Universe Reversal Step. This footwork was a rogue technique he'd learned from watching street performers in the academy, completely lacking in formal structure, yet he had forcefully integrated it into the breathing rhythm of the Canglang Art. The system seemed to deem this "non-compliant" movement as another "misunderstanding," guiding the true energy towards the foot lesser yin kidney meridian, making his legs suddenly lighter by a third.

He narrowly brushed past the sword's edge, his shoulder fabric tearing open, his skin stinging.

"When you practice swordsmanship," he said, retreating rapidly, his voice not loud but clear enough to reach both men, "do you always think about 'smoothness'? Smooth energy flow, smooth move transitions, even your footsteps must be placed precisely and orderly?"

The two disciples' attacks faltered.

"But what about water?" he sneered. "When rivers surge, which part is perfectly straight? The more bends, the stronger the current. You practice the Canglang Art like a straight line, no wonder you get stuck every time you try to circulate through the Guanyuan Acupoint."

The expression of the one holding the compass changed subtly.

Those words... were too accurate.

They had indeed felt that sluggishness when they first started, and their master had attributed it to insufficient foundation, requiring diligent practice to resolve. But this kid in front of them, who hadn't even formally entered the sect, how could he know these subtle details?

"Shut up!" the sword-wielding disciple bellowed, his sword momentum rising again. "If I don't cripple your meridians today, I can't quell the hatred in my heart!"

Sword light poured down like a waterfall, overwhelming him.

Chen Wuya stopped speaking, crossing his palms in front of his chest as the true energy within him churned madly. He knew that the previous move had been his limit; he might not trigger the system's completion again if he tried it once more. But he also understood that the real "misaligned energy" wasn't in the moves themselves, but in the opponents' blind spots of perception.

He deliberately slowed his steps, letting the tree trunk behind him press against his back.

Seeing that he had nowhere left to retreat, he suddenly grinned and whispered, "Have you ever tried... treating 'going against the flow' as the right way?"

The next instant, he took a sharp breath, a reverse abdominal breathing technique, his chest caving in like a dried well. Simultaneously, he forcefully reversed the flow of true energy through the Governing Vessel Meridian, from the Weilu straight up to the Baihui—a dangerous upward surge through a major acupoint strictly forbidden by all orthodox cultivation methods!

The pupils of the two disciples constricted.

This wasn't going berserk, what else could it be?

But just as they were filled with shock and doubt, Chen Wuya thrust his palms forward violently.

The palm wind wasn't strong, not even a trace of external force leaked out. Yet, invisible ripples seemed to spread through the air, and fallen leaves in front of them suddenly swirled up, forming a brief obstruction between the two men.

In that instant, their combined attack formation experienced a half-second delay.

Enough.

Chen Wuya leaped up, using a branch for leverage, and flipped himself into the dense forest. Branches scraped his cheeks, but he ignored the pain, desperately fleeing forward.

Roars erupted from behind him: "Chase him! We absolutely cannot let him escape!"

"That aura he had just now... it shouldn't exist at all!"

Chen Wuya lowered his body, weaving through the bushes. He could feel the heat within him dissipating, the strange power receding like a tide. But this time, he didn't panic.

He knew it wasn't an illusion.

Nor was it luck.

It was a path to survival forged from "wrongness."

As he moved swiftly, he silently recited the system prompt: "Misaligned perception superimposed, path reconstruction." He tried to deliberately twist his breathing rhythm, guiding the true energy in reverse to impact the foot lesser yin kidney meridian. As expected, his legs felt lighter again, his steps becoming even more swift.

A fork appeared ahead, one path leading to the wilderness, the other winding into a valley.

He deliberately left a few clear footprints on the straight path, then leaped onto a horizontal branch, hanging upside down for over a hundred feet before quietly landing, rolling into a pile of decaying leaves.

A moment later, the two Qingfeng disciples reached the fork.

"This way!" the one with the compass pointed down the straight path. "The aura residue is obvious!"

"Wait." The other crouched down to examine the ground. "He couldn't have left such deep footprints at the speed he was going—someone is deliberately misleading us."

"Whether it's true or false, let's chase!"

"Did you forget what the stewards ordered? The Sect Master wants him alive, not a single mistake allowed."

After a brief discussion, the two decided to split up. One pursued down the straight path, while the other turned into the mountain valley trail.

The forest returned to silence.

Chen Wuya, hidden beneath a pile of decaying leaves, held his breath and gently parted a gap in the dead foliage with his fingertips. He watched as the disciple holding the compass turned and left, his cloak sweeping over the tips of the grass as he gradually disappeared into the distance.

He slowly exhaled a breath of stale air, his palm still feeling a slight numbness.

That last battle had nearly exhausted his mind. But more importantly, he had touched the threshold of "misaligned energy"—it wasn't simply about circulating energy, but about completely subverting common martial arts knowledge. The more it defied logic, the easier it was to trigger the system's completion mechanism.

He reached into his robes, his fingers brushing against the half-tattered page. The paper felt warm, as if it had come alive.

So it's not me practicing the technique.

It's the technique adapting to me.

Shouts, mixed with the faint clanging of metal, drifted from afar. Clearly, the search had not ended.

He slowly got to his feet, brushing the fallen leaves off his clothes. Just as he was about to move again, he heard a faint rustling sound from the trees behind him.

He turned his head and saw a horizontal branch swaying slightly, a sliver of moon-white fabric glimpsed through the gaps in the leaves.

Someone climbed a tree?

His heart tightened. Just as he prepared to dodge, he saw that the figure didn't descend. Instead, it lay quietly among the branches, seemingly also in hiding.

Could it be... the other party also discovered something?

Chen Wuya narrowed his eyes, remaining silent. He slowly retreated a few steps, circling around to the other side of a tree, using the shadows for cover, and quietly looked up.

The person had their back to him. Their figure was slender, and the silver sash at their waist fluttered slightly in the wind. They held a long, thin sword in their hand, the sapphire on the sword's tassel flashing and disappearing.

Not one of the pursuers.

Another bystander.

The corners of his lips curved upwards. Just as he was about to speak, the other person suddenly raised a hand and made a "shushing" gesture.

Immediately after, the sound of footsteps approached again from a distance.

Chen Wuya lowered his head instantly, pressing himself against the tree trunk.

The other person didn't move either, still lying on the branch, like a leaf blended into the night.

A gust of wind stirred in the forest, rolling up a few dead leaves.

Chen Wuya stared at the moon-white figure and suddenly asked in a low voice, "You also think... they're practicing it wrong?"