Straight Guy Lessons!

Blade Camp had temporarily cleared out a relatively level patch of ground, turning it into a makeshift "teaching ground."

The air still carried the faint stench of blood and gunpowder, completely at odds with the somewhat bizarre "academic" atmosphere.

Lin Ming stood with his arms folded, expressionless as a statue devoid of emotion.

Before him, Su Yunwan frowned deeply, fine beads of sweat forming on her forehead. Her hands moved slowly in a peculiar rhythm as the blood and qi around her circulated according to the path of the Immovable Mountain Seal, attempting to condense a faint, pale-yellow "mountain phantom" before her.

She had held that posture for nearly ten minutes, yet the phantom remained like a candle flame in the wind, flickering unstably. Forget defense—it looked ready to disperse on its own at any second.

"Stop."

Lin Ming's cold voice rang out, carrying undisguised impatience.

Su Yunwan's body stiffened. She dispersed her blood and qi, then looked at Lin Ming uneasily.

For three days now, she had felt as clumsy as when she had first begun martial training. Before this young man several years her junior, she had been criticized until she was practically worthless.

"What are you doing?"

Lin Ming walked up to her, his gaze cutting over her like knives. "

Your hand seals are stiff as if you've had a stroke, your blood and qi circulation is as stop-start as constipation, and visualization? Are you visualizing cotton candy? It's all light and fluffy, ready to collapse with one poke."

Su Yunwan's pretty face instantly flushed red, half from embarrassment and anger, half from her obstructed blood and qi flow.

When had Su Yunwan ever been verbally torn apart so viciously in her entire life?

In the Su Household, she had been a favored daughter of heaven. At military academy, she had been the model top student. In the Guard Army, she had been a promising young major!

But here with Lin Ming, she felt like an idiot incapable of learning even the basics.

"I... I'll try again." She bit her lower lip, her stubbornness rising.

"Try? Trying another hundred times would still be a waste of blood and qi." Lin Ming cut her off without mercy.

"The core of the Immovable Mountain Seal is 'immovable' and 'like a mountain.' Yet your heart is already moving, your distracting thoughts flying everywhere. How can your blood and qi remain steady? If your intent is not firm, your qi will not condense. If the seal cannot become a mountain, it will only become a dirt mound."

He extended one finger. A wisp of dark-golden blood and qi, condensed to the extreme, gathered at its tip and lightly touched the spot where Su Yunwan had just attempted to form her phantom.

"Watch closely. This is what it means to be immovable as a mountain."

The dark-golden blood and qi at Lin Ming's fingertip rapidly shifted, almost instantly outlining an extremely simple miniature seal that nevertheless carried an ancient, weighty aura.

The moment the seal formed, an aura as steady as a mountain and as indestructible as stone spread out. Though its range was tiny, Su Yunwan could clearly sense that the small seal's defensive strength was likely far beyond the "cotton candy" she had spent so long fumbling together.

"Blood and qi should circulate like this." Lin Ming's finger traced through the air, leaving clearly visible dark-golden trails. The changes in speed, angle, and force were exquisite down to the finest detail.

"Here, don't go straight through. Make a turn and redirect the force. Here, the blood and qi must suddenly accelerate and erupt, forming a node. When visualizing, don't imagine some vague mountain. Imagine the most concrete, towering, unshakable mountain you have ever seen! Imprint every rock and every ravine into your mind, then 'move' it in front of you!"

His explanations were direct, brutal, and hit the nail on the head, often pinpointing the most crucial problem. But combined with his expressionless face and metaphors poisonous enough to kill, the effect was rather... explosive.

Su Yunwan stared without blinking, deeply shaken. What Lin Ming demonstrated was not merely the correct way to execute the Immovable Mountain Seal; it also contained his profound understanding of the martial art's essence, along with a terrifying insight that simplified complexity and struck directly at the core.

None of that was recorded in the jade slip. Even the technique's original creator might not have explained it so clearly.

Following Lin Ming's guidance, she tried again. This time, she forced herself to calm down and visualized the enormous stone mountain behind her Lineage's estate, one that had stood unmoved through a thousand years of wind and rain.

She also attempted to imitate Lin Ming's peculiar rhythm of blood and qi circulation.

The pale-yellow phantom emerged once more. Though still faint, it was steadier than before and vaguely possessed the outline of a "mountain."

"Mm. This time, it looks like a hill." Lin Ming nodded, his tone as flat as if he were evaluating a rock.

"But it's still full of holes. Your spiritual power is too scattered, like pepper sprinkled everywhere. Focus! Imagine your spiritual power is cement, and your blood and qi are bricks and stones. Use the cement to bind those bricks and stones firmly together! Yes, like that... sigh, forget it. Are you using expired cement? Why is the bonding strength so terrible?"

Su Yunwan: "..."

She felt like she was about to suffocate.

Every time he scolded her, she made genuine progress by correcting herself according to his instructions. But hearing devastating remarks like "even a paramecium is smarter than you" and "is your brain single-threaded?"

"How did you even become a major if you can get this wrong?" made her want to smash the hand seal in her hands right into that hateful handsome face.

"And the Dragon Roaming Step." Lin Ming paid no attention to Su Yunwan's nearly murderous glare as he switched to the next item.

"Those few steps you took just now were supposed to be Dragon Roaming? They looked more like earthworms to me—drunken earthworms, at that. Footwork is not for you to dance around like a village performer! The core lies in the coordination of your waist, hips, and legs, and in the instant transfer of your center of gravity! Watch me..."

His figure moved. Without using much blood and qi, relying only on physical strength and footwork, he glided several meters as though weightless.

Then, within a space barely large enough to turn around, he made three rapid changes in direction with almost no pauses, leaving behind afterimages vivid enough to seem real. Finally, he silently returned to his original spot, as though he had never moved at all.

"Did you see that clearly? Swift as a startled hare, still as a maiden. And what were you just now? Wild as an unleashed dog, still as a twitching toad." Lin Ming concluded.

Su Yunwan finally broke down.

Three days! A full three days! She was the dignified young lady of the Su Household, an owner of A-rank talent, a young major—and she had been scolded from head to toe by an eighteen-year-old brat as if she were his grandson!

The worst part was that she could not refute him, because what he said... seemed to make sense? But his mouth was just too vicious!

Grievance, humiliation, indignation, defiance, and a trace of angry embarrassment at being called out all tangled together. Her nose stung, and her eyes reddened beyond her control.

She suddenly squatted down, buried her face in her knees, and her shoulders trembled slightly as she let out suppressed, faint sobs.

Damn it, I'm not learning anymore! Whoever wants to learn this stupid martial art can learn it! This young lady is done serving you!

Lin Ming stared blankly at Su Yunwan, who had suddenly squatted down and curled herself into a ball.

She was crying?

He frowned, somewhat puzzled. Wasn't he teaching seriously? Every problem he pointed out was accurate, and she really had improved. So why had she suddenly...?

After thinking for a moment, he walked over and lightly nudged Su Yunwan's calf with the tip of his foot. His voice retained its usual flatness, with a trace of barely detectable... confusion?

"Get up. You're not allowed to sleep here."

Su Yunwan: "!!!"

She abruptly raised her head. Tear tracks still stained her beautiful face, and her eyes were red like a rabbit's, yet they now burned with raging fury, as if she wanted to incinerate Lin Ming with her glare!

"Lin! Ming! You bastard!!!" she shouted through tears, her voice cracking.

"What did I do?" Lin Ming was even more confused, and even felt that this woman was being rather unreasonable. "Was I wrong? Those steps you took really did look like..."

"Shut up!!!" Su Yunwan was about to explode. This bastard not only had a foul mouth, he was also a terminally hopeless straight man! She swore that she wanted to fight him to the death right now!