Chapter 25: Chapter 25
They stepped into the inner court.
Snow crunched beneath their feet.
Mei Shuangfeng halted in the center of the open yard and turned to face the two of them.
“The path of martial arts is like building a tower on level ground. Stance training tempers the qi-blood and lays the foundation. Only when that foundation is solid as iron can you build upward and begin learning techniques.”
“But to drive those techniques, you need a specialized breathing method to match.”
“Our Mei family’s Dark Eagle Stance contains a complete Hidden Strength-grade breathing method and a full set of thirty-six combat forms. Together, they are called… the Heavenly Dark Eagle Force!”
Mei Shuangfeng stood with her hands behind her back, eyes fixed on Shen Xiuhan. “This art doesn’t deal in niceties. It lives by eight words: shatter bone, rip sinew — draw blood in one strike! You train it for one purpose — to kill!”
Shen Xiuhan’s eyelid twitched.
Just as he’d expected — it matched the technique he’d comprehended during the Deduction down to the last detail.
“Xu Chuan, take your stance!”
“Yes!”
Xu Chuan’s expression tightened. He stepped forward, crossing his arms to seal his center line without a gap.
“Watch closely!”
Before the words had faded, the killing intent around Mei Shuangfeng erupted like a physical force.
Her feet shifted, and her entire right arm swung up like a whirling iron flail, then chopped down savagely!
Five fingers hooked inward like iron claws, ripping through the cold air with a piercing shriek, driving straight for the Jianjing point behind Xu Chuan’s collarbone.
CRACK!
A muffled pop of bone slipping from its socket.
No matter how tight Xu Chuan held his guard, his body buckled involuntarily. His entire right arm went limp as wet noodles from the pain, his center of gravity torn apart, his chest blown wide open.
“This move is called ‘Splitting Stone, Rending Sinew.’ It’s designed to cripple arms.”
“A light grip saps their strength. A heavy strike pops the shoulder blade clean off.”
“The key is targeting the weak point they have to protect — strip away their ability to fight back in a single move!”
Xu Chuan was still baring his teeth in pain, nowhere near recovered, when Mei Shuangfeng’s left hand shot out like a viper’s tongue — without the slightest warning!
Her fingertips whistled through the air, driving straight for Xu Chuan’s throat!
Shen Xiuhan’s pupils contracted sharply.
Dark Eagle Soul Seize!
One of the Heavenly Dark Eagle Force’s killing techniques — designed to tear open the fatal points.
Cold sweat burst from Xu Chuan’s body. In a panic, he threw his left arm up to guard his neck.
HISS!
Mei Shuangfeng’s wrist twisted as if boneless, slithering along the inside of Xu Chuan’s forearm in an eerie reversal, her fingers hooking into the Tiantu point beneath his Adam’s apple. Half an inch more pressure, and his throat would be crushed.
GULP!
Xu Chuan swallowed hard, bean-sized drops of cold sweat rolling off his chin.
“The throat is the kill zone!”
“Whether your claws are lethal enough doesn’t depend on brute-force slugfests — it depends on finding the openings. At the highest level, you thread through the gaps between sinew and bone! Once your fingers find a vital point, tearing out a throat takes no more than an instant!”
Mei Shuangfeng slowly withdrew her hand. Her breathing was as steady as ever, as though she had merely brushed a snowflake from her shoulder.
Awe surged through Shen Xiuhan’s chest.
Knowing it on paper was one thing — seeing it was another entirely!
He had comprehended every form of the Heavenly Dark Eagle Force during the Deduction.
But watching Mei Shuangfeng demonstrate it in person made one thing crystal clear: when it came to the vicious cunning of each form, the precise calibration of lethal intent in real combat — he wasn’t just a step behind. He was leagues away.
Training was one thing.
Killing — that was another thing entirely.
“Xiuhan, I’ll run through the entire Heavenly Dark Eagle Force once. Watch carefully.”
Mei Shuangfeng moved — like a raptor tearing through a forest, accompanied by explosive bursts of air that shrieked with every strike. She personally demonstrated all thirty-six forms of the Heavenly Dark Eagle Force in one seamless, flowing sequence.
Every form was razor-sharp and vicious, aimed straight at vitals, without a single flourish.
Shortly after, Mei Shuangfeng ended her sequence and stood still. Her phoenix eyes swept to Shen Xiuhan. “Of the thirty-six forms just now, how many did you remember?”
“All of them.”
“Hm?”
Mei Shuangfeng’s brow creased almost imperceptibly, but she didn’t question him. She simply took half a step back and lifted her chin:
“Show me.”
“Yes.”
Shen Xiuhan walked to the center of the yard and assumed his stance.
Shadow Sweep Dragon Seize, Dark Eagle Bone Shatter, Cloud Grasp Sky Sever, Dark Wing Wind Skim…
Claw-wind howled, robes snapped and billowed.
One form after another — he executed all thirty-six claw techniques in their entirety.
They were still visibly raw, far from the fluid ease he’d shown with the Dark Eagle Stance in the outer court — but he had undeniably performed every last one of the thirty-six forms without missing a single move.
“Excellent comprehension…”
Mei Shuangfeng nodded slightly, a glint of admiration crossing her gaze:
“It seems my instinct was right. Xiuhan’s comprehension of martial techniques is remarkably sharp — otherwise, it would have been impossible to bring the Dark Eagle Stance to Initial Mastery in just over ten days.”
Beside them, Xu Chuan stared with eyes like bronze bells, smacking his lips in amazement:
“Junior Brother Shen is a genuine prodigy. These thirty-six forms are fiendishly complex — it took me ages just to memorize them back in the day.”
At this, Mei Shuangfeng shot him a cold sidelong glance.
Xu Chuan’s voice caught in his throat. He shrank his thick neck and sheepishly lowered his head.
He was the inner court’s Second Senior Brother, true enough, and his cultivation had reached the Peak of Bone Tempering — but when it came to talent for martial techniques, he was decidedly mediocre.
Within the inner court, quite a few junior brothers and sisters surpassed him in combat skill.
But Xu Chuan had his own strengths.
Raw, stubborn, and born with brute strength.
Whatever clever, tricky technique you threw at him — he’d simply bulldoze through it with sheer force.
“Xiuhan, your comprehension may be exceptional, but as someone new to killing techniques, your combat forms are still too ‘textbook.'”
As if worried he might grow overconfident, Mei Shuangfeng tempered him with a stern voice:
“By ‘textbook,’ I mean rigid and predictable — not slippery enough. In a real fight, nobody stands there and lets you line up your forms.”
“Martial techniques are about being ruthless in mind and vicious in hand!”
“Out there, when blades are drawn and blood is flowing, no one plays by arena rules.”
“No matter how polished your forms are, if you don’t have the killing intent, you’ll still die against someone who fights for keeps.”
“When you fight for real, you use the fastest, most brutal method available. If it can kill — it’s a good technique!”
Mei Shuangfeng paused, her gaze settling on Shen Xiuhan as she issued her orders:
“Starting tomorrow, you will stay in the inner court and spar with Xu Chuan for combat drills. Your foundational stance work must not be neglected either — each morning, you will use the stance to draw qi and temper your qi-blood circulation.”
“Manifest Strength has three gates. Above Blood Tempering lies Bone Tempering, and above Bone Tempering lies Sinew Tempering.”
“The martial path is like scaling a peak. You’ve barely taken your first step — guard against arrogance and overreaching!”
Shen Xiuhan’s expression turned solemn. He cupped his fists and answered gravely:
“Your disciple will take these teachings to heart!”
…
Once Mei Shuangfeng had left.
Xu Chuan’s taut expression collapsed into a grin. He strode up, threw an arm around Shen Xiuhan’s shoulder, and beamed:
“Congratulations, Junior Brother — you’re in the inner court!”
Shen Xiuhan, sharp as ever, caught the meaning beneath the words.
When he’d been in the outer court, he was just a paying student — a registered disciple in name only, with Xu Chuan instructing on the Master’s behalf.
Now that he had broken through to Blood Tempering and received the true teachings, he was formally accepted under Mei Shuangfeng — real martial brothers at last.
Shen Xiuhan straightened his expression at once and cupped his fists in a formal salute:
“Junior Brother Xiuhan greets Second Senior Brother! In the days ahead within the inner court, I humbly ask for Second Senior Brother’s guidance and instruction!”
“Ha ha ha! We’re brothers now — no need for formalities!”
Xu Chuan let out a hearty laugh, thoroughly pleased with being called Second Senior Brother.
After the laughter died down, he looked Shen Xiuhan up and down and shook his head:
“Come on — your senior brother will take you to the storehouse for two sets of inner-court training clothes. Now that your qi-blood has awakened, training in that thick padded jacket is just going to hold you back.”