Huang Rong flicked her sleeves and stood up, her movement as light as the wind.
"I, Huang Rong, keep my word. How could I trick a mere child?"
"Guo'er, watch closely."
"This martial art is called the Orchid Sweeping Hand, a supreme skill created solely by my father."
"This skill relies not on brute force..."
"...but on clever finesse."
"The strike must be fast, the target precise, and the movement never stiff."
"It demands mastery of four principles: swiftness, precision, ingenuity, and clarity. Strikes flow like spring wind caressing willows, and points are struck like orchids coming into bloom!"
"This first stance is called Spring Orchid's First Bloom!"
Huang Rong raised her right hand, lightly joining the tips of her thumb and index finger while her remaining three fingers extended naturally, making her hand resemble an orchid blossoming in the wind.
Without any apparent force from her waist or hips, her wrist merely gave an extremely casual flick forward.
With a subtle chi sound, a faint, sharp tear echoed through the air.
Three paces away, on the rosewood desk, a thin bamboo toothpick stuck into a sweet osmanthus cake inside a blue-and-white porcelain plate snapped into two with a click.
The cut was smooth and pristine, as though sliced by a blade.
This move appeared light and airy on the surface.
Yet in actual combat, it targeted the enemy's acupoints with deadly precision.
If struck at places like the Jianjing point, Quchi point, or Danzhong point...
...at best, one's arms and legs would go numb and weak.
At worst, one would drop to their knees on the spot.
Huang Rong withdrew her hand gesture and stood by the window with her hands behind her back, her lips curving slightly upward as she thought, Back when I learned this stance from Father on Peach Blossom Island, just pondering how to store energy in the fingertips and flick out the wind with subtlety took me a full four or five days.
Guo'er doesn't understand the force-exertion techniques of this move at all. It will be enough to keep him pondering for quite a while.
Huang Rong chuckled softly and said, "Guo'er, did you understand what you saw?"
Yang Guo replied, "Seems like I got the general idea."
Yang Guo tried mimicking the hand gesture and flicked it twice, causing not a single ripple.
Seeing this, Huang Rong felt smug in her heart: Guo'er hasn't formally practiced martial arts after all. It's not surprising he can imitate the shape of the gesture.
For someone with a good memory, copying physical movements isn't difficult.
However, the hardest part of this move isn't the shape of the fingers...
...but keeping the waist and shoulders still while force originates from the wrist.
And upon reaching the fingertips, the qi force cannot be expelled all at once.
These are things that someone who has never practiced martial arts could never easily figure out.
Before Huang Rong could even finish her smug thought...
Yang Guo closed both eyes.
Like lightning flashing across his mind, the arc of Huang Rong's subtly trembling knuckles passed through his memory.
The Nine Yang true qi deep within his dantian was instantly summoned, surging along the Yangming Meridian of his arm and sweeping all the way to his fingertips.
Yang Guo's right arm thrust out suddenly.
His thumb and index finger formed a loop while his other three fingers extended, and his wrist flicked forward with lithe agility.
Poof!
An invisible force of qi burst from his fingertips, so fast that it was imperceptible to the naked eye.
Right in the center of the desk, atop the neatly arranged plate of sweet osmanthus cakes...
...the top snow-white pastry split open without warning, cleanly dividing into two perfectly even pieces.
The fluid posture of the finger technique, along with the eerie, fierce energy penetrating the fingertips...
...was ninety-nine percent identical to Huang Rong's strike just moments ago!
The Nine Yang Divine Art possessed the profound mystery of "mastering one path unveils all paths."
Practicing martial arts with it achieved twice the result with half the effort.
In a later era, Zhang Wuji would rely precisely on the Nine Yang Divine Art's comprehension of martial principles to soar through the Great Shift of the Universe all the way to the seventh level in a single half-day.
Meanwhile, the previous cult leader, Yang Dingtian, had spent more than twenty years only to barely reach the fourth level.
The Nine Yang Divine Art was more like a foundational pedestal elevating a person.
It raised the foundation higher, making inner energy purer and meridians smoother.
Perception of force nuances, breath circulation, and stance variations became far sharper than that of ordinary people.
Many things originally obscure and hard to grasp would be pierced with a single touch in the eyes of one who achieved great mastery of Nine Yang.
This was why, for the exact same profound martial art...
...some might train bitterly for years and still linger outside the gates...
...while someone with Nine Yang as a foundation could often quickly grasp the core knack of it.
Although Yang Guo had currently only achieved minor mastery of Nine Yang...
...and while this Orchid Sweeping Hand was indeed intricate and tricky in the eyes of ordinary martial artists—requiring long, painstaking practice—...
...it ultimately was not so profound as to stump Yang Guo.
What's more, his own innate comprehension was already exceptionally high.
When Huang Rong made that strike, what others saw...
...might have merely been how the fingers were positioned and how the wrist turned.
What Yang Guo saw through in a single glance, however, was the operational route of how true qi gathered and dispersed within the hand, and how hidden force erupted instantaneously through inch-force.
He might not be able to immediately explain the theory behind it...
...yet his body was already capable of following his Nine Yang true qi to try walking that path.
The shock of Yang Guo reciting the complete The Analects had only just subsided for Huang Rong.
Upon seeing this scene, her astonishment instantly erupted like a volcano, rushing straight to the crown of her head.
She rose directly from the red sandalwood chair, shooting straight up to her feet.
Staring wide-eyed at that sliced osmanthus cake, cold sweat broke out across her back as she thought, This is impossible!
Reciting books could be attributed to an extraordinary memory, but how could someone see a martial art stance just once and grasp its intricacies immediately?
The most exquisite part of the Orchid Sweeping Hand lies entirely in the hidden force released and retracted at the fingertips!
If the force is half a millimeter too heavy, it falls into mediocrity; if half a millimeter too light, it cannot even seal an acupoint!
Without a famous master breaking down its mysteries, how could Guo'er gauge the control of force so accurately using just his eyes?
Yang Guo looked down at his fingertips, showily blowing away non-existent heat, his face glowing with excitement:
"So cool! Aunt Guo, this move is way too devious... ah no, way too dashing!"
Yang Guo rubbed his hands together excitedly, stepping forward with shining eyes:
"Aunt Guo, don't just stand there stunned! Continue, continue!"
Huang Rong drew in a sharp breath, forcibly suppressing her wildly beating heart: "Continue what?"
Yang Guo spread his hands as if it were obvious: "The second stance, of course! You can't just teach the beginning of a martial art and stop, right?"
Standing by the desk, Huang Rong looked into Yang Guo's mischievously sly eyes.
Her original shock gradually melted into a meaningful smile.
The older ginger was still the spicier one after all.
Huang Rong sat back down in the red sandalwood chair, picked up the cup of cooled tea, and took an unhurried sip:
"Guo'er, the promise your Aunt Guo made to you today was to teach you a unique skill of Peach Blossom Island, is that correct?"
Yang Guo nodded like a woodpecker: "That's right! Black ink on white paper... no, settled face-to-face!"
Huang Rong set down her teacup, her eyes curving sweetly as she spoke in a gentle tone: "I did promise to pass this skill on to you, but I never said I would teach all of it to you in a single day."
Huang Rong spread her slender palms, speaking with earnest sincerity:
"Biting off more than one can chew leads to nothing; the way of martial arts dreads rushing for quick success above all."
"Having taught you one move today, go back and ponder it well, practicing diligently."
"As for the future, whenever your aunt finds some spare time, I will teach you the second stance."
"Whether that's teaching one move a day, one move a month, or perhaps one move a year... we will see depending on the situation."
"In short, your Aunt Guo will definitely teach it all to you. I will never break my word."
The wild joy on Yang Guo's face froze on the spot.
He turned rigid right where he stood, the corners of his mouth twitching violently as if his head had been struck by lightning, sizzling with smoke.
He vented internally: Holy crap!
Isn't this just a black-hearted merchant's 'The right of final interpretation belongs to this company'?!
One stance a year?!
Does that make any sense?!
Out of all my calculations, I never calculated that this Female Zhuge of the martial world would actually be a big capitalist who loves drawing pie-in-the-sky promises and playing contract traps!
Gritting his teeth, Yang Guo could only force out a smile uglier than crying:
"Aunt Guo... brilliant! Guo'er has learned his lesson!"
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