The sprawling clearing outside was bathed in the looming afternoon rays of the sun.
Xiao Yu stood about ten paces away from the deeply scarred Iron-Wood tree, her long, azure-scaled whip trailing on the grass beside her. She closed her eyes, completely tuning out the ambient sounds of the night insects and the distant hum of Jia Nan City.
Her mind was entirely focused on the image of her brother's flawless demonstration. The angle of his hips, the grounding of his feet, and above all, the terrifying, highly pressurized rhythm of his breathing.
She took a long, slow breath in, forcing her diaphragm to expand past its normal limits. She aggressively channeled her Dou Qi into her lungs to fortify the tissue against the immense internal pressure.
Hssshhh...
It wasn't as deep or as resonant as Yoriichi's, but it was a solid first attempt. The ambient worldly energy around her seemed to momentarily stutter, pulled toward her by the sudden vacuum of her inhalation.
"Water Breathing," Xiao Yu whispered, her eyes snapping open.
She stepped forward, dropping her center of gravity, and her right arm exploded into motion.
"First Form..."
As she whipped her arm in a wide, horizontal arc, she forcefully pushed her circulating Dou Qi down the length of the braided weapon. Because the breathing technique rapidly accelerated her blood flow, the Dou Qi compressed at a terrifying rate.
Suddenly, a dozen distinct, shimmering droplets of pure, condensed water began to manifest out of thin air, clinging to the razor-sharp scales near the tip of the whip.
She rotated her wrist, snapping the whip to one side and then violently reversing the motion to generate a massive, centrifugal surge of momentum.
"...Water Surface Slash!"
The azure whip blurred into a streak of pale blue light. The condensed water droplets stretched into a faint, localized crescent of liquid pressure as the weapon connected with the Iron-Wood trunk.
CRACK!
A sharp, violent sound of splintering wood echoed in the clearing. The whip's scaled surface tore through the bark. A few centimeters of solid wood from the trunk slithered outward, scattering onto the grass. The area of the attack was left slightly wet, glistening with the residual droplets of water that had manifested from her Dou Qi.
However, the sheer, unrefined kinetic force of the attack carried a heavy consequence.
After the primary impact, Xiao Yu tried to forcefully pull the whip back to control its momentum. But the weapon, supercharged by the breathing style and bouncing off the impossibly dense wood, possessed too much erratic kinetic energy. The tail of the whip snapped backward in a wild, unpredictable arc, grazing the side of her own left arm.
"Ah!" Xiao Yu hissed, stumbling back a step as a sharp sting flared across her bicep. The scales hadn't broken the skin, but it left a painful, burning red welt on her cloth.
She heaved a heavy, exhausted sigh, dropping the tip of the whip to the grass. She rubbed her stinging arm and turned to look at Yoriichi, who had been silently observing the entire sequence from the edge of the courtyard.
"So..." Xiao Yu panted, a nervous, hopeful glimmer in her eyes. "How is it?"
Yoriichi remained perfectly still for a moment, his analytical mind processing the biomechanics of her strike. He gave a slow, approving nod.
"The form is good," Yoriichi said calmly, his deep voice carrying a rare tone of genuine praise. "Your foundational posture is solid, and the kinetic transfer of your weight from your hips to your shoulder is acceptable. For a first attempt at a completely foreign breathing rhythm, it was remarkable."
Xiao Yu's face instantly brightened, a proud smile blooming on her lips.
"However," Yoriichi continued, his tone shifting back to the strict grandmaster. "You need to practice significantly more to control the rebound of your whip. A sword is rigid; its momentum is linear and easily halted by the wielder's wrists. A whip is fluid and stores centrifugal energy. If you do not learn to safely disperse that energy after the point of impact, it will backfire and severely injure its user."
He pointed a calloused finger toward the damp, shallow gash in the tree.
"The second issue is your elemental manifestation," Yoriichi instructed. "You only managed to conjure a few scattered droplets. A true Water Surface Slash should carry the dense, crushing weight of a continuous river, not a light drizzle. You must compress your Dou Qi further during the inhalation phase. Just these two things—whip control and elemental density—and everything else is perfect."
Xiao Yu rubbed her arm again, her competitive spirit fully ignited. "Understood. Control the rebound, compress the water. I can do this."
She turned back to the tree, reset her stance, and inhaled deeply. Hssshhh...
For the next hour, the quiet clearing was filled with the rhythmic, violent cracking of the azure whip.
Xiao Yu practiced with a relentless, almost manic determination. Every time the whip lashed out, it carved another shallow groove into the Iron-Wood tree. After about twenty consecutive strikes, her lungs began to burn like they were filled with hot coals, and her Dou Qi reserves plummeted.
She collapsed onto the cool grass, panting heavily, her uniform soaked in sweat. She spent fifteen minutes sitting in a lotus position, aggressively circulating to absorb the dense worldly energy of the Jia Nan Academy, forcing her exhausted meridians to recover.
Once she had regained a fraction of her strength, she stood right back up and started again.
The more she repeated the motion, the more her form improved. She was beginning to find the unique rhythm of the whip—a fluid, snapping cadence that was entirely different from Yoriichi's rigid sword strikes. This unique, flowing attack form was slowly morphing to belong to her, and her alone.
By the end of the second hour, she could consistently cut a few centimeters deep into the wood, and the water droplets were beginning to merge into a faint, continuous sheen of liquid along the whip's edge. But still, after using the form, the erratic centrifugal force would unknowingly backfire, occasionally stinging her legs or arms.
'I need to start perfecting my foundational whip control alongside practicing this form,' Xiao Yu realized, wiping a bead of sweat from her chin. 'Power is useless if I flinch from my own weapon.'
As the deep darkness of the night finally loomed over the academy, the sheer physical toll of the day caught up to her. Her arms felt like they were made of lead.
"We will stop here for tonight," Yoriichi announced, stepping out from the shadows of the courtyard gate. "You have exceeded standard expectations. Rest your muscles. We will resume tomorrow evening."
Xiao Yu offered a tired, deeply grateful smile. She meticulously coiled her whip, securing it back into the silver storage ring.
"Thank you, Ning'er," she said softly. "I'll see you tomorrow."
Yoriichi offered a silent nod. He stood by the gate, his hands tucked into his sleeves, and watched her figure slowly vanish into the distance down the pathways toward the dormitory sectors.
Once she was completely out of sight, Yoriichi let out a quiet sigh. The role of an instructor was fulfilling, but it was time to focus on his own blade.
He decided it was time to test his Sun Breathing style against the dense, heavy atmosphere of the Jia Nan Academy.
He walked away from the courtyard, moving deeper into the expansive, empty clearing until there were no trees, rocks, or obstacles anywhere near him. He directed his gaze upward, looking at the vast, clear night sky dotted with thousands of brilliant stars.