Sparring, Martial Arts and Mastery

When seeing the little girl attack again, the monk couldn't help but scowl.

'Amitabha, a mistake can be forgiven once, but this girl is too insistent on this! I should at least teach her some discipline...' 

Mo Yangling quickly raised his open palm, allowing the little girl's weapon to come into contact with it right away.

In an instant, he started vibrating his 'Internal Energy' much like his Brother Ren, returning the shock right back to her. as he sent a counter shock right through the little girl's body.

It was far too weak to do any damage, but her eyes still widened and she still jumped backwards, her hands trembling slightly as she even almost let go of her blade.

'W-what the hell?! When did that scrawny Mo Yangling become this strong?!'

On the second clash, she could easily tell that her cousin was not just relying on a defensive art, every inch of his body was brimming with energy, energy she found difficult to measure.

'Don't tell me... Is he already a Martial Master?!? No, that can't be right...' 

Very few within the younger generation were within the Martial Master realm, they were the talented ones that had been cultivating their entire lives.

Mo Qiao, with all of her hard work, couldn't even be counted among them. Even though she could be considered somewhat talented to have reached the Middle Stage of the Martial Soldier realm before 20. 

There were high hopes that she could even grow to become a Martial Grandmaster in the future, the chances of her getting there whilst retaining her youth were small to non-existent. 

There was no way that Mo Yangling, who had only cultivated for a year at best, could've reached the Martial Master realm.

'But he is likely a Martial Soldier with a good Defensive Art... God damn it, this bastard is more talented than me! Unless he's been secretly cultivating for more years before being banished...

But why would he allow himself to get banished if that were the case? No that wouldn't make much sense... He was a scrawny guy, but he had a good personality, he wouldn't have intentionally harmed his mother like that.' 

The girl's head was running wild with theories, as she tried to rationalize how her cousin had suddenly gained that much strength. Meanwhile, the monk was just appreciating the usefulness of that particular Origin Energy manipulation technique. 

'Om, Brother Ren's technique is truly useful, I need more practice with it though... Well, I need more practice with all of my martial arts too.' 

The monk had a lot of things to test... And 

"Sister Qiao, If you want to fight, let it be an actual spar on the training grounds. I need some training anyway..." The monk nodded towards Mo Qian, whose hands were currently still shaking.

Whilst he had made sure not to break anything, his method of manipulating Energy had still caused some damage, and it had certainly been painful. 

The monk felt a bit of pity towards Mo Qiao when remembering the pain that spread through his entire arm when the Beast King had used that technique against him. 

The little girl was no bloodthirsty killer, she had aimed for a non-vital point along the torso, and her sword's hilt was neatly tied to the sheath with a red ribbon, making sure that it was not going to come off by mistake. 

Now, the monk could appreciate her care when it came to safety precautions during spars, but the problem was that she wasn't sparring with anyone. 

She was seemingly prone to randomly attacking people that interested her on the streets. The worst thing was that, from what the monk had understood, the girl's behaviour was both not that uncommon in that world, and very much in character for Mo Qian.

She had grown up in a family with mostly brothers, all of them being interested only in fighting. 

But the Monk found that behaviour to be very much unacceptable. He was going to have to beat it out of her during their spars. After all, he was a staunch believer in gender equality.

So, without further ado, the monk smiled and gestured for the girl to follow him towards the training grounds, a place that he thankfully remembered the location of, somehow... 

Mo Qiao didn't speak much, but she did sport a sort of feral smile as she trailed behind Mo Yangling. 

'I'll break that defensive technique of yours, just you wait!'

Meanwhile, the monk just wondered about what fighting style to use against her.

'Hmm, I should master the Vraja Fist first it's highly versatile, and also my favourite.

But I'll have to be using my martial arts at 1% power if I don't want to kill this brat... It'll be good control training at least!' 

The monk was already thinking of his moves as well as the style the girl would be using.

She seemed to be primarily a sword user, so there weren't many pointers that he could give her as he had no experience with any type of sword.

But at the very least the general experience of sparring would be useful to her. 

Despite her fierceness and eagerness, the monk could tell she didn't actually have much practical experience. The monk could help with that...

The Training Grounds were already full in the morning, but direct descendants each had their own platforms to use as training areas and even instructors.

Mo Qiao also had one such platform. It was a private place, with wooden walls erected all around it. 

A raised circle around 10 meters in diameter, with three stone mannequins set up on one side of it. 

The training platform, as well as each individual mannequin, were filled with deep cuts, and the Monk could still feel the Iron-like energy radiating from them.

'Hmm, so she was just training here this morning? How early did she get up?!' 

"Mo Yangling, I don't know how you got so strong, but I guess a person can change a lot in a year. I won't be going easy on you anymore!"

The girl immediately jumped on the platform, looking the Monk in the eye with quite a bit of excitement. 

Mo Yangling jumped up on the platform effortlessly too, he slowly rolled and unbuttoned his shirt, allowing it alongside his sleeveless robe to flow to his side and form something akin to a skirt around his backside. 

Mo Qiao smiled even wider when seeing his scarred and chiselled body, she could appreciate the work put behind it. 

"Before we start... You can unsheath your blade, go all out from the start, I want to get a better gauge on your talents."

The Monk crossed his arms, his head tilted as he gave the girl a pointed look.

"Get a gauge on my talents? You've gotten quite arrogant, cousin... You're also speaking as if we're not the exact same age... But fine, don't regret this later." 

The Girl slowly untied the ribbon around her hilt and threw it on the ground, she immediately unsheathed her blade, and her eye reflected on the sharp steel.

The monk could tell from the hilt alone that it was of high quality, but he could appreciate it even more now that it was unsheathed. 

'I'll have to visit the forge as well. I'm sure I'll be able to put in an order for a proper weapon if my performance is good during that Family Gathering.' 

"Don't come crying when you're all cut up!" The girl shouted as she immediately dashed forward, her shoes rising up dust and cracking the ground as she thrust her blade towards the monk's head.

This time, it was different, Mo Yangling could feel the metallic energy flowing from the girl's body and within the blade.

Her sword thrust also seemed to be trained, filled with discipline, but the monk could see the flaws in it...

With a very easy tilt of the head, he completely avoided it, his palm rising up to push the blade to the side.

In an instant, the monk was already in the horse stance, his other palm pushed into Mo Qiao's belly, forming an imprint before sending her flying. 

She flipped a few times on the ground before digging her sword into the stone platform and coming to a stop right before falling off the arena. 

"Cough- What the hell-" She felt that strike reverberating through her entire body, it felt as if there were still echoes of it jumping around in her organs.

"When performing a thrust with any weapon, go for the head only when the opponent is incapacitated, otherwise aim for either the torso or legs depending on the position."

The monk didn't need to have experience with blades to know the basics of combat.

He was also considered a master of the staff, and thrusts were used rather commonly in his techniques. 

But a thrust to the head right at the beginning of the fight was uncommon unless the user was looking to show off or they were fighting someone far below their skill level. 

"Come again!" Although the monk had wanted to train his martial arts as well, after better judging her skill he realized that using any martial arts at all would be just like bullying her.

His movements were still very much reminiscent of martial arts, even if he didn't do the full motions or even apply any Origin Energy at all.

Applying any Origin Energy to his strikes would likely severely injure Mo Qiao, so he decided to instead test his ability to train others, to make sure he hadn't grow rusty. 

The girl lay her confusion to the side for now, grasping her blade before finally standing up and dashing towards the monk.

'Coming from the front again, huh...' 

Mo Yangling followed her movements with his eyes this time she seemed to be going for a horizontal slash, her blade still covered in shining silver energy. 

The monk leaned backwards, his feet not moving from their position as the blade passed right above him.

The girl sweated a bit as she moved to quickly change the trajectory of her strike into a downward slash, but the monk's palm shot up the moment she raised her blade.

His leathery palm came in contact with the pommel, sending the sword flying out of her hand. 

At that point, Mo Qiao's eyes were so wide that they may as well have been porcelain plates.

"You have a sword, why did you get close enough to allow an opponent to just push it out of your hand?" 

The girl looked flabbergasted, but at the same time, a warm feeling filled her belly.

'He could've taken that moment to strike me, but he batted my sword away instead... He's helping me grow without hurting m-'

But before she could even finish that sentence in her head, she received a punch to the face sending her flipping on the ground, as she landed right near her blade.

"What the hell!? Attacking an unarmed woman? Have you no shame?"

The girl immediately got up despite her pretentious words, that warm feeling in her belly turned into rage as she picked up her blade with a resolute look in her eyes while she wiped some blood from her nose. 

'Heh, I like this girly's spirit, but she's got a long way to go...' 

"Amitabha, fists know no gender! Neither do the fangs of Demonic Beasts, you'd already be dead if this was an actual battle."

Mo Qiao immediately felt ashamed of herself when hearing her cousin's words. 

'I instinctively said something so stupid... Shit, I can't prove them right!' 

Mo Yangling's cold gaze didn't care for her internal troubles. Instead, he focused on what he saw as more important... Training.

"From now on, any mistake you make, you get punched... Come again now!"