Three days later.
"Ducking low is the standard technique for countering swinging punches. When the enemy charges in, quickly squat down and use the momentum to counterattack, striking at their groin and abdomen. Don't be afraid of swinging punches—anyone who opens with a swinging punch is just an impulsive fool with no brains."
On the training grounds, the Academy's Martial Arts Instructor demonstrated the movements as he spoke.
A Wooden Man Puppet swung its right fist horizontally. The Martial Arts Instructor dropped into a squat, dodged the strike, then drove his fist into the puppet's abdomen. A few solid hits, and the Wooden Man Puppet toppled over.
The students watched in a circle around them, but most lacked enthusiasm, looking thoroughly uninterested.
The Academy offered many courses, and this was the basic martial arts lesson. Using fists and kicks to exert raw strength simply couldn't compare to the cool and flashy Moon Blade attacks from Section Twenty-Four: Close Combat Gu Master, and virtually every teenager's mind had already wandered.
"Next class is the Moonlight Gu usage assessment. How's your practice been going?"
"Pretty good, I guess. I can launch three Moon Blades, but I rarely land all of them. Usually two hit the Straw Man Puppet."
"Yeah, same here. I actually bought a Straw Man Puppet specifically to practice these past few days."
...
The students whispered among themselves, their minds already on the upcoming assessment rather than the lesson before them. They had been practicing hard outside of class for this evaluation, and now they were fired up, brimming with anticipation.
The murmuring reached the instructor's ears. The Martial Arts Instructor whipped his head around and bellowed, "No talking during class! Shut your mouths and watch!"
He was a Second Transformation Gu Master with heavily muscled physique, his powerful upper body bare, bronze skin covered in scars. One roar from him, commanding and imposing, instantly silenced every teenager on the grounds.
The training field fell deathly quiet.
"Basic martial arts is of the utmost importance. Especially in the early stages of a Gu Master's cultivation, it matters more than anything else. All of you, focus your attention!"
After his reprimand, the Martial Arts Instructor called over another Wooden Man Puppet.
This pale-yellow Wooden Man Puppet stood two meters tall. Its massive wooden feet clacked sharply against the bluestone tiles as it spread its arms and charged clumsily toward the instructor.
The instructor sidestepped its attack, then suddenly seized it around the waist and drove forward with force, slamming the towering Wooden Man Puppet to the ground. Immediately, he mounted its waist and hammered its head with rapid punches.
The puppet resisted for a moment before the instructor's rain of blows shattered its head. It collapsed motionless on the ground.
The Martial Arts Instructor rose to his feet, his breathing still calm and steady, and addressed the students: "When facing a taller enemy in close combat, don't be afraid. Disrupting your opponent's center of gravity is a wise tactic for subduing them. Just like what I did—grab the enemy's waist, control their hips, then drive forward forcefully. After that, mount the opponent and deliver savage punches. Anyone without the will to defend will crumble instantly."
The students nodded repeatedly, though most of their expressions betrayed a dismissive attitude.
The instructor saw it all and smiled bitterly to himself.
It was always like this with incoming cohorts. The nature of youth naturally gravitated toward flashy, spectacular things. Without firsthand experience and hard-won understanding, these teenagers would never grasp the importance of basic martial arts.
In truth, especially for early-stage Gu Masters, basic martial arts might look unimpressive, but it was more important than Moon Blade attacks.
"...Remember, in close combat, don't fixate on the enemy's eyes. Watch their shoulders instead. Whether they throw a punch or a kick, the shoulders move first..."
"...In close combat, speed is critical. But I don't mean the speed of your strikes—I mean the speed of your footwork..."
"...Distance is the best defense..."
"...Keep your legs elastic so you can explode with force more easily..."
"...When moving and punching, maintain triangular support. Otherwise your base becomes unstable, and instead of knocking down the enemy, you'll be the one who falls..."
The Martial Arts Instructor demonstrated as he patiently explained. These were precious lessons accumulated through years of combat, paid for in blood and tears.
Unfortunately, the students beyond the training circle failed to realize any of this.
They had gradually fallen back into whispered conversations, their focus still fixed on next class's Moon Blade assessment.
"This Martial Arts Instructor is practical enough, but his teaching method has problems." Fang Yuan stood quietly in the crowd, nodding and then shaking his head.
The instructor taught without any real structure, following whatever train of thought struck him. As a result, the material he delivered was scattered and disorganized—too much, too chaotic. Many students listened earnestly at first, then gradually lost interest and drifted their attention elsewhere.
Only Fang Yuan continued listening with meticulous attentiveness. For others it was learning; for him it was review. His combat experience far exceeded the Martial Arts Instructor's, but listening to someone else articulate these principles served as its own form of verification in his cultivation.
A Gu Master's combat methods were generally divided into close combat and ranged combat.
Moon Blade attacks were a ranged type, but strictly speaking, only mid-range—because its effective striking distance was a mere ten meters.