Fighting the Puppet

Shen Yuxin looked at his confident demeanor and nodded in approval, she took out the previous puppet and placed it next to Shen Yuan.

"You should try to fight it with only your hands since you haven't learned how to use a weapon yet." Shen Yuxin informed him about his shortcomings.

Shen Yuan agreed and made some distance between himself and the puppet, then he took a deep breath, "Alright, activate the puppet Mom."

Huo Rong and Bing Rong were standing further away and eating something like popcorn while watching Shen Yuan. Bing Rong asked Huo Rong, "Hey, Huo Rong, do you think he can defeat the puppet on his first try?"

Huo Rong thought hard for a second and replied, "He might be able to, even though he has no experience, he learns extraordinarily fast, I haven't heard of anyone winning against a puppet in their first fight, after all, most puppets are inbuild with basic fighting skills. So cultivators have to learn mid-battle on how to adapt and fight."

Bing Rong nodded thoughtfully as she continued watching Shen Yuan.

Over at the side of Shen Yuan, the puppet got activated, its eyes glowing a red light, making it even more menacing.

Shen Yuan put his hands in front of his chest getting ready for a brutal fight. The puppet moved first as it sprinted towards Shen Yuan, while he taunted his muscles to resist the blow that he was expecting from the front.

The puppet vanished in front of his eyes as if it had teleported, Shen Yuan's eyes filled with confusion as he wondered where it went, just as he was about to turn and look back, the puppet's fist connected with his ribs on his left side.

The puppet used its movements to make Shen Yuan think that it had vanished, it was nothing but a sky footwork trick. However, due to Shen Yuan's inexperience, he couldn't detect it.

Shen Yuan strumbled five steps behind himself and felt the pain radiate from his ribs, he took another deep breath to compose himself, looking intently at the puppet this time, trying his best to not lose sight of it.

The puppet once again began sprinting towards Shen Yuan, but this time he didn't go in the standard pose and let his body be free, the puppet once again tried to vanish from his vision.

But this time he accurately captured the puppet that tried to slide in his blind spot to hit his ribs, blocking the punch with his forearms. But the impact still pushed him one step back. 

Shen Yuxin looked at it all and thought, 'He is learning as he is fighting and he is constantly improving. If he fought like this for a few more days then we can think of continuing his cultivation to a higher level.'

Shen continued observing him. Meanwhile, Shen Yuan was still getting pushed back by the puppet momentum. After all the puppet already took the upper hand when it pushed Shen Yuan back.

One after another the puppet was sending punches towards Shen Yuan at a tricky angle. Some punches landed on him but he withstood them and continued his combat training.

…

Shen Yuan collapsed on the floor after fighting for 10 minutes, not due to physical exertion but mental exhaustion as it was his first time fighting someone. He didn't expect that his mind would be used even more than his body.

Shen Yuxin came towards him and handed him a strange liquid. Shen Yuan looked at it in confusion and asked, "What is this mom?"

Shen Yuxin gently patted his head and dusted his robes, "It's a healing elixir Yuan'er, it will help with your exhaustion and heal your injuries as well. Even though there is no visible wound, you have actually ruptured a lot of your muscles and tissues. This will help you in healing it."

Shen Yuan's eyes brightened as he took it and asked, "How did you know about how injured I am Mom? You didn't even check up on me yet."

Shen Yuxin smiled smugly, "That's because my cultivation level is that much higher than yours, I can see almost everything about you and nothing at the same time. It's really strange, most high-level cultivators can read a low-level cultivator like an open book. It might be due to your special physique."

Shen Yuan nodded thoughtfully, while Shen Yuxin continued, "Now, what do you think about your first training exercise? Do you like it?"

Shen Yuan's mouth twitched as he murmured, "Who would like to get abused for 10 minutes straight?" But then he raised his voice a little in excitement and continued, "But the feeling of constantly improving is intoxicating. I can't wait to train again."

Shen Yuxin, Huo Rong, and Bing Rong all smiled when they saw the excited expression on Shen Yuan's face. Huo Rong patted Shen Yuan's head and asked, "Do you still want to continue Yuan'er?"

Shen Yuan nodded his head in excitement of getting stronger, Shen Yuxin just shook her head and moved back, but she was quite happy that Shen Yuan wasn't like other kids who can't even take a slight beating, tho it might have something to do with his past life.

Shen Yuan stood up and looked at the spotless puppet, who didn't even have a scratch yet due to his inability to defeat it. 

"Activate the puppet mom." Shen Yuan asked his mother to activate the puppet. Preparing to fight once again against this puppet.

Shen Yuxin activated the puppet and it moved rapidly towards Shen Yuan, not even giving him time to adjust his stance, before he could even pull up his hands in defense the puppet punched him in the gut, making him nearly scream in pain, but he endured and tried to move back.

But the puppet didn't allow it as it also moved together with Shen Yuan and continued to hit him, but at this point, he was already prepared for its attack. Parrying them nearly.

In the beginning, 7 out of 10 attacks hit him directly after bypassing his defenses, but as he continued to train further and further his resilience and perception increased, making it easier to predict the puppet's moment and counter them.

He went from seven to 5 hits per 10 hits. 'Making steady progress is the way. Even though the improving speed is quite slow I can only make do with it.' If someone in the outside world heard his thoughts they would drown him in their spit.

He was already abnormally fast even if he was compared to top geniuses, except some supreme geniuses no one would be able to compete with his progression speed.