Elder Shi lunged at Jie and slammed a palm into Jie's stomach. Jie grunted, the blow smacked the air out of her, but she activated her lightning step and qi armor. Elder Shi's next palm strike was already heading toward her. And, though Elder Shi used no martial skills, she was incredibly fast. Dodging the blow would be impossible. Especially at this range. Jie reinforced her qi armor and braced for impact.

Elder Shi's palm slammed into her stomach again, but this time it didn't knock the wind out of her. There was a shocking drain on Jie's qi reserves and her armor reacted to the strike, explosively blasting her away from Elder Shi, just as she'd planned.

Jie turned in the air and formed a lightning step platform. She boosted off it and onto the ground where she ran from Elder Shi, using the speed afforded to her by lightning step to its fullest to keep away from Elder Shi as best she could.

Elder Shi sped up, however, and Jie was forced to combine lightning step with her qi armor, activating the effect each time her foot slammed into the ground to push her just a bit faster.

"Good!" Elder Shi said, "Smart thinking, but you won't win that way."

Jie gritted her teeth. Win? What would count as a win exactly? Elder Shi was far too strong for victory to be possible. She opened her mouth to say as much, but Elder Shi struck and Jie was forced to focus entirely on evading. Her qi reserves were slowly draining though. The drain of using qi armor to move wasn't massive, but it was enough that she couldn't do this for much longer.

She ducked under another palm strike and pushed off Elder Shi's arm, activating her qi armor as they touched to squeeze out that extra bit of speed and movement at an impossible angle.

"Well done!" Elder Shi said, "But you still can't win if all you do is dodge."

"I can't beat you anyway," Jie snapped before leaping out of the way of another palm strike. Damn, but Elder Shi was fast.

Elder Shi laughed. "I'm holding back, remember? What would you do against an opponent of the strength I display when you can't run away?" she said.

Jie narrowed her eyes and slid under another strike, the breeze of which played over her face. Against an opponent of this strength? Could her attacks harm someone who was so much stronger than her? Not as strong as Elder Shi, but as strong as she was retraining herself to be...?

Jie leaped back, and Elder Shi's palm grazed her qi armor, scraping over it as though the older woman's hand were made of enchanted iron. Jie's qi armor protested with a snarl of lightning that sent Jie rocketing away once more.

Someone so strong... and Elder Shi probably wasn't going to let her win based on endurance. A series of strikes just wouldn't do the damage to someone of such a caliber... it would have to be a big strike. Probably even somewhere they were vulnerable...

Such a thing would be dangerous to do in a sparring session, but Jie highly doubted she could even scratch Elder Shi.

Another palm snapped out and clipped Jie on her shoulder. Her armor triggered and blasted Jie away, but Elder Shi was already moving in the direction she'd sent Jie. Yes... even a lesser opponent would probably figure that out too. Jie gnashed her teeth as Elder Shi bared down on her.

But... she'd taken strikes. Hard strikes. Thanks to her armor. If this was what Elder Shi was pretending to be... she could probably last for less than a second in an up-close battle. But, while that might be almost instantly back on Earth, it was plenty of time in this world, where she moved so fast that time took on new meanings.

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Time enough to land a strike of her own... but to have a chance of hitting Elder Shi, even at the level she was holding herself back to, the attack would need to be a surprise.

How does one surprise their opponent while being watched so closely? Jie wondered. The answer came to her almost immediately.

Misdirection.

Jie cycled her qi, quickly creating the most powerful dragonfist she'd ever made on one hand and getting ready to perform finger of light with her other hand. Yet, she hid her finger of light technique as best she could. Keeping her hand near her hip as though it were of no importance.

Elder Shi closed the distance between them in the blink of an eye and slammed her left palm into Jie's chest. Jie's qi armor flickered as it drew heavily on her qi reserves, but Jie suppressed its reactive ability. Jie lashed out with her dragonfist toward Elder Shi's face.

Elder Shi caught it. Bright blue dragon lightning qi arced over the older woman's fingers in a flash of dazzling blue light. But it failed to move Elder Shi's fingers which held Jie's small fist like steel talons.

"Nice try but--" Elder Shi began.

Jie angled the fingers on her other hand upward and activated finger of light. Lightning qi leaped across the short distance between them, straight toward Elder Shi's throat.

Elder Shi spun impossibly fast, moving like a whirlwind even to Jie's eyes, and Jie's finger of light arced through empty air. It slammed into the ceiling, burning a blackened mark upon a wooden beam that rapidly repaired itself.

Elder Shi appeared behind Jie in a flicker of movement. Jie tried to turn to face the older woman but was simply too slow.

Elder Shi swung with a palm strike that slammed into Jie's chest with a force that dwarfed anything the older woman had used before. Jie's qi armor crackled in defiance but lasted only an instant before it shattered. Jie flew backward across the room, trailing wisps of dragon lightning qi, and slammed back first into a wooden pillar with a heavy thud as all the air left her lungs in a whoosh.

Jie's head smacked hard against the pillar and she slumped down to the floor. Pain shot through every nerve in her body, as she lay there, utterly dazed for a long moment before Elder Shi hoisted her up to her feet.

Bile rose in Jie's throat and she swallowed it back down as the room spun wildly around her. She blinked several times as Elder Shi's face seemed to hover in her vision, occasionally splitting into two before merging back into one. Jie felt relieved that Elder Shi seemed unhurt by her attack before her sluggish thoughts reminded her that she'd failed to actually hit the older woman.

"Very clever," Elder Shi said, "most people rely too much on their eyes, I didn't even see your attack."

"So, how did you dodge it?" Jie asked. Her head throbbed with a sharp ache that made it hard to focus.

"You have to use your spirit sense at all times. Especially in a fight. I may not have known exactly what you were doing, but I knew enough to dodge. It still caught me by surprise though, and I'll admit I cheated a little," Elder Shi said.

"More than a little," Jie grumbled.

"Was that you saying you're ready for round two?" Elder Shi asked.

"Okay," Jie said.

"Argh! No! I was teasing! You have a concussion. Cultivate a bit to replenish what you lost, and I'll heal you. Then we'll resume. Stupid to train otherwise," Elder Shi said.

"But won't I have to fight like that sometimes anyway?" Jie said.

"Yes, and you'll get plenty of practice at it, I'm sure. But, what we're doing here is training to do things the correct way. I won't let you form sloppy habits because your brain is half-scrambled," Elder Shi said, "now cultivate."

Jie nodded slowly, as though her head might fall off her shoulders, and sat in the lotus position. Elder Shi felt a bit guilty about that. She'd definitely hit the poor girl far too hard...

Elder Shi looked at her hand, the one she'd used to block Jie's dragonfist, and rubbed away the stinging sensation. Heavens, but that girl was strong. Elder Shi placed her hand atop Jie's head and flooded her with healing energy.

One day that girl will be too strong for me to even touch... Elder Shi thought.

***

Much later, after sparring with Elder Shi and being repeatedly beaten and healed and then after another round of brutal physical training, Jie walked toward her private residence.

Her pace was swift but more reserved than usual as she often simply ran. But, she was lost in thought, running through the various fights in her head and analyzing every action and reaction. That Elder Shi could so easily beat her while holding back so much, and without using any internal energies truly showed the gap between them. Although all these people constantly droned on and on about how martial skills were super important, it seemed to Jie that what truly mattered was strength.

Sure, the skills were good for stabilizing cultivation and helping with general survival, but there was no denying that cultivation was the key to true power. Power she desperately needed.