Another noble lady nodded blankly: “You’re not seeing things. Third Miss Li did pick up three brushes.”

The noble ladies completely couldn’t understand what Miss Li in the center intended to do.

Dual-hand writing was already astonishing, because this wasn’t just about being able to write with the left hand—many of the noble ladies present could do that.

Writing simultaneously with both hands required dividing one’s attention, because the content being written was different.

That Princess Xijiang could write with both hands, they could still admit to being impressed, but Third Miss Li picking up three brushes—they completely couldn’t imagine what she intended to do.

“Oh my, is Third Miss Li going to hold a brush in her mouth to write?” a slightly younger girl asked in shock.

The girl beside her pushed her: “What are you thinking? What would that look like?”

The noble ladies who heard this silently thought about it, all showing strange expressions.

Writing with a brush held in the mouth—that scene would indeed look unseemly. Even if she won that way, it would be rather odd.

“Look, Third Miss Li is writing!”

The noble ladies, whose curiosity had already been thoroughly aroused, craned their necks to look over and saw that Qiao Zhao, who had originally picked up three brushes, was holding two brushes in her right hand and one in her left, dipping them in ink and beginning to write.

“Good heavens, not only can Third Miss Li write simultaneously with both hands, but her right hand can hold two brushes?” The noble ladies were already dumbfounded.

But at this moment, the noble ladies’ shock couldn’t compare to that of certain madams.

One madam even stood up directly, exclaiming: “Mr. Qiao’s ultimate technique?”

Seeing everyone looking at her, the madam quickly sat down and picked up her teacup to drink some water, covering her earlier loss of composure.

The noble ladies looked at each other: “Mr. Qiao’s ultimate technique? What does this mean?”

“Mr. Qiao had reached the pinnacle in music, chess, calligraphy, and painting. Among these, his calligraphy had one ultimate technique that made people sigh in admiration.” Zhu Yán explained, her eyes full of worship and longing.

In the Fushan Society, Zhu Yán was famous for her calligraphy, precisely because she could write with both hands. As soon as she spoke, she immediately drew the noble ladies’ attention.

“Miss Zhu, what exactly is this ultimate technique?”

Zhu Yán’s eyes sparkled brilliantly as she held up three fingers: “Mr. Qiao could hold three brushes in each hand, writing simultaneously with six brushes!”

“Heavens, how did Mr. Qiao manage that?”

Zhu Yán gazed at Qiao Zhao in the center and sighed softly: “Yes, I’d like to know too—how did Mr. Qiao manage it?”

She had loved writing since childhood and held immense respect for the calligraphy master Mr. Qiao Zhuo. When she occasionally heard from elders that Mr. Qiao possessed such a technique, she thought it was pure fantasy. Even before seeing Third Miss Li’s writing, she had felt it was somewhat exaggerated.

But now, witnessing Third Miss Li write with three brushes with her own eyes, she realized she was nothing more than a frog at the bottom of a well.

Today, having witnessed Third Miss Li’s three-brush writing prowess, she only regretted being born at the wrong time, missing the opportunity to receive Mr. Qiao’s teachings.

“No wonder when Mr. Qiao was alive, all the talented scholars under heaven regarded Mr. Qiao’s retreat at Jia Feng as sacred ground.” One noble lady murmured.

Another noble lady sighed: “Such a pity that Mr. Qiao’s descendants met such tragic fates. If Mr. Qiao’s spirit exists in the afterlife, how heartbroken he must be.”

“Don’t forget, there’s still Young Master Qiao.”

“Right, Young Master Qiao will surely restore the Qiao family’s prestige.”

“Enough, let’s watch the competition. What’s most important now is for Third Miss Li to thoroughly defeat Princess Xijiang and raise our Great Liang’s prestige.”

The noble ladies refocused their attention on the center.

At this moment, Princess Xijiang’s mind was already somewhat disordered. The moment she saw Qiao Zhao writing with three brushes, her hand trembled, and a drop of thick ink fell onto the rice paper, instantly spreading into a small stain.

How could there be someone who could write simultaneously with three brushes?

She had practiced dual-hand writing for a long time before learning it, and even so, with unfamiliar texts, she still couldn’t manage it.

Earlier, when she suggested having Princess Mu provide the text, she had calculated that the Great Liang people loved to appear magnanimous and would certainly provide something familiar to all the noble ladies.

Three-brush writing—this was impossible. She couldn’t panic; the opponent was bluffing.

Princess Xijiang tried to calm herself and continued writing.

The time of one incense stick was neither long nor short. The noble ladies held their breath watching the progress in the center, occasionally glancing at how much incense remained. Sometimes they felt this incense time was too long and torturous, but when they saw the incense had burned almost to the end, they suddenly felt it was too fast.

Such a short time—they wondered how much of that thick volume of Admonitions for Women Third Miss Li had written.

“Time’s up.” Princess Mu announced.

Qiao Zhao finished her last stroke and put down her brushes.

Princess Xijiang bit her lip and also put down her brushes.

Compared to her usual practice, this time she had exceeded her normal performance, writing two more pages than usual. She just didn’t know how the opponent had fared.

Princess Mu glanced at Qiao Zhao but couldn’t read anything from her calm expression, so she said coolly: “Let Your Highness and Third Miss Li step aside. Great Liang and Xijiang will each send one person to check where the other has written to.”

Two young ladies entered the center.

The young lady from Great Liang’s side finished checking first and announced: “Your Highness wrote to Chapter Five of the Admonitions for Women, ‘Devotion,’ stopping at ‘If conduct violates the spirits, Heaven will punish; if there are faults in propriety and righteousness, the husband will despise.'”

Everyone felt secretly alarmed upon hearing this: the Admonitions for Women had seven chapters total. In the short time of one incense stick, Princess Xijiang had managed to write to Chapter Five—though only the beginning of Chapter Five—this speed was already shocking.

Could Third Miss Li win against Princess Xijiang in this round?

Since they had only watched from the sidelines, although Qiao Zhao’s three-brush writing had brought them shock, it still left people feeling uncertain.

Just as everyone waited with bated breath, the Xijiang young lady finally announced the answer with a bitter expression: “Miss Li… finished everything!”

Waves of amazement immediately arose.

“This, this is impossible!” Princess Xijiang strode over to Qiao Zhao’s writing desk and immediately saw the papers spread out on it, instantly stunned.

Those rows of elegant and spirited hairpin flowers, the small script showed not the slightest difference!

When she wrote with both hands, the characters written by her left and right hands still showed some differences upon close inspection, since her left hand wasn’t as skilled as her right. But how had the opponent managed this?

Qiao Zhao stood with lowered eyes, thinking of childhood memories.

Although Grandfather had been gentle with her, he was strict about learning. Once, when severely punished, she had a flash of inspiration and used three brushes to write. When discovered, Grandfather had laughed heartily, saying she was truly his granddaughter and had inherited his true teachings, then taught her the techniques of multi-brush writing.

It turned out Grandfather had originally practiced this technique because he, too, had been frequently punished by Great-grandfather in his youth, which made him rack his brains for shortcuts.

Unfortunately, her talent didn’t match Grandfather’s—this was the most she could achieve.

“Someone come, pass around what Your Highness and Miss Li have written for everyone to see.” Princess Mu felt triumphant but had to maintain a dignified smile on her face.

What the female guests didn’t know was that before the last competition had even begun, the shocking news that Third Miss Li could write with three brushes had already spread to the male guests’ side.