Seeing Zhao Rui arrive, Wang Zhanshan glanced at the remaining contestants and pointed Zhao Rui toward Gongye Lingchen.
Hearing his order, Zhao Rui was taken aback. His gaze involuntarily swept over to Gongye Lingchen, only to find the other man looking right back at him, a faint, almost imperceptible smile playing on his lips.
Zhao Rui acknowledged the order and ran over to Gongye Lingchen, saying politely, "Hello, Senior Brother!"
Gongye Lingchen looked at him with a smirk. "So it’s you. Fine. Five Ancestors Fist. I see you’ve learned it to so degree."
With that, he clasped his hands behind his back and walked toward the sparring ring.
Zhao Rui hadn’t expected him to be so direct, without a single word of nonsense. He quickly followed.
Once on the ring, Gongye Lingchen said, "Co on. Let’s see what you’re made of."
Hearing his words, Zhao Rui wasted no ti either. He imdiately channeled his Mimicry Fist and assud the stance of the Five Ancestors Fist.
"Good. I won’t use Inner Strength either. We’ll compete with just techniques!"
As he spoke, he closed the distance and chopped down at Zhao Rui with an empty-handed palm strike.
Unflustered, Zhao Rui raised both palms to block left and right. He took a light, bent-knee step forward, his palm Force exploding forth, as swift as a thunderclap.
Gongye Lingchen was startled and hastily dodged, only to see that the move had form but no substance. As it traveled, it held no power at all. His expression instantly stiffened.
His eyes narrowed involuntarily. "Not bad. It has so of the right spirit."
With that, he attacked aggressively again. The two exchanged blows, back and forth, for over fifty rounds.
’Great Demon Subduing Palm progress: 3%... 5%...’
Neither of them used Inner Strength, fighting purely with techniques. Although his Five Ancestors Fist was a fake, the sequence of moves was still authentic.
Without circulating Inner Qi, he could still last a dozen or so moves against Gongye Lingchen’s Great Demon Subduing Palm just by clashing with techniques alone.
Furthermore, Gongye Lingchen also wanted to practice his own techniques for countering the Five Ancestors Fist, which was why the two of them had fought for so many rounds.
The exchange ended when Gongye Lingchen landed a palm strike on Zhao Rui’s back, sending him stumbling forward.
"You learn pretty fast!"
This ti, Gongye Lingchen didn’t mock him. Instead, he said, "I’m going to demonstrate a few sets of moves. Let’s see how much you can learn."
Without waiting for Zhao Rui to object, he began demonstrating a Palm Technique in front of him with a WHOOSH of movent.
This Palm Technique was the complete opposite of the Five Ancestors Fist. It was primarily soft and yielding, with tricky palm angles and strange postures.
Zhao Rui quickly pulled out his phone and ticulously recorded the whole thing.
When Gongye Lingchen finished the set, he saw Zhao Rui recording but didn’t get angry. "If you can’t do it by tomorrow, don’t bla for getting rough with you."
After saying that, he dropped the subject and continued, "Let’s go again. You still use the Five Ancestors Fist. I’ll mix in other martial arts."
Without waiting for a response, he swung his palm and attacked again.
’This bastard has no martial etiquette!’
Zhao Rui cursed inwardly and hurriedly moved to block.
At the sa ti, a notification for copying a martial art popped up in his mind: ’Shattering Star Palm is available for copying. Copy?’
Zhao Rui copied it without hesitation.
Aside from Zhao Rui, the other official team mbers all had soone with them—so were practicing techniques, while others were receiving guidance from coaches.
Everyone was training with intense focus, and an invisible pressure filled the entire Martial Arts Arena.
"I’m dead tired. I never thought using the Mimicry Fist would be even more exhausting than fighting normally. I don’t want to move a muscle."
When training ended at noon, Zhang Kui flopped onto the ground at the edge of the Martial Arts Arena, lying spread-eagled on his back.
He looked as if he had lost the will to live.
Zhao Rui bent his knees slightly and slowly sat down. Looking at the team mbers who were heading out, he asked, "Have they been here before?"
"Yeah, they ca once when I was a freshman!"
"How did it go?"
"You an the results?"
"Yeah. Aside from Captain Gu and Ye Jingqiu, everyone else lost."
"Everyone lost?"
Zhao Rui was stunned. He hadn’t expected such a result. After all, the team from the Martial Arts University of Dongqi Province was one of the top-ranked in the province.
"Sigh. It was our fault as sophomores... well, back then we were freshn, and we didn’t live up to expectations. Not a single one of us won. Of course, the sophomores and juniors back then weren’t much stronger either."
"How could that happen?"
"It’s related to our student pool. Our school didn’t used to emphasize academics much. But starting the year before last, they got a lot stricter about it. Not only did academics beco a bigger part of the entrance exam, but they also started weighing academic scores heavily in every internal team elimination."
"The results are what you’d expect."
Zhao Rui couldn’t help but nod. ’It’s not impossible for soone to be both a great student and a powerful martial artist with a single-minded focus, but it’s certainly difficult.’
’That would definitely weed out so Martial Dao geniuses.’
The decisions of the higher-ups weren’t sothing two students like them could casually comnt on.
"Well, once Captain Gu and the others graduate, we’ll probably stand even less of a chance!"
Zhao Rui couldn’t help but laugh.
"At that point, they probably won’t even bother coming to us for any ’friendly matches’ anymore."
Zhang Kui grumbled, sat bolt upright, and let out a long sigh. "I’ve decided. If I don’t et the standards this new sester, I’m quitting the team to focus on preparing for the civil service exam."
With that, he stood up and said to Zhao Rui, "Co on, let’s go eat."
Zhao Rui grunted in agreent, got up, and followed him.
The afternoon martial arts class continued. This ti there was no sparring; instead, they played old match recordings on a projector to analyze their teammates and opponents.
The entire analysis process was incredibly ticulous, going almost fra by fra.
Wang Zhanshan’s comntary was detailed and precise. He didn’t just explain the application of techniques in the match but also extrapolated to other potential applications.
He didn’t just lecture on the opponent’s techniques; he also pointed out every mistake his own team mbers made and had them stand up to analyze their errors.
Zhao Rui listened from the side with great concentration, feeling as if he were listening to a celestial lody.
In a match between experts of this level, every move was a rare learning experience, especially with a teacher providing detailed comntary.
The lecture lasted for the better part of the day. After Wang Zhanshan finished analyzing the matches of two team mbers, he ended the session. He then had the team mbers contemplate the lecture for a while before putting it into practice through sparring.
Gongye Lingchen wasn’t one of the two people analyzed, but that guy didn’t stay idle either. He called Zhao Rui over and started practicing.
His expression was far more serious than usual.
He made far fewer sarcastic remarks.
Zhao Rui could clearly sense his tension.
’I really wonder what kind of opponent could make a petty and arrogant guy like him this nervous.’
Zhao Rui was actually quite looking forward to it.
In a flash, it was ti for the afternoon class to end. Zhao Rui was just about to grab his backpack and head out with Zhang Kui.
Just then, he heard Gongye Lingchen say in an unquestionable tone, "Zhao Rui. After dinner, co back to the Martial Arts Arena. Don’t be late."
Without waiting to see if Zhao Rui agreed, he walked straight out of the Martial Arts Hall.
"Screw you!"
Zhao Rui mouthed the words at him silently.
Seeing this, Zhang Kui shrugged and said, "Let’s go!"
Zhao Rui shook his head, sighed, and started walking out. It couldn’t be helped; at this point, refusing was impossible.
Besides, he didn’t want to refuse anyway.
’Overti it is. Once I learn the Great Demon Subduing Palm and the Shattering Star Fist, we’ll see who’s afraid of who.’
After dinner, Zhao Rui returned to the Martial Arts Arena as ordered, only to see not just Gongye Lingchen on the floor, but Ye Jingqiu as well.
"You brat who got in through the back door! In a bit, you’ll spar with your Senior Sister Ye. Use the Five Ancestors Fist."
Gongye Lingchen shouted as Zhao Rui approached.
Zhao Rui said, "Oh," walked over, and greeted Ye Jingqiu.
"Hello, Senior Sister."
"Hello."
Ye Jingqiu’s pretty face was impassive. She responded with a blank expression, her cold deanor like that of a plastic mannequin in a display case.
But her appearance and temperant really suited her personality, giving off an air of icy aloofness.
"Jingqiu, I’m worried they might switch up their lineup this ti. It would be good for you to get used to the Five Ancestors Fist beforehand. Even though this kid got in through the back door, he’s actually learned the Five Ancestors Fist quite convincingly."
Gongye Lingchen said, turning his head to look at Ye Jingqiu.
"Mm. I know."
Ye Jingqiu nodded, her eyes like the cold moon glancing at Zhao Rui. "Let’s begin, then."
"Er..."
’Whatever you guys say. I’m just a sparring partner.’
Zhao Rui nodded and got onto the sparring ring with Ye Jingqiu.
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