Chapter 75: The Combat Class! (1)

"Now that class has finished early, I still have two more hours before the next class..." said Duan Li as he pondered for what to do.

In the academy, there was only a maximum of two lessons per day. The students themselves were given choices on which timeslot they wanted to attend for their classes according to the availability for the week. Normally, an occupation would only have around two classes per week.

This was because the academy strongly emphasizes for its students to do more self-learning. After all, the path of being a cultivator is where one had to rely on oneself.

Although the academy was responsible to nurture their students, the academy themselves only serves to act as a guide by giving the students proper insights towards the crux of cultivation.

Furthermore, the academy themselves was a facility of the empire, tasked to distribute the empire's resources accordingly in order to produce as many capable and diverse ranges of knights as possible.

These Knights were the graduates from the academy, and they were the military backbone of the empire. Against the threat that surrounds the empire everyday, whatnot with the increasing activity of the monsters, the empire needed strong cultivators to protect its sovereignty.

Therefore, if a student did not try their best to break through their cultivation states for at least by a few levels within a year, the academy would kick them out for wasting the resources of the empire!

After a while, since the next class was the combat class, Duan Li decided to go to the library to read some books regarding martial arts and skill arts.

...

Inside the library, there were people who realized who he was, and these people whispered to each other. However, due to the unique runic formations laid inside the library, there was only a peaceful silence that enabled Duan Li to focus as he continued to read books after books.

"Hmm.. all these martial and skill arts were somehow familiar to me. Was it because of my memories?" thought Duan Li as he quickly skimmed through the book he was currently reading.

Since an hour ago, he had managed to read through 36 books already. Such a reading speed would definitely be impossible if it were anyone else!

In fact, what Duan Li just said was half correct. Previously, when his memories had merged together, he could only recall some bits and pieces if he tried hard in recollecting them.

This was because all those memories were fuddled, jumbled and mixed together as if being compressed and archived with numerous locks on them as a security measure.

After all, it was the memories of his whole lifetime from another timeline. If it were to continuously play inside his mind, he might even had an identity crisis because of it.

This was why he managed to quickly understand the contents within those books as they acted like the keys to his memories.

However, what helped him to double this speed was actually due to the photographic memory and supreme analytical skills that was given to him by the golden mysterious pearl!

Any martial and skill arts that he had already learnt would quickly propagate his learning capabilities of the next martial and skill arts that dwelves around the same basics and foundations!

Therefore, when he started to read the books at such a blazing speed, it had inevitably attracted a number of people that were observing him.

"Would you look at that pile of books? How did he even managed to read so fast?!" exclaimed a shocked student.

"Eh, he is probably just skimming through those books to look at some skill arts that would be compatible for him." commented another student.

"Or because he was just trying to show off and doesn't actually read anything at all? After all, he was THAT Duan Li that people were currently talking about like hotcakes." an unconvinced student replied.

"That's possible. He might be trying to market himself as a capable yet mysterious Lord. I didn't apply to become his followers yet because I felt the whole situation to be quite off somehow." said another student.

"Me too! I felt that it was like one hell of a big scam! But he did purchased that expensive residence court though..."

As these kinds of conversation were happening around in the library, Duan Li had finally finished reading the 40th books!

"Well, its about time for the Combat class to start, I should leave for class now..." he said as he left the library under the watchful eyes of the observer and the gossiping juniors.

"Eh, where is he going right now?"

"Probably for a class, I'm guessing it should be the Combat class!"

"Yeah, after all that ruckus he made inside the cafeteria, almost everyone knows what his major and minor occupations were."

"Those combat class were filled to the brim with a lot of people mainly from the Warrior class. I wonder how he would fare later on as someone from a Lord class. If I'm not mistaken, the first lesson of the combat class should be a battle royale!"

"That's right! The lesson would be conducted at the main field later on and there is also viewing grandstand too! Let's head over there guys!"

"Damn it, I'm excited! The first class would definitely be a bloodbath!"

...

After summoning the little cub once again to help him steered into the correct destination, Duan Li managed to make his way onto the main field where hundreds of scary-looking people had already gathered, men and women alike.

Of course, due to the presence of the little cub, there was a trail of female students following behind Duan Li, and this had once again caught the attention of the people, especially the ones on the field.

"Damn it, it's that guy again! How dare he brought along his fan club to defile this holy land!" said a man as he gritted his teeth in agitation.

"Arghh! I haven't yet to have a single girlfriend to my name, and yet this guy has already had these many girls following around behind him?! Arghh! I'm indignant!" howled out an unkempt burly man.

"This guy is the public enemy of men!"

"Shameless!"

"I curse your whole ancestors!"

...

A lot of the men were shouting and roaring out at the top of their lungs as they looked at Duan Li with fiery eyes! Somehow, these fellas had huddled up together subconsciously and made an impromptu coalition force to face against Duan Li, whom they labelled as the number one evil entity of the holy land.

Looking at them agitated like that, Duan Li couldn't help but to swallow a mouthful of saliva!

Gulp!

"W-what the?! Why do I feel that their eyes are all looking at me with such anger in? Did I do something wrong?" said Duan Li feeling quite stumped.

Brothers! I did not even murder your whole family, why are you guys being like this?

Ahem!

Suddenly, a single dry cough echoed out onto the field. It wasn't loud and appeared to be extremely ordinary, if not slightly deep in its tone.

But, this single dry cough had silenced the whole field instantly, including the people who were cheering merrily at the grandstand by the side!

It was as if, this single dry cough had the power to bend the natural laws and order! If this voice were to command the sun to stop shining and for the moon to come up instead, they would immediately heed to the owner of this voice without delay!

Of course, this was but an exageration, but it was how these people on the field felt! The pressure from that dry cough alone was too tyrannical! Even Duan Li's face had turned grim.

When everyone turned around towards that large platform at the front, there stood an elderly man with a topless attire. Behind him, stood rows of teachers with their hands clasped behind their backs!

This elderly man has a bald head and his face was wrinkled. His brows were white and his white beards had grown down to his chest!

This elderly man was about 2.5 metres tall, and supporting him standing was the massive brown walking stick in front of him, with both hands laid on it casually as he pressed down.

If one were to think that this elder was someone fragile from this description, then they could be considered as a blind person.

This tall, elderly man stood straight like the mountain Tai jutting all the way to the heavens! Such that, even if the whole world were to collapse, he would remained unfazed by it all and continued to stood straight until the end!

His body was the most toughest and brutal-looking that Duan Li had ever saw on a person. With chest like the boulders from the mountains and abs that looked rock solid like the seabed, it was as if nothing could beat this elderly man at all!

A lot of gruesome scars could also be seen on the body of this elderly man that was radiating out immense pressure onto the masses, evidence that he, was a veteran of the battlefield!

On his waist, was a token with a clear tell-tale symbol of his unprecedented might, a 10 star rank Combat class!

As everyone waited nervously, this elderly man finally began to speak.

"New students of the Combat class, I am Shen Long, a senior teacher of the academy in charge of this class!" this elderly man spoke out casually.

All the people immediately stood straight like a soldier that was about to go to war when they heard this voice, even Duan Li was no exception.

"As you might already know, the first lesson of a Combat class for the new juniors would be the battle royale!"

"However, there are three rules to be followed in this coming battle, those who failed to comply, will be executed on the spot!"

"First, only palm, fingers, fist and leg strikes are allowed in this battle! In other words, martial arts only! No skill arts are to be used in any circumstances at all!"

"Second, no external help are allowed as well! That means, no weapons, no pills, and no talismans are to be used in this battle!"

"Third, you are forbidden to take lives, in other words, no killing!"

As the elderly man laid out these three rules, some were relieved while others seemed panicked. A number of roller-coster emotions were happening to each and every single one on the field right now.

But if one emotion that everyone was sharing at this moment, it was the feeling of their blood boiling!

The eagerness to battle!

"Could there be reasons why this elderly man only allowed the use of physical force in this battle?" Duan Li pondered in his mind.

After all, with such rules, there were now people that had became severely disadvantaged by this. However, by the looks of things, it seems that these people only had that worried look on their face for a moment before it left them entirely.

Since they already knew what the first lesson would be, naturally they had already made plenty and sufficient preparations beforehand!

Only idiots would cling to false hopes that the rules would be changed to suit them.

"I will give everyone here a time of five breaths to sparse yourself away from each other right now before we begin!"

Pshew!

Pshew!

Pshew!

The crowd immediately began to distance themselves away from each other like a receding tides. Now, there were more spaces between each students.

Eh?

But what surprised this elderly man was, the people that was around Duan Li all faced towards the latter!

"Interesting!" said the elderly man inwardly to himself.

Dup! Dup!

Dup! Dup!

There was an eery silence right now on the field, like the calm before the storm that made everyone nervous as their eyes intently moved around to see if anyone had locked onto them.

"Begin!" the elderly man shouted out, like a gong that marks the beginning of a heaven-shattering battle!

....