13 Sparring Day

Zhao Song stayed behind, gazing at Jiang Ting who was heading towards the library. Suddenly, remembering something, he looked at his master.

"Shall I take junior brother to see the sparring, master?"

"Sparring? I thought the competition isn't till next month."

Hearing this, Zhao Song stared at Wang Chun.

"What?" Wang Chun started getting creeped out.

"There's no way you, the head of the martial wing and the headmaster of the academy still don't know that the academy has been holding a monthly sparring day for the past 15 months, right?" Zhao Song kept staring at him, his gaze slowly growing more and more condescending. 'As expected of this useless fellow. Master doesn't even know about this. He went through hell trying to invite Jiang Ting to the academy but doesn't even bother to know what I've been doing. Sigh, the difference in treatment really makes me want to beat him up.'

"Cough, cough, of course I knew about it. Tang Hao has been fighting really hard to become the strongest disciple, I heard." Wang Chun shot off a blind guess, trying to maintain his poise. Tang Hao was one of the top 5 disciples of Zhao Song's generation, just one year younger than him. He was 24 while Zhao Song was 25.

Zhao Song kept staring at him, his gaze now fully condescending, as if he were looking at a fool.

"What?" Wang Chun was getting unnerved. That was a pretty reasonable guess, right?

"I won the first 5 editions of the sparring by dominating all my opponents, Tang Hao included. They banned me from sparring day because my overwhelming strength was demotivating my so called 'rivals'."

Wang Chun was dazed. 'As expected of my disciple.'

"You did really well. Go show your junior brother around now." He waved Zhao Song off.

Zhao Song was really surprised. 'So, you do remember that I'm your disciple.' He bowed and ran in the direction of the library to catch up to Jiang Ting.

After meeting up with him, he dragged his junior brother to the spar. Jiang Ting already knew how strong his fellow students would eventually become, so this event held no importance to him whatsoever, he wanted to head over to the library instead. His senior brother, however, would not take no for an answer and dragged him away instead.

* * *

In the 23rd training ground, a crowd was gathered. The 23rd training ground a pretty big ground, and today it was packed to the brim. It was the monthly sparring day, an event organized by the martial wing of the academy for the disciples to spar, exchange pointers and develop strong bonds with the view that future generations could be more united.

All over the 23rd training ground, several people could be seen engaging in duels or group fights. These students were usually fighting those who practiced the same martial art as them or one that directly countered their martial art so that they may improve their skills.

Such opportunity came only once a month, so almost all the disciples showed up to fight, and they ensured to find the best suited training partners, instead of just sparring with their friends as they usually would.

There would be an informal competition towards the end among the strongest few disciples as well as some new disciples, with the exception of the strongest disciple Zhao Song, who was banned.

At this point, two muscular figures showed up, fitting right in with the bulky crowd. They were all body cultivators, after all, since the village didn't have any methods apart from body forging. Yet when some older students noticed them, they hurriedly made way for them with a look of fear in their eyes. They also started whispering amongst themselves. Soon, the two reached the middle of the ground, where the strongest students sparred with each other. There were also some younger students observing their sparring to learn from them, instead of sparring themselves. At this point, all eyes turned to the two of them.

The two men were naturally Zhao Song and Jiang Ting. Seeing the situation here, Jiang Ting was a bit surprised. 'What's going on?'

A brawny young man walked forth, shooting a glance at Zhao Song, "Senior brother Zhao, what brings you here? I thought you weren't coming to sparring day anymore."

Zhao Song looked back at him, "Don't worry, Tang Hao, I just came to let my junior brother have a look around since he is about to start learning martial arts."

Many in the crowd breathed a sigh of relief. However, they soon caught onto Zhao Song's words. 'My junior brother?' As in the headmaster's student? Countless people started sizing up Jiang Ting, knowing that this person probably possessed talent similar to Zhao Song, enough to dominate a generation. Also, due to Jiang Ting's renown as a result of the incident involving him beating up the village's youth, and the subsequent requests from the headmaster and village chief to let him cultivate early, a lot of the students recognized him right away. So, the little monster is learning under the village's strongest, huh. How fitting.

However, some people were dissatisfied at Zhao Song's declaration. Tang Hao stepped out. "Don't worry? I was hoping you would show up. Its long past time for a rematch. Besides, there are too many people wanting to snatch the title of strongest disciple from you, Zhao Song."

At this point, 3 other figures walked out from the crowd. They were Zhang Li, Liang Chen, and Sun Mei, the other 3 youth considered as the top 5 of Zhao Song's generation. Sun Mei, in particular, was especially renowned among the students for being the only girl among them, and quite a beauty at that.

Sun Mei walked forth. "Zhao Song, I respect your strength quite a lot, and would like to spar with you." As she said this, she cupped her fists at Zhao Song, a gentle smile on her face.

At the same time, the other 2 also stepped forth. At this point, the five of them with Jiang Ting were the only ones at the center. The tension was palpitating.

"Oh? So, you guys want to get beat down again?"