8 Season 1 Episode 8: Picking Up Martial Arts!

"He sure thinks he's good."

Colton Grey snorted, as he watched Claude walk away.

He didn't even think of Claude as a serious opponent!

Among the Academy's outer disciples, those that had entered the eighth rank of the Earth realm didn't even exceed ten people, and to rank first out of these… It could be seen that he had some great skills up his sleeve.

"Claude, the road in the future is still long." May Stafford tightly clenched her fists and silently vowed that in the future, she must cleanse all the shame and humiliation that had occurred today.

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The next day, Claude Rayforth came to the Academy's important grounds, the Martial Arts Library.

The Martial Arts Library was very important to the Academy, and therefore it had elders guarding it. Claude looked around and saw the Second Elder waving at him from the entrance. He walked to his side.

"Greetings, Second Elder."

Claude had a polite face on, as he bowed his head to show respect. "For what reason have you called me here?"

"I know you said that you only wanted yo use my name and nothing else to help to cultivate until you get selected into my faction," the Second elder said with an expressionless face. "But as your master, I can't just accept you as a helper without giving you something as a reward. It does not sit well with me. Therefore.."

As soon as he spoke, he raised his hands to show a seal.

"This seal, which is a symbol of my faction, represents my power and position as an elder of the Golden Avarice Academy. You can use it to make any sort of payments within the confines of the academy, as long as the rules allow you to."

He tossed the seal to Claude, who caught it. "Remember, although I have given you the seal, you are still an outer disciple who is just at the fourth rank of the Earth Realm. The seal doesn't provide you unlimited wealth nor does it allow you to go against the rules of the academy. Which means you can't use it to buy the high ranking martial arts, because your cultivation level is not enough."

He paused for a second, and continued, "You can use the seal to buy anything at the first level of the martial arts library. The first level of the martial arts library has a lot of low level martial arts, and middle level ones. Anything other than that, and you'll have to pay the actual price. Only if you climb up to the sixth rank of the earth realm will you be able to use the seal to buy the higher level martial arts."

Claude took a deep breath and said, "This junior understands."

"Ok! You can go in now."

Under the second elder's guidance, Claude slowly stepped into the martial arts library.

The martial arts library was an important building of the Academy, with collections of different martial skills collected over hundreds of years. They were used to help those of the later generation in the hopes of producing prodigies.

Claude remembered that at the Longdale Village, there wasn't even a martial arts library.

The martial arts library was divided into 3 floors;

On the first floor there was a large quantity of martial arts, but most of them were low ranked and middle ranked ones.

The second floor was of the high rank martial arts techniques, there were even some peak ranked ones there!

And the 3rd floor was just for inner disciples and elders, with secret and traditional techniques passed down for the bravest of the brave by the greatest martial artists of all time!

Claude stepped into the first floor, his breathing quickening, and his lips curling into a smirk.

He made a promise to himself, that he'll become powerful enough to enter the third level, and study the secret techniques of the legends!

He took a deep breath, and scanned along the bookshelves. For now, he wanted to find a martial arts technique that can supplement his Invisible Sword Technique.

The Invisible Sword Technique was extremely powerful, but it's still not enough for Claude to win. In terms of cultivation levels, he was still way lower than the rest, and he needed to make up for that disadvantage. The Invisible Sword Technique was just one piece of that puzzle.

The first floor of the martial arts library had several thousand books, and every book was half an inch thick. To find one or two martial arts from such a high amount was not easy.

Claude flipped through the pages of these martial art skills quickly, one after the other. Cultivating a martial art takes time, and he had choose carefully. He only had two months until the Inner Disciple Exams begins, so he had to make sure that he chose the right techniques that can help him win.

The skills he looked at were mainly middle rank ones. His concentration was maximum as he flipped through the pages.

Time passed by in a flash, and Claude let out a long breath. He felt tired. He had already selected a few martial arts techniques to improve his speed, stamina, and footwork, all of which were either low or middle rank ones.

Wait!

Claude was scanning for more books around the area when his gaze landed upon an old martial art book. He picked up this book and read the title on it.

Astral Wing Blade! Moves like the wind. Chaotic like fire. Uses speed to win.

'Interesting!' Claude's eyes shone, and he picked it up, adding it to his list.