Martial arts

As the group ascended the mountain, they encountered more disciples of the sect. Occasionally, these disciples would greet Yu Hao, showing him respect. After about ten minutes, they arrived at a large courtyard situated about two-thirds up the mountain. The courtyard was a simple square, covering an area of approximately five hundred square meters. Beyond the courtyard was a training space that was about twice its size.

In the center of the courtyard, Teacher Long sat cross-legged with closed eyes. Five students in the lotus position awaited the start of the lesson in front of him. Sensing approaching footsteps, they turned their heads.

"Senior Brother Hao," the five students stood up and bowed lightly, cupping their fists together upon seeing Yu Hao.

"Are those the new students with a hidden dragon foundation grade?" One of the five asked, curious about the newcomers. He appeared a bit peculiar, being around fourteen, not very tall at about 1.65 meters, and slightly chubby. His big round eyes gave him a harmless look.

"Yes, they will be joining classes from now on. Make sure to take care of each other," Yu Hao smiled at his juniors and left the courtyard after bowing to Teacher Long.

"Enjoy your class, you three," he said to the trio before departing.

"Take a seat. It'll be about an hour before class starts, and the other ten or so students appear. You can meet your fellow disciples," Teacher Long advised as the trio walked toward the rest of the class, then returned to meditation.

"Hey, newbies, I'm Tang Bao. You folks all look very handsome and fierce already. You will be quite popular in the sect," the chubby teenager smiled, breaking the ice as he complimented the boys.

While he spoke, the other five students observed the trio. Among them, two were girls and three were boys. One had yellow short hair and a scar on his left eye, appearing fierce, while the other boy had long red hair and light blue eyes, looking handsome and noble. The two girls included the blue-haired sword practitioner from earlier, who appeared pretty but emitted a cold aura. The other girl was stunningly beautiful, with dark, long hair and icy pale blue eyes.

"Hello, my name is Xue Qing. Nice to meet you," the beautiful girl introduced herself, focusing her attention on Raizel.

Noticing her gaze, Raizel blushed slightly. "I'm Raizel Thundercloud, nice to meet you," he responded, captivated by her striking eyes.

Seeing the romantic encounter, Kaelen and Torin exchanged smiles. "Hello everyone. I'm Kaeln, and this is Torin," Kaelen introduced himself with enthusiasm.

"Woaw, you actually made my cousin talk, she never talks." Tang Hao exclaims in surprise as he gave Rai a look of approval.

The latter was a bit taken aback. Not by the fact that the girl didn't talk at all before they arrived, but because she was the chubby boys cousins. They didn't seem related at all.

Even Kaeln and Torin were taken by surprise as they looked weirdly at the boy.

Noticing the weird looks, black lines appeared on the latters forehead. 'Why is everyone always so shocked when I say we are cousins.' He thinks to himself as drop of tear hanged for dear life on his lower left eyelid.

"She's my imperial mothers sisters daughter. They all have ice related bloodline, so they tend to have those eyes. Even my imperial father was mesmerized by them." He explained to the boys.

"hoh." The trio all answered with the same expression surprised expression, as they looked again at the boy and girl. The two actually shared similarities, they shared hair color and his eyes were similar but a fair bit darker, plus the boy was not bad looking at all, if not for his slightly over plumped face, he would probably be a very handsome boy.

"Imperial father…mother?" Noticing the unusual appellation, Kaelen looks at the boys curiously, wondering why he called his parents that way.

"hoh, yea I'm the current Coiling Dragon Emperors third son, and my mother is crowned empress." Seeing the doubt in his face, Tang Hao explained nonchantly.

"ahh that's what it was." Kaelen nods in understanding as he turns to look at teacher Long.

"That's all!?"

A light shout is heard as Tang Hao points at Kaelen his chubby finger shaking slightly.

"What do you mean?" Taken aback, the latter responds.

"Is that all the reaction you have when learning I'm the emperors son? Generally, people get shocked if they don't know and start kissing my ass and stuff, but you barely even cared. Do you not know how powerful the emperor is?" He hurries to explain.

"I can guess he's very powerful, but what does that have to do with you?" Kaelen says nonchalantly, as he picks his nose with his index finger.

"No-nothing but you could at least be more shocked. You have class with an emperors child after all." Black line covering his face once again, he dejectedly retorts. 

Kaeln only smiles a bit and taps the dejected fella on the shoulder.

"Oh, we have new arrivals." A new voice interrupted the group, and approaching footsteps were heard.

A tall sixteen-year-old boy walked towards the class, accompanied by three others. It was the boy who had practiced on the giant boulder earlier, followed by the shadow-like boy who wielding two blades, and two identical twins with light blue hair and yellow eyes.

"We have quite the interesting newbies," they spoke in unison, their voices identical.

"Everyone settles down and waits for the rest. Kaeln, Raizel, and Torin, take a seat and meditate," Teacher Long's voice calmed the atmosphere, and the trio followed his instructions, sitting near Tang Hao and Xue Qing.

Lightly smiling, the tall boy and the rest took their seats in front of Teacher Long. As the hour passed, around ten more disciples arrived, and finally, about twenty students were sitting in front of Teacher Long.

Finally, teacher Long stood up, facing the children as he placed his hands behind his back. "Today's lecture is about martial arts. Can someone give me a quick description of what martial arts are?"

One of the older students raised his hand. "Xiao Wu, you go then," Teacher Long gave him permission to speak, and the boy stood up.

"Martial arts, at their fundamental level, are methods of applying force. Mortals used them for more efficient hunting, in war, or for self-defense. For cultivators, it takes a broader definition; martial arts involve utilizing one's power and the powers of heaven and earth to form attacks of earth-shattering might. Through the unification of one's mastery of a martial art and the power of heaven and earth, one can unleash devastating attacks, such as a punch that decimates mountains, a kick that splits the lands, and a shout that parts the clouds," Xiao Wu explained, his eyes glowing with fervent desire for greater strength.

"Good. You can sit back down," Teacher Long nodded in approval. "As Xiao Wu said, cultivators merge their martial prowess with the powers of heaven and earth to conjure strength that surpasses regular people's imagination.

"However, even amongst martial arts, there are differences. For example, certain martial arts lean more towards utilizing environmental power, such as controlling naturally formed lightning to strike. On the other hand, one can use individual strength and still have earth-shattering might, provided they have sufficient cultivation and power.

"Martial arts are divided first by grade : Human, Earthly, Heavenly, and Stellar rank martial arts. Each rank has low, medium, and high levels to differentiate between the same rank martial arts. The higher the grade/rank and level, the greater the power increases, ranging from zero to two times the power for Human grade martial arts, up to eight to ten times for Stellar Grade martial arts.

"Naturally, the increase in power brings tremendous strain to the body, as powerful martial arts often require sufficient cultivation. From Houtian to Elemental Resonance, you mostly use Human grade martial arts. From Innate Spirit to Dao Finding, you mostly use Earth rank martial arts. After Dao Finding, one gains enough power to easily use Heavenly and Stellar rank techniques because a huge difference in powers can appear amongst cultivators of the same rank. Of course, you need to have those techniques to use them, and they're as rare as Phoenix feathers and Qilin horns.

"While the grade determines the power increase, some martial arts have greater destructive might than others, as many martial arts require elemental power. Certain elements naturally have specific properties, and even for the same element, one can be much more powerful than the other. For example, fire and solar elements are similar types but have vastly different might. So, while the power increase goes from zero to ten times from Human rank to Stellar rank techniques, a strong Human rank technique with particularly destructive might can cause much more damage than an Earth rank technique. 

"However, elemental affinities are chosen at birth, and you can only cultivate one element beside the one or ones you're naturally born with. It needs to be mutually inclusive," Teacher Long explained, lifting his right hand to demonstrate. A blue water orb formed above it, soon accompanied by purple arcs of electricity and green wind blades, creating a destructive display of power. "When mastering a single element martial art, you can mix different elements into it for even greater power, but only a few talented individuals and powerful people can manage this, as mixed energies are very difficult to control." 

"Next, we have the type of martial arts: First you have basic martial arts such as fist and kick techniques, then you have weapon arts such as spear arts and sword arts. Finally you have the previously mentionned elemental arts; this particular form can only be practiced from Elemental resonance and up, as you will awaken your natural elements."

"People can be born with elemental bloodlines, but even them can't control it for martial arts before reaching Elemental resonances as that requires a certain control of the element and ones bloodline that is hard to acquire at earlier stages; this is true the more powerful a bloodline becomes. 

"There's no true hierarchy between martial art type, although martial arts that mix two types are generally stronger then just one type, such as the flaming fist rather than fire ball, or flaming blade rather than a regular slash. However, all three types have different growth processes; Upon reaching sufficient proficiency, basic martial arts form martial intent which allow them to explode with greater power. Weapon arts form weapon intents like sword intent and spear intent. While elemental arts depend on the degree of natural affinity of the cultivator with the element and his comprehension of elemental forms tied to their elements, such as burning flame, searing flames, blazing flames etc. 

"Unless one is a body refining cultivator, it is often best to choose a weapon hence most cultivators train both in weapon arts and elemental arts; as between two of equal strength, one with a weapon will almost always win. Of course one can always wear gauntlest or boots though those types of weapons are rare. 

" I assume most of you have chosen a weapon already, today we will be going through some weapon arts.

As he said that, he pulled out an gorgeous green seven and half ft long, fang tian halberd.