'Friendly' Sparring

The examination for the first year students from the Apprentice Fighter Class was over. Although the testing for other students was ongoing in other sections of the institute, the crowd continued to stay on here to vent their astonishment and excitement at seeing such miraculous results.

Silver-ranked students in the apprentice class was complete unheard of. And the progression would slow down even further at each level for silver rank because it would require 1,000 soul force to progress each star level, but there were two girls who had already reached 2-star and 4-star, respectively! They wondered what fortuitous encounters they must have experienced, and what phenomenal talent they had been born with!

The audience started to discuss what this meant for the power balance in Glory City. The Du Family would inevitably rise up from a commoner family to an aristocratic one riding on the shoulders of Du Ze. At the same time, the Winged Dragon Family could potentially break away from the oppression and influence of the Sacred Family, and the Snow Wind Family would continue to establish itself as a powerful ruling family for the city. The implications of the strength displayed by these 13 year olds today were deep and profound for the future to come.

"Come, let's go celebrate!" Lu Piao blurted out, carried away by the flattery and stares around him, even though he was the weakest of their group.

Xiao Ning'Er looked at Du Ze and Ziyun, with a twinkle in her eye. "Do you guys want to try out the sparring matches that the upperclassmen have during their exam?" she said with a mischievous wink. "We could easily take part in the second or third-year sparring exhibitions. It would be a great learning experience to grow our martial comprehension."

"Errr...I'm not sure if we're allowed to, Ning'Er. Maybe we shouldn't..." Ziyun tentatively said, feeling rather uncomfortable with her friend's suggestion.

"It's OK, why don't you just come to support and cheer me on?" Ning'Er said, walking towards the sparring arenas without waiting for an answer. The group all looked helplessly at one another, shrugging their shoulders in indecision, before running after her.

They saw her approach an examiner in the sparring section for the third-year students and noticed his head jerk up in surprise at the request she was making. He had just started to shake his head in disagreement when a servant ran up and whispered in his ear. His face changed in puzzlement, but he wrote down Xiao Ning'Er's name in the next available slot for sparring. In the background, Ye Shuo stood hidden behind a pillar, smiling in anticipation as he stroked his beard gently.

As the group sat down and watched the next few sparring matches, they were more assured for Ning'Er to take part because it was all in a controlled environment where the participants sought to learn from each other and demonstrate their techniques rather than purposely hurt their opponents seriously. No one was allowed to merge with their demon spirits because this would make it unfair for those who could not afford more powerful spirits to merge with.

Finally, it was her turn. She made her way into the sparring ring and was surprised to hear the name of her opponent. It was Shen Lue from the Sacred Family. As she lifted her eyes to the benches where the audience sat, she saw Shen Fei whispering something into her opponent's ear, and laughing maliciously. Her eyes narrowed as she was reminded of how despicable this man, and the family behind him, was.

She would need to be careful.

Shen Lue was a 3-star silver-ranked expert, specialising in speed rather than brute force. As long as she kept her guard up, she should have no trouble defeating him. He stepped into the ring and gave a slow, exaggerated bow in mock respect towards his opponent, saying, "Let us learn from each other in this spar.

She cupped her hands to him and gave him a curt nod of acknowledgement in return. The judge shouted out, "Ready....begin!"

Before the judge's second word even finished speaking, Shen Lue had lowered his body and dashed towards Xiao Ning'Er with a lightning fast movement technique. There was a murmur of complaint from the audience as they observed this borderline pre-emptive attack.

Fortunately, she was completely ready after being even more on guard from seeing Shen Fei's instructions to her opponent. She easily sidestepped and deflected his straight punch to the side. As his momentum carried him past her, she lifted her foot to hook around his ankle, causing him to lunge forward face-first. There was a current of an appreciative tone from the observers at her nimble and confident techniques.

As she stepped away, she had not realised that his trailing hand had grabbed the cloth around her chest, and as he toppled head over heels into the ground, his fingers stiffened into a claw and yanked hard to purposely tear her training shirt away from her body. She had not reacted to it because it was so unexpected and did not come as a telegraphed swing that would cause her damage. In fact, as Shen Lue fell to the ground, his intention to target her clothes made his fall far more painful than it should have been.

He climbed back to his feet, holding her torn clothing up in his right hand in a pose of victory. She was in shock as she stood there with only the thin strips of cloth that she used for her undergarments wrapped around her chest. She heard Shen Fei from the audience clapping and howling in laughter, as he shouted out, "Wonderful! What an amazing show we have here!!"

The judge sharply called out, "Penalty! Shen Lue, you have forfeited this match. Get off the stage. I'm warning you, if you do this sort of thing again, you will be expelled from this institute!"

Shen Lue bowed to the judge, "I'm so sorry. It was my fault. It was a complete accident. When I tripped and fell, I grabbed the first thing that my hands could find. Please forgive me." Then he began walking off the stage.

"Wait!" Xiao Ning'Er's voice rang out as the crowd hushed to hear what she had to say. "Judge, since it was only an accident, I think we should continue this spar...if Shen Lue is not too...injured." she said in a tone of sympathetic disdain as she took out another training shirt from her interspatial ring and put it on. She had gotten over her initial embarrassment and was ready to get some recompense, although no one could sense the undercurrent of vindictiveness that was simmering in her heart.

Shen Lue smiled lustfully at her with a lewd expression. "Of course, it's barely a scratch. I haven't seen or learnt enough from you...yet." he said to her with a subtle threat.

The judge saw them each take their ready stances, "Very well, Shen Lue, no more...accidents, or face the consequences. Both fighters, begin!"

This time Shen Lue didn't initiate a quick attack but took a careful stance as he slowly edged closer, while observing her every movement. She decided that she would not hold back any longer in case he got away before she enacted some of her...justice. She would use some of the techniques that she had learnt in other realms, the likes that Glory City had never seen!

As he came closer, she quietly channeled her soul force to the bottom of both feet. He suddenly hopped forward without warning and struck out with a fist shaped like a snake's head, making his arm twist in a profound and unpredictable rhythm. She stomped lightly and disappeared, only to appear again right behind him. He sensed her presence shift and swung his snake-like jabs towards the direction of his back, but the image of her flashed and appeared next to him from a different position again.

Over and over, he sensed her from different angles and every time he thought that he would make contact for sure, all he punched through was thin air and the after-image of his opponent. He started to panic as cold sweat ran down the sides of his face. In desperation, he threw his strongest attack, a double-fisted strike into the middle of where he perceived her moving next.

While his arms were fully extended, she flashed to the side in an instant and ruthlessly slammed down her right elbow, while at the same time raising her right knee, like the deadly bite of an alligator. His thin arms fully stretched out had no chance as they were both crushed by this vicious attack, cleanly snapping through some bones at the elbows.

Crack!

An instant later, Shen Lue screamed in agony as he saw his arms dangling down from the elbows freely without any control at all. Strangely, there was no blood because the damage was primarily focused on his bones, cartilage and tendons in the middle of his arms. The judge quickly jumped in and caught Shen Lue's body who was about to faint from the shock of the horrific injury.

"Quickly, get the medic now!" he shouted as he held the body in his arms. He looked at Xiao Ning'Er with a complicated expression, unsure of whether he should admonish her. After awhile, he finally said, "Xiao Ning'Er, this is your first and final warning. These are friendly spars amongst those who will become comrades for Glory City and fight back-to-back against demon beasts that threaten us. I have half a mind to ban you forever from the sparring ring...but I will give one chance."

Xiao Ning'Er did not flinch as she faced the judge. Then she stood up straight and as the wind picked up some strands of her hair and whipped it wildly across her forehead, she looked directly at Shen Fei. He saw her gaze and felt unsettled but was unwilling to look away and lose face. Eventually, he could not stand it any longer and turned to his friends around him to tell them a joke so that he would not have to see her eyes that were burning with a discomforting, ferocious intensity.

The rest of the crowd were silent, unsure of what was actually happening between Xiao Ning'Er, Shen Lue and Shen Fei, except for a few whispers as they tried to guess at what could have happened in the background.

Eventually, she walked away from the sparring arena without a word and those who watched her back growing smaller and smaller as she got further away felt cold shivers down their spine as they recalled the vivid images of the fight they had just seen.

.....

That evening, Shen Xiu walked into Ye Sheng's office in the institute. "Vice-Principal, I'm here to officially resign!" she said with a bitter and resolute tone. Her bet with Nie Li had already become well known across the entire Holy Orchid Institute and if she disregarded it, both her reputation and the Sacred Family's would suffer badly a result.

"Teacher Shen Xiu, why do you want to resign?" Ye Sheng replied as he smiled. "Your apprentice class created so many geniuses that I'm still in shock right now! The school is even prepared to reward you if you stay on because this class will need a great teacher like you!"

Hearing Ye Sheng's words, she felt even more depressed because she knew that she had nothing to do with the development of the group around Nie Li. They hadn't even been attending her class for the last two months! She had ignored their lack of attendance in order to wait for the day they would be humiliated at the exam. Who knew that they would emerge as peerless geniuses??

"I have made my decision and I will not change it. I hope you can respect my decision and accept it." she declared in a determined voice.

The truth is that Ye Sheng had known about Shen Xiu's bet, and at the same time, he had been asked by Ye Shuo to keep his eye on this group. He affirmed her decision, "Since you have made up your mind, I won't hold you back then."

With the matter concluded, she walked out of the room with heavy steps. Her eyes gleamed with furious resentment. Being forced to resign by an insolent brat in the apprentice class, this was her greatest humiliation yet! One day, she would find a way to get her revenge.