By the time Zhou You returned to the martial arts school's Outer Court, dinner time had already passed.
At a glance, he saw that the Outer Court had gained quite a few unfamiliar faces. They were new apprentices who had paid to learn boxing during this period.
As the streets grew more turbulent and refugees poured in, the city's various districts had also become unsafe.
The authorities had limited manpower and adopted a strategy of catching the big fish and letting the small ones go. They had no time to deal with petty theft, leaving residents harassed beyond endurance.
Thus, in order to protect themselves, common folk could only grit their teeth and send their children to martial arts schools to learn boxing.
These apprentices had simple goals. Learning one or two fighting techniques and gaining the ability to defend themselves was enough.
With so many people, Senior Disciple Brother Lu Qiang could hardly keep watch over them all. Recently, the Inner Court had been discussing changing the teaching method.
"Did you hear about the street duel this afternoon?"
"Which one, the Wild Fox Gang or the Stray Dog Gang? Everyone's talking about it. Someone died."
"One side used Rock Fist, the other Mastiff Fist. In the end, Rock Fist won."
"Back then, I wanted to learn Rock Fist, but I heard it focused on defense and couldn't compare to the more aggressive Tiger Subduing Fist, so I chose..."
"Mastiff Fist specializes in grappling and locking. Once it catches the gaps between bones and joints, it's like a vicious dog biting into flesh—it won't let go even in death, until it beats its enemy alive to death.
"I heard that once, someone who practiced Mastiff Fist was beaten to death in the ring, but his corpse was still hanging off