Openly Making a Move

"Xiao Xue won't go, so Tiantian, will you?"

Yang Fan chuckled without taking offense, then turned to Xiao Xue's deskmate.

The girl called Tiantian simply turned a deaf ear.

"Ah, today you ignore me when I care for you; tomorrow..."

Yang Fan was just about to lament when he saw a slender woman walk in through the door. She wore professional attire, had striking looks, and long, silky hair.

"Quiet down, class is starting. Today, we'll review Chapter Three of the second-year curriculum: the Blood Python Uprising..."

The woman at the front glanced over the desks and spoke in a clear voice.

The bustling noise throughout the classroom gradually died down, though it remained somewhat noisy.

The woman did not pay it any mind and simply began teaching.

"Quiet down! The teacher is lecturing. Didn't you hear her?"

At that moment, a somewhat hoarse male voice slowly rang out. It was not loud, but it carried considerable authority, and the entire classroom instantly fell silent.

The pretty teacher on the platform cast a grateful look toward the boy who had spoken, her smile sweet as honey.

Yang Fan curled his lip and silently mouthed to Zhao Rui, "What a poser. All he knows is how to flirt with teachers."

Zhao Rui shushed him, then turned to listen to the lesson seriously.

The boy who had spoken was one of only two Level Four Martial Artists in the class.

He practiced martial arts passed down through his family, and his Lineage was immensely powerful. It was said they were even entangled in certain under-the-table affairs.

So whenever he spoke in class, there was basically no opposition.

No one had any reason to make an enemy of a classmate like that.

Of course, the guy's character was not too bad either. He did not use his strength to bully others without cause, so the class atmosphere was fairly good.

Zhao Rui was now focused solely on finishing school as quickly as possible so he could head to the martial arts gym and test the panel's functions. Naturally, he had no interest in chatting with Yang Fan about some damned teacher-student romance.

Senior year was mainly for review, and all the academic subjects had entered the mock-exam stage.

Zhao Rui had merely awakened the memories of his previous life; the emotions and memories of this life had not disappeared. Now that he possessed broader experience and stronger comprehension, revisiting the textbooks naturally gave him a deeper understanding and a much easier grasp of the material.

The mornings were for academic classes, while the afternoons belonged to specialized courses.

As one of the city's top ten schools—and once a first-tier elite high school—First High School still had quite solid teaching staff and facilities.

It was equipped with a professional martial arts training base, containing spacious practice rooms with complete equipment, as well as meditation rooms with exceptional privacy and extremely high safety standards.

There were also top-tier teachers who had graduated from higher institutions, or even come from professional competitions and the military.

Not only were these teachers widely knowledgeable, every one of them was highly skilled.

The weakest among them were Level Seven Martial Artists.

Martial arts rankings were not actually divided with perfect rigor, since every school of martial arts had its own unique strengths and could not be neatly generalized. Besides, anyone who cultivated their own martial arts to profound depths had a trump card hidden at the bottom of the chest.

Rankings were generally used only among martial artists whose Internal Energy had yet to complete a Great Zhou circulation and who could not yet release protective force beyond their bodies.

Beyond that range, they could no longer be simply ranked by level. Instead, one had to conduct a comprehensive analysis based on their Internal Energy, the power of their martial arts, their combat skills, and many other factors.

At that level, masters would not let others completely discern their methods.

Even in wuxia novels, the strength of martial arts masters was tangled and complicated beyond measure, let alone in reality.

In short, whether someone was formidable or not, you would only know after fighting them.

Of course, that only applied to comparisons between masters of the same tier. If an old master with sixty years of cultivation fought a young man with ten years of cultivation, then even if the old master stood still, the young man could not defeat him—and not only would he fail, he might even be injured by the rebounding protective force.

That was a bit of a digression. In any case, these teachers were quite capable.

Especially teachers—being well-traveled and experienced was absolutely indispensable.

As soon as afternoon class began, the students practicing martial arts all headed for the practice room.

After changing into their usual combat uniforms in the locker room, the students stood in three rows at the northwest corner of the practice room.

After they shouted a few simple slogans, the afternoon instructors took their own students one by one to the practice areas under their respective supervision.

Because the martial disciplines differed, so did the teachers: fist and palm techniques, leg techniques, Internal Energy, external training, weapons such as sabers, spears, swords, halberds, and hidden weapons, competitive fighting, comprehensive disciplines, and so on.

There were countless martial arts schools and a vast array of techniques, so naturally there were many classifications as well.

Why were good schools good?

Besides having individually powerful teachers who could teach genuine skills, another reason was their sheer numbers, covering many schools and categories.

This made instruction more targeted and professional.

The campus martial art Zhao Rui primarily studied was called Azure Cloud Palm, a palm technique that cultivated both the internal and the external.

"The Gaokao is getting closer and closer. Many of you still haven't met the standard in your internal qi cultivation, so hurry up and train. Stop playing on the computer at night..."

After earnestly urging them for a while, the fist-and-palm instructor said no more and began teaching the material for this lesson.

There were exercises to strengthen the body, exercises to improve the circulation of internal qi, meditation to cultivate one's nature...

And, of course, sparring practice.

Today, Zhao Rui voluntarily chose sparring. There was no other reason—he simply wanted to test the system.

"Zhao Rui, how about you and I go up and fight later?"

Standing beside Zhao Rui in the formation was a tall girl with red lips and white teeth.

Her tied-up ponytail brimmed with the gentle sweetness of youth, making her look just like the childhood sweetheart girl next door.

Zhao Rui looked at her full chest, and the image of her using martial arts surfaced in his mind. That childhood-sweetheart feeling immediately vanished like smoke in the wind.

This girl practiced Wing Chun Inquiry, a martial art similar to the Wing Chun of his previous life, focused on speed and finesse.

The problem was, whenever she fought, she tucked her legs and guarded her chest, both hands constantly swaying before her breasts. If he lost focus even slightly while sparring with her, she would give him a beating.

And if he accidentally touched her...

Sigh!

"I refuse. I'm afraid of getting beaten up!"

Zhao Rui decisively refused. He had no intention of failing to get any advantage while still ending up covered in trouble.

"Zhao Rui, Cui Jian!"

At that moment, the instructor's voice rang out. Zhao Rui shrugged at the girl, then vaulted onto the ring.

The ring was much like a combat or boxing ring, and its protective measures were quite good.

Both fighters wore simple protective gear to avoid overly serious injuries.

The instructor also stood nearby, staring intently at the match. The moment anything went wrong, he would intervene at once.

Their reaction speed and ability to stop a fight were not something the referees from Zhao Rui's previous life could compare to.

"During the Gaokao, practical combat matches do not account for much. You should devote more of your usual energy to your specialized courses and academic subjects..."

After nagging them for a couple of sentences, the teacher had Zhao Rui and Cui Jian begin their match.

The two were classmates and familiar with each other, so neither hesitated. They assumed their stances and immediately began fighting.

Zhao Rui used the Azure Cloud Palm taught by the school. This martial art was fast and agile, emphasizing swift, skillful grappling.

Cui Jian practiced the Taihang Thirteen Palms. Every palm strike carried immense force; each move was like a savage bear crashing to the ground, with an aura as deep as an abyss.