Waiting for the Rice to Cook

The students watching from the sidelines held their breath, utterly absorbed.

Zeng Bonan's brows were tightly furrowed. He could tell that Xu Wuyi's defense was already outstanding. If it had been him facing Teacher Wang's style, he probably would have lost long ago.

Hu Haobo was sweating as he watched. He felt that Xu Wuyi's occasional explosive counterattacks were actually already quite formidable, yet they still could not so much as touch the corner of Teacher Wang's clothes.

If he were the one up there, not only would he fail to attack, but because his defense was too loose, he would be subdued in an instant.

Liu Jing stared fixedly at the field. She felt even more certain that no matter what she did, she would not last a minute.

Time passed, second by second.

Xu Wuyi's breathing began to grow heavy. His stamina had already bottomed out.

Maintaining such high-intensity focus consumed an enormous amount of both physical strength and mental energy. He felt the long spear in his hands growing heavier and heavier, and his footwork was no longer as nimble as it had been at the start.

Wang Wenhai still looked completely at ease. The flashes of his blade remained dense and unbroken, his steps still drifting unpredictably.

He even had the leisure to speak. "Do you feel it? Your defense is too passive. You lack the ability to actively change your rhythm."

Before his words had even finished, the blade-light changed again!

This time, Wang Wenhai's speed suddenly rose by another level. His figure flickered repeatedly like a phantom as he launched rapid attacks from three different directions!

Xu Wuyi gritted his teeth. His long spear spun like a wheel as he pushed Wind-Returning Sweep to its limit. Amid a dense series of crisp clangs, he barely blocked the entire offensive.

But while he could block the blade, he could not block the tremendous force that came with it.

Just as he blocked the final slash, his blood and qi churned, and his movements showed a tiny, almost imperceptible pause.

Wang Wenhai, who had been roaming unpredictably the entire time, suddenly fixed his stance and shot forward close to the ground like a ghost.

The single saber in his hand turned into a bolt of lightning, piercing through the spear-shadows before they had fully closed, and stopped steadily in front of Xu Wuyi's throat.

The cold touch of the blade came through.

Xu Wuyi's movements froze instantly, as if all the strength in his body had been drained away.

"You lost." Wang Wenhai calmly withdrew his saber and stepped back.

Xu Wuyi stood where he was, looking at Wang Wenhai's calm expression, and could not help shaking his head helplessly.

Three minutes. In just three minutes, at the same level, he had been completely suppressed, to the point that he could not even mount a single effective counterattack.

The True Intent of "Mountain" he had just comprehended had no chance to be used at all.

For one thing, his long spear had never truly had the chance to attack Teacher Wang, so naturally he had no way to unleash it. For another, this instructional battle was meant to temper technique.

If he forcibly used Martial Dao True Intent to break the situation, it would instead lose its intended effect.

Even in the college entrance exam, because the initial battle's rating was only a reference, some examinees would hide part of their strength just to win an advantage in the actual duels.

Of course, one could not hide too much. If someone who originally deserved an A rating hid himself down to a D, then even if he crushed three opponents, it would be very hard to pull his score back up.

"Next, Zeng Bonan." Wang Wenhai did not immediately comment, but directly called the next name.

Xu Wuyi silently walked to the sideline, picked up his water bottle, took a few gulps, then closed his eyes and carefully reflected on the fight just now.

Teacher Wang's fighting style had opened a new window for him.

So fighting could be done like this. It did not pursue a one-hit kill, but instead used precise control and changes in rhythm to eat away at the opponent's stamina and will bit by bit.

This style just so happened to counter his current approach of relying on defense and looking for a lethal counterattack.

What should I do? Xu Wuyi's mind raced. If I can't find a chance to counterattack while defending, should I give up defense and force a direct exchange like I did against Li Mo?

He immediately rejected the idea.

Against an opponent of Teacher Wang's level, blindly trading attacks would only make him die faster.

Teacher Wang's saber techniques were exquisite, and his footwork was agile. He would never give Xu Wuyi a chance to fight desperately at close quarters like Li Mo had.

Even the next time he ran into Li Mo, not even Li Mo would give him that kind of chance. His victory in that fight had mainly relied on his opponent being careless; he could not count on that every time.

Maybe... what I need isn't that kind of earth-shattering counterattack, but a more conventional way to counter?

The thought flashed through his mind like a spark.

He thought of the Silk-Winding Force he had just mastered.

Silk-Winding Force was soft, insidious, and unpredictable. It excelled at infiltrating through defense, disrupting the opponent's blood and qi as well as their control over their weapon.

If he could use it skillfully, then while blocking the opponent's attacks, he could counter with Silk-Winding Force. Perhaps that would effectively interfere with Teacher Wang's smooth, flowing rhythm?

He did not need to win in one strike. He only needed to be like a thorn, constantly stabbing in, making the opponent uncomfortable and forcing them to adjust, thereby creating more space and more opportunities for himself.

No wonder after Wind-Settling Spear reached minor mastery, the new move was this kind of soft force... Looks like the problem I'm facing now was something those before me once encountered too, which was why they came up with this path.

Not only can it be used against powerful enemies, it can also be used against roaming-type opponents.

The path of martial arts, with all its mutual generation and restraint, really is too wondrous!

Thinking this, Xu Wuyi opened his eyes and looked toward Wang Wenhai, who was currently fighting Zeng Bonan in the field. His gaze lit up again.

The instructional battles soon ended. Every student went up and fought one of the two teachers. Some lasted longer and some shorter, but without exception, all of them were defeated.

Of course, that was only natural. What did reflect their relative strength to some extent was how long each person could hold out.

Aside from Xu Wuyi, who could last until the three-minute mark, everyone else was defeated within a minute without the slightest suspense.

Even a martial artist like Zeng Bonan, who was equally skilled at defense, only lasted a little over half a minute against Wang Wenhai's single saber.

The guidance battles for all twenty-four students, plus the teachers' follow-up commentary, took less than an hour in total.

Today, the two teachers were each responsible for guiding half the students. During the next session five days later, they would switch sides. These few days were meant for the students to reflect, optimize, and adjust their battle thinking.

As the day of the joint examination drew closer, Xu Wuyi's life was monotonous yet fulfilling.

Aside from his required academic classes and training in the Basic Body Tempering Method, he poured every spare moment he could squeeze out into polishing [Silk-Winding Force].

In his sea of consciousness, the numbers on the Bronze Ancient Scroll faithfully recorded his sweat:

[Current Realm of Wind-Settling Spear: Minor Achievement (5.3%)]

His rate of improvement was much slower than when he had first entered the threshold, but every tick of the percentage meant his control over this soft, hidden force had grown a little more refined.

In Ranked Battles on Battle Net, he no longer relied solely on the forceful attacks of [Cloud-Parting Force]. Instead, he began consciously using [Silk-Winding Force] in defense.

The effect was immediate.

In several matches, when his opponents confidently swung their weapons and tried to forcefully break through his [Wind-Returning Sweep], that strange trembling force would travel up along their weapons.

At best, it distorted their moves; at worst, it directly left their wrists sore and numb, instantly stripping away most of their threat.

This created more than one opportunity for him to counterattack from a desperate position, and his ranked points had already reached Second Rank, 50 points.

The point range for Second Rank was 200 points, with roughly one tier every fifty points, and there were clear differences in strength between them.

Before reaching 50 points, Xu Wuyi had been able to maintain a sixty to seventy percent win rate and climb by relying on the enhancement of Martial Dao True Intent and the special effect of [Silk-Winding Force].

But after 50 points, the opponents he encountered were clearly a tier stronger. Their life energy levels were often about 1 level higher than his, and their martial skills were also extremely refined.

Against those opponents, his win rate plunged. He could almost only win one or two matches out of ten, and the points he had painstakingly climbed to would soon fall back down again.

On the other hand, ever since he comprehended Martial Dao True Intent, his efficiency in cultivating the Basic Body Tempering Method had risen once more.

His blood energy surged through his body, and its circulation pathways seemed to have been widened slightly by an invisible force. The growth brought by each full cycle became even more apparent.

As a result, his speed in digesting D-Grade Blood Energy Potions had also increased considerably.

Originally, he had expected to need four or five days to fully absorb a single potion, but now that had shortened again to around three days. His efficiency had almost caught up to the level he had been at before level 11.

However, this also led to a problem—the Federal Credits subsidized by the school were no longer enough.

"Good thing the Three-School Joint Examination is about to start. Taking first place comes with a two-hundred-thousand reward. I'm waiting for that money to cook the rice!"