Tools

The next day, before the morning training class.

The atmosphere had returned to normal. Everyone quickly put Hu Shixin's ordeal behind them.

Several male students gathered to discuss the fun they'd had at a club the night before.

Ordinary academy students were neither at the top nor the bottom. At the academy, they were unremarkable; out in society, they were among the elite.

Zhao Jingru pulled Liang Lele into a corner of the courtyard and quietly asked about Chen Yiming.

After returning home the night before, she had been unable to think of a way out. Blushing, she had told her parents the whole story and asked for help.

Zhao Zhengming had spent decades in business. His family's limited strength had kept his operations confined to one city, but he had plenty of experience. He hinted that if a direct approach failed, his daughter could try Chen Yiming's family.

Not long after training class began.

After leading the students through one round of Mantis Snake Swordsmanship, Wang Bowen told them to practice on their own and hurried away.

The students soon scattered. With no one supervising them for once, they found places to rest. Two even skipped class and left.

"Junior Brother Chen, let's spar."

Zhang Youde approached Chen Yiming without mentioning yesterday and suggested they exchange a few moves.

Today, he had made the rare choice to wear the Praying Mantis Snake Sword Academy's training uniform. Paired with the physique he had built by eating Mutated Beast meat since childhood, it gave him a bright, energetic look.

"Sure."

Chen Yiming had been about to practice his swordsmanship anyway. He could think of no reason to refuse.

For some reason, Zhang Youde had seemed like a different person since yesterday. After one thoughtful gesture after another, Chen Yiming hardly knew what to make of the attention.

"Junior Brother Chen probably hasn't encountered many other martial arts, so you lack experience against different opponents. My family's art happens to be swordsmanship too. It can't compare to Mantis Snake Swordsmanship, but it has its merits."

Rather than attack at once, Zhang Youde first explained that he wanted to spar using another sword art.

"Your family's swordsmanship?"

Chen Yiming raised an eyebrow, suddenly interested.

Zhang Youde was the perfect tool. Sensing that Chen Yiming had little interest in cultivation resources, he had immediately switched tactics to probe what he wanted.

If he hadn't needed to keep his unusual ability to learn by watching a secret, Chen Yiming would have asked Zhang Youde outright to arrange matches with skilled swordsmen from different schools.

"That's right. My family's Rainbow Swordsmanship takes a different approach from Mantis Snake Swordsmanship. It excels at prolonged fights, linking one move into the next without pause."

Zhang Youde explained Rainbow Swordsmanship's strengths without holding anything back.

"Prolonged fights?"

Chen Yiming was delighted to hear it.

Mantis Snake Swordsmanship relied on concealment, speed, and killing power. It favored explosive attacks along a direct line. If he needed to pursue an enemy, it would surely be less effective than a sword art built for prolonged combat.

The more skills he had, the better. Why pass up swordsmanship offered to him? As long as he didn't openly use it in front of others, who would know he had secretly learned someone else's family art?

As the two prepared to spar, the other students gathered around to watch. They whispered among themselves about Zhang Youde and Chen Yiming.

Before Chen Yiming's rise, Zhang Youde had effectively been the strongest student at the East City Branch.

Chen Yiming was a newcomer to the spotlight. Only in the past few days had he shown the makings of a gifted student.

This was their first public sword match. Many students wondered whether Chen Yiming would topple the former strongest student or Zhang Youde would defend his place at the top.

"Lele, Zhang Youde is a whole minor realm above Chen Yiming. No matter how good Chen Yiming's swordsmanship is, he can't win if it comes down to raw strength, can he?"

With her goal clear, Zhao Jingru had calmed down. She deliberately talked nonsense to provoke Liang Lele, hoping to draw out something useful.

"Not necessarily. I think Chen Yiming is the kind of genius who can fight above his level. There's definitely more to his potential than we've seen. He joined the academy rather late and lost several years before that. Most likely, he was a dragon hidden beneath the water, and no one noticed his talent."

Liang Lele disagreed.

Like Zhao Jingru, she came from a merchant family. Unlike her, Liang Lele was plain-looking and had the opposite personality: she loved gossip and kept up with every bit of news.

"You even know what Chen Yiming was like before he joined the academy? Don't tell me you heard some gossip somewhere. Rumors like that are pure guesswork. They get wilder every time someone passes them on."

Zhao Jingru parted her lips and gave her an openly skeptical look, waiting for Liang Lele to reveal what she knew.

"Honestly, I have a friend from middle school whose family isn't well-off. No. 13 High School offered her a scholarship, so she chose to study there. I paid her a little to ask around."

Liang Lele lifted her chin and shared part of what she had learned, proving she hadn't simply believed a rumor.

"And you believed that? A school that big has so many classes and students. Even if she went there, she probably heard it secondhand. You can't trust that."

Zhao Jingru maintained her skeptical air, pressing Liang Lele for more.

"I'm not that stupid. My friend actually happened to be in Chen Yiming's class. That's why I paid her to find out. Back in high school, Chen Yiming was a troublemaker. His grades were poor, and he liked getting into fights. Apparently, he dropped out because of a fight."

For the last part, Liang Lele leaned close to Zhao Jingru's ear and lowered her voice.

She was afraid someone else might hear and bring trouble down on her for no reason. She had no desire to become the next Hu Shixin.

In the middle of the courtyard, Zhang Youde and Chen Yiming soon began their match.

"Watch closely."

With that warning, Zhang Youde opened with the first move of Rainbow Swordsmanship—Pierce the Sun. His figure blurred into a long streak.

"Got it."

Chen Yiming drew his sword at the same instant, meeting the attack with a basic defensive move.

His real aim was to learn the swordsmanship by watching, not to beat Zhang Youde.

Mantis Snake Swordsmanship was clearly a higher-level art than Rainbow Swordsmanship. If he defeated Zhang Youde in a few moves, he would only get to learn an incomplete version of it.

In the blink of an eye, Chen Yiming and Zhang Youde had exchanged dozens of moves.

To the astonishment of the students watching, Chen Yiming held his own against Zhang Youde's family-taught Rainbow Swordsmanship using nothing but basic sword moves.

Zhang Youde's moves changed with startling speed. His sword could bend or thrust straight, attacking from every direction.

That was the hallmark of Rainbow Swordsmanship: its varied moves flowed endlessly into one another, making the next attack almost impossible to predict.

Unfortunately for Zhang Youde, he was facing Chen Yiming.

Although this was Chen Yiming's first encounter with a martial art like Rainbow Swordsmanship, he had undergone three bodily transformations. His cultivation was one minor realm above Zhang Youde's.

Their ability to read the fight was on a different level, and Chen Yiming handled the attacks with ease.