Michael stepped inside the Martial arts tower as usual but instead of heading towards the practice arena, he went to the martial repository. The elder at the repository entrance just gave Michael a smile and asked him to select any martial art that he wanted to learn. This was a special privilege of the elite students that the tower would not hide any techniques from them unless the techniques were dark or were self-destructive. Others had several restrictions placed on them in their access to combat arts and techniques.

Michael spent the entire day trying to figure out a suitable martial art. Michael had terrifying physical strength and control over his body. He also had the method of mobilizing soul energy inside his body. This, he was looking for martial arts that would allow him to bring out his power. After going through several martial techniques, he found a pretty decent martial art that matched his requirements: Flowing River Art! This art was based on the premise that strength is hidden in muscles of the body and the muscles of the body are all connected to each other through the skeletal framework. Thus, with sufficient practice, one would be able to reinforce the power behind a blow with several surrounding muscles as well. This would increase the limit of power that is possible to be displayed in a given realm. The creator had thought of physical strength as a stagnant lake and had claimed that through this art, one could turn these lakes into flowing rivers that could transport strength from one part of the body to another!

Initially, Michael found this quite inconceivable but as he read the manual, he found that it was indeed possible. The manual had even described the biological and anatomical explanations of this art. After being convinced of his choice, Michael decided to pick this art for his purposes. This would increase his already abundant strength. Adding the power of soul, it would be a perfect close combat art.

Thus, Michael brought the manual to the Elder at the door. When the Elder saw Michael's choice, he smiled but there was something like pity in his eyes. He said:

Elder : Kid, I know about your blessing and this art would have allowed you to use your divine strength with even better control. But, this art is ranked amongst the highest difficulty level and we don't have any experts in the tower that practise it. The only person who practises it in this generation is the beast emperor. As he had a the bear bloodline, he had abundant strength. Thus, he had chosen this art. But, even he only managed to learn it to half completion.

Michael : Unfortunate as this might be, I have already made my decision. Thus, I request senior to allow me to take the detailed scripture of this art for practice.

Elder (to himself) : This kid is also trying to bite more than he can chew. From what I heard, he was not much talented in martial arts. Well, what can I do?

Elder : Okay, boy. Wait here. I will bring the scripture of Flowing River Art. If you find that you can not make much progress, you can always come to pick another martial art.

After saying such, the Elder left. Later, he returned with the complete scripture and handed it to Michael. Michael thanked the elder and went into meditation chamber to memorize and understand the content. After that, Michael's practise sessions of his originally developed close combat soul art were replaced by martial arts training.

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Time continued passing and the date of the second yearly exam came over. Michael had not made much progress with the Flowing River Art but his progress in illusion combat techniques was simply akin to flying. His cultivation had also stabilized in the early king realm but no one knew about this.

Many students were quite confident in Kandriff becoming the champion of the final tests. After all, Kandriff had great combat power and decent cultivation talent. Adding on his family background, there was no one who could compete. While people agreed that Michael's talent was greater, he was too young to challenge Kandriff during the test. Maybe after both came of age, they would have comparable power.

As such, Kandriff's fan following had increased to great heights among the students and helpers. There were many beast race experts in the tower who supported him. Ashley, though suppressed in talent and power was no less famous. Now, she had already turned 16 and was incredibly beautiful. Several powerhouses had approached the elven royals for her hand in marriage. While most would be demotivated by this and would probably not like being treated as a trophy, Ashley had no problem in it. To her, relations were not of much importance. She was ready to marry the strongest groom she could find. She was sure that she would be able to bewitch him and live as an empress.

At the day of the second yearly exam, all helpers visited the gorge to bet on the students. The results remained unchanged, though. While Ashley was depressed on not being able to surpass Michael, she did not dwell on it much. It was her fan group that became quite angry at Michael. Michael was also very low key and young. Thus, the students did not take him all that seriously. While they did not have the standing to truly cause him any problems, they started targeting his retainers! Ramsus just grit his teeth and bore with all the bullying. He was waiting for the day the crown prince would smack these people across the face. This was also the same for all other humans. They knew that the day Michael decided to step on the fighting stage, entire Aterna would be shocked!

Michael did not bother with any of these as he continued honing his martial arts. His soul cultivation reached the fifth chapter in the viscous realm which was equivalent to the peak viscous stage. But, in terms of soul energy, he could compete with experts whose cultivation was reaching the middle solid soul realm.

As such, time passed. It was at the end of the third year that Michael finally managed to reach minor completion in the Flowing River Art. Even with his perfect persona blessing, it had been incredibly difficult to learn this technique. But he had managed to do it with his diligence!

As the third year came to an end, Michael decided to pick a mission to do. There were many things that he needed to do in these two years. He had already prepared himself as much as he could. All that was left was to set things into motion.