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*Bam!*

A huge rock was smashed into bits as Yiqi stood calmly on the impact site.

“Woah! Yiqi, your Panther Charge was so amazing!”

The group of students standing at about 20 meters away from Yiqi were cheering in amazement when they saw the prowess of Yiqi’s execution of Panther Charge, the fourth stance of Panther’s fist.

One week had passed since the previous sparring session with Instructor Liu’s class. In this one week, the class dynamics had went through a drastic transformation. The class seemed to have established a much closer bond after that humiliating experience. Muyou and Yiqi had always started to socialise more with their classmates. They would regularly exchange pointers with their classmates regarding martial arts skills and the issues regarding Inner Strength. The class had also unofficially recognised Muyou and Yiqi as the leaders of their class due to their strength.

Instructor Pang was secretly delighted at this development, little did he expect that sparring session would spark the growth of resentment towards the bullying actions of the other classes. This common feeling caused the class to unite together, which Instructor Pang would be happy. Furthermore, how Muyou and Yiqi had taken a more active role in helping the rest of the class made Instructor Pang even more pleased.

“Woah younger brother, it seemed like your mastery of Panther Charge had reached unprecedented heights.” Muyou complimented as he led the class towards Yiqi.

“Are you sure those words should be coming out from you?” Yiqi smiled at Muyou.

Upon hearing that remark from Yiqi, Muyou could only let out a dry cough. In fact, Muyou’s mastery of Panther Charge was not any lower than Yiqi’s.

“Stop comparing, both of you are leaving the rest of us in dust. Most of us are still trying to master the first and second stances.” Yue Hao sighed as the rest of the class nodded in agreement. In this week, Instructor Pang had arranged internal sparring session every afternoon and everybody had the chance to witness Muyou and Yiqi’s monstrous strength.

“What are you all doing?! Just standing down there and chit-chatting?! Stop slacking all of you!” A shout echoed through the forest. That was the sign of Instructor Pang approaching.

“Run! Run! Instructor Pang is here!” The students started to shout as they dispersed in all directions. On the students’ faces, were cheeky smiles as they let out waves of laughter.

“Haiz... These kids… Always slacking off when I’m not around.” Instructor Pang leapt down from a tree as he shook his head helplessly. This scene was like a mother hen trying to catch its mischievous chicks. Three weeks had passed, and the students and Instructor Pang seemed to have develop a close relationship. This was why they dared to be so informal and candid towards Instructor Pang. Instructor Pang was also not like the usual rigid senior, thus he did not mind this type of relationship.

“Good job in mastering the Fourth Stance, your learning potential never fails to amaze me. However, our agreement still stands. One more week for you to master the Fifth Stance.” Instructor Pang turned his gaze towards Muyou and Yiqi.

Out of all of the students who dispersed, only Muyou, Yiqi, Zi Long and Yue Hao who remained. Muyou, Yiqi and Zi Long could be considered the strongest trio in the class while Yue Hao could be considered the smartest in the class.

“I think we will give up on mastering the Fifth Stance. It requires a huge application and control of Qi, so we will only resume our efforts after the Third Month when our Qi training starts.” Muyou replied with a dejected tone.

Instructor Pang’s eyes lit up when he heard that reply. Finally! Finally, the two geniuses in his class were willing to start learning new Martial Art Skills.

“Ok, you two can go to the Panther Martial Collections Hall to get a new martial art skills manual to learn. Regarding which martial art skills, I will leave it to both of you.” Instructor Pang said as he leapt off trying to catch the other students.

When Instructor Pang left, Zi Long leaned on a tree as he sighed.

“You two have already mastered four stances of Panther Fists, while I have only mastered the first two stances of Panther Fists. Both of your learning speed is indeed too fast.” Zi Long could not help but to marvel at them.

“At least you have already mastered the first two stances. The rest of the class like me have already given up on mastering the stances of Panther Fists and went on to learn other martial art skills.” Yue Hao said as he proceeded to sit on a rock.

“That is because your heart was not even in learning martial art. After comprehending the first five stances, you immediately went to pick up some weird book on formations and tactics.” Muyou retorted. When Yue Hao was learning the Panther Fists, he was like an unwilling student being forced to study a subject he had zero interest in. However, when Yue Hao went to get a new manual on formations and tactics, he was immersed in that manual for an entire day.

“Formations and tactics are not something to be under-estimated you know, a good formation can allow you to overpower somebody much stronger than you. You know my father used to…” Once on the topic of formation and tactics, Yue Hao will spare no effort in lecturing the others. Muyou could not help but to groan as he regretted in leading the conversation to this topic.

At the end of the day, before the class was dismissed, Instructor Pang made an important announcement.

“Tomorrow afternoon we are going to have another sparring session with Instructor Liu’s class.”

This announcement caused the eyes of the students to burn with excitement. Finally, the time for revenge had arrived!

“However, the same rules apply. This sparring session is a training session for you guys! Use this chance to put what you have learnt into use. Trust me, this training session will be an important warm-up for the upcoming special event at the end of the month.”

Some students were disappointed that they could not challenge the other class, while the others were perfectly alright with the same instructions. With their growth in the past week, all of them were confident that they were able to defend most of the attacks.

“So tonight all of you please rest well.” Instructor Pang dismissed the class.

After dinner, Muyou and Yiqi headed over to the Panther Martial Collections Hall to select a new Martial Arts Skills. They tried to convince Yue Hao to tag along, but he was too engrossed lying on his bed and reading his Formations manual.

When Muyou and Yiqi entered the Panther Martial Collections Hall, it was like a huge spiral library. There were numerous tomes stacked in the shelves with various labels. Near the entrance, sat an old man reading a book lazily. Although he was dressed in an Elder’s robe, he had quite a sloppy appearance that was different from other Elders.

“State your name and batch.” He said lazily as he put away his book.

“I am Muyou and he is Yiqi. We are from the 87th Batch.” Muyou and Yiqi cupped their hands as they bowed courteously.

“87th Batch… Muyou and Yiqi… From Instructor Pang’s class… Oh, it has been 3 weeks and you guys had not retrieved any new martial arts skills? Both of your learning speed are indeed quite slow…” The elder mumbled as he flipped through a huge book.

Muyou and Yiqi only let out an embarrassed smile. It appeared that the elder had mistakenly thought that Muyou and Yiqi had only comprehended the Panther Fists after 3 weeks. If he were to know that Muyou and Yiqi had already mastered 4 out of the 5 stances, his attitude would be completely different.

“Ah, I am Elder Kang, I am in charge of the Panther Martial Collections Hall. Now go and select a manual.” Elder Kang waved his hand as he slumped back into his chair and continued reading his book.

Muyou and Yiqi immediately ran around browsing the various manuals, like little children who were visiting the library for the first time. After an hour, Muyou and Yiqi had settled down in their respective sections in the library as they carefully inspected the manuals in the section. After browsing through most parts of the library, they had a rough idea of what type of martial art skills they were going to pick up.

After another hour, Elder Lang let out a grumble. “Are you two done? It is almost closing time…”

“Ok, we are done!” Muyou and Yiqi hurriedly arranged the manuals back into the shelves before grabbing onto their selected manual.

“Come show me your selected manual before leaving.” Elder Kang instructed as he took a registry and a brush.

“Here is mine!” Muyou said gleefully.

“Shadow Kicks… Are you sure you want to learn this? Although this has only 3 stances, but I am sure after browsing through, you know how hard this skill is?” Elder Kang frowned. “Moreover you took 3 weeks just to comprehend the Panther Fists… This Shadow Kicks is even harder than Panther Fists. You cannot learn a new skill until you comprehend this. Are you sure you still choose this?”

“It is alright, I still choose this.” Muyou nodded his head.

Elder Kang only sighed as he wrote down the details on the book before turning towards Yiqi. “What about you?”

“Elder Kang, this is my choice.” Yiqi smiled.

“The Impenetrable Body… Gosh, what is wrong with the both of you? This is a martial art skill that will drastically alter your body’s constitution. It is ridiculously hard for you to comprehend it in two years.” Elder Kang lamented in exasperation.

“I still want to choose this, Elder Kang.” Yiqi insisted.

“Ok ok…” Elder Kang shook his head as he recorded the details on the book.

“I have to warn you two, after a month, you two will have to return this book to this Hall regardless of your comprehension level. Moreover, you cannot make any copies of any books you borrowed from this Hall, anybody found guilty will be severely dealt with. Only when you have comprehended the martial art skills, then you can borrow another new manual.” Elder Kang said as he closed the book.

“Haiz, the both of you picking such a hard skill to start with, I am afraid both of you may be stuck with these skills till your graduation. Do you two actually think this Panther Martial Collection Hall is actually only for the students? The manuals here are also for the Panther Guards, you can say that only the easier skills in this Hall are actually meant for the students.” Elder Kang continued to nag at them as he showed them out of the Hall.

Muyou and Yiqi did not mind Elder Kang’s lecture at all, after all they were very excited with their new Martial Art Skills. This could be counted as a skill which they chose themselves.