Destiny in Cinders

"Oh?" The youth that saw An Jing take down the other disciples so easily and almost yelled out "hit harder" or "beat up that nobody" was flabbergasted. He raised his hand blankly and asked, "Me? Take him down?"

That youth was one of the three who had finished the arduous stamina training with An Jing but still came in behind him. He was capable and had attended a martial academy of Grand Chen before, boasting rather good observational skills. As such, he was able to tell that An Jing was only slightly worn out after the laps whereas he almost ran out of energy himself. It was a gap in stamina that was hard to make up for, and knowing how much he fell short, he didn't bother to answer the challenge at all.

However, the instructor had named him directly, so he looked at the ring with some interest. An Jing had defeated nine people in a row and showed signs of fatigue. It wasn't like he would get beat up badly if he tried, so it was a good chance to one-up An Jing. "Alright, I'll give it a try."

Don't blame me, An Jing. You are too strong, so the best I can do to stand on even footing with you is with that handicap. With that thought in mind, he stepped into the fighting ring after the tenth challenger surrendered.

An Jing turned to look at Cang Linzu. Though he didn't feel tired, he noticed the odd moves made by Instructor Li from his fifth opponent onward. He was no fool and immediately understood that Direlife Manor was intentionally instigating the others to challenge him and also fed him special meals filled with meat for the sake of encouraging competition among the disciples.

No doubt, their training would only get stricter than ever. The instructors would also push the disciples to challenge each other so that the most martially talented and the strongest would be picked out to be the true senior disciple.

However, that would only work if the top position actually changed hands. If An Jing was too strong, he would crush the initiative of the others before they even tried to fight him. Nobody would want to go up against someone they knew they couldn't defeat, after all. It was no wonder Instructor Li felt so troubled.

Either way, it didn't matter to him. He wouldn't throw the fight, but he would make a show of being more tired than he was to give others the impression that they could win in principle.

"Apologies in advance!" Cang Linzu didn't wield a weapon, prompting An Jing to discard his short stick as well. This would be an unarmed fight.

Both sides saluted each other. The next instant, Cang Linzu stepped forward quickly with a punch, disturbing the wind around him.

Grand Chen was filled with martial academies which the court officials used to filter out the nation's talent. Anybody who could gain admission into one would eventually reach the heights of the Tide Aura Stage or higher, which would qualify them for the role of guards at least.

Cang Linzu hadn't attended the martial academy for that long before the snow calamity struck, turning him into a refugee. But that also meant that his martial skill had been tempered through actual hardship and grit. His moves were unlike those of An Jing's other opponents, carrying hints of malice within and frequently zapping towards the vitals.

An Jing squinted and raised his left arm to parry the strike, choosing to directly engage Cang Linzu. The two of them shook from the clash for an instant before An Jing feinted with his right arm, only to send his right leg stomping on the foot of his opponent.

Cang Linzu's stance was firm, however. He pulled his left foot back to avoid the stomp and backed away, making it hard for An Jing to dodge. Twisting his waist for force, he unleashed another powerful punch.

Of course, An Jing could predict the move. Cang Linzu's moves were steady and textbook, not to mention backed by actual combat experience. Even if An Jing was much more experienced, it was hard for him to see through his opponent's moves and defeat them with a single counter. So, before Cang Linzu struck, An Jing put more force into his feinting right arm and struck his foe's right shoulder before Cang Linzu's punch landed!

Cang Linzu hadn't fought someone who would trade blows in this fashion before. Being hit in the right shoulder had dampened the momentum of his attack quite a bit, causing his fist to merely brush against the left shoulder. He felt as if he had lightly nudged a firm sandbag.

The two of them backed away respectively from the exchange. Though it seemed like an even one, only a few were able to truly see who had the edge.

Darn! Cang Linzu knew that he had lost the initiative and immediately backed off. Had he not done so, he would've been sent flying by An Jing's sudden kick. But alas, as he recovered from his low dodge, An Jing's left elbow slammed into him, keeping him grounded.

Cang Linzu was much worse off this time around, having allowed An Jing to close the distance after he retreated. He wanted to raise his leg to block with a kick, only for An Jing's foot to stomp on his leg before he could make the move, causing him to lose balance, falling into An Jing as he charged in with a shoulder tackle. The blow took all the wind out of his lungs and almost caused him to faint.

"I surrender!" Cang Linzu said as he wobbled and slumped to the ground, causing An Jing to cease the fight. Feeling rather vexed, he groaned while still on the ground, "My fellow disciples, any of you who still have tricks up your sleeves should act now! Today might be the only day we stand a chance of defeating Big Brother An!"

An Jing panted and smiled at the rest. Nobody volunteered to fight him no matter how much Instructor Li had tried to nudge them. The chain of eleven battles that didn't last longer than half an hour came to an end just like that with An Jing keeping his senior-disciple position with an absolute advantage.

The next round of challenges would only come around ten days later, but they knew without being told that nobody would challenge An Jing even then. Nobody would bother to get beaten up for no reason unless they made extraordinary progress.

"Fine, alright! An Jing won!" Instructor Li weakly announced the results. Right as Gu Yeqi, Zhang Ying and the others cheered, he added, "Let the training begin!"

He drilled the youth so hard to the point that they cried out for their parents. An Jing was given special attention and asked to get into the horse stance with extra weights and hold it until his legs shook from the strain. After that, Instructor Li returned to the center of the manor where the apothecary was.

"Vice Apothecary," he greeted respectfully.

The old man who had watched the whole thing from the fifth floor of the apothecary said, "An Jing truly is among the most talented in the batch. I just didn't think that he'd be so strong to the point that the others would give up on challenging him."

"The top position is fixed in stone. What shall we do about this?"

"Fixed?" The old man turned to Instructor Li and looked at him as if he was a fool. "If the top position is fixed, give incentive to the rest to take the second or third position. If those are fixed, incentivize them to fight for the lower positions. It's not like we lack the resources."

After grilling Instructor Li, the vice apothecary turned towards the fighting ring again. "Still, this batch of disciples truly is among the finest. They are full of surprises."

He gave it some thought and nodded. "Alright, let's start things a bit earlier than usual. We'll eliminate the disciples who have less stamina to focus more resources on the ones that remain. It's time we got them hooked on 'eating meat.'"