Daily life of a teacher in the martial arts department

Chapter Eight Wind-Riding Jade

Once the Royal Academy students finish their midterm assignments for this semester, they must begin preparing for the midterm assignments for the next semester.

This was half a joke; it wasn't actually that exaggerated. But after the winter and summer breaks, when a new semester begins, Royal Academy students have to face the midterm assignments that will plague them a total of eight times throughout their four years of university.

Unlike end-of-term assignments, which are tedious but not dangerous or difficult, and are intended to help students better integrate into society after graduation, mid-term assignments are a real test of students' professional abilities.

In the first two months of each semester, magic and alchemy students lose a lot of hair. In comparison, martial arts students have a much easier time; regardless of the actual difficulty of the assignments, at least they have a clear direction and know what to do. Alchemy students, on the other hand, are in a much worse situation, forced to produce something and constantly at risk of being rejected. But the worst off are the magic students, who have to take various social studies exams, collaborate with alchemy students on designs, and also go on missions like the martial arts students.

A nation's most talented individuals typically congregate in the magic system. This is because a skilled alchemist is not necessarily a skilled mage, while a skilled mage is invariably a skilled alchemist. Therefore, generally speaking, the magic and alchemy systems rise and fall together; situations like the Seven Stars, where the alchemy system rises independently while the magic system doesn't see much improvement, are extremely rare—and even if they exist, it's usually the other way around.

Before we knew it, it was mid-March. The spring breeze swept across Anning Lake, creating ripples.

Many students have already begun preparing for the midterm assignment. However, this has little to do with Ying Qin Guan, who is a teacher.

He recalled that he had been at the Imperial Household Agency for almost a year.

In early April of the previous year, he arrived at the Royal Academy. At that time, Jiu Yi was still troubled by the teacher he had been entrusted with leading the team. Ji Fa was also recruited at that time. She was eager to escape the clutches of her parents and hoped to accumulate enough experience in the Royal Academy to be promoted, or be exiled, even to a remote town. Freedom is always something to yearn for.

However, she now finds that her parents can no longer deal with her. After a year, the sharpness she had when she first entered the Imperial Academy has disappeared without a trace. She wonders if she will become like Luo Shui in the future.

"A lot has happened this year," Ying Qin Guan remarked in the board game arcade.

"A lot happens every year, it's just a matter of how much you encounter."

Nephalem sat opposite him, his expression natural.

As a legendary agent of the Seven Luminaries, he has seen far too many things during his missions, including even some primordial alien races.

“Perhaps I should praise you for your philosophical way of speaking, but unfortunately the philosophy department of the Imperial Academy has been merged into the literature department.” Ying Qin Guan paused slightly and said, “Also, are you wondering why you didn’t draw the God of War, even though you clearly remembered its location? The answer is, it’s with me.”

As Ying Qin Guan spoke, he pulled out his general card.

As expected of a Nephalem, Miss Silver beside him was already starting to panic. However, he remained calm and righteous, saying, "I, the Nephalem, am completely innocent. Playing games is all about fair competition. As for you, drawing the God of War twice in a row, no matter how you look at it, you're cheating."

Ying Qin Guan thought Nephalem was right, so he raised his eyes and rewarded him with a consciousness slash.

Nephalem has suffered countless instances of mental attacks due to his lack of card-playing skills. Keep in mind, he only visits the Imperial Academy occasionally, while Jiu Yi played cards with Ying Qin Guan every day before resuming his martial arts training. Even so, Nephalem has endured far more mental attacks than Jiu Yi, demonstrating just how lacking in card-playing skills Nephalem possesses.

But as the saying goes, practice makes perfect. There's nothing more to it than practice makes perfect. After taking so many of these consciousness slashes, Nephalem gradually got used to them. He could even block or dodge some of the attacks. Sometimes, even when he was hit, he could maintain his previous state like Ji Fenming and not completely lose consciousness.

Nephalem quickly recovered and drew a backup option from the general card, excluding the God of War. He had anticipated that Ying Qin Guan might draw the God of War. So he had chosen this general in advance, which could be considered a counter to the God of War—in fact, no general can truly counter the God of War, as the God of War is invincible in 8-player mode. It's just that this general cannot be countered by point-based attacks, so it only seems to have a slight counter effect.

In the card, a man stands atop a war-torn city wall, his expression indifferent.

【Divine Wind Jade】

Era: Ancient

Physical strength: 2

[Investiture of the Gods]: Omitted.

【Infallible Strategy】: Locked skill. You cannot be the target of delayed strategy cards or other characters' duels. Delayed strategy cards you use cannot be countered by Unyielding, and judgment cards cannot be replaced by other characters' cards.

【Eliminate】: When a character takes damage, you may discard a card to deal one point of damage to that character. If the character does not enter a dying state due to this point of damage, you lose one point of health.

【Seize Power】: Once per turn, when a Kill or damage-dealing card deals damage to another character, you can take the damage for that character and then gain two of their cards.

【Schemes】: Locked skill. During your draw phase, you draw x more cards. During your discard phase, your hand limit increases by 2x, where x is the number of eras of generals on the field. When x is 1, you lose 1 health point per turn.

【Poisonous Injury】: Limited Skill. When one character on the field has the highest HP, treat all other characters as if they were to use a Virtual Kill card on that character, ignoring armor. For each point of damage dealt, you draw one card. If all characters have dealt damage, you draw three additional cards. However, this skill can only be used in the next turn. If none of the characters have dealt damage, you lose one point of HP.

【Watching the Fire】: Locked skill. If you do not deal any damage in this game, all other characters will have their distance to you increased by 7-x, where x is the number of your turn.

(Who will ultimately control this world?)

Feng Xingyu, the strategist of the Investiture of the Gods.

Compared to a strategist like Taki, Feng Xingyu's schemes are always filled with various kinds of adventure and madness. He believes that if he does not act, he will not act; but if he does act, it will be as powerful as thunder, a matter of life and death.

Compared to Taki, who quietly focused on domestic affairs and development, then used his foresight to foresee his opponent's plans and prepare to crush them, Feng Xingyu left behind too many ingenious strategies that cannot be ignored. Legend has it that in the popular version of Time and Space Kill, Feng Xingyu has the most skills, reaching twenty-one, each with a logical basis and corresponding historical events. But of course, Time and Space Kill cannot actually give him twenty-one skills.

—But seven is already quite outrageous.

A new round of games began, and Nephalem was up to his old tricks again. As Agent King, he knew all the tricks involved, so he started chatting with the others to try and distract them.

So he looked at the boss, who was also at the card game.

"Speaking of which, boss, you've been making quite a few moves lately."

Chapter Nine is less about martial arts

As soon as Nephalem said this, it immediately attracted everyone's attention. Everyone looked at the boss, wondering if the boss was up to something shady and had been caught by Nephalem.

"Don't use such a scary word," the boss laughed. "It makes it sound like I've done something shameful."

He naturally knew what the Nephalem was referring to—the World Martial Arts Tournament. He and Nocturne had been working tirelessly for days on this matter, praying to gods and Buddhas, pulling strings everywhere, and going through all sorts of procedures. Anyone with even a little bit of intelligence would have known about it.

"What? What happened?" Miss Yin, true to form, displayed her gossipy nature, acting like a curious child.

"If I say 'it's nothing,' I doubt that would satisfy everyone." The boss shrugged and casually played a kill card against the Nephalem.

“This is a revenge killing, isn’t it?” Nephalem remarked first, then added, “You don’t think this is some kind of secret that can be kept hidden, do you?”

"That's impossible." The boss chuckled, glanced around, and seeing that everyone seemed quite interested, said, "It seems everyone is curious about what I did."

“Because you rarely take the initiative to do anything,” Nephalem said. “You’re so rich, yet you don’t do what rich people should do. You just stay in this board game cafe all day petting cats. You’re such a lazy bum. So when people hear that you actually take the initiative to do something, they think, ‘It’s like pigs have flown today.’”

"Couldn't you use a more human word?" the boss complained.

"Hmm..." Nephalem pondered for a moment, then, a strange competitive spirit took over, and said, "A knife to slit a butt?"

"How come you didn't freeze to death after four years of studying at the Imperial Academy..."

Seeing that the two of them hadn't gotten to the point for a while, Miss Yin's curiosity grew even stronger, and she said, "Stop keeping me in suspense, so what exactly happened?"

—Because Nephalem always brought Miss Yin with him when he came to Ying Qin Guan to slack off, the boss also knew her.

"It's really nothing big," the boss said. "It's just that I want to make a program, but this program is a bit special."

"What kind of program is it exactly, and what's so special about it?" Ying Qin Guan asked at this moment. Although he was talking to the boss, his gaze was subtly directed at Nephalem, which made Nephalem feel a certain amount of pressure and unable to find an opportunity to cheat.

"What's so special about it... you'll probably understand once you hear the name of the show."

The boss paused, then said, word by word, "The World's Number One Martial Arts Tournament!"

Yes, just as the boss said, there was no need for much explanation. The moment they heard the program, everyone understood what kind of program it was and what made it special.

"Really? Are you serious? No, wait, the government would never allow you to hold something like this, right?"

Miss Yin's initial reaction was surprise, followed by a realization that something was amiss. The battle between the Sword Saint and Kui Yue was still vivid in her mind. If this "Number One Martial Arts Tournament" truly meant inviting the world's best fighters, it would attract even more martial artists. Given their personalities, this would inevitably cause a huge disruption to the city's security, not to mention the title of "Number One Under Heaven"...

Yin felt that the title was a bit off, but she couldn't quite put her finger on what it was. It wasn't until her gaze swept over Feng Xingyu's card and she recalled his past practice of listing the world's top experts that she finally realized what was wrong.

"That's why I've been working on this all this time," the boss said, a rather assertive answer. It was precisely because this matter was so difficult that it had been dragging on and progressing slowly; otherwise, he would have solved it long ago.

Miss Yin was shocked; the news was so astonishing that she couldn't find the words to express herself effectively for a moment.

In contrast, Ying Qin Guan, sitting next to her, appeared much calmer... or rather, more composed.

"Perhaps these words would be a joke coming from someone else." Nephalem couldn't find an opportunity to make any underhanded moves, so he could only sigh and say, "But no matter what it is, it's much more believable when it comes from the boss. Like Silver, if I said I'd give you a voice card, would you believe me?"

Miss Yin glanced sideways, wanting to kiss her boss on the lips, but she didn't dare, so she could only give him a look that said, "I don't want you to lose face in front of everyone."

“Obviously, you think I couldn’t possibly do such a thing, or that I’m incapable of doing it.” Nephalem pursed his lips and said, “But the boss has done this kind of thing so easily. With that kind of financial power, anything is possible. Besides, this matter has attracted Nocturne, and the two of them have already persuaded quite a few people.”

"So..." Miss Yin was still somewhat incredulous, "They're really going to do this?"

"How could it be fake?" The boss licked his inexplicably dry lips and said in a low voice, "This will be a grand event."

Ying Qin Guan still didn't react. He thought what he wanted to say was a bit impolite, so he didn't say it.

He knew what the World's Number One Martial Arts Tournament would be like; it would probably be a ring battle... But, there's a point we have to bring up here.

What exactly is a battle?

The answer is that fighting is a passive choice.

Any time, any place, anyone, male or female, young or old, number or number, it doesn't matter, because when someone starts a fight, you have no choice but to accept it. The right to fight is always in everyone's hands. Fighting against many with few, defeating the strong with the weak, facing a powerful enemy when your weapons are not with you... these kinds of sudden, unpredictable, and unpredictable situations are what make a fight.

If you set up a stage, prepare an audience, limit the battle area, prohibit killing blows, and forbid outnumbered attacks, then this match, this battle, seems to be fair.

But in this world, there is no truly fair battle, not a single one.

Age, talent, effort, number of people, gender, race, weapons, training methods, usage, environment, mentality, preparation, reaction, wisdom... There has never been a fair fight in this world, and fighting itself does not need to pursue any fairness, because fighting itself is unfair.

A true strongman must be prepared to face any injustice at any time, rather than expecting his opponent to be martial and virtuous, to prepare him with weapons, to allow him to develop to his peak, to plan the terrain, and to set the rules. That's just wishful thinking.

The pursuit of fairness, taking place on stage, in a battle where lives aren't at stake, is what Ying Qin Guan sees as...

"The performances are almost identical to those at the Imperial College Gala."

Chapter Ten Invitation

"So, during the slash of the sword—"

clang--

As Ying Qin Guan enthusiastically explained the secrets of swordsmanship to his students, a deep, resonant bell rang out, echoing from the Supreme Mage Tower of the Imperial Academy and reverberating throughout the surrounding area, finally reaching the teaching area of ​​the Imperial Academy.

This is the school bell that belongs exclusively to the Imperial Academy. It carries a lot of history. Over the years, the buildings of the Imperial Academy have changed again and again, but the Supreme Mage Tower has never changed. Even after all these years, the deep sound of the bell has not been replaced by the school bell.

"Class dismissed, students!"

Upon hearing the bell ring, Ying Qin Guan reacted instantly. Before the other students could even react, he vanished in a flash.

After squatting in a horse stance with the weights on for two classes, Luo Shui plopped down on the ground, threw off the weights, and forced a smile onto her face.

"The organization appreciates Xiao Ying's ability to avoid going overtime..."

Although she really enjoyed Zhong Hongyu's teasing remark, "Why do you talk like an old cadre?", Zhong Hongyu clearly didn't get it and just looked at her strangely, saying, "You talk so strangely."

"It's alright..."

Luo Shui rested for a while, then stood up unsteadily. The students scattered, and Zhong Hongyu asked, "Do you need help?"

"There's no need to be so delicate... Can you carry me on your back?"

"No."

"You answered so quickly! Couldn't you have hesitated for a moment?!"

Luo Shui sighed, deeply realizing that Zhong Hongyu had no talent for comedy.