Two hundred frog jumps.
Many of the students groaned inwardly. With any other instructor, the craftier students among them would have surely muddled through with a half-assed effort. But facing Luo Zhan, Xingxuan Academy's famous cold-faced instructor, not a single one of his students didn't harbor a sense of dread.
Even the students in the advanced classes had been forged through Luo Zhan's grueling training.
"On my command, begin!"
The moment Luo Zhan's voice fell, the large group of students began the exercise in the training hall.
THUD. THUD. THUD.
The sound of frog jumps echoed endlessly.
'This Luo Zhan's training method is actually quite good. Frog jumps are one of the best exercises for developing leg strength. A Martial Artist's combat effectiveness is determined by the stability of their lower body. Two hundred frog jumps are enough to train the leg strength of these basic and intermediate students without causing injury.'
Ye Xuan nodded to himself but remained standing perfectly still. Amidst the large group of students doing frog jumps, he stood out like a sore thumb.
"Ye Xuan, do you have a death wish? Hurry up and start! Instructor Luo is going to notice you," Chen Xing hissed from the side, gesturing frantically, his face a mask of anxiety.
Too late. Luo Zhan had already noticed Ye Xuan.
"You there. What are you doing? Step forward," Luo Zhan's gaze turned cold. He never imagined someone would dare to defy him before the martial arts lesson had even begun.
"It's Ye Xuan. What is that idiot doing?"
"He dares to disobey Instructor Luo's orders? Who does he think he is? He must have a death wish."
"Haha, now this is going to be a good show."
Seeing this, many students started gloating quietly and muttering amongst themselves.
"All of you, shut your mouths and focus! Anyone who stops, slacks off, or uses improper form will do another hundred for me!" Luo Zhan barked, his gaze sweeping across the students.
The whispering died instantly, leaving only the THUD, THUD, THUD of frog jumps.
Luo Zhan stared at Ye Xuan as he stepped out from the crowd. "Ye Xuan," he said coldly, "did you not hear what I said? I'll give you one chance to explain yourself. Don't say I'm being unreasonable. Why aren't you doing the exercise? If your reason is valid, I might consider overlooking this. If not... hmph."
Luo Zhan snorted, and the unique, iron-willed aura of a veteran soldier pressed down on Ye Xuan. It was an overwhelming pressure born from countless battles, filled with the phantom clang of steel and a soaring killing intent.
Although he'd offered a chance to explain, a student disobeying an order was a clear violation. Luo Zhan fully intended to put the boy in his place. To his utter shock, however, when his oppressive aura—one honed through a hundred battles and forged in the slaughter of thousands—fell upon Ye Xuan, the student's expression didn't even flicker. It was as if he hadn't felt a thing.
'How is this possible?' Luo Zhan was startled, and a sharp glint flashed in his eyes.
His aura had been forged through hundreds, even thousands, of life-or-death struggles in the purgatory of the battlefield. Never mind a mere student; even a Martial Artist of his own rank might not be able to face it without their expression changing. Ye Xuan's performance was completely beyond his expectations.
Ye Xuan simply smiled faintly. "Instructor Luo, frog jumps are for training a Martial Artist's leg strength. My leg strength is already more than sufficient. An exercise of this level is useless to me, so naturally, I have no need to practice it."
'Oh? The kid actually knows why I had them do frog jumps.'
Instructor Luo was slightly taken aback. His gaze fell to Ye Xuan's legs, and surprisingly, he didn't fly into a rage. Instead, a slight smile touched his lips. "Oh? More than sufficient, you say? In that case, I'd like to see for myself just how 'sufficient' your leg strength really is."
The moment he finished speaking, before Ye Xuan could even reply, Luo Zhan suddenly swept his leg out.
Fast, precise, and vicious!
The kick shot out like a furious dragon bursting from its cave, whipping up a gale. A black afterimage of Luo Zhan's leg flashed like lightning toward Ye Xuan's lower body at an incredible speed.
A smile remained on Ye Xuan's face. The instant Luo Zhan kicked, he lifted his own right leg slightly. Though his movement was clearly much slower than the instructor's, he somehow managed to strike first, his foot connecting precisely with the inside of Luo Zhan's calf.
BANG!
With a dull thud, Ye Xuan stood his ground, not moving an inch.
Impossible!
The students doing frog jumps were all dumbfounded. Stuck in their squatting positions with their eyes nearly popping out of their sockets, they looked exactly like real frogs.
But the one who was most shocked was Luo Zhan. His pupils constricted, his face a mask of utter disbelief.
Others might not have seen the nuance, but how could he fail to? Ye Xuan's kick had landed on the absolute weakest point of his attack. Otherwise, even though he'd used less than a tenth of his strength, it was still far more than a mere student should have been able to block.
'Luck. It must have been luck.'
"Again."
At this point, Luo Zhan had completely forgotten his original goal of testing Ye Xuan's leg strength. His right leg flashed, kicking out from an incredibly awkward angle. 'Let's see you block this one,' he thought.
Once again, Ye Xuan slowly raised his leg, and once again, it met the inside of Instructor Luo's attacking right leg. The movement was so minimal, it looked as if he'd just started to raise his leg for a kick but hadn't even fully extended it.
BANG!
And once again, Ye Xuan stood firm, not moving an inch.
'Impossible.'
Luo Zhan felt his mind reel. Ye Xuan's second kick had once again landed on the weakest point of his right leg, using minimal force to perfectly block his powerful attack. The placement was flawless.
'Are you kidding me? Is this kid's luck really that good? He actually managed to fluke it twice.'
Luo Zhan couldn't believe it. This time, he had suppressed his strength and speed to the level of a Tier One Warrior, yet he still hadn't managed to push Ye Xuan back, let alone knock him over. And the person standing before him was merely a student from the basic class.
He simply couldn't bring himself to believe Ye Xuan had done it on purpose. After all, to track his kick and pinpoint its weakest spot required an incredible level of perception and skill. Forget a basic-class student; not even the other instructors at the academy who had reached the rank of Tier Two Martial Artist could accomplish such a feat.
"I refuse to believe it! Take this—Flowing Wind Leg!"
Flushed with embarrassment from his repeated failures, Luo Zhan finally cast aside any thought of underestimating his opponent. With a low shout, his right leg dissolved into a blur of black afterimages. Like a traceless, flowing gale, they shot toward Ye Xuan's right leg in a flash.
He's actually using a leg-based martial skill!
The hundred-plus students in the training hall stared in shock. One of them even blurted out, "A leg like the flowing wind, traceless and formless! It's Instructor Luo's ultimate move, the Flowing Wind Leg! That kid is toast!"
Hearing the student's shout, Luo Zhan's face burned with shame. He, a respected academy instructor, had been forced to use a martial skill just to test the leg strength of a basic-class student. If word of this got out, he'd want to find a hole to crawl into and die.
Thinking this, he deliberately coughed to cover his embarrassment and adopted a lecturing tone. "All of you, watch closely! This move is called the Flowing Wind Leg. The key is to make your leg like a flowing wind. Even though I'm not using any Profound Qi to power it, the kick is still ethereal and unpredictable, its path difficult to trace. This is the subtlety of a martial skill…"
He hadn't even finished his sentence when a sharp glint flashed in Ye Xuan's eyes, and his right leg shot out like a bolt of lightning.
BANG!
The inescapable flow of wind came to a sudden halt, dissolving into a violent gust that scattered in all directions. Luo Zhan grunted and was actually forced to take a step back.
Ye Xuan, on the other hand, didn't emerge unscathed this time. He staggered back several steps, sucking in a sharp breath as a numb sensation spread through his right leg.
'This body's physical strength is still far too weak.'
Ye Xuan shook his head inwardly. With his level of perception, how could the Flowing Wind Leg of a late-stage Tier Two Martial Artist like Luo Zhan possibly fool him? He had spotted at least seven or eight major flaws in the technique at a single glance. But seeing them and exploiting them were two different things. This body, after all, only had the strength of a Tier One Warrior at the First Layer. As for his Profound Qi, he had only managed to open two Profound Veins. Accomplishing what he just did was already pushing this body to its absolute limit.
But regardless, he had utterly dismantled Instructor Luo's Flowing Wind Leg.
Huh?
In an instant, every student in the hall was wide-eyed, their expressions as shocked as if they had just swallowed a fly.
As for Luo Zhan, his mind was in absolute turmoil.
A basic-class student had actually broken the Flowing Wind Leg of a late-stage Tier Two Martial Artist. At that moment, the man known as the "Iron-Faced Instructor" did something no one could have ever predicted: he rubbed his eyes.
'I must be seeing things.'
"Instructor Luo, is my leg strength sufficient now?" Ye Xuan asked, a half-smile playing on his lips.
Luo Zhan's face was beet red. He didn't answer Ye Xuan, instead turning to the crowd of wide-eyed, motionless students and roaring, "Who told you to stop?! Get back to it! Add another hundred frog jumps! If anyone dares to stop before they're finished, don't blame me for what comes next!"
THUD, THUD, THUD...
Snapping out of their stupor, the students scrambled back to their exercises. As they jumped, they replayed the scene in their minds, unable to comprehend what had just happened. They could only conclude one thing: Instructor Luo must have been holding back. After all, Instructor Luo, a veteran retired from the military, was one of the strongest instructors at the academy when it came to practical combat. An ordinary Tier Two Martial Artist was no match for him, let alone a mere basic-class student.
Luo Zhan was just as bewildered. Ye Xuan's power wasn't actually that great; the key was that all three of his kicks had landed on the weak points of his right leg. Such perception... could even a Tier Three Earth Martial Artist manage that? On top of it all, Ye Xuan's leg strength had genuinely reached the level of a Tier One Warrior at the First Layer. It felt like he was living in a nightmare.
What he didn't know was that Ye Xuan's speed wasn't particularly fast. He was relying on a terrifyingly precise sense of prediction. He only needed to see the start of Luo Zhan's movement to know his next action and simply wait for him there in advance.
'Is this still the same Ye Xuan I knew?' Luo Zhan thought, sizing up the student with a growing sense of shock.
A short while later, the three hundred frog jumps were finally over. The training hall was a scene of utter devastation. Other than Ye Xuan and Luo Zhan, there was hardly another soul left standing.
"You can't even handle a few frog jumps? Utterly pathetic," Luo Zhan snorted. He shot a glance at Ye Xuan, who had returned to the formation, then flipped open a roster. "Next, we'll begin paired sparring practice. The student with the highest score from the last exam will be paired with the student with the lowest score, and so on down the list."
"Group One: Feng Rouyi and Ye Xuan."
As Luo Zhan called out the names, Ye Xuan and a girl stepped forward. The eyes of the entire class fell upon the pair—or more accurately, upon the girl.
She was a tall young woman with long, red hair. She had small, cherry-like lips, a delicate, pale nose, and eyes that shimmered like water. Her long, straight legs were especially striking, making her stand out even among the three hundred-plus students in the hall.