Chapter 94 Giving Guidance
Just like that, Fang Xingjian's class won two consecutive battles, accumulating 6 points in the group battle, tied with Class 248 (the most senior class, who had trained for eight years longer than Class 256), and Class 250 (enrolled six years earlier than Class 256).
Therefore, based on the time that they had used, and on the number of members eliminated during battle, Fang Xingjian's Class 256 and Class 248 (the most senior class, who had trained for eight years longer than Class 256) were chosen as the two classes to directly enter the semi-finals.
Thereafter, the classes ranked third to sixth, namely Class 250, Class 252 (Xiu Yi's and Renault's class), Class 249 (the second most senior class), and Class 254 all continued their battles in the elimination rounds after drawing lots.
The remaining three classes, with the lowest accumulated point totals, were eliminated immediately after the first stage.
Therefore, for the next two days, Class 256 did not need to take part in any battles. They only needed to wait for the elimination rounds to conclude, and would be able to enter the semi-finals for the top four classes directly.
In the days without any battles, Fang Xingjian kept practicing his sword arts in his own villa, of course... there were a few more others in these two days.
…
On the lawn, Fang Xingjian sat cross-legged on the floor, physically circulating the Training techniques, and the Nurturing techniques, automatic as usual, while in his mind he unceasingly practiced a few of the Nurturing techniques he had secretly learnt these past few days.
However, he would quickly glance over at that silhouette on the lawn every now and then.
Still, most of his focus was not on it. It was because the other party's sword techniques were too unbearably coarse. Even The School of Sword Arts' Ogden and Lambert were of a much higher level in terms of sword arts when compared to that young girl.
The one practicing her sword arts on the lawn was Kirst's City Lord's daughter, Lilia.
Today, after bringing along a whole cart of precious materials, she had started demonstrating her sword techniques under Fang Xingjian's command.
Today, her attitude towards Fang Xingjian was much more respectful than it had been the day before. She had obviously heard of how Fang Xingjian had not only wiped out all of the Knights in Class 252 the day before, but had even displayed sword techniques at the speed of sound, astonishing the crowd.
Therefore, Lilia was now waving her greatsword about in the air, sending soil and dust flying, shooting about grass and stones, and making a mess of the nice lawn.
After a very long time, she ran excitedly to Fang Xingjian, bowed respectfully, and asked in great anticipation, "Teacher, how do my sword arts look?
"How should I be training from now on?"
Fang Xingjian narrowed his eyes and threw a glance at her. Most of his consciousness was still focused on automatically cultivating the Nurturing techniques that he had secretly learned, as he spoke.
"Trash."
"Ahh?!" Lilia pouted and said, "How's that possible?
"The teacher my father got for me kept saying that I have great talent and that I am a genius for practicing martial arts. Usually, I'm very strong in fights as well!" As she said this, she clenched her delicate little fists.
Fang Xingjian knew that her teacher was not wrong to say that. He did not know if it was due to the powerful bloodline of Kirst's City Lord, or if it was because Lilia had grown up eating too many treasures of the world, but her attributes were good, and she even had an inborn speciality called 'Monstrous Strength', allowing her strength to be maintained at its peak for as long as her physical strength was not depleted.
This was obviously an extremely outstanding speciality, ideally suited for combat, and it could generally allow Lilia to maintain peak condition during combat at all times. Normal injuries would not affect her either.
But this also made her perform each stance at full power, which ended up affecting her sword arts practice.
Of course, her talent in sword arts was really poor, and that was also why the levels of her techniques were all very low. She was thus unable to pass the selection to become a Knight, having been stuck at level 9 for a very long time, and even decided to pass up on opportunities for the Prefectural Selection these past few years.
But regardless of how things were, she was still a genius who had more than 35 points in strength, with a mere level of 9. In terms of attributes alone, she was stronger than Kaunitz had previously been.
Hearing Lilia's words, Fang Xingjian shook his head, and did not bother to argue with her. He directly grabbed her hand, and led her to display the Nurturing technique that she had performed earlier.
From Lilia's display of her sword technique, he had already picked up all four sets of Nurturing techniques that she practiced, and this was him only taking a few glimpses every now and then. It was obvious that Fang Xingjian's talent was growing increasingly terrifying as he became stronger.
Lilia was grabbed by the hand and led by Fang Xingjian to perform the sword techniques. Occasionally, Fang Xingjian would slap her on the back, on her shoulders, or push on her upper thigh, lower thigh, or limbs.
Her pose and channeling of energy were adjusted continuously, while Fang Xingjian simultaneously spoke in her ear, "This set of Nurturing technique is one of extreme yang, and is a top notch sword technique, which tempers the bones and boosts the blood flow, but because of this, it is very important for your stance to be exact.
"If not for consuming so much good food since you were young, at this rate, you would have long since experienced a deficiency of your vital energy and blood."
As he said these, Fang Xingjian continuously corrected Lilia's actions physically. After completing the sword technique set, Lilia's face was flushed red, her eyes swirling, thinking in her little brain, "What is going on? Why is it that when teacher instructs me in my sword practice, I feel so comfortable and so hot?"
But after looking at her Stats Window, she immediately became excited.
"This is so amazing! From just one practice with you, the experience I received is the same as when I practiced it twice in the past!" Lilia said excitedly. "Teacher, you're really awesome!"
"If it's effective, then go practice." Fang Xingjian once again sat down cross-legged, cultivating his own sword techniques, "Practice until I tell you to stop."
"Alright!" Saying that, Lilia acted as if she had been injected with chicken blood [1], cultivating her sword technique while exerting all of her strength.
With this, the 'Monstrous Strength' in her body exploded out once more, and the surrounding grass suffered even greater damage.
And as Fang Xingjian provided guidance like this, he noticed that it actually levelled up his sword technique.
The Nurturing techniques he had secretly learnt during this time increased in experience as he guided Lilia.
And with the leveling of his Nurturing techniques, his Stats Window, which had been blurry for the past few days, suddenly became very clear again. Although he was still unable to see everything, he could tell that this speciality was formed of four words.
'This speciality... Does it require my level of sword arts to be higher?’
'Or do I have to pick up more sword techniques?’
'Or... Is it because I guided Lilia earlier?' Fang Xingjian thought to himself. 'I wonder what kind of speciality this is.'
While Fang Xingjian was deep in thought, Jack and Anthony came to the villa. Seeing Fang Xingjian sitting down cross-legged and cultivating, and Lilia fanatically waving her sword about on the lawn, they revealed hesitant expressions.
In the end, it was Jack who was the more thick-skinned of the two, so he said, "Xingjian, I heard that you were guiding this young lady in her sword training?
"We've also known each other for very long. Can you also give us some guidance in our training? Although we do not practice sword arts, with regards to the Nurturing Path, there should be some common principles in terms of the nurturing of our bodies."
They had been simply astonished by Fang Xingjian in the past two matches, and thus had thought of learning from him. Even if it only had a 1% effect, it could already be considered a great improvement.
Looking at the duo's gazes, filled with anticipation, Fang Xingjian wanted to reject them outright. Jack and Anthony did not have the Headmaster's recommendation, nor did they have a wealthy father like the Kirst's City Lord, to present him with gifts.
But thinking of how, after he had previously given Lilia guidance his specialty had become a bit clearer, he paused for a while, eventually saying, "Then just join in."
[1] Injecting chicken blood, or chicken-blood therapy was a therapy popular in China in the 1960s, which consisted mainly of drawing blood from a rooster and injecting into the patient. There were claims that the benefits of doing so included the strengthening of one’s constitution, increased lifespan, or even healing a myriad of illnesses. Using this as a description suggested a negative connotation of an abrupt act of excitement or agitation of the individual.