Several days passed, and the academy settled back into calm.
Although the students' protests had been quite loud, after a couple of the leading figures were forcefully expelled by the academy, the rest scattered like birds and beasts.
Ultimately, whether one could stay in the academy or not, under certain rules, could even be a matter of survival.
Just like during the Blood Plague rule period, if you weren't an academy student and couldn't get high-specification protective equipnt imdiately outside, infection would truly an death.
It was precisely because of that experience that when faced with the consequence of expulsion, most students knew how to choose.
However, after this incident, the academy strengthened its managent and increased the enforcent of its regulations.
Afterwards, while students still discussed the matter among themselves, debating whether Shen Yun's subsequent appeal could overturn the verdict, it remained just talk, with no further extre actions.
Online public opinion also saw its heat rapidly decline two days after the first-instance verdict. It was unclear if official departnts had activated the One-way Mirror System.
In any case, starting from the third day, the trending searches were all replaced by topics like the Mind Network, the Battle of the Ascendants variety show power rankings, and so on.
"The Beixing authorities certainly have enough resolve."
In a small courtyard with red tiles and white walls, Sigaochin said while packing protective gear into a backpack for Yelanka.
"That young man nad 'Shen Yun', I heard his Mind Power value is very high, ranking among the top in the academy. Such talent, and they just buried it like that."
Yelanka, however, agreed with this judgnt: "Not taking action would be short-sighted. Without the support of public sentint, it would be difficult for the authorities to push through any initiatives in the future."
Sigaochin looked thoughtfully at Yelanka, wondering if she would govern the Xisiya Empire in the sa way if she ultimately succeeded in her competition.
After the protective gear was packed, Sigaochin handed the backpack to Yelanka.
"Your Highness, it's already September. To be safe, we need to return to the Xisiya Empire before the next Doomsday Rule is announced. Please complete your training objectives as soon as possible."
"Yes, I know."
Yelanka left her residence and headed to the academy.
When she arrived at the classroom, she heard people discussing sothing related to the faculty and staff.
"Yesterday afternoon, soone saw counselor Fang Qian formally resign and leave the academy with her things."
"...Actually, thinking about it now, she was just following orders from her superiors, right?"
"I also think it was unnecessary; going to the dormitory building to make trouble that day was a bit over the top. I heard they all ran off as soon as Teacher Guan showed up later."
"Ah, actually Senior Fang Qian was really nice. She was the one who received
when I enrolled. I asked so many questions back then, and she wasn't the least bit impatient, answering each one for ."
"If you ask , the Dean and the departnt heads share so responsibility too. It's just that everyone's afraid of being expelled, so no student dares to question them."
Tap, tap, tap...
Guan Tong walked into the classroom, and the students imdiately fell silent.
Over the course of more than a month, Guan Tong had already established his authority in the classroom. All the troublemakers had been dealt with by him and were now well-behaved, not daring to cause trouble.
"Class begins."
...
After the morning and afternoon classes ended, Yelanka went to the training room. She took out the protective gear Sigaochin had prepared for her and put it on.
When Guan Tong arrived, he was montarily puzzled seeing her dressed in a set of dark red light armor. "Why are you wearing all that?"
"Isn't this impact training?"
"So you wear a full suit of armor?"
"...This is specially made protective gear, not armor."
Guan Tong walked up for a closer look, reaching out to pinch a piece on her shoulder. The material was indeed sowhat special. It looked like armor, but was actually very light in weight.
"Alright, keep it on then. For the next half hour, I will continuously attack using Mind Power. What you need to do is mobilize your Mind Power to focus on defense."
Guan Tong took a few steps back and said, "During this ti, I will keep increasing the speed, so your reactions need to keep up. But I have an additional requirent: you cannot move during this period."
"Cannot move?" Yelanka looked puzzled.
"That's right. I know you've systematically trained in combat, and you should be able to tell I don't know combat. So my attack thods aren't refined; they're crude and easy for you to block or parry."
"..."
Although Yelanka didn't speak, her eyes clearly said that was indeed the case.
"In that case, if you keep using your preferred thod of blocking and parrying, the defensive training of your Mind Power will only concentrate on the arms and legs you use for those actions. Other parts of your body won't get any training. Do you understand what I an?"
"I understand."
If you always use your arms to block attacks, then Mind Power will only concentrate on the arms, naturally reducing proficiency in concentrating it elsewhere. Therefore, to train a defense with no blind spots over the entire body, you must abandon your habitual defensive stances.
"Considering the differences between n and won, this training would actually be better done by Shi Jingyi," Guan Tong said. "But she hasn't returned yet, and you're in a hurry to leave, so it has to be . However, I will try to attack using non-contact, externally released Mind Power as much as possible. Is that okay?"
"Okay."
"Then prepare yourself."
Yelanka took a few deep breaths, adjusted her state, and nodded to Guan Tong.
Guan Tong began his assault.
His thod of attack was to continuously release Mind Power, assaulting Yelanka's body from all directions.
At first, it was just one location, like a shoulder. Then, he gradually increased the intensity over ti. From one location to simultaneously attacking two, three, four.
Initially, Yelanka could handle it calmly, tily circulating Mind Power to the attacked location to block. But as the number of simultaneous attack points increased, she began to get a bit flustered, and her breathing rhythm fell apart.
Guan Tong reminded her, "Maintain your breathing, don't rush. If you can't defend everything at once, defend the critical points!"
"Just now, I simultaneously attacked your calf and your heart. You actually prioritized mobilizing Mind Power to defend your calf? What were you thinking? Are your legs more important than your life?"
"Too slow! Your performance now is worse than at the beginning. Are you regressing the more you train?"
"If I were your enemy, you would have died seven or eight tis already by now. Didn't I just say? If it's too late, prioritize defending vital points. You need to respond with a combat mindset, not a training mindset!"
A continuous half-hour of Mind Power attacks, coupled with relentless verbal correction and criticism—Guan Tong had really dialed up the intensity this ti.
Yelanka maintained her composure for less than three minutes. For the remaining twenty-seven minutes, she was almost completely thrown off. Even when she managed to stabilize briefly, she would fall back into chaos within a minute or two.
Especially since, besides constantly manipulating Mind Power to strike from all sides, Guan Tong kept up a barrage of verbal attacks. Although Guan Tong's words weren't vulgar, pinpointing soone's weaknesses was more ntally disruptive than outright cursing. Even though her ntal fortitude was usually quite good, she was starting to find it unbearable.
When her Mind Power was completely depleted, and she was weakly leaning on her legs, gasping for breath, she finally couldn't help but say to Guan Tong, "You... can't you just say less!"
This was the first ti she had gotten angry at Guan Tong, showing she was truly starting to unravel.
What infuriated her the most was that Guan Tong was standing there with his arms crossed, his face wearing that calm expression that was even more annoying than mockery.
"Can't take it anymore?" he said. "If I were your enemy, being able to anger you and disrupt your rhythm with just a few non-vulgar words would be too good a deal."
Yelanka retorted, "If it were an enemy, they couldn't attack so many places simultaneously!"
During the training just now, the maximum she had sensed was Guan Tong manipulating Mind Power to attack fourteen different points on her body simultaneously. In her view, this was simply unbelievable, and she instinctively felt that no one else besides him could possibly do such a thing.
"Are you sure?" Guan Tong said seriously. "Are you sure the enemy is only one person fighting you alone? What if ten people attacked you simultaneously?"
"..."
"Stasiya, if you start making excuses, the effectiveness of the subsequent training won't be good. I know you're leaving this month. I just want to fulfill my responsibility as a teacher, to let you leave with as much gain as possible."
Yelanka's heart trembled. Her silver-white eyelashes lowered as she said softly, "I'm sorry, Teacher. I'm too weak."
"It's not that bad."
Yelanka looked up at Guan Tong, seeing him smile as he said, "It's just that you're so much stronger than the other students that you've unconsciously beco a bit proud. As long as you can level your mindset and focus on training, you will definitely succeed before the end of the month."
Yelanka rarely saw Guan Tong smile. She felt he usually had a mostly neutral or sowhat indifferent expression, which was why quite a few students in the academy had given him the nickna "Guan No-Smile."
If Guan Tong himself knew the students called him that behind his back, he would definitely cry injustice. Because during his very first class, he had tried smiling while teaching, but the students didn't buy it at all, so he simply stopped pretending.
After the students accepted his teaching style, he got used to it, only to end up crowned with such a nickna.
After a slight pause, Yelanka nodded. "Mmm... I understand."
Perhaps because she saw Guan Tong's smile, Yelanka suddenly felt the distance between her and him had shrunk considerably. Unable to hold back, she asked, "Teacher, I'd like to ask you a question."
"What is it?"
"How did you get so good at Mind Power Flow?"
Yelanka hadn't thought about it carefully while focused on defense. Now, during the break, she realized how astonishing it was that Guan Tong could simultaneously manipulate over a dozen strands of Mind Power energy.
Especially since this Mind Power energy was output in an externally released form, making it even more difficult. Not to ntion, Guan Tong still had the spare ntal capacity to keep up the verbal attacks while assaulting her. Thinking about it carefully, it was utterly terrifying.
Guan Tong thought for a mont and said, "It probably has to do with
practicing manipulating things since a long ti ago."
Ever since he obtained the Shadow at the beginning of the rules, his practice in this area had continued day after day without interruption. So later, when he mastered Mind Power Flow, with the experience being transferable, he could be said to have painlessly acquired the ability to manipulate multiple energy strands simultaneously.
Moreover, this was still far from his limit. Judging by his experience of manipulating hundreds, even thousands, of shadow lines at most, if he wanted to, doubling the number of Mind Power energy strands he controlled simultaneously wouldn't be a problem.
Yelanka was smart. Hearing Guan Tong say this, she blurted out, "So, Teacher, your Mind Power item, or ability, is related to manipulating other things, right?"
Only after asking did she realize her question might be sowhat inappropriate, as it touched on the privacy of an Ascendant.
However, Guan Tong didn't mind, understanding it was a natural question derived from the previous conversation. He nodded and said, "You could say that."
"I see."
Seeing that Guan Tong wasn't angry, Yelanka secretly felt a bit relieved. At the sa ti, she understood Guan Tong's secret... though calling it a secret is a bit much; it's basically just two words: "practice more."
If her ability were of the manipulation type, perhaps she could also utilize that experience in manipulating Mind Power energy like Guan Tong, progressing rapidly. But unfortunately, her ability did not lie in that area.
"Let's end today's training here," Guan Tong said to Yelanka, seeing she had rested enough. "After this, if you have ti, I can give you a special training session every day."
"I have ti. Thank you, Teacher." Yelanka, with her departure imminent, naturally welcod this.
"Don't ntion it. See you tomorrow."
After saying this, Guan Tong left the training room. Yelanka walked to the window, watching Guan Tong's figure gradually recede into the distance.
A sowhat vague thought circled in her mind.
If only Teacher could co to the Xisiya Empire with ...
The next second, she snapped out of it, shaking her head to extinguish that inappropriate flicker of thought.
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