"Since you are the strongest in your village, then you must know one or two things about fighting. Surely that’s why you said my fight earlier wasn’t that bad. Right?"
Riven was struck dumb for a mont, and he turned his head to look at Kivara, who was doing her best to ignore him. She had thrown him to the wolves!
In her mind, Kivara smiled. ".....Good... Have a fresh view of what type of people the practitioners are...."
Everyone was waiting for his reaction. Riven could practically see the sneers and mockery oozing out from them. How dare a village barbarian just say that to their most esteed senior, Tong?
Riven looked towards Kivara’s master and the other instructors nearby, but none of them seed ready to interfere. As long as the students did not go overboard, they usually let them do their thing unless they needed to give them pointers.
Riven swallowed, and then with a sigh, he lifted his head high. "....This must be a test from Kivara... and I do want to enter this sect, at least for now... I should not be known as a weakling...."
"What I ant was that with your power, you should have finished Gavrex off imdiately instead of waiting for him to fight at all." Riven quickly thought of sothing to say. And it was actually part of his own philosophy too. After an enemy has been sighted, then it’s better not to play with them.
"What he said is true. You waste too much ti trying to look dignified. It should have been spent on directly fighting!" one of the instructors shouted. Several of the other instructors nodded as well.
The students were surprised. The village barbarian actually said sothing that made the instructors agree with him? Was it a fluke? Yes! It must be because he’s hunted animals in the forest that he knew a bit about fighting, or how else would he want to compare with Green Clouds Sect students?
This was exactly what played out in most of the surrounding students’ minds, and Riven read it in their faces. His gut tightened with mild anger. When would people stop looking at him with that kind of eyes?
Even the villagers of his previous village did it the first ti he hunted and killed an animal with his sword. It was like they looked at him as if he were a trained dog doing tricks.
Riven tried his best to concentrate on Riven.
Tong blinked. He didn’t think Riven would actually say sothing. Worse still, it was sothing that made sense, and even the instructors comnted on it. Indeed, Tong believed practitioners should be elegant even when fighting, and so it was one of the core things he did when he fought.
He gritted his teeth, and his eyes flashed. His hand on his sword tightened, and he wanted to cross the distance between them. But Kivara was there, and there would not be anything elegant in him fighting soone a rank lower than him.
But there lay his problem. He had to teach Riven so lessons, not only for how he embarrassed him but for how he was trying to take advantage of Kivara.
He forced a smile on his face that looked as if sothing heavy had been ramd down his throat. "Thank you for pointing out my shortcomings. We are so lucky to have soone like you joining us in the Green Clouds Sect. I’m sure your talent will soon be bright and overpowering!"
Before Riven could thank him and find a way to sneak off the platform, Tong was speaking again. "Then why don’t you show us so pointers? Let us see how you do it in the village!"
".....I should have known it was going to co to this...." Riven thought. But he wasn’t that worried, and his eyes even lit up. "So pointers?"
"Yes. You are in rank two, right? Then you’ll spar with another rank two to show us how it’s done." Tong’s voice was all warm and inviting. It was his eyes that gave him away. They were flashing with anger.
Excited murmurs spread through the students, and they began to talk to each other.
"A spar? This should be interesting!"
"It’s been a while since soone new would be fighting. At least sothing new to see."
"But this guy is from the village. He’ll be very weak. It might not be the interesting fight you expected."
"Oh, that’s true. What’s a villager compared to the students of the Green Clouds Sect? We’ve been fighting since we could speak!"
"Well, I guess he can fight the weakest of rank two. It’s ti for the two of them to shine!"
"He deserves to get beaten. Next ti, he won’t run his mouth off like that!"
More and more words like this were said. The students laughed and gossiped among each other, not putting much interest into the coming fight because, after all, they were about to watch soone get beaten to a pulp.
Tong looked at Kivara, as if expecting a reaction from her, but Kivara didn’t say anything. She turned her back and jumped down, going to the side to watch.
"...You betrayer!..." Riven shouted in his heart. "Very well. I agree to the spar. As for pointers, I don’t think I’m the right person to give any of that."
Tong’s smile grew, like an extrely satisfied cat. Then his eyes scanned the crowd, searching for soone. "I am looking for a suitable partner that can very well complent your strength and insight into fighting.
"After all, we also want to impress our new students with the might of our Sect and wash away the embarrassnt from earlier."
Riven nearly rolled his eyes as he heard him speak. "....This Tong is sure good with his words...."
Finally, Tong’s eyes stopped at a tall boy that was slim, but his muscles were well defined. "Jasper will make the right spar partner."
This ti, all the students reacted. They first froze and then looked at Tong in surprise. Riven was perplexed by the reaction before he began to hear the whispers.
"Wait, wait, wait, isn’t that simply too much? How can he do sothing like that? The new guy is not even part of our Sect yet!"
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