Forbidden Zone of the Human Race

The crowd erupted because they saw what Xiang Ning saw, which was Li Zimo, Fang Rou, and Lu Shiyu. Monk was now kneeling in their direction; what this implied was very clear.

Monk noticed, too, and after a second’s pause, he manically roared, “I will not yield!” He sprung up, then immediately raised his fist, bringing with it the strength of a tier three martial artist.

To be honest, Xiang Ning wasn’t very good at close combat, since he hadn’t learned any skills for it. However, Keen Observation picked up on Monk’s intentions, allowing him the chance to beat him by a millisecond.

“Hehe, as I said, I’ll let you stay longer in the arena!” Xiang Ning activated the Shadowmist Ghost Step, dodging the fist that everyone thought would hit him.

“You’ll suffer the consequences of your disrespect!” Monk stabilized his body, then retrieved the broadsword from his back and pointed it at Xiang Ning. Everything had happened so quickly, and his blade made a roaring whoosh when he swung it. It was intimidating.

Xiang Ning smirked, then unsheathed his iridium sword. He didn’t enter a battle stance, just quietly waited for Monk to arrive.

When Nathan saw Xiang Ning’s attitude, he started taking him seriously. He questioned his ability to act like Xiang Ning in front of Monk, and realized he couldn’t be as calm. Worry crept in as the tables turned. He had originally been reckless, because he pinned Xiang Ning as just another regular person far beneath himself. That was why, to him, Xiang Ning’s words sounded like they were only to provoke him and he was deeply insulted.

But now that he saw Xiang Ning as an equal, they weren’t so abrasive. To him, as long as you’re strong enough, you can say whatever you want!

“Heh, your attacks look strong, but you lack a good foundation. Now, as he plans to attack, he’s stepping with his left foot so we’ll dodge to our right and attack his waist.” Xiang Ning spoke fast but the audience heard him.

After he dodged to the right, he slammed the broadside of his sword on Monk’s waist.

“Woah, Xiang Ning is teaching an online class now!”

“I understand now!”

“Damn, if he slashed with his blade, that blockhead would’ve been sliced in half!”

“Teacher Xiang Ning’s got loads of real combat experience!”

Monk had indeed been struck and tears were almost falling from the pain. He lunged forward, then turned with a sweeping motion. Despite his attack covering a huge area, Xiang Ning successfully dodged by squatting down. When he saw Xiang Ning looking at him like he was an idiot, he was momentarily disarmed. How the hell did he anticipate that?

Xiang Ning, on the other hand, was still lecturing, “Did you see that? After you dodge, there’s a sixty percent chance they’ll turn with this sweeping motion to retaliate. That’ll test your observation skills. Look at his pelvic area, if you notice the muscles contracting, that means he’ll definitely turn!” As he spoke, Xiang Ning hit Monk’s abdomen with the hilt of his sword.

“In true combat to the death, you may directly stab him with the tip of your sword and he’ll surely die.” Xiang Ning smiled and took a few steps back.

Monk felt a heavy impact on his abdomen and it was as if all his internal organs had moved. His features contorted with pain as he gagged, utterly humiliated! Why couldn’t they fight properly? What was Xiang Ning doing, giving an online lecture? Monk couldn’t take the mental hit and struggled to get to his feet.

“Alright, alright, I learned another move today.”

“Isn’t this a bit too much? Though I’ll admit I’m enjoying the fight.”

“A bit too much? It’s called giving feedback. Whenever he points out Monk’s weaknesses, he can improve on them. Is that too much?”

“You make sense, now I also want Xiang Ning to give me some pointers.”

“Me too.…”

In an instant, the stressed students had subconsciously relaxed as they watched Xiang Ning casually teaching. In their subconscious minds, Xiang Ning was peerless. With him here, the Aurig Academy students stood no chance.

Not just the Qiling Academy students, even other schools thought so. Especially Hanwu Academy. The teacher who had been struck by Xiang Ning nodded and tapped Xiang Ning's face on the projector screen. “Learn from him, this is a ‘teacher’ with a lot of battle experience giving a live lesson. This would be worth a lot of money in other places. Take notes, this’ll be on the exam.”

Only Xiang Ning didn’t know he was now a teacher with a lot of battle experience.

Monk was so humiliated he was blinded with rage.

“Look, his humiliation is turning into anger. Teacher Xiang Ning will now teach you what to do when this happens.”

There was a saying: the strong fear the unreasonable, the unreasonable fear the mad, and the mad fear the suicidal. If the opponent didn’t value their own life, many people would become helpless because their opponent would be unpredictable. Even with a power advantage, they could still lose anytime.

When Xiang Ning witnessed that, he stopped teasing because it was no longer meaningful. He unleashed his Mountain-Splitting Slash at Peak Mastery, striking Monk to the ground. “In this scenario, the best thing to do is to attack the lower half of their body, though if you’re strong enough, you can do the same as me and strike them head-on.”

“Damn! That was so cool, I learned a new thing today.”

“But Teacher Xiang Ning is contradicting himself. If he had the strength to defeat his opponent in one strike, he wouldn’t have had to go through the entire fight.”

“Are you dumb? He was teaching us. If he defeated Monk in one strike, there’d be nothing to teach!”

“You make sense!”

Fang Rou and the rest looked at each other as they listened to the various comments.

Fang Rou was especially perplexed. “I can’t believe you became even stronger since your return.”

The rest of the team had worked very hard to catch up to Xiang Ning. Fang Rou, Liu Ruoxue, Li Zimo, and Lu Shiyu had displayed tremendous growth since then.

Other than Liu Ruoxue, whose Mental Power took more effort to grow as a tier two, four-star spiritual cultivator, the others had hit the tier two, six-star level. Based on all the other students in Marsh City, they were the elites of their generation there. However, just as they felt like they had almost caught up, Xiang Ning had grown even more. He was a moving goalpost—so near, yet so far.

Doge & Chacha's Thoughts

Time to dance on Monk's grave!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M3Keg5XKJO8&t=31s