Later that night.."Knock knock!"
"Ahh you"re here! Come on in!" said Meng Yue with a smile as she opened the door. A slender figure with long emerald hair had arrived at their doorstep.
"Senior elder sister! This junior had missed you!" said the woman as she leaped forward to hug Meng Yue.
"Now.. now.. calling me a senior elder makes me seem old! Just call me sister!" replied Meng Yue with a slight giggle.
"Duan Li, come here and greet sister Ling Yu!" said Meng Yue as she turned towards the kitchen.
Hearing his mother calling out to him, Duan Li emerged from the kitchen room as he wiped off his wet hand with a small kitchen towel.
"h.e.l.lo.. I am called Duan Li.." he greeted with small voice and a slight bow in a show of respect to the guest.
"Ohh.. he is quite the man!" said the woman called Ling Yu. Her eyes scanning his figure from top to bottom and nodded repeatedly as if she is satisfied on something, "Not bad! Not bad at all!.."
"Ouch!!" She yelped slightly as her sides got pinched by Meng Yue.
"That"s my son, what do you think you are doing?" glared Meng Yue.
"Ahahahaha! I"m joking! I thought he was.. okay, I"m sorry~" she quickly bowed and apologized realising what that meaningful glare from Duan Li"s mother meant.
"Sister Ling here is a friend of mine from the Jixue Knights Academy. She is a senior teacher there.. we met quite a while ago during our younger days.." told his mother as they both exchanged glances and smile, seemingly to reminisce the good old times.
...
After the dinner that night, the reunited sisters continued to make small talks and catching up sessions. Some topics even consisted of hot males and the likes that they have encountered which made Duan Li felt embara.s.sed as he listened to all those.
Did you two forget that I even exists?
Duan Li sighed inwardly as he felt troubled listening to their steamy gossip.
"Ohh yea!" Ling Yu said suddenly. "I came here to tell sister Yue that the registration for the enrollment of Duan Li to the academy has been completed yesterday! But as I was busy handling other matters, I could only come here to tell about the matter tonight.."
"Speaking of which.." she continued hesitatingly.
"It"s the matter regarding this afternoon incident right?" interjected his mother as if she already knew this topic would come out.
Nodding her head slightly, she said, "That"s right, that young man whose arm got crippled by your son is called Li Feng. He is a known troublemaker even amongst the teachers."
"However, because he is a student of the academy, he is ent.i.tled to get justice for the harm that was done. Thankfully, Duan Li had already become an official student of the academy as well. Thus, per rules that was stated, enmity between students could be resolved through personal duels."
"You meant to say that, the incident was considered as duels between students of the academy?" asked Meng Yue.
"En. That"s right! Therefore, the academy had turned a blind eye to it. Injuries resulted from duels are fine as long as no one had died. Had Duan Li was but of a common person, the academy would be forced to take action somehow.. although since Li Feng was the one who started it, I doubt it would be anything serious. The academy is quite reasonable anyway, so there is no need to worry." she answered carefully, so as to rea.s.sure them.
"That"s great then! See? Didn"t your mother here said that it would be fine? Heh heh!" said Meng Yue with a proud look. She seemed pleased somehow, thought Duan Li.
"Okay.. but mother.. I never remembered registering to the academy or any of the sorts!" Duan Li spoke up to voice his complaints.
He was already at peace with his current lifestyle; eating, sleeping and reading books...
Becoming a student of the Jixue Knights Academy? You must be joking! Why would I even want to trouble myself on such complicated matters?
"Hush young man! This mother had already decided this for your own good! How would I bear to see you wasting your life just eating, sleeping and reading books all day?" interjected his mother.
"Besides, you can still do all those three even as a student of the academy! The higher you rank on the student"s power ranking, the more privileges you could obtain! You could even buy better beds and food to your liking! Not to mention that with their vast library, you can read all you want without spending a penny!" continued her mother as she listed out all the benefits like a merchant introducing her wares to the customers.
Knowing that he couldn"t argue his way out of this, at least not with his mother, Duan Li finally relented as he replied slowly, "Okay mother, I understand.."
"Good! Very good!" nodded his mother happily.
"Pardon me for asking, but Sister Yue, does your son here practiced any form of martial arts? He is already 21 years old this year.. by standard, he should be at least a third year student at the academy.." asked Ling Yu slowly.
"M-martial arts?" Meng Yue stuttered as she sweat. Her son was someone who had never even punched a practice dummy before, let alone practice some martial arts! How was she going to answer this?
However, an idea suddenly sprung up in her mind.
"Well, to tell you the truth.. I have been teaching him a form of a secret art for the past 10 years! That insolent fellow called Li something was crippled by this technique!" said Meng Yue in a small voice, almost like a whisper.
"S-secret art? Of what rank?" replied Ling Yu as she swallowed down her saliva.
One had to know that a secret art is incredibly rare! This is because, just by its naming category, a secret art is a technique that is not recorded down in any manual books. It would be only pa.s.sed down through practical teaching between a master and their most formidable student.
One could even say that it is a form of inheritance pa.s.sed down secretly.
Secret arts are also ranked accordingly from 1 to 9, the higher the rank, the lethal and powerful it is. This is based on their fighting prowess, whether it be on the support attributes, defense or attack!
"T-this.." Meng Yue stopped for a while as she did not know how to answer to Ling Yu.
Seeing that her senior elder sister was having a hard look on her face, Ling Yu decided that she wouldn"t pry any further but instead continued, "Its fine sister Yue, but... If its only one secret art, then your son would definitely have a lot to catch up within the academy.."
In the Jixue Knights Academy, typically, a fresher would usually be 16 years old of age. This is because, it is the most suitable time for the human body to start practicing martial arts and cultivate their spiritual Qi as the bones and muscles had already become strong enough to persist in strenuous training and environment.
For Duan Li, not only did he never practiced any form of martial arts and spiritual Qi training, he is already 21 years old, way behind his peers. Even if he has a powerful secret art, if it does not serve the conditions well, he would definitely remain at the rock bottom in the student"s power ranking!
Take for example, Li Feng, the haughty young man that was crippled by Duan Li is still only 18 years old. If not for the mysterious ability to slow down time, with the snail"s reaction time Duan Li had, he would definitely have lost an arm and leg without a doubt.
Realizing this, Meng Yue smiled slightly as she said mysteriously, "Well, the martial arts that I have pa.s.sed down onto him is quite profound and he had already mastered them to the pinnacle level, even higher than me!. Therefore, learning a few foundation level martial arts to its pinnacle should not be a problem for him at all!"
Hearing this, coupled with the confident tone of her senior elder sister, Ling Yu could not help but to become curious again as she turned to look at Duan Li that was sitting at the opposite direction of them in an awkward manner.
"If it doesn"t trouble you, could you demonstrate your secret art against me?" she asked with a frown and a curious gaze as she looked at Duan Li.
It is indeed true that the higher the rank of the secret art is, the more profound it would be. Thus, relying on the same logic, a few foundation level of low ranked martial arts that does not need deep comprehension could be learned within a shorter period of time.
His mother nodded to him as a sign that she allowed him to do so, but deep inside her heart, she hoped that everything would go well. His ability of slowing down time is still quite mysterious, not knowing what the post-effect of using such a cheating ability is definitely a cause for concern.
...
The both of them stepped out from the house as they stood three meters away from each other, just like the afternoon spar Duan Li had with his mother.
"Hmm, let me light up the place first." Ling Yu said. Her right arm rose upwards as her palm faces the night sky, she then chanted a spell, "Sun flash illumination strike!"
A ball of bright light floated out gently from her palm as it rose up slowly and hanged five meters above them, illuminating their surrounding area brightly.
"En. That should do it! Don"t worry, I"ve modified my channeling formula slightly so that it is completely harmless and only consisted of b.a.l.l.s of bright lights!" she said to Duan Li.
"Well then.. let"s start!"
...