21 Core 1 (2/2)

”The test is very simple. Hold me off for half a minute and you pass,” the mustached man calmly said. He had his hands crossed over his chest, inadvertently exposing his strong chest muscles and some black hair.

”Half a minute?” The three of them were stunned. They knew that if the man was confident enough to say that, he must have something up his sleeve.

”Don't worry, it's actually just to test your overall quality,” the mustachioed man said casually. ”Who's first?”

”I'll do it.”

The black-haired girl was the first to step forward.

Both didn't exchange any courtesies. They stood their ground, their eyes met, and they abruptly started.

The mustachioed man took a forceful step forward and the ground shook slightly. He adopted a bow stance and deftly punched straight forward, not showing any of the delay that White Cloud Dojo trainers usually exhibited.

The girl didn't manage to dodge in time and the punch glanced off her shoulder. When she was ready to counter attack, another punch followed, so she could only hastily evade.

In huffs and puffs, one attacked and one evaded. This continued until they went in a full circle. Finally, the black-haired girl gave a loud cry and fell to the ground.

The mustachioed man reverted to a resting position and stood still, not the slightest bit out of breath.

”About 17 seconds.” He shook his head.

”Thank you for your direction, Senior Brother.” The girl clenched her teeth, got up, and gave a bow. She then stood aside, ready to see the other two take the test. It was obvious that she wanted to see others' performance after her own failure.

Having acquired the Secret Method and Explosive Fist Arts not too long ago, it was very clear to Garen that it should have been impossible for him to instantly apply them. Someone who was able to learn the Explosive Fist Arts in a few weeks wasn't a genius, he was a monstrosity!

For this test, he was prepared to use only the minimum amount of power to pass.

Garen took a look at the brawny man whose brow was furrowed, as if realizing the difficulty of the situation. Those able to participate in the test were extremely confident students from the branch dojos; all of them had learned the Explosive Fist Arts and White Cloud Secret Method.

It was unclear what level the man’s White Cloud Secret Method was at, but his training in Explosive Fist Arts seemed effective. His muscles and skin had a particular characteristic to them, which looked similar to what an elementary level of achievement would produce.

Earlier, the girl completely lacked this characteristic and purely relied on a mishmash of techniques complemented by her reflexes.

”My turn.” Garen didn't want to waste any more time so he stepped forward.

The mustachioed man glanced at him and seemed slightly impressed.

”You're a new disciple who has just been taught fist arts. Not only did you not lose confidence after witnessing the previous challenger, but you still maintain a fighting spirit. Not bad, not bad.”

”Confidence can't be judged by appearances,” Garen replied calmly after taking a deep breath.

”Very well! Shall I begin?”

”Please.”

Garen stood in place. The mustachioed man's waist sunk low as he took a step forward and threw a quick straight punch again. Somehow, Garen instinctively knew that this punch was easy to dodge.

He didn't give it another thought as he turned his body sideways to the right. The punch missed. Garen had planned to grab his opponent's shoulder to do a takedown, but he didn't expect the man's fist to recoil and spring forward like a snake to punch straight towards his shoulder.

There was a 'shwiff' and Garen didn't manage to evade this time. The punch grazed his shoulder and he felt a slight burning pain.

Before he could catch his breath, another punch flew straight at him. This time it hit his right shoulder.

Garen was determined to face the attack head on, but was worried about revealing his level of Explosive Fist Arts, so all he could do was endure and dodge awkwardly to the side. However, he had never learned any practical dodging skills and was used to facing attacks head on. Although he was able to clumsily escape the full brunt of the punch with his dodge, he was still grazed by the side of the fist.

Fortunately, his skin was tough enough. His elementary level of training in Explosive Fist Arts had hardened the skin cuticles all over his body. The graze caused a lasting numbing pain, but he was otherwise alright.

”Eh?” the mustachioed man sounded perplexed. His punches incorporated a certain level of the Explosive Fist Arts so that recipients would not only feel pain, but would also be numbed to the nerves. Consecutively, he had hit the boy in front of him twice, yet the boy seemed fine and was still able to continue dodging.

Seven to eight seconds had passed.

[This boy has potential. His physicality seems good. He has a strong constitution for someone his age.] The man had an idea and wanted to test Garen. He retracted his fist and instantly threw it out again with increased speed.

As he threw the punch, a faint snap came from the sleeve as it tightened at his wrist.

This punch was aimed to hit Garen squarely in the right shoulder and it was twice as fast as previous strikes so Garen wouldn’t be able to dodge it even if he saw it coming.

Wham! Garen fell back three steps, standing on the spot with his face slightly flushed. When he tried to raise his right arm, he realized it was completely paralyzed.

”Ten seconds.” The mustachioed man went back into a resting position and stood straight, a trace of disappointment in his eyes. He had a bulky build and his footwork seemed sluggish, but when he actually fought, the explosive speed of his fists was extraordinarily quick.

”Next. Let's get this over with.”

The brawny man clenched his teeth and stepped forward.