BAM!

The sound of a powerful punch striking its target came from the center of everyone's attention. While it was an expected outcome that Tian Zi would land the first hit and win very easily, what took place, however, was an entirely different scenario.

The fist had struck Mu Ran right on top of his sternum with enough force to crack an inch thick wooden slab, only to stop there and then without doing any damage to the receiver at all.

Tian Zi's fist still glowed red but his face was redder as he stared at his opponent with incredulity colouring his face.

How was a mere mortal able to take one of his punch head on and still remain standing?

The only spectator who could answer him was perhaps Han Xuhan, who was looking gleefully as his protagonist boss did whatever is expected from a protagonist. Only somebody like Mu Ran could ever get away with making trouble and constantly acting like an asshole.

"Is that your best?" Mu Ran smiled faintly without even glancing at the dumbstruck Tian Zi.

Seconds later, another large crimson fist flattened the smile on his face. Yet the resultant force only made his neck stretch backwards a couple of inches.

BAM!

BAM!

The spectators were stunned into utter silence. Tian Zi's fists were relentless as they created a hail of crimson storm upon Mu Ran's utterly defenseless body.

Mu Ran's clothes were almost about to burn away. Yet he only took a couple steps backwards without showing any signs of feeling any pain. In fact, everytime a patch of his robes burned away, Mu Ran slightly leaned toward the portion of the crowd with more female disciples and flexed his exposed body none too subtly...

Huffing slightly, Tian Zi looked extremely depressed as his crimson fists slowly returned back to their normal brown color.

His mastery of the technique and cultivation base were simply not enough to keep maintaining the boxing technique.

"Hah, trash like you who can only boast yet cannot even defeat a 'mere mortal' are not worthy to call themselves my peers. My turn!"

Mu Ran laughed and finally stepped forward, his fists raised.

In front of all the disciples' astonished eyes, his fists glowed red, although not as intense as Tian Zi's had, and hurtled toward the stunned guy's face faster than he could react.

Bang!

"My god! Is what he said about zeroth layer of physique transformation true? How can a mortal with no cultivation base use the blood fueled fist technique from the archives?"

"This guy must be hiding his cultivation base! I don't believe this!"

As the spectators gasped in awe and disbelief, Tian Zi flew back a meter and crashed onto the crowd, accidentally falling on top of a frail looking female disciple who, contrary to her looks, punched him away like swatting a fly and thus blocked the trope where people collide accidentally and realize they're soulmates.

Xuhan was the first to volunteer to take him to the medicine pavillion. He knew what would happen here following this anyway. The protagonist was about to make his first impression on his fellow disciples. Surely, there was going to be a lot of incredible feats, never seen before techniques and much face slapping.

Xuhan, the veteran xianxia reader, was not interested in the slightest to stick around lest the situation should go out of control with the elder joining in.

Bye bye you poor side characters! Keep being pummeled by my boss and be impressed by his outstanding, explosive charm.

As he struggled to carry the half unconscious Tian Zi across the mountain peaks, the poor guy finally snapped out or his daze.

"You- aren't you the disciple who defended that bastard? What are you doing?"

"Ah, fellow disciple, please do not misunderstand. I only spoke the truth, see?"

Tian Zi fell silent. Indeed, Xuhan had actually never lied. Mu Ran really was an extraordinary disciple. Defeating a cultivator two layers above him isn't something any average person can achieve. Even though he had a problematic attitude, nobody near his cultivation level could stamp it out of him anyway.

Power breeds arrogance, this was something Tian Zi well aware of.

Nevertheless, he was rather touched by Xuhan's gesture of goodwill. This disciple from the black sheep mountain peak sure seemed easygoing and friendly! He was even willing to defend such an arrogant bastard. It wouldn't be bad to have such a loyal friend.

As these thoughts circled around Tian Zi's somewhat dazed mind, Xuhan carefully helped him reach the medicine pavilion down in the plains.

"Fellow disciple, if you need any more help, please say it! It was partially my fault for riling you all up so much that you even challenged my martial brother."

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Tian Zi squirmed uncomfortably, still slightly amazed by how helpful and good natured this fellow disciple was.

"No, brother. That's enough. I'm very grateful for your help. I'll remember it."

Under normal circumstances, Tian Zi wouldn't be so touched by someone helping him a bit. But he was aware that Xuhan had no cultivation base and thus, it mustn't have been easy for him to carry Tian Zi all the way to the medicine pavilion. Furthermore, Xuhan was from another mountain peak and one of the culprits behind Tian Zi's injury, albeit indirectly.

In his mind, he decided to befriend this fellow disciple and repay the favour by protecting him in case he got bullied for his zero cultivation base.

Xuhan finally bade him goodbye and left the medicine pavilion after handing him over to the person in charge.

The commotion at the hall should be over by the time he reached there. So Xuhan slowly made his way back to the top of the mountain with a smile on his face.

It's so easy making friends in a xianxia world! All of the disciples here were young folks far from their home. In such a sensitive time of their life, small gestures of goodwill could really work wonders.

Xuhan's aim was to make as many friends as possible. The more friends he had, the less enemies he would have. And a good reputation among fellow disciples could save his skin if any particular scum or a proud young master from xyz family tried to walk over him with their superior techniques and cultivation bases due to a conflict of interests.

As expected, when he reached the summit and entered the humongous hall, the oppressive silence had grown stronger.

Many disciples were sprawled out on one side of the room, sporting many different sorts of injuries.

Mu Ran was now locked in a staring contest with elder Kong. Neither was willing to be the one to back down.

"Not bad, not bad at all. In each and every fight, you conserved your strength, took hits and exhausted your opponents before retaliating with the highest amount of force you can muster. Moreover, your techniques in manipulating and conserving qi was exceptional!"

Xuhan blinked at elder Kong's words. Is this guy praising the troublemaker when he's supposed to punish him?

Ah well, everything is following xianxia logic, which is to say, no sane human could ever understand the reasoning of these characters anyway. Everything concerning the protagonist was bound to not make sense while using "common sense".

"Since your prowess has reached a considerable level, I'll refrain from punishing you for arrogance. None of your peers can defeat you unless they have a very high cultivation base, in which case, they'd be unwilling to even bother fighting you. However bear in mind that I can squash you with a finger any moment and there are cultivators far, far stronger than me in this world. So you better learn how to be polite fast, child."

Elder Kong suddenly changed his tactics and retreated back to his podium. Mu Ran let out an imperceptible sigh of relief and sat back on his seat.

Xuhan sat beside him and congratulated his boss on the successfull reputation heist.

"Boss, every disciple in this sect will learn of you from today forth."

"Haah~, I didn't really want to be such a high profile figure, but they forced me..."

Xuhan scoffed in his mind. What a shameless fellow! Who was the one that asked for backup to show off back then?

"Nevertheless, we should keep our heads down for a while. I understand that boss has many secrets. What if any particularly sinister elder of the sect covers your treasures?"

Mu Ran nodded gloomily.

"You're right. I should speak less from now on."

Xuhan was speechless.

I told this guy to learn to speak politely, but he'd rather not speak at all?!

What was this if not the very height of shameless arrogance?

As he contemplated how to make this troublesome protagonist act more low key, the rest of the disciples slowly settled down and waited for the elder to start speaking again.

"As you have witnessed, Mu Ran, claiming to be on the zeroth layer of physique transformation realm, which I assume is a lie to hide his own cultivation base that should actually be around the second layer, defeated nine disciples in succession, with the last of them being on the peak of the third layer of physique transformation realm.

How did he do this, that question is floating inside everyone's head, correct?

Does anyone have a guess?"

"I think he used some sort of secret cultivation method to absorb all the damage dealt to him in the beginning of each duel, after which he gathered all of it and fought back," one of the five top disciples of the hall answered thoughtfully.

Mu Ran's expression hardened at that.

"Your answer is white close to the truth," the elder smiled at the disciple and looked at Mu Ran.

"However, that doesn't answer how he was able to continuously defeat nine disciples in a row.

So let me tell you the accurate answer. Mu Ran has, in actuality, attained a very high level of control over the minuscule amount of qi he can absorb at this stage. During each duel, he constantly circulated the qi inside his body and despite being hit so many times, not a single drop of the qi deviated from the original pathway of the cycle.

With each hit he received, he absorbed some of his opponents released qi and used it to observe his opponent's techniques before attacking back with a similar method.

Even while he fought back, not a single drop of his own qi was wasted.

In short, he was able to use the resources available to him with nearly a hundred percent accuracy and perfectly defeated opponents far above him in terms of cultivation but not even comparable to him in terms of control over qi.

Even the five top disciples in this room with the highest cultivation base wouldn't have such high level of control over their qi. "

Each and every disciple inside the room took in sharo breaths again and again as elder Kong dropped his verbal bombs. Mu Ran's breaths were hitching by now. It seemed that he didn't expect the elder to be so observant.

But it didn't just end there.

"Before the duel, I asked all of you vaguely, what is the most important attribute of a cultivator?

While the answer can be given in many ways, an easier approach to this conundrum would be...control of qi.

Do you understand now?

Mu Ran's actions, intentional or not, should have opened your eyes today.

To be a better cultivator, understand yourself, your resources, your qi.

All or those disciples who proudly challenged Mu Ran didn't comprehend this, and thus they were defeated by a person who understood the fact, despite having higher cultivation base.

From today on, Mu Ran is the representative of this class. He has earned that.

As for the rest of you, the higher your cultivation base, the higher difficulties you shall face in controlling your qi as perfectly as Mu Ran when you had no idea about how to control your qi so effectively.

That means, the five disciples with the highest cultivation base here are going to be the worst students in this class because they are already far along their own path of qi control, based on their own family's methods. It is going to be quite difficult for them to learn to adapt to my teaching in this class. "

The silence inside the hall was deafening now. But the elder had no intention to stop.

"And the two students who do not have any cultivation base at all...

You shall be this elder's uncut gems. I shall

oversee every step of your learning myself."