The crowd of students were reluctant in giving away their hard-earned Panther token, yet they did not dare to blatantly disregard Pang Jing's words. Thus, they simply continued crowding around the entrance protesting.
"You've heard Pang Jing, 1 token per entrance. That's the rule set by the noble students, I would advise you all not to challenge that rule." Hai Cheng smiled at the crowd as he stretched out his hand demanding for Panther Token as entrance fee. Hai Cheng was very satisfied with Pang Jing entrusting this task to him, now he had a chance to better his relations with the noble students. Moreover, he felt that he was a level above from these commoner students.
The politics of power in Panther Academy was very complicated when geniuses from all walks of life gathered together. There was an unspoken hierarchy in Panther Academy which everybody silently acknowledged. The students who were at the top of the hierarchy were the students from the most distinguished noble background, they were the sons of Vassals of Song, people who were conferred with Prince-dom. They held the titles of Duke, Marquis, Earl, Viscount and Baron. In the whole Song Dynasty, they were only below the Royal Family and even the Emperor had to treat them with dignity. Below that were the students who were the sons of Ministers in the Royal Court. Due to the power Ministers held in the Royal Court, they were treated as people with noble status. After that were the sons of Knights, generals who were conferred noble titles. Pang Jing was the son of a Knight.
Below these nobles, were then the common people. However in the common people hierarchy, their status were determined by the Sects they were in. People like Hai Cheng who had the backing of Wudang, a Great Sect would naturally be at the top of the hierarchy of the common people. Muyou and Yiqi who were sect-less and had no background would naturally be at the bottom of the hierarchy.
Hai Cheng's smile suddenly froze when he noticed Muyou, Yiqi and Yue Hao making their way through the crowd. When Muyou noticed Hai Cheng was staring at them, he merely gave Hai Cheng a smile while continuing to squeeze his way through the crowd.
When they reached the entrance, Hai Cheng stood in front of them blocking their way.
"Great Wudang Disciple, would you mind making way for us? We are intending to enter the medicinal hall." Muyou said sarcastically to Hai Cheng with a smile.
Hai Cheng let out a snort. "You want to enter? Sure. Pay up 3 Panther Tokens and you three can enter."
Muyou glanced at Yiqi and Yue Hao before shrugging his shoulder as he sighed, "If a great Wudang Disciple like you are so poor that you have to beg for Panther Tokens here, what makes you think us poor commoners will have any Panther Tokens. I would advise you to collect Panther Tokens from your dear Noble friends, maybe you will have more luck."
Muyou let out a laugh before continuing his way into the medicinal hall with Yiqi and Yue Hao. Yiqi remained silent and had a nonchalant look as usual while Yue Hao appeared to be much more confident than his first encounter with Hai Cheng.
Hai Cheng was fuming mad after that sarcastic remark by Muyou. "Are you purposely looking for trouble!" Hai Cheng let out a loud roar as his hands shot out wanting to choke Muyou.
Before Hai Cheng's hand could touch Muyou, Muyou had already grabbed onto Hai Cheng's wrist. With just a simple application of force onto his wrist, Muyou was able to force Hai Cheng to kneel down onto the floor in pain.
"I called you Great Wudang Disciple was because I was trying to be nice. If I were to be frank, I would have called you a dog. And guess what? A good dog does not block other's path, so scram." Muyou said coldly before he threw Hai Cheng's hand back.
Hai Cheng tumbled on the floor for a few rounds as he rubbed his wrist. Muyou and Yiqi continued staring at him with disdain, it was like he was worth less than a dog in front of them.
How could a Wudang disciple stand this kind of humiliation?! To be called a dog and being thrown around in front of so many other students. If word of this was to get out, how could Hai Cheng hold his head up high in Panther Academy.
"Tearing of Disarm!"
Hai Cheng charged towards Muyou like a mad man as he executed the first stance of Panther Fists. The other students were horrified at Hai Cheng executing Tearing of Disarm towards another student. This stance was a deadly fist and would cripple the target.
However, Muyou simply stood there as he sniggered at Hai Cheng's execution of Tearing of Disarm. Hai Cheng did not have a complete mastery of this stance and his emotions now were getting the better of him. Thus, his execution was extremely sloppy and erratic.
With Muyou's superior mastery of Tearing of Disarm, he had already identified numerous openings which he could take advantage of to counter Hai Cheng.
*Bam!*
With a swift punch, Muyou's fist had evaded Hai Cheng's attack and simply sent Hai Cheng flying back a few feet.
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"Look at you now, you can't even clear your mind to execute the stance properly. Your execution just now was simply a disgrace to the Panther Fists. You are so pitiful that I do not even want to have a duel with you right now. Just go away." Muyou waved his hand as he entered the medicinal hall. Yiqi and Yue Hao followed in while having pitiful gaze at Hai Cheng.
Hai Cheng was now in a state of shock. He felt humiliated, angered and most importantly helpless.
Many students seized this chaotic situation and slipped into the medicinal hall while others were still standing there contemplating. After a while, everybody simply rushed into the medicinal hall, ignoring Hai Cheng.
"Hai Cheng... So what should we do about them?" She Gou who was beside Hai Cheng all along stammered as he stared at the students surging into the Medicinal Hall.
"What else can we do!?" Hai Cheng bit his lips as he slammed his fists onto the floor. He had hoped that by sucking up to Pang Jing, he would improve his status in Panther Academy. However, not only did he fail the task given by Pang Jing, he was publicly humiliated by Muyou. Hai Cheng resented the fact that he failed to be clear-headed which resulted in Muyou countering his stance. Hai Cheng firmly believed that it was his rashness which caused his stance to be countered. He could not imagine that him a Wudang disciple would be weaker than a random sectless kid.
Inside the Medicinal Hall, it became very crowded as the students crowded around the counters.
"Now I know why the noble students wanted to limit the students who can enter." Muyou let out a bitter laugh as he looked at the huge number of students crowding around the counters. Luckily for Muyou, Yiqi and Yue Hao, they entered before all the other students, thus they were already at the front of the counters checking out the menu for exchange.
"Hmmm... It seems like 1 Panther token can only be exchanged for the Fiery Boar Blood Essence. The effect says that if you drink the essence, it will boost your inner strengh. Especially if you are at the Iron Body stage, it can help you unblock up to 2 meridians." Yue Hao was reading out the menu. However, Yue Hao only had 2 panther tokens, so he did not have much choice to choose from.
"Don't worry, you will have more chances to earn Panther Tokens. Just get 1 of the Fiery Boar Blood Essence first, treat it as a reward for this week's hard work." Yiqi encouraged Yue Hao.
"What about you two? You two have quite a lot of Panther Tokens, you can exchange for so many spiritual herbs. Look there is this Snow Ginseng and there is..." Yue Hao was rambling on as he got more excited as he flipped the pages.
Yiqi and Muyou could not help but to laugh at Yue Hao. Yue Hao was like a kid in a candy shop, wanting to purchase everything that he saw.
"This is just the first week, we should not splurge our panther tokens. Who knows what other use this panther token can be used. Furthermore Instructor Pang mentioned something about Qi Cultivation Cave." Muyou said as he pondered on how many tokens he should spend today.
Meanwhile, in another corner of the Medicinal Hall was Pang Jing and his entourage. Pang Jing had a very irritated look as the serene atmosphere of the medicinal hall was broken by this horde of students.
"That Hai Cheng had better collected tokens from everyone of them." Pang Jing glanced at the entrance of the medicinal hall. He would certainly not mind this crowd of students in medicinal hall if Hai Cheng had collected a panther token from everyone of them.
"Let's go." Hai Cheng said as he strutted out of the medicinal hall. With such commotion in the medicinal hall, he had lost his mood to stay any longer in the medicinal hall.
When he reached outside, what greeted him was a scene of Hai Cheng sitting on the floor with dishevelled hair.
"What happened?" Pang Jing looked at Hai Cheng as he questioned Hai Cheng. When Hai Cheng heard Pang Jing's voice, he was startled from his state of shock as he scrambled towards Pang Jing.
"Forgive me for failing to collect the entrance fee! There was a student who..." Before Hai Cheng could even finished his sentence, Pang Jing kicked him in the face.
"You useless fool. You really disgrace the Wudang name." Pang Jing chided Hai Cheng before walking off.
She Gou stood at the side was staring in shock. He did not expect Pang Jing to further humiliate Hai Cheng, afterall Hai Cheng was a Great Sect's disciple.
"Muyou.... Muyou.... This debt I must repay you tenfold!" Hai Cheng gritted his teeth as he clenched his fists so tight till blood started dripping from the fists. He seemed like a real mad dog now.