One day a young man, almost twenty years old, appeared in the center of the training yard in front of him. He wore white robes with golden details that belonged to the core disciples. His hair was light and long with a few stray strands falling across his forehead but the boy's skin was pale, his presence emanated authority. Jin recognized him immediately, he could feel his heart beating wildly. It was Nokon!

"Nokon!" Jin rushed over to the older boy excitedly, "you are back! You must have heard! I finally passed the Courage test" Jin said while a bit embarrassed.

"I did hear, I came here to congratulate you, little brother! I wish I had been here sooner, my grandfather is very happy that you joined the Inner Disciples. He has great expectations of you" Nokon was the Grandson of the Clan Leader and he was like an older brother to Jin.

"Thank you for your support Nokon!" Jin bowed respectfully and Nokon returned the gesture.

"Did you already learn the first Inner Disciple scrolls?" Nokon asked. “You cannot be careless, now you are a true member of the Clan.” Nokon finished saying with a warning tone.

"Of course! I just finished memorizing the scrolls" Jin answered proudly.

"Then meet me here at noon, I want to see how much you improved." Nokon finished. “I need to go now, there are some movements that I need to report to the Clan Leader.”

"Alright, I'll see you then!" Jin turned and headed toward the practice area for the Inner Circle disciples. He wanted to prepare himself for sparring with Nokon.

As he walked along the winding path to the training ground, he saw dozens of people practicing their own forms in the field outside the compound. He could tell that all the other students were already quite proficient at their martial arts. It was obvious that many of these people have spent a significant amount of time studying and practicing the techniques in order to master their skills.

During the daily instructions, Jin made different plans on how to face Nokon during the sparring session later that day. He was confident that with his skills he was going to give Nokon a challenge. Jin was at the top of the Adept skill level, almost at the Expert level. Normally to join the Inner Disciples in the Velor Clan, one needed to be at the Apprentice level and to join the Core Disciples at the Expert level. The skill rankings in the Martial World are: Novice > Apprentice > Adept > Expert > Peak-Expert > Master > Peak-Master > Grand Master > Transcendent. Nokon was a Core Disciple of the Clan for some time now, Jin believed he was at Peak-Expert level.

Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

When noon arrived they met again at the training yard to face each other. As both Nokon and Jin were considered geniuses of the new generation, quite some eyes were directed at them waiting to see the battle. Nokon as the grandson of the Clan Leader was expected to inherit the Clan Leader position in the future.

After easily losing his first battle to Kirilia when he joined the Inner Disciples some time ago, Jin was set to take the initiative this time against Nokon. Even if he didn't have many chances of winning, with his plan he at least wanted to last longer.

"Fight well Jin". Nokon said as he took the position in the center of the training area. “I’m going to take this seriously, as you need to understand how vast and dangerous this world can be.” His eyes shone with determination.

"Prepare yourself!" Jin replied confidently.

The two stared at each other in anticipation. A second before the fight would start, Jin suddenly burst into motion. He dashed forward and attacked first but with no surprise, Nokon blocked the attack with ease. Jin continued to attack Nokon with all he had. He was able to dodge every attack that Jin threw at him without breaking a sweat. Nokon was able to predict all of Jin's movements.

For more than a minute Jin attacked, exploding his Qi and using all the techniques he had but he wasn't able to make Nokon break a sweat. Finally, just when he started to get tired, Nokon made his first move by moving his left hand launching a power palm attack.

Jin flew to the other side of the training yard. He knew that Nokon was strong, but he never thought he was that powerful either. He had never fought someone of similar strength as him before, Nokon was clearly already at the Master level!

With only one move Jin was defeated!

“Did you see that?” the voices of the spectadors echoed.

“Amazing!” Another disciple cheered.

Jin was breathing heavily and his body ached all over. He sat down on the grass trying to regain some energy from the last blow to his body. He looked at Nokon who was walking slowly toward him. The two of them shook hands and greeted each other.

"You improved a lot Jin, but you have much to learn. But as always, you are still too reckless." Nokon said with a smile.

“Thank you for your guidance big brother.” Jin agreed as he bowed.

“The Clan is passing through a lot of change, be careful as you could be targeted because of your connection with your grandmother.” Nokon warned Jin while using a voice transmission technique, this prevented the onlookers from hearing them. “There are rumors of Elders wanting to change the leadership.” He finished, being careful that none of the spectators could hear him.

All the spectators were amazed that Nokon reached Master level at such a young age. Some of the Inner Disciples that watched the fight began making fun of Jin for losing in one move. Jin needed two days to completely recover his strength. That one palm attack caused that much damage.