While Zu Dai was going through his own minor early life crisis in the corner the matches went on with Bo Jiang dominating her opponents in every round that she had unimpeded she handled every fight with elegance and the robes that she wore never got stained in a single fight that she participated in giving her the appearance of nobility.
Bo Jiang's robes were of course a quick change she did in the woods once they got to the exam area and these robes were also her most expensive robes but to the nobility watching her she was wearing every day clothing.
Bo Jiang was forming a good influence toward the nobility so she was starting to be surrounded by the followers of Bing Ai and Su Ming who were all impressed at her combat skills and how she carried herself most assumed that she was part of the lower class nobility because they've never seen her before.
Zu Dai didn't even realize that matches weren't even going his way until he heard "This was your third fight, You've passed first!" He turned his head into the direction of the voice and saw that Bo Jiang was surrounded by people.
Bo Jiang noticed his gaze and smiled proudly at him with a feint sign of elegance. 'She thinks she has won hasn't she? I guess I'll be next in a few seco-' His mind suddenly felt a familiar sensation strike it causing him to smile once more.
He entered the arena with a huge smile stretched on his face. He thought he had found a way of making people make sure that he's a good person while also giving himself someone to face.
As soon as his opponent entered the arena he said this "I'm feeling generous today, I can help give you pointers for your next round through this fight if you want." His opponent peaked his ears up once he heard that.
The opportunity was a good one since he saw how good a fighter Zu Dai was but the thing Zu Dai also thought about was face. How would the other nobles view him if he accepted a training lesson from a peasant, a commoner with no valid background other than he was good at fighting!?
He shook his head and said "Stay your tongue I don't need your fighting lessons I'm already good enough as it is!"
'Whew! If this guy was one of those smarter and rarer nobles that didn't care about face…' He was assured that he would not have to try the same trick over again on a even dumber noble.
He nodded and said "Alright, then come and fight." He wrapped a single arm around his cudgel and swung it out toward the outside of his leg while pushing his chest up to take a stance… in actuality he was just posing to make people view him better.
The noble instantly regretted his decision but he was this far in so he gripped the hit of his sword and pulled it out of its sheath taking a stance similar to the noble before. HIs sword was placed forward while his hand was balled up into a fist retracted.
Zu Dai awaited for the elder to initiate the start, the elder waved their hand and the match started with that.
Zu Dai rushed forward the heel of his feets barely touching the ground as he used the ball of his feet to touch the ground and push forward at an incline utilizing a particularly hard movement technique he had created himself when he was a child.
How does a child create a movement technique? When a genius gets very bored… he decides to create new techniques on his free time.
He named the technique after the animal it was based on a Horse so he called the technique itself Horse fleet. Each step that he took resemble that of a horse and paired with his long hair and stronger upper body that carried around the cudgel with one hand he looked more like a charging centaur.
The now terrified nobility immediately jumped out the way once he saw the charging centaur coming directly at him, he successfully did so but only barley he was forced to change his jump into a dive but then he heard a large crack as if something just broke his first instinct was to check his body but he saw a large shadow loom in front of him so he turned around and saw that the charging centaur had changed into a bird of prey.
Zu Dai had stomped the ground with his foot in the direction the man had went instantly transferring all of his force into one area which pushed him in that direction, he now held his cudgel in one hand and then pushed his heels into the ground stopping above the noble with the cudgel pointed in his face.
He looked at him with a faked pain expression and said "Give up."
The noble looked at Zu Dai's cudgel that was pointed toward his throat gently touching his chin hairs and said "Yes, I surrender."
Zu Dai sighed and placed the cudgel behind his neck while his other hand was opened toward the noble which was on the ground, the noble looked at it for a second before grabbing it. He pulled the noble up and patted his back saying "You did good." before walking off the platform.
People who watched the match had wide eyes mostly because of Zu Dai's martial arts they were clearly specified for Zu Dai himself and were stronger than the martial arts that the nobility currently had right now. It was an impressive display of strength that suppressed his opponent on all fronts to the point where his opponent couldn't even show off their own martial art.
Zu Dai's finishing martial art was another thing that he actually made; mostly all of his martial arts were something that he had made because he couldn't afford anything as a peasant to gain a martial art if he were to grade his martial arts he'd give them all a B except his killing move which would be an A.
The martial art he just utilized was prey vs predator. He called it this because it's best utilized when the person he is fighting is stationary. He named it that when he saw a bird of prey swoop down and take down a stationary mouse.
When he was walking off he looked in the direction of the two elders who were equally watching him as well, because of this he smiled while walking forward there was no one waiting for him so he walked through the crowd while straightening his back giving his best to act elegant.
He looked at Bo Jiang and did a slight thumbs up but she "Hhph" in response and turned her head away to talk to the people who were surrounding her who were of course talking about the recent bout that happened which made her frown even more.
Bing Ai noticed this and walked over to Bo Jiang where the two began to talk, Bing Ai and Bo Jiang talked and the talk quickly became quite heated from the inside each side throwing jabs at each other with verbal remarks while on the outside it looked like two long lost friends talking to each other.
'Cats and Dogs.' He shrugged his shoulder and thought of the next way he's gonna show off in the arena.