"Now, face one of my three slashes!", Han Jing roared as he swung his scabbard.
Yan Guang was expecting a slightly more powerful attack, perhaps even some kind of internal force projection to increase the lethality.
However, what he was not expecting was an illusion.
In a split second, he was surrounded by blades, all slicing towards him from different angles.
Yan Guang could feel a sense of dread overcome him. How could he possibly escape from this?
At that moment, a realization struck him. There was no way that all of these swords were real. It was simply an illusion.
Creating a non-existent sword out of internal force would take massive amounts of it. Creating ten or so of these swords was impossible for someone who was about as strong as himself.
Now, he simply had to find the real one and dodge it.
Yan Guang's Qi sense unfolded as he desperately tried to find the real one among the fakes before it was too late.
Perhaps it was because of the imminent threat upon him, but the clarity of his Qi sense far surpassed his previous attempts at using it.
He could feel the range at which he could sense Qi slowly expanding and emanating from his head.
There! He found it!
Between the multitude of swords, one shone brighter than the others, infused with more internal force.
Yan Guang couldn't know for sure if this was an attempt at a fakeout or not, but he had no time for more planning!
He dodged right into the fake swords!
To outsiders, this simply looked like suicide. He was running straight into a blade's edge.
However, what happened in reality was much different.
Right as they seemed to cut into his skin, the blades diffused into the air like fog, with only one remaining.
Han Jing once again took the chance to begin monologuing, "Good, good. You actually managed to-"
The sound of a punch rang through the arena, almost as if it was a mini-explosion. Yan Guang had just closed the distance and landed a body blow.
Yan Guang was getting sick of this guy's speeches. If he was willing to leave himself open for a few seconds, why wouldn't he take the chance?
After that, Yan Guang quickly stepped back, dodging another casual slash from his foe.
Through his Qi sense, he could sense Han Jing's aura slowly growing as more and more internal force leaked.
Han Jing's face contorted to show his indignant fury at being interrupted. He remained silent so as to not embarrass himself. This experience had taught him one thing. As warriors, they should speak with their strength, not their words!
So, he proceeded to do exactly that.
Han Jing suddenly began a volley of strikes that Yan Guang was forced to dodge.
Yan Guang was surprised by his opponent's sudden increase in speed and strength. It seemed the rage was only serving to increase Han Jing's strength.
After dodging seven consecutive slashes, Yan Guang and Han Jing both seemed tired. Their battle had stretched on for longer than either one had imagined and used up much of their internal force.
"Not over yet...", Han Jing muttered in between his gasps for air.
Miraculously, Han Jing's expended internal force was returning to him.
Yan Guang was gobsmacked as he watched what he thought to be impossible occur in front of his very eyes.
Internal force was powerful, but limited in quantity.
Whenever a martial artist infused it into an attack, a certain portion of it would be wasted and leaked into the atmosphere, returning to its original form of discrete Qi motes.
It was impossible to quickly recover this expended force unless one started cultivating, but it was impossible to do that in battle.
However, he was observing this breaking of the rules today.
Han Jing didn't let his newfound internal force go to waste, channeling it into another attack.
As the battle carried on, Yan Guang was only becoming more and more aware of his weaknesses.
Although he was quite skilled at dodging, his attacks were quite weak, especially without the added lethality of a weapon.
Moreover, his martial arts seemed quite ordinary compared to some of the top contestants in this exam.
If he could create shadows of his attacks or regenerate his internal force mid-combat, he certainly wouldn't be put on the back foot like this.
A thought struck Yan Guang's mind. If he didn't have a trump card, he would create one!
Right! It was so simple and quite stupid, but Yan Guang insisted on it.
Here and now, he would create an attack, or fail trying.
Yan Guang began to draw upon his entire library of martial knowledge, realizing there was much he hadn't bothered to look into.
Internal force manifestation was one of the unique abilities of martial artists.
While he gained a preliminary understanding of this ability when he learned the Swimming Fish part of Flowing River Steps, he hadn't yet used it in his attacks.
So that was exactly what he did.
'Raging Tiger Fists... The entire style rests upon one central theme: the tiger. That is what I seek to manifest!', Yan Guang declared to himself.
His internal force flowed as if it was water down to his palms before slowly expanding outwards, slowly taking on the characteristics of a tiger.
Rough knobs of internal energy were slowly refined into the shape of a tiger's claws that gave off a savage aura.
One second passed since the process had begun.
Han Jing's scabbard sliced across Yan Guang's torso, leaving a bright red gash in its wake.
Blood dripped onto the arena's floor of sand, staining it.
All the while, Yan Guang's concentration did not falter.
He was once again going to trade a blow for a blow.
Meanwhile, his opponent, Han Jing was equally as shocked as Yan Guang was earlier.
'How did he learn a technique that's only taught in the martial schools already?', Han Jing wondered.
The remaining momentum from his attack only carried him further towards Yan Guang. He was powerless to dodge now.
Yan Guang's claw cut through Han Jing's skin with ease, leaving a claw mark almost identical to that of a real tiger.
Now, they were even.
Before either of them began to formulate their next attacks, Han Jing's voice rang out, "Wait! We've both spilled blood now, but the fight is not over. If we keep fighting, we're just letting the rest of them get ahead of us!"
Yan Guang paused for a second and acknowledged his opponent's words before replying, "Well, if I beat you, I'd have enough tokens to get ahead too."
Han Jing clenched his teeth before responding once more, "If we're really going to fight to the end, don't forget I still have a third sword! Let's end this here for now. Fight me once you get admitted, fellow martial artist!"
While Yan Guang was unwilling to let the battle end so soon, Han Jing made a lot of sense.
If they both fought with their full strength, they would definitely end up injured, only allowing others to take advantage of the situation.
"Very well, then. Also, my name is Yan Guang. It was fun fighting you.", Yan Guang admitted.
"Well met, Yan Guang.", said Han Jing as he retreated from the small clearing they fought in into the chaos of the wider arena.
Yan Guang also began to look for more tokens.
At the same time, he also began refining the rough idea he had in mind about manifesting a tiger.
He had managed to manifest a rudimentary form of a tiger's claws, but he hadn't yet reached the limit of his manifestation.
The more time he spent visualizing what a real tiger's claws looked like, the more his manifestation grew.
It was akin to pottery. The first step was the form, the second step was detailing, and the third step was painting.
Yan Guang was now in the second step of manifestation, the detailing.
He couldn't allow this to get in the way of his primary focus of passing, though.
Taking advantage of the remaining time in the exam, Yan Guang fought a few more contestants who were quite easy to beat.
After collecting their tokens, his new total had increased to 23 tokens.
Each participant took longer than the last to find as the originally packed-to-the-brim arena became more and more empty.
Participants were quickly eliminated in the beginning stages due to the amateurs and weaklings present, but the longer the exam went on, the tougher the remaining participants became.
Any participant who was eliminated was immediately spotted by one of the invigilators present throughout the arena and quickly escorted off the stage, only able to watch from the sidelines.
By now, most participants were not only quite strong but also survivalists.
When they saw Yan Guang, they would simply run. He had fought Han Jing, one of the most promising contestants this year, and fought him to a stalemate.
In the end, as the 30-minute mark came around, the examiner's voices were heard once more.
"The first round of the 128th Martial School examinations has now ended! Participants who still have their tokens, please come to the front desk to turn them in."
Looking around, Yan Guang saw that an elegant table had appeared in the middle of the arena out of nowhere.
A line quickly formed, with Yan Guang in the middle of the pack. There were around 20 people in front of and behind them.
Of the hundreds of participants, only around 40 remained. It was truly a difficult exam.