The students couldn't fully wrap their heads around what had happened.
It was not so unbelievable to see that Fang Yuan had won- many of them would be disappointed by that kind of news, but it was digestible.
What was unbelievable was that Fang Yuan had won so swiftly and handily, to the point where many of them hadn't seen it happen. If Fang Yuan had won, they felt, it would've been after an intense period of fighting.
The guards came to drag Mo Bei away to a healer, after which he would presumably recover quickly, but an awkward silence now precipitated on the student body.
"What was that? I wanted a real fight, but Mo Bei only lasted a few seconds..." someone from the Chi faction said.
"Hey, he still lasted longer than I did with your mother last night," someone from the Mo faction retorted.
The two nearly got into a fistfight before the martial arts instructor barked, "If you want to fight so badly, do it in the ring!"
The awkwardness continued after that.
It lasted for nearly a minute before another challenger stepped up.
"Fang Yuan," Chi Chen said, as he walked into the ring. "Mo Bei might've been overconfident, and you took advantage of that and got a lucky hit in. But there's no way that your luck's going to sustain you for another round!"
As he said that, the students began to let out sighs of relief.
Of course- Fang Yuan was only able to beat Mo Bei because he had gotten a lucky strike in. Mo Bei might've even been too eager and tripped while fighting Fang Yuan or something along those lines. Fang Yuan then used that to his advantage and won.
That was far easier for them to process than the fact that Fang Yuan had won through an immense talent in martial arts. After all, they had all basically started training at the same time. Even if Fang Yuan had received better instruction or started earlier secretly somehow, how could he possibly dominate someone like Mo Bei so easily?
'They're wrong,' the martial arts instruct thought. 'That was no fluke. I saw it- that boy must be a naturally-gifted martial artist! To think that he's so good with hand-to-hand combat and a B-grade talent to boot! But it's not just raw talent, where did he learn to fight like that? And who trained him? Even if I had started training earlier, I wouldn't be able to equal his technique.'
Despite all of this, he said nothing aloud. The other students would just have to learn the hard way.
For that matter, Chi Chen wasn't entirely sure of what he was saying either. The truth was that he did have sour grapes from not getting the vice-presidential position. Sure, it meant that he might pull ahead of Mo Bei and maybe even Fang Zheng with the next contest, but it did not bode well for his future prospects. It meant that once they were out of the academy, he would be unable to keep up.
But that was the future, and there would be no future if there was no present. And for that matter, while Chi Chen losing the contest to be vice-president could be seen as being a sort of victory, it did not look that way to outsiders. It instead looked like the Chi clan was lagging behind, which is something that he could not tolerate.
Basically, he needed a W really bad, and given his C-grade talent, he felt that this was the best opportunity to do so. Him saying that Fang Yuan just got lucky with a fluke was more of his own internal hype, which just so happened to motivate the other students who agreed with him.
Was Fang Yuan really just lucky? He didn't know for sure, but he had to try to one-up Mo Bei in some way.
"Argh!" he said as he launched himself at Fang Yuan, being careful not to trip or make any kind of mistake like Mo Bei likely had. To this degree he played defensively, though it only took Fang Yuan a few breaths of time to circumvent his defenses and knock him out cold too.
The earlier bluster that the students had was now completely gone.
Fang Yuan had not won once, but twice. This was no fluke.
"I'll go next!" someone said. The rest of them were C-grade and D-grade talents with no hope of really competing with anyone, but there was a chance they could distinguish themselves using their physical abilities.
One by one, Fang Yuan knocked them all out cold.
The martial arts instructor watched him intently. 'Not only is he strong but he is careful not to strike at vital areas. He has not just power, but restraint. This is not just innate talent, but skills honed over a long period of time.' He would normally be a bit wary of the students potentially killing each other- that was rare but still happened from time to time. It would not be much of an issue if a C-grade or a D-grade died, as this was considered to just be an acceptable part of training, though it would have been a massive catastrophe if someone like Fang Zheng died. However, he had nothing to worry about on that front.
Instead, he had a new problem now. After twelve victories, no one wanted to fight against Fang Yuan, despite his goading.
This was not what he had wanted. He had wanted to raise their fighting spirits and interest in martial arts, but had failed to do so.
Yes, Fang Yuan was good- but he wasn't here just to teach Fang Yuan, now then was he? Not to mention Fang Yuan had clearly received outside instruction so he couldn't claim to be the cause of that either.
Now, it looked like the rest were even less interested in learning how to fight. They had been completely dominated by Fang Yuan in their hearts.
He couldn't say anything to Fang Yuan after having openly praised him initially.
"Alright, I'm up next."
"Bro, you really want to throw hands with him? He beat twelve guys in a row!"
"Yeah, I bet he's really tired now."
"He's not even sweating! He beat those twelve people in under ten seconds each!"
"Yeah, but none of 'em were me."
"He beat them all like it was easy!"
"Nah, he's just playing."
"Playing? Against twelve people?"
"He might've taken those twelve losers out, but I'm just built different."
In truth, it was hard for Fang Yuan to fight. Hard without killing that is. He had absorbed about a fourth of a boar's strength, and so had to be careful to not break bones or shatter skulls. Not only that, if he used too much strength, he might end up snapping his own bones or tearing out his own tendons. He also needed to strengthen his body defensively if he wished to use his strength to its full extent.
"Alright, if y'all are scared, I'm going up next. Once you guys get your balls out of your purses, feel free to fight me after him. Ayo - Fang Yuan! Once I'm done with you, you're gonna wish you died with your parents you stupid orphan!"
Five seconds later, said person rolled out of the ring, knocked out cold.
"Bro really thought he was heaven's chosen son."
"Alright, that's enough," the martial arts instructor said, seeing no one else was stepping up despite the prize. He handed Fang Yuan the primeval stones and then took him aside. "Fang Yuan, where did you learn to fight like that?"
"It was all thanks to the guidance of my uncle," Fang Yuan said. "He is extremely good when it comes to hand-to-hand combat, indeed he is a true dragon among men when it comes to martial arts, ah, too bad that my younger brother never saw the use of it."
"Oh, is that so?" the martial arts instructor thought, though it made sense. Fang Yuan had been orphaned at a very young age supposedly- who else but his uncle would've taught him then?
In truth, this was a lie, but Fang Yuan needed to give some plausible explanation for his skills. He couldn't reveal his 500 years of fighting experience, now then could he? His uncle was actually only skilled at beating the two of them back when they were kids.
However, this had another upside- once word got out that his uncle was secretly a martial arts master, people would begin challenging him just to test out their own combat skills.
Fang Yuan smiled inwardly at the thought of people lining up for the opportunity to punch his uncle in the face. The clan always promoted fighting to a reasonable extent between clan members for them to grow more powerful and also to compete.
'Uncle, I hope that this filial nephew has succeeded in giving you some face ah, too bad that it might be bloody and bruised soon,' Fang Yuan thought to himself as he walked away to start cultivating, bag of primeval stones fresh in his hands. 'Though maybe it would've been funnier if I said it was Aunt who trained me instead?'