As a teacher, he naturally disliked students sleeping through his class. But this troublesome girl’s talent for Hakuda was downright monstrous. There was honestly very little left that he could teach her.
He knew that Luke had defeated Instructor Fujimoto in swordsmanship class that morning. What he did not know was how skilled Luke was at Hakuda.
It was not that he disliked the new student or looked down on him enough to avoid teaching him personally. He simply had to admit that this child of the Shihouin Clan had attained a higher level of Hakuda than he had.
"Oh? A transfer student..."
Following everyone’s gazes, Yoruichi turned toward Luke. She wiped the traces of her afternoon nap from the corner of her mouth, then flashed a devilish smile that sent several nearby students hurriedly backing away.
All first-year students knew that this young noble lady was a little demon with no fear and no limits. In Hakuda class, everyone present—including Aizen—had been beaten up by her at least once.
"Luke, she’s from the Shihouin Clan. Calling her the strongest Hakuda practitioner among the students wouldn’t be an exaggeration. Be careful."
Aizen offered the warning, though the faint smile at his lips exposed some of his true thoughts. He found the situation in front of him quite interesting.
Yes, Yoruichi had beaten him up as well. And he had to admit that without relying on superior Spiritual Pressure, if it came down to Hakuda alone, even at full strength, he still was not Yoruichi’s match.
So, Luke... could you surprise me again?
"The strongest?"
Meeting Yoruichi’s gaze, Luke tilted his head slightly and bared a row of gleaming white teeth. "Hakuda is basically unrestricted unarmed combat, right?"
"That’s not an incorrect way to put it."
The class instructor answered him.
Yoruichi found Luke’s utter lack of fear amusing. She stepped closer. "What, are you good with your fists and feet?"
Sparks seemed to crackle through the air. The students standing between Yoruichi and Luke quickly scattered to either side, most of them watching with excited anticipation.
Luke loosened up, and a string of sharp cracks burst from his joints. "I wouldn’t say I’m particularly good. I only know a little."
Of course, he had trained in unarmed combat. More accurately, he had studied every fighting technique recorded in the ancient texts his master had collected. Unfortunately, too much martial knowledge had been lost in his world. Considering the full breadth of the martial arts that had vanished from history, he truly only knew a little.
"Haha, you’re interesting. One look at your stance and posture tells me you’re a Hakuda expert, yet you call it knowing a little?"
Yoruichi laughed, her eyes narrowing into crescents. "Being that modest just makes me want to bully you a little."
"You look younger than me."
Luke grinned. It was the truth. Yoruichi and Aizen had both been born in Soul Society and naturally grown up here. Aizen looked like a young man, while Yoruichi looked no older than a sixteen-year-old girl.
Even with her impressive figure, hearing someone with that face call herself his big sister felt strange. Maybe the academy’s resident little demon had always possessed the heart of an older woman.
"Heh. In a minute, I’ll beat you until you call me big sister."
Yoruichi sneered as she rolled her wrists. Unlike the other students, she was not wearing a loose training uniform. Instead, she wore a fitted white bodysuit similar in color and style to the academy uniform, with strips of cloth wrapped around her wrists. She looked sharp and ready for action.
A sash cinched her slim waist, while the close-fitting outfit revealed the toned lines of her abdomen whenever she moved. She made no effort to hide her physique or the explosive power within her spiritual body.
"Miss Shihouin, remember to control your Spiritual Might. Keep it at the same seventeenth rank as Luke’s."
The instructor gave her a reminder. It was not because he wanted to ensure a fair duel. He was worried that this little demon might accidentally beat Luke to death.
"Seventeenth rank? Not bad."
Yoruichi sounded as though she were praising him, but there was something oddly loaded in her tone.
As the heir to the Shihouin Clan, she had naturally received the finest resources since childhood. When she had entered the academy, her Spiritual Might had already reached the ninth rank. That was only because she did not enjoy training her Spiritual Pressure and preferred practicing Hakuda.
Having seventeenth-rank Spiritual Might at enrollment was nothing remarkable. What interested her was Luke’s Hakuda.
After suppressing her Spiritual Might, she crooked a finger at him.
"Come on."
Luke did not rise to the provocation. He merely clasped his hands in a martial salute. "Please instruct me."
Under the strange looks of Yoruichi and the other students, Luke moved.
He shot forward like a thunderbolt!
The several meters between them vanished beneath his feet. A straight punch drove directly at Yoruichi’s face—fast, vicious, and precise!
In an instant, Yoruichi discarded her contempt. She hurriedly raised both arms to guard her face.
When the punch landed, she used its force to retreat. But Luke lunged after her like a wolf clamped onto its prey’s throat, his second punch driving toward her abdomen.
Yoruichi truly was the Shihouin Clan’s once-in-a-millennium Hakuda prodigy. She made her decision in an instant, exploiting her flexibility to snap her upper body backward. Luke’s fist only grazed her bodysuit without inflicting any damage.
Then she planted one hand on the floor and swept out with a leg, aiming to capitalize on Luke’s unstable lower body after his attack and knock him down.
But Luke had seemingly predicted her movement. He jumped before the sweep arrived. What shocked Yoruichi even more was that he did not jump high—only high enough to clear her leg. As he passed over her long leg, his right foot, already raised during his leap, chopped down at blinding speed toward her groin.
Yoruichi rolled away in a rather sorry state. Embarrassed and shaken, she tried to counterattack, but having been suppressed from the opening exchange, she could not find even a moment to rise. Luke gave her no chance.
The watching students were already dumbfounded. It sounded like only a moment had passed, but Luke and Yoruichi had exchanged dozens of moves. The invincible Yoruichi in their minds was being utterly dominated by this transfer student!
Luke saw nothing wrong with targeting the lower body in a fight. Martial arts were techniques for killing. Showing mercy to an enemy in battle was cruelty toward oneself.
Even though this was only a spar, he had no intention of holding back against an expert like Yoruichi. Besides, Fujimoto had already given him a lesson. Once he got close to actually hurting Yoruichi, she likely would not be able to keep her Spiritual Might suppressed. In truth, he could not break through her defenses at all.
Yoruichi was the heir to the Shihouin Clan, one of the Five Great Noble Clans. Her true Spiritual Might was likely above the tenth rank. Put simply, even if she did not use Spiritual Pressure to attack him, her own spiritual body’s density far exceeded his.
Translated into attributes, Yoruichi’s body could take far more punishment than his. If he did not attack her vulnerable points, how was he supposed to win?
Yes, Luke loved fighting.
But he hated losing.
Even if his opponent’s true overall strength far surpassed his own, he refused to be defeated in the realm of martial arts.
Boom!
Another savage downward chop came crashing down, his right leg falling like a battle-axe between Yoruichi’s legs.
Yoruichi was indeed a Hakuda genius. Though she had lost the initiative from the start and been forced onto the defensive, she evaded every one of Luke’s "lethal attacks."
But Yoruichi also understood that a defense maintained for too long would eventually fail. Against a Hakuda master like Luke, if she could not find an opening to turn things around, it was only a matter of time before he struck a vital point and defeated her.
The intense movement covered her forehead in fine beads of sweat, while her mind raced for a way to break the deadlock.
For the first time in far too long, the Shihouin Clan’s Hakuda prodigy became serious. To Yoruichi, time itself seemed to slow.
At last, she caught a sliver of opportunity. When Luke’s kick missed, she explosively twisted at the waist, and her long legs coiled around him like water snakes.
Thanks to Grand and BB for the 3,000-coin tips; Huang Bugu for the 1,000-coin tip; Qianmeng U Moxi for the 600-coin tip; Martial Ancestor Gu Shaoshang and Fool Fallen into Salt for the 500-coin tips; and Great Detective Pikachu for the 100-coin tip.
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