“Sure enough, it must have been a challenge match.” Fortunately, he was quite tall, so he carefully avoided a few burly men with dragons tattooed on their arms, who were standing with their arms crossed, and found a good spot to watch the ring. Although his physical condition was poor now, his fighting skills from his previous life remained; he could still take down a big guy or two. However, anyone who could get in here probably had some skills, so it was best to avoid conflict if possible.

On the spacious ring, a woman in a black, tight-fitting training suit was intently facing off against a shirtless, bald brute. Neither side had any protective gear, clearly indicating a real fight. And it had just begun.

The woman had delicate features and stared coldly at her opponent. She had a graceful figure, and her skin reflected an ivory sheen under the indoor lights, clearly well maintained. In contrast, the brute facing her wore a lewd grin, his eyes constantly roaming over her body.

“Clang!” A crisp bell rang—the match began.

The brute suddenly took the initiative, throwing a fierce punch at the woman’s head. The woman deftly sidestepped, twisted on her toes, and followed up with a low whip kick.

“Bang!” This kick didn’t use the instep, but instead drove the tip of her foot hard into the brute’s waist.

“Thud.” The brute dropped to his knees, clutching his waist and howling in pain.

The whole place instantly fell silent. Clearly, no one had expected this woman to be so fierce, taking down her opponent in a flash. This level was already close to professional in Grace Miller’s previous life.

But one match didn’t mean much. In the next round, the female side’s Sanda instructor was quickly taken down by the opponent.

He didn’t watch any further and quietly slipped out.

This level was indeed quite low. Ping City could only be considered a third-tier city, so it was normal for the average standard to be unimpressive. If this was all there was, with his experience from his previous life, he could catch up quickly.

After leaving the room, Grace Miller recalled the footwork and attack angles from the basic sword techniques as he headed downstairs. He had a rough idea of Kunpeng’s standards now. Even if his basic sword skills weren’t up to par, he could quickly become an instructor based on his previous life’s foundation. But the more he studied the basic sword techniques, the more he marveled at their extreme nature—if you strike, you injure; if not, you don’t act at all. Every attack targeted a part of the enemy that would have a severe impact. The whole set of sword techniques was divided into “death sword” and “crippling sword”—as the names suggest, one aimed to kill, the other to disable. The more he studied, the more fascinated he became. Grace Miller could vaguely sense that the power of the death sword might far exceed his imagination.

“Bang.” A thick arm slammed hard into Grace Miller.

“Fuck you!!” The brute who had bumped into him was about to go upstairs. He immediately turned around on the stairs and kicked at Grace Miller in a rage.

“Fuck!!” Grace Miller was even angrier. He spun around and kicked back. He’d just been interrupted at a crucial moment and was already frustrated, so he didn’t even think before kicking back. In his previous life, he was like this—usually calm, but if someone interrupted him when he was focused, he’d lose his temper.

“Bang!” The brute’s kick landed squarely against Grace Miller’s, and as they clashed, Grace Miller’s face instantly turned pale. He squatted down by the stair railing, clutching his thigh—clearly injured.

The brute looked grim and was about to kick him a couple more times, but suddenly felt something wrong with his waist. Urged on by his companions, he cursed loudly, spat on the ground, and continued upstairs.

“Don’t let me see you again, asshole!!” the brute cursed as he went up. The other people training up and down the stairs seemed used to this kind of thing and didn’t pay much attention.

“Just wait to be crippled, idiot!” Grace Miller shot a cold glance at the brute’s back. He rubbed his thigh and calmly stood up. Although he’d clashed legs with the brute and strained a muscle, his study of the basic sword techniques had also taught him some vicious footwork—moves that could injure without being obvious, with a special, strange way of exerting force and targeting pressure points. He’d naturally used this technique in that kick just now. It looked like Grace Miller had suffered a big loss, but if nothing unexpected happened, according to the sword manual, that brute’s entire lower body would be completely paralyzed in three days, with all nerves below the waist destroyed.

This kind of force technique was very damaging—not only to the enemy, but also to oneself. Of course, that was because Grace Miller’s current physical condition wasn’t good enough. If his body had been able to keep up just now, he could have dodged the opponent’s attack in an instant and then kicked from the side, just like that woman—defeating the opponent without injury. But now, although he had professional-level fighting instincts, his physical fitness was far behind.

“I really need to train my body more.” Grace Miller walked out of Kunpeng Martial Arts with a disgruntled look.

Chapter 4: School

Ping City No. 3 High School, the best school in the city, with a college entrance exam admission rate among the top five in the province every year—truly a provincial key school. Although tuition wasn’t very high due to national regulations, all the extra tutoring fees, miscellaneous charges, and various odds and ends added up to far more than the meager tuition itself.