Unsurprisingly, the battle puppet looked as disturbing and horrifying as ever. Even in the two months that I was gone, the design hadn"t changed. They still retained their vaguely humanoid shape, but other than that, they resembled nothing like a human. Their cylindrical limbs resembled cudgels or clubs with spindly fingers instead of actual appendages, and their heads were a vertical, longish cylinder with a single glowing red lenses as their eyes. They reminded me of biomechanical aliens, but at least their color was a dull gray.

"Level 4 Test Program activated." Above, built into the ceiling of the arena, Teacher Jiao"s voice blared out. "Are you ready, Student Fei Wu?"

Above, I spotted a crowd of students spectating from behind the reinforced gla.s.s screen. I didn"t expect this many students to come to the arena to watch me. then again, I guess a significant number of my cohort must be curious as to how strong a One Star Const.i.tution cultivator like me had become after spending a couple of months in the wilderness, trying to survive against powerful magical beasts and an unforgiving environment.

Just as I suspected, Qi Fu Ren was also there, flanked by his two ever-present cronies, Hu Shuo and Ba Dao. He wore that perpetual sneer on his face, looking upon me with disdain and obviously thinking I would fail this test.

Not far away from him were my friends. Zhu Jiao, Tong Xue and Ban Zhang were the closest to the window, cheering and shouting words of encouragement. I couldn"t hear them through the soundproof wall, but I could at least see them, so I waved.

Surprisingly enough, it wasn"t just Zhu Jiao, Tong Xue and Ban Zhang. Du Lang had also arrived, but as usual he kept his distance like the lone wolf he was, staying as far as he could while remaining within sight of the battle. On contrast, Feng Tian Yong and his group of friends joined Zhu Jiao and the rest, the red-haired guy waving at me.

There weren"t as many girls, but I caught a glimpse of Tu Zi Yi at the back, as well as Qing Xin Xia. But while Qing Xin Xia was surrept.i.tiously sneaking glances at the boisterous Zhu Jiao, she was in the company of Li Chun Long and the other Green Dragon Sect members. At least this time there were other girls accompanying her.

Wow, I didn"t expect so many people to come watch. This is just a level test, isn"t it? It"s not that interesting.

Apparently, middle-school students were allowed to take level tests. While similar to the level test in the high school section, it was set at a lesser difficulty to take into account our youthful age and still undeveloped physiologies. But it would determine the amount of resources that we would have available to us.

Martial Academy operated on a meritocracy. The higher your level, the more resources – in the form of martial arts techniques, special privileges and access to specialized training facilities and equipment, increased stipends and funds, spirit armaments, weapons, armor and equipment, and more advanced spirit pills – you received. That was why everyone was striving to get as high a level as they could.

The numbered levels had nothing to do with the cultivation stages or realms, because most middle school students wouldn"t get past the Qi Essence Stage. At most they would reach the peak of the Qi Essence Stage, and almost n.o.body got to the Flowing Qi Stage until they graduated and got into the high school section. Of course, the higher your level in whatever cultivation stage you were in the higher the level you could achieve for this temporary test.

Despite being so convoluted, the system was pretty simple. If you were strong enough to beat a training dummy that corresponded to a certain level, you would achieve that level. And with that level came corresponding privileges, resources and benefits.

For middle school students, the highest was level 5. It wasn"t that it was the best we could reach during our time in middle school, but it was the highest amount of resources the academy could provide to a middle school student. So it would be deceptive if you judged the students according to these simplistic levels. Besides, the test itself was too rigid. It only tested one dimension of the student"s abilities – combat strength and the ability to overpower his foe. It didn"t account for the other strengths the student might possess, such as tactical nous or innovation or craftsmanship.

Well, there probably were other tests for that…

"Fei Wu?" Teacher Jiao prodded when I didn"t reply for two seconds. Sorry, I just needed to perform an info dump so that the readers knew what was going on. Crude and boring, I know, but undeniably effective.

I nodded. "Yeah."

"All right, let"s begin."

There was a click over the speaker, and the test dummy"s lens flared bright red. Within a millisecond, it had kicked off the ground and bounded toward me, crossing the distance in one leap. I almost didn"t react in time as the test dummy delivered a kick that would have crushed my skull if I didn"t dodge it.

Fast!

I wasn"t sure what to expect. I had been dueling level 3 battle puppets before the fateful day of the practical training mission in Sen Lin Forest, and I had yet to win any of them. I had peaked at level 2, and only received resources at level 2, but I could never claw past level 3. As I said, the test was too one-dimensional. While I was unable to overpower my foe, I wasn"t inferior in terms of speed and agility, and I could easily evade every attack the level 3 battle puppet threw at me.

This resulted in a stalemate that would drag on for hours. I couldn"t defeat the battle puppet, but it was never able to land a hit on me either.

Unfortunately, a stalemate wasn"t enough to pa.s.s the test and claim level 3.

Despite my failure in the past, today I had decided to jump straight to a level 4 test right upon my return to Wu Ling Academy after my two months in Sen Lin Forest.

The battle puppet didn"t hesitate, twisting around to deliver another roundhouse kick. I could have dodged that, but I didn"t. Instead, I raised my arms and parried the blow.

"Guh!"

What power!

Despite absorbing most of the blow with my forearms, I staggered to the side, almost unable to withstand the raw strength behind the kick. The battle puppet landed on the ground, its spindly fingers tapping the concrete, and it bounced back up with another kick. I crossed both my arms, but the tremendous blow sent me hurtling across the arena.

"Gah!"

Tumbling across the arena, I slammed my feet down on the ground, trying to regain my footing. Twin trails of broken concrete were left in my wake as I skidded across the battlefield, but I managed to force myself to a halt before I collided with the wall behind me.

The battle puppet was already moving, its artificial intelligence having already antic.i.p.ated that.

"!"

This time I didn"t bother to block. Stepping to the side in reflex, I just narrowly dodged the battle puppet"s axe kick. Its slender, cylindrical leg flashed past the air a few millimeters in front of me, turning into a blur before obliterating the ground and destroying my footing.

"Whoa!"

Unable to balance myself, I used Tui and retreated. The battle puppet pursued me relentlessly, kicking off the ground and launching itself at me.

d.a.m.n, this thing might be even harder to handle than the magical beasts I"ve faced so far!

Honestly, it was nowhere near the level of a Shadow Leopard or a Diamondback Crocodile, but I didn"t have the option of tricking two battle automatons into fighting each other and then taking advantage of them when they were damaged.

However, it was such a one-sided battle at the moment that it wasn"t even funny. Gritting my teeth, I used Duo and evaded the battle puppet"s next kick. Appearing behind it, I kicked it in the back with a devastating Shadow Kick that would have snapped the spine of a magical beast.

The battle automaton staggered forward, but it didn"t break. Having already antic.i.p.ated that because I knew how st.u.r.dy these things were built, I stomped forward and delivered a roundhouse kick that I learned from the Lunar Rabbit, cracking its head and sending it toppling over.

"That"s…!"

Above, Tu Zi Yi"s eyes widened when she recognized my kick. Of course I couldn"t hear her, but I could piece everything together because of my protagonist"s privilege. In any case, she seemed to have seen the resemblance between my kick and the Lunar Rabbit Sect"s techniques.

It was only natural. Like me, the founder of the Lunar Rabbit Sect had created and based his kicking techniques off the movements and attacks of the legendary Lunar Rabbit.

Huh…well, the Lunar Rabbit isn"t legendary, to be honest, but this wasn"t the time to split hairs. I had to focus.

The test dummy was far from done. Grinding its hands into the concrete and actually crushing solid concrete with its fingers, it spun about in an inhuman maneuver than no human martial artist would be physically capable of, and tried to sweep my legs out from under me with a vicious, hooking kick, forcing me to jump.

"!"

The test dummy"s lens flickered, almost as if it was giving the impression that it was blinking, while scanning the s.p.a.ce in front of it with its optical device.

But I was no longer there.

Clink!

I landed on the test dummy"s head, one foot placed neatly on what would be its bald scalp if it was a human.

Seismic Step!

The entire ground beneath the test dummy shattered and the battle puppet itself vanished in a shower of rubble, buried by the overwhelming destruction as I pulverized its head with the ultimate kick in Shadow Steps.

"Phew…"

I retreated a few steps and watched the destruction I had wrought, half-hoping that the decisive step had finished it off.

"…"

But Teacher Jiao said nothing, so I knew it was far from over.

Crunch!

I was right. While I watched cautiously, the mechanical, spindly fingers of the automaton burst out of the crater and dug firmly into the broken concrete. Gears and levers whirring furiously, the battle puppet clawed its way out of the crater where it was buried under earlier, and emerged to the surface. Dust billowed about its battered form, and I could see that it didn"t escape my attack unscathed. Cracks were running through its head.

"If that was a living thing, it would have died from that attack," Teacher Jiao commented, unheard by me. "A pity…the test dummy is not a living thing."

c.o.c.king its head from side to side, its gears grinding with the crude movement, the battle puppet seemed to be testing the extent of its damage before deciding that it was still good to go. It crouched down, and then lunged at me again.

Like a bullet, it sped forward, hurtling toward me and forcing me to dive out of the way to avoid a nasty collision. The battle puppet shot past me, but managed to alter its trajectory in midair, flipping about and slamming its legs onto the ground, halting its momentum long before it could ever collide with the wall opposite it. With a set of ominous clicks, its body whirled and spun like a crane, that creepy lens turning to fix me within its sight.

Then it jumped again.

"Kuh!"

I ducked under a wild, frantic kick, but to my surprise the battle dummy suddenly switched techniques and punched me. I crossed my arms in reflex, but the tremendous blow was enough to send me hurtling across the ground.

"Gah!"

The battle puppet suddenly appeared above me, swinging its leg downward in a decisive axe kick. I just barely managed to twist away and avoid the kick, which pulverized the ground where I was standing on a millisecond ago. As I tried to withdraw, the test dummy suddenly whirled around and punched me before I could react.

"Ugh!"

My chest felt as if it had been hit by a sledgehammer. No doubt the test dummy had hit something vital and I was sent cannonballing across the arena. Hitting the wall helplessly, I crashed downward and coughed out a wad of blood.

"…Ku…"

Wiping the blood from my mouth, I looked up, only for the battle puppet to punch a hole in my head. Fortunately, I spun in reflex, the awkwardly shaped mechanical fist blasting through the air millimeters away from my face.

I almost thought I was staring at death.

Well, I already knew that the test dummy wasn"t limited to kicks alone…

Cursing myself for letting my guard down and allowing myself to be drawn into the test dummy"s pace, I realized that the battle puppet"s programming had done that in purpose. To lull me into a false sense of security by using the same pattern of attacks over and over again, then suddenly switching it up with a new pattern when I least expected it.

"Huff…"

There was no way I was going to lose to a random artificial intelligence. I was human. I had to prove that we humans wouldn"t be taken over by robots, or there would be no meaning to cultivate martial arts if we could be replaced by automatons.

The test dummy, unaware of my mounting frustration, coldly and mechanically continued its a.s.sault. Despite the cracks and severe damage it had suffered from my Seismic Step, its movements and programming were unaffected. As long as its computing core remained intact, it would continue fighting even after all its limbs were destroyed.

What a troublesome enemy…

At this rate, I might actually lose. It had been a one-sided affair so far, with the battle automaton initiating most of the attacks and cornering me. I couldn"t allow such a pathetic state of affairs to continue. I had to strike back.

But how?

The battle automaton callously and mercilessly delivered a spinning kick, forcing me to drop to all fours. I then rolled away as it obliterated the ground with another kick, and then sprang up before it could stomp on my p.r.o.ne body. However, it was waiting for that exact moment, and threw a precise, calculated punch that would have drilled a hole in my torso if I didn"t flip myself up into the air and spin above its appendage.

"Kuh…"

I grabbed the arm and used it to pivot myself in midair, swinging my legs over. Gathering qi into my foot, I slammed another powerful Lunar Rabbit kick into the test dummy"s head, almost dislocating it from its metallic neck.

"..."

The battle automaton creaked ominously as it staggered, its head now slanted disturbingly to the side. But the wires and cables that connected its computing processor unit to the rest of its body remained uncut, and it continued to launch another flurry of attacks, this time a one-two punch with its dull, mechanic hands.

My feet flickered and I disappeared from its front. The test dummy, its adaptive artificial intelligence having recorded and logged my movements from earlier, twisted around to counter, expecting me to appear behind it.

I knew it would do that!

That was the one weakness of an artificial intelligence. It was too predictable. Instead of coming from the back, I had reoriented my position to its side, dropping to a low crouch so that I could kick from below.

The test dummy was not expecting that.

With a crumpling crunch, my foot slammed against the head again, causing the test dummy to stagger. Not giving it any time to recover, I spun around and delivered a roundhouse kick worthy of any Lunar Rabbit, catching it in the side of its cylindrical body and sending it flying.

The test dummy flailed about helplessly, but its arms and legs rotated in an inhuman manner, allowing it to land on all fours and get up again. Hissing and whistling like the mechanical monster that it was, it raised its slightly loosened head to capture me within its sight, the red orb that served as its eye glowing demonically.

But I was nowhere to be found.

"!"

The test dummy looked up and, just as it expected, I was crashing right on top of it. It crossed both its arms to protect itself from my Seismic Step, having suffered a blow earlier in the match.

It was useless. Seismic Step was not something you could defend against.

The ground around the test dummy blew up again, the rubble swallowing the hapless battle automaton in a sea of rubble.

"Whoa!"

"What the h.e.l.l is that?!"

"Is that guy really a One Star Const.i.tution cultivator?!"

"What happened to him when he was in Sen Lin Forest?"

Above, the spectators whispered, yelled, murmured or gasped, completely taken aback by the destructive spectacle. I paid them no attention, mostly because the gla.s.s was soundproof and I couldn"t hear their comments. I was just speculating what sort of response they had, which was later confirmed by Tong Xue.

But incredibly, even after all that, the test dummy was still functioning. Its arms had been wrecked, one of the appendages crushed into nothing while the other was hanging loosely from its side, connected to the mechanical shoulder by several trailing pieces of cable. Hissing and clicking, the battle puppet took one slow step after another, its crumbling head trying to pivot and turn as it attempted to fix me within its sight.

I didn"t bother showing it mercy. Landing behind the battle puppet, I spun around and kicked its already loose head off its shoulders. As the wires snapped, the test dummy dropped like a puppet whose strings were cut. I then strode over and stomped on the detached head, crushing it, the computing processor, the memory chip and programming into oblivion.

Above, Tu Zi Yi watched me, her eyes wide. No doubt she recognized all of my kicks, or at least noted the incredible resemblance of my kicks to those that her Lunar Rabbit Sect practiced. She would have questions for me later, I was sure. But for now, my attention was focused elsewhere.

"The test is over. Student Fei Wu has pa.s.sed the level 4 test!"

Teacher Jiao announced, his voice booming not just across the arena but also throughout the spectator box. Looking up, I could see the spectators descending into an excited furor, trying to make sense of what they had just witnessed. Spotting my friends, I waved at them. Zhu Jiao gave me a thumb"s up, Ban Zhang nodded in approval, Feng Tian Yong flashed me a grin, and Tong Xue waved back.

Then I shifted my attention to Qi Fu Ren, who – in contrast to his rambling flunkies who were muttering in denial – had remained silent throughout the entire match. Even though he had pa.s.sed the level 5 test, which was higher than the one I took, he understood the provocation my stare carried. Smirking, he showed me his middle finger.

I c.o.c.ked my head and sliced across the front of my throat with a finger. Then displayed a thumbs down.

Qi Fu Ren scowled, and then turned away and stomped off. Hu Shuo and Ba Dao followed after him frantically, not sure of what to make of their leader"s mood or the match they had witnessed. As for me, I smiled, knowing that my goal had been achieved.

The b.a.s.t.a.r.d had acknowledged my challenge, and it was only a matter of time before we clashed in the arena.