Chapter 160: The Strongest High School Student
In the examination hall, World Roaming God Deng Bingding was stationed in the center while other minor gods like Huang Zichou patrolled the premises, monitoring the candidates and maintaining order.
In addition to the columnar data on the light screen before them, they were also monitoring the magic power detection data from each contestant.
Through detection patches placed on the contestants, they could track the flow of magic power throughout the students’ bodies in real time, making it easy to discern their control over it and identify any cheating.
However… while the righteous gods appeared expressionless and said not a word, a thousand thoughts raced through their minds as they continued to multitask and handle various other matters.
After all, for the Eight Ministries of Righteous Gods, multitasking, working overtime, and telecommuting were all commonplace—as natural as breathing.
And besides multitasking, socializing was also an indispensable part of a god’s existence.
After all, unlike mortals who required devices like phones and the internet to communicate, their consciousnesses were perpetually linked to the network, leaving no room for excuses like being unreachable, having communication issues, or only just seeing a message.
Just as now, while they monitored the exam hall, the thoughts of the gods present were also exchanging information over the network, constantly discussing the situation.
Deng Bingding said, “…This is the first Foundation Establishment exam on Kunxu’s first layer since the reforms. Let’s all do our jobs diligently and uphold our responsibilities. When the exam is over, I will personally recommend you all for commendation.”
Huang Zichou was the first to reply, “Well said, Lord Deng. With you in charge again, it sets our minds at ease.”
And while the gods on site communicated as a group, Deng Bingding also received private messages from individual minor gods.
Sigh, more Favorability Talismans. The tiresome formalities of these righteous gods…
However, when she saw that the amount from Huang Zichou was actually twenty thousand, Deng Bingding couldn’t help but glance his way. Noticing that he was also looking at her, Deng Bingding smiled and nodded.
Lord Deng is smiling at me? Huang Zichou rejoiced inwardly. So the amount on the last Favorability Talisman was the problem?
Huang Zichou secretly committed the amount to memory, thinking to himself, Among gods of our station, money is what matters most.
They say to send money before talking business. Even though I haven’t decided what to ask for this time, I can still send the money in advance…
At the same time, one of the minor gods remarked, “Yun Jing and Ye Lingxiao are truly in a league of their own.”
“Judging from the magic power monitoring data, the magic power in their bodies flows like a great river, surging out endlessly. Their control and explosive power are indeed the strongest here.”
Another god added, “The investments made in these two alone would be enough to support all the students in some high schools.”
“In terms of power… they can no longer be viewed as ordinary Qi Refinement cultivators. I just wonder, in this clash of titans, which of the two is truly the strongest high school student on Kunxu’s first layer.”
On the examination grounds.
With every breath Yun Jing took, he could feel magic power surging wildly through his body, continuously pouring through his arms and into the detection patch on his palm.
But looking at Ye Lingxiao, who was neck and neck with him on the light screen, Yun Jing roared in his heart, mana! Faster!
Under his frantic push, magic power crashed through his meridians like a flood, recklessly charging onward again and again with almost no regard for the potential damage to his body.
This was only possible because every single one of Yun Jing’s meridians had been individually extracted and assigned to dozens of university graduates to be repeatedly cultivated and refined according to three hundred different project plans, enabling them to withstand the extreme limits of magic power circulation at the Qi Refinement stage for extended periods.
One could say that each of his meridians was the culmination of months of painstaking labor from a university graduate.
The total man-hours invested in his network of meridians amounted to over ten thousand workdays, equivalent to twenty or thirty years of cultivation for an ordinary person in the Qi Refinement stage.
And besides his meridians, much of Yun Jing’s cultivation had been similarly broken down into project after project, completed by outstanding university graduates under his family’s precise planning.
The warm-up is about over.
Feeling the increasingly turbulent magic power within him, Yun Jing gave a low shout in his mind, Second dantian, open!
In addition to his lower dantian, a sea of qi in his chest suddenly activated, instantly doubling his magic power flow as it rushed out like a stampede of roaring dragons.
On the light screen, the column representing Yun Jing abruptly shot up, instantly creating a gap between him and everyone else as it locked down the number one position.
Seeing this, however, Ye Lingxiao’s expression remained unchanged, without the slightest hint of panic.
He thought to himself, What a pain. This isn’t even the final round, shouldn’t we be holding back some of our strength?
Ye Lingxiao knew that, theoretically, as long as he held second place, he would pass the exam. There was no need to expend extra effort or reveal his full strength to fight for the top spot.
But…
First place.
For Ye Lingxiao, who had either scored perfectly on exams or ranked first in everything since childhood… taking first place was like eating and drinking, it had become a habit.
To inherit the perfect bloodline of the Immortal Capital’s Ye Clan, he was not carried by a mother but was placed in an immortal-essence womb from his embryonic stage, where he underwent Immortal Dao modulation.
The first time he opened his eyes, his meridians were already twice as wide as an ordinary person’s. Now, they were more than ten times the average for a high school student.
Simultaneously, the density of his nerves was over a hundred times that of a normal person, and his entire nervous system was naturally able to channel magic power.
Magic power techniques that other students had to train diligently to master, he learned as soon as he entered his first year of high school.
He could master any cultivation technique just by seeing it, and he spent millions each month to purchase the usage rights for them.
Cultivation in the Qi Refinement stage had never presented any difficulty for him.
Many said that he and mortals were no longer the same species, that he was the true inheritor of an Immortal Dao bloodline.
Ye Lingxiao paid it no mind.
But there was one thing he had grown accustomed to.
First place belonged to him, and always would.
Million-Credit Expert Martial Art, Thunder-Rending Astral Qi—Level 10 activate!
As a martial art with usage rights costing over a million, and reputedly close to military-grade, the Thunder-Rending Astral Qi let out a clap of thunder the moment it was activated.
At that moment, Ye Lingxiao seemed to transform into a thunder god, his entire body crackling with electricity as every wisp of magic power turned into lightning.
Yet under his control, these threads of lightning magic power were as obedient as his own limbs. Not only did they not damage the environment or the detection equipment, but they shot out like lightning bolts, precisely passing through his arm and palm before finally being blasted into the detection patch.
Simultaneously, on the light screen, the column representing Ye Lingxiao—which had been gradually shrinking under Yun Jing’s influence—suddenly magnified again, relentlessly chasing after the first-place position.
Hmph, Yun Jing snorted coldly in his heart as he watched the bar graph change. Trying to catch up? Go ahead and try. Let’s see which of us is truly the strongest high school student in Kunxu right now.
As the commotion from their intense competition grew, the students ranked behind them also began to unleash their magic power with all their might, vying for the remaining spots and making the entire exam increasingly fierce.
Huang Zichou looked at the rankings on the light screen, observing the dozen or so contestants trailing closely behind Yun Jing and Ye Lingxiao, and analyzed, “The students behind them are all keeping pace with one another.”
Another god remarked, “They are all students from the Immortal Capital, after all, the absolute top high schoolers on Kunxu’s first layer. Even those ranked outside the top ten have magic power outputs of over ninety units.”
While the minor gods were discussing, Deng Bingding turned her gaze to the scores of numbers 55, 56, and 31—Zhang Yu, Bai Zhenzhen, and Yu Xinghan from Songyang.
Ever since the last Dao heart test, Deng Bingding had been paying some attention to these three students from Songyang and had subsequently reviewed their files.
As she watched their performance, information about the three flashed through her mind.
Number 31, Yu Xinghan, is a Golden Core disciple. Although his magic power hasn’t reached ninety and he can’t keep up with the top dozen, his magic power control isn’t bad. With his current burst, he’s managed to rank 17th.
At that moment, the third eye in Yu Xinghan’s mind was wide open, continuously helping him force out the magic power in his body. But no matter how he circulated his technique, he found he could only maintain his position at 17th place.
The sixteen ahead of me are also constantly accelerating. It’s too difficult to catch up, and that’s just to reach 16th place…
Thinking of the magic power control he had honed under True Person Starfire’s personal guidance through countless clashes of palms and fists, only to now rank 17th even at his absolute limit, Yu Xinghan couldn’t help but smile bitterly.
It seems if I want to get the Foundation Establishment certificate, I’ll have to wait until next time.
Meanwhile, Deng Bingding’s gaze swept over to Bai Zhenzhen.
Number 56, Bai Zhenzhen, a genius from a poor background who soared after receiving an investment.
And the name of that investor, from what I learned from a local minor god in Songyang… is Zhang Pianpian.
The same investor as Zhang Yu. Could these two from poor backgrounds also be involved with the powers from above?
Deng Bingding didn’t dare to think too deeply, only telling herself to act as if she knew nothing and treat them as ordinary candidates.
Coming back to her senses and looking at the magic power detection data from Bai Zhenzhen, Deng Bingding could almost see the magic power within her body surging outward like wave after wave, erupting with a torrential flow within her meridians.
Expert-Level Breathing Exercise—Surging Waves Nine Revolutions, Level 10 activate!
This expert-level breathing exercise emphasized a self-sustaining cycle; after nine revolutions, the magic power could draw in even more magic power. It was a technique whose effect grew stronger the longer it was maintained.
And after being enhanced through Bai Zhenzhen’s True Spiritual Root, the level 10 effect of this Surging Waves Nine Revolutions gained an additional layer: during the nine revolutions, the speed of the magic power’s circulation would increase with each turn, becoming increasingly ferocious like a raging tempest.
Relying on this Surging Waves Nine Revolutions and its enhanced effect, Bai Zhenzhen managed to hold onto 19th place.
But after nine revolutions, the circulation speed was faintly beginning to exceed the limits of her control. She felt like a small boat in a raging storm, at risk of being capsized by her rampaging magic power at any moment.
Yet the more dangerous it became, the clearer her mind felt under the circulation of the Cold Soul Ice Heart Art, and the deeper her grasp of her magic power circulation became.
At this moment, her mind was free of distractions. She had almost no mental energy to spare on the outside world, focusing everything on operating the Surging Waves Nine Revolutions, which was teetering on the edge of losing control.
Deng Bingding looked at the monitoring data coming from Bai Zhenzhen and commented internally, If her magic power goes berserk, she’ll be severely injured the moment she loses control. Another student who likes to take risks.
She was already used to seeing this.
After all, if a student in Kunxu didn’t take out loans, get injured, or fall ill… that would be truly strange.
Which of the top-ranking students hadn’t reached their current position by taking one risk after another?
Finally, Deng Bingding looked at Zhang Yu.
21st place? Deng Bingding thought to herself. He didn’t even make it into the top 20?
Zhang Yu, who was desperately circulating his magic power, was also surprised—surprised that he hadn’t even broken into the top 20.
Although today’s exam would eliminate contestants ranked below 20th in total score, placing outside the top 20 in the magic power exam didn’t necessarily mean he was out.
But it was obvious that a rank below 20 was still a very unfavorable result.
They’re really strong, the high school students from the Immortal Capital…
Zhang Yu still remembered how powerful his magic power control had become after he cultivated the Celestial Cycle Qi-Gathering Method to level 10.
And when he later cultivated the Limitless Cloud Hand to level 10 as well, he believed his magic power control was already comparable to that of a third-year high school student.
But now, looking at his rank, Zhang Yu suddenly realized something.
His mastery over magic power… had not progressed for a very, very long time.
After all, I’ve spent most of my energy these past few months on body tempering.
It’s true, my magic power control is at a third-year level.
But a third-year level of magic power control alone, without the ability for a rapid burst, isn’t enough to get into the top 20 in this exam…
Pressure and a sense of crisis washed over him. Zhang Yu felt as if a crippled ox was roaring at the heavens in his mind, radiating an endless fighting spirit.
Heh… pressure and desperation?
It’s still not enough.