Chapter 37: Geniuses as Numerous as Carp Crossing the River

Page 1 of 3

Lin Qi listened to his classmates’ astonished voices, but he felt no particular pride.

His heart stirred only faintly.

Jiang Tao marveled inwardly. As expected of Brother Qi—no matter the situation, he always remained calm. Even with Mount Tai collapsing before him, his expression would not change. Compared with him, I still have a long way to go.

…

“I think everyone should take a good look at their ranking in Heavensea City.”

Their homeroom teacher, Yan Hong, suddenly spoke up in reminder.

Everyone’s attention shifted to the citywide rankings.

“This time, all ten key high schools and forty-three ordinary high schools in Heavensea City took part in the monthly examination.”

“But unfortunately, only one student from our city made it into the top ten.”

Li Zhou frowned as he stared at the score sheet, his mood plainly written across his face.

The moment Yan Hong finished speaking, several students became visibly unsettled.

Lin Qi swept his eyes over the list and saw Li Zhou’s ranking.

[First in the grade, ninth in Heavensea City]

“Damn, I only just noticed—Li Zhou is merely ninth in Heavensea City. He nearly fell out of the top ten.”

“Li Zhou’s blood-and-energy value is 9.8. He’s almost at the threshold of the First Realm. He’s that powerful, yet only ranked ninth? How strong must the eight people ahead of him be?”

The classroom erupted in uproar. No one could believe what they were seeing.

“Look, Yu Jing, who ranked second in our grade, is only fifteenth in the city. He’s far behind Li Zhou. Qi Yuelin is even worse—she’s only twenty-fourth.”

“As for everyone else, it’s even worse. They’re all ranked beyond fortieth place.”

Until they looked, no one had realized that the supposedly outstanding students in their class were not particularly impressive in the citywide rankings.

Yu Jing and Qi Yuelin both looked unpleasant when they heard the others’ discussion.

“Damn. I’m seventh in the grade, but only one hundredth in the city. I nearly fell out of the rankings altogether.”

Jiang Tao gave a bitter laugh, his earlier smugness completely gone.

Everyone found the rankings difficult to accept. Before their senior year, martial arts students did not take unified examinations, so no one knew where they stood in the city.

Now that they had seen the real rankings, they felt as though they could barely hold themselves together.

Yu Jing looked the worst of all. At Second High School, the gap between him and Li Zhou had always been extremely small, giving him the illusion that he could surpass the other man.

Now, however, it seemed that the gap between them was enormous. How could he possibly accept that?

The entire class seemed to have suffered a tremendous blow, their hearts shaken to the core.

Yan Hong spoke again.

“There are thousands of students in the ten key high schools of Heavensea City. Talented people are as numerous as carp crossing a river.”

“If you refuse to work hard, elimination is what awaits you. Continue striving from this moment onward. This is only the beginning.”

“At the upcoming midterm assessment, we will see the results and rankings of every senior-year martial arts student in Cang Province.”

“By then, you will be competing against even more prodigies, and your rankings may fall further. Only true geniuses can swim against the current and continue rising.”

Each of Yan Hong’s words was like a massive mountain of pressure bearing down on everyone.

No one could remain calm.

“All right. The results and rankings are out. The martial arts rooms and scholarships will be processed tomorrow. I’ll post the score sheet in the group chat. Class dismissed.”

Page 2 of 3

Yan Hong made the announcement loudly.

The students began gathering their belongings and leaving the classroom.

“There are too many geniuses. We have to work even harder.” Jiang Tao shook his head.

“Our rankings may be low for now, but with our talent, we still have tremendous room for improvement.” Lin Qi remained calm.

“That’s right!” Jiang Tao nodded.

“Chen Zichuan, congratulations on your tremendous improvement.”

On the way to the martial arts classroom, Lin Qi ran into Chen Zichuan and spoke to him.

“That’s right, Chen Zichuan. You really are a genius. You rose from fiftieth in the grade to thirty-fifth this time—a jump of fifteen places, second only to Brother Qi.” Jiang Tao gave him a thumbs-up as well.

Chen Zichuan rarely smiled. “Thank you for the praise.”

…

Back in the martial arts room, Lin Qi changed into his martial arts uniform and took a blood-and-energy capsule, preparing to begin that day’s training.

Tonight would be the last time he cultivated in Jiang Tao’s martial arts room.

Tomorrow, he would have an independent martial arts room of his own.

At the thought, he checked his status panel.

[Name: Lin Qi, 17]

[Occupation: Martial Artist]

[Template: Erlang Shen—Yang Jian, 6%]

[Talents: Enhanced Stomach, Dragon Vitality and Tiger Vigor]

[Techniques: Perfect Circle Stance, Five-Form Fist—Tiger Form, Basic Spearmanship, Mountain-Breaking Spear]

[Blood-and-Energy Value: 8.2]

[Fist Technique: Second Rank, 10%]

[Spear Technique: First Rank, 92%]

[Movement Technique: First Rank, 87%]

…

Lin Qi looked over the various figures and exhaled slowly. It had been more than a month since he activated the template, and his progress had been immense.

His blood-and-energy value had reached 8.2, leaving him only 1.8 points away from the Second Realm.

His fist technique, spear technique, and movement technique had all improved by leaps and bounds, surpassing even his own expectations.

“These improvements are only natural. With the Dragon Vitality and Tiger Vigor talent, I can spend more time practicing martial arts every day. My energy remains abundant, my body recovers quickly, and my efficiency is high.”

“If I still can’t enter the top twenty under these conditions, I might as well go bang my head against a block of tofu and die.”

“Now that my progress has been so great, qualifying for a second-grade genius loan should no longer be a problem.”

“Next, I just need to wait for tomorrow’s Star Rank event.”

After organizing his thoughts, Lin Qi began cultivating in a standing stance.

…

The principal’s office.

Sitting in an ergonomic chair, Jiang Zhiguang stared gravely at the projected table.

Page 3 of 3

“These results…”

“They’re truly excellent!”

Jiang Zhiguang’s expression changed, and a smile spread across his face. He picked up his blue-and-white teacup and took several large gulps.

“Among Heavensea City’s ten key high schools, overall strength is divided into three tiers. First High, Eighth High, and Senior High belong to the first tier.”

“Senior High, Third High, and the other three schools belong to the second tier, while our Second High and the remaining three schools are in the third tier.”

“Compared with the monthly examination results of previous years, we didn’t have a single student in the top ten. This year, we have Li Zhou.”

“And it isn’t only Li Zhou. The overall rankings of the other students are also higher than those of the previous classes.”

Seated upright on the sofa, Yan Hong carefully analyzed the score sheet and produced several pie charts.

Across from her, Zhang Cheng crossed one leg over the other, stubbed out his finished cigarette, and grinned.

“Li Zhou making the top ten is his own achievement, but the class’s overall results were shaped by my training.”

With that, he turned his gaze to Lin Qi’s results on the score sheet and smiled.

“Old Zhang, asking you to come here was indeed the best decision I could have made.” Jiang Zhiguang rarely smiled as he spoke.

“However, after the monthly examination, the major martial arts academies—especially the three great martial arts academies—will begin taking action.”

“They’ll compete to recruit geniuses, sign contracts with them, and provide financial support.”

“I wonder how many geniuses from our school will be able to sign an A-grade contract.”

Zhang Cheng shook his head. “That will be difficult. For now, only Li Zhou, Yu Jing, and Qi Yuelin have a chance.”

…

The next day, Second High.

Inside the martial arts classroom, Zhang Cheng stood among all the students.

“First, there’s one matter to address. In this month’s Heavensea examination, anyone who has fallen out of the top thirty—my apologies, but your martial arts room now belongs to someone else.”

“Pack up your things later and vacate the rooms.”

“Lin Qi, you’re going to Room 503…”

Lin Qi nodded. He finally had a martial arts room of his own. From now on, he would no longer need to come to the martial arts classroom at four in the morning.

By now, everyone in the class knew that this training maniac got up shortly after four every day to practice martial arts.

“You’ve all seen your rankings, haven’t you?”

“Are you feeling a great deal of pressure?”

“Good. You’re supposed to feel pressure. Turn that pressure into motivation and train like your life depends on it. If training won’t kill you, then train as though you were trying to die, and push your ranking higher.”

“I hope that one month from now, in the Cang Province assessment, every one of you will have raised your ranking.”

“If you have no confidence, you might as well get out now and make room for students who are willing to work hard.”

Zhang Cheng roared, and everyone immediately began practicing martial arts.

…