Chapter 65: Rushing into the Top Ten

The massive green light screen was densely packed with various data and images.

Lin’s gaze swept across from the first place downward like a radar, and he quickly found his own name and profile picture:

[Name: Lin Qi]

[Academic Score: 925 (1)]

[Vitality Value: 921 (12)]

[Martial Arts: 805 (5)]

[Total Score: 887]

[Grade Ranking: 18 → 9]

[City Ranking: 288 → 128]

[Provincial Ranking: 480]

……

"Grade 9!"

Seeing that he was ranked 9th in the grade, the corners of Lin Qi’s mouth curled upward.

He had climbed from the 18th place in the grade all the way up to 9th.

Among the individual subjects, his academic score still dominated the top spot in the grade, with no one able to surpass him.

His vitality value ranked 12th, which was his weaker area, though he was gradually closing the gap.

As for martial arts, he had surprisingly broken into the top five of the grade, a result far higher than his actual combat skill level.

His city ranking also saw a massive leap, surging from 288th to 128th, coming close to the top hundred.

As for the newly released provincial ranking, it surprised Lin Qi quite a bit. Even though he was in the top ten of his grade at No. 2 High, he was actually ranked close to the 500th spot across the entire Cang Province.

This showed that there were still far too many talented masters throughout Cang Province, emerging in an endless stream.

"In two months, I went from the top one hundred in the grade to the top ten. Give me a few more months, and I will continuously surpass everyone," Lin Qi thought to himself.

His deskmate, Jiang Tao, was also checking his own results at that moment.

"Haha, fifth in the grade! I’m just a tiny bit behind Zhu Yuqi in fourth."

"Sixth in the class for martial arts!"

"This is locked in!"

Jiang Tao looked at his score and ranking, punched the air fiercely, and broke into an excited smile.

He immediately looked down to search for the ranking of his good brother Lin Qi—this had already become a habit for him.

"Ninth in the grade, as expected, normal performance!"

...Wait.

"Martial arts 805... ranked fifth??"

Jiang Tao froze instantly when he saw this. He blinked rapidly, suspecting he might have misread it.

His own martial arts score was 800, placing him sixth in the class.

Yet Lin Qi was ranked right ahead of him, leading by just five points.

How was this possible? His own martial arts was inferior to Brother Qi's?

He turned his head in shock to look at Lin Qi, just as the other person turned around with a smile:

"Sorry, Taozi."

"I win. You can order KFC right now!"

Jiang Tao found it hard to accept upon hearing this. He had actually been surpassed by Lin Qi: "Brother Qi, you actually won."

Left with no choice, he reluctantly pulled out his phone to order delivery.

Dozens of seconds after the score sheets were released, the entire classroom descended into a state of boiling excitement.

"Damn, my ranking dropped!" Someone hugged their head and wailed.

"Haha, I improved!" Someone cried out in pleasant surprise.

"I’m only ranked past the five-thousandth place in the whole Cang Province? Isn't that way too low?" Someone stared at their provincial ranking in disbelief.

Zhang Cheng on the podium broke into a smile and said loudly:

"Five thousandth? Isn't that completely normal?"

"Do you know how many key high schools there are in the entire Cang Province?"

"Over eighty key high schools, housing tens of thousands of talents studying within them. It's already pretty good that you can rank in the top five thousand."

"In this world, the one thing in least short supply is talent."

"When the final national exams arrive, you will witness even more formidable geniuses and realize the chasm-like gap between yourselves and the top-tier talents."

The crowd fell silent after hearing this.

Zhang Cheng was right. As the scope continued to expand and talents emerged wave after wave, they were merely ordinary members among them.

After finishing, Zhang Cheng glanced at the score sheet, locked his gaze on Lin Qi’s name, and revealed a gratified smile.

"This kid Lin Qi really didn't live up to my expectations."

"Yet just two days ago, I was tutoring him on how to break through to the second-tier spear technique, and today he scores 805 in martial arts. That's a score you only get by defeating the 8th challenger."

"Fifth in the class for martial arts, just 10 points behind Zhu Yuqi in fourth. How does he even practice?"

Zhang Cheng was both astonished and alarmed. This was his first time witnessing such a situation; his pace of improvement was simply too fast.

Li Zhou, the top-ranked student in the grade, locked his eyes on the score sheet with a rather tense expression.

This assessment concerned whether he could sign an A-tier contract.

"First in the grade, 7th in the city, 15th in the province."

Seeing this, Li Zhou’s eyes lit up.

Although his city ranking had only improved by two spots compared to the monthly exam, for someone at his level, a single spot represented a massive leap forward.

Most importantly, this already met the standard set for him by the Chaqiong Martial Arts Gymnasium.

Meanwhile, not far away, Yu Jing wore an ugly expression. Looking at his ranking, he was still second place at No. 2 High, but his ranking in Tianhai City had actually regressed.

He dropped from 15th to 20th place.

The gap between him and Li Zhou was growing wider, while Qi Yuelin and Zhu Yuqi were catching up from behind.

Especially Jiang Tao and Lin Qi.

"Those former paupers actually managed to catch up."

His own regression, combined with the progress of people he disliked, made Yu Jing feel a double layer of misery.

……

Martial Arts Room 503.

Lin Qi moved a table over. Five large bags bearing the "KFC" logo were placed on top. Jiang Tao kept pulling out burgers, fried chicken wings, French fries, cola, and roasted wings...

The entire table was densely covered.

"Eat up. A bet is a bet. This meal cost me over a thousand bucks!" Jiang Tao said to Lin Qi and Chen Zichuan.

Lin Qi didn't stand on ceremony. He grabbed a burger, tore it open, took a bite, and followed it with a gulp of cola.

Next to him, Chen Zichuan also dug in without hesitation.

"Junk food really tastes the best!"

Jiang Tao devoured half a burger in one fierce bite and sighed:

"When I was a kid and my family was broke, if I wanted to eat KFC, it was Brother Qi who used to bring me."

"You treated us with your own pocket money. Every time, we could at most eat a burger, an order of fries, and a cup of cola. We couldn't afford to eat any more."

"Later on, your family fell on hard times too, and we could only afford to eat it once in a blue moon."

"When our cravings acted up, we could only wait until we earned some money from part-time jobs to go eat Wallace."

"Unlike today, when we aren't short on money and can eat our fill," Jiang Tao said, stirred by the setting.

Chen Zichuan took a bite of fries and nodded: "Me too. What I looked forward to most as a kid was my dad taking me to eat Wallace on my birthday."

"It's a pity my dad can never come back."

He came from a single-parent family; his father had been a martial artist who sacrificed his life on the battlefield, leaving him to be raised by his mother.

Lin Qi sighed. The three of them came from ordinary family backgrounds and possessed good talent, giving them plenty of common topics.

Chen Zichuan had made tremendous progress in this mid-term assessment, breaking into the top thirty of the grade to rank 25th, with room to advance further in the future.

All three of them now had bright futures ahead.

……

Half an hour later, the three parted ways.

The table full of KFC had been completely devoured by the three of them—Lin Qi alone had eaten 10 burgers.

Practitioners of martial arts had huge appetites and could eat a massive amount; when eating their fill, they could polish off a large basin of normal meals.

Lin Qi changed into his martial arts uniform, warmed up his body, and began standing in his stance on the spot.

His gaze locked onto the interface.

[Name: Lin Qi (17)]

[Profession: Martial Artist]

[Template: Erlangshen · Yang Jian (8.3%)]

[Talents: Stomach Reinforcement, Vigorous and Vital]

[Techniques: Mellow Stance, Five-Forms Fist · Tiger Form, Basic Spear Technique, Mountain-Crushing Spear Technique]

[Vitality Value: 9.21]

[Fist Technique: Tier 2 20%]

[Spear Technique: Tier 2 3%]

[Movement Technique: Tier 1 95%]

……

Lin Qi glanced at all the data. Compared to the monthly exam, it was another massive leap forward.

Before the start of his senior year in high school, he never could have imagined he would progress at such a rapid pace.

He could only say that the template's talent was simply too powerful.

Resources were also crucial. In martial arts, without resources, no matter how strong your talent was, you couldn't outcompete the wealthy.

"Now that I have the talent and good resources, as long as you give me time, I can climb to the absolute peak of Cang Province."

"Getting into the top three elite universities will be basically effortless."

"My only regret right now is my parents."

Lin Qi thought to himself.

After clearing all the family debts, he had suggested that his old man, Lin Zhen, come home.

However, his dad had refused, saying he wanted to stay a bit longer to make some more money.

This left Lin Qi somewhat puzzled and feeling that something was amiss.

The family was no longer short on money; there was no need to keep doing the grueling and exhausting job of a meat-cutter.

Could there be something going on that he didn't know about?

Thinking of this, Lin Qi decided to have a good talk with his dad when he returned.

……