Chapter 11: Has Xu Jingming Been Hiding His Strength? The Curious Homeroom Teacher

"The top-ranked student, Zhou Mingyang, scored 412—he must already be slaughtering across the central zone."

"His Light Wind Technique is excellent for travel; his speed rivals even the best in the provincial capital’s Wu Ke exam."

"Speaking of which, Principal Liu is truly impressive—almost all of the top ten are from your school."

"......"

Outside the ruins town, on an open field, ten massive projection screens displayed live footage.

These were captured by military drones tracking the top ten candidates’ scores.

Beneath these ten large projections lay thousands of smaller, densely packed projection screens.

These were feeds from fixed cameras placed throughout the ruins town, only enlarged to the main screen when needed.

Beside the projections stood a ranking list, detailing each candidate’s score and position.

On the temporary seating erected below the projections, education bureau officials and school principals and teachers were commenting on the students’ rankings.

Among them, a middle-aged man in a suit with short hair was the center of attention.

He was Liu Hang, principal of Jiangcheng No. 1 High School.

Of the top ten in the Wu Ke rankings, all except one student from No. 3 High School were from No. 1 High School.

"Zhou Mingyang is our Jiangcheng’s ace; this Wu Ke exam, he should break into the top 100 of Jiangnan Province."

In the front row of the audience seating sat a short, stout middle-aged man.

Watching Zhou Mingyang slaughter his way across the first projection screen, he nodded slightly.

He was Zhang Wenshan, director of the Jiangcheng Education Bureau.

"It’s been many years since Jiangcheng last produced a student who made the Jiangnan Province top 100."

Liu Hang, principal of No. 1 High School beside him, also felt a pang of nostalgia.

Jiangnan Province was one of Daxia Nation’s most populous provinces, containing 24 prefecture-level cities and nearly 34 county-level cities.

Jiangcheng lay in the remote northernmost region of Jiangnan Province, resource-poor and among the lowest-ranked in economic development among the 24 prefecture-level cities.

As a result, the annual education funding allocated by the provincial capital, Ning’an, was minimal.

Because of this, Jiangcheng consistently performed poorly in the annual Wu Ke exam.

Its best historical result was seven or eight years ago, when a student awakened an A-rank ability and broke into the top 100.

Since then, though Jiangcheng has produced other A-rank ability users, none have managed to enter the top 100.

But this year’s Zhou Mingyang has reignited their hopes.

"I’ve always been satisfied with the education at No. 1 High School."

Director Zhang Wenshan nodded. "Also, No. 3 High School did well—finally someone cracked the top ten."

"But No. 2 High School fell short—its best student is only ranked 18th."

Jiangcheng No. 1 High School was the best middle school in Jiangcheng.

Compared to No. 1, No. 2 and No. 3 High Schools were far inferior.

In past Wu Ke exams, the top ten were always monopolized by No. 1 High School students—No. 2 and No. 3 students never appeared.

"This year, we’ve indeed had several students with notable talent."

The principal of No. 3 High School couldn’t hide his smile.

By contrast, Yang Yao, principal of No. 2 High School beside him, looked embarrassed.

In past years, No. 2 High School had always overshadowed No. 3.

This year, the situation seemed reversed.

'But our school’s performance this year really has been poor...'

Principal Yang Yao scanned the score rankings for a long time and found only eight No. 2 High School students in the top fifty.

'Li Ming, Yang Jian, Tang Ju... these are all students from Class One’s Rocket Class—but who is Xu Jingming? I’ve never heard this name before.'

Wu Ke exam scores directly determined each school’s education funding allocation.

So Yang Yao was somewhat familiar with his school’s top students.

Yet he had never heard the name 'Xu Jingming.'

'Probably a hidden student from another parallel class. I’ll ask the homeroom teachers later.'

Yang Yao didn’t give it much thought.

After all, No. 2 High School had so many students; it wasn’t unusual for one or two to conceal their true strength.

Principal Yang Yao paid it no mind—but in the back row, Chen Fan, homeroom teacher of Class 5, Grade 3 at No. 2 High School, was stunned.

He knew Xu Jingming perfectly well.

The boy was only an E-rank ability awakener—how could he rank in the top fifty?

And now, Xu Jingming was the highest-ranked student in their entire Class 5!

It was unbelievable!

'Could he have concealed his true strength?'

'But no matter how much you hide it, an E-rank ability is still an E-rank ability—can it suddenly become an S-rank?'

'Then how did he get such a high score?'

Homeroom teacher Chen Fan was utterly baffled.

The Wu Ke exam involved real, direct combat with ferocious beasts—there could be no cheating.

Unfortunately, the main screen above only displayed the top ten scores; the thousands of fixed-camera feeds below were too dense to distinguish clearly.

Chen Fan had no chance of locating Xu Jingming’s footage.

Unable to see the footage, unaware of how Xu Jingming achieved such a high score, homeroom teacher Chen Fan.

Felt like a cat that smelled catnip but couldn’t reach it—itching with frustration...

Inside the ruins town, after half an hour of sprinting, Xu Jingming finally entered the central zone.

"Roar~~"

"Howl~~~"

Compared to the outer zone, the central zone had far more ferocious beasts.

As Xu Jingming walked, he could hear distant roars and howls.

The air seemed thick with blood and savagery.

"Crack—"

Xu Jingming carried his spear, a nutrition bar between his teeth, his combat boots crushing a rusted plastic basin by the roadside.

Once sturdy plastic, after decades of wind and rain, had become as brittle as instant noodles—crumbling to dust under a single step.

As he walked, Xu Jingming observed his surroundings.

The former Weiyuan Town had held nearly 100,000 people.

When the beasts breached the city’s defenses, many hadn’t evacuated in time—some 50,000 to 60,000 perished in the beasts’ jaws.

Outside the town, in the suburbs, there were few obvious traces.

But once he entered the area equivalent to the ruins town’s urban center,

he saw abandoned cars, dried dark-red bloodstains on the cracked ground,

and scattered, partially fossilized human skeletons—testaments to the bloodshed and brutality of that day.