Chapter 14: Top Ten! Spear Shoots Like a Dragon!

Over fourteen hundred candidates took the Jiangcheng Wu Ke exam, and rankings changing frequently is normal.

But a sudden rise or fall of more than ten ranks usually only occurs among those ranked lower.

These candidates are roughly equal in strength; even a slight score change causes a swing of over ten positions.

Candidates who enter the top fifty are far stronger, with significantly larger score gaps between them.

Even if rankings shift, it’s at most one or two positions.

A jump of over ten ranks all at once is extremely rare.

Thus, not only Chen Fan noticed this, but other teachers from No. 2 High also spotted it and began discussing.

“Hey, Xu Jingming’s rank rose—he’s now at 25th!”

“What?! 25th? Really?”

“We just went to eat and came back—how could his rank change so drastically?”

“Is he really from the parallel class? That’s insane!”

“......”

At this moment, on the Jiangcheng Wu Ke ranking list, No. 2 High had nine students in the top fifty.

Aside from the 18th and 22nd places, the highest-ranked student from No. 2 High was Xu Jingming at 25th!

“His rank jumped from 32nd to 25th, and his score rose from 328 to 372.”

In the front row of the audience seating, Principal Zhao Yao squinted.

As a Class-C psychic with only first-rank cultivation, he could still memorize every ranking on the list.

He paid particular attention to the information of No. 2 High’s candidates.

Xu Jingming’s score and rank changes were crystal clear to him.

Yet even so, he found it unbelievable.

According to Wu Ke exam scoring rules, killing one peak non-grade beast grants 6 to 8 points.

Killing one first-rank lower beast grants 14 to 16 points.

The smartwatch’s kill-count interval is roughly four seconds.

Xu Jingming gained 44 points in one go—that means he killed five peak non-grade beasts, or three first-rank lower beasts, within four seconds.

Either way, this proves Xu Jingming’s formidable strength.

“Even if he doesn’t match the top-tier like Zhou Mingyang, he’s definitely top-ten caliber.”

“When did our school produce such a fierce student?”

Principal Zhao Yao looked bewildered.

According to Great Xia regulations, all middle school principals and city education bureau directors and deputy directors must be at least first-rank cultivators.

Although Principal Zhao Yao hadn’t seen Xu Jingming’s battle footage, he could deduce Xu Jingming’s approximate strength from the sudden rank shift alone.

The other two principals and the education bureau director had also noticed.

“Principal Zhao, it seems your school still has some strong students.”

“This Xu Jingming probably held back earlier—now that he’s unleashed, his rank shot up immediately.”

Education Bureau Director Zhang Wenshan nodded slightly.

“Your student, Principal Zhao, is roughly top-ten caliber.”

Principal Liu Hang from No. 1 High added.

“By the way, what ability did your student awaken? Why haven’t we heard of him before?”

Zhang Wenshan looked puzzled.

A candidate with this level of strength shouldn’t be unknown.

“To be honest, Xu Jingming only just exploded today during the exam. I need to ask his homeroom teacher for details about him.”

“Teacher Chen, come here.”

Facing Director Zhang Wenshan’s question, Zhao Yao directly called over the homeroom teacher, Chen Fan.

Thus, amid the envious glances of No. 2 High’s teachers, Chen Fan sat beside the principal.

For an ordinary homeroom teacher like Chen Fan, the education bureau director and the principals were absolute big shots.

So under their gazes, his expression naturally grew tense:

“Principal, Director, as far as I know, Xu Jingming awakened only an E-rank ability: [Weak Electricity].”

“E-rank ability?!”

Principal Zhao Yao frowned. “Teacher Chen, are you sure you didn’t misremember?”

“Principal, I didn’t misremember—I even warned him before the exam not to take the Wu Ke.”

Chen Fan sighed.

In fact, as homeroom teacher, he himself had doubted whether the ability registration years ago had been mistaken.

“With only an E-rank ability, he’s reached this point—clearly, Xu Jingming has exceptional strengths elsewhere.”

Director Zhang Wenshan pondered. “Too bad he hasn’t entered the top ten—we still can’t see his battle footage.”

The Wu Ke live-stream system runs on a provincial-programmed algorithm; even he couldn’t interfere.

Finding Xu Jingming among thousands of fixed camera feeds was like searching for a needle in a haystack.

“Wait—it’s clear his strength will push him into the top ten soon.”

Though Xu Jingming’s case was unusual, as education bureau director, he had patience.

“Then we’ll just have to wait.”

Principal Zhao Yao of No. 2 High nodded, then stopped Chen Fan from returning to his seat. “Also, Teacher Chen, stay right here.”

Chen Fan’s face lit up—few teachers ever got to sit this close to the director and principals.

Time passed slowly; the Wu Ke rankings shifted constantly.

Among all these rankings, one name kept climbing.

25th place, Xu Jingming...

21st place, Xu Jingming...

16th place, Xu Jingming...

12th place, Xu Jingming...

9th place, Xu Jingming...

Less than an hour had passed—Xu Jingming had broken into the top ten!

“Xu Jingming did it! He’s in the top ten!”

Homeroom teacher Chen Fan’s face flushed with excitement—he, a mere parallel-class homeroom teacher, had never dreamed one of his students would make Jiangcheng’s top ten!

“He’s in the top ten!”

Principal Zhao Yao of No. 2 High also exhaled in relief.

Otherwise, being constantly overshadowed by No. 3 High made him look bad.

“Now we can finally see how Xu Jingming made the top ten.”

Education Bureau Director Zhang Wenshan gazed expectantly upward. After a moment, the virtual projection for 9th place flickered into view.

In its place appeared the tall, lean figure of a young man.

He wore a black battle suit, his face resolute, eyes sharp and determined.

In his hand he held a black spear, two point one meters long, its tip sharp and keen, stained with crimson blood that added a fierce, menacing aura.

At his feet lay several dead beasts, lifeless.

Not far away, another beast cowered, too terrified to advance.

Black suit, long spear, dead beasts...

All elements combined into a single image—radiating a sharp, overwhelming aura.

The next instant.

The young man moved—the spear shot out like a dragon, in a single flash.

The remaining beast had no time to react—it was pierced clean through by the spear.