Chapter 20: Were All the Ferocious Beasts Killed by Xu Jingming?

After witnessing Xu Jingming’s strength, Zhou Mingyang grumbled under his breath.

But he knew full well that Xu Jingming was truly stronger than him.

“Where the hell did this monster come from? His aura doesn’t even feel like an ability user’s.”

“Yet he kills first-rank ferocious beasts as easily as chopping vegetables.”

He silently cursed a few times, then continued on his path of slaying ferocious beasts.

He couldn’t match Xu Jingming’s power, but he’d still hold onto second place.

So he moved through the core zone, searching for ferocious beasts he could handle.

For the first two hours, things were fine—he occasionally encountered lone mid-rank first-tier ferocious beasts, or small groups of three or four.

But by the third hour, Zhou Mingyang clearly felt the number of ferocious beasts on the path had dropped sharply.

By the fourth hour, after circling the core zone for ages, he still hadn’t spotted a single ferocious beast!

“What’s going on? Where did all the ferocious beasts go?”

Zhou Mingyang was stunned, and kicked a fist-sized chunk of rubble by the roadside in frustration.

As an ability user, his strength was far from insignificant.

The stone shot off violently, slamming into a rusted metal billboard with a thunderous crash.

Before, he would never have made such a move—it would attract ferocious beasts.

But now, he actually hoped some ferocious beast would come because of it.

No ferocious beasts came—but several humans did.

It was a group of three: two men and one woman, walking toward him and waving from afar.

“Hey, Mingyang.”

“How’d you end up here?”

Zhou Mingyang stared at the three who had approached him.

Like him, they were all students from the Rocket Class of Jiangcheng No. 1 High School, first-rank low-tier ability users.

They all knew each other—old acquaintances.

Aside from him, these three held the other three spots in the Wu Ke rankings within the top five.

“You’ll have to ask Xu Jingming about that.”

The bald boy on the far right shrugged helplessly.

“Xu Jingming wiped out all the ferocious beasts in the core zone. We couldn’t find any, so we just banded together.”

The girl in the middle added softly.

She was petite, yet carried a massive sword on her back, creating a stark contrast.

“We’ve been wandering around here for over half an hour. When we heard that noise, we thought it was a ferocious beast.”

“We rushed over excitedly, only to find it was you.”

The long-haired boy on the left shook his head and sighed.

“Xu Jingming killed all the ferocious beasts? Impossible!”

Zhou Mingyang frowned, instinctively refusing to believe it.

After all, to prepare for the Wu Ke exam, the core zone had been stocked with at least three or four hundred ferocious beasts!

There was no way anyone could kill them all in just a few hours!

“Clearly, you haven’t checked the rankings in a while. Here, take a look at Xu Jingming’s score yourself.”

The bald boy opened his smartwatch; with a soft hum, the ranking interface projected into midair.

‘#1: Xu Jingming, 3435 points (Jiangcheng No. 2 High School)’

‘#2: Zhou Mingyang, 1103 points (Jiangcheng No. 1 High School)’

‘#3: Wu Hao, 945 points (Jiangcheng No. 1 High School)’

‘......’

“Th... three thousand four hundred points?!”

Staring at Xu Jingming’s terrifying score, the usually composed Zhou Mingyang nearly popped his eyeballs out.

“Now do you understand why we say Xu Jingming wiped out all the ferocious beasts?”

The bald boy sighed and shut off the virtual projection.

“Killing a first-rank low-tier ferocious beast grants 14 to 16 points. A first-rank mid-tier one gives 20 to 22 points.”

“3435 points—even subtracting the 700+ he earned in the central zone—still leaves over 2500.”

“That means Xu Jingming alone killed nearly two hundred ferocious beasts in the core zone!”

“We’ve killed quite a few too. Combined, we’ve cleared the entire core zone.”

This explanation left Zhou Mingyang stunned.

Since entering the exam, he’d only thought about killing as many ferocious beasts as possible to earn higher scores.

He’d never once considered the possibility that the ferocious beasts could be completely wiped out.

“Damn! No wonder Xu Jingming was so scared of someone stealing his kills back then—he already saw this coming!”

Recalling his earlier conversation with Xu Jingming, Zhou Mingyang felt ten thousand llamas stampeding through his chest...

“3435 points! That score is insane! Xu Jingming is guaranteed top ten in Jiangnan Province!”

“Top ten! Top ten! When did Jiangcheng ever produce a result like this?!”

“He broke the record! Xu Jingming shattered Jiangcheng’s record!”

“......”

While Zhou Mingyang inside the exam zone was stunned by Xu Jingming’s score, the school principals and teachers outside were overjoyed.

And this was the best result Jiangcheng had ever produced in history.

“I never imagined Xu Jingming could achieve this just with that spear!”

Zhao Yao, principal of No. 2 High, felt his whole body flush with excitement.

What did top ten in Jiangnan Province mean? It meant elite schools nationwide would fight over him.

“A rare talent emerges from the fields—and now Jiangcheng has a student like Xu Jingming!”

Zhang Wenshan, director of the Education Bureau, grinned broadly.

At this point, he no longer cared that Xu Jingming’s ability was only E-rank.

With such results, even an F-rank ability user would be fought over by schools.

“But Xu Jingming is truly insane—in just three or four hours, he nearly wiped out every ferocious beast in the core zone.”

“Looks like he’s going to be a battle fanatic from now on.”

Zhou Mingyang and the others didn’t know how many ferocious beasts were deployed in the core zone—but Zhang Wenshan, as director of the Education Bureau, certainly did.

The core zone had been stocked with 450 first-rank low-tier ferocious beasts and 40 first-rank mid-tier ones!

Subtracting those killed by infighting among the beasts and the few taken by Zhou Mingyang and the others,

Xu Jingming alone had slain nearly half of all ferocious beasts in the core zone.

And this had happened in just three or four hours—further proving the terrifying extent of Xu Jingming’s power.

“Xu Jingming’s parents both died in a ferocious beast surge when he was young. Maybe that’s why he hates them so much.”

His homeroom teacher, Chen Fan, added.

“I see.”

Zhang Wenshan nodded slowly, his expression turning cold. “Hmph! One day, humanity will wipe out every ferocious beast!”

“Don’t worry—it will happen.”

Thinking of the ferocious beasts’ brutality, Principal Zhao Yao added coldly.