Chapter 183

Not long after.

Jiang Churan, her slender figure and an archaic longsword carried on her back, also appeared at the entrance of the Silver Secret Realm.

Her alluring looks and slender, captivating figure made the young girls around her secretly envious, while some hot-blooded male students flushed red and immediately looked away.

Walking out of the instance, she also quickly spotted Zhou Yi in the distance.

However, unlike Shen Lingfeng, she had already witnessed Zhou Yi's strength and naturally knew that he had cleared the instance faster than her.

"Brother Zhou Yi really did clear it faster than me."

With a charming smile on her pretty face, Jiang Churan took long strides and quickly headed in that direction.

Time flew by, and soon, all the students participating in the Freshman Grand Competition had exited the Xiong Guai instance and gathered on the field.

There were also some who had suffered heavy injuries, carried away by the medical team that had been waiting nearby for treatment.

Suffering heavy injuries, the second stage of the Freshman Grand Competition was almost out of reach for them.

Once all the freshmen had arrived on the field, Wu Mang also stood up from his seat on the ceremonial platform.

Walking to the front of the stage, he announced:

"The first stage of the Freshman Grand Competition has officially concluded. Next, we will announce the clear times and rankings!"

Hum~~~

Under the projection of the drones.

In mid-air, a massive leaderboard recording the clear times and rankings of the numerous freshmen slowly materialized:

【First Place: Zhou Yi, Instance Clear Time 12 min 16 sec, Bonus Stage Clear Time 1 min 12 sec】

【Second Place: Jiang Churan, Instance Clear Time 13 min 35 sec, Bonus Stage Clear Time 6 min 42 sec】

【Second Place: Shen Lingfeng, Instance Clear Time 14 min 23 sec, Bonus Stage Clear Time 7 min 12 sec】

PS: Begging for monthly votes at the start of the month, many thanks~~~~.

In mid-air.

The holographic virtual leaderboard projected by the drones was enormously vast, with various decorative patterns along its edges, looking extremely lavish.

The top fifty were even specially marked to stand out.

And the top three at the very peak of the leaderboard had names far larger than the rest, and even more conspicuous!

Among them, Zhou Yi, as the first place, had the largest name, radiating a dazzling, brilliant golden glow.

"Zhou Yi is actually first?!"

Shen Lingfeng's expression darkened.

The cold, murderous aura he unconsciously emanated caused the specially-recruited student beside him, who had come from the same high school, to stiffen and say awkwardly:

"Th... this couldn't be a mistake, could it?"

"Su University has never made a mistake on something like this."

Shen Lingfeng narrowed his eyes, looking at Zhou Yi's terrifyingly fast clear times, finding them unbearably glaring.

"12 minutes 16 seconds and 1 minute 12 seconds—he actually beat me by that much."

"Zhou Yi, no matter how you did it."

"In the upcoming second stage of the competition, I will crush you underfoot!"

A fierce glint flashed through his eyes.

When had he, always so proud, ever suffered such grievance?

Not only was the top college entrance exam scorer title taken from him, but now even the first place in the Freshman Grand Competition was taken as well!!

The glory of the Eight Great Families of Jiangning would not allow him to lose to some guy from the barren north!!

"Second among the freshmen, looks like you're even more formidable than Shen Lingfeng, but why did you exit the instance after him?"

As for his own first-place ranking, Zhou Yi wasn't surprised.

After all, when he had exited the instance, there wasn't a single freshman on the field yet.

But Jiang Churan, who had exited the instance after Shen Lingfeng, was actually ranked above him instead.

"Maybe it's because I spent some time picking up equipment."

Jiang Churan explained with a beaming smile.

"Picking up equipment took some time? That shouldn't be—counting the bonus stage, only two pieces of equipment dropped in total."

Zhou Yi said, puzzled.

Besides, picking up equipment only required putting it into the backpack space; it didn't take any time at all.

"Oh? You only got two pieces of equipment? I got five pieces 〃｀."

Jiang Churan's eyes curved into crescent moons.

Just using the Appraisal Technique to determine the types and abilities of these pieces of equipment had taken her at least over two minutes.

Zhou Yi: "......"

Damned lucky bastard!

"Truly worthy of being the default freshman number one! This gap is just too huge!"

"I watched his college entrance exam instance clear video before—he's a powerful Holy Knight who follows a brute-force route. I thought after a month he'd run out of steam.

Now it seems he's still the freshman number one!"

"Tsk tsk, he cleared the bonus stage in just 1 minute 12 seconds—how on earth did he do that?"

"......"

Having taken a brutal beating from the Xiong Guai instance.

These genius freshmen from all over the country also found that their own strength roughly matched the rankings Su University had assigned, with little difference.

So, they began to shift their discussion to those few figures at the top of the rankings instead.

As the default first among the new students, Zhou Yi has now reclaimed first place in the New Student Grand Tournament.

Naturally, his achievement carries real weight, making him the subject of much discussion and admiration among the new students.

But they were also extremely curious about how Zhou Yi had, in a mere 1 minute and 12 seconds, completely obliterated the Xiong Guai wraith that could be revived 10 times.

"Holy shit?! What's going on! Zhou Yi is still first place!"

"12 minutes 16 seconds versus 1 minute 12 seconds — hiss, that's insane!"

"That's just ridiculous. Whoever said he spent that month living in luxury, step right up — I'll smash you with my hammer on the spot!"

The moment they saw the rankings, many of the specially-recruited students also understood at once.

It turned out Zhou Yi hadn't been living a life of luxury back then — on the contrary, he had very likely gone off to take part in some sort of secret training.

"I told you Brother Yi wouldn't have fallen."

Mixed in among the crowd, Wang Li — who had once tried to peddle his services to Zhou Yi at the Shengjianmian Society — was also wearing a broad smile.

His strength was decent, and through this Grand Tournament he had roughly climbed 4 ranks.

In other words, if he could hold onto his ranking in the upcoming second stage, he would earn an extra 200 credits as a progress reward.

Of course, if he successfully challenged for an even higher ranking, the credits he received would be even more!

Of course, while some advanced, others fell back.

Among the specially-recruited students, quite a few had dropped from their original rankings.

There were even some of the top-fifty spots now occupied by ordinary new students......

"The first stage of the New Student Grand Tournament has ended. Next, the second stage of the New Student Grand Tournament — the Free Challenge Tournament — officially begins!"

"Each person has three challenge attempts, and after every challenge, there is a 5-minute rest period!"

Rumble rumble rumble!!!

Under the Elemental Academy Dean's control, the Silver Secret Realm gate behind the training grounds slowly vanished.

As the Secret Realm gate disappeared, the once-flat ground of the training grounds suddenly split open with one pitch-black hole after another, and 20 combat platforms slowly rose up from within.

Each combat platform was a standard 10-meter by 10-meter.

Unlike ordinary combat platforms, these were entirely constructed from magical machinery.

Through the gaps in the dark outer coating, one could also see the faint blue energy fluctuations glimmering within.