Chapter 164: Mysterious Zhang Yu

When Zhang Yu came to his senses again, he found himself in an underground passage.

"Is the teleportation complete?"

He walked forward along the underground passage and soon saw a figure.

Zhang Yu quickly hurried over, wanting to see if Bai Zhenzhen had come down with him, but discovered it was a boy in a school uniform.

Hearing footsteps, the boy turned his head and looked at Zhang Yu.

Zhang Yu nodded at him and greeted, "Hello, are you here for the exam too?"

The boy's name was Dai Xingzhi. He didn't immediately respond to Zhang Yu's greeting but instead looked Zhang Yu up and down, confirming one thing.

The other person was not a student from Xiandu City.

There were two main reasons Dai Xingzhi could confirm this.

For one, the other's face was very unfamiliar to him, and he clearly remembered every high school student in Xiandu with excellent grades and wealthy families—there was definitely no such person before him.

The second reason was that, judging from the other's accent, speech, clothing, and so on... this was an out-of-towner.

As an old Xiandu native whose family had lived in Xiandu for ten generations, in Dai Xingzhi's eyes... Xiandu people and out-of-towners were completely different, almost like two separate species.

And he, Dai Xingzhi, could basically tell the difference at a glance.

"An out-of-towner is an out-of-towner, without the temperament of us Xiandu people."

After realizing that the Zhang Yu before him was most likely an out-of-towner, his back unconsciously straightened.

Because he, Dai Xingzhi, was a supporter of Xiandu supremacy.

Xiandu was the center of Kunxu Layer One, the gathering place of the strongest, smartest, and richest people in Kunxu Layer One, and Upper City Xiandu could even be called Kunxu Layer 1.5.

"Theoretically speaking, I'm not really a person from Kunxu Layer One; I should be considered a person from Kunxu Layer 1.5."

As for the other cities in Layer One? In Dai Xingzhi's heart, weren't those all rural places?

Looking at Zhang Yu before him, Dai Xingzhi thought to himself, "Damned out-of-towner, trying to come to Xiandu to snatch our Foundation Establishment Certificate?"

So after glancing at Zhang Yu a couple of times, Dai Xingzhi said nothing and turned to leave. He walked forward quickly and soon saw another person's back.

"Ye Lingxiao..."

This学霸 (academic elite), who had recently been obsessed with Red Envelope Talismans, was a name that thundered in Dai Xingzhi's ears, because the other person was from within the Second Ring of the Upper City District.

In Dai Xingzhi's understanding, Xiandu was the center of Kunxu Layer One.

The floating city above Xiandu, the place always called the Upper City District, was the center of the center.

And within this Upper City District, from the outside to the inside, it was divided into ten rings. Within the Second Ring was the center of the center of the center.

Ye Lingxiao, born in the Second Ring, came from one of the wealthiest families in Xiandu City.

As far as Dai Xingzhi knew, people from the Second Ring only made friends with people from the Second Ring, only married people from the Second Ring, and only reproduced with people from the Second Ring. Some Second Ring people never even came down in their entire lives.

Now seeing Ye Lingxiao, Dai Xingzhi's back, which had just straightened, immediately hunched again as he ingratiatingly said, "Lingxiao, hello."

"Remember me? I'm Dai Xingzhi from the same school, my family lives in North Sixth Ring."

After speaking, he added, "It's inside the Sixth Ring, not outside the Sixth Ring."

Ye Lingxiao nodded without lifting his head and continued practicing the Red Envelope Talisman with full concentration.

After experiencing the last Dao Heart test, his curiosity about the Red Envelope Talisman and Goodwill Talisman had grown deeper and deeper. He was ninety percent sure there was enormous profit hidden within.

Unfortunately, precisely because the secrets involved were so significant, he dared not tell anyone and could only study them slowly on his own.

Just then, a shout was heard: "Hey! Why are you throwing Red Envelope Talismans around again?"

While dodging the Red Envelope Talismans on the ground, Zhang Yu caught up and said discontentedly, "Throwing this dirty stuff around casually—aren't you endangering public safety?"

Ye Lingxiao glanced at Zhang Yu in slight surprise, as if he hadn't expected this out-of-town student to not be eliminated in the last test.

Ye Lingxiao said flatly, "If no one picks up a Red Envelope Talisman, it will disappear after a while. Besides, if you don't want the money inside, you can just return it immediately..."

As the two were speaking, Zhang Yu had already followed him into an underground hall.

From a distance, they could see the examiner Deng Bingding and others standing in the center of the hall, surrounded by a dozen or so contestants who had arrived earlier.

But at that moment, it seemed these contestants were discussing something with the examiners.

One of the students said, "Examiner, please announce the rankings from the last test."

Another student added, "Right, what kind of test doesn't announce rankings?"

Someone loudly supported, "If you don't rank, can it still be called a test? Can it count as a proper exam?"

Zhang Yu understood after hearing a few sentences—this was a bunch of Xiandu young masters demanding the release of the previous round's rankings.

And from their attitude and the information they let slip, it seemed that if schools in Xiandu didn't publish rankings after exams, it would be considered scandalous, and both teachers and the school would be reported.

Damn, another pack of grinders... Zhang Yu thought to himself, no matter where you go in Kunxu, you can't avoid these ranking-obsessed people. They have zero regard for test-takers' privacy.

Just then, Bai Zhenzhen also walked over to Zhang Yu and asked curiously, "What's all the noise up front about?" Zhang Yu said disdainfully, "A bunch of score-obsessed people are making a fuss about demanding the previous test rankings."

Bai Zhenzhen recalled her own performance in the last test: "Hmm, the strongest few Xiandu young masters took half a second to open the door; I took less than three seconds, so I'm definitely ranked low."

Then thinking that her Heart Dao test probably couldn't match these Xiandu young masters either, she shook her head and sighed, "It's just a pre-exam test, and these people still care too much about empty fame."

Zhang Yu agreed, "How can the true Immortal Path be explained by temporary scores and rankings?"

Hearing this, Ye Lingxiao, who was a supporter of exam ranking theory, felt he couldn't just pretend not to have heard it.

But just as he was about to speak, Dai Xingzhi beside him couldn't hold back and said, "What nonsense are you two outsiders talking? Score is everything! Rankings are the standard for whether a person is qualified to continue on the path of Immortal Dao!"

"If a person only cares about scores but ignores rankings... then what's the difference from being born?"

Ye Lingxiao beside him didn't say anything, but from his frequent nodding, it was clear he strongly agreed with this statement.

Dai Xingzhi looked at Zhang Yu and Bai Zhenzhen, but there was still something he didn't say out loud.

He thought to himself, "Hmph, only those who know their own ranking is low are afraid of rankings."

And in his heart, how could these two outsiders possibly match the local academic elites of Xiandu? They must be low-ranked.

Not a single mistake, first release, internal content, all in one look!

"I've seen plenty of you undisciplined outsiders. If you two could rank first and second, you'd probably be dying to have the rankings announced."

Just then, facing these demands from so many students, Deng Bingding, standing at the front of the examiners, said, "I completely understand your desire to know the rankings. There's no rule here forbidding us from releasing the previous rankings."

"It's just that we felt it wasn't very informative, so we originally planned not to announce them."

"But since everyone wants to know, I'll show you the rankings."

The previous round of testing consisted of two stages.

Namely, the first stage of pushing open the metal gate, and the second stage of the Heart Dao test.

However, most of the students present weren't particularly concerned about the results of the first stage's metal gate—they just glanced at it and put it aside.

After all, this stage didn't have high requirements; it was purely used to weed out high school freshmen who lacked strength, and many contestants didn't go all out.

Instead, the second stage, the Heart Dao test, was not only seen as a way to show willpower but also as an indirect reflection of a contestant's worth, making it the greatest concern for the students present.

So everyone was more interested in the ranking of the Heart Dao test.

First place, No. 55, valuation unknown

Second place, No. 23, valuation 5.5 billion

Third place, No. 11, valuation 5 billion

Seeing the rankings above, everyone immediately fell silent, quietly searching for their own numbers and confirming their position on site, just like finding their seats in a movie theater.

After confirming their own ranking and roughly gauging their level in this exam, the next natural step was to check others' rankings.

Usually, they'd first check their friends, or the people they disliked.

For Dai Xingzhi, his first priority was to check the top three.

Coming into a crowd, the first thing he did was identify who had the highest scores and the most money—this had always been his habit and was one of the Dai family's ancestral teachings.

At the same time, Dai Xingzhi was recalling the content of the previous Heart Dao test.

"This valuation—does it mean how much temptation in value one can ultimately resist?"

"Those who are valued higher on this ranking not only have a firm Dao heart, but are also absolutely wealthy themselves."

"No. 11 is Yun Jing, third place, valued at 5 billion?"

Dai Xingzhi looked at the boy surrounded by several students from Xianyun High School.

What was most striking about him were his eyes, brilliant like stars; Dai Xingzhi knew they were the Dharma Remains.

"Yun Jing… is called by Ziyun Pharmaceutical 'the strongest high school student of Kunxu First Layer'."

Dai Xingzhi had heard that a month ago, aside from his magical power, even his Dao heart and physical strength had already reached the Qi Refining limit.

"Alas, of the four Foundation Establishment Certificates this time, one should belong to Yun Jing."

Ye Lingxiao, standing nearby, also glanced at Yun Jing; he remembered that last time the other had been able to pick up his red packet talisman without damage.

Dai Xingzhi thought to himself: "Second place, No. 23, is Ye Lingxiao beside me, valued at 5.5 billion. Did he hold out until the asking price of 5.5 billion in the illusion realm? As expected of a rich person from the Second Ring."

"All his stats reached the Qi Refining limit as early as two or three months ago, right? After all, he is evaluated by Oasis Group as having the most perfect body and the most perfect bloodline among contemporary high school students."

"Among the four Foundation Establishment Certificates, there should be one for him as well."

But when he then saw first place, No. 55, Dai Xingzhi found that after looking around he couldn't find the person, and he grew even more puzzled: "In this Foundation Establishment exam, there is actually someone stronger and richer than Yun Jing and Ye Lingxiao?"