24: Rankings

The opening ceremony was simple; Principal Xu Jingzhong gave a speech, and then everyone was dismissed.

Fu Mingyu pushed through the crowd and found Chen Qing, who was standing at the very back.

"Chen Qing, why are you standing so far back?"

Chen Qing's position was completely at the back of the crowd; from there, he could barely see the podium.

"It's all the same no matter where I stand. The principal isn't some beauty. Why would I stand so close to admire his peerless face?"

"True. Hey, Chen Qing, what do you say? We can go challenge the rankings in the Martial Dao Building now. Together?"

Chen Qing nodded. He still needed to challenge the Top 100 Ranking; at least there were rewards.

——

Martial Dao Building.

This was an ancient-looking building, located right next to the Martial Arts Arena.

The Martial Dao Building displayed the rankings, and the Martial Arts Arena provided the fighting stages.

At this moment, the Martial Dao Building was bustling with people, mostly new students who had just arrived, but also many older students. Many of them came to watch the excitement.

"Haha, almost all the new students are here. Very good, many of them look full of vitality."

"The rewards for the Top 100 Ranking are very tempting for new students, so of course, they'll all come to join the fun."

"I'm more looking forward to that new student who was shouting in the Martial Arts Arena that he would take on all the second-year students within a month. Let's see what his strength is like now."

"Didn't that person suffer a crushing defeat to Liu Weiren in that battle? How could he take on all the second-year students like that? Liu Weiren isn't even the face of the second year."

"Who knows? But this batch of new students has quite a few strong ones. I heard there are two S-rank abilities!"

"Then there's a good show to watch. The second-year students don't have any S-rank ability students."

... The discussions were constant. Chen Qing and Fu Mingyu heard a lot of useful information and now stood before several huge ranking boards.

Some of the rankings already had people on them, but the New Student Ranking was still empty.

Just as everyone was discussing, a list of names suddenly appeared on the New Student Ranking.

The school had already made a preliminary ranking based on the information everyone submitted upon admission, listing the top 100 new students of this year.

"New Student Martial Dao Ranking."

"First: Li Cunxu, First-Order Mid-Stage, S-rank ability."

"Second: Fu Mingyu, First-Order Mid-Stage, A-rank ability."

"Third: Lei Hen, First-Order Mid-Stage, A-rank ability."

"Fourth: Mo Shang, First-Order Mid-Stage, A-rank ability."

"Fifth: Tang Wu, First-Order Mid-Stage, A-rank ability."

"Sixth: Zhao Yuanyue, First-Order Mid-Stage, A-rank ability."

... "Forty-third: Wang Zhao, First-Order Early-Stage, B-rank ability."

"Forty-fourth: Yao Chenggong, First-Order Early-Stage, C-rank ability."

"Forty-fifth: Wan Siming, First-Order Early-Stage, B-rank ability."

"Forty-sixth: Tao Wan, First-Order Early-Stage, C-rank ability."

... "Ninety-ninth: Gu Fan, First-Order Early-Stage, B-rank ability."

"Hundredth: Chen Qing, Non-Martial Artist, S-rank ability."

——

"Holy moly, are this year's new students that strong? Everyone on the ranking is a Martial Artist!"

"Are you blind? Didn't you see the last name? Isn't that Chen Qing a non-Martial Artist?"

"He has an S-rank ability. Even if he's a non-Martial Artist, can you compare to him?"

"Compared to that, I'm more focused on the talent of this batch of new students! Besides the two S-rank abilities, there are actually 41 A-rank ability users on the list! And this doesn't even count some new students who couldn't Breakthrough to Martial Artist before admission!"

"Yeah, this batch of new students is really taking off! Our second-year has no S-rank abilities, and I think only about ten A-rank abilities, right?"

"Roughly. I remember there were 20 when we first enrolled, but a few died in missions, so I'm not sure how many are left now."

... Chen Qing's face was a bit dark. He felt that the person who made the ranking did it on purpose. He estimated there must be many First-Order Martial Artists below the ranking. Based on the information he submitted before enrollment, his vitality was only 0.68 at that time, so there was no way he could have made the ranking.

Giving him the 100th spot and specifically marking him as "Non-Martial Artist" was definitely meant to make him a target.

Damn it, don't let him find out who made the ranking, or he'll make them pay!

"Oh, they actually ranked me second? Who told them I couldn't beat Li Cunxu? Where is Li Cunxu? I'm going to make him see why flowers are so red today!"

Fu Mingyu looked around aggressively, but no one responded. Everyone subconsciously backed away when they heard his shouting.

This guy probably wasn't easy to mess with, daring to challenge the number one on the ranking.

"Li Cunxu probably didn't come. That guy is very confident; he probably thinks no one dares to challenge him and went back to Cultivate." Beside him, Zhao Yuanyue, who hadn't been seen for days, walked over with her arms crossed.

Tang Wu was also next to her; the two had obviously come together.

"Go find someone to call him! Damn it, who told him he could rest easy? Am I afraid of him?"

Zhao Yuanyue scoffed, "He's already First-Order High-Stage. He just got promoted a few days ago and sparred with a few second-year students on the ranking. Although he wasn't their match, at least he wasn't as pathetic as you. Are you sure you want to get beaten up?"

"Who's getting beaten up? I also just Broke through to First-Order High-Stage. I'm looking for someone to test it on. Hurry up, find someone to call him over!"

Zhao Yuanyue was startled to hear that. This guy actually Broke through too? Cultivating so fast?

Beside them, Tang Wu nodded, "We should find someone to call him. He wants to rely on his Realm and ability advantage to sit back and relax. We naturally can't let him succeed so easily. Many people will probably want to challenge him later."

Without them needing to say anything, someone had already gone to the dorms to find Li Cunxu.

Those who wanted to see a good show naturally wouldn't miss this opportunity.

"Is this Chen Qing?" Tang Wu looked at Chen Qing and asked.

Chen Qing returned a smile. He always felt that this Tang Wu wasn't a good person. Firstly, he didn't know why he naturally disliked anyone named Tang, and secondly, this person always had a self-satisfied look, which wasn't very likable.

Fu Mingyu also didn't like being with this guy and casually said, "Old Chen, let's go. The people who made the ranking are heartless. It's one thing to rank me second, but they actually put you last! Let's go, today, you and I will definitely show them a thing or two."

Chen Qing politely smiled at Tang Wu and Zhao Yuanyue, then turned and went with Fu Mingyu to the challenge stage in the Martial Arts Arena.

"When did Fu Mingyu become so close to this Chen Qing? Isn't this guy usually at odds with everyone?" Zhao Yuanyue asked, puzzled.

Tang Wu chuckled, "Haha, Fu Mingyu has been under a lot of pressure from his family these past few years. He probably came to Martial Arts University to let loose. Let's go, we'll follow and watch. It's a good chance to see the strength of the only two S-ranks in our year."

"The ranking shows that Chen Qing is a non-Martial Artist, right? Is he also going to challenge the ranking?" Zhao Yuanyue looked at Chen Qing's retreating back, a bit surprised.

"Hard to say. The information I found shows his vitality was less than 0.7 before enrollment. Has he made rapid progress recently?"

Zhao Yuanyue scoffed, "How fast could it be? His enrollment information was submitted a week ago, right? Can he Breakthrough to Martial Artist in a week? Then he's foolish, wasting the S-rank Awakening that heaven gave him!"

As they spoke, the two also walked towards the Martial Arts Arena.