20: Is taking first place in Chapter 20 a sure thing?

His appearance was very ordinary, so ordinary that he would be untraceable if thrown into a crowd.

But the moment he walked up to the dynamometer, stood still, and extended his right hand, a chilly sense of oppression spread from him.

A purplish-black orb of spell power emerged in his palm, its surface densely covered with distorted runes that emitted a sharp piercing sound as it spun rapidly.

The surrounding students who were still waiting in line unconsciously took a step back.

He let out a low shout and slammed the spell power orb onto the dynamometer with one palm.

A muffled crash exploded, and the grey numbers on the dynamometer stele surface jumped wildly, surging all the way from zero, passing 40, 50, 60, 70...

Then, with unabated momentum, it continued to surge upwards, finally settling at 81!

The playground was quiet for a full three seconds.

Then it exploded.

"Holy crap!! Eighty-one!!"

"Good heavens! When he came out just now, I thought this guy looked completely ordinary, yet he was hiding his true strength?!"

"How many people across the country in past preliminary tests could score over eighty? He must be able to rank in the top ten in Qingzhou City, right?"

On the podium, several school leaders who had been sitting steadily as a mountain stood up simultaneously.

Principal Fang Zhenyuan pushed up his reading glasses, his gaze sweeping rapidly across the name list.

Jiang Xiaohong!

He had been identified as a potential stock beforehand!

Several instructors also crowded over, whispering about something, and the excitement in their tones could be heard from far away.

Jiang Xiaohong turned around from in front of the dynamometer, and facing the cheers and screams of the whole venue, he tried hard to maintain a calm expression, but the corners of his mouth still uncontrollably curled upwards.

He puffed out his chest, and as he walked through the crowd, his steps felt a bit lighter.

A few younger students crowded around, asking him with shining eyes how he did it.

He waved his hand and deliberately said in a very plain tone: "It is nothing, I just chose the right world."

He walked into the queue of his class, leaned against a railing, swept his gaze across the envious looks cast from around him, and began to calculate in his heart.

Eighty-one points!

With this score, taking first place in the school this year is basically secured.

No...

Not just first place in the school, it is very likely the top spot in the entire Qingzhou City.

With such results, the Trialers Headquarters will directly lock onto him, not to mention the subsequent resource tilting and specialized cultivation.

The senior sister who scored eighty-seven previously is already a high-ranking official in the provincial capital, and with his eighty-one, his future path will only be wider.

Thinking of this, the corners of his mouth curled up a bit higher.

"Not bad." A faint female voice suddenly came from beside him.

The male student turned his head.

Su Tang was walking past him, heading towards the dynamometer.

The Silver Moon Wolf behind her walked gracefully through the crowd.

Su Tang walked up to the dynamometer, and the surroundings quieted down for an instant.

She took a deep breath, closed her eyes, and gently rested her right hand on top of the head of the Silver Moon Wolf.

The Silver Moon Wolf let out a low whine, and a pale blue halo appeared on its silvery-white fur, spreading up along the arm of Su Tang and covering her entire right arm.

This is the core ability of the Beast Contract Plane.

Beast Power Resonance!

The contractor and the beast can borrow each other's power for a short time, stacking them together to release an attack far exceeding individual strength.

Su Tang opened her eyes, slammed her right foot forward a step, and her right fist, wrapped in silver beast power radiance and carrying a piercing sound, smashed fiercely onto the dynamometer.

Bang!!

The numbers on the surface of the dynamometer jumped rapidly, passing 50, 60, and 70, with the final trailing digit fluctuating rapidly between 75 and 79, finally landing steadily on 77!

The whole audience broke into an uproar once again.

"Seventy-seven! Another high score segment!"

"That eighty-one just now was due to strong personal ability, while this girl hit it through resonance with a beast; her compatibility with that silver wolf is ridiculously high!"

"This cohort is not weak at all, truly not weak."

Su Tang withdrew her fist, looked down at the back of her hand, and then raised her head to glance at the numbers on the dynamometer, her expression unchanged.

She turned around and walked back into the queue of her class.

The Silver Moon Wolf rubbed against her leg, and she squatted down to stroke its head, whispering something.

"Seventy-seven points is already very strong, do not be ungrateful." Someone whispered nearby.

Su Tang did not respond, her gaze involuntarily glancing towards the ash-white plane gate at the edge of the playground that had remained motionless all along.

...

The clamor on the playground had not yet subsided when another girl walked out from the queue of the Ghost-Slicing Team Plane.

The moment she appeared, all the noises quieted down by a few fractions.

The girl was tall and slender, with a head of pitch-black long hair tied into a high ponytail at the back of her head, and exquisite facial features as if she had walked out of a painting.

But there was not a trace of delicate gentleness about her.

In her right hand, she carried a white long saber. The blade was slender and straight, and the scabbard was made of an unknown white wood, with fine natural grain faintly visible on the surface, and the tsuba was the simplest circular shape.

She walked up to the dynamometer, turned around, and drew her saber.

The sound of the blade rubbing against the scabbard was as crisp and clear as spring water striking stones.

The moment the saber was drawn, the blade refracted the sunlight on the playground, but it did not reflect white light like ordinary metal.

What it reflected was an extremely faint silvery-white light, like moonlight condensed into a solid entity.

Several knowledgeable students nearby gasped in unison: "Ghost-Slaying Blade?! The saber of the tenth sequence from the Ghost-Slicing Team Plane! How did she get it?!"

The girl did not answer anyone's question, gripping the hilt with both hands, aiming the tip of the blade at the exact center of the dynamometer stele surface.

She closed her eyes, and her breathing gradually became long and steady.

The extremely faint silvery-white glow on the blade grew brighter and brighter, finally condensing into a flowing brilliance that circulated back and forth across the blade like mercury.

She opened her eyes, stepped forward, and thrust out with her saber!

The movement was extremely minimalist, without any fancy arcs or multi-stage combos.

It was simply the most direct straight thrust, the tip of the blade tearing through the air, carrying that extremely condensed silvery-white saber radiance, accurately piercing the exact center of the dynamometer stele surface.

The instant the blade tip pierced the stele surface, invisible ripples on the stele spread rapidly, and the grey numbers jumped wildly once again.

Surging all the way from zero to seventy, then continuing to rush upwards, passing eighty...

It was still rising!

The gaze of everyone in the audience was locked tightly onto that number.

The number surpassed eighty-one, surpassed eighty-two, and finally stopped steadily at 83!

For a second or two, the playground was so quiet that only the sound of the wind remained.

Then, exclamations and screams louder than any previous time exploded simultaneously.

Fang Zhenyuan stood up abruptly, his teacup knocked over by his sleeve, and tea splashed all over the table, but he did not care to wipe it at all, personally walking around to the computer to check the information of the girl.

"What is her name? Which class is she from? How is her family background? Has she received specialized training?"

He asked Academic Director Sun Zhiguo beside him in rapid succession.

Academic Director Sun Zhiguo frantically flipped through the roster: "Her name is Shen Qinghan, and her parents are both ordinary people. Her father operates a tower crane at a construction site in the east of the city, and her mother works as a cashier in a supermarket. She has no training background whatsoever, and entered the Ghost-Slicing Team Plane with completely zero foundation."

Fang Zhenyuan was silent for a moment, letting out a long breath: "... What a good seedling!"

In the crowd, the expression of Jiang Xiaohong changed.

First he was stunned, his lips pressed into a thin line, and then he pulled out a rather ugly smile.

A classmate next to him patted his shoulder: "It is fine, eighty-one is already very high, you are the runner-up!"

He nodded, but the smile on the corners of his mouth could not look natural no matter what.

Shen Qinghan returned her saber to its scabbard, slightly bowed in a salute towards the podium, and turned to walk back to the queue.

The heated discussion on the playground had completely exploded into a frenzy.

"Eighty-three! That senior sister six years ago only got eighty-seven! Moreover, that senior sister has now become a top-tier powerhouse!"

"This cohort is simply too fierce, one with eighty-one, one with eighty-three, sandwiched with a few in the high seventies in between. The ranking of Qingzhou University in the province is definitely going to advance this year!"

"It is not like I am bragging, but Shen Qinghan is definitely the strongest in Qingzhou University this year; it is impossible for anyone to surpass her. Not to mention Qingzhou, if you add up all the colleges and universities in the entire province, there are not many who can surpass her! With this score of hers, she can even enter the top twenty nationwide!"

"I just checked the records of the Provincial Capital Normal University last year, and their highest score last year was only eighty-two. The score of Shen Qinghan can rank in the top five in the history of our school over the past decade!"

"She looks good-looking and is still so strong, is this not the kind of female protagonist in novels?"

"Comparing people to people drives one to death; we struggle to death to get fifty-something points, while with a single slash from her, it becomes a historical landmark."

On the playground, new trialers were still coming out of the plane gate one after another, but not many people were paying attention to them anymore.

The gaze of everyone was focused on that tall, white figure.

Even the school leaders on the podium were whispering about how to individually schedule a talk with Shen Qinghan and how to strive for more training resources allocated from above.

Only in the corner of the playground, that ash-white plane gate remained motionless...