Chapter 160: Mysterious Zhang Yu

Chapter 160: The Enigmatic Zhang Yu

When Zhang Yu finally regained his senses, he found himself standing within a subterranean passage.

“Has the teleportation finished?”

He pressed onward through the tunnel, and soon a solitary figure emerged in his view.

Zhang Yu hurried forward, hoping to see if Bai Zhenzhen had descended with him, only to discover a boy clad in a school uniform.

The boy, hearing the footfalls, turned his head toward Zhang Yu.

Zhang Yu gave a slight nod and greeted, “Hello, are you also here for the exam?”

The boy’s name was Dai Xingzhi; he did not answer immediately, but scrutinized Zhang Yu from head to toe, confirming a single fact.

The other was not a student of Xiandu City.

Dai Xingzhi could ascertain this for two principal reasons.

First, the stranger’s appearance was unfamiliar to him, while he remembered every outstanding, wealthy high‑schooler of Xiandu City with crystal clarity—none matched the man before him.

The second clue lay in the stranger’s accent, manner of speech, attire, and so forth… he was unmistakably an outsider.

As a descendant of ten generations who had lived in Xiandu, Dai regarded the people of Xiandu and those from elsewhere as wholly different, almost as if they were separate species.

In his eyes, the distinction was evident at a single glance.

“An outsider is an outsider; they lack the bearing of a true Xiandu native.”

Upon realizing that Zhang Yu was most likely an outsider, his spine straightened without his even noticing.

For Dai Xingzhi was a staunch advocate of Xiandu supremacy.

Xiandu sat at the heart of the first tier of Kunxu, the gathering place of the strongest, smartest, and wealthiest of that level; its Upper City could even be called Kunxu 1.5.

“In theory, I’m not even a resident of Kunxu’s first tier; I belong to the 1.5 tier,” he mused.

As for the other cities on the first tier? In Dai’s mind they were nothing more than backwater hamlets.

Looking at Zhang Yu, Dai thought inwardly, “Damned outsider, daring to snatch our foundation‑building certificates in Xiandu?”

After casting a quick glance at Zhang Yu, Dai said nothing, turned, and strode away. He hurried onward for a while, then soon spied another figure’s silhouette.

“Ye Lingxiao…”

The name rang like thunder to Dai, for the prodigy recently obsessed with the Red‑Envelope Talisman hailed from the inner second ring of the Upper District.

In Dai’s understanding, Xiandu was the very core of Kunxu’s first tier.

The floating city above Xiandu, forever called the Upper District, was the center of the center.

Within that Upper District, ten concentric rings stretched from the outskirts inward; the second ring lay at the very heart of the heart.

Born in the second ring, Ye Lingxiao came from one of Xiandu City’s wealthiest families.

According to Dai, those of the second ring only befriend, marry, and beget offspring with fellow second‑ringers; some never even descend to lower levels.

Upon seeing Ye Lingxiao, Dai’s freshly straightened spine bowed once more, and he said ingratiatingly, “Lingxiao, greetings.”

“Do you remember me? I’m Dai Xingzhi, from the same school as you, my family resides in the northern Sixth Ring.”

He added, “Inside the Sixth Ring, not outside of it.”

Ye Lingxiao nodded without lifting his head, returning his full attention to practicing the Red‑Envelope Talisman.

After the previous Dao‑Heart test, his curiosity about the Red‑Envelope and Favor talismans deepened, and he was ninety percent certain they concealed extraordinary benefits.

Yet, because the secrets were so vast, no one dared to speak of them; he could only study them in solitude.

At that moment a shout rang out, “Hey! Why are you scattering Red‑Envelope talismans again?”

Zhang Yu dodged the talismans on the ground while hurrying after the voice, retorting with irritation, “You’re carelessly tossing filthy things around—doesn’t that endanger public safety?”

Ye Lingxiao glanced at Zhang Yu, surprised that the outsider had not been eliminated in the last test.

He replied coolly, “No one picks up the Red‑Envelope talismans; after a while they vanish. And if you don’t want the money inside, just return it immediately…”

While the two conversed, Zhang Yu followed them into an underground hall.

From a distance, the examiners—Deng Bingding and others—stood at the center of the hall, surrounded by a dozen contestants who had arrived early.

At that moment the contestants seemed to be negotiating something with the examiners.

One student called out, “Examiner, please announce the rankings from the last test.”

Another added, “Yes, why would a test hide its rankings?”

A voice shouted in support, “If there’s no ranking, is it even a test? Can it be called a proper exam?”

Zhang Yu understood after a few remarks: a group of Xiandu elites were demanding the previous round’s rankings be made public.

Moreover, from their demeanor and the information they leaked, it appeared that in Xiandu, any school that failed to publish rankings after an exam would be deemed scandalous, with teachers and institutions liable to be reported.

“Damned rank‑obsessed crowd…” Zhang Yu thought, “No matter where Kunxu spreads, these ranking‑fanatics never cease, caring not a whit for the candidates’ privacy.”

At that instant, Bai Zhenzhen walked up beside Zhang Yu, curiosity bright in her voice, “What’s all that noise up ahead?”

Zhang Yu sneered, “A bunch of score‑worshippers clamoring for the last test’s rankings.”

Bai recalled her own performance in the previous test, “Hmm, the strongest Xiandu elites opened the door in half a second; I took just under three seconds, so I must have ranked low.”

Realizing her Dao‑Heart test was likely no better than theirs, she sighed, “It was only a pre‑exam trial; these people place far too much value on a hollow reputation.”

Zhang Yu agreed, “True cultivation cannot be measured by fleeting scores or rankings.”

Hearing this, Ye Lingxiao, a staunch supporter of ranking‑based assessment, felt he could not remain silent.

Just as he opened his mouth, Dai Xingzhi could no longer hold back, “You two outsiders spout nonsense! Scores are everything! Rankings determine whether a person may continue on the path of cultivation!”

“If a person cares only for scores and ignores rankings… what’s the difference from one’s birthright?”

Though Ye Lingxiao said nothing, his frequent nods made it clear he fully endorsed the statement.

Dai glanced at Zhang Yu and Bai Zhenzhen, yet a thought lingered unspoken in his mind.

He thought inwardly, “Hmph, only those who know they’re lagging in the rankings fear the rankings.”

In his view, the two outsiders could never match the local Xiandu prodigies; they were surely the ones at the bottom of the ladder.

“I’ve seen plenty of undisciplined outsiders like you; if you could claim first and second place, you’d be desperate to see the rankings published.”

At that moment, faced with the students’ clamorous demand, the examiner at the forefront, Deng Bingding, spoke, “I understand your eagerness to know the rankings; there’s no rule here forbidding us from revealing last time’s results.”

“We simply felt the data held little reference value, so we hadn’t planned to disclose it.”

“Now that everyone wishes to see it, I shall present the rankings.”

The previous round comprised two stages.

The first was pushing open a massive metal door; the second was the Dao‑Heart test.

Yet the scores from the metal‑door stage attracted little interest from the assembled students, who glanced at them and set them aside.

After all, that stage required little skill, serving merely to weed out under‑powered first‑year students, and many participants did not exert full effort.

In contrast, the Dao‑Heart test, beyond displaying willpower, also reflected a contestant’s worth, and it was the metric that all the students cared about most.

Consequently, everyone fixated on the rankings of that test.

First place, contestant 55, valuation unknown

Second place, number 23, valuation 5.5 billion.

Third place, number 11, valuation 5.0 billion.

……

Gazing at the rankings above, the crowd fell silent at once, each person quietly seeking his own number, confirming his standing in the hall as one would locate a seat in a theater.

Having verified his own rank and gauged his approximate level in this examination, the next natural step was to check the ranks of others.

Usually one first looks for a friend, or perhaps the person one despises.

For Dai Xingzhi, however, the first names he confirmed were those of the top three.

Among the throng, identifying who held the highest score and the deepest pockets was a habit of his, and one of the Dai family’s ancestral precepts.

At the same time, Dai Xingzhi recalled the content of the last Dao‑Heart test.

“This valuation—does it refer to how much temptation of value one can ultimately resist?”

“Then those who rank higher in this list are not only steadfast in Dao‑Heart, they are also indisputably wealthy.”

“Number 11 is Yun Jing, third place, valuation five hundred million, right?”

Dai Xingzhi turned his gaze toward the boy surrounded by several students of Xianyun High.

What caught everyone's eye was the pair of eyes that glittered like stars; Dai knew those were Fa Hai’s.

“Yun Jing… has been dubbed by Ziyun Pharmaceuticals as ‘the strongest high‑schooler on the first floor of Kunxu.’”

Dai had heard that a month ago, beyond his magical power, Yun Jing’s Dao‑Heart and physical strength had already reached the limit of Qi cultivation.

“Alas, among the four Foundation‑Building certificates this time, one should belong to Yun Jing.”

Beside him, Ye Lingxiao cast a glance at Yun Jing, recalling how the latter had once picked up his own red‑packet talisman without a scratch.

Dai Xingzhi thought inwardly: “Second place, number 23, is my companion Ye Lingxiao, valuation 5.5 billion. Did he hold out for a 5.5 billion price in the illusion? No wonder he’s a Tier‑2 rich man.”

“His various metrics must have hit the Qi‑cultivation ceiling two or three months ago, after all, Oasis Group praised him as the most perfect physique and bloodline among contemporary high‑schoolers.”

“One of the four Foundation‑Building certificates should be his as well.”

But when his eyes fell upon the number 55 occupying first place, Dai Xingzhi looked around and could find no one, and his confusion deepened: “Is there someone even stronger and richer than Yun Jing and Ye Lingxiao in this Foundation exam

(End of chapter)