Chapter 162: Strongest High School Student

Chapter 162: The Strongest High School Student

In the examination hall at this moment, the four‑directional wandering deity Deng Bingding holds the center, while lesser deities such as Huang Zichou drift through the aisles, watching each examinee and upholding the hall’s discipline.

Beyond the columnar figures projected on the front screen, they also monitor the magical‑energy detection data of each contestant.

Through the detection patches affixed to the candidates, they can constantly perceive the flow of mana through every limb, plainly discerning each student’s command of surrounding energy and whether any cheating occurs.

Yet… although the high deities appear expressionless, uttering not a word nor a phrase, their minds swirl with countless thoughts, still multitasking on myriad matters.

For the eight‑division high deities, juggling side‑tasks, overtime, remote work is as commonplace as breathing.

And aside from their many‑handed labors, social interaction is an indispensable part of a god’s existence.

Unlike mortals who must rely on phones and the internet to stay in touch, the eight‑division deities are perpetually linked to the network by thought, never lacking connection, never hindered by missed messages or inconvenient communication.

Thus, even now, while surveilling the exam hall, the thoughts of the assembled deities ripple through the network, constantly exchanging information about the proceedings.

Deng Bingding said, “…This is the first foundation‑building test on the first tier of Kunxu since the reform, everyone hold your posts, guard this responsibility, and when the exam ends I shall claim merit on your behalf.”

Huang Zichou was the first to reply, “Lord Deng, your words are apt; with you steering the whole affair again we feel at ease.”

While the deities on the scene converse, Deng Bingding also receives private messages from the lesser deities one by one.

‘Alas, it’s all affection tokens—these high‑deity formalities…’

But when she saw that Huang Zichou’s amount this time was twenty thousand, Deng Bingding couldn’t help glancing at him; seeing him return the gaze, she smiled and gave a nod.

‘Lord Deng is smiling at me?’ Huang Zichou thought with quiet delight, ‘So the previous affection token was the wrong amount, was it?’

Huang Zichou silently logged that sum in his mind, thinking, ‘Among us divine acquaintances, money is paramount.’

‘They say you must send money before discussing business; I haven’t yet decided what I’ll ask for, but the money can be sent first…’

At the same time, a lesser deity remarked, “Yun Jing and Ye Lingxiao truly ride the wind as one.”

“From the mana‑monitoring data, the flow in both bodies surges like the mighty Yangtze, endless and powerful; their control and eruption of energy are indeed the strongest present.”

Another deity added, “The investments each of them holds could already sustain all the students of several high schools.”

“In terms of strength, they have long outgrown the ordinary cultivation stage; the only question is which of the two will prove to be the true strongest high‑schooler on Kunxu’s first tier.”

……

In the examination hall.

With each breath, Yun Jing felt a torrent of mana surge through his body, flowing continuously from his arms into the detection patch on his palm.

Seeing Ye Lingxiao’s column on the screen matching his own, Yun Jing shouted inwardly, “Mana! Rise faster!”

Under his frantic extraction, the internal mana battered his meridians like a flood, heedless of possible bodily harm, striking, striking, and striking again!

Because every meridian in Yun Jing’s body had once been harvested, divided into three hundred distinct project schemes, each assigned to dozens of university graduates for repeated cultivation and tempering, enabling them to endure the extreme mana flow of the cultivation stage for long periods.

One could say each of his meridians consumed months of toil from a graduate.

The total workload of all his meridians amounts to tens of thousands of man‑days, equivalent to two or three decades of ordinary cultivation.

Beyond the meridians, the bulk of Yun Jing’s training was likewise partitioned into project after project, each executed by a distinguished university graduate under the precise planning of his clan.

“Warm‑up is nearly complete.”

Feeling the mana within swell ever more violently, Yun Jing lowly bellowed, “Second dantian, open for me!”

Besides the lower dantian, a sea of qi suddenly ignited at his chest, instantly doubling the flow of mana, like roaring dragons surging outward.

On the screen, the column representing Yun Jing surged dramatically, instantly pulling ahead of everyone and seizing the first place.

Ye Lingxiao, watching this, showed no change of expression, not a hint of panic on his face.

He thought inwardly, “What a nuisance, it’s not even the final round; shouldn’t I conserve some strength?”

Ye Lingxiao knew that, in theory, holding second place now would already guarantee passage, so there was no need to expend extra effort or expose his power to snatch first.

But…

“First place.”

For Ye Lingxiao, who has never known anything but perfect scores and the top rank since childhood, taking first is as natural as eating and drinking—it has become a habit.

To inherit the flawless bloodline of the Night clan of Xiandu, he never had a mother; from the embryonic stage he dwelt within a celestial womb, nurtured by the Way of Immortals.

When he first opened his eyes, his meridians were already twice the width of a mortal’s; now they exceed ten times the average high‑schooler’s.

His neural richness surpasses that of ordinary people by a hundredfold, and his entire nervous system is innately capable of gathering mana.

Techniques that other students must labor to master were already within his grasp upon entering the first year of high school.

Any cultivation method he glanced at he could master instantly; each month he spent millions to purchase the rights to use such methods.

The cultivation stage posed no difficulty for him at all.

Many say he is no longer of the same species as mortals; he is the true blood of the Immortal Path.

Ye Lingxiao paid this no mind.

Yet there is one thing he has grown accustomed to.

That the top spot belongs to him, forever.

Million‑level expert martial art, Thunder‑Strike Celestial‑Force—Level‑10 thrust!

With a usage fee exceeding a million and touted as near‑military grade, the Thunder‑Strike Celestial‑Force, once unleashed, summoned a roar of thunder.

At that moment, Ye Lingxiao seemed to become a thunder god, his body awash with electric light, each strand of mana transmuted into lightning.

But these threads of lightning, under his command, moved like an arm’s gesture; they damaged neither the surroundings nor the detection devices, instead shooting out like precise bolts, coursing through his arm and palm, finally striking the detection patch. At the same time, the column on the screen that had been shrinking under Yun Jing’s influence suddenly expanded again, racing toward the first place.

“Hmph.” Yun Jing observed the shifting bar graph, a cold snort escaping his throat, “Want to catch up? Then try it, and let us see which of us truly is the strongest high‑schooler on Kunxu now.”

As their fierce rivalry stirred the arena, the students trailing behind them each summoned every ounce of mana, battling for the subsequent ranks, making the whole examination ever more intense.

……

Huang Zichou surveyed the rankings on the screen, noting the dozen or so contestants hot on the heels of Yun Jing and Ye Lingxiao, and analyzed, “The rear students are all neck‑and‑neck.”

Another deity remarked, “After all, they are all from Xiandu; the top‑tier high‑schoolers of Kunxu’s first tier— even those beyond the top ten wield over ninety units of mana.”

While the lesser deities debated, Deng Bingding turned her gaze to the scores of numbers 55, 56, and 31— Zhang Yu, Bai Zhenzhen, and Yu Xinghan from Songyang.

Since the last Dao‑Heart test, Deng Bingding had kept an eye on those three Songyang scholars, later perusing their dossiers.

Now, as she watched their performance, information about them flashed through her mind.

“Number 31, Yu Xinghan, is a Golden‑Core disciple; though his mana has not yet reached ninety and lags behind the front dozen, his control is sound, and with this burst he can rank seventeenth.”

Yu Xinghan’s third eye in his mind was now fully opened, constantly urging his internal mana, yet no matter how he cultivated, he found himself stuck at seventeenth place.

“The sixteen ahead are accelerating; catching them is too hard, and that’s only sixteen…”

Recalling the countless bouts of palm‑force and fist‑force he honed under Master Xinghuo’s direct guidance, he now exhausted himself only to remain seventeenth, Yu Xinghan could not help but smile wryly.

“Sharing the same patron as Zhang Yu, could these two destitutes also be drawn into the higher circles?”

Deng Bingding dared not dwell further, telling himself to pretend ignorance, treating the two as ordinary examinees.

Regaining his composure and gazing at the magical energy readings within Bai Zhenzhen, Deng seemed to see her power surge like successive ocean waves, endlessly surging outward, erupting in a torrent through her meridians.

Expert-level breath‑control technique—Storm‑Rising Nine Turns, Level‑10 propulsion!

This masterful breath art prizes perpetual vitality; after nine turns of magical flow it can draw in even more power, a discipline whose efficacy grows the longer one practices.

Yet, after Bai Zhenzhen’s true spirit root refined it, the Level‑10 effect of the Storm‑Rising Nine Turns gained an extra layer: during each turn the velocity of the magic accelerated, wave after wave, becoming ever more ferocious.

At this moment, harnessing the technique and its refinement, Bai Zhenzhen strained to hold the nineteenth position.

But after the ninth turn, the speed began to brush past her limits; she felt like a lone skiff tossed amid raging seas, ever at risk of being capsized by the runaway power.

Yet the greater the peril, the more the Cold‑Soul Ice‑Heart Technique sharpened her mind, deepening her grasp of the flowing magic.

In that instant her thoughts were singular, scarcely a whisper of awareness of the world beyond, as she poured all her will into the Storm‑Rising Nine Turns teetering on the brink of chaos.

Deng Bingding, watching the data streaming from Bai’s body, thought to himself, “If the magic runs wild, a loss of control means grievous injury—yet she’s a student who loves to gamble.”

He was no longer surprised by this.

After all, for a student of Kunxu to go without loans, injuries, or illness would be a miracle.

Which top scholar has not arrived at this point through countless daring exploits?

Finally, Deng turned his gaze toward Zhang Yu.

“Twenty‑first place?” he muttered inwardly, “Did he not even crack the top twenty?”

…

Zhang Yu, frantically channeling his magic, felt the same astonishment—astonished that he had not even broken into the top twenty.

Although today’s test eliminated those ranked beyond the twentieth overall, being outside the top twenty in the magical exam did not automatically mean elimination.

Yet clearly, a placement beyond twentieth was a decidedly unfavorable result.

“Truly formidable, the high‑schoolers of Xiandu…”

Zhang Yu recalled that after he had cultivated the Zhou Tian Breath‑Gathering Method to the tenth level, his command of magic had become exceedingly potent.

Later, when he also raised the Boundless Cloud Hand to the tenth tier, he believed his magical control could rival that of senior high students.

Yet, as he surveyed his ranking at that moment, Zhang Yu suddenly realized something.

His mastery of magic… had stagnated far too long.

“After all, most of my energy these past months has been devoted to body‑refinement.”

“Indeed, my magical control sits at a senior‑high level.”

“But merely senior‑high level control, lacking a rapid surge, is insufficient to break into the top twenty in this trial…”

Pressure and crisis crashed upon him, and Zhang Yu sensed a wounded bull bellowing skyward in his mind, exuding boundless fighting spirit.

“Heh… pressure and desperation, you say?”

“It’s still not enough.”

(End of Chapter)