High Martial Arts: Grinding for the Supreme Talent

Chapter 80: Chapter 80: First in Martial Arts

Lin Qi emerged with a calm expression, betraying no emotion.

”Brother Qi, what’s going on?”

”Why’d you come out so late?” Jiangtao quickly gathered around, full of curiosity.

A corner of Lin Qi’s mouth lifted as he teased,

”You know how it is.”

”You can go ahead and order that barbecue now.”

Jiangtao’s eyes widened as he shook his head forcefully. ”No way. I don’t believe it. Not until the scores are out.”

Not far away, Yu Jing’s face was grim. He could tolerate Li Zhou being stronger than him.

But if Lin Qi was stronger than him too, that would be unacceptable.

’Impossible. He probably just stayed inside to waste time on purpose,’ he thought, finding a reason to console himself.

Not far away, Zhang Cheng was looking down at his tablet. As soon as he saw Lin Qi and Li Zhou emerge at the same time, he immediately started tapping on it.

’This kid, Lin Qi... it can’t be...’

An idea suddenly occurred to Zhang Cheng.

The assessment was over, which meant he could view the results early.

He quickly pulled up the Martial Arts assessment scores for both Lin Qi and Li Zhou.

BEEP!

The tablet lagged for two seconds before the data refreshed.

Seeing Li Zhou’s score, the corner of his mouth turned up. The boy hadn’t disappointed him.

Then he switched over to Lin Qi’s results.

”Hm?”

Zhang Cheng’s pupils contracted the moment he saw Lin Qi’s score, his expression changing dramatically.

’What is this?’

’Lin Qi’s score is higher than Li Zhou’s?’

’Am I seeing things?’

...

Martial Arts Room 503

Lin Qi returned to the room. With over an hour to go until the results were announced, he didn’t want to waste a single moment.

He calmed his mind and resumed his training.

In the assessment, he had narrowly defeated Assessor No. 9. But when faced with Assessor No. 10, he hadn’t been defeated as easily as before.

Instead, using the Rock Gun Skill, he lasted for several rounds.

In the end, he was run through and killed by his opponent’s Killing Technique—the Rock-Bursting Drill!

Lin Qi stared at the Long Spear in his hand. Both Martial Arts assessments were over.

He had a good idea of what his ranking would be in No. 2 Middle School.

Now, all that was left was to wait for the city, provincial, and even national rankings to be released.

...

Meanwhile, back-end systems across the country were furiously compiling scores.

The major Martial Arts Dojos and Education Bureaus were also monitoring the results closely.

An hour and a half later, the rankings were out.

Teachers in every school began receiving the final assessment results, projecting them for their classes to see.

Tianhai City No. 1 Middle School

Guo Heng’s sharp gaze scanned his scores and rank, and a smile spread across his face.

”3rd in my grade, 7th in Celestial Sea City.”

”Aheng, congratulations!” Wu Feng called out from the back row.

”You guys have all improved too,” Guo Heng said with rare modesty, though his mind was elsewhere. ’I wonder how Lin Qi and Jiangtao did?’

A moment later, his gaze shifted to the national rankings, and his expression froze.

’You’ve got to be kidding me. This low?’

...

Tianhai No. 2 Middle School

Everyone had gathered in the classroom.

The air crackled with restless energy. Many students felt their hands and feet grow cold as beads of sweat formed on their skin.

Jiangtao let out a breath and wiped his sweaty palms on his clothes. He couldn’t help but admire Lin Qi’s calm demeanor.

”Alright, everyone!”

Yan Hong and Zhang Cheng walked in through the doorway and up to the podium. The atmosphere in the classroom grew tense.

”The final assessment is officially over, and the scores are in.”

”And this time, there have been some major shifts in the rankings.”

At these words, everyone’s hearts leaped into their throats.

”I’m going to project the results now. You can look for yourselves, and we’ll go over everything afterward.”

Seeing the students’ eager faces, Yan Hong finished speaking and activated the projector.

THUMP-THUMP!!

Accompanied by the sound of violently accelerating heartbeats, the projector hummed to life, and a flood of data appeared on the green light screen.

Everyone’s eyes darted across the screen, searching for their scores like starving wolves hunting for prey.

Lin Qi’s eyes scanned the list, and he spotted his results in an instant:

[Name: Lin Qi]

[Academics: 928 (1)]

[Qi and Blood Value: 991 (5)]

[Martial Arts: 915 (1)]

[Total Score: 955.6]

[Grade Ranking: 9→2]

[Celestial Sea City Ranking: 108→9]

[Cang Province Ranking: 270→20]

[National Ranking: 503]

...

As his eyes swept over all his scores and rankings, Lin Qi let out a breath, a small smile playing on his lips.

’Second in the grade!’

’That’s even better than I expected, one rank higher than I thought.’

He owed his jump to second place to his Martial Arts score.

His Martial Arts score was the highest in all of Tianhai No. 2 Middle School, officially surpassing Li Zhou, the top student in their grade!

Li Zhou’s Martial Arts assessment score was 910, a full five points lower than his.

In addition to the massive jump in his grade ranking, his city ranking saw an even greater leap. He went from 108th place straight into the top ten, climbing 99 spots.

He also shot up 250 places in the provincial rankings.

His jump in the rankings was even more dramatic than before.

This was a huge win for him.

’The A-level Contract is in the bag!’ Lin Qi thought with a smile.

...

His deskmate, Jiangtao, was unusually quiet, his eyes glued to the screen as he searched for his name.

He scanned past third place and quickly glanced over second, thinking he saw a familiar name.

But he was so focused on finding his own score that he didn’t give it a second thought.

When he saw that he was ranked third in the grade, a brilliant smile lit up his face. And when he saw he had broken into 11th place in Celestial Sea City, he couldn’t hold back his grin any longer.

Satisfied with his result, his eyes habitually scanned down the list for Lin Qi’s name.

He’d surpassed Yu Jing, who was in fourth place.

He’d also beaten Qi Yuelin, who was now in fifth.

Sixth place, Zhu Yuqi...

Seventh...

He scanned all the way down to tenth place without seeing Lin Qi’s name. Jiangtao instantly realized something was off and went back to the top of the list.

[Second Place, Lin Qi!]

And his Martial Arts score: 915, first in the grade.

”Holy crap!” Jiangtao yelped.

”Brother Qi!”

He stared at Lin Qi in utter shock, at a complete loss for words.

”Go order that barbecue.”

Lin Qi said calmly, his eyes still on the results.

By now, the entire classroom had erupted into a noisy clamor, filled with all sorts of reactions.

There were shouts of joy and groans of despair as a wave of emotion washed over the students.

”Hey, look! Jiangtao got third in our grade!”

”Whoa, Jiangtao’s so strong! He passed Zhu Yuqi, Qi Yuelin, and Yu Jing all at once.”

”Taking third place in the grade... he’s incredible,” someone exclaimed.

Hearing the praise, Jiangtao felt a secret thrill of satisfaction, but the feeling soured when he remembered that Lin Qi had surpassed him.

”That’s nothing! Look who’s in second place! It’s Lin Qi! He’s even more amazing—he beat Jiangtao, and he’s number one in Martial Arts for our grade, even beating Li Zhou!” Qiu Jie retorted loudly.

The others looked, saw that he was right, and were completely stunned. The entire class’s attention was now drawn to it.

”I thought Jiangtao was impressive enough, passing Zhu Yuqi, Qi Yuelin, and Yu Jing, but then Lin Qi went and surpassed him.”

”Lin Qi’s even more ridiculous! He jumped past seven people! His Martial Arts score is higher than Li Zhou’s now. If his Qi and Blood Value hadn’t held him back, he might have taken first place,” someone lamented.

”The tides have turned. The new top three at our No. 2 Middle School are Li Zhou, Lin Qi, and Jiangtao.”

As Li Zhou listened to the chatter, the joy he’d felt from breaking into the top five in Celestial Sea City mostly vanished.

He couldn’t bring himself to smile. He looked at Lin Qi, his heart filled with astonishment.

’My Martial Arts assessment score is actually lower than Lin Qi’s... How did he manage that?’

’His score is five points higher than mine. Doesn’t that mean he lasted longer against Assessor No. 10?’

’His rate of improvement is just too fast!’

He felt a sense of danger; in the future, he too could be surpassed.

As for Yu Jing, he sat with his head bowed, his face contorted in a ferocious grimace. His hands gripped his chair so tightly that the metal legs began to deform.

’How is this possible? I was surpassed by both Jiangtao and Lin Qi?’

He couldn’t accept this outcome.

Seeing the triumphant looks on Lin Qi and Jiangtao’s faces, his heart felt like it was about to explode.

Not far away, Qi Yuelin blinked hard. Her beautiful, wide eyes were filled with astonishment, making it impossible for her to maintain her usual cold and aloof image.

...