Chapter 86: Ranking by Results

As the seven boys walked along, Yu Zhongge suddenly said, "Everyone, I have a proposal."

"What is it?"

"Over our five years at the academy, we can spar with one another all we want, and we'll establish a ranking among ourselves based on win rate to determine a boss. If the boss loses a sparring match, they'll be demoted, and the victor will be the new boss. Whatever order we're in by the end of our time at the academy will be our final ranking. What do we all think?"

Mo Ganyun, Jing Shuanggao, and Qiu Yunshang's eyes lit up in unison at the idea, and they immediately expressed their approval, as did Xie Gongping.

"That's a good idea," Fang Che said with a smile.

Ding Jieran remained silent, but with six of the seven already in approval, his opinion hardly mattered, so everyone collectively ignored him.

"It's decided then!" Yu Zhongge declared.

Ding Jieran: "???"

Fang Che was watching this group of boisterous young men with a faint smile on his face.

The seven of them were the top seven prodigies of their cohort, and barring any mishaps, all of them had bright futures ahead.

Perhaps there would be other students outside of this group that would experience meteoric rises after reaching the Great Grandmaster tier, but even then, it was very likely these seven would remain on top.

At the very least, Mo Ganyun, Qiu Yunshang, Jing Shuanggao, and Yu Zhongge weren't going to be overtaken by anyone, given the vast abundance of cultivation resources at their disposal.

If one of these four were to establish themselves as the boss of the group, then that would be mutually beneficial to everyone, with the boss of the group gaining a whole host of powerful allies with limitless potential, while the less affluent members of the group would receive access to cultivation resources that would otherwise be unavailable to them.

Hence, the real reason why Yu Zhongge had made this proposal was because he wanted to establish a band of brothers for himself, and Mo Ganyun, Qiu Yunshang, and Jing Shuanggao also had the same idea.

The three of them had immediately realized Yu Zhongge's intentions as soon as he raised the proposal, but that didn't matter as at its core, it was a good idea, and the one to suggest it wasn't necessarily going to be the one to come out on top.

At the moment, no one knew who the final boss at the end of the five years was going to be.

Furthermore, it was very important that Yu Zhongge was the one who had raised this proposal. He came from the most powerful clan of everyone here, so he was the one most entitled to making such a suggestion.

If it had been Ding Jieran, Xie Gongping, or Fang Che that had raised the idea instead, then it would've been rejected by Yu Zhongge and the others, and the one that made the proposal would be quickly ostracized from the group as such a move would indicate that they were eager to take advantage of the resources of the group's more affluent members.

Even at such a young age, the foresight and guile displayed by these prodigies from powerful clans far surpassed that of their less privileged counterparts.

The only ones that couldn't rise to the fore in this group were Fang Che, Ding Jieran, and Xie Gongping.

Their backgrounds were simply too humble, and no matter how extraordinarily brilliant they were, there was no way that the clans of the other four would allow them to serve as lackeys to someone from an eighth or ninth-tier clan.

It was unclear what Xie Gongping was thinking for now, but given that he was from an eighth-tier clan, all he had to do was serve as a good brother to everyone in the group, and the Xie Clan would be sure to benefit immensely.

As for Ding Jieran, he was clearly harboring some secrets, and he may not mesh with the rest of the group. Perhaps he would be kicked out, perhaps he'll withdraw of his own volition, or perhaps fate had other plans for him.

Hence, everyone had their own thoughts and ideas in response to Yu Zhongge's proposal.

It seemed like only a spur-of-the-moment agreement between a group of friends, but beneath everyone's bright and earnest smiles, it was impossible to tell exactly what they were thinking.

In any case, Fang Che had no qualms about claiming his rightful position as the figurehead of the group for now. At the moment, no one in this group was a match for him, and as for what the future had in store, that was not something for Fang Che to consider in the present.

***

As the seven friends made their way toward the drill grounds, the trio of Wu Zhibing, Jun Hefang, and Hua Kaixie just so happened to have also been headed to the same destination.

Witnessing the likes of Ning Xuejian in action a few days ago had lit a fire under them, inspiring them to cultivate like madmen.

Furthermore, the World Academy Tournament was about to commence soon, and they were eager to put on a good showing.

"What are your cultivation bases right now?" Wu Zhibing asked.

"What's yours, Boss?" Jun Hefang asked.

"I just made a breakthrough to the Emperor recently, and I feel like there's a very good chance I'll be able to make some further progress before the tournament begins," Wu Zhibing replied.

"I'm at the pinnacle of the King tier right now, and I feel ready for a breakthrough," Jun Hefang said.

Hua Kaixie's brows were slightly furrowed as he said, "I'm also at the pinnacle of the King tier, but I still don't feel close to a breakthrough yet."

"In that case, you need to pick up the pace a little," Wu Zhibing said. "I'll go a bit harder on you in our sparring matches today. Hopefully, the added pressure can help break you out of your rut."

Hua Kaixie nodded eagerly in response.

"There's only less than a year left until we graduate. I wanted to graduate as a Sovereign, but it seems my chances are quite slim," Wu Zhibing sighed.

"You're way too ambitious, Boss! There's never been a Sovereign tier graduate in the history of our academy!" Jun Hefang exclaimed. "The current record is the third-rank Emperor tier, and you should have no problems breaking that record."

"But Celestial Being Academy's record is the eighth-rank Emperor tier!"

Both Jun Hefang and Hua Kaixie fell silent at this sobering statement.

"Have you forgotten the defeats we've suffered at the hands of Celestial Being Academy these past three years? From now on, all three of us have to cultivate like our lives depend on it! We have to redeem ourselves this time no matter what!"

Solemn looks of determination instantly appeared in Jun Hefang and Hua Kaixie's eyes upon hearing this.

The humiliation of the defeats they had been dealt by Celestial Being Academy was constantly on their minds, and redemption against the rival academy was their foremost short-term objective.

Upon arriving at the drill grounds, the trio discovered that there were already a battle taking place there.

"Are those first-year students?"

"It looks like it."

"This year's first-years are very impressive!" Wu Zhibing said as he observed the ongoing battles with keen focus. "The school year only started not long ago, and there are already second and third-rank Lesser Grandmasters among them."

"That's not overly impressive. We were roughly on par with them at the same point, weren't we?"

Intrigued, the three of them decided to sit down and spectate.

One of the missions for the older students was to secretly accompany their younger counterparts on their missions and protect them from the shadows.

Hence, it was in their best interests to assess the strength of the top first-year prodigies.

At the moment, Jing Shuanggao and Xie Gongping were the ones locked in battle, and aside from using their weapons, they were pulling out all the stops.

Their cultivation bases were similar, but there was a drastic disparity in the quality of their battle techniques, and that disparity was beginning to show at the Lesser Grandmaster tier.

Many of the battle techniques that were readily available in major clans were completely unattainable to those from eighth and ninth-tier clans.

Unsurprisingly, Xie Gongping was defeated.

The next pair of combatants were Ding Jieran and Yu Zhongge. Ding Jieran emerged victorious, but judging from the reactions of the two, one could easily be forgiven for thinking that the opposite outcome had arisen.

Ding Jieran had come out on top thanks to his superior cultivation base, but it was clear to everyone that once Yu Zhongge caught up to him in cultivation base, the outcome would surely be reversed.

At his current cultivation base, Yu Zhongge was barely even able to use some of his more advanced battle techniques, but as he progressed in his cultivation, his combat prowess would rapidly improve thanks to these advanced techniques.

He was like a small fish in a big tank with plenty of room for growth, while Ding Jieran may have the larger fish of the two for now, but his tank afforded him far less room for growth.

Essentially, Yu Zhongge was nowhere near his ceiling, while Ding Jieran was already worryingly close. Hence, even though the former had suffered a defeat, he was still all smiles, while Ding Jieran was looking very concerned despite his victory.

After that came Mo Ganyun and Qiu Yunshang. The two of them had been itching to battle one another for a long time, and they threw themselves at one another with relish.

Both of them came from fourth-tier clans, and that served as another point of competition for them.

Unfortunately for Qiu Yunshang, Mo Ganyun was the far superior one of the two when it came to taking hits.

He was like a piece of metal that was hammered repeatedly by Fang Che every single day, and as a result, Qiu Yunshang's blows were simply not enough to faze him.

Mo Ganyun withstood Qiu Yunshang's attacks like a brick wall, then unleashed a barbaric counterattack that quickly earned him the victory.

From there, the battles continued.

In sequential order, Fang Che faced Yu Zhongge, Ding Jieran, Xie Gongping, Qiu Yunshang, and Mo Ganyun, all of whom proved to be no match for him.