Chapter 71: Pressed Under

The rewards from the Education Department were undoubtedly a godsend for Li Xiaofei. He had run out of Starforce Reagents, and the ones awarded by the Education Department were of the fourth-generation purity, which were precisely the kind he needed. This level of professionalism in the official rewards was truly commendable, since each reward seemed highly targeted.

"Hello, senior."

"Senior, you're my idol."

"Senior, can we go on a date after school?"

"I know a great beast fighting arena..."

Students across campus greeted Li Xiaofei with respect. Some bold female students even extended date invitations. After all, who wouldn't be attracted to someone so handsome, strong, and prominent? Li Xiaofei responded gracefully, smiling at each greeting.

He followed the schedule arranged by Chen Fei the entire morning, catching up on various basic subjects such as language, history, biology, and physics. At noon, Li Xiaofei had lunch in the school cafeteria. The first class in the afternoon was a martial arts practical training session for the school battle team.

Grandpa Qin Dewei then transformed into Invincible Qin, the special teacher. The routine started with checking everyone's cultivation progress, followed by guidance on their techniques and battle moves. This time, Li Xiaofei received personal instruction from Invincible Qin, focusing mainly on the Wind and Thunder Breathing Technique.

Li Xiaofei had thought that his mastery of the Wind and Thunder Breathing Technique was already perfect. However, under Invincible Qin's guidance, he experienced a sudden enlightenment. Many subtleties he had never realized before were revealed one by one.

"Do not underestimate the Wind and Thunder Breathing Technique," Invincible Qin said sternly. "It is the best foundational technique prepared by the school for you at the Qi Refining Realm. It lays the most solid foundation, and you will understand its benefits when you aim to break through to the Limit Breaking Realm."

These words were directed at Li Xiaofei, but also at Fang Buyi, Bai Longfei, Bai Qiqi, Ren Dong, and the others. Li Xiaofei finally realized how wonderful it was to have a master guiding his cultivation. During the class, Li Xiaofei made tremendous progress in his understanding of the breathing technique.

After class, Li Xiaofei took a short break. Then it was time for the daily routine of climbing the ranks in the light core virtual world rankings. Li Xiaofei logged into the light-network, entered the virtual world, and as usual, browsed the leaderboard forum.

𝚏𝕣𝐞𝗲𝐰𝕖𝐛𝐧𝕠𝕧𝚎𝚕.𝐜𝚘𝗺

As expected, discussion threads about the performance of prestigious schools in the first round of the War God League dominated over 80 percent of the daily new posts. There was also a significant amount of discussion about him.

One of the hottest threads, pinned by the official site, was titled

The Strongest Rising Star

. It had over a billion views and more than three hundred thousand replies, making it a recent high-quality post on the forum. The one that posted it was an old acquaintance—Little White Dragon in the Waves.

Li Xiaofei clicked in and took a quick look. Sure enough, it discussed the ranking of the most surprising dark horses in the first round of Season 251. The top of the list was dominated by his name.

"Heh, this Little White Dragon has quite an eye," Li Xiaofei praised.

He glanced at the names ranked behind him. Second was Tsukiha Yaiba. Third was Gu Haochen. Fourth was Mizutani Hikaru.

"Hmm?" Li Xiaofei was taken aback.

What was going on? How did those two Jiepeng girls end up participating in the league? The Jiepeng medical exchange team was supposed to be temporary, so how did these two girls, who came with the team, manage to qualify for the league? Have they become exchange students?

The Jiepeng Empire had been vigorously promoting new martial arts, and its national power was on the rise. Many genius students from Jiepeng preferred to go to North America or Europe for exchange studies because those places were considered havens of new martial arts. Yet these two Jiepeng girls had come to a remote and relatively low-tier base city like Liuhe in Great Xia for an exchange program.

Are they out of their minds, or is there another motive?

Li Xiaofei learned from the post that these two Jiepeng girls were now attending Quanye High School and had joined the school's battle team. As a result, Quanye High School had skyrocketed to fifth place in the recently concluded first round of the league, trailing only behind Duxing, Lanling, Qishen, and Red Flag High School.

In terms of individual performance, Tsukiha Yaiba had also achieved a pentakill, but it was in a team battle, which was slightly less impressive compared to Li Xiaofei's one-versus-five pentakill. Hence, she was ranked behind Li Xiaofei.

Mizutani Hikaru was ranked fourth on the individual leaderboard. The third spot was held by Gu Haochen from Hongye High School. Li Xiaofei noticed that Gu Haochen was only a first-year student who had just joined Hongye High School this semester.

He had secured one quadra kill and two triple kills in three team battles in the league matches between Hongye High School and Mushroom Street High School, which ranked fifteenth last season. The newcomer’s performance was indeed impressive. If not for the two pentakills above him, he would have been the biggest dark horse of this round.

"What a young swordsman!" Li Xiaofei couldn't help but praise him after watching the video. Gu Haochen's swordsmanship was extraordinary and almost supernatural. No wonder many forum users called Gu Haochen, the Little Sword Immortal.

Li Xiaofei glanced at his own nickname...

"Who the hell gave me the nickname Fist King? It sounds so crude, like a bandit..." Li Xiaofei felt a bit envious of others' nicknames.

"If I practiced swordsmanship, I would definitely be stronger than him."

He could only comfort himself with this kind of self-assurance.

The dark horse rankings also featured other newly emerged talents in the season, such as Mu Feixue from Municipal Government Affiliated First High School, Yan Chu from Qishen Academy, and Xie Zhiren from Petroleum First High School. Of course, these were merely dark horses.

Many well-known geniuses, such as Zhou Yunong from Nanshan High School, Ye Keran from Duxing High School, and Du Ziteng from Qishen Academy, continued to shine brightly in this round. These seasoned veterans didn't exert their full strength in the first round but took a more measured approach. After all, the season lasted a full year. The one who had the last laugh would be the true king.

After skimming through the forum, Li Xiaofei entered the trials to continue improving his rank. After the first round of the league, Li Xiaofei had become increasingly aware of the benefits of the trials for enhancing his combat skills. It was the perfect place to accumulate battle experience.

Four hours later, he cleared the tenth-level trial, the Hellfire Arena. He still held the top spot on the ranking points leaderboard with an astonishing 98,000 points, making it a daunting challenge for any pursuers.

***

"This Your Grandpa must be cheating, right?"

In the embassy district, within a heavily guarded standalone villa, Mizutani Hikaru leaped out of the light core mainframe, feeling frustrated. "I scored 24,000 points in an afternoon, yet he still crushed me."

On the other side, Tsukiha Yaiba was calmly wiping her katana. This genius from the Jiepeng Empire became more serious at her friend's anger.

"Don't let the leaderboard blind your eyes and heart. The ranking points are designed to encourage students to train in the trials, but the purpose of training in those trials is not to chase points but to increase combat experience and improve practical fighting skills," she said slowly.

"But it's so annoying to be constantly outdone by a Great Xia person," Mizutani Hikaru huffed.

Tsukiha Yaiba replied calmly, "It's just a leaderboard; it doesn't mean much. Great Xia people can only find some sense of honor in trivial matters. The decline of Great Xia's national power is an undeniable fact. Why bother with minor gains and losses for now?"

Mizutani Hikaru rubbed her chest and said, "But wouldn't it be great to knock Your Grandpa off the top spot?"

Tsukiha Yaiba sighed and replied, "I suspect Your Grandpa has mastered some technique to quickly clear trials by using body movements to maximize points. His actual combat ability might not be as strong. Otherwise, why didn't he shine in the first round of the league?"

"That's true," replied Mizutani Hikaru, nodding thoughtfully.

She had already instructed her retainers to carefully analyze and compare the combat styles and data of all the high school students from the first round of the league. There were only a few students who excelled in body movements similar to Your Grandpa, but none were as impressive. Their performances in the league were also quite average.

"Points on the leaderboard don't mean much," Tsukiha Yaiba continued. "On the other hand, Red Flag High School's Fist King Li Xiaofei and Hongye High School's Little Sword Immortal Gu Haochen are worth watching out for, especially the former... I have a feeling that he is very dangerous."

"Dangerous?" Mizutani Hikaru was surprised. It was the first time she heard such an assessment from Tsukiha Yaiba.

"Yes, very dangerous," Tsukiha Yaiba reiterated. "His skills and presence on the battlefield suggest he has a lot more potential than what we've seen so far. We need to be cautious around him."