Ranking Test

The next day arrived quickly.

Song Qian stood at the podium and stuffed slips of paper bearing the names of the twelve students in the advanced class into a sealed box.

After shaking it, she drew out two slips. "I will now announce the two students participating in the first test."

Slowly unfolding the slips in her hand, Song Qian smiled. "Lu Su versus Lin Yue."

Lu Su raised his brows slightly upon hearing his name. He had not expected to be first up.

The teachers and students of the advanced class made their way to Shanghai City No. 1 High School's specially constructed battle arena.

Lin Yue stood on one side of the arena, facing Lu Su from afar. "Lu Su, please go easy on me."

As he spoke, a figure with a bull's head and a human body, wielding a steel blade, appeared before him.

"Bull Head?" Lu Su looked at Lin Yue's card in surprise, but immediately dismissed the guess. "If it were the Soul Reaper Bull Head, it shouldn't possibly be only Black Iron grade Blue quality."

That left only two possibilities. One, it was merely a simple bull-headed humanoid monster. Two, it was an incomplete version of Bull Head created because the story was not sufficiently fleshed out and the materials were not high-grade enough.

But Lu Su was more inclined toward the first possibility.

Creature cards created from self-written stories and possessing low quality generally had no special abilities.

Tsugikuni Yoriichi instantly appeared in front of Lu Su.

"I'll leave it to you, Yoriichi."

Tsugikuni Yoriichi nodded lightly at his words.

Come to think of it, Lu Su had never known whether Tsugikuni Yoriichi did not want to speak or simply could not speak.

Jiang Nanxi and Du Heng, standing beside the arena, immediately narrowed their eyes when they saw Tsugikuni Yoriichi.

This was their first time seeing Lu Su's card.

In the arena, Tsugikuni Yoriichi took a deep breath and charged at the Minotaur with astonishing speed.

The distance between them rapidly closed.

Perhaps because of the card's quality, or perhaps because monsters were not particularly intelligent.

The Minotaur only barely reacted when Tsugikuni Yoriichi had already reached it.

Clang!

The two blades collided, crimson sparks flashing in the eyes of the teachers and students watching from the sidelines.

But in the next instant, a cry of alarm came from Lin Yue.

Before his eyes, Tsugikuni Yoriichi had deliberately abandoned the blade lock. He sidestepped and retreated half a step, then took advantage of the instant when the Minotaur staggered from losing the contest of strength to duck low and slip to its side.

A blade wreathed in flames swept across the Minotaur's neck.

At its side, Tsugikuni Yoriichi, already facing away from the Minotaur, slowly sheathed his sword.

Behind him, the severed Minotaur gradually dissipated into the air.

"Lu Su wins!" Song Qian loudly announced the result from the sidelines, unable to hide her delight.

Lu Su's excellence had far exceeded her expectations. If his first card had not been limited by its materials, he might have directly produced a Gold Quality card.

Principal Xie's judgment had indeed been correct. Lu Su was truly worth cultivating as one of Shanghai City No. 1 High School's promising seeds.

Shanghai City No. 1 High School had a chance in this year's Four-School Joint Examination.

Jiang Nanxi watched Lu Su's battle with Lin Yue from the sidelines, her brow furrowed.

She could not determine much about Tsugikuni Yoriichi's abilities from a single battle. All she knew was that even among Black Iron grade Purple Cards, Tsugikuni Yoriichi would count as an excellent one.

Thinking of this, she turned to Du Heng and asked, "What do you think? Are you confident?"

Du Heng raised his brows and smiled confidently. "If it's Lu Su, it might be a little troublesome."

"Will you lose?"

"I'll win."

"Fortunately, it wasn't that redhead. Otherwise, we might have had to fight until the Great Dao itself was ground away."

At the edge of the arena, Lu Su watched Du Heng summon a zombie covered head to toe in green hair and silently mocked him in his heart.

Still, Du Heng's Green Zombie really was strong. From what Lu Su could tell, at least one of its abilities enhanced its physical strength.

As for any others, he could not make them out because its opponent was simply too weak.

The moment Du Heng's opponent summoned their card, the Green Zombie pinned it to the ground and pummeled it. Before long, it dissipated into the air.

"Hahaha, trash! You're too weak. You can't even make me interested!" Du Heng laughed loudly in the arena. "And you think you can enter the advanced class?"

The student opposite him turned pale, looking rather embarrassed.

Song Qian frowned from the sidelines. In her view, Du Heng had gone too far. They were classmates, not mortal enemies. There was no need to say something so harsh.

"Du Heng's personality will get him into trouble sooner or later." Jiang Nanxi shook her head beside them.

Lu Su nodded in agreement, then said indifferently, "Why worry so much about it? We're not his parents."

Perhaps Du Heng would suffer for it, but what did that have to do with him? He and Du Heng were neither family nor friends.

"Next match, Jiang Nanxi versus Xu Jin!"

Song Qian's voice rang out nearby.

"It's your turn. Good luck." Lu Su turned to Jiang Nanxi beside him.

Jiang Nanxi tucked the loose hair by her ear back and smiled. "Thank you."

With that, she turned and walked into the arena.

"What were you talking about with Jiang Nanxi just now?" Du Heng sat down carelessly beside Lu Su.

During the previous match, he had noticed that Lu Su and Jiang Nanxi, the two people he was paying special attention to, had been whispering to each other off the field.

Silently shifting away, Lu Su looked Du Heng in the eyes and said sincerely, "Nothing much. We were just saying that you're too strong, and we might not be able to beat you."

Du Heng naturally caught the sarcasm in Lu Su's words. "Tsk, you sharp-tongued brat. I hope you can still talk so tough once you're in the arena."

Lu Su sighed inwardly. Why was this kid so hostile?

Without responding to Du Heng, Lu Su turned his gaze back to the arena.

Yet the situation inside left him somewhat baffled.

Jiang Nanxi's opponent's card was standing in the middle of the arena, staring blankly into empty space.

Meanwhile, Jiang Nanxi's Three-Tailed Fox leisurely strolled over to the opponent's card.

With a swipe of its claw, the opponent's card was finished.

Lu Su frowned at the sight. "An illusion technique?"

At that moment, a random thought came to Lu Su's mind.

Who had stronger illusion techniques, Uchiha Itachi or the Demon Fox?

In the next round, Lu Su, Du Heng, and Jiang Nanxi still did not face one another.

Their opponents were still crushed at the first touch.

For now, the three of them stood far above the rest of the advanced class.

Unless someone suddenly attained enlightenment, the three of them would likely be the ones going to the Ning'an District Four-School Joint Examination a month from now.

This made Lu Su wonder whether Song Qian had rigged things, though he immediately found the thought rather amusing.

This was only the first ranking test. Besides, anyone dissatisfied with their ranking could apply to challenge the person they targeted.

Of course, they could only apply once per week. Otherwise, it would never end, and there would be no need to attend classes at all.

Clap, clap. Song Qian clapped her hands to draw the students' attention. "Since only Lu Su, Du Heng, and Jiang Nanxi remain, one student will receive a bye in the next round and advance directly to the final round."

In fact, it would have been more reasonable for the student receiving the bye to face the loser of the next match, but cards had a one-day cooldown after dying.

Glancing at the slip in her hand, Song Qian announced loudly, "The next round is—"