Special-Admission Qualification

Starry Sky Fighting Net, personal space.

Li Yuan's consciousness body had just returned.

With a rustle, countless streams of light gathered together, condensing into the figure of a young girl in ancient green robes.

"Guardian Yuan, congratulations on ranking on the Blue Star Youth Ranking. Your status tier within the Starry Sky Fighting Net has been elevated." The girl in green smiled faintly. "From today onward, I will be your exclusive intelligent customer service assistant on the Starry Sky Fighting Net, serving you throughout the process. You may give me a name."

"Exclusive intelligent customer service assistant?" Li Yuan froze slightly.

The AI of this era was already highly advanced.

As far as Li Yuan knew, one generally had to top up a certain amount on the Starry Sky Fighting Net and purchase many additional services to receive an exclusive intelligent customer service assistant.

He had not expected that ranking on this so-called Blue Star Youth Ranking would grant him one as well.

"Xiaoyu," Li Yuan said directly. His Smart Ring Watch had also been named Xiaoyu.

No favoritism.

"Xiaoyu is delighted to serve you." The girl in green bowed slightly, looking exceptionally pure and innocent.

"I want to view the Blue Star Youth Ranking and its ranking criteria," Li Yuan said directly.

"Yes." The girl in green waved her slender hand, and a projected light screen appeared before Li Yuan.

It was covered in large amounts of text, along with all sorts of videos and images.

Li Yuan quickly understood.

"The Blue Star Youth Ranking is compiled by the Starry Sky Fighting Net. Anyone who reaches 500 points in the Gold Rank is qualified to enter it." Li Yuan mused inwardly. "Rumor has it that the Seven Star Alliance, the Three Martial Halls, and the major nations stand behind the Starry Sky Fighting Net... It can both temper Martial Arts Technique under high intensity and select martial arts prodigies."

Now, it seemed the rumors were true.

"The Blue Star Youth Ranking looks purely at Martial Arts Technique." Li Yuan nodded slightly. "That makes sense. Selection through the Starry Sky Fighting Net basically consumes no additional resources, so it is easy to carry out."

"If it looked at Martial Arts Technique while also reviewing physical aptitude and talent... wouldn't that just be the National College Entrance Examination?" Li Yuan could not help smiling.

Whether it was the whole of Human Civilization or merely an individual nation, all would spare no effort in selecting scientific talents and martial arts prodigies... The National College Entrance Examination was the largest-scale comprehensive assessment.

The Starry Sky Fighting Net, meanwhile, was a single-category selection for Martial Arts Technique.

"The Blue Star Youth Ranking covers all of Blue Star. The ranking resets every year on September 1..." Li Yuan continued reading.

"Any youth who has not reached the age of eighteen by the annual September 1 cutoff is eligible to enter the following year's Blue Star Youth Ranking."

Li Yuan immediately understood. This so-called Blue Star Youth Ranking was not made up entirely of minors.

The oldest people on the ranking might be close to nineteen.

For example, someone born on September 2.

But likewise, if one truly was a martial arts prodigy and reached 500 points in the Gold Rank at fourteen or fifteen, then it was possible to enter the Blue Star Youth Ranking for four or five consecutive years.

"By that calculation, this edition of the Blue Star Youth Ranking has been updated for less than a month?" Li Yuan thought. "And in less than a month, 4,684 people have already made the ranking?"

And that was only across Blue Star.

Looking across the Seven Great Planets of Human Civilization, how many people would make the ranking?

And after waiting another year, by next August, how many more would be on it?

These were merely the martial arts prodigies emerging on Blue Star within a single year.

"Anyone who can reach 500 points in the Gold Rank will not be inferior to me in Martial Arts Technique." Li Yuan shook his head slightly. "At Guanshan District No.1 High School, my Martial Arts Technique currently stands alone at the peak."

"But on a global scale? It is nothing much." Li Yuan calmed down.

He felt just how insignificant he was.

The world truly was vast.

"Still, the road must be walked one step at a time. At least I have made the ranking." Li Yuan suddenly smiled again. "There are only forty-seven people in all of Jiangbei Province including me. Most of them are probably second- or third-year high school students."

There were over a million third-year high school students in Jiangbei Province.

At least in terms of Martial Arts Technique, Li Yuan had already charged into the forefront of those million third-year students.

A year ago, Li Yuan would not even have dared imagine that he could achieve such results.

After reading through all the information.

"Rank rewards?" Li Yuan's gaze landed on the final page, and his eyes lit up slightly.

—Rank Rewards (before turning eighteen):

1. Reach 500 points in the Gold Rank: reward of 50,000 Blue Star Coins.

2. Reach the Meteor Rank: reward of 500,000 Blue Star Coins.

3. Reach the Bright Moon Rank: reward of 20,000,000 Blue Star Coins.

—Rank Rewards (ages eighteen to thirty):

1. Reach the Meteor Rank: reward of 10,000 Blue Star Coins.

2. Reach the Bright Moon Rank: reward of 200,000 Blue Star Coins.

3. Reach the Eclipse Rank: reward of 5,000,000 Blue Star Coins.

"That is truly outrageous." Li Yuan muttered inwardly. "A reward of twenty million Blue Star Coins?"

Twenty million!

An ordinary person would have to work for a hundred years before they could hope to earn that much.

But Li Yuan had to admit that the difficulty was indeed immense. It required reaching the Bright Moon Rank before the age of eighteen.

If one was over eighteen, then even upon reaching the Bright Moon Rank, the reward would only be 200,000 Blue Star Coins.

"Forget the Bright Moon Rank. Even reaching the Meteor Rank before eighteen is probably difficult." Li Yuan shook his head and casually asked, "Xiaoyu, how many people on the Blue Star Youth Ranking have reached the Meteor Rank now?"

"As of today, there are forty-four," Xiaoyu, the girl in green, said. "However, the specific list cannot be disclosed."

Li Yuan nodded.

When he had tried to look earlier, he had discovered that he could only see broad statistical data for the ranking.

But the specific list? Who exactly had entered the Blue Star Youth Ranking?

That could not be checked.

"Perhaps this is a form of protection." Li Yuan thought. "In a sense, everyone who can make the ranking is a future martial arts powerhouse, but they have not yet grown up."

Although large amounts of information could also be found through school examination results, National College Entrance Examination results, and so on...

The difficulty of gathering information from the two sources was clearly not on the same level.

"Rewards." Li Yuan looked at the three rank rewards on the page, deep in thought.

"The Bright Moon Rank? That is too far away, somewhat unrealistic."

"But the Meteor Rank?"

"My birthday is August 29. I still have around eleven months to temper my Martial Arts Technique."

"Even if I cannot reach it before the National College Entrance Examination, it does not matter. I can keep working after the examination."

"As long as I reach the Meteor Rank, I will receive a reward of 500,000 Blue Star Coins." Li Yuan set a goal in his heart.

He was filled with anticipation and motivation.

Because this was a goal he truly had hope of reaching.

As long as he charged to 1,000 points in the Gold Rank and then passed the Promotion Tournament, he could become Meteor Rank.

"Let's try matching a few more rounds." Li Yuan could not resist clicking "Rank Matchmaking."

Six minutes later.

"Lost!"

"Lost!"

"Three consecutive matches, and every opponent was an expert with over 600 points. I actually lost them all." Li Yuan returned to his personal space, feeling rather helpless.

Not only had he failed to gain points, he had instead fallen back to 491 points.

Li Yuan calmed down as well.

"It seems 500 points truly is a threshold. With my strength, my win rate against opponents below 500 points can exceed 80%." Li Yuan reviewed today's battles. "Against 500-point opponents, especially experts above 600 points, my chance of victory is not even 30%."

"This shows that my Martial Arts Technique is still far from being able to run rampant in the Gold Rank."

If he could not become nearly undefeated in the Gold Rank, yet wanted to charge into the Meteor Rank?

That was basically a fool dreaming in broad daylight.

The gap between every rank tier on the Starry Sky Fighting Net was enormous, practically impossible to cross.

"Xiaoyu, dropping below 500 points will not affect my reward, right?" Li Yuan asked.

"It will not."

"Blue Star Coin rewards are issued based on historical peak results." The girl in green smiled. "The reward of 50,000 Blue Star Coins will be directly deposited into your bank account after the unified review on Monday."

"Good." Li Yuan nodded.

As the largest game on the Virtual Network, and one backed by the authorities... the Starry Sky Fighting Net was trustworthy.

"Exit." Li Yuan shifted his consciousness.

He left the Virtual Network.

He walked out of his room.

"Big Brother, come eat some apples. I cut them for you." His younger sister, Li Qianqian, called from the sofa.

"Okay." Li Yuan smiled. "Watching a projection? What drama is this?"

"Big Brother, it is not a film or television drama. It is a documentary, Exploration of Luo Bu Hai Star Realm. It is about when our nation's first explorer entered Luo Bu Hai for the first time..." His younger brother, Li Muhua, immediately explained, talking about it as though reciting family treasures.

"Oh?" Li Yuan nodded and sat down, eating apples while watching the documentary with his younger brother and sister.

The interior of the Star Realm was highly unusual, and many technological devices would malfunction.

Coupled with the large numbers of Star Realm Creatures running rampant, danger lurked at every turn... Over the decades, Human Civilization had been constantly fighting, but there was still not much footage or information about the depths of the Star Realm.

"These explorers are all martial artists. A cliff dozens of meters high, and they can leap right up it so lightly." Li Muhua could not help saying.

"Without the strength of a martial artist, entering the Star Realm would be courting death, wouldn't it?" Li Yuan laughed. "Besides, they are not ordinary martial artists."

At the very least, their physical fitness had to exceed Level 20!

After watching the documentary for half an hour, his aunt came out of the master bedroom and urged them to go to sleep.

After washing up, Li Yuan returned to his room.

Li Yuan was in no hurry to tell his aunt about reaching 500 points in the Gold Rank.

"I will wait until both sums of money have truly arrived." Li Yuan stood barefoot in his room.

"I spent the entire day in the Virtual Network."

"I cannot slack off on the Basic Cultivation Method."

"I will first cultivate the Rock Cultivation Method for two hours, then cultivate the Great Sun Starry Sky Sutra." Li Yuan swiftly made his decision.

For Li Yuan, being able to eat something with his younger brother and sister and watch a projected show was already rare relaxation.

There were no shortcuts in martial arts cultivation.

It was simply accumulation, day after day.

Late at night.

When Li Yuan got up after three in the morning and quietly left home for school.

At the Martial Arts Hall in Jiangbei Province.

The intelligent system and the staff on duty had already received an inconspicuous file awaiting review.

"Blue Star Youth Ranking, 2042–2043 edition. Ranked entrant No. [4684], name: 'Li Yuan.' Registered residence: 'Guanshan District, Jiang City, Jiangbei Province'... Please conduct a comprehensive assessment of this individual within ten days and confirm whether he possesses the Martial Arts Student Special-Admission Qualification."

(End of Chapter)