The Art of Socializing

"Boss, are we still going?"

A Soul Master from Luo Guixing's team swallowed uneasily and glanced at Luo Guixing beside him as he asked.

Luo Guixing's expression shifted constantly.

He was slightly better than Xu Yucheng.

Xu Yucheng had been excessively arrogant. He only knew that he had made it onto the Young Genius Ranking, yet he had never bothered to learn about the other members on it.

But Luo Guixing had, more or less, looked into them.

It was just that, before this, Luo Guixing had belonged to the conspiracy-theory camp regarding Ling Luo's legendary accomplishments.

He believed those exploits had been exaggerated to some extent.

That was why, even after Ling Luo arrived and he recognized his identity, he had not taken him too seriously.

Fortunately, he had kept an extra layer of caution. Just in case, he had not acted as the first to step forward and had instead let Xu Yucheng go first.

Looking at it now, that decision had been extraordinarily wise.

Xu Yucheng would most likely have to withdraw from this Class Monitor competition.

His impulsiveness, combined with being crushed so thoroughly that most of his strength had never been brought out... Even though they were observers rather than Examiners, everyone could tell that Xu Yucheng's performance definitely would not earn a high score.

As for whether they should step up to challenge him now...

To be honest, Luo Guixing was already feeling somewhat inclined to retreat.

Although he ranked above Xu Yucheng, Luo Guixing knew very well that the gap between their strengths was not actually that great.

He was confident that, with the help of the students beside him, he would certainly perform better than that brainless, arrogant Xu Yucheng.

But...

After witnessing the battle just now...

Forget Ling Luo—even the Jade Lightwing Butterfly, which had returned to Ling Luo's hand and was now acting obediently, gave Luo Guixing no confidence that he could defeat it.

No one stepped forward.

Before Xu Yucheng, quite a few students had been eager to try.

After Xu Yucheng, however, they had been deterred by his example.

Everyone understood that defeating Ling Luo was not what mattered. What mattered was their performance during the battle.

Yet everyone hoped someone else would challenge him first, exposing as much information about Ling Luo as possible.

After all, in battles between Soul Masters, aside from absolute strength, information was also an extremely important factor.

The more information one possessed, the more thoroughly and perfectly one could perform.

Outside.

Shen Yi, who could see the entire scene within through a special device, shook her head with a bitter smile.

"Sure enough, after seeing Young Master's performance, these little ones have all begun to feel intimidated."

Wu Changkong stood with his arms folded across his chest. A rare trace of gravity appeared on his icy face.

His gaze rested on the Jade Lightwing Butterfly on Ling Luo's finger.

From Xu Yucheng's battle just now, Wu Changkong had discovered with surprise that, without using Battle Armor, he himself might not even be a match for that butterfly.

A single Soul Spirit was already terrifying to this extent. Just how powerful was this Young Master himself?

Seeing that no student would likely take the initiative to challenge him if this continued, Shen Yi knew she had to intervene.

Through the special device, her voice rang out within the Illusory Space.

"Students, please challenge the Examiner as soon as possible."

"Those who challenge earlier will also receive a certain amount of bonus points."

As soon as those words fell, the many students who had planned to let others test the waters first fell into hesitation once more.

If they went first, they did not have enough information, and their performance would definitely be restricted.

But if they did not go, and someone else seized the chance first, then according to Shen Yi, they would receive fewer points than the students who challenged earlier.

This required weighing their options.

They had to judge whether, if they chose to challenge later, the students before them would be able to uncover more information.

And whether that information could raise their performance score by more than the points they would lose by challenging later.

This left many people trapped in indecision.

Watching this scene, Ling Luo, who was playing with the Jade Lightwing Butterfly, secretly shook his head.

Young people these days were far too rational. They did not have a shred of fighting spirit left.

Just as the stalemate continued.

A lively voice broke the deadlock.

"Senior, I'll challenge your Soul Spirit."

A tall, graceful figure stepped forward.

The girl was strikingly beautiful, her bright eyes fixed on Ling Luo, who was teasing the butterfly in the center of the forest.

"It's actually her." Yang Nianxia froze.

"Brother Yang, you know her?" Tang Wulin tilted his head slightly.

"Mm." Yang Nianxia nodded.

"Wu Siduo, a genius from Star Luo City and a member of the Young Genius Ranking. She should be the highest-ranked person in our class."

"Her codename is Youming. Her exact abilities are unknown."

"In terms of individual strength, she should be the strongest in our class. Maybe she can let us see more."

"By the way, Brother Tang, I have an idea. I wonder if you're willing to cooperate?"

Yang Nianxia curled his lips into a sinister smile.

"What?" Tang Wulin asked in confusion.

"I think we can join forces and eliminate a few of the more threatening students before they get the chance to challenge him."

"That way, they'll receive no score, and our odds of winning will increase greatly."

Yang Nianxia's calculations were excellent.

Wu Siduo, who was challenging him now, definitely could not be touched.

Otherwise, Ling Luo Senior might slap them to death.

But the others were different.

Aside from Xu Yucheng, the one who had stepped forward first, there were still several geniuses from the Young Genius Ranking in the Freshman Class who had yet to issue a challenge.

Green Snake Zheng Yiran, Luo Guixing the Binder.

Both of them could potentially score higher than him.

As for everyone else, Yang Nianxia truly did not consider them worth his attention.

If he eliminated them in advance, their assessment scores would certainly be zero. Wouldn't that greatly improve his chances of receiving the highest score?

Sometimes, the way to take first place was not only to raise one's own score. One could also eliminate those capable of scoring higher.

He actually wished the one challenging now was not Wu Siduo, but another student.

After all, if Wu Siduo could also be eliminated in advance, then with Xu Yucheng being so reckless that his score definitely would not be high, Yang Nianxia felt that first place in the scoring would be guaranteed.

Hearing Yang Nianxia's words, the three of them were stunned.

How had they not thought of such a method?

The way the three looked at Yang Nianxia changed.

This fellow really was not as simple as he appeared!

If Yang Nianxia had not brought up such an idea, none of them would have thought of it.

After all, because of Shen Yi's words, everyone had focused on challenging Ling Luo.

At most, they had only considered whether they should challenge him first.

Who would think of eliminating the other students beforehand like Yang Nianxia?

However, after a brief moment of thought, Tang Wulin agreed to Yang Nianxia's proposal.

For them, this truly was the best plan.

And in the end, they could even stab Yang Nianxia in the back...

This was the art of socializing!

"Pleasure working with you." Tang Wulin smiled.

"Pleasure working with you." Yang Nianxia smiled as well.