April Rankings

The moment he cleared the first floor, the entire grassland vanished, and Su You appeared in an endless desert. This was the second floor of the Trial Tower, where the monsters were Iron-Armored Scorpions.

They were small, incredibly fast monsters that could burrow into the sand and attack from underground. They were much more difficult to deal with than the Mangniu on the first floor.

An emotionless electronic voice rang across the desert. "Su You, congratulations on completing the first floor's trial. Next is the second floor, Stage A. Your goal is to kill fifty Elementary Beast General-level Iron-Armored Scorpions within ten minutes. Good luck!"

As soon as the voice ended, scorpions with dark red shells began crawling out of the sand, swarming toward Su You. The constantly shifting sand beneath his feet showed that many more Iron-Armored Scorpions were about to attack from underground.

But Su You's movement technique had already reached Perfect Level. He could fully sense every change in his surroundings, and he charged straight into the swarm with Lingbo Microsteps, beginning the slaughter.

As time passed, the teachers and students beneath the Black Dragon Sculpture wore a range of expressions. At first they were surprised, but before long, they were thoroughly stunned. After more than half an hour, everyone present had grown numb with disbelief.

Since Su You entered the Trial Room, they had watched his ranking change seven times: from fifty-fifth to thirty-ninth, then thirty-fifth, thirty-first, twenty-ninth, twenty-seventh, twenty-sixth, and finally twenty-fifth.

"He finally stopped!"

"No wonder the Extreme Martial Arts Hall recruited him early. He's way too monstrous!"

"He should make the top fifty in his first month. Su You has the potential to reach Beyond War God-level!"

Beneath the Black Dragon Sculpture, teachers and students discussed the news among themselves. Everyone knew how impressive this ranking was—it was even more remarkable than taking first place.

At that moment, intelligence personnel from the various forces in Hongning Base City reported Su You's ranking to their headquarters.

Meanwhile, after Su You left the Nine-Story Tower, a large crowd of Training Camp members gathered around him. However, since the Extreme Martial Arts Hall had already recruited him, most of the students were simply there to congratulate him and get acquainted.

After a while, when most of the students around him had dispersed, Su You saw Teacher Zhai Mo approaching from a distance.

Su You hurried forward and greeted him respectfully. "Teacher."

"Not bad. You're ranked twenty-fifth now, and you should have no trouble making the top fifty this month." Zhai Mo smiled. "How's your Trial Tower level?"

"3.1. I got carried into the sky by a Golden Vulture on the third floor, Stage A, and couldn't use my movement technique properly."

Zhai Mo shook his head with a rueful smile. "Flying monsters really are difficult to deal with. I'm only at Stage C of the third floor myself. Keep working hard this month and try to stay in the top fifty. The further you can get, the better."

"Yes, Teacher."

Zhai Mo nodded slightly, then said solemnly, "Your strongest ability right now is your movement technique, but it's only at Perfect Level. There are several students in this Training Camp whose movement techniques have reached Artistic Conception Level, so don't get arrogant. Understand?"

"Teacher, I understand," Su You said seriously.

With the memories of his previous life, he knew perfectly well that, as far as the universe was concerned, the Elite Training Camp wasn't even a beginner's village. There was nothing to be proud of about achieving a little success here.

By that night, once all the students with even-numbered rankings from the previous month had returned, Su You had settled into forty-eighth place. But that was only the initial ranking, and the month had just begun.

The Elite Training Camp offered far more resources than the Basic Training Camp, and its War God instructors were generally much more capable. There was even an Inspector who came to give a lecture every month.

In that environment, Su You made rapid progress in several areas, including his physical fitness, swordsmanship, and movement technique.

On the evening of April 27, after returning from hunting monsters, Su You went to the Trial Room once again. He had ranked 181st in March, so in April he had one hour to train in the Trial Room and one hour in the Gravity Chamber.

He had used his hour in the Gravity Chamber at the beginning of the month, but saved his hour in the Trial Room for the evening of the twenty-seventh. During that hour, he could fight to his heart's content and retry even if he failed.

On the wilderness of the Trial Tower's third floor, the electronic voice sounded again. "Third floor, Stage A trial. Student Su You, your goal is to kill one hundred Elementary Beast General-level Golden Vultures within twenty minutes. Good luck!"

A dark mass of Golden Vultures appeared overhead, diving down from the sky like a cloud that was about to engulf Su You. The battle began.

As birds of prey, Golden Vultures flew far faster than land-based monsters. Although Su You had a Perfect Level movement technique, it was difficult to make use of it against their incredible speed.

He could only do his best to dodge their dives while attacking with a sword in each hand, striving to kill them as efficiently as possible.

But it was obvious that Su You was struggling against the attacks of so many Golden Vultures. He could only push himself to bring out his full strength.

Gradually, Su You closed his eyes and swung his swords by instinct alone. His swordsmanship took on many different forms, now fluid and graceful, now solid and forceful. It shifted unpredictably, his swords and body moving as one.

His swords flashed, and the Golden Vultures plummeted from the sky one after another. In no time, they had all been slain. The emotionless electronic voice sounded again, and ten Intermediate Beast General-level Golden Vultures and 190 Elementary Beast General-level Golden Vultures flew into the sky.

Su You still had his eyes closed as he dodged and attacked among the flock. But with the Intermediate Beast General-level Golden Vultures leading them, the flock was much harder to deal with. Even though Su You's swordsmanship had broken through to the Perfected Level, he still failed the stage. His Trial Tower level ultimately stopped at 3.4.

After leaving the Nine-Story Tower and returning to the Kyoto Pavilion, Su You learned that his ranking on the Black Dragon Sculpture had reached thirty-eighth. Although there was still one day left before the month's final ranking, his position probably wouldn't change much.

On the evening of the twenty-eighth, Su You sat in front of his laptop, chatting with He Yourong. She had a holographic projection running on her end, where Yuan Yuan, whom Su You had just finished instructing, was practicing with great enthusiasm.

"Hm?" Su You picked up his vibrating phone and glanced at it. He saw that a number of people in the Huaxia student group had tagged him, so he opened it to take a look.

"Zhang Yue's ranked 102nd? What a shame—she was so close." Su You sighed, not surprised.

Although he and Zhang Yue had spent different amounts of time at the Training Camp this month, they often sparred and taught each other in the evenings after returning. So Su You had a pretty good idea of how strong Zhang Yue was.

Su You shook his head, ignored the other students making a fuss in the group chat, and went right on teasing He Yourong.

At midnight, Su You's final ranking for April settled at forty-second.