Rank Rising

Anning City Examination Center.

On the screen, Song Chen's ranking suddenly jumped.

Fifty-second place.

"Song Chen entered the Core Zone."

The words were like a stone thrown into still water.

There were no chains or rules in the Core Zone. Mutated beasts roamed freely. It was a battlefield truly prepared for top candidates—and a place where people genuinely died.

"He entered the Core Zone only an hour after the exam began?"

"What use is being fast? The Core Zone isn't about who enters first. It's about who survives longer and kills more."

Song Chen knew none of this.

He only knew that the air in the Core Zone was different.

It was damper, heavier, and thick with spiritual energy.

The forest was denser than outside, and the light was dimmer. The canopy overhead blocked most of the sunlight, leaving only scattered patches of light on the ground.

He slowed his pace and silently activated the Eye of True Sight.

A pale golden radiance flowed through his eyes, and everything around him became incomparably clear.

Fifty meters away, he saw straight through a Mutated Lynx lying in ambush within the bushes.

Thirty meters away, a Mutated Venomous Snake was coiled atop the canopy.

Even farther away, more auras were stirring restlessly.

He took a deep breath and tightened his grip on the hilt. These were the prey worth hunting.

Song Chen glanced at the ranking in the corner of the screen, his brows tightening slightly.

He had slaughtered his way from the outskirts to the Core Zone, killing nearly a hundred mutated beasts, yet he was only fifty-second?

Although he had spent most of his time traveling, fifty-second place was still somewhat unexpected.

There were quite a few capable people in this batch.

A deep roar came from afar, rich and powerful, carrying an oppressive force. High-Second Rank. It might even be at the peak.

Song Chen's eyes lit up.

He headed in that direction. Fifty-second place? Not for long.

The first prey he encountered in the Core Zone was a High-Second Rank Mutated Giant Lizard.

It lay beside a swamp, its body covered in dark green scales, with a row of serrated spikes standing along its back.

It was over four meters long, its tail thick and powerful enough to snap a tree as thick as a bowl with a casual swing.

Its eyes were amber, its vertical pupils icy as it stared straight at Song Chen.

Song Chen crouched on a branch twenty meters away, the Eye of True Sight operating at full force.

The thickness of the giant lizard's scales, the angles of its joints, the range of its tail attacks—all of it was broken down before his eyes.

High-Second Rank. High defense, great strength, and considerable speed. Its only weakness was its abdomen, where the scales were thinnest and his blade could pierce through.

He took a deep breath and silently dropped from the branch.

The giant lizard immediately turned its head toward him. It did not move, merely staring as a low hiss rumbled from its throat.

Song Chen did not move either. Man and beast faced each other for over ten seconds, neither striking first.

The giant lizard was waiting for an opening. So was Song Chen.

Then Song Chen moved. Rather than charging head-on, he spread the Wings of Gale and abruptly shot upward.

The giant lizard reacted faster than he had expected. Its tail suddenly swept sideways, whipping toward where he would land with a shriek of tearing wind.

Song Chen forcibly changed direction in midair, slashing out with a Space-Splitting Lightning from his left hand. Purple lightning struck the giant lizard directly in the eye.

The giant lizard threw back its head with a pained screech, its tail missing its target.

Taking the chance, Song Chen landed at its side. Deep Purple electric light coiled around his blade as he chopped at the joint of its forelimb.

The blade sliced into the gap in its joint, and blood spurted out.

The giant lizard's forelimb gave way, and its body tilted.

Song Chen gave it no chance to recover. The Wings of Gale spread again as he circled to its abdomen, driving his second strike into that patch of pale white soft armor.

More than half the blade sank in. He twisted his wrist, and lightning power exploded within the giant lizard's body.

The giant lizard's entire body stiffened before it crashed to the ground.

Song Chen landed and gasped for breath. High-Second Rank—five hundred points secured.

He glanced at the system panel. His ranking had leaped to forty-eighth.

He did not rest and continued deeper.

The density of mutated beasts in the Core Zone far surpassed that of the outskirts and central area. Before he had gone two hundred meters, he encountered another pack of Mutated Hyenas.

There were six of them. The leader was Mid-Second Rank, while the rest were Lower Second Rank.

They formed a semicircle, baring their fangs as they slowly closed in.

Song Chen gripped his hilt tighter and did not retreat.

During those days in Vast Wild Mountain, he had learned one thing.

When facing a group assault, he could not retreat. Retreat, and they would catch up, surround him, and tear him apart. He could only kill his way forward.

The first Hyena pounced.

Song Chen sidestepped and severed its foreleg with one slash, while a bolt of lightning from his left hand struck at the second.

The lightning hit, and the Hyena fell with a miserable howl.

The third and fourth Hyenas pounced from both sides at once. He spread the Wings of Gale and rose from the ground, while the two Hyenas collided and rolled across the ground.

As he landed, his blade flashed repeatedly, cutting open both Hyenas' throats.

The leading Mid-Second Rank Hyena had not moved the entire time. It crouched in the rear, watching coldly.

Only after Song Chen dealt with the last Lower Second Rank Hyena did it slowly rise.

Song Chen met its gaze.

It was a full size larger than the others, nearly two and a half meters tall at the shoulder, its muscles solid as iron lumps. Its eyes were dark red, holding no fear—only madness.

It pounced.

It was unbelievably fast. Song Chen did not even have time to swing his blade and could only dodge sideways.

Its claws scraped across his battle armor, scattering sparks.

Borrowing the momentum of his dodge, he slashed backward at its hind leg.

The blade bit into flesh but did not reach the bone.

The Hyena roared in pain, turned, and pounced again. This time, it was faster and more vicious.

Song Chen did not dodge. He met it head-on, ducking at the instant its claws touched his chest. His blade swept upward from below, slicing from its throat all the way to its abdomen.

The Hyena crashed to the ground, convulsed several times, and stopped moving.

Song Chen rose to his feet, looked down at the corpses littering the ground, and continued onward.

For the next hour, he barely stopped.

A swarm of Mutated Poison Bees poured from the canopy, a dark mass of more than a hundred.

Song Chen raised his hand and unleashed Space-Splitting Lightning at full force. A purple web of electricity covered a radius of ten meters, and the poison bees fell like raindrops.

One, two, ten, fifty... every one of them was worth a point.

His score jumped wildly, and his ranking rose from forty-eighth to thirty-eighth, then from thirty-eighth to twenty-seventh.

A Mid-Second Rank Mutated Python burst from beneath the dead leaves, fast as a shadow.

Song Chen's Eye of True Sight had already seen through its position. The instant it sprang up, he had flashed to the side and severed its head with one strike. Blood sprayed all over him, its stench choking.

A High-Second Rank Mutated Giant Ape leaped down from a cliff, its fists smashing the ground and cracking the earth, sending shattered stones flying.

The impact made Song Chen stagger a step, and the giant ape's second punch was already before him.

He had no time to dodge and could only take it head-on. The Thunderbolt Blade lay across his front as the enormous fist slammed into it, blasting his entire body away and into a tree.

The giant ape chased after him, raising both fists high, intending to pound him into meat paste.

Song Chen clenched his teeth and spread the Wings of Gale at full force. At the instant the huge fists descended, he flashed out from the side and circled behind the giant ape.

Space-Splitting Lightning poured into the blade at full force as he chopped at the giant ape's nape.

A full-powered strike from the Grandmaster Realm, coupled with the eruption of B-Grade Lightning.

The blade cut into its spine. The giant ape's body stiffened, then collapsed like a mountain.

Song Chen landed on one knee, gasping for breath.

His ranking was still rising. Twenty-first place.