First Ranking

On the third day after the monthly exam ended, a red ranking board was posted on the outer courtyard wall.

Not long after dawn, a sizable crowd had already gathered outside the training grounds. Some had rushed over right after breakfast, while others stood behind the crowd on tiptoe, craning their necks and constantly asking who had placed where.

"It's out, it's out!"

"Move aside, let me look first."

"Don't shove!"

Zhao Chuan was mixed into the crowd as well. He squeezed forward while waving back at Chen Mo.

"Brother Mo, hurry!"

Chen Mo was pulled over by him and nearly bumped into the person in front.

"What are you in such a rush for?"

"Of course I'm in a rush. Don't tell me you're not even a little curious."

"Even if I am curious, I'm not as frantic as you."

Though he said that, Chen Mo still squeezed through the crowd to the front.

The names on the red board had already been arranged.

Looking down from first place, Wang Lie's name was indeed at the very top.

Someone immediately sighed.

"Wang Lie is first again."

"Did you expect anything else?"

"With that strength of his, how are we supposed to compete?"

Zhao Chuan ignored them and lowered his head, searching line by line for his own name.

"Found it."

He stared at it twice.

"Seventeenth."

Chen Mo looked at him.

"What, disappointed?"

"A little."

Zhao Chuan answered readily, "But I can still accept it."

"Didn't you say you were definitely getting into the top ten?"

"I didn't know the exam would be this hard back then."

Chen Mo chuckled.

"You came up with that excuse pretty fast."

"Cut it out."

Zhao Chuan gave him a shove and began looking for Chen Mo's name.

Before long, both of them stopped at the same time.

Eleventh.

Chen Mo looked at that number without saying anything.

Zhao Chuan was stunned as well.

"You got eleventh?"

"Yeah."

"Isn't that pretty good?"

Chen Mo did not answer.

His gaze moved one spot higher.

Tenth.

He had missed it by just one rank.

Zhao Chuan realized it too.

"Oh no."

"What?"

"That look in your eyes tells me you're overthinking again."

Chen Mo shot him a glance.

"Mind your own business."

A nearby apprentice overheard them and casually chimed in.

"Tenth place comes with a reward."

Chen Mo turned around.

"What reward?"

"You didn't know?"

The apprentice looked somewhat surprised. "The top ten get to sit in on one major class in the inner courtyard, and they can also collect a packet of high-grade body-strengthening medicinal powder."

"Really?"

Zhao Chuan was interested too.

"Of course it's true."

As he spoke, the apprentice nodded toward several people in the distance who had already received their rewards.

Chen Mo followed his gaze.

Each of them held a small oil-paper packet and a folded voucher.

The medicinal powder looked quite ordinary.

Yet Chen Mo looked at it a few more times.

"That's it?"

"Don't let its size fool you. I heard it's far better than the usual stuff they hand out."

After saying that, the apprentice left.

Zhao Chuan stood beside him and sighed.

"It would've been great if you were tenth."

Chen Mo said nothing.

He thought so too.

Just one rank short.

If he had merely lost a place in the rankings, he would not have felt too bad.

But now that he knew the top ten received these things, looking at his eleventh place felt completely different.

"Chen Mo."

Someone called to him from beside them.

The two turned around. Wang Lie had already walked over.

He held his own packet of medicinal powder and audit voucher, with no particular expression on his face.

"Eleventh?"

"Yeah."

"Not bad."

Wang Lie nodded.

"Your judgment is better than mine."

Chen Mo had only just begun to feel a little better.

"It's just that your strength is lacking."

Chen Mo's mouth twitched.

Zhao Chuan burst out laughing.

"See? I told you. You don't even know how to give a complete compliment."

Wang Lie did not quite understand.

"What part was incomplete?"

Chen Mo looked at him.

"Couldn't you at least let me be happy for a while first?"

Wang Lie thought about it.

"Then were you happy?"

Chen Mo was left speechless.

"Forget it."

Zhao Chuan laughed so hard he could not straighten his back.

Wang Lie paid no attention to it and returned to his place with his things.

Chen Mo watched his retreating back, and the bit of gloom in his heart faded somewhat instead.

At least one thing he said was right.

Chen Mo's judgment really had improved compared to before.

It was just his strength...

Thinking of that, he looked once more at his name in eleventh place.

Not far away, several apprentices were discussing the rankings.

Someone brought up Chen Mo's sparring match.

"He fought that match pretty steadily, but he didn't dare to clash head-on."

"Yeah, he kept dodging."

"With that kind of fighting style, if he runs into someone like Wang Lie, he probably won't even be able to block a single blow."

The voices were not loud, yet every word landed clearly in Chen Mo's ears.

Zhao Chuan's expression immediately darkened.

"Why are these people so annoying?"

Chen Mo did not let him continue.

"Forget it."

"You're not angry?"

"What's there to be angry about?"

Chen Mo paused after saying that.

"He said I'm weak. He wasn't wrong."

"But he can't say you only know how to dodge."

Chen Mo smiled.

"Then next time, I'll dodge a little less."

Zhao Chuan froze for a moment.

"Don't actually go and trade blows with people head-on."

"I'm not stupid."

After saying that, both of them laughed.

The crowd gradually dispersed, and Chen Mo's gaze returned to that packet of high-grade body-strengthening medicinal powder.

At that moment, he truly felt a little envious.

What would it be like if he had a packet too?

His body had always been somewhat weaker than others', especially when it came to strength. Whenever he trained, it always felt as though he lacked a breath of energy.

With better medicinal ingredients, perhaps he could improve faster.

That thought merely circled through his mind before swiftly colliding with another.

Expensive.

He could not afford such a thing.

It would be even better if he could bring it home.

His father's old injuries had been acting up whenever the weather turned rainy lately. His mother had worried herself sick over the years. Chen Huan had attended school for so long, yet they still had not gathered enough money for her tuition.

If his father could use even a little of this medicine...

Chen Mo quickly suppressed that thought.

This was something the martial academy gave to its apprentices.

He did not even have one packet himself.

What was the point of thinking about it?

He was about to leave when voices suddenly rose behind him.

"The mountains haven't been peaceful lately."

"Something happened again?"

"Yeah. A few days ago, someone was carried back from the outskirts. He had several gashes on his body and said he'd been clawed by a wild beast."

"What kind of wild beast?"

"No idea."

"I heard that thing was completely crazed. It pounced on people the moment it saw them, nothing like an ordinary mountain beast."

Chen Mo stopped in his tracks.

The voices behind him gradually faded away, but his attention was no longer on the red ranking board.

That wolf.

The wolf so thin that its ribs showed.

Its matted fur.

Those crazed eyes.

And those old wounds already scabbed over.

It had not come out to forage.

It was fleeing.

Chen Mo stood where he was, speechless for a long while.

Zhao Chuan glanced at him.

"What is it?"

"Nothing."

Chen Mo came back to himself.

"I was just thinking about that wolf from before."

Zhao Chuan also looked toward the west.

"You really still remember it."

"I just feel like something is off."

"Didn't your father say not to go too deep?"

"Yeah."

Chen Mo nodded.

"That's why it feels wrong."

The two stood there for a while.

Chen Mo turned back and looked at the red ranking board again.

Eleventh.

Neither high nor low.

If it had only been a ranking, perhaps he would not have cared much.

But today was different.

For the first time, he truly understood that the difference of a single rank could mean the difference in many things.

A packet of medicinal powder.

A chance to audit a lesson.

Even just a small chance for someone else to walk faster than him.

And those were precisely the things he needed.

After a moment of silence, Chen Mo said in a low voice, "Next time, I need to move up a little."

Zhao Chuan did not hear him clearly.

"What did you say?"

"Nothing."

Chen Mo shook his head.

The crowd had completely dispersed.

The training ground grew quiet again. Morning light fell upon the red ranking board, and the names in the top ten remained striking.

Chen Mo stood there for a while before finally turning and leaving.

He did not know how fast he would walk in the future.

Nor did he know how far away that so-called threshold of the martial path truly was.

But from that day onward, he realized for the first time that perhaps what he lacked was not merely strength.

Beyond the high walls, Zhou Ye was still standing there.

He did not approach. He merely looked inside over the wall for a while.

He saw those who had entered the martial hall, saw people receive medicinal powder, and saw the red ranking board that had just been put up.

His gaze lingered on it for a long time.

In the end, he only lowered his head and clenched his fists.

Then he turned and left.