Ranking Soars!

"How come it's you?"

Zhong Xian's brows furrowed slightly, her eyes full of doubt and confusion.

Just a moment ago, she had thought Li Qingshan was a bottom-feeder and felt too embarrassed to mention her ranking. She had not expected to run into him the instant she entered the Martial Arts Space.

"Looks like I underestimated you before. What a pity..." The surprise faded from Zhong Xian's face as her red lips parted slightly.

"Your luck is bad. Of all people, you had to be matched with me."

"There's nothing bad about that." Li Qingshan shook his head with a laugh and said casually,

"It's my honor to receive Senior Sister's guidance."

Zhong Xian's brows knitted even tighter as her eyes fixed on Li Qingshan's face.

Though he called it an "honor," his expression was utterly unconcerned.

"Li Qingshan, a ranking close to sixty thousand is indeed not bad, but it's not enough for you to become arrogant!"

"You were only matched with me because I hadn't logged into the Combat Space for a month."

A month ago, she had still been at the Body Tempering fifth level and had only achieved mastery in her blade technique.

Now, she was not only at the Body Tempering sixth level, but had also trained Mizong Step to mastery.

She had entered the Combat Space today precisely to see where her limits lay.

Zhong Xian lightly danced her long blade and said sternly,

"We focused on cultivation and paid no heed to outside matters. Who would have thought that would let you develop such an arrogant temperament? Fine, I'll wake you up today."

"Senior Sister, there's something I don't know whether I should say."

Li Qingshan suddenly spoke, and Zhong Xian froze.

"What?"

"You talk too much!"

With a thunderous roar, he shot forward like an arrow, his long blade tearing through the air.

"You've got guts!"

Zhong Xian's expression changed sharply as she raised her blade to meet him.

The hundred-meter distance vanished in the blink of an eye.

Wind Shadow Blade against Wind Shadow Blade; the howl of blades splitting the wind rang without end as the two long blades were about to collide.

Facing Zhong Xian's wind-rending blade,

Li Qingshan neither dodged nor retreated. The Thunder Pattern Blade chopped faster and faster, transforming into a sky full of blade shadows.

"Turning blade light into shadows—is that your trump card?"

Zhong Xian gripped her blade hilt tightly and slashed with all her strength at the blade shadows.

At the Body Tempering fifth level, one's punch force was one thousand kilograms. At the Body Tempering sixth level, it was two thousand kilograms—a full twofold difference!

A merely Great Accomplishment Wind Shadow Blade could not stop her!

Metal clashed against metal, and the blade shadows filling the sky vanished.

A confident smile surfaced on Zhong Xian's face.

Everything was just as she had expected. Li Qingshan truly could not block her blade.

Just then,

Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!

A violent gale howled past her ears, and another blade light suddenly flashed into being, striking from beneath her armpit.

Layer upon layer of blade light overlapped, as though forged from countless blade shadows.

Zhong Xian's smile froze on her face. Her eyes wide, she said in disbelief,

"Wind Shadow Follows!?"

The perfected ultimate technique of Wind Shadow Blade, Wind Shadow Follows!

The blade light flashed and vanished. Her slender body split into two.

"Opponent defeated. Current ranking: 60815. Continue matching?"

Li Qingshan stood still with his blade in hand, glanced at the long ponytail lying in the pool of blood, and casually tapped confirm.

"Please prepare for battle. An opponent has been selected for you: Chai Ye, ranking 60568."

"Countdown: 3... 2... 1!"

"Opponent defeated. Current ranking: 50753. Continue matching?"

"Opponent defeated. Current ranking: 40132. Continue matching?"

"Opponent defeated. Current ranking: 30398. Continue matching?"

"Please prepare for battle. An opponent has been selected for you: Lu Su, ranking 23653."

"Countdown: 3... 2... 1!"

On the Battle Platform, two figures darted and shifted, the ringing of metal against metal endless.

"Junior Brother, Great Accomplishment Mizong Step is indeed powerful, but your big sister's Ghost Shadow Step is not so easy to bully."

As she spoke, her dainty figure held the Long Spear inverted and suddenly thrust backward.

Returning Horse Spear!

Li Qingshan's expression tightened. He tapped the ground with his toes, and the spear tip stopped just short of his chest.

Before he could breathe a sigh of relief, the Long Spear changed again and swept toward him.

Li Qingshan frowned. His long blade split the wind, and the sky full of blade shadows condensed into two streaks of blade light, blocking the spear's path.

Bang! Bang!

With two loud impacts, the Long Spear's momentum slowed slightly before it attacked again.

Li Qingshan's palm had gone numb, and he had no way to swing his blade again to intercept it. He could only push Great Accomplishment Mizong Step to its limits, weaving and shifting.

"Junior Brother, just dodging won't help you beat your big sister!"

Her flirtatious voice continued to disrupt him, leaving Li Qingshan full of helplessness.

In the previous hundred or so battles, he had crushed his opponents with perfected Wind Shadow Blade.

But once he reached the top twenty thousand, his opponents were basically all at the Body Tempering sixth level or above, and Great Accomplishment Martial Techniques had begun to appear.

Lu Su in front of him in particular was at the Body Tempering seventh level, with Great Accomplishment spear techniques!

After three months of cultivation, no matter how hard Li Qingshan had worked, he had only barely reached the Body Tempering fifth level.

At the Body Tempering fifth level, speed was twenty meters per second, and punch force was one thousand kilograms.

At the Body Tempering seventh level, speed was thirty meters per second, and punch force was three thousand five hundred kilograms.

The enormous gap between them was enough for Lu Su to crush him with her realm.

If Lu Su's Ghost Shadow Step had not only been at mastery, he would have long since been stabbed to death with a single spear.

The Long Spear swept toward him once more, its assault fierce.

Li Qingshan had nowhere to evade and could only barely raise his blade to block.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

The long blade was knocked aside, and the spearhead viciously pierced into his heart.

Li Qingshan fell backward to the ground, and a pretty face appeared before his eyes.

"Junior Brother, I'll be looking forward to seeing you next time!"

Lu Su looked relaxed as she waved.

After the corpse on the ground closed its eyes, confirming that Li Qingshan had "gone offline,"

she suddenly let out a breath and stuck out her tongue.

"There are monsters like this in the Old Continent? I nearly capsized in the gutter!"

In the Combat Space, before a sheer cliff.

"You have been killed by your opponent. Current ranking: 23874. Continue matching?"

The cold mechanical voice rang out.

Li Qingshan rubbed his brow and looked up at the sheer cliff. His gaze gradually moved to the upper third, where names enlarged one after another before his eyes.

His own name was there, Lu Su's was there, and so were those of several other opponents he had fought.

"This should be the strongest group among the Second Year students, right?"

The Martial Arts Class eliminated students year by year. Luoying City had only three third-year students, and other ordinary cities were much the same.

As the provincial capital, Wuyi might be in slightly better shape, but it could not possibly have retained too many students either.

By that calculation, a province probably had fewer than two hundred third-year Martial Arts students.

Across the 107 Provinces, there were likely around twenty thousand third-year Martial Arts students in total.

"With a ranking of 23874, it's still not quite safe if I want to take the top ten in the Second Year Rookie Competition. But Mizong Step is almost perfected, so my combat power can still rise by another notch."

After calculating it over in his heart, Li Qingshan decisively exited the Combat Space.

The Virtual Combat Pod's lid opened. Li Qingshan sat up and turned his gaze toward the Status Panel.

[Li Qingshan]

[Realm: Body Tempering 46/100]

[Technique:

The Thirty-Sixth Set of Broadcast Gymnastics--The Stars Are Calling 1235/3000 (Great Accomplishment)]

[Martial Technique: Mizong Step 2896/3000 (Great Accomplishment), Wind Shadow Blade Perfected]

[Function: Martial Arts Space Lv1 (9/100)]

[Available time: 6 years 213 days]

[Time Flow Rate: 1:10]

After three months of bitter cultivation in reality, aside from necessary Body Forging and commuting, he had spent all his remaining time in the Martial Arts Space, consuming nearly two years of available time.

"Mizong Step is only a little over one hundred proficiency short of perfection. It shouldn't take long. I'll finish today's Body Forging cultivation first."

Having just been crushed by Lu Su's realm, Li Qingshan would not slack off on real-world Body Forging merely for the sake of a Martial Technique.

He walked out of the Virtual Combat Pod, took out a bottle of Intermediate Nutrient Solution, and drank it.

Li Qingshan began cultivating step by step...