The Mock Exam Begins

The next day, Ning Yue woke up early.

As soon as he woke up, he simulated a life in the myriad worlds as usual. His luck was bad, and he gained nothing.

This simulation also made him realize that not every simulation brought benefits. Sometimes, he got nothing at all.

Having spent ten thousand yuan for nothing, he was in a somewhat foul mood.

Even as he ate breakfast with his parents, he seemed listless.

"Ning Yue, is this mock exam difficult?" his mother, Mo Zini, asked with concern.

"Why ask him that? When has a martial arts exam ever been easy for him?" Before Ning Yue could speak, his father, Ning Baichuan, spoke with a laugh, hoping to lift his spirits.

In response, his wife glared at him.

"If you can't say anything nice, shut up."

"Oh."

Ning Baichuan gave his wife an aggrieved look and promptly shut up.

"It's not hard."

Ning Yue smiled. He could see that his parents had gotten the wrong idea, and he remembered that they still didn't know his true combat strength.

"That's good, then. No matter what happens, you should face life with a smile. Martial arts isn't the only path open to you."

Ning Yue had been about to tell them about his situation, but hearing his mother's comforting words, he didn't know how to say it.

At that moment, his parents were not business elites or company bosses, just ordinary parents, with the same concern all parents had.

"Mm, okay."

Ning Yue thought that, in any case, everyone would know all his information after the mock exam. His parents would naturally find out then, and one more day wouldn't make a difference.

After breakfast, Ning Yue left in a hurry.

"Ning Yue, just let things take their course in today's exam. Don't put too much pressure on yourself."

Ning Baichuan stood in the doorway and called after Ning Yue as he walked away.

"Got it."

Ning Yue answered, his voice brimming with confidence. After obtaining the Bitter Bamboo Scripture yesterday, he had cultivated for a day and greatly increased his qi and blood value. It now stood at 80 points.

On top of that, he had some secret arts from the Bitter Bamboo Scripture, while the first level of the Ninefold Thunder Saber could increase his combat strength ninefold.

As he was now, he could say that he was invincible below the First-Rank Realm and dared to fight those above it.

Of course, Ning Baichuan and his wife knew nothing of this, and worried about Ning Yue as they always did.

They weren't worried about his grades, but that his spirit would be dealt too heavy a blow.

"Brother Yue, you're here."

"Brother Yue, you're pretty early today."

"Brother Yue, where did you go yesterday?"

When Ning Yue arrived at school, Li Feng and the others saw him and immediately crowded around him.

Ning Yue smiled and nodded. These so-called little brothers and sisters of his were quite sensible.

He thought that if he simulated anything good in the future, he could save them a share, or at least a little, depending on how they behaved from now on.

The Sunflower Manual he had originally prepared for Li Feng now seemed somewhat unsuitable.

At the time, his memories had only just merged, and things had been a little muddled.

With a thought, the Sunflower Manual vanished from his inventory.

"Yesterday, I went to the Thunder Martial Arts Hall and signed up for a class. I asked our homeroom teacher for leave."

Ning Yue offered a brief explanation.

He had indeed called his homeroom teacher yesterday.

It was just that the teacher didn't seem to have agreed.

"The mock exam is about to start. Are you confident?" Ning Yue asked.

"Yes."

"No."

Two different answers came back. Li Feng, Wang Qi, and Zhang Huairen said yes, while Gan Xiaomei said no.

"You're pretty confident. Are you sure you can take the bottom three places?" Ning Yue joked.

"Of course... not. Second to last will always belong to Brother Yue." Wang Qi grinned, and one look was enough to tell he was up to no good.

Ning Yue kicked at him angrily.

"Get lost. This time, I'm going for first place."

"First place?"

Hearing Ning Yue's bold declaration, the group was stunned.

Although over the past few days they had all noticed how much Ning Yue had improved, to the point that he could suppress Li Feng and the other two on his own,

they could have accepted it if he were competing for a place in the top hundred. First place was a term they couldn't believe.

After all, the top twenty in every schoolwide martial arts mock exam received generous rewards.

The higher the ranking, the greater the reward.

The rewards for the top three were especially lavish. An ordinary person could spend a lifetime working and still not earn enough money to buy even one of them.

Zhang Huairen's eyes spun. He leaned close to Ning Yue's ear and asked in a low voice, "Brother Yue, do you have some inside information? Share it with your brother."

"You're reading too much into it. With my family's circumstances, what inside information could I get?" Ning Yue continued confidently, "I'm relying on strength."

Whether it was Xu Shaoyang, Liao Dong, or even Wang Xueqing, the school's number one, he would cut them all down from their horses.

At nine in the morning, in the martial arts room.

Led by their homeroom teacher, all the students of Class Seven, Senior Year Three, arrived at the martial arts room, only to find it already packed with people. The entire school's teachers and students had gathered there.

At the same time, Ning Yue noticed that the martial arts room had changed since a few days ago.

The mysterious patterns from before had all lit up, and the room was no longer empty. Instead, rows of reclining chairs had been set out, with a helmet on each chair.

Once a crowd reached ten thousand, it stretched beyond sight.

The sight of several thousand reclining chairs was enough to make one's heart pound and shake one to the core.

Then a middle-aged man in his fifties, dressed in a white martial arts uniform, stepped onto the raised platform. He was Chen Dao, the principal of Xinyuan Martial Arts High School.

His face was kindly, yet bore the authority of a martial artist. In his distinctive voice, he said, "In the 329th year of the human race's new calendar, I hereby declare the second schoolwide martial arts mock exam of Xinyuan Martial Arts High School open."

"Teachers, please lead your respective classes to collect their holographic helmets in order."

Principal Chen Dao did not say much, and he spoke without a microphone. Instead, he used his own martial arts. Having reached the Sixth-Rank Realm, he transformed his qi into a gentle breeze that carried his voice into everyone's ears and deep into their hearts.

"Is this the holographic helmet from those old online-game novels?"

Ning Yue picked up the helmet. It felt like neither metal nor wood, with an unusual texture.

According to his memories, he had used one before, during the first mock exam a month ago.

But he hadn't felt as strongly about it then. When he read novels in his previous life, holographic helmets with one hundred percent realism had been standard.

Now he had finally seen the real thing.

He thought about how he would soon enter a virtual setting, where he could earn a school ranking through repeated battles.

He couldn't help feeling a little excited.

In this life, it all came down to two things: food and drink.

No, that wasn't right. Start over.

In this life, it all came down to two things: fame and fortune.

This time, he would make a name for himself, at least enough for Xinyuan Martial Arts High School to hear his voice.

At that moment, Ning Yue did not know that the instant they put on their helmets, everyone's qi and blood values were transmitted to the central control room.

A preliminary ranking had also been established according to their qi and blood values.

"This year's students are much stronger than last year's. There are even several in the First-Rank Realm," the dean of students remarked.

"Indeed. The top fifty all have qi and blood values above eighty points." The head of security nodded in agreement.

Chen Dao looked down the rankings on the screen, one name at a time, feeling gratified.

In this year's college entrance examination, Xinyuan Martial Arts High School definitely won't rank last in the joint examination of the eight cities again.

"Which class is Ning Yue, ranked fiftieth, in?"

Chen Dao looked at the names of the students near the top. Though he had not met every one of them, he had heard their names from other teachers.

But Ning Yue was an unfamiliar name to him. He had no impression of him at all, and couldn't help feeling puzzled.