Rewards

"Brother Yue, you're amazing! You even beat Wang Xueqing and took first place in the whole school."

Ning Yue opened his eyes and heard Gan Xiaomei's voice, filled with a mix of emotions, including surprise and delight.

He looked around and found that everyone had woken up.

"Who's Ning Yue? He's first in the whole school, but I've never even heard of him."

"A dark horse-a bona fide dark horse."

"First place even went to someone from Class Seven, that class of lousy students. Unbelievable."

Discussion reached his ears, and the people around him who knew him looked at him strangely too.

Disbelief.

Shock.

That dumbfounded expression that said, "It's him, it's him, it's him again," was plain to see.

"How did you know I ranked first?" Ning Yue asked in confusion.

Didn't it used to take a few days for the results to come out?

How does everyone know already?

"Look, the rankings are already up."

Gan Xiaomei pointed ahead as she spoke.

Ning Yue followed her finger and saw a projection high up on the wall, covered in names.

[First place: Ning Yue, Senior Year Class Seven]

[Second place: Wang Xueqing, Senior Year Class One]

[Third place: Wen Xi, Senior Year Class One]

[Fourth place: Zhao Hu, Senior Year Class One]

...

[Ninth place: Liao Dong, Senior Year Class Seven]

[Tenth place: He Yang, Senior Year Class One]

Of the top ten, aside from Ning Yue and Liao Dong, the other eight were all students from the elite class, Senior Year Class One.

Ning Yue recalled that after he defeated Liao Dong, eight people remained in the arena.

That meant the rankings were based on the order in which people were eliminated in the final arena matches.

"Class One really is strong. They took eight of the top ten spots."

Ning Yue looked down the rows. In the top hundred, Senior Year Class One accounted for more than half, while the rest were a ragtag army, with a top student or so from each class.

He even spotted a few first- and second-year students among them.

He couldn't help taking a few extra looks. Anyone who could rank in the school's top hundred at this point was a favored son of heaven at the school, an elite talent of the next senior-year class.

"Brother Yue, listen to you talking about other people. You're the one who's really strong. First place! Nobody's better than you."

"That's right, Brother Yue, you're amazing."

"Our Class Seven's star of hope is counting on you, Brother Yue."

Ning Yue's passing remark drew praise from the classmates around him.

No matter what their relationship had been before, they all called him Brother Yue to get a little closer to him.

What bad intentions could senior-year students have?

They just understood a little more about the ways of the world than first- and second-year students.

Besides, Ning Yue was just a sleeping god and hadn't had conflicts with many people. A few words of praise could bring them closer to him, so why not?

One had to know what a lousy student was: someone with a fairly high IQ and EQ, whose aptitude was just a little lacking.

Ning Yue didn't keep a stern face either. He chatted amiably with the classmates around him and nodded.

He knew that if it came down to raw strength, he couldn't beat Wang Xueqing.

Rather than say this first place in the whole school was his, it would be more accurate to say Wang Xueqing had let him have it.

Still, he wasn't discouraged.

With his aptitude, it wouldn't take long for him to catch up to or even surpass Wang Xueqing.

By his rough estimate, he could break through to the Martial Dao First-Rank Realm in ten days to half a month at most. That was what he could achieve through his own cultivation alone, without counting on getting good options in the simulator.

Before long, Principal Chen Dao walked onto the raised platform with a group of school leaders.

"It looks like our students already know the rankings. Now we'll begin presenting the awards."

As he spoke, he looked at Ning Yue.

He was somewhat gratified and surprised.

At the start of the exam, he had seen that Ning Yue's qi and blood value ranked fiftieth and decided he was a dark horse.

He hadn't expected him to be this dark.

He had charged straight to first place in the whole school.

Still, this was a good thing.

It showed that Xinyuan Martial Arts High School was thriving under his leadership and guidance.

It was growing stronger and stronger, each generation surpassing the last.

"Come on, the exciting moment has arrived."

"Now we'll hand out the rewards, starting with first place."

Ning Yue knew from his memories that the Martial Dao was all about striving, and this was reflected in every aspect of life. At school, the reward for taking first place wasn't fixed.

Instead, the school brought out twenty prizes. First place chose first, and only then did those behind get a chance to choose from what remained.

It was different from his previous life, where the person ranked first was the last to go onstage.

Here on Blue Star, first place went onstage first, and those ranked lower could only wait.

This was respect.