A giant green screen was filled with all sorts of data and images.

Lin Qi’s gaze scanned down from the number one spot like a radar, and he quickly found his name and profile picture:

[Name: Lin Qi]

[Academics: 925 (1)]

[Qi and Blood Value: 921 (12)]

[Martial Arts: 805 (5)]

[Total Score: 887]

[Grade Ranking: 18→9]

[City Ranking: 288→128]

[Provincial Ranking: 480]

...

"Ninth in the grade!"

A smile crept onto Lin Qi’s lips when he saw he was ninth in the grade.

He had jumped from 18th to 9th place.

Among his individual subjects, his academic score still dominated the top spot in their grade, unsurpassed by anyone.

His Qi and Blood Value ranked 12th, which was his weak point, but he was gradually closing the gap.

As for Martial Arts, he had unexpectedly surged into fifth place in the grade, a score far higher than his actual skill level.

His city ranking had also seen a huge improvement, jumping from 288th to 128th, putting him close to the top 100.

The new provincial ranking surprised Lin Qi. He was in the top ten of his grade at No. 2 Middle School.

But in the entire Cang Province, he was ranked almost 500th.

This showed just how many geniuses and experts there were in Cang Province—an endless stream of them.

’In two months, I went from outside the top 100 to the top ten in my grade. Give me a few more months, and I’ll surpass everyone,’ Lin Qi thought.

His desk mate, Jiangtao, was also looking at his own results.

"Haha, fifth in the grade! I’m just a little behind Zhu Yuqi in fourth."

"Sixth in the class for Martial Arts!"

"I’m set!"

Jiangtao looked at his scores and rankings.

He threw a punch at the air, an excited smile spreading across his face.

He immediately looked down the list for his good buddy Lin Qi’s ranking, a habit he had developed.

"Ninth in the grade, as expected. A solid performance!"

"Martial Arts 805... ranked fifth??"

Jiangtao froze when he saw that. He blinked rapidly, wondering if he had misread it.

His own Martial Arts score was 800, placing him sixth in the class.

And Lin Qi was ranked just ahead of him, with only five more points.

’How is this possible? My Martial Arts is worse than Brother Qi’s?’

He turned to Lin Qi in shock, just as Lin Qi turned toward him with a smile.

"Sorry, Taozi."

"I won. You can order the KFC now!"

Jiangtao found it hard to accept. He had actually been surpassed by Lin Qi. "Brother Qi, you really won."

He had no choice but to reluctantly pull out his phone and order takeout.

A few dozen seconds after the report cards were released, the classroom erupted into a frenzy.

"Damn it, my ranking dropped," someone wailed, clutching their head.

"Haha, I improved!" someone else exclaimed in delight.

"I’m only ranked in the five thousands in all of Cang Province? Isn’t that too low?" another person said, staring at their provincial ranking in disbelief.

From the podium, Zhang Cheng smiled and said loudly:

"Five thousandth place? Isn’t that perfectly normal?"

"Do you have any idea how many key high schools there are in Cang Province?"

"There are over eighty of them, with tens of thousands of geniuses studying there. Ranking in the five thousands is already pretty good."

"In this world, the one thing that’s never in short supply is geniuses."

"Wait until the national final exams. You’ll see even more formidable geniuses, and you’ll discover the chasm-like gap between yourselves and the truly top-level ones."

The students fell silent upon hearing this.

Zhang Cheng was right. As the scope widened, more and more geniuses appeared, and they were just ordinary members among them.

After he finished speaking, Zhang Cheng looked at the report card, his gaze locking onto Lin Qi’s name as a gratified smile appeared on his face.

’That kid Lin Qi really didn’t disappoint me. But just two days ago, I was advising him on how to break through to the Second Order Spear Technique, and today he scores 805 in Martial Arts. That’s a score you can only get by defeating Assessor No. 8. Fifth in the class for Martial Arts, just 10 points behind Zhu Yuqi in fourth. How did he train?’

Zhang Cheng was both surprised and alarmed. It was the first time he’d seen a situation like this; the rate of improvement was just too fast.

Li Zhou, ranked first in the grade, stared intently at the report card, his expression tense.

This exam would determine whether he could sign an A-level Contract.

’First in the grade, 7th in the city, and 15th in the province.’

Li Zhou’s eyes lit up when he saw this.

Although his city ranking had only improved by two spots compared to the monthly exam, for someone at his level, even a single spot was a huge step forward.

Most importantly, this already met the standard set for him by the Red Dome Martial Arts Dojo.

Not far away, Yu Jing’s expression was grim. He looked at his rankings. He was still second at No. 2 Middle School, but his ranking in Celestial Sea City had dropped.

He had fallen from 15th to 20th place.

The gap between him and Li Zhou was widening, while Qi Yuelin and Zhu Yuqi were catching up from behind.

Especially those two, Jiangtao and Lin Qi.

’Those poor bastards from before actually managed to catch up.’

His own regression, combined with the progress of people he despised.

This made Yu Jing feel twice as miserable.

...

Martial Arts Room 503

Lin Qi brought over a table. Five large bags with "KFC" printed on them were placed on top, and Jiangtao started pulling out burgers, fried chicken wings, french fries, colas, roasted wings...

They soon covered the entire surface of the table.

"Eat up. A bet’s a bet. This meal cost me over a thousand yuan!" Jiangtao said to Lin Qi and Chen Zichuan.

Lin Qi didn’t stand on ceremony. He grabbed a burger, unwrapped it, and started eating, taking a swig of cola.

Beside him, Chen Zichuan also dug in without hesitation.

"Junk food still tastes the best!"

Jiangtao took a huge bite that demolished half a burger and sighed.

"When we were kids and my family was broke, if I wanted to eat KFC, it was you, Brother Qi, who took me."

"You’d treat me with your own allowance. Back then, the most we could get was a burger, one order of fries, and one cola. We couldn’t get anything more."

"Later on, your family fell on hard times too, and we could only afford to eat it once in a blue moon."

"When we got a craving, all we could do was wait until we earned some money from a part-time job and go eat at Wallace."

"It’s not like today. We’re not short on money anymore, so we can eat as much as we want," Jiangtao said, moved by the memory.

Chen Zichuan ate a fry and nodded. "Same here. When I was a kid, the thing I looked forward to most was my dad taking me to Wallace for my birthday."

"Too bad my dad’s never coming back."

He was from a single-parent family. His father had been a Martial Artist who died on the battlefield, so he was raised by his mother.

Lin Qi sighed. The three of them came from ordinary backgrounds and had decent talent, which gave them more in common.

Chen Zichuan had made huge progress in this midterm exam, entering the top thirty of the grade at 25th place, with still more room to advance in the future.

All three of them had bright futures ahead.

...

Half an hour later, the three of them parted ways.

The entire table of KFC had been devoured by the three of them; Lin Qi alone had eaten ten burgers.

Those who practiced martial arts had huge appetites and could eat a lot. When they ate their fill, they could down a massive bowl of a normal meal.

Lin Qi changed into his Martial Arts Uniform, and after a few stretches, he began practicing his post-standing on the spot.

His gaze locked onto his panel.

[Name: Lin Qi (17)]

[Occupation: Martial Artist]

[Template: Erlang God Yang Jian (8.3%)]

[Talents: Stomach Enhancement, Dragon Energy and Tiger Fierceness]

[Cultivation Techniques: Hunyuan Posture, Five Elements Fist - Tiger Form, Basic Spear Skill, Mountain Shattering Spear Technique]

[Qi and Blood Value: 9.21]

[Fist Technique: Tier Two 20%]

[Spear Technique: Tier Two 3%]

[Body Technique: Tier One 95%]

...

Lin Qi glanced over his stats; they showed another huge improvement compared to the monthly exam.

Before the start of his senior year of high school, he never would have imagined he could improve this quickly.

He could only say that the template’s Talent was too powerful.

Resources were also extremely important. In martial arts practice, without resources, even the greatest talent couldn’t compete with the wealthy.

’I have the Talent now, and my resources aren’t bad. As long as I have enough time, I’ll be able to reach the absolute peak of Cang Province. Getting into one of the three top universities should be basically guaranteed. My only regret right now concerns my parents,’ Lin Qi thought to himself.

After paying off all his family’s debts, he had suggested that his dad, Lin Zhen, come home.

But his dad refused, saying he wanted to stay a while longer to earn a bit more money.

This puzzled Lin Qi and made him feel that something was wrong.

The family wasn’t short on money anymore, so there was no need to continue working the hard, exhausting job of a Meat Distributor.

’Could there be something I don’t know?’

Thinking of this, Lin Qi decided to have a good talk with his dad when he returned.

...