Under the dark night sky, the nearly twenty-story-high black dragon sculpture stood, its dragon scales etched with names, each one clearly visible.
Yet at this moment, the nearly one hundred students gathered beneath the colossal black dragon sculpture, along with several teachers who were already battle kings, stared in shock at one name—“NO.68 Luo Feng (570403)”. Everyone was fully aware that it was already 11:20 PM, with only minutes left before the final cutoff at midnight.
All the students who had gone out hunting had long since returned, so the chance of any ranking changes was now extremely slim.
In other words—
Luo Feng’s rank in April was 68th, now practically set in stone.
“This is huge!”
“Where did this Luo Feng come from? Some kind of freak?”
“My God!”
Even the calmest individuals were shaken by this ranking. Simply being 68th wasn’t particularly impressive, but the fact that it was a newly enrolled student achieving 68th place in their very first month made all the difference. The value of this achievement surpassed even a senior student who had spent four or five years in the program and reached first place.
“How is this possible, 68th?” Kandri, his deep-set eyes wide with disbelief, murmured.
He simply refused to believe it.
“Kandri,” William whispered beside him.
“Shit!” Kandri muttered. “From today onward, don’t provoke Luo Feng anymore.”
“Understood,” William nodded.
“Luck,” Kandri cursed bitterly. He couldn’t stand the thought of that Chinese brat he disliked so much achieving 68th place in his very first month. Yet, no matter how much it irked him, his rational mind told him that his feud with Luo Feng had only ever been a matter of pride, not life or death.
Swallowing his pride, he resolved to simply ignore Luo Feng from now on and cease all rivalry.
“This Luo Feng is going places.”
“He definitely is,” a yellow-skinned, slightly chubby young man exclaimed, “In the entire history of our training camp, only five students have ever cracked the top 100 in their first month. The last time was eight years ago. And Luo Feng didn’t just barely make it—he landed at 68th!” Being 98th and 68th were both within the top 100, but the implications were entirely different.
68th was significantly stronger than 98th!
Everyone knew…
All the powerful nations and organizations on Earth valued talent. It would be strange if someone like Luo Feng, with such talent, wasn’t valued. His 68th place carried even more weight than the current first place. As for the treatment he would receive next—well, it went without saying.
…
Inside a residential building three kilometers away.
“Damn it!”
A muscular man with short yellow hair stared wide-eyed at the ranking displayed on the screen mounted on the wall of his room. He stared intently at the name ‘Luo Feng’ in 68th place, his eyes nearly popping out of his head. As the leader of a local intelligence squad, he was intimately familiar with all the students’ profiles. He knew exactly what this meant…
Luo Feng appearing at 68th place.
“Quick, connect me to the boss!” the muscular man growled, his face darkening.
“Captain, it’s not midnight yet,” a woman in revealing clothes chuckled casually.
“Damn it, connect me to the boss—now!!!” His eyes flashed with menace, and the previously carefree woman finally realized the gravity of the situation, immediately initiating the connection to their boss.
…
“Shit!”
“This genius is from China? Connect me to the general—I need to speak with him immediately!”
…
“68th?”
“He’s only nineteen years old, from a completely ordinary family, and had no special martial arts training as a child.”
“This Luo Feng is truly a monster. Hurry, connect me to the Commander-in-Chief!” a middle-aged Chinese man ordered.
…
At this moment, intelligence operatives from various military and administrative organizations, powerful family conglomerates, and even mercenary groups stationed in Hongning Base City were all scrambling. When they learned of the latest ranking update on the elite training camp’s Black Dragon leaderboard, every competent intelligence officer immediately reported back to their headquarters.
Breaking into the top 100 upon entry already marked one as a prodigy beyond compare.
But to land at 68th place—that was even more extraordinary.
And he was only nineteen!
…
It must be understood that for the five major superpowers and the two grand martial arts schools, a martial artist’s rapid physical enhancement, while impressive, wasn’t enough to make them all scramble to recruit him. After all, publicly available enhancements like Dragon’s Blood, and other undisclosed substances, could all boost physical strength…
Physical strength could be purchased at an exorbitant cost!
However, techniques such as movement mastery, striking power, and swordsmanship couldn’t be forced or bought. These required countless battles, endless training, and relied on ‘experience’ and ‘insight’ to improve. In the words of the elite training camp, this was known as ‘combat amplification’—the ability to amplify one unit of strength into ten, even a hundred units of actual combat power.
That was the true skill!
And Luo Feng clearly possessed an extremely high combat amplification!
…
In the main district of Jiangnan Base City.
In the girls’ dormitory building of Jiangnan University, Room 602 was the dorm of Xu Xin. This dorm featured a shared living room and four private bedrooms, one for each girl. Such accommodations were considered high-end within the university’s dormitory complex, with an annual fee that was extremely expensive.
“Third sister, I really think the young master from the Wang family is quite nice—he’s been quite devoted to you,” a half-blood girl with long, wavy hair, wearing a nightgown, lounged on the sofa sipping hot coffee with a teasing smile.
“Second sister, Xu Xin likes Luo Feng. Don’t play matchmaker for the Wang family anymore,” another girl chimed in.
“Enough,” Xu Xin frowned slightly.
Clearly not in a good mood, the other three girls exchanged smiles and said no more. All of them came from well-off families, but compared to the others, Xu Xin’s family was the most prestigious.
“Hmm,” Xu Xin held an economics textbook in her hand, flipping through it absentmindedly. Her mind, however, was far from focused on the book.
She was troubled.
Very troubled. She was of an age where marriage was expected, and in this era, many girls married during their university years. As the eldest daughter of the Xu family, her status was high, and this had drawn many suitors, many of whom had various connections to the Xu family.
Though she had always been firm in her rejections, the pressure remained, especially with the ambiguous stance of her family.
“Hmm?” Her phone suddenly rang.
“Brother’s call?” Xu Xin looked puzzled as she picked up her phone, retreating into her room and closing the door before answering.
The screen lit up with the face of her older brother, Xu Gang.
“Brother, what’s up?” she asked, puzzled.
“Good news! Big good news!” Xu Gang grinned widely. “Hey, little sister, your judgment is no joke at all… Luo Feng has gone and done something absolutely earth-shattering this time.”
Xu Xin asked, puzzled, “What big deal? Oh, you mean entering the top 100 of the elite training camp rankings?”
“Not just any top 100—it’s 68th!” Xu Gang exclaimed, “This news is spreading like wildfire. Now every family in the HR alliance knows about it! I bet the five major superpowers and the base cities are all fully aware. At this very moment, most organizations around the world are talking about Luo Feng!”
She didn’t hear the rest of what her brother said.
She only needed to know one thing—
Luo Feng was ranked 68th.
Xu Xin wasn’t just an ordinary girl; she knew a lot, and thus understood exactly what this ranking meant!
“Little sister, the family fully supports your relationship with Luo Feng now—not just your parents, but even Grandpa and the older generation fully approve!” Xu Gang continued excitedly. In the Xu family, the real decision-makers were naturally the elders of Grandpa’s generation.
Xu Xin wasn’t sure whether to laugh or scold upon hearing this—it was just how the family was.
“Oh, I see,” she simply nodded.
“Come on, aren’t you even a little excited?” Xu Gang teased.
“Hehe,” Xu Xin forced a smile, “Satisfied, big brother?”
The call ended shortly after.
A gentle smile finally graced Xu Xin’s face: “No more trouble now!” Now that the family fully supported her relationship with Luo Feng, she no longer needed to worry about those persistent young masters trying to win her over. Without the pressure from the family, she wouldn’t care about them at all.
“The storm has passed!”
“Mm.”
Xu Xin quickly sat down at her laptop and initiated a video call with Luo Feng.
…
In the elite training camp of Hongning Base City.
Luo Feng, like a stray dog chased away, barely finished speaking with his seniors Zhao Ruo and Shi Jiang before rushing into his private quarters.
“Goodness, I made it to 68th place and caused such a huge commotion?” Luo Feng thought back to when he first exited the Trial Room, especially after leaving the Nine-Tower. He had been practically mobbed by the training camp members—more accurately, swarmed by one congratulatory greeting after another. Many students, representing various factions, had even extended invitations.
One invitation after another…
The offers were so generous they made one’s heart race!
Each offer came with annual activity budgets in the hundreds of billions—treatment usually reserved only for ‘High Battle Kings’ with astronomical value. Yet, Luo Feng was now even more sought after than a High Battle King!
“And the Trial Tower had to kick me out exactly on the hour!” Luo Feng sighed in regret. “If only I could have stayed inside the virtual space a little longer…” In truth, his gains from this session in the Trial Tower had been immense.
The second floor of the Trial Tower was extremely difficult!
Originally, he had no hope of passing the B-stage of the second floor. In just three minutes, he was killed three times during the B-stage. However, on the fourth attempt, he unexpectedly entered the ‘Perfect-Level Movement’ state again. In that state, his movement techniques, combined with explosive speed and attack power…
Without even realizing it, he passed the B-stage!
At that moment, his ranking rose from 98th to 82nd—a jump of sixteen places.
Then came the C-stage!
With only half a minute left until the one-hour mark, the system voice reminded Luo Feng that he had thirty seconds remaining. Just this reminder caused him to lose focus… and he was killed. However, it wasn’t entirely the system’s fault—the C-stage was just too difficult.
Even a slight distraction meant instant death!
Still, he achieved a Trial Tower Level of 2.9. It was clear that he had nearly completed the C-stage, only narrowly missing success.
At that moment—Luo Feng’s ranking leaped from 82nd to 68th.
“I maintained the Perfect-Level movement state for over forty minutes across both the B and C stages. I should now be considered to have truly entered this realm,” Luo Feng thought joyfully. A significant increase in movement mastery meant a massive boost in actual combat power. Otherwise, how could he have passed the B-stage so easily and nearly conquered the C-stage?
“Beep!”
His laptop emitted a sound—a video chat request.
“Huh?” Luo Feng walked over, sat down, and upon seeing the request, couldn’t help but smile, “Xu Xin?”
Without hesitation, he clicked ‘Accept’.
The screen lit up, and Xu Xin’s face appeared on the video call.
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