152: Chapter 152 The Eighteenth Prodigy

"Congratulations, classmate Shen Xingchen!"

"You have successfully completed ten placement matches, with an average time of 25 seconds per match."

A magnetic female voice resounded in the virtual world.

Shen Xingchen knew this was Zero, the artificial intelligence built into the virtual pod.

Zero's voice continued: "You won all ten placement matches, and even defeated the projection of Du Xiaoyue, who is ranked fifteenth on the prodigy ranking. Based on your combat power performance, your final calculation is currently being processed."

"After detection, your final ranking is—the prodigy ranking, 18th place."

On the virtual screen, Shen Xingchen's information and ranking rapidly surged up from the very bottom.

Soon, golden characters lit up.

[Name: Shen Xingchen]

[Ranking: 18]

[Realm: Tier 4 Level 3]

[...]

Being able to defeat someone else's virtual image did not necessarily mean one was stronger than them, so "Zero" lowered his position by three spots based on the algorithm.

Shen Xingchen looked at the prodigy ranking list. Around the top twenty, the students were all uniformly at Tier 5 Level 5.

His Tier 4 Level 3 appeared particularly eye-catching.

"Hoo—"

Shen Xingchen let out a long sigh of relief.

Since he was directly placed in the top twenty of the prodigy ranking, he wouldn't need to miserably run to the arena to challenge for rankings.

He pressed the bracelet on his wrist.

A torrent of data flashed by, and Shen Xingchen's body was teleported to the clouds.

Opening his eyes once more.

Shen Xingchen was already lying in the virtual pod, and the pod door was slowly rising.

At the entrance of the pod.

The receptionist young lady had not left yet, and her bright, large eyes were carefully sizing up Shen Xingchen.

A Tier 4 Level 3 person, without relying on external objects, could fight to a draw with a Tier 5 Level 5 existence.

All of this actually happened right before her eyes.

Liu Fei glanced at Shen Xingchen with a complex look in his eyes.

Then he slunk away dejectedly.

He made up his mind that he would never appear on the same screen as Shen Xingchen again in the future!

The central large screen flashed with the news of Shen Xingchen advancing into the top twenty of the prodigy ranking.

On this night, everyone in the Cultivation Tower witnessed the birth of a peerless monstrous genius.

...

At the same time.

The hilltop villa.

Du Xiaoyue was eating a late-night snack.

These days of bitter cultivation allowed him to successfully advance to the fifteenth place on the prodigy ranking, making him immensely proud and satisfied.

These days Du Xiaoyue walked a bit floatingly, almost pointing his nostrils at the sky.

Bai Wanqing curled up on the sofa with a book placed between her legs.

Lifting her head inadvertently, she saw Du Xiaoyue's smug look and couldn't help finding it somewhat amusing: "Look at how full of yourself you are!"

Du Xiaoyue instantly broke character: "Senior Sister, you know it too, Junior Brother is so ferocious, as his senior brother, I'm under immense pressure!"

If Junior Brother's realm caught up one day, the first person he would surpass would definitely be him.

By then, he would inevitably be mocked by them.

He was just thinking of trying to make that day arrive a little later...

Du Xiaoyue never doubted that Junior Brother could surpass him in the future; this was already an unspoken default, it was only a matter of sooner or later.

Bai Wanqing teased: "With your heartless personality, you actually still have the baggage of being a senior brother."

"Senior Sister, what you said is a bit chilling to my heart." Little Fatty became displeased.

What do you mean by heartless?

He only pretended to be carefree on the surface; in reality, he was very sensitive behind the scenes, alright.

Just like the matter between Senior Brother Li Zhixing and Su Xinyuan, he had always been crystal clear about it!

Bai Wanqing twirled a strand of hair: "Heh, then you better work hard, don't wait until Junior Brother surpasses you tomorrow."

"Impossible!" Little Fatty said decisively.

Bai Wanqing closed the book and sat up from the sofa: "I'm not chatting with you anymore, I'm going back to my dorm, remember to turn off the lights."

"Alright." Little Fatty acknowledged.

Just at this moment.

Du Xiaoyue's phone suddenly received a message.

It was from the Campus Link app.

He doubtfully opened the Campus Link homepage, and then saw a very eye-catching notification text.

[Classmate Du Xiaoyue, your virtual projection was defeated by classmate Shen Xingchen on October 25th at 21:43 at night, hereby notified.]

Du Xiaoyue's mouth couldn't help but open wide.

News of such virtual images being defeated was not uncommon.

But the person who defeated him...

Du Xiaoyue rubbed his eyes.

He once thought he had been poisoned by eating braised pork trotters, otherwise why would his vision be blurry?

Until he rubbed his eyes three times, the name on the screen still hadn't changed.

"No way..."

Du Xiaoyue was petrified.

Bai Wanqing had already put on her small white leather boots and planned to go out, just in time to see Du Xiaoyue's stunned state.

She suspectedly asked: "Xiaopang, did you... get dumped by a girl again?"

Du Xiaoyue still hadn't recovered his senses.

Bai Wanqing knitted her light brows and walked over.

Although she always liked to strike at Chubby Du, seeing him like this still made her a little worried.

Just which junior schoolmate was it that could heartbreak the carefree Du Xiaoyue into this state?

Walking to Du Xiaoyue's side.

Bai Wanqing only glanced at it and saw the message on the phone.

[Du Xiaoyue... was... defeated... by Shen Xingchen]

These few words were as if they had been marked in red, far too eye-catching.

Bai Wanqing instantly grasped the key point.

She suddenly understood Du Xiaoyue.

Du Xiaoyue snapped back to reality, looking pitifully at Bai Wanqing.

Bai Wanqing curved her light brows downward and said sympathetically: "Although Junior Brother has surpassed you, think on the bright side... at least no one is proposing a breakup to you, right?"

...

At night.

Shen Xingchen returned to the dorm.

The matter of the prodigy ranking came to a temporary close, and he could safely wait for the Dragon Transformation Pool to open.

Opening the system panel.

{enlightenment value × 3,500}

Another week passed, and quite a bit of enlightenment value had accumulated.

"Cultivate!"

Shen Xingchen shouted towards the void.

{Congratulations host, used 2,500 points of enlightenment value}

{Beginning to cultivate martial art [Heart's Blood Heart-Nourishing Sword], nurturing sword embryo}

{In the 5th year, the number of your dragon-patterned cyan jade swords became 15... In the 10th year, it became 16...}

{...}

{In the 25th year, the number of your dragon-patterned cyan jade swords became 19}

{Cultivation ended}

Inside Shen Xingchen's acupoints, nineteen dragon-patterned cyan jade swords were humming.

Reaching such a quantity, this starry-sky-grade martial art finally began to reveal its sharpness.

Judging from the inheritance of Senior Sword Saint Cui Ping.

The next stage of the dragon-patterned cyan jade sword was to hone the sword's edge.

Each flying sword could brew sword qi by honing its edge.

The more precious the initial divine iron of the flying sword was, the more sword qi could be born after the honing was completed.

This was also why this swordsmanship required high-grade divine iron.

Senior Sword Saint Cui Ping's "Heart Sword" was said to be able to withstand more than 300 streams of sword qi.

The sword qi and sword intent surging throughout his body amounted to a full three thousand streams of sword qi, and its power was terrifying to this extent.

"Add points! Zhou Tian Xing Dou Sword Array."

Shen Xingchen continued to immerse himself in cultivation.

{Host used 1,000 points of enlightenment value}

{Beginning cultivation}

{Congratulations host, successfully cultivated Zhou Tian Xing Dou Sword Array for ten years, successfully entered the introductory realm, able to initially control the array}

{...}