288: Chapter 288 School Beauty Ranking

"Oh, that's true." Shen Xingchen even felt a slight bit of envy toward that person.

"Alright, I'll stop chatting with you. I'm going to pack my bags." Li Zhixing bade farewell and then went downstairs.

Shen Xingchen opened a new ancient book.

This one was about the Crimson Church.

The Crimson Church worshipped a deity called the "Lord of Scarlet," whose image was an old man holding a book with a third eye in the center of his forehead.

It was said that when the Crimson Church was first established two hundred years ago, the "Lord of Scarlet" would occasionally manifest divine descents, but now it had been over a hundred years since anyone had seen the true "Lord of Scarlet."

However, the cultists always believed that as long as they were devout enough, the deity would eventually show divine miracles again and descend upon the earth.

"Lord of Scarlet." Shen Xingchen repeated the name to himself.

Based on Shen Xingchen's existing knowledge system, he felt that deities were likely fictional existences, just like immortal descendents among humans.

But the ancient records detailed the divine descent scenes of the Lord of Scarlet in great detail.

No, that's not right!

Although the Lord of Scarlet had indeed descended upon the earth, He might not necessarily be a true deity. To ordinary people, a King-Rank was already "like a god."

Following this line of thought: two hundred years ago, a King-Rank powerhouse wanted to establish a religion for some reason, using the characteristics of His abilities to make many people deeply grateful, worshiping and revering Him... Hmm, perhaps this was His means of gaining power.

For example, the more faith He received, the stronger He became.

The reason why divine descents hadn't occurred again in the past century was because the "god" died. The "god" was just an ordinary King-Rank who couldn't withstand the erosion of time and thus died of old age.

It all made sense now!

"The specific details remain open to debate," Shen Xingchen muttered to himself.

Over the next period of time, he flipped through a few more ancient books, all of which discussed the laws mastered by various bigshots upon ascending to the eighth rank.

Senior Sword Saint Cui Ping's was naturally the Law of Sword. He had walked this path almost to its end, acclaimed by the world as the number one in the Dao of the Sword throughout the ages, truly terrifying to behold.

There was also an old man with the Law of Strength whose Talent Divine Ability was called [Kingship], ranked SS-grade. In his twilight years, he charged alone into the Arctic Ice Field and then vanished...

Most of these powerhouses' insights into major laws were related to their Talent Divine Abilities.

Based on his current conditions, he had at least three paths to take: the Law of Strength from the [Dragon Emperor] lineage, the Law of Thunder from the [Myriad Gods Thunder Department] lineage, and the Law of Destruction from the [Destruction Killing Pupil].

And based on nourishing the heart sword with essence blood, there was also the Law of Sword path walked by Senior Sword Saint Cui Ping.

"Did none of these powerhouses ever consider mastering multiple powers of laws by themselves?" Shen Xingchen complained to himself.

...

At dusk.

Shen Xingchen stretched his arms and left the second-floor study.

Just as he turned into the living room, he saw Li Zhixing and Senior Brother Chubby Du pointing at a phone, discussing animatedly.

Shen Xingchen curiously leaned in and asked, "Senior Brothers, what are you two looking at?"

Li Zhixing shifted the phone over a bit: "Our school made a new leaderboard for the school beauties. The current rule is five votes per person, so we're voting for the school beauties."

Shen Xingchen glanced at the phone: "Why do I feel like you guys just simply love looking at photos of pretty girls?"

Li Zhixing retorted, "Then Little Junior Brother, aren't you going to take a look?"

Shen Xingchen looked at Jiang Qingyao outside the courtyard and answered honestly, "...I do!"

Although his feelings for Qingyao were unwavering, appreciating pretty girls was inherently a primitive instinct of a normal male.

Chubby Du said, "Then say no more, let me show you."

Li Zhixing briefly explained, "On the current board, Senior Sister is undoubtedly ranked first, second place is Su Xinyuan, and third place is Jiang Xin'er..."

Shen Xingchen looked at that golden name ranked at the top.

Shen Xingchen was not surprised that Senior Sister was first on the school beauty leaderboard. The only thing that made him slightly uncomfortable was that Jiang Qingyao was not on the list.

Of course, this was because Jiang Qingyao was not a student of Shangjing University, so naturally she couldn't be on the list.

Chubby Du caught the key point: "Senior Brother Li, that Su Xinyuan... isn't she your girlfriend?!"

Unexpectedly, Li Zhixing suddenly got annoyed: "YOUR girlfriend!"

"..." Du Xiaoyue was a bit baffled. Why did Senior Brother Li look like he had suffered a huge insult? Su Xinyuan really was very beautiful, second only to Senior Sister.

Shen Xingchen recalled Senior Brother Li's phone call last semester and that soft, alluring female voice... Hmm, after that, Senior Brother Li was weak for a long time, as if his yang energy had been drained dry.

There was a story here!

Shen Xingchen asked, "Senior Brother... what exactly is wrong with Su Xinyuan?"

Li Zhixing wore a look of grief and indignation: "Do you know how many times she and I broke up, and how many times we got back together?"

Shen Xingchen guessed randomly: "Four times?"

Looking at how Senior Brother Li seemed to be brutally tormented by love, he must have had quite a few breakup experiences.

Li Zhixing said in a deep voice, "Thirty-four times! Thirty-four times! And every time, we were only back together for one night, and the next day she acts like she doesn't know me!"

"..." Du Xiaoyue.

"..." Shen Xingchen.

He understood. Su Xinyuan affirmed Senior Brother Li's kidneys and prostate, while firmly rejecting everything else about him.

Li Zhixing's expression wasn't great: "Now can we pleasantly evaluate the other school beauties?"

Shen Xingchen nodded repeatedly; he felt a bit sympathetic toward Senior Brother Li.

Du Xiaoyue suddenly exclaimed in surprise, "Huh, how did Sister Jiang get on the list? And her votes are rising rapidly!"

Shen Xingchen looked over too.

Sure enough, Jiang Qingyao was like a dark horse, charging all the way from the bottom toward the top ranks of the leaderboard.

Opening the post to take a look.

[This goddess is named Jiang Qingyao. Although she is a transfer student from Shanghai Shenwu to our college, her looks are extremely top-notch. I think we can make an exception and let her charge up the leaderboard.]

The poster attached an ID photo of Jiang Qingyao, likely obtained from the Academic Affairs Office.

The comments below completely blew up.

"My goodness, is she really this beautiful?"

"I declare that my goddess is no longer Su Xinyuan, but has changed to this girl named Jiang Qingyao."

"Could she compete with Senior Sister Bai for number one?"

"Yeah, yeah! Senior Sister Bai has been number one on the school beauty leaderboard for three years; this time she's really met a worthy opponent!"

"I saw her at the Martial Arts Arena! She seems to be Prodigy Shen's girlfriend!"

"Ah? Which Prodigy Shen?"

"Shen Xingchen! Who else in our college could be called Prodigy Shen?"

"..."

Shen Xingchen looked at the comments below, lost in thought.

Maybe... he should hide Little Miss Jiang away. This charm of hers was simply too strong to keep under wraps!