"HMMMM~"

...

Outside the examination hall.

Stepping out, Chen Che couldn’t help but shake his head as a dull headache set in. This was the result of overexerting his mind in the Void Illusion Realm, which was precisely why the combat exam was scheduled for the last day.

’As expected, the fifth stage was easy, but the sixth was tough.’

The True Martial Seventeen Scattering Hands was powerful, but it wasn’t strong enough to let him jump two whole Realms to defeat an enemy.

Of course.

If he were back in Yunzhou, it might have been possible.

Looking back at his score, Chen Che frowned.

’159 points isn’t bad. Too bad I couldn’t get close enough to land a few punches. I could have gotten another 2 points for damage!’

Against the Sword Cultivator from the sixth stage, he was completely powerless to fight back. All he could do was run left and right, constantly stalling for time.

He had wanted to wait for an opportunity, get close, and unleash a long combo of the True Martial Seventeen Scattering Hands.

Unfortunately,

the illusion gave him no chance to get close. Nine Sword Pills riddled him with holes on the spot, and the final sword strike was a direct headshot.

"You did well!"

Seeing Chen Che get ejected from the exam hall, Li Xiaoshuang walked right over, handing him a report card. "You scored a total of 1068 points on this month’s exam, ranking 19th in the entire grade. First place is 42 points ahead of you. You can see where the gap is."

Chen Che glanced at it.

It was a handwritten list of scores. The rankings for the regular students hadn’t been released yet, but the top fifty had already been tallied.

He was the only student to pass the fifth stage.

Furthermore, he was ranked seventh in the entire grade for Alchemy!

"Compared to the top students in each subject, I’m one Layer behind the student with the highest Cultivation, which cost me 30 Realm points. I’m also 31 points behind the top student in academics. My Cultivation Realm and academics are my weak points!"

Chen Che said.

Of course,

these "weak points" were relative. Among the two thousand second-year students, even his lowest score, for his Realm, was still in the top hundred.

"Good, you know where you fall short!"

Li Xiaoshuang was very pleased. This student’s greatest strength was that he never got arrogant. He was keenly aware of his own shortcomings. "Your scores have been rising steadily. At this rate, you have a chance of breaking 1400 on the college entrance exams, provided you don’t slack off."

"Thank you for your encouragement, Teacher!"

Chen Che nodded.

The teacher had given him the report card immediately so he could identify and address his weaknesses. It was excellent feedback.

"Yes, if only your Cultivation were a little higher."

"Teacher Li, are you...?"

Glancing at Li Xiaoshuang, he felt that the teacher clearly had something he wanted to say, but for some reason, held back.

Just as he was about to ask, Yan Jun walked over and asked:

"Chen Che, are you interested in transferring to my Class Three?"

"..."

Chen Che fell silent for a moment.

’Is it really okay to try and poach someone right in front of their teacher?’

Of course, on Earth Element Star, there were no rigid school loyalties. Students would transfer classes, or even schools, for better educational resources.

However, he had no such intention:

"I really like the atmosphere in Class One, and all the teachers there are great to me, especially Teacher Li."

"Your Teacher Li is a psycho. I suggest you stay away from him. If you ever want to transfer classes in the future, just let me know." Yan Jun patted Chen Che’s shoulder, then shot a glare at Li Xiaoshuang, unable to stop himself from cursing inwardly:

’Damn it!’

’I’ve never met such a shameless person.’

’Everyone else praises their own students, saying how amazing they are and what high scores they’ll definitely get. But when it comes to Li Xiaoshuang, he does the exact opposite. He goes on about how terrible his students are, and he actually gets everyone to believe him.’

’A psycho?’

Chen Che glanced at Li Xiaoshuang in surprise, but the teacher didn’t seem to mind at all. In fact, he was grinning happily. He turned to the students and announced, "The monthly exam is over! You can all relax. This afternoon is free time, but you are not allowed to leave the campus!"

"Wooo!~"

"Hooray!"

Instantly, a wave of cheers erupted.

Students from other classes heard the noise and looked over, their faces full of envy.

The combat exam had only taken half the day.

After their exams, many classes still had to stay in their classrooms for self-study.

Some classes had bombed their academics tests, and word was their homeroom teachers were furious, handing out more than ten practice sheets.

...

"Let’s go eat, let’s go eat!"

As soon as Li Xiaoshuang left, the students started calling their friends and running to the cafeteria to eat.

"Old Chen, cafeteria!"

"Alright!"

Chen Che nodded.

The combat exam was physically draining, and he was already famished.

The cafeteria was a cacophony of noise. The clatter of trays, the sound from the projection TV, and the students’ chatter all blended into one.

The boys from Class One took over a few large adjacent tables, discussing the morning’s exam as they ate.

"So you’re number one in combat for the whole grade now, right?"

Lin Yi’s voice was full of envy.

"It’s just temporary. My Realm score is relatively low, so it won’t be easy to hold on to first place," Chen Che said, shaking his head.

He was still quite level-headed.

After all, right now, the top handful of students in the grade were all at the level of the fifth stage in combat. The gap wasn’t that big.

If someone else had a breakthrough in their Cultivation Technique, they could surpass him.

To secure his position, he’d have to be a full stage ahead of everyone else.

"By the way, what’s your overall school ranking this time?" someone asked.

"I think it’s 803, up 39 spots from last time," Chen Che said. 𝒇𝓻𝓮𝓮𝙬𝙚𝒃𝒏𝓸𝙫𝒆𝙡.𝓬𝓸𝒎

Everyone was stunned.

"That’s insane!"

"You really can’t compare people!"

The area erupted in a flurry of excitement.

When the gap became that large, jealousy was replaced by pure admiration.

"Damn!"

Lin Yi was in the middle of sighing with emotion when his eyes suddenly narrowed. He picked a yellowed leaf out from his pile of vegetables. "Not only do the cafeteria ladies have shaky hands, their eyes are bad too. There’s a leaf in here. Didn’t the school announce that they hired two Cultivators just to wash vegetables in the kitchen?"

"Normal people slack off, so why wouldn’t Cultivators?"

Chen Che, on the other hand, found it completely normal. Having lived two lives, he had found all sorts of foreign objects in his cafeteria food before, like nails, steel wool, and cockroaches. He had even developed the strong mental fortitude to simply pick out the object and continue eating without a change in expression.

"Old Chen, let’s go to the Martial Arts Arena this afternoon to spar. You can give me some pointers," Qi Fengzhu said.

"Sure."

Chen Che nodded. He had nothing else to do that afternoon anyway.

As he was speaking, his arm was suddenly bumped by Lin Yi, who then said:

"Xu Zhixi is coming over to confess!"

Chen Che looked up suspiciously and saw a girl in the distance, surrounded by a group of people, walking over with a smile. It was the same girl Lin Yi had said was going to confess to him this morning.

"Isn’t that Xu Zhixi?"

"The class flower of Class Six?"

"Holy crap, is another class flower about to fall at Old Chen’s feet?"

"I heard the second-year class flowers are all competing to see who can be the first to capture Old Chen’s heart and prove they’re the most charming!"

Listening to the surrounding chatter, Huang Zhongfei seemed to be imagining the Spirit Chicken Leg in his hand was Chen Che. In three bites, he chewed it up, skin, bone, and all, and swallowed it straight down his throat.

Amidst the crowd’s murmurs,

Xu Zhixi, with a streak of wine-red in her hair and a butterfly tattoo on her forearm, had already arrived in front of Chen Che. She spoke softly:

"Classmate Chen Che, it’s like this. Our homeroom teacher told us to seek guidance from students with high combat scores. Since your combat score is now recognized as number one in the whole grade, I was wondering if you have any time this afternoon!"

Chen Che had an instinctive aversion to people whose reputations preceded them, and was about to refuse when his classmates started chiming in:

"He’s free, he’s free!"

"Old Chen just said we’re going to the Martial Arts Arena this afternoon."

"Yeah, we can all go together after we finish eating..."

With so many people egging it on, it became awkward for him to refuse, so he could only nod:

"Alright."

Hearing this, Xu Zhixi’s expression bloomed like a flower. "Then it’s a date."

...

"Xu Zhixi, you’re a genius!"

Back in her group of friends, a chubby girl excitedly clenched her fists. "I never would have thought you’d actually invite Chen Che to the Martial Arts Arena! And he actually agreed!"

"I heard Chen Che is super cold and aloof. Lots of people have given him love letters, but he’s never responded to a single one."

"Yeah, and he actually agreed!"

Seeing Chen Che accept, many of the girls were extremely surprised.

Some even started asking her for advice.

"It’s all about timing!"

"Remember, a man’s psychology is easy to grasp!"

"When you’re dealing with a guy, you’ll never win by arguing with him head-on! You have to remember to defer to him, to flatter him—the more you praise him, the better. Then, to save face, he’ll agree to whatever you ask."

Xu Zhixi toyed with the dyed streak in her long hair, tapped a finger lightly against her head, and said in a showy tone:

"To handle guys, you need to learn to use a few little tricks. You have to use your brain to make them fall head over heels for you! Just you watch. I’m going to make this ’cold male god’ fall at my feet!"

With that, she puffed out her chest, full of confidence.

In the distance.

Chen Che retracted his gaze, his face expressionless:

’Delusionally confident, and a total turn-off.’