In the Middle Zone of the ruined town, a lower-ranked First-Stage Shadow Cat collapsed to the ground, choking on blood from its throat slit by a sharp dagger. Behind it, the slender figure of Tang Qi slowly emerged, clutching the dagger in her hand.
Her body was enveloped by a translucent, purple-black energy sheath in the shape of a cat. Cat ears were visible on her head, which, though not consciously controlled, looked very lively and agile. This was an B-level enhancement-type superpower—Phantom Cat! When activated, it significantly increased Tang Qi's movement speed, reaction time, and attacking power.
It was thanks to this B-level superpower that Tang Qi, being only an Awakened, could kill First-Stage ferocious beasts. Naturally, she had also learned a Superpower Cultivation Technique. Although she still lacked the experience for a full transition into a Superpower User, her base physical attributes were already at a high level.
Nevertheless, slaying lower-ranked First-Stage ferocious beasts was the limit of her capabilities. That is why she only dared to move in the Middle Zone and did not risk going to the Central Zone, where Mid-Rank First-Stage ferocious beasts lived.
To conserve energy, Tang Qi deactivated the Phantom Cat form immediately after killing the beast. The cat-shaped energy sheath surrounding her body vanished, and her vertical cat pupils returned to their normal appearance.
[12th Place, Tang Qi, 567 points (Jiangcheng First Middle School)』
Opening her smartwatch and seeing her ranking, Tang Qi frowned: "I dropped one position."
She instinctively looked higher to see who had overtaken her in the ranking. However, unexpectedly, she saw a familiar name in ninth place.
"Xu Jingming from Second Middle School, 607 points, ninth place?!" Tang Qi froze for a moment, and then the image of the well-built youth with a spear on his back flashed in her memory.
"So, it was you after all who delivered that thrust yesterday, Cousin Jingming..."
She certainly allowed for the possibility that it was just a coincidence of names, but for the school to be the same, and the name to fully match—such coincidences are extremely rare. Adding to this her suspicions that arose yesterday at the Thunder and Lightning Martial Arts Hall, there was no doubt—the Xu Jingming in the rankings was indeed her cousin.
"But how could you achieve this, possessing only an E-level superpower?" A flicker of curiosity crossed Tang Qi's face. "It seems my cousin is not as simple as he looks at first glance…"
"Damn it, is Ming really that cool?!"
"If I had known earlier, I would have called him Daddy and stuck to him right away!"
On the outskirts of the ruined town, Liu Jie, enlarged to double his size, looked at Xu Jingming's ranking on the virtual screen and lamented. Compared to the results of the martial arts exam, was it really so hard to call someone Daddy?
"Xu Jingming made it into the top ten!"
"That's unbelievable!"
"He now holds the highest position among students from our Second Middle School!"
In Lin Qingyuan's team, ever since they saw Xu Jingming in 46th place, everyone had been closely following his progress. Now that he had entered the top ten, each of them was astonished. How could he have achieved this?
"Xu Jingming made it into the top ten, now we also need to try and make it into at least the top 300!" Looking at the ranking table, Lin Qingyuan couldn't hide her excitement.
Although they didn't know how Xu Jingming managed to achieve such a result, their situation was different from his. For them, making it into the top 300 would already be a great achievement...
When Xu Jingming hadn't yet entered the top ten, his position didn't attract much attention. But as soon as he landed in the top ten, virtually all exam participants paid attention to him. Those who were familiar with Xu Jingming reacted differently.
However, Xu Jingming himself knew nothing about this. At the moment, he was fully focused on getting to the Central Zone as quickly as possible.
Following the enhancement of his physique, Xu Jingming's movement speed increased significantly. Moreover, his current location in the Middle Zone was not that far from the Central Zone. Therefore, in just over thirty minutes, Xu Jingming reached the boundaries of the Central Zone marked on the map.
The Central Zone of the ruined town was the former thriving downtown of Weiyuan. Compared to the Middle Zone, the buildings here were taller, and even through the dilapidated exterior, traces of former sophistication could still be seen. More importantly, the level of ferocious beasts in the Central Zone ranged from Lower-Rank First-Stage to Mid-Rank First-Stage; unranked beasts were no longer encountered here!
Usually, only participants in the top five in Jiangcheng dared to enter the Central Zone. Of course, Xu Jingming was an exception.
He did not deliberately seek out ferocious beasts on the way, so in those thirty-plus minutes, he only killed four or five beasts. His ranking not only failed to climb but even dropped to 10th place.
"If I find a large group of ferocious beasts, my ranking will quickly rise. This time, I'm going straight for first place!" Xu Jingming looked around intently. His strategy remained the same—go where the loudest roars of ferocious beasts could be heard!
"Rrrroar!"
"Awoo!"
In the ruined city, growls and howls of ferocious beasts echoed here and there—it was their paradise. Xu Jingming listened carefully and chose the southeast direction, where the loudest and most frequent sounds were coming from.
Most exam participants moved cautiously, fearing they would attract the attention of the ferocious beasts and get surrounded. However, Xu Jingming, like an agile cheetah, dashed through the city. The black spear weighing 50 kilograms on his back did not impede his movements in the slightest.
Xu Jingming sped through the ruined streets, the wind whistling in his ears, and the landscape on both sides rapidly flying past. Occasionally, one or two ferocious beasts could be seen scurrying among the ruins. But Xu Jingming didn't even think about attacking these solitary beasts.
Soon, the source of the heavy growls and howls came closer. At the end of the street, a rusty, half-ruined bus could be seen, blocking the road. However, Xu Jingming did not slow down and only abruptly pushed off with his feet and leaped five or six meters into the air when he was just a few meters from the bus.
Boom!
Xu Jingming's combat boots landed with a loud thud on the roof of the bus. From here, he had an excellent view of what was below.
A sports ground stretched out before him. Besides various dilapidated exercise equipment, numerous ferocious beasts inhabited the area. There were so many that the air, besides the smell of blood, was filled with a characteristic animal stench, which made Xu Jingming slightly wrinkle his nose.
"One, two, three… There are ten ferocious beasts here, and all of them are Sabre-toothed Tigers. It seems I've stumbled upon an entire pack," Xu Jingming thought.
Ferocious beasts were divided into pack-hunters and solitary-hunters, and Sabre-toothed Tigers belonged to the pack-hunting type. Ordinary exam participants tried to bypass such packs. However, in Xu Jingming's cold black-and-white eyes, a fiery battle spirit burned. This was exactly what he was looking for!
"For Sabre-toothed Tigers to form a pack, there must be one whose strength overwhelms all the others," Xu Jingming shifted his gaze to the center of the sports ground.
A half-eaten, bloody carcass of a One-Horned Rhino lay there. Next to the carcass was a Sabre-toothed Tiger, noticeably larger than its kin!
Its four paws were incredibly powerful, and the bone blades on its forelegs looked particularly large and sharp.
"A Mid-Rank First-Stage Sabre-toothed Tiger. It seems to be the leader of this pack," the corners of Xu Jingming's mouth lifted slightly into a smile.
If he could kill all these beasts, he would gain quite a lot of ability points.
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