While everyone was marveling at the outcome of the battle, Zhou Bai just stood there, motionless, his body rapidly recovering the expended physical and mental energy.
Christina laughed wildly, "Hahahaha, now you know how formidable I am! I bet that old snake will play favorites in the future. He should invest all the good stuff in me and focus on my cultivation."
Zhou Bai said happily, "Now I’m in 10th place! Let me calculate, starting from the 20th place, each advance is 100 points, so the 10th place is 1300 points! An extra 1300 points a month, I can eat a lot of stuff, and enhance my physique to a higher realm."
With Zhou Bai’s successful challenge, Ying Hui finished contemplating and nodded his approval, "Zhou Bai, you being able to defeat a first-realm with a zero-realm, succeeding in a cross-level challenge, is indeed commendable. But never become arrogant; you must continue to train hard and maintain this momentum."
This chapter is updat𝓮d by freēwebnovel.com.
With that, the rankings shifted once again, Zhou Bai moved up to the 10th position, Liu Bingxin fell to the 11th, and the others behind them each moved back a spot.
Subsequently, Ying Hui turned to Jiang Ran and asked, "Whom would you like to challenge?"
Jiang Ran shook his head, "There’s no one I want to challenge." He sighed, seemingly completely devoid of the will to fight, which made Ying Hui frown deeply.
Meng Hao hesitated for a moment but ultimately shook his head and abandoned the idea of a challenge.
The following battles had nothing to do with Zhou Bai. There were minor changes in the rankings after the tenth, but the top ten positions remained unchanged.
Zhou Bai simply watched as he waited for the assessment to end.
"Finally, it’s over. Let’s go, let’s go," Zhou Bai called out to Zuo Dao and Qian Wangsun cheerfully, "Let’s go eat together."
Qian Wangsun agreed with a chuckle, but Zuo Dao walked out in silence without a word.
Zhou Bai waved at Zuo Dao, "Don’t leave, Zuo Dao! Today I’ve made it to the 10th spot, I’m treating you to dinner, let’s eat together."
Qian Wangsun said, "Zuo Dao has such a strong sense of pride; he must be hurrying off to cultivate by now. How could he come over just because you’re treating? Let’s go, treating just me will do, I don’t eat much."
Left Dao, who had seemingly returned to Zhou Bai’s side at some point, locked his gaze on him, expressionless except for the slight redness of his cheeks that betrayed his excitement.
Zhou Bai chuckled and patted his chest, "1300 extra points for being 10th place, what’s treating you guys to a meal? We are all from the same batch, all top geniuses, in the future, we will be good brothers."
In the cafeteria, Qian Wangsun glanced at the two bowls of rice in front of him and sighed, "So it’s really just ’meals’ that you’re treating to."
He turned his head towards Zuo Dao only to see him gulping down his rice with gusto and said speechlessly, "Do you need to relish mere staples like that? You were ranked second in the last assessment, you must have a lot of points."
Using all of them to exchange for materials to practice Ghost God Hundred Refinements," Zuo Dao replied while wolfing down his meal, "I haven’t eaten my fill in days."
Qian Wangsun commented, "The consumption for Ghost God Hundred Refinements is that high, huh."
Musing to himself, Zhou Bai thought, "This time I grabbed the 10th spot; next time, I can sprint for the 6th place, the time after that, I should be able to defeat the second realm, and the time after that I’m going for the first place. Hey, wouldn’t that mean I would become the top of the school in less than a year of entering Dao School?"
Christina furrowed her brows, thinking bitterly, ’Damn it, at this rate I’m getting left further and further behind by Zhou Bai, soon I won’t even see his taillight.’
In another corner of the cafeteria, Meng Hao and Jiang Ran glanced at the trio dining together, then left the cafeteria towards a secluded corner within Dao School.
Jiang Ran expressed his discouragement, "I never expected Zhou Bai’s progress to be this fast; in this combat assessment, we didn’t stand a chance to cripple him."
With a mix of jealousy and envy, he said, "I’ve toiled for a year to attain my current strength, how long has he been cultivating?"
"What’s the use of rapid cultivation? I think the faster one cultivates, the more miserably they die later on," Meng Hao responded coldly, "Only by completing the transformation... one can truly transcend and even achieve immortality, unlike now." His eyes blazed with fanaticism as he reached the end of his sentence.
With a look of anticipation and longing, Jiang Ran added, "But what do we do now? The upper echelons finally gave us a mission, and if it’s not accomplished..."
Meng Hao’s eyes narrowed, "Even though Zhou Bai’s Body Refinement technique is already superb, and Ying Hui is watching over him, during the assessment, even if I revealed the first realm’s power and used Heavenly Dragon Collapse, I could at most injure him, yet it’s unlikely I could seriously cripple him."
Turning to Meng Hao, Jiang Ran asked, "That’s true, but it would still mean a failed mission. Shall we... team up and find an opportunity to ambush him?"
Meng Hao pondered and said, "No, you can’t just make decisions on your own and ruin the grand plan. We still need to report to those above us and let them make the decisions."
"Alas," Jiang Ran sighed, "I just fear that if those above are dissatisfied, they won’t use us anymore."
Meng Hao replied, "Then we continue to lie low and wait for an opportunity. The current situation is tense; humanity wavers in the storm. There will always be a time when we are needed."
...
On the second night of the combat assessment, Zhou Bai lay in bed and looked at his panel.
Daoization Degree: 10.0%
Primordial Spirit Value: 1000
Divine Diagram: Catastrophes of Heaven and Man
Laziness: 10170
"Finally, my Laziness has broken through ten thousand. I can unlock the poverty diagram."
With a hint of anticipation, Zhou Bai spent the ten thousand Laziness points and saw the Taiyin Roulette in his sea of knowledge faintly light up, illuminating a new circle of divine diagrams.
"1, 2, 3, 4..." Zhou Bai counted, "Another nine star points." He turned his gaze to the first lit star point.
Chasing the Sun - Naked: Body devoid of clothing, agile and nimble. Going bare-chested brings a speed bonus.
Cultivation Technique: (After a few glances by Zhou Bai, directly skipped)
Laziness (0/7000)
Upon reading the description of the star point, Zhou Bai paused and his first reaction was to lift his shirt and look at his upper body.
"Eight pack abs plus the Adonis belt, hmm... not bad," Zhou Bai nodded in satisfaction, "Going bare-chested isn’t embarrassing."
"I just wonder how much faster this speed bonus can be?" Zhou Bai mused, "The zeroth level’s laziness diagram mainly enhanced defense; could the first level’s poverty diagram be all about speed?"
Unfortunately, having just spent ten thousand Laziness points to create the poverty diagram, Zhou Bai lacked the points to continue enhancing the star points. He set it aside for now, waiting to accumulate more Laziness points.
Although he had unlocked the poverty diagram, the thought that he could no longer read from the Dao School’s treasury cast a shadow over him, and he could only sigh helplessly.
"Dr. Zhuang ah, Dr. Zhuang, whatever you’ve done to Elsa and me, why couldn’t you explain it clearly?"
Afterward, Zhou Bai resumed his daily cultivation routine, looking forward to excelling once more in the next assessment.
However, a few days later, during an evening visit to the library to borrow teaching materials, Zhou Bai discovered that his access privileges seemed to have increased.
"Hm? I can borrow more books now?" Zhou Bai said, surprised, "Although I’ve actually reached the 1st realm, the school should still treat me as if I’m at the 0th realm. Could it be because I made it into the top 10 of the special training class?"
Heavenly Dao is twisted; all sorts of cultivation techniques, materials, and teaching content contain dangers. This coupled with the wartime regulation by Heaven, results in various secrecy agreements.
Therefore, borrowing from the library also involves privileges.
At that moment, Zhou Bai found that his privileges had increased and immediately couldn’t wait to start reading the newly added materials.
Soon, one of the materials caught his attention.
"A world map?"