Chapter 531 - 231: The Great Exam Concludes, National Top Scorer

This was no mere talk in the annals of human history!

To this day, on the most dangerous Celestial Abyss battlefronts across the globe, top-tier experts still existed who could single-handedly fend off the invasion of an entire Celestial Abyss.

But without exception, those who could achieve this were peerless experts who had stepped into the Celestial Human Realm, or even the legendary Martial Saint Realm!

A seventeen-year-old boy had actually accomplished such a feat?!

No wonder even the ever-impartial Longyin Academy had made an exception for him!

Zhu Mingyi and He Zhenghong exchanged a look, each seeing the shock in the other’s eyes. However, both were tactful enough not to press the matter further.

Before long, the end of the passage opened up.

An immense underground plaza appeared before the three of them.

In the center of the plaza, Lin Ye and the other ten candidates stood silently in a row.

After the final test, they had received a notification and were all guided here.

They were completely unaware of everything that had happened outside.

Zhu Mingyi and the other two slowly walked up to the eleven candidates.

Behind them, numerous staff members from the proctoring team and a group of combat instructors, including Zhou Ke, also stood in formation with solemn expressions.

Zhou Ke’s face was still pale and his breathing was unsteady. Clearly, the aftereffects of burning his Primordial Spirit were significant.

His gaze toward Lin Ye was filled with complex emotions.

CLAP!

Zhu Mingyi clapped his hands lightly, drawing the attention of all the candidates.

His gentle gaze swept across the eleven young and outstanding faces before him.

"First, allow me to introduce myself. I am Zhu Mingyi of the Great Xia Education Bureau. You may call me Mr. Zhu."

"Second, congratulations. You have all received perfect scores on every section of this year’s National Martial Arts College Entrance Exam!"

As he said this, varying degrees of joy appeared on the faces of the eleven candidates.

The geniuses from ordinary provinces and cities were especially excited, their bodies trembling slightly.

Perfect scores!

They had done it!

This meant they had surpassed millions of candidates across the nation, becoming part of the small handful of people at the very top of the pyramid!

However, Zhu Mingyi’s tone suddenly shifted.

"They may all be perfect scores, but there are still gaps between you."

"I imagine you’re all very eager to know your exact scores for each section. You’re also probably eager to see how the competitors standing next to you performed."

The words had barely left his mouth.

VMMMM—

A massive holographic screen slowly materialized before everyone.

Eleven names were arranged in order from left to right.

Then, beneath the eleven names, row after row of densely packed data began to appear.

Zhu Mingyi’s gaze swept across the eleven young faces with great interest. He watched as their expressions shifted from initial anticipation to scrutiny, then to astonishment and stupor, before finally going completely blank.

Lin Ye wasn’t particularly concerned about his own results, but he was curious about the others’ data.

But when he saw that the equally magnificent stats of Xia Lianxue and Xiao Lingchen seemed so insignificant in comparison to his own—with a gap of five to ten times—he couldn’t help but feel a little embarrassed.

’With such ridiculously buffed stats...’

’...I really am a bit of a "stat monster".’

As for the other ten, after looking over their own results—which were impressive enough to dominate their entire provinces—they began to compare their data with the people next to them.

And then...

Everyone’s gaze simultaneously converged on the results of the person on the far left: "Lin Ye."

In an instant, several people’s brains just short-circuited.

’This... what the fuck? Are these scores even possible for a human?’

They had expected there to be a gap between themselves and peerless geniuses like Xia Lianxue and Xiao Lingchen.

But they never dreamed that among the eleven of them, there wouldn’t just be two once-in-a-generation geniuses.

There was also a monster who could take the scores of those two peerless geniuses and utterly crush them!

Lin Ye suddenly heard a long sigh from beside him.

He turned his head to see Dongfang Zhen looking at him with a wry smile.

"Lin Ye, I knew you had surpassed me by a lot," Dongfang Zhen said in a low voice, "but I never expected it would be by *this* much."

Lin Ye smiled and replied in an equally low voice, "Mr. Dongfang, a battlefield breakthrough deserves congratulations."

Dongfang Zhen froze for a moment, then muttered under his breath.

"...Damn it, you saw right through me again."

He thought he had hidden his breakthrough to the Divine Realm quite well, but he never expected Lin Ye to see through it at a glance.

Zhu Mingyi gave the young people plenty of time to digest the shock. Then, he cleared his throat and announced the final decision, which had already been made in the observation hall.

"Now, I will announce the rules for the final tie-breaker."

"With the exception of Lin Ye, the remaining ten of you will be paired up based on your similar overall scores to fight one-on-one."

"This will determine the final rankings from second to eleventh place for this exam."

The moment he said this, everyone, including Lin Ye, looked surprised.

’Only deciding second through eleventh place?’

’Without a single mention of the top scorer?’

There wasn’t a single fool among them; they all instantly understood the implication.

SWISH!

Almost simultaneously, ten gazes—a mixture of shock, confusion, jealousy, and even resentment—all fell upon Lin Ye!

"Why?"

A clear, cold voice, laced with an irrepressible tremor, rang out.