The Martial Arts Arena.
Swish, swish, swish!
The moment Diana finished speaking, the turbulent gazes of the entire crowd instantly locked onto Year Two, Class 1.
Naturally, the vast majority of those stares were unconsciously drawn to the striking, aristocratic figure of Instructor Loke.
Feeling the weight of the crowd’s attention, Loke tilted his chin up, his face radiating absolute confidence.
“Pierce Zhao, Felix Zhang, and Julian Feng.
You three, step onto the platform for testing!”
“Yes, Instructor!”
Three students quickly stepped out from the ranks of Class 1, their eyes brimming with self-assurance.
Just standing there, their imposing auras instantly set them apart from the other students in the arena by a massive margin.
These were the three geniuses who had awakened B-Class talents during the ceremony last month!
The undisputed top students of Class 1!
After offering a respectful bow to Loke, the three boys strode confidently onto the Awakening Platform.
Hovering directly above the center of the platform was a glowing blue sphere—the core of the AI system.
The AI core was incredibly advanced; assessing talent grades was just one of its functions.
Accurately scanning cultivation levels was an absolute breeze.
“I’ll go first!”
Pierce, whose physical build was noticeably larger and more muscular than the other two, took a deep breath and stepped directly beneath the AI core.
The next second, the AI core projected a beam of deep blue light, completely enveloping him.
The crowd could clearly see the intensity of the light steadily increasing, shifting from a dim glow to a brilliant, blinding azure.
When the brightness hit its peak and stabilized, the AI’s mechanical voice echoed across the arena.
“Scan complete!
Cultivation Level: Tier 1, Level 4!
Progress toward Level 5: 50%!”
Hearing the AI’s announcement, a subtle, barely noticeable smirk crept onto Loke’s lips.
Hiss…
A collective gasp swept through the observing students and faculty.
Tier One, Level Four!
Sure, a B-Class genius naturally started at Tier One, Level Three the moment they awakened.
But breaking through from Level Three to Level Four was exponentially harder than jumping from Level One to Level Three!
What was even more terrifying was that Pierce was already halfway to breaking into Level Five!
The speed was simply astonishing.
But the shocks didn’t end there.
As Felix and Julian stepped under the AI core one after the other, the mechanical voice rang out twice more:
“Scan complete!
Cultivation Level: Tier 1, Level 4!
Progress toward Level 5: 45%!”
“Scan complete!
Cultivation Level: Tier 1, Level 4!
Progress toward Level 5: 40%!”
Although Felix and Julian hadn’t progressed quite as far toward Level Five as Pierce had, they were still solidly sitting at Tier One, Level Four.
Three Level Four cultivators!
The sheer impact of that revelation hit the crowd like a tidal wave.
The arena fell dead silent for a few seconds before erupting into an absolute frenzy of chatter.
“Oh my god!
Three Level Fours!
All three of them managed to break through their bottlenecks in less than a month!
How is that even possible?!” “I mean, geniuses are geniuses for a reason, but the real credit has to go to Instructor Loke, right?
As expected of the elite class instructor!” “It’s over!
With scores like this, Class 1 is guaranteed to take first place.
No one else even stands a chance!”
This explosive showing completely overwhelmed the spectating crowd.
Even the instructors of the other seventeen Combat Prep classes could only shake their heads with bitter, resigned smiles.
The moment these scores dropped, they knew first place had already been claimed.
They didn’t have the power to put up a fight.
The most talented students in the entire year paired with the academy’s absolute best resources—how were they supposed to compete with that?
“Hahaha!
Excellent!
Truly excellent!
If they can maintain this cultivation speed, they genuinely have a shot at getting into the Fiore First Magic University!” Up on the viewing platform, Vice Principal Makarov’s booming voice rang out.
He showered them with praise before giving Loke an approving nod.
“Instructor Loke, you have done a phenomenal job!”
“Thank you, Vice Principal Makarov.
I am simply fulfilling my duties.” Loke sounded humble, but his chin was held high, and the smirk on his face only grew wider.
It was obvious that Makarov’s praise fed right into his massive ego.
For a moment, almost everyone in the arena looked at Loke with sheer envy.
But tucked away in an inconspicuous corner of the crowd, Asher just clicked his tongue, completely unimpressed.
‘Three Level Fours?
I mean, sure, it’s pretty good.
But it’s nothing to write home about.
Grabbing first place wouldn’t even be that hard…’
After witnessing Luna’s terrifying talent firsthand, looking at anyone else barely caused a ripple in his heart.
Honestly, if Chloe and Claire hadn’t skipped his training sessions this month, that first-place spot would have easily been his.
…
“The three representatives from Class 1 are all at Tier One, Level Four.
At four points each, Class 1 scores a total of twelve points and currently holds first place!
Next, we invite the representatives of Year Two, Class 2 to step onto the Awakening Platform!” Diana’s cool, authoritative voice cut through the chatter, keeping the event moving.
Three student representatives quickly stepped up from Class 2.
“Scan complete!
Cultivation Level: Tier 1, Level 3!
Progress toward Level 4: 40%!” “Scan complete!
Cultivation Level: Tier 1, Level 3!
Progress toward Level 4: 30%!” “Scan complete!
Cultivation Level: Tier 1, Level 3!
Progress toward Level 4: 30%!”
Three Tier One, Level Threes.
Three points each, for a total of nine points.
While it couldn’t hold a candle to the terrifying display of Class 1, it was still a very solid showing.
As the class numbers suggested, Class 2’s theoretical strength was only second to Class 1.
However, this also highlighted a glaring problem: as the class numbers went up, the overall strength of the student representatives steadily declined.
“Scan complete!
Cultivation Level: Tier 1, Level 3!
Progress toward Level 4: 40%!” “Scan complete!
Cultivation Level: Tier 1, Level 2!
Progress toward Level 3: 80%!” “Scan complete!
Cultivation Level: Tier 1, Level 2!
Progress toward Level 3: 50%!”
Class 2 scored a 9.
Class 3 dropped down to an 8.
Then came scores of 7, and even a few 6s.
Although the final rankings wouldn’t strictly follow the numerical order of the classes, the trend was pretty clear.
The initial excitement in the arena slowly fizzled out, and the crowd’s enthusiasm began to rapidly cool.
“Next, we invite the representatives of Year Two, Class 10 to step onto the Awakening Platform!”
Just as the crowd was starting to lose interest, Diana’s announcement suddenly caused countless eyes to light up!
Class 10 was Instructor Drake’s class!
Everyone knew a massive chunk of the crowd was purely here to witness the outcome of the wager between Drake and Asher, and plenty of them had money riding on it through the Dark Web.
The moment Drake’s class was called, the atmosphere in the arena instantly flared back to life.
“Oh?
Looks like things are finally getting interesting.” Bored out of his mind, Loke turned to look at Drake, his expression filled with mocking amusement.
Even though everyone considered Drake to be his loyal lapdog, Loke had absolutely zero emotional attachment to the man.
“It’s finally my turn!”
Basking in the burning gazes of the crowd, Drake couldn’t help but lick his lips in anticipation.
He shot a highly provocative glare toward Asher’s corner of the arena.
He didn’t make a sound, but his mouth clearly mouthed the words: You’re dead meat!
Turning back to his students, Drake’s voice boomed with absolute confidence.
“Pierce, Zane, Silas!
Step onto the platform!”
“Yes, Instructor!”
Without a shred of hesitation, the three boys practically sprinted onto the Awakening Platform.
Moments later, the AI’s voice rang out in rapid succession.
“Scan complete!
Cultivation Level: Tier 1, Level 4!
Progress toward Level 5: 10%!” “Scan complete!
Cultivation Level: Tier 1, Level 2!
Progress toward Level 3: 55%!” “Scan complete!
Cultivation Level: Tier 1, Level 2!
Progress toward Level 3: