Chapter 172: Second-Round Selection, Ye Lingxiao's Fighting Spirit

Deng Bingding looked at the twenty students left in front of him and encouraged them, “The techniques you just learned—I’ve granted you access to use them.”

“This is a reward from the Heavenly Court to incentivize you first-floor examinees and help you advance in the exam.”

“I hope you won’t become arrogant or impatient. Continue to forge ahead bravely on the Immortal Path, and one day, you’ll ascend even higher—serving the Heavenly Court and your sects...”

After offering those words of encouragement, Deng Bingding moved on to explain the next round of exams.

“The second round will take place on October 15th, at this same location.”

“Unlike this comprehensive exam, the second round is a specialized one. Each of you will choose one of four tracks: Dao Heart, Mana, Athletics, or Martial Arts.”

“The reason we’ve kept you here is to help you register...”

Under the guidance of the Righteous Gods, the students pulled out their phones and logged onto the registration site.

According to Deng Bingding, the revamped Foundation Establishment exam now allowed each student to register for two tracks.

This was designed to allow for adjustments in case certain tracks had too few or too many participants. These adjustments would be based on a student’s overall score in the first round.

In short, it was all about better talent allocation on the first floor—ensuring a balanced distribution across all four tracks and avoiding a pile-up of strong candidates in a single group that would result in unfair eliminations.

Zhang Yu furrowed his brows slightly at this: “Register for two?”

“But Ah-Zhen and I only discussed one track...”

“What if we get reshuffled and end up on the same track?”

Zhang Yu wanted to discuss it with Bai Zhenzhen, but the Righteous Gods had already forbidden examinees from communicating with each other.

Clearly, they were meant to complete the registration independently, immediately after being informed of the new rules.

“Guess we’ll have to count on our mutual understanding.”

Originally, Zhang Yu was supposed to register for Athletics and Bai Zhenzhen for Martial Arts.

Now that a second registration slot was added, Zhang Yu had to pick between Dao Heart and Mana.

“Dao Heart or Mana?”

Recalling his performance in the first-round Mana exam, Zhang Yu sighed inwardly. “Without realizing it, I’ve fallen behind Ah-Zhen in Mana control due to lack of focused training.”

So he selected Dao Heart as his second option.

Moments later, as all the students completed their registrations, the data floated before the eyes of the Righteous Gods.

Deng Bingding nodded. “As expected—Yun Jing and Ye Lingxiao chose different tracks. Looks like they coordinated.”

Huang Zichou said, “If those two ended up on the same track, eliminating either one would be a huge waste.”

Deng Bingding’s gaze swept over the third, fourth, and fifth highest scorers. “Let’s begin the reshuffling.”

To him, the first priority was to determine the tracks for Ye Lingxiao and Yun Jing.

Because those two stood on an entirely different level from the remaining eighteen students.

Deng Bingding thought to himself, “Whichever tracks Ye Lingxiao and Yun Jing end up in—those tracks will produce the winners.”

After a brief consultation, the Righteous Gods assigned Ye Lingxiao to Athletics and Yun Jing to Martial Arts.

Then they proceeded to group the rest by descending order of scores, taking care to keep the top ten scorers away from Ye Lingxiao and Yun Jing.

With their high-speed computational abilities, the Righteous Gods quickly finalized the candidate lists for each track.

Huang Zichou glanced at the placements for Zhang Yu and Bai Zhenzhen and thought, “Tough luck for those two.”

Zhang Yu was placed in Athletics, Bai Zhenzhen in Martial Arts.

From the Righteous Gods’ point of view, thanks to Ye Lingxiao and Yun Jing, those two tracks had become “Groups of Death”—every other contestant was essentially doomed to elimination.

“But even if Zhang Yu and Bai Zhenzhen get eliminated this year, they can always take the exam again next year.”

“Those two might be poor, but they’ve got frightening potential—and someone mysterious backing them. They just need another year of training.”

After all, the whole point of the Foundation Establishment exam reform was to uncover and elevate more talents.

Thus, putting lower-ranked students into Ye Lingxiao and Yun Jing’s groups, while keeping higher-ranked ones in the other two, made the most sense.

For repeat-eligible candidates like Zhang Yu and Bai Zhenzhen, elimination wasn’t a tragedy in the eyes of the examiners.

Once the reshuffling concluded, a light screen appeared before each of the twenty students, displaying the second-round group assignments.

Some sighed in relief, others grew visibly tense, and a few just looked resigned—everyone reacting in their own way.

Naturally, the first thing Zhang Yu and Bai Zhenzhen checked was whether they’d ended up on the same track.

Relieved to see they hadn’t—one in Athletics, the other in Martial Arts—they both exhaled slightly.

But the moment they saw who else was in their groups, their expressions turned grim.

“Number 23?” Zhang Yu looked toward Ye Lingxiao and thought, “I’ve gotta compete against that guy?”

Remembering Ye Lingxiao’s overwhelming performance in all three exams earlier, Zhang Yu muttered mentally, “Seriously... this guy’s hacks are stronger than mine.”

“Rich and cheating? Number 23, you’re too damn blessed.”

In that instant, Zhang Yu genuinely wished Ye Lingxiao would get hit by a car.

But he knew that wasn’t happening—not just because it might not kill him, but also because someone with that much power was surely well protected.

“Yushu... it’s your fault.”

“If you were even slightly more capable, I wouldn’t be worrying right now.”

“In the end, I’ve still got to upgrade you myself.”

At first, Zhang Yu saw the Feathered Tome as his cheat.

Then, as he kept growing stronger through his own effort, he realized the Tome was more like his latent potential.

Now, thinking about how he still had to go hunt Evil Gods to upgrade the thing, he was starting to feel like he was

its

cheat code.

Meanwhile, Bai Zhenzhen looked toward Yun Jing. “That guy’s Number 11? Seriously, they put me in

his

group? This reeks of favoritism!”

“Can’t his family go bankrupt or something?”

She rubbed her head in frustration. “Martial Arts means there’ll be actual combat eventually. Beating him...”

She began recalling every detail of Yun Jing’s earlier performances, trying not to miss a single thing.

Yu Xinghan, who had also landed in Athletics, frowned a little but wasn’t too discouraged.

From the start, he hadn’t expected to qualify for a Foundation License this year. Making it this far was already impressive.

“Alright,” Deng Bingding said. “You’ve all seen the list. That’s it for today.”

“Go home and prepare well for the next round.”

He pointed toward the same passage the students had entered through, signaling they were free to leave.

As Zhang Yu and Bai Zhenzhen headed toward the exit, they realized Ye Lingxiao had somehow ended up walking beside them.

Noticing the pair, Ye Lingxiao met their gaze and gave a small nod—like a silent greeting.

Watching from a distance, Dai Xingzhi thought, “He greeted them? That means he sees them as equals.”

He remembered looking down on Zhang Yu for being an outsider when they first arrived. Now he could only smile wryly to himself. “Having money really is great. You don’t have to be from Xiandu to be a big deal.”

After exchanging a glance with Zhang Yu, Ye Lingxiao said, “Today’s exam—wasn’t worth your full strength?”

Zhang Yu jolted slightly. “What’s that supposed to mean? Is that some veiled Xiandu insult? A jab at my weak results?”

Ye Lingxiao continued, “But for the next round... you won’t get by without giving it your all.”

“I’m looking forward to our match.”

“So then... see you at the summit.”

By “summit,” Ye Lingxiao was referring to the second floor of Kunxu.

In his eyes, even if Zhang Yu and Bai Zhenzhen didn’t qualify for Foundation Licenses this time, they were still bound to reach the second floor eventually.

As Ye Lingxiao dropped into the black portal below and vanished, Zhang Yu couldn’t shake the look of pure battle-lust in the guy’s eyes.

The next second, both he and Bai Zhenzhen dropped into the portal as well—reappearing back in the train station restroom.

“That guy...” Zhang Yu thought. “He wasn’t mocking me?”

He clenched his fists slightly. “Don’t worry. Next time—I’ll make sure you’re impressed.”

…

Back at the train station, beneath the smog-streaked night sky, Zhang Yu and Bai Zhenzhen didn’t dare linger in Xiandu. They quickly bought tickets and left the high-cost city.

Just as the train began moving and Zhang Yu felt himself finally relax, the Ritual started up again.

“Sigh.” With a heavy breath, he stepped into the corridor and began cultivating

Endless Spring and Autumn Meditation

.

Seeing this, Bai Zhenzhen silently cursed, “Still grinding?”

After three back-to-back exams, she felt utterly drained—barely able to muster the will to keep training.

But when she remembered who they’d be up against next, she could understand why Zhang Yu was pushing himself.

“Yuzi must be feeling the pressure now.”

“Sigh... but pressure alone doesn’t help.”

“At least wait till we’re off the train to pick it back up...”

Just as she was thinking that, her phone began to buzz.

“Hello?”

A gentle, polite voice came from the other end. “Is this Miss Bai Zhenzhen?”