When Zhang Yu came to his senses again, he found himself inside an underground tunnel.

“Transmission complete?”

He started walking forward and soon spotted a figure in the distance.

Hoping it was Bai Zhenzhen who had come down with him, Zhang Yu hurried over, only to find it was a male student in a school uniform.

The student turned to look at Zhang Yu upon hearing the footsteps.

Zhang Yu nodded and greeted him. “Hi, are you here for the exam too?”

The boy’s name was Dai Xingzhi. He didn’t respond right away, instead eyeing Zhang Yu up and down to confirm something.

This guy wasn’t from Xiandu City.

Dai Xingzhi had two reasons to be so sure.

First, he didn’t recognize Zhang Yu’s face. Dai Xingzhi had memorized the appearance of every top-performing, filthy-rich high schooler in Xiandu. This guy wasn’t one of them.

Second, Zhang Yu’s accent, manner of speaking, and clothing all screamed “outsider.”

As a tenth-generation native of Xiandu, Dai Xingzhi firmly believed there was an unbridgeable gap between locals and outsiders—practically two different species.

He could usually tell the difference at a glance.

“Outsiders just don’t have our Xiandu aura.”

The moment he realized Zhang Yu was probably from out of town, Dai Xingzhi instinctively straightened his back.

After all, he was a staunch Xiandu supremacist.

Xiandu was the heart of the First Floor of Kunxu. It was home to the strongest, smartest, and richest people in all of Kunxu. The Upper City of Xiandu could even be called Floor 1.5 of Kunxu.

“Technically speaking, I’m not even a First Floor person. I’m a Floor 1.5 person.”

And the rest of the First Floor’s cities? In Dai Xingzhi’s eyes, those were just backwater villages.

Looking at Zhang Yu, he thought bitterly, “Some broke outsider trying to snatch our Foundation Licenses?”

After a quick once-over, Dai Xingzhi turned and walked off without a word. He picked up his pace and soon spotted another figure ahead.

“Ye Lingxiao…”

Dai Xingzhi was very familiar with this straight-A student who had recently gotten obsessed with Red Envelope Sigils. Ye Lingxiao was from within the Second Ring of the Upper City.

To Dai Xingzhi, Xiandu was the center of the First Floor of Kunxu. The latest_epɪ_sodes are on_the novel~fire~net

And the floating city above Xiandu—known as the Upper City—was the center of that center.

The Upper City itself was divided into ten concentric rings. The Second Ring was the center of the center of the center.

Being born in the Second Ring meant Ye Lingxiao came from one of Xiandu’s wealthiest families.

According to what Dai Xingzhi knew, people from the Second Ring only made friends with other Second Ring folks, only married other Second Ring people, only reproduced within the Ring—and some even lived their entire lives without ever stepping out.

Seeing Ye Lingxiao, Dai Xingzhi immediately dropped his puffed-up posture and bent forward slightly, ingratiatingly saying, “Hi Lingxiao.”

“Remember me? I’m Dai Xingzhi from your school. I live in the Sixth Ring North.”

Then he quickly added, “Inside the Sixth Ring, not outside.”

Ye Lingxiao nodded without even looking up, continuing to practice his Red Envelope Sigils with single-minded focus.

Ever since the last Dao Heart Test, his curiosity toward the Red Envelope and Favor Charms had only deepened. He was now 90% sure there was a major hidden profit inside.

But the secret was so big, he didn’t dare tell anyone. He could only research it in secret.

Just then, a voice rang out: “Hey! You tossing those Red Envelope Sigils around again?”

Zhang Yu dodged another sigil on the floor and caught up, grumbling, “Throwing that filthy thing around randomly—isn’t that a public safety hazard?”

Ye Lingxiao glanced at him in surprise, apparently not expecting this out-of-towner to have made it through the last test.

He said coolly, “If no one picks them up, they’ll disappear on their own. And if you don’t want the money inside, just give it back…”

As they talked, the group reached a large underground hall.

From a distance, they could see Examiner Deng Bingding and several others standing at the center, surrounded by over a dozen early arrivals.

These examinees seemed to be discussing something with the examiners.

One student was saying, “Proctor, can you publish the results from the last test?”

Another added, “Yeah, what kind of exam doesn’t post rankings?”

Someone else shouted, “If there’s no ranking, is it even a real test?”

Zhang Yu only needed to listen for a moment to understand. These were all Xiandu kids demanding the rankings from the last round.

And from the way they talked, it sounded like at Xiandu schools, not releasing rankings after a test was practically sacrilegious—grounds for reporting the teachers and schools alike.

Damn, more ranking freaks… Zhang Yu sighed inwardly. No matter where you go in Kunxu, there are always those people obsessed with competition. Not a shred of privacy for test-takers.

Just then, Bai Zhenzhen walked up to him and asked curiously, “What’s the fuss about up ahead?”

Zhang Yu replied with disdain, “Score-obsessed freaks demanding the last round’s rankings.”

Bai Zhenzhen thought back to her own performance. “Hmm, those top Xiandu guys opened the gate in half a second. I took almost three. Definitely not top-tier.”

Thinking about her Dao Heart Test performance too, she shook her head and sighed. “It was just a pre-exam warm-up, and they’re this obsessed with vanity.”

Zhang Yu nodded. “The Immortal Path can’t be reduced to scores and ranks.”

Hearing this, Ye Lingxiao, who supported exam rankings, couldn’t pretend he hadn’t heard.

But before he could speak, Dai Xingzhi cut in, unable to hold back: “What nonsense are you two outsiders spouting? Scores are everything! Rankings determine if someone deserves to walk the Immortal Path!”

“If we only care about scores without rankings, how’s that different from being born rich?”

Ye Lingxiao didn’t say anything, but from his frequent nodding, it was clear he strongly agreed.

Dai Xingzhi looked at Zhang Yu and Bai Zhenzhen, though he didn’t say his real thought out loud:

“Hmph, only those who know they ranked low are afraid of rankings.”

In his heart, there was no way two out-of-towners could compare to the academic elite of Xiandu. They had to be bottom-tier.

“I’ve seen plenty of score-denying outsiders like you. But if you two were ranked first and second, you’d be shouting for the results to be posted.”

At that moment, Deng Bingding, standing at the head of the examiners, spoke up in response to the students’ demands:

“I understand everyone’s curiosity. There’s no rule saying we can’t reveal the rankings.”

“We just didn’t plan to post them because they don’t carry much weight.”

“But since everyone wants to see, I’ll display the results.”

The last round had two sections.

The first was pushing open a metal gate. The second was the Dao Heart Test.

No one cared much about the gate—too easy, mostly there to weed out underpowered freshmen. Most didn’t even use their full strength.

Everyone’s focus was on the Dao Heart Test. It reflected both willpower and, indirectly, personal wealth. Naturally, it was what the students cared most about.

So all eyes turned to that ranking.

First Place: Candidate 55 – Valuation: Unknown

Second Place: Candidate 23 – Valuation: 5.5 billion

Third Place: Candidate 11 – Valuation: 5 billion

…

The room fell silent as everyone scanned the list, looking for their number—just like finding a movie theater seat.

Once they found their own rank and had a sense of where they stood, the next step was obvious: look up your friends—and enemies.

For Dai Xingzhi, though, the first thing to check was the top three.

He had always made it a habit—and it was a Dai family tradition—to identify the top scorers and wealthiest students immediately.

He also recalled the content of the Dao Heart Test.

“This ‘valuation’ must be how much temptation one resisted at the end, right?”

“A higher valuation means not only a firm Dao Heart, but also serious wealth.”

“Candidate 11 is Yun Jing. Third place. Five billion.”

Dai Xingzhi looked over at the boy surrounded by several students from Immortal Cloud High.

His starry eyes immediately caught attention—those were his Law Husk.

“Yun Jing… the one Purple Cloud Pharmaceuticals calls ‘the strongest high schooler on the First Floor of Kunxu.’”

Dai Xingzhi had heard that a month ago, Yun Jing’s magic, Dao Heart, and physical strength had all hit the limit of the Qi Refining Realm.

“Sigh. One of those four Foundation Licenses is as good as his.”

Ye Lingxiao also glanced at Yun Jing, recalling how he’d once picked up one of his Red Envelope Sigils without injury.

Dai Xingzhi continued thinking, “Second place, candidate 23—that’s Ye Lingxiao next to me. Valued at 5.5 billion. He held out in the illusion until the price hit 5.5 billion? No wonder. A true Second Ring rich kid.”

“His data reached the limits of the Qi Refining Realm months ago. After all, Oasis Group calls him the most perfect body and bloodline among high schoolers today.”

“Another Foundation License is surely his.”

But when he got to the top name—Candidate 55—Dai Xingzhi looked around and couldn’t find who it was. His confusion only deepened.

“Someone even stronger and richer than Yun Jing and Ye Lingxiao in this Foundation Establishment exam?”