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Chapter 78: Advancing in One Move!

Translator: ryuxenji Editor: H2dH2mr

Ling Lan glared at Little Four exasperatedly, "You still have the free time to worry about other people? Have you figured out the secrets of that One-Inch Punch yet?"

At those words, Little Four puffed out his cheeks. This request of his boss was just too unreasonable — how could the secrets of the One-Inch Punch be so easily deciphered? Such little consideration for her followers, this was obviously child labour abuse!

Hmph, he wanted to lodge a complaint ... er, that is, find a helper!

Little Four's gaze was mournful as he took one last glance at Ling Lan, whose attention had already shifted back to the outside world, and slowly disappeared from the mind-space, going heaven knows where.

********

Luo Chao's victorious return gave Luo Lang and the others the heart to go check out Luo Shaoyun's and Li Jinghong's battle results. As expected, Luo Shaoyun successfully advanced into the top 100, but Li Jinghong failed. The students of Special Class-A were not herbivores 1 — to achieve an upset was really as difficult as mounting the heavens.

When Luo Lang discovered who Li Jinghong's opponent was, he couldn't help but pity him for his bad luck. It turned out that Li Jinghong's opponent was the second-rank, Wu Jiong. Even Luo Lang himself was uncertain if he could beat that fellow for sure — if they fought, the odds would be fifty-fifty, or perhaps Luo Lang's odds of winning might be even lower.

Not long after, Qi Long bounded back happily. His opponent had been someone from the merit classes, and so had not given him much trouble. He had handily defeated the other within ten moves and now returned triumphant.

Meanwhile, Yuan Youyun was still fighting and probably wouldn't be done for a while longer. Soon after, the fourth matches began. Han Jijyun and He Chaoyang went up, and they were followed by Luo Lang for the fifth match and Ling Lan for the sixth match. Just like that, they all took their turns on stage, and Ling Lan's group of ten finished their fights for the first half of the day.

Both Li Jinghong and He Chaoyang from the merit classes had ended their run, while the remaining eight had successfully entered the top 100, guaranteeing their places in the special classes. Clearly, the positions of the original special class students were very secure; for any child from the merit classes to overthrow anyone, the journey was still long.

Of the students who advanced to the top 100, Ling Lan was the one who advanced the most easily — defeating the merit class student she was up against with just one move. Of course, this method of winning almost crumbled the other child's confidence. Luckily, the refereeing teacher immediately provided some counselling and spiritual guidance, thus saving the child's future. Because of this, Ling Lan received quite a few displeased glares from that teacher. His gaze was clearly saying that she should have shown some mercy and let her opponent show off some moves at least, why did she have to be so ruthless ...

Against the teacher's pointed gaze, Ling Lan could only rub her nose and quietly slink away. Frankly, she could not be blamed. The moment her opponent had moved, she had clearly seen the other's weak point. This weak point had shone with such a brilliant light that she had thrown a punch before she knew it. By the time she was aware of it, the opponent had already been knocked off the stage, so it was too late even if she wanted to let the other show off a few moves.

Aside from the oddball Ling Lan, the next best results were those who managed to defeat their opponents in ten moves. There were quite a few in that category — the top 5 of Special Class-A all managed it, along with Qi Long and Luo Lang.

Just like that, the battles in the first half of the day were over. Li Jinghong and He Chaoyang collected their emotions and happily joined in the celebrations of their companions who advanced. Together, they came to the school canteen and prepared to indulge in a good feast to reward themselves.

Ling Lan decided to be generous at that moment, agreeing to withdraw 5000 credits so they could order several delicacies and treats they'd been drooling over for a long time in celebration. All of them ate happily. After eating their fill and resting for a bit, they welcomed the second round of the fights for the day where the top 100 would be narrowed down to the top 50. In other words, it was the final battles to determine the Class-A positions.

Because the number of combatants had been halved, there were only three match slots in the afternoon battle rounds. Ling Lan was no longer the finishing act this time, but was up first instead.

Ling Lan's opponent was a student from Special Class-B. In these top 100 to top 50 advancement rounds, the Special Class-A students would not be placed in a situation where they'd have to face one another. The academy wouldn't be so brain dead as to let the outstanding students face off so early and lose their chance to advance that way. Therefore, if the Class-B students wanted to enter Class-A, they would have to defeat a Class-A student to prove their worth.

The moment Ling Lan stepped on stage, she sensed an extremely blatant warning stare. She looked towards the source of the stare and immediately felt a little guilty, cold sweat beading her forehead. Dammit, why was her luck so terrible?

It turned out that the referee in charge of their arena was, of all people, the same teacher referee from her morning bout. Seeing Ling Lan appear, the narrowed gaze of the teacher was filled with warning, wordlessly telling her that she should tone down a little and not hurry to end things this time. No matter what, she should still leave some room for her peer to keep his confidence.

Ling Lan secretly wiped off the sweat from her forehead, reminding herself that she could not make the same mistake as in the previous round. For this reason, she purposefully put both arms behind her back and gripped each arm with the other tightly, so they would keep each other under control. This way, no matter how strong her reflexes were, she wouldn't be able to move so quickly.

Although Ling Lan was doing all this out of good intentions, in the other's eyes, Ling Lan's action of putting both arms behind her was really just too arrogant and obviously demeaning. He felt as if he had been shamed; his small young face turned bright red in anger.

The moment he heard the referee yell 'start', he pounced. There was no probing involved; he attacked directly with a powerful whirlwind side kick. The force behind the kick could certainly be considered as all the strength his body could muster — it was clear just how angry the opponent was, almost driven to the edge of irrationality, which was why he had charged headlong at Ling Lan to attack without any other considerations.

Regardless of how much Ling Lan had prepared before the fight, it was all, unfortunately, useless. Ling Lan saw the opponent's fierce kick coming at her, and as it got closer and closer, an absolutely fatal opening appeared before her.

Typically, any move, when nearing the end of its force, would have this sort of opening. The only question was, how big the opening was.

Ling Lan's reflexes were definitely top-notch. Seeing this opening, she didn't even have time to think, reflexively counterattacking ...

Wasn't Ling Lan's arms gripping onto each other behind her back? Why could she still counterattack?

Indeed, Ling Lan's arms were gripped tightly with no way of attacking. However, who asked the opponent to attack with his feet? Thus, Ling Lan also reflexively fought back with her feet, instinctively sending a leg kicking out.

When her foot slammed heavily into a human body, she already knew that she had messed up. Unfortunately, by this time, it was too late for her to pull back her strength. The one saving grace was that she had not used the Wave Stacking Art she had learned from the learning space and had even controlled her own physical strength to 50%.

Even so, the opponent was still sent flying off the stage by her kick. This beautifully clean kick drew shocked gasps from all the students in the audience, as well as made the senior students who had inadvertently witnessed the scene sober up. The scene also drew the infuriated gaze of the teacher referee. Dammit, didn't I ask you to take it easy? Why are you doing it again and again and again ...

The teacher's eyes were full of resentment and blame — Ling Lan couldn't take it any longer and shrunk back, jumping off the stage to slip away.

Ling Lan's clean and decisive one-move defeat of her opponent drew the attention of all the first grade students. Remember, Ling Lan's opponent had been a Special Class-B student — although the Class-A students were indeed stronger then the Class-B students by a head, it wasn't at the level where the former would be able to defeat the latter in just one move. Ling Lan's impressive performance caused everyone to start speculating in secret. Ling Lan was most likely the strongest within the first grade — the current best student or first rank was all just in name.

The subsequent matches seemed to prove the point. The Class-A first-rank Li Yingjie had gone up against a Class-B student and had only managed to defeat the other after 28 moves. This result, in comparison with the results of previous years, was actually quite outstanding. Unfortunately, in comparison with the aberrant Ling Lan, Li Yingjie's performance became extremely average. This caused Li Yingjie to be filled with anger and hatred, and he now had yet another reason to hate Ling Lan: That arrogant fellow had stolen the wind from his sails, he was really too despicable ...

Qi Long's performance was also pretty good — he managed to defeat his opponent at the 30th move — while Luo Lang did a little worse, but also managed to defeat his opponent within 50 moves. These results were already considered above average within Class-A.

Meanwhile, Han Jijyun had got caught up in a drawn-out battle. It couldn't be helped, for Han Jijyun's strength was his exceptional intelligence, while his combat abilities were considerably weaker. In addition, he didn't have any finishing moves and so could only draw out the battle to while away his opponent's stamina. Finally, after almost 300 moves, the clever Han Jijyun managed to find an almost imperceptible opportunity and used it to defeat his opponent, successfully making it into the top 50.

Han Xuya, Luo Chao, Luo Shaoyun, and Yuan Youyun, who had originally been part of Class-B, were all stopped here. They couldn't make it into the top 50 and so would remain in Class-B for the next six months. This proved once again that progressing even just one step further was definitely not that easy.

At the end of this day's battles, the name list of the top 50 was officially released. 49 names stayed the same, remaining as Class-A members, while 1 member was changed. The original 2nd place from the bottom was defeated by Class-B's 2nd place from the top, who successfully took his place on the new roster. Successfully advancing into the top 50, he became the only child who managed an upset.

This result really made the 1st place of Class-B want to cry. In fact, he was actually stronger than the 2nd place, however, he had lost to the last place of Class-A, Lin Zhong-qing. His luck was really a little terrible; Lin Zhong-qing's strength was actually much stronger than the person ranked before him, leaving no chance for the Class-B first place to win. In the end, he could only watch as his weaker classmate successfully advanced, while he had to wait for yet another six months.

In reality, the classes were basically settled by the end of this day. Over the following few days, the internal class ranking battles would be held and the ranking battles for the top 50, in particular, would be the centre of everyone's attention.

********

On the fifth day, the internal class ranking battles began. The match-ups were announced on the day itself and, as usual, had been determined by ranks. The 1st-place was matched up against the last place, the 2nd was up against the 49th, and so on and so forth.

Seeing this match-up list, the Class-A 34th place was the first to start wailing. The first person he was up against was the one who had advanced into the top 50 by defeating all of his opponents in one move — Ling Lan. The classmates who were on good terms with him all patted his shoulders in consolation, but they were actually secretly sighing in relief, glad it wasn't them.

Chapter 79: Talent Killer!

Translator: ryuxenji Editor: mjn0898

Alone in a corner, Lin Zhong-qing stood with his head bowed, carefully reading through the information on his communicator about his fight venue and match order. He heard the voices of the surrounding students consoling the 34th place and surreptitiously lifted his head to look at Ling Lan, who was currently engaged in conversation with Qi Long and the others. His gaze was complicated and hard to decipher.

Of course, Lin Zhong-qing had known that Ling Lan was very strong, otherwise he wouldn't have been able to get Qi Long and Luo Lang, whose strength was on par with the top three of Class-A, to submit to him. Even the abnormally intelligent Han Jijyun had willingly acknowledged him as his boss. (One could tell all this just from their conversations and how they acted.) Still, he hadn't expected Ling Lan to be this strong. Advancing this far with consecutive one move take downs ... it was quite terrifying.

It should be known that this result would be brag worthy at any school. Even the self-titled ultimate genius Li Yingjie was unable to do this. Although Ling Lan seemed very cold and aloof, he was not against helping out if it was something he could do with a lift of his hand, just like when Lin Zhong-qing had needed his help previously ...

Thinking of this, a bitter smile pulled at the corners of Lin Zhong-qing's lips, and regret settled on the surface of his heart.

Sometimes, what's lost is lost. If he hadn't thought to take advantage of Ling Lan back then and had chosen to serve him sincerely instead, perhaps he might have had a chance to obtain Ling Lan's friendship. Unfortunately, now it was no longer possible. No one would be willing to be friends with someone who had once used them.

Lin Zhong-qing's gaze cleared up instantly, as he ruthlessly strangled the rebellious bit of hope within his heart. The experiences of his youth had made it impossible for him to put down his defences to trust in someone else ... which was why he was destined to be forever alone. Friendship and sentiment and anything else along those lines were all just passing clouds.

Lin Zhong-qing was patiently awaiting the start of the fights, when he found that two people he loathed had appeared beside him. It was Li Yingjie and his lackey, the one who was third-last in Class-A.

Lin Zhong-qing really looked down on him. Although they were insignificant in Class-A, being at the bottom of the heap, that didn't mean that they should throw away their dignity to become someone else's lackey, allowing another to order them around and yell at them, just for certain benefits. Of course, if they were like Qi Long and Luo Lang, who submitted due to the other's personal charisma and strength, and called the other Boss out of their own personal will, he would never view them with contempt, but would instead admire them.

Unfortunately, this punk Li Yingjie, other than being stronger than others, really had no charisma or qualities that would lead others to submit to him. He was just no match for Ling Lan. At this time, Lin Zhong-qing still hadn't noticed that his heart had already acknowledged Ling Lan.

Perhaps sensing Lin Zhong-qing's contempt for him, Li Yingjie's lackey, that third-last in Class-A, actually took the initiative to mock, "Yo, isn't this our dead last Lin Zhong-qing? Who knew you would still be in Class-A, how lucky." Since the second-last had already been thrown out of the class by the Class-B second-place, he could only seek a little sense of superiority from Lin Zhong-qing.

Lin Zhong-qing did not care about the other's taunts. If he didn't even have this bit of tolerance, how could he have survived those six years as a research lab rat? He only glanced impassively at the lackey, before lowering his head to look back at his own communicator. This clearly dismissive behaviour made the other's face flush red immediately.

Lin Zhong-qing's attitude caused the surrounding students to break out into laughter. Lin Zhong-qing was on good terms with most of his classmates, and could be considered a socially intelligent person. However, when it came to Li Yingjie's group, Lin Zhong-qing's attitude was rather unfriendly.

No matter how tolerant a person was, when someone pressed the wrong buttons, they would not be able to just continue tolerating. Lin Zhong-qing, who had already lost six years of his freedom, prized his independence the most. Meanwhile, Li Yingjie had wanted to use forceful measures to get Lin Zhong-qing to become his subordinate, and be at his beck and call. This, had completely stomped all over Lin Zhong-qing's buttons, which was the main reason for Lin Zhong-qing's hostility against Li Yingjie. Unfortunately, till now, Li Yingjie still didn't know where he had gone wrong, and was still trying to use force to get what he wanted, causing Lin Zhong-qing to hate him more and more.

Lin Zhong-qing's attitude enraged Li Yingjie's lackey. He couldn't help but shout, "Don't get too cocky! Later, Boss Li will definitely teach you a lesson!" By the end, his tone held an obvious trace of schadenfreude.

After hearing this, Lin Zhong-qing lifted his head and looked at him strangely. That look was the look one used to look at an idiot. Seeing this, the lackey was about to blow his top, actually raising his hand in preparation to teach Lin Zhong-qing a lesson right then and there.

Lin Zhong-qing waited. If the other initiated an attack, then he would have an excuse to retaliate.

Seeing a private battle about to break out, everyone's gaze was drawn over. Li Yingjie, who was standing by the side, frowned slightly, and yelled out tersely, "Yuan Li, draw back, now!"

Li Yingjie's shout made Yuan Li stop immediately, and he scurried back to Li Yingjie's side with a panicked expression. Ever since agreeing to become Li Yingjie's follower, he had certainly received quite a few benefits — high-grade gene agent, which he had to save up so hard for before, was now given to him, one tube every three months. This was also the real reason why his strength had remained consistent enough so he could keep up with the others, however, at the same time, he also lost a lot to get this, such as his pride ...

Li Yingjie stopped Yuan Li, and only then did he look at Lin Zhong-qing, and say haughtily, "Lin Zhong-qing, stop taunting my subordinate. Purposefully picking a fight ... why don't we make a bet instead?"

Lin Zhong-qing snorted in laughter. Taunt Yuan Li? Was he so free that he had nothing else better to do? Bullsh*t!

Li Yingjie didn't care whether Lin Zhong-qing agreed with him or not. He continued, "Next round, should be the fight between you and me. Why don't we make a bet? If you can hold up against me for 50 moves, then I'll forgive the past, but if I defeat you within 50 moves, then you'll have to acknowledge me as your boss." In the end, Li Yingjie still hadn't given up on bringing Lin Zhong-qing under his control.

When Lin Zhong-qing heard this, he couldn't help but burst out laughing. "Hey, Li Yingjie, is your brain dysfunctional?"

At these words, Li Yingjie's entire face turned dark and cold. From his perspective, he had already given Lin Zhong-qing plenty of face, but unexpectedly, his kind intentions made Lin Zhong-qing become so brazen. Actually daring to be so impudent to his face, he must really want to die. A fierce light flashed through Li Yingjie's eyes. He decided that in the upcoming match, he would utterly destroy Lin Zhong-qing, and chase him out of Special Class-A for good.

However, Lin Zhong-qing's response ripped through Li Yingjie's scheming. "You should probably confirm who your opponent actually is."

Li Yingjie's first reaction was to assume there had been a mistake. He hurriedly searched for the notification on his communicator, and saw that he was up against the 50th place. Wasn't the 50th place Lin Zhong-qing?

He continued to read the rest of the notification, and sure enough, the name listed at the 50th place was not Lin Zhong-qing, but a name he wasn't familiar with, meaning that that person was definitely not someone from Class-A.

With a flash of realisation, Li Yingjie abruptly understood. The Class-B second-place who had defeated their Class-A second-last in the previous round, had been automatically assigned last place in their class by the academy's A.I. because he had just qualified for Class-A. Meanwhile, Lin Zhong-qing had automatically risen by one rank, becoming the 49th rank. In other words, his next opponent was not Lin Zhong-qing, but the new ex-Class-B student. He had been mistaken.

"What a shame ... I had really wanted to bet with you." Lin Zhong-qing slowly drew closer to Li Yingjie. Just as he was about to brush by, he suddenly stopped, and threw down this statement. "50 moves? How weak. Ling Lan would have been able to defeat me in 1 move. Compared to him, you are really too weak."

These words made Li Yingjie 's face burn red in anger. He clenched his fists, forcing himself to stay calm. The academy prohibited students from fighting privately. If any such incidents were discovered by the academy, the students involved were very likely to be downgraded and punished. This was something Li Yingjie could not accept — the moment he dropped down to Class-B, he might even lose the right to contend for the Li family inheritance.

Meanwhile, Ling Lan's group, who had already noticed the commotion around Lin Zhong-qing, had heard the words Lin Zhong-qing said as he left, and all of them couldn't help but frown.

"This punk is again adding to your hate value." These days, Han Jijyun had started habitually using some of Ling Lan's vocabulary from her previous world when he spoke. He felt that those terms were just too descriptive — such as this 'hate value', apt and brilliant.

A fierce expression appeared on Luo Lang's pretty face. "I'll go teach him a lesson."

"Count me in," said Qi Long hurriedly. He wasn't in it to teach the other a lesson, but was just looking for a chance to fight.

Ling Lan lifted her hand to grab hold of Luo Lang's cheek, and pinched and pulled at it harshly for a bit, until Luo Lang was begging for mercy, before letting go. "Don't be hasty. If we really taught him a lesson, that would just be playing into his hands."

"Ah ..." Luo Lang was stupefied, a little uncomprehending.

Han Jijyun eyes, however, lit up, thinking of something. Ling Lan shared a smiling glance with him. It was always so easy talking to intelligent people.

Qi Long rubbed his head, but didn't say anything. He believed that Han Jijyun would explain things for him sooner or later.

Qi Long trust was not misplaced; as expected, Han Jijyun began explaining things to Qi Long and Luo Lang, "Lin Zhong-qing is currently struggling to find an excuse to interact with us. If you go look for him, isn't that exactly what he wants?"

"But I would be going to teach him a lesson," said Luo Lang stubbornly.

Han Jijyun smiled wryly as he shook his head. "You won't be able to handle him. If he thickens his skin and clings to you, you probably won't be able to deny him. Just think of what happened before ..."

Luo Lang abruptly had nothing more to say. That one month, Ling Lan had always kept cool and ignored Lin Zhong-qing, Han Jijyun had been sly and had not given Lin Zhong-qing much opportunity to get close, while Qi Long had focused on his training, unconcerned about anything else. Only Luo Lang had found himself subconsciously talking to Lin Zhong-qing, and he had even helped Lin Zhong-qing out of several tricky situations ...

"Alright, I'll keep away from him." Luo Lang's strength was that he would always fix his mistakes if he knew about them, although he might still make the same mistake again later on ...

********

The morning battles officially began. This time, there were only two match rounds. Han Jijyun was up for the first round, while the remaining three were all up for the second. However, by the time Ling Lan and the other two had returned after their battles, Han Jijyun's fight was still ongoing — it was clear just how difficult it was for Han Jijyun to fight.

In the end, Han Jijyun's stamina was better than his opponent's, so he managed to outlast the other. Even so, Han Jijyun was almost burned out and was immediately sent to a healing pod to recover his energy.

Qi Long and Luo Lang did not have much difficulty. Qi Long had defeated his opponent after exchanging roughly 50 moves to clinch the victory, while Luo Lang did slightly worse, only managing to defeat his opponent after nearly 80 moves to advance. As for Ling Lan ...

The moment the fight began, Ling Lan had not dared to open her eyes. She was afraid that she would again see some fatal weakness, and then her body would reflexively attack and steamroll the opponent.

After a night of research, Ling Lan had finally figured out the reason. These uncontrollable reflexive movements were the final remnants of her spiritual loss of control. There wasn't actually a problem — her body and mind were still in the process of syncing up after she returned to normal, so the issue would resolve itself after another one and a half months. Ling Lan could only blame herself for recovering too late, so there wasn't enough time for the residual effects to clear out, resulting in her current predicament.

To prevent once again defeating her opponent in one move, Ling Lan decided to close her eyes this time. She thought that, if her eyes were closed so she couldn't see the opponent's attack, then it would be impossible for her to attack reflexively anymore, right? Of course, Ling Lan only dared to do so because she had full confidence in her two ears. In the learning space, one of her training sessions under Number Five was in a pitch-black sealed room, where she had to dodge the attacks of hidden weapons without sight. In the beginning, she had died horribly countless times, but eventually, she managed to evade everything to emerge unharmed. This experience had given her a pair of extremely sensitive ears, with the trained ability to discern movement and positions just by listening to the wind.

However, even so, after dodging about 10 moves, Ling Lan could hold back no longer. With just a slip in attention, her eager foot shot out in a kick.

And then, the opponent was cleanly sent tumbling off the stage ...

Ling Lan opened her eyes, and immediately saw the almost apoplectic referee. Her heart dropped — why was it this teacher referee again? As Ling Lan had kept her eyes closed the moment she stepped on stage, she had really not noticed that the one in charge of refereeing her match this time was still the same referee from her previous two matches.

Ling Lan hurriedly put an innocent look on her face, her large bright eyes broadcasting only one thing — she really hadn't done it intentionally. In order to escape responsibility, Ling Lan decided to play up her cuteness just this once.

The referee charged over, the muscles on his face a little twisted, as he said through gnashing teeth, "Couldn't you have pretended to struggle for a few moves with your opponent before defeating him?"

Ling Lan's expression became even more innocent. Didn't she already dodge for about 10 moves?

Seeing that Ling Lan still hadn't figured out her mistake, the teacher couldn't take it anymore, yelling, "You bloody kept your eyes closed, and kept both hands behind your back, and waltzed around cockily daring him to hit you — do you really think we're all blind?"

Clearly, in others' eyes, Ling Lan had still defeated her opponent in one move despite what she did. Moreover, the blow to the other child's confidence this time was even more severe.

In her previous two matches, they could still comfort the children who lost that Ling Lan was just lucky, or that he had just been born with supernatural strength, or perhaps the children themselves had been too careless and had lost to Ling Lan's sneak attack ... these excuses had been enough to salvage the children's confidence. But now, what Ling Lan just did was obviously telling his opponent that he really didn't even consider him a threat. Even if he kept his eyes closed and gave you a 10 move handicap, you would still be unable to hit him, and in the end, he only had to use one move to defeat you. This blow was just too heavy. The teachers were at a loss, unable to find any excuses to use to comfort the losing child this time — tell me, how could they not be frantic?

This was why the teacher could no longer hold his temper. This brat Ling Lan was clearly a talent killer!

Translator's Thoughts

ryuxenji ryuxenji

One Move Lan strikes again! XD

On a side note ... rip, I guess ReadNovelFull is still using an auto-updating formula for release rate. So, FYI, the release rate on the novel main page is currently wrong. I'm still only promising a stable 7 chps/week. (The holiday season and ranking bonuses are throwing the rate off. Xp)

Chapter 80: Advancing Into the Top 13!

Translator: ryuxenji Editor: H2dH2mr

However, no matter how angry or resentful the teacher was, he could do nothing about Ling Lan. If the children in Class-A were the talent that they treasured and wanted to cultivate, then Ling Lan was most certainly the largest pearl deep within their hearts. The appreciation they had for him was immeasurable. This was why the teacher could only yell somewhat angrily at Ling Lan for a while, reminding him to not be so heavy-handed next time to save them the trouble.

Even if they really, really cherished Ling Lan, they still had to maintain their impartiality on the outside. No matter what was said, the other children were also the future pillars of the Federation — they couldn't just give up on them.

The teacher's demeanour really resembled that of a parent whose child had hit a child from another family. As a parent, he had to scold his own child just to placate the other party; as for whether he was actually gleeful inside ... hehehe, I'm sure you all understand.

Just like that, under the teacher's repetitive nagging, Ling Lan could only nod obediently to show she understood. It couldn't be helped. Ling Lan still had to take the oppression of the academy for another 10 years, so she had no choice but to carry on with her tail between her legs 1 . Of course, Ling Lan was personally a child who was so obedient that she couldn't be any more obedient, so obedient that she had never gone through a rebellious phase in her previous life ...

Thinking of this, Ling Lan considered — should she try being rebellious once in this life? But when her mum Lan Luofeng's tear-blurred eyes appeared within Ling Lan's mind, paired with her loving yet melancholic expression, Ling Lan just couldn't muster up the heart to think any more about it. Yup, she definitely couldn't handle the acting of her Oscar-level diva mum. If Ling Lan was a little fox 2 still in training, then her mum was definitely a grand fox demon that had been through a thousand years of cultivation. They were just on completely different levels.

More than once, she had lost to her mum's waterworks. Even if she knew that Lan Luofeng was just faking it, she still fell for it. It was all because she couldn't bear to see others cry. This weakness that she had brought with her from her previous life caused her to be fully trapped within the manipulations of her thousand-year fox demon mother. Just like Monkey-Sun 3 within the Buddha's hand, she would forever be unable to escape from her mother's palm.

At this thought, Ling Lan was shrouded in gloom. She began resenting that dad of hers who had died so early, leaving behind such a troublesome burden for her. If her dad were still alive, this thousand-year fox demon would have been her dad's responsibility.

However, this was all just fanciful thinking by Ling Lan. Lan Luofeng was, in fact, Ling Lan's sweet burden for this life, which she carried with pain, yet also with much joy ...

********

When the morning's official advancement battles ended, the children who advanced had no more business in the hall and were free to do whatever they wanted. Meanwhile, the students who had been eliminated continued to remain in the combat hall to wait for the system to once again announce the battle pairings for the rankings of the 26th place to the 50th place. Of course, this had nothing to do with Ling Lan's group of four so they went straight to Qi Long's and the other two boys' villa. There, they settled down on the living room sofa, and comfortably watched the fights while having warm drinks.

Among the first grade Special Class-A 26th to 50th ranking battles, the only one whom they were concerned about was Lin Zhong-qing. Who asked Lin Zhong-qing to have impure intentions towards them at the beginning? This caused Ling Lan and the others to involuntarily start paying attention to him.

During the advancement battles from top 50 to top 25, Lin Zhong-qing had been up against the Class-A second-place, Wu Jiong. Lin Zhong-qing had lost as everyone expected; however, unlike what everyone expected, he had not been defeated quickly by Wu Jiong. Instead, he had battled with Wu Jiong for over 100 moves before finally being brought down by Wu Jiong, who had been patiently waiting for an opportunity, when he ran out of stamina.

These results caused an uproar among the Class-A students. However, what the students were stunned by was not Lin Zhong-qing's incredible improvement, but rather, Ling Lan's strength. Because they still remembered how, when school first started, Ling Lan had once beaten Lin Zhong-qing easily with just one punch. Didn't this prove that Ling Lan's strength was already far beyond the top 3 of Class-A?

At that time, the gazes directed Ling Lan's way from the other students had been filled with deep apprehension. The children from Class-A had forgotten that half a year had already gone by since Ling Lan's fight with Lin Zhong-qing — Lin Zhong-qing's current strength could no longer be compared to his strength back then. If Ling Lan fought with Lin Zhong-qing once more, she might not be able to defeat him in one move anymore ... however, doing so in two moves was still very possible.

However, Lin Zhong-qing's subsequent performance gradually eased their classmates' fears. In the ranking fights to determine his actual ranking, Lin Zhong-qing proved his strength. He consecutively defeated many people, finally settling in the 28th spot.

This result may not seem brilliant, but compared to his rank at the start of the school year, his improvement was undoubtedly astonishing. It should be known that the Class-A rankings were not upset so easily because Class-A was made up of various prodigies from all over, who were all exceptional. To go up in rank among this group of freakish talents ... it was really extremely difficult. This also proved that Lin Zhong-qing's natural talent was prodigious, though of course he also put in more effort than the other students, otherwise he wouldn't have improved this much.

Lin Zhong-qing's performance this time made Ling Lan's group of four start to take him seriously. This little fellow who had a belly full of plots and schemes, though unlikely to be a threat to Ling Lan, could very well become a rival for Qi Long and the others. Han Jijyun, especially, felt the pressure most keenly because Lin Zhong-qing's future development was looking to be an intelligence-type soldier just like him.

In the meantime, Ling Lan and the others also watched several matches of the popular upper grade students. As expected, they were all formidable opponents, full of amazing moves. Ling Lan was delighted, making Little Four copy everything down. If they could decipher just one or two of the moves, Ling Lan would already benefit greatly.

The combat arts taught by the learning space was definitely top-notch but was way too lethal. Every move, every stance, was aimed at an opponent's fatal spots, making it rather unsuited for this sort of arena sparring tournaments held by the academy. And while the Ling family had their own combat arts, it had the same problem — the combat arts of the loyalists were naturally geared towards killing an enemy efficiently. Of course, the Ling family did not lack for those so-called 'orthodox' combat arts as well, but with Ling Xiao's death and Lan Luofeng falling out with the entire Ling family, Ling Lan never did have the chance to learn those combat arts.

This was why Ling Lan couldn't drag out the fight for a few moves before defeating her schoolmates. The moment she moved, it was a killing blow — how could the fight be prolonged? Therefore, Ling Lan was extremely interested in these random skills and techniques she saw in the academy though they were looked down upon by the instructors within the learning space.

Ahem, she needed to give face to the academy teachers, didn't she? At the least, she should show that she had already listened to their advice.

When all of the fights ended, Ling Lan's group prepared to eat lunch. However, this time they didn't go eat at the canteen but went online directly to order some takeout, requesting the canteen to send several deluxe set meals straight to the villa.

After they had eaten, Ling Lan and the others rested for a little while and then headed back to the combat hall. Right now, the combat hall was no longer as raucous as it had been at the start; it had already become extremely quiet. Other than the Class-A students of the ten grades, who were waiting for their match-ups to be announced by the system, almost everyone else had gone back to their dorms to watch the ranking battles of the top 25.

Very quickly, the notifications came. Ling Lan opened it to look and was immediately dumbfounded. It turned out that she had received a bye for this round. It was very likely that the academy was afraid that Ling Lan would commit another one-hit-kill and cause them trouble, so they had arranged for her to just move on for this round.

The moment the news spread, the other children in the top 25 actually cheered in unison — it looked like no one wanted to go up against Ling Lan so early. Although they still needed to fight a proper match, it was still better to have some hope instead of having to face the hopeless situation of going up against Ling Lan.

The match-ups of the fights this time were truly randomised. There was no longer much differentiation in strength among the top 25, so they would be paired up randomly by the system to fight it out. But in this way, tragedy struck. On Ling Lan's side, Han Jijyun and Qi Long were matched as opponents, creating the first occurrence of an internal fight between the members of Ling Lan's group. This made the other students extraordinarily happy — there was no helping it, Ling Lan's group was just too strong, so one less to worry about was a great stroke of luck.

Han Jijyun reacted in a straightforward manner. The moment the fight started, he raised his hand to signal his surrender. He knew he was no match for Qi Long in terms of combat. The two of them often sparred together for practice, so Han Jijyun knew very well what the final result would be. As such, there was no reason to waste his strength.

Luo Lang's opponent was comparably weaker. Still, the students who entered the top 25 all had exceptional strength — against them, Luo Lang did not have an overwhelming advantage; the odds of him winning were 60-40 at most.

Luo Lang, who was only just a little stronger, was very cautious in his fights. He could clearly remember Ling Lan's reminder at the start of the battles. Capsizing a boat in a ditch 4 ? He would never allow that sort of thing to happen to him. Still, Boss was really Boss. Why was everything he said so meaningful ... Ahem ahem, yet another unwitting little guy had been won over by the charm of this sort of olden sayings; unknowingly, his admiration towards Ling Lan had risen a little bit more.

Luo Lang fought very carefully and seriously, giving his opponent no chances from start to end. And once his opponent's stamina was about finished, Luo Lang swooped in to grab hold of an unintended small opening exposed by the opponent, knocking the other off the stage, and advanced to the top 13.

The original top 9 ranks of Class-A, as expected, all successfully advanced. However, the 10th rank unexpectedly lost to the student who was originally in 14th place and was knocked out. Including Ling Lan, Qi Long, and Luo Lang, those within the top 13 were officially settled.

After that, the ranking battles to determine the 14th to the 25th place were held. Han Jijyun performed impressively, defeating two people, getting a bye, and then finally going up against the original 10th place to score a win. He ended up in rank 14, which was a significant improvement from his initial rank 21.

However, as his original results had been purposefully suppressed by the hacker of the Bladed Special Ops Team, this was just him returning to his rightful spot now. Of course, if he hadn't had to go up against Qi Long during the advancement rounds into the top 13, he might have perhaps even gone up a few more ranks.

Just like that, the day's ranking battles were over and Ling Lan remained firmly in the category of those who advanced with ease. Qi Long could also be considered as one within that category — after all, he hadn't had to fight at all for his second match since Han Jijyun had just surrendered, letting him advance easily. Luo Lang was the most exhausted one. When they returned to the villa, without saying a word, he immediately shuffled off to lie down in the restoration pod within his room to rest up properly.

There was no time to waste right now; he had to seize every minute and every second he could to recover his energy. Tomorrow morning, there would be two critical matches — from top 13 to top 7, and from top 7 to top 4 — and Luo Lang didn't want to stop there. If possible, he still wanted to participate in the afternoon's semi-finals and finals ... and to realize that wish, he could not afford to be the least bit sloppy.