Chapter 36: First Place on the Literary Rankings!

  Lu Jianfeng's eyebrows flashed with disdain, "I wouldn't bother noticing someone weaker than me."

  This statement is a bit too arrogant, if it were someone else, Qin Yu would definitely ridicule them, but facing Lu Jianfeng, he felt that Lu Jianfeng's words were justified, after all, his senior brother had many halos on him.

  "Huh?"

  Qin Yu chuckled and said, "Big Brother Master, you absolutely cannot underestimate this person."

  "What did you say?" Lu Jianfeng asked.

  "This Xiao Yun is just a miscellaneous servant from Shifu's place, and Shifu seems to value him highly, he must have given him some pointers!" Qin Yu said, leaning in closer to Lu Jianfeng and lowering his voice, "Don't get angry, Big Brother, but if it wasn't for the sudden break of the zither string during today's martial arts exam, I'm afraid both you and Shifu Xue would have been defeated by him."

  Lu Jianfeng's face suddenly sank upon hearing this, but after a while, he relaxed and turned to Qin Yu, "Qin Shidi, you have a grudge against Xiao Yun, don't you?"

  Qin Yu's face stiffened upon hearing this, he had taken Lu Jianfeng for a fool, but Lu Jianfeng was not foolish at all, and with one glance, he saw through Qin Yu's intention to play the trick of borrowing a knife to kill.

  Exposed by Lu Jianfeng, Qin Yu also spoke bluntly, "That's right, that guy and I have some grudges, but I was indeed thinking of you, Big Brother Master. This morning, didn't you see? Xu Shijie seemed to be interested in him. If he enters the Elite Academy..."

  At this point, Qin Yu stopped talking and instead looked at Lu Jianfeng, waiting for him to think for himself. He believed that Lu Jianfeng was a clever person and would definitely understand what he wanted to say.

  After hearing Qin Yu's words, Lu Jianfeng's face was indeed somewhat gloomy, but not to the point of anger. "But he's just a miscellaneous servant, even if he has Shibo Zu protecting him and managed to sneak into the Elite Academy, what big waves can he stir up?"

  Qin Yu was about to say a couple more sentences when Xiao Ming walked in with a jug of wine, interrupting the two. Qin Yu stopped talking and looked at Lu Jianfeng's expression, believing that even if Lu Jianfeng hadn't developed any hatred for Xiao Yun yet, he had already planted a seed in his heart. When Lu Jianfeng and Xiao Yun met again in the future, this seed would take root and sprout.

  ——

  At dawn, the first ray of sunlight had just spilled over the top of Boya Mountain, and in front of the gate of the Tianyin Sect, a large crowd had already gathered, bustling with noise and excitement. A stone wall was surrounded by three layers of people inside and out, all because the Tianyin leaderboard had already posted the results of this elite conference's written and martial arts exams.

  "Wow, Wen Kao got first place in the exam, Xiao Ming!"

  "First Class Second Place, Xu Wanjun! First Class Third Place, Lu Jianfeng!"

  "Who is Xiao Ming? Never heard of him?"

  "Cow, ranked second overall, isn't it too cow? I've never heard of this person before?"

  ……

  In front of the Heavenly Sound Chart, a large crowd gathered together, pointing and discussing the rankings, to the point where people in the back couldn't even squeeze in.

  "Haha, Shixiong, did you hear that? I'm first place, I got first place in the literary exam?" Xiao Ming and Qin Yu arrived at the Tianyin rankings board and heard the discussions coming from ahead. As soon as he heard that he had gotten first place in the literary exam, his face lit up with joy. Although he had failed miserably in the martial arts exam, he still had immense confidence in his literary abilities. He hadn't expected to actually get first place - it was completely unexpected!

  Seeing Xiao Ming's complacent appearance, Qin Yu frowned and his face turned extremely ugly. In his heart, he absolutely did not believe that this kid could get the first place in the liberal arts exam. This kid had just entered the school, if he could get the first place in the liberal arts exam, he would cut off his head and kick it like a ball.

  "Let me through!"

  "Get out of the way, get out of the way! I'm Wenkao number one, Xiao Ming!"

  Unlike Xiao Ming's excitement, Qin Yu had a dark face and roughly pushed away the people in front of him, squeezing to the bottom of the Tianyin List with Xiao Ming.

  "What's the squeeze?" came a shout from beside him, with a hint of annoyance in his tone.

  Qin Yu's face suddenly changed, and he was about to see who the blind person was. However, when he looked up, he saw it was Lu Jianfeng, and immediately put on a smiling face. "Big Brother Master, you're here too?"

  "Hmm!"

  Lu Jianfeng let out a heavy hum and directly swept his sleeve, turning around and leaving in a huff.

  Qin Yu felt a bit inexplicable, but thinking about it, he must have been hit by his grades again. He looked up at the Tianyin rankings and both of their eyes were fixed on each other.

  The Tianyin List is divided into the Wen List, Wu List and Total List. On a wide stone wall, from top to bottom, wooden plaques are hung. The Wu List has only sixty, which was decided yesterday, while the Wen List has more, divided into three grades: Jia, Yi and Bing, with each grade taking sixty names of disciples.

  The wooden board hanging in the first place on the list had two words written in red pen, and those two words were so eye-catching that Xiao Ming's smile immediately froze when he saw the name on it. He rubbed his eyes hard, hardly daring to believe it was true.

  "Oh, you're Xiao Shixiong who got first place in the literary exam? Nice to meet you, I'm Lu Dawei, 57th place in the literary exam."

  "Wow, Elder Xiao is indeed majestic and dignified, one look and you can tell he's no ordinary person!"

  "Everyone look quickly, this is Xiao Yun Shixiong who ranked first in Wen Shi A, third in Wu Shi and second overall!"

  ……

  Listening to the commotion of the crowd beside him, Xiao Ming was so humiliated that he wanted to find a crack in the ground to crawl into. Even Qin Yu felt extremely embarrassed and didn't even look at his own ranking. The two of them hastily covered their faces with their sleeves and rushed out, fleeing in disarray.

  "What? Where did you go?"

  Everyone was bewildered and confused.

  ——

  Corner

  The two of them were panting heavily.

  "You..." Seeing that no one was following him, Qin Yu put his hands on his hips, panting and pointing at Xiao Ming, wanting to scold him loudly.

  "Big brother, I..." Xiao Ming couldn't lift his head up, he just wanted to find a crack in the ground to crawl into.

  Qin Yu scolded, "With your current state, you still want to be the first in the literary exam? You're not ashamed, I'm ashamed for you!"

  "Big brother, I misheard, I thought they were calling me!" Xiao Ming said with a depressed tone.

  Qin Yu was speechless for a moment, and unexpectedly encountered such a thing. Thinking of the scene just now, her face was about to turn red.

  ——

  The sun rises three feet high, and the heavenly music sounds before the chart.

  "Shao Shixiong!"

  Xiao Yun arrived late, and by the time he got to the mountain gate, the crowd had thinned out. Lin Chunyin and Luo Qing immediately smiled and welcomed him when they saw Xiao Yun arriving fashionably late.

  "How was it? Did you all take a look?" asked Xiao Yun.

  Lin Chunyin smiled and shook her head, while Luo Qing said, "I ranked 37th in the martial arts exam, and only got a second-class sixth place in the literary exam. It's okay, though - I'm still 53rd on the overall list. If you don't count the 47 students from the Elite Academy, I can be considered one of the top 12 students to enter the Outer Academy."

  "Then congratulations are in order, you've made it into the Elite Institute." Xiao Yun said with a smile.

  Luo Qing's face was filled with smiles as he turned his head to look at Lin Chunyin, "Sister is really impressive, tenth in the literary ranking and also tenth overall!"

  Tenth in the overall ranking, just enough to enter today's piano skills test, re-ranking. Xiao Yun heard this and was also happy for Lin Chu Yin.

  Lin Chuoyin said, "Xiao Shixiong, you haven't seen your grades yet?"

  Xiao Yun shook his head, "I live far away, I'm late, did you guys help me take a look?"

  "Go see for yourself!"

  Two women, one on the left and one on the right, pushed Xiao Yun towards the Tianyin Billboard.

  "Look!"

  Luo Qing pointed at the first place on the list and excitedly said to Xiao Yun.

  "Xiao Yun!"

  The first row, the first position, the sign hanging on it was written with Xiao Yun's name. A faint smile appeared on Xiao Yun's face. In fact, this wasn't much of a surprise after all. The essay question in the exam wasn't difficult for him, and being ranked first was already something he had expected.

  "Look, second on the overall list, Xiao Shixiong, you really surprised us." Luo Qing pointed at the overall list again.

  Xiao Yun walked towards the overall ranking board and saw three eye-catching plaques hanging on the top row.

  "First, Xu Wanjun; Second, Xiao Yun; Third, Lu Jianfeng."

  The overall ranking is a comprehensive score of the literary and martial exams. Xiao Yun's martial exam only ranked third, so even though he got first place in the literary exam, his overall score could only rank second.

  "What's wrong, Shao Shixiong? You don't seem too happy?" Lin Chunyin saw that Xiao Yun's face didn't show any joy and couldn't help but feel a little puzzled.