Martial Ascent to Divinity

"Got it!"

"It's really a real-time ranking."

"Looks like we can connect to the War Merit Token now."

"Let's see what rank Zhou Leng is?"

Wang Boxiong swiped the screen and quickly stopped.

Zhou Leng.

Rank: 55.

"Alright, at the beginning, that's neither too high nor too low of a rank."

"That's a good thing."

"Why?"

"Haven't you thought about it? This joint exam has an irreconcilable contradiction."

"The Celestial Ladder and the joint exam?"

"Right. The content of the joint exam is to slay demons and eradicate devils, but the Celestial Ladder, who knows what it's testing? If the goals of both sides don't align, that could be a problem."

"It's just a joint exam, not that important. What's important is the Celestial Ladder. I hope Zhou Leng can distinguish what's the priority."

Wang Boxiong said, "Some young soldiers and military cadets have been absorbed into the Celestial Ladder and have already transmitted some information about it."

Everyone perked their ears.

"It's classified Celestial Ladder information, and the news can't be leaked."

All the instructors wore expressions full of question marks, as if what was said was equivalent to nothing.

"Then what?"

"The staff department and think tank have contacted sages from other worlds and drawn a preliminary conclusion based on the existing information."

"There's a high probability it's an inheritance Celestial Ladder."

All instructors showed looks of envy.

"Just now, I was worried these kids would encounter problems, now I only feel envy."

"Yeah, the inheritance Celestial Ladder, whether for the individual or humanity, is the most important."

"Among more than fifty thousand candidates, even if only one percent complete part of the inheritance, in the future, they will play a crucial role."

"This should be the first time the Human Race has encountered an inheritance Celestial Ladder of the Qi Blood Realm, right?"

"If nothing unexpected happens, among these children, there will appear some future super geniuses comparable to Yunhua Jinjing."

"I bet the Top Ten Martial Arts are anxious."

The instructors couldn't help but laugh.

On the Martial Arts Forum.

Most students were praying and blessing their classmates who got trapped in the Celestial Ladder.

Because everyone knows that the Celestial Ladder is a treasure, but also a blood-and-flesh grindstone.

Whenever the Celestial Ladder appears, countless deaths and injuries occur, even leading to the fall of Martial Saints.

But soon, news about the Celestial Ladder was announced on the forum.

An inheritance Celestial Ladder of the Blood Transporting Period of the Qi Blood Realm.

The forum fell silent for a moment, then became turbulent again.

"I'm praying for them from the rear, while they're enjoying themselves on the front line. This story is so sad, so tragic."

"If I had known earlier, I would have taken the exam for the Eighteen Schools too. The Top Ten Martial Arts are useless!"

"That's an inheritance Celestial Ladder, and it's the Qi Blood Realm, the first for the Human Race."

"With the inheritance from the Celestial Ladder, finding a job after graduation is more useful than the Top Ten Martial Arts."

"If these guys come out alive, won't they walk sideways?"

"A bunch of regular Martial Arts Academy folks, even with the Celestial Ladder inheritance, can't compare to us in the Top Ten Martial Arts."

"Look, some people are anxious."

The forum started a chaotic battle.

Inside the light shield of the Celestial Ladder, it's even more chaotic.

Over fifty thousand candidates and countless demons scattered everywhere.

Seen from above, the distribution of both sides is especially orderly.

The strongest Blood Transporting Period students are positioned in the front, very close to the demons.

Those Qi Nourishing Period candidates are in the far rear, only able to encounter regular magical beasts.

Zhou Leng ran while observing around.

In less than an hour, he killed seven magical beasts and five demons, numbers that would make an ordinary freshman's scalp tingle.

If it were a regular freshman, they would have died over a dozen times by now.

"Did the Martial Mansion and Demon City Army put that many demons in this time?"

Zhou Leng felt something was off, while pondering about the Inheritance Spiritual Light.

"What exactly is the Inheritance Spiritual Light? How is it obtained, and how to seize it?"

Zhou Leng continued forward, continuing to slay encountered demons.

He didn't know how much time passed as he looked up to the sky.

Dusk enveloped the scene, the sky dimmed.

Zhou Leng glanced at the dim sky and furrowed his brows.

Still no sight of the Inheritance Spiritual Light or the Inheritance Land.

But in an instant, the phantom of Martial Arts Will in his mind flashed, dispelling negative emotions.

Zhou Leng calmed down.

"Continue advancing towards the center area."

Zhou Leng made up his mind and continued forward.

Sounds of commotion came from ahead.

Zhou Leng bent slightly, sneakily advanced with careful steps, and peered from behind a tree.

It was already dark, only seeing a dozen or so "Steel-skull Sheep Demons" madly attacking a group of students, and he couldn't see the students' appearances or school badges clearly.

The students formed a circular formation, desperately defending.

On the circular clearing behind them, several severely injured classmates lay scattered.

Zhou Leng looked at the Steel-skull Sheep Demons.

They had metallic gleaming steel horns, blood-red eyes, and pure black fur, standing upright on two large sheep hooves, as tall as a human.

Each Steel-skull Sheep Demon held a "Sheep Skull Hammer" in its hand.

Weapons forged from the corpses of their ancestors.

Among them, the tallest Steel-skull Sheep Demon did not engage and slowly circled around the battle.

The Sheep Demon Commander.

The Steel-skull Sheep Demons were extremely fierce, and these ten or so students were clearly struggling.

Zhou Leng glanced at the classmates, noting one who was highly skilled, with True Qi power surpassing his own, likely in the late Blood Transporting Period.

However, that person's actual combat experience was lacking, and they hadn't sincerely practiced martial arts; many of their moves were too rigid, far from the level of Qi Follows Body Movement.

The other students' True Qi was not inferior to his own, but they were as inexperienced as rookies.

Zhou Leng set down his backpack, quietly closed in, and then suddenly leapt behind the Sheep Demon Commander with the lightweight skill "Flying Crane Technique."

Wind rose, and tides surged.

A swift and powerful palm strike promptly hit the Sheep Demon Commander's back.

The Sheep Demon Commander's heart stopped suddenly, and it lunged forward.

Zhou Leng followed through, delivering an elbow smash, the tip of the elbow surging with True Qi, fiercely striking the back of the Sheep Demon Commander's neck.

Crack.

The Sheep Demon Commander's neck shattered, its hooves kicked the dirt, and it stopped moving.

"Baaaah..." The other Steel-skull Sheep Demons issued bizarre sheep cries, splitting into two that charged angrily at Zhou Leng.

Yet Zhou Leng seemed oblivious to those two Steel-skull Sheep Demons, stepping with the Eight Trigrams Step, bypassing them and rushing to the back of another Steel-skull Sheep Demon.

Heaven Island Falling into the Sea, striking the back.

True Qi pierced through the flesh, the Steel-skull Sheep Demon's heart shattered, and it spat blood as it lunged forward.

"Coordinate with this person, entangle the Steel-skull Sheep Demons, or we will all die here!" In the pitch-black night, the strongest person in the East China Martial Arts Academy team glanced, unable to see the rescuer's face clearly, and dared not be distracted, and continued fighting the Steel-skull Sheep Demon in front of them.

"Listen to the senior!" The students of East China Martial Arts Academy, who had been hopeless, reignited their fighting spirit.

While the other students entangled the Steel-skull Sheep Demons, Zhou Leng used his stepping techniques and Qi Follows Body Movement to attack from behind.

One by one, the Steel-skull Sheep Demons perished.

Soon, Zhou Leng and the students surrounded the last few Steel-skull Sheep Demons, killing them all.

Zhou Leng walked to the Sheep Demon Commander, used the War Merit Token to mark it, then turned and walked away.

"Thank you, friend. Would you like to team up?" The leading senior from East China Martial Arts Academy shouted at Zhou Leng's retreating figure.

"I have other matters to attend to."

They were all compatriots, so he couldn't not save them, but Zhou Leng's goal was the Celestial Ladder Inheritance, and he couldn't waste time.

Zhou Leng packed up his backpack and continued running.

The East China Martial Arts Academy team rested on the spot.

"Did you see that person clearly? The battle was too intense; I didn't have time to take a good look. I only saw his side profile, and it was too dark here at night; you couldn't see unless you got close. I was about to thank him, but he left," the leading senior Tian Chengchang said helplessly.

"I didn't see him clearly either. This person's stepping technique is amazing, and during the battle, I didn't dare to distract myself."

"I saw him clearly, but I didn't recognize him; I only saw the badge of Ruda."

"I've heard there's someone named Ji Changnian at Ruda who's really impressive. My high school classmate from the same class always praises him, saying he has the strength of a Top Ten Martial Arts master."

"He also said that Ji Changnian is somewhat aloof and doesn't talk much to people. This person saved people and left without a word, which fits Ji Changnian's character perfectly."

Another student said, "I've heard of Ji Changnian too, it must be him. Besides the first, Ruda couldn't possibly have a second person this fierce."

Another student frowned, vaguely remembering that Ruda's first in this monthly exam had changed, but hadn't paid much attention at the time, and wasn't sure.

He opened his phone, but the network was down, and without a Demonized Watch, he couldn't set up a temporary regional network, so he gave up.

"Senior, where do we go next? Ah, thanks to you, otherwise we would all have died here."

Tian Chengchang frowned and said, "For safety, we should head toward the edge and then regroup to complete the Celestial Ladder Inheritance. Before the Celestial Ladder covered this area, an officer next to me received a message about a Demon invasion. I, who is not a joint exam student, can enter here, so the invading Demons might also be absorbed by the Celestial Ladder."

"We'll listen to the senior."

Tian Chengchang glanced in the direction where Zhou Leng had disappeared and said, "This Ji Changnian is truly impressive. I only saw a few of his moves, each fierce, approaching Qi Follows Body Movement. Although his True Qi power is not as strong as mine, his combat experience surpasses mine; he practices martial arts with dedication, worthy of respect."

Tian Chengchang paused and said, "The key is that he saves people without expecting a reward, only marking the Sheep Demon Commander. In ancient times, he would be considered a local hero. If there's a chance, I definitely want to meet him and make friends."

He glanced at the Sheep Demon Commander's corpse and said, "By the way, none of us should mark the Sheep Demon Commander. That was Ji Changnian's solo kill. We can't disregard our humanity for a bit of war merit."

"Don't worry, we at East China Martial Arts Academy don't do such disgraceful things."

Zhou Leng left Tian Chengchang and the others, initially killing any Demons he encountered on sight, but as his True Qi depletion increased, he changed tactics.

When he encountered slow Demons, he would run away directly, only killing those that could chase him.

Occasionally, he climbed into dense trees, using branches and leaves as cover, and meditated to restore his True Qi.

Unfortunately, along the way, he neither encountered the Land of Inheritance nor saw Inheritance Spiritual Light.

"What exactly is Inheritance Spiritual Light..."

Zhou Leng kept searching.

Occasionally, on the road, he encountered some scattered candidates or teams; as long as they weren't fighting Demons, Zhou Leng would ignore them.

When encountering Demons harming people, Zhou Leng would inevitably lend a hand, helping then leaving, without delay.

In the Martial Arts Hall Master's office.

Zhou Leng's ranking rose steadily.

After killing all the Steel-skull Sheep Demons, his rank suddenly jumped to first place.

"Well done!" The instructors praised in unison.

"Deng Zhijue picked up a good seedling, huh?"

"After all, he's the Martial Arts Hall's first, no, he's actually the first in Ruda now."

"As long as he keeps killing, entering the first tier is not a problem."

As time passed, Zhou Leng's ranking fluctuated, but it never fell below the top ten.

Occasionally, an instructor sent a screenshot to Deng Zhijue, who was far away at the Shuizhou base.

Deng Zhijue glanced at Zhou Leng's ranking and showed a satisfied smile.

He could only see that Zhou Leng was in the first tier, unable to see the specific ranking like the school principals or the Hall Master.