On the old street, the obsidian spear forged from F-class alloy moved in Xu Jingming's hands with astonishing agility, like a black dragon in motion!
Shhh——
When Xu Jingming suddenly stopped, the tip of the obsidian spear also went from rapid motion to absolute stillness.
The intense friction with the air had actually raised its temperature, causing steam to rise!
"Just with this spear technique alone, I can kill a Level 1 Fierce Beast!"
Xu Jingming had originally thought that his spear skill was less important than his two core attributes—Physique and Spirit.
However, after truly mastering advanced spear techniques with the help of the Deep Blue System, he realized how wrong he had been!
Now that his spear skills had been upgraded to Advanced, his thrusting speed had more than doubled!
Additionally, he had mastered various techniques for spear combat, allowing him to find strategies against any type of opponent.
It could be said that even a Level 1 Fierce Beast several times stronger than him could be toyed with and killed under this level of spear technique!
Xu Jingming then glanced at his system panel.
Upgrading his spear skill to Advanced required 200 Ability Points, leaving only 13 Ability Points on the panel.
"Too bad I don't have enough Ability Points. Otherwise, I'd really like to see how terrifying a Master-level spear technique would be."
He shook his head and opened the map.
The white dot representing him was already at the edge of the green outer zone, not far from the yellow middle zone.
"I should reach the middle zone in about half an hour. That zone is full of peak unrated Fierce Beasts and Level 1 Fierce Beasts. That's where I can gain skill points faster."
Although this ruined town—Weiyuan Town—was built decades ago, it wasn't much different from a modern city.
The buildings were all concrete and divided into urban and suburban areas.
Xu Jingming was currently in a residential area on the outskirts of this ruined town.
Having been subjected to the invasion of Fierce Beasts and the erosion of time, the buildings were extremely dilapidated.
More than half of the six-story apartment buildings had collapsed, and the remaining ones were severely weathered.
The stone roads under his feet were overgrown with weeds, presenting a desolate scene.
As Xu Jingming retracted his obsidian spear, preparing to turn and leave, he noticed several other candidates at the end of the road opposite him.
There were five of them: three girls and two boys.
Leading them was a tall girl in a silver-white combat suit.
And this girl was none other than Lin Qingyuan, the fifth-year class monitor, who had invited Xu Jingming to join her team before entering the exam area.
"Xu Jingming?"
Lin Qingyuan also noticed Xu Jingming across the way. Surprised and pleased, she strode forward and reached him in just a few steps.
Most female combat suits are designed to be tight to create a slimming effect. Lin Qingyuan's was no exception; the silver-white suit outlined her graceful figure.
With the combat suit on, her legs looked especially long and strong.
"Class Monitor."
Xu Jingming had met other candidates on the way here, but they were either from different schools or other classes.
This was his first time meeting her, so a small smile appeared on his face.
"Phew, I didn't expect to meet you here. Did you come alone?"
Lin Qingyuan glanced around, seeing no one else, and asked curiously.
The four teammates behind her were also surprised to see Xu Jingming alone.
Normally, an E-class Awakener would have been eliminated within the first one or two hours of the martial arts entrance exam.
It was now around noon, more than three hours into the exam.
How had Xu Jingming not only survived but penetrated so far into the ruins?
"Being alone is more convenient."
Xu Jingming did not hide anything in response to Lin Qingyuan's question and nodded.
"Impressive!"
Lin Qingyuan's beautiful eyes sparkled as she gave a thumbs-up. "Thanks to Xiao Qiao's help, we were able to get this far."
Behind her, a petite girl nodded shyly.
This girl, named Xiao Qiao, had awakened a D-class Support Ability: Acceleration, which could increase the movement speed of herself and her teammates.
It was precisely because of Xiao Qiao that Lin Qingyuan's team had made it this far.
"I've been lucky; the Fierce Beasts I encountered along the way weren't very strong."
Faced with Lin Qingyuan's smile, Xu Jingming didn't say much more.
After all, in this hellish place surrounded by terrifying monsters, what could be more enjoyable than seeing a beautiful girl?
After chatting a bit longer with Lin Qingyuan, Xu Jingming said his goodbyes.
"Class Monitor, time is tight. Let's talk after the exam."
"All right, go. Good luck."
Lin Qingyuan knew every second during the martial arts entrance exam was crucial, so she did not stop him.
"I really didn't expect Xu Jingming to make it this far."
"No wonder he had his own plan when he registered for the exam."
In Lin Qingyuan's eyes, Xu Jingming had lost his parents at a young age and was a pitiful person.
If he had died during the martial arts exam, it would have been a great tragedy. Seeing him safe now made her breathe a sigh of relief.
"Captain, come quick! This One-Horned Rhino seems to have just died recently!"
An exclamation caught Lin Qingyuan's attention.
She saw others gathered around the rhino's corpse, chattering.
"The blood around the wounds hasn't dried, which means it must have died within the last few minutes."
"There are many injuries, but the fatal wound is on its head."
"Judging from the shape of the wound, it looks like a long-handled weapon… kind of like a spear!"
Lin Qingyuan's team had seen the rhino's corpse long ago, but had not paid much attention, assuming it was killed by another team.
But on closer inspection, they realized this One-Horned Rhino had not been dead long; the wounds looked like they were made by a spear.
"Are you saying Xu Jingming killed this One-Horned Rhino?"
One boy said with a strange expression.
The One-Horned Rhino was an extremely difficult Fierce Beast to defeat.
They had dared to fight one only because they had five of them on their team.
If someone claimed that an E-class Awakener could kill a One-Horned Rhino alone, they would never believe it.
"Whether Xu Jingming won or not, we just need to check his score ranking."
One boy opened his smart watch and quickly found Xu Jingming's name on the leaderboard:
[46th Place]: Xu Jingming, 256 points. (Jiangcheng Second High School)
"Xu Jingming, 46th place?!!!"
"Oh my god?! He actually made it into the top fifty?! Did I see that right?"
The boy was stunned, rubbed his eyes hard, and upon confirming he hadn't misread, shouted in disbelief, looking like he had seen a ghost.
"46th place? Did you find Xu Jingming's ranking?"
Other teammates crowded over as well.
Seeing Xu Jingming's position on the virtual screen, their expressions were filled with shock.
Even team captain Lin Qingyuan couldn't help but widen her eyes in disbelief.
Meanwhile, others were thinking the same thing:
"My god, can an E-class Awakener really be this strong?!"