The gazes of every student and teacher who laid eyes on him snapped over in unison.

Their looks were no longer filled with curiosity or scrutiny, but with genuine awe, admiration, and fervor.

"Senior Li Wen!"

"Brother Wen!"

"Good morning, Li Wen!"

The greetings came one after another, their faces beaming with sincere smiles.

Many of the underclassmen were even so excited their cheeks flushed red.

"S-Senior! C-Could I trouble you for an autograph?"

A first-year girl with a ponytail mustered all her courage and jogged over. Her hands trembled as she held out a pen and a brand-new notebook, her eyes filled with hope and nervousness.

Li Wen was momentarily taken aback, but then he smiled gently. He took the pen and notebook and fluently signed his name.

The simple gesture made the girl’s face instantly turn beet red. She took back the notebook, clutched it to her chest, whispered her thanks, and then scampered away like a startled rabbit, leaving envious gazes in her wake.

He was no longer the obscure, ordinary student from Bluestone Third Middle School he once was, nor was he merely a talented pupil.

He was the recognized king of the high school scene across all of Jiangnan Province, a top-tier prodigy with an S-rank core seed contract, and an unprecedented legend for Bluestone Third Middle School—and even for all of Bluestone County!

His name alone was a shining seal of excellence.

Followed by innumerable gazes, Li Wen walked calmly into the academic building.

For Li Wen, the academic portion of the third provincial mock exam was hardly a challenge at all.

As soon as the test papers were distributed, his gaze swept over the questions, and the answers flowed effortlessly from the depths of his mind.

He didn’t even need to activate [Absolute Focus]. For most subjects, he finished with fluid ease in less than half the allotted time. Turning in his test early had become a habit.

The only time he had to apply himself was when solving the final, most difficult math problem, where he summoned a sliver of mental focus to verify his complex logical deductions. Even so, he still left the exam hall half an hour early every single time.

This effortless performance left the proctors and fellow examinees, who had been secretly watching his speed, feeling nothing but speechless admiration and despair.

「The next day was the decisive combat skills assessment.」

Hundreds of thousands of candidates from across the province were thrown into a massive, battle-royale-style preliminary round, organized according to a complex set of regional rules.

However, for Li Wen, who had reached the late-stage Force Realm, a melee of this scale held absolutely no suspense.

Wherever he passed, his opponents—be they the vast number of ordinary candidates at the Peak of Unity Realm or the few provincial prodigies who had also stepped into the Force Realm—melted away like snow before lava.

The splendid and deadly domain of rainbow light conjured by his Heaven-Dropping Form swirled around him, his crowd control reaching a level that drove his opponents to despair.

The swift blade of his Shadow-Stealing Form tore through the air; the heavy blows of his Overlapping Waves Form could sunder mountains; the iron wall of his Defensive Form was impenetrable...

He wielded the four perfected forms of his blade technique with complete mastery, displaying a level of skill that had far surpassed his performance in the second provincial mock exam.

Every surge of intent in his blade arts, every eruption of tangible blade light, was a clear sign that he was just one step away from the final stage of comprehension.

Whether crushing an opponent one-on-one or fending off a siege, Li Wen demonstrated absolute dominance.

He swept through the entire assessment field, an unstoppable force.

The brilliance of every other candidate in Jiangnan Province was inevitably eclipsed by him alone.

「A few days later, the overall results of the third provincial mock exam were announced.」

Jiangnan Province Third High School Mock Cultivation Exam - Overall Rankings:

First Place: Li Wen (Bluestone Third Middle School)

Second Place: Chu Feng (Provincial City First Middle School)

Third Place: Nangong Xue (Provincial City Second Middle School)

...

A dead silence fell over the crowd viewing the list, followed by an earth-shattering uproar.

With these indisputable results, he firmly secured his throne as the number one senior in Jiangnan Province, practically welding himself to the top spot.

Those who had sourly suggested he was just lucky or had a one-time fluke when he won the skills portion of the second mock exam—those who claimed he was a one-trick pony whose physical conditioning lagged behind his technique—were now completely silenced as they stared at his name, once again at the top of the skills assessment rankings.

Their mouths hung open, but not a single word of doubt could escape their lips.

Only hushed whispers of "monster" and "inhuman" spread silently through the stunned crowd.

The hierarchy among the seniors of Jiangnan Province was now set in stone.

...

「Time flew by, and in the blink of an eye, it was May 31st.」

In the early morning, a faint sliver of sunlight, like a golden thread, crept through a gap in the curtains and landed precisely on Li Wen’s eyelids.

His thick eyelashes twitched, and he slowly opened his eyes.

There was no trace of morning grogginess; his deep eyes were instantly clear and bright.

He habitually rubbed his eyes. With a mere thought, the familiar, azure-blue panel silently unfolded in his mind:

[Name: Li Wen]

[Age: 18]

[Realm: Junior Martial Artist (Level 9.9 → 10.3)]

[Profession: Scholar Lv. 9 (8514 → 22314/25600)]

[Skills: Blade Technique · Force Realm (99%); Five Luminaries Celestial Rainbow Skill · Flowing Rainbow’s Five Forms (Shadow-Stealing Form 100%, Overlapping Waves Form 100%, Defensive Form 100%, Heaven-Dropping Form 100%, Guan Yue Form 100%)]

[Cultivation Technique: Splitting Blade Golden Killing Skill (Perfected)]

As he carefully examined the information on the panel, Li Wen’s heart was calm, yet he felt a subtle joy of fulfillment.

’Another ten days of arduous cultivation have yielded remarkable results.

My physical body has finally broken through the great Level 10 barrier, a threshold that has stopped countless other Martial Artists.

This evolution of my being has brought with it a power that surges through my veins like a great river. I’ve finally, officially stepped into the realm of a Martial Artist.’