Seeing Lu Chen openly call him an idiot,
Song Hao immediately slammed the table and exploded, “Lu Chen, who are you calling an idiot?”
Lu Chen gave him a deep look, “Come on, come on. If you’ve got the guts, slam the table again?”
“What if I do slam it?”
Song Hao’s voice was loud and fierce, but his hand never moved.
“Tch, what a joke.”
“Hahaha.”
The classroom instantly filled with laughter.
“You!”
Song Hao was so angry he gritted his teeth, but there was nothing he could do to Lu Chen.
In terms of build, he really couldn’t take on Lu Chen, who stood one point eight meters tall.
Sure, the latter was a bit on the skinny side,
but there’s no denying that length gives you an advantage.
“Just you wait. Once I get blessed by the heavenly officials later, I’m going to destroy you!”
Song Hao clenched his fists secretly, deciding to play it safe for now.
Once he reached the first rank,
then he’d settle all old and new scores at once!
“By the way, Lu Chen, did you hear?”
Li Ruoyi brought the conversation back and suddenly asked.
“What?”
Lu Chen happened to be thirsty, so he opened Li Ruoyi’s milk and took a sip.
“I heard that two days ago, above the Zhao Family Temple, there were dark clouds blotting out the sun, along with a blazing red flame. An insider online leaked that someone had enshrined the King of Hell from the underworld in that temple.”
“Oh? Something like that happened?” Lu Chen’s heart stirred slightly.
“Yeah.” Li Ruoyi’s face showed fear. “Seriously, what is wrong with people these days? They’re even enshrining the King of Hell. Isn’t that bad luck?”
Lu Chen gave a dry cough and said, “The King of Hell is a legitimate deity too. How is that bad luck?”
“Don’t you know what the underworld does? How is that not bad luck?”
“Fine, fine, bad luck it is.”
Lu Chen blamed himself for talking too much.
“But come to think of it, that Zhao Family Temple is pretty amazing. The day before yesterday, it produced you, and yesterday, it produced a spiritualist who triggered an underworld phenomenon.
But I never saw anything online about your news.
It’s really strange.
Anyway, word is spreading that the Zhao Family Temple is very powerful, so even more people are going there.
When I went to pray yesterday, I could barely squeeze in.
But it was worth it. I finally managed to raise my servant spirit degree with the Lord of Wenchang to three percent.”
Li Ruoyi’s lips curled up with a hint of pride.
“Congratulations, congratulations! As expected, classmate Li is incredibly talented!”
Lu Chen cupped his hands in salute.
“Oh, come on, you monster who raised your degree by five percent in one go, and you’re congratulating me?”
Li Ruoyi’s face showed a touch of sly delight.
Lu Chen kept his eyes on his nose and his heart focused, just offering a faint smile.
To be honest, he no longer felt any interest in this kind of low-level showing off.
As the sworn younger brother of the honorable Lord of Wealth, the prospective adopted son of the King of Hell, and the underworld-appointed [Majestic and Virtuous General of the Nether Bureau]!
If he still secretly felt good about such cheap praise, it would be far beneath his dignity.
“But the Zhao Family Temple is quite cautious. They’re probably afraid that your brother will take away some of Lord Zhao’s incense offerings. I bet they’ve put a lot of effort into suppressing the news about you.”
Lu Chen thought to himself, “They let you know only what they want you to know. If they don’t want you to know, you won’t hear a single whisper. This is what it means to be a ‘great clan’—they really can cover the sky with one hand!”
Just as he was lost in thought, the classroom loudspeaker suddenly blared an announcement from the school administration:
“Attention all advanced classes, please assemble immediately on the school playground!”
The announcement repeated three times, and at the same time, the homeroom teacher quickly walked into the classroom.
“Line up! Let’s go!”
The classroom immediately erupted into commotion.
Lu Chen and Song Hao both perked up with a jolt of excitement!
“The reform (blessing) is finally here!”
…
Moments later, the five hundred students from the ten advanced classes of Jiangdu Number Three High School were already standing in neat formation on the playground.
In front of everyone, a grand platform had been set up, and the banner in the background clearly read: “The 54th Servant Spirit Degree Examination of Jiangdu Number Three High School.”
Many people stood on the stage, including the principal of Number Three High School.
This big shot, who usually had the final say at school, now looked unusually low-key in the crowd, standing like a mere underling.
In contrast, the few strangers standing next to him had incredibly strong and imposing postures.
Once everyone was in order,
the principal walked up to the microphone and began his speech: “Dear students, as you all know, today is the day of the Servant Spirit Degree examination competition.
But before we officially begin, I have an exciting piece of good news to share with you. Today, our school is incredibly honored to have the City Lord of Jiangdu City—Yu Feng, Lord Yu—visit us for guidance!
Now, let’s give a warm round of applause and invite Lord Yu to say a few words. Everyone, applaud!”
The crowd below erupted in chatter.
Lu Chen applauded while feeling a chill run down his spine inside.
He hadn’t expected that just this one reform would actually bring the honorable city lord here in person.
Isn’t this… a bit too high-profile?
That would mean those unfamiliar people on the stage are all leaders from Jiangdu City?
“Hello, students, I am Yu Feng.”
On the stage, Yu Feng, the city lord, cleared his throat and offered a faint smile. “Time is limited, so I’ll make this brief, because there are several other schools waiting for me to preside over their events.”
“Today’s examination will, I believe, affect many of you. Starting with your cohort, the nation has officially decided to fully reform the advanced classes. From now on, in addition to the advanced classes, a special class will be established.
As for the specific details of the reform, I won’t explain them here. Principal Zhang will explain them to you shortly.
What I want to say is that after the reform, for you all, perhaps the best era is about to arrive.
An era that will fully reward your talents!
As long as you have ambition, you can enjoy rights and powers far beyond what previous generations had in this era!
Ranks and titles, nobility and high office!
As long as you have the strength,
all of these can be yours!”
The crowd below buzzed with chatter and applause.
Yu Feng smiled and waved his hand, “I wish everyone the best of luck!”
After saying this, Yu Feng stepped back into the lineup.
Discussions broke out below.
“Reform? Special class? What does that even mean?”
“I have no idea! This is so sudden!”
“Yeah, there wasn’t any sign at all!”
The principal took over again: “Alright, next, I’ll explain the details of this reform…”
Lu Chen listened carefully, not wanting to miss a single detail.
It was almost exactly as Deng Jiajia had said.
First rule: Students with a servant spirit degree below two percent would be forced to graduate.
Only the students who remained would be qualified to compete for a spot in the special class.
This news caused an instant uproar, no surprise.
Many students who knew they wouldn’t meet the standard broke down crying on the spot.
Some even fainted.
But the school seemed prepared—medical staff immediately rushed in with stretchers.
Witnessing this scene, Lu Chen could only sigh softly.
If he hadn’t traveled here, the original owner of this body would probably be among those desperate students right now.
“I understand how everyone feels, but some decisions have to be made.”
The principal sighed and continued, “The second reform point… concerns the early release of mission assignments!”
Hearing this, Lu Chen’s heartbeat suddenly raced, and his blood boiled with excitement!!
Just like Sun Yourong had said, mission access was being opened up early!
Starting from Lu Chen’s cohort, they wouldn’t have to wait until graduation. They could take on missions right now, earning pay and military merits!
— Military merits!
If money was the only thing that could stir Lu Chen’s nerves back when he couldn’t afford meat,
now that the money problem was initially solved,
military merits had undoubtedly become the thing that stirs Lu Chen’s nerves again.
To rise to a new noble family, or even climb higher,
military merits are the absolute core indicator!
No exceptions!
Because money can be borrowed, stolen, or even robbed!
But military merits cannot be borrowed or bought; they can only be earned through your own hard work!
How many families are not lacking money at all, yet because they lack military merits, they never reach the threshold of becoming a ‘new noble’ and cannot establish their own temple?
“Alright, as for further explanations after the admissions, I’ll go into more detail once the examination is over. Now, I declare the examination officially begins! Students with a servant spirit degree below two percent, please leave. Those who meet the standard, stay!”
As soon as he finished speaking,
Bzzz!!!
Ten machines from ten classes started up almost simultaneously.
Like ten cold, crushing machines, they gradually shattered the lines of each class, along with their lives and their dreams.
The hard threshold of two percent was enough to weed out over seventy percent of the students.
For a moment, the playground echoed with cries of “Eliminated!”
As he listened to each classmate having their servant spirit degree shouted out loudly,
Lu Chen, standing at the very end of the line, was also feeling exasperated.
Couldn’t they have a little privacy?
Why did they have to make it known to everyone?
Most of the eliminated students had degrees just above one percent.
A better score was barely reaching two percent.
The key point was, his servant spirit degree with Lord of Wealth was a whopping forty-three percent!
And Lu Chen was confident that his degree with the old King of Hell wouldn’t be below thirty percent either.
When he revealed both servant spirit degrees later,
wouldn’t that hurt his classmates’ feelings too much?
“Wait a moment!” A thought suddenly struck Lu Chen. “Since even the temple couldn’t measure my servant spirit degree with the underworld, in all likelihood, the school’s testing machine won’t have an underworld module either. That means I’ll probably only be tested for one degree.”
Lu Chen’s eyes lit up.
“Good, good. At least I’ll hurt their feelings one less time.”
Lu Chen just hoped the process would hurry up and finish so he could go take on a mission.
Why would a real man waste time showing off?
Focusing on the grind is the real kingly way!
