Under the astonished gaze of many students and the gods present, Zhang Yu abruptly ceased the circulation of his mana.

Originally, the students on site were all sprinting at full power, and apart from the first and second places, the data for each student was very close.

Consequently, with Zhang Yu’s pause, the bar graph representing him was rapidly left behind, quickly plummeting towards the last place.

Watching his ranking steadily fall, Zhang Yu’s fighting spirit grew ever stronger. The remnant ox he visualized in his mind also propped itself up on its remaining limbs and bellowed towards the sky, its broken horn emanating faint cold light.

“Come on, push myself to the brink and find a way to survive!”

Under the self-imposed pressure Zhang Yu created, the enhancements of the Remnant Ox Self-Sacrifice Mind Art, when facing pressure and desperation, were continuously amplified.

Zhang Yu felt all the mana throughout his body become active, as if oil was being heated by a fierce fire, exuding an unprecedented vitality.

His brain began to think at an extreme speed, starting to control the mana as it flowed throughout his body.

“My mana control is very strong, but I’ve always lacked training in mana burst power.”

“To make a breakthrough in this exam, I must fully utilize the advantage of my control.”

At this thought, a flash of inspiration struck Zhang Yu’s mind. He recalled the Dragon-Elephant Mountain-Crushing Palm, a universal martial art that had cost him 200,000.

Just like the Back-Dragon Overturning-Mountain Hand he had learned before, this kind of purely physical martial art was called a universal martial art because it could be enhanced by any type of mana, unleashing formidable power.

“The Dragon-Elephant Mountain-Crushing Palm should be my most explosive martial art. If I use mana to drive this martial art…”

With a sudden bang, the mana within Zhang Yu’s body fiercely slammed into the detection patch in his palm.

At the same time, he felt a sharp pain in his meridians.

“My meridians are still not strong enough…”

“In that case, I’ll wrap my meridians with Formless Cloud Aura, creating a new conduit…”

“Then, I’ll use the Dragon-Elephant Mountain-Crushing Palm to blast all that damn mana out!”

Streams of Formless Cloud Aura rose from Zhang Yu’s dantian, instantly transforming into layers of subcutaneous aura, enveloping his meridians, and forming a channel from his dantian to his palm.

The next moment, a roar erupted within Zhang Yu’s body. The explosive mana surged along the channel, blasting out in an incredibly violent manner.

The pressure of desperation, the enhancement from the Remnant Ox Self-Sacrifice Mind Art, the Formless Cloud Aura acting as a conduit, and the mana being released via the Dragon-Elephant Mountain-Crushing Palm—each strike violently vibrated the Formless Cloud Aura within Zhang Yu’s body.

At this moment, Zhang Yu felt as if he had become a cannon, with the Formless Cloud Aura as the barrel, the Dragon-Elephant Mountain-Crushing Palm as the gunpowder, and mana as the bullets, firing shot after shot from within himself.

But with this series of actions, and Zhang Yu’s crude and fierce mana propulsion, his ranking instantly began to accelerate, surging wildly forward.

30th place!
28th place!
21st place!

In a flash, Zhang Yu not only shot back to 21st place, but was now accelerating towards 20th place!

Meanwhile, the student currently in 20th place was a student named Li Tongyun.

As she watched the bar graph representing contestant 55 on the screen steadily catching up to her, Li Tongyun felt immense pressure.

“Damn it… why?”

“Why am I being pushed to this extent?”

Recalling her past achievement of being among the top five in her grade at Xianyun High School, yet continuously sliding down over the past six months, reaching her current predicament…

A strong sense of unwillingness welled up in Li Tongyun’s heart.

Six months ago, her father lost in a company struggle, becoming a scapegoat, and was eventually kicked out of the company.

With his severance pay long overdue, her family faced pressure from various loans, bills, and cultivation expenses.

At that time, her parents’ savings were only enough to cover one month’s expenses.

To maintain her status among friends, classmates, and teachers, Li Tongyun dared not reveal this, and could only constantly borrow money, stubbornly maintaining her facade of wealth.

As the saying goes, when your bank account is empty, your loan account becomes full.

As of today, Li Tongyun’s debts had reached 1.5 million.

Even so, her cultivation, lacking financial support, could not keep up with her classmates’ continuous progress, and her standing instantly plummeted.

After all, on the path of cultivation in high school, where everyone progresses rapidly, once one’s progress slows down, they will be left far behind.

“I cannot lose…”

But if that were all, although the drop was significant and she was gradually abandoned by her former circle of friends, at least she could still get into a university and find a good job in the future.

However, Li Tongyun knew things weren’t that simple, because she couldn’t afford to lose now.

Back when her family’s annual income was at its peak, when her grades put her in the top five of her grade at Xianyun High School, when she was at her proudest and most confident, considering admission to the Top Ten academies as a certainty…

She and her father’s company had signed a performance-based contract.

“I must obtain the Foundation Establishment qualification certificate, otherwise… I will become a company asset.”

Watching contestant 55 get closer and closer, Li Tongyun felt as if the other party was an abyss representing endless despair, pursuing her step by step, wanting to completely devour her.

“I cannot lose!”

With a furious roar in her heart, Li Tongyun pushed her mana to its absolute maximum, accompanied by intense, tearing pain in her meridians, and blasted her mana out.

But no matter how hard she tried, how desperately she fought, even to the point of bleeding from her seven orifices, she could only watch helplessly as Zhang Yu steadily surpassed her number, pushing her down to 21st place.

The moment he reached 20th place, Zhang Yu let out a huge sigh of relief: “Finally, I made it.”

As the pressure lessened, Zhang Yu also voluntarily reduced his mana output.

After all, his current violent methods could not be entirely harmless to his body. While maintaining a position within the top 20, he also needed to ensure his physical well-being.

But soon, Zhang Yu realized that the 21st-place contestant was still pursuing him.

As the other party got closer and closer, the pressure mounted. Zhang Yu then had no choice but to increase his mana output, once again trying to shake off his pursuer.

Even with the protection of the Formless Cloud Aura, such violent mana bombardment still gradually caused internal injuries to his body.

“Damn it, is this person really that persistent?”

Zhang Yu rubbed his somewhat sore abdomen, looking at the 21st-place contestant still chasing him… He noted down the opponent’s number: 36.

Li Tongyun, bleeding from her seven orifices and feeling her meridians tearing with pain, was also staring intently at contestant 55 on the screen.

Every time she got close to him, contestant 55 would accelerate again, leaving her far behind.

But after shaking her off, he would slow down a little, as if waiting for her to catch up again.

Resentment welled up in Li Tongyun’s heart: “Is contestant 55 that super-rich outsider?”

“Is he deliberately toying with me? Is he intentionally mocking me?”

She could almost see him watching her with a malicious smile, observing her repeatedly struggle but never quite catch up.

Meanwhile, Dai Xingzhi, on the other side, had also been observing contestant 55’s performance.

When he saw contestant 55 deliberately stop circulating mana and drop to last place in one go, he was utterly bewildered.

When he saw contestant 55 accelerate all the way back to 20th place, he thought the opponent was about to challenge for the top three.

But when he saw contestant 55 simply stop at 20th place, he felt puzzled again.

It wasn’t until he watched contestant 55 remain steadily in 20th place, and saw contestant 36 chase up time and again only to be shaken off each time…

A flicker of realization passed through Dai Xingzhi’s eyes: “He… he’s just playing, isn’t he?”

Seeing that the opponent maintained his 20th-place ranking steadily until the end of this round of the exam, Dai Xingzhi became even more certain of this.

“Deliberately staying at 20th place, not surpassing the one above, yet controlling it so no one could surpass him.”

“To intentionally control one’s ranking during a Foundation Establishment exam?”

“This is something only someone with absolute confidence in themselves could do.”

Dai Xingzhi looked in Zhang Yu’s direction, thinking to himself, “This guy… just how rich is he?”

And Dai Xingzhi was not the only one present with such thoughts.

Yun Jing, who ultimately claimed second place, looked at Ye Lingxiao for a long time, then turned his head and glanced at Zhang Yu: “Hmph, to hide in the back and play such tricks. Is he showing off his control? Or deliberately concealing his strength?”

After Ye Lingxiao secured first place, a hint of helplessness appeared on his face. He thought to himself, “I actually couldn’t resist going for first place after just a slight provocation.”

“Indeed, I’m still a bit too impatient.”

He looked in Zhang Yu’s direction, thinking to himself, “This guy, on the other hand, can actually have a playful attitude during an exam.”

At this moment, Zhang Yu seemed even more unfathomable in Ye Lingxiao’s eyes.

Especially since, in Ye Lingxiao’s view, Zhang Yu had certainly concealed his strength in this round.

An opponent whose true capabilities were unknown made him feel even more threatened.

“This guy might be even more dangerous than Yun Jing.”

Saying this, Ye Lingxiao greeted Zhang Yu: “Well played.”

“Huh?” Zhang Yu listened to the greeting, a bewildered look in his eyes: “What exactly was ‘well played’?”

“Is this kid provoking me?”

“Seeing me desperately cling to 20th place, is he coming over to mock me?”

How to describe this feeling… Zhang Yu decided that after returning, he would never again praise Zhao Tianxing’s boxing in class.

“Damn it, these words actually sound so unpleasant, full of sarcasm!”

Bai Zhenzhen, who was nearby, consoled him: “Yu-zi, being looked down upon has its advantages. That way, when you surpass them later, it’ll be even more impressive.”

“Surpassing these rich people, that’s our privilege as poor people! These privileged scions of the immortal capital haven’t had this experience since birth!”

Evidently, in Bai Zhenzhen’s eyes, Ye Lingxiao’s words and actions just now were also full of provocation, mockery, disdain, and contempt.

But Zhang Yu felt no comfort whatsoever from Bai Zhenzhen’s words.

“Damn it, there are still two more rounds of this exam. That guy won’t keep giving me backhanded compliments, will he?”

“Wasn’t it just criticizing him for carelessly throwing red envelopes? Does he need to hold such a grudge?”

And with the conclusion of the mana exam, the many students would next face the physical exam.

Deng Bingding then said: “A person’s body cultivation can be reflected in various aspects.”

“And there’s one thing that a person cannot do without daily, and cannot fake.”

“That is one’s appetite.”

“The stronger a person is, the more they eat. The more one eats, the stronger they become. Appetite is one of the indicators of a person’s body cultivation strength. It tests a person’s overall metabolism, digestion, and gastrointestinal absorption capacity.”

“Today’s second exam is the Battle of Gluttony!”