Flames of Ambition

59: Ranking Tournament's Rules

Chapter 59: Ranking Tournament's Rules

It’s been two months since they entered the Academy. All of them, except Fan Qingyou, have excelled greatly in their respective fields. Although that happened, they still kept a relatively low profile.

The healers were extremely satisfied with their progress, especially after their training schedule became a daily routine two weeks into Zexel’s hellish training method. They had grown confident in their own strength.

Unlike before, when they abhorred the Ranking Tournament down to their bones, now they were looking forward to testing their newly acquired skills. Something they never thought possible—until Zexel had shown them otherwise.

Of course, Zexel knew this kind of combat style well, as she loved to aim for the vital and most dangerous points on the human body.

Sometimes, when she was too lazy to kill, this method was her go-to during her time in the modern era. Because of this, the healers were all deeply grateful to her, ready to present their loyalty to her on a silver platter, just as they had promised.

Aside from the brutal training, their cultivation had also risen to a whole new level. This was thanks to the abundance of pills they used—many of them had only been Earthly Spiritualists, the weakest cultivation level in Scarlett Academy.

Except for Fan Qingyou, who was merely a Peak Senior Spiritualist. She remained the weakest among them, barely passing the entrance examination. Even so, she was considered one of the luckier individuals from a Seventh Tier Country like Pingjing, which hadn’t had a single person pass the entrance exam in the last fifteen years. So, in that context, she wasn’t doing too badly.

However, Fan Qingyou had changed. From the proud Fifth Miss of the Pingjing Dynasty, she had become a lost dog following her "master." She was now the subject of constant bullying within the Elementalist Category, which had over 1,500 students.

Why were there so few students? It was simple. Scarlett Academy only retained students for four years, and entrance exams were held once every three years. Given the difficulty of the exam, the low number of students wasn’t surprising.

Additionally, students could graduate after just two years if they were satisfied with their cultivation. That was what the four of them—Zexel, Fan Yaoli, Feng Ming Li, and Feng Zhengying—intended to do.

Now that two months had passed, the Ranking Tournament was scheduled for tomorrow, and people were eagerly preparing for it.

The Ranking Tournament had three stages. The first was a teamwork challenge, and eliminations occurred by team. This was the stage where Healers were often eliminated right away, never making it to the second round.

Each team could consist of up to 25 members. Usually, classes formed teams together. The Healer class had only 14 members before Zexel arrived, which put them at a disadvantage.

The task in the first round was to collect Beast Cores as a group. The higher the Beast Core grade, the more points a team earned. Stealing, threatening other teams, and bullying the weak were all allowed—but killing was strictly forbidden. The top 20 teams with the highest points would advance to the next round.

The second stage was also team-based, but each group would be split into smaller teams of five or fewer. The original class teams would be divided accordingly, resulting in a total of 100 smaller teams.

Each member received a ribbon: red for the group leader (worth 50 points), and white for the members (worth 10 points each). The objective was to collect as many ribbons as possible.

Naturally, there was a twist. The area where this stage took place had higher gravity than normal. Movement would be restricted, creating an additional challenge. There was also a special black ribbon worth 1,000 points, which could only be obtained by defeating an eighth-grade beast or higher—creatures immune to gravity. Attempting it was practically suicidal.

The top 10 groups with the most points would proceed to the final stage.

The third and final stage was the one-on-one battles. In this round, everyone fought alone. There were four rounds in total: Quarterfinals, where the top 50 advanced; Semifinals, where the top 25 entered the Finals; and then the Finals, where the top 12 were selected for the Grand Finals.

The Grand Finals would consist of three-way battles. Only six would advance to this round. These six finalists would fight each other until the top three emerged—Second Place, First Place, and the Grand Champion.

Scarlett Academy was known for its generosity. The prize was something every student dreamed of, though the twist was that it would only be revealed at the end of the competition. This kept everyone in suspense and heightened their anticipation.

While the rest of the Academy was preparing for tomorrow’s battle, Zexel, Feng Zhengying, Fan Yaoli, and Feng Ming Li were calmly drinking tea in Zexel’s cabin. Their gear was already sealed into their skin—activated only when needed.

"Are you sure about this information?" Feng Zhengying asked, just after they finished listening to Zexel’s instructions.

Zexel nodded as she sipped her tea and looked at the maps laid out in front of them.

"So we need to assemble during the first test to get that damn Crystal. We need to do it without our original group knowing? What the hell!" Feng Ming Li burst out. Fan Yaoli just laughed at him.

"You know, Ah’Li, Sealing is quite a useful category. We can seal a clone to act as a temporary body, then sneak off to get the Fu Clan’s Crystal from this location," Fan Yaoli explained, pointing at a spot on the map.

"Oh," Feng Ming Li replied, somewhat enlightened.

"By the way, is it true that four new students joined the Healer Category? How did that happen?" Fan Yaoli asked.

"Something about their Qi," Zexel replied. "I don’t know the full story."

"You need to observe them first," Feng Zhengying advised seriously.

"Hmm... I will," Zexel answered.

She was looking forward to what would happen tomorrow.

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