After about half an hour the offensive test was finished. Again Lintian came last and Anthony Peaks came first.

“Everyone you all did great” announced Dr. Harris, “now we will move on to the final test. It is combat. We humans love to fight and it’s my favorite part too.”

He points to the two round arenas and said, “You see those two circles, surround it now. Your names will pop up on the screen later and those two confront each other.”

Two names popped up on the jumbotron and the two boys headed onto the arenas. Then they battled it out. They charged toward each other. They both showed their clan’s martial arts at each other. Intercepting, attacking, countering, defending it was slow but for being eight years old it was pretty good. For Lintian it was too weak. The movements had too many flaws and it was especially too slow. Even without using the dragon eyes he can see all the movements clearly.

Another ten minutes passed and Lintian’s name flashed on the board he was excited but it quickly turn to dread. The person he’s facing is none other than Chelsey Goddard. It is not because he thinks that he can’t beat Chelsey but more of the fact that he doesn’t want to fight or injure a friend. His original intention was to pummel the person he was facing.

Lintian started to walk toward the arena. Chelsey walks in too and bowed to Lintian to show respect. Lintian did the same. They were roughly 20 meters away from each other. He then stood there with his body horizontal to Chelsey. This reduces his area of exposure. Should I fight her? I can’t. This is so stupid he thought to himself.

While he was still pondering to himself the referee Dr. Harris yells, “START!”

Chelsey sprinted in a z shape towards Lintian. A little bit startle Lintian woke up and watched Chelsey’s movement very carefully. Her speed was pretty decent he thought. She reached him in seconds and threw the punch first. Lintian raised his hand in a crane style motion to deflect her punch. Chelsey then started to rapidly fire punches. It was pretty amazing to Lintian since Chelsey was only at the first of the refinement realm.

Chelsey was using her family’s martial body technique flooding river. Just like it sounds it takes the qi in the body and speeds up the flow which causes the body speed to increase by fifty percent, strength increase by thirty percent, and defense increase by fifteen percent.

Lintian was basically just dodging her attacks. His speed was still slightly faster than Chelsey’s. Also he can see her movements in slower motion even without the dragon eyes. So dodging was still easy. Her speed was increasing faster and faster.

“Damn,” Lintian swore in his head. If this goes on he would have to hit back. He began to use his emperor’s step technique qin to invade her personal space and disrupt her attacks. It began to slow down her movements. All of sudden he stepped on his shoelace and fell forward. He saw her fist coming in at slow motion. It slammed into his face and he heard his neck make a crack sound. Like one of those knuckle cracks. His body spirals through the air like Tom Brady’s football throw. His body crashed onto the wall like a fly hitting a car windshield.

Everyone was starting to laugh at Lintian again. They were amazed before but now dismissed it as a fluke. “My shoelace again?!” he yelled in his mind, “I’m burning these shoes.”

The nurse came in and putted Lintian on a stretcher and brought him to the nurse room. Chelsey had a distraught look on her face. She felt pressured by Lintian’s movements and the fact he never once threw a punch at her no matter how many openings she gave made her wanted to attack with her all. She didn’t know this would happen.

Dr. Harris stood to the side and announce, “Winner, Chelsey.” He smirked a little when he said that. Also the reason Lintian’s shoe became untied in that match was due to him. He messed with the random match up a little bit and pair the two together. At first he thought that Lintian might give up on the match if he’s paired with a girl that he talks to a lot, but contrary to expectations he did not give up. Instead chose to dodge. This wasn’t the results he wanted but it didn’t matter because Chelsey turned out to be a lot stronger than he expected. So Dr. Harris took out a little rock and put a formation seal on it and flicked it at Lintian’s shoes. When the rock hit the shoes the formation popped out and loosen the shoelace. As Lintian began to use advance footwork the shoelace became looser and looser with none the wiser. Since everyone was focus on the exchange of moves between the two who would bother looking at the feet. As for the other accidents he had nothing to do with it.

The test eventually ended that day and the rankings came out for the whole first grade. Anthony placed 23rd and Chelsey was ranked 44. Lintian was ranked 2357 or dead last.

Lintian lies down on the bed, pondering hard about the whole day. He was absolutely one hundred percent positive he double knotted his shoes and it should not have become untied in the match. A little piss that he got beaten up by a girl he decided that there was nothing he can do about it. He decided to start cultivating qi again.

Little while later Chelsey poked her head into Lintian’s hospital room.

Lintian sitting in a cultivation pose did not notice her at all. It wasn’t until she tapped him that he woke up.

“Oh, hey it’s you Chelsey. How did the results go?” Lintian asked. He already saw the results on tv but he didn’t anything else to talk about.

Chelsey began to tear and hugs Lintian, crying, “Are you ok? I didn’t mean to hit you that hard. You won’t hate me will you?”

“Hm? Why would I hate you?” asked Lintian innocently.

“Because, because I hitted you.”

“I’m fine it’s just a light punch no big deal. Did the head instructures announce who they are picking yet?” Lintian asks trying to change the subject.

Chelsey try to wipe away her tears answers, “sniff. Sniff. Not yet. Its going to be announced tomorrow morning. Sniff. My brother said usually the top 30 gets picked and Dr. Harris is the only one that picks outside the top 30.”

“Haha. Oh I was just wondering. I messed up the first three test so it doesn’t even matter anymore. Do you know who Everell is? The one that came in number 1 student?”

“Oh. Everell?” she said and had this dreamy look in her eyes, “he’s the one with the best score beating everyone by a large margin. His speed was 6.4 seconds in the 100 meter dash. Scored a perfect 2000 for defense and offense since it only measures up to 2000. He also beat everyone by a whole 5 laps in the 100 lap run. Furthermore when he beat everyone in combat he didn’t move from his spot. People are saying that he should be in a first rate school with those scores and rumors are already going around that he’s in the second stage of the refinement realms. I am sure Lintian you can beat him” she said proudly.

“What makes you so sure?” asked Lintian.

She blushed, “um. Um, um,” and she ran away.

“Wow? Did I do something wrong? She’s kind of weird,” Lintian sighed. He then went back to cultivation. He did not really care about Everell at all since it doesn’t matter to him. If he is strong then he is strong. If he is weak then he is weak, nothing to get all worked up about. If I didn’t have to stay hidden you would not be number one in this second rate school. A slight competitive grin surface on his face as he cultivated qi.