Zhang Ye won today's championship, sending all of Rainbow Class One into cheers. It was clear that in this Monthly Test, Rainbow Class One had completely pulled ahead of Class Two, with more than double the number of students making it into the top fifty compared to Class Two!
After waking up, Gajeel learned of today's rankings, and his heart sank.
As expected, Class One was not that simple!
Take Lina, for instance. Others might not know, but as a prince of an empire hostile to the Lionheart Empire, there was no way he didn't.
Lina's physical body and cultivation were both stuck at the Tier Seven peak, and other than her two innate magics, she hadn't mastered a single spell. In Gajeel's eyes, Lina was nothing but a pretty face.
Yet today, Lina had displayed formidable combat power, easily defeating opponents whose cultivation and physical bodies far surpassed hers!
But what surprised Gajeel even more were Zhang Ye and Nan.
Without making a sound, Nan's cultivation had reached the Tier Nine Peak, and his physical body had also improved to the Tier Nine late stage. One had to realize that just a month ago, he was only at the mid stage!
Crossing two minor stages in cultivation and one minor stage in physical body within a single month was something Gajeel wouldn't even dare to dream of.
Was this the number one freshman?
Was this the genius hailed as the strongest in the history of the Thunderclap family?
Terrifying...
However, what Gajeel cared about even more was Zhang Ye.
If even Nan was this terrifying, how did Zhang Ye defeat him to seize first place today?
He had been unconscious, so he didn't know how it went. Thus, he questioned the others.
He learned that... although Zhang Ye was powerful, it seemed more like Nan had gone easy on him. Out of ten slashes at Zhang Ye, nine missed, and the one that landed dealt almost no damage. In the end, Nan was clearly about to defeat Zhang Ye, but he suddenly stopped, only to be bound by Zhang Ye and forced to concede.
Hearing this left Gajeel completely astonished.
Nan would actually go easy on someone?!
What he didn't know, however, was that Nan hadn't gone easy on him at all!
This was merely an illusion shared by the spectators below the stage!
Nan wasn't going easy; he literally couldn't hit Zhang Ye.
That guy's slipperiness was even more terrifying than Lina's. His Blink frequency had already far surpassed the limit of the average human eye's perception. As a result, many people only saw Zhang Ye dodge once, completely unaware of how many times he had actually dodged in that single instant.
Consequently, the persistence of vision made it look as if Nan was intentionally missing Zhang Ye.
But Gajeel was completely in the dark.
He simply assumed that Nan had gone easy on Zhang Ye because of their relationship.
Thinking this, Gajeel felt extremely irritable.
When Nan was slashing him, every single strike had been a critical hit, bringing sparks and lightning all the way!
Yet when facing Zhang Ye, he actually went easy on him?!
Do they want to use this method to humiliate me?!
The more he thought about it, the angrier Gajeel became, and the gloom in his heart deepened.
If I can't beat Nan at the Tier Nine Peak, can't I even beat Zhang Ye at the Tier Eight late stage?
Just you wait!
Gajeel gritted his teeth in fury.
Meanwhile, on the other side, everyone had gathered to celebrate their successful start on the first day.
With a grand wave of his hand, Zhang Ye suggested to Leona that they hold a barbecue party in the forest.
Zhang Ye personally cooked the barbecue. Once he cast 【Flavor Enhancement】, boy, that aroma was something else. The crowd instantly began salivating, their cravings reaching a peak.
When they finally tasted Zhang Ye's barbecue, everyone lost their composure.
“This is... too, too, too—delicious!” Kaya exclaimed, covering her mouth.
“Mmh, mmh!” Connor nodded repeatedly, chewing on the barbecue as he spoke incoherently. “So good!”
“Class Monitor's cooking is just too good. He can sing, he's so strong, and he's handsome... Class Monitor, is there a girl you like?” A female student of the Flower Spirit race stared at Zhang Ye with burning curiosity.
Not just her, but more than half of the female students in the class were looking at him with the same expression, eagerly awaiting his answer.
Startled, Zhang Ye quickly said, “Of course I do! Don't go getting any ideas about me, I'm telling you!”
“I already have someone I like!”
The Flower Spirit girl immediately looked disappointed, but her curiosity quickly got the better of her. “Which girl is it that managed to win our Class Monitor's heart? Can you tell us, Class Monitor?”
The others were also incredibly curious.
Zhang Ye smiled slightly. Stealing a quiet glance at Leona, he said with a look of deep affection, “The girl I like is very strong, very confident, and very beautiful. She is like a lion burning with flames—wildly beautiful and utterly captivating to me...”
Everyone's eyes lit up as they listened, thinking how incredibly romantic it sounded.
What no one noticed was that at this moment, the surrounding temperature rose slightly.
The surrounding fire elements were growing restless.
But Zhang Ye felt it.
He looked at Leona, who was standing not far away.
Leona's long fiery hair swayed gently, resembling dancing flames in the air.
A faint blush had also crept onto her face.
Big Nana is... blushing?
Zhang Ye was instantly filled with immense surprise.
Big Nana can actually get shy?
This is just too cute!
“What's her name?” Kaya suddenly asked.
Aside from Lina and the few others who knew, everyone else was burning with curiosity.
Zhang Ye smiled slightly. “Her? She is...”
The moment the words left his mouth, the fire elements around Leona became even more restless, and the temperature spiked.
Though Leona was usually bold and uninhibited, at this moment, her heart couldn't help but flutter. She felt her face heating up and her heartbeat accelerating.
Yet, she kept her eyes locked onto Zhang Ye.
Noticing Leona's gaze, Zhang Ye smiled gently.
In the next instant, sunlight filtered down like a warm spring breeze.
Everyone could see that Zhang Ye's smile was so bright and pure. The ripples of emotion swirling in his eyes were filled with nothing but love.
“She is... my big darling.”
“Boom!!!”
In that instant, the earth shook. Startled, everyone turned around, only to find that Leona was nowhere to be seen. Instead, there was a deep pit left in the ground, with waves of heat billowing out from it.
Everyone was somewhat bewildered. Not knowing that this deep pit had been left behind by Leona, they assumed someone was playing a prank.
However, everyone's attention was quickly drawn back.
“Wow, so sweet!” the Flower Spirit girl squealed, triggering a chorus of squeals from the other girls.
These sweet words struck straight at their hearts, making them yearn even more for such a sweet romance.
High up in the sky, flames burned wildly around Leona. Her face was as red as a ripe apple, and her full chest heaved up and down.
At this moment, Leona felt as if her heart was about to leap out of her chest.
She had thought Zhang Ye was going to announce her name in front of everyone, but she never expected that "big darling" would strike her heart like Cupid's arrow.
Her face burned hot, her heart beat rapidly, and her blood felt as if it were boiling, yet Leona felt no discomfort at all. On the contrary, she felt incredibly warm.
She could feel that the affection radiating from Zhang Ye at that moment was so pure and clean.
He was serious.
He truly liked her, without a single speck of impurity.
From his eyes, and from his call of "big darling," Leona understood something.
He was deeply yearning for, and eagerly anticipating...
Her response.
A smile blossomed on Leona's face.
Originally, she had only developed a slight fondness for him because he had saved her, and had simply decided to give him a chance.
But later on, as time passed, she increasingly felt that this guy was truly wonderful.
In front of his companions, he was like a warm older brother, looking after everyone. He seemed to play the role of an elder, offering the most sincere warmth to everyone around him.
Yet in front of her, he was like a child—a child who would never grow up, acting childish from time to time, throwing spoiled tantrums, and occasionally playing cute little tricks.
And all of this was done just to get closer to her.
She could feel it.
Gently covering her heart and feeling its beat, Leona knew what she had to do.
Following her heart—that was what she had always done.
“Bold beyond belief!” Her red lips curled up into a smile as passionate as fire. “But...”
“This lady likes it!”
...
...
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