Six Ranks of the Martial Artist

“Jiang Chenyi?” Fang Yu murmured to himself. As a local of Wuling City and a student at Wuling Martial Junior College, he had naturally heard the name... The top scorer in the College Entrance Exam for martial arts students was not the same as the top scorer for cultural students. The top scorer for cultural students might get into a decent cultural university, but their future achievements were hard to predict. Many ended up indistinguishable from the crowd, so not many people truly paid attention to cultural student top scorers. But a martial arts zhuangyuan was an entirely different matter. Since ancient times, there has been no first in literature and no second in martial arts. The martial arts College Entrance Exam had almost no room for tricks or luck. One had to be outstanding in many aspects—physical talent, comprehension of martial technique, Void Star Aspect, combat awareness aspect, and even family background—to have any chance of becoming a zhuangyuan. On the other hand. In martial cultivation, growth was fastest from sixteen to twenty-five. That period was also called the Golden Age Bracket. Next came twenty-five to thirty, which was called the Silver Age Bracket. To become a city martial arts zhuangyuan around eighteen was proof of top-tier martial talent, and the future was limitless. Precisely for this reason. Any martial arts student who became a martial arts zhuangyuan would become the absolute focus, shining ten or a hundred times brighter than a cultural student top scorer. Reporters from all kinds of media and self-media outlets would scramble to cover them... You could see it from the rewards the two sides received. As far as Fang Yu knew, the state’s direct reward for a cultural student city top scorer was generally tens of thousands to hundreds of thousands of Star Coins, while the state reward for a city martial arts zhuangyuan was at least several million Star Coins. And that was only the first step. Further on, they would be cultivated by their university, could sign early contracts with large martial arts groups, and even become spokespersons for some brands. This was a bright and dazzling path. Compared with Jiang Chenyi, Fang Yu, a martial arts student from a junior college, was far too dim... even though he was already an ‘outstanding junior college student’. ‘Comparing yourself to others really is infuriating,’ Xu Chenyang said enviously. ‘This Jiang Chenyi has just finished his freshman year and already has this kind of strength. I’d guess that by the time he graduates from university, he’ll have a hope of becoming an Earth Martial Artist.’ Fang Yu was thoughtful. Before the Great Sky-Burning Era, humanity had not yet ushered in the Great Evolution, the Void Star Aspect had not awakened, and martial cultivation was not mainstream. People only divided martial artists by martial technique into Visible-Force Martial Artists, Concealed-Force Martial Artists, Transformed-Force Martial Artists, and so on... Yet in reality, even a Transformed-Force Martial Artist hailed as a grandmaster could have martial technique so superb that it was not inferior to that of many Earth Martial Artists. But constrained by the environment, even if their bodies were tempered to the limit, their single-arm punch force was usually only one or two thousand kilograms. In terms of strength alone, they could hardly match the Intermediate Martial Artists of this era. Not until after the Great Sky-Burning Era. Especially in the sixty years since the New Calendar Era, martial arts had advanced by leaps and bounds. With the empowerment of the Void Star Aspect, martial arts became divine, and martial artists possessed unimaginable power... In the end, martial artist strength was uniformly reclassified into the Six Ranks of the Martial Artist. Levels 1-9 belonged to the category of ordinary people. Levels 10-19 were First-Rank Martial Artists, also called Primary Martial Artists, with a minimum punch force standard of 300 kilograms. Levels 20-29 were Second-Rank Martial Artists, also called Intermediate Martial Artists, with a minimum punch force standard of 2,000 kilograms. Levels 30-39 were Third-Rank Martial Artists, also called Advanced Martial Artists, with a minimum punch force standard of 10,000 kilograms. Levels 40-49 were Fourth-Rank Martial Artists, respectfully called Earth Martial Artists. Their extraordinary power could no longer be described simply by punch force; some heavy firearms were already ineffective against them. The higher Fifth-Rank Sky-Patrolling Martial Artists and Sixth-Rank Star-Sky Martial Artists were like myths walking into the mortal world... They were no longer something ordinary people could imagine. By the time one graduated from university, one would only be about twenty-two. Become an Earth Martial Artist? For junior college students like Fang Yu, it was simply a fantasy... but for Jiang Chenyi, it was possible. After all, his rapid punches could exceed six thousand kilograms each, and if he went all out, his punch force might reach seven or eight thousand kilograms. That was why Xu Chenyang said he was at least level 25. ‘A few days ago I talked with the supervisor. At New Moon Martial University, Jiang Chenyi seems to be a fairly ordinary student,’ Xu Chenyang said softly. ‘I really wonder how strong the top undergraduates at New Moon Martial University are.’ ‘The strongest martial university under the starry sky is naturally strong,’ Fang Yu said calmly. ‘Any undergraduate who comes out of there would be an absolute prominent figure in Huguang Martial University.’ Even among undergraduates, there were differences. The two martial universities in Huguang Province admitted ten thousand martial undergraduate students every year, and Huguang Province was only one province of Xia Country. Blue Star had a total population of 30 billion, and Xia Country had more than 5 billion people. Therefore, Blue Star alone admitted more than a million martial undergraduate students every year, though that was not much compared with Blue Star’s total population. And New Moon Martial University was the absolute number one martial university on New Moon and even in the entire civilization... It admitted only ten thousand students every year. That sounded like a lot, but consider that New Moon, with less than 200 million people, took up half the spots. The spots allocated to countries on Blue Star were only five thousand. Under normal circumstances, only a little over a thousand people from Xia Country could pass the exam into New Moon Martial University each year... Spread across each province, that was usually only a few dozen spots. As for Wuling City? Getting one or two admitted in a year was already good; sometimes there was not a single one. From this, one could see the true value of New Moon Martial University. Even a martial arts genius needed the best environment to shine. Over the years, martial arts zhuangyuan from all over Xia Country would try to make a bid for New Moon Martial University. Only after that would they consider the other ten key martial universities on New Moon. Finally, they would consider top martial universities in Xia Country such as Modu Martial University and Yandu Martial University. ‘That’s true.’ ‘Most undergraduates aim to become Advanced Martial Artists,’ Xu Chenyang said ruefully. ‘But I heard that if a New Moon Martial University student fails to become an Earth Martial Artist before thirty, they are considered a disgrace to the school.’ ‘Compared with them, we are just too ordinary.’ Xu Chenyang shook his head. ‘There is no need to belittle yourself.’ Fang Yu patted Xu Chenyang’s shoulder and smiled. ‘A diploma is made of paper; true ability belongs to you. Undergraduates really are strong, but we junior college students aren’t bad either.’ ‘And don’t forget.’ ‘In the most recent martial arts tournament, the champion was a junior college student from our Xia Country.’ Fang Yu turned and continued walking downstairs. ‘Oh right, Brother Fang, your technique has already reached the Great Accomplishment of Entering the Minute. In the future, your martial arts achievements may not be worse than an undergraduate’s.’ Xu Chenyang quickly turned and chased after him, saying as they walked, ‘Forget about me. I’m just a cultural student at a junior college, and a liberal arts student at that. Last time I submitted several hundred resumes on 91 Tongcheng, and in the end all the jobs the system recommended to me were sales positions...’ ‘By the way.’ ‘Brother Fang, the martial arts tournament you mentioned—is it the Alliance Martial Arts Tournament with a prize of one billion Star Coins?’ Xu Chenyang suddenly realized. ‘Wang Heng is a junior college student?’ The Alliance Martial Arts Tournament was one of the most dazzling martial arts events in the entire civilization. Xu Chenyang naturally paid attention to it and knew who the champion was. ‘Mm.’ ‘Xia Country martial artist Wang Heng is the youngest Sky-Patrolling Martial Artist in history, and also the acknowledged—strongest junior college student!’ Fang Yu had already reached the ground floor. At a glance. Fang Yu saw the sentence written on the wall at the end of the ground-floor lobby. ‘The evolution of civilization is cruel. But crueler than evolution is the refusal to evolve. The same is true for life. —Ye Xinghe’